Finishing apparatus

Abstract

A finishing device of the present invention includes a sheet transferring path for guiding a sheet from an image forming device to a piling tray by substantially vertically deflecting the sheet in either upper or lower direction with respect to the device; a tray for temporarily holding and piling sheets, as a stack, from the sheet transferring path; and a stapling unit disposed between the tray and the sheet transferring path so that an edge on an upstream side of sheets on the tray is bound. The stapling unit is structured such that a cartridge loaded with stapling needles can be attached or detached from a back surface side facing the sheet transferring path side, and at least a part of sheet guides for constituting the sheet transferring path can be opened and closed so that the back surface side of the stapling unit can be exposed outside the device. Thus, the stapling unit need not be moved outside the device for exchanging the needles.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.