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US 7,441,771 B2Granted
Sheet-like medium alignment apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsMasahiro Tamura, Shuuya Nagasako, Akihito Andoh, Kazuya Tsutsui
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To ensure that the leading edge of the sheet ejected onto a tray 12 does not push and move loaded sheets in advance, loaded sheets are retained at position (II) by a retaining roller. A roller (returning roller in this case) 121 for applying external force to a sheet S ejected onto the tray 12 and moving the sheet toward a end face 131 for alignment is displaced to a different position in the direction of ejection “a”, thereby firmly gripping the trailing edge of the sheet S ejected on the tray 12.
Claims24
A sheet-like medium treatment apparatus, comprising:
- an ejector configured to eject a transported sheet-like medium;
- a tray on which the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector is loaded;
- a tray traveling device configured to sort the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray by traveling the tray in a direction of shift substantially orthogonal to a direction of ejection of the sheet-like medium by the ejector for a predetermined distance;
- an aligning device configured to align the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray and having a pair of aligning members configured to align positions of end faces of the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector and loaded on the tray by contacting with the end faces of the sheet-like medium in parallel with the direction of the ejection to sandwich the end faces;
- and
- a controller configured to drive the aligning device to align a sheet-like medium ejected and loaded subsequent to sorting of the sheet-like medium to a position different from a position of the sheet-like medium loaded before the sorting is carried out.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- an image forming device configured to form an image on a sheet-like medium;
- a transporting device configured to transport the sheet-like medium on which the image is formed;
- and
- a sheet-like medium treatment apparatus, including:
- an ejector configured to eject a transported sheet-like medium;
- a tray on which the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector is loaded;
- a tray traveling device configured to sort the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray by traveling the tray in a direction of shift substantially orthogonal to a direction of ejection of the sheet-like medium by the ejector for a predetermined distance;
- an aligning device configured to align the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray and having a pair of aligning members configured to align positions of end faces of the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector and loaded on the tray by contacting with the end faces of the sheet-like medium in parallel with the direction of the ejection to sandwich the end faces;
- and
- a controller configured to drive the aligning device to align a sheet-like medium ejected and loaded subsequent to sorting of the sheet-like medium to a position different from a position of the sheet-like medium loaded before the sorting is carried out.
7 more elements
A sheet-like medium post-treatment apparatus, comprising:
- a post-treatment device configured to carry out post-treatment of a sheet-like medium;
- a transporting device configured to transport the post-treated sheet-like medium;
- and
- a sheet-like medium treatment apparatus, including:
- an ejector configured to eject a transported sheet-like medium;
- a tray on which the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector is loaded;
- a tray traveling device configured to sort the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray by traveling the tray in a direction of shift substantially orthogonal to a direction of ejection of the sheet-like medium by the ejector for a predetermined distance;
- an aligning device configured to align the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray and having a pair of aligning members configured to align positions of end faces of the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector and loaded on the tray by contacting with the end faces of the sheet-like medium in parallel with the direction of the ejection to sandwich the end faces;
- and
- a controller configured to drive the aligning device to align a sheet-like medium ejected and loaded subsequent to sorting of the sheet-like medium to a position different from a position of the sheet-like medium loaded before the sorting is carried out.
7 more elements
An image forming post-treatment apparatus, comprising:
- an image forming unit having an image forming device configured to form an image on a sheet-like medium and a first transporting device configured to transport the sheet-like medium on which the image is formed;
- a post-treatment unit configured to carry out post-treatment of the sheet-like medium ejected from the image forming unit;
- a second transporting device configured to transport the sheet-like medium post-treated by the post-treatment unit;
- and
- a sheet-like medium treatment apparatus, including:
- an ejector configured to eject a transported sheet-like medium;
- a tray on which the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector is loaded;
- a tray traveling device configured to sort the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray by traveling the tray in a direction of shift substantially orthogonal to a direction of ejection of the sheet-like medium by the ejector for a predetermined distance;
- an aligning device configured to align the sheet-like medium loaded on the tray and having a pair of aligning members configured to align positions of end faces of the sheet-like medium ejected by the ejector and loaded on the tray by contacting with the end faces of the sheet-like medium in parallel with the direction of the ejection to sandwich the end faces;
- and
- a controller configured to drive the aligning device to align a sheet-like medium ejected and loaded subsequent to sorting of the sheet-like medium to a position different from a position of the sheet-like medium loaded before the sorting is carried out.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.