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US 8,282,098 B2Granted
Sheet stacking apparatus and image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKenichi Hayashi, Yusuke Obuchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet stacking apparatus includes a sheet stack portion having a plurality of separately elevatable stacker trays configured to stack a conveyed sheet and arranged one after the other in a sheet conveying direction. When a number of sheets to be stacked is greater than a number of sheets stackable on a stacker tray, the sheets are conveyed on one stacker tray and then stacked on another stacker tray so that the sheet stacking apparatus is capable of stacking a large number of sheets.
Claims23
A sheet stacking apparatus, comprising:
- a conveyance portion configured to convey a sheet, including a holding portion configured to move in a sheet conveying direction while holding a downstream end of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction;
- a first sheet stacking portion configured to stack a sheet conveyed by the conveyance portion;
- a second sheet stacking portion, arranged downstream of the first sheet stacking portion in the sheet conveying direction of the conveyance portion, configured to stack a sheet conveyed by the conveyance portion;
- and
- a controller configured to determine one of the first and second sheet stacking portions as a destination of the sheet, based on sheet information of the sheet to be stacked,
- wherein when a total number of sheets to be stacked for a given job, as the sheet information, is greater than a number of sheets which can be stacked on the first sheet stacking portion and is greater than a number of sheets which can be stacked on the second sheet stacking portion, the controller controls movement of the holding portion so that the holding portion firstly conveys, to the second sheet stacking portion, a sheet to be stacked, and then conveys, to the first sheet stacking portion, a sheet to be stacked, and
- wherein when the sheet to be stacked on the second sheet stacking portion passes over the first sheet stacking portion, an upstream end of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction is guided along a stacking surface, on which a sheet is not stacked, of the first sheet stacking portion while the downstream end of the sheet is held by the holding portion.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet;
- a sheet stacking apparatus, configured to stack an image-formed sheet;
- and
- a controller configured to control the sheet stacking apparatus based on sheet information of the sheet to be stacked, wherein the sheet stacking apparatus includes:
- a conveyance portion configured to convey a sheet, including a holding portion configured to move in a sheet conveying direction while holding a downstream end of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction,
- a first sheet stacking portion configured to stack a sheet conveyed by the conveyance portion, and
- a second sheet stacking portion, arranged downstream of the first sheet stacking portion in the sheet conveying direction of the conveyance portion, configured to stack a sheet conveyed by the conveyance portion,
- wherein when a total number of sheets to be stacked for a given job, as the sheet information, is greater than a number of sheets which can be stacked on the first sheet stacking portion and is greater than a number of sheets which can be stacked on the second sheet stacking portion, the controller controls movement of the holding portion so that the holding portion firstly conveys, to the second sheet stacking portion, a sheet to be stacked, and then conveys, to the first sheet stacking portion, a sheet to be stacked, and
- wherein when the sheet to be stacked on the second sheet stacking portion passes over the first sheet stacking portion, an upstream end of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction is guided along a stacking surface, on which a sheet is not stacked, of the first sheet stacking portion while the downstream end of the sheet is held by the holding portion.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.