Canon Finetech Nisca Inc.

A staple-less binding unit 27 is disposed between a front cover 121 and a sheet stacking table 16, and an insertion port 110 is formed on a first surface 121 a of the front cover 121 so that manual binding by the staple-less binding unit 27 can be executed from the front side of the apparatus. The staple-less binding unit 27 is provided at a position overlapping a stapling unit 17 positioned at a replacement position in a front-rear direction.

Disclosed is a sheet processing apparatus that includes: a stack tray having a stacking surface configured to stack the sheet bundle, a sensor configured to detect a height of an uppermost sheet of a sheet bundle stacked on the stacking surface, a lifting mechanism configured to lift up and down the stack tray based on an output of the sensor, a pressing member having a contact portion configured to elastically deform and contact an upper surface of the sheet bundle abutted against the abutting surface, wherein the control unit is configured to, while a plurality of sheet bundles composed of predetermined sheets are being continuously discharged, and in case the sheet bundle stacked on the stacking surface is removed such that the contact portion of the pressing member at the pressing position becomes separated from the stacking surface, repeatedly lift up the stack tray by a predetermined amount in response to a rotation command of the pressing member, in order to prevent the pressing member from being sandwiched between the stack tray and the abutting surface.

A sheet dropping portion abuts on a sheet conveyed in a first conveyance direction by a pair of conveyance rotary members from above to drop the sheet onto a placement portion by pivoting from an upper position to a lower position. The guide portion is arranged above the placement portion and extends toward the placement portion, and guides the sheet toward an abutment portion in a case where the sheet on the placement portion conveyed in a second conveyance direction opposite to the first conveyance direction by a reverse conveyance portion comes into contact with the guide portion. The sheet dropping portion located at the lower position overlaps a part of the guide portion when viewed in a rotational axis direction of the pair of conveyance rotary members.

In order to provide a configuration capable of stably performing conveyance of sheets, a pair of regulation guides are capable of guiding opposite end edges in the sheet width direction Y of a sheet S conveyed by a conveyance belt and spheres, while being nipped. Further, the pair of regulation guides are capable of shifting to guide positions for guiding the opposite end edges of the sheet and retract positions retracted from the opposite end edges of the sheet more than the guide positions. In shifting the pair of regulation guides from the retract positions to the guide positions, a guide shift section causes the one of regulation guides to arrive at the guide position after the other of regulation guides arrives at the guide position.

In an image forming system, a processing unit 120 is provided in an in-body space of an image forming apparatus 1 in a detachably attachable manner, and the image forming apparatus 1 and the processing unit 120 are electrically connected using a drawer connector on a rear side of the in-body space. The processing unit 120 is supported by a movable frame 222 of a slide rail 220 , and the movable frame 222 is slidable to be separated from a pair of discharge rollers 20 in a state in which a connector 126 on the processing unit side is disposed on a rear side of the fixed frame 221 and connected to a connector 42 on the image forming apparatus 1 side.

A finisher for binding a sheet bundle includes a conveying portion configured to convey a sheet; a tray configured to stack the sheet conveyed by the conveying portion one by one for forming the sheet bundle; an insertion portion to which the sheet bundle is configured to be inserted by an operator; a stapler, configured to bind the sheet bundle by a staple, and having a head at a front portion of the stapler for binding the sheet bundle, and a cartridge at a rear portion of the stapler for containing the staple; and a stapler moving mechanism configured to move the stapler to a first stapling position for binding a corner portion of the sheet bundle, a second stapling position for binding the sheet bundle inserted into the insertion portion, and a staple loading position for removing the cartridge and replenishing a new cartridge.

In a sorting discharge process, an unbound first sheet bundle is stacked by repeating a plurality of times a process in which, after a sheet is conveyed in a first conveyance direction by a first conveyance portion, the sheet is moved in a shift direction without conveying the sheet in a second conveyance direction by a second conveyance portion, and the sheet is discharged to a shift position on a stacking portion by a discharge portion one by one, and an unbound second sheet bundle is stacked by repeating a plurality of times a process in which the sheet conveyed by the first conveyance portion is discharged one by one to a position displaced upstream in the shift direction from the shift position on the stacking portion by the discharge portion without being conveyed the sheet in the second conveyance direction by the second conveyance portion.

Provided is a sheet feeding apparatus provided with a storage chamber for storing sheets, a sheet feeding unit including a delivery roller for contacting the sheet stored in the storage chamber to deliver the sheet from the storage chamber, a support member for supporting the storage chamber to allow the chamber to be installed and pulled out in/from an apparatus main body, and a press force switch mechanism including an operation member to switch a press force used for the delivery roller to contact the sheet, the sheet feeding unit is configured to be capable of being installed and pulled out in/from the main body apparatus integrally with the storage chamber, and the press force switch mechanism is provided in the sheet feeding unit.

In a binding discharge process, a binding process is performed on a plurality of sheets positioned at a binding position by repeating a process in which, after a conveyed sheet is conveyed in a reverse direction on a placement portion by a second conveyance portion to cause a downstream end of the sheet to abut an abutment portion, the sheet is moved in a shift direction and positioned at the binding position by a first shifting portion, and the plurality of sheets subjected to the binding process are discharged onto the stacking portion by a discharge portion. In a switchbackless shift discharge process, the conveyed sheet is shifted in the shift direction by the first shifting portion by driving a driving portion without conveying the sheet in the reverse direction by the second conveyance portion, and is discharged onto the stacking portion by the discharge portion.

A guide portion guides a binding unit in a first direction and a second direction. The guide portion includes a pair of first wall portions, a pair of second wall portions, a pair of third wall portions, and a restricting portion. A first protrusion is engageable between the pair of first wall portions and between the pair of second wall portions. A second protrusion is disposed upstream of the first protrusion in the first direction, and is engageable with the pair of first wall portions and the pair of third wall portions. The restricting portion restricts entry of the first protrusion from between the pair of first wall portions to between the pair of third wall portions and permits entry of the second protrusion from between the pair of first wall portions to between the pair of third wall portions.