Sheet medium adjustment apparatus and image formation system capable of sorting sheet media

Abstract

A sheet medium adjustment apparatus, e.g., in an image forming system, includes: an ejector to eject a conveyed sheet; a stacking device to stack each sheet ejected from the sheet ejector into a stack on a tray; a moving device to shift the stacking device in a movement direction perpendicular to a sheet-ejecting direction; a sheet aligning member to align ends of the sheets in the stack that are parallel to the sheet-ejecting direction; a stepping motor to move the sheet aligning member; and an evacuation device to evacuate the aligning member by an amount representing an evacuation displacement in the movement direction at a timing of aligning the sheet, the evacuation displacement being determined adaptively according to at least one of an attribute of a given sheet in the stack, an attribute of the stack as a whole and an attribute of the tray.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating an image forming apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating a sheet medium post-processing apparatus of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating a configuration of a sheet medium post-processing apparatus of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating a sheet medium adjustment apparatus of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating an aligning member of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional diagram (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating a filler of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a controller (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8A is a flowchart (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating aligning control of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8B is a flowchart (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating aligning control of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8C is a flowchart (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating aligning control of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 8D is a flowchart (according to an example embodiment of the present invention) illustrating aligning control of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1.

Claims

1. A sheet medium adjustment apparatus comprising: an ejector to eject a conveyed sheet of a printable medium;a stacking device to stack each sheet ejected from the sheet ejector into a stack on a tray;a moving device to shift the stacking device in a movement direction perpendicular to a sheet-ejecting direction;a sheet aligning member to align ends of the sheets in the stack that are parallel to the sheet-ejecting direction;a stepping motor to move the sheet aligning member; andan evacuation device to evacuate the aligning member by an amount representing an evacuation displacement in the movement direction by rotating the aligning member at a timing of aligning the sheet, the evacuation displacement being determined adaptively according to at least one of an attribute of a given sheet in the stack, an attribute of the stack as a whole and an attribute of the tray.

2. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 1, wherein a temporary position of the sheet aligning member is arbitrarily set between a home position and a sheet aligning position.

3. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the stacking device is moved down when the sheet aligning member is evacuated.

4. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 3, wherein the evacuation displacement is determined when the stacking device is moved down.

5. A sheet medium post-processing apparatus comprising: an ejector to eject a conveyed sheet of a printable medium;a stacking device to stack each sheet ejected from the ejector into a stack on a tray;a moving device to shift the stacking device in a direction perpendicular to a sheet-ejecting direction; anda sheet aligning member to align ends of the sheets in the stack that are parallel to the sheet-ejecting direction;wherein the stacking device is moved down and a shift operation is carried out without evacuating the aligning member, and wherein the stacking device is moved up and a top side of the sheet medium is pressed against the sheet aligning member.

6. An image formation system comprising: an image forming apparatus to form images on one or more sheets of a printable medium, respectively; anda sheet medium adjustment apparatus, as in claim 1, to receive the one or more sheets having an image thereon, respectively, from the image forming apparatus.

7. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the stack is the number of sheets in the stack.

8. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 7, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of a maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to the maximum evacuation displacement.

9. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the given sheet is whether the given sheet is folded or unfolded.

10. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 9, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of a maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to the maximum evacuation displacement.

11. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the tray is a falling distance thereof.

12. The sheet medium adjustment apparatus of claim 11, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of the maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a third percentage (P3) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P3>P2.

13. A method of operating a sheet medium adjustment apparatus, the method comprising: ejecting a conveyed sheet of a printable medium;stacking the ejected sheet into a stack on a tray;shifting a stack that includes the stacked sheet in a movement direction perpendicular to a sheet-ejecting direction;aligning, via an aligning member, ends of the sheets in the stack that are parallel to the sheet-ejecting direction;evacuating the aligning member by an amount representing an evacuation displacement in the movement direction at a timing of aligning the sheet; anddetermining the evaluation length adaptively according to at least one of an attribute of a given sheet in the stack, an attribute of the stack as a whole and an attribute of the tray.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the stack is the number of sheets in the stack.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of a maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to the maximum evacuation displacement.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the attribute of the given sheet is whether the given sheet is folded or unfolded.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of a maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to the maximum evacuation displacement.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the attribute of the tray is a falling distance thereof.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein: when the number of sheets in the stack is fewer than 3, the evacuation displacement is set to a first percentage (P1) of the maximum evacuation displacement;when the number of sheets in the stack is between 3 and 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a second percentage (P2) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P2>P1; andwhen the number of sheets in the stack exceeds 4, the evacuation displacement is set to a third percentage (P3) of the maximum evacuation displacement, where P3>P2.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein: the stacking step is performed by a stacking device;the method further comprising the following, moving the stacking device down when the sheet aligning member is evacuated, anddetermining the evacuation displacement when the stacking device is moved down.