Sheet processing apparatus that properly performs fold line processing, and image forming system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016137453-A1
Application number	US-201514938344-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 11, 2015
Priority date	Nov 19, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A sheet processing apparatus that is capable of properly performing fold line processing at a position depending on a sheet bundle. In a sheet processing apparatus, sheets sequentially received from an image forming apparatus are stacked on a bookbinding processing tray to form a sheet bundle. The sheet bundle is folded at the center thereof, and is conveyed to a processing position. A press unit moves along a fold line portion of the sheet bundle to thereby perform flattening processing for flattening the fold line portion by pressing the fold line portion from a direction orthogonal to a thickness direction. A first pressing strength set by a user using the image forming apparatus and the second pressing strength acquired information on the sheet bundle are compared with each other, and the processing position is determined based on a result of the comparison.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A sheet processing apparatus comprising:
a stacking unit configured to have sheets stacked thereon which are sequentially received from an image forming apparatus, as a sheet bundle; a folding unit configured to fold the sheet bundle stacked on said stacking unit at the center of the sheet bundle in a conveying direction of the sheets; a conveying unit configured to convey the sheet bundle folded at the center by said folding unit to a processing position; a processing unit configured to move along a fold line portion of the sheet bundle conveyed to the processing position by said conveying unit, while pressing the fold line portion from a direction orthogonal to a thickness direction of the sheet bundle, to thereby perform flattening processing for flattening the fold line portion; a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a first pressing strength designated in the image forming apparatus as a pressing strength to be applied at a time of execution of the flattening processing; a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information on the sheet bundle to be processed by said processing unit, and acquire a second pressing strength from the acquired information; and a determination unit configured to determine the processing position based on the first pressing strength acquired by said first acquisition unit and the second pressing strength acquired by said second acquisition unit before the flattening processing is executed by said processing unit.

2 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said determination unit determines the processing position based on one of the first pressing strength and the second pressing strength which is not larger than the other.

3 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said determination unit determines a stop position of the folded sheet bundle based on the one pressing strength which is not larger than the other.

4 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said processing unit is capable of performing press processing for pressing the fold line portion from the thickness direction, and said processing unit selectively executes a first mode for performing the press processing and the flattening processing in parallel, and a second mode for performing the press processing without performing the flattening processing, and
wherein said determination unit determines the stop position by comparing the first pressing strength and the second pressing strength with each other in the first mode, and determines the stop position as a fixed position irrespective of the first pressing strength and the second pressing strength in the second mode.

5 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first pressing strength is manually set.

6 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the information on the sheet bundle includes at least one of the number of sheets, a sheet size, a sheet type, and a basis weight of sheets forming the sheet bundle.

7 . The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said processing unit includes rollers for pressing the fold line portion from opposite sides of the sheet bundle in the thickness direction, and a roller for pressing the fold line portion from the direction orthogonal to the thickness direction, and causes these rollers to move along the fold line portion by causing each of them to rotate.

8 . An image forming system comprising:
a sheet processing apparatus; and an image forming apparatus configured to communicably connect to said sheet processing apparatus, and discharge a sheet having an image formed thereon to said sheet processing apparatus, wherein said sheet processing apparatus includes: a stacking unit configured to have sheets stacked thereon which are sequentially received from said image forming apparatus, as a sheet bundle; a folding unit configured to fold the sheet bundle stacked on said stacking unit at the center of the sheet bundle in a conveying direction of the sheets; a conveying unit configured to convey the sheet bundle folded at the center by said folding unit to a processing position; a processing unit configured to move along a fold line portion of the sheet bundle conveyed to the processing position by said conveying unit, while pressing the fold line portion from a direction orthogonal to a thickness direction of the sheet bundle, to thereby perform flattening processing for flattening the fold line portion; a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a first pressing strength designated in the image forming apparatus as a pressing strength to be applied at a time of execution of the flattening processing; a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information on the sheet bundle to be processed by said processing unit, and acquire a second pressing strength from the acquired information; and a determination unit configured to determine the processing position based on the first pressing strength acquired by said first acquisition unit and the second pressing strength acquired by said second acquisition unit before the flattening processing is executed by said processing unit.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Ando Yutaka
• Nishikata Akinobu
• Arai Akihiro

Classifications

• B65H2404/14

  Roller pairs · CPC title

• B65H37/06 Primary

  for folding · CPC title

• B65H45/16

  Rotary folders · CPC title

• G03G15/6555

  Handling of sheet copy material taking place in a specific part of the copy material feeding path · CPC title

• B65H2301/4521

  without tucker blades · CPC title