Patent ID: 8235385
Filing Date: 2012-08-07
Classification: B65H,G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming device having an image forming section at which an image is formed on at least one side of a recording sheet; a first sheet discharge section through which the recording sheet transferred from the image forming section is output; a first sheet discharge surface configured to discharge thereon the recording sheet output from the inside of the image forming apparatus through the first sheet discharge section; a first switch back mechanism provided between the image forming section and the first sheet discharge section and configured to switch the direction of the recording sheet transferred through the first sheet discharge section from the direction heading to the outside of the image forming apparatus to the direction heading to the inside of the image forming apparatus; an open space provided above the first sheet discharge surface and accommodating therein a finisher so as to cover the first sheet discharge surface when the finisher is installed onto the image forming apparatus, wherein the finisher includes: a controller configured to send the instruction for selecting to the finisher to cause the second switch back mechanism of the finisher to select one of the switch back passage and the post processing passage according to a user instruction for performing an image forming job, wherein the instruction for selecting selects the post processing passage when the image forming job includes a post processing operation, and the switch back passage when the image forming job includes a double sided-printing operation; and a peripheral device controller configured to detect a communication failure between the image forming apparatus and the finisher, wherein when the communication failure is detected, the controller is configured to cause both of the post processing operation and the double-sided printing operation to be unavailable for selection by the user.