Patent ID: 7699302

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming device to form respective images upon sheets of one or more recording media, respectively; and a sheet handling mechanism to receive the sheets from the image forming device, the sheet handling mechanism including the following, a stacking mechanism to stack the sheets as a sheaf, a sheet conveyance mechanism to transport the sheaf to a respective position, a stapling mechanism to perform a stapling operation with respect to the sheaf, and a plurality of sheet regulating mechanisms disposed at positions spaced from each other along a sheet conveyance path, each sheet regulating mechanism being operable to align ends of the sheets in the sheaf according to a sheet conveyance direction wherein the plurality of sheet regulating mechanisms includes a second sheet regulating mechanism that advances and retracts relative to a sheet regulating position according to motion of the stapling mechanism, the sheet handling mechanism further includes a first biasing mechanism to bias the second sheet regulating mechanism in a direction retracting away from the sheet regulating position, the stapling mechanism causes the second sheet regulating mechanism to be set at the sheet regulating position when the stapling mechanism travels from a home position to a given traversal position, the second regulating mechanism includes a projection arranged at a position under the given traversal position of the stapling mechanism and facing the stapling mechanism in a direction opposite to the sheet conveyance direction, and the stapling mechanism further includes a one-way clutch to push the projection of the second regulating mechanism so that the second regulating mechanism is set at the sheet regulating position when the stapling mechanism is positioned at the given traversal position.