Patent ID: 8746874

Claim:
A medium conveyance apparatus, comprising: a medium supporting device having a medium supporting surface which supports a rear surface of a medium opposite to a processing object surface of the medium; a gripping device which grips a leading end portion of the medium in terms of a conveyance direction of the medium; a fastening device which fastens at least a non-gripped portion of the medium other than the leading end portion, the non-gripped portion being not gripped by the gripping device; a conveyance device which conveys the medium held by at least one of the gripping device and the fastening device, in the conveyance direction to a processing region where a processing is performed to the processing object surface of the medium; and a control device which controls the gripping device in such a manner that after the gripping device has gripped the leading end portion of the medium and before the leading end portion of the medium arrives at the processing region, at least a part of the gripping device is temporarily opened and then after a prescribed time period has elapsed, the part of the gripping device having been opened is closed to grip the leading end portion of the medium again, wherein the fastening device includes a pressure application device which fastens the medium by applying pressure to the processing object surface of the medium, and the opening and the closing of the gripping device are carried out after the gripping device passes the pressure application device; a medium detection device which detects floating up of the medium entering into the processing region at a detection region on an upstream side of the processing region in terms of the conveyance direction of the medium, wherein the control device controls the gripping device in such a manner that the part of the gripping device having been opened starts to be closed before entering into the detection region.