Patent ID: 8561983

Claim:
A sheet eject device for detecting whether a sheet eject tray is filled with ejected sheets, the sheet eject device comprising: an ejector configured to eject sheets onto the sheet eject tray; a counter configured to count an accumulated eject number as sheets are ejected by the ejector; a storing unit that stores a defined eject number threshold and a defined eject interval time; a fullness detector configured to detect that the sheet eject tray is filled with ejected sheets when the accumulated eject number counted by the counter exceeds the defined eject number threshold; and a controller configured to reset the accumulated eject number counted by the counter when an eject interval time exceeds the defined eject interval time, the eject interval time extending from when one sheet is ejected until a next sheet is ejected by the ejector the controller configured to determine whether a second job to be executed exists or not in a queue after a first job, wherein when a second job to be executed does not exist in the queue, the controller resets the accumulated eject number of the counter, and when a second job to be executed does exist in the queue, the controller executes the queued second job and controls the counter so that a counted number of sheets ejected by executing the second job is added to the accumulated ejected number that has already been counted by the counter for at least the first job.