Patent ID: 7370861

Claim:
A sheet holding apparatus for holding sheets that have undergone a process at a predetermined position comprising: a holding tray for stacking and holding sheets; transport means for transporting sheets to said holding tray; a detection lever movable to contact an uppermost sheet stacked on said holding tray; detection means for detecting whether said sheets stacked on said holding tray have reached a predetermined amount according to a movement position of said detection lever; data recording means for recording a plurality of sheet count data; selecting means for selecting one count data from the plurality of said sheet count data stored in said data recording means; computing means for counting a number of sheets transported from said transport means to said holding tray after detection by said detection means; and judging means for judging a maximum amount of sheets on said holding tray by comparing the number of sheets counted by said computing means to a number of sheets selected by said selecting means.