Patent ID: 8123215

Claim:
A sheet aligning apparatus, comprising: a sheet storing section having an open end portion through which a sheet is conveyed in or out; a conveying-in section having a conveying-in path to covey a sheet into the open end portion of the sheet storing section; a conveying-out section having a conveying-out path to covey out a sheet from the open end portion of the sheet storing section, wherein the conveying-in path and the conveying-out form a meeting point at the open end portion; a stop member arranged in the sheet storing section so as to oppose the open end portion; a shifting section to shift the stop member from an initial position to a first position, wherein when the stop member is positioned at the initial position, the stop member comes in contact with the leading end of a preceding sheet conveyed into the sheet storing section through the open end portion, and when the shifting section shifts the stop member from the initial position to the first position, the preceding sheet is shifted inversely together with the stop member and the back end of the preceding sheet proceeds as the inversed leading end from the meeting point to the conveying-out path so that a succeeding sheet is allowed to be conveyed from the conveying-in path into the open end portion; and a control section to control the conveying-in section and the conveying-out section so as to convey a sheet at a sheet conveying speed, and to control the shifting section so as to shift the stop member at a shifting speed, wherein when the shifting section shifts the stop member from the initial position to the first position, the control section controls the shifting speed of the stop member to be slower than the sheet conveying speed, so that the back end of the preceding sheet is prevented from proceeding more than a predetermined distance due to the inertia of the shift.