Patent ID: 8123209

Claim:
A sheet collecting apparatus comprising: a sheet discharge outlet for carrying out sheets sequentially; a tray device for bearing and storing sheets from the sheet discharge outlet; a regulation stopper disposed in the tray device to cause a rear end in a sheet discharge direction of a sheet to strike the stopper to regulate; a forward/backward rotation roller for feeding the sheet carried onto the tray device from the sheet discharge outlet against the regulation stopper to align; a roller lifting/lowering device for supporting the forward/backward rotation roller to be able to move up and down between an operating position in which the roller comes into contact with an uppermost sheet and a standby position in which the roller is withdrawn above the sheet with respect to the tray device; a sheet pressing guide disposed between the forward/backward rotation roller and the regulation stopper to press the uppermost sheet on the tray device; a pressing force reducing device for reducing or releasing a pressing force of the sheet pressing guide acting on the uppermost sheet; and a control device for controlling the forward/backward rotation roller, the roller lifting/lowering device and the pressing force reducing device, wherein the control device is configured to rotate forward the forward/backward rotation roller in the operating position to move forward a carried-in sheet in the sheet discharge direction by a predetermined distance in carrying the sheet onto the tray device from the sheet discharge outlet, and then rotate backward the forward/backward rotation roller to force the rear end of the carried-in sheet to strike the regulation stopper to align, and the control device has two operation modes that are selectively executed, wherein a first operation mode is configured such that while the control device releases or reduces the pressing force of the sheet pressing guide on the uppermost sheet in rotating forward the forward/backward rotation roller using the pressing force reducing device, thereby moves forward the carried-in sheet and the uppermost sheet in the sheet discharge direction by a predetermined distance, and then, by reverse rotation of the forward/backward rotation roller, concurrently moves backward the carried-in sheet and the uppermost sheet to the regulation stopper, and a second operation mode is configured such that only the carried-in sheet is moved forward in the sheet discharge direction by a predetermined distance with a predetermined pressing force applied to the uppermost sheet on the tray device by the sheet pressing guide in rotating forward the forward/backward rotation roller, and then, the carried-in sheet is moved backward to the regulation stopper by rotating backward the forward/backward rotation roller.