Patent ID: 7575230

Claim:
A sheet process apparatus for aligning sheets stacked on a sheet process tray, comprising: a shift transport unit which transports a sheet while successively shifting each sheet in a width direction perpendicular to a sheet transport direction; an other transport unit provided between said shift transport unit and the sheet process tray, which stacks and transports a plurality of sheets which are shifted in the width direction and are transported by said shift transport unit; and an aligning member which moves the plurality of sheets, which are transported from said other transport unit to the sheet process tray, toward an alignment direction, thereby performing an alignment in the width direction, wherein said shift transport unit stacks the transported sheets by shifting in the width direction so that upper sheets of the plurality of sheets stacked on the sheet process tray are successively shifted in a direction opposite to the alignment direction of said aligning member with respect to the width direction of a lower sheet, and wherein said aligning member moves the plurality of sheets, which are in a condition that upper sheets are successively shifted with respect to lower sheets on the sheet process tray, toward the alignment direction, thereby shifting the sheets.