Post-processing device and image forming apparatus

Abstract

Provided is a post-processing device capable of executing sheet post-processing on printed sheets piled on mail boxes with simplicity. The post-processing device includes one or more mail boxes on which printed sheets are to be piled up, a post-processing part for performing specified sheet post-processing on the fed sheets, and a sheet feed part capable of feeding the sheets piled on the one or more mail boxes, respectively, to the post-processing part.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A post-processing device comprising:
 one or more mail boxes on which printed sheets are to be piled up;   a post-processing part for performing specified sheet post-processing on the fed sheets; and   a sheet feed part capable of feeding the sheets piled on the one or more mail boxes, respectively, to the post-processing part.   
     
     
         2 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a selection accepting part for accepting selection of at least one mail box, wherein   the sheet feed part feeds sheets piled on the accepted mail boxes, which are mail boxes accepted by the selection accepting part.   
     
     
         3 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 2 , further comprising
 a first storage part for storing a total sheet number of the sheets discharged to the mail boxes by execution of a last printing job, wherein   the sheet feed part feeds sheets counting the total sheet number corresponding to the accepted mail boxes stored in the first storage part, out of the sheets piled on the accepted mail boxes.   
     
     
         4 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 2 , further comprising
 a second storage part for storing a number of copies, as well as a number of discharged sheets per copy set, of the sheets discharged to the individual mail boxes by execution of a last printing job, wherein   the sheet feed part repeats a process of feeding sheets counting the number of discharged sheets per copy set corresponding to accepted mail boxes stored in the second storage part out of the sheets piled on the accepted mail boxes, and a process of keeping on standby for next sheet feeding until the sheet post-processing for the relevant fed sheets is ended, to a number of times equal to the number of copies corresponding to the accepted mail boxes stored in the second storage part.   
     
     
         5 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 2 , further comprising
 a sheet-feed condition accepting part for accepting input of a number of copies, as well as a number of feed sheets per copy set, of the sheets to be fed from the accepted mail boxes to the post-processing part, wherein   the sheet feed part repeats a process of feeding sheets counting the number of feed sheets per copy set corresponding to accepted mail boxes accepted by the sheet-feed condition accepting part out of the sheets piled on the accepted mail boxes, and a process of keeping on standby for next sheet feeding until the sheet post-processing for the relevant fed sheets is ended, to a number of times equal to the number of copies corresponding to the accepted mail boxes accepted by the sheet-feed condition accepting part.   
     
     
         6 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 2 , further comprising
 a post-processing accepting part for accepting input of the sheet post-processing to be executed on sheets fed from each accepted mail box to the post-processing part, wherein   the post-processing part performs the sheet post-processing corresponding to the accepted mail box accepted by the post-processing accepting part on the sheets fed from the accepted mail box.   
     
     
         7 . The post-processing device as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising
 an alarm notification part for notifying of an alarm when the sheets counting larger than a predetermined upper-limit number of sheets are fed to the post-processing part.   
     
     
         8 . An image forming apparatus comprising:
 the post-processing device as defined in  claim 1 ; and   a job execution part for executing a printing job of discharging the sheets to any one of the one or more mail boxes.   
     
     
         9 . The image forming apparatus as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein
 in executing the printing job, the job execution part discharges the sheets on a one-copy base and in order of page numbers.