A rapid increase in on-demand service to provide large-volume small-scale printing of brochures etc., by use of color/black and white multifunction machines has been exhibited. Even ordinary offices are stepping up their efforts at in-house production of conference paper, simple booklets, manuals, and other materials by establishing service departments for intensively processing prints in large quantities. Such customers require post-processing functions such as high-speed/high-precision punching, stapling, and paper folding work with simultaneous print output and realization of high-speed/high-quality print output with a high-degree of reliability.

Fuji Xerox has developed Finisher, post-processing equipment which can be easily installed in color/black and white multifunction machines as an option, as shown in Fig. 1. Paper jogging and Z-folding technologies, which are important in post-processing, are introduced with the major functions of Finisher in Fig. 1.

The mechanism of paper jogging is shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.
Paper jogging in the lead direction (paper transfer direction) is performed by paper free fall and paper drawing by paddle (rubber) while paper jogging in the side direction (direction orthogonal to paper transfer) is performed by tamper pressing.

The paddle configuration creates time for which the paddles do not strike paper to prevent excessive paper drawing by arranging three blades evenly at equal angles of 120 degrees. In addition, arranging the blades not radially but in the direction tangential to the axis prevents the blades from hitting the rear end of paper and blowing them off, and is designed for pressure during paper drawing so as not to greatly vary depending on the number of sheets.

Paper fed from the delivery roll is drawn with the paddles, and pressed against the end guide while being pushed toward the front guide with the tamper. At this time, creating time for which the paddles do not strike paper allows jogging of thin sheets to heavy stock without paper buckling.

The basic folding mechanism is shown in Fig. 5.
- Stop paper at the front end of folding rolls. Further feed and buckle paper.
- Press paper against the folding rolls using the firmness of the paper in such a way that paper expands toward the folding roll side.

For Z-folding, there are two pairs of folding rolls since two-location foldings are required.

Z-folding flow is shown in Fig. 6.
- Move each end guide and locate the folding position according to the paper size.
- Switch the gate 1 so that paper moves into the folding path.
- After correcting paper posture to avoid displacement by folding before contact of the paper tip with the end guide, feed paper to the folding roll 1.
- Fold paper at the 1st location with the folding roll 1 and fold it at the 2nd location with the folding roll 2.
- Switch the gate 2 according to the job type (Z-folding or envelope) to feed paper.