Sheets with wireless tags (RF (Radio Frequency) tags) are known. An apparatus that forms an image on a sheet with a wireless tag by using an electrophotographic method, writes information in the wireless tag, and reads information from the wireless tag, is known.
A wireless tag may sometimes be broken since, in the electrophotographic method, a fixing unit for fixing a toner image heats and presses the wireless tag. A sheet with the broken wireless tag is discharged to a dedicated tray for sheets with broken wireless tags. Accordingly, when images of a plurality of pages are formed on a plurality of sheets, a page is skipped in the sheets discharged to a normal tray if a wireless tag is broken.
Further, when an image, which is formed on the sheet with the broken wireless tag, is formed again on a new sheet and the new sheet is discharged to the normal tray, the page sequence of the sheets discharged to the normal tray is disordered. For example, it is assumed that the image of the 2nd page is formed on a sheet, the wireless tag of this sheet is broken, the image of the 3rd page is formed on a sheet, the wireless tag of this sheet is unbroken, and this sheet with the unbroken wireless tag is discharged to the normal tray. Then, since the wireless tag of the sheet, on which the image of the 2nd page is formed, is broken, the image of the 2nd page is formed again on a new sheet, and the new sheet is discharged. As a result, the sheet on which the image of the 1st page is formed, the sheet on which the image of the 3rd page is formed, and the sheet on which the image of the 2nd page is formed are stacked in this order on the normal tray.
As described above, in the prior art, a page is skipped in the sheets discharged to a normal tray, and the page sequence is disordered.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds