PURPOSE: To improve of efficiency of copying operation by providing a turning mechanism for turning either a sheet copied at the time of outward-scanning a document or a sheet copied at the time of return-scanning a document to discharge sheets in the uniform direction from a copying machine.

CONSTITUTION: A sheet 2' guided to a branch path 4 at a gate 6 is brought into contact with a stopper 12 projected in the branch path 4 and stopped. On detecting that the sheet is stopped, an electric current is applied to a solenoid 16 to project a pivot 13 into the branch path 4. The forward end of the pivot 13 presses the center of the sheet 2' on a base plate 4a, and simultaneously the stopper 12 is retreated by a solenoid 15, so that the sheet 2' is turned around the pivot 13 by a transport roll 14. When the sheet 2' is turned in a 180° arc, the pivot 13 retreats from the branch path 4, so that the sheet 2' is fed out from the branch path 4 at the turned position by the transport roll 14 and discharged to a paper discharge tray. One 2' of the sheets 2, 2' carried in the opposite directions is turned in a 180°, so that both sheets are discharged in the uniform direction.