1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus, for example, an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus, a structure has been used in which supporting legs are suitably arranged on an apparatus setting up surface so that a main body of the apparatus is stably positioned (for example, see Patent Documents 1 through 5). That is, plural supporting legs are attached to the bottom surface of the main body of the apparatus. In particular, in an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus in Patent Document 6, the supporting legs are positioned by considering the gravity center of the apparatus. In addition, in Patent Document 6, the number of supporting leg attaching sections on the apparatus is greater than the number of the supporting legs, and the supporting leg attaching position of at lest one of the supporting legs can be changed.
However, in the attaching structure of the supporting legs for the apparatus of Patent Document 6, a supporting leg attaching section to which a supporting leg is not attached protrudes from the bottom surface of the main body of the apparatus. When the protrusion length is great, the supporting leg attaching section may contact the apparatus setting up surface having an uneven surface. When the supporting leg attaching section contacts the uneven surface, even if the supporting legs are attached to corresponding suitable positions, the main body of the apparatus cannot be stably positioned.
In order to solve the above problem, a structure has been used in which a space having a predetermined distance or more is provided between the apparatus setting up surface and the bottom surface of the apparatus (for example, see Patent Documents 7 through 9).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication to Laid-Open to Public for Opposition No. H4-40198
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-22142
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-51462
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-287452
[Patent Document 5] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-077498
[Patent Document 6] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-293251
[Patent Document 7] Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. S60-065050
[Patent Document 8] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-170391
[Patent Document 9] Japanese Patent No. 3743146
However, in the conventional attaching structure of the supporting legs for the apparatus, in order to surely provide a space having a predetermined size or more between the apparatus setting up surface and the bottom surface of the main body of the apparatus, for example, a supporting leg attaching section protrudes inside the main body of the apparatus, and the exposure distance of the supporting leg attaching section from the bottom surface of the main body of the apparatus in the apparatus setting up surface direction is shortened. However, in this case, the attaching structure of the supporting legs for the apparatus becomes complex, and in addition, the apparatus must be designed so that interference between the supporting leg attaching section including the supporting legs and components in the main body of the apparatus is avoided. In order to avoid the interference, a space is required in the main body of the apparatus. Consequently, there is a risk that the size of the main body of the apparatus becomes great.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus in which the structure is simple and does not have a space for avoiding interference between supporting leg attaching sections including the supporting legs and components in the main body of the apparatus.
Features and advantages of the present invention are set forth in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention according to the teachings provided in the description. Features and advantages of the present invention will be realized and attained by an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus particularly pointed out in the specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms so as to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention.
To achieve one or more of these and other advantages, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus. The attaching structure of the supporting legs for the apparatus includes plural supporting leg attaching sections on a bottom section of the main body of the apparatus, and plural supporting legs each of which is attached to one of the supporting leg attaching sections in which the number of the supporting leg attaching sections is greater than the number of the supporting legs. Each of the supporting legs includes an elastic member which contacts an apparatus setting up surface and an elastic member holding section having a concave section inside which the elastic member is engaged. An exposure distance of the elastic member from the elastic member holding section in the height direction of the apparatus is less than a distance between the bottom section of the main body of the apparatus and the apparatus setting up surface in the height direction.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, since a supporting leg attaching section and a supporting leg to be attached to the supporting leg attaching section are formed on a bottom section of the main body of an apparatus, and the supporting leg is formed of an elastic member and an elastic member holding section; an attaching structure of supporting legs for an apparatus can be simple and does not needs to have a space for avoiding interference between the supporting leg attaching sections including the supporting legs and components in the main body of the apparatus.
Features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The best mode of carrying out the present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the embodiment of the present invention, as an apparatus, an image forming apparatus is used. However, the apparatus is not limited to the image forming apparatus.
The basic unit BU can be used as a printer which outputs an image information signal transmitted from, for example, a computer connected to the basic unit BU.
The optional unit OU is an image scanner 3 which reads a document image.
As shown in
In
As described above, when the image forming apparatus 1A (1B) is supported by three points of the supporting legs 4A, 4B, and 4C, even if the apparatus setting up surface is slightly uneven, the image forming apparatus 1A (1B) can be stably set up on the apparatus setting up surface by positioning the supporting legs 4A, 4B, and 4C to avoid the slightly uneven surface. In addition, in this case, deformation or contortion may not occur in the image forming apparatus 1A (1B).
When the deformation or the contortion occurs in the image forming apparatus 1A (1B), a color registration error occurs in a formed full color image and the image quality of the formed full color image is lowered. In this case, even in a monochrome image, the image quality is lowered.
The optional unit 3 shown in
In the above, a yellow toner image on the photoconductor body 5Y, a cyan toner image on the photoconductor body 5Y, a magenta toner image on the photoconductor body 5M, a black toner image on the photoconductor body 5K are sequentially transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 7, and a color toner image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 7.
A paper feeding cassette 13 which stores recording media P made of, for example, transfer paper or a resin sheet, and a paper feeding roller 14, which contacts one of the recording media P at the uppermost position stored in the paper feeding cassette 13, are disposed under the intermediate transfer belt 7.
When the paper feeding roller 14 is rotated, the recording medium P at the uppermost position is fed in the arrow direction B, and the fed recording medium P is passes through a nipping section between the intermediate transfer belt 7 and a second transfer roller 15 facing the intermediate transfer belt 7. When the recording medium P passes through the nipping section, the color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 7 is transferred onto the recording medium P.
Next, the recording medium P passes through a fixing device 16. When the recording medium P passes through the fixing device 16, the color toner image on the recording medium P is fixed on the recording medium P by heat and pressure of the fixing device 16. The recording medium P on which the color toner image is formed is output to the paper outputting section 22 positioned at the upper part of the cabinet 2. In the above, after transferring the color toner image onto the recording medium P from the intermediate transfer belt 7, toners remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 7 are removed by a second cleaning device 17.
As described above, the positions of the gravity centers G1 and G2 of the corresponding image forming apparatuses 1A and 1B are different depending on whether the optional unit OU is installed. Therefore, when the three supporting legs 4A, 4B, and 4C are always attached to corresponding fixed positions of the bottom section 21 of the basic unit BU, the image forming apparatuses 1A and 1B may not be stable on the apparatus setting up surface SL.
According to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
As shown in
Therefore, even if the positions of the gravity centers G1 and G2 are different between the image forming apparatuses 1A and 1B, when one of the supporting leg attaching sections T is selected for the supporting leg 4A, each of the image forming apparatuses 1A and 1B can be stably set up on the apparatus setting up surface SL by considering the presence of the optional unit OU.
In
As shown in
The height H is determined to be a value so that the foreign matter D does not contact the protruding section 21a in conditions where the supporting leg 4A does not engage inside the concave section of the protruding section 21a. When the height H is desired to be small, the height of the protruding section 21a is made to be small. However, the protruding section 21a prevents the supporting leg 4A from being removed from the bottom surface SH of the basic unit BU; therefore, the protruding section 21a needs to have a predetermined height. The removal of the supporting leg 4A from the bottom surface SH of the basic unit BU occurs when the basic unit BU is moved in the horizontal direction and hits on a step formed on the apparatus setting up surface SL.
When the abutted part of the supporting leg 4A on the step S is away from the adhering surface F of the supporting leg 4A, the deformation of the supporting leg 4A hardly influences the adhering surface F, and the supporting leg 4A is hardly removed from the adhering layer F.
Therefore, in
As shown in
In
In
In
When the height of the step S (see
According to the embodiment of the present invention, a part of the elastic member 41 compressed by being attached to the elastic member holding section 42 is exposed from the elastic member holding section 42. With this, the elastic member holding section 42 does not contact the apparatus setting up surface SL. If the elastic member holding section 42 contacts the apparatus setting up surface SL and the image forming apparatus 1A (1B) is dragged, a scratch may be formed on the apparatus setting up surface SL. However, since only the elastic member 41 contacts the apparatus setting up surface SL, anti-vibration ability and anti-slide ability of the image forming apparatus 1A (1B) can be obtained.
As shown in
Next, a modified example of the embodiment of the present invention is described.
In the above, as the apparatus, the image forming apparatus is used; however, the attaching structure of the supporting legs for the apparatus of the present embodiment can be widely applied to other apparatuses.
Next, an evaluation result of the embodiment of the present invention is described. In the evaluation, un-removable ability of the supporting leg 4A from the adhering surface F of the bottom section 21 of the cabinet 2 was measured. In the evaluation, results of three examples are shown in Table 1.
In the three examples, the supporting leg 4A was adhered to the supporting leg attaching section T of the cabinet 2 of an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus was dragged on the apparatus setting up surface SL, and the image forming apparatus got over the step S. In addition, the weight of the image forming apparatus was approximately 30 kg, the hardness of the elastic member 41 was an Asker hardness of 72 to 88 degrees, the elastic member holding section 42 is formed of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) resin, and the distance H2 between the bottom surface SH and the apparatus setting up surface SL was approximately 3 mm. Further, the image forming apparatus was gotten over the step S 20 times while the height of the step S was changed from 1.0 mm to 2.5 mm with an interval of 0.5 mm.
In the embodiment example 2, the elastic member holding section 42 having the slant surface 42c shown in
From the evaluation result shown in Table 1, when the elastic member holding section 42 was included, the supporting leg 4A was not removed from the adhering surface F of the bottom section 21 of the cabinet 2. In addition, even if the elastic member holding section 42 was not included, when the height of the step S was 1.0 mm, the supporting leg 4A was not removed from the adhering surface F. That is, when the exposure distance H1 of the elastic member 41 is small, the supporting leg 4A is hardly removed from the bottom surface SH of the bottom section 21.
In the above, the supporting leg 4A is mainly described; however, the supporting legs 4B and 4C can have the same structure as that of the supporting leg 4A. In addition, the number of the supporting legs is three and the number of the supporting leg attaching sections is four. However, the number of the supporting legs is not limited to three and can be four or more, and the number of the supporting leg attaching sections is not limited to four and can be five or more. That is, the number of the supporting leg attaching sections is greater than the number of the supporting legs.
Further, the present invention is not limited to the specifically disclosed embodiments, and variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The present invention is based on Japanese Priority Patent Application No. 2007-321387, filed on Dec. 12, 2007, with the Japanese Patent Office, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
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