The present invention relates to a cassette to be used in a printing apparatus such as a printer.
An image forming apparatus such as a printer is provided with a sheet feed cassette for stacking unprinted sheets.
For example, in a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6642051, a cassette cover that can be attached and detached is arranged on side walls of a sheet feed cassette, the cassette cover can pivot upward, and the sheet feed cassette includes a gripping portion having a sufficient rigidness.
However, in a sheet feed cassette disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6642051, the sheet feed cassette protrudes from an image forming apparatus body, in an attaching and detaching direction thereof, depending on the sheet size, and therefore a design issue arises. In order to minimize the size of the sheet feed cassette in the attaching and detaching direction, it is desirable that a face of the sheet feed cassette opposite to a face that is inserted into an apparatus body (an opposite face in the insertion direction) is configured by one standing wall. However, when the opposite face is configured by one standing wall, it is difficult to secure a gripping portion of the sheet feed cassette, and secure the rigidness of the gripping portion when gripped.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems described above, and provides a technique for improving the operability by securing the rigidness of a cassette.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cassette comprising: a housing portion configured to have a placement face on which sheets are placed and to house sheets; and a standing wall configured to constitute a portion of the housing portion, and to regulate sheets on a back end side in a conveyance direction of sheets to be conveyed from the placement face to a printing apparatus, wherein the standing wall includes a protrusion that protrudes toward the placement face at a position above a predetermined position, which is at a height of sheets that can be stacked on the placement face.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus to which the cassette described above.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Note, the following embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention. Multiple features are described in the embodiments, but limitation is not made to an invention that requires all such features, and multiple such features may be combined as appropriate. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the same or similar configurations, and redundant description thereof is omitted.
Note that, although a case where the sheets on which printing is performed are paper will be described in the following embodiments, the sheets may also be made of a material other than paper, and need only be sheet type printing media on which printing can be performed.
In
The sheet feed cassette 6 can be attached to the image forming apparatus 1, and is inserted in a depth direction through an opening portion 8 for inserting the sheet feed cassette that is formed in the image forming apparatus 1, which will be described later. Here, the directions are defined. The insertion and removal direction of the sheet feed cassette of the image forming apparatus 1 matches a front-and-back direction of the apparatus, and the direction oriented toward back is defined as a back side in the insertion direction, as shown by an arrow 3, and the opposite direction thereof is defined as a near side in the insertion direction. Also, left and right of the image forming apparatus 1 are defined as shown by an arrow 4. Also, upward and downward of the image forming apparatus are defined as shown by an arrow 5.
The configuration of this diagram will be described in more detail. A cassette cover 7 is attached above the sheet feed cassette 6 and prevents sheets from being exposed. When printing is executed, the console panel 2 is opened automatically or manually, and a print operation is executed.
Sheets 100 that are stacked and housed inside the sheet feed cassette are fed out one by one by a sheet feed roller 101 in response to an instruction to start printing, and are conveyed to a printing portion 103 through a guide portion 102. In the printing portion 103, a printing head 104 discharges ink while horizontally and reciprocally moving inside the image forming apparatus 1, and as a result, an image is printed on a sheet that is conveyed by a conveyance roller 106. The sheet on which an image is printed is discharged to a sheet discharge tray 105. The sheet discharge tray 105 is arranged behind the console panel 2 in
In the present embodiment, back side claw installation faces 21 respectively formed in back side projections 20 provided on the left and right sides are oriented in the same direction as the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6, and a back side claw 22 is provided on each of the faces. Also, near side claw installation faces 24 in near side projections 23 are oriented in a direction opposite to the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6, and a near side claw 25 is provided on each of the faces. Furthermore, positioning projections 26 for regulating the positional relationship between the sheet feed cassette 6 and the cassette cover 7 are respectively provided in the cassette cover 7 on the left and right sides. Also, a rib is formed in a horizontal direction in an end portion of the cassette cover 7 on the near side in the insertion direction, and contact parts 43 for contact with later-described hoods 31 (refer to
The necessary component is the standing wall 28 on the near side in the insertion direction (back end side in a conveyance direction of sheets) for preventing stacked unprinted sheets from jutting out. The thickness of the standing wall 28 is about 1 to 5 mm. A configuration is appropriate in which an inner face 29 of the standing wall 28 regulates back ends of unprinted sheets in the conveyance direction, and an outer face 30 of the standing wall 28 forms a portion of the exterior of the image forming apparatus 1. Furthermore, two hoods 31 (31-1, 31-2) are provided on the inner face 29 of the standing wall 28 of the sheet feed cassette 6. The height positions of lower faces of the hoods (protrusion) 31 are at a position that is higher than a predetermined position, which is an upper limit of stacking when unprinted sheets are stacked on the stacking face as a sheet bundle, and the positions of the hoods 31 in the transverse direction are positions separated from a center, which is in the vicinity of the gripping portion 11 of the sheet feed cassette 6, by an approximately same distance toward left and right.
Holes 40 (40-1, 40-2) are arranged in the placement face 41 on which sheets are placed, at positions opposing the hoods 31. These holes 40 are used to remove a mold when injection molding of the sheet feed cassette 6 is performed. As a result of using such a manufacturing method, the standing wall 28 and hoods 31 can be integrally formed. Note that, even in a case of injection molding, a placement face 41 in which holes are not provided at positions corresponding to the holes 40 can be adopted, as shown in
In order to make sheets unlikely be caught when unprinted sheets are set, the shape of each hood 31 viewed from above is formed as a rounded-off shape. The upper face of the hood 31 is in parallel with the upper face of the standing wall 28. Also, side wall upper faces 32 of the sheet feed cassette 6 on the left and right sides are provided with holes 33 into which the back side projections 20 of the cassette cover 7 enter. Similarly, holes 34 to which the near side projections 23 of the cassette cover 7 enter are provided in the sheet feed cassette 6 on the near side in the insertion direction. Furthermore, positioning holes 35 for receiving the positioning projections 26 of the cassette cover 7 are arranged in the left and right side wall upper faces 32 of the sheet feed cassette 6, in order to determine the positional relationship with the cassette cover 7.
In the state in which the cassette cover 7 is fitted into the prescribed position, the back side claws (claw portions) 22 of the cassette cover 7 are fixed (engaged with) to the sheet feed cassette 6 by engagement faces 37, as shown in
On the other hand, the near side claws (claw portions) 25 of the cassette cover 7 are fixed (engaged with) to the sheet feed cassette 6 by engagement faces 39, as shown in
When unprinted sheets are set to the sheet feed cassette 6, the cassette cover 7 needs to be removed, and when the cassette cover 7 is removed, the cassette cover 7 is lifted upward in a state shown in
This pivot motion is realized as a result of the back side claws 22 easily coming off by an upward force, because the angle α of the engagement faces 37 of the back side claws 22 is larger than the angle β of the engagement faces 39 of the near side claws 25.
After the cassette cover 7 is opened, unprinted sheets are set to the sheet feed cassette 6, and the cassette cover 7 is attached to the sheet feed cassette 6 from above. When the cassette cover 7 is attached, attachment can be performed from one of the back side claw 22 side and the near side claw 25 side, or attachment can be performed on the both sides at the same time. Then, the positioning projections 26 of the cassette cover 7 are inserted into the respective positioning holes 35 of the sheet feed cassette 6, and as a result, the positional relationship between the sheet feed cassette 6 and the cassette cover 7 is correctly regulated. Note that, in the present embodiment, the positioning projections 26 are each located between the back side projection 20 and the near side projection 23, but the position is not limited thereto.
When the sheet feed cassette 6 replenished with sheets is attached to the image forming apparatus 1, a user grips the gripping portion 11 of the sheet feed cassette 6, and inserts the sheet feed cassette 6 into the image forming apparatus 1 through the later-described opening portion 8.
Furthermore, the positional relationship between the parts of the sheet feed cassette 6 and the cassette cover 7 in the present embodiment will be described. Regarding the height direction, as shown
Regarding the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6, the hoods 31 that protrude from the inner face 29 of the standing wall 28 in the near side in the insertion direction protrude toward the back side in the insertion direction beyond the contact faces of the contact parts 43 of the cassette cover 7. This is because, when the user strongly grips the cassette cover 7 and the sheet feed cassette 6, the contact parts 43 of the cassette cover 7 are prevented from riding over the hoods 31 of the sheet feed cassette 6 and largely moving downward.
Also, in the present embodiment, the projections 20 and 23 each having a claw and the positioning projections 26 that are arranged in the cassette cover 7 are not arranged horizontally symmetrically. This is because, due to the structure of the image forming apparatus 1, although unprinted sheets cannot be arranged at the center of the sheet feed cassette 6 in the horizontal direction, the gripping portion 11 of the sheet feed cassette 6 is arranged at the center of the sheet feed cassette 6 in the horizontal direction, from a design viewpoint.
When the user grips the gripping portion 11, the cassette cover 7 deforms with the two hoods 31 being points of support, and the cassette cover 7 deforms downward at positions closer to the gripping portion 11 relative to the hoods 31, in the horizontal direction, but the cassette cover 7 deforms so as to be lifted upward at positions farther from the gripping portion 11 relative to the hoods 31. The force of deformation of being lifted upward is larger on the near side in the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6 than on the back side, because of the closeness to the gripping portion 11 and the hoods 31. In contrast, the engagement faces 37 and 39 of the claws resist the force of the cassette cover 7 lifting upward, and as a result, the cassette cover 7 is suppressed from coming off. In the present embodiment, the unbalance in force is resolved by arranging the projections 23 each having a claw on the near side in the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6 substantially symmetrically in the horizontal direction.
Note that, in the present embodiment, the objective is achieved with the configuration described above, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration described above. For example, the side wall upper faces 32 may have heights so as to be positioned above the lower faces of the hoods 31, and in this case as well, the cassette cover 7 moves with portions in the vicinity of the near side end portion 27 of the cassette cover 7 that are located above the hoods 31 serving as the pivot axes. In addition thereto, a horizontally symmetrical configuration may also be adopted.
As a result of the user gripping the sheet feed cassette 6 and the cassette cover 7 and inserting them into the opening portion 8 of the image forming apparatus 1, the rails 12 of the sheet feed cassette 6 align with rails (not shown) inside the image forming apparatus 1, the position in the vertical and horizontal directions is determined, and the sheet feed cassette 6 is attached. At an insertion end, the entering position of the sheet feed cassette 6 is regulated by an unshown stopper, and the position of the sheet feed cassette 6 inside the image forming apparatus 1 in the insertion direction is determined.
Here, as shown in
As described above, according to the present embodiment, the rigidness of the gripping portion of the sheet feed cassette including the cassette cover can be secured while keeping the size of the sheet feed cassette in the insertion and removal direction small. Also, an image forming apparatus can be provided in which the cassette cover is unlikely to come off due to impact at the time of packaging.
In the first embodiment, an example in which hoods are provided at two locations has been described. In a second embodiment, a hood is provided at one location will be described. The other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment described above, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.
The height position of the hood is similar to the first embodiment, but the position in the transverse direction is set to a position immediately below the gripping portion 11 (recess 7a), for example. The length of the hood in the transverse direction may be the same as the range determined as the gripping portion, or may also extend over the entire width range.
According to such a configuration, the deformation of the cassette cover 7 when a user grips the gripping portion 11 of the sheet feed cassette 6 can be suppressed, and the rigidness can be secured.
In the first embodiment, an example has been described in which the orientation of the installation faces 21 of the back side claws 22 of the cassette cover 7 is the same as the insertion direction of the sheet feed cassette 6. In the third embodiment, an example will be described in which the installation faces of back side claws 22 of the cassette cover 7 face the inside of the sheet feed cassette. The other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment described above, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.
In the present embodiment, as shown in
In accordance therewith, side wall portions of the sheet feed cassette 6 are provided with holes into which the respective back side projections 50 enter, and engagement faces (not shown) that engage with the back side claws 52. Note that the angle relationship between the engagement faces on the back side and the near side is similar to that of the first embodiment described in
In such a configuration as well, as a result of lifting the cassette cover 7 upward, the portions in the vicinity of the near side end portion 27 and the hoods 31 function as pivot axes for the cassette cover 7, and as a result, the cassette cover 7 can be easily removed.
Note that, in the embodiments described above, an ink-jet type multifunction peripheral has been illustrated as the image forming apparatus, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the image forming apparatus may also be a facsimile or another image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer. The similar effects can be obtained when the present invention is applied to the sheet feed cassettes used is these image forming apparatuses.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2021-134275 | Aug 2021 | JP | national |
2022-090385 | Jun 2022 | JP | national |
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2021-134275, filed Aug. 19, 2021, and No. 2022-090385, filed Jun. 2, 2022, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.