1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus enabled to reduce a burden due to change of roll paper.
2. Related art
Hitherto, image forming apparatuses, such as large-size drawing copiers and printers, use roll paper by mounting a shaft in the core of a paper roll around which long paper serving as a recording medium is wound. In a case where this roll paper is A0-size paper or A1-size paper wound therearound, an operation of changing roll paper is uneasy to perform, and involves risk, because the wide width and the large weight of roll paper. JP-A-2000-289896 has proposed a paper supply apparatus that has a roll paper holding member which is provided at an upper part of a casing of the paper supply apparatus and which permits roll paper to tentatively be put thereon, that mounts a shaft therein after a paper roll is once put on the holding member, and that subsequently lowers the paper roll to a roll paper accommodating portion which then accommodates the roll paper.
The related roll feeding apparatus is adapted to put a paper roll once on the roll paper holding member to thereby reduce the risk of accommodating the roll paper in the roll paper accommodating portion in an unstable state at the change of the roll paper. However, the roll paper may drop in the operation of accommodating roll paper in the roll paper accommodating portion due to the difference in height between the roll paper holding portion and the roll paper accommodating portion.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an image forming apparatus enabled to reduce the burden and risk due to the change of roll paper.
According to the invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus that comprises at least one paper supply portion, which has a roll paper accommodating portion adapted to accommodate a paper roll constituted by winding long paper around a shaft,
a roll paper holding portion on which the paper roll is temporarily put, and a paper feeding portion adapted to deliver paper from the paper roll accommodated on the roll paper accommodating portion, and that also comprises a horizontal rotating-shaft adapted to support the paper supply portion in a body of the image forming apparatus so that the paper supply portion can be drawn outwardly from the body of the image forming apparatus by being rotated when change of the paper roll is performed. In this image forming apparatus, the change of the paper roll can be performed by rotating the paper supply portion to thereby draw out the paper supply portion.
Further, the roll paper accommodating portion may comprise holding section adapted to hold the shaft to be rotatable when operated, guiding section adapted to be arranged together with the roll paper holding portion in a substantially horizontal line when the paper supply portion is rotated and is drawn out, thereby to lead the paper roll to the roll paper accommodating portion, and suppressing section adapted to suppress the paper roll from spontaneously performing rotational displacement when the paper supply portion is rotated and is drawn out.
Furthermore, the paper feeding portion may be placed in the vicinity of an upper part of the paper supply portion when the paper supply portion is rotated and is drawn out. Also, the roll paper holding portion may have a handle part used to rotate and draw out the paper supply portion.
Also, the image forming apparatus according to the invention may have a plurality of the paper supply portions.
Preferred embodiment(s) of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figure wherein:
An embodiment of the invention is described hereinbelow by referring to the accompanying drawings.
Also, drawing levers 31a and 32a are provided in leftwardly upper concave portions 317 and 327 of the casings 31 and 32 shown in
As shown in
In a case where image formation processing is performed on paper drawn out of the paper roll 310, the paper supplied to the part 4a of the feeding path 4 is supplied to the part 4c of the feeding path 4 by the feeding roller 71. The paper supplied to the part 4c of the feeding path 4 is further feeded to a photoreceptor drum 11 by the feeding roller 10. The photoreceptor drum 11 transfers a toner image, which is formed thereon, onto the paper. The paper, onto which the toner image is transferred, is led to a fixing portion 13 that performs the fixation of the image. Upon completion of fixation of the image onto the paper, the paper is feeded to a discharging roller 14 and is subsequently discharged from a paper discharging port 15. Incidentally, a manual paper feeding portion 9 is provided on a left side surface of the image forming portion 2 shown in
The casing 31 (32) shown in
As viewed in
Additionally, the delivery rollers 51 and the feeding path 51a are provided at a rightwardly lower portion of the casing 31, as viewed in this figure, and deliver paper drawn out of the paper roll to the feeding path 4 through the auxiliary feeding path 81. The horizontal rotating shaft 3100 is provided at a leftwardly upper portion of the casing 31, so that the casing 31 can rotate around the horizontal rotating shaft 3100. As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The image forming apparatus 1 according to the invention has the aforementioned configuration. When the paper roll 310 is replaced, the image forming apparatus 1 operates as follows. That is, first, a user draws the drawing lever 31a provided in the concave portion 317 at the upper portion of the left side surface of the casing 31 shown in
Upon completion of drawing out the casing 31, the user causes the shaft 20 to perform rotational displacement on the rail portion 315. Thus, the paper roll 312 to the roll paper holding portion 312. At that time, the rail portion 315 and the roll paper holding portion 312 come very close to each other and are arranged in a substantially horizontal line. Thus, it is sufficient for the user to cause the paper roll 310 to perform rotational and horizontal displacement from the rail portion 315 to the roll paper holding portion 312. When the paper roll 310 is put on the roll paper holding portion 312, the user removes the shaft 20 from the paper roll 310. Thus, a procedure for removing the paper roll 310 is completed.
Next, a procedure for accommodating the paper roll 310 is described below. In the state in which the casing 31 is drawn out by being rotated substantially 90 degrees, the user puts a newly used paper roll 310 on the roll paper holding portion 312. Subsequently, the user mounts the shaft 20 in the paper roll 310. Because the paper roll 310 is put on the roll paper holding portion 312, the user can mount the shaft 20 therein in a stable condition.
Upon completion of mounting the shaft 20, the user rolls the paper roll 310 toward the roll paper accommodating portion 311 to first put both ends of the shaft 20 on the rail portion 315. Incidentally, because the rail portion 315 and the roll paper holding portion 312 are very close to each other and are arranged in a substantially horizontal line, it is sufficient for the user to cause the paper roll 310 to perform rotational and horizontal displacement to the rail portion 315 from the roll paper holding portion 312. The shaft 20 put on the rail portion 315 automatically performs rotational displacement to the roll paper accommodating portion 311 due to the incline 316, which has a falling gradient, on the rail portion 315. Thus, the paper roll 310 is accommodated on the roll paper accommodating portion 311.
After the paper roll 310 is accommodated, the user draws an edge part of paper out of the paper roll 310 and puts the edge part between the delivery rollers 51. At that time, the delivery rollers 51 are placed higher than the paper roll 310 accommodated on the roll paper accommodating portion 311. Thus, an operation of putting the edge part of the roll paper 310 between the delivery rollers 51 can be performed in a state in which visual check is easily achieved.
Upon completion of the operation up to this stage, the user pushes the casing 31 into the paper supply unit 3 by rotating the casing 312 substantially 90 degrees. Thus, the change of the roll paper 310 is completed. Regarding the casing 32, the change of the roll paper 320 can be performed by performing an operation similar to that performed on the casing 31.
Thus, according to the invention, the reduction of space required by the paper supply unit can be achieved. Also, a work burden, which is caused by accommodating the roll paper and is imposed on a user, can be reduced. The risk of fall of the paper roll can be reduced. Additionally, the reduction of the cost can be achieved.
The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-272954 including specification, claims, drawings, and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirely.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
P2005-272954 | Sep 2005 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6661984 | Kojima | Dec 2003 | B2 |
7203448 | Yokoi | Apr 2007 | B2 |
20020130215 | Krivulin | Sep 2002 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
48-074049 | Sep 1973 | JP |
61-069079 | Apr 1986 | JP |
05097299 | Apr 1993 | JP |
07-300261 | Nov 1995 | JP |
2000-289896 | Oct 2000 | JP |
2003091748 | Mar 2003 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20070063086 A1 | Mar 2007 | US |