1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a configuration of a discharge sheet tray for supporting a printed sheet, which is capable of maintaining positional relationships with a feed sheet tray, on which a sheet to be fed to a printing portion in the apparatus is placed, and with an access door for replacing an ink tank.
Although a case in which a sheet to be printed is a paper sheet is described in the specification, the sheet may be any printable sheet recording medium other than the paper sheet. In addition, when a description is given below by taking the paper sheet as an example, the feed sheet tray may be referred to as a paper feed tray and the discharge sheet tray may be referred to as a paper discharge tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image forming apparatus such as a color printer, there is an image forming apparatus including, on a front side of the apparatus, a paper feed tray on which a sheet to be printed is placed, and including, near a paper discharge port, a paper discharge tray on which a printed sheet is placed. In addition, there is widely known an image forming apparatus including, on an upper portion of the paper discharge tray, an openable and closable access door for mounting and dismounting a print head and an ink tank for performing printing.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-119096 discloses a recording apparatus including a housing on which rotation hinges of a paper feed tray and a paper discharge tray are formed, and in a closed state, the paper discharge tray is accommodated in the housing and the paper feed tray functions as a cover for maintaining an internal portion of the apparatus in a shielded state. In particular, both the trays are accommodated on the same side of the housing, and hence a recording apparatus having a small occupation space is achieved. In this case, a sheet is fed from the paper feed tray located on one side of the housing to a printing portion in the apparatus, and a printed sheet is turned around and discharged to the paper discharge tray located on the same side of the housing as the paper feed tray.
However, in such a U-turn type paper feed and discharge system, if a discharged sheet comes into contact with a sheet on the paper feed tray, a paper feed resistance may be increased or fluctuated, thus causing an unfavorable paper feed such as a feed failure or a multi feed. Therefore, it is required to securely separate the sheet placed on the paper feed tray and the sheet to be placed on the paper discharge tray from each other.
Further, in order to perform operations of mounting and dismounting a print head and an ink tank as well as sheet control by access only in a direction on a front side of the apparatus, an openable and closable access cover is required. However, separate opening and closing operations of the three components including the paper feed tray, the paper discharge tray, and the access cover become troublesome, and if an order of the operations is set, this may increase a risk of an erroneous operation by a user.
Moreover, in order for the individual components to perform the opening and closing operations without interfering with one another, it is necessary to secure enough space between the components, possibly causing an increase of the apparatus in size and an increase of the manufacturing cost.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems. For example, the present invention is configured to achieve, in a configuration of three components including a paper feed tray, a paper discharge tray, and an access cover, suppression of dimension in a height direction of an apparatus, enhancement of reliability in paper feeding, and enhancement of opening and closing operability of the three components.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus, including: an image forming portion configured to form an image on a sheet; a housing which houses the image forming portion therein, the housing including an opening; an access cover provided so as to be rotatable with respect to the housing, and configured to cover at least a part of the opening when the access cover is closed; a feed tray provided so as to be rotatable with respect to the housing, and configured so that the sheet is placed thereon before the image is formed by the image forming portion; and a discharge tray provided so as to be rotatable with respect to the access cover, and configured so that the sheet is placed thereon after the image is formed by the image forming portion. A rotation pivot of the feed tray and a rotation pivot of the access cover are arranged on the same axis; and a rotation pivot of the discharge tray is arranged with a shift from the rotation pivot of the access cover.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The paper feed tray 3 is configured to rotate in a direction of an arrow A illustrated in
The access cover 10 is rotatably supported on one side of the housing 1 in such a manner that the access cover 10 closes an opening of the housing 1, which enables access to an image forming portion (the print head and the ink tank) built in the housing 1 from the outside, and opens the opening when accessing the image forming portion.
A paper discharge tray 7 (discharge sheet tray) on which a printed sheet is placed is provided in a rotatable manner in a direction of an arrow C illustrated in
A paper discharge sub tray 9 (discharge sheet sub tray) is provided in a rotatable manner in a direction of an arrow E or a direction of an arrow F illustrated in
In addition, the paper discharge sub tray 9 rotates in a direction of an arrow E illustrated in
An operation of paper conveyance (sheet conveyance) at the time of printing is described with reference to
In the image forming area on the platen 25, printing is performed on the paper sheet 202 by using the ink cartridge 101/102. When being discharged, a leading edge of the paper sheet 202 may be weighed down after passing the paper discharge roller 24, but the paper sheet 202 is supported by the paper discharge sub tray 9, and then discharged to the paper discharge tray 7 and the paper discharge extension tray 8. At this time, the farthest end position of the paper discharge extension tray 8 is substantially the same as a position of an end of the paper sheet 201 on the paper feed tray 3 (a trailing edge with respect to the paper feed direction) or extended further beyond the trailing edge of the paper sheet 201 in the paper discharge direction.
The image forming apparatus of the present application is configured as described above, and hence the paper sheet 202 being discharged does not affect the paper sheet 201 before being fed, which enables securing a minimum height 205 required to meet the paper feed capacity. In particular, the paper feed tray reference surface 32 on the paper feed tray 3 directly abuts on the paper discharge tray support portion 72 as illustrated in
With the above-mentioned configuration, the opening and closing operation of the access cover 10 can be performed independently from operations of the other trays (such as the paper feed tray 3 and the paper discharge tray 7). In addition, the paper feed tray rotation pivot 31 and the access cover rotation pivot 11 are arranged on the same axis. Therefore, if the paper feed tray 3 rotates in a direction of an arrow B illustrated in
In this embodiment, a so-called “multifunction peripheral (MFP)” including an image reading apparatus (scanner) is described as an example of the image forming apparatus, but the same effect of the present invention can be achieved even for an image forming apparatus having a single function of forming an image.
Further, in this embodiment, the paper discharge sub tray rotation pivot 91 is arranged on the platen 25, but the same effect of the present invention can be achieved even for a configuration in which the paper discharge sub tray rotation pivot 91 is arranged on the housing 1.
In addition, as for the paper discharge extension tray 8 and the paper feed extension tray 5, the same effect of the present invention can be achieved even if there is a variation in the number of parts and/or the extension method.
According to the present invention based on the above-mentioned embodiment, the paper sheet 202 discharged after printing does not come into contact with the paper sheet 201 on the paper feed tray 3, and hence the resistance acting on the paper feed can be maintained constant, thus enhancing the reliability of the paper feed.
In addition, a mounting space of the paper sheet 201 on the paper feed tray 3 can be maintained to the minimum through direct abutment between the paper feed tray 3 in the opened state and the paper discharge tray 7 in the opened state with respect to the apparatus housing, and hence the apparatus can be downsized by suppressing the dimension of the entire apparatus in the height direction. Moreover, when performing an operation of closing the paper feed tray 3 with respect to the apparatus housing, the paper discharge tray 7 and the access cover 10 can be closed simultaneously, and therefore, a user can perform an operation in a plain and easy manner.
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.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-179611, filed Aug. 19, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2011-179611 | Aug 2011 | JP | national |
Number | Date | Country |
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2005-119096 | May 2005 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20130044174 A1 | Feb 2013 | US |