These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.
The image forming unit 10 may be an image forming unit using various image forming methods, such as an electrophotographic method using a photosensitive medium or the like, an ink-jet method using a print head or the like, or a thermal transfer method using an ink ribbon or the like.
The feeding unit 50 loads the recording medium P to be fed to the image forming unit 10 therein and includes a feeding roller 51 to feed the recording medium P.
Support rollers 33 and 34 are respectively disposed opposite to the first and second transferring rollers 31 and 32.
The multi-passing apparatus 100 of
As illustrated in
The feeding passageway 110 extends from the feeding unit 50 to the image forming unit 10, and the recording medium P is picked up by the feeding roller 51 of the feeding unit 50 and then guided to the image forming unit 10 through the feeding passageway 110.
The first and second transferring rollers 31 and 32 are installed on the feeding passageway 110. The feeding passageway 110 includes first and second feeding passageway 111 and 112. The first feeding passageway 111 extends from the feeding unit 50 to the first transferring roller 31, and the second feeding passageway 112 extends from the first transferring roller 31 to the image forming unit 10. Access to the first and second feeding passageways 111 and 112 by the recording medium P is controlled by the guide unit 20.
The first feeding passageway 111 includes front and rear guide surfaces 111a and 111b forming a space through which the recording medium P is transferred. The second feeding passageway 112 includes upper and lower guide surfaces 112a and 112b forming a space through which the recording medium P is transferred.
The divergent passageway 120 guides the recording medium P so that the recording medium P is repeatedly transferred to the image forming unit 10. The divergent passageway 120 may be installed so that the recording medium P is unfolded and then repeatedly transferred. In other words, the divergent passageway 120 intersects with the second feeding passageway 112.
The divergent passageway 120 includes upper and lower guide surfaces 121 and 122 forming a space through which the recording medium P is transferred.
The guide unit 20 is installed to move between first and second positions S1 and S2 respectively illustrated in
The guide unit 20 includes at least one or more guide members. As illustrated in
The guide unit 20 may include a pair of guide members 21 and 22 which are connected to each other and pivot together by a bracket 23 as illustrated in
The guide members 21 and 22 may pivot by a recovery force of an elastic member 25 along the direction F2 opposite to the direction F1 along which the recording medium P is fed. The elastic member 25 may be a coil spring, a torsion spring, a plate spring, or the like.
The elastic member 25 may include a first end 25a fixed to ends of the guide members 21 and 22 and a second end 25b fixed to a body of the image forming apparatus 200. The elastic member 25 elastically urges the guide members 21 and 22 to pivot along the direction F2 opposite to the direction F1 along which the recording medium P is fed.
The guide members 21 and 22 may be pivotably supported on a rotary shaft 31a of the first transferring roller 31 and pivot on the rotary shaft 31a of the first transferring roller 31 by the recovery force of the elastic member 25.
The guide members 21 and 22 respectively include arrangement surfaces 21a and 22a on their sides and guide surfaces 21b and 22b on other sides as illustrated in
If the feeding roller 51 of the feeding unit 50 and the first transferring roller 31 are driven to feed the recording medium P through the feeding passageway 110 along the direction F1 indicated by an arrow of
When the front end P1 of the recording medium P is not arranged along a width direction in the first position S1, i.e. the recording medium P is skewed with respect to the width direction of the first position S1, the guide members 21 and 22 pivot along the direction F2 of
If a rear end of the recording medium P completely passes the guide member 21 and 22, the guide members 21 and 22 pivot along the direction F2 of
While the recording medium P is repeatedly transferred along directions R1 and R2 indicated by arrows in
The guide members 21 and 22 moved to the second position S2 close the connection between the first and second feeding passageways 111 and 112 to block the entrance of the recording medium P into the first feeding passageway 111.
As illustrated in
According to exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept, a recording medium P can be guided along an image forming passage repeatedly, and the recording medium P is well aligned with respect to a feeding direction so that it is not skewed when fed to the image forming unit.
Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-55544 | Jun 2006 | KR | national |
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0055544, filed on Jun. 20, 2006, the entire content of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.