Patent Application
20130228962
The present application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119 from Japanese patent application number 2012-045461 filed on Mar. 1, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a sheet feed unit capable of feeding a sheet-like recording medium, and further relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer, a digital copier, and a facsimile machine including the sheet feed unit.
2. Related Art
A sheet feed unit of an image forming apparatus usually includes a single-step or multi-storied sheet feed tray, in which a plurality of sheet-like recording media can be stored and each sheet feed tray or sheet feed cassette is detachably attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus. The sheet feed tray is normally configured to be inserted into and pulled out from the main body of the image forming apparatus via an opening disposed at one side thereof.
When supplying the sheet or transmitting a print job, it is necessary to confirm whether or not the sheet is stored in the sheet feed tray externally. Recently, various approaches have been tried to enable the remaining paper supply level to be ascertained from outside, and image forming apparatuses including a display that shows a remaining paper supply level have been proposed. For example, JP-H09-2672-A discloses an apparatus including a slit window disposed on a front side wall, through which the number of sheets remaining in the sheet feed tray can be observed directly observed from outside. Alternatively, JP-2007-223689-A discloses an apparatus including a display mechanism, disposed on a cover of the sheet feed tray, to show the remaining paper supply level by contacting a top surface of the sheets inside the sheet feed tray.
Depending on where the image forming apparatus is installed, there may be an obstacle such as a wall in the direction to pull out the sheet feed tray from the main body, thereby obstructing insertion and removal of the sheet feed tray. To cope with the aforementioned problem, JP-H09-221236-A and JP-2005-255363-A propose an image forming apparatus which is configured to install a sheet feed tray in the image forming apparatus main body from two different directions. Even in such an image forming apparatus, however, a display showing a remaining level of the recording media may not be observed from outside or is difficult to be seen depending on the size of the obstacle and a positional relation between the obstacle and the sheet feed tray.
The present invention provides an image forming apparatus comprising a sheet feed unit that is capable of allowing the remaining level of the recording media inside a medium container to be ascertained accurately by providing a greater observable range of the displaying member.
More specifically, the sheet feed unit includes a medium container in which sheet-like recording media is to be contained; a bottom plate on which the recording media is stackable; a sheet feed roller to feed out the recording media contained in the medium container; a sheet feed unit main body which the medium container can be inserted into and pulled out from and including the sheet feed unit; and a display to show a remaining level of the recording media contained in the medium container, in which the display includes a first display disposed in a first direction and a second display disposed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
The sheet feed unit according to the present invention provides a greater observable range of the displaying part. Accordingly, a remaining level of the recording medium in the medium container can be more accurately ascertained.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The image forming section 3 as an image forming device includes a horizontally-disposed transfer belt unit 7 and four image forming units or developers 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K which are horizontally disposed side by side above the transfer belt 7. Each of the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K is constructed identically to each other except that each unit includes a different color of developer among colors of magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y), and black (K) corresponding to separated color components of a color image.
Each of the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K includes a drum-shaped photoreceptor 9 as a latent image carrier; a charging roller 10 as a charging device to electrically charge a surface of the photoreceptor 9; a developing roller 11 to supply toner, as a developing device, onto the electrostatic latent image to be formed on the photoreceptor 9 and serving as a developing device; and a cleaner, not shown, to clean the surface of the photoreceptor 9. As illustrated in
An optical unit 12 as an exposure means is disposed above each of the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K. The optical unit 12 includes a light source, a polygonal mirror, an f0 lens, a reflection mirror, and the like, and is configured to radiate laser beams while scanning each surface of the photoreceptor 9 based on image data.
The transfer belt unit 7 disposed below the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K includes an endless transfer belt 13; a drive roller 14; and a driven roller 15, in which the transfer belt 13 is stretched around the drive roller 14 and the driven roller 15. Transfer rollers 16 each are disposed at a position opposed to the photoreceptor 9 of the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K at an interior side of the transfer belt 13. Each of the four transfer rollers 16 sandwiches the transfer belt 13 together with the photoreceptor 9, thereby forming a transfer nip. In addition, each transfer roller 16 is connected with a power source, not shown, so that a transfer electric field is formed at the transfer nip between each transfer roller 16 and the photoreceptor 9.
The fixing device 4 includes a fixing roller 18 as a fixing member to fix an image onto the recording medium and a pressure roller 19 as an opposed member disposed opposite the fixing roller 18. The pressure roller 19 presses the fixing roller 18 at a predetermined pressure, thereby forming a fixing nip at the portion pressed by the pressure roller 19 and the fixing roller 18. A built-in heater, not shown, is disposed inside the fixing roller 18 serving as a heating means.
The discharge unit 5 includes a pair of feed rollers 21 and a pair of sheet-discharge rollers 22. The recording medium onto which the image is fixed at the fixing device 4 is conveyed via the feed roller pair 21 and the sheet-discharge roller pair 22 and discharged on a sheet-discharge tray 23 disposed on top of the main body of the image forming apparatus 1 with its surface reversed.
Next, with reference to
When an image forming operation is started upon receipt of a print job, a recording medium (hereinafter, to be referred to a sheet P) is fed to a conveyance path R from a stack of recording media 30 contained in the sheet feed unit 2. The sheet P fed out to the conveyance path R is sent to the transfer nip between the photoreceptor 9 and the transfer roller 16 at a timing defined by a pair of registration rollers 25. The recording medium may be alternatively supplied from a manual tray 26 disposed openably closable at a side of the main body of the image forming apparatus 1.
At the image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K, each photoreceptor 9 is driven to rotate clockwise by a driving device, not shown, and each surface of the photoreceptor 9 is uniformly charged at a predetermined polarity by a charger 10. Laser beams are irradiated from the optical unit 12 onto each surface of the photoreceptor 9 and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor 9. At this time, the image data exposed on each photoreceptor 9 is monochrome image data decomposed, from the target full-color image, into color data of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. Each developing roller 11 supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor 9, so that the electrostatic latent image is rendered visible as a toner image.
In the meantime, the transfer belt 13 cyclically runs in the counterclockwise direction and the recording medium is sequentially fed to each transfer nip between the photoreceptor 9 and the transfer roller 16. Thereafter, upon the toner image of each color formed on the photoreceptor 9 reaching the transfer nip according to the rotation of each photoreceptor 9, the toner image of each color formed on each photoreceptor 9 is sequentially transferred in a superposed manner on the recording medium by the transfer electric field formed at the transfer nip. Thus, a full-color toner image is carried on the surface of the recording medium. In addition, the residual toner which has not been transferred to the recording medium and is remaining on each photoreceptor 9 is removed by the cleaner, not shown. Thereafter, the surface of each photoreceptor 9 is electrically discharged by a discharger, not shown, and the surface potential is initialized.
The recording medium is then conveyed to the fixing device 4, and the toner image on the recording medium is fixed onto the recording medium by being pressed and heated at the fixing nip. The recording medium is then discharged outside the apparatus by a sheet discharging device 5, and is stacked on a sheet discharge tray 23.
The explanation heretofore relates to an image forming operation when a full-color image is formed on the sheet; however, a monochrome image may be formed using any one of the four image forming units 8M, 8C, 8Y, and 8K and an image employing two or three colors may be created by using two or three image forming units.
The structure and operation of the sheet feed unit 2 mounted in the image forming apparatus 1 will now be described.
The sheet feed unit 2 is deposed below the image forming apparatus 1 and includes a medium container 31 (for example, a sheet feed tray) in which a stack of recording media is stacked and contained, a sheet feed device 32 to feed out the recording medium from the stack of recording media 30 included in the medium container 31, a main body of the sheet feed unit 33, and a support frame 38 disposed at an exterior of the medium container 31. In addition to a regular sheet, the recording medium is defined to include various sheets such as a cardboard, a postcard, an envelop, thin paper, coated paper or art paper, tracing paper, an OHP sheet, and the like. The stack of recording media 30 means a plurality of sheet-like recording media stacked in layers.
The sheet feed device 32 includes a sheet feed roller 34 as a sheet feed means supported by a rotary shaft 34a; a separation pad 35 serving as a separating member so disposed as to oppose the sheet feed roller 34; a pair of conveyance rollers 36; the registration roller pair 25; and the conveyance path R. In the sheet feed device 32, because a rotary sheet feed roller 34 presses against a topmost sheet of the stack of recording media 30, a feeding force is given to the recording medium. Then, the recording media are separated one by one via a separation pad 35 formed of a material having a high friction coefficient, and the separated recording medium is conveyed, through the conveyance roller 36, to the conveyance path R, and reaches the pair of registration rollers 25, where a leading end of the recording medium is aligned by the pair of registration rollers 25. It is to be noted that, alternatively, a belt unit may be used as a sheet feeding means instead of the sheet feed roller 34.
As illustrated in
Further, in the description below, the A1 direction is defined as “the first removal direction” and the B1 direction is defined as “the second removal direction.” In addition, an insertion direction A2 which is the direction reverse to the first removal direction when the medium container 31 pulled out in the first removal direction A1 is inserted to the main body of the sheet feed unit 33 is called “the first insertion direction.” Similarly, an insertion direction B2 which is the direction reverse to the second removal direction when the medium container 31 pulled out in the second removal direction B1 is inserted to the main body of the sheet feed unit 33 is called “the second insertion direction.” Further, the pulling out operation in the first removal direction A1 and the inserting operation in the first insertion direction A2 is called “a first operation” inclusively, and the pulling out operation in the second removal direction B1 and the inserting operation in the second insertion direction B2 is called “a second operation” inclusively.
Hereinafter, a structure enabling the medium container 31 to perform the first operation and the second operation will now be described with reference to
The bottom wall 310 is provided with a bottom plate 39 to lift up a side of the first removal direction A1 of the stack of recording media 30 contained in the medium container 31. The bottom plate 39 covers substantially half the area of the side of the first removal direction A1 of the bottom wall 310. Base ends of the bottom plate 39 are fixed on a support axis O of the pair of side walls 311c and 311d so that the bottom plate 39 is movable about the support axis O. An elastic member, not shown, is disposed between the bottom plate 39 and the bottom wall 310. The bottom plate 39 is constantly pressed in such a direction that a leading end 39a is lifted up by the elastic member. The bottom plate 39 may be pressed by the elastic member; and alternatively, the bottom plate 39 may be lifted up and down driven by a motor device.
The first covering unit or plate 312 includes a gripper 312a at a bottom center of an external surface and is disposed on the outside of the front wall 311a. The first covering unit 312 is detachably attached to the medium container 31 via a male joint 313 (for example, a pin) and a female joint 314 (for example, a hole) so as to realize the second operation enabling attachment/detachment in the second removal direction B1 and the second insertion direction B2. Either of the male joint 313 and the female joint 314 is disposed on the medium container 31 and the rest of the two is disposed on the first covering unit 312. As illustrated in
More specifically, a first protrusion 315 protruding in the first removal direction A1 is disposed at an edge of the front wall 311a of the medium container 31 in the second removal direction B1. Second protrusions 316, each protruding in the first insertion direction A2, are disposed on both edges of an internal surface of the first covering unit 312. The male joint 313 protrudes in the second insertion direction B2 and is disposed on an edge of the other side wall 311c in the first removal direction A1 and on the first protrusion 315, respectively. The pair of female joints 314 is disposed on the two second protrusions 316, respectively. The male joint 313 disposed on the other side wall 311c is positioned in the first insertion direction A2 than the male joint 313 disposed on the first protrusion 315.
As illustrated in
When the guide rail 317 of the medium container 31 and the guide rail 318 of the first covering unit 312 are slid together and the first covering unit 312 is moved in the second removal direction B1 from a state as illustrated in
Conversely when the first covering unit 312 is moved in the second insertion direction B2 as illustrated in
Here, as illustrated in
Guide rails 383 extending along the first operation directions B1 and B2 are disposed each at the bottom of the pair of side walls 381c and 381d of the support frame 38. To correspond to the guide rails 383, guide rails 319 extending along the first operation directions A1 and A2 are disposed at the bottom of the pair of side walls 311c and 311d of the medium container 31. When the guide rails 319 and 383 slidably move over each other, the medium container 31 moves in the first operation directions A1 and A2 reciprocally, relatively to the support frame 38.
A second covering unit 384 includes a gripper 384a (see
The medium container 31 and the support frame 38 can be detachably attached via a male joint 385 (for example, a pin) and a female joint 386 (for example, a hole) which are insertible/disengageable in the first operation directions A1 and A2. Either of the male joint 385 and the female joint 386 is disposed to the support frame 38 and the rest are disposed to the medium container 31.
As illustrated in
When the medium container 31 is pushed in the first insertion direction A2 together with the first covering unit 312 and the medium container 31 is inserted into the support frame 38 through the inlet 382 from the state as illustrated in
On the other hand, when the medium container 31 is pulled in the first removal direction A1 from the support frame 38 by holding the gripper 312a of the first covering unit 312, the male joint 385 of the support frame 38 disengages from the female joint 386 of the medium container 31 so that the medium container 31 can be separated from and pulled out from the support frame 38.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
In a state as illustrated in
On the other hand, as illustrated in
By employing the above structure, inserting and pulling out the medium container 31 along the two directions is enabled. Accordingly, even though there is an obstacle existing in one direction and insertion/removal of the medium container 31 is not possible, the medium container 31 can be inserted or pulled out from the apparatus main body in the other insertion/removal direction. Thus, the recording medium can be supplied and a paper jam removal work can be performed even under the obstacle existing condition so that the apparatus can be installed at various different places.
When pulling out the medium container 31 in the second removal direction B1, because the sheet feed roller 34 is configured to be pulled out accompanied by the medium container 31, there is no need of providing a device to push down the bottom plate 39 when the recording medium is remained in the medium container 31. Further, because the separation pad 35 is also pulled out toward an exterior in addition to the sheet feed roller 34, there is no need of releasing a hold of the recording medium held between the separation pad 35 and the sheet feed roller 34 in the pulling out operation in the second removal direction B1. As a result, insertion/removal of the medium container 31 in two directions can be accomplished at a low cost.
Although a detailed description is omitted, it is preferred that a lock mechanism be provided between the medium container 31 and the support frame 38 so that separation of the two is prevented in a state in which the medium container 31 and the support frame 38 are integrally pulled out by the second operation.
Next, a structure of the remaining level displaying unit 50 will now be described.
As illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
The first exterior surface 33c1 and the second exterior surface 33c2 each include a window 58 and a window 59 that vertically extend to form slots, respectively. The first display 511 of the displaying member 52 is disposed at the window 58 formed in the first exterior surface 33c1 and the second display 512 is disposed at the window 59 in the second exterior surface 33c2. Accordingly, the first display 511 is oriented in the first removal direction A1 and the second display 512 is oriented in the second removal direction B1. The first and second displays 511 and 512 are vertically slidable within the windows 58 and 59 accompanied by a vertical movement of the displaying member 52. As described above, the windows 58 and 59 are formed in the pillar 33c and the first and second displays 511 and 512 are disposed at the windows 58 and 59, respectively, whereby other parts of the displaying member 52 are protected by the first exterior surface 33c1 and the second exterior surface 33c2 and the displaying member 52 is prevented from being damaged by an unintentional external force.
A vertical movement of the leg 54 is guided by a guide 60 disposed on an interior surface of the pillar 33c, so that the vertical movement of the displaying member 52 is smoothly performed. However, the guide 60 can have any arbitrary shape as long as it can guide to move the leg 54 freely and vertically.
As illustrated in
The contact portion P is configured to contact a position near the leading end 39a of the bottom plate 39 where the stack of recording media is not placed on the bottom plate 39. There is a case in which a width regulating member 39b to widthwise regulate the stack of recording media is disposed at both lateral ends of the bottom plate 39 (see, for example,
As illustrated in
In the description above, the contact portion P is caused to contact near the leading end 39a of the bottom plate 39; however, alternatively the contact portion P can be contacted a base side (i.e., at a support axis O side) of the bottom plate 39. In this case, because a distance between the contact portion P and the display 51 increases, the displaying member 52 gets larger in size. To prevent this, a suitable link mechanism is preferably disposed between the contact portion P and the display 51.
As described above, when the medium container 31 is pulled out or inserted in the second operation in the directions B1 and B2, the support frame 38 and the sheet feed roller 34 move in the same direction accompanied by the medium container 31 (see
To simplify a structure of the remaining level displaying unit 50, the contact portion P is preferably configured to contact the bottom plate 39 by the weight of the displaying member 52. In this case, a weight is disposed at a suitable position of the displaying member 52 so as to bias the displaying member 52 in a contact direction with the bottom plate 39. In addition, an elastic force produced by an elastic member is applied to the displaying member 52, if necessary, and the displaying member 52 can be biased by the elastic force in the direction contacting the bottom plate 39.
Next, a basic operation of the remaining level displaying unit 50 will now be described.
As illustrated in
When the stack of recording media on the bottom plate 39 decreases, the bottom plate 39 rotates about the support axis O in accordance with a decrease in the weight of the stack of recording media 30 and the leading end 39a of the bottom plate 39 is lifted up. Following the rising of the bottom plate 39, the contact portion P and further an entire displaying member 52 move upwards and the displays 51 inside the windows 58 and 59 move upwards. As illustrated in
When the first operation or the second operation is performed to the medium container 31 for supplying the recording media or removing the paper jam, there is an occasion in which the displaying member 52 (in particular, the contact portion P) disposed at the side of the main body of the sheet feed unit 33 interferes with any other member (such as, for example, the peripheral wall 311 of the medium container 31, the peripheral wall 381 of the support frame 38, the stack of recording media 30 on the bottom plate 39, or otherwise the width regulating member 39b). Such interference affects insertion or removal operation of the medium container 31 and an abrupt operation of the medium container 31 may cause damage to the displaying member 52. The displaying member 52 may be moved to protect it from the interference area with the peripheral walls 311 and 381 manually; however, the burden increases when performing the first operation or the second operation.
To solve this problem, in order to prevent such an interference between the two, it is preferable to provide a run-off portion 62 to either or both of the displaying member 52 and the parts interfering with the displaying member 52 so as to prevent interference of the two parts. The run-off portion 62 can be implemented as tapered surfaces 621 to 624 formed on the displaying member 52 as illustrated in
Hereinafter, an operation of the guide member 61 to prevent interference of the obstacle will now be described with reference to
When the medium container 31 is pulled out in the first removal direction A1 from a state in
When the medium container 31 is reversely inserted in the first insertion direction A2 from the above state, the guide member 61 which has contacted the peripheral wall 311 escapes upwards guided by the tapered surface 622, gets over the peripheral wall 311, and contacts a surface of the bottom plate 39 with its own weight of the displaying member 52. Then, the operation returns to an initial state as illustrated in
The tapered surface as the run-off portion 62 may be disposed on the counterpart interfering object contacting the displaying member 52 such as the peripheral wall 311 or 381, for example. The tapered surface may further be formed on the both of the displaying member 52 and the interfering object.
As illustrated in
In the first operation in which the medium container 31 and the support frame 38 are separated, the slit 625 corresponding to the insertion/removal directions A1 and A2 may be formed on the rear wall 311b of the medium container 31 alone. (That is, formation of the slit on the rear wall 381b of the support frame 38 is not necessary.) On the other hand, when the medium container 31 is inserted or pulled out integrally with the support frame 38 as in the second operation, the slit 626 corresponding to the insertion/removal directions B1 and B2 needs to be formed on both of the side wall 311c of the medium container 31 and the side wall 381c of the support frame 38.
In either of the first and second operations, the stack of recording media 30 is normally contained on the bottom plate 39 inside the medium container 31 when the medium container 31 is inserted (in the A2 and B2 directions). When, as illustrated in
To cope with such a problem, as illustrated in
Some of the non-predictable effects that the sheet feed unit 2 including the thus-configured remaining level displaying unit 50 achieve are described below.
(1) As the display 51 representing the remaining level of the recording media contained in the medium container 31, the first display 511 representing the remaining level of the recording media seen from the first direction (for example, the first removal direction A1) and the second display 512 representing the remaining level of the recording media seen from the second direction (for example, the second removal direction B1) are provided, thereby enabling to see the display 51 from at least two directions. Accordingly, because an observable area of the display 51 when installing the image forming apparatus 1 expands, the remaining level can be seen from a wide area around the installation site.
The same effect can be obtained for the sheet feed unit 2 in which the insertion/removal direction of the medium container 31 is limited to one of the A1 and A2 directions as illustrated in
(2) Because the medium container 31 can be pulled out in the sheet feed direction A1 and the sheet feed direction B1 perpendicular to the sheet feed direction A1 with respect to the main body of the sheet feed unit 33, even when there is an obstacle such as a wall in either of the above two directions and it is difficult to pull the medium container 31 out in the blocked direction, the medium container 31 can be pulled out in one of the above two directions and the replenishing work of the stack of recording media and the operation to remove a paper jam can be performed smoothly. Thus, even though observing one of the first display 511 and the second display 512 may be difficult, the other display can be observed and the remaining level of the recording media can be ascertained. While keeping the remaining level observing function, the installation site of the image forming apparatus can be selected from among various places.
(3) The first display 511 and the second display 512 are preferably disposed at the corner portion C adjacent to each of a passing area where the medium container 31 passes when pulled out in the first removal direction A1 and to another passing area where the medium container 31 passes when pulled out in the second removal direction B1. If the first display 511 and the second display 512 are disposed at different corner portions, a joint path between the two displays becomes longer and complicated so that errors may occur in the remaining level represented by the both displays 511 and 512. If disposed at the same corner portion, the first display 511 and the second display 512 can be accurately coupled with each other and the errors may be minimized.
(4) The contact portion P is contacted by the bottom plate 39, is moved following the movement of the bottom plate 39, and is coupled with the movement of the display 51 mechanically, thereby manufacturing the remaining level displaying unit 50 to be low cost and compact in size. In showing the remaining level, the movement of the bottom plate 39 can be detected by a sensor or the like, and the detected information can be transmitted to the display electrically to display the detected result. However, such a system requires many electronic parts and wiring, thereby increasing the cost for parts and assembly.
(5) In the present invention, by contrast, the contact portion P is contacted by the bottom plate 39 and the movement of the bottom plate 39 is transmitted mechanically to the display 51. If the contact portion P is caused to contact a portion near the leading end 39a of the bottom plate 39 at which a moving amount of the bottom plate 39 corresponding to the remaining level of the recording media is largest, the display 51 moves the farthest, which is most effective to clarify the change in the remaining level of the recording media. When the display 51 is disposed at the corner portion C as described above, the display 51 can be contacted near the leading end 39a of the bottom plate 39 easily, thereby further clearly showing the remaining level with such an uncomplicated structure. In addition, even in a case where the medium container 31 is inserted or pulled out in two directions, the interference between the remaining level displaying unit 50 and the medium container 31 or other accessories such as the sheet feed roller 34 can be avoided easily, thereby enabling to further lower the cost of the remaining level displaying unit 50 and make it to be a compact device. The same effect can be obtained even though the display 51 is disposed at another corner portion C1 at a side in the first removal direction A1 (see
(6) The medium container 31 can be pulled out in the sheet feed direction A1 via the sheet feed roller 34 and the sheet feed direction B1 perpendicular to the sheet feed direction A1 and the display 51 showing the remaining level of the recording media contained in the medium container 31 is disposed on the main body of the sheet feed unit 33, so that the display and related mechanism need not provided to the medium container 31, thereby achieving streamlining and the compactification of the medium container 31. With this structure, a relation between the removal direction of the medium container 31 and the observable direction of the display 51 can be separated. In the conventional image forming apparatus, the display is mainly disposed at the medium container 31 (as disclosed in JP-H9-2672-A and JP-2007-223689-A). If this structure is applied to the sheet feed unit realizing a removal in the two directions as embodied in the present medium container 31, because the removal direction of the medium container 31 and the observable direction of the display 51 are basically coincident, the observable range of the display 51 is limited. To the contrary, with the structure above, because the display 51 observable direction can be defined without regard to the removal direction of the medium container 31, the observable range of the display 51 is variable, thereby improving the useablity of the image forming apparatus 1. The present effect can be obtained by not only the sheet feed unit 2 having two displays (i.e., the first display 511 and the second display 512) but the sheet feed unit 2 having a single display alone.
(7) The remaining level displaying unit 50 is formed of the displaying member 52 including the display 51 and the contact portion P which are integrally formed, thereby streamlining the structure of the remaining level displaying unit 50. With this structure, the number of parts and the amount of the materials to be used for the remaining level displaying unit 50 can be reduced, thereby making the cost of the sheet feed unit 2 to be reduced.
Hereinafter, another embodiment of the sheet feed unit 2 according to the present invention will now be specifically described.
In the above embodiment, the contact portion P is contacted to the bottom plate 39 at a side nearer the base of the bottom plate (i.e., a side of the support axis O) than the sheet feed roller 34, but the contact portion P can be contacted to the bottom plate 39 at a leading end nearer the bottom plate than the sheet feed roller 34 as illustrated in
Further, in the above embodiment, the contact portion P is contacted the surface of the bottom plate 39; however, the contact position of the contact portion P with the bottom plate 39 can be arbitrary selected as long as the contact portion P can follow the movement of the bottom plate 39. For example, the contact portion P can be contacted a bottom surface of the bottom plate 39.
Another embodiment of the remaining level displaying unit 50 will be described referring to
The sheet feed unit 2 according to the present invention may be applied to, not limited to the laser printer as illustrated in
Additional modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-045461 | Mar 2012 | JP | national |
