Patent Grant
9561921
This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent application No. 2015-063576 filed on Mar. 26, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a sheet feeding unit for storing sheets fed to an image forming apparatus or the like and an image forming apparatus including the sheet feeding unit.
In an image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral and a printer, sheets are fed from a sheet feeding unit, such as an attachably/detachably supported sheet feeding cartridge and a manual feeding tray, to an image forming part. In the sheet feeding cartridge, a pair of cursors slidably provided restrict a position of a sheet in a width direction. A mechanism for sliding the pair of cursors is generally configured to synchronously slide the pair of cursors in approaching and separating directions in the width direction of the sheets by a rack and pinion mechanism including racks respectively provided in the pair of cursors and a pinion engaged with the pair of racks.
In the sheet feeding cartridge including such a slide mechanism, it is necessary to coincide a center position of the sheet restricted by the pair of cursors (a center position between the pair of cursors) with a center position of an image formed in the image forming part. When the center position of the sheet is not coincided with the center position of the image in the width direction of the sheet, for example, in a case where a post-treatment such as opening a punch hole is performed, the punch hole interferes with the image, or in a case where multi-staged cartridges are used, the position of the punch hole is displaced in every sheet fed from each cartridge.
In order to position the center of the pair of cursors in the width direction, there is an image forming apparatus including a sheet feeding cartridge configured to support the pair of cursors and a slide mechanism and to move a support member together with the pair of cursors in the width direction.
However, in the sheet feeding cartridge as mentioned above, there is a problem that a size of the support member is enlarged and does not match a sheet feeding cartridge having a low height in recent years. In addition, there is a problem that points where the support member is fixed to the sheet feeding cartridge are increased, thereby deteriorating in workability.
On the other hand, in a sheet feeding cartridge including the pair of cursors, there is also a problem that in a case where a user inserts the sheet feeding cartridge by strong force when the user installs the sheet feeding cartridge, the force is applied from the sheets stored in the sheet feeding cartridge to the cursor and the slide mechanism, thereby resulting in displacement of the center position of the pair of cursors in the width direction.
In accordance with the present disclosure, a sheet feeding unit is attachable to and detachable from an apparatus main body and includes a main body part, a pair of side cursors, a pair of cursor racks, a pinion and a holding member. The main body part has a bottom plate and is configured to be arranged on which a sheet is placed. The pair of side cursors are supported by the bottom plate so as to slide in a width direction of the sheet to restrict a position of the sheet in the width direction. The pair of cursor racks respectively extend from the pair of side cursors in directions opposing to each other in the width direction of the sheet. The pinion is engaged with the pair of cursor racks. The holding member has a shaft support part rotatably supporting the pinion. Further, the holding member is attachable to and detachable from the bottom plate. The holding member is configured to be supported so as to move in the width direction of the sheet with respect to the bottom plate in a state that the engagement of the pinion with the pair of cursor racks is maintained, and to be fixed to the bottom plate in any optional position in the width direction of the sheet.
An image forming apparatus of the present disclosure includes the sheet feeding unit.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure is shown by way of illustrative example.
Hereinafter, with reference to the attached drawings, an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described.
First, with reference to
The printer 1 includes a roughly rectangular parallelepiped housing 2 (an apparatus main body) having a hollow part. In a lower part of a front face of the housing 2, an opening part 2a is formed. Into the opening part 2a, a sheet feeding cartridge 3 (a sheet feeding unit) storing sheets is attachably/detachably installed in forward and backward directions. At a right upper side of the sheet feeding cartridge 3, a sheet feeding device 4 feeding sheets from the sheet feeding cartridge 3 is provided.
Above the sheet feeding device 4, an image forming part 5 is provided. In the image forming part 5, a photosensitive drum 6 is rotatably provided. Around the photosensitive drum 6, a charging device 7, a development device 8, a transferring roller 9 and a cleaning device 10 are located along a rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 6 (refer to an arrow X in
Above the image forming part 5, a fixing device 13 is provided. At the left side of the fixing device 13, a sheet ejecting part 14 is provided. The sheet ejecting part 14 faces to an ejected sheet tray 15 formed on an upper surface of the housing 2.
In addition, inside the housing 2, a sheet conveyance path 18 is provided so as to travel from the sheet feeding device 4, to pass through a transferring nip formed between the photosensitive drum 6 and the transferring roller 9 and the fixing device 13 and to go toward the sheet ejecting part 14.
Next, the operation of forming an image by the printer 1 having such a configuration will be described. After a surface of the photosensitive drum 6 is electrically charged by the charging device 7, exposure corresponding to image data is carried out to the photosensitive drum 6 by a laser light (refer to an arrow P) from the exposure device 12. Thereby, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 6. The electrostatic latent image is developed to a toner image by the development device 8. Toner remained on the photosensitive drum 6 is removed by the cleaning device 10.
On the other hand, the sheet fed from the sheet feeding cartridge 3 to the conveyance path 18 by the sheet feeding device 4 is conveyed to the transferring nip 17 in a suitable timing for the above-mentioned image forming operation. Then, in the transferring nip 17, the toner image on the photosensitive drum 6 is transferred onto the sheet. The sheet with the transferred toner image is conveyed to a downstream side on the conveying path 18 to enter the fixing device 13, and then, the toner image is fixed on the sheet in the fixing device 13. The sheet with the fixed toner image is ejected from the sheet ejecting part 14 onto the ejected sheet tray 15.
Next, with reference to
The sheet feeding cartridge 3, as shown in
The main body part 20 has a shallow box-like shape of which an upper face is opened. The main body part 20 includes a bottom plate 20a, front and rear side plates 20b and 20c, and left and right side plates 20d and 20e. In the front side plate 20b, a grip 31 for pulling out the sheet feeding cartridge is provided.
In the bottom plate 20a, as shown in
With reference to
Further, in the depression 38, as shown in
In addition, on the bottom face of the depression 38, a scale 50 marked every 1 mm along the front part of the left edge in the forward and backward directions is formed. The scale 50 is formed within the scope of 6 mm, and a mark 51 pointing a reference position is denoted in the center of the scale 50.
As shown in
The end cursor 22 is slidably supported along the central groove 35 formed in the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20 in a posture erected with respect to the bottom plate 20a.
The front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 include respective engaging portions 55 and 56 engaged with the guiding depressions 36 of the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20 and respective side wall parts 57 and 58 roughly erected with respect to the bottom plate 20a and extending in the left and right directions. The engaging portions 55 and 56 are guided along the guiding depressions 36, and then, the side wall parts 57 and 58 come into contact with both side edges of the sheet in the width direction.
The slide mechanism 25 includes a pair of cursor racks 61 and 62 respectively provided in the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24, a pinion 63 engaged with the pair of cursor racks 61 and 62, and a holding member 64 supporting the pinion 63.
The cursor racks 61 and 62 are extended in directions opposing to each other from in a position displaced in the left and right direction of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 and, on respective opposing faces of the cursor racks 61 and 62 in the left and right directions, rack teeth are formed. Each of the cursor racks 61 and 62 are engaged with one of parallel guiding grooves 37 formed in the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20, and guided along the guiding grooves 37 in the forward and backward directions. The pinion 63 has a pinion gear meshing with the rack teeth of the cursor racks 61 and 62. The pinion gear is formed so as to have a width broader than the rack teeth of the cursor racks 61 and 62.
The holding member 64 will be described with reference to
A center rear part 71a at a rear side in the center part 71 is formed so that a left end of a roughly circular shape in a planar view is cut out along a chord extending in the forward and backward directions. At the center of the center rear part 71a, a boss-like shaft support part 75 having a roughly H-shape seen from a lateral section is vertically arranged. Further, on diagonal locations across the shaft support part 75, a pair of claw parts 76 are vertically arranged so as to elastically deform in a diameter direction of the shaft support part 75.
A center front part 71b at a front side in the center part 71 has a hollow truncated square pyramid shape of which front and rear end faces and a lower surface are opened. At the center of the center front part 71b, a long hole 77 elongated in the forward and backward directions is formed. The long hole 77 is formed on the same coordinate in the left and right directions as the center of the shaft support part 75. In addition, in the center front part 71b, a claw part 78 extending downwardly from a part of a left edge is formed. Further, in the center front part 71b, an extending part 79 extending from a right edge toward a right side is formed so as to continue from the center rear part 71a.
In a lower face of the extending part 79, a second rack part 80 engaging with the first rack part 40 formed in the depression 38 of the main body part 20 is formed. As shown in
The front end part 72 is configured so that an upper face is surrounded a rib 83 along an outer circumference edge and a front slit 84 elongated in the forward and backward directions is formed at the center. The front slit 84 is formed on the same coordinate in the left and right directions as the long hole 77. Further, in the front end part 72, a point protrusion 85 (a point part) having a triangle shape in a planar view and protruding from a left edge is formed.
The rear edge part 73 is configured so that an upper face is surrounded by a rib 87 along the outer circumference edge and a rear slit 88 elongated in the forward and backward directions is formed at the center. The rear slit 88 is formed on the same coordinate in the left and right directions as the long hole 77. In other words, the front slit 84 and the rear slit 88 are arranged at both sides of the long hole 77 in the width direction. Further, in the rear edge part 73, a claw part 89 extending downwardly from a right edge of is formed.
In the holding member 64 having the configuration as described above, the pinion 63 is rotatably supported by being inserted into the shaft support part 75 vertically arranged in the center rear part 71a and being retained by the pair of claw parts 76.
With reference to
In order to assemble the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24, firstly, the holding member 64 is positioned so that the point protrusion 85 formed in the front end part 72 points out the mark 51 pointing out the reference position of the scale 50 within the depression 38 formed on the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20. Subsequently, each of the teeth 81 of the second rack part 80 is meshed with each of the teeth 41 of the first rack part 40, and the boss 42 is allowed to enter into the hollow truncated square pyramid shaped center front part 71b. Thereby, the front and rear guiding protrusions 43 and 44 of the depression 38 are inserted into the front and rear slits 84 and 88 formed in the front end part 72 and the rear end part 73 of the holding member 64. In addition, the holding member 64 is slidably supported in the width direction of the sheet. Further, the respective claw parts 78 and 89 of the holding member 64 are engaged with the respective groove parts 47 and 48 of the depression 38, the front end part 72 of the holding member and the left edge of the center front part 71b are arranged along the guiding projection part 45, and the right edge of rear end part 73 of the holding member 64 is arranged along the guiding projection part 46. In addition, the holding member 64 is attachably/detachably fixed to the depression 38 by inserting the screw B from the long hole 77 of the holding member 64 and fastening the screw B to the boss 42 vertically arranged in the depression 38 in a state that the holding member 64 is slid to any optional position to be positioned.
Next, the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 are set to a predetermined position on the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20, the engaging portions 55, 56 are engaged with the guiding depression 36, respectively, and the cursor racks 61, 62 are engaged with the respective guiding grooves 37. Finally, the pinion 63 is meshed with the cursor racks 61, 62 while the pinion 63 is installed on the shaft support part 75 the holding member 64. The pinion 63 is retained by the claw part 76 in a state that the pinion 63 is meshed with the cursor racks 61, 62. It is to be noted that the holding member 64 may be fixed to the depression 38 after the cursor racks 61, 62 are set to a predetermined position of the bottom plate 20a.
After the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 are assembled with the main body part 20 in such a manner, the elevating plate 21 and the end cursor 22 are assembled with the main body part 20. When the elevating plate 21 has an uninclined posture, the pinion 63 and the screw B supported by the holding member 64 are exposed from an opening 53 (refer to
In this state, when one of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 are slid toward one direction along the guiding depression 36 by a predetermined distance, another of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 are slid toward another direction along the guiding depression 36 by the same distance as the predetermined distance to come into contact with both side edges in the forward and backward directions of the sheets mounted on the vertically movable plate 21 and to restrict the position of the sheet in the forward and backward directions.
Next, center position adjustment for matching the center of the sheet in the forward and backward directions with the center of the image in the forward and backward directions in a case where the center in the forward and backward directions of the sheet stored in the sheet feeding cartridge 3 is displaced from the center in the forward and backward directions of the image formed in the image forming part 5 will be described with reference to
For example, it is assumed that the center of the sheet in the forward and backward directions is displaced backwardly with respect to the center of the image in the forward and backward directions by 3 mm, and it is necessary to displace the center of the sheet in the forward and backward directions forwardly by 3 mm. In this case, the screw B fastening the holding member 64 through the opening 53 of the elevating plate 21 is loosened, and then, the holding member 64 is lifted while grasping the shaft support part 75 to release the engagement of the second rack part 80 with the first rack part 40, and moreover, the holding member 64 is manually moved forwardly. In this time, although the pinion 63 is lifted together with the holding member 64, the engagement of the pinion 63 with the cursor racks 61 and 62 is maintained. Accordingly, the cursor racks 61 and 62 are also moved forwardly together with the holding member 64 along the guiding grooves 37 while keeping a relative position to the pinion 63, and moreover, the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 are also moved forwardly along the guiding depression 36. It is to be noted that the holding member 64 is guided along the front slit 84, the rear slit 88 and the guiding projection parts 45 and 46, and then, the second rack part 80 of the holding member 64 is slid along an upper face of the first rack part 40.
Here, as shown in
On the other hand, in a case where the center of the sheet in the forward and backward direction is displaced forwardly by 3 mm with respect to the center of the image in the forward and backward directions, and it is necessary to displace the center of the sheet in the forward and backward directions backwardly by 3 mm, the screw B is loosened, and then, the holding member 64 is lifted from the depression 38 until the engagement of the second rack part 80 with the first rack part 40 is completely released, and moreover, the holding member 64 is moved backwardly. That is, in order to release the engagement of the second rack part 80 with the first rack part 40, it is necessary that the perpendicular rear side face 81b of each of the teeth 81 of the second rack part is moved in a perpendicular direction along the perpendicular front side face 41a of each of the teeth 41 of the first rack part 40. In other words, the holding member 64 is moved after the holding member 64 is lifted perpendicularly from the depression 38. When the holding member 64 is moved backwardly until the point protrusion 85 points out the scale 50 positioned backwardly by 3 mm from the mark 51 as the reference position, the holding member 64 is descended to engage the second rack part 80 with the first rack part 40, and the holding member 64 is fastened to the depression 38 by the screw B.
Next, with reference to
Further, in the present embodiment, a perpendicular rear side face 81b of each of the teeth 81 of the second rack part 80 comes into contact with a perpendicular front side face 41a of each of the teeth 41 of the first rack part 40. Therefore, the backward force applied to the holding member 64 is dammed, and then, the engagement of each of the teeth 81 of the second rack part 80 with each of the teeth 41 of the first rack part 40 is not released. Therefore, the backward movements of the rear cursor 24 and the front cursor 23 are more strongly restricted.
As described above, according to the present disclosure, the holding member 64 is configured to be attachable to and detachable from the bottom plate 20a of the main body part 20, and then, to be supported with respect to the bottom plate 20a and allowed to move in the width direction of the sheet in a state that the engagement of the pinion 63 with the pair of cursor racks 61 and 62 is maintained, and to be fixed with respect to the bottom plate 20a in any optional position in the width direction of the sheet. Thereby, when the center position adjustment of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 in the width direction of the sheet is carried out, the holding member 64 holding the pinion 63 is moved with respect to the main body part 20 of the sheet feeding cartridge 3, and thereby, it is possible to move of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 together with the cursor racks 61 and 62 engaging with the pinion 63. Therefore, it is possible to easily carry out center position adjustment operation even in a narrow space.
In addition, sizes of the slide mechanism 25 of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 and the movement mechanism of the holding member 64 can be made smaller and the holding member 64 is stored in the depression 38 formed in the main body part 20. Therefore, it is unnecessary to heighten a height of the sheet feeding cartridge 3, and thereby, it is possible to cope with downsizing and space-saving of the sheet feeding cartridge 3.
In addition, on the main body part 20, a scale 50 denoting the reference position of the sheet holding member 64 in the width direction of the sheet and a moved amount from the reference position is formed, and moreover, in the holding member 64, the point protrusion 85 (the point part) pointing out the scale 50 is formed. Therefore, it is possible to easily position the holding member 64 to the reference position and to easily comprehend the moved amount.
Further, once the center position adjustment is carried out by using the holding member 64, the holding member 64 is fixed to the main body part 20 (the bottom plate 20a) by the engagement of the second rack part 80 with the first rack part 40, and thereby, it is possible to make engagement force between the holding member 64 and the main body part 20 stronger. According to this, the holding member 64 is hard to move and displacement of the center position is hard to occur. Therefore, positional displacement between the pinion 63 and the pair of cursor racks 61 and 62, i.e., positional displacement between the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24, is hard to occur. Further, even when backward force is applied from the sheet to the rear cursor 24 in a case where the sheet feeding cartridge 3 is inserted by strong force and other cases, since the engagement of the holding member 64 with the main body part 20 is difficult to be released, it is possible to prevent displacement of the center position due to movement of the rear cursor 24.
In addition, each of the teeth 41 provided in the first rack part 40 is formed so that the front side face 41a (an upstream side face) is perpendicular to the bottom plate 20a and the rear side face 41b (a downstream side face) is inclined to the bottom plate 20a in an installation direction (a direction parallel to the width direction of the sheet) into the housing 2 (the apparatus main body). In addition, each of the teeth 81 provided in the second rack part 80 is formed so that the front side face 81a (an upstream side face) is inclined to the bottom plate 20a and the rear side face 81b (a downstream side surface) is perpendicular to the bottom plate 20a in the installation direction (the direction parallel to the width direction of the sheet) into the housing 2 (the apparatus main body). Thereby, it is possible to surely prevent the movement of the holding member 64 in the installation direction. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent positional displacement of the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 due to force applied from the sheet to the front cursor 23 and the rear cursor 24 when the sheet feeding cartridge 3 is installed into the housing 2 by strong force.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the sheet feeding cartridge 3 as the sheet feeding unit has been described. Meanwhile, the present disclosure may be applied to another sheet feeding unit, such as a manual feeding tray, a document conveying device or the like, including a mechanism for sliding a pair of cursors by a rack and pinion mechanism.
Further, the embodiment of the present disclosure was described in a case of applying the configuration of the disclosure to the printer 1. On the other hand, in another embodiment, the configuration of the disclosure may be applied to another image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a multifunction peripheral or the like, except for the printer 1.
Further, the above-description of the embodiments was described about one example of the image forming apparatus including this according to the present disclosure. However, the technical scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments. Components in the embodiment described above can be appropriately exchanged with existing components, and various variations including combinations with other existing components are possible. The description of the embodiment described above does not limit the content of the disclosure described in the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-063576 | Mar 2015 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6070048 | Nonaka | May 2000 | A |
| 7770886 | Yoshiuchi | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7845632 | Windsor | Dec 2010 | B2 |
| 8210525 | Ushiyama | Jul 2012 | B2 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2009-184789 | Aug 2009 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20160280481 A1 | Sep 2016 | US |
