Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Atsuo Hirose

Hidetoshi Yano

Kazumasa Makino

Yoshiteru Hattori

Sakae Ito

Ryuichi Kanda

Yuki Nagashima

Kazuhiko Takagi

Hiroyuki Kashima

Sho Asai

Yusuke Ikemoto

Hitoshi Sanada

Shotaro Watanabe

Hirotaka Mori

Yasuo Tamaru

Takehiko Inaba

Masamitsu Ukai

Shinji Ukai

Yoshiyuki Ito

Yuya Tagami

Eiji Yokota

Wei Ming Wang

Hiroaki Nishimura

A printer includes a print head, a platen roller facing the print head, a driving source, a drive shaft connected to be driven to the driving source and rotatable about a rotation axis thereof, a platen gear connected to be driven to the platen roller, and a cassette mounting portion at which the print head and the drive shaft are disposed. A printing cassette including a to-be-printed tape, an input unit, and an output unit connected to be driven to the input unit is mountable on the cassette mounting portion in an axial direction of the rotation axis of the drive shaft. In a state where the printing cassette is mounted on the cassette mounting portion, the drive shaft is engaged with the input unit and the platen gear is engaged with the output unit.

Printer and printing cassette

There is provided a battery charger configured to charge a battery including a battery terminal. The battery charger includes a receiving portion in a form of a recess, and a charging terminal provided in the receiving portion. The battery is attachable to and detachable from the receiving portion. The receiving portion includes a holding portion configured to selectively hold the battery in the receiving portion at one of a first posture and a second posture different from the first posture. When the battery is in the first posture, the battery terminal is in contact with the charging terminal to allow the battery to be charged. When the battery is in the second posture, the battery terminal is separated from the charging terminal.

Battery charger capable of holding battery at its charging posture and retracted posture

A printing apparatus having a body, a cover, a pair of supporting parts, a locking member, and an engaging portion, is provided. At least one of the pair of supporting parts is a movable supporting part. The locking member arranged on the movable supporting part is movable between a locked position and an unlocked position. The engaging portion arranged in a container compartment engageable with the locking member being at the locked position. The locking member at the unlocked position when the cover is open is separated from the engaging portion. In a process where the cover is moved to be closed, a protrusive portion in the cover contacts to be pressed against a contact portion in the locking member, causing the locking member to shift from the unlocked position to the locked position to be engaged with the engaging portion.

Printing apparatus having locking member movable with cover

A sheet ejecting device having a first ejection tray, a first ejection roller to eject the sheet to the first ejection tray, a second ejection tray in a position above the first ejection tray, a second ejection roller to eject the sheet to the second ejection tray, and a first guide and a second guide disposed in widthwise end portions on a lower surface of the second ejection tray, is provided. The first guide and the second guide are configured to contact widthwise end portions of the sheet ejected by the first ejection roller and guide the widthwise end portions of the sheet downward.

Sheet ejecting device

An image forming apparatus includes a sheet supply tray having a plate for supporting a sheet to be supplied to an image forming unit, a first sheet positioning member configured to move relative to the plate and position the sheet, a moving member including a first detection portion and configured to move in a sheet supply direction in response to movement of the first sheet positioning member, a coupling member coupling the first sheet positioning member and the moving member and configured to move the moving member in response to the movement of the first sheet positioning member in the sheet supply direction, and a restriction mechanism configured to restrict movement of the coupling member according to an amount of the movement of the first sheet positioning member.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a roller, a driving shaft, a support shaft, a bearing portion, a contact member and a pivot shaft. The driving shaft is removably connected to one end of the roller and the support shaft is disposed at the other end of the roller in an axial direction. The pivot shaft is configured to pivotably support the contact member, and includes a rotating shaft disposed coaxially with an axis line of the roller and an eccentric portion extending toward the roller at a position on the other end side of the roller and eccentric from an axis line of the rotating shaft. The contact member is disposed in the eccentric portion. Distance from the axis line of the rotating shaft to the eccentric portion in a radial direction is larger than dimension of the support shaft in a radial direction.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a transfer-receiving member conveyed from a first side to a second side, and a fixing device disposed on a side of the image forming unit closer to the second side, and configured to fix the image formed on the transfer-receiving member. A conveying path formation member is configured to form a conveying path along which the transfer-receiving member is conveyed from the image forming unit to the fixing device. The conveying path formation member includes a first member having first through holes in the up-down direction, and a second member having second through holes in the up-down direction, wherein the second member faces the first member such that the second through holes do not overlap the first through holes when projected in the up-down direction.

Image forming apparatus having a conveying path formation member including through holes

An image reading apparatus including an wall disposed on a first side of the image reading apparatus in a width direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of a sheet is provided. The wall extends in a direction orthogonal to the width direction. The image reading apparatus further includes a first driven roller disposed on a second side in the width direction relative to the wall; a first driving roller opposed to the first driven roller; a first driven shaft inserted into the first driven roller and urged against the first driving roller; a second driven roller disposed on the second side relative to the first driven roller; a second driving roller opposed to the second driven roller; a second driven shaft inserted into the second driven roller and urged against the second driving roller; and a reader unit configured to read the image on the sheet.

Image reading apparatus and conveyance apparatus

A sheet feeding device to feed a sheet in a sheet feeding path is provided. The sheet feeding device includes a plurality of feeding rollers to feed a sheet in the sheet feeding path, and a dust remover unit to remove dust adhered onto a surface of the sheet. The dust remover unit includes a dust absorber roller to absorb dust from a surface of the sheet, a dust remover member arranged to be in contact with a surface of the dust absorber roller to remove the dust from the surface of the dust absorber roller, a conveyer member, arranged to be opposed to the dust remover member, to convey the dust removed by the dust remover member, and a cutter member, arranged in an intervening position between the dust remover roller and the conveyer member, to cut the dust removed by the dust remover member into smaller pieces.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeder comprising: a feed roller which feeds sheet by rotating in contact with the sheet; a separation roller which is disposed at a downstream side of a sheet feeding direction; a supporting member which supports the feed roller and the separation roller, the supporting member is supported so as to be swingable around the rotation axis of the separation roller; a drive source which drives the supporting member so as to swing; an arm pivot which is disposed between the drive source and the supporting member; a first arm which is disposed at a side of the drive source; and a second arm which is disposed at a side of the supporting member, the second arm is able to be separated from the first arm; wherein the first arm and the second arm are integrally swung around the arm pivot by the drive source, thereby the supporting member swinging.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus is described as including a door member for opening and closing an opening provided in a main body member; a hinge mechanism; and a lock mechanism. The hinge mechanism may include a first hinge hole and a second hinge hole which are provided in at least one of the door member and the main body member, and are arranged substantially coaxially while being spaced from each other, a hinge shaft inserted across the first hinge hole and the second hinge hole, and a spring unit which presses the hinge shaft against inner peripheral surfaces of the first and second hinge holes. The first hinge hole may be smaller in size than the second hinge hole.

Image forming apparatus with hinge holes and spring

An image forming apparatus, such as a printer, may have a horizontally-loaded drawer containing, for example, a toner cartridge or an image forming unit having toner. The apparatus may have an opening through which the drawer is inserted, and a cover over the opening. The cover may include two or more protrusions to assist in forcing the drawer into place as the cover is closed. The cover may include a first protrusion that is closer to the cover's hinge, and a second that is farther from the hinge than the first. The first protrusion may also be longer, extending further from the cover, than the second, so that during the closing operation, the first protrusion makes contact with the drawer before the second. The points of contact on the drawer may be angled and/or curved such that the force exerted by the protrusions directs the drawer horizontally and, if desired, downwardly towards an operating position. A protrusion may be aligned such that, when the cover is in the closed position, the protrusion is offset from a point of contact on the drawer, and exerts no horizontal force on the drawer.

Image forming device with cover protrusions

A discharge tray is provided on a predetermined surface of an image forming unit for receiving a recording medium discharged from the image forming unit. The image reading unit is disposed in confrontation with the discharge tray for reading an image from an original document. The coupling portion is disposed at a first position on the image forming unit. The coupling portion couples the image reading unit with the image forming unit, allowing the image reading unit to pivotally move about a first pivoting axis. The image reading unit is pivotally movable between a closed position for covering the discharge tray and an open position for exposing the discharge tray. The pivoting-restricting portion is disposed at a second position different from the first position. The pivoting-restricting portion restricts pivotal movement of the image reading unit past the open position in an opening direction.

Image forming apparatus that restricts excessive pivotal movement of image reading unit

A hinge device is configured that when a cover is opened, a support-section-side pivot shaft is guided upward by a fixed-section-side guide groove; and a fixed-section-side pivot shaft is guided while being restricted in downward movement by a support-section-side guide groove which tilts in accordance with a pivot operation of the cover. As a result, occurrence of interference between a frontward edge of the cover and an upper face of a document ejection tray can be prevented without causing the frontward edge to move lower than its position in a face-down state. In addition, chattering of the cover during the opening/closing operations can also be prevented.

Hinge device, automatic document feeder, scanning unit, and image forming apparatus

A front cover and an upper panel of the image forming device is engaged with each other by an engagement mechanism. The engagement mechanism includes a claw and an engagement member that engages with the claw. The claw is disposed on an upper section of the front cover, and the engagement member is disposed on the upper panel. The engagement mechanism further includes surfaces of the front cover and ribs that abut the surfaces. The ribs are provided to the upper section of the front cover and protrude in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the front cover is opened and closed.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Atsuo Hirose