Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Junichi Sugita

Daikai Zaitsu

Manabu Nonaka

Kenji Ueda

Jumpei Aoyama

Hajime Nishida

Mamoru Kambayashi

Rie Ohtsuka

Kazune Nakamura

A sheet conveying device includes a pickup roller, a separator, a conveyor, and circuitry. The pickup roller contacts an uppermost sheet of sheets stacked on a sheet stacker and feed the uppermost sheet. The separator moves the pickup roller between a contact position at which the pickup roller is in contact with the uppermost sheet and a separation position at which the pickup roller is separated from the uppermost sheet. The conveyor conveys the uppermost sheet fed by the pickup roller. The circuitry is to control the conveyor to temporarily stop conveyance of the uppermost sheet, and control the separator to move the pickup roller from the contact position to the separation position in response to the temporarily stop of the conveyor.

Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet conveying device

A sheet feeding device includes a contact member and a lock member. The contact member is configured to rotate from a retracted position to a contact position while a sliding portion of the lock member is sliding on a sliding target portion of the contact member and to rotate to the contact position to release the sliding portion of the lock member from the sliding target portion of the contact member. The lock member is configured to rotate between a locked position and a lock released position by a lock biasing force when the lock member moves in a lock direction of the lock member from the lock released position toward the locked position. The contact member has the lock target body and the sliding target portion at different positions from each other in a rotation center axial direction of the contact member.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeding device

A sheet feeding device includes a feeder, a contact member, a movement restricting member, a moving mechanism, and control circuitry. The feeder is configured to feed a sheet. A leading end of the sheet in a feeding direction is to contact the contact member. The movement restricting member is configured to lock the contact member to restrict movement of the contact member from a contact position where the contact member contacts the sheet. The moving mechanism is configured to move the movement restricting member between a locking position and a lock releasing position. The contact member is configured to take the contact position by gravity or a biasing force of a biasing part. The control circuitry is configured to control the moving mechanism to move the movement restricting member to the lock releasing position and then to the locking position when a feeding operation of the sheet is finished.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

A sheet loading device includes a device body to load a sheet, a guide disposed extending in a sheet conveying direction in the device body, a restricting body to move along the guide of the device body and to restrict a position of an end portion of the sheet, and a securing body to attach to the restricting body and the guide and detach from the restricting body and the guide, and having an engaging body. The engaging body of the securing body engages with the guide at an arbitrary position on the guide in the sheet conveying direction. The restricting body is being secured to the device body according to engagement of the engaging body of the securing body with the guide of the device body.

Sheet loading device and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet loading device

A sheet feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet feeding unit to feed a sheet, a sheet separating unit disposed opposite the sheet feeding unit to separate the sheet together with the sheet feeding unit, a bottom plate on which the sheet is loaded, a pressing unit having a leading end and movably disposed between the bottom plate and the sheet separating unit, and a support to rotatably support the pressing unit such that the leading end of the pressing unit contacts and separates from the sheet feeding unit.

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Tokyo, Japan

Junichi Sugita