Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Kazuhiro Kumadaki

Shinichi Tanaka

Masayoshi Kondou

Tadashi Hayamizu

An image forming apparatus includes an external gear to which a rotating force of a resist gear is transmitted, a ratchet for transmitting a rotating force from the external gear to a paper feed roller or releasing the transmission, and a ratchet arm having a claw engaged with the ratchet to transmit a rotation of the external gear, thereby rotating the paper feed roller, and a claw engaged with a slit provided on a boss of the paper feed roller to turn the paper feed roller toward a rotation start position and removing the claw from the ratchet to stop the paper feed roller, and the boss is provided with an offset bottom peripheral surface to be moved with the claw entering to stop the rotation of the paper feed roller when a resist sensor detects a tip of a recording paper.

Image forming apparatus and paper feeding method

In an image forming apparatus having a double side printing function, paper on which printing has been completed is prevented from being caught between paper ejection rollers. The apparatus has a first paper ejection roller which is provided at a terminal end section of a paper transport path, a second paper ejection roller which is provided such that it is urged into contact with the first paper ejection roller to switch back printed paper in a double side printing mode in cooperation with the first paper ejection roller, a third paper ejection roller which is provided in a position opposite to the second paper ejection roller such that it is urged into contact with the first paper ejection roller to eject paper on which printing has been completed in the double side printing mode onto an ejected paper tray in cooperation with the first paper ejection roller, and a stopper for preventing the paper ejected onto the ejected paper tray from being caught between the first and second paper ejection rollers and between the first and third paper ejection rollers.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a media feed cassettethat is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus and contains medias used for printing therein. The media feed cassetteincludes a chassis; a cassette-side media stacking portionwhich is mounted to said chassisand contains medias therein, and is located within said image forming apparatus when it is attached to said image forming apparatus; a tray-side media stacking portionbeing attached to said chassissuch that said tray-side media stacking portion is extendable to outside of said image forming apparatus, medias being put in said tray-side media stacking portion when it is extended outside; and a pickup unitfor picking up, sheet by sheet, medias put on said tray-side media stacking portion

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Fukuoka, Japan

Kazuhiro Kumadaki