Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazunori Takashima

Tadayuki Tsuda

Hiroomi Matsuzaki

Tomio Noguchi

Yasuyoshi Hayakawa

Yoshiro Saito

Michio Uchida

Yoshiro Tsuchiya

Naoki Asano

Hiroshi Yukimachi

Masao Amano

A recording material detecting apparatus includes a detecting device and a reference member. The detecting device irradiates a recording material with light and detects the light from the recording material. The reference member has a reference portion detectable by the detecting device in order to correct the output from the detecting device. The reference member is capable of moving from a position where the reference portion is detected by the detecting device. The reference member is moved by the recording material. Since a driving unit such as a motor is not necessary, the cost of the apparatus body can be dramatically reduced, and the apparatus structure can be dramatically simplified.

Recording material detecting apparatus

There is provided an image forming apparatus that can suppress the formation of creases when forming images on both surfaces of a sheet and can greatly reduce the incidence of unprinted areas. The image forming apparatus has a sheet stacking section in which sheets are stacked, a sheet conveying section that conveys a sheet, an image forming section that forms an image on the sheet while the sheet is conveyed, a re-conveying section that again conveys the sheet with the image formed on a first surface thereof to the image forming section, and a sheet feeding section that feeds a sheet from the sheet stacking section or the re-conveying section to the image forming section. When a sheet is fed from the sheet stacking section for image formation on the first surface of the sheet by the image forming section, the sheet is fed at a first speed, and when a sheet is fed from the re-conveying section for image formation on a second surface of the sheet by the image forming section, the sheet is fed at a second speed that is slower than the first speed and is slower than the speed at which the sheet is conveyed by the sheet conveying section.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

A process cartridge which is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive member, wherein the process cartridge is detachably mountable to the main assembly in the direction substantially perpendicular to an axis of an electrophotograpic photosensitive drum; process device actable on the photosensitive member; a connector having a memory; a positioning member disposed coaxially with the photosensitive member and engageable with a positioning groove provided in the main assembly; a regulating portion contactable to a fixed portion of the main assembly to regulate rotation of the the process cartridge about the positioning member when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly; wherein the connector is disposed above the positioning member.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a main assembly

A process cartridge which is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a process device actable on the photosensitive member, a memory element, and a cartridge connector for electrically connecting the memory with the main assembly when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly. The cartridge connector is electrically connectable with a main assembly connector provided in the main assembly. The cartridge also includes a contact portion for moving a shutter for protecting the main assembly connector from a protecting position to a retracted position in response to mounting of the process cartridge to the main assembly.

Process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus

A drive transmitting device having a partly untoothed gear partly having an untoothed portion, and a driven gear capable of meshing which the partly untoothed gear, and transmitting rotation from the partly untoothed gear to the driven gear is characterized in that in the partly untoothed gear, of a predetermined number of continuous teeth positioned on a side on which the partly untoothed gear starts to mesh which the driven gear when it rotates from a state in which the untoothed portion and the driven gear are opposed to each other, the odd teeth from the untoothed portion side are formed with odd tooth inclined surfaces cut away from the tooth top of the front tooth surface in the direction of rotation of the partly untoothed gear toward the root of the rear tooth surface, and the even teeth are formed with even tooth inclined surfaces cut away from the root of the front tooth surface in the direction of rotation toward the tooth top of the rear tooth surface.

Drive transmitting device, sheet feeding device and image forming

The present invention provides a sheet supply apparatus comprises a rocking sheet support plate for stacking sheets, a sheet supply, device capable of contacting with the sheets stacked on the sheet support plate for supplying them, a rotation control for controlling rotation of the sheet supply device by transmitting or not transmitting a driving force from a drive source, a cam for shifting the sheet support plate to abut or separate the sheet supply device and the sheet, and a rotation transmitting device for transmitting rotation to the cam.

Sheet supply apparatus

A device for attaching and detaching a mounting board unit with respect to a device body in a substantially vertical posture includes a controller base which has a detachable mounting board fixed thereto and a guide portion engaging a guide rail provided on the device body. The guide portion guides the controller base when the mounting board unit is attached to and detached from the device body. Mounting boards having different shapes can be mounted on the unit of the same construction, and even a mounting board on which a heavy device such as a hard disk is mounted can be easily attached to and detached from the device body in a vertically arranged condition.

Mounting board unit attaching/detaching device

An image forming apparatus having a pressing unit for pressing a fixing unit so that the fixing unit is secured to the apparatus body by the pressing force of the pressing unit. A projection portion on the fixing unit and an insertion slit in the apparatus body also secure the fixing unit, and thus, screws for securing the fixing unit to the apparatus body can be omitted and the fixing unit can easily be attached/detached. A discharge cover is rotatably mounted to the apparatus body and the fixing unit is inserted through an opening portion created when the discharge cover is opened.

Image forming apparatus with removeable fixing unit

An image forming apparatus with a casing latching and opening feature includes an openable and closable member forming a part of a casing of the image forming apparatus. When the openable and closable member is closed in opposition to the biasing force of the biasing device for biasing the openable and closable member in a direction in which it is open and the biasing force of a latching or locking device, the relation W.sub.1MAX-W.sub.1L &lt;W.sub.2MAX is satisfied when the biasing forces of the biasing device and the locking device immediately before the openable and closable member is locked by the locking device are denoted as W.sub.1L and W.sub.2MAX, respectively, and the biasing force of the biasing device at a lock position at which the openable and closable member runs beyond the lock position to be unable to move is denoted as W.sub.1MAX. Thus, the openable and closable member can be closed with ease.

Growing community of inventors

Kamakura, Japan

Kazunori Takashima