Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Kazutoshi Kuse

Sakae Ito

Tetsuo Ito

Kotaro Kurokawa

Masanori Hamaguchi

A sheet conveyer device, including a roller to convey a sheet by rotating in a normal direction and a holder rotatably arranged on a roller shaft, is provided. The holder includes a roller gear system arranged on the roller shaft and having a roller driving gear to drive the roller, a shutter rotatably arranged on a shutter shaft to restrict access of the sheet to the roller, a shutter gear system to connect a path between the roller gear system and the shutter, a one-way clutch to disconnect the path between the roller gear system and the shutter when the roller rotates in the normal direction, and a torque limiter to allow the roller to rotate in a reverse direction. The holder rotates about the roller shaft in the same reverse direction as the roller when the roller rotates in the reverse direction.

Sheet conveyer devices, image reading apparatuses, and image forming apparatuses

In an image reading apparatus, cables may be used to connect reading units (e.g., scanning devices) to a controller or control circuit board configured to execute certain instructions and perform various functions. The cables may be routed between the reading units and the controller so as to reduce and/or eliminate noise. For example, the cables may be routed through contact prevention devices that may include ferrite cores. The cables may also be routed in a manner so as to maintain a predefined distance therebetween and to minimize interference. For example, the cables may extend downward from a corresponding reading portion, change course to a horizontal direction parallel to the rotation axis of an openable unit of the image reading apparatus and such that the cable extends toward the controller, and subsequently extend downward such that the flexible flat cable is insertable into a corresponding connector of the controller.

Image reading apparatus

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an image reading apparatus including: a first plate including a stationary document reading region; an image reader configured to scan a document on the first plate; a carriage supporting the image reader in a state that the carriage keeps the image reader predetermined distance from the first plate; and a guiding member that makes the image reader move downwardly by contacting an edge of the first plate.

An image forming apparatus, includes: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet; a casing that encloses the image forming unit and that has an ejection port configured to eject the recording sheet on which the image are formed; an ejection tray that stacks recording sheets ejected from the ejection port; a main frame side connector configured to electrically connect to an external device, the main frame side connector connectable to an external device side connector provided in the external device while at least a part of the external device is disposed outside the casing; and a supporting member that displaceably supports the main frame side connector with respect to the casing.

Image forming apparatus and multi-function device

A sheet feeding apparatus for separating and feeding stacked sheets one by one, includes a separation roller which rotates and applies a feeding force to a sheet of stacked sheets, a friction member which opposes the separation roller and which applies friction against the feeding force, and a rotation speed controller which controls a rotation speed of the separation roller. The rotation speed of the separation roller varies between a first speed and a second speed. The separation roller rotates at the first speed when separating a first one of the stacked sheets. The separation roller rotates at the second speed when separating sheets after separating a predetermined number of the stacked sheets. The first speed is slower than the second speed.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Kazutoshi Kuse