Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Kenji Oda

Hiroshi Kubota

Akinobu Nakahata

Masami Fuchi

Yoshinori Makiura

Kouji Migita

Masahiro Shinohara

Kazumi Shirasaka

Katsuhide Yamaguchi

Takashi Mihara

Masanobu Maeshima

Shinji Yamamoto

Wataru Sasaki

Susumu Hanano

Shuichi Akedo

Haruo Yamamoto

Seiichi Shirasaki

Toshio Watanabe

Naoyuki Ishida

Tetsuro Tomoe

Kiyoshi Shibata

Eiji Tsutsui

Tadahiro Kiyosumi

Makoto Egi

Masahiko Fukano

Arihiro Tsunoda

Atsushi Kano

Masao Otsuka

Toshiyuki Hamada

Makoto Eki

Yukihiro Itoh

Eijiro Masaki

Junya Sasabe

Kazushiro Taguchi

Morishita

A paper return device detachably fitted to an image forming apparatus having a paper feeding port for feeding paper from outside the image forming apparatus, a paper transport mechanism for transporting the paper from the paper feeding port to an image forming unit and a paper output port from which the paper carrying an image formed by the image forming unit is ejected to the outside of the image forming apparatus. The paper return device includes a paper return guideway which connects the paper output port of the image forming apparatus to its paper feeding port when the paper return device is fitted to the image forming apparatus, whereby the paper ejected from the paper output port is fed back to the paper feeding port through the paper return guideway.

Paper return device and image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, after having a toner image fixed onto a sheet by fixing means, the sheet is selectively transported toward a certain destination of a plurality of destinations via one of a plurality of transport routes which is selected by a route changer mechanism. A frame is detachably mounted to a main body of the image forming apparatus. The fixing means and the route changer mechanism are mounted on the frame.

Image forming apparatus having a removable route changer

In an image forming apparatus, a sheet that has been transported in a certain direction is selectively transported to one of first and second transport routes by a route changer mechanism. A first cover and a second cover are openably provided on a main body of the apparatus to respectively allow the first and second transport routes to be accessible to outside of the apparatus main body when set in an opened state. An operative mechanism is provided to open the first cover in association with opening of the second cover.

Image forming apparatus

A discharge device is usable for an image forming apparatus including a fixing portion having a heating roller in the shape of a hyperboloid for fixing a toner image formed on an envelope having a turned-up portion, and a stacking portion for stacking envelopes. The discharge device provided with a discharge roller system provided between the fixing portion and the stacking portion to discharge the envelope to the stacking portion has a upright portion provided near the discharge roller system below the transport path of the envelope to prevent the turned-up portion of the envelope from warping downward. This discharge device prevents a discharging envelope from coming into contact or colliding with the uppermost one of a stack of already discharged envelopes on the stacking portion, and enables the envelopes to be discharged suitably and to be stacked orderly on the stacking portion and increases an amount of envelopes stacked on the stacking portion.

Discharge device for use in an image forming apparatus capable of

In a time period from the time point where the forward end of a paper sheet fed from a pair of paper separation rollers reaches a registration roller to the time point where the registration roller is driven, when the load torque exerted on a forward roller is not less than second regulated torque, the transmission of power to the forward roller is released by a torque limiter provided for the forward roller. In this case, therefore, the force of paper feeding produced by the pair of paper separation rollers is regulated. Consequently, a suitable force of paper feeding can be applied to the paper sheet, thereby to make it possible to regulate the paper sheet straight in the direction of paper feeding as well as to prevent the paper sheet from continuing to be fed even if the amount of deflection of the paper sheet is saturated between the pair of paper separation rollers and the registration roller to prevent the paper sheet from being wrinkled.

Paper feeding device and paper curling correcting device

A copy item transport device is used in an image forming apparatus having an image bearing member and a pair of registration rollers before the image bearing member, and includes a separator for regulating multiple copy items to one copy item for each image formation. The separator is constructed by a forward roller being driven in a forward direction of transporting the copy item to the registration roller pair, a reverse roller in contact with the forward roller. The reverse roller is driven in a reverse direction of transporting the copy item backward, but rotatable in the forward direction together with the forward roller when receiving a greater transmitted forward torque from the forward roller than the reverse torque. The reverse drive to the reverse roller is stopped at the same time or after the forward drive to the forward roller is stopped to assure the nip of copy item by the registration roller pair.

Copy item transport device for use in an image forming apparatus

A sheet discharging device is used in an image forming apparatus including fixing means adopting heat roller fixing method of fusing a toner image transferred to a sheet so as to fix the same on the sheet while transporting the sheet by heating and pressing rollers rotated at a specified speed. This sheet discharging device is provided with a sheet discharger including first and second rollers and arranged downstream from the fixing device, a contact point of the first and second rollers being located toward the pressing roller from a tangent line on a point of a circumferential surface of the heat heating roller which intersects with a straight line connecting centers of the heating and pressing rollers, and a drive mechanism for driving the first roller and the heating roller so that a speed of the first roller at the circumferential surface thereof is greater than that of the healing roller. Accordingly, a sheet curled in the fixing device can be straightened with a simple construction.

Sheet discharging device for use in an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a mount portion which permits a cassette containing a plurality of stacks of sheets arranged side by side in rows to be mounted to the image forming apparatus; a feeder for feeding sheets side by side in a state where the cassette is mounted to the mount portion; an imaging assembly for forming an image on each of the sheets being fed side by side; a sheet sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet contained in the cassette for each row; and a control unit for, when the absence of a sheet is detected in any of the rows, stopping at least an image forming operation along a corresponding transport path. Accordingly, even if all the sheets run out in any one of the rows, the corresponding transport path and the like can be prevented from getting smeared due to the image forming operation carried out despite the fact that no sheets are being fed.

Image forming apparatus capable of forming images side by side

A sheet feeder includes a feeder for feeding a sheet, a cassette for containing a plurality of stacks of small sized sheets side by side therein, the cassette including a plurality of biasing members for biasing the respective stacks of small sized sheets upwards so as to bring uppermost sheets of the respective stacks into contact with the feeder, a plurality of sheet detectors arranged in positions corresponding to the respective stacks of sheets for detecting the height of the respective stacks of sheets contained in the cassette, and a controller responsive to the plurality of sheet detectors for determining the absence of sheet in the cassette when at least one of the plurality of sheet detectors detects that the height of the stack has become lower than a predetermined height, and stopping a sheet feeding operation. This sheet feeder prevents the transfer device of an image forming apparatus from being smeared due to the fact that the small sized sheet is fed from only one stack.

Sheet feeder

A cassette is attachable to an image forming apparatus including a feed roller. The cassette is provided with a push-up member for pushing up leading edges of sheets placed in the cassette so as to bring the uppermost one of the contained sheets into contact with the feed roller, and a restricting member for restricting displacement of the contained sheets from a specified position. By attaching thus constructed cassette to the image forming apparatus, sheets can be fed properly by the feed roller.

Cassette

A parallel transport apparatus for transporting sheets side by side along a plurality of transport paths is provided with a feed roller which is brought into contact with uppermost sheets of a plurality of stacks of sheet contained side by side in a cassette and is adapted for feeding the uppermost sheets side by side; a separation roller pair arranged at a specified position of each of the plurality of transport paths and adapted for separating the sheets fed side by side so that one each of sheets are transported along the respective transport paths simultaneously; a sheet detector arranged downstream from the separation roller pair with respect to a sheet transport direction and adapted for detecting the presence or absence of sheets being transported side by side; and a multifeed discriminator for discriminating whether the multiple feeding has been occurred along any of the transport paths in accordance with an output from the sheet detector. Accordingly, the multiple feeding of sheets being transported side by side can be detected and coped with automatically.

Parallel transport apparatus

A sheet transport device is provided with a plurality of sheet transport paths arranged in parallel to one another and a sheet transport assembly for transporting a sheet along the sheet transport path. The transport assembly includes a drive shaft extending normal to the plurality of sheet transport paths, a roller member mounted on the drive shaft in a position corresponding to each of the plurality of sheet transport paths, and a transmission mechanism provided between the drive shaft and roller member for transmitting the rotational force of the drive shaft rotating in a sheet transport direction to the roller member and for shutting off transmission of the rotational force of the roller member rotating in the sheet transport direction to the drive shaft. Accordingly, the misalignment of sheets to be transported simultaneously can be readily corrected. In addition, even if one of the simultaneously transported sheets gets jammed, the jammed sheet can be smoothly removed without affecting transport of the other sheets.

Sheet transport device

A sheet transport device includes a first cassette which holds first conventional thin, wide sheets; a first sheet separator positioned along a first transport path in order to separate the first sheets from one another, and including a first forward roller rotated in the sheet transport direction, a first parallel retard roller rotatable in an opposite direction, and a drive mechanism which transmits the driving force to the first retard roller only when the first forward roller and the first retard roller are out of contact with each other, such that otherwise, the first retard roller moves together with the first forward roller when they are in contact with each other, the first forward roller and first retard roller being held out of contact with each other when a first sheet is placed therebetween; a second cassette which holds the first sheets or second thicker, narrow sheets which does not permit the first forward roller and the first retard roller to contact each other when placed therebetween; and a second sheet separator positioned along a second transport path in order to separate the second sheets from one another, the second sheet separator including a second forward roller which is rotated in the sheet transport direction and a second retard roller which is rotatable in the opposite direction and which is spaced apart from the second forward roller by a distance at least equal to the first thickness during activation of the second sheet separator.

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Osaka, Japan

Kenji Oda