Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Corporation

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Kunihiro Kawachi

Kyoichi Mizuno

Ken Nonaka

Kazunobu Miura

Masahiro Matsuo

Shinichi Kawabata

Yusuke Kawanago

Tarou Miyamoto

Takahiro Okubo

Hiroshi Akita

Yoshiteru Kawakami

Takahiro Tsuchiya

Osamu Yoshimura

Haruki Motegi

Takahiro Hara

Taro Miyamoto

A control section controls the rotation of a registration roller that corrects the skew of a sheet and conveys the sheet, and the rotation of a loop forming roller which forms a loop of the sheet, as well as the nipping and releasing of the nip of the loop forming roller. This control section controls so that the sheet with a loop formed between the registration roller and loop forming roller is conveyed downstream in the sheet conveyance direction, and the sheet is released from the nipping of the loop forming roller during the conveyance. This control section further controls so that the total number of rotations of the registration roller from the start of sheet conveyance till releasing of the sheet from nipping of the loop forming roller is kept at a prescribed total number of rotations preset in conformance to the paper type.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus acquires an amount of deflection of the transporting sheet from a reference position thereof and calculates a required shift amount of the sheet. It determines whether or not the sheet is shifted frontward. If so, the image forming apparatus acquires a second specified shift value which is determined based on an urging force and the required shift amount using a second correction equation. Alternatively, if the sheet is shifted backward, the image forming apparatus acquires a first specified shift value which is determined based on the urging force and the required shift amount using a first correction equation. The image forming apparatus performs a registration roller shift correction based on the acquired first or second specified shift value.

Image forming apparatus with width-wise sheet shifting mechanism

An image forming apparatus, including an upper section including an image forming section to form an image on a recording sheet, a lower section arranged below the upper section including a sheet supplying tray to stack a plurality of recording sheets, a partitioning body to separate the upper section and the lower section in a vertical direction, wherein the lower section includes a dehumidification device to heat the inside of the lower section and to dehumidify the recording sheets stacked on the sheet supplying tray, the partitioning body includes a first shielding member to shield a bottom portion of the upper section, a second shielding member separated from the first shielding member to shield a top portion of the lower section, a clearance formed between the first shielding member and the second shielding member, and an air blowing section to blow air into the clearance.

A sheet de-curling device: including a first de-curling roller, structured of a round axial shaft and a long bar-shaped member, wherein the long bar-shaped member is spiraled on the round axial shaft clockwise from a predetermined portion of a center of the round axial shaft toward a left end of the round axial shaft, and counterclockwise from the predetermined portion of the center of the round axial shaft toward a right end of the round axial shaft with the same spiraling pitch; a second de-curling roller, structured of a round axial shaft and a long bar-shaped member, wherein the long bar-shaped member is spiraled on the round axial shaft in opposite spiraling directions against the first de-curling roller; and a driving mechanism which rotates the paired first and second de-curling rollers.

Recording sheet de-curling device and image forming apparatus using the same

A sheet conveyance device to convey a sheet which is stored within a sheet storing section, including: a plurality of sheet conveyance rollers, mounted on a sheet storing section, to be parallel to each other with respect to rotating centers, wherein the plurality of the sheet conveyance rollers come into contact with the sheet to convey the sheet toward an exterior of the sheet conveyance device; and a coupling section to couple the plurality of the sheet conveyance rollers and to rotate the plurality of the sheet conveyance rollers, wherein at least one of the plurality of the sheet conveyance rollers represents an irregularly shaped roller, wherein the irregularly shaped roller is coupled to another sheet conveyance roller by the coupling section, and wherein a distance between a rotation center and a peripheral surface of the irregularly shaped roller is inconstant, in a rotational direction of the irregularly shaped roller.

Sheet conveyance device and image forming apparatus using the same device

In case of both sides printing, the sheet S having an image formed on the obverse surface is conveyed to the first reversal section of the reversal devicedisposed in a reversal path R. In the first reversal section, the sheet S is conveyed to a U-turn reversal path by the reversal rollerwith the first side section of the sheet S as the leading edge section. In the U-turn reversal path, a position of the first side surface section and a position of the second side surface section of the sheet S are exchanged and the sheet S is conveyed to the second reversal section. In the second reversal section, the sheet having been turned over is fed again to the register rollerswith a leading edge section at image forming on the obverse surface as the leading edge side. Whereby the same edge of the sheet S contacts with the register rollerswhen the image is formed on the obverse side and when the image is formed on the reverse side.

A sheet conveying apparatus is provided with a decurling mechanism to correct a curl formed on a sheet; a pair of guides including a first guide member and a second guide member arranged to oppose to the first guide member, the pair of guides constituting a conveyance passage to guide a sheet discharged from the decurling mechanism toward the downstream side in the sheet conveying direction; and an auxiliary guide arranged to protrude obliquely in the sheet conveying direction from the side of the first guide member toward the second guide member to a predetermined position in the conveyance passage.

Sheet conveying apparatus with auxiliary guide which accommodates conveyance mechanisms operating at different relative speeds

An image forming apparatus having: an image forming portion to form an image on a sheet; a fixing device to fix the image to the sheet by heating; a conveying path switching member to switch a conveying direction of the sheet, which is provided on downstream of the fixing device in a sheet conveying direction; a first conveying path which has a first curved portion and is provided on downstream of the conveying path switching member; a second conveying path which has a second curved portion and is provided on downstream of the conveying path switching member; a curl applying member which is provided on downstream of the fixing device, and on upstream of the first and second curved portions; and a control unit to control driving of the conveying path switching member and of the curl applying member.

Image forming apparatus and a sheet conveying method of the image forming apparatus

A power transmission device includes a driving gear having gears over an entire circumferential surface thereof, a follower gear including an intermittent gear having a toothless portion, and a controller for controlling the follower gear to be engaged with or disengaged from the driving gear. Each of the driving gear and the follower gear is a helical gear.

Power transmission device and sheet feeding apparatus equipped therewith

Image forming apparatus having a manual feeding tray on which transfer sheet is placed and an image forming device to form images on the transfer sheet fed from the manual feeding tray, wherein the image forming apparatus has a storage section to store the sheet feeding tray with transfer sheet thereon and the manual feeding tray has a supporting member.

Manual feeding tray and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes, a rotatable image carrier, a writing exposure device to write the image and form a latent image in the rotatable image carrier, a developing device to form a toner image, a registration roller to convey a transfer sheet to an image transfer area where the toner image is transferred from the image carrier onto the transfer sheet, and a fixing roller to heat and fix the toner image, wherein when the length of a transfer sheet is longer than the length of the transfer sheet path between the registration roller and the fixing roller, according to the size of the transfer sheet, the controller changes and controls the relative rotating speed of the registration roller to a rotating speed of the fixing roller, and one of a rotating speed of the rotatable image carrier and a writing speed of the image.

A sheet feeding device includes: a conveyance path along which a recording sheet is conveyed; a separation roller that separates a recording sheet and conveys it; a registration roller that stops temporarily a recording sheet separated and conveyed by the separation roller and further conveyed along the conveyance path, and conveys the recording sheet again toward the image forming position at the prescribed timing; a detector that is provided in the conveyance path between the separation roller and the registration roller, and detects the recording sheet; a recognizing device that recognizes fluctuation of conveyance timing of the recording sheet based on the results of the detection made by the detector; and a controller that conducts conveyance control for the recording sheet at the upstream side of the registration roller based on the results of the recognition made by the recognizing device.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus therewith

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of sheet feed units each for feeding a sheet, a single pair of registration rollers provided at the upstream side of the image formation site where an image is formed on the sheet with respect to the direction of sheet conveyance, for conveying the sheet in accordance with the timing of forming the image on the sheet, and a plurality pair of loop forming rollers provided in correspondence with the plurality of sheet feed units respectively at the upstream side of the pair of registration rollers with respect to the direction of sheet conveyance. Each of the plurality pair of loop forming rollers is controlled in a manner such that a loop is formed between each of the plurality pair of loop forming rollers and the pair of registration rollers.

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Kokubunji, Japan

Kunihiro Kawachi