Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Masao Otsuka

Masanobu Maeshima

Kazushiro Taguchi

Hiroki Morishita

Makoto Egi

Arihiro Tsunoda

Makoto Eki

Hiromi Okada

Junya Sasabe

Fumio Hatanaka

Yasuhiro Nakamatsu

Hiroshi Kubota

Hiroaki Tsuchiya

Masami Fuchi

Naoyuki Ishida

Shigeo Koyama

Kenji Oda

Eiji Tsutsui

Yoshinori Makiura

Keiji Ban

Masahiro Shinohara

Hiroaki Nakamura

Hideaki Tomita

Toshihiro Sato

Hiroyuki Maede

Morishita

A paper path is provided with a paper guide for guiding paper, an oblique roller for obliquely moving the paper toward the paper guide and an electromagnetic clutch allowing and interrupting transmission of a rotating force to the oblique roller. Sensors for detecting the paper are provided upstream and downstream of the oblique roller. Also provided in the paper path is a controller which controls the electromagnetic clutch in accordance with paper sensing operation of the sensors to drive the oblique roller while the paper is passing under the oblique roller. A low-friction paper guiding surface is formed on the paper guide by coating it with a fluoroplastic.

Lateral paper position correcting mechanism

The present invention relates to an air suction type paper feeding device that includes at least one rib 5 formed on a paper supply table, the rib slightly lifting papers P such that the bottommost paper is less likely to be retained by static electricity. The invention also relates to a jogging plate disposed at a rear end of the paper supply table which has an inclined portion which urges the uppermost papers on the paper supply table towards an air supply means. The jogging plate is further formed with an arcuate portion which diverts air from the air supply means downward against a rear end portion of the paper on the paper supply table. The present invention further relates to a paper feeding belt 3 having air permeability disposed above stacked papers on the paper supply table. A vacuum manifold is disposed between portions of the feeding belt 3 to provide vacuum to lift papers. The vacuum manifold is formed with a plurality of suction ports a, b, c. The suction ports a, b are provided with movable covers 11 which allow for selective opening and closing of those suction ports in response to the size paper on the paper supply table.

Air suction type paper feeding device

Paper regulating mechanism in a paper feed cassette for accomodating paper sheets, has: a regulation guide plate disposed below a bottom plate, on which are placed the paper sheets, and formed with a slit having a predetermined width; upper plate-shaped portions against which the paper sheets come into abutment; lower guided portions disposed at the lower ends of said upper plate-shaped portions and so loosely fitted in said slit as to easily move; rollers connected to said upper plate-shaped portions or said lower guided portions and rotatably abutting against said regulating guide plate; and lock members for fixing said upper plate-shaped portions in arbitrary positions with respect to said regulation guide plate.

Paper regulating mechanism and paper cassette

Paper regulating mechanism in a paper feed cassette for accommodating paper sheets , has: a regulation guide plate disposed below a bottom plate, on which are placed the paper sheets, and formed with a slit having a predetermined width; upper plate-shaped portions against which the paper sheets come into abutment; lower guided portions disposed at the lower ends of said upper plate-shaped portions and so loosely fitted in said slit as to easily move; rollers connected to said upper plate-shaped portions or said lower guided portions and rotatably abutting against said regulating guide plate; and lock members for fixing said upper plate-shaped portions in arbitrary positions with respect to said regulation guide plate.

A paper feeding device is capable of judging that a paper jam occurs on the basis of output from a first paper detecting switch and a second paper detecting switch. These paper detecting switches are respectively provided ahead of and behind a registration roller which feeds paper sheets to an image forming section. If the first paper detecting switch is turned on when a predetermined time has elapsed since the registration roller started to feed a paper sheet to the image forming section, it is judged that a duplicate paper feeding state has occurred where a plurality of paper sheets are simultaneously fed. If the second paper detecting switch is turned off in the case where it is judged that a duplicate paper feeding state has occurred, it is judged that a paper jam has not occurred. The registration roller is stopped so it will later be ready to feed the subsequent paper sheet. Even when the paper sheets are simultaneously fed in a duplicate paper feeding state, it is not judged that a paper jam occurs as long as the paper sheets are fed one at a time to the image forming section. However, if both the first and second paper detecting switches remain on after the predetermined time, then it is judged that a paper jam has occurred.

Image forming apparatus including a paper feeding device having improved

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

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.

A paper feeding cassette case in an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is so adapted that an arbitrary internal unit out of a plurality of types of internal units including at least one internal unit of a universal type having a structure in which paper sheets of a plurality of sizes requiring the switching of the printing ranges can be set can be attached thereto. In the paper feeding cassette case, detecting member mounting portions are respectively formed in different positions respectively corresponding to the types of internal units, and the detecting member and each of the detecting member mounting portions are provided with mounting member for detachably mounting the detecting member on the detecting member mounting portion. In addition, the mounting member provided for the detecting member mounting portion corresponding to the internal unit of a universal type has a structure in which the detecting member is allowed to slide in the range of the detecting member mounting portion.

Paper feeding cassette case in image forming apparatus

An image-forming machine includes a detachably mountable process unit. The process unit has a rotatable drum having an electrostatographic material thereon, a corona discharger, a developing device and a cleaning device. The developing device includes a development housing for holding a developer, a developer applicator for applying the developer to the electrostatographic material, and an agitating device for stirring the developer in the development housing. An agitating member of the agitating device is arranged to prevent damage of the agitating device due to forces resisting agitation motion by the agitating member. The developer applicator has a sleeve member for holding a developer on its surface, and a developer regulating blade which regulates the developer layer thickness, on the surface of the sleeve member, to provide an uniform developer thickness in the width direction. The cleaning device includes a toner removing device for removing residual toner from the electrostatographic material, a toner collecting chamber and a toner conveying passage extending from the toner recovery housing to the toner collecting chamber. The toner removing device includes a cleaning blade which, when the process unit is mounted at a predetermined position in the image-forming machine, is moved from a non-operative position away from the electrostatographic material to an operative position wherein it is brought elastically into contact with the electrostatographic material. A toner conveying device having a coil is disposed in the toner conveying passage.

Image-forming machine with improved developer agitating means, developer

When a sheet feeding cassette (10) is mounted on an image forming apparatus or the like, a forward portion of a mounting plate (13) is urged upward so that an upper surface of the forward portion of the mounting plate (13) is brought into contact with a feed roller (11). A pair of non-slip pads (14a) and (14b) is affixed to the upper surface of the forward portion of the mounting plate (13). The non-slip pads (14a) and (14b) are members each having a plane shape of approximately L or its reversed shape and made of, for example, a rubber plate. The non-slip pads (14a) and (14b) are affixed to such a position that they do not come into direct contact with the feed roller (11). Consequently, when sheets are fed, the last sheet is not directly nipped strongly by the feed roller and the non-slip pads, to produce no buzzing noise. In addition, the non-slip pads (14a) and (14b) are in the vicinity of the feed roller (11). Accordingly, the non-slip pads (14a) and (14b) perform the function of preventing the last sheet from being fed together with the other sheets if the number of the sheets is reduced, that is, preventing the sheets from being fed together.

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Osaka, Japan

Masao Otsuka