Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masashi Satoh

Yuji Ikeda

Shingo Nishizaki

Ryo Takenaka

Naohiro Funada

Yusuke Ozaki

Tomohide Kondoh

Yuu Wakabayashi

Hiroshi Adachi

A sheet thickness detector incorporated in an image forming apparatus includes a sheet conveying member to rotate and convey a sheet in a sheet conveyance direction, a driven sheet conveying member to contact the sheet conveying member and form at least one first transfer nip therebetween in a lateral direction and to displace by an amount equivalent to a thickness of the sheet passing through the first transfer nip and rotated with the sheet conveying member in the sheet conveyance direction, a displacement member to contact the sheet conveying member and form a second transfer nip smaller than the first transfer nip in the lateral direction and to displace by an amount equivalent to the thickness of the sheet passing through the second transfer nip and supported at a support member, and a displacement amount detector to detect an amount of displacement of the displacement member.

Sheet thickness detector and image forming apparatus including same

A sheet thickness detecting device for detecting a thickness of a sheet includes a fixed roller rotatably supported by a shaft so that the fixed roller faces the sheet; a movable roller rotatably provided so that the movable roller and the fixed roller sandwich and feed the sheet, and configured to be displaced in accordance with the thickness of the sandwiched sheet; a swing member rotatably supporting the movable roller and including a shaft so that the swing member is swung around the shaft, wherein the swing member further includes a detection target part formed in a manner that a distance between the detection target part and the shaft is greater than that between a position where the movable roller is supported by the swing member and the shaft; and a detecting unit detecting the displacement amount of the detection target part of the swing member.

Sheet thickness detecting device, feeding device, and image forming apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Masashi Satoh