Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Masayuki Kakuta

Tsuyoshi Nagao

Risa Hibino

Yasuhiko Kida

Takeshi Yoshida

Takeshi Matsuo

Sachio Izumichi

Kuniaki Araishi

Yutaka Aso

Hiroshi Kobayashi

Seiji Okada

Masami Fuchi

Jun Kusakabe

Shigeo Kurando

Takuro Murata

Masaki Deguchi

Hiroyuki Harada

Yoshiyuki Takeda

Shinji Akamatsu

Yuki Tojo

Hideki Kitagawa

Kikunosuke Tsuji

Keiji Okumura

Yasushi Kamezaki

Hiroaki Takai

Hironori Daigo

Takuro Morita

Yoshiaki Tabata

Takurou Murata

Akira Ogawa

Takuya Eto

Ikuo Shigemitsu

Masaki Degichi

Kazuyoshi Osawa

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion that forms a toner image on an image carrier, a transfer portion, a fixing portion, a discharge portion, a pair of conveyance rollers, a sheet conveyance passage, a duplex conveyance passage, and a side cover. The side cover forms the outer surface of the duplex conveyance passage. In a manner coordinated with the opening of the side cover, one of the pair of conveyance rollers moves in a direction away from the other of the pair of conveyance rollers to open part of the sheet conveyance passage from the pair of conveyance rollers to the discharge portion.

Image forming apparatus that allows sheet jam removal with a side cover open

An arm is disposed between a body-side rotary shaft provided in a housing and a cover-side rotary shaft provided in a cover. The arm includes a body-side arm member with one end supported by the body-side rotary shaft, a cover-side arm member with one end supported by the cover-side rotary shaft, a connecting pin configured to connect the other end of the body-side arm member and the other end of the cover-side arm member, a body-side urging member configured to urge the body-side arm member and the cover-side arm member in respective directions of being folded, and a cover-side urging member configured to urge the cover-side arm member toward the cover. When the cover is closed, the body-side arm member and the cover-side arm member overlap each other in an axial direction of the connecting pin.

Image forming apparatus with cover having folded arm

A manual bypass tray includes a tray main body and an auxiliary tray. A placement surface of the tray main body is provided with an opening. The tray main body includes an opening cover. The auxiliary tray includes a recess. The opening cover is displaced to a retracted posture, thereby being accommodated inside the recess, together with a protruding portion protruding from a side face of a main body of an image forming apparatus, when the tray main body is in a storage position with the auxiliary tray accommodated therein, displaced to a closing posture, when the tray main body is in a sheet feeding position with the auxiliary tray accommodated therein, and displaced to a closing posture when the tray main body is in the sheet feeding position, with the auxiliary tray drawn out from the inside of the tray main body.

Manual bypass tray having opening for accommodating projection sticking out from side face of image forming apparatus main body, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an opening/closing member, an arm, a manual feed tray, a wire, and a tension mechanism. The opening/closing member is rotatably supported by an apparatus body about a lower end portion thereof. The arm restricts an opening angle of the opening/closing member with respect to the apparatus body. The manual feed tray is rotatably supported by the opening/closing member about a lower end portion thereof. The wire has one end fixed to the arm and another end fixed to the manual feed tray and supports the manual feed tray when the opening/closing member is rotated downwardly in a state where the manual feed tray is rotated downwardly. The tension mechanism absorbs a slack of the wire.

Image forming apparatus capable of supporting manual feed tray at predetermined angle

A positioning mechanism includes two adjusting devices. The adjusting device includes: a shaft that extends between a first apparatus and a second apparatus in a facing direction where the first and second apparatus face each other and has an outer peripheral surface with a threaded portion formed therein; a holding member that is provided on the first apparatus, has a threaded hole formed through in the facing direction, and holds the shaft member passing through the threaded hole; an abutment member that is provided on an end of the shaft member close to the second apparatus and abuts on a connectable surface of the second apparatus and a compression coil spring that is disposed to surround the shaft member and the abutment member and is clamped and compressed between the holding member and the connectable surface of the second apparatus.

Positioning mechanism

The conveyance guide unit is provided with a guide member, a supporting frame, and an external cover. The guide member guides a sheet, which is discharged from a sheet discharge port of the image forming apparatus or from a sheet discharge port of a relay conveyance device installed in the image forming apparatus, to the sheet carrying-in port of a post-processing device. The supporting frame supports the guide member. The external cover is fixed to the supporting frame; the external cover covers an upper part of the guide member and side parts of the guide member in a traverse direction of a sheet conveyance path, which is perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction. The external cover has an upper surface serving as an extension part of a discharge tray part of the post-processing device, the extension part being extended downstream, in a sheet discharge direction.

Conveyance guide unit

A sheet conveyor unit is connected to downstream side of an upstream side unit in a sheet conveying direction. The sheet conveyor unit includes a convey guide for receiving a sheet discharged from outlet of the upstream side unit. The convey guide is constituted of a pair of guide members disposed to face each other with a predetermined space therebetween. The guide members have the same shape and include base parts having guide surfaces that form a sheet conveying path when combined to face each other, and inclined parts bent to directions apart from the guide surfaces from one end of the base parts in the sheet conveying direction so as to form a receiving port. The convey guide is attached selectively to one of positions different in at least one of a height direction and the sheet conveying direction with respect to an apparatus main body.

Sheet conveyor unit and image forming system including same

A relay conveyance device includes a discharge unit which discharges a sheet toward a carry-in port, a decurling unit attached to the discharge unit, and a discharge adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting a height direction inclination of the discharge unit. The discharge adjustment mechanism is set to be capable of adjusting an inclination of the discharge unit such that the decurling unit maintains a predetermined reference position even when the discharge unit is supported by any of a plurality of unit supporting portions set according to a height position of the carry-in port.

Relay conveyance device, image forming system, combination of image forming system, and sheet conveyance device

A sheet conveying device includes a correcting unit. The correcting unit corrects displacement of a sheet conveyed from an upstream side conveying path, and conveys the sheet to a downstream side conveying path. The correcting unit includes a first conveying part conveying the sheet, a first moving part moving a first frame supporting the first conveying part and a detecting part detecting a side end edge of the sheet at a reference position without displacement. The first conveying part stops conveyance of the sheet when a leading end of the sheet reaches the detecting part. While the driving of the first conveying part is stopped, the first moving part moves the first frame to move the sheet, and stops movement of the first frame, when detection result of the detecting part is changed, to position the side end edge to the reference position to correct displacement of the sheet.

Sheet conveying device, relay conveyance device and image forming system

The external cover is a cover to cover a coupling mechanism. The coupling mechanism is disposed in a space between an image forming apparatus and an optional device that is disposed on a side of the image forming apparats and couples the optical device with the image forming apparatus. The exterior cover has an upper portion and a side portion. The upper portion extends in a front-back direction of the image forming apparatus, which is perpendicular to a direction in which the optional device and the image forming apparatus face each other; the upper portion covers an upper end portion of the coupling mechanism in the space. The side portion covers a front end portion or a back end portion of the coupling mechanism. The external cover is composed of a combination of multiple, identically shaped cover members.

External cover

A sheet conveying apparatus includes a sheet conveying path, conveying members, a switching unit, a receiving unit, and a control unit. The sheet conveying path includes a first conveying path and a second conveying path having a conveying load for a sheet larger than the first conveying path. The switching unit selectively switches the sheet conveying path between the first conveying path and the second conveying path. The control unit determines whether the sheets are first sheets or second sheets thicker than the first sheets, based on sheet thickness information received by the receiving unit. If the sheets are the first sheets, the switching unit switches the sheet conveying path between the first conveying path and the second conveying path alternately. If the sheets are the second sheets, the switching unit switches to fix the sheet conveying path to the first conveying path.

Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming system including same

A sheet conveyance unit includes a sheet inlet port, an inlet guide, and a guide switching mechanism. The inlet guide has an upper guide and a lower guide below the upper guide. The guide switching mechanism switches a position of the inlet guide between a conveyance position at which the upper guide and the lower guide face each other with a first distance and a separation position at which the upper guide and the lower guide are spaced from each other by a second distance greater than the first distance. To connect the sheet conveyance unit to the sheet discharge unit, the inlet guide is disposed to the separation position before the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide, and is disposed to the conveyance position after the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide.

Sheet conveyance unit and sheet conveyance system including same

An image reader includes: a reading section reading a document; a document conveyance section being supported in an openable and closable manner with respect to the reading section; foamed synthetic resin members being supported on a lower surface of the document conveyance section; a document pressing plate being fitted to the document conveyance section with the foamed synthetic resin members in between; and height regulation sections being formed at the document conveyance section and being pressed by second platen glass with the document pressing plate in between, wherein the height regulation sections are located at positions overlapping with a region of the second platen glass when the document conveyance section is in a closed state.

Image reader and image forming apparatus

A document conveying apparatus includes a document reversing part, a stacking tray stacking the document, a discharge tray provided under the stacking tray, a lift member provided downstream in a document conveyance direction of the stacking tray and configured to be turnable upward such that a downstream end of the document stacked on the stacking tray comes into contact with a feed roller disposed above the stacking tray, a first document conveyance path defined downstream in the document conveyance direction of the feed roller to the document reading part, a second document conveyance path defined from the document reading part to the discharge tray, and a third document conveyance path defined from a middle of the second document conveyance path through the document reversing part, wherein a bottom surface part of the lift member defines a part of an upper part of the third document conveyance path.

Document conveying apparatus, document reading apparatus, and image forming apparatus

A document sheet conveyance device includes an inner guide and an outer guide defining a curved sheet conveyance passage for allowing conveyance of a document sheet from a document sheet feeding section to a predetermined document reading position, and a movable guide projectable into the sheet conveyance passage. The outer guide includes an outer curved guide surface defining an outer surface of the sheet conveyance passage. The inner guide includes an inner curved guide surface defining an inner surface of the sheet conveyance passage, and a first flat part. The movable guide includes a projecting portion projectable into the sheet conveyance passage, and a second flat part provided in the projecting portion. The movable guide is attached to the outer guide in such a way as to allow the first and second flat parts to face each other with the projecting portion projecting in the sheet conveyance passage.

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Osaka, Japan

Masayuki Kakuta