Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Noriyoshi Ishikawa

Takeshi Niimura

Toshiharu Inui

Yoshinori Sugiura

Ken Murooka

Chitose Tenpaku

Takeshi Kubota

Akira Kuroda

Nobukazu Adachi

Yoshiro Tsuchiya

Takeshi Setoriyama

Takeshi Sugita

Jun Azuma

Akira Yuza

Tatsuo Hamada

Yoshiya Nomura

Kazuhiro Nakajima

Toshiaki Harada

Masashi Miyagawa

Hiroshi Goto

Masanori Takenouchi

Yasuyuki Tamura

Yoshihiro Ito

Tadashi Yamamoto

A frame structure usable in an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material using a laser source, the apparatus includes a first wall; a second wall opposed to the first wall; first and second connecting members bridging between the first wall and the second wall; a scanner supporting member for supporting an optical device between the first connecting member and the second connecting member; a motor supporting member for supporting a motor between the scanner supporting member and the first wall; wherein the walls, connecting members, scanner supporting member and motor supporting member are integrally molded.

Frame structure and an image forming apparatus using such a frame

A gear unit usable with an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, the image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, an image fixing unit for fixing on a recording material a toner image formed on the image bearing member and transferred to the recording material from the image bearing member, and a feeder for feeding the recording material, the gear unit includes an image bearing member driving gear for transmitting a driving force to the image bearing member; fixing device driving gear for transmitting a driving force to the fixing unit; a feed drive gear for transmitting a driving force to the feeder: a supporting member for supporting the image bearing member driving gear, the image fixing device driving gear and the feed driving gear.

Gear unit, image forming apparatus and gear unit mounting method

Image forming apparatus

A sheet conveying apparatus for use in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine has a sheet conveyance path defining member that defines a curved path along which a sheet is conveyed, a conveyor roller for conveying the sheet along the curved path, a reference position regulating member that engages with a reference side edge of the sheet so as to regulate the sheet position in the breadthwise direction of the sheet during conveyance of the sheet along the curved path, and a guide member for restricting the position of the reference side edge of the sheet in the direction of thickness of the sheet pressed onto the position regulating member. The conveyor roller cooperates with a skewed roller which produces a skewing urging force to bring the reference side edge of the sheet into pressure contact with the reference position regulating member. The guide member prevents the reference side edge of the sheet pressed to the reference position regulating member from buckling or curling into a gap between the reference position regulating member and the conveyor roller. The conveyor roller and the skewed roller are engageable only with a side portion of the sheet adjacent to the reference side edge.

Sheet conveying apparatus having a guide member to prevent buckling or

An assembling method of an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material includes preparing a frame, a feeding unit having a feeding roller, electrical component unit having electrical components and an outer cover; mounting the feeding unit and the electrical component unit to the frame from a position of the frame which takes a bottom position upon installation of the image forming apparatus; and then overturning of the frame; mounting the outer cover to the frame from a position which takes a top position upon installation of the frame.

Image forming apparatus, assembling method of image forming apparatus,

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, to which a process cartridge is detachably mountable, the image forming apparatus including a mounting device for mounting a process cartridge having an image bearing member comprising a helical gear, and a process device actable on the image bearing member; a feeder for feeding the recording material; and projection device for projecting image information light onto the image bearing member in a direction from a projection reference disposed at one side of an axis of the image bearing member to the other side; a positioning reference for positioning the image bearing member in its axial direction; feed guide reference for guiding the recording material fed by the feeder; and wherein the positioning reference, the feed guide reference and the projection reference are disposed in a same side of a main assembly of the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus with helical gear drive train

A sheet feeding device includes a feeding unit for feeding a mounted sheet, a first drive transmission unit for selectively transmitting a drive to the feeding unit, a conveying unit for conveying the sheet fed by the feeding unit, a second drive transmission unit for selectively transmitting a drive to the conveying unit, and a supporting member for integrally supporting the above-described units.

Automatic sheet feeding device

The present invention provides a sheet feeding apparatus with a regulating guide disposed along a sheet feeding path and adapted to regulate a position of a lateral edge of a sheet, first and second rotary members for feeding the sheet along the sheet feeding path and for applying force to the sheet to urge the lateral edge of the sheet against the regulating guide, and a support device for supporting the first and second rotary members in such a manner that they can be shifted in response to reaction force corresponding to the aforementioned force and received from the sheet.

Sheet feeding apparatus

The present invention provides a sheet feed device having a sheet supporting device for supporting a sheet, a regulating member for regulating both one lateral edge and a rear edge of the sheet, and a positioning device for positioning the regulating member in a position depending upon the size of the sheet supported by the sheet supporting device.

Sheet contain device with reference member and regulating member to

The present invention provides a sheet feeding apparatus comprising automatic sheet supply means for automatically supplying a sheet in an automatic mode, manual sheet insertion means for supplying a manually inserted sheet in a manual mode, first detection means capable of detecting the sheet supplied by the automatic sheet supply means and the sheet supplied by the manual sheet insertion means, second detection means disposed at a downstream side of the first detection means and capable of detecting the sheet, and control means for controlling the supply of the sheet to effect the switching between the automatic mode and the manual mode on the basis of the detection by the first detection means and to effect the pre-feed of the sheet on the basis of the detection by the second detection means.

A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a feeding device for feeding a sheet, a regulating member for regulating a position of a lateral edge of the sheet fed by the feeding device, a first rotary member adapted to feed the sheet fed by the feeding device while urging the lateral edge of the sheet against the regulating member, a second rotary member adapted to feed the sheet fed by the first rotary member while urging the lateral edge of the sheet against the regulating member, and a guide device for guiding the sheet in such a manner that the sheet is curved between the feeding device and the first rotary member. An urging force of the first rotary member by which the sheet is urged against the regulating member is set to be equal to or smaller than an urging force of the second rotary member by which the sheet is urged against the regulating member.

An image recording apparatus for effecting the recording of an image on a recording medium has conveying member for conveying a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose transfer characteristic is varied by first energy and second energy differing from the first energy being imparted thereto, a recording section having first energy imparting member for imparting the first energy to the transfer recording medium and second energy imparting member for imparting the second energy to the transfer recording medium, the first and second energy imparting member being provided along the conveyance path of the transfer recording medium conveyed by the conveying member, a transfer section for transferring an image formed on the transfer recording medium in the recording section to the recording medium, and heater provided upstream of the recording section with respect to the direction of conveyance of the transfer recording medium for imparting heat energy to the transfer recording medium.

Image recording method and apparatus

A fixing apparatus having an electrically conductive film which moves in contact with a recording material on which a picture image is held, a pressing roller for causing the film to be brought into contact with the recording material, and a plurality of electrodes disposed along a nip between the film and the pressing roller at a position opposing this pressing roller. The electrically conductive film heats up substantially only in the nip as the result of an electrical conductance to this electrode. An image on the recording material is heated and fixed by the heat generated by the electrically conductive film.

Fixing apparatus

A process for producing a recording medium comprising a substrate and a plurality of image forming elements disposed thereon, which comprises the steps of: applying a binder onto the substrate to form thereon a binder layer; disposing the image forming elements on the binder layer; and simultaneously applying a vibration and a pressure to the image forming elements disposed on the binder layer sufficient to bond the image forming elements to the substrate as a substantially monoparticle layer.

Process for producing recording medium and apparatus therefor

A transfer recording medium comprising a substrate and a plurality of image forming elements bonded thereto by a binder is provided. The surface of each image forming element at least partially protrudes out of the binder. Such transfer recording medium may be prepared by applying the binder onto the substrate in a prescribed thickness, disposing the image forming elements in excess on the binder, and then removing the excess of the image forming elements. The thus prepared transfer recording medium provides an image having a high density and a faithfully reproducible color.

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Yokohama, Japan

Noriyoshi Ishikawa