Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Brother Industries, Ltd.

Tadanobu Chikamoto

Hiroshi Taira

Yoshirou Kita

Atsushi Hirota

Hidetoshi Watanabe

Atsuo Sakaida

Shuichi Tamaki

Noritsugu Ito

Akira Shinoda

Takashi Ohama

Suguru Tomoguchi

Hideki Yamamoto

Akinori Igarashi

Kenichi Hirata

Masayuki Okumura

Mamoru Namba

Hiroshi Shiomi

Genki Hoshino

Hideki Shioya

Tetsuo Asada

Yasuo Nishikawa

Gakuro Kanazawa

Motoshi Kishi

Mikio Hirano

Masahiro Nishizaki

Kazuyoshi Minaminaka

Tatsuo Terakura

Shinichi Hirahata

Morimasa Kajiura

Yuji Mizoguchi

Yasuhiro Ogawa

A reading apparatus, having a document tray, an ejection tray, a conveyer path connecting the document tray and the ejection tray and having a curved section, a conveyer to convey an original document in a conveying orientation, a first reading sensor, and a second reading sensor, is provided. The first reading sensor is located upstream in the conveying orientation from the curved section in the conveyer path. The first reading sensor optically reads a first side of the original document from below. The second reading sensor is located upstream in the conveying orientation from the first reading sensor in the conveyer path. The second reading sensor optically reads a second side of the original document from above. The first side and the second side are sides of the original document that face upward and downward, respectively, in the state where an original document is placed on the document tray.

Reading apparatus with sensors located at different positions along a conveyer path

A sheet feeding device includes: an accommodating unit having a placement surface on which the stack of sheets is mounted; an inclined member having an inclined surface inclined relative to the placement surface to extend in an inclined direction and a back surface opposite the inclined surface; a sheet pick-up unit for feeding an uppermost sheet in the stack of sheets toward the inclined member; and a sheet separating member provided on the inclined surface. The sheet separating member includes a plurality of separation pieces and a support portion those made of resin. The support portion supports the separation pieces at positions closer to the back surface than to the inclined surface so that the separation pieces are movable away from the placement surface in the inclined direction and toward the back surface in a normal direction of the inclined surface independently from one another.

Sheet feeding device including a plurality of separation pieces movable to separate uppermost sheet from stack of sheets

A reading apparatus, having a platen glass, a document cover, a conveyer, a reading sensor, a document supporting member, a pressing plate, and a linkage assembly, is provided. The document cover is movable between an open position and a closed position. The document supporting member is movable between a first position, where the document supporting member faces a reading surface of the reading sensor, and a second position, where the document supporting member is separated from the reading surface. The pressing plate is movable between a third position, where the pressing plate is attached to a lower side of the document cover, and a fourth position, where the pressing plate is removed from the lower side. The linkage assembly moves the document supporting member from the first position to the second position in conjunction with the pressing member moving from the third position to the fourth position.

Reading apparatus

A sheet tray includes: a tray body; first and second guides slidable on the tray body and contactable with a sheet; an interlocking mechanism; and a plate including first and second plate engaging portions. The first guide includes a first guide engagement portion and a first operation portion. The second guide includes a second guide engagement portion and a second operation portion. When the first operation portion and the second operation portion are located at non-operated positions, the plate is located at a first position where the first and second plate engaging portions are respectively engaged with the first and second guide engagement portions. When the first operation portion and/or the second operation portion is located at an operated position, the plate is located at a second position where the first and second plate engaging portions are respectively spaced apart from the first and second guide engagement portions.

Sheet tray and image forming apparatus

A conveying apparatus includes: receiving trays arranged vertically and has a lowest tray and a first receiving tray; a conveying mechanism; a supporter supporting the receiving trays; and a swing mechanism configured to swing the first receiving tray with respect to the supporter to one of a receiving position at which the first receiving tray receives a medium and an upper position. The swing mechanism is configured to: keep the first receiving tray at the upper position when a first external force directed in a direction in which the first receiving tray is moved from the upper position toward the receiving position is not applied to the first receiving tray located at the upper position; and swing the first receiving tray with respect to the supporter toward the receiving position when the first external force is applied to the first receiving tray.

Conveying apparatus and tray unit

A conveyor, including: receiving trays; a conveyance mechanism; and a support supporting the trays, wherein at least one tray except a lowermost tray is supported so as to be selectively positioned at one of a receiving position and an upper position, wherein at least one lower tray except an uppermost tray includes a protruding portion attached to a tray body so as to be selectively positioned at one of a protruding position and a retracted position, and wherein the conveyor includes a force transmitting mechanism for effectuating at least one of (a) a retracting movement of the protruding portion of one of the at least one lower tray from the protruding position to the retracted position caused by an upward movement of an adjacent upper tray disposed just above and immediately adjacent to the one of the at least one lower tray from the receiving position to the upper position.

Conveyor and tray unit

A conveying apparatus includes: receiving trays including (i) a lowest tray, (ii) a first receiving tray different from the lowest tray, and (iii) at least one second receiving tray including one second receiving tray disposed just below the first receiving tray; a conveying mechanism; and a supporter supporting the receiving trays. The conveying apparatus further includes a transmission mechanism configured to perform at least one of: transmission of upward movement of the first receiving tray from a receiving position to an upper position, to downward movement of the one second receiving tray from the receiving position to a lower position; and transmission of the downward movement of the one second receiving tray to the upward movement of the first receiving tray.

An image recording apparatus including: (a) a head assembly including (a-) recording heads having respective nozzle opening surfaces and (a-) a head frame supporting the recording heads; (b) annular protrusions each of which is to be brought into contact with the head assembly, so as to surround the plurality of nozzles opening in the corresponding nozzle opening surface; (c) a supporting tray elongated in a supporting-tray longitudinal direction and supporting the annular protrusions; (d) a movement mechanism configured to move the head assembly and/or the supporting tray, and (e) a positioning pin projecting from a pin-located portion of the supporting tray. The pin-located portion is outside the annular protrusions, and is located in a center of the supporting tray in the supporting-tray longitudinal direction. The head frame has a positioning hole, into which the positioning pin is to be introduced upon contact of each annular protrusion with the head assembly.

Image recording apparatus

A cartridge includes a substrate and an engagement portion. The first surface faces a first direction and has a first surface on which an electrical terminal is disposed. The engagement portion includes a second surface disposed upstream from the substrate in the first direction and a third surface. The second surface faces a second direction, which forms an obtuse angle with the first direction. The third surface faces a third direction, which forms an acute angle with the first direction. The third surface does not overlap with the substrate in the first direction and the third surface is disposed downstream from the second surface in the first direction.

Cartridges and recording apparatuses

An image recording apparatus includes heads arranged so that their ejection faces make a first row and a second row each extending in a first direction, caps to cover respective ejection faces of the heads, and a moving mechanism to move the caps. When the caps are at their withdrawal positions, the caps corresponding to the respective heads constituting the first row are disposed so as to overlap the heads of the first row with respect to a second direction parallel to the ejection faces, and overlap the heads of the second row with respect to the first direction, and the caps corresponding to the respective heads constituting the second row are disposed so as to overlap the heads of the second row with respect to the second direction, and overlap the heads of the first row with respect to the first direction.

An ink-jet recording apparatus, including: an ink-jet head; a conveyor mechanism; a sensor to detect a recording medium being conveyed; a detecting device; an output device; and a controller to control the relative movement mechanism to conduct a first operation in which the conveyor mechanism and the ink-jet head are located at a medium removal position from a recording position, when the detecting device detects a jam, to control the conveyor mechanism to conduct a second operation in which an unremoved jammed recording medium which has not been removed by the user is conveyed so as to be detectable by the sensor, when the output device outputs a jam-clearing completion signal, and to control the relative movement mechanism to conduct a third operation in which the conveyor mechanism and the head are located at the recording position from the medium removal position after the second operation.

Ink-jet recording apparatus for dealing with jams of recording media

A printer has an inkjet head, which has a passage composite. The passage composite has a main body, having a surface and a projection portion that extends outward from the surface. The projection portion has an opening formed through it, and the projection portion also has an end, and an edge opposite the end. The main body also has at least one rib positioned outside the projection portion. The at least one rib extends away from the surface, and is separated by a predetermined nonzero distance from the edge of the projection portion.

Passage composite, an ink jet head and a printer

A head cap for protecting an ink ejecting face of an ink-jet head may be provided with a plate member. The plate member may be opposed to the ink ejecting face. The head cap may include a flexible, continuous lip, which projects from one surface of the plate member. Recesses may be formed in the one surface of the plate member. Through-holes may be formed through the bottom walls of the recesses, respectively. Films may further be used where each covers the associated through-hole and is joined partially to a circumferential edge portion of the associated recess.

Cap and ink-jet head protection assembly

A liquid ejecting apparatus, including: a medium conveying mechanism which conveys a medium in a first direction; a head pair composed of two liquid ejecting heads respectively having liquid ejection surfaces in which liquid ejection areas are respectively formed, the two heads having respective one end portions overlapping each other as viewed in the first direction, and disposed such that the respective one end portions are adjacent to each other in the first direction; two wipers for wiping the respective ejection surfaces; and a wiper moving mechanism configured to move the two wipers in mutually opposite directions, wherein the ejection areas partly overlap each other as viewed in the first direction, wherein, when each wiper is placed by the wiper moving mechanism at a wiping start position at which each wiper does not face the corresponding ejection surface, the two wipers partly overlap each other as viewed in the first direction, and wherein, when each wiper is placed at a wiping complete position at which each wiper does not face the corresponding ejection surface, the two wipers overlap each other as viewed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

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Nagoya, Japan

Tadanobu Chikamoto