Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippon Seimitsu Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Takahiro Azeta

Toshifumi Moritani

Toshiyuki Watanabe

Tomio Noguchi

Tsuyoshi Waragai

Kazuhiro Hosohara

Kenji Matsuzaka

Hiroshi Yukimachi

Kei Hayashida

Kenji Baba

Akira Higeta

Hiroo Kobayashi

Kazuyuki Kubota

Hiroaki Miyake

Masao Ando

Yoshiro Tsuchiya

Toru Kameyama

Tadashi Yagi

Harukazu Sekiya

Kaoru Sato

Junichi Kimizuka

Tomoyuki Araki

Teruo Komatsu

Yasunari Kobaru

Toshihiko Inuyama

Akihisa Kusano

Shinji Goto

Kazuhiko Okazawa

Takamasa Sawada

Makoto Abe

Toshiyuki Ito

Takeshi Matoba

Osamu Hoshii

Masahito Ohtsuka

Masahito Otsuka

An image forming apparatus includes a main body that includes a photosensitive member on which an electrostatic latent image is formed and a development unit configured to develop the photosensitive member with toner. The main body is configured to discharge a recording material on which an image is formed with the toner onto a discharge tray. The image forming apparatus also includes a toner supply port on which a supply container is mounted to supply toner to a toner containing portion of the development unit. The image forming apparatus further includes a non-contact communication portion including an antenna and configured to receive a signal for user authentication. The discharge tray, the toner supply port, and the non-contact communication portion are provided at an upper portion of the main body. The non-contact communication portion is provided outside the discharge tray when the main body is viewed from above.

Techniques and mechanisms for supplying toner to an image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus with mechanism for supplying the image forming apparatus with toner

Image forming apparatus with a mechanism for supplying toner for forming an image, and method thereof

The apparatus includes a first clutch and a second clutch. The first clutch transmits rotation of the driving unit in a first rotation direction to the first feeding device without transmitting rotation of the driving unit in a second rotation direction that is reverse to the first rotation direction to the first feeding device. The second clutch transmits the rotation of the driving unit in the second rotation direction to the conveyance device and the double-side printing conveyance device and without transmitting the rotation of the driving unit in the first rotation direction to the conveyance device and the double-side printing conveyance device. The third transmission path is configured to transmit the rotation of the driving unit to a conveyance device. The fourth transmission path is configured to transmit the rotation of the driving unit to a double-side printing conveyance device.

Recording medium conveyance apparatus and image forming apparatus

The image forming apparatus has: a photoreceptor; an exposure unit that exposes the photoreceptor to light; a first contact portion; and a positioning portion provided in the exposure unit, this portion coming into contact with the first contact portion to position the exposure unit in a first position where the photoreceptor is exposed to light. The image forming apparatus also has: a second contact portion; and a contacted portion provided in the exposure unit, wherein the contacted portion is brought into contact with the second contact portion, thereby positioning the exposure unit in a second position where the positioning portion and the first contact portion are separated from each other.

Image forming apparatus with guide for exposure unit

The image forming apparatus configured such that a primarily-transferred toner image is secondarily transferred onto a recording material at a secondary transfer portion formed between a transfer belt and a secondary transfer roller, includes a belt unit configured to support the transfer belt in a rotatable manner; and a sheet feeding unit configured to feed the recording material toward the secondary transfer portion. Both the belt unit and the sheet feeding unit are positioned and fixed on the same main stay, so that higher printing accuracy is achieved in consideration of a mutual positional relationship between the sheet feeding portion and the image forming portion.

Image forming apparatus

A recording material separating apparatus has a rotary member contacting with a recording material, a separating member for contacting with the rotary member and separating the recording material from the rotary member, and a guide member for guiding that surface of the recording material separated from the rotary member which is adjacent to the rotary member. The guide member is provided for retraction from a guide position by the pressure of the recording material when jammed, and the separating member is retracted from a separating position in operative association with the retracting action of the guide member.

Recording material separating apparatus of which separating member is retractable in operative association with guide

An object of the present invention is to provide a fixing apparatus that has a fixing rotator in contact with a recording material supporting an unfixed image, a pressure rotator in pressure contact with the fixing rotator, a support member supporting the pressure rotator and swingable around a plurality of fulcrums, an elastic member for biasing the support member so that the pressure rotator is biased to the fixing rotator, and pressure contact force changing device for changing a pressure contact force by swinging the support member against the biasing force of the elastic member, wherein the pressure contact force changing device can change the pressure contact force while the pressure rotator is in pressure contact with the fixing rotator.

Fixing apparatus capable of changing pressure contact force

The present invention provides a sheet supply apparatus comprising a lifter device for maintaining a height of an upper surface of a sheet stack supported by a sheet supporting device substantially constant by lifting or lowering the sheet supporting device, and a supply device for feeding out an uppermost sheet from the sheet stack maintained in a constant height position by the lifter device, and wherein the lifter device comprises a clutch member for transmitting a predetermined amount of rotation from a drive gear, a rock member for rocking a ratchet pawl by the rotation transmitted by the clutch member, a ratchet gear engageable by the ratchet pawl and rotated by a rocking movement of the ratchet pawl, a lifter member connected to the ratchet gear and adapted to lift the sheet supporting member by rotation of the ratchet gear, and an actuation device shifted in accordance with the height of the upper surface of the sheet stack rested on the sheet supporting device and adapted to actuate the clutch member when the height of the upper surface of the sheet stack is below a predetermined height.

Sheet supply apparatus

An image forming apparatus having a sheet material conveyor includes an image forming unit, a sheet material conveyor on which an image is formed by the image forming unit, a conveying path situated at a downstream side of the conveyor for guiding the sheet material which may be upwardly curved, a paper discharging tray for supporting the sheet material guided through the conveying path, discharging rollers situated at an exit side of the conveying path which can switch between a forward rotation for discharging the sheet material onto the paper discharging tray and a reverse rotation for returning the sheet material in a direction opposite to the direction of discharge, and a reconveying path for accepting the sheet material returned on the conveying path by the reverse rotation of the discharging rollers and for guiding again the sheet material to the image forming unit.

Image forming apparatus having a sheet material transport device

A sheet conveyer having a sheet registration device for an image forming apparatus having a sheet path for guiding a sheet having an image recorded on one side thereof back to an image forming unit for recording another image on the other side, comprises a mechanism for switching the sheet having the image recorded on one side thereof back to the sheet path, a mechanism for abutting the switched-back sheet against a lateral registration reference plane, and a preliminary shift function shared by the switch-back mechanism for shifting the sheet oppositely to the reference plane.

Sheet conveyer having a sheet aligner

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus having a first image forming unit incorporating an image formation processing device therein, a sheet supply station for feeding a sheet to the first image forming unit, and a sheet ejecting station for ejecting the sheet on which an image is formed by the first image forming unit out of the image forming apparatus. Wherein a second image forming unit having the same function and size as those of the first image forming unit is mounted within the image forming apparatus and a sheet inlet of the second image forming unit is directly connected to the sheet ejecting station.

Image forming apparatus with plural forming units

This invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a convey path comprising lateral movement apparatus for controlling a widthwise position of a sheet member to be conveyed, wherein the lateral movement apparatus is curved in a convey direction.

Image forming apparatus comprising lateral movement means

A sheet obliquely conveying apparatus is provided with a pair of sheet conveying rollers including a forwardly and reversely rotatable drive roller and a follower roller rotatable in contact with the drive roller, and bearing structure for rotatably supporting the shaft of the follower roller. The dimension of the bearing portion of the bearing structure which supports one end of the shaft of the follower roller is greater generally along the direction of conveyance of a sheet material than the dimension of the bearing portion of the bearing structure which supports the other end of the shaft of the follower roller. The apparatus is further provided with a resilient device generally parallel to the direction of conveyance of the sheet material for pressing the shaft of the follower roller.

Apparatus for conveying a sheet obliquely

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Kawasaki, Japan

Takahiro Azeta