Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Takao Nada

Tomoya Tateishi

Noritomo Yamaguchi

Hisayuki Tomura

Keisuke Mitsuhashi

Michio Uchida

Tomonori Shida

Kiyoharu Yoshioka

Takuma Abe

Kenichi Iida

Akimichi Suzuki

Atsushi Kawarago

Masatoshi Yoshida

Hidetoshi Yamashita

Hiroyuki Tanaka

Takayuki Mizuta

Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Yuta Hojo

Youhei Suzuki

Naoyuki Maeda

Fumiaki Mizuno

Shinya Kawakami

Shuntaro Tezuka

Taku Nishikawa

An image forming apparatus includes a casing including a discharge port, an upper unit arranged above the casing, a first supporting member supporting the upper unit, and a second supporting member supporting the upper unit. The casing includes a first side plate, a second side plate, and a frame member arranged downstream of the discharge port in the sheet discharge direction. In the sheet width direction, the first side plate and the first supporting member are arranged on a first side, and the second side plate and the second supporting member are arranged on a second side opposite to the first side. The frame member includes a first surface connected to the first side plate, a second surface connected to the second side plate, a third surface connected to the first supporting member, and a fourth surface connected to the second supporting member.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing apparatus configured to fix onto a sheet-shaped recording medium a toner image formed on a surface of the recording medium, the fixing apparatus is detachable from an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus, and the fixing apparatus includes: a fixing member configured to fix the toner image onto the recording medium; a case that houses the fixing member; a cable whose first end is connected to the fixing member; and a connector that is connected to a second end on a side opposite to the first end of the cable, and the connector is fixed to an outer wall surface of the case that faces in a direction opposite to an attaching direction in which the fixing apparatus is attached to the apparatus main body.

Image forming apparatus having a fixing unit with a cable connector provided on an attachment portion

A sheet regulating portion includes a body portion including a regulating surface facing an edge of a sheet, a pressing member having a pressing portion capable of projecting out of the body portion, an upper portion formed integrally with an upper part of the pressing portion so as to project to a sheet side and regulating an upward move of the sheet, and an urging member to urge the pressing member so that the pressing portion presses the edge of the sheet. In addition, a holding portion holds the pressing portion movably from a projecting position where the pressing portion projects out of the body portion to a retracting position where the upper portion enters within the body portion while inclining the pressing portion with respect to the regulating surface by resisting against the urging member when the upper portion is pressed from above.

Sheet storing apparatus, sheet feeding apparatus, and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding device includes a stacking portion, a first roller, a second roller, a third roller rotatable to provide peripheral movement in a predetermined direction and to provide peripheral movement in a direction opposite to the predetermined direction, a detecting unit, a driving unit for executing a feeding operation by the first roller, and a control unit for providing an instruction to the driving unit so as to continue or stop the feeding operation. The predetermined rotational frequency is larger than 0 and is smaller than a rotational frequency of the third roller in a period in which the third roller is rotated in the predetermined direction in a state in which a single recording material is fed to the nip.

Sheet feeding device

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member for bearing a toner image, a rotatable endless belt, a first driving member for rotationally driving the endless belt and in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the endless belt, and a second driving member for rotationally driving the endless belt and in contact with an outer peripheral surface of the endless belt. In addition, a tension detecting unit detects a state of tension of the endless belt and a controller controls a rotational speed of the second driving member. A driving force applied from the second driving member to the endless belt is smaller than a driving force applied from the first driving member to the endless belt, and the tension detecting unit includes a metal roller contacting the inner peripheral surface of the endless belt and detects the tension by movement of the metal roller which follows the endless belt. The controller controls, on the basis of a detection result of the tension detecting unit, the rotational speed of the second driving member so that the state of tension of the endless belt is a predetermined state.

Image forming apparatus having endless belt tension detection

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying belt for carrying a toner image; an image forming station for forming toner image on the image carrying belt; a sheet feeding belt for feeding a sheet; a transfer member for transferring the toner image from the carrying belt onto the sheet fed on the feeding belt; and a controller for controlling speeds of the carrying belt and the feeding belt. The controller is capable of controlling a relative speed between the carrying belt and the feeding belt at multiple levels. The image forming station forms a first toner pattern on the carrying belt in a state that the relative speed is at a first level, and forms a second toner pattern on the carrying belt in a state that the relative speed is at a second level which is different from the first level. The transfer member transfers the first toner pattern and the second toner pattern onto the sheet carried on the feeding belt.

The image forming apparatus includes an endless and movable transfer material bearing belt, a transfer member, an opposing member and a belt guide member, wherein a conveyance direction of the transfer material in a first area is substantially the same as a conveyance direction of the transfer material in a second area, the first area corresponding to a nip area formed by the opposing member and the transfer member and the second area corresponding to an area in which the belt guide member bringing the transfer material bearing belt and the image bearing belt come into contact with each other. By the virtue of the present invention, a transfer material is restrained from scraping off the leading end of a toner image before the leading end of the toner image enters a transfer nip portion, while suppressing spattering of the toner image on the upstream of the transfer nip portion.

In order to provide a sheet conveying apparatus and an image forming apparatus capable of alleviating a bumping noise generated between a sheet and an inner guide member when the sheet passes through a curved sheet conveying path, a pair of intermediate conveying rollers is arranged in positions corresponding to both lateral sides in a width direction of the feeding roller and subsidiary feeding roller in a sheet conveyance direction. In addition, the subsidiary intermediate conveying roller abuts on the intermediate conveying roller with an inclination such that the sheet conveyance force is directed to the center of the sheet conveying path in a width direction. As a result, the sheet makes contact with the inner guide member of the facing guide member of the sheet conveying path by undulating the sheet in a width direction when the sheet is extracted and conveyed by the pair of intermediate conveying rollers.

Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus

A toner image formed on an image bearing member is transferred onto a recording material so as to overflow from an edge portion of the recording material, thereby enabling the toner image to be formed so as to extend to the edge portion of the recording material. To suppress the deposition of the toner in the edge portion of the recording material, a cleaning member for cleaning the edge portion of the recording material obtained after the fixing is provided. In order to make a trailing edge of the recording material come into contact with the cleaning member, the recording material which has passed through a fixing apparatus is temporarily switched back, thereby allowing the trailing edge portion of the recording material to collide with the cleaning member.

Unit for cleaning edge portion of recording material or image forming apparatus

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a cartridge supporting member movable between an inside position in the main assembly of the apparatus and an outside position outside the main assembly. The apparatus further includes a first opening through which the cartridge supporting member passes between the inside position and the outside position and a first openable member for openably closing the first opening. A second opening is provided continuing from the first opening and provided above the first opening, with the second opening being effective to permit the cartridge to be removed from the cartridge supporting member in the state that the cartridge supporting member takes the outside position and being effective to permit the supporting member to support the cartridge. The apparatus also includes a second openable member for openably closing the second opening.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus with openings for cartridge insertion and removal

A compact image forming apparatus is provided in which stains on the back of a transfer material can be prevented. In particular, in a marginless print mode in which a toner image can be formed to the edge of a transfer material, a large amount of toner adheres to a transfer-material bearing member. The image forming apparatus includes a collecting member that can temporarily collect the toner adhering to the transfer-material bearing member. The toner that is temporarily collected by the collecting member is transferred to an intermediate transfer member and is cleaned by a cleaning unit.

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a cartridge supporting member supporting a plurality of cartridges and moving between a position inside a main body of the apparatus and a mounting and detaching position for mounting and detaching the cartridges. The apparatus further includes an engaging portion provided to one of the supporting member and the main body at a position corresponding to the mounting and detaching position for at least one cartridge, and a pressure member provided to the other and elastically urged to disengageably engage with the engaging portion. When the supporting member is moved from the inside position to the mounting and detaching position, a load required for movement of the supporting member at the mounting and detaching position is made larger than a load required for movement at other positions than the mounting and detaching position.

Color electrophotographic image forming apparatus with member supporting a plurality of cartridges

Provided is an image forming apparatus in which the image forming apparatus has a marginless mode in which the toner image is formed on said image bearing member in an area that covers the recording material and an area outside the recording material, and the toner image is transferred to extend beyond an edge of the recording material carried by said recording material carrying member, the image forming apparatus further including: a detecting device which detects the toner image that extends beyond the edge of the recording material and is transferred to said recording material carrying member in the marginless mode; and a control device which uses a detection result provided by said detecting device to control where said exposure device forms a latent image on said image bearing member.

Image forming apparatus for marginless printing

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a main body, cartridge support, an engaging portion, and a pressure member. The support supports a plurality of cartridges and moves between a first position in the main body and a second position for mounting and detaching the cartridges. The engaging portion is provided to one of the support and the main body at a position corresponding to the second position for at least one cartridge. The pressure member is provided to the other and is elastically urged to disengageably engage the engaging portion. When the support moves from the first to the second position, a load required for movement of the support at the second position is larger than a load required for the movement at other positions than the second position, by engagement of the pressure member with the engaging portion.

Growing community of inventors

Numazu, Japan

Takao Nada