Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Takuro Kusama

Sakae Ito

Satoru Hattori

Takashi Shimizu

Fumio Morita

Yoshinori Ito

Tomitake Aratachi

Ryoichi Matsushima

Yoichi Horaguchi

Masamitsu Ukai

Toshitaka Iwago

Makoto Hasegawa

A developer cartridge includes a first gear rotatable about a first axis extending in an axial direction, and a second gear rotatable in a rotation direction about a second axis extending in the axial direction. The second gear includes: an engagement portion engageable with gear teeth of the first gear; a first protrusion and a second protrusion protruding in the axial direction. The first and second protrusions extend to be spaced apart from each other in the rotation direction. The first protrusion has first end and a second end defining a first angle therebetween about the second axis. The second protrusion has a third end and a fourth end farther away from the first protrusion than the third end is in the rotation direction. The second end and the third end define a second angle therebetween about the second axis. The first angle is smaller than the second angle.

Developer cartridge provided with gear having protrusions for detection

An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.

Image-forming apparatus

Image-forming apparatus including lower housing and upper housing disposed over the lower housing and movable between closed and open positions

There is provided an automatic document feeder, comprising: a document tray; an output tray; a first rotating body that ejects the document to the output tray; a second rotating body that ejects the document to the output tray; a reversing mechanism that reverses a carrying direction of the document which passed the reading portion to carry again the document to the reading portion; a sinking mechanism that sinks the document into a position between a bottom of a document already stacked on the output tray and a surface of the output tray; and a switching mechanism configured to switch between a first motion of carrying the document to the first rotating body and a second motion of carrying the document to the second rotating body, in accordance with whether the reversing mechanism is activated.

Automatic document feeder and image reading device

A sheet feeder includes a feed tray receiving sheets, a catch tray receiving the sheets ejected thereon, a feeding mechanism conveying the sheets from the feed tray to the catch tray, an ejection mode switching mechanism switching an ejection mode between a first mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected on a stack of sheets already ejected and a second mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected and inserted under a stack of sheets already ejected, an ejection detecting sensor detecting a sheet ejected on the catch tray, and a controller configured to, in response to an instruction to start feeding the sheets, forbid driving of the feeding mechanism when determining that the ejection mode is set to the second mode and determining with the ejection detecting sensor that a sheet is on the catch tray.

Sheet feeder and document scanner having ejection detecting sensor

A document feeding device includes: a document placing tray; a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray; a feeding path; a separating mechanism; and ejection rollers. A nip position of the ejection rollers is arranged in a side opposite to a side where the document placing tray is arranged with reference to a vertical plane passing through a separation position of the separating mechanism.

Document feeding device with oppositely arranged document placing and ejection trays

A document feeder includes a conveying path extended from a document supplying position to a reading position, a first conveying roller pair provided upstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document, a second conveying roller pair provided downstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document faster than the first conveying roller pair, a post-reading conveying path extended downstream from a nipping position of the second conveying roller pair, the post-reading conveying path being located above a plane tangent to the second conveying roller pair at the nipping position running in a reverse sheet feed direction, and a third conveying roller pair provided on the post-reading conveying path and nipping and conveying the document conveyed from the second conveying roller pair at a conveying force equivalent to that of the second conveying roller pair.

Document feeder

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries a developer image; a transfer member that transfers the developer image carried on the image carrier onto an image forming surface of a recording medium being conveyed; a fixation member that is disposed downstream of the transfer member in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, and fixes the developer image transferred on the recording medium; a first member that is disposed between the transfer member and the fixation member to face the image forming surface of the recording medium; and a second member that is disposed between the transfer member and the fixation member to face a non-image forming surface that is opposite the image forming surface, wherein the first member is provided with a first electrically-conductive member having an electric conductivity and being grounded.

Image forming apparatus

A sheet feeder includes a housing having a cassette housing part recessed horizontally from the front surface toward the depth direction and a sheet feed cassette that can be drawn from the cassette housing part. The sheet feed cassette has an open top for storing sheets of paper. The sheet feeder includes a pressure plate provided pivotably about a first pivot so as to be inclined downwardly toward the depth direction of the sheet feed cassette and a pressure mechanism that presses sheets of paper against a pick-up roller when the sheet feed cassette is pushed into the cassette housing part. The sheet feeder includes a pressure plate regulation mechanism that inclines the pressure plate downwardly toward the depth direction while separating sheets of paper on the pressure plate or the pressure plate from the pick-up roller when the sheet feed cassette is drawn from the cassette housing part.

Sheet Feeder

A document feeding device includes a document placing tray, a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray, a feeding path, a first reversal path, a second reversal path, and a reversing mechanism. The document ejection tray has a flap portion capable of rocking up and down to provide a first ejection mode and a second ejection mode. The reversing mechanism is configured to temporarily eject part of a document to the document ejection tray.

Inverting document feeding device with flap portion

A document feeding device includes a document placing tray, a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray, a feeding path, a first reversal path, a second reversal path, and a reversing mechanism. The document ejection tray has a flap portion capable of rocking up and down to provide a first ejection mode and a second ejection mode. The reversing mechanism is configured to temporarily eject part of a document to a space portion between the document placing tray and the document ejection tray.

A document feeding device comprises an input tray, an output tray, a feeding mechanism for a feeding path, a turnover mechanism for a turnover path, ejection rollers, and an ejection mechanism. The ejection mechanism switches between a first ejection mode (for successively ejecting each document while stacking the document on documents previously ejected to the output tray) and a second ejection mode (for successively ejecting each document while sliding the document under the previously ejected documents) by relatively moving a nipping position of the ejection rollers and an upstream end of the output tray in the vertical direction. Also included are a pressing member which is pivotable up and down on the downstream side of the ejection rollers and which presses down the ejected documents in the first ejection mode, and a retracting mechanism which retracts the pressing member by pivoting the pressing member upward in the second ejection mode.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Takuro Kusama