Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Takuya Yamaguchi

Yoshiteru Hattori

Atsushi Hayakawa

Junichi Yokoi

Yasuo Tamaru

Shogo Mori

Yasunori Watanabe

Yosuke Aoi

Hiroshi Nakano

Tomoya Yamamoto

Ryosuke Sakai

Norio Uchida

Kazuya Taira

Yohsuke Hata

Tatsuaki Mori

Takahiro Nozaki

An image forming apparatus includes a developing cartridge, a photosensitive drum, a lever, and an electrical connector. The developing cartridge includes a developing roller rotatable about a first axis extending in a first direction, a memory storing information related to the developing cartridge, and an electrical contact electrically connected to the memory. The photosensitive drum is rotatable about a second axis extending in the first direction. The lever moves the developing cartridge between a first position where a surface of the developing roller contacts a surface of the photosensitive drum and a second position where the surface of the developing roller separates from the surface of the photosensitive drum. The electrical connector contacts the electrical contact in the second position of the developing cartridge, and separates from the electrical contact in the first position of the developing cartridge.

Image forming apparatus having developing cartridge movable relative to photosensitive drum

An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus body including a housing cover, a printer, a discharge roller, a discharge portion, a scanner, and a document cover. The discharge portion is recessed downward in a vertical direction relative to an upper surface of the housing cover and includes a first wall and a second wall, and a receiving surface situated therebetween. The scanner is disposed downstream from the discharge portion in a sheet discharge direction, and includes a document table and an image sensor. The document cover is configured to pivot between a first position at which the document cover covers the document table of the scanner from above and a second position that is different from the first position. When the document cover is located at the first position, an upper surface of the document cover is substantially level with a downstream end of the receiving surface.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a casing, a cover member having an opening and supported by the casing, a tray configured to pivot between a first position covering the opening and a second position uncovering the opening, and first and second lock members. The first lock member is configured to move between a first lock position in which the cover member is locked in a closed position and a first release position in which a locked state of the cover member is released. The second lock member is configured to move between a second lock position in which the tray is locked in the first position and a second release position in which a locked state of the tray is released, and is configured to move to the second lock position in response to movement of the first lock member to the first release position.

Image forming apparatus having cover member, sheet tray and locking members

An image forming apparatus has a drawer accommodating a plurality of photosensitive drums. The photosensitive drums are arranged in an arrangement direction. A supporting member is configured to support the drawer, inside the casing, such that the drawer is movable, in the arrangement direction, between an accommodated position and an exposed position at which the drawer is partially protruded outside the casing. A belt is arranged to convey the sheet, and has a stretched surface extending in the arrangement direction and facing the photosensitive drums. A registration roller pair serves to adjust an orientation of the sheet conveyed from the sheet feed tray and conveys the sheet through a nip between the first registration roller and the second registration roller toward the stretched surface of the belt. The registration roller pair is integrally secured to the drawer so as to be movable in the arrangement direction together with the drawer.

Image forming apparatus having drawer

An image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor which is rotatable with respect to a body frame, an exposing member which is movable relative to the body frame, a spacing member which is provided between the exposing member and the photoreceptor to maintain a distance between the photoreceptor and the exposing member, a positioning member which makes a contact with the exposing member to position the exposing member in a direction of rotation of the photoreceptor, and a pressing member which is provided to the body frame to press the exposing member toward the photoreceptor and the positioning member. Accordingly, it is possible to position the exposing member accurately with respect to the photoreceptor, in any of the light-axis direction and the rotational direction of the photoreceptor.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a casing, a cover member having an opening and supported by the casing, a first lock member configured to move between a first lock position in which the cover member is locked in an closed position and a first release position in which a locked state of the cover member is released, a tray configured to pivot between a first position covering the opening and a second position uncovering the opening, and a second lock member configured to move between a second lock position in which the tray is locked in the first position and a second release position in which a locked state of the tray is released, the second lock member being configured to move to the second lock position in response to movement of the first lock member to the first release position.

Image forming apparatus having cover member with locking member

An image forming apparatus, including a main body with a first sheet outlet tray and an image forming unit, a feed path configured to guide a sheet from the image forming unit toward the first sheet outlet tray, is provided. The feed path includes a first exit path to guide a sheet toward the first sheet outlet tray and a first duplex path diverging from the feed path to guide a sheet to return to the image forming unit. The main body is attachable with a sheet-exit unit. The sheet-exit unit includes a second sheet outlet tray, a second exit path, and a second duplex path. The second exit path guides a sheet to the second sheet outlet tray. The second exit path is connected with the first exit path when the sheet-exit unit is attached to the main body.

An image forming apparatus includes: a rotary member which rotates with respect to an apparatus main body between a first position and a second position; and a buffering member connected to the apparatus main body and the rotary member for buffering an impact attributable to the rotation of the rotary member. The buffering member includes: a hollow member; a movable member moveable between an evacuation position and an advance position; and a slide member provided to the movable member and contactable with an inner circumferential surface of the hollow member. The slide member is deformable such that a first pressure on the hollow member when the rotary member rotates from the first position to the second position is larger than a second pressure on the hollow member when the rotary member rotates from the second position to the first position.

An image forming device, comprising: a sheet-like medium accommodation unit; a supply member that carries a sheet-like medium; a pair of separation members that separate the sheet-like medium one by one; an image formation unit; a carrying path; a re-carrying unit to move inversely the sheet-like medium whose top face has been subjected to printing; a moving mechanism to move the supply member close to or away from the sheet-like medium and to move the pair of separation members close to or away from each other so that a path for the inversely carried sheet-like medium is formed; and a control unit to control the moving mechanism such that, when back-face printing is performed, the supply member is in a state of being moved away from the sheet-like medium and the pair of separation members are in a state of being moved away from each other.

Image forming device

An image forming apparatus includes: a main body having an opening; a plurality of photosensitive members disposed in the main body; a cover configured to open and close the opening; and a plurality of exposure members that is provided at the cover and is configured to expose the plurality of photosensitive members, respectively. The cover includes a cover-side metal plate provided along a surface of the cover. Entire parts of the plurality of exposure members overlap with the cover-side metal plate, when seen in a direction normal to the cover-side metal plate. At least four positions of the cover-side metal plate, which surround the plurality of exposure members, are electrically grounded at a state in which the cover is closed.

Grounding configuration for an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising a process unit having a charger that charges a photosensitive member, a fixing unit having a heat source for thermally fixing a developer image formed on a recording sheet by the process unit, an apparatus body configured to accommodate the process unit and the fixing unit and having an ejection port above the fixing unit, the ejection port being used for ejecting the recording sheet ejected from the fixing unit to the outside of the image forming apparatus and an exhaust fan configured to discharge air inside the apparatus body to the outside of the image forming apparatus. The exhaust fan is disposed at a fixing-unit side of the process unit and is disposed lower than both the charger and the heat source such that air entering through the ejection port from outside the image forming apparatus flows through the fixing unit and is discharged by the exhaust fan.

Image forming apparatus having exhaust fan

An image processing device, comprising a supplying path; a re-carrying path; and a supply and separation mechanism to carry and separate a sheet-like medium, and wherein the supply and separation mechanism comprises: a sending roller; an independent roller and a retard roller, and the sending roller includes an arc part and a recess formed inside of a trace of an outer circumferential surface of the arc part, the independent roller is able to rotate independently of the sending roller, the retard roller, by stopping or rotating in an inverse direction of a supplying direction, causes a frictional resistance with respect to the sheet-like medium being sent out by the arc part to separate the sheet-like medium one by one, and the image processing device further comprises: a control unit configured to cause the retard roller to rotate in the supplying direction when re-supplying is executed.

Image processing device

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of process cartridges and a pair of frames. Each of the plurality of process cartridges includes a photosensitive drum, a charger and a charger supporting wall. One of the pair of frames has a plurality of first openings such that air outside the pair of frames is sucked between the pair of frames through the first openings. The other of the pair of frames has a plurality of second openings such that air between the pair of frames is discharged outside the pair of frames through the second openings. The first openings are positioned on an opposite side of the charger supporting wall from the photosensitive drum. The second openings are positioned on the same side of the charger supporting wall as the photosensitive drum.

Growing community of inventors

Toyokawa, Japan

Takuya Yamaguchi