Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Toyokazu Mori

Masaru Tsuji

Eiichi Kido

Yuhi Yui

Hiroaki Yoshida

Syoichiro Yoshiura

Junya Masuda

Yoshinori Shiraishi

Itaru Kawabata

Keizo Fukunaga

Shinji Imagawa

Kohichi Matsumoto

Yoshikazu Kawasaki

Yasuhiro Takai

Katsumi Adachi

Yoshinobu Tateishi

Takashi Hayakawa

Hideshi Izumi

Masato Tamehira

Yuhi Akagawa

Shunju Anzai

Atsuyuki Katoh

Hidetoshi Kaneko

Shinichi Azumi

Mitsuyoshi Terada

Motokazu Nakao

Takashi Makiura

Masatsugu Hatanaka

Koichi Moriyama

Yoshinori Ohtsuka

Syunju Anzai

Hideki Umeda

A sheet stacking device includes: an evacuation section for transporting and ejecting sheets; a sheet exit tray for stacking the ejected sheets; an arm supporting member; and a sheet presser arm including a supported end at one end, a free end at the other end which is capable of pressing the sheets stacked on the sheet exit tray directly or via a contact member attached to the free end, and a flexure portion having flexibility between the supported end and the free end. The supported end is attached to the arm supporting member. The arm can apply, by the flexibility of the flexure portion, a pressing force to the sheets stacked on the sheet exit tray and a repulsive force to each of the ejected sheets when a front end of the ejected sheet strikes against the arm.

Sheet stacking device and image forming apparatus including the same

A unit drawing mechanism according to the invention is adapted for installation in a main unit. The mechanism includes a first and a second units, a plurality of supports, and a load-applying member. The first unit is movable along a first direction toward front of the main unit, to be drawn out thereof. Mounted in the first unit, the second unit is movable, with the first unit drawn out of the main unit, along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, to be drawn out of the first unit. The supports are arranged at different positions along the second direction, for supporting the first unit movably along the first direction. The load-applying member is mounted in the first unit in such a manner that center of gravity of the first unit along the second direction is located between the supports whether the second unit is retracted in, or drawn out of, the drawn-out first unit.

Unit drawing mechanism and image recording apparatus

A movable sheet stacking device including: a sheet receiving section which is provided with respect to a sheet exit section of an image forming apparatus and is for receiving ejected sheets being ejected from the sheet exit section in an ejecting direction and moving the sheets in a direction opposite to the ejecting direction; an end-portion restriction plate which comes into contact with a front end of the sheets moving in the opposite direction to stop the movement of the sheets; and a restriction-plate driving section which sets a position of the end-portion restriction plate according to a sheet type.

In an image forming apparatus in which the paper output portion is arranged under the scanner portion and over the main part including a paper feed cassette, image forming portion and control panel, a box-like paper output tray without lid is provided in the paper output portion. This paper output tray has a transparent shroud formed upright with respect to the tray bottom along the edge of the paper output tray and positioned at the front side of the image forming apparatus when the tray is folded up into the paper output portion. This paper output tray is pivotally supported on the main part by the vertical shaft arranged at the front right corner thereof. The paper output tray can swivel in the horizontal plane so that the printed sheets held in the paper output tray can be easily picked up by turning the tray forwards with respect to the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: an image support medium; a charging member for charging the surface of the image support medium in contact with the surface of it; an exposure device for irradiating with light the surface of the image support medium charged by the charging member to form a static latent image; a developing device for supplying developer to the static latent image formed on the image support medium to develop the latent image and for removing the leftover developer on the image support medium; a transfer device for transferring the developer image, which has been developed on the image support medium by the developing device, to a member to be transferred; and a scraping member for scraping foreign matter such as dust and paper particles on the image support medium. The image forming apparatus is constructed such that the charging member causes the developer to adhere to the scraped foreign matter, and then the foreign matter is collected by the developing device through the image support medium. The scraping member is held by a holder which has an opening for allowing the foreign matter to pass through into the charging member housing.

Imaging forming apparatus with enhanced cleaning of residual matter

An object of the invention is to prevent a silicone gas generated in a fixing unit from entering into a charger. A corona wind rises when the charger corona-discharges, and air is taken in through an outside-air intake. The air flows in through the air passage and the air inlet and flows out through a front opening as an air flow. The silicone gas is isolated by the airflow and prevented from entering into the charger.

Image forming apparatus with isolated silicone gas

A charger performs corona discharge by applying a voltage to a discharging electrode. The charger includes an electrode plate formed in the shape of a panel on the discharging electrode, a plurality of projecting portions disposed in an end portion of the electrode plate, and a plurality of projection groups formed in each of the projecting portions such that the projection groups are adjacent to each other in a thickness direction of the electrode plate.

Charger for performing a corona discharge

A charger charges a recording medium before irradiation of light to form an electrostatic latent image by irradiating light as an optical image onto a surface of the recording medium. The charger includes a discharging electrode having a plurality of projections for generating corona discharge to charge the recording medium surface, a conductive shield case having an opening face opposite to the recording medium and opposed to the discharging electrode, a holding member for holding the discharging electrode in the shield case in a state in which the discharging electrode is electrically insulated from the shield case, a conductive grid electrode electrically insulated and held between the discharging electrode and the recording medium, and a power supplying device for supplying a high voltage for discharge to the discharging electrode and setting a ratio of electric currents flowing through the grid electrode and the shield case such that these electric currents are approximately equal to each other. One form of the charger controllably moves the discharger electrode toward the recording medium for setting the value of the electric currents flowing through the grid electrode and the shield case until they are both equal to a predetermined reference value.

Corona charger for image forming apparatus providing uniform surface

The object of the invention is to reduce the number of parts which are required for supporting a photosensitive drum in a photosensitive drum cartridge. Engaging bodies of supporting members are inserted through mounting holes of a cartridge main body. Supporting shafts are inserted into supporting shaft insertion holes formed on the sides of a photosensitive drum. When the supporting members are rotated, the side walls of the cartridge main body are fitted into gaps between flat plates and engaging pieces. The supporting members are positioned with respect to and fixed to the cartridge main body, whereby the photosensitive drum is supported in the cartridge main body.

Photosensitive drum cartridge and an image forming apparatus using the

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Yamatokoriyama, Japan

Toyokazu Mori