Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Yoshikazu Shimizu

Mitsugi Tanaka

Masafumi Inoue

Takahiro Nishimoto

Junki Ueyama

Hiroyuki Okuchi

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a casing; a first cover configured to move to an open position and to a close position; a conveyor configured to convey a sheet in a conveying direction; a recording head configured to discharge a liquid onto the sheet; a heater configured to heat at least one of the sheet and the liquid discharged to the sheet; a second cover configured to cover the heater. The second cover is configured to move to a cover position at which the second cover covers the heater so that the heater is not exposed to the outside and to an expose position at which the second cover allows the heater to be exposed to the outside.

Image recording apparatus

An image reading apparatus includes a housing having a conveying path, a recording head, a first transport roller pair located downstream of the recording head, a second transport roller pair located downstream of the first conveying roller pair, a reading unit located between the first transport roller pair and the second transport roller pair, a sheet support portion facing the reading unit, a glass plate located between the reading unit and the sheet support portion, and a rotating body located at a first position or a second position. The rotating body has a plurality of projections projecting radially outwardly. A distal end of one of the plurality of projections is positioned closer to the sheet support portion than the glass plate.

Image reading apparatus

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyer configured to convey a sheet in a conveying direction; a head configured to discharge a liquid toward the sheet; a heater configured to heat the sheet and/or the liquid on the sheet; a reader positioned downstream in the conveying direction of the heater, the reader being configured to read an image, on the sheet, formed by the head and the heater; and a holder positioned between the reader and the heater in the conveying direction, the holder being configured to hold a body of rotation configured to contact a recording surface of the sheet. In a crossing direction orthogonal to the conveying direction and crossing the recording surface of the sheet being conveyed by the conveyer, both ends in the crossing direction of the holder are positioned outside of both ends in the crossing direction of the reader.

A liquid discharge apparatus is provided, which comprises a conveyor, a support member which supports a medium existing in a conveying passage, a head, a maintenance mechanism which has a wiper, and a wiper cleaner. The maintenance mechanism is opposed to a nozzle surface of the head and movable to a wiping position at which the wiper abuts against the nozzle surface and a cleaning position at which the wiper abuts against the wiper cleaner. The wiper cleaner is disposed at a position at which a part thereof is overlapped with the support member in a direction orthogonal to the nozzle surface under or below the support member.

Liquid discharge apparatus

There is provided a conveyance apparatus including: a main body including a drive source, and a conveyance portion to which a drive force is transmitted from the drive source; an equipped unit including a drive portion to which the drive force is transmitted from the drive source in the main body; a first gear provided in the main body and rotated by the drive force transmitted thereto from the drive force; a first gear holder provided swingably in the main body to support the first gear; a second gear provided in the equipped unit to transmit the drive force to the drive portion; a second gear holder provided swingably in the equipped unit to support the second gear; and a third gear supported by a connecting shaft connecting the first and second gear holders to engage respectively with the first and second gears.

Conveyance apparatus and image recording apparatus

An image forming apparatus has an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet, a first frame having a plate-like shape and made of metal, the first frame being configured to support the image forming unit, a second frame arranged on an opposite side, with respect to the first frame, of the first frame with sandwiching the image forming unit therebetween, the second frame having a plate-like shape and made of resin, the second frame being configured to support the image forming unit in association with the first frame, a third frame bridging between the first frame and the second frame, a sheet supplying unit being secured to the third frame, and a contacting part formed to each of the first frame and the second frame, contact parts formed to the third frame being configured to contact the first and second frames, respectively.

Image forming apparatus

There is provided a conveyance apparatus including a drive source, a conveyance roller, a conveying gear, a switching gear being movable toward a first or second position, a switching section, a supporting section, a feeding section, a drive section, a first gear engaged with the switching gear at the first position, a second gear engaged with the switching gear at the second position, and a controller. A first load when the switching gear is at the first position is smaller than a second load when the switching gear is at the second position. The controller has a conveying mode in which the switching gear is at the second position, and after driving the drive source till the sheet reaches the conveyance roller from the supporting section, the controller drives the drive source upon letting the switching gear to be at the first position by driving the switching section.

A conveyance apparatus includes a main body including a drive source, and a conveyance portion to which a drive force is transmitted from the drive source. An equipped unit includes a drive portion to which the drive force is transmitted from the drive source in the main body. A first gear is provided in the main body and is rotated by the drive force transmitted thereto from the drive force. A first gear holder is provided swingably in the main body to support the first gear, and a second gear is provided in the equipped unit to transmit the drive force to the drive portion. A second gear holder is provided swingably in the equipped unit to support the second gear, and a third gear is supported by a connecting shaft connecting the first and second gear holders to engage respectively with the first and second gears.

An image forming apparatus includes a main body, a recording sheet receiving portion configured to receive a recording sheet, an image forming portion configured to form an image on the recording sheet, a particular feed roller configured to feed the recording sheet toward the image forming portion, and a holding frame configured to rotatably support the particular feed roller such that the particular feed roller is exposed toward the recording sheet receiving portion. The holding frame has a roller receiving portion configured to receive the particular feed roller therein and a replacement opening for exposing the particular feed roller toward an opposite side of the holding frame relative to the recording sheet receiving portion. The particular feed roller is configured to be attached to and removed from the holding frame via the replacement opening on the opposite side of the holding frame relative to the recording sheet receiving portion.

A sheet feeding mechanism is configured to feed a sheet, which has an actuator having a contact member configured to contact a sheet being fed, and a shaft configured to support the contact member, the shaft having a first end and a second end in a longitudinal direction, a first supporting part configured to support a first end portion of the shaft, a second supporting part configured to support a second end portion of the shaft, a detection unit configured to detect a position of the contact member, and an elastic supporting member configured to holds the first end portion of the shaft such that the shaft is displaceable in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction.

Sheet feeding mechanism and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a pair of register rollers including a driving roller and a dust remover roller, a dust scraper to scrape off dust from the dust remover roller, a dust container box, including a lateral plate and a protrusion, to contain the dust scraped off from the dust remover roller, a roller bearing attached to the lateral plate to be immovable and to rotatably support the dust remover roller, a scraper support swingably supported by the dust container box and to support the dust scraper, and a frame to swingably support the dust container box via a protrusion support, to rotatably support the driving roller, while a rotation axis of the driving roller is fixed to the frame, and to support the roller bearing to be slidable in an in-axes direction between the driving roller and the dust remover roller.

Roller cleaning device and image forming apparatus

A paper particle removing device is provided with a paper particle removing roller configured to contact a printing sheet to capture paper particles on the printing sheet, a scraping member arranged adjacent to the paper particle removing roller and configured to contact the paper particle removing roller to scrape the paper particles, a paper particle container arranged on a scraping member side with respect to a position where the scraping member contacts the paper particle removing roller, and configured to collect the paper particles scraped by the scraping member, and a negatively-charged member arranged on the scraping member side with respect to a position where the paper particle removing roller contacts the scraping member and having a relative tendency in a triboelectric series to be negatively charged relative to the paper particles, the negatively-charged member inducing the paper particles scraped by the scraping member toward the paper particle container.

Paper particle removing device, and image formation device provided with paper particle removing device

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a housing including a sheet feed opening for feeding a recording sheet to the image forming unit, a tray which accommodates a recording sheet, and a feed member which rotates while pressing a recording sheet fed through the sheet feed opening to apply a transport force to the recording sheet. Also, the image forming apparatus may include a friction member provided to oppose the feed member, and contact the recording sheet from a side opposite to the feed member to apply a transport resistance to the recording sheet, a resin support frame which supports the friction member, and a metal transport chute which includes a guide part provided to contact the recording sheet fed from the tray to guide the recording sheet toward the image forming unit, the transport chute being formed integrally with the support frame.

Growing community of inventors

Kasugai, Japan

Yoshikazu Shimizu