Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Yuzo Isoda

Jun Saito

Yoshiaki Watanabe

Takashi Kuwata

Yasuhiro Uchida

Hiroyuki Ishii

Masao Ando

Ryukichi Inoue

Shinji Goto

Makoto Izumi

Masahide Tanoue

Harukazu Sekiya

Koichi Tanigawa

Toshio Miyamoto

Seiji Sagara

Nobukazu Adachi

Yutaka Kikuchi

Katsuhiko Nishimura

Yohji Tomoyuki

Akio Nemoto

Tooru Saitou

An image forming apparatus capable of preventing the return of a power supply switch from being forgotten and eliminating the troubles due to the forgetting of this return and having a sheet processing device attached to the main body thereof. The sheet processing device includes a driving source for actuating the sheet processing device, a power supply for supplying the power to the driving source and a switch for the switching of the power supply to ON/OFF, wherein the switch becomes switchable to ON condition on detaching the outer cover of the sheet processing device and is switched to OFF condition on attaching the outer cover.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus usable with a process cartridge comprising an image bearing member and a process device actable on the image bearing member includes guide device, contactable with the process cartridge, for guiding in the loading direction the process cartridge to be loaded into a main assembly of the apparatus; a positioning device for positioning the process cartridge, which is in the disengaged state from the guide device, into the loading location; and a pressing device for pressing the process device onto the positioning device.

Process cartridge and image forming apparatus usable with this process

The present invention provides a sheet supplying apparatus removably connected to an under side of an image forming apparatus to supply a sheet to the image forming apparatus. The apparatus has a main body connected to the under side of the image forming apparatus, a sheet supporting plate provided within the main body of sheet supplying apparatus to support a sheet, sheet supply rotary member for feeding out the sheet from the sheet supporting plate, a convey unit rotatably supported within the main body of sheet supplying apparatus to supply the sheet fed out by the sheet supply rotary member to a sheet receiving opening provided at a side surface of the image forming apparatus, and a positioning unit for positioning the convey unit in the vicinity of the sheet receiving opening.

Sheet supplying apparatus with pivotal convey unit

An image forming apparatus, to which a process cartridge is detachably mountable, for forming an image on a recording material. The image forming apparatus includes a first guiding device for guiding the process cartridge toward a predetermined mounting position when the process cartridge is mounted to the image forming apparatus. The first guiding device is disposed upstream of the predetermined mounting position with respect to a mounting movement direction of the process cartridge. A second guiding device is provided for guiding the process cartridge toward the predetermined mounting position when the process cartridge is mounted to the image forming apparatus The second guiding device is disposed (i) closer to the predetermined position than the first guiding device, and (ii) downstream of the first guiding device with respect to the mounting movement direction. Also provided is a feeding device for feeding the recording material.

A process cartridge is detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material. The process cartridge includes an image bearing member, a process device for acting on the image bearing member, which includes a developing device for developing an image on the image bearing member, a frame, and a projection disposed on the upper surface of the frame and extending toward the developing device, the projection having (i) an upward inclined surface, (ii) a flat surface continuing from the upper inclined surface, and (iii) a downward inclined surface that is inclined toward the developing device.

This invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus having sheet carrying device unit for carrying sheets suspended by suspending unit, which is taken up by winding unit and thereby moves the sheet carrying device up and down to render the sheets fed from the topmost side of the sheets. Connection positions between the suspending unit and the sheet carrying device are located, in a direction perpendicular to a feeding direction of the sheets, at positions on a side of the sheet reference which is one end in the direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the sheets, closer to the center of the sheets with respect to a position of a suspending original point of the suspending unit located over the sheet carrying device. The other connection positions between the suspending unit and the sheet carrying device are located, in a direction perpendicular to a feeding direction of the sheets, at a position on a side opposite to the side of the sheet reference, remote from the center of the sheets with respect to a position of a suspending original point of the suspending unit located over the sheet carrying device.

Sheet feeding apparatus with suspended sheet carrying device and image

In a fixing device, a limitation member for preventing the center distance between a heating member and a shaft of a pressing roller from being reduced does not limit the center distance in an initial state of the device, and prevents a further decrease in the distance when the distance is reduced. It is thereby possible to suppress an increase in the width of a nip portion provided between the heating member and the pressing roller, and to prevent a failure in fixing.

Fixing device with means for limiting a distance between heating and

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus in which a sheet material is fed from a sheet feeding unit to an image forming unit for image formation on the sheet material, and the sheet material is transported and discharged to a sheet discharge unit after image formation. The image forming apparatus includes a substantially horizontal sheet feeding unit provided at either of an upper position and a lower position of the image forming unit at the center, and a substantially horizontal sheet discharge unit provided at the other of the positions; and a sheet path extending substantially vertically from the sheet feeding unit through the image forming unit to the sheet discharge unit.

Image forming apparatus with sideways U-shaped sheet path

An image fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image on an image supporting material. A guiding member for guiding the image supporting material is provided without contact to an image fixing rotatable member but with a predetermined small clearance. In order to maintain the predetermined clearance, spacers are provided at positions outside the maximum image forming region. The rotatable image fixing member is prevented from being damaged, and in addition, the image supporting material is prevented from being wrapped on the rotatable member.

Image fixing apparatus

A sheet transport mechanism includes a plurality of transport paths, a transport roller provided at a branch section at which the transport paths are branched, a flapper provided at the branch section to select one of the plurality of transport paths and to guide a sheet member into the selected transport path by changing its posture, and a flapper roller supported on the flapper, the flapper roller pinching the sheet member in cooperation with the transport roller to transport the sheet member. The flapper roller is urged toward the transport roller by its weight and/or a spring force.

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Yokohama, Japan

Yuzo Isoda