The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 18, 1999
Filed:
May. 14, 1997
Yoshiyuki Koshimizu, Abiko, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus has a first conveyor for conveying a recording medium into an image forming unit which forms an image on a recording medium, a second conveyor for re-conveying the recording medium having an image formed thereon by the image forming unit to the second conveyor, and a curl straightener, formed by a plurality of rollers forming a bent path within the second conveyor, for straightening the curl on the recording medium. The conveyance speed of the second conveyor is switchable between a first speed equal to the conveyance speed of the first conveyor and a second speed which is greater than the first speed. The first speed is the speed of the recording medium until at least a predetermined length of the recording medium passes the curl straightener, and the second speed is the speed of the recording medium after passage therethrough. When image formation is performed in either two-side image forming mode of multiplex mode, it is possible to increase productivity during image formation by allowing the recording medium with the image to take a sufficient time to pass the curl straightener and thereafter re-conveying the recording medium at a higher speed to the image forming section.