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:
Jun. 18, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 29, 2000
Haruhisa Oshida, Abiko, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming part for forming an image on a sheet, a sheet discharging part for discharging a sheet having an image formed thereon by the image forming part, a sheet stacking tray for stacking thereon sheets discharged from the sheet discharging part, a first stack height detecting sensor for detecting whether a height of stack of sheets stacked on the sheet stacking tray has reached a first height, a second stack height detecting sensor In for detecting whether the height of stack of sheets stacked on the sheet stacking tray has reached a second height which is higher than the first height, and a control part for controlling the image forming apparatus by judging a state of stack of sheets on the sheet stacking tray on the basis of results of detection provided by the first stack height detecting sensor and the second stack height detecting sensor, wherein the control part judges the sheet stacking tray to be in a maximum stacked state when the second stack height detecting sensor has detected that the height of stack of sheets stacked on the sheet stacking tray has reached the second height and, after that, continues judging the sheet stacking tray to be in the maximum stacked state until the first stack height detecting sensor detects that the height of stack of sheets stacked on the sheet stacking tray has become less than the first height.