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:
Dec. 30, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 12, 2002
Hideki Shimizu, Chiba, JP;
Hirokazu Takahashi, Chiba, JP;
Seiji Shibaki, Ibaraki, JP;
Ryosuke Sugasawa, Chiba, JP;
Mitsuru Fuchisawa, Chiba, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The invention intends to provide the image forming apparatus with plural sheet discharge paths, to enable setting of appropriately selecting the discharge paths according to the copy mode/fax mode/printer mode, etc. and to enable appropriate automatic selection of the plural discharge paths according to other conditions. For this purpose, there are provided the plural discharge paths to which are respectively assigned to the copy mode/fax mode/printer mode, etc., and the sheet after image formation by the latent image forming drum constituting the image forming means is discharged by one of the discharge paths to according to such setting. On the other hand, according to the function state of the apparatus, such as designation of a specified post-processing, designation of special paper or detection of a jam, a specified discharge path is selected for the sheet discharge regardless of the aforementioned setting.