Typewriting machines – Sheet or web – Including insertion of sheet from front of platen
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-17
2003-06-24
Hirshfeld, Andrew H. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Sheet or web
Including insertion of sheet from front of platen
C400S625000, C400S693000, C271S003010, C271S207000, C271S213000, C399S110000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06582139
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a discharged sheet stacker adaptable for use with a recording apparatus, such as a printer or a copying machine, and relates to a recording apparatus provided with the discharged sheet stacker.
An example of a related discharged sheet stacker in use for a recording apparatus, such as a printer or a copying machine, is constructed as follows. A pivotable member made of a rigid material is turned to be horizontal to be used as the discharged sheet stacker. When not used, it is turned to be vertical to close the front face of the printer body. For another example, it is constructed a discharged sheet stacker includes an extension stacker which may be drawn out of the turn member in accordance with a size of a sheet of paper. When the extension stacker is thus drawn out, it receives the sheet of a large size.
A related printer is shown in
FIG. 19. A
sheet supply tray
201
made of a hard material is removably attached to the rear side of a printer body
200
whose external configuration is almost cuboid. A discharged sheet stacker
203
made of a hard material is removably attached to the front side of the printer body, while being extensible to the front.
In recent years, it is required that the product with stylish design which matches a life style of the user. Thus, in recent product development, one of the subjects assigned to the product manufacturer is not only to improve the functional aspect but also to improve the design stylishness which satisfies user's needs. For this reason, it is required to develop a variety of products designed on the basis of one product concept “soft impression”.
Where the discharged sheet stacker made of the rigid material or hard material is used, a design freedom is frequently restricted in designing products based on the “soft impression” concept. In a printer of such a type that the discharged sheet stacker is closed in the housing, if the form of the discharged sheet stacker made of the rigid material is determined, then the form of the housing itself must be restrictively determined in accordance with the form of the discharged sheet stacker.
The discharged sheet stacker includes a sheet receiving face which is bendable, wherein when the stacker is used, the sheet receiving face is substantially horizontal for receiving sheets of paper, and when the stacker is closed in its place, the sheet receiving face may be deformed along the outer configuration of the housing.
A standby position of a carriage with an ink cartridge mounted thereon is located in one of the right and left end portions of the printer. Accordingly, the center line of the housing is not coincident with the center line of the opening through which the sheets are discharged. For this reason, when the discharged sheet stacker is closed in a state that it is deformed along the configuration of the housing, the stacker deformed is asymmetrical with respect to its center line. As a result, when the discharged sheet stacker is used, the stacker has had the tendency to deform, and hence one of the sides of the stacker is raised.
SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
It is therefore a first object of the present invention is to provide a discharged sheet stacker having such a structure that in designing the product based on the concept of “soft impression”, a design freedom is increased regardless of the discharged sheet stacker made of the rigid material, which the stacker is compact when it is closed, and protects the sheet discharge section against dust, and to provide a recording apparatus with such a discharged sheet stacker.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a discharged sheet stacker which functions such that even when the deformable discharged sheet stacker has had the tendency to deform, its tendency to deform is removed and its original configuration is resumed when it is used, and a recording apparatus with such a discharged sheet stacker.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a stacker on which a recording medium discharged from an outlet of a recoding apparatus is placed, which is movable between a first position for closing the outlet and a second position for opening the outlet, the stacker comprising a sheet receiving face, that receives the discharged recording medium, being a first form when the stacker is placed in the first position, and being a second form when the stacker is placed in the second position.
In this configuration, there increased a degree of freedom of the combinations of the discharged sheet stacker and the external configurations of the recording apparatus. As a result, it is easy to develop the products based on a product concept, regardless of the configuration of the discharged sheet stacker.
Preferably, the sheet receiving face is made of a material having flexibility. In this case, the sheet receiving face is relatively freely deformed to have a predetermined configuration when the stacker is placed in the first position. As a result, a compact stacker closed state is realized.
Preferably, the second form of the sheet receiving sheet is substantially flat. In this case the discharged recording medium is supported on the sheet receiving face without any deformation.
Preferably, a center portion of the sheet receiving face is bent downward from both side portions thereof with regard to a widthwise direction of the sheet. When the recording media are stacked on the discharged sheet stacker, a load acting on the discharged sheet stacker increases. However, in this configuration, the bending of the discharged sheet stacker in the sheet discharging direction due to the load can be almost eliminated. A degree of the bending varies depending on a material and size of the sheet receiving face, and hence it cannot be uniquely determined.
Here, it is preferable that the whole part of the stacker forming the sheet receiving face is bent. In this case, the bending state of the stacker can be realized without using another auxiliary member. In this respect, this embodiment is economical.
Also, it is preferable that the stacker further comprises a holder, that supports an upstream end portion of the sheet receiving face with regard to a sheet discharging direction, the holder provided with a support face which is convex downward. The center portion of the sheet receiving face is bent along the support face of the holder.
In this configuration, the upstream portion of the sheet receiving face is forcibly bent downward, its bending state is extended to a downstream portion of the sheet receiving face, thereby preventing the discharged sheet stacker from being bent over its entire length of the sheet receiving face as viewed in the sheet discharging direction. Further, since there is no need of additionally providing a member for retaining the bending state, the sheet receiving face can be bent a simple structure and economically.
Here, it is preferable that the center portion of the sheet receiving face is urged against the support face. In this case, the sheet receiving face is uniformly bent in the width direction by merely urging the central part of the upstream portion of the sheet receiving face against the support face. Further, the bending state of the sheet receiving face can be readily realized.
Alternatively, the stacker further comprises flatness retainers, that retain flatness of the sheet receiving face when the stacker is placed in the second position, the flatness retainers being provided on both side end portions of the sheet receiving face with regard to a widthwise direction of the sheet.
In this configuration, it is easy to remove the deforming tendency of the stacker which was bent when the stacker is closed. Additionally, it further lessens the bending of the stacker by the weight of media stacked on the stacker.
Here, it is preferable that both side end portions of the stacker forming the sheet receiving face are bent in a direction perpendicular to the sheet receiving face to realize the flat
Abe Mikinobu
Kawasaki Mugio
Yamano Hirokazu
Ghatt Dave A.
Hirshfeld Andrew H.
Seiko Epson Corporation
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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