Electrophotography – Document handling – Copy
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-17
2003-04-01
Ngo, Hoang (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Document handling
Copy
C270S058080, C399S107000, C399S407000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06542715
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an ejected sheet stacking device which is selectively used in this image forming apparatus.
At present, what is called a multi-function machine, that is, an image forming apparatus having a copying function, a facsimile function, and a printer function is broadly utilized.
For such an image forming apparatus, from the view point of making small the occupied area for installation for example, it has been known such one employing so-called an inner tray method that is provided with a sheet ejection part formed in a hollow place to open to the outside through the outer housing and is also provided with a sheet storing mechanism for storing sheets in this sheet ejection part.
FIG. 6
is an illustration showing in broad outline an example of the structure of an image forming apparatus employing a conventional inner tray method as seen from the front direction. This image forming apparatus
60
has a sheet ejection part
63
formed in a hollow place
62
which is formed in such a manner as to open to the outside through the front surface (the surface parallel to the paper surface in the drawing) of the outer housing
61
and through the one side surface (the right-hand side surface in the drawing), and in this sheet ejection part
63
, a sheet storing mechanism
63
A for storing sheets ejected from a sheet ejection opening is provided.
In the outer housing
61
, there are arranged an image formation part
65
for practicing image formation on the basis of original image information which has been read by a document scanning part
64
, and a paper feed unit
66
storing sheets to be fed to this image formation part
65
, in the state that they are arrayed in the up-and-down direction. In this drawing,
67
denotes a conveyance part for conveying sheets such as plain paper sheets for example, and
68
denotes a fixing part for fixing a toner image formed on a sheet.
In this image forming apparatus
60
, a sheet having a visible image formed in the image formation part
65
is conveyed by the conveyance part
67
in the horizontal direction under the hollow place
62
, and is subjected to fixing processing in a fixing part
68
; then, it is conveyed upward through an upward-extending conveyance path
70
, and is ejected from the sheet ejection opening by ejection rollers
71
, to be contained in the sheet storing mechanism
63
A.
Generally speaking, in such an image forming apparatus, from the viewpoint of improving productivity and convenience, for example, there are not a few cases where it is required a sorting process for classifying ejected sheets into sheets ejected during the use of the copying function and sheets ejected during the use of the facsimile or printer function.
However, in an image forming apparatus having the above-mentioned structure, even though a hollow place
62
of a sufficient size is not secured, it is necessary to provide a plurality of sheet storing mechanisms, which lowers the sheet storing capacity of each sheet storing mechanism, and also makes it difficult to take out sheets contained in said sheet storing mechanism, to lower the productivity and convenience instead.
For such a problem, as shown in
FIG. 7
, there is an apparatus having a structure with its large height size to secure the hollow place
62
of a sufficient size, and being provided with a reception and print sheet storing part
69
A composed of a sheet storing mechanism, a tray for example, for storing sheets ejected during the use of the facsimile or printer function, and a copy sheet storing part
69
B which is a sheet storing mechanism for storing sheets ejected during the use of the copying function.
The sheet conveyance path
70
in this image forming apparatus
60
A has a bifurcation path
70
A leading to the reception and print sheet storing part
69
A and a bifurcation path
70
B leading to the copied sheet storing part
69
B, and a switching guide
72
is provided at the bifurcation point.
However, in this image forming apparatus
60
A, even in cases where the copying function is not used, the bifurcation path
70
B leading to the copy sheet ejection part
69
B has been formed beforehand in the mainframe of the image forming apparatus
60
A, which increases the manufacturing cost accompanied by the increase of the number of the component parts and makes the whole of the apparatus large-sized; therefore, it is unreasonable for a user who does not use the sorting function provided in the image forming apparatus
60
A for some reasons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been made on the basis of the above-mentioned things, and it is its object to provide an image forming apparatus whose function a user can freely intend to diversify.
It is another object of this invention to provide an image forming apparatus which has a large capacity for storing sheets of each sheet storing tray and makes it possible to take out the contained sheets easily when an ejected sheet stacking mechanism is selectively mounted to the image forming apparatus.
It is further object of this invention to provide a new ejected sheet stacking device to be selectively mounted to an image forming apparatus of this invention.
The objects of this invention can be accomplished by any one of the structures described below.
(1) An image forming apparatus of this invention is an image forming apparatus having a sheet ejection part formed in a hollow place formed in such a manner as to open to the outside through the outer housing and being provided with a sheet storing mechanism for storing sheets ejected from a sheet ejection opening in such a way that it is able to be mounted and dismounted, characterized in that an ejected sheet stacking device can be mounted in the sheet ejection part instead of the sheet storing mechanism, and said ejected sheet stacking device is provided with a plurality of sheet storing trays arranged in a multi-stage way in the vertical direction, an ejecting and conveying mechanism for conveying a sheet from said sheet ejection opening to one of said sheet storing trays, and a conveyance path switching mechanism for switching a bifurcating conveyance path which bifurcates in such a manner as to lead to each of said sheet storing trays from said sheet ejection opening.
In an image forming apparatus of this invention, it is desirable that the hollow place formed in such a manner as to open to the outside through the outer housing comprises a first space portion succeeding to the sheet ejection opening and a second space portion succeeding to this first space portion in the sheet ejecting direction, and the level of the bottom surface of the second space portion is lower than the level of the bottom surface of the first space portion; in this case, it is desirable that the ejected sheet stacking device is mounted in a state where each of the sheet storing trays is positioned in the second space portion in said hollow place.
(2) An image forming apparatus of this invention is an image forming apparatus having a sheet ejection part formed in a hollow place formed in such a manner as to open to the outside through the outer housing and being provided, in said sheet ejection part, with a sheet storing mechanism for storing sheets ejected from a sheet ejection opening, in such a way that it is able to be mounted and dismounted, characterized in that an ejected sheet stacking device can be mounted in the sheet ejection part instead of the sheet storing mechanism, said ejected sheet stacking device is provided with a plurality of sheet storing trays arranged in a multi-stage way in the vertical direction, an ejecting and conveying mechanism for conveying a sheet from said sheet ejection opening to one of said sheet storing trays, and a conveyance path switching mechanism for switching a bifurcating conveyance path which bifurcates in such a manner as to lead to each of said sheet storing trays from said sheet ejection opening, and an ejected sheet stacking device of a second stage having the same structure as
Isohara Hideo
Miyamoto Tarou
Otomo Naoki
Sakabe Takeshi
Suzuki Takeshi
Konica Corporation
Muserlian Lucas and Mercanti
Ngo Hoang
LandOfFree
Image forming apparatus and ejected sheet stacking device... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Image forming apparatus and ejected sheet stacking device..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Image forming apparatus and ejected sheet stacking device... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3064983