Electrophotography – Document handling – Copy
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-23
2001-05-29
Lee, Susan S. Y. (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Document handling
Copy
C271S279000, C358S001130, C358S001140, C399S020000, C399S082000, C399S410000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240273
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for ejecting (discharging) a sheet formed with an image to any of a plurality of loading (carrying) units.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many conventional image recording apparatus, a host computer and an image recording apparatus are connected one-by-one, and most image recording apparatuses have only one ejection tray, and the image recording apparatuses eject the sheets for a plurality of jobs to that ejection tray.
Also, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus which has a plurality of ejection trays and which ejects the sheets to designated trays for sorting the sheets for a plurality of jobs.
Further, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus that controls a plurality of ejection trays, for enabling the apparatus to eject as many sheets as possible without sorting, and regardless of the breaks of jobs, by ejecting the sheets continuously into one of the ejection trays until the one of the ejection trays is detected as fully-loaded, and of ejecting the sheets to other one of the ejection trays when detected as fully-loaded.
This apparatus is capable of loading as many sheets as possible, but there is also a possibility that the sheets for one job are ejected into a plurality of ejection trays separately, therefore it is likely that an user will not notice the above fact and thus will take the sheets out from one ejection tray thinking it is the entire job.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus which has solved the above mentioned problem.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing sheets from not being taken out of the trays, which is easily occurred in a situation that the sheets for one job are ejected into a plurality of loading unit, without changing the location to which the sheets are ejected as being reached to a predetermined loading capacity.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing the sheets being not taken out without ejecting the sheets for one job to a plurality of carrying units, as well as capable of implementing a maximum load of sheets on a first loading unit.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus with image forming means for forming an image on a sheet, ejecting means for ejecting the sheet to one of a first loading unit and a second loading unit, detecting means for detecting that a load of the first loading unit has reached a predetermined quantity, and controlling means for controlling the ejecting means such that when the detecting means detects that the load of the first loading unit has reached the predetermined quantity while continuously ejecting a plurality of sheets formed with images of a first job to the first loading unit, the remaining sheets of the first job are also ejected to the first loading unit and sheets formed with images of a second job which is begun following the first job are ejected to the second loading unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus with image forming means for forming an image on a sheet, ejecting means for ejecting the sheet on which the sheet is formed by the image forming means to one of a first loading unit and a second loading unit, and controlling means for controlling the ejecting means such that sheets for one job are ejected to one of the first loading unit and the second loading unit in order that a plurality of sheets for the one job are not ejected separately to the first loading unit and the second lading unit in accordance with a maximum load quantity of the first loading unit.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 34460 (1993-11-01), Ishiguro et al.
patent: 4329046 (1982-05-01), Burkett et al.
patent: 5151735 (1992-09-01), Yamashita et al.
patent: 5204728 (1993-04-01), Braswell
patent: 5640232 (1997-06-01), Miyaka et al.
patent: 5729791 (1998-03-01), Kutsuwada et al.
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Lee Susan S. Y.
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