Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Pack holders
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-13
2003-07-08
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Pack holders
C271S213000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06588742
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a sheet feeder and to a sheet tray. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sheet feeder having a sheet tray body enabled to be accommodated in a sheet feeder body, and to a sheet tray having such a tray body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, sheet feeders each having a sheet tray enabled to be accommodated in a sheet feeder body have been known as sheet feeders for use in printers, plotters, and electronic copying machines. Such sheet feeders each having a sheet tray enabled to be accommodated in a sheet feeder body are disclosed in, for example, JP-A-8-81092, JP-B-6-71950, and JP-A-11-199101. Hereinafter, an ink jet printer is described as an example of conventional equipment having such a sheet feeder.
FIG. 10
is a perspective view illustrating a condition (that is, a used condition) in which the sheet trays are drawn out of a conventional ink jet printer having the drawer type sheet trays.
FIG. 11
is a sectional side of the conventional ink jet printer having the drawer type sheet trays.
FIG. 12
is a sectional side view illustrating an accommodated condition (that is, an unused condition) in which the sheet trays are accommodated in the conventional ink jet printer.
First, an outline of the configuration of the ink jet printer having the conventional drawer type trays
105
and
106
by referring to
FIGS. 10
to
12
. The conventional inkjet printer has a bottom cover
101
, a back cover
102
disposed on the rear surface thereof, and a front cover
103
disposed on the front surface thereof. A sheet mounting portion
104
is provided on the bottom cover
101
. The bottom cover
101
, the back cover
102
, and the front cover
103
cover a motor (not shown) for driving a printer engine portion and other constituent elements of the printer. Further, sheet guide portions
107
a
and
107
b
are provided on the sheet mounting portion
104
(see FIG.
10
). The sheet guide portion
107
a
is fixed to the sheet mounting portion
104
. Moreover, the sheet guide portion
107
b
is attached to the sheet mounting portion
104
in such a manner as to be able to move in a transverse direction according to a sheet size.
Next, the details of the configuration of each of the conventional drawer type sheet trays
105
and
106
are described hereinbelow by referring to
FIGS. 10
to
12
. The conventional drawer type sheet tray
105
is mounted on the rear surface of the sheet mounting portion
104
in such a fashion as to be able to move in a direction parallel to a sheet feeding direction. Further, the sheet tray
106
is mounted on the back surface of the sheet tray
105
. As shown in
FIG. 12
, when the sheet trays
105
and
106
are in an accommodated condition (that is, the non-use condition), these trays are accommodated in a space between the rear surface of the sheet mounting portion
104
and the back cover
102
of a printer body in such a way as to overlap with each other. When the sheet trays
105
and
106
are used, first, the sheet tray
106
is drawn out of the printer body. As the tray
106
is drawn out therefrom, the tray
105
mounted on the surface of the tray
106
is also draw out therefrom.
As described above, the sheet tray
105
is mounted on the rear surface of the sheet mounting portion
104
in the conventional sheet feeder. Thus, an upper part of the sheet mounting portion
104
overlaps with a lower portion of a surface of the sheet tray
105
. Therefore, a step-like part is formed in a connection portion between the sheet tray
105
and the printer-body-side sheet mounting portion
104
. This causes inconvenience that a sheet of paper is caught by the step-like part formed there between when the sheet of paper is transported along a sheet mounting surface of the sheet tray
105
and then put on the sheet mounting portion
104
. Consequently, the conventional sheet feeder has encountered a problem in that this inconvenience adversely affects paper feeding.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is accomplished to solve the aforementioned problem.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a sheet feeder enabled to substantially eliminate a difference in sheet-mounting-surface level, which is provided in the connection portion between adjoining two of a plurality of sheet tray portions of a sheet tray, and to provide a sheet tray having such sheet tray portions.
Another object of the invention is to smoothly achieve operations of connecting and accommodating a plurality of sheet tray portions in the sheet feeder and the sheet tray.
To attain the foregoing objects, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a sheet feeder that comprises a first sheet tray portion, which is disposed in such a way as to be able to rotate around a shaft provided in such a manner as to be nearly perpendicular to a sheet mounting surface, and enabled to be accommodated in a sheet feeder body, a second sheet tray portion, which is disposed in such a way as to be able to rotate around the shaft and as to be connected to the first sheet tray portion so that the second sheet tray portion partly overlaps with the first the sheet tray portion, and enabled to be accommodated in the sheet feeder body, and a thrusting member for frontwardly pushing the second sheet tray portion when the first and second sheet tray portions are connected to each other. A part of the first sheet tray portion, which overlaps with the second sheet tray portion, has a first thin portion. A part of the second sheet tray portion, which overlaps with the first sheet tray portion, has a second thin portion. The first and second thin portions butt against each other in an overlapping portion in which the first and second sheet tray portions partly overlap with each other, so that there is substantially no difference in sheet-mounting-surface level between the sheet mounting surfaces of the first and second sheet tray portions.
According to the first sheet feeder of the invention, as described above, the first and second tray portions are configured so that there is substantially no difference in sheet-mounting-surface level between the sheet mounting surfaces of the first and second sheet tray portions when the first thin part of the first sheet tray portion and the second thin part of the second sheet tray portion butt against each other in the overlapping portion in which the first and second sheet tray portions partly overlap with each other. Thus, the first sheet feeder effectively prevents an occurrence of inconvenience that a sheet of paper is caught by the step-like part formed between the first and second sheet tray portions when the sheet of paper is put on the sheet mounting surface thereof. Further, the thrusting member for frontwardly pushing the second sheet tray portion when the first and second sheet tray portions are connected to each other (that is, when the sheet feeder is used) is provided in the first sheet feeder. Thus, the sheet tray portions are easily placed in a position, in which the sheet tray portions cause substantially no difference in sheet-mounting-surface level between the sheet mounting surfaces thereof when the first and second sheet tray portions are connected to each other. Incidentally, each of the first and second sheet tray portions is disposed in such a way as to be able to rotate around the shaft that is provided in such a manner as to be nearly perpendicular to a sheet mounting surface, and enabled to be accommodated in the sheet feeder body. Thus, the first and second sheet tray bodies are easily drawn out when these sheet tray bodies are used, and accommodated when these sheet tray bodies are not used, by turning these sheet tray bodies, similarly as a fan is opened and closed.
According to an embodiment (hereunder referred to as a second sheet feeder) of the invention, at least one of the first and second thin portions has a tapered shape.
According to the second sheet feeder of the invention, as described above, at
Bower Kenneth W
Funai Electric Co. Ltd.
Rosenthal & Osha L.L.P.
Walsh Donald P.
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