Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Pack holders
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-09
2001-11-27
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Pack holders
C271S147000, C271S157000, C271S160000, C271S169000, C271S171000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322067
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a sheet loading apparatus for loading and supporting the sheet, such as a document or a recording sheet to be supplied to an image forming apparatus as, for example, a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile, or the like.
2. Related Art
An image forming apparatus has generally been provided with a sheet feeding means for feeding a sheet to an image forming means of the apparatus and said sheet feeding means includes a sheet loading apparatus for loading and supporting the sheet.
The sheet loading apparatus is provided with a sheet cassette which can accommodate a plurality of sheets and can be loaded or unloaded to or from the apparatus body. The sheet cassette is comprised of a cassette tray having a vertically movable sheet loading plate wherein a feed roller mounted on the side of the apparatus body is operative to press the sheets loaded in the cassette and feed them from the cassette. A lateral positioning device for the sheets (sheet guides) is also provided for regulating the lateral positioning of the sheets in the width direction of the cassette.
This sheet guide device is provided at the bottom of the cassette tray and can have its position changed depending on the width of the sheets having different sizes by positioning the guides in cutout portions (apertures) formed in the sheet loading pate. However, the sheet loading apparatus of the related art has the following principle problems. The cutout portions (apertures), through which the width regulating members connected to the sheet loading plate extend, open to a great extent to change the position of the width regulating members to accommodate sheets of various sizes. Meanwhile, the sheet loading plate engages the cassette by means of a cutout portion provided at the bottom of the cassette tray wherein one end of the sheet loading plate is inserted in the cutout portion. Since a certain amount of play occurs with regard to this engagement, a certain amount of play also exists in the feeding direction of the sheet from the sheet loading plate and in the width regulating member provided at the bottom of the cassette tray. As a result, sheet discharges from the cassette diagonally or the sheet supply path is shifted in the width direction when the sheets loaded on the sheet loading plate are each moved upward for pressing to the feed roller and the sheet is transferred by the feed roller.
Moreover, even when the width regulating member is opened externally or tilted oppositely to the inside of the cassette tray, the printing position of a sheet is also shifted because the position in the width direction of sheets loaded on the sheet loading plate is displaced. However, since the width regulating member is provided on the cassette body, position adjustment has to be performed on the sheet loading apparatus fitting rail and stopper in order to prevent diagonal running and positional displacement of sheet, but here rises problems that the adjustment range is small and the rail structure is complicated. Moreover, a fitting position error of the sheet loading apparatus in an image forming apparatus also results in the problem that the sheet position in the lateral direction is shifted because the sheet feeding direction is at a right angle to the fitting direction of the sheet loading apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been proposed considering the problems identified above and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sheet loading apparatus which prevents diagonal running of the sheet by eliminating play between the sheet loading plate and a width regulating member to assure easier positioning for printing in the sheet width direction.
Moreover, it is also an object of the present invention to provide a sheet loading apparatus which prevents, when a number of sheet loading apparatus are stacked, a rise of the width regulating member so that a width regulating member, which has also moved upward together with the sheet loading plate, does not impinge on a superimposed sheet loading apparatus.
In order to attain the objects explained above, the invention according to a first aspect is characterized in that a part, or the entire part, of the width regulating means is supported directly by the sheet loading means in the sheet loading apparatus and consists of a sheet loading means provided at a side end portion of a sheet feeding means and arranged to be movable for pressing the loaded sheets to the sheet feeding means, and a width regulating means for regulating the position of the sheets in the width direction. Therefore, according to this first aspect of the invention, since the width regulating means is attached directly to the sheet loading means, play between the sheets and the width regulating means can be eliminated and diagonal running of sheets as a result of such play can be prevented.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the arrangement position of the width regulating means can be changed depending on the size of the various sheets used, such as B
5
, letter, A
4
, B
4
and A
3
, etc.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the sheet loading apparatus comprising a sheet loading means having a side end portion of a sheet feeding means movable in order to press the loaded sheets sequentially to the sheet feeding means, and a width regulating means for regulating the position of sheets in the width direction, has a cutout portion in the sheet loading means through which each width regulating means passes, the rear end of the width regulating means is fitted to be pivotable in the upstream side of the sheet feeding direction within the cutout portion thus making substantially constant the height position of the front end of the width regulating means within the sheet loading apparatus on occasions when the sheet loading apparatus is moved in the upper and lower directions. Therefore, according to the invention, even when the sheet loading means moves upward, the downstream side in the sheet feeding direction of the width regulating means is never projected to the rear side from the cutout portion provided in the sheet loading means and the height position of the width regulating means is never projected significantly from the upper surface of the sheet loading apparatus, and moreover, even in cases in which the image forming apparatus uses many sheet loading apparatuses stacked upon each other, the bottom of a sheet loading apparatus never impinges on a lower width regulating means when the sheet loading apparatus is pulled out from the image forming apparatus.
Another aspect of the invention is characterized in that a plurality of cutout portions and fitting means are provided in the sheet loading means so that the fitting position of the width regulating means may be changed depending on the size of the sheets to be used.
According to another aspect of the invention the width adjusting means for moving the fitting position of the angle adjusting means in the sheet width direction is adjustable for laterally adjusting the position of the sheet loading means. Therefore, according to this aspect of the invention, the sheet feeding direction of the sheet loading means is adjusted by the angle adjusting means in order to prevent diagonal running of sheets from the cassette so that the end edges of the sheets become parallel to the axis of the resist roller disposed immediately before the transfer means in the image forming apparatus. Thus, it is possible to adjust the sheets to ensure that they impinge in parallel with the resist roller. Accordingly, the angular adjustment between the sheet loading apparatus and the image forming apparatus body by position adjustment of a fitting rail of the sheet loading apparatus which has heretofore been required in the related art, is no longer required.
Another aspect of the invention is characterized in that a width direction adjusting means for moving the fitting position of the angular adjusting means in the sheet width direction i
Fujii Michihiro
Miki Wataru
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Ellis Christopher P.
Fujitsu Ltd.
Ridley Richard
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