IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF
First Claim
1. An image forming apparatus including a first discharge roller to feed a printed printing medium rearward from a print unit disposed at an inner front portion of a main body, a reverse roller to reverse a moving direction of the printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller from a rear to a front of the main body, and a second discharge roller to discharge the printed printing medium whose moving direction is reversed outside, comprising:
- an intermediate discharge roller unit which is provided between the first discharge roller and the reverse roller, the intermediate discharge roller unit including a main roller, a sub discharge roller and a sub supply roller which are in contact with the main roller,wherein while a preceding printed printing medium fed from the reverse roller is discharged between the main roller and the sub discharge roller, a following printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller is supplied between the main roller and the sub supply roller.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An image forming apparatus capable of increasing the speed of successively discharging printed printing media in order to increase the overall print speed and a control method thereof. The image forming apparatus includes a first discharge roller to feed printed printing medium rearward from a print unit disposed at an inner front portion of a main body, a reverse roller to reverse a moving direction of the printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller from a rear to a front of the main body, a second discharge roller to discharge the printed printing medium whose moving direction is reversed outside, and an intermediate discharge roller unit which is provided between the first discharge roller and the reverse roller, the intermediate discharge roller unit including a main roller, a sub discharge roller and a sub supply roller which are in contact with the main roller. While a preceding printed printing medium fed from the reverse roller is discharged between the main roller and the sub discharge roller, a following printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller is supplied between the main roller and the sub supply roller. Accordingly, since the interval between the preceding printed printing medium and the following printed printing medium becomes shorter than that of a conventional image forming apparatus, the speed of successively discharging printed printing media increases, and as a result the overall print speed increases.
21 Citations
17 Claims
-
1. An image forming apparatus including a first discharge roller to feed a printed printing medium rearward from a print unit disposed at an inner front portion of a main body, a reverse roller to reverse a moving direction of the printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller from a rear to a front of the main body, and a second discharge roller to discharge the printed printing medium whose moving direction is reversed outside, comprising:
-
an intermediate discharge roller unit which is provided between the first discharge roller and the reverse roller, the intermediate discharge roller unit including a main roller, a sub discharge roller and a sub supply roller which are in contact with the main roller, wherein while a preceding printed printing medium fed from the reverse roller is discharged between the main roller and the sub discharge roller, a following printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller is supplied between the main roller and the sub supply roller. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method to control an image forming apparatus including a printing medium discharge unit which includes a first discharge roller to feed a printed printing medium rearward from a print unit disposed at an inner front portion of a main body, a reverse roller to reverse a moving direction of the printed printing medium fed from the first discharge roller from a rear to a front of the main body, a second discharge roller to discharge the printed printing medium whose moving direction is reversed outside, and an intermediate discharge roller which is provided between the first discharge roller and the reverse roller and has a main roller, a sub discharge roller and a sub supply roller which are in contact with the main roller, and a sensor which is provided between the print unit and the first discharge roller to sense a rear end of the printed printing medium, the method comprising:
-
if the rear end of a preceding printed printing medium is sensed by the sensor, reversing the moving direction of the preceding printed printing medium by the reverse roller after lapse of a predetermined time; and if the preceding printed printing medium whose moving direction is reversed advances between the main roller and the sub discharge roller, advancing a following printed printing medium successively fed from the print unit between the main roller and the sub supply roller. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
-
-
10. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an intermediate discharge roller unit having a swing roller to move between a first position and a second position based on at least one or more predetermined time periods and a selected printing mode, and a reverse roller to interact with the swing roller in the second position to change a path of the printing medium. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
-
14. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
-
a main body; an image forming unit disposed in the main body to form an image on a print medium and feed the print medium in a direction; a discharge unit disposed on a discharging path of the main body to discharge the print medium to an outside of the main body in a discharge direction; and an intermediate discharge roller unit disposed between the image forming unit and the discharge until to first receive a leading edge of the printing medium from the image forming unit and to first feed a trailing edge of the printing medium toward the discharge unit. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
-
Specification