IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• US 20130034376A1
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Published: 02/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Saiga, Soichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,257 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/405
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/70 cutting perpendicular to the direction of paper feed
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 13/106 for the sheet output section
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 15/046 for the guidance of continuous copy material, e.g. for preventing skewed conveyance of the continuous copy material

Abstract

An image forming apparatus including a sheet roll supporter disposed below a main body of the image forming apparatus to support a sheet roll such that a sheet is fed from the sheet roll, an image forming unit to form an image on the sheet fed from the sheet roll, a sheet discharger disposed downstream from the image forming unit in a direction of conveyance of the sheet to discharge the sheet having the image thereon in a sheet discharging direction, a guide unit to guide the sheet discharged from the sheet discharger to the front of the main body of the image forming apparatus, and a stacking unit on which the sheet passing the guide unit is stacked. Upper and front parts of the sheet roll are covered with the guide unit and the stacking unit across a width direction of the sheet perpendicular to the sheet discharging direction.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a sheet roll supporter disposed below a main body of the image forming apparatus to support a sheet roll formed of a single continuous sheet such that the sheet is fed from the sheet roll;

an image forming unit to form an image on the sheet fed from the sheet roll supported by the sheet roll supporter;

a sheet discharger disposed downstream from the image forming unit in a direction of conveyance of the sheet to discharge the sheet having the image thereon in a sheet discharging direction;

a guide unit to guide the sheet discharged from the sheet discharger to the front of the main body of the image forming apparatus; and

a stacking unit on which the sheet passing the guide unit is stacked,

wherein upper and front parts of the sheet roll are covered with the guide unit and the stacking unit across a width direction of the sheet perpendicular to the sheet discharging direction.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stacking unit comprises a supported member provided to one end of the stacking unit, the supported member being supported by a supporter disposed at substantially the same height as the sheet roll supporter.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the supporter is combined with the sheet roll supporter as a single integrated unit.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the supported member is detachably supported by the supporter.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the stacking unit further comprises a main body formed of a flexible material; and

one end of the main body of the stacking unit is fixed to the supported member to hang from a position overlapping a bottom end of the guide unit to cover the upper and front parts of the sheet roll supporter across the width direction of the sheet.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the guide unit has a support shaft; and

a part of the guide unit disposed in front of the image forming apparatus is swingable upward around the support shaft.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stacking unit is formed separately from the image forming apparatus and is detachably attachable to the image forming apparatus.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stacking unit comprises:

a main body formed of a flexible material; and

a transparent part, provided in front of the sheet roll supporter within a range in the main body of the stacking unit through which a sheet of a minimum size usable in the image forming apparatus passes.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stacking unit comprises:

a restriction member provided to a bottom end of the stacking unit to restrict a position of a leading edge of the sheet discharged to the stacking unit;

a guide member continuous with the restriction member to guide the leading edge of the sheet to the restriction member;

a first sloped portion on which a top part of an image forming surface of the sheet discharged to the stacking unit is placed, the first sloped portion being continuous with the restriction member and slanted upward at an angle to the horizontal θ

1 such that a distance from the guide member in the sheet discharging direction is increased from the restriction member upward; and

a second sloped portion on which a bottom part of the image forming surface of the sheet discharged to the stacking unit is placed, the second sloped portion being continuous with an upper end of the first sloped portion and slanted at an angle to the horizontal θ

2 that is smaller than θ

1.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the distance between the guide member and the first sloped portion at the restriction member is smaller than a minimum outer diameter of a sheet roll installable in the image forming apparatus.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a cutter to cut the sheet fed from the sheet roll to a predetermined length,

wherein:

the stacking unit stacks sheets of multiple sizes cut by the cutter; and

the first sloped portion has a length shorter than a minimum length of a sheet in the sheet discharging direction among the sheets of multiple sizes.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a cutter to cut the sheet fed from the sheet roll to a predetermined length,

wherein:

the stacking unit stacks sheets of multiple sizes cut by the cutter; and

a total length of the first and second sloped portions is longer than 4Lx/5,

where 2Lx is a maximum length of a sheet in the sheet discharging direction among the sheets of multiple sizes.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the guide member comprises:

an opposing portion provided opposite the sheet roll supporter; and

a bending portion provided below the opposing portion such that the restriction member is positioned below the sheet roll supporter.