SHEET FEEDER, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS USING THE SHEET FEEDER

• US 20160170361A1
• Filed: 11/20/2015
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Matsuda, Naoki, Ishida, Masahiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,678,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 1/00 Supports or magazines for piles from which articles are to be separated carriers used for associating, collating, or gathering articles B65H39/00
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 1/04 adapted to support articles substantially horizontally, e.g. for separation from top of pile
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 1/266 Support fully or partially removable from the handling machine, e.g. cassette, drawer B65H1/027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2515/82 Sound; Noise
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2601/521 Noise
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 3/00 Separating articles from piles associating, collating, or gathering articles B65H39/00; machines for separating superposed webs B65H41/00; unpiling thin material combined with folding B65H45/26; combinations of piling and depiling operations, of interest apart from the single operation of piling or depiling B65H83/00
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/6502 Supplying of sheet copy material; Cassettes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/1638 directed to paper handling or jam treatment
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/1647 Mechanical connection means

Abstract

A sheet feeder is provided. The sheet feeder includes a sheet container installation space forming member to form a sheet container installation space in the sheet feeder; a sheet container to contain a recording sheet therein, which can be inserted into or extracted from the sheet container installation space; and a sheet feeding device, which contacts with the recording sheet in the sheet container at a sheet pickup position to apply a feeding power to the recording sheet. The sheet feeder has a passage, which is formed by the sheet container and the sheet container installation space forming member to communicate the inside of the sheet feeder with the outside thereof and which is detoured plural times, wherein the passage is located above the sheet pickup position.

Claims

1. A sheet feeder comprising:

a sheet container installation space forming member to form a sheet container installation space in the sheet feeder;

a sheet container to contain a recording sheet therein, wherein the sheet container can be inserted into or extracted from the sheet container installation space; and

a sheet feeding device, which contacts with the recording sheet in the sheet container at a sheet pickup position to apply a feeding power to the recording sheet,

wherein the sheet feeder has a passage, which is formed by the sheet container and the sheet container installation space forming member to communicate inside of the sheet feeder with outside thereof and which is detoured plural times, and wherein the passage is located above the sheet pickup position.

2. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet feeder does not have the passage below the sheet container.

3. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet container has a lower portion projecting downward from a lower surface thereof, and wherein the lower portion is contacted with a lower edge of the sheet container installation space forming member.

4. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, the sheet container includes:

a sheet container exterior cover located at an end of the sheet container in a sheet container extracting direction,

wherein the sheet container exterior cover and the sheet container installation space forming member form the passage, and

wherein the sheet container exterior cover has a rib, which is located on an inner surface of the sheet container exterior cover and extends in a sheet container inserting direction to form the passage.

5. The sheet feeder according to claim 4, wherein the rib includes at least an upper rib and a lower rib, and wherein the lower rib extends longer in the sheet container inserting direction than the upper rib.

6. The sheet feeder according to claim 4, further comprising:

a positioning member to position the sheet container exterior cover to the sheet container installation space forming member when the sheet container is inserted into the sheet container installation space.

7. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet container installation space forming member includes at least one space forming cover, and wherein the at least one space forming cover separates the inside of the sheet feeder from the outside thereof.

8. The sheet feeder according to claim 7, wherein the sheet container installation space forming member includes two or more space forming covers.

9. The sheet feeder according to claim 8, wherein at least one of the two or more space forming covers is an openable and closable cover, which can be opened or closed relative to the sheet feeder.

10. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet container includes a passage forming member forming the passage, which forms the passage together with the sheet container installation space forming member, and wherein the passage forming member does not strike the sheet container installation space forming member even when the sheet container is inserted into the sheet container installation space by a press force.

11. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet container installation space forming member is located at a position such that the sheet container installation space forming member does not interfere with insertion and extraction of the sheet container.

12. The sheet feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet container includes a first projecting portion, and the sheet container installation space forming member includes a second projecting portion, which surrounds at least a front end portion of the first projecting portion in such a manner that at least a front end portion of the second projecting portion and the front end portion of the first projecting portion overlap in projecting directions of the front end portions of the first and second projecting portions without contacting with each other, to form the passage.

13. The sheet feeder according to claim 12, wherein the second projecting portion has at least two projecting portions, and wherein front end portions of the at least two projecting portions of the second projecting portion and the front end portion of the first projecting portion overlap in the projecting directions of the front end portions without contacting with each other, to form the passage.

14. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming portion to form an image on a recording sheet; and

the sheet feeder according to claim 1 to feed the recording sheet to the image forming portion.

15. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming portion to form an image on a recording sheet;

a sheet feeder to feed the recording sheet to the image forming portion; and

a sheet container installation space forming member forming a sheet container installation space,

wherein the sheet feeder includes

a sheet container to contain the recording sheet therein, wherein the sheet container can be inserted into or extracted from the sheet container installation space; and

a sheet feeding device, which contacts with the recording sheet in the sheet container at a sheet pickup position to apply a feeding power to the recording sheet,

wherein the image forming apparatus has a passage, which is formed by the sheet container and the sheet container installation space forming member to communicate inside of the image forming apparatus with outside thereof and which is detoured plural times, and wherein the passage is located above the sheet pickup position.

16. The image forming apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the sheet container includes a first projecting portion, and the sheet container installation space forming member includes a second projecting portion, which surrounds at least a front end portion of the first projecting portion in such a manner that at least a front end portion of the second projecting portion and the front end portion of the first projecting portion overlap in projecting directions of the front end portions of the first and second projecting portions without contacting with each other, to form the passage.

17. The image forming apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the second projecting portion has at least two projecting portions, and wherein front end portions of the at least two projecting portions of the second projecting portion and the front end portion of the first projecting portion overlap in the projecting directions of the front end portions without contacting with each other, to form the passage.