Image forming apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsSakae Ito, Shusaku Tsusaka, Yasuo Tamaru, Tomitake Aratachi, Terumasa Ito
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a printer, a scanner unit is formed into a taper shape having a thinner thickness on a side of a pick-up roller in a removing direction of a process unit, to allow the process unit to be removed from the printer. A part of a sheet feeding path is formed in an area between the process unit and a sheet cassette. An image forming position on the sheet feed path is set lower than an upper end of the pick-up roller. Thus, removal of the process unit can be readily performed. Further, the height of the printer at a position of the pick-up roller can be reduced as compared with a case where the scanner unit is not formed into a taper shape.
Claims18
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a main casing;
- a photosensitive member;
- a process cartridge being installable to and removable from the main casing along a removal path, the process cartridge including a developer accommodating portion that can accommodate a developer;
- an exposing unit located above the process cartridge when the process cartridge is installed in the main casing, the exposing unit being capable of exposing a surface of the photosensitive member with a light;
- a sheet-accommodating portion located at a bottom portion of the main casing, the sheet-accommodating portion being capable of accommodating a sheet;
- a pick-up roller located above the sheet accommodating portion, the pick-up roller being capable of picking up the sheet from the sheet accommodating portion;
- an image transferring position where an image is transferred from the photosensitive member to the sheet;
- a sheet discharge port through which the sheet is discharged out of the main casing;
- and
- a conveying path along which the sheet can be conveyed from the pick up roller to the discharge port via the image forming position, the conveying path comprising a turn between the pick up roller and the image forming position;
- and
- a pair of registration rollers between the upper end of the turn and the image forming position;
- wherein the image forming position is disposed at a position closer to the sheet-accommodating portion than an upper end of the turn;
- and
- wherein the exposing unit includes a bottom plate, the bottom plate is inclined so that a portion of the exposing unit nearer to the upper end of the turn is further from the sheet-accommodating portion than a portion of the exposing unit nearer to the image forming position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.