Sheet Feeding Device and Image Forming Apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTsugio OKAMOTO
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet feeding device is provided. The sheet feeding device includes a sheet holder to hold a sheet in a position to be fed, a feed roller to pick up the sheet, a first lifter to move a closer portion of the sheet holder by one of a front end and a rear end thereof, a second lifter to move a further portion of the sheet holder by one of a front end and a rear end thereof, and a coordinating system to move the first lifter and the second lifter in cooperation with each other to move the overall sheet holder in a direction to be closer to the feed roller, wherein an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the first lifter is greater according to a constant rate with respect to an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the second lifter.
Claims22
A sheet feeding device to feed a sheet in a sheet stack into a sheet feeding path along a sheet feeding direction, comprising:
- a sheet holder to hold the sheet in a position to be fed;
- a feed roller to be rotated to pick up the sheet from the sheet stack and arranged in a position, in which the sheet becomes in contact with the feed roller;
- a first lifter, having a front end and a rear end, to move a closer portion of the sheet holder, being closer to the feed roller, by one of the front end and the rear end;
- a second lifter, having a front end and a rear end, to move a further portion of the sheet holder, being further from the feed roller, by one of the front end and the rear end;
- and
- a coordinating system to move the first lifter and the second lifter in cooperation with each other to move the overall sheet holder in a direction to be closer to the feed roller;
- wherein an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the first lifter is greater according to a constant rate with respect to an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the second lifter.
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a sheet feeding device to feed a sheet in a sheet stack along a sheet feeding direction;
- an image forming unit, arranged on a portion substantially above the sheet feeding device, to form the image on the sheet being fed by the sheet feeding device;
- and
- a sheet feeding path to guide the sheet being fed by the sheet feeding device upwardly to the image forming unit,
- wherein the sheet feeding device includes:
- a sheet holder to hold the sheet in a position to be fed;
- a feed roller to be rotated to pick up the sheet from the sheet stack and arranged in a position, in which the sheet becomes in contact with the feed roller;
- a separator arranged in a downstream side of the sheet feeding path with respect to the feed roller to separate the sheet from a succeeding sheet in the sheet stack;
- a first lifter, having a front end and a rear end, to move a closer portion of the sheet holder, being closer to the feed roller, by one of the front end and the rear end;
- a second lifter, having a front end and a rear end, to move a further portion of the sheet holder, being further from the feed roller, by one of the front end and the rear end;
- and
- a coordinating system to move the first lifter and the second lifter in cooperation with each other to move the overall sheet holder in a direction to be closer to the feed roller;
- wherein an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the first lifter is greater according to a constant rate with respect to an amount of the sheet holder to be moved by the second lifter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.