Image recording apparatus constituting of selectable units
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsMakoto Obu, Minoru Suzuki, Koichi Noguchi, Takashi Mori, Akira Ishida, Koichiro Jinnai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A copier, printer, facsimile apparatus or similar image forming apparatus made up of components each being constructed into a unit and connected to the others by external arrangements. The apparatus has a base unit accommodating an electric control device, a paper feeding unit removably mounted on the base unit, and an image forming unit for forming an image and recording it on a paper sheet. The base unit, paper feeding unit, and image forming unit may be combined in any desired configuration to construct an image recording apparatus capable of performing any desired kind of image forming procedure.
Claims14
An image recording apparatus constituted by components each being constructed as an independent, stackable, modular unit, comprising:
- a base unit comprising a single casing accommodating at least an electric control device;
- at least one image forming unit comprising a single casing accommodating image processing means for forming an image in response to an image signal which is representative of an image to be recorded, said image forming unit casing having an end opening and said image processing means being positioned adjacent said end opening such that an image may be formed on an image receiving element covering said opening;
- an image receiving unit removably mounted to the base unit and comprising means for linearly transporting an image receiving element in a vertical direction so as to cover the opening and have an image formed thereto;
- said image forming unit being removably externally mounted to said base unit and operated by said electric control device of said base unit, wherein each said at least one image forming unit lacks means for transporting said image receiving element.
An image recording apparatus constituted by components each being constructed as an independent, stackable, modular unit, comprising:
- a base unit comprising a single casing accommodating at least an electric control device;
- a plurality of image forming units vertically stacked on one another, each comprising a single casing accommodating image processing means for forming an image in response to an image signal which is representative of an image to be recorded, said image forming unit casing having an end opening and said image processing means being positioned adjacent said end opening such that an image may be formed on an image receiving element covering said opening;
- an image receiving unit removably mounted to the base unit an comprising means for linearly transporting an image receiving element in a vertical direction so as to sequentially cover the opening of each of said stacked image forming units and have an image formed thereto;
- said image forming units being removably externally mounted to said base unit and operated by said electric control device of said base unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.