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US 5,321,467 AGranted
Image forming apparatus with ink jet and electrophotographic recording units
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKiyoharu Tanaka, Takashi Uchida, Akira Hiramatsu, Haruhiko Takahashi, Atsushi Munakata
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of different image forming units for recording with different methods. An ink jet recording unit is arranged on the upstream side of an electrophotography recording unit in a transporting path of a recording medium. Recording of the ink jet recording unit is performed prior to that of the electrophotography recording unit.
Claims47
An image forming apparatus comprising a plurality of image forming means which form images according to different methods, wherein:
- one image forming means is arranged on an upstream side of the other image forming means in a transporting path of a recording medium;
- and
- the top end of the recording medium is introduced into second transporting means while image formation is being performed by said one image forming means when I>L stands, and the top end of the recording medium is introduced into the other image forming means when I.ltoreq.L stands,
- where I represents a distance from the top end of the recording medium to the end of the an image recording area on which an image is formed by said one image forming means, and L represents a distance from a pair of rollers located on the downstream side in a transporting direction constituting first transporting means of said one image forming means to resist rollers of said other image forming means.
1 more element
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- transporting means for transporting a recording medium;
- first image forming means for performing image formation by discharging ink on the recording medium in response to image formation information;
- second image forming means for performing transfer image formation on the recording medium by forming a latent image on a photo-sensitive member in response to image formation information;
- a pair of guiding members for guiding the recording medium transported from said first image forming means to said second image forming means;
- and
- fixing means for fixing an image formed on the recording medium by said second image forming means,
- wherein a transporting distance between said first image forming means and said second image forming means is shorter than the length of the recording medium, and a space is defined by said guiding members so that the recording medium can be curved in the space.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming means, said apparatus comprising:
- ink jet image forming means for forming a multi-color image on a recording medium in response to image information;
- electrophotographic image forming means for forming a black and white image on the recording medium in response to image information;
- first conveying means for guiding the recording medium to said ink jet image forming means and exhausting the recording medium from said ink jet image forming means after image formation by said ink jet image forming means;
- second conveying means;
- and
- a switching mechanism for switching between a first conveying route for guiding the recording medium exhausted from said ink jet image forming means to said electrophotographic image forming means and a second conveying route for guiding the recording medium to said second conveying means.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming means, said apparatus comprising:
- ink jet image forming means for forming a multi-color image on a recording medium in response to image information;
- electrophotographic image forming means for forming a black and white image on the recording medium in response to image information;
- first conveying means for guiding the recording medium to said ink jet image forming means and exhausting the recording medium from said ink jet image forming means after image formation by said ink jet image forming means;
- second conveying means;
- and
- a switching mechanism for switching between a first conveying route for guiding the recording medium exhausted from said ink jet image forming means to said electrophotographic image forming means and a second conveying route for guiding the recording medium to said second conveying means, wherein
- said ink jet image forming means is arranged on an upstream side of said electrophotographic image forming means on a transporting path of the recording medium;
- and
- a top end of the recording medium is introduced into said second conveying means while image formation is being performed by said ink jet image forming means when I>L stands, and the top end of the recording medium is introduced into said electrophotographic image forming means when I.ltoreq.L stands,
- where I represents a distance from the top end of the recording medium to the end of the an image recording area on which an image is formed by said ink jet image forming means, and L represents a distance from a pair of rollers of said first conveying means located on a downstream side in a conveying direction of said ink jet image forming means to resist rollers of said electrophotographic image forming means.
7 more elements
An image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming means, said apparatus comprising:
- ink jet image forming means for forming a multi-color image on a recording medium in response to image information;
- electrophotographic image forming means for forming a black and white image on the recording medium in response to image information;
- first conveying means for guiding the recording medium to said ink jet image forming means and exhausting the recording medium from said ink jet image forming means;
- second conveying means;
- and
- a switching mechanism for switching between a first conveying route for guiding the recording medium exhausted from said ink jet image forming means to said electrophotographic image forming means and a second conveying route for guiding the recording medium to said second conveying means.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus including a plurality of different image forming means, said apparatus comprising:
- a first image forming section having a first recording medium conveying mechanism for guiding a recording medium to said first image forming section and exhausting the recording medium from said first image forming section;
- a second image forming section provided downstream of said first image forming section in a conveyance route of the recording medium, said second image forming section having a second recording medium conveying mechanism for guiding the recording medium to said second image forming section and exhausting said recording medium from said second image forming section;
- a third recording medium conveying mechanism provided downstream of said first image forming section in the conveyance route of the recording medium;
- and
- a guiding mechanism for guiding the recording medium to said third recording medium conveying mechanism when I>L and guiding the recording medium to said second image forming section when I.ltoreq.L,
- where I is a distance between a leading end of the recording medium and a rear end of an image forming area of said first image forming section, and L is a distance between a conveying member provided downstream of the conveyance route of said first recording medium conveying mechanism and a conveying member provided downstream of the conveyance route of said second recording medium conveying mechanism.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an ink jet image forming section for forming an image by discharging ink to a recording medium in response to image forming information, said ink jet image forming section having a first recording medium conveying mechanism for guiding a recording medium to said ink jet image forming section and exhausting the recording medium from said ink jet image forming section;
- an electrophotographic image forming section provided downstream of said ink jet image forming section in a conveyance route of the recording medium which is shorter than the length of the recording medium, said electrophotographic image forming section having a second recording medium conveying mechanism for guiding the recording medium to said electrophotographic image forming section and exhausting the recording medium from said electrophotographic image forming section;
- a guiding mechanism for guiding the recording medium from said ink jet image forming section to said electrophotographic image forming section, said guiding mechanism having a space in which said recording medium is capable of being curved;
- and
- a control mechanism for introducing the recording medium to said second recording medium conveying mechanism in accordance with termination of image formation by said ink jet image forming section.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.