US 6,409,165 B1Granted

Sheet holder and sheet trailing edge restriction member therefor

AssigneeKyocera Mita Corporation

InventorsMasanori Yamaoka, Yuji Nakayashiki, Hiroyuki Tanaka

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Abstract

A sheet trailing edge restriction member (65) according to the present invention has a main body (68) disposed upright in a sheet holding portion. The main body (68) is provided with a hook (71) for fixing the main body upright to the sheet holding portion. The restriction member is attached to and detached from the sheet holding portion by deforming the hook (71) toward a space (72) defined between the hook and the main body. Unless the hook is deformed toward the space (72), the restriction member cannot be detached from the sheet holding portion. The main body (68) is provided with a rear support plate (70) for supporting a rear end of a sheet stack. The rear support plate (70) is displaceable so as to support the rear end of the sheet stack. An insert (82) is provided integrally with the rear support plate (70). The insert (82) is usually inserted in the space (72) to prevent the deformation of the hook (71).

Claims6

Dependent claims

A sheet holder for holding a multiplicity of sheets for use in an image forming apparatus, the sheet holder comprising:

a sheet holding portion on which the sheets are stacked;
and
a restriction member detachably mounted in a predetermined position depending on a sheet size in the sheet holding portion for positioning a rear end of the sheet stack held in the sheet holding portion,
wherein the restriction member comprises:
a main body disposed upright in the sheet holding portion;
a hook extending alongside the main body with a predetermined space defined therebetween for fixing the main body to the sheet holding portion, the hook being deformable toward the space so as to be brought into and out of engagement with the sheet holding portion;
a rear support plate forwardly displaceable from the main body so that, when the sheet stack has a greater thickness with a greater number of sheets held in the sheet holding portion, the rear support plate is pressed against the main body by the rear end of the sheet stack thereby to be substantially flush with the main body and, as the number of the sheets is reduced, the rear support plate is displaced forward from the main body to support the rear end of the sheet stack;
and
an insert projecting from the rear support plate to be inserted in the space between the main body and the hook, the insert being movable in accordance with the displacement of the rear support plate so as to be brought out of the space when the rear support plate is displaced to a forward terminal position.

6 more elements

A sheet trailing edge restriction member adapted to be detachably mounted in a predetermined position depending on a sheet size in a sheet holding portion for positioning a rear end of a sheet stack held in the sheet holding portion, the restriction member comprising:

a main body disposed upright in the sheet holding portion;
a hook extending alongside the main body with a predetermined space defined therebetween for fixing the main body to the sheet holding portion, the hook being deformable toward the space so as to be brought into and out of engagement with the sheet holding portion;
a rear support plate forwardly displaceable from the main body so that, when the sheet stack has a greater thickness with a greater number of sheets held in the sheet holding portion, the rear support plate is pressed against the main body by the rear end of the sheet stack thereby to be substantially flush with the main body and, as the number of the sheets is reduced, the rear support plate is displaced forward from the main body to support the rear end of the sheet stack;
and
an insert projecting from the rear support plate to be inserted in the space between the main body and the hook, the insert being movable in accordance with the displacement of the rear support plate so as to be brought out of the space when the rear support plate is displaced to a forward terminal position.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.