Image forming apparatus capable of single-sided and double-sided printing
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsShusaku Tsusaka, Yoshiteru Hattori
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus and a method of forming an image by the image forming apparatus that includes an image forming unit for forming an image onto a recording medium, a supply path for supplying a recording medium to the image forming unit, a first discharge path for discharging the recording medium, a return path, connected with the first discharge path, for returning the recording medium to the image forming unit, a second discharge path, substantially parallel with the supply path, for discharging the recording medium, and a guide member movable from a first position to create the first discharge path and the return path to a second position to create the second discharge path.
Claims26
An image forming apparatus, comprising
- an image forming unit for forming an image onto a recording medium;
- a supply path for supplying a recording medium to the image forming unit;
- a first discharge path for discharging the recording medium from the image forming unit;
- a return path, connected with the first discharge path, for returning the recording medium to the image forming unit;
- a second discharge path, substantially parallel with the supply path, for discharging the recording medium;
- and
- a guide member movable from a first position to create the first discharge path and the return path to a second position to create the second discharge path, wherein the guide member comprises a first member and a second member movable relative to the first member, and the first discharge path is along a first surface of the first member and the return path is between a second surface of the first member and a first surface of the second member when the guide member is in the first position.
A method of forming an image by an image forming apparatus, comprising the steps of:
- supplying a recording medium to the image forming apparatus along a supply path;
- forming the image onto the recording medium;
- and
- discharging the recording medium to either a first discharge path, a return path connected with the first discharge path or a second discharge path substantially parallel with the supply path, wherein a guide member is movable from a first position to create the first discharge path and the return path to a second position to create the second discharge path, the guide member comprises a first member and a second member movable relative to the first member, and the first discharge path is along a first surface of the first member and the return path is between a second surface of the first member and a first surface of the second member when the guide member is in the first position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.