Image forming apparatus with demountable sheet conveyor unit in main body for receiving sheets from optional sheet stack connectable thereto
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsTakashi Kuwata, Kiyoharu Yoshioka, Yasuhiro Uchida, Makoto Izumi, Minoru Kawanishi, Kenichiro Isobe, Akira Matsushima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A main body of an image forming apparatus has an image forming section to which a sheet is fed from an optional sheet deck when it is coupled to the main body. The sheet fed from the sheet feeding device is received and then forwarded to the image forming section by a sheet conveyor unit which is demountably provided in the main body of the image forming apparatus and is formed of a frame, a pair of conveying rollers within the frame, and a guide.
Claims19
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a main body having an image forming section;
- a sheet supply means connectable to said main body, for feeding sheets into said main body;
- a sheet conveyor unit demountably mounted in said main body, for receiving, when said sheet supply means is connected to said main body, a sheet fed from said sheet supply means and for conveying said sheet toward said image forming section;
- a driving power source provided in said sheet supply means;
- and
- driving power transmission means for transmitting driving power from said driving power source in said sheet supply means to said sheet conveyor unit mounted in said main body.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a main body having an image forming section;
- a sheet supply means connectable to said main body, for feeding sheets into said main body;
- a sheet conveyor unit demountably mounted in said main body, for receiving, when said sheet supply means is connected to said main body, a sheet fed from said sheet supply means and for conveying said sheet toward said image forming section;
- a driving power source mounted in said main body;
- and
- driving power transmission means for transmitting power from said driving power source to said sheet conveyor unit mounted in said main body.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a main body having an image forming section;
- a sheet supply means connectable to said main body, for feeding sheets into said main body;
- a sheet conveyor unit demountably mounted in said main body, for receiving, when said sheet supply means is connected to said main body, a sheet fed from said sheet supply means and for conveying said sheet toward said image forming section;
- and
- detecting means for detecting a mounting state of said sheet conveyor unit in said image forming apparatus.
A sheet conveyor unit for guiding a sheet to an image forming section of an image forming apparatus, said sheet being received from an optional sheet supply means connected to said image forming apparatus, said sheet conveyor unit comprising:
- a frame mountable in said image forming apparatus, said frame, when mounted, providing a vertical conveyor path along which the sheet received from the optional sheet supply means is fed upward;
- conveyor means provided on said frame for conveying the sheet received from the optional sheet supply means;
- a guide provided on said frame, for guiding the sheet received from the optional sheet supply means;
- and
- a gear train adapted to receive and transmit a driving power from a driving source provided in said optional sheet supply means to said conveyor means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.