Pickup device for use in an image forming apparatus
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorKyung-Hwan Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pickup device for use in an image forming apparatus has a cassette detachably mounted in a body of the image forming apparatus, and a pickup roller for picking up paper piled on the cassette and feeding it to an image forming engine portion by being moved upward and downward in association with loading/unloading of the cassette. Accordingly, overall size of the image forming apparatus is reduced, while improvement in performance and life span is guaranteed due to minimization of mechanical trouble, obtained by preventing possible collision between the pickup roller and the cassette being loaded, or preventing interference between the pickup roller and the paper. Also, information about paper exhaustion and paper remaining in the cassette is provided in real time.
Claims34
A pickup device for picking up a sheet of paper from a stack of paper loaded in a cassette which is detachably mounted in a body of an image forming apparatus, and for feeding the picked up paper to an image forming engine portion, said pickup device comprising:
- a pickup roller for feeding an uppermost sheet of paper of the stack of paper in the cassette in a predetermined direction by contacting, and thus transmitting a rotational driving force to, the uppermost sheet of paper;
- loading/unloading means for moving the pickup roller upward and downward in association with loading and unloading of the cassette;
- and
- driving means for transmitting the rotational driving force to the pickup roller, thereby enabling the pickup roller to feed the paper from the cassette sequentially.
The pickup device ofclaim 5, wherein the pickup roller has a rotary shaft on which a driving gear is disposed, and wherein the power transmitting unit comprises:
- a belt pulley disposed on the pickup bracket and connected to an output shaft of the driving motor;
- and
- a plurality of connecting gears disposed on the pickup bracket for connecting the driving gear disposed on the rotary shaft of the pickup roller with the belt pulley.
A pickup device for picking up a sheet of paper from a stack of parer loaded in a cassette which is detachably mounted in a body of an image forming apparatus, and for feeding the picked up paper to an image forming engine portion, said pickup device comprising:
- a pickup roller for feeding an uppermost sheet of paper of the stack of paper in the cassette in a predetermined direction by contacting, and thus transmitting a rotational driving force to, the uppermost sheet of paper;
- loading/unloading means for moving the pickup roller upward and downward in association with loading and unloading of the cassette;
- and
- driving means for transmitting the rotational driving force to the pickup roller, thereby enabling the pickup roller to feed the paper from the cassette sequentially;
- wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises paper remainder detecting means for detecting a remainder of the stack of paper, and for displaying detected remainder information;
- and
- wherein the paper remainder detecting means comprises:
- a paper contact lever which is moved upward and downward by the loading/unloading means to contact the stack of paper in the cassette;
- and
- wherein the paper remainder detecting means detects information about presence and absence of the paper in the cassette according to whether or not a free end of the paper contact lever passes through a slit formed in a bottom of the cassette.
A pickup device for picking up a sheet of paper from a stack of paper loaded in a cassette which is detachably mounted in a body of an image forming apparatus, and for feeding the picked up paper to an image forming engine portion, said pickup device comprising:
- a pickup roller for feeding an uppermost sheet of paper of the stack of paper in the cassette in a predetermined direction by contacting, and thus transmitting a rotational driving force to, the uppermost sheet of paper;
- loading/unloading means for moving the pickup roller upward and downward in association with loading and unloading of the cassette;
- and
- driving means for transmitting the rotational driving force to the pickup roller, thereby enabling the pickup roller to feed the paper from the cassette sequentially
- wherein said loading/unloading means comprises a pickup bracket having a free end which moves upward and downward while rotatably supporting the pickup roller;
- said pickup device further comprising locking/unlocking means for selectively restricting movement of the pickup bracket so that the pickup bracket moves upward and downward by manipulation of a main controller, which is formed on the body of the image forming apparatus, irrespective of the loading and unloading of the cassette.
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a body;
- an image forming engine portion;
- a cassette detachably mounted in the body for holding a stack of paper loaded in the cassette;
- pickup means for picking up a sheet of paper from the stack, and for feeding the pickup paper to the image forming engine portion;
- and
- paper remainder detecting means for detecting a remainder of the stack of paper, and for displaying detected remainder information;
- wherein said pickup means comprises:
- a pickup roller for feeding an uppermost sheet of paper of the stack of paper in the cassette in a predetermined direction by contacting, and thus transmitting a rotational driving force to, the uppermost sheet of paper;
- and
- a loading/unloading unit for moving the pickup roller upward and downward in association with loading and unloading of the cassette.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a body;
- an image forming engine portion;
- a cassette detachably mounted in the body for holding a stack of paper loaded in the cassette;
- pickup means for picking up a sheet of paper from the stack, and for feeding the pickup paper to the image forming engine portion;
- and
- paper remainder detecting means for detecting a remainder of the stack of paper, and for displaying detected remainder information;
- wherein the paper remainder detecting means comprises:
- a paper contact lever which is moved upward and downward to contact the stack of paper in the cassette;
- and
- wherein the paper remainder detecting means detects information about presence and absence of the paper in the cassette according to whether or not a free end of the paper contact lever passes through a slit formed in a bottom of the cassette.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.