Image forming apparatus and sheet feeder

A sheet feeder comprising:

• a sheet tray for accommodating sheets of paper, disposed in such a manner as to be capable of being inserted or pulled out from the operation side of an apparatus body;
• a sheet feeding member disposed on an innermost recess side of the sheet tray in an inserting direction thereof so as to feed out the sheet in the sheet tray;
• and
• an interlocking mechanism for moving the sheet feeding member in a same direction as that of the sheet tray in interlocking relation to the sheet tray.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming section incorporating an image forming engine inside an apparatus body and adapted to form an image on a recording material by means of the image forming engine;
• a recording-material discharging section disposed above the image forming section to discharge and accommodate the recording material for which the image formation by the image forming section is completed;
• a recording-material supplying section which is disposed below the image forming section, in which a recording-material cassette for accommodating the recording-material is loaded in the apparatus body in such a manner as to be capable of being pulled out from a user operation side, a user operation-side surface of the recording material-cassette is set substantially flush with a surface of the apparatus body, and in a mode in which the transporting path, located immediately after the recording-material supplying section, is the rear-side transporting path, the recording material cassette comprises:
• a recording-material accommodating portion for accommodating the recording material;
• and
• a recording-material transporting portion disposed on an innermost recess side of the recording-material accommodating portion, wherein, the jam clearing section causes the recording-material transporting portion to be exposed to an outside with the recording material nipped and held in the recording-material transporting portion when the recording material cassette is pulled out;
• and
• a recording-material transporting system in which transporting paths are provided for transporting the recording material, supplied from the recording-material supplying section, to the image forming section and for subsequently guiding the recording material to the recording-material discharging section, wherein a portion of the transporting path leading to the image forming section is arranged on a rear side of the apparatus body located on an opposite side to the user operation side, at least either one of the recording-material supplying section and the recording-material transporting system is provided with a jam clearing section for allowing the recording material jammed in a rear-side transporting path to be both accessed from and cleared only on the user operation side.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming section incorporating an image forming engine inside an apparatus body and adapted to form an image on a recording material by means of the image forming engine;
• a recording-material discharging section disposed above the image forming section to discharge and accommodate the recording material for which the image formation by the image forming section is completed;
• a recording-material supplying section which is disposed below the image forming section, in which a recording-material cassette for accommodating the recording-material is loaded in the apparatus body in such a manner as to be capable of being pulled out from a user operation side, a user operation-side surface of the recording material-cassette is set substantially flush with a surface of the apparatus body;
• a recording-material transporting system in which transporting paths are provided for transporting the recording material, supplied from the recording-material supplying section, to the image forming section and for subsequently guiding the recording material to the recording-material discharging section, wherein a portion of the transporting path leading to the image forming section is arranged on a rear side of the apparatus body located on an opposite side to the user operation side, at least either one of the recording-material supplying section and the recording-material transporting system is provided with a jam clearing section for allowing the recording material jammed in a rear-side transporting path to be both accessed from and cleared only on the user operation side.