Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorTakahiro Shinga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet feeding tray, a lock mechanism that locks the sheet feeding tray, a sheet feeding unit that feeds sheets from the sheet feeding tray one by one, an opening and closing unit that opens and closes a conveyance path, a sheet detecting sensor that detects presence of a sheet at a position at which the opening and closing unit is arranged, and a state detecting unit that detects a state of the opening and closing unit. When the sheet detecting sensor detects that a sheet is stuck during conveyance of the sheet, the lock mechanism locks the sheet feeding tray not to be drawn out, and unlock the sheet feeding tray after the opening and closing unit opens the conveyance path.
Claims9
A sheet feeding apparatus comprising:
- a sheet feeding tray that houses sheets;
- a sheet feeding device that feeds the sheets from the sheet feeding tray one by one;
- a lock mechanism that locks the sheet feeding tray to prevent draw-out of the sheet feeding tray;
- an opening and closing unit that is pivotable in an open state and a close state, and that forms a conveyance path of the sheet when in the close state;
- a sheet detecting unit that detects whether a sheet is present in the conveyance path;
- a state detecting unit that detects whether the opening and closing unit is in the open state or the close state;
- and
- a control unit that, when the sheet detecting unit detects a sheet in the conveyance path, controls the lock mechanism to lock the sheet feeding tray, and when the state detecting unit detects that the opening and closing unit is in the open state, controls the lock mechanism to unlock the sheet feeding tray.
An image forming apparatus comprising a sheet feeding apparatus comprising:
- a sheet feeding tray that houses sheets;
- a sheet feeding device that feeds the sheets from the sheet feeding tray one by one;
- a lock mechanism that locks the sheet feeding tray to prevent draw-out of the sheet feeding tray;
- an opening and closing unit that is pivotable in an open state and a close state, and that forms a conveyance path of the sheet when in the close state;
- a sheet detecting unit that detects whether a sheet is present in the conveyance path;
- a state detecting unit that detects whether the opening and closing unit is in the open state or the close state;
- and
- a control unit that, when the sheet detecting unit detects a sheet in the conveyance path, controls the lock mechanism to lock the sheet feeding tray, and when the state detecting unit detects that the opening and closing unit is in the open state, controls the lock mechanism to unlock the sheet feeding tray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.