Image forming apparatus
AssigneeKYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
InventorYuzo Ohnishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a first and second ejection portions, a first and second conveying paths, a branch portion connecting the first conveying path with the second conveying path, a switching member movable between a first and second positions, a drive unit that moves the switching member from the first position to the second position or vice versa, a reference position setting unit setting the reference position of the switching member in an initial state, and a control unit controlling the drive unit such that the switching member in the initial state is positioned at the reference position set by the unit.
Claims6
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium to which the image is transferred;
- a first ejection portion and a second ejection portion that eject the recording medium to the outside of the housing;
- a first conveying path that guides the recording medium to the first ejection portion;
- a second conveying path that guides the recording medium to the second ejection portion;
- a branch portion that connects the first conveying path with the second conveying path;
- a switch that is disposed in the branch portion and movable between a first position to direct the recording medium, which is to be discharged to the outside of the apparatus, toward the first conveying path, and a second position to direct the recording medium, which is to be discharged to the outside of the apparatus, toward the second conveying path;
- a drive unit that moves the switch from the first position to the second position or from the second position to the first position;
- a reference position setting unit that sets a reference position of the switch, the reference position being a position that the switch is controlled to take in an initial state;
- a control unit that controls the drive unit such that the switch in the initial state is positioned at the reference position set by the reference position setting unit;
- and
- a usage status storage portion that stores usage information including information regarding a position of the switch,
- wherein the reference position setting unit sets the reference position of the switch based on the usage information stored by the usage status storage portion.
A method for conveying a recording medium with an image forming apparatus that is configured to selectively eject the recording medium on which an image is formed to a first ejection portion and a second ejection portion by selectively switching a switch disposed in a conveying path to a first position and a second position, the method comprising:
- memorizing information on a reference position where the switch is to be located at an initial time when a power unit of the image forming apparatus is turned on from off;
- turning on the power unit;
- acquiring the memorized information on the reference position;
- moving the switch to the reference position;
- setting an ejection destination of the recording medium to one of the first ejection portion and the second ejection portion;
- moving the switch to one of the first position and the second position from the reference position if the reference position does not agree with a position of the switch corresponding to the ejection destination of the recording medium;
- forming an image on the recording medium;
- conveying and guiding the recording medium to an ejection portion selected for the recording medium from the first ejection portion and the second election portion;
- ejecting the recording medium outside from the ejection portion selected for the recording medium;
- storing usage information including information regarding a position of the switch;
- and
- setting the reference position of the switch based on the stored usage information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.