Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus including same
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorMasato Ogawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet feeder including a sheet roll constituted of one long continuous sheet wound around a core, a sheet conveyance unit to convey the sheet fed from the sheet roll and including an extreme upstream member that contacts an upper surface of the sheet fed from the sheet roll at an extreme upstream side in a direction of conveyance of the sheet, and a trailing end detector rotatable by contacting the sheet extended between the core of the sheet roll and the extreme upstream member. The trailing end detector detects a trailing end of the sheet roll upon being rotated upward to a position above a line connecting the extreme upstream member and a lowest part of the core of the sheet roll having a minimum diameter usable in the sheet feeder.
Claims7
A sheet feeder, comprising:
- a sheet roll constituted of one long continuous sheet wound, starting with a trailing end of the sheet roll, around a core;
- a sheet conveyance unit including
- one or more conveyance members to convey in a conveyance direction the sheet fed from the sheet roll, and
- a contact member that is upstream, in the conveyance direction, of the conveyance members and contacts at a contact point to an upper surface of the sheet fed from the sheet roll;
- a trailing end detector which (i) is rotatable about a rotary shaft that is disposed at a position closer to the sheet conveyance unit than to the sheet roll and (ii) is disposed to contact an upper surface of the sheet extended between the core of the sheet roll and the contact member when the sheet is guided by the contact member upward in the conveyance direction, the trailing end detector detecting the trailing end of the sheet roll upon being rotated upward by displacement of the upper surface of the sheet to a position above a notional line connecting the contact point of the contact member and a lowest part of the outer circumference of the core;
- and
- a support member that supports both of the contact member and the trailing end detector.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image forming unit to form an image on a recording medium fed thereto;
- and
- a sheet feeder to feed the recording medium to the image forming unit,
- wherein the sheet feeder comprises:
- a sheet roll constituted of one long continuous sheet wound, starting with a trailing end of the sheet roll, around a core;
- a sheet conveyance unit including
- one or more conveyance members to convey in a conveyance direction the sheet fed from the sheet roll, and
- a contact member that is upstream, in the conveyance direction, of the conveyance members and contacts at a contact point to an upper surface of the sheet fed from the sheet roll;
- a trailing end detector which (i) is rotatable about a rotary shaft that is disposed at a position closer to the sheet conveyance unit than to the sheet roll and (ii) is disposed to contact an upper surface of the sheet extended between the core of the sheet roll and the contact when the sheet is guided by the contact member upward in the conveyance direction, the trailing end detector detecting the trailing end of the sheet roll upon being rotated upward by displacement of the upper surface of the sheet to a position above a notional line connecting the contact point of the contact member and a lowest part of the outer circumference of the core;
- and
- a support member that supports both of the contact member and the trailing end detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.