Conveyance unit and image forming apparatus including this

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a conveyance unit configured to deliver a sheet toward a conveyance path;
• wherein the conveyance unit includes;
• a cassette removably attached to an apparatus body;
• a conveyance interlocked part provided in the apparatus body so as to be adjacent the cassette;
• wherein the cassette includes;
• a sheet storage part configured to store the sheet;
• a lift plate liftably provided between a lowered position along a bottom plate of the sheet storage part and a raised position separated upward from the bottom plate;
• and
• a biasing member configured to bias the lift plate to the raised position so as to cause the sheet on the lift plate to contact with a pickup roller;
• wherein the conveyance interlocked part includes:
• a lever configured to engage with the lift plate when the cassette is attached to the apparatus body and being liftable together with the lift plate;
• a pressing mechanism configured to press the lever downward to keep the lift plate at the lowered position;
• and
• a support member provided between the apparatus body and the lever so as to suppress a drop of the lever disengaged from the lift plate when the cassette is detached from the apparatus body,
• wherein the pressing mechanism includes:
• an eccentric cam fixed to an eccentric shaft;
• and
• a driving unit configured to rotate the eccentric cam in one direction;
• wherein the eccentric cam includes a lock part receded on a surface of the eccentric cam,
• the lever includes:
• a lever body rotatably attached to the apparatus body around a lever turning shaft;
• an arm part configured to extend from the lever body toward the lift plate and coming into contact with an upper surface of the lift plate;
• and
• a boss provided in the lever body so as to be relatively slidably along the surface;
• the support member is formed to be elastically deformable in the lift direction of the lever,
• the lever is disposed at a pressing position and holds the lift plate in the lowered position when the eccentric cam rotates and the boss is locked by the lock part, and
• the lever is lowered from the pressing position within a range in which the support member is elastically deformable and is put into a state in which the lever can be lifted together with the lift plate by a bias force of the biasing member in a case when the eccentric cam rotates further from the state in which the boss is locked by the lock part and the boss is unlocked from the lock part.