JP2005306517A - Image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation device enhancing jam treatment property in a sheet inversion unit in the image formation device provided with an image reading part projected to a rear side of the device and a sheet inversion unit arranged at a back surface of an image formation part. <P>SOLUTION: The image formation device A is provided with the image formation part 1 for forming the image on the sheet; the sheet inversion unit 2 arranged at a back surface of the image formation part 1; a cover member 24 for opening a sheet conveying passage 20 in the sheet inversion unit 2; the image reading part 3 arranged above the sheet inversion unit 2; and a support member 6 arranged at a side part of the sheet inversion unit 2 and supporting the image reading part. In order to solve the problem, a typical constitution of the image formation device is constituted such that a notch part 6a is provided on at least a part of the support member 6, the cover member 24 is opened/closed from the notch part 6a and the sheet in the sheet conveying passage 20 can be removed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including an image reading unit, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus including a sheet reversing unit for double-sided recording.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been provided an image forming apparatus in which a flat bed type image reading unit is disposed on an upper portion. In such an apparatus, when the image reading unit is on a business trip behind the back of the image forming apparatus, support walls 52 that support the image reading unit 50 are provided on both sides of the printer unit 20 as shown in FIG. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2002-154705 (particularly paragraph 0025, FIG. 3)

  However, when the support member of the image reading unit is provided as described above and the sheet reversing unit for double-sided recording is provided on the back surface of the image forming apparatus, the side portion of the sheet reversing unit is blocked by the support member. For this reason, when a jam of the sheet occurs in the sheet conveyance path of the sheet reversing unit, it is necessary to wrap around the back of the apparatus for the jam processing. At this time, if the rear surface of the apparatus is placed against the wall, the entire apparatus has to be pulled forward for the jam processing, and there is a problem that the jam processing is difficult. On the other hand, when the image reading unit is configured to travel behind the back of the image forming apparatus, the center of gravity of the apparatus is behind, so that the protruding portion must be firmly supported.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus having an image reading unit that makes a business trip to the rear of the apparatus and a sheet reversing unit disposed on the back side of the image forming unit, in which the jam reversal in the sheet reversing unit is improved. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a typical configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet, a sheet reversing unit disposed on a back surface of the image forming unit, and the sheet. A cover member for opening the sheet conveyance path in the reversing unit, an image reading unit disposed above the sheet reversing unit, and a support member disposed on a side portion of the sheet reversing unit and supporting the image reading unit In the image forming apparatus, the support member is provided with a notch or an opening, the cover member is opened and closed from the notch or the opening, and the sheet in the sheet conveyance path can be removed. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, even in an image forming apparatus having an image reading unit at the top, a sheet conveying path in the sheet reversing unit located on the back of the image forming unit from a notch or opening provided in a support member of the image reading unit Jam processing can be performed. In other words, even when the rear surface of the apparatus is placed against the wall, the jam processing can be performed from the side of the apparatus without moving the entire apparatus, so that it is possible to greatly improve the jam handling performance.

  1 is an external perspective view of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a right side view of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 3 is a front view of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the image forming apparatus.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the image forming apparatus A includes a sheet reversing unit 2 that is a sheet reversing unit on the back of the image forming unit 1, and an image reading unit 3 on the top. In FIG. 1, the right side in the figure is the back side of the apparatus, the left side in the figure is the front side of the apparatus, and the front side in the figure is the side face of the apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 3, in the image reading unit 3, a contact image sensor 30 that reads an image of a document S on a document table glass 31 is provided along the document table glass 31 so as to be able to scan in the direction indicated by an arrow C. . The document on the platen glass 31 is pressed by a pressure plate 32 that can be opened and closed. The document feeder 33 separates and conveys the document S one by one, stops the contact image sensor 30 at a fixed reading position 30a (broken line in the figure), and reads an image while conveying the document S. In the document feeding device 33, the document S placed on the document placing table 34 is conveyed to the fixed reading position 30 a and discharged to the document discharge table 35.

  As shown in FIG. 4, at the lower part of the image forming unit 1, a cassette feeding unit 10 for storing sheets P, a feeding roller 10a for separating and feeding sheets one by one from the cassette feeding unit 10, and various sheets Is provided with a multi-feeding unit 11 for feeding a sheet, and a multi-separating unit 11a for separating and feeding sheets one by one from the multi-feeding unit 11, and transports a sheet P as a recording medium to the image forming unit 1. To do.

  The image forming unit 1 includes a process cartridge 12 having a photosensitive drum 12a, a laser scanner 13, and a fixing unit 14. The photosensitive drum 12a is uniformly charged by the charging unit 12b, forms a latent image when irradiated with light from the laser scanner 13, and forms a toner image by developing the latent image by the developing unit 12c. After the toner image is transferred to the sheet P by the transfer roller 12d, the residual toner is removed by the cleaning unit 12e. The sheet P to which the toner image has been transferred is fixed by applying heat and pressure by the fixing unit 14.

  In the case of single-sided recording, the image is directly discharged from the discharge unit 15 onto the discharge tray 16 (face-down discharge). When performing double-sided recording, the sheet P is conveyed to the sheet reversing unit 2 by driving the discharge unit 15 in reverse after the trailing edge of the sheet P has passed through the fixing unit 14.

  In the sheet reversing unit 2, the sheet is conveyed in the order of the conveying means 21, 22, and 23, and again conveyed to the image forming unit 1 to form an image on the back surface of the sheet P. The sheet reversing unit 2 is provided with a cover member 24 for opening the sheet conveying path 20. When a sheet jam occurs in the sheet reversing unit 2, the cover member 24 is opened, and the jammed sheet is removed. It can be taken out.

  An operation unit 4 including a display unit, input keys, and the like is provided on the front side of the apparatus of the image reading unit 3 so that a user can operate from the front side of the apparatus to achieve good operability. The electric board 4a of the operation unit 4 is provided with a key switch and an LCD display unit. 3 is a control unit that includes an electric substrate and controls the entire image forming apparatus A.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a frame structure of the image forming apparatus. In the image forming apparatus A having the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 5, the image reading unit 3 travels to the back side of the apparatus from the rearmost surface of the image forming unit 1. Is provided. The support member 6 is provided with a notch 8 so that the grip 24a of the cover member 24 of the sheet reversing unit 2 can be operated from the side of the apparatus. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a cutout portion 8 similar to the support member 6 is formed on the exterior of the image forming portion 1. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the notch 8 is located at a position where the grip 24 a of the cover member 24 can be viewed from the side.

  6 is a side view showing a state where the cover member of the sheet reversing unit is opened, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state where the cover member 24 of the sheet reversing unit 2 is opened. As shown in FIG. 6, the notch 8 of the support member 6 has a position and a size that allow the user to insert a hand and remove the jammed sheet from the sheet conveyance path 20 of the sheet reversing unit 2. Yes. On the other hand, when the cover member 24 is opened with the gripping portion 24a, the movement range thereof is within the region on the front side (the hatched portion D shown in FIG. 6) with respect to the rear side of the device (the dashed line B in FIG. 6). In a certain state, it is possible to open the sheet conveyance path 20 and perform jam processing. Note that the cover member 24 only needs to be capable of jamming in the above state, and may be configured to be able to rotate to a larger angle.

  With the configuration as described above, even in the image forming apparatus A provided with the image reading unit 3 on the upper side, the sheet on the back surface of the image forming unit 1 from the notch 8 provided in the support member 6 of the image reading unit 3. Jam processing in the reversing unit 2 can be performed. In other words, even when the rear surface of the apparatus is placed against the wall, the jam processing can be performed from the side of the apparatus without moving the entire apparatus, so that it is possible to greatly improve the jam handling performance.

  Further, in the present embodiment, since the image reading unit 3 travels to the back side of the apparatus with respect to the back surface of the image forming unit 1, the center of gravity X of the image reading unit 3 is the center of gravity of the apparatus main body as shown in FIG. It is arranged on the back side of the apparatus with respect to Y. Here, since the notch 8 cuts the support member 6 toward the front side of the apparatus, if the grounding surface is left as it is, the entire apparatus is likely to fall to the back side. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the rearmost part 6 a of the apparatus on the bottom surface of the support member 6 is arranged on the rear side of the apparatus with respect to the center of gravity of the image reading unit 3. Specifically, the device innermost portion 6 a on the bottom surface is arranged almost directly below the back surface of the image reading unit 3. With this configuration, the installation stability of the apparatus is improved.

  In the above-described embodiment, the notch 8 of the support member 6 has been described as being notched so as to enter from the back side of the support member 6 toward the front side. However, as shown in FIG. 8A, an opening 8a may be provided in the substantially central portion while leaving the outer frame of the support member 6. That is, in the present invention, the cutout portion may be any position and size that allows the user to insert a hand to open and close the cover member 24 of the sheet reversing unit 2 and remove the jammed sheet from the sheet conveyance path 20.

  In the above embodiment, the cover member 24 of the sheet reversing unit 2 has been illustrated and described as a door that rotates about the lower support shaft. However, in order to reduce the range in which the cover member moves in order to open the sheet conveying path 20, as shown in FIG. 8B, the two doors 25a and 25b are configured to open on both the upper and lower sides. As shown in c), the cover member 24 may be moved substantially in parallel from the installed state using the link mechanism 26.

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including an image reading unit, and can be used particularly for an apparatus including a sheet reversing unit for double-sided recording.

1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a right side view of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a front view of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a side sectional view of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a diagram illustrating a frame configuration of an image forming apparatus. It is a side view which shows the state which open | released the cover member of the sheet inversion unit. It is a perspective view which shows the state which open | released the cover member of the sheet inversion unit. It is a figure explaining the other example of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure explaining the structure of the conventional image forming apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

A ... Image forming apparatus P ... Sheet S ... Original 1 ... Image forming part 1a ... Notch part 2 ... Sheet reversing unit 3 ... Image reading part 4 ... Operation part 4a ... Electric board 5 ... Electrical component 6 ... Support member 6a ... Device innermost part 8 ... notch 8a ... opening
10… cassette feeding section
10a ... Feed roller
11… Multi feed section
11a ... Multi separation part
12 Process cartridge
12a ... Photosensitive drum
12b ... Charging part
12c ... Developer
12d Transfer roller
12e Cleaning section
13 ... Laser scanner
14 Fixing part
15… discharge section
16… discharge tray
20 ... Sheet transport path
21 ... Transport means
22… Conveying means
23… Conveying means
24… Cover member
24a ... gripping part
25a ... Door
25b ... Door
26 Link mechanism
30… Contact type image sensor
30a ... Fixed reading position
31… Platen glass
32… pressure plate
33… Document feeder
34… manuscript table
35… Document output tray

Claims (3)

An image forming unit for forming an image on a sheet;
A sheet reversing unit disposed on the back surface of the image forming unit;
A cover member for opening a sheet conveyance path in the sheet reversing unit;
An image reading unit disposed above the sheet reversing unit;
An image forming apparatus including a support member disposed on a side portion of the sheet reversing unit and supporting the image reading unit;
An image forming apparatus, wherein the support member is provided with a notch or an opening, the cover member is opened and closed from the notch or the opening, and a sheet in the sheet conveying path can be removed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the cover member is opened, the sheet conveyance path can be opened in a state where the moving range is in a region on the front side from the rearmost surface of the apparatus. The center of gravity of the image reading unit is located behind the center of gravity of the entire apparatus,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an innermost part of the apparatus on a bottom surface of the support member is located on an inner side of the apparatus with respect to a center of gravity of the image reading unit.

Images