JP2008297054A - Tray mechanism of image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tray mechanism of an image forming device capable of easily making a tray hard to bend, even if bending stiffness of a tray itself is lowered. <P>SOLUTION: A tray mechanism 10 comprises an opening 21 formed in a rectangular shape extending in a horizontal direction, wherein fed paper reaches a manual paper feeding mechanism 9; a cover 20 having a pair of shaft portions 22a, 22b horizontally formed on right and left sides of the opening 21; and a tray 30 formed with bearing portions 32a, 32b rockably supported by the shaft portions 22a, 22b, closing the opening 21 when paper is not fed to the manual paper feeding mechanism 9, and opening the opening 21 and guiding the paper to the manual paper feeding mechanism 9 when the paper is fed to the manual paper feeding mechanism 9. The cover 20 is provided with a first regulating portion 100 positioned at a center of the right and left sides of the opening 21, regulating deformation bending to a deep side of the opening 21 while the tray 30 closes the opening 21, and regulating deformation bending downward while the tray 30 opens the opening 21. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a tray mechanism of an image forming apparatus.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a conventional tray mechanism of an image forming apparatus. This tray mechanism is applied to an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet and a manual sheet feeding mechanism that allows a user to manually feed a sheet to the image forming unit from the outside. Is.

  More specifically, the tray mechanism includes a cover that constitutes a part of the casing of the image forming apparatus, and a tray that is attached to the cover. The cover is formed in a rectangular shape extending in the horizontal direction, and includes an opening through which a fed sheet reaches the manual sheet feeding mechanism, and a pair of shaft portions or bearing portions formed horizontally on the left and right sides of the opening. The tray is formed with a bearing portion or a shaft portion that is pivotally supported by the shaft portion or the bearing portion, and can swing up and down to close or open the opening.

  In the conventional tray mechanism having such a configuration, when paper is not fed to the manual sheet feeding mechanism, the tray swings upward to close the opening, and dust and the like are prevented from entering the inside. Or suppress the leakage of operating sound to the outside. On the other hand, when feeding paper to the manual paper feed mechanism, the tray swings downward to open the opening, and guides the manual paper feed mechanism while supporting the paper from below. Thus, this tray mechanism can suitably operate the manual sheet feeding mechanism of the image forming apparatus.

JP 2006-124133 A

  By the way, since further downsizing of the image forming apparatus is required, the tray of the conventional tray mechanism is also required to be as small as possible.

  Here, there is no room for shortening the horizontal direction of the tray because it is limited by the paper width. For this reason, it is conceivable to shorten the vertical direction of the tray (the front-rear direction of the tray when the tray swings downward and opens the opening) or to reduce the thickness direction of the tray. However, in this case, the bending rigidity when the horizontal direction of the tray is the longitudinal direction is lowered, and the center of the tray supported at both ends on the left and right sides is easily bent. For this reason, when the tray swings upward and closes the opening, when the user presses the center of the tray, the center of the tray is greatly bent to the back side of the opening, and the shaft portion or the bearing portion of the tray opens. There may be a problem that the shaft part or the bearing part is detached. On the other hand, when the tray swings downward and the opening is opened, when the paper is placed on the tray to guide the paper to the manual paper feed mechanism, the center of the tray is greatly bent downward, and the paper is suitable. It becomes difficult to guide the paper.

  Thus, in order to reduce the size of the tray, if the vertical direction of the tray is shortened or the thickness direction is thinned, the bending rigidity of the tray itself is lowered and is easily bent. The function of the tray cannot be fully exhibited.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional situation, and provides a tray mechanism of an image forming apparatus that can easily realize that it is difficult to bend the tray even if the bending rigidity of the tray itself is reduced. Is a problem to be solved.

The tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention is formed in a rectangular shape extending in the horizontal direction, an opening where the fed paper reaches the manual paper feeding mechanism, and a pair of shaft portions formed horizontally on the left and right of the opening Or a cover having a bearing portion, and a shaft portion or a bearing portion or a shaft portion that is pivotally supported by the bearing portion, and when the paper is not fed to the manual paper feed mechanism, A tray that swings downward to close the opening and swings downward to open the opening and feed the paper to the manual paper feed mechanism when feeding the paper to the manual paper feed mechanism. With
The cover is positioned at least in the center of the left and right of the opening, and the tray restricts deformation that bends to the back side of the opening with the opening closed, and the tray opens the opening. A first restricting portion for restricting a downward bending deformation is provided (claim 1).

  In the tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration, when the tray swings upward and closes the opening, the first restricting portion is at least at the center of the left and right, and the tray is at the back of the opening. The deformation which bends to the side is regulated. On the other hand, when the tray swings downward to open the opening, the first restricting portion restricts deformation of the tray that is bent downward at least in the left and right centers. Restricting the deformation that the tray bends downward also restricts the downward swing of the tray. For this reason, deformation of the tray is more reliably regulated than when the tray is pivotally supported only by the left and right shaft portions and the bearing portion.

  Therefore, the tray mechanism of the present invention can easily realize that the tray is hardly bent even if the bending rigidity of the tray itself is lowered. As a result, the tray mechanism can reduce the size of the tray by shortening the vertical direction of the tray or by reducing the thickness of the tray mechanism, and thus the size of the image forming apparatus can be reduced. Also, when the shaft portion and the bearing portion are engaged, if the vertical direction of the tray is short or the thickness direction is thinned, the tray can be bent and easily engaged. Therefore, the assembly cost can be reduced.

  In the tray mechanism of the present invention, the tray is provided with a plurality of ribs protruding from the bottom surface that extend substantially parallel to the paper feeding direction and guide the paper on the top surface in a state in which the tray swings to the lower limit. In the state where the tray is located at the upper limit, the bottom surface is brought into contact with the bottom surface and the deformation of the tray being bent toward the back side of the opening is restricted. It is preferable that the deformation of the tray is bent downward (Claim 2).

  In this case, the tray mechanism can further reduce the thickness of the tray due to the rib reinforcing effect. Further, in this tray mechanism, when the tray is located at the upper limit or the lower limit, the first restricting portion comes into contact with the bottom surface but does not come into contact with the top surface of the rib. Guidance failure can be prevented. Furthermore, in the tray mechanism, the first restricting portion is accommodated between the ribs in a state where the tray is located at the lower limit. For this reason, this tray mechanism can show the effect of this invention reliably.

  In the tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the upper surface of the first restricting portion is formed so as to be parallel to the upper surface of each rib in a state where the tray is positioned at the lower limit. .

  In this case, in this tray mechanism, the upper surface of the first restricting portion can suitably guide the paper together with the upper surface of the rib.

  In the tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that a chamfer is formed between the upper surface and the front end surface of the first restricting portion.

  In this case, the tray mechanism can suppress the sheet from being caught by the front end surface of the first restricting portion.

  In the tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cover is provided with a second restricting portion that is positioned at least in the center of the left and right sides and restricts deformation of the tray that is bent forward while the opening is closed. (Claim 5).

  In this case, in this tray mechanism, the second restricting portion restricts deformation of the tray that is bent forward when the tray swings downward from the state in which the opening is closed. For this reason, this tray mechanism can produce the effects of the present invention more reliably.

  In the tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the cover is provided with positioning means for positioning the position in the width direction of the paper at the lower side of the opening, and the positioning mark indicating the position in the width direction of the paper is displayed on the tray. (Claim 6).

  In this case, the tray mechanism can easily perform the positioning in the width direction of the manually fed paper. Further, it is possible to easily reduce the thickness of the tray as compared with the case where the positioning unit is provided on the tray, and as a result, it is possible to further reduce the size of the image forming apparatus.

  DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tray mechanism 10 of the embodiment is applied to a printer 1 as an image forming apparatus. First, each component of the printer 1 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the printer 1 includes a housing 3, a paper feed cassette 4, an image forming unit 2, a transport mechanism 5, a manual paper feed mechanism 9, and a tray mechanism 10. .

  The casing 3 is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped box, and a paper discharge tray 3a for discharging a sheet on which an image is formed is recessed on the outer upper surface. Further, a cover 20 constituting a part of the housing 3 is disposed on the front surface side of the housing 3. The cover 20 also constitutes a tray mechanism 10 whose details will be described later.

  The paper feed cassette 4 stores paper therein and is disposed below the housing 3. The paper feed cassette 4 is attached to and detached from the housing 3 by being pushed into the housing 3 from the front to the rear or pulled out in the reverse direction. As a result, the printer 1 can replenish paper in the paper feed cassette 4 or replace it with a different type of paper.

  The image forming unit 2 forms an image on a sheet by an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or another general image forming method, and is disposed above the housing 3.

  The transport mechanism 5 transports the sheets one by one along the paper transport path P1 from the paper feed cassette 4 via the image forming unit 2 to the paper discharge tray 3a.

  More specifically, the transport mechanism 5 separates the sheets stored in the paper feed cassette 4 one by one by the pickup roller 51 and the separation roller 52 disposed above the front end side of the paper feed cassette 4 and moves them upward to the front. Transport toward. Then, the transport mechanism 5 moves rearward so that the paper is folded back in a substantially U shape by the first transport rollers 53a and 53b and the second transport rollers 54a and 54b disposed on the downstream side of the separation roller 52 in the paper transport path P1. It is guided and conveyed to the image forming unit 2. The second transport rollers 54a and 54b also constitute a manual paper feed mechanism 9 described later. Further, the transport mechanism 5 folds the paper on which the image is formed in the image forming unit 2 into a substantially U shape by the paper discharge rollers 55a and 55b disposed on the downstream side of the image forming unit 2 in the paper transport path P1. In this way, the paper is guided to the upper front side and discharged to the paper discharge tray 3a.

  The manual paper feed mechanism 9 does not perform the operation of replacing the paper in the paper feed cassette 4 when an image is to be formed on a paper of a different type from the paper stored in the paper feed cassette 4. It is possible to form.

  Specifically, the manual paper feed mechanism 9 is located at the tip of the manual paper feed direction P2 that is slanted downward as viewed from the opening 21 of the tray mechanism 10 disposed on the front surface side of the housing 3. The positioning means 70a, 70b, the guide surface 9a, the second transport rollers 54a, 54b, and the like provided in front of the housing 3 are configured.

  Positioning means 70a and 70b are provided on the left and right sides of the lower side of the opening 21 of the cover 20, as shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 6 (FIG. 6 shows a VI-VI cross section of FIG. 5), each positioning means 70a, 70b (70a is located on the front side in FIG. 6) is a cover. The rack and pinion mechanism 70c disposed in the interior 20 is connected to the center 20 so that it can move left and right while always maintaining an equal distance from the center in the left and right direction. Thereby, the positioning means 70a, 70b can position the position in the width direction of the sheet with the center reference in the left-right direction.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the manual paper feed mechanism 9 opens the paper when the tray 30 swings downward to open the opening 21 (indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 2). 21 is guided along the manual feed direction P2, the guide surface 9a guides the paper to the second transport rollers 54a and 54b, and a detection sensor (illustrated) disposed near the second transport rollers 54a and 54b. Not to detect the front edge of the paper. Based on the detection result, the manual paper feed mechanism 9 rotates the second transport roller rollers 54 a and 54 b to transport the manually fed paper to the image forming unit 2. .

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the tray mechanism 10 includes a cover 20 and a tray 30. As described above, the cover 20 constitutes the front side of the housing 3, and has an opening 21 formed in a rectangle extending in the horizontal direction (left-right direction in the drawing) at the center.

  The left-right direction of the opening 21 is elongated according to the sheet width. On the other hand, the vertical direction of the opening 21 is made as short as possible in order to reduce the size of the printer 1. For this reason, the opening 21 is elongated in the left-right direction.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a pair of shaft portions 22 a and 22 b are formed below the left and right sides of the opening 21. The shaft portions 22a and 22b have a swing axis X (shown in FIG. 6) of the tray 30 extending in the left-right direction below the opening 21 as a central axis.

  Further, the cover 20 will be described in detail later, but on the lower side of the opening 21, a first restricting portion 100 (shown in FIGS. 4 and 6) located at the center of the left and right sides of the first restricting portion 100. And a second restricting portion 110 (shown in FIG. 8 and the like) located at the center.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 10, the tray 30 is a substantially plate-shaped plastic molded product, and is downsized in order to reduce the size of the printer 1. Specifically, the left-right direction of the tray 30 is limited by the sheet width, and there is no room for shortening. For this reason, the vertical direction (front-rear direction shown in FIG. 10) of the tray 30 is shortened, and the thickness direction of the tray 30 is thinned.

  In the tray 30, bearing portions 32 a and 32 b that are pivotally supported by the shaft portions 22 a and 22 b are formed at the rear of the left and right ends shown in FIG. 10. The tray 30 is supported at both ends in the left-right direction by the shaft portions 22 a and 22 b of the opening 21 and the bearing portions 32 a and 32 b of the tray 30, and can swing around the swing axis X.

  In the tray 30, engaging claw portions 39a and 39b are integrally projected in front of the left and right ends shown in FIG. The engaging claw portions 39a and 39b engage with engaging portions (not shown) installed on the left and right sides of the opening 21 when the tray 30 is swung upward, so that the tray 30 opens. It is for holding 21 in the closed state.

  In the tray 30, in the center of the front long side shown in FIG. 10 (hereinafter simply referred to as “the upper side of the tray 30”), a recess 38 that is elongated in the left-right direction and a small protrusion that protrudes from the bottom of the recess 38. 38a is formed. The concave portion 38 and the small protrusion 38 a are for the user to hang his / her finger when the tray 30 is swung downward to open the opening 21.

  In the tray 30, a plurality of ribs 31 project from the bottom surfaces 30 a, 30 b, and 30 c on the upward facing surface shown in FIG. 10. The ribs 31 extend in parallel with the front-rear direction shown in FIG. 10 and are arranged at substantially equal intervals in the left-right direction. Due to the reinforcing effect of the ribs 31, the tray 30 can be further thinned.

  However, the ribs 31 are not formed on the bottom surfaces 30d and 30e on both the left and right sides of the tray 30, and instead, the sheet feeding direction mark 80a indicating the sheet feeding direction and the position in the sheet width direction are set. A positioning mark 80b is displayed. The positioning mark 80b corresponds to a plurality of types of paper such as “EXE”, “A4”, and “LTR / LGL” as shown in a specific example in FIG.

  A bottom surface 30a located at the center in the left-right direction of the tray 30 is in contact with a first restricting portion 100 described later.

  In the tray 30, a pair of convex portions 110 a and 110 b are formed at the center of the rear long side (hereinafter simply referred to as “the lower side of the tray 30”) shown in FIG. 10. The convex portions 110a and 110b are in contact with a second restricting portion 110 described later.

  As described above, the tray 30 having such a configuration is reduced in size, so that the bending rigidity when the left-right direction is the longitudinal direction is reduced, and the center of the tray 30 supported at both ends is easily bent. It has become. For this reason, in the tray mechanism 10 of the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, in the state where the tray 30 swings downward about the swing axis X, the first restriction unit 100 opens the opening 21. In this state, the deformation that is bent downward is regulated. Further, as shown in FIG. 7 (FIG. 7 shows a VI-VI cross section of FIG. 5), in a state where the tray 30 is swung upward about the swing axis X, the first restricting portion 100 is The deformation which bends to the back side (the back side in the figure) of the opening 21 is regulated. Hereinafter, the 1st control part 100 is demonstrated in detail.

  The 1st control part 100 is a flat plate-shaped protrusion, and is located in the center of the left and right of the lower side of the opening 21 of the cover 20, as shown in FIG.3 and FIG.4. And the 1st control part 100 is integrally molded by the cover 20 so that it may protrude diagonally upward toward the front side from the back | inner side of the lower side of the opening 21, as shown in FIG.

  The front end surface 100 b of the first restricting portion 100 is located in the vicinity of the swing axis X of the tray 30. And the upper surface 100a of the 1st control part 100 is made into the surface substantially parallel to the manual paper feed direction P2. Further, the lower surface 100d of the first restricting portion 100 is also a surface substantially parallel to the manual sheet feeding direction P2, similarly to the upper surface 100a. Further, a chamfer 100 c is formed between the upper surface 100 a and the front end surface 100 b of the first restricting portion 100.

  In the first restricting portion 100 having such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 6, when the tray 30 swings downward, the bottom surface 30 a at the center of the tray 30 contacts the lower surface 100 d of the first restricting portion 100. Thus, the first restricting portion 100 restricts the deformation that the tray 30 bends downward with the opening 21 open. As a result, the tray 30 is held in a posture substantially parallel to the manual paper feed direction P2.

  At this time, the upper surface 31a of each rib 31 of the tray 30 extends substantially parallel to the manual paper feeding direction P2, and guides the paper. Further, since the upper surface 100a of the first restricting portion 100 is also parallel to the upper surface 31a of each rib 31, when the sheet is fed along the manual feed direction P2, the sheet is preferably used together with each rib 31. To guide. In particular, in a state where the tray 30 is positioned at the lower limit, the first restricting portion 100 is housed between the ribs 31 and does not protrude above the ribs 31, so that it is difficult to hinder paper guidance.

  Further, the chamfer 100c of the first restricting unit 100 prevents the paper from being caught on the front end surface 100b of the first restricting unit 100 when the sheet is fed in the manual feed direction P2. Further, the lower surface 100 a of the first restricting portion 100 contacts the bottom surface 30 a of the tray 30 and does not contact the upper surface 31 a of the rib 31 in a state where the tray 30 is positioned at the lower limit. For this reason, the upper surface 31a of the rib 31 is not easily damaged, and it is possible to prevent poor paper guidance.

  On the other hand, when the tray 30 swings upward, the front end surface 100b of the first restricting portion 100 is positioned in the vicinity of the swing axis X, and as shown in FIG. 7, the bottom surface 30a at the center of the tray 30a. On the other hand, a state having a slight gap is maintained. As a result, even if the first restricting portion 100 tries to bend to the back side (backward in the figure) of the opening 21 with the tray 30 closing the opening 21, the front end surface 100b of the first restricting portion 100 is The deformation can be regulated by contacting the bottom surface 30a.

  At this time, the front end surface 100 b of the first restricting portion 100 contacts the bottom surface 30 a at the center of the tray 30 and does not contact the upper surface 31 a of the rib 31. For this reason, the upper surface 31a of the rib 31 is not easily damaged, and it is possible to prevent poor paper guidance.

  Further, in the tray mechanism 10 of the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9 (FIG. 9 shows a VIII-VIII cross section of FIG. 5), the second restricting portion 110 is in a state where the tray 30 closes the opening 21. The deformation that bends forward is restricted. Hereinafter, the second restriction unit 110 will be described in more detail.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the second restricting portion 110 is a stopper surface provided on both sides of the first restricting portion 100 located at the center in the left-right direction on the lower side of the opening 21 of the cover 20. In a state where the tray 30 swings upward and the opening 21 is closed, the tray 30 abuts on the convex portions 110a and 100b formed on the lower side of the tray 30 or faces with a slight gap. It has become.

  When the user swings the tray 30 downward, if the user puts a finger on the concave portion 38 and the small protrusion 38a on the upper side of the tray 30 and pulls the upper side of the tray 30 forward, the tray 30 itself has low bending rigidity. Therefore, as the upper side of the tray 30 bends forward, the lower side of the tray 30 also tries to bend forward. However, as shown in FIG. 9, since the convex portions 110a and 110b abut on the second restricting portion 110, the lower side of the tray 30 is restricted so as not to bend forward. In this way, the second restricting portion 110 can restrict deformation of the tray 30 that is bent forward (forward) with the opening 21 closed.

  Thus, in the tray mechanism 10 of the embodiment, the tray 30 swings upward and closes the opening 21 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 7 and the like when no paper is fed to the manual paper feed mechanism 9. In addition, dust and the like are prevented from entering the inside, and operating noise is prevented from leaking to the outside. On the other hand, when feeding paper to the manual paper feed mechanism 9, the tray 30 swings downward to open the opening 21 and support the paper from below, as shown in FIGS. The manual feed mechanism 9 is guided. As a result, the tray mechanism 10 can suitably operate the manual sheet feeding mechanism 9 of the printer 1.

  In the tray mechanism 10 according to the embodiment, when the tray 30 is swung upward and the opening 21 is closed by the first restricting unit 100 described above, the tray 30 is located at the back side of the opening at the center of the left and right. Regulate bending deformation. On the other hand, when the tray 30 swings downward and opens the opening 21, the first restricting unit 100 restricts deformation of the tray 30 that is bent downward at the center of the left and right. Restricting the deformation that the tray 30 bends downward also restricts the downward swing of the tray 30 at the same time. For this reason, the deformation | transformation of the tray 30 is reliably controlled rather than the case where it supports only by the shaft part 22 and the bearing part 32 on either side.

  Therefore, the tray mechanism 10 of the embodiment can easily realize that the tray 30 is hardly bent even if the bending rigidity of the tray 30 itself is reduced. As a result, the tray mechanism 10 can reduce the size of the tray 30 by shortening the vertical direction of the tray 30 or thinning the thickness direction, and the printer 1 can be downsized. ing. Further, when the shaft portion 22 and the bearing portion 32 are engaged with each other, the tray 30 is short in the vertical direction and the thickness direction is thinned, so that the tray 30 is bent and easily engaged. Can be made. For this reason, according to this tray mechanism 10, the assembly cost can be reduced.

  Further, in the tray mechanism 10, when the tray 30 swings downward from the state in which the opening 21 is closed, the deformation that the tray 30 bends forward is restricted by the above-described second restricting portion 110. For this reason, this tray mechanism 10 can produce the effects of the present invention more reliably.

  Further, the tray mechanism 10 can easily perform the positioning in the width direction of the manually fed paper by the positioning means 70a and 70b and the positioning mark 80b. Further, it is possible to easily reduce the thickness of the tray 30 as compared with the case where the positioning means is provided on the tray 30. As a result, the printer 1 can be further reduced in size. .

  While the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and can be appropriately modified and applied without departing from the spirit thereof.

  The present invention is applicable to an image forming apparatus.

1 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus including a tray mechanism according to an embodiment. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus including a tray mechanism according to an embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the state (state where a tray is located in a lower limit) which concerns on the tray mechanism of an Example, and the tray rock | fluctuated downward and opened the opening. FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged perspective view of FIG. 3 according to the tray mechanism of the embodiment. It is a top view which shows the state (state where a tray is located in a minimum) concerning the tray mechanism of an Example, and the tray rock | fluctuated downward and opened the opening. It is sectional drawing which concerns on the tray mechanism of an Example and shows the VI-VI cross section of FIG. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state where the tray swings upward and the opening is closed (a state where the tray is positioned at the upper limit) from the state illustrated in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 6 according to the tray mechanism of the embodiment. It is sectional drawing which concerns on the tray mechanism of an Example and shows the VIII-VIII cross section of FIG. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which the tray swings upward and the opening is closed (a state where the tray is positioned at an upper limit) from the state illustrated in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 8 according to the tray mechanism of the embodiment. It is a perspective view which concerns on the tray mechanism of an Example and shows a tray.

Explanation of symbols

1. Image forming apparatus (printer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 9 ... Manual paper feed mechanism 10 ... Tray mechanism 20 ... Cover 21 ... Opening 22a, 22b ... Shaft part 30 ... Tray 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, 30e ... Tray bottom surface 31 ... Tray rib 31a ... Rib upper surface 32a , 32b ... Bearings 70a, 70b ... Positioning means 80b ... Positioning mark 100 ... First restricting part 100a ... Upper face of the first restricting part 100b ... End face of the first restricting part 100c ... Chamfering 110 ... Second restricting part P2 ... Feeding Paper direction (Manual feed direction)

Claims (6)

A cover that is formed in a rectangular shape that extends in the horizontal direction, and that has a pair of shafts or bearings that are formed horizontally on the left and right sides of the opening;
A bearing portion or a shaft portion that is pivotally supported by the shaft portion or the bearing portion is formed. When the sheet is not fed to the manual feed mechanism, the shaft portion swings upward to close the opening. And a tray for swinging downward to open the opening and guiding the paper to the manual paper feed mechanism when feeding the paper to the manual paper feed mechanism,
The cover is positioned at least in the center of the left and right of the opening, and the tray restricts deformation that bends to the back side of the opening with the opening closed, and the tray opens the opening. A tray mechanism for an image forming apparatus, wherein a first restricting portion for restricting a downward bending deformation is provided. The tray is provided with a plurality of ribs projecting from the bottom surface extending substantially parallel to the paper feeding direction and guiding the paper on the top surface with the tray swinging to a lower limit,
In the state where the tray is located at the upper limit, the first restricting portion restricts deformation in which the tray is bent toward the back side of the opening in contact with the bottom surface, and in the state where the tray is located at the lower limit, The tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tray mechanism is configured to regulate a deformation in which the tray is bent downward by being in contact with the bottom surface while being accommodated between the ribs.   The tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the upper surface of the first restricting portion is formed to be parallel to the upper surface of each rib in a state where the tray is positioned at a lower limit.   The tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein chamfering is formed between an upper surface and a front end surface of the first restricting portion.   The said cover is provided with the 2nd control part which is located in the center of at least right and left of the said opening, and the 2nd control part which controls the deformation | transformation which the said tray bends in the state which closed the said opening is provided. A tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The cover is provided with positioning means for positioning the position in the width direction of the paper at the lower side of the opening,
The tray mechanism of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a positioning mark indicating a position in the width direction of the sheet is displayed on the tray.

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