JP2702800B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a recording apparatus and a copying machine, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus that can be replaced with a cassette having a different size.

(B) Conventional technology In the conventional recording apparatus, when increasing the storage amount of the recording material, as shown in FIG. 5, a paper feeding means C is additionally provided at the bottom of the main body a, and a cassette b is provided below the paper feeding means C. There is something to attach.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, a unit f having a cassette e mounted thereon and having a paper feeding means (not shown) is attached to the main body d.
Some are mounted on the front of the.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, g and h are image forming cartridges, and i and j are laser beams transmitted from the outside and emitted by a signal and scanned by a polygon mirror. , h, an optical system for irradiating each of the photosensitive drums.Images formed on the recording materials fed from the additional cassettes b and e and the permanent cassette are fixed by fixing units k and l, respectively. The paper is discharged to an upper tray m and a rear tray n, respectively.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in order to increase the amount of recording material of the conventional recording apparatus, it is necessary to increase the number of cassettes b and e and to provide means for separating and feeding the recording material in the cassettes. A motor for driving this means and a clutch for connecting and disconnecting the output of the motor, and further,
Electric control parts, wiring, and the like are required for them, and there is a problem that the user needs a large expense including the equipment provided for the main bodies a and d in advance in order to increase the recording material.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of increasing the loading amount of the transfer material without replacing the cassette with a different size at the position where the permanent cassette is mounted. It is intended to provide.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and has a cassette in which a transfer material is loaded on a main body and a transfer material loaded in the cassette is supplied. In the image forming apparatus, which is separated one by one from an uppermost portion and fed to an image forming unit by a feeding unit, a cassette mounting opening formed by cutting off a lower end of one side of the main body, A cassette receiving opening having an opening on the cassette mounting opening side, and a plurality of support legs swingably provided at the bottom of the main body, a height dimension larger than a height dimension of the cassette mounting opening. When mounting the cassette having the above, the support leg is swung downward to project from the bottom surface.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that a swing mechanism for swinging the plurality of support legs in conjunction with each other is provided.

(E) Operation Based on the above configuration, when mounting a cassette having a height dimension larger than the height dimension of the cassette mounting port,
A support leg swingably provided at the bottom of the main body is swung downward to protrude from the bottom surface, and the height of the cassette mounting port is substantially increased by the protruding support leg. After substantially increasing the height of the cassette mounting port, a cassette having a large height is mounted on the main body from the cassette mounting port along the cassette receiving opening.

(F) Example Hereinafter, a reference example serving as a basis of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a laser beam printer, and a recording material feeding cassette 3 for feeding a recording material P from the lowermost portion by a sheet conveying belt is detachably mounted on a front upper portion of a main body 2 thereof.

Further, below the recording material feeding cassette 3, a sheet feeding cassette 5 is detachably mounted so as to correspond to the sheet feeding roller 4 provided on the main body 2.

The paper feed cassette 6 is inserted from the rear side between both side members 17a and 17b (see FIG. 2) at the bottom of the main body 2, and the paper feed roller 7 provided on the main body 2 causes the cassette to be inserted. The recording material P stacked on the sheet No. 6 is fed.

The cassette 6 includes a separation claw 8 and a paper feed guide 9.
Further, an intermediate plate lifting member 10 is provided.

Conveyance guides corresponding to the recording material feeding cassette 3 and the paper feeding cassettes 5 and 7 are provided toward the pair of registration rollers 11, and a cartridge 12 for image formation is mounted at a central portion. 12a is attached,
Further, a fixing device 13 is provided at a rear portion. And the fuser
A belt-type transport unit 14 is provided between the photosensitive drum 12 a and the photosensitive drum 12 a, and a transport path is provided above the fixing device 13.
A paper discharge roller pair 16 for discharging paper toward the paper discharge tray 15 provided at the upper part of the paper discharge tray 15 is provided at the rear wall opening of the paper discharge tray 15.

Further, an optical system 18 is provided in the main body 2 below the sheet discharge tray 15 to receive a signal from the outside, emit a laser beam corresponding to the signal, and irradiate the photosensitive drum 12a with a light beam scanned by a polygon mirror. .

Further, as shown in FIG. 2 (a perspective view as viewed from the rear side), an engagement portion is provided at the bottom of both side members 17a and 17b of the main body 2, and the projection portion 19a of the extension base 19 is provided at the engagement portion. , 19b are locked. Further, an opening 20 for inserting a cassette is provided on the rear side wall of the extension base 19.

 Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described.

The recording material P is fed from the recording material feed cassette 3 to the pair of registration rollers 11 by its own paper feed roller. The paper cassette 5 feeds the recording material P by the paper feed roller 4, separates the recording material P by the separation pad 4 a, and feeds the recording material P to the registration roller pair 11.

The recording material P loaded on the paper feed cassette 6 is fed by a paper feed roller 7, separated one by one by a separation claw 8, and guided by a paper feed guide 9 of the cassette 6 and a guide in the main body 2. Then, after reaching the registration roller pair 11, where the attitude of the recording material P is regulated, an image is transferred from the photosensitive drum 12a to the recording material P while the recording material P moves in synchronization with the photosensitive drum 12a. Then, the image is fixed on the recording material P by the fixing device 13 via the transport unit 14.

Then, the recording material P is stacked on a discharge tray 15 by a pair of discharge rollers 16 via a transport path in the main body 2.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 12a is irradiated to the optical system 18,
A latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 12a, and the latent image becomes a toner image to be transferred to the recording material P by the developing device in the cartridge 12.

Describing the paper feed cassette 6 further, the paper feed cassette 6 is replaced by a high paper feed cassette 21 on which a large amount of recording material P is loaded.

For this purpose, the extension table 19 is locked to both side members 17a, 17b of the main body 2 by the ridges 19a, 19b, and after the main body 2 is lifted and supported, the sheet feeding cassette 21 is opened in the arrow A direction. The paper is fed by the paper feed roller 7 of the main body 2.

As described above, by attaching the cassette and the additional base for the cassette, it is possible to increase the supply amount of the recording material without adding a driving system such as a paper feed roller, a driving source thereof, and a clutch. The number of times of setting the recording material was reduced, thereby saving time and effort.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 2a denotes a cassette mounting opening formed by cutting off the lower end of one side of the main body 2, and 2b denotes a cassette mounting opening formed on the bottom surface of the main body 2. In addition, the cassette mounting opening side is a cassette receiving opening which is opened. Further, in this embodiment, a horizontal shaft 22 is provided at a position where the supporting weights of the two side members 17a and 17b of the main body 2 are substantially balanced, and a support leg 23 is supported by the horizontal shaft 22 and is indicated by a broken line. The click stop is performed at a vertical position where the click stop is performed, and the click stop is released by a release lever (not shown) and the click stop is stored at the horizontal position.

When the cassette 21 having a height dimension larger than the height dimension of the cassette mounting port 2a is mounted, the support legs 23
Swing downward to project from the bottom surface, and projecting support legs
The height of the cassette mounting port 2a is substantially increased by 23. Then, after substantially increasing the height of the cassette mounting opening 2a in this way, the sheet cassette 21 having a large height is mounted to the main body 2 from the cassette mounting opening 2a along the cassette receiving opening 2b. To

As a result, the cassette 21 having a large height can be mounted on the main body, and the load of the transfer material can be increased.

 The number of the support legs 23 may be three.

 Next, still another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, instead of the left and right support legs 23 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the support legs 24 whose tips are integrally connected to each other by a horizontal bar 25 are supported by a horizontal shaft 23, and the front and rear horizontal Stick 25
Are rotatably connected by two connecting rods 26 on the left and right, so that the front and rear support legs 24 can rotate in parallel with each other. It should be noted that only one fixing member of the leg 24 may be used.

When one of the support legs 24 is set in the vertical position by the swinging mechanism constituted by the horizontal bar 25 and the connecting bar 26, the other support leg 24 also has the same vertical position.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, a cassette of a different size is replaced at a position where the cassette of the image forming apparatus is mounted. Since a cassette having a larger amount of transfer material loaded than the standard cassette of the main body can be mounted using paper means, the number of times of replenishment of the transfer material can be reduced by adding a small cost, and the labor of the operator can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional side view of a laser beam printer embodying the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a reference example on which the present invention is based, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of a conventional example, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view of another conventional example. 1 ... Image forming apparatus (laser beam printer), 6 ...
... Cassette (paper feed cassette), 7 ... Feeding means (paper feed roller), 12 ... Image forming unit (cartridge for image formation), 19 ... Auxiliary tool (extension base), 21 ... Cassette (paper feed) Cassette), P ... recording material (transfer material).

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An image forming apparatus in which a cassette loaded with a transfer material is mounted on a main body, and the transfer material loaded on the cassette is separated one by one from an uppermost portion by a feeding means and fed to an image forming section. A cassette mounting opening formed by cutting off a lower end of one side surface of the main body; a cassette receiving opening formed on a bottom surface of the main body and having a cassette mounting opening side opened; and a swingable at a bottom of the main body. A plurality of supporting legs provided on the bottom surface, and when mounting a cassette having a height dimension larger than the height size of the cassette mounting port, the supporting legs are swung downward and the bottom surface is rotated. An image forming apparatus characterized in that the image forming apparatus protrudes from the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a swing mechanism for swinging the plurality of support legs in conjunction with each other.