JP4684731B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a sheet processing unit between a lower image forming unit and an upper image reading unit.

  Image formation of a copying machine, a printer, or the like configured by combining an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet, an image reading unit that reads an image of a document, and a sheet processing unit (for example, a stapler) that processes a sheet after image formation The device is known.

  In such an image forming apparatus, an image reading unit is placed on the image forming unit, and the sheet processing unit is disposed on a side surface of the image forming unit.

  In this case, the height of the entire image forming apparatus can be kept low, but there is a drawback that the length of the image forming apparatus in the left-right direction is increased and the exclusive area is increased.

  In order to solve this drawback, as shown in FIG. 8, there is a sheet processing unit 103 disposed on the image forming unit 101 and an image reading unit 102 disposed on the sheet processing unit 103. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  According to this, although the height of the entire image forming apparatus is increased, there is an advantage that the exclusive area can be reduced. In other words, the exclusive area of the entire image forming apparatus can be configured not to exceed the exclusive area of the image forming unit.

JP 2003-137470 A

  However, the sheet processing unit sequentially aligns the sheets stacked on the stacking member in the sheet conveyance direction and the sheet width direction (direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction) before processing the sheets, or processes the processed sheets. It is necessary to have a mechanism and a space for discharging gas. Further, the sheet processing apparatus itself such as a stapler needs to be arranged at a position that does not hinder the conveyance of the sheet. For this reason, the sheet processing apparatus may protrude to the front side (front side) from the stacking member.

  On the other hand, it is conceivable that the entire image forming apparatus is supported by a box-shaped frame. In this case, the frame includes a lower frame corresponding to the lower image forming unit, an upper frame corresponding to the upper image reading unit, and a middle frame corresponding to the intermediate sheet processing unit. That is, the upper frame is supported by the middle frame arranged to be placed on the lower frame.

  Here, when the middle front frame arranged on the front surface side among the middle frames corresponding to the sheet processing unit is arranged close to the front side so as to avoid interference with the above-described sheet processing apparatus, There is a problem that the length in the front-rear direction (sheet width direction) increases and the exclusive area of the entire sheet processing unit, and thus the exclusive area of the entire image forming unit, increases.

  Therefore, the present invention suppresses an increase in the occupied area due to an increase in the length in the front-rear direction even when a sheet processing unit is disposed between the image forming unit and the image reading unit above the image forming unit. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus as described above.

The present invention relates to an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet, an image reading unit disposed above the image forming unit, and a sheet process disposed between the image forming unit and the image reading unit. And a frame that supports the image forming unit, the image reading unit, and the sheet processing unit. The sheet processing unit includes a stacking member on which the conveyed sheets are stacked, and the stacking unit. A sheet processing apparatus arranged to project from the member to one side in the sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction and processing the sheets on the stacking member; and the processed sheets on the first discharge tray A portion of the frame that is disposed on one side of the stacking member in the sheet width direction and supports the image reading unit in the sheet width direction. Over processing equipment Tsu together are arranged in up, in the sheet conveyance direction is disposed between the first ejection member and the sheet processing apparatus, and wherein the.

  According to the present invention, the frame is arranged with a portion that overlaps with the sheet processing apparatus in the sheet width direction, so that compared with the case where the frame is disposed on the side in the sheet width direction while avoiding the sheet processing apparatus. Further, it is possible to suppress an increase in the length in the sheet width direction of the entire sheet processing unit and thus the entire image forming apparatus. Therefore, an increase in the exclusive area can be suppressed.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, what attached | subjected the same code | symbol in the same drawing or a different drawing performs the same structure or the same effect | action, The duplication description is abbreviate | omitted suitably about these. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, and relative arrangements of the components described in the following embodiments are intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those unless otherwise specified. is not.

<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 1 shows a sheet stacking apparatus 46 to which the present invention can be applied, and an image forming apparatus M including the same. The image forming apparatus M shown in the figure is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and the figure is a schematic view of the internal configuration viewed from the front side (front side: the side where the user stands when operating the image forming apparatus M). It is. In the following description, it is assumed that the left and right sides of the image forming apparatus M itself correspond to the left and right sides in FIG.

  An image forming apparatus M shown in FIG. 1 includes an image forming unit (printer unit) 1 that forms an image on a sheet S as a recording medium, an image reading unit (reader unit) 2 that reads image information written on a document, The image forming unit 1 includes a sheet processing unit (sheet processing apparatus) 3 that performs predetermined processing such as stapling on the sheet S on which an image is formed. The image forming unit 1, the image reading unit 2, and the sheet processing unit 3 are configured as independent units, and the entire image forming apparatus M is arranged from the bottom to the image forming unit 1, the sheet processing unit 3, and the image The reading unit 2 is combined in that order. That is, the sheet processing unit 3 is sandwiched between the image forming unit 1 and the image reading unit 2.

  The image forming unit 1 includes a sheet feeding / conveying unit 10, a transfer unit 11, a fixing unit 12, and a sheet discharging unit 13.

  The sheet feeding / conveying unit 10 separates the sheets S one by one by a sheet feeding roller 15 and a separation / conveying roller 16 from a plurality of sheets S stored in a stacked state in the sheet feeding cassette 14 and conveys the sheet S. It is conveyed along the guide 17 to the transfer unit 11.

  The transfer unit 11 forms a toner image on the photosensitive drum 20 by an electrophotographic method. That is, the transfer unit 11 uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 20 with a charging roller (not shown), and then performs exposure based on image information with a laser scanner 21 to form an electrostatic latent image. The latent image is developed by a developing device (not shown) to form a toner image on the photosensitive drum 20. This toner image is transferred by the transfer roller 23 onto the surface of the sheet S conveyed by the sheet feeding / conveying unit 10 described above.

  The fixing unit 12 heats and presses the sheet S, on which the toner image is transferred on the surface in the transfer unit 11, by the fixing roller 24 and the pressure roller 25, and fixes the toner image on the surface.

The sheet discharge unit 13 conveys the sheet S after fixing the toner image in three different directions. That is, first, by switching the first flapper 26 upward, the sheet S guided to the first conveyance path 27 is discharged onto the first discharge tray 29 in a face-up state by the first discharge roller 28. . Secondly, by switching the first flapper 26 downward, the sheet S guided to the second conveyance path 30 is further switched to the left by the second flapper 31, so that the second discharge roller (second discharge member). The sheet is discharged onto the second discharge tray (second discharge tray) 33 in a face-down state by 32. Third, the sheet S guided to the second conveyance path 30 is supplied to the upper sheet processing unit 3 by switching the second flapper 31 to the right.

  The image reading unit 2 includes an automatic document feeder (ADF) 34 and a scanner unit 35. The ADF 34 separates and feeds a plurality of documents (not shown) stacked on the document stacking tray 36 one by one by a feed roller 37, and a document reading position where the optical carriage 40 of the scanner unit 35 is stopped. 38. The ADF 34 is configured to be openable and closable around a hinge (not shown) disposed at the rear, and is opened and closed when a document is placed on the document table glass 39 and when the document is removed. .

  The scanner unit 35 includes a movable optical carriage 40 that reads image information of a document. In the scanner unit 35, image information of the document placed on the document table glass 39 is read while being scanned in the horizontal direction by the optical carriage 40, and photoelectrically converted by the CCD 41. Further, when the original is read using the ADF 34, the optical carriage 40 stops at the original reading position 38 and reads the image information of the original being conveyed. The image forming unit 1 described above forms an image on the sheet S based on the image information read by the image reading unit 2.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet processing unit 3 includes a conveyance path 42 that guides the sheet S conveyed from the lower image forming unit 1, and conveyance rollers 43 that convey the sheet S along the conveyance path 42. 44, a discharge roller 45 for discharging the sheet S in the direction of arrow K in FIG. 1, a sheet stacking device 46 for stacking and aligning the sheet S discharged from the discharge roller 45, and a stapled sheet bundle A stapler 47 (see FIG. 2) as a sheet processing apparatus to be processed, a discharge roller 48 as a first discharge member for discharging the stapled sheet bundle in the direction of arrow K, and a sheet bundle discharged by the discharge roller 48 And a stacking tray 49 as a first discharge tray to be stacked. The sheet stacking device 46 described above includes an intermediate tray 50 as a stacking member for stacking sheets discharged by the discharge roller 45, and a sheet width direction of the sheet S on the intermediate tray 50 (a direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction). ) And the joggers 52 and 53 disposed in the vicinity of both ends in the sheet width direction, and a conveyance direction alignment unit 54 and an alignment roller 55 for alignment in the sheet conveyance direction. ing.

  The sheet processing unit 3 having the above-described configuration carries the sheets S formed by the image forming unit 1 onto the intermediate tray 50 of the sheet stacking device 46 and stacks the sheets S on the intermediate tray 50. After the sheet is aligned in the sheet width direction and the sheet anti-bidirectional direction, the stapler 47 performs stapling, and the stapled sheet bundle is discharged onto the stacking tray 49 by the discharge roller 48 and stacked.

  The image forming unit 1, the image reading unit 2, and the sheet processing unit 3 described above are configured as independent units as described above, and are arranged in order from the bottom, the image forming unit 1, the sheet processing unit 3, and the image reading unit. The entire image forming apparatus M is configured by arranging 2 to be stacked. Further, as will be described later, the sheet processing unit 3 sandwiched between the image forming unit 1 and the image reading unit 2 is arranged with respect to the frame F (see FIG. 2) of the entire image forming apparatus M. And can be easily attached and detached without affecting the image reading unit 2.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the frame configuration of the entire image forming apparatus M, that is, a box-shaped frame F that supports the entire image forming apparatus M as viewed from the upper left obliquely upper side. In addition, about the drawings after FIG. 2, each component member or the like is appropriately added or removed to simplify the description. As shown in FIG. 2, the entire frame F is integrally configured by joining (for example, welding) or connecting (for example, bolting) a plurality of plate-like members.

  The entire frame F includes a portion corresponding to the lower image forming unit 1 (lower frame F1), a portion corresponding to the upper image reading unit 2 (upper frame F2), and a portion corresponding to the intermediate sheet processing unit 3 ( Medium frame F3).

  The lower frame F1 has a front lower frame 71 on the front surface, a rear lower frame 72 on the rear surface, a lower left frame 73 on the left side surface, and a lower right frame 74 on the right side surface. Among these frames, the front lower frame 71 has a trapezoidal trapezoidal portion 71a in the upper portion on the left side, that is, the portion corresponding to the sheet discharge portion 13 shown in FIG. The trapezoidal portion 71a has an inclined portion 71b corresponding to the hypotenuse and a flat portion 71c corresponding to the upper base. Note that a front middle frame 81 of the middle frame F3, which will be described later, is arranged so as to stand on the flat portion 71c. Further, the upper end 71d on the right side of the front lower frame 71 is formed in a shape following the second paper discharge tray 33 shown in FIG. With respect to the front lower frame 71 having the above shape, the rear lower frame 72 is formed in a substantially rectangular shape. The rear lower frame 72 supports a rear middle frame 82 described later by the upper end portion 72a. The lower left frame 73 connects the lower portions of the left end portions of the front lower frame 71 and the rear lower frame 72 in the front-rear direction. Similarly, the lower right frame 74 connects the right end portions of the front lower frame 71 and the rear lower frame 72 in the front-rear direction. The height (the vertical dimension) of the lower left frame 73 and the lower right frame 74 described above is configured to be lower than the height of the front lower frame 71 and the rear lower frame 72. For this reason, large openings Fa and Fb are formed in the upper part of the left side surface and the right side surface of the lower frame F2. These openings Fa and Fb are used as access spaces for removing jammed paper or performing maintenance when a jam (paper jam) occurs in the image forming unit 1. Further, the opening Fb on the right side is also used as a space for attaching and detaching the paper feed cassette 14 (see FIG. 1) to the image forming unit 1. The entire image forming unit 1 described above is assembled to the lower frame F1 and constitutes a unit (image forming unit) as a whole.

  The upper frame F2 is formed in a box shape having a rectangular shape as viewed from above, and accommodates the scanner unit 35 described in FIG. The entire upper frame F2 is supported from below by a middle frame F3 described below. The scanner unit 35 is incorporated in the upper frame 2 and constitutes a unit (image reading unit) as a whole.

  The middle frame F3 includes a front middle frame 81 disposed on the front surface side, a rear middle frame 82 disposed on the rear surface side, and a frame (not shown) that connects the front middle frame 81 and the rear middle frame 82 back and forth. have. The front middle frame 81 is formed in a rectangular shape with a short length in the left-right direction, and is disposed so as to stand on the flat portion 71c in the front lower frame 71 described above. The front middle frame 81 will be described in detail later. The rear middle frame 82 is formed in a rectangular shape whose length in the left-right direction is equal to the length in the left-right direction of the rear lower frame 72 described above, and is arranged so as to be placed on the upper end of the rear lower frame 72. The upper middle frame 81 and the rear middle frame 82 support the upper frame F2 from below. That is, the upper end of the front middle frame 81 supports a part of the front end side of the upper frame F2 and the upper end of the rear middle frame 82 supports the entire rear end side of the upper frame F2 from below. The sheet processing unit 3 described above is assembled to the middle frame F3 and constitutes a unit (sheet processing unit) as a whole. The middle frame F3 constituted by the front middle frame 81 and the rear middle frame 82 supports the scanner unit 35 via the upper frame F2.

  With reference to FIG. 3, the frame configuration on the front surface of the sheet processing unit 3 will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram of the frame configuration in a state where the upper frame F3 is removed, as viewed from the diagonally upper front side. A symbol A in FIG. 3 indicates a sheet sheet conveyance region. In the present embodiment, the stapler 47 is disposed in a fixed state outside the front side of the sheet conveyance area A, that is, outside the sheet conveyance area. More specifically, the stapler 47 is disposed at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the sheet conveyance direction in the vicinity of the corner of the front left end portion of the intermediate tray 50. When the staple is driven into the corner of the sheet bundle at an angle of 45 degrees, it is easier for the user to open from any direction when opening the sheet bundle after stapling compared to other angles, Moreover, it becomes difficult to tear at the bound portion.

  However, when the stapler 47 is disposed at an angle of 45 degrees as described above, the stapler 47 is more than the other components of the sheet conveying unit 3 such as the intermediate tray 50 and the discharge rollers 45 and 48. Projecting toward the front side (front side), the length of the sheet processing unit 3 in the sheet width direction (length in the front-rear direction) increases accordingly. Further, when the front middle frame 81 is disposed in front of the stapler in order to avoid interference with the stapler 47, the length of the frame F in the front-rear direction, and hence the length of the image forming apparatus M in the front-rear direction. This increases the size of the image forming apparatus M.

  Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, the front middle frame 81 that constitutes a part of the middle frame F3 corresponding to the sheet processing unit 3 in the above-described frame F is arranged in the sheet width direction (image formation). By disposing the position of the apparatus M in the front-rear direction and in the vertical direction in FIG. 3 so as to overlap with the stapler 47 as the sheet processing apparatus, the frame F, and thus the entire image forming apparatus M as a whole. The length of was prevented from extending.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the front middle frame 81 is disposed at a position where the position in the sheet conveyance direction (the horizontal direction of the image forming apparatus M and the horizontal direction in FIG. 3) overlaps the stapler 47. I did it. Here, “overlap” is used to mean that at least a part of them overlap. Further, the front middle frame 81 supports the position corresponding to the center of gravity of the entire image reading unit including the upper frame F2 and the image reading unit 2 along the left-right direction from below. Thereby, even when the width of the front middle frame 81 in the sheet conveying direction is narrow, the entire image reading unit can be supported in a balanced manner.

  As described above, the front / rear frame 81 is disposed so as to overlap the stapler 47 in both the sheet width direction and the sheet conveying direction, thereby suppressing an increase in the length in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus M. In addition, the stapler 47 can be disposed at a suitable position and a suitable angle with respect to the intermediate tray 50 as described above. Further, by configuring as described above, a space is formed in a portion corresponding to the stapler 47 in the frame F, that is, on the left side of the left end portion 81a of the front middle frame 81. This facilitates the access to the stapler 47 and improves the workability of the stapler 47 replacement and maintenance.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the front middle frame 81 is arranged so that the right end portion 81 b does not protrude rightward from the discharge roller 48. That is, the middle frame F3 corresponding to the sheet conveying unit 3 has a frame configuration in which no frame is disposed in the left-right direction on the front side except in the region between the stapler 47 and the discharge roller 48. Thereby, when taking out the sheet S or the sheet bundle on the stacking tray 49, the opening is sufficiently wide and the frame does not get in the way.

  Further, the discharge roller 48 of the sheet processing unit 3 is disposed almost directly above the second discharge roller 32 of the image forming unit 1. That is, the discharge roller 48 and the second discharge roller 32 are disposed at substantially the same position in the sheet conveying direction (position in the left-right direction of the image forming apparatus M). For example, at least a part of the discharge roller 48 and the second discharge roller 32 is disposed at a position where they overlap each other in the sheet conveyance direction. As a result, even when the sheet processing unit 3 is provided between the image forming unit 1 and the image reading unit 2, the sheet S or sheet discharged and stacked on the stacking tray 49 by the discharge roller 48 of the sheet processing unit 3 The exclusive area of the bundle does not exceed the exclusive area of the sheet S discharged onto the second discharge tray 33 by the second discharge roller 32 of the image forming unit 1. That is, it can be configured such that the occupied area hardly changes regardless of whether or not the sheet processing unit 3 is mounted.

  FIG. 4 shows a frame configuration with the sheet processing unit 3 removed. As described above with reference to FIG. 2, the sheet processing unit 3 constitutes a sheet processing unit together with the middle frame F3 having the front middle frame 81, the rear middle frame 82, and the like. Therefore, when the sheet processing unit 3 is attached or detached, the unit including the middle frame F3 is attached and detached. That is, when removing the sheet processing unit 3, a part of the front end side of the upper frame F2 is supported by the flat portion 71c of the front lower frame 71 constituting the lower frame F1, and the upper end of the rear lower frame 72 is supported. The entire rear end side of the upper frame F2 is supported. As a result, a plurality of product settings can be made depending on the presence or absence of the sheet processing unit 3 and the type of the sheet processing unit 3, but even when the product settings are diversified, the frame configuration supporting the image reading unit 3 is the same. It becomes possible to design efficiently, and to reduce the cost of the product.

  In the above-described configuration, the stapler 47 is fixedly arranged at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the sheet conveyance direction in the vicinity of the corner of the left end portion on the near side of the intermediate tray 50 as shown in FIG. Instead of this, the stapler 47 may be configured to be movable. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the stapler 47 is disposed so as to be movable along the rear end S <b> 1 of the sheet S. Thereby, for example, the stapling process can be performed at an appropriate position at the rear end of the sheet S by moving to the positions a, b, and c. Even in this case, the position a of the stapler 47 is the home position.

  Thus, even when the staple 47 is movably disposed, the front / middle frame 81 is configured as described above, and therefore, the front / middle frame 81 does not hinder the movement of the staple 47.

<Embodiment 2>
FIG. 6 shows a frame configuration according to the second embodiment. In the present embodiment, the front lower frame 71 and the front middle frame 81 in the first embodiment are integrated to form the front lower frame 91, and similarly, the rear lower frame 72 and the rear middle frame in the first embodiment. 82 is integrated to form a rear lower frame 92, and the front lower frame 91 and the rear lower frame 92 are connected by a lower left frame 93 and a lower right frame 94. The upper frame F2 is directly supported by the front lower frame 91 and the rear lower frame 92. In the present embodiment, a portion 91 a corresponding to the sheet processing unit 3 in the front lower frame 91 corresponds to the front middle frame.

  According to the present embodiment, in addition to the effects of the above-described embodiment, the rigidity of the frame F can be further increased.

  In the present embodiment, since the lower frame F1 corresponding to the image forming unit 1 and the middle frame F3 (see FIG. 2) corresponding to the sheet processing unit 3 are integrally configured, the sheet processing unit 3 is attached and detached. In doing so, the front lower frame 91, the rear lower frame 92, and the like remain unchanged, and only the sheet processing unit 3 is attached and detached.

<Embodiment 3>
FIG. 7 shows a frame configuration according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the shape of the front middle frame 81A of the middle frame F3 is changed with respect to the frame configuration shown in FIG. The shape has been changed. Other configurations are the same as those shown in FIG.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the extending portions 81c and 81d are provided by extending the lower end and the upper end of the front middle frame 81A to the left. Thereby, the contact area between the lower end of the front middle frame 81A and the upper end portion of the front lower frame 71 can be increased, and the contact area between the upper end of the front middle frame 81 and the upper frame F2 can be increased. In the frame configuration, the rigidity can be increased.

  In Embodiments 1 to 3 described above, each frame is an individual member for convenience of explanation, and the entire frame F is configured by combining them. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a plurality of frames can be integrally formed by welding, bolting, or the like, or each frame can be configured by combining a plurality of parts. About this point, what is necessary is just to determine suitably from various viewpoints, such as a design, manufacture, an assembly, and cost.

  Further, in the above description, the case where the image forming unit 1 forms an image (toner image) on the sheet S by an electrophotographic method has been described as an example. For example, an arbitrary method such as an ink jet method or a thermal transfer method can be adopted.

  In the above description, the case where the sheet processing apparatus that protrudes forward in the sheet width direction is the stapler 47 has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the sheet processing apparatus is a gluing apparatus, a punching apparatus, or a folding apparatus, and at least a part of the sheet processing apparatus protrudes forward from the intermediate tray 50, the present invention is applied as described above. In this case, the same effect can be obtained.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment viewed from the front side (front side). It is the perspective view which looked at the frame composition of Embodiment 1 from the front left diagonal upper part. 6 is a diagram for explaining a positional relationship between a front middle frame and a stapler in the first embodiment. FIG. In Embodiment 1, it is a figure explaining a frame structure, when a sheet processing part (sheet processing unit) is removed. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining how the stapler moves along the rear end of the sheet in the first embodiment. It is the perspective view which looked at the flame | frame structure of Embodiment 2 from the front left diagonal upper direction. It is the perspective view which looked at the frame composition of Embodiment 3 from the front left slanting upper part. FIG. 10 is a front view illustrating a conventional image forming apparatus in which an image forming unit, a sheet processing unit, and an image reading unit are arranged in order from the bottom.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image formation part 2 Image reading part 3 Sheet processing part 32 2nd discharge roller (2nd discharge member)
33 Second discharge tray (second discharge tray)
47 Stapler (sheet processing device)
48 Discharge roller (first discharge member)
49 Loading tray (first discharge tray)
50 Intermediate tray (stacking member)
81 Front middle frame F Frame F1 Lower frame F2 Upper frame F3 Middle frame S Seat

Claims (6)

An image forming unit for forming an image on a sheet; an image reading unit disposed above the image forming unit; a sheet processing unit disposed between the image forming unit and the image reading unit; In an image forming apparatus comprising an image forming unit, an image reading unit, and a frame that supports a sheet processing unit,
The sheet processing unit is disposed on the stacking member so as to protrude from the stacking member on one side of the sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction. A sheet processing apparatus that processes the sheet, and a first discharge member that discharges the processed sheet onto a first discharge tray ,
A portion of the frame that is disposed on one side of the stacking member in the sheet width direction and supports the image reading unit is disposed so as to overlap the sheet processing apparatus in the sheet width direction . Disposed between the sheet processing apparatus and the first discharge member in a sheet conveying direction ;
An image forming apparatus. The image forming unit includes a second discharge member that discharges onto a second discharge tray disposed below the first discharge tray.
The second discharge member is disposed at substantially the same position along the sheet conveying direction with respect to the first discharge member.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 . The sheet processing apparatus is detachable from the frame;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that. The frame includes a lower frame corresponding to the image forming unit, an upper frame corresponding to the image reading unit, and a portion corresponding to the sheet processing unit and overlapping the sheet processing apparatus in the sheet width direction. A middle frame, and
The image forming unit and the lower frame constitute an image forming unit,
The image reading unit and the upper frame constitute an image reading unit,
The sheet processing unit and the middle frame constitute a sheet processing unit,
The image forming unit supports the image reading unit when the sheet processing unit is removed.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that. The sheet processing apparatus is a stapler that staples the sheet.
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that. The stapler is movable in the sheet width direction;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 .

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