Abstract: A postprocessing system having a system cabinet coupled to a copier main body through a coupling section, a postprocessing unit placed in the system cabinet so that it can be moved up and down, and a cover attached to the front of the system cabinet so that it can be opened and closed. When a paper jam occurs, the user can open the cover to open the inside of the system cabinet and remove jammed paper.

Abstract: A door apparatus of a fixing unit includes a guide door hinged to one side of a frame of the fixing unit, so that the guide door can be opened horizontally, securing enough space for removing a jammed sheet. The frame comprises a plurality of bent plates formed at the one side thereof, each of the bent plates having a hinge hole, and the guide door comprises a plurality of extending plates formed at one side thereof, extending horizontally with respect to the bent plates, each of the extending plates having a hinge pin. The hinge pins are inserted into the hinge holes. Further, the door apparatus includes a U-shaped lock having a fixed end and a free end, formed on the opposite side of the guide door such that an outer side of the free end elastically contacts an inner face of the other side of the frame.

Abstract: A color image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image transfer part openable frontward about the lower portion of the apparatus, and a belt part openable upward about the rear portion of the apparatus. With this configuration, the apparatus promotes easy handling of a paper jam and efficient maintenance.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a reversing unit which reverses and feeds recording material fed from a fixing device, and a guiding device including first and second guide members facing each other to form a part of a first conveying path in which a recording material with a toner image fixed thereto is conveyed to the reversing unit from the fixing device. The second guide member forms, in cooperation with a third guide member, a part of a second conveying path in which the recording material is conveyed to an outside of the main body of the image forming apparatus. The first and second guide members are movable between a sheet guide position in which the first and second guide members guide the recording material along the first and second conveying paths, and a sheet jam removing position in which each of the first and second conveying paths is opened for removal of a jammed sheet.

Abstract: A finishing device of the present invention is formed of a piling tray disposed above a main image forming device to hold a sheet therefrom, a stapling tray for temporally piling the sheet transferred from the main image forming device to the piling tray and a stapling device for binding a stack of sheets on the stapling tray. The finishing device further includes a first sheet transferring path for guiding the sheet from the main image forming device in a substantially vertical direction; a second sheet transferring path having a deflecting portion connected to the first sheet transferring path to guide the sheet in a substantially horizontal direction. The stapling tray extends from an exit terminal of the second sheet transferring path; the piling tray holds the sheet from the stapling tray; and the stapling device is disposed between the deflecting portion of the second sheet transferring path and the stapling tray to bind the rear ends of the sheets on the stapling tray in an ejecting direction.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming body for carrying thereon a toner image, and a belt-shaped intermediate transfer body for carrying thereon the toner image transferred from the image forming body. A first transfer device is provided for transferring another toner image carried by the image forming body onto an obverse side of a recording sheet conveyed by the intermediate transfer body, and a second transfer device is provided for transferring the toner image carried on the intermediate transfer body onto a reverse side of the recording sheet. In addition, a fixing device is provided for fixing the toner images transferred on both sides of the recording sheet which is separated from the intermediate transfer body, and a conveyor portion having spurred wheels is provided between the intermediate transfer body and the fixing device for conveying the transfer member to the fixing device. The apparatus has a structure including two frames which can be opened.

Abstract: In an image forming apparatus, a sheet that has been transported in a certain direction is selectively transported to one of first and second transport routes by a route changer mechanism. A first cover and a second cover are openably provided on a main body of the apparatus to respectively allow the first and second transport routes to be accessible to outside of the apparatus main body when set in an opened state. An operative mechanism is provided to open the first cover in association with opening of the second cover.

Abstract: An improved sheet jam removal system for a sheet feeding system with an enclosed internal sheet feeding path unit and connecting first and second sheet stacking trays. The first tray is overlying the second and is pivotally cantilever mounted about a first pivot axis so that when a sheet feeding jam occurs the first tray readily manually pivots upwardly about the first pivot axis to expose sheets in the second tray, and also a camming surface on the tray, which may be provided by edge guides adjacent the first pivot axis, engages and automatically unlatches, with high leverage, a top cover of the enclosed sheet feeding path unit, which top cover pivots open about a second pivot axis spaced from the first. The top cover may be spring loaded to automatically pop further open for full exposure and removal of sheets inside the unit upon said automatic unlatching.

Abstract: A ball-on-belt transport includes a belt with a steel ball positioned on top of the belt and a magnet on the back side of the belt with the ball forming a nip with the belt to provide necessary normal force against a conveyed sheet and thereby allowing easy lateral pulling of sheets in clearing jams from the nip. Alternatively, a steel ball is retained while in contact with a belt to apply a normal force to a sheet on the belt equal to the weight of the steel ball. The ball is encased in a housing that is surrounded by a solenoid coil such that when current is applied to the coil, it acts as a solenoid and raises the ball off the belt surface and thus releases the nip pressure.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly including an image forming station, a conveying unit for conveying a recording material on which the image forming station forms an image, the conveying unit including a recording material inlet, recording material feeding device and a recording material discharging outlet, and being supported on the main assembly for movement toward and away from the main assembly. The image forming station is at least partly disposed adjacent the conveying unit and is exposed when the conveying unit is moved away from the main assembly. When mounted to the main assembly, the convening unit constitutes a passage for conveying the recording material substantially in a vertical direction through the image forming station, and the conveying unit is separable, substantially along the conveying passage, from the main assembly.

Abstract: A document feeder having a cover covering a portion of a main body and adapted to be pivotally opened, and a pair of document transportation rollers provided in an abutting relation in the midst of a document transportation path for transportation of a document original. A document guiding member for guiding the document original to an abutment position of the pair of rollers is attached to the cover.

Abstract: An image-forming machine has a sheet member conveying passage extending through a transfer zone and a fixing zone, a sheet member-feeder for feeding a sheet member to the sheet member conveying passage, and a sheet member conveyor for conveying the sheet member through the sheet member conveying passage. A housing of the image-forming machine has a lower surface defined by an intermediate lower wall and an upper surface defined by an intermediate upper wall, and has a space of which the front surface is opened. The downstream end portion of the sheet member conveying passage extends along one side portion of the intermediate lower wall on the lower side thereof. That one side portion of the intermediate lower wall is defined by an opening/closing member which is brought to the open position to open the downstream end portion of the sheet member conveying passage. The sheet member conveyer includes a pair of register rollers.

Abstract: A finishing device of the present invention includes a sheet transferring path for guiding a sheet from an image forming device to a piling tray by substantially vertically deflecting the sheet in either upper or lower direction with respect to the device; a tray for temporarily holding and piling sheets, as a stack, from the sheet transferring path; and a stapling unit disposed between the tray and the sheet transferring path so that an edge on an upstream side of sheets on the tray is bound. The stapling unit is structured such that a cartridge loaded with stapling needles can be attached or detached from a back surface side facing the sheet transferring path side, and at least a part of sheet guides for constituting the sheet transferring path can be opened and closed so that the back surface side of the stapling unit can be exposed outside the device. Thus, the stapling unit need not be moved outside the device for exchanging the needles.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet has a first conveyance path for guiding the sheet, and a second conveyance path arranged in continuation from the first conveyance path to guide the sheet conveyed from the first conveyance path. A conveyor drum, which may be an image transfer drum, retains the sheet on its surface and conveys the sheet such that the sheet moves along said second conveyance path. The drum and the second conveyance path are supported such that they can be moved in a direction which intersects the direction of sheet conveyance, so as to be drawn out of the main part of the apparatus. A sheet jam detector is provided for detecting a sheet jam at a predetermined position which is on the drum and which is spaced from the inlet of the second conveyance path by a distance greater than the length of the sheet which has the greatest length among the sheets which are to be handled by the apparatus, as measured along the second path.

Abstract: A color printer for forming color toner images on a sheet of paper includes a photoconductive belt for bearing an electrostatic latent image thereon, a plurality of developing devices, and an intermediate transfer belt for forming composite toner images thereon. The intermediate transfer belt and the developing devices face each other across the photoconductive belt. The color printer further includes a front frame which is provided adjacent the intermediate transfer medium, a paper feed device which is provided in a lower position of the apparatus, and a paper output tray which is provided in a upper position of the apparatus. A paper transporting path between the paper feed device and the paper output tray is provided between the intermediate transfer belt and the front frame.

Abstract: An electrostatic copying machine made up of an image-forming unit including a rotary drum having an exposure zone and a transfer zone, an optical system for projecting the image of the document to be copied onto the exposure zone, a copying paper-feeding system including a paper-feeding cassette that can be freely drawn to the front surface of the body of the copying machine, and a copying paper conveying passage for conveying a copying paper fed from the copying paper-feeding means through the transfer zone. A fixing device and a pair of paper-discharging rollers are disposed on the downstream side of the transfer zone. The paper-feeding cassette, image-forming unit, fixing device and the pair of paper-discharging rollers are successively arranged from one side toward the other side in the body of the copying machine within the maximum exposure scanning length of the optical system, and the copying paper conveying passage is arranged substantially linearly.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus in which a sheet conveying path and a sheet discharging path are exposed when a side cover is opened for removing a jammed sheet. The side cover, together with attached copy exit guide plate for sheets is exchangeably and detachably mounted to the main body of the apparatus and serves commonly as a side cover for a simplex type copying machine and a duplex type copying machine. Separate units, attached to each other and aligned, establish sheet discharging paths to different destinations, for example, sheet discharging trays. Sheets are guided to the paths by a course selecting pick. One of the two units includes rollers for directing sheets to a mail box or duplex copying unit, selectably. Disclosed embodiments enable copy sheets to be delivered selectably to face up and face down discharging trays or selectably to mail box and face down discharging trays.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus has an apparatus housing having a releasible and movable side frame, and a stationary side frame, a photosensitive unit having a photosensitive member and which is detachably mounted on the movable side frame, and an intermediate transfer unit having an intermediate transfer member for temporarily receiving a transferred toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive member in a primary transfer, and transferring the temporarily transfer toner image to a recording sheet in a secondary transfer, the intermediate transfer unit being detachably mounted on the movable side frame.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises three units, that is, an image forming unit 40, a fixing unit 60, and a transfer unit 50. The three units are mounted on a main frame 10 with a positional relationship upon being positioned therebetween. The image forming unit 40 is fixed to a predetermined position with respect to the main frame 10. Further, the main frame 10 comprises a positioning pin 14 arranged in a predetermined positional relationship with the image forming unit 40. The fixing unit 60 and the transfer unit 50 are positioned upon being engaged with the positioning pin 14. Consequently, there is no shift in position among the image forming unit 40, the transfer unit 50, and the fixing unit 60. The three units can be correctly mounted on the main frame 10.

Abstract: A compact image formation apparatus forms an image on an image support, discharges the image support supporting an image to an outside of the apparatus and facilitates jam removal. The image formation apparatus has all operation portions for performing operations from the outside of the image formation apparatus located on three operation faces including a top face, a front, and either a left side face or a right side face of the image formation apparatus. A rear face and the other of the left side face or right side face of the image formation apparatus are set to be non-operation faces.

Abstract: In a color electrophotographic printer, an intermediate transfer belt is provided to layer toner images of a plurality of colors, and the toner images on the belt are transferred onto a paper sheet. In order to remove a paper sheet when a paper jam happens, a door is provided in a case of the printer, while a cover is provided to protect a transfer region where the intermediate transfer belt contacts with a paper sheet for transferring the toner images. When the door is opened, the cover moves to cover a portion of the surface of the intermediate transfer belt exposed to the door. When the jammed paper sheet is removed, the image forming process is resumed immediately on the toner images on the intermediate transfer belt. Further, an intermediate transfer unit including the intermediate transfer belt and the cover detachable from the printer may be provided.

Abstract: Maintenance performance is promoted and a vivid printed image is provided in an electrophotographic device capable of conducting color printing. Cartridges corresponding to different printing colors, each of which includes a photosensitive body, are stacked in a vertical direction. A recording sheet is fed along a sheet feeding path and brought into contact with the photosensitive bodies corresponding to the respective colors, and toner images of the respective printing colors are transferred on the recording sheet. A transfer belt for feeding the recording sheet is arranged in a front cover, and the transfer belt is exposed when the front cover is opened. Therefore, correcting a mis-feeding of the recording sheet is facilitated. Also, the respective cartridges are spaced apart such that optical paths are provided between the cartridges so that optical beams corresponding to the respective printing colors may be directly irradiated onto the corresponding photosensitive bodies.

Abstract: An electrostatographic process cartridge detachably mountable into a cavity defined by mated modules forming parts of an electrostatographic reproduction machine. The process cartridge includes an elongate housing having walls defining a front end of the process cartridge, a rear end thereof, and a process chamber; a rotatable endless photoreceptive member having a closed loop path within the process chamber, and an image bearing surface for holding a formed toner image, and being mounted within the process chamber and towards the rear end for contacting a toner image receiving sheet moving along a machine sheet path for toner image transfer.

Abstract: Disclosed is an image forming apparatus having the following arrangement. When a first linking member pivotally moves to the original position, an engaging portion juttingly formed from the first linking member engages a first positioning portion formed in a frame, while a second roller coming into contact with a first roller rotatably supported to the frame. A second linking member is pivotally rotated in response to the pivotal rotation of the first linking member, and part of a transfer unit engages a second positioning portion formed in the frame to position the transfer unit relative to a photosensitive drum. In association with the pivotal rotation of the second linking member, a guide portion of the second linking member engages part of a fixing unit to position the guide portion relative to the fixing unit.

Abstract: An alignment baffle for use in a printing apparatus having a conveying mechanism for conveying images toward an image transfer area and copy sheet chute for guiding copy sheets toward the conveying mechanism is provided. The images are transferred to the copy sheets in the transfer area. The baffle includes a body operably associated with the image transfer area and a first member connected to the body and spaced from the copy sheet chute. The first member has a first member surface for guiding the copy sheet. The baffle also includes a second member operably associated with the first member, connected to the body and spaced from the copy sheet chute. The second member has a second member surface for guiding the copy sheet. The first member and the second member have a passageway therebetween for passage of the copy sheets therebetween. The first member surface and the second member surface cooperate with the copy sheets to guide the copy sheets in a path tangential to the conveying mechanism.

Abstract: In a sheet handling machine having a frame, and a cut sheet handling system including a sheet path, a stalled sheet pulling and crushing apparatus for reducing a sheet, stalled across an interface between a withdrawable and a fixed component of a cut sheet handling system into a shape and size suitably enabling reliable removal of the stalled sheet through a relatively narrow gap between the withdrawable and fixed components of the sheet handling system.

Abstract: A driving mechanism for a fixing apparatus which has an idle gear disengageable from a gear rotating a fixing roller without cooperation of an opening operation of a panel provided to the fixing apparatus. A fixing gear is connected to a fixing roller. A drive gear provides a rotational force. An idle gear is provided between the drive gear and the fixing gear to transmit the rotational force from the drive gear to the fixing gear. The idle gear is always engaged with the drive gear. A pivot member is pivotable with respect to a pivot member shaft between a first position and a second position below the first position. The idle gear is engaged with the fixing gear when the pivot member is at the first position. The idle gear is moved downwardly by gravity and thereby disengaged from the fixing gear when the pivot member is at the second position. Thus, there is no need to provide a moving mechanism to disengage the idle gear from the fixing gear.

Abstract: A sheet guide mechanism is provided with a guide path along which a sheet-like member is guided and which is defined between one and the other guide surfaces. A stationary guide member has a first surface defining the one guide surface, and a movable guide member having a second surface defines the other guide surface, which is shiftable relative to the stationary guide member. Protrusions are formed on one of the first and second surfaces, protruding toward the other of the first and second surfaces by a predetermined distance. A shiftable member is shiftable relative to the stationary guide member between a guide position and a remote position. A spring is provided between the shiftable member and the movable guide member allowing the elastic contact between the protrusions and the other of the first and second surfaces, when the shiftable member is located in the guide position.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus has a jam sensor for detecting a jammed sheets in a transporting path, a paper guide which can be switched between a close state that guides sheets to an image forming section and an open state that make a jammed sheet removable, a movable backward end plate which is provided on an ADU tray and regulates a position of stored sheets according to the size of sheet, and a pulse motor that moves the movable backward end plate. When the paper guide is converted to the open state, an interference section where the movable backward end plate contacts with the paper guide and a non-interference section are formed. The image forming apparatus is provided with a CPU which drives the pulse motor so as to move the movable backward end plate to the non-interference section based upon a jam detecting signal from the jam sensor.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly including an image forming station, a conveying unit for conveying a recording material on which the image forming station forms an image, the conveying unit including a recording material inlet, recording material feeding device and a recording material discharging outlet, and being supported on the main assembly for movement toward and away from the main assembly. The image forming station is at least partly disposed adjacent the conveying unit and is exposed when the conveying unit is moved away from the main assembly. When mounted to the main assembly, the conveying unit constitutes a passage for conveying the recording material substantially in a vertical direction through the image forming station, and the conveying unit is separable, substantially along the conveying passage, from the main assembly.