Image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10025270-B2
Application number	US-201715623901-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2017
Priority date	Jun 21, 2016
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

An exhaust duct provided on a back surface side of an image forming apparatus, and including a plurality of air ducts through which air inside the apparatus is exhausted toward outside the apparatus, a plurality of filters provided in the plurality of air ducts, respectively, and which removes a fine particle included in the air exhausted through the air ducts, and a filter case that houses the plurality of filters in a manner that the filters are able to be taken out from the filter case are included, and the filter case is provided in a drawable manner to one of side surface sides in a right and left direction or to an upper surface side in an up and down direction of the image forming apparatus, from a front surface side to a back surface side of the image forming apparatus, with respect to the image forming apparatus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an exhaust duct provided on a back surface side of the image forming apparatus, including a first air duct and a second air duct through which air inside the apparatus is exhausted toward outside the apparatus in an exhaust direction, the first air duct and the second air duct being partitioned by a partition member;
a filter case provided in a drawable manner in a drawing direction perpendicular to the exhaust direction to one of side surface sides in a right and left direction or to an upper surface side in an up and down direction of the image forming apparatus, when viewing the image forming apparatus from a front surface side to the back surface side of the image forming apparatus; and
a first filter and a second filter provided in the first air duct and the second air duct, respectively, configured to remove a fine particle included in the air, the first filter being provided in a more downstream side than the second filter in the drawing direction, the first filter and the second filter being housed in a manner that the filters are able to be taken out from the filter case, the first filter partially superimposing the partition member and the second filter not superimposing the partition member when viewing the image forming apparatus from the drawing direction.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first filter has a higher replacement frequency than the second filter.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the exhaust duct is provided to protrude on a back surface of the image forming apparatus.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the exhaust duct is provided inside the image forming apparatus.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a sealing member provided to the filter case or the exhaust duct, and which secures sealing between the air ducts, and applies a force to the filter case in the drawing direction when the filter case is attached to the image forming apparatus; and
a stopper provided to the filter case, and which is engaged with the exhaust duct to hold the filter case in an attached position to the image forming apparatus, and is capable of cancelling the engagement by an elastic force.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a maintenance part detachably attachable to the image forming apparatus, other than the filter, wherein
the maintenance part is provided in a detachably attachable manner to the image forming apparatus from the one of side surface sides of the image forming apparatus to which the filter case is drawable.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the maintenance part other than the filter includes one of a mass storage device, an electric board, and a collected toner bottle.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the one of side surface sides is a surface side to which a holding member that supplies a recording material is attachable.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the filter case is provided on the back surface side of the image forming apparatus with respect to the maintenance part, on the one of side surface sides.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Takahashi Hiroyuki
• Matsumura Takuya
• Kageyama Chiharu

Classifications

• G03G21/206 Primary

  Conducting air through the machine, e.g. for cooling, filtering, removing gases like ozone · CPC title

• G03G2221/1645

  for conducting air through the machine, e.g. cooling · CPC title