Sheet feeding cassette and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11975933-B2
Application number	US-202217580963-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 21, 2022
Priority date	Jan 26, 2021
Publication date	May 7, 2024
Grant date	May 7, 2024

Abstract

A sheet feeding cassette includes a main body, a lift plate, a pair of side cursors, and an auxiliary lift plate. The main body is configured to accommodate a sheet fed out in a predetermined sheet feeding direction. The lift plate is provided in the main body in a liftable manner, and has a sheet placement surface on which the sheet is placed. The pair of side cursors is configured to be moved in a width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction and to come into contact with side edges of the sheet placed on the lift plate to align the sheet. The auxiliary lift plate is detachably attached to a notch portion which is formed in the lift plate so as to allow a moving of the side cursors.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sheet feeding cassette comprising:
a main body configured to accommodate a sheet fed out in a predetermined sheet feeding direction;
a lift plate provided in the main body in a liftable manner, and having a sheet placement surface on which the sheet is placed;
a pair of side cursors configured to be moved in a width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction and to come into contact with side edges of the sheet placed on the lift plate to align the sheet; and
an auxiliary lift plate which is detachably attached to a notch portion which is formed in the lift plate so as to allow a moving of the side cursors, and
an upper surface of the auxiliary lift plate is disposed lower than the sheet placement surface of the lift plate.

2. The sheet feeding cassette according to claim 1 , wherein
the auxiliary lift plate is constituted of a plurality of auxiliary lift pieces connectable to each other in the width direction, and
a width of the auxiliary lift plate can be changed by changing a number of the auxiliary lift pieces.

3. The sheet feeding cassette according to claim 2 , wherein
the plurality of auxiliary lift pieces are arranged side by side along the width direction, and
upper surfaces of the plurality of auxiliary lift pieces are set to be lower as the auxiliary lift pieces are arranged outside in the width direction.

4. The sheet feeding cassette according to claim 1 , wherein
at least one of the pair of side cursors has an accommodation portion capable of accommodating the auxiliary lift piece detached from the lift plate.

5. The sheet feeding cassette according to claim 4 , wherein
the accommodation portion includes a support plate provided on an outside surface of a side wall part of at least one of the side cursors along an upper-and-lower direction, and
at least one of the auxiliary lift pieces is detachably attached to the support plate.

6. An image forming apparatus comprising:
the sheet feeding cassette according to claim 1 ;
an apparatus main body to which the sheet feeding cassette is detachably attached;
a sheet feeding device which feeds the sheet from the sheet feeding cassette attached to the apparatus main body; and
an image forming part which forms an image on the sheet fed from the sheet feeding cassette by the sheet feeding device.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the sheet feeding cassette is a large capacity deck which can accommodate a large number of the sheets, and
the lift plate is lifted and lowered with a horizontal posture.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Ando Satoshi

Classifications

• B65H1/14 Primary

  comprising positively-acting mechanical devices {(B65H1/025 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B65H1/04

  adapted to support articles substantially horizontally, e.g. for separation from top of pile · CPC title

• B65H1/26

  with auxiliary supports to facilitate introduction or renewal of the pile · CPC title

• B65H1/266

  Support fully or partially removable from the handling machine, e.g. cassette, drawer (B65H1/027 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65H2405/1112

  with stepped surface portions · CPC title