Image forming apparatus including cooling mechanism with blowoff port

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9507298-B2
Application number	US-201414325403-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 8, 2014
Priority date	Oct 23, 2009
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

To provide an image forming apparatus in which the paper is cooled early by blowing air to the paper in the conveying path so as to prevent a sticking phenomenon on a paper output tray while paper turning, paper folding, paper breakage and paper jamming due to influence on paper conveyance by blowing air onto the paper in the conveying path, can be prevented. At the start of paper conveyance, a gate 73 is turned upwards to a first position to thereby close a sixth conveying path 44 and establish communication between a first conveying path 42 and a second conveying path 43 so that the paper having passed through a fixing unit 21 starts to be conveyed from first conveying path 42 to second conveying path 43 . At the same time, air is exhausted from an exhausting mechanism 53 arranged upstream of a cooling mechanism 76 . When a first paper sensor 74 detects the leading end of the paper, a cooling fan 77 starts to rotate at a predetermined rotational rate to start blowing air at a predetermined volume of cooling airflow.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image forming portion configured to form an image on a recording medium,
a fixing portion configured to thermally fix the image onto the recording medium after image forming,
a post-fixing conveying path configured to convey the recording medium after thermal fixing by the fixing portion; and
a cooling mechanism having a blowoff port for sending a cooling air;
wherein
the post-fixing conveying path has a switch back conveying path for conveying the recording medium to the image forming portion again, and
the blowoff port of the cooling mechanism is arranged on the switch back conveying path.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the post-fixing conveying path is arranged in a horizontal direction.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the post-fixing conveying path has a predetermined length of a flat portion.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the cooling mechanism has a fan.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an exhausting mechanism having a suction port that suctions and discharges the cooling air.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the exhausting mechanism has a fan.

Assignees

• Sharp Kk

Inventors

• Masuda Junya

Classifications

• G03G15/6558

  Feeding path after the copy sheet preparation and up to the transfer point, e.g. registering; Deskewing; Correct timing of sheet feeding to the transfer point · CPC title

• B65H2301/33312

  forward reverse rollers pairs · CPC title

• B65H5/26 Primary

  Duplicate, alternate, selective, or coacting feeds · CPC title

• G03G15/2021

  Plurality of separate fixing and/or cooling areas or units, two step fixing · CPC title

• G03G15/2017 Primary

  Structural details of the fixing unit in general, e.g. cooling means, heat shielding means (G03G15/2053 takes precedence) · CPC title