Sheet feeding cartridge and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9725263-B2
Application number	US-201615075584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Mar 27, 2015
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A sheet feeding cartridge storing a sheet conveyed orthogonally to a width direction includes a main body, a pair of side cursors and a restricting member. The main body has a bottom part including a sheet placement face and allows sheets of different sizes to be placed. The side cursors mutually slide in approaching and separating directions and restrict a position in the width direction. The restricting member comes into contact with a side edge in the width direction at a position separated from one of the side cursors to an upstream side in a conveyance direction and restricts the position in the width direction. The restricting member is attachably/detachably provided in the main body at each of plural positions along the width direction and restricts the side edge of each of the sheets of different sizes in the width direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet feeding cartridge configured to store a sheet to be conveyed in a direction orthogonal to a width direction, comprising:
a main body having a bottom part including a sheet placement face and allowing sheets of different sizes to be placed;
a pair of side cursors configured to mutually slide in approaching and separating directions, and then, to restrict a position in the width direction of the sheets; and
a restricting member configured to come into contact with a side edge in the width direction of the sheets at a position separated from one of the pair of side cursors to an upstream side in a conveyance direction, and then, to restrict the position in the width direction,
wherein the restricting member is attachably/detachably provided in the main body at each of a plurality of positions along the width direction and is capable of restricting the side edge of each of the sheets of different sizes in the width direction,
the restricting member includes:
a restricting part provided to be perpendicular to the sheet placement face of the main body and coming into contact with the side edge in the width direction; and
a coupling part provided to be parallel to the sheet placement face and coupling the restricting part and the main body,
the restricting part has a first restricting face and a second restricting face being parallel to the first restricting face,
when the coupling part is coupled to the main body at a first position, the second restricting face is disposed at an upstream side in the conveyance direction and at the inside in the width direction with respect to the first restricting face, and then, a position in the width direction of the sheet of a first size is restricted by the first restricting face and a position in the width direction of the sheet of a second size having a smaller width and a larger length than the first size is restricted by the second restricting face,
further, when the coupling part is coupled to the main body at a second position being different from the first position in the width direction, a position in the width direction of the sheet of a third size being different in width than the first size and the second size is restricted by the first restricting face, and
when the coupling part is coupled with the main body at a third position being different from the first position and the second position in the width direction, a position in the width direction of the sheet of a fourth size being different in width from the first size, the second size and the third size is restricted by the first restricting face.

2. The sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the restricting member is attachably/detachably provided in the main body at each of a plurality of positions along the conveyance direction and is capable of restricting the side edge of each of the sheets of different sizes in the conveyance direction.

3. The sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the restricting member has at least two restricting faces disposed to be parallel to each other or at least two restricting faces disposed to be orthogonal to each other.

4. The sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the restricting part further has a third restricting face orthogonally connected to the second restricting face, and
when the restricting part is turned so that the third restricting face is disposed to be parallel to the conveyance direction and the coupling part is coupled to the main body at a fourth position being different from the first position, the second position and the third position in a lengthwise direction of the sheets, a position in the width direction of the sheet of a fifth size being different from the first size, the second size, the third size and the fourth size is restricted by the third restricting face.

5. The sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the main body includes a wall part provided at an end part in the width direction at the upstream side in the conveyance direction,
in an upper face of the wall part, a plurality of coupling holes disposed at intervals along the width direction and respectively corresponding to the first position, the second position and the third position are provided,
on the bottom part, a plurality of positioning parts respectively corresponding to the first position, the second position and the third position are provided at intervals along the width direction,
the coupling part has a projected part projected on a lower face,
the restricting part has a positioning projection projected from a lower end,
when the projection is inserted into each of the coupling holes and the positioning projection is inserted into each of the positioning parts, the restricting member is coupled with the main body.

6. The sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 5 further comprising:
a fixing member,
wherein the coupling part has a pair of the projected parts and a through hole disposed between the pair of the projected parts and penetrating the coupling part in upward and downward directions,
in the upper face of the wall part, a plurality of pairs of the coupling holes arranged at a predetermined interval in the conveyance direction are disposed at predetermined intervals in the width direction,
the wall part has a fixing hole disposed between each pair of the coupling holes,
the fixing member is inserted into the fixing hole of the wall part from the through hole of the coupling part to fix the coupling part to the wall part.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:
the sheet feeding cartridge according to claim 1 ;
an image forming part configured to form an image on the sheet conveyed in an orthogonal direction to the width direction of the sheet from the sheet feeding cartridge; and
a housing in which the sheet feeding cartridge is attachably/detachably installed and in which the image forming part is built.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Takai Hiroaki
• Sugishima Yoshio

Classifications

• G03G15/6502

  Supplying of sheet copy material; Cassettes therefor · CPC title

• B65H2405/13

  Elements acting on corner of sheet, e.g. snubber member · CPC title

• B65H2511/22

  Distance · CPC title

• B65H2405/12

  Parts to be handled by user · CPC title

• B65H2511/12

  Width · CPC title