Opening and closing apparatus and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9834973-B2
Application number	US-201615079763-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2016
Priority date	Sep 9, 2015
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

There is provided an opening and closing apparatus, including: a main body; an openable body pivoting between a closed position and an open position; a connecting part connecting an end of the main body and an end of the openable body; a rack provided in one of the main body and the openable body; and an arm, wherein a part, of a pitch line of the rack, which makes contact with a pitch circle of the pinion in a state that the openable body is positioned in the vicinity of the closed position is an inclined line which is inclined to approach the other of the main body and the openable body having no rack, as the inclined line is farther away from the connecting part with the openable body being in the closed position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An opening and closing apparatus, comprising:
a main body;
an openable body configured to pivot between a closed position in which the openable body covers an upper part of the main body and an open position in which the upper part of the main body is open;
a connecting part connecting an end of the main body and an end of the openable body such that the openable body pivots about a pivot axis;
a rack provided in one of the main body and the openable body and extending in a direction orthogonal to the pivot axis; and
an arm having a first end provided with a pinion engaging with the rack, a second end connected to the other one of the main body and the openable body such that the arm pivots about the second end, and a braking unit configured to apply braking force to the pinion,
wherein a part, of a pitch line of the rack, which makes contact with a pitch circle of the pinion in a state that the openable body is positioned in a vicinity of the closed position is an inclined line which is inclined to approach the other one of the main body and the openable body having no rack, as the inclined line is farther away from the connecting part with the openable body being in the closed position.

2. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a part, of the pitch line of the rack, which makes contact with the pitch circle of the pinion during pivoting of the openable body from the open position to the vicinity of the closed position, is a horizontal line in the state that the openable body is in the closed position.

3. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the braking unit includes a rotating damper configured to generate the braking force and a gear unit configured to transmit the braking force of the rotating damper to the pinion, and
the gear unit includes a separable part which is configured to be joined to the rotating damper in a case that the openable body pivots from the open position to the closed position and is configured to be separated from the rotating damper in a case that the openable body pivots from the closed position to the open position.

4. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the separable part includes a planet gear configured to be joined to and separated from the rotating damper.

5. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the gear unit includes an accelerating gear configured to make rotation velocity of the rotating damper faster than rotation velocity of the pinion.

6. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the accelerating gear is a sun gear of the planet gear.

7. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rack is provided in the openable body.

8. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein an end of the rack opposite to the connecting part is positioned closer to an end of the openable body opposite to the connecting part than to a barycentric position of the openable body.

9. The opening and closing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein one of the main body and the openable body provided with the rack includes a guide groove configured to guide a rotating shaft of the pinion along the pitch line of the rack.

10. An image forming apparatus comprising:
the opening and closing apparatus as defined in claim 1 ; and
an image forming unit provided in the main body.

11. An opening and closing apparatus, comprising:
a main body;
an openable body configured to pivot between a closed position in which the openable body covers an upper part of the main body and an open position in which the upper part of the main body is open;
a connecting part connecting an end of the main body and an end of the openable body such that the openable body pivots about a pivot axis;
a rack provided in one of the main body and the openable body and extending in a direction orthogonal to the pivot axis; and
an arm having a first end provided with a pinion engaging with the rack, a second end connected to the other one of the main body and the openable body having no rack such that the arm pivots about the second end, and a braking unit configured to apply braking force to the pinion,
wherein a straight line, which extends from a contact point between the rack and the pinion toward a rotation center of the pinion, is inclined toward the connecting part with the openable body being positioned in a vicinity of the closed position.

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Tomatsu Yoshiya

Classifications

• H04N2201/0094

  Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception · CPC title

• E05Y2201/722

  Racks · CPC title

• G03G21/1633

  using doors or covers (G03G21/1638 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E05F5/02 Primary

  specially for preventing the slamming of {swinging} wings {during final closing movement, e.g. jamb stops} · CPC title

• E05Y2201/716

  Pinions · CPC title