Sheet material feeding device and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9896284-B2
Application number	US-201715486066-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2017
Priority date	Apr 28, 2016
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

A sheet material feeding device includes: a housing; a cassette configured to accommodate a sheet material therein and capable of being pulled out of the housing; a pushing-up plate which is on the cassette and configured to fluctuate and a position thereof is changed to a feeding position or a retracted position; a rear-end regulating member for regulating a position of an upstream end of the sheet material; a rear-end displacement member which is supported by the rear-end regulating member and configured to fluctuate and a position thereof is changed to a feeding position or a retracted position; a pushing-up plate displacing device configured to change the position of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position; and a rear-end displacement member displacing device configured to complete a position change of the rear-end displacement member to the feeding position before a position change of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet material feeding device comprising:
a housing;
a cassette configured to accommodate a sheet material therein and capable of being pulled out of the housing and being stored in the housing;
a pushing-up plate which is disposed on an inner bottom surface of the cassette and configured to fluctuate in a vertical direction with the sheet material placed on an upper surface of the pushing-up plate and a position thereof is changed to a feeding position or a retracted position;
a rear-end regulating member provided inside the cassette for regulating a position of an upstream end of the sheet material in a feeding direction of the sheet material;
a rear-end displacement member which is supported by the rear-end regulating member and configured to fluctuate in the feeding direction of the sheet material and a position thereof is changed to a feeding position or a retracted position;
a pushing-up plate displacing device configured to change the position of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position when the cassette is stored in the housing; and
a rear-end displacement member displacing device configured to complete a position change of the rear-end displacement member to the feeding position before a position change of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position by the pushing-up plate displacing device when the cassette is stored in the housing.

2. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein after the position change of the rear-end displacement member to the feeding position by the rear-end displacement member displacing device is completed, the position change of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position by the pushing-up plate displacing device is started.

3. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , further comprising an electric drive source configured to change the position of the pushing-up plate.

4. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , further comprising an electric drive source configured to change the position of the rear-end displacement member.

5. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the pushing-up plate displacing device changes the position of the pushing-up plate by a mechanism that does not obtain power from an electric drive source.

6. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the rear-end displacement member displacing device changes the position of the rear-end displacement member by a mechanism that does not obtain power from an electric drive source.

7. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the pushing-up plate displacing device changes the position of the pushing-up plate to the retracted position when the cassette is pulled out of the housing.

8. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the rear-end displacement member displacing device changes the position of the rear-end displacement member to the retracted position when the cassette is pulled out of the housing.

9. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the rear-end displacement member displacing device comprises a first starting lever configured to change the position of the rear-end displacement member to the feeding position by coming into contact with the housing so as to be displaced when the cassette is stored in the housing.

10. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 , wherein the pushing-up plate displacing device comprises a second starting lever configured to change the position of the pushing-up plate to the feeding position by coming into contact with the housing so as to be displaced when the cassette is stored in the housing.

11. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 10 , wherein a first starting lever comes in contact with the housing before the second starting lever comes in contact with the housing.

12. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 10 , wherein a first starting lever and the second starting lever are formed as a single member.

13. An image forming apparatus comprising:
the sheet material feeding device according to claim 1 ; and
an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet supplied from the sheet material feeding device.

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Inc

Inventors

• Yang Shuan
• Tanimoto Junichi
• Doshida Yuki

Classifications

• B65H2405/32

  Supports for sheets partially insertable - extractable, e.g. upon sliding movement, drawer · CPC title

• B65H2405/1124

  pivotable, details therefor · CPC title

• B65H2405/1122

  movable linearly, details therefor · CPC title

• B65H1/266

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

• B65H1/14 Primary

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