Image Recording Apparatus and Feed Tray

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/150,312 filed on Jan. 5, 2023, which claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-012863 filed on Jan. 31, 2022. The entire content of the priority application is incorporated herein by reference.

Conventionally, there is known a facsimile machine (image recording apparatus) having a paper feed cassette (feed tray) capable of accommodating a rolled paper (rolled body) and cut papers (sheet media). This facsimile machine has a conveyance roller for feeding the rolled paper accommodated in the paper feed cassette from the paper feed cassette and a pick-up roller for feeding a sheet of cut paper accommodated in the paper feed cassette from the paper feed cassette.

In the facsimile machine described above, the rolled paper and the cut papers accommodated in the paper feed cassette are fed from the paper feed cassette by separate rollers. In other words, the rolled paper and the cut papers accommodated in the paper feed cassette are fed from the paper feed cassette by separate paths. Therefore, the apparatus becomes larger.

An object of the present teaching is to provide an image recording apparatus and a feed tray capable of reducing the size of the apparatus.

According to a first aspect of the present teaching, there is provided an image recording apparatus, including:

According to a second aspect of the present teaching, there is provided a feed tray, including;

According to the image recording apparatus and feed tray of the present teaching, when feeding the sheet medium in the first accommodating part from the feed tray, the support member is set to the first position, so that the sheet medium in contact with the contact surface can be fed from the feed tray by the feed roller. When feeding the sheet medium in the second accommodating part from the feed tray, the supporting member is set to the second position, so that the sheet medium supported on the support surface can be fed from the feed tray by the feed roller. In other words, one feed roller can feed the sheet medium in the first accommodating part and the sheet medium in the second accommodating part from the feed tray along the same path. Therefore, the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

A printer(image recording apparatus of the present teaching) according to one embodiment of the present teaching is described below with reference to. Up-down, front-rear, and left-right directions inare defined as up-down, front-rear, and left-right directions of the printer, respectively.

The printermainly includes a housing, a feed mechanism, a conveyance mechanism, a cutter, a head(corresponding to the “recording unit” of the present teaching), a paper discharge tray, a paper sheet presence/absence detecting unit(see) and a controller.

The feed mechanismhas a feed tray, a feed roller, and a separation strip. The feed trayis located below the headin a housing. An openingis formed in a front wall of the housing. The feed traycan be inserted into and removed from the housingalong the front-rear direction through the opening. In other words, the feed traycan be moved along the front-rear direction between inside the housingand outside the housing

The feed traycan accommodate a rolled body R and cut papers Kp. The feed trayhas a first accommodating partthat can accommodate the rolled body R and a second accommodating partthat can accommodate a plurality of cut papers Kp (an example of the sheet media) in a stacked state. The rolled body R has a cylindrical core member Rc, and a rolled paper Rp (an example of the sheet medium) is rolled around an outer circumference of the cylindrical core member Rc. A width direction of the rolled paper Rp unrolled from the rolled body R in the feed trayand a width direction of the cut papers Kp in the feed traycoincide with the left-right direction.

In, both the rolled body R and the cut papers Kp are accommodated in the feed trayfor illustration. However, when recording images with the printer, any one of the rolled body R and the cut papers Kp is accommodated in the feed tray.

The feed rollerfeeds the rolled paper Rp unrolled from the rolled body R accommodated in the first accommodating partor a sheet of the cut papers Kp accommodated in the second accommodating part, from the feed tray. The rolled paper Rp and the cut paper Kp fed by the feed rollerare fed from feed trayalong the same path. In the following description, when the cut paper Kp and the rolled paper Rp are not distinguished, they are referred to as a “paper sheet P”.

The feed rolleris configured with two rollerssupported on a tip end of an arm. The two rollersare arranged side by side along the left-right direction with the armintervening therebetween. The two rollersare spaced apart from each other. The two rollersrotate around an axis along the left-right direction by driving a feed motor not depicted in the figure.

The armis rotatably supported by a spindle. The spindleis supported by the housing. The armis biased by an undepicted biasing member so that the feed rollerapproaches a bottom surfaceof the feed tray. The feed rolleris movable between a position at which the feed rollercontacts rollers(see) arranged on the bottom surfaceof the feed trayand a position at which the feed rolleris away from the rollers, by a rotation of the armaround the spindle. As will be described in more detail later, the armcan be retracted to a retracted position where the armdoes not interfere with the body portionof the feed tray, in conjunction with a movement of the feed trayfrom an inside of the housingto an outside of the housing

When the feed motor is driven by the controller, the feed rollerrotates to apply conveying force in a direction from front to rear to the paper sheet P in contact with the feed roller. This causes the paper sheet P to be fed from the feed tray.

The separation stripis provided to prevent feeding the cut papers Kp in a state of being overlapped with each other when feeding the cut papers Kp from the feed tray. The separation stripis located downstream of the feed trayin a feed direction (from front to rear; referred to simply as a “feed direction” in the following description).

The separation stripis inclined so that a rear end is positioned higher than a front end. When the feed trayis installed in the housingand is inside the housing, the separation stripis positioned in a center of the feed trayin the left-right direction. The separation stripcontacts a central part of the cut paper Kp in the width direction, and separates the cut paper Kp in contact with the feed rollerfrom the other sheets of the cut papers Kp in a stacked state. The paper sheet P fed from the feed traycontacts the separation stripand then is guided diagonally upward.

The conveyance mechanismhas an intermediate roller pair, a conveyance roller pair, a paper discharge roller pair, and a guide member. The intermediate roller pairis configured by a drive roller which is rotated by driving of an undepicted intermediate motor, and a driven roller which is rotated along with the rotation of the drive roller. When the intermediate motor is driven by a control of the controller, the intermediate roller pairrotates while nipping the paper sheet P to convey the paper sheet P. The intermediate roller pairis located above the separation strip. The intermediate roller pairconveys the paper sheet P which is fed from the feed trayby the feed rollerand then guided diagonally upward by the separation stripwhile nipping the paper sheet P. The guide memberis located above the intermediate roller pair. The guide memberguides the paper sheet P forward, after the paper sheet P has been conveyed upward by the intermediate roller pair.

The conveyance roller pairis configured by a drive roller which is rotated by driving of an undepicted conveyance motor and a driven roller which is rotated along with the rotation of the drive roller. The paper discharge roller pairis configured by a drive roller which is rotated by driving of an undepicted paper discharge motor and a driven roller which is rotated along with the rotation of the drive roller. When the conveyance motor and the paper discharge motor, which are not depicted in the figure, are driven by a control of the controller, the conveyance roller pairand the paper discharge roller pairrotate while nipping the paper sheet P to convey the paper sheet P. The conveyance roller pairis located behind the head, and the paper discharge roller pairis located in front of the head. The conveyance roller pairconveys the paper sheet P forward while nipping the paper sheet P, after the paper sheet P has been guided forward by the guide member. The paper discharge roller pairconveys the paper sheet P forward while nipping the paper sheet P, after the paper sheet P has been conveyed forward by the conveyance roller pair.

The cutteris located between the separation stripand the intermediate roller pair. The cutteris configured, for example, by a disc-shaped rotating blade and a driven blade. The cuttermay also be configured by a rotating blade and a fixed blade. The rotating blade of the cutteris rotated by driving of an undepicted cutting motor, and the cutterreciprocates along the left-right direction. The rolled paper Rp unrolled from the rolled body R and conveyed is cut by the cutterin the width direction of the rolled paper Rp by driving of the cutting motor under a control of the controller.

The headincludes a plurality of nozzles (not depicted) formed on a lower surface thereof and a driver IC (not depicted). The headrecords an image on the paper sheet P, which is fed by the feed rollerfrom the feed tray, and conveyed by the conveyance mechanism. When the driver IC is driven by the controller, ink is ejected from the nozzles. When the paper sheet P conveyed by the conveyance mechanismpasses through an image recording position facing the lower surface of the head, the ink is ejected from the nozzles to form the image on the paper sheet P. The headcan be either a line type which ejects the ink from the nozzles in a state of the headbeing fixed to a predetermined position or a serial type which ejects the ink from the nozzles while moving in the left-right direction.

The paper discharge trayis located in front of the headand above the feed trayin the housing. An openingis formed in the front wall of the housing. The paper discharge traycan be inserted into and removed from the housingalong the front-rear direction through the opening. The paper discharge trayreceives the paper sheet P having the image formed by the headand conveyed forward by the paper discharge roller pair.

The paper sheet presence/absence detecting unitdetects whether or not the paper sheet P is placed at a feed position where the feed rollercan feed the paper sheet P. In other words, the paper sheet presence/absence detecting unitcorresponds to the “detecting unit” of the present teaching. The paper sheet presence/absence detecting unitis attached to the arm, as depicted in. A specific configuration of the paper sheet presence/absence detecting unitis described below.

The controlleris connected via an internal bus (not depicted) to the feed motor, the intermediate motor, the conveyance motor, the paper discharge motor, the cutting motor, the paper sheet presence/absence detecting unit, and the driver IC. The controllerincludes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory). The ROM stores programs and data for the CPU to perform various controls. The RAM temporarily stores data used by the CPU to execute the programs.

In a case that the paper presence/absence detecting unitdetects that the paper sheet P is placed in the feed position, the controllercontrols feed rollerto feed the paper sheet P from the feed tray.

Next, with further reference to, the configuration of the feed traywill be explained. In the following description, directions of each part of the feed traywill be explained based on a posture of the feed trayin a state where the feed trayis installed in the housing

The feed trayhas a main body. As depicted in, the main bodyhas a bottom walland side wallstoat edges of the bottom wall, and is formed in a box shape with an upward opening.

The bottom wallextends along a plane perpendicular to the up-down direction. An upper surface of the bottom wallis the bottom surfaceof the feed tray. The bottom surfaceis orthogonal to the up-down direction. The side wallsandextend upward from left and right end edges of the bottom wall. The side wallsandalso extend along the front-rear direction from a front end to a rear end of the bottom wall. Notchesandare formed at upper ends of the side wallsand, respectively. The side wallextends upward from a front end edge of bottom wall. The side wallextends along the left-right direction from a right end to a left end of the bottom wall.

Two side wallsare provided at a rear end edge of the bottom wall. The two side wallsare located at both ends in the left-right direction of the rear end edge of the bottom wall. Each of the sidewallshas a guide surfacewhich is connected to a rear end of the bottom surfaceand is inclined such that an upper end of the guide surfaceis located behind a lower end of the guide surface. When the feed trayis installed in the housing, the separation strip(see) is positioned between the two side wallsarranged side by side in the left-right direction. The guide surfaceof each of the side walls, together with the separation strip, guides the paper sheet P diagonally upward after the paper sheet P has been fed rearward by the feed roller.

The feed trayhas a pair of side guideslocated inside the side wallsand. The side guidesare apart from each other in the left-right direction. The side guidesare supported by the bottom wall, such that the side guidesare movable in the left-right direction. The side guidesare arranged to face each other in the left-right direction. One side guideand the other side guidecan be moved in tandem such that the side guides approach or are apart from each other by a known interlocking mechanism (not depicted) comprising, for example, racks facing each other and a pinion meshing with the racks.

As described above, the feed trayhas a first accommodating partfor accommodating the rolled body R and a second accommodating partfor accommodating a plurality of cut papers Kp in a stacked state. The first accommodating partand the second accommodating partare arranged along the feeding direction. The second accommodating partis located downstream in the feeding direction of the first accommodating part.

The first accommodating partaccommodates the rolled body R such that an axial direction of the rolled body R coincides with the left-right directions. As depicted in, the first accommodating parthas two support standsand, and two rollersand. The two support standsandare spaced apart from each other in the front-rear direction. The support standis located more rearward than the support stand. Each of the two support standsandextends along the left-right direction. The two rollersandare spaced apart from each other in the front-rear direction. The rolleris mounted on the support standto be rotatable around a rotation axis extending along the left-right direction. The rolleris mounted on the support standto be rotatable around a rotation axis extending along the left-right direction. The rollersandsupport the rolled body R from below in a state where the rollersandcontact an outer circumferential surface of a lower portion of the rolled body R.

The rolled paper Rp drawn from the rolled body R accommodated in the first accommodating partis drawn from a front side of the support standto a rear side of the support stand, through a gap between a lower surface of the support standand the bottom surface

The second accommodating parthas a support platefor supporting, from below, the plurality of cut papers Kp in a stacked state. A rotation axis(see) extending along the left-right direction is provided at a front end of the support plate. The support plateis rotatable around the rotation axis. The support plateextends toward downstream side in the feed direction from the rotation axisto a vicinity of a downstream end of the bottom wallin the feed direction.

As depicted in, a feed path I of the rolled paper Rp, which has been unrolled from the rolled body R accommodated in the first compartment, is defined by the bottom wallof the feed trayand the support plate. The support platepartitions an inner space of the feed trayinto a lower space as the feed path I for the rolled paper Rp and an upper space as the second accommodating partfor the plurality of cut papers Kp. Namely, the support platecorresponds to the “partitioning member” of the present teaching.

The bottom surfaceof the feed traysupports the rolled paper Rp passing through the feed path I. As depicted in, the bottom surfacehas two rollersarranged side by side along the left-right direction. The bottom surfaceand outer circumferential surfaces of the rollerscontact, from below, the rolled paper Rp passing through the feed path I. Namely, the bottom surfaceand the outer circumferential surfaces of the rollerscorrespond to the “contact surface” of the present teaching. The two rollersare located in a central part in the left-right direction in a vicinity of a downstream end in the feed direction of the bottom surface. The two rollersconfiguring the feed rollerare contactable with the two rollers, respectively.

As depicted in, the bottom surfaceof the feed trayis formed with two grooves. The two groovesare located on both sides of the two rollerswith respect to the left-right direction. Each grooveextends along the feed direction. A recessis formed at an upstream end in the feed direction in the bottom of each groove.

As depicted in, a notchis formed at a downstream end in the feed direction of the support plate. The notchis located in a central part in the left-right direction of the support plate. The notchis located on a movement path of the feed roller, which moves from a position where the feed rollercontacts with the rollersto a position where the feed rolleris separated from the rollers. The two rollersand the two grooveson the bottom surfaceof the feed trayare located inside the notchof the support platein a top view. A flapis attached to an inside of the notchof the support plate, via a link member.

As depicted in, the support platehas support portionsfor supporting the flapattached to the notch. The support portionsare located at both edges in the left-right direction in the notch. The support portionssupport, from below, the flapin a second position (see), as described below.

The flapis a plate-shaped member. The flapcorresponds to the “support member” of the present teaching. One side of the flapforms a support surfacefor supporting the plurality of cut papers Kp accommodated in the second accommodating part.

The flapis configured to rotate about an axis(corresponding to the “first axis” of the present teaching: see) extending in one direction in a plane parallel to the support surface. By rotating about the axis, the flapcan be moved between a first position (see) and a second position (see). The first position is a position where the flapis out of the movement path of the feed roller. The second position is a position where the flapis on the movement path of the feed rollerwith the support surfacefacing upward. In a state that the flapis in the second position, the flapextends to a downstream side in the feed direction from the movement path of the feed roller. As depicted in, when the flapis in the second position, the flapcovers the rollersprovided on the bottom surface

When recording an image on the rolled paper Rp unrolled from the rolled body R accommodated in the first accommodating part, the flapis positioned in the first position. When recording an image on a sheet of the cut paper Kp accommodated in the second accommodating unit, the flapis positioned in the second position.

As depicted in, the link memberis located between the flapand the support platein the feed direction, in the state that the flapis in the second position. The link memberis a plate-shaped member which is long in the left-right direction. One end in a short direction of the link memberis attached to the support plate, and the other end in the short direction of the link memberis attached to the flap. A length along the left-right direction of the link memberis shorter than a length along the left-right direction of the flap. The link memberhas a protruding portionprotruding to the right at a right end of the other end in the short direction.

As depicted in, the link memberis attached to the support plate, such that an upstream end in the feed direction of the link memberis rotatable around an axis(corresponding to the “second axis” of the present teaching) extending along the left-right direction in the state that the flapis in the second position.

As depicted in, in the state that the flapin the second position, the shaft(corresponding to the “first axis” of the present teaching) described above is provided at a base end of the flap, which is an upstream end in the feed direction of the flap. In the state that the flapis in the second position, the flapis attached to a downstream end in the feed direction of the link memberto be rotatable around the axis. As depicted in, a central part in the left-right direction of the flapis attached to the link member.

The flapmoves from the second position (see) to the first position (see). With the flapin the second position, when the link memberrotates counterclockwise around the axisand the flaprotates counterclockwise around the axis. When the flapis in the first position, the flapis on the upper surface of the support platewith the support surfacefacing downward.

As depicted in, when the flapmoves from the second position to the first position, the protruding portionof the link memberinterferes with the support surfaceof the flap. This prevents an angle between the bottom surfaceof the feed trayand the link memberfrom being 90 degrees or more. In other words, the protruding portionof the link memberfunctions as the “regulating part” of the present teaching.

As depicted in, the support surfaceof the flaphas a base pad. When the flapis in the second position, a portion where the base padis provided is located on the movement path of the feed roller.

A coefficient of static friction of the base padis greater than a coefficient of static friction of the support surface. In other words, in the support surface, an area where the base padis not provided corresponds to the “first area” of the present teaching and the area where the base padis provided corresponds to the “second area” of the present teaching. The relationship of the coefficient of friction between the base padand the support surfacemay be specified not only between the coefficients of static friction as in the present embodiment, but also between coefficients of dynamic friction. It may also be specified between a static friction coefficient of either one and a dynamic friction coefficient of the other.