US-12619185-B2 - Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

US12619185B2US 12619185 B2US12619185 B2US 12619185B2US-12619185-B2

Abstract

A sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus including: an air blowing portion configured to blow air to sheets stacked on a sheet stacking member; a feeding portion configured to feed the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member; a conveying path through which the sheets fed by the feeding portion pass; a first opening and closing member configured to be openable and closable such that first opening and closing member takes a closed state in which the first opening and closing member forms the conveying path through which the sheets pass and an opened state in which the first opening and closing member is opened for removing a stagnating sheet on the conveying path; and a controller configured to stop air blowing by the air blowing portion in response to the opened state of the first opening and closing member while the air blowing portion blows air.

Inventors

Akihiro Kawakita

Assignees

CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20241213
Priority Date: 20240202

Claims (9)

1 . A sheet feeding apparatus comprising: a sheet stacking member in which sheets are stacked; an air blowing portion configured to blow air to the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member; a feeding portion configured to feed the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member; a conveying path through which the sheets fed by the feeding portion pass; a first opening and closing member configured to be openable and closable in a closed position in which the first opening and closing member forms the conveying path through which the sheets pass and an opened position in which the first opening and closing member is opened for removing a sheet on the conveying path; a first opening and closing detection portion configured to detect the closed position and the opened position of the first opening and closing member; and a controller configured to stop air blowing by the air blowing portion in response to a detection result of the first opening and closing detection portion in a state in which the air blowing portion is blowing air.
2 . The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when the first opening and closing detection portion detects a movement from the opened position to the closed position of the first opening and closing member, the controller resumes the blowing of air by the air blowing portion.
3 . The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the controller resumes the blowing of air by the air blowing portion based on an elapsed time period from a start of the blowing of air by the air blowing portion.
4 . The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein when a predetermined time period has not elapsed since a start of the blowing of air by the air blowing portion and the first opening and closing detection portion detects the opened state, the controller resumes the blowing of air by the air blowing portion after the first opening and closing detection portion detects the closed position.
5 . The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the blowing of air by the air blowing portion based on a size and a type of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member.
6 . The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in a state in which the opening and closing member is in the closed position, the air is being blown by the air blowing portion, and the first opening and closing detection portion detects the movement of the opening and closing member from the closed position to the open position, the controller stops the blowing of by the air blowing portion.
7 . An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming portion configured to form an image on the sheets fed by the sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1 ; and the sheet stacking member rotatably provided on a side surface of a main body of the image forming apparatus.
8 . The image forming apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising: a second opening and closing member provided on a front surface of the main body of the image forming apparatus in an openable and closable manner; and a second opening and closing detection portion configured to detect an opened position and a closed position of the second opening and closing member, wherein the first opening and closing member is provided on the side surface of the main body of the image forming apparatus.
9 . The image forming apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein: when the first opening and closing detection portion detects the opened position of the first opening and closing member while the air blowing portion is blowing air, the controller stops the blowing of air by the air blowing portion, and when the second opening and closing detection portion detects the opened position of the second opening and closing member while the air blowing portion is blowing air, the controller does not stop the blowing of air by the air blowing portion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus provided with an air blowing function to blow air for loosening stacked sheets. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile and a printer, and in an image forming system provided with such an image forming apparatus, a sheet feeding apparatus is provided such as a feeding cassette, a feeding deck and a manual feeding portion on which a bundle of sheets to be fed to an image forming portion is set. Recently, demands for forming images on various kinds of sheets are increasing. For example, a sheet with smooth surface characteristics such as coated sheets may be used as a recording material. When a bundle of such smooth surface sheets is set on the sheet feeding apparatus, the sheet feeding may be accompanied with difficulty because of the high adhesive force between sheets. In view of this background, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H04-23747 discloses the technology in which air is blown to a bundle of sheets to blow them so that the sheets can by fed while being loosened. In the following, a general control process of feeding sheets while the sheets are loosened by blowing air to the bundle of sheets as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H04-23747 will be described using a flowchart of FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 10, when the control process for the sheet feeding has started according to an instruction of print job start, for example, the operation of blowing air to the bundle of sheets starts (step S101) and the operation of blowing air continues until a predetermined time period of 10 seconds elapses from the start of the air blowing (step S102). This predetermined time period is the one necessary for decreasing adhesiveness between the sheets by blowing air to loosen sheets. This predetermined time period is not intended to limit to the constant time period of 10 seconds across the board and can be variable. When the predetermined time period has elapsed from the start of the air blowing, the operation of feeding sheets to the image forming portion with a pickup roller and so on starts (step S103). Then, the feeding operation is repeated until the number of sheets fed to the image forming portion according to the instruction of print job reaches the necessary value (step S104). When the number of sheets fed to the image forming portion has reached the necessary value, the operation of blowing air stops (step S105), which completes this control process. By the way, a door of the image forming apparatus may be opened by a user during the operation of blowing air. In such a case, the print job stops, but there is a problem that electric power is consumed wastefully when keeping a fan for blowing air driven. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus which can prevent itself from consuming wastefully the electric power when the door of the image forming apparatus is opened during the operation of blowing air for loosening the sheets. An aspect of the present invention is a sheet feeding apparatus comprising: a sheet stacking member in which sheets are stacked;an air blowing portion configured to blow air to the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member;a feeding portion configured to feed the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking member;a conveying path through which the sheets fed by the feeding portion pass;a first opening and closing member configured to be openable and closable such that the first opening and closing member takes a closed state in which the first opening and closing member forms the conveying path through which the sheets pass and an opened state in which the first opening and closing member is opened for removing a stagnating sheet on the conveying path;a first opening and closing detection portion configured to detect the closed state and the opened state of the first opening and closing member; anda controller configured to stop air blowing by the air blowing portion in response to the first opening and closing detection portion detecting the opened state of the first opening and closing member while the air blowing portion blows air. Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a front cross-sectional view of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a perspective view of the configuration of a manual feeding apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a side view of the configuration of the manual feeding apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 4A and 4B are