US-20260126748-A1 - SHEET CONVEYANCE DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

US20260126748A1US 20260126748 A1US20260126748 A1US 20260126748A1US-20260126748-A1

Abstract

A sheet conveyance device includes a conveyance roller pair formed with a first roller and a second roller. The first roller includes a first conveyance unit that includes a first roll shaft to which a first roll portion is fixed. The first conveyance unit includes a pair of bearing portions and a pair of first biasing members. The pair of bearing portions rotatably support both end portions of the first roll shaft in a sheet width direction, and are movable together with the first roll shaft in the sheet width direction. The pair of first biasing members bias the pair of bearing portions in opposite directions along the sheet width direction.

Inventors

Masayuki Kakuta

Assignees

KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251103
Priority Date: 20241107

Claims (4)

1 . A sheet conveyance device comprising: a registration roller pair that extends in a sheet width direction orthogonal to a sheet conveyance direction, and corrects a displacement in a position of a sheet in the sheet width direction, the sheet being conveyed; and a conveyance roller pair including a first roller and a second roller that are arranged on an upstream side of the registration roller pair in the sheet conveyance direction and are rotatably arranged opposite each other to convey the sheet, wherein the first roller includes: a drive shaft which extends in the sheet width direction, and to which a rotational drive force is transmitted; a first conveyance unit including a first roll shaft which is arranged side by side with the drive shaft in the sheet width direction, and to which a first roll portion that makes contact with the second roller is fixed; and a joint portion that couples the drive shaft to the first roll shaft in the sheet width direction, and holds the first roll shaft such that the first roll shaft is movable in the sheet width direction, and the first conveyance unit includes: a pair of bearing portions that rotatably support both end portions of the first roll shaft in the sheet width direction, and are movable along the sheet width direction together with the first roll shaft; and a pair of first biasing members that respectively bias the pair of bearing portions in opposite directions along the sheet width direction.
2 . The sheet conveyance device according to claim 1 , wherein the second roller includes: a second roll shaft that extends in the sheet width direction; a second roll portion that is rotatably supported to the second roll shaft, and makes contact with the first roll portion; and a pair of second biasing members that bias the second roll portion in the opposite directions along the sheet width direction.
3 . The sheet conveyance device according to claim 2 , wherein the first roller includes a plurality of first roll portions each being the first roll portion that are fixed to the first roll shaft, and the second roller includes: a plurality of second roll portions each being the second roll portion that individually make contact with the plurality of first roll portions, respectively; and a plurality of pairs of second biasing members each pair of second biasing members being the pair of second biasing members that individually bias the plurality of second roll portions in the opposite directions along the sheet width direction, respectively.
4 . An image forming apparatus comprising: the sheet conveyance device according to claim 1 .

Description

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the corresponding Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-195135 filed on November 7, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND The present disclosure relates to a sheet conveyance device and an image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer includes a sheet conveyance device. The sheet conveyance device includes a conveyance roller pair which conveys a sheet. The sheet conveyance device conveys sheets one by one from a sheet supply unit which stacks and stores the sheets serving as recording media used for printing (recording) images toward an image formation unit (transfer unit), a fixing unit and a sheet ejection unit. A technique is known which corrects a displacement in the position of the sheet which is conveyed. SUMMARY A sheet conveyance device according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a registration roller pair and a conveyance roller pair. The registration roller pair extends in a sheet width direction orthogonal to a sheet conveyance direction, and corrects a displacement in a position of a sheet being conveyed in the sheet width direction. The conveyance roller pair includes a first roller and a second roller that are arranged on an upstream side of the registration roller pair in the sheet conveyance direction and are rotatably arranged opposite each other to convey the sheet. The first roller includes a drive shaft, a first conveyance unit and a joint portion. The drive shaft extends in the sheet width direction, and a rotational drive force is transmitted to the drive shaft. The first conveyance unit includes a first roll shaft which is arranged side by side with the drive shaft in the sheet width direction, and to which a first roll portion that makes contact with the second roller is fixed. The joint portion couples the drive shaft to the first roll shaft in the sheet width direction, and holds the first roll shaft such that the first roll shaft is movable in the sheet width direction. The first conveyance unit includes a pair of bearing portions and a pair of first biasing members. The pair of bearing portions rotatably support both end portions of the first roll shaft in the sheet width direction respectively, and are movable along the sheet width direction together with the first roll shaft. The pair of first biasing members respectively bias the pair of bearing portions in opposite directions along the sheet width direction. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional front view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional front view of a sheet conveyance device in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a front view of an area around a conveyance roller pair in the sheet conveyance device shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a side view of a first roller in the conveyance roller pair shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of the joint portion of the first roller shown in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view of an area around a bearing portion for a first roll shaft in the first roller shown in FIG. 4; and FIG. 7 is a side view of a second roller in the conveyance roller pair shown in FIG. 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION An embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to drawings. The present disclosure is not limited to details which will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional front view of an image forming apparatus 1 according the embodiment. An example of the image forming apparatus 1 in the present embodiment is a color printer of a tandem system which uses an intermediate transfer belt 71 to transfer a toner image to a sheet S. The image forming apparatus 1 may be, for example, a so-called multifunctional peripheral which has the functions of printing, scanning (image reading), facsimile transmission and the like. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a sheet supply unit 3, a sheet conveyance device 4, an exposure unit 5, image formation units 6, a transfer unit 7, a fixing unit 8, a sheet ejection unit 9 and a control unit 10 which are provided in an apparatus main body 2. The sheet supply unit 3 is arranged in a bottom portion of the apparatus main body 2. The sheet supply unit 3 stores a plurality of sheets S before printing, and separates and feeds the sheets S one by one during the printing. The sheet conveyance device 4 extends in an up/down direction along a side wall of the apparatus main body 2. The sheet conveyance device 4 conveys the sheet S fed from the sheet supply unit 3 to a secondary transfer unit 73 and the fixing unit 8, and further ejects the sheet S after fixing from a sheet ejection port 4a to the sheet ejection unit 9. When double-sided printing is performed, the sheet conveyance