Patent ID: 9563165
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: B65H,G03G

Claim:
1. An image forming apparatus configured to feed a recording sheet from a sheet feed roller, clamp the recording sheet between an image carrier and a transfer roller, transfer a toner image to the recording sheet from the image carrier while conveying the recording sheet, and fix the transferred toner image on the recording sheet at a fixing unit, the image forming apparatus comprising: an elevating plate on which recording sheets are stacked; an elevating plate swinging mechanism configured to swing the elevating plate to move vertically; a rotation drive mechanism configured to rotate the sheet feed roller in synchronism with the elevating plate swinging mechanism; a recording sheet detector configured to detect a leading edge of each recording sheet fed from the sheet feed roller; and a conveyance controller configured to drive the elevating plate swinging mechanism to swing the elevating plate and configured to rotate the sheet feed roller to feed a recording sheet, a time interval from start of a preceding recording sheet feed operation by the sheet feed roller to start of a next recording sheet feed operation being controlled to be a fixed time interval between a plurality of consecutive recording sheets, the conveyance controller being configured to, when executing a sheet feed operation of the recording sheet, measure sheet feed time from starting the sheet feed operation to detecting the leading edge of the recording sheet by the recording sheet detector, and configured to set a sheet feed start timing for starting a sheet feed operation of a next recording sheet based on the measured sheet feed time.