Patent ID: 9033337
Filing Date: 2015-05-19
Classification: B65H

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus including a manual feed portion that is disposed on a side surface of an apparatus main body and feeds a recording medium placed manually to a conveyance path of the apparatus main body, the manual feed portion including: a manual tray that is mounted on the apparatus main body in an openable and closable manner and allows, in an opened state, to load the recording medium thereon; a feed opening that is exposed in the opened state of the manual tray to accept feeding of the recording medium from the manual tray to the conveyance path; a feed roller that is disposed at the feed opening, comes into contact with the recording medium placed on the manual tray from above the recording medium, rotates in one direction in the contact state with the recoding medium and thereby feeds the recording medium to the conveyance path via the feed opening; and a shutter that is disposed so as to shield the feed opening, wherein: the shutter is disposed on both sides in a shaft direction of a rotary shaft of the feed roller, one end portion of the shutter is disposed above the manual tray, the shutter is rotatably supported along a feed direction with the one end portion used as a pivot; at a shielding position so as to shield the feed opening, when the feeding of the recording medium to the conveyance path is started by the feed roller, the shutter swings toward a downstream side in the feed direction to open the feed opening; when an upstream-side end portion, in the feed direction, of the recording medium passes through the feed opening, the shutter swings toward the upstream side in the feed direction to return to the shielding position; the manual feed portion includes a lift plate that is disposed at the feed opening side of the manual tray; the lift plate is supported so as to be movable up and down with an upstream-side portion of the lift plate in the feed direction used as a pivot, and lifts a downstream-side portion, in the feed direction, of the recording medium placed on the manual tray to make the downstream-side portion of the recording medium come into contact with the feed roller; the shutter is provided with a contact portion that extends downward beyond a downstream-side end portion of the lift plate in the feed direction when the lift plate descends to a predetermined lower limit position; and the downstream-side end portion of the lift plate in the feed direction is provided with a first cutout portion that avoids interference with the contact portion when the lift plate is moving up and down.