Patent ID: 6204936
Filing Date: 2001-03-20
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus comprising:an electrophotographic recorder comprising a photosensitive drum, a charger for charging said photosensitive drum, an exposer, arranged to irradiate said photosensitive drum with light carrying image information, a developer, arranged to form a visible image on said photosensitive drum, an image transferor, arranged to transfer the visible image onto a member to be recorded, and a fixer, having a heat source arranged to fix a transferred image onto the member to be recorded;an image reader, arranged adjacent to said heat source, including an image reading module comprising an image sensor for photoelectrically converting image information of an original document to an electric signal, said heat source and said image reading module being isolated from each other by a partition having at least two walls with a gap therebetween for thermally insulating said image reading module from said heat source, one of said at least two walls being arranged on the side of said image reader, another of said at least two walls being arranged on the side of said electrophotographic recorder, at least one of said at least two walls having an opening for bringing air inside the gap in communication with air outside the gap; anda cooler, arranged to push air out of, or suck air into, the gap, to forcibly exchange the air inside the gap.