Patent ID: 8632068

Claim:
An image forming apparatus with sheet pushing in a horizontal directs comprising: a sheet ejection portion that is disposed between an image forming portion and an image read portion disposed above the image forming portion and ejects a sheet on which an image is formed at the image forming portion; an in-housing ejection space that is formed in a downstream side in a sheet ejection direction with respect to the sheet ejection portion and is opened at least to a front side of the image forming apparatus; a sheet push mechanism that is disposed on a lower surface of the image read portion and pushes an upper surface of a sheet which is ejected from the sheet ejection portion to the in-housing ejection space; wherein the sheet push mechanism is composed of: a sheet push member whose lower end portion touches a sheet ejection surface of the in-housing ejection space and which is movable to a downstream side in the sheet ejection direction; and a holder portion which supports movably a support shaft formed at an upper end portion of the sheet push member; and the holder portion is disposed on the lower surface to be movable between a reference position where the sheet push member pushes the sheet ejected on the sheet ejection surface and a first evacuation position where the support shaft of the paper sheet push member, which extends from the front side to a rear side of the image forming apparatus, is rotated around a fixed vertical shaft disposed on the holder portion by a predetermined amount in a horizontal direction from the reference position, and movable between the reference position and a second evacuation position situated at an inner portion of the in-housing ejection space in a direction that meets the paper sheet ejection direction at right angles.