Patent ID: 7860431

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: two covers pivotally mounted to a body of the image forming apparatus, each of said two covers being movable either to its opening position to open with respect to the image forming apparatus or to its closing position to close with respect to the image forming apparatus, a movable member positioned at a first position when said two covers are at their opening positions; and a detector that detects whether said two covers are closed or opened with respect to the image forming apparatus; wherein when one of said two covers has moved to its closing position causing said movable member to move to a second position and the other of said two covers is at its closing position, said detector detects that said two covers are closed with respect to the image forming apparatus; wherein said detector is a switch, the switch being in one state when said two covers are at their closing positions and in another state when at least one of said two covers is at its opening position; wherein said movable member includes a cam that rotates about an axis and that is urged by an urging member in a first direction, wherein after a first one of said two covers has moved from its opening position to its closing position to push the cam to rotate against an urging force of the urging member, a second one of said two covers moves from its opening position to its closing position to push said movable member to the second position, the cam rotating to cause the switch to shift.