Patent ID: 8544841

Claim:
A sheet discharge roller arranged in a sheet exit port of an image forming apparatus, and comprising: a rotation shaft; a plurality of transportation rollers arranged on said rotation shaft and axially spaced from each other by a predetermined distance; and a plurality of rigidity increasing portions formed integrally with said rotation shaft, and having an outer peripheral form larger than an outer diameter of each of said transportation rollers when viewed in an axial direction, for increasing rigidity of a paper sheet discharged from said sheet exit port by curving the paper sheet with respect to a direction perpendicular to a discharging direction, wherein each transportation roller includes a roller portion formed integrally on said rotation shaft, and an annular elastic member attached to a circumferential surface of said roller portion, each of said rigidity increasing portions includes a plurality of plate members axially spaced from each other by a predetermined distance, and said plurality of plate members have forms each obtained by circumferentially dividing a circular plate, respectively, and are arranged in positions circumferentially shifted from each other, respectively, so that the plurality of plate members exhibit an outer periphery of a substantially circular form when viewed in the axial direction.