A medium support unit configured to support a medium on which printing is performed by a printing apparatus, the medium support unit including a support section including a support surface configured to support the medium, and a cover section to be attached to the support section to cover the support surface. The cover section includes, on at least a part of a front side, a friction member having a static friction coefficient with respect to the medium, which is greater than a static friction coefficient of the support surface, and on a back side, a first area having a first adhesive force and a second area whose adhesive force is less than the first adhesive force, the cover section is attached to the support section by adhering at least a part of the first area to the support section.

A medium support unit configured to support a medium on which printing is performed by a printing apparatus, the medium support unit including a support section including a support surface configured to support the medium, and a cover section to be attached to the support section to cover the support surface. The cover section includes, on at least a part of a front side, a friction member having a static friction coefficient with respect to the medium, which is greater than a static friction coefficient of the support surface, and on a back side, a first area having a first adhesive force and a second area whose adhesive force is less than the first adhesive force, the cover section is attached to the support section by adhering at least a part of the first area to the support section.

A document feeder includes a document placing tray on which a document is placed; a document discharging tray on which a document discharged from a document discharging port in a discharging direction is stacked; and a light source that radiates light to the document discharging tray. The document discharging tray is disposed below the document placing tray. The document discharging tray has a protruding portion protruding upward from the surrounding area. The light source is disposed within a region having a width that is the same as a document having a maximum size in the width direction.

An automatic loader for delivering vertically stacked media to a hopper of a feeder. The automatic loader includes a powered conveying device, actuated plates, a first sensor, and a second sensor. The first sensors detects a height of the vertically stacked media that is in the hopper, and the second sensor detects a separation between the hopper and the vertically stacked media that is in a staging area of the conveying device. Based on signals generated by the first and second sensors, the conveying device automatically delivers the vertically stacked media that is in the staging area to the hopper of the feeder.

There is provided an image forming apparatus including a casing, a feeder unit, an image recording unit, a conveyance mechanism, an installation/removal sensor, and a controller. The controller carries out the process of: interrupting an image recording of the image recording unit if there is no recording medium supported by trays, restarting the image recording of the image recording unit by feeding the medium from a second tray after a first predetermined time has elapsed since such a time when the second tray is detected as the earliest one being removed and reinstalled, and restarting the image recording of the image recording unit by feeding the medium from a first tray if the first tray is detected as the earliest one but the second tray is not detected as being removed within a second predetermined time being longer than the first predetermined time.

There is provided an image forming apparatus including a casing, a feeder unit, an image recording unit, a conveyance mechanism, an installation/removal sensor, and a controller. The controller carries out the process of: interrupting an image recording of the image recording unit if there is no recording medium supported by trays, restarting the image recording of the image recording unit by feeding the medium from a second tray after a first predetermined time has elapsed since such a time when the second tray is detected as the earliest one being removed and reinstalled, and restarting the image recording of the image recording unit by feeding the medium from a first tray if the first tray is detected as the earliest one but the second tray is not detected as being removed within a second predetermined time being longer than the first predetermined time.

An inkjet printer includes an air-permeable media-support-layer positioned on top of a vacuum table. The vacuum table includes a plurality of cavity rooms, connected to a vacuum source, for forming a plurality of vacuum zones on the air-permeable media-support-layer; each cavity room from the plurality of cavity rooms is closed by an air-permeable part from the air-permeable media-support-layer for forming a vacuum zone from the plurality of vacuum zones. Each cavity room from the plurality of cavity rooms includes a) a space formed by a set of walls; and b) a bottom layer including a set of air-channels; wherein a ratio of width to length from the minimum bounding box of the area formed by the set of walls is between 1:1 and 2:5.

An image forming apparatus has a sheet feed portion, a conveying portion, a control portion, a first sensor having the detection position at a first position in the sheet conveying passage, and a second sensor having the detection position at a second position downstream of the first position in the sheet conveying direction. The control portion performs first sensing to sense whether the sheet's rear end has passed the first position within a first time of the start of the feeding and second sensing to sense whether the sheet's rear end has passed the second position within a second time of the start of the feeding, Even if the control portion is unable to sense passage of the sheet's rear end in the first sensing, when it senses passage of the sheet's rear end in the second sensing, it makes the conveying portion continue feeding the sheet.

A sheet conveying device includes: a tray; a roller; a roller arm; a lever; and a dust proof cover including: a first cover, a second cover, and a pressure piece. The roller arm is movable between an abutment position where the roller abuts on the tray and a separation position where the roller is away from the tray. The second cover is movable between a first position in proximity to the tray and a second position away from the tray. The pressure piece is away from the lever to permit the roller to be positioned in the abutment position when the second cover is in the first position, and presses the lever to move the roller to the separation position when the second cover is in the second position.

A document conveying apparatus is provided with a document tray and a discharge tray disposed below the document tray. The document tray includes an upper tray member, a lower tray member, a movable tray member, and a driving portion configured to move the upper tray member and the movable tray member integrally to a raised position and a lowered position. The movable tray member is configured to be moved in a width direction between a first position and a second position in which the movable tray member is retracted into below the upper tray member. The document tray includes a shutter configured to cover a gap created between the upper tray member and the lower tray member. The gap is created by the upper tray member and the movable tray member being moved to the raised position and the movable tray member being moved to the second position.