The present invention relates to a hinge device for opening and closing a cover of office equipment, and more particularly to a hinge device disposed at a cover which is rotatably opened and closed and having a multi-layered cam and a slider, so that a free stop section and a slow down section are performed in closing the cover, thereby reducing a noise in closing the cover and improving a sensibility of product.

The hinge device for opening and closing a cover of office equipment of the present invention comprises: a housing (10) which is disposed at a main body (110) of an office equipment and having a pair of hinge holes (11) on the upper portion thereof; a rotational lever (20) which is fixedly disposed at a cover (120) and having hinge holes (21) at the rear thereof and being provided with a hinge connection part (22) inserted into the upper portion inside the housing (10) at the lower portion of the rear thereof; a hinge shaft (30) being inserted into the hinge holes (11) of the housing (10) and the hinge holes (21) of the rotational lever (20) and combined with them and supporting rotation of the rotational lever (20) and the cover (120); a compression coil spring (40) being disposed inside the housing (10); and a slider (50) being disposed on the upper portion inside the housing (10) and being elastically supported by the compression coil spring (40), and the upper end portion of which contacts with the lower end surface of the hinge connection part (22) of the rotational lever (20); wherein the hinge connection part (22) of the rotational lever (20) is located at the front of hinge holes (21), so that a multi-layered cam (23) is provided to the lower end surface of the hinge connection part (22) and a supporting surface (51) is formed on the upper end surface of the slider (50), the multi-layered cam (23) of the rotational lever (20) has a stop cam (23a) in the center and at both sides thereof, down cams (23b) which locate at the rear than the surface of the stop cam (23a) and are lower than the stop cam (23a), the supporting surface (51) of the slider (50) has an inclined plane that is getting higher toward the front, at the center of the front end, a stop surface (51a) which contacts with the stop cam (23a) of the rotational lever (20) and down surfaces (51b) which is protruded from both sides of the stop surfa

A document cover closer for preventing an accident of pinching finger(s), as well as office equipment using the same, comprising: an attaching part attached to the main body side of office equipment having a document cover; a supporting part rotatably and pivotally supported on the attaching part via a first hinge shaft; and a lift part attached to the document cover, wherein it overlaps the supporting part and is pivotally supported on the supporting part via a second hinge shaft to be rotatable in a direction contrary to that of the supporting part. A finger pinching preventing cover, wherein an upper end portion of the finger pinching preventing cover is rotatably coupled to the lift part, while its lower end portion is slidably engaged with rail portions provided on both side portions of the attaching part, is also provided.

An image reading apparatus includes a main body and a reading unit. The reading unit includes: a document table; a lower supporting member that supports the document table from below; an upper supporting member that contacts an upper side of the document table and clamps the document table with the lower supporting member; and a reading device. The main body includes an exterior member arranged in a position adjacent to the upper supporting member when the reading unit is in a close position. One of the upper supporting member and the exterior member includes an abutting portion and the other includes an abutted portion so as to configure a positioning mechanism for establishing positioning of a relative position between the upper supporting member and the exterior member in an up-down direction.

An image reading apparatus includes a main unit having a document support surface configured to support a document on the document support surface, a reading unit accommodated in the main unit and configured to read an image of the document supported on the document support surface, and an openable unit coupled to the main unit and configured to pivot about a pivot axis between a closed position where the document support surface of the main unit is covered and a released position where the document support surface of the main unit is exposed. The pivot axis of the openable unit is located, in the main unit, below the document support surface and at a rear of the document support surface.

An image reading apparatus includes an apparatus body, a document sheet cover, a magnetic force generating portion, and a magnetic force control portion. The apparatus body has a document placement surface. The document sheet cover is supported by the apparatus body so as to be pivotable between an open position where the document placement surface is uncovered and a closed position where the document placement surface is covered with the document sheet cover. The magnetic force generating portion is able to selectively generate a magnetic attraction force and a magnetic repulsion force between a pair of a permanent magnet and an electromagnet provided in the cover portion and the apparatus body, respectively. The magnetic force control portion switches the magnetic force generating portion between a state where the magnetic force generating portion generates the attraction force and a state where the magnetic force generating portion generates the repulsion force.

A multi-function apparatus includes a body, an image reading unit, a document cover and a locking member. The image reading unit is movable between a closed position and an opened position. The document cover is movable between a closed position and an opened position. The locking member is movable to a first position and a second position and includes a first engagement portion and a second engagement portion. In response to a movement of the document cover to the opened position, the locking member moves to the first position and locks the image reading unit to the closed position. In response to a movement of the image reading unit to the opened position, the locking member moves to the second position and locks the document cover to the closed position.

An image forming apparatus including a hinge assembly to mutually hinge-connect a main body and a cover unit of the image forming apparatus and the hinge assembly is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a main body, a cover unit configured to be disposed on an upper side of the main body to press a manuscript, and at least one hinge assembly configured to connect the cover unit to the main body, wherein the hinge assembly includes a first body detachably mounted on the main body, a second body of which a part is fastened to the cover unit and another part is hinge-connected with the first body, a pressing unit accommodated in the first body to press the second body upward, and a pressing force adjuster configured to adjust a hinge force between the first body and the second body.

A simple configuration is used to reduce an impact applied to a reading sensor when the open/close unit is opened/closed. A back face CIS unit is retained to be movable with regard to a pressure plate so that the back face CIS unit can have a corrected posture when the pressure plate is closed.

An image reading apparatus includes a support portion, a reading portion, a first cover, a second cover, and a holding mechanism. The first cover moves between a second closed position where the first cover covers the reading portion in a first closed position and a second open position where the first cover opens the reading portion. The second cover moves between a third closed position where the second cover forms a second area of a conveyance path together with the first cover in the second closed position and a third open position where the second cover opens the second area. The holding mechanism prevents the first cover from moving from the second open position to the second closed position and holds the first cover in the second open position when the second cover is in the third open position and the first cover is in the second open position.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion to form an image on a sheet, a tray on which sheets to be fed are stacked, and a swing member supported by the tray and configured to swing in a case where the swing member is pushed by a discharged sheet. A stacking portion includes a first surface on an upper portion of a first portion, and a moving member in contact with the discharged sheet. The moving member can be positioned at a position downstream of the first surface in the discharge direction, wherein the swing member overlaps with the first surface as viewed in the sheet width direction in a case where the swing member is not in contact with a discharged sheet, and the swing member is arranged such that a lower end of the swing member is not in contact with the stacking portion.