Sheet delivery mechanism for image forming apparatus

1. A sheet delivery mechanism comprising:

offset rollers rotatably supported for discharging a sheet in a sheet transport direction;

a roller turning force generator for turning the offset rollers via a driving force transmission mechanism;

an offset mechanism comprising a unitary structure rotatably supporting the offset rollers, the offset mechanism including a support structure, mounting means for rotatably mounting the offset rollers on the support structure in the form of opposing offset roller pairs that together define a sheet transport pathway, part of the driving force transmission mechanism, and drive means engaging said part of said transmission mechanism for positively driving opposing offset rollers of each offset roller pair in opposite directions so as to direct a sheet along said sheet transport pathway; and

an offsetting force generator for shifting the offset mechanism along a direction perpendicular to the sheet transport direction, the offsetting force generator being connected to the offset mechanism;

wherein the offset mechanism is caused to move along the direction perpendicular to the sheet transport direction without alteration of the engagement of said part of said transmission mechanism with said drive means when the offsetting force generator is operated.

2. The sheet delivery mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein the driving force transmission mechanism includes a shaft for turning the offset rollers, the shaft being connected to the roller turning force generator and rotatably supported parallel to the direction perpendicular to the sheet transport direction such that the shaft turns the offset rollers to push out the sheet in the sheet transport direction, and wherein the offset mechanism includes a first gear and a second gear disposed in an internal space of the offset mechanism, the first gear being slidably fitted on the shaft in such a manner that the first gear rotates together with the shaft, and the second gear being meshed with the first gear and connected to a rotary shaft supporting at least part of the offset rollers.

3. The sheet delivery mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein the offsetting force generator is disposed separately from the roller turning force generator.

4. The sheet delivery mechanism according to claim 3 , wherein the offsetting force generator exerts a driving force to the offset mechanism during a period between a point in time when a trailing end of the sheet passes by a sheet transfer roller disposed immediately upstream of the offset rollers along a sheet transport path and a point in time when the sheet is nipped by the offset rollers, and the roller turning force generator does not exert any driving force to the offset rollers while the offsetting force generator is exerting the driving force to the offset mechanism.

5. The sheet delivery mechanism according to claim 3 , wherein the offsetting force generator exerts a driving force to the offset mechanism during a period between a point in time when a trailing end of the sheet passes by a sheet transfer roller disposed immediately upstream of the offset rollers along a sheet transport path and a point in time when the sheet is ejected from the sheet delivery mechanism by a driving force exerted by the roller turning force generator so that the offset mechanism is shifted to a specified position.

6. The sheet delivery mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein the offset rollers can be moved to multiple stop positions from a reference stop position by shifting the offset mechanism along a direction perpendicular to the sheet transport direction.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a housing having an upper part, a lower part, a front, a rear and opposing sides:

an image scanning section located at an upper part of the housing of the apparatus for scanning an original to obtain image information therefrom;

a sheet feeding section located at a lower part of the housing for feeding sheets used for image forming; and

an image forming section disposed between the image scanning section and the sheet feeding section at one side of the housing;

wherein the image scanning section, the image forming section and the sheet feeding section are arranged generally in a U shape in cross section in the housing, and a sheet delivery portion is formed in an inner empty space of the housing between the image scanning section and the sheet feeding section;

wherein the sheet delivery portion includes a flat surface and an inclined surface that slopes downwardly from the flat surface toward the rear of the housing ;and

wherein the inner empty space of the housing contiguously opens to the exterior of the housing on both the front and the side thereof opposite to said image forming section.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the flat surface of the sheet delivery portion serves as a sheet delivery area where printed sheets are delivered.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7 further comprising a shifter including rollers for offsetting printed sheets along the direction perpendicular to the sheet transport direction to selectively discharge the printed sheets to different sheet delivery positions on the sheet delivery portion.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein one of the sheet delivery positions lies on the flat surface of the sheet delivery portion.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the sheet delivery positions excluding one lying on the flat surface of the sheet delivery portion lie on the inclined surface of the sheet delivery portion.