Image forming apparatus

1. An apparatus comprising:

a printing unit configured to form an image on a printing medium;

a scanning unit pivotally coupled to the printing unit;

a cover unit pivotally coupled to the scanning unit, the cover unit having a pressing portion;

a first member rotatably mounted to the scanning unit, the first member configured to latch the scanning unit to the printing unit when the cover unit is in an open state with respect to the scanning unit; and

a second member mounted to the scanning unit and configured to move linearly in a down direction with respect to the first member to rotate the first member by pressing the first member to unlatch the scanning unit from the printing unit when pressed by the pressing portion of the cover unit moving from the open state to a closed state with respect to the scanning unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, the second member is configured to move linearly in an up direction with respect to the first member when the cover unit is moved from the closed state to the open state, and

the first member is biased to automatically rotate to a latched position when the cover unit is moved from the closed state to the open state.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein,

the second member is configured to move linearly in an up direction when the cover unit is moved from the closed state to the open state, and

the first member includes a hook part and a spring part to automatically rotate the hook part to a latched position when the cover unit is moved from the closed state to the open state.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a third member rotatably mounted to the scanning unit to latch the scanning unit to the cover unit when the scanning unit is in an open state with respect to the printing unit.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein,

the pressing portion includes a hook part, and

the third member includes a hook part to latch the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the scanning unit to the cover unit.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the hook part of the third member latches the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the scanning unit to the cover unit based on a gravitational force exerted on the third member when the scanning unit is moved from a closed state to an open state with respect to the printing unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first member includes:

a force transmitting portion to receive a force from a lower end of the second member to cause rotation of the first member, and

a latching portion latched to the printing unit depending on a rotational angle of the first member.

8. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an image forming unit which forms an image on a printing medium;

an image reading unit, pivotally coupled to the image forming unit, and including a first hook member rotatably mounted to the image reading unit, and a lever member mounted to the image reading unit and linearly movable in an up direction and a down direction with respect to the first hook member to press the first hook member; and

a document feeding unit, pivotally coupled to the image reading unit, and including a pressing portion operable to move the lever member in the down direction to unlatch the image forming unit and the image reading unit from each other, and in the up direction to latch the image forming unit and the image reading unit to each other.

9. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , the image reading unit including a second hook member rotatably mounted to latch the image reading unit and the document feeding unit to each other.

10. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein,

the pressing portion includes a hook part, and

the second hook member includes a hook part to latch the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the image reading unit and the document feeding unit to each other.

11. The image forming apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hook part of the second hook member latches the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the image reading unit and the document feeding unit to each other based on a gravitational force exerted on the second hook member when the image reading unit is moved from a closed state to an open state with respect to the image forming unit.

12. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first hook member includes:

a force transmitting portion to receive a force from a lower end of the lever member to cause rotation of the first hook member; and

a latching portion latched to the image forming unit depending on a rotational angle of the first hook member.

13. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an image forming unit which forms an image on a printing medium;

an image reading unit pivotally coupled to the image forming unit;

a document feeding unit, pivotally coupled to the image reading unit, the document feeding unit having a pressing portion to move a sliding member by pressing the sliding member; and

a locking device including:

the sliding member mounted to the image reading unit to move up and down linearly relative to the image reading unit; and

a first latching member rotatably mounted to the image reading unit, the first latching member configured to latch the image forming unit by receiving a pushing force from the sliding member,

wherein the document feeding unit rotating from an open position to a closed position with respect to the image reading unit causes the pressing portion to press the sliding member to rotate the first latching member so that the first latching member is unlatched from the image forming unit and the image reading unit is separable from the image forming unit.

14. The image forming apparatus of claim 13 , the locking device including a second latching member rotatably mounted to the image reading unit to latch the image reading unit to the document feeding unit when the image reading unit is separated from the image forming unit.

15. The image forming apparatus of claim 14 , wherein,

the pressing portion includes a hook part, and

the second latching member includes a hook part to latch the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the image reading unit to the document feeding unit.

16. The image forming apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the hook part of the second latching member latches the hook part of the pressing portion to latch the image reading unit to the document feeding unit based on a gravitational force exerted on the second latching member when the image reading unit is separated from the image forming unit.

17. The image forming apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the first latching member includes:

a force transmitting portion to receive a force from a lower end of the sliding member to cause rotation of the first latching member, and

a latching portion latched to the image forming unit depending on a rotational angle of the first latching member.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cover unit comprises a document feeding unit configured to feed documents so that the scanning unit can read the documents.

19. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the pressing portion is pressable to press the lever member to thereby linearly move the lever member in the down direction to unlatch the image forming unit and the image reading unit from each other.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a guide member to guide downward movement of the second member.

21. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a guide member to guide up/down movement of the lever member.

22. The image forming apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising a guide member to guide up/down movement of the sliding member.

23. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first member is configured to rotate about an axis substantially perpendicular to a movement direction of the second member.

24. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first member is configured to rotate about an axis different from a movement path of the second member.

25. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first hook member is configured to rotate about an axis substantially perpendicular to a movement direction of the lever member.

26. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first hook member is configured to rotate about an axis different from a movement path of the lever member.