1. An intermediate coupling unit that is installed in an attachable and detachable manner between two image forming apparatuses, which are arranged in a vertical direction, comprising:
a first conveying path that conveys a recording medium discharged from a lower one of the image forming apparatuses to an upper one of the image forming apparatuses without changing a direction in which the recording medium is discharged;
a second conveying path that conveys a recording medium discharged from the lower image forming apparatus to the upper image forming apparatus by changing the direction in which the recording medium is discharged; and
a third conveying path that leads a recording medium discharged from the lower image forming apparatus to an internal paper discharge tray to be contained therein without conveying the recording medium to the upper image forming apparatus.
2. The intermediate coupling unit according to claim 1, further comprising a paper feed cassette that is attachable to and detachable from a lower portion of a body of the intermediate coupling unit, wherein the first or the second conveying path is adapted to convey a recording medium which is fed from the paper feed cassette to the upper image forming apparatus.
3. The intermediate coupling unit according to claim 1, further comprising a paper feed cassette that is attachable to and detachable from a lower portion of a body of the intermediate coupling unit;
wherein when the paper feed cassette is detached from the body of the intermediate coupling unit, an internal space of the intermediate coupling unit that is formed due to the detachment constitutes a space above a paper discharge tray of the lower image forming apparatus.
4. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image recording unit for recording a toner image;
a transfer medium onto which the toner image is primarily transferred by the image recording unit;
a pair of standby conveying rollers that conveys a recording medium, which is fed from a paper feed cassette, correspondingly to a recording timing;
a secondary transfer unit that secondarily transfers the toner image onto the recording medium from the transfer medium onto which the toner image has been primarily transferred;
a recording medium conveying path that is formed by a substantially-vertical sequential bottom-up alignment of a recording medium carry-in port of a fixing unit and a recording medium discharge port of the fixing unit, the fixing unit fixing the toner image on the recording medium onto which the toner image has been secondarily transferred;
an external paper feed path that, in a portion of the recording medium conveying path that is below the pair of standby conveying rollers, joins a paper feed path through which a recording medium is fed from the paper feed cassette, a paper-feeding-side end of the external paper feed path, which is below a region where the joining occurs, opening downward to outside; and
an external paper discharge path that branches from a recording medium discharge path leading to a paper discharge tray in a portion of the recording medium conveying path that is above the recording medium discharge port of the fixing unit and that opens upward to outside at a paper-discharging-side end of the external paper discharge path, which is above a region where the branching occurs,
wherein the image forming apparatus is capable of singly performing printing on the recording medium, and
wherein the image forming apparatus is capable of being coupled to the intermediate coupling unit according to claim 1, 2, or 3 in an attachable and detachable manner at an upper surface or at a lower surface of the image forming apparatus.
5. The intermediate coupling unit according to claim 1, wherein each of the image forming apparatuses is capable of singly forming an image.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A retainer assembly comprising:
a retainer structure comprising a flexible mesh bag conforming to the shape of remediation materials contained with the mesh bag, the mesh bag comprising a plurality of openings to permit adequate fluid flow through the mesh bag and to the remediation materials; and
an anchor assembly comprising a plurality of rigid shaft members passing through the openings in the mesh bag, each rigid shaft member having a distal end larger than the opening in the mesh bag through which the rigid shaft member is passed, each rigid shaft member securing the mesh bag at the location of the opening through which that rigid shaft is passed to an anchor point, the flexible mash bag comprising sufficient flexibility to permit motion of remediation materials contained within the mesh bag in three dimensions with respect to each anchor point.
2. The retainer assembly of claim 1, wherein the mesh bag comprises a non-oleophilic material.
3. The retainer assembly of claim 1, wherein the mesh bag is rectangular and the anchor assembly comprises four rigid shaft members, each one of the four rigid shaft members passing through an opening disposed adjacent a corner of the mesh bag.
4. The retainer assembly of claim 4, wherein the anchor assembly further comprises a fifth rigid shaft member passing through an opening located generally in the center of the mesh bag.
5. The retainer assembly of claim 5, wherein the remediation materials comprise tubular fabric structures arranged in a ring shape and the mesh bag opening through which the fifth rigid shaft member passes is disposed within the ring shape.