JP2566646B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more specifically, to a sheet material having a function of conveying the sheet material by manually inserting the sheet material one by one from the outside. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a conveying device.

(B) Conventional Technology FIG. 7 shows a conventional electronic copying machine 100. The transfer material 102 fed from the manual paper feed tray 101 with the manual feed tray 101 turned down is conveyed by paper feed rollers 103 and 105 and registration rollers 106, passes through transfer guides 107 and 109, and the image on the drum 110 is transferred and charged. Transcribed and separated by containers 111 and 112,
The sheet is conveyed by the conveying section 113, the toner image is fixed by the fixing roller section 115, and is conveyed in a fixed direction until the sheet is finally discharged to the sheet discharge tray 116.

In the case of forming multiple images, the fixing unit 11
The transfer material 102 exiting 5 is directed to the double-sided multiplex sheet conveying path 119 by the paper deflecting plate 117, passes through this, and is fed again to the drum 110 and the fixing roller unit 115. In the case of double-sided image formation, During the time when the transfer material 102 is being discharged by the discharge roller 120, the discharge roller 120 reverses, is guided by the paper deflecting plate 117, passes through the conveying path 119, and is fed to the drum 110.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, as described above, the manual feed tray 10
1 is located on the right side of the electronic copier 100, and it is necessary to take sufficient space on the right side of the copier 100 in order to turn the tray 101 to the right and set the transfer material 102 thereon. There is a problem that the space efficiency for installing the device becomes poor.

Further, although the present applicant has proposed a paper feeding device such as a conventional manual paper feeding tray 101 from the front of the electronic copying machine 100 so that the paper is fed orthogonally to the double-sided multiplex sheet conveying path 119 (the present application. (Not disclosed at the time; see Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-121774), which requires the orthogonal conveying means and the positioning means for the transfer material 102, the switching means for the conveying mechanism of the double-sided multiplex sheet conveying path 119, There is a drawback that the dimension in the depth direction becomes large.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can significantly improve the installation efficiency without increasing the size of the entire apparatus including the conveyance path.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is a main body conveyance path that is provided in the main body of the apparatus and that conveys a sheet material to an image forming unit of the main body of the apparatus. And a manual feed path for feeding a manual sheet material that is inserted from a manual feed port provided on the front surface of the apparatus in a direction orthogonal to the main body feed path. A part of the path is composed of a main body conveying position where the main body conveying path conveys the sheet material to the image forming means, and a plane different from the main body conveying position, and for manual feeding for receiving the manual sheet material from the manual feeding conveying path. And a drive means for moving the movement guide portion between the main body transporting position and the manual feeding position.

(E) Operation Based on the above configuration, the normal sheet material fed from the cassette or the like is conveyed to the image forming means through the main body conveying path to form an image in the case of double-sided or multiple copying, for example. At this time, the movement guide portion formed by a part of the main body conveyance path is at the main body conveyance position, and the sheet material is conveyed along the main body conveyance path.

On the other hand, when the manual sheet material is inserted from the manual insertion port on the front surface of the apparatus, the movement guide portion is moved to the manual feeding position by the driving means. Therefore, the manual sheet material is
It is conveyed from the manual feed conveyance path to the movement guide section, and in this state, the movement guide section is moved to the main body conveyance position and is conveyed to the image forming means at the main body conveyance position via the main body conveyance path. Then, an image is formed.

(F) Embodiment Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a detailed perspective view of the embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is an external perspective view, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional front view of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of FIG.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a copying machine having a manual paper feed port 2, a manual tray 3, and a cassette 5 at the front, that is, a copying machine having a front loading type. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, when the sheet material 6 stored in the cassette 5 is separated by the pickup roller 7 and fed, the sheet material 6 is transported to the registration roller 10 by the transport roller 9. Then, the registration roller 10 positions the sheet material 6 in synchronization with the image formed on the drum 11, at a predetermined timing.
Be transported. Then, the image on the drum 11 is transferred to the sheet material 6 by the charging device 12, the sheet material 6 is separated from the drum 11 by the separating charging device 13, and is conveyed to the fixing portion 16 by the conveying portion 15, and the fixing portion 16 is formed. It is fixed by 16. The sheet material 6 for copying a single image on one side is discharged by a discharge roller 17.

When most of the sheet material 6 for copying a double-sided single image is discharged by the discharge roller 17, the discharge roller 17 is reversed, guided downward by the flapper 19, and fed to the double-sided / multi-pass 20. .

The sheet material 6 for copying a single-sided multiplex image is sent to a double-sided / multiple path 20 by a flapper 19.

Then, the sheet material 6 for copying single-sided and single-sided multiple images passes through a pair of guide plates 21 and 22 which constitute a moving guide portion which is a part of the main body conveyance path, and is re-registered by the re-feeding roller 23. It is sent to the roller 10 and a predetermined copying operation is performed.

Next, the structure of the relationship between manual sheet feeding from the front and double-sided / multiple-sheet feeding, which is an essential part of the present invention, will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4.

Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote a pair of rectangular upper and lower guide plates described in FIG. 3, which are fixed in parallel to each other, and are pivotally supported by the main body of the copying machine by a pair of left and right pins 25. Further, reference numeral 26 is a manual feed tray guide that constitutes a manual feed path, and is fixed to the main body so that the surface thereof is the same as that of the manual feed tray 3 (see FIG. 2). Following the manual tray guide 26, a lower guide 27, and an upper guide 29 above the lower guide 27 are fixed to the main body. Further, below the manual feed tray guide 26 and the lower guide 27, a pressure arm 31 is pivotally supported by a pin 30 fixed to the main body, and the pressure arm 31 is not shown as shown in FIG. An eccentric cam 32 driven by a pulse motor or the like is configured to be moved up and down to form a driving means, and a driven manual paper feed roller 33 which is vertically urged to the back side of the pressure arm 31. Is provided, and a push-up piece 35 for pushing up the guide plate 22 is provided at the end portion on the back side. Further, a re-feeding conveyance driving roller 36 is rotatably provided on the main body on a shaft in the front-rear direction, and is turned on / off from a driving source (not shown) via a clutch. A hole 37 through which the re-feeding / conveying driving roller 36 penetrates the guide plate 22 is provided, and a re-feeding / conveying driven roller 39 facing above the driving roller 36 is integrally formed with a shaft 40. 40
Both ends of the shaft are guided by the vertical holes 42 of the bracket 41 fixed to the guide plate 21, and the shaft 40, that is, the driven roller 39 is biased downward by the tension spring 43, and the roller 39 is The hole 45 that penetrates the guide plate 21
It is provided in. Further, a roller releasing arm 46 having a locking portion below the shaft 40 is pivotally supported by a pin 47 fixed to the guide plate 21, and the other end portion 46a of this arm 46 of a projecting piece 49 fixed to the main body. It is designed to be locked to the lower surface. Further, a manual paper feeding drive roller 50 rotatably attached to the above-mentioned upper guide 29 and penetrating the guide downward is rotatably driven by a pulse motor or the like (not shown) so as to face the manual paper feeding roller 33. Has become. A reference guide surface 57 of the manual sheet material 6 is formed orthogonal to the right side of the manual guide 26.

Next, the configuration of the regulating means for regulating the direction of manual sheet feeding will be described. The front end of the guide plate 21 is bent upward at a substantially right angle to form a shutter member 51, and the sheet member 6 is When the sheet member 6 is hit, the shutter member 51 is provided with a sensor lever 52 which comes into contact with the end of the sheet material 6, and a photo interrupter 53 detected by the sensor lever 52 is provided.
Are provided as a set with the sensor lever 52, and the upper guide 29 is provided with a sensor lever for detecting the rear end of the manual sheet material 6.
55 and its photo interrupter 56 are provided as a set.

As shown in FIG. 4, the manual feed follower and drive rollers 35 and 50 (hereinafter, follower and drive may be omitted) are within the area C through which the sheet material 6 passes when double-sided / multiple copying is performed. It is provided in. The limit line D of this region is indicated by a dashed line.

 Next, the operation of the manual sheet feeding will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4A, during double-sided / multiple copying, the pressure arm 31 is supported at a position where the eccentric cam 32 has a minimum eccentric amount, and descends. A guide plate supported by the push-up piece 35 provided at the rear end
The left ends of 21, 21 are lower than the upper surface of the manual tray guide 26, and the shutter member 51 intersects the upper surface of the tray guide 26. Further, at this position, the re-feeding conveyance drive and the driven rollers 36 and 39 (hereinafter, the drive and the driven may be omitted) normally perform the re-feeding operation. That is, for double-sided / multiple copying, the manual paper feed rollers 33, 50 in the area C through which the sheet material 6 passes do not interfere with the re-fed sheet material 6.

In the above-mentioned state, after the operator confirms that double-sided / multiple copying is not in operation, the sheet material 6 is abutted against the shutter material 51 from the manual feed port 2 along the reference guide surface 57. The manual insertion start signal is output by a button (not shown).

Then, the control unit (not shown) rotates the eccentric cam by about 180 degrees by this signal and raises the pressure arm 31,
Guide plates 21 and 22 are pin 2 by push-up piece 35 (see Fig. 1).
The upper surface of the guide plate 22 is held slightly lower than the upper surface of the lower guide 27 by rotating upward about 5 (at this time,
The pressing arm 31 and the eccentric cam are arranged such that the re-feeding conveying roller 36 is located below the upper surface of the guide plate 22 to the back.
32 dimensions are set. ) The manual paper feed roller 33 is pushed upward by the urging force to the manual paper feed drive roller 50 via the manual paper feed sheet 6 that has abutted against the shutter member 51.
While being pressed, the shutter member 51 retracts upward together with the guide plate 21. At the same time, the other end portion 46a of the roller releasing arm 46 is locked to the projecting piece 49, the rear side portion of the roller releasing arm 46 rises, and resists the downward urging force of the tension spring 43, so that 40 is lifted, and the re-feeding conveyance driven roller 39 is retracted above the lower surface of the guide plate 21.

When the eccentric cam 32 completes the rotation of almost 180 degrees, a signal is issued, and the control unit receiving the signal outputs the manual feed roller.
By driving 50, the manual sheet material 6 is conveyed toward the back side at a predetermined speed.

Next, after the rear end of the sheet material 6 is detected by the sensor beam and the interrupters 55 and 56, the manual feed rollers 33 and 50 are stopped after conveying by a predetermined amount. By this movement, the rear end of the sheet material 6 matches the limit line D of the area C described above.

Next, the control unit, which has received the signal indicating that the drive source for driving the manual paper feed drive roller 50 has been stopped, turns on the drive source of the eccentric cam 32 and rotates it approximately 180 degrees, as shown in FIG. 4C. Thus, the pressing arm 31 is lowered, and returns to the state described with reference to FIG. However, the sheet 6 is held between the re-feeding conveyance rollers 36 and 39.

Next, the control unit which receives the signal that the drive source of the eccentric cam 32 has stopped drives the re-feeding conveyance rollers 36, 39 to move the manual feed sheet material 6 in a direction orthogonal to the manual feed direction (direction of arrow B).
To the image forming area (drum 11, fixing section 1) by re-feed roller 23 (see FIG. 3) and registration roller 10.
6 mag).

 Next, another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Members having the same configuration and operation are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

The difference from FIG. 1 described in the above embodiment is that the roller release arm 46 is deformed so that a locking arm 60 that engages with the shaft 40 from below is extended to the left and right, and a protrusion fixed to the main body. The piece 49 is removed, and the other end portion 46a engaging with the protruding piece 49 is also removed.

Further, the pressure arm 31 is extended so as to engage with the engagement arm 60 from below.

By doing so, the pressure arm 31 can move the guide plates 21 and 22.
When ascending, the roller releasing arm 46 can be locked by the tip of the extended pressure arm 31 and can be lifted up with 47 as the center, and the same operation as in the above-described embodiment is possible.

Incidentally, in the above-mentioned embodiment, FIG. 4 (a), (c)
Although the home position of the guide plates 21 and 22 shown in FIG. 2 is set below the manual feed tray guide 26, the home position of the guide plates 21 and 22 is set to the opposite side and the pressure arm 31, the pin 30, the eccentric cam 32, etc.
By moving the paper feed rollers 33 and 50 upside down, the guide plate 21 is lowered to take the position shown in FIG. 4 (b). For this purpose, the re-feed rollers 36 and 39 are also turned upside down, so that the manual operation of the sheet material 6 can be performed similarly to the above-described embodiment.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the guide plates 21 and 22 that are biased downward are pressed against the pressure arm 31 and do not rattle due to vibration or the like. In this embodiment, on the contrary, the guide plates 21 and 22 may be biased upward so that the guide plates 21 and 22 are in pressure contact with the pressure arm 31 provided above.

 Still another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the guide plates 21 and 22 are separately provided instead of one body, and are pivotally supported by the pins 63 and 65 through the parallel links 61 and 62, and the parallel links 61 and 62 are rotationally driven. Guide plate 2 by the eccentric cam 32 and the pressure arm 31 of the above embodiment
It replaces the lifting operation of 1,22. In this case, as in the case of the above-described embodiment, the re-feeding conveyance driven roller can be pressed and released in the same manner as described above. In the present embodiment, the guide plates 21 and 22 are pivotally supported by the links 61 and 62, but the guide plates 21 and 22 may be integrally pivoted by one pin 63 or 65.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, since the manual feed port is provided on the front surface of the apparatus, the manual feed tray that projects in the lateral direction of the apparatus is not required, and the installation space of the image forming apparatus is not required. Although the efficiency can be improved, since a part of the main body conveyance path is used as a movement guide portion and the movement guide portion is moved to the main body conveyance position and the manual feed position by the driving means, the apparatus itself becomes large. Can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a perspective view of a guide plate and its periphery according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a copying machine embodying the present invention, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional front view of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a guide plate. And FIG. 5 is a perspective view around the guide plate of another embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a side view showing a guide plate according to still another embodiment, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view (longitudinal front view) of a conventional side feed type copying machine with manual feed. 6 ... sheet material, 11 ... image forming means (photosensitive drum),
20 …… Main body transport path (double-sided / multiple pass), 21,22 …… Movement guide part (guide plate), 26 …… Manual feed path (manual feed tray guide), 31,32 …… Drive means (pressurizing arm, Eccentric cam) 50,33,36,39 …… Sheet material conveying means (manual sheet feeding drive roller, manual sheet feeding roller, sheet re-feeding conveying roller, sheet re-feeding roller).

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A main body conveyance path provided in an apparatus main body for conveying a sheet material to an image forming means of the apparatus main body, and a manual feed sheet material inserted from a manual insertion port provided on the front surface of the apparatus. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a manual feed path for feeding from a direction orthogonal to the feed path, wherein a main body feed path conveys a sheet material to the image forming means. A moving guide portion which is movable to a carrying position and a manual feeding position which is formed on a plane different from that of the main body carrying position and receives the manual feed sheet material from the manual feeding path, and the moving guide portion is referred to as the main body carrying position. An image forming apparatus, characterized in that a driving means for moving to a manual feeding position is provided.