JPH0136838Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a sheet paper alignment device, for example, a sheet paper alignment device that aligns sheets of paper that have been copied on one side and are stored in an intermediate tray of a double-sided copying machine. .

2. Description of the Related Art In a mechanical device such as a double-sided copying machine, which stores a sheet of paper on which a copy image has been formed in an intermediate tray and then refeeds the sheet paper, the storage state of the sheet paper in the intermediate tray is If the paper is not aligned, there is a risk of paper feeding failures such as multiple sheets being fed or jamming when refeeding. To prevent this,
The intermediate tray requires a device for aligning the sheets. As this device, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 57-195063
In the publication, as shown in FIG. 7, a seat position regulating member 2 that is swingable on both sides of the seat support plate 1a is provided.
a, 2b are provided, and the seat position regulating member 2
A device is shown in which alignment is achieved by swinging the paper sheets a and 2b and hitting the side edges of the sheet paper stored on the sheet support plate 1a from both sides.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the above-mentioned alignment device, when the sheet position regulating members 2a and 2b strike both side edges of the sheet paper, the sheet paper flies away, which worsens the alignment. At the same time, there was a fear that the incidence of jamming would increase.

Means for Solving the Problems As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the sheet paper aligning device according to the present invention includes a first guide plate that taps one side edge of the sheet paper, and a second guide plate facing the first guide plate. and a second guide plate for striking one side edge of the sheet of paper after which the first guide plate strikes the other side edge.

Function In the above configuration, when the sheet paper is fed into the sheet paper alignment device, the first guide plate first strikes one side edge of the sheet paper to roughly align it, and then the second guide plate Final alignment is achieved by tapping the other side edge of the paper.

EXAMPLE The present invention will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of a double-sided copying machine having an intermediate tray 1, and 2 is a photoreceptor drum, around which are an eraser lamp 3, an electrification charger 4, a developing device 5, a transfer charger, a separation charger 7, and a cleaning device. The devices 8 are arranged in sequence and a known imaging process is carried out. A scanning optical system 10 is provided above the photoreceptor drum 2 for scanning an original placed on an original glass 9 and projecting the scanned image onto the photoreceptor drum 2. On the other hand, below the photosensitive drum 2, there are a paper feed cassette 11, a paper feed roller 12, a conveyance roller 13, and a registration roller 1.
4. A normal conveyance system consisting of a conveyance belt 15, a fixing roller 16, discharge rollers 17, 18, and a paper discharge tray 19, and a path switching cam 20 provided between the discharge rollers 17, 18, which branches off from the conveyance system, and a conveyance roller. 2
1, 22, 23, 24, storage roller 25, paper refeed roller 26, intermediate tray 1, transport rollers 27, 2
A paper refeeding conveyance system is provided which joins the normal conveyance system again via 8 and 29. During normal copying, the sheet paper in the paper feed cassette 11 is transferred to the paper feed roller 12, the conveyance roller 13, and the registration roller 1.
4 to the transfer section, and the photosensitive drum 2
After the toner image formed thereon is transferred, the sheet is sent to a fixing roller 16 by a conveyance roller 15, where the image is fixed, and is discharged onto a paper discharge tray 19 via discharge rollers 17 and 18. On the other hand, during double-sided copying, the sheet paper on which the toner image has been fixed by the fixing roller 16 is guided to the paper refeed conveyance system by the path switching cam 20,
2, 23, 24, and are temporarily stored in the intermediate tray 1 via the storage rollers 25. Then, at the start of back side copying, the sheet paper in the intermediate tray 1 is sent to the normal transport system upstream of the registration rollers 14 via the paper refeed 26 and transport rollers 27, 28, 29.
The paper is discharged onto a paper discharge tray 19 via a registration roller 14, a conveyance belt 15, a fixing roller 16, and discharge rollers 17 and 18. Note that the above-mentioned conveyance system employs a one-sided reference conveyance system in which one side edge of the sheet paper is used as a conveyance reference.

1, 3, 4, and 5 show details of the sheet alignment device provided in the intermediate tray 1, and 30 is a placement plate on which a single-sided copy sheet is placed. , and on both sides there are a pair of roughly L-shaped reference guide plates 3 that serve as lateral guide members for the sheet paper.
1 and an alignment guide plate 32 are provided, and a trailing edge guide plate 33 for regulating the trailing edge position of the sheet paper is provided behind them. Standard guide plate 3
Reference numeral 1 serves as a reference for the one-sided reference conveyance system, and its erected position remains unchanged depending on the sheet paper size, while the alignment guide plate 32 is moved in its erected position by a moving mechanism C shown in FIG. 5, which will be described later. The installed position is moved according to the paper sheet size, and the distance from the reference guide plate 31 can be adjusted to approximately the same width as the width of the paper sheet. Further, the reference guide plate 31 and the alignment guide plate 32 are oscillated by the oscillating mechanisms A and B described later, and are aligned by hitting both sides of the sheet paper fed to the mounting plate 30. . The operation of the swing mechanisms A and B is started at the timing when a sheet of paper is sent to the mounting plate 30. This timing detection is performed by a sheet detection switch SW provided adjacent to the storage roller 25.

First swing mechanism A that swings the reference guide plate 31
is a guide shaft 44 installed below the mounting plate 30.
The first block 45 is fixed to the first block 45. Specifically, a first swinging lever 35 that is swingably supported by a first swinging shaft 34 and the first swinging lever 3
5 and a first spring 37 that biases the first swing lever 35 in a direction opposite to the operating direction of the first solenoid 36. has been done.
The reference guide plate 31 is fixed to a portion of the first swing bar 35 that projects upwardly from the mounting plate 30 through a first elongated hole 38 formed in the mounting plate 30. The reference guide 31 swings in the direction of the arrow as it turns on and off, and the side of the sheet paper is struck by the reference guide 31 that swings integrally with the reference guide 31. An elastic member 31b is attached to the piece 31a of the reference guide plate 31 that is in contact with the mounting plate 30, and its thickness is equal to that when the reference guide plate 31 contacts the mounting plate 30 via the elastic member 31b. , are determined to be perpendicular to the mounting plate 30. Furthermore, the elastic member 31b also has the function of absorbing the impact when the reference guide plate 31 swings and vigorously contacts the mounting plate 30.

Second swing mechanism B that swings the alignment guide 32
is provided on a second block 46 that is movable along the guide shaft 44. The configuration of the second swing mechanism B itself is substantially the same as that of the first swing mechanism A, and includes a second swing bar 40 that is swingably supported on a second swing shaft 39, and A second solenoid 41 connected to rotate the second swing bar 40 sideways to the sheet paper, and a second solenoid 41 that urges the second swing bar 40 in a direction opposite to the operating direction of the second solenoid 41.
When the second solenoid 41 is turned on and off, the second swing bar 40 is swung into the second elongated hole 43 formed in the mounting plate 30, thereby aligning the second swing bar 40. Swing the guide plate 30,
As a result, alignment is achieved by tapping the sides of the sheet paper. Note that the piece 32 of the alignment guide 32 that is in contact with the placement plate 30 is also provided with an elastic member 32b for positioning and absorbing the impact of rocking.

FIG. 5 shows a moving mechanism C for moving the second block 46, on which the second swinging mechanism B is provided, along the guide shaft 44. The second block 46 is slidably provided on a guide shaft 44 that is provided parallel to each other, and is attached to an idler pulley 47.
and a drive pulley 48 driven by a motor M. Then, by forward and reverse rotation of the motor M, the second block 46 and the second swinging mechanism B provided thereon are integrally moved along the guide shaft 44, and the reference guide plate 31 and alignment guide plate 32 are moved together. The spacing can be changed depending on the sheet paper size. Actually, the motor M is driven in conjunction with a sheet size selection switch provided on the operation panel (not shown) of the copying machine, and the distance between the reference guide plate 31 and the alignment guide plate 32 is adjusted to the width that can accommodate the sheet paper. is configured to be changed to . In addition, when a central reference conveyance system in which the center of the sheet paper is used as a reference for conveyance is adopted as the paper conveyance system of the copying machine, the first block 45 is provided to be slidable on the guide shaft 44, and the first block It is also possible to provide a mechanism for moving the second block 45 in the direction of reflection in conjunction with the second block 45.

In the above configuration, when a print key (not shown) is pressed to start double-sided copying, the topmost sheet of paper in the paper feed cassette 11 is fed out by the paper feed roller 12, and the topmost sheet of paper in the paper feed cassette 11 is fed out to the conveyance roller 13, It is fed into the transfer section via the registration rollers 14, and the surface copy image is transferred. The sheet paper on which the front side copy image has been transferred is sent to the fixing roller 16 via the conveyance belt 15, and after the image is fixed, it is transferred to the conveyance rollers 21, 22, 23, 24 via the discharge roller 17 and the path switching cam 20. , a storage roller 25, and the like. When the leading edge of the sheet paper held between the storage rollers 25 is detected by the sheet paper detection switch SW,
The operation of the swing mechanisms A and B that swing the reference guide 31 and the alignment guide 32 is started. The operation timing will be explained with reference to the time chart shown in FIG.

When the leading edge of the sheet paper stored is detected by the sheet paper detection switch SW, the first solenoid 36 and the second solenoid 41 are simultaneously turned on after a certain period of time, and the reference guide is moved as shown by the dotted line in FIG. The plate 31 and the alignment guide plate 32 open outward from the paper sheet conveyance direction to facilitate guiding the paper sheet onto the placement plate 30. Then, after a certain period of time has elapsed since the trailing edge of the sheet paper is detected by the sheet detection switch SW, first, only the first solenoid 36 is turned off, and the reference guide plate 31 is activated by the biasing force of the first spring 37. It is quickly returned to the solid line position in Figure 1. △t after the first solenoid 36 is turned off, the second
The solenoid 41 is turned off, and the alignment guide plate 40, like the reference guide plate 31, is forcefully returned to the solid line position in FIG. 1 by the biasing force of the second spring 42. In this way, when a sheet of paper is fed onto the placement plate 30, the reference guide plate 31 first strikes one side edge of the sheet paper, and then the alignment guide plate 32 strikes the other side edge of the sheet paper. Then, the sheets of paper are aligned and stored between the reference guide plate 31 and the alignment guide 32 on the mounting plate 30. If the time difference Δt at which the first solenoid 36 and the second solenoid 41 are turned off is about 0.1 seconds or more, the sheets can be aligned well without causing the sheets to fly away. Subsequently, when the next sheet of paper is fed onto the placement plate 30 via the storage roller 25, the above alignment operation is performed again. Note that the alignment operation does not necessarily need to be performed every time a sheet of paper is fed onto the placement plate 30, and may be performed, for example, once every two sheets or once every several sheets.

Subsequently, when a signal to start back side copying is input, the paper refeed roller 26 is brought into pressure contact with the top surface of the sheet paper on the placement plate 30, and the sheets are sent out one by one from the top surface toward the transport roller 27. Image formation is performed on the back side. At this time, since the sheets of paper on the mounting plate 30 are well aligned, the probability of occurrence of paper refeed failure is extremely low.

In the above embodiment, the sheet paper aligning device according to the present invention is applied to the intermediate tray of a double-sided copying machine, but the present invention is not limited to this, and examples include, for example, a paper output tray of a copying machine, a sorter, a bidirectional copying machine, etc. It can also be adopted as a tray of a document conveying device.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, according to the sheet paper aligning device of the present invention, both side edges of the sheet paper fed onto the mounting plate 30 are aligned with the reference guide plate 31 and the alignment guide plate 32. Since the alignment is performed by sequentially hitting the sheet paper, it is possible to achieve good alignment without the sheet paper flying off on the mounting plate 31.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a sheet alignment device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a copying machine, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the vicinity of the intermediate tray, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a partial top view of the mounting plate, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the moving mechanism, FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation timing of the swinging mechanism, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the prior art. 30...Placement plate, 31...Reference guide, 32...
...Alignment guide, A...First swing mechanism, B...Second
Swing mechanism, C...Movement mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] 1. In a sheet paper aligning device that aligns a plurality of sheets of paper fed onto a mounting plate that accommodates sheet paper, in a direction approximately perpendicular to one side edge of the sheet paper on the mounting plate. a reference guide member that is swingable in a direction and that regulates the position of the one side edge; and a reference guide member that faces the reference guide member and is swingable in a direction substantially perpendicular to the other side edge of the sheet on the mounting plate. an alignment guide member provided on the holder to regulate the position of the other side edge;
A first swinging member that swings the reference guide member so as to press one side edge of the sheet paper; A sheet alignment device comprising: a second swing mechanism that swings the alignment guide member so as to press the alignment guide member. 2. The sheet alignment device according to claim 1, wherein the alignment guide member is configured to be movable according to the width of the sheet. 3 The reference guide member and alignment guide member are:
Utility model registration claim 1, characterized in that the sheet is configured to be movable according to the paper width.
Sheet paper aligning device as described in section.