GB2059394A - Sheet Feed Apparatus - Google Patents

Sheet Feed Apparatus Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2059394A
GB2059394A GB8030393A GB8030393A GB2059394A GB 2059394 A GB2059394 A GB 2059394A GB 8030393 A GB8030393 A GB 8030393A GB 8030393 A GB8030393 A GB 8030393A GB 2059394 A GB2059394 A GB 2059394A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
sheet
sheet transportation
roller
transportation
guide member
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
GB8030393A
Other versions
GB2059394B (en
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Ricoh Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Ricoh Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Ricoh Co Ltd filed Critical Ricoh Co Ltd
Publication of GB2059394A publication Critical patent/GB2059394A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of GB2059394B publication Critical patent/GB2059394B/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65HHANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
    • B65H39/00Associating, collating, or gathering articles or webs
    • B65H39/10Associating articles from a single source, to form, e.g. a writing-pad
    • B65H39/11Associating articles from a single source, to form, e.g. a writing-pad in superposed carriers
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65HHANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
    • B65H29/00Delivering or advancing articles from machines; Advancing articles to or into piles
    • B65H29/20Delivering or advancing articles from machines; Advancing articles to or into piles by contact with rotating friction members, e.g. rollers, brushes, or cylinders
    • B65H29/22Delivering or advancing articles from machines; Advancing articles to or into piles by contact with rotating friction members, e.g. rollers, brushes, or cylinders and introducing into a pile

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Delivering By Means Of Belts And Rollers (AREA)
  • Paper Feeding For Electrophotography (AREA)

Abstract

Sheet feed apparatus includes a guide member (19) in contact with the elastic foam material periphery of a transfer roller (18). A pair of drive rollers (5) are provided for driving a sheet along a normal path to bins (11). A diverter plate (13) is arranged to pivot into the normal path, in the event of a jam in the normal path or downstream of the normal path, to direct sheets (3) along a second path to tray (15). The second path includes the sheet transfer roller (18) and the guide member (19) which is in contact with the upper peripheral surface of the sheet transfer roller. A sheet is arranged to be driven therebetween. At least the outer layer of the sheet transfer roller (18) may be made of sponge rubber. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sheet Feed Apparatus Background of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet transportation apparatus for transporting sheets individually by a rotating transportation roller system.
A sheet transportation apparatus of the abovementioned type for use in copying machines, printing machines, collators and so on is known. A conventional sheet transportation apparatus of that type in general use comprises a pair of sheet transportation rollers, an upper roller and a lower roller, between which a sheet is held and transported.In this type sheet transportation apparatus, since the sheet transportation rollers are disposed one above the other, the sheet transportation apparatus is over-sized and, if it is used in a copying machine or the like, there is a limit to the possible reduction is size of the machine. in particular, when a sheet transportation apparatus of that type is used in a sheet discharge apparatus, the sheet transportation apparatus takes up so much space that the height of the stack of sheets that can be placed in the sheet discharge apparatus is limited, and a large number of sheets cannot be stacked.
Summary of the Invention It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sheet transportation apparatus which is compact in size and operates properly over longer periods of time in comparison with the conventional sheet transportation apparatus, and from which the above-described drawbacks in the prior-art sheet transportation apparatus have been successfully eliminated.
A sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention comprises a sheet transportation roller, at least the outer peripheral portion of which is made of an elastic foam material, and a guide member which is in contact with the peripheral surface of the sheet transportation roller, a sheet being transported while being held between the transportation roller and the guide member.
This and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof when taken together with the drawings.
Brief Description of the Drawings In the drawings, Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention, which is employed in a collator and in which a changeover guide plate is in its non-operational position.
Figure 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the embodiment in Figure 1, in which the changeover guide plate is in its operational position.
Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of a collator employing a conventional, two-roller-type sheet transportation apparatus.
Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the embodiment of the sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention, which is employed in a sheet discharge apparatus of a copying machine.
Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional sheet discharge apparatus employed in a copying machine for comparing with the sheet transportation apparatus in Figure 4.
Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a sheet transportation apparatus according tt the present invention.
Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional sheet transportation apparatus for comparing with the sheet transportation apparatus in Figure 6.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments Referring to Figure 1, there is shown an embodiment of a sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention, which is employed in a sheet discharge apparatus of a collator 1.
In the figure, the collator 1 is disposed adjacent to a copying machine 2. A sheet 3 (a copy sheet in this case) is discharged from the copying machine 2 by a pair of sheet discharge rollers 4 and fed into the collator 1. The sheet 3 fed into the collator 1 is transported along guide plate 7 by a pair of sheet reception rollers 5 and an intermediate roller 6. The sheet 3 is then transported downwards by a curved guide plate 8 and a transported belt 9 and is then fed into one of bins 1 which are arranged one over the other with a predetermined space therebetween, by a deflecting device 10.
Thus, sheets are fed into those bins, and sorted or collated.
In the collator thus operated, if a sheet is jammed in the sheet transportation passage, thereafter, sheets fed into the collator are temporarily discharged from the sheet transportation passage by a sheet discharge apparatus 1 2 disposed in an upper portion of the collator 1. The sheet discharge apparatus 12 shown in Figure 1 comprises a change-over guide plate 13, a sheet transportation apparatus 14 and a sheet discharge tray 1 5. The change-over guide plate 13 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 16, so that it can take the position in non-operation which is shown in Figure 1, or the position of operation which is shown in Figure 2.The sheet transportation apparatus 14 according to the present invention comprises a sheet transportation roller 1 8 fixed to a support shaft 17, and a guide member 19 which is in contact with the peripheral surface of the sheet transportation roller 18. The sheet transportation roller 1 8 is made of an elastic foam material, for instance, a sponge, at least in the peripheral portion thereof.
When the collator 1 is in normal operation, the change-over guide plate 1 3 is in the inoperative position as shown in Figure 1 and, therefore, transportation of a sheet is not hindered by the change-over guide plate 13.
On the other hand, when a sheet is jammed, the intermediate roller 6 and the sheet belt 8 are stopped and, at the same time, the change-over guide plate 13 is turned to the operative position as shown in Figure 2. However, the copying machine 2 is continuously operated and, therefore, the operation of the sheet reception roller pair 5 is not stopped. After the sheet jamming, the sheets fed into the collator 1 are individually transported in the direction of the arrow A by the sheet reception roller pair 5 and the change-over guide plate 13 as shown in Figure 2, so that the sheet enters between the sheet transportation roller 18 which is rotated clockwise and the guide member 19, and is then discharged onto the sheet discharge tray 1 5.
Since the sheets are discharged onto the sheet discharge tray 1 5 after sheet jamming takes place, the jammed sheet can be removed and the jamming factor can be eliminated without stopping the operation of the copying machine.
The sheet transportation apparatus 14 according to the present invention comprises the sheet transportation roller 18 and the guide member 19 made of a thin plate. Therefore, with the same external size collator 1, when the sheet transportation apparatus 14 is employed in the sheet discharging apparatus 1 5 as shown in Figure 1, the sheet stacking height in the sheet discharging apparatus 1 5 (which corresponds to the height h of a side wall 1 5b of the sheet discharge tray 15, facing the sheet transportation roller 18) can be increased. In other words, the sheet stacking volume or the maximum number of sheets that can be stacked on the sheet discharged tray 1 5 can be increased.
Referring to Figure 3, there is shown an example of a sheet discharge apparatus for a collator employing a conventional sheet transportation apparatus, in order to make the above-mentioned advantage of the present invention clear. As can be seen from Figure 3, a conventional sheet transportation apparatus 14' comprises a pair of sheet transportation rollers 18' and 18" which are disposed one above the other. The sheet transportation rollers 18' and 18" are rotated in the direction of the arrows and a sheet is transported between them.In this sheet transportation apparatus 14', the number of sheets that can be stacked on a sheet discharge tray 15' is less than that on the sheet discharge tray 1 5 in Figure 1 for the following reason: In the sheet transportation apparatuses shown in Figure 1 and Figure 3, the sheet stacking volumes on the sheet discharge tray 1 5 and the sheet discharge tray 15' respectively depend upon the heights h and h' of the side walls 1 sub and 15' of the sheet discharge trays 1 5 and 1 5b', respectively facing the sheet transportation roller 18 and the sheet transportation rollers 18' and 18".
Specifically, the higher the walls 1 sub and 1 5b', the greater the respective sheet stacking volumes.
The respective heights h and h' of the side walls 1 sub and 1 Sb' are determined by the position of a sheet at the moment it is discharged from the sheet transportation roller 18 or the sheet transportation rollers 18' and 18", assuming the bottom 1 5a of the sheet discharge tray 1 5 and the bottom 1 5a' of the sheet discharge tray 1 5a' are at the same level.Obviously, if the upper edges of the side walls 1 5b and 1 5b' are higher than the position of a sheet at the moment it is discharged from the sheet transportation roller 1 8 or the sheet transportation rollers 1 83 and 1 8", the sheet cannot be discharged onto the sheet discharge tray 15 or the sheet discharge tray 1 5'.
Therefore, it is required that the upper edges of the side walls 1 sub and 1 5b' be lower than the position of the sheet at the moment it is discharged from the sheet transportation roller 1 8 or the sheet transportation rollers 18' and 1 8".
Thus, the upper edges of such side walls have to be determined depending upon the position of a sheet discharged from the sheet transportation roller 1 8 or the sheet transportation roller 18' and 18".
When the vertical distance from the bottom 1 5a of the sheet discharge tray 1 5 to an upper plate 1 a of the collator 1, L, is equal to that from the bottom 1 5a' of the sheet discharge tray 1 5' to an upper plate 1 a' of the collator 1', L' (refer to Figure 1 and Figure 3), the position of a sheet at the moment of its discharge from the sheet transportation roller 1 8 shown in Figure 1 can be higher that that for a sheet at the moment of its discharge from the sheet transportation rollers 18' and 18" shown in Figure 3. This is because in the sheet transportation apparatus 14', the sheet transportation roller 18' with a comparatively great diameter is situated above the transportation roller 1 8", causing the discharge point to be relatively lower.In contrast to this, in the sheet transportation apparatus 14 in Figure 1, only the thin guide member 19 is situated alone the sheet transportation roller 18, allowing the discharge point to be higher. Therefore, in the sheet transportation apparatus 14 in Figure 1, the height h of the tray side wall 1 5b can be increased in comparison with the height h' in Figure 3. Accordingly, the maximum sheet stacking volume an the sheet discharge tray 1 5 in Figure 1 can be made greater than that on the sheet discharge tray 15' in Figure 3. Or, the sheet transportation apparatus 14 and the sheet transportation apparatus 14' are designed in such manner that their maximum sheet stacking volumes are equal to each other, the vertical distance L in Figure 1 can be made smaller than the vertical distance L' in Figure 3, so that the height of the collator 1 in Figure 1 can be decreased, making the collator 1 more compact.
In other words, the height H of the sheet transportation apparatus 14 in Figure 1 can be decreased in comparison with height H' of the sheet transportation apparatus 14' in Figure 3, so that the sheet transportation apparatus 14 can be made more compact in size than the sheet transportation apparatus 14'.
Furthermore, in the sheet transportation apparatus 14 according to the present invention, since the sheet transportation roller 1 8 is made of an elastic foam material, even if the guide member 1 9 comes in direct contact with the sheet transportation roller 1 8 when it is rotated, the contact pressure between them is so small that the generation of heat by the friction between the sheet transportation roller 1 8 and the guide member 19 can be reduced and accordingly, abrasion of the sheet transportation roller 1 8 can also be reduced.Further, even if the sheet transportation roller 1 8 is abraded to some degree, the close contact of the guide member 1 9 with the sheet transfer roller 1 8 can be maintained unless the sheet transportation roller 1 8 is abraded considerably. Therefore, reliable sheet transportation performance can be guaranteed over long periods of time.
Referring to Figure 4, there is shown another embodiment of a sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention, which is employed in a sheet discharge apparatus of a copying machine 20. In this embodiment, at least the peripheral portion of the sheet transportation roller 21 which rotates clockwise is made of an elastic foam material, for example, sponge, and the plate-shaped guide member 22 is in contact with peripheral surface of the sheet transportation roller 21. The sheet 3 is discharged onto the sheet discharge tray 23, while being held between the sheet transportation roller 21 and the guide member 22. In this embodiment, the height H of the sheet transportation apparatus 24, and accordingly the height of the copying machine 20, can be made comparatively small.
Referring to Figure 5, there is shown a conventional sheet discharge apparatus 24', comprising an upper sheet transportation roller 21' and a lower sheet transportation roller 21".
As can be seen from the figure, in the conventional sheet discharge apparatus 24', the height of a copying machine 20' has to be made greater approximately by the height of the upper sheet transportation roller 21' in comparison with the copying machine 20 in Figure 4.
Referring to Figure 6, there is shown a further embodiment of a sheet transportation apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the sheet discharge tray 27 attached to the body of a copying machine is inclined downwards. The sheet transportation apparatus 28 comprises the sheet transportation roller 25 made of an elastic foam material and the guide member 26 which is in contact with the peripheral surface of the sheet transportation roller 25.In this embodiment, a portion of the guide member 26 in contact with the sheet transfer roller 25 is curved along the peripheral surface of the sheet transportation roller 25, whereby the sheet 3 which is held between the clockwise-rotating sheet transportation roller 25 and the guide member 26 and transported by them is guided downwards in the direction of the arrow B, so that the sheet is smoothly discharged onto the downward-inclined sheet discharge tray 15.
Referring to Figure 7, there is shown a conventional sheet discharge apparatus 28' with a downwardly inciined sheet discharge tray 27'.
As can be seen from the figure, in contrast to the sheet transportation apparatus in Figure 3, the upper sheet transportation roller 25' is shifted to the right relative to the lower sheet transportation roller 25". However, in the conventional sheet discharge apparatus, the width of the copying machine 20' has to be increased to the right by W. In other words, in comparison with the sheet transportation apparatus in Figure 6, the apparatus in Figure 7 has to be made higher and wider. It can be seen from this that by constructing the sheet transportation apparatus as shown in Figure 6 and using the same, a copying machine can be made significantly more compact in size in comparison with the conventional copying machines.
The present invention has been explained by referring to some embodiments thereof which are applied to sheet discharge apparatus. Other variations of sheet transportation apparatus can be made, based on the present invention.

Claims (3)

Claims
1. A sheet transportation apparatus comprising: a sheet transfer roller, at least the outer peripheral portion of which is made of an elastic foam material, and a guide member which is in contact with the peripheral surface of said sheet transfer roller, a sheet being transported while being held between said sheet transportation roller and said guide member.
2. A sheet transportation apparatus as set forth in claim 1, said elastic foam material is sponge.
3. Sheet feed apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
GB8030393A 1979-09-28 1980-09-19 Sheet feed apparatus Expired GB2059394B (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP12487779A JPS5648356A (en) 1979-09-28 1979-09-28 Carrying device of sheet

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB2059394A true GB2059394A (en) 1981-04-23
GB2059394B GB2059394B (en) 1983-05-05

Family

ID=14896296

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB8030393A Expired GB2059394B (en) 1979-09-28 1980-09-19 Sheet feed apparatus

Country Status (3)

Country Link
JP (1) JPS5648356A (en)
DE (1) DE3036387A1 (en)
GB (1) GB2059394B (en)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4699374A (en) * 1986-08-05 1987-10-13 Ncr Corporation Sheet feeding apparatus
US20100025928A1 (en) * 2008-08-04 2010-02-04 Toshiaki Yamamoto Medium discharging device and image forming apparatus

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH0746918B2 (en) * 1987-06-03 1995-05-17 株式会社日立製作所 Power converter
US4988087A (en) * 1989-07-03 1991-01-29 Xerox Corporation Sheet Stacker

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4699374A (en) * 1986-08-05 1987-10-13 Ncr Corporation Sheet feeding apparatus
US20100025928A1 (en) * 2008-08-04 2010-02-04 Toshiaki Yamamoto Medium discharging device and image forming apparatus
US8336877B2 (en) * 2008-08-04 2012-12-25 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Medium discharging device and image forming apparatus

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB2059394B (en) 1983-05-05
DE3036387A1 (en) 1981-04-16
JPS5648356A (en) 1981-05-01

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Date Code Title Description
PCNP Patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee

Effective date: 19960919