JP2000118759A - Sheet material feeding device and picture image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sheet material feeding device and a picture image formation device capable of detecting the number of revolutions of a roller member or rotation drive time and detecting exchange time of the roller member depending on the situation of use of the roller member. SOLUTION: For example, when an upper step paper feeding part of a plurality of sheet material loading means provided in a picture image formation device is considered here, the information such as total number of revolutions or total rotation drive time of roller members 21, 22, 23 is compared with a use limit value of the roller members which is set in advance and is judged to judge proper exchange time of the roller members in accordance with the situation of use (wear condition) of the roller members.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or a printing machine, sheet materials,
Many sheet material transport rollers that transport a sheet material such as recording paper, printing paper, or a document are used. For example, in a paper feeding section of a copying machine, a sheet material cut to a predetermined size is set in a paper feeding cassette, a pickup roller is brought into contact with the uppermost sheet material, and the roller is driven to rotate to rotate the sheet material. From the paper feed cassette, and passes the fed sheet material between a paper feed roller that rotates in the feeding direction and a separation roller that rotates in the opposite direction to the feeding direction. One sheet material is conveyed toward the transfer unit while feeding is prevented. Such a pickup roller, a sheet feeding roller, or a separation roller is an example of a sheet material conveying roller.

If the above-mentioned pickup roller, paper feed roller and separation roller are collectively referred to as a sheet material feeding roller, the surface of the sheet material feeding roller wears as its use time elapses. If left unchecked, it is inevitable that the sheet material such as the sheet material causes skew or jam.

Therefore, it is necessary to replace the sheet feeding roller with a new one after the sheet feeding roller has been used for a predetermined time.

Conventionally, when the number of formed images reaches a predetermined number, the sheet feeding roller is replaced with a new roller. However, such a replacement method causes the following problems. .

Conventionally, a counter for checking the number of copies of a copier has a predetermined number, for example, 30,000 or 8
When the number of sheets, such as 10,000 or 100,000, was counted, a specialized service man had replaced the feeding roller. However, depending on the user who uses the copying machine, there are those who often use small-sized sheet materials of A4 size or less, and those who often use large-sized sheet materials such as A3 size. The manner of use varies.

On the other hand, when a large-size sheet is fed from the paper feeding unit, the rotation time of the feeding roller is longer than when a small-size sheet is fed. For example, when only small-sized sheets of A4 size are fed,
When only large-sized sheet materials are fed, the latter uses the feeding roller nearly twice as long in the use time.

Therefore, if the feeding roller is replaced uniformly when the number of copies reaches a predetermined number as in the prior art, the feeding roller that can still be used is replaced, or conversely, the limit is exceeded. In some cases, it is necessary to continue using the feeding roller, and there is a possibility that the sheet material may be jammed or skewed.

In order to solve such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-092843 has invented a system in which roller replacement is performed based on the time or number of rotations of a sheet material conveying roller.

[0010]

However, looking at the actual paper feeding, the degree of wear of the rollers differs between the case where the rollers are rotating and the case where the sheet material is fed by the rollers. ing. Therefore, in order to detect the replacement time of the sheet material feeding roller more accurately,
It is necessary to consider a case where the sheet material is fed by the sheet material feeding roller and a case where the sheet material is not fed.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to know the replacement time of a sheet material feeding roller more accurately than before.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device capable of preventing the above-mentioned conventional problems from occurring.

[0012]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, a sheet material feeding device includes a sheet material stacking means capable of stacking sheet materials of different sizes; A roller member for feeding the sheet material, a sheet material size detection unit for detecting a size of the sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking unit, a rotation speed measurement unit for measuring the rotation speed of the roller member, A sheet number measuring means for measuring the number of sheet materials fed, and a sheet material size index corresponding to the sheet material size detected by the sheet material size detecting means, Processing means for counting the number of times the roller member is used based on respective information on the number of rotations of the roller member and the number of sheet materials fed by the feeding number measuring means; and counting by the processing means. It provided that the value of the usage was, a comparison determining the comparison determination unit with a preset usage limit values of the roller member, and detecting the replacement time of the roller member. Further, a sheet material feeding means, a sheet material stacking means capable of stacking sheet materials of different sizes, and a roller member for feeding the sheet material,
Sheet material size detecting means for detecting the size of the sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking means, rotational driving time measuring means for measuring the rotational driving time of the roller member, and measuring the number of fed sheets of the sheet material Feeding sheet number measuring means, and is detected by the sheet material size detecting means,
The roller member based on the sheet material size index corresponding to the sheet material size, the rotation drive time of the roller member by the rotation drive time measurement unit, and the number of sheet materials fed by the feed number measurement unit. Processing means for counting the use state of the roller member, and comparison determination means for comparing and comparing the value of the use state counted by the processing means with a preset use limit value of the roller member, The replacement time is detected.

It is also preferable that the comparing and judging means has at least two or more kinds of usage limit values.

In the image forming apparatus, the sheet material feeding means, an image forming means for forming an image on the sheet material fed by the sheet material feeding means, and a roller member obtained by the comparing and judging means. Display means for displaying information about the replacement time.

[0015] It is also preferable that the display means can arbitrarily select and display information on a replacement time of the roller member from a plurality of display modes.

It is preferable that the image device includes at least one or more sheet material stacking means.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing sheet material stacking means such as an image forming apparatus.

In the first embodiment, sheet material stacking means such as an image forming apparatus includes sheet feeding units 100, 101, and 1 respectively.
02, and the respective paper feed cassettes 30, 31, 32
The sheet materials 36, 37, 38 are moved up and down trays 33, 3
A number of sheets are stacked and set on 4, 35.

An A4 size sheet material 36 is stacked in the cassette 30 of the sheet feeding unit 100 of the upper sheet material stacking means.

On the downstream side (right side in the drawing) of the A4 size sheet material 36 in the sheet feeding direction, a pickup roller 21 which is a roller member and is in contact with the sheet material 36 is arranged.

Further on the downstream side in the paper feed direction, a paper feed roller 22 as a roller member and a separation roller 2 as a roller member
3, the sheet material 36 is sent out rightward in the figure by rotating the pickup roller 21 as the roller member in the direction of the arrow.

The above-described pickup roller 21, paper feed roller 22, and separation roller 23 are roller members.

The sheet material 36 sent out in this manner is
The feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23 are moved in the feeding direction.
When another sheet material is fed together with the uppermost sheet material at this time, the feeding of the other sheet material is stopped by the action of the feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23. .

In this way, double feeding of sheet materials is prevented, and only one sheet material is fed to the main body (not shown).

An A4R size (A4 landscape) sheet material 37 is stacked in the cassette 31 of the sheet feeding section 101 of the middle sheet material stacking means.

As for the configuration, a pickup roller 24, a paper feed roller 25, and a separation roller 26, which are roller members, are arranged similarly to the upper paper feed unit 100.

An A3-size sheet material 38 is stacked in the cassette 32 of the sheet feeding section 102 of the lower sheet material stacking means.

As for the configuration, a pickup roller 27, a paper feed roller 28, and a separation roller 29, which are roller members, are arranged similarly to the upper paper feed unit 100 and the middle paper feed unit 101.

Each of the sheet feeding units 100, 101, and 102 is provided with a sheet material detecting means (not shown).

In the first embodiment, A4, A4,
Although A4R and A3 sizes are assumed to be stacked, each sheet stacking unit can arbitrarily select and stack sheets having different sizes.

Sheet feeding units 100 and 10 of sheet material stacking means
A sheet material conveying path 47 is disposed downstream of each of the roller members 1 and 102. A transport roller pair 45 is provided at an upstream portion of the sheet transport path 47 as an alignment transport unit that aligns and transports the A3 sheet material 38 fed from the lower paper feed cassette 32.

In the middle part of the sheet material conveying path 47,
Alignment and conveyance of A4R-size sheet material 37 fed from middle sheet cassette 31 and lower sheet cassette 3
A transport roller pair 46 is provided as a positioning and transporting means for transporting the A3 size sheet material 38 fed from the feed roller 2.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of drive control of the roller members 21, 22, and 23. Reference numeral 16 denotes a motor which is an example of a driving unit that rotationally drives the roller members 21, 22, and 23. The motor 16 is controlled at a predetermined timing via the output interface 11 and the motor driver 15 in accordance with a command from the CPU 9 for controlling the entire motor.
1, 22, and 23 are rotationally driven.

The CPU 9 is connected to a ROM 13 storing a control program and a RAM 14 storing various data and tables.

An encoder 1 serving as a rotation speed measuring means is provided.
7 is attached to a shaft of a roller member, a shaft of a motor 16, and the like,
The output of the encoder 17 is sent to the input interface 1
0 to the CPU 9 and a timer of the CPU 9;
The RAM 14 is used to measure the total number of revolutions since the roller members 21, 22, 23 were started to be used.

The RAM 14 is provided with a sheet material size table, a sheet material size index table, and a usage count area for roller members.

In the sheet material size table, the corresponding sheet cassette 3 supplied from the input interface 10 is stored.
The sheet material size according to the detection result of the projection of the claw portion (not shown) obtained by setting 0, 31, and 32 is stored.

The sheet material size index table stores the number of rotations of the roller members 21, 22, and 23 per sheet material when the sheet material of each size is fed.

For example, when the diameter of the roller members 21, 22, 23 is 32 mm, the number of rotations r per one A3-size sheet material is obtained as 420 / 32π = 4.2, and "4.2" is obtained. Becomes Similarly, when the sheet material size is A4 (vertical placement), it is obtained as 210 / 32π = 2.1, so it is “2.1”. In this way, for sheet materials of other sizes, "2.6" for B5R, "3.0" for A4R, "3.6" for B4, and "1.8" for B5 Become.

In the roller member usage count area,
The usage status of each roller member is stored based on the number of rotations r corresponding to the sheet material size, the number n of sheets fed during the copy operation, and the total number of rotations R of the roller member during one copy operation. For example, the use status of each of the roller members of the paper feeding units 100, 101, and 102 is stored.

The RAM 14 is supplied with a power supply voltage from a battery (not shown) even when the power supply is turned off. Further, it may be constituted by an EEPROM. The RAM 14 has a roller member usage limit value set therein. When the count value in the roller member usage status count area reaches that value, the CPU 9 determines when the corresponding roller member should be replaced (wear condition). ) Is detected, and the detected contents are guided by an operation panel 12 provided in an image forming apparatus or the like.

Next, the paper feeding operation in such a configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when a copy key is input, a paper feeding operation is started. In response to this input, the CPU 9 sends the sheet cassette (30, 3) in which the corresponding sheet material is stored.
1, 32) is determined.

Then, for example, it is assumed that the feeding and conveyance of the A3 size sheet material 38 stored in the sheet feeding cassette 32 is determined.

First, the total number of rotations R of the paper feed roller 28 is calculated.
Is started, and at the same time, the number n of fed sheets during one copy operation is measured. Then, when all the copying operations are completed, the CPU 9 determines that A3
The rotation speed r “4.2” corresponding to the size is read, and the rotation speed N is calculated.

First, as shown in FIG. 3, when the sheet material S1 is being conveyed by the sheet feeding roller 22 and the separation roller 23, the number of rotations of the sheet feeding roller 22 is n and the number of rotations per sheet material. It becomes nr obtained by multiplying the number r.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the rotation speed of the paper feed roller 22 in a state where the paper feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23 are rotated together is represented by the total rotation speed R of the paper feed roller 22.
(R-nr) obtained by subtracting the number of rotations nr when the sheet material is being conveyed from. nr and (R-nr) are multiplied by the wear coefficients A and B, respectively, and the rotation speed N is as follows.

N = A × (R−nr) + B × nr Here, the wear coefficients A and B are values determined by the material and the like of the roller member.

If the material of the paper feed roller 22 and the material of the separation roller 23 are both EPDM, for example, the rotation speed N is N = 1.1 × (R−4.2 × n) + 1.0 × (4. 2x
n), the weighted processing is performed when the rollers are rotating together. Then, the count value is updated by adding the number of revolutions N to the count area for the roller members 21, 22, and 23.

When it is determined that the A3R-size sheet material 37 stored in the sheet cassette 31 is fed, the CPU 9 determines from the sheet material size index table the rotation speed r for the A4R size “3. 0 "
Middle feeding unit 10 for counting the usage status of roller members
The count value of the area for one roller member 24, 25, 26 is updated.

If it is determined that the A4 size sheet material 36 stored in the sheet cassette 30 is fed, the CPU 9 determines the A size from the sheet material index table.
The number of rotations r “2.1” for the four sizes is read out, and the count value of the area for the roller members 27, 28, 29 of the middle sheet feeding unit 100 of the roller member usage status count area is updated.

When the CPU 9 updates the stored contents of the roller member use status count area, the CPU 9 confirms whether or not the updated value has reached the preset use limit value of each roller member. If the roller member has reached the use limit value, it is determined that it is time to replace any one of the roller members, the pickup roller 21, the paper feed roller 22, and the separation roller 23, and provided in the image forming apparatus or the like. A guidance means is displayed on a message display unit (not shown) which is a display means on the operation panel 12 being operated.

When the roller member which has reached the use limit value is replaced, the count value in the usage count area of the replaced roller member is cleared at the same time.

The display mode of the message display section is as follows.
It can be arbitrarily selected.

For example, the display contents may be always displayed on the display unit so that the general user can always check, or the display contents may be called only by the service person in the service mode.

According to the former method, ordinary users other than service personnel always use the roller members (wear conditions).
You can know. If the latter method is adopted, the service mode can be used to call the count value of the roller member usage count area by connecting the telephone line to the copier so that the telephone can be called by telephone. Even without going on, it is possible to check the usage state of the roller member up to the present, that is, the abrasion state.

Also, two use limit values are provided for the first and second use limit values. For example, when the count value reaches the first set value, a warning that the roller member will soon reach the use limit is issued. When the display is performed and the replacement display is performed when the second set value is reached, the user can contact a service person in advance or prepare a replacement roller member when the user can perform the replacement work by himself. You can do it.

(Second Embodiment) In the second embodiment, the replacement time of the roller member is detected by measuring the rotational drive time of the roller member. The basic configuration is not much different from the first embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a sheet material stacking means of the image forming apparatus.

In the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, the sheet material stacking means such as the image forming apparatus has sheet feeding units 100, 101, and 102, respectively. Are sheet materials 36, 37, 38
Are stacked and set on the lifting trays 33, 34, 35.

An A4 size sheet material 36 is loaded in the cassette 30 of the upper sheet feeding unit 100.

On the downstream side (the right side in the drawing) of the A4 sheet material 36 in the sheet feeding direction, the pickup roller 21 which is a roller member and is in contact with the sheet material 36 is arranged. On the downstream side in the paper feeding direction, a paper feeding roller 22, which is a roller member,
The separation roller 23 is disposed, and the pickup roller 21 is driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow, whereby the sheet material 3 is rotated.
6 is sent out to the right in the figure.

The sheet material 36 thus sent out is:
The paper feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23 are moved toward the paper feed direction.
When another sheet material is fed together with the uppermost sheet material at this time, the feeding of the other sheet material is stopped by the action of the feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23. . In this way, double feeding of sheet materials is prevented, and only one sheet material is fed to the main body (not shown).

An A4R size (A4 horizontal) sheet material 37 is loaded in the cassette 31 of the middle sheet feeding unit 101.

The structure of the pickup roller 2
4, the feed roller 25 and the separation roller 26
It is arranged like 0.

An A3-size sheet material 38 is loaded in the cassette 32 of the lower sheet feeding section 102.

The structure of the pickup roller 2
7, the feed roller 28 and the separation roller 29
0, it is arranged in the same manner as the middle-stage paper feed unit 101.

A sheet material size detector (not shown) is disposed in each of the paper feed units 100, 101, and 102.

A sheet conveying path 47 is disposed downstream of each roller member of the sheet feeding units 100, 101, and 102. A transport roller pair 45 is provided at an upstream portion of the sheet transport path 47 as an alignment transport unit that aligns and transports the A3 sheet material 38 fed from the lower paper feed cassette 32.

In the middle part of the sheet material conveying path 47,
A pair of transport rollers 46 as a leveling / transporting means for positioning and transporting the A4R sheet material 37 fed from the middle sheet cassette 31 and transporting the A3 sheet material 38 fed from the lower sheet cassette 32. Is provided.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of drive control of the roller members 21, 22, and 23. Reference numeral 16 denotes a motor which is an example of a driving unit that rotationally drives the roller members 21, 22, and 23. The motor 16 is controlled at a predetermined timing via the output interface 11 and the motor driver 15 in accordance with a command from the CPU 9 for controlling the entire motor, whereby the roller members 21, 22, 23 are driven to rotate.

The CPU 9 is connected to a ROM 13 for storing a control program and a RAM 14 for storing various data and tables.

The RAM 14 is provided with a sheet material size table, a sheet material size index table, and a use count area for roller members.

In the sheet material size table, the corresponding sheet feeding cassette 3 supplied from the input interface 10 is provided.
The sheet material size according to the detection result of the projection of the claw portion (not shown) obtained by setting 0, 31, and 32 is stored.

The sheet material size index table stores the transport time t per sheet material when the sheet material of each size is fed by the roller members 21, 22, 23. For example, when the rotation speed of the roller members 21, 22, 23 is 300 mm / s, the transport time t per A3 size sheet material is obtained as 420/300 = 1.4, and is "1.4". Becomes Sheet material size is A
Similarly, in the case of 4 (vertical installation), 210/300 =
Since it is obtained as 0.7, it becomes "0.7". In this way, for sheet materials of other sizes, B5R
Is "0.9" for A4R, "1.0" for A4R, "1.2" for B4, and "0.6" for B5.

In the usage count area of the roller members, the usage status of each roller member is indicated by the transport time t corresponding to the sheet material size, the number n of sheets fed during one copy operation, and the roller member number during one copy operation. Is stored on the basis of the total rotation drive time T. For example, the use state of each of the roller members of the sheet feeding units 100, 101, and 102 is stored.

The RAM 14 is supplied with a power supply voltage from a battery (not shown) even when the power supply is turned off. Further, it may be constituted by an EEPROM. The RAM 14 has a roller member usage limit value set therein. When the count value in the roller member usage status count area reaches that value, the CPU 9 determines when the corresponding roller member should be replaced (wear condition). ) Is determined, and the contents are guided on an operation panel 12 provided with an image forming apparatus or the like.

Next, the paper feeding operation in such a configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when a copy key is input, a paper feeding operation is started. In response to this input, the CPU 9 sends the sheet cassette (30, 3) in which the corresponding sheet material is stored.
1, 32) is determined. Then, for example, the paper feed cassette 3
It is assumed that the feeding and conveyance of the A3 size sheet material 38 stored in the sheet No. 2 is determined. Then, first, the timer inside the CPU 9 starts measuring the total rotation driving time T in which the paper feed roller 28 is actually rotated by the motor 16, and simultaneously measures the number n of papers fed during one copy operation. To go. When all copy operations are completed, the CPU 9
Reads the rotation drive time t “1.4” for the A3 size from the sheet material size index table, and performs a calculation process of the rotation drive time N.

First, as shown in FIG. 3, when the sheet material S1 is being conveyed by the sheet feeding roller 22 and the separation roller 23, the rotation driving time of the sheet feeding roller 22 is n and the number of sheets to be fed per sheet material. This is nt obtained by multiplying the transport time t by the paper feed roller 22.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the rotational drive time of the paper feed roller 22 in a state where the paper feed roller 22 and the separation roller 23 are rotated together is the total rotational drive time of the paper feed roller 22. The rotation drive time nt when the sheet material is being conveyed is subtracted from T (T-nt). nt and (T
−nt) is multiplied by the wear coefficients A and B, and the rotational drive time N is as follows.

N = A × (T−nt) + B × nt Here, the wear coefficients A and B are values determined by the material of the roller member and the like. When the material of the paper feed roller 22 and the material of the separation roller 23 are both EPDM, for example, the rotation speed N is N = 1.1 × (R−1.4 × n) + 1.0 × (1.4 ×
n), the weighted processing is performed when the rollers are rotating together. Then, the count value is updated by adding the rotation drive time N to the count area for the roller members 21, 22, and 23.

If it is determined that the A4R-size sheet material 37 stored in the paper feed cassette 31 is fed, the CPU 9 determines from the sheet material size index table that the rotation drive time t “1” for the A4R size has been reached. .0 ", and updates the count value of the area for the roller members 24, 25, and 26 of the middle sheet feeding unit 101 of the roller member usage status count area.

When it is determined that the A4 sheet material 36 stored in the sheet cassette 30 is fed,
The PU 9 reads the rotation drive time t “0.7” for the A4 size from the sheet material size index table, and calculates the count value of the area for the roller members 27, 28, 29 of the middle sheet feeding unit 100 of the roller member use status count area. Update.

When the CPU 9 updates the stored contents of the roller member use status count area, the CPU 9 checks whether the updated value is a roller member that has reached a preset use limit value of each roller member, If the roller member has reached the use limit value, it is determined that it is time to replace any one of the roller members, the pickup roller 21, the paper feed roller 22, and the separation roller 23, and provided in the image forming apparatus or the like. A guidance means is displayed on a message display unit (not shown) which is a display means on the operation panel 12 being operated.

When the roller member which has reached the use limit value is replaced, the count value in the usage count area of the replaced roller member is cleared at the same time.

The display mode of the message display section is as follows.
It can be arbitrarily selected.

For example, the display contents may be always displayed on the display unit so that the general user can always check, or the display contents may be called only by the service person in the service mode.

According to the former method, a general user other than a service person always uses the roller member (wear condition).
You can know. If the latter method is adopted, the service mode can be used to call the count value of the roller member usage count area by connecting the telephone line to the copier so that the telephone can be called by telephone. Even without going on, it is possible to check the usage state of the roller member up to the present, that is, the abrasion state.

Also, two use limit values are provided for the first and second set values. For example, when the count value reaches the first set value, a warning display that the roller member will soon reach the use limit is displayed. If the replacement is displayed when the second set value is reached, the user can contact the service person in advance or prepare a replacement feed roller if the user can perform the replacement work by himself. You can do it.

[0092]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the number of rotations or the rotation drive time of the roller member is detected in consideration of whether or not the sheet material is being conveyed by the roller member, the use state (wear state) is determined.
It is possible to know the replacement time of the roller member more accurately than before, and it is possible to provide a sheet material feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus that can prevent the occurrence of the conventional problems beforehand.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a sheet material stacking unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a sheet material is being conveyed according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the sheet material is being conveyed in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a sheet material is being conveyed in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a control state according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a sheet material size index at a rotation speed according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a sheet material size index at a conveyance time according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 CPU 10 Input interface 11 Output interface 12 Operation panel 13 ROM 14 RAM 15 Motor driver 16 Motor 17 Encoder 21, 24, 27 Pickup roller 22, 25, 28 Feed roller 23, 26, 29 Separation roller 30, 31, 32 Feed Paper cassettes 33, 34, 35 Elevating trays 36, 37, 38 Sheet materials 45, 46 Transport roller pair 47 Sheet material transport path 100 Upper paper feed unit 101 Middle paper feed unit 102 Lower paper feed unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A sheet material stacking means capable of stacking sheet materials of different sizes, a roller member for feeding the sheet material, and a sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking means. Sheet material size detection means for detecting, rotation number measurement means for measuring the rotation number of the roller member, and sheet number measurement means for measuring the sheet number of the sheet material, the sheet material size detection The sheet material size index corresponding to the sheet material size detected by the means, the number of rotations of the roller member by the rotation number measuring means, and the information on the number of sheets of the sheet material fed by the number-of-feeds measuring means are respectively used. Processing means for counting the use state of the roller member, and comparing and determining a value of the use state counted by the processing means with a preset use limit value of the roller member. Comparing a determination means, the roller member sheet material feeding apparatus characterized by detecting the replacement time of. 2. A sheet material stacking means capable of stacking sheet materials of different sizes, a roller member for feeding the sheet material, and a sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking means. A sheet material size detecting means for detecting, a rotational driving time measuring means for measuring a rotational driving time of the roller member, and a feeding number measuring means for measuring a feeding number of the sheet material; The sheet material size index corresponding to the sheet material size detected by the size detecting means, the rotation driving time of the roller member by the rotation driving time measuring means, and the number of sheet materials fed by the feeding number measuring means, respectively. Processing means for counting the use state of the roller member based on the information of the above, a value of the use state counted by the processing means, and a preset value of the roller member The use limit value and a comparison determining the comparison determination unit, the sheet material feeding apparatus characterized by detecting the replacement time of the roller member. 3. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the comparison determination unit has at least two types of use limit values. 4. A sheet material feeding means according to claim 1, and an image forming means for forming an image on the sheet material fed by the sheet material feeding means.
Display means for displaying information on the roller member replacement time obtained by the comparison and determination means. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display unit can arbitrarily select and display information on a replacement time of the roller member from a plurality of display modes. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising at least one sheet material stacking unit.