JP2002003054A - Paper sheet housing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a paper sheet housing device capable of resolving a problem of the irregularitiy of paper sheets on a tray in using an OHP sheet with a leading tape. SOLUTION: The upper surface of a tray 17 of an image forming device for housing a paper sheet on which an image is formed is inclined downward from the position near the front side of the paper sheet tip. Preferably, the start position of downward inclination is in the range of 242 mm to 262 mm from the rear end of the tray 17, and the downward inclined surface has the angle in the range of 150 to 250 in relation to the upper surface before the inclination.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper storage device for forming an image on paper, such as an electrophotographic printer or copier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a view showing a state in which a sheet is discharged to a tray in a conventional image forming apparatus. There is no particular problem when using plain paper, but when using OHP paper, the following problem of paper misalignment on the tray is likely to occur.

[0003] In FIG. 6, in order to improve the reliability of passing OHP paper, OHP paper P having a peelable leading tape P-2 attached to the leading end side of a base material P-1 is commercially available. When an image is formed by a printer, this type of OHP paper P is passed with the leading tape P-2 attached, and after completion of image formation, the user peels off the leading tape P-2 and uses it for the projector.

[0004]

There are two types of printers and copiers for discharging an image-formed sheet to a storage tray outside the apparatus.

(1) A type in which the paper is discharged with the image surface facing upward (2) A type in which the paper is discharged with the image surface facing downward In the case of type (1), a leading tape P of OHP paper is used.
Since -2 is directed downward on the tray 17, it does not hinder the advance of the OHP paper to be discharged next. However,
In the case of the type (2), since the leading tape P-2 of the OHP paper is directed upward on the tray 17, the leading end of the OHP paper to be discharged next is discharged as shown in FIG.
Tray 1 hooked on paper reading tape P-2
7, the paper is uneven.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a paper storage device that can solve the problem of paper misalignment on a tray when using OHP paper with a leading tape.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the upper surface of the tray of the image forming apparatus for storing the sheet on which an image is formed is inclined downward from a position near the front side of the leading end of the sheet.

With this configuration, it is possible to realize a paper storage device that can solve the problem of paper misalignment on the tray when using OHP paper with a leading tape.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the upper surface of a tray of an image forming apparatus for storing a sheet on which an image is formed is inclined downward from a position near the front side of the leading end of the sheet.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the downward inclination start position is located within a range of 242 mm to 262 mm from the rear end of the tray.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the downward inclined surface is at an angle of 15 ° to 25 ° with respect to the upper surface before the inclination.

In the above configuration, it is possible to eliminate paper misalignment on the tray when using the OHP paper P with a leading tape.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an entire electrophotographic printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a paper discharge unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Configuration diagram of OHP paper P with a leading tape,
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a tray according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a paper discharge state according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image forming apparatus main body. The yellow image is formed by a photoreceptor drum 3 having an electrostatic latent image formed on its peripheral surface by a laser beam from an exposing unit 2, a charging unit 5 for charging the drum, and a toner by adhering toner to the photoreceptor. The developing unit 4 includes a developing unit 4 for visualizing an electrostatic latent image and a cleaner 6 for removing residual toner on the photoconductor after transferring the toner image to the intermediate transfer belt 8. Other color magenta, cyan, and black image formations have the same configuration.

In the image forming section, four
The toner images on the intermediate transfer belt 8 are transferred onto the OHP paper P conveyed from the paper cassette 10 by the transfer roller 12, and then the OH
The toner is fixed on the P paper P by passing through the fixing device 13,
The paper is discharged onto the tray 17 outside the machine with the image surface facing downward by the paper discharge rollers 14 and 15. The residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt 8 that has been transferred to the OHP paper P is cleaned and removed by the cleaning unit 9.

Next, the paper discharge section will be described with reference to FIG. One of the paper discharge rollers 14 is provided with a driving roller 1 made of a plurality of rubber materials on a shaft 14-5 connected to driving means (not shown).
4-1 to 4 are mounted. The other sheet discharge roller section 15 is composed of driven rollers 15-1 to 15-4 holding a leaf spring 16 for crimping, and discharges a sheet onto a tray 17 outside the apparatus. Base surface 1 of tray 17
A rib 17-1 is provided on 7-2 so that the OHP paper P is not easily attracted by static electricity.
-1 (see also FIG. 4). Rib 17-1
Is inclined downward from a position near the front side of the leading end of the OHP paper P to be used.

FIG. 5 shows a sheet discharge state when an image forming operation is performed in the above configuration. Due to the heat received by the fixing device 13, the OHP paper P immediately after being discharged is in a high temperature state. For this reason, the rigidity of the base material P-1 made of the resin PET is low, and after being discharged onto the tray 17, the leading tape P-2 gradually drops downward along the shape of the rib 17-1. For this reason, the leading end of the OHP paper P to be discharged next is not caught by the leading tape P-2 of the preceding OHP paper P, and the discharge rollers 14 and 14 reach the predetermined storage position.
15 smoothly extrudes.

Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the constituent dimensions of the OHP paper P are defined as follows.

Lp: Total length of OHP paper P in the transport direction B: Width of leading tape P-2 Next, in FIG. 4, the structural dimensions of the tray 17 are defined as follows.

Lt: distance between the downward start position of the rib 17-1 and the rear end position of the storage tray θ: the angle formed by the downward inclined surface of the rib 17-1 with the upper surface before the inclination. And the paper discharge state is as follows. (1) Value of Lp-B-Lt; (If too small) Since the leading tape P-2 has a small escape amount, the leading edge of the next OHP paper P is discharged first. 2 is easy to get caught. (If too large) As the OHP paper P cools on the tray 17, the shape is fixed along the shape of the rib 17-1, but if the value of Lp-B-Lt is large, the deformation range is widened. Therefore, when the projector is placed on the projector, the rising range of the leading end of the OHP paper P is large, and the image quality of the leading end of the OHP paper P in the projection is deteriorated. (2) Value of θ; (If too small) Because the leading tape P-2 has a small escape amount, the leading end of the next OHP paper P is easily caught on the leading tape P-2 of the OHP paper P discharged earlier. . As the OHP paper P cools down on the tray 17, its shape is fixed along the shape of the rib 17-1. However, when the value of θ is large, the deformation angle becomes large, , The degree of lifting of the leading end of the OHP paper P is large, and the image quality of the leading end of the OHP paper P in projection is reduced.

OHP paper P generally used in the market is A4 size and Letter size, and the total length of OHP paper P which must be supported by a printer or a copying machine is Lp.
= 279.4 to 297 mm is common. The width of the leading tape P-2 is about B = 10 mm.

An optimum range of the Lt value and the θ value was obtained by actually performing a paper passing test on the Lp value and the B value. Table 1 shows the test results.

[0023]

[Table 1]

From the above results, the shape of the rib 17-1 of the storage tray 17 is set to Lt = 242 mm to 262 mm, θ
When the angle is set to 15 ° to 25 °, irregularities in the OHP paper P on the tray 17, which is a problem of the conventional technology, can be prevented, and at the same time, deterioration of image quality at the front end portion during projector projection can be prevented.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the problem of paper misalignment on the storage tray when using OHP paper with a leading tape can be solved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an entire electrophotographic printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a paper discharge unit according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of OHP paper with a leading tape according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a tray according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a paper discharge state according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a view showing a state of paper discharge to a tray in a conventional image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 17 tray P OHP paper

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shinichi Tanaka 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture F-term (reference) in Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 3F054 AA01 AA06 AC02 AC05 BA04 BA13 BB02 BH01

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sheet storage device wherein an upper surface of a tray of an image forming apparatus for storing a sheet on which an image is formed is inclined downward from a position near a front side of a leading end of the sheet. 2. The tilt start position downward from the rear end of the tray is 2
2. The paper storage device according to claim 1, wherein the paper storage device is located in a range of 42 mm to 262 mm. 3. The downwardly inclined surface is one angle with respect to the upper surface before the inclination.
2. The sheet storage device according to claim 1, wherein the angle is 5 [deg.] To 25 [deg.].