JP2002096946A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device installable in a small space although fitted with a manual paper feeding part. SOLUTION: A stacking portion 50 is usable in manually feeding paper. That is, a paper feed tray selected by use of an operating part or the like not shown in the figure is used to manually feed paper to enable sheets of paper stacked on the stacking portion 50 to be used as sheets of paper to be manually fed. The sheets of paper stacked in the stacking portion 50 can be adjusted in width by a width adjusting portion 54. This width adjustment may be made either automatically or manually.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile, a printer, and a copying machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a first prior art, as shown in FIG. 6, a post-processing apparatus 2 for performing post-processing such as stapling is provided with:
A configuration in which the image forming apparatus 1 is attached to the left or right side surface of the image forming apparatus main body 1 in a so-called external manner is generally used. However, when the post-processing device 2 is externally attached as described above, the entire device when the image forming apparatus main body 1 and the post-processing device 2 are combined becomes large, and a large installation space is required.

Further, in order to secure a space for jam clearance when required, the post-processing apparatus 2 must be configured to be able to be separated from the image forming apparatus main body 1 by a predetermined distance.
For that purpose, it is necessary to secure a space for allowing the post-processing device 2 to be separated. Further, a mounting base 3 having a guide or the like for guiding the post-processing device 2 to stabilize the detaching operation is also required. From this point, the installation space is widened and the structure is complicated.

Further, as a second prior art, there is known an image forming apparatus having a stack section for temporarily stacking sheets in order to perform double-sided copying or composite copying. The image forming apparatus stacks the sheets copied on the first side once in the stacking section, and when performing double-sided copying, feeds the sheets from the stacking section and then copies on the second side. When performing double-sided copying and performing composite copying, composite printing is performed by feeding paper from the stack section and then performing copying on the first side again.

In an image forming apparatus having such a stack unit, for example, even if a mistake is noticed in the middle of copying, if the copying is forcibly stopped in the middle, a paper jam occurs and the processing is complicated. Therefore, the user has to wait until the copy is completed and the sheet is discharged. For this reason, even if the paper is in the process of being transported on which an image has not been formed yet, the only way to wait is for the copy to be completed and the copied paper to be ejected. Could not. Further, even if a sheet has been copied on one side of the sheet, a user who wants to use the other side cannot use the miscopy in the case of the double-sided copy again.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the first prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus having a post-processing function and capable of reducing an installation space. . Further, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which does not need to secure a space around the image forming apparatus main body for jam processing and can substantially reduce the installation space. is there.

Further, the present invention has been made in view of the problem of the second prior art, and another object of the present invention is to provide:
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of reusing a paper sheet being conveyed even if a miscopy is noticed during copying.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 has a paper discharge space which enters inside from the outer surface at the middle part in the vertical direction of the main body housing, In an image forming apparatus in which a discharge section on which a discharged sheet can be deposited is formed at a bottom portion of a sheet discharge space, the image forming apparatus conveys the sheet from an image forming section that forms an image on a sheet to a downstream side in a sheet conveying direction. A sheet transport path for guiding the sheet to be transported to the upstream side of the image forming section in the sheet transport direction, and a stapling process performed on the sheet discharged above the sheet discharge space. A post-processing unit for performing the processing, and paper feeding means for feeding the paper from the post-processing unit to the paper transport path. The paper fed from the paper feeding unit is transported to the image forming unit via the paper transport path. Image forming characterized by being performed It is the location. According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the post-processing function is provided in the middle of the main body housing in the vertical direction and above the paper discharge space that enters inside from the outer surface, the installation space can be reduced. Also,
There is no need to secure a space around the image forming apparatus main body for jam clearance, and it is possible to substantially reduce the installation space. Further, since the paper feeding means is provided in the middle part in the vertical direction of the main body housing above the paper discharge space which has entered inside from the outer surface, the conventional manual paper feeding section is provided on the side surface of the image forming apparatus main body. It is possible to reduce the size of the space as compared with the conventional one.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the paper transport path is a double-sided unit provided on one side of the main body housing, and discharges the paper to the paper discharge space when performing double-sided copying. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a sheet that has been copied on the first surface is switched back by a discharge roller that is made, and then a copy is made on the second surface via the duplex unit and discharged. is there.
According to the second aspect of the invention, since the duplex unit is used as the sheet transport path, the size of the image forming apparatus main body can be reduced. Therefore, the installation space can be reduced in size.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a stacking section on which sheets can be temporarily stacked during a copying operation, and capable of performing copying on both sides of the sheet or capable of performing composite copying. , A stop key for stopping the copying operation, a stack conveying means for conveying the paper being conveyed to the stack portion, and an image forming stopping means for stopping the image forming operation during the copying, and When the stop key is pressed, the image forming stop means operates to stop the image forming operation on the paper being conveyed,
The stack conveying means operates to convey the paper being conveyed to the stack unit, and at the time of the next copy, if the stack unit is selected as a paper feed tray, the sheets stacked on the stack unit can be copied. Image forming apparatus. According to the third aspect of the present invention, even if a mistaken copy is noticed in the middle of copying, the paper being conveyed can be reused, so that the paper is not wasted and is very convenient.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the stack portion includes a tray portion and a staple portion provided at an upper portion of a sheet discharge space which enters inside from the outer surface at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction of the main body housing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image forming apparatus is a post-processing unit. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the stack portion is a post-processing portion provided at an upper part of the sheet discharge space which enters inside from the outer surface at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction of the main body housing, the installation space can be reduced. . Further, it is not necessary to secure a space around the image forming apparatus main body for jam clearance, and it is possible to substantially reduce the installation space.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration according to the present invention. First, referring to FIG. 1, the outer shape of the image forming apparatus 1 is constituted by a main body housing 11, and the main body housing 11 has a paper discharge space portion 12 which enters inside from the outer surface at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction. Are formed. A bottom portion of the paper discharge space 12 is configured as a first discharge portion 13 so that normal discharge paper (paper not subjected to post-processing) is stacked, and the paper discharge space 12 is formed.
A post-processing unit 14, which will be described later, is provided in the upper part of the sheet.
To be discharged to

More specifically, referring to FIG. 2, the paper fed from the paper feed unit 20 is transferred to an image by an image forming unit 21 and is fixed by a fixing unit 22. If not processed, the sheet is discharged to the first discharge section 13 via the first discharge roller pair 23. On the other hand, when post-processing is performed, the sheet after fixing is conveyed to the post-processing unit 14 by the second discharge roller pair 24 and stocked. Switching of these discharge paths is performed by a switching claw (not shown) or the like. When the stock of sheets to be post-processed is completed and a sheet bundle is formed, post-processing is performed on the sheet bundle. Thereafter, the sheet bundle is discharged to the second discharge unit 15 via the pair of conveying rollers 25 and a pair of conveying rollers 41 in the duplex unit 40 described later.
The common roller 27 functions as a lower roller of the second discharge roller pair 24 and also functions as an upper roller of the transport roller pair 25. By taking such a configuration,
Three rollers can form two roller pairs,
Since one roller can be eliminated, an effect such as miniaturization of the apparatus and cost reduction can be achieved.

When it is desired to make copies on both sides of a sheet, the copying is performed by using a duplex unit 40 provided on one side (left side in FIG. 2) of the main body housing 11 in FIG. The duplex roller 40 includes a pair of transport rollers 41,
42 and 43 are provided. For example, when a sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit 20 passes through the image forming unit 21 according to a double-sided copy instruction from an operation unit (not shown), the first
The image is transferred to the first side of the sheet, and the image is fixed to the first side of the sheet by the fixing unit 22.
The sheet is conveyed to the discharge roller pair 24 side. When the trailing edge of the paper reaches the second discharge roller pair 24, the rotation of the second discharge roller pair 24 reverses, and the trailing edge of the paper becomes the leading edge, that is, the sheet is switched back to move the paper to the duplex unit 40. Transport to The sheet conveyed into the duplex unit 40 is again conveyed to the image forming unit 21 via the conveying roller pairs 41, 42, and 43, where the image is transferred to the second side (the back side of the first side) of the sheet and fixed. After the image is fixed on the second side of the sheet by the unit 22, the first ejection roller pair 2 is
The sheet is conveyed to the third side and discharged to the first discharge unit 13 so that double-sided copying can be performed. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a specific example of the sheet transport path that guides the sheet transported downstream from the image forming unit that forms an image on the sheet to the sheet transport direction upstream of the image forming unit is described. Uses a double-sided unit as described above.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the structure of the post-processing unit according to the present invention. The configuration of the post-processing unit 14 will be described with reference to FIG. The post-processing unit 14 includes a stack unit 50 for stacking sheets and a staple unit 30 for stapling the sheet bundle stacked on the stack unit 50. The stacking section 50 has a width adjusting section 54 for adjusting the width of the sheet bundle stacked on the tray 51. The stapling section 30 stores a staple (not shown).

The width matching section 54 includes a first side fence 61, a second side fence 63, and a rear end side fence 6.
5 and driving means (not shown) for moving these three side fences along moving openings 62, 64, 66 provided in the tray 51, respectively.
The width of the stack of sheets stacked on the stack can be adjusted.

Further, according to the present invention, the stack unit 50 can be used as a manual sheet feeding. That is, by manually feeding a paper feed stage selected by an operation unit or the like (not shown), the paper placed on the stack unit 50 can be used as manual paper feed. Describing a more detailed configuration, the sheet placed on the stack unit 50 is configured so that the width of the sheet can be adjusted by the width adjusting unit 54 first. This width adjustment operation may be performed automatically or manually. By this width adjusting operation, the paper can be fed in parallel with the transport direction.

The paper feeding mechanism is as follows. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating driving of the transport roller pair 25. Referring to FIG. 4, common roller 27 and lower roller 251
An upper gear 253 and a lower gear 254 are provided coaxially with upper and lower rollers of the transport roller pair 25 configured by
The upper gear 253 and the lower gear 254 are drivingly connected.
The upper gear 253 is drivingly connected to a motor 70 serving as a driving source, and the rotation of the motor 70 causes the transport roller pair 25 to rotate. The motor 7
Numeral 0 is connected to the control means 75, and the control means 75 issues an instruction to rotate the motor 70 by an instruction from an operation unit (not shown). The lower roller 251 has a built-in clutch (not shown) that is driven and connected only when discharging a sheet bundle during post-processing. Thus, when the transport roller pair 25 is used as a paper feed roller pair during manual paper feed, the rotational drive is not transmitted to the lower roller 251 by the action of the clutch, so that the lower roller 251 functions as a separation roller. Will be done.

Further, a feed roller pair 2 which functions as a feed roller, a front feed mechanism, that is, the leading end of the sheet on the stack section 50 is provided.
In the present embodiment, the rear end side fence 65 pushes the rear end of the sheet in the sheet feeding direction with respect to the mechanism for feeding the sheet to the nip position 5.
May be inclined to be attached to the paper discharge space 12 so that the leading end of the paper is guided to the nip position of the transport roller pair 25 by the weight of the paper, or a forward feed roller may be separately provided.

Next, the operation when the transport roller pair 25 is used as a paper feed roller pair that requires a paper separation mechanism and the operation when the transport roller pair 25 is used as a paper bundle discharge when post-processing without the paper separation mechanism is performed will be described. I do. First, in the case of using the manual sheet feeding, first, the sheet is placed on the manual sheet feeding section, that is, the stack section 50, and the first side fence 61 and the second side fence 63 are slid according to the sheet width. Switch the paper cassette selection to manual paper feeding on the operation unit (not shown), and press the print key. Then, by driving a driving unit (not shown) via the control unit, the rear end side fence 65 moves to the transport roller 25 side, whereby the paper on the stack unit 50 is pushed in the paper feeding direction, and Is sent to the nip position of the transport roller pair 25 functioning as a paper feed roller. At the same time, the motor 70 rotates (in the direction of arrow C shown in FIG. 4) via the control means 75, and the upper gear 253 and the lower gear 254, which are drivingly connected to the motor 70, respectively show arrows A and B shown in FIG. Rotate in the direction. At this time, a signal is sent from the control means 75 to the clutch, and the lower roller 251 does not rotate due to the action of the clutch. As a result, the common roller 27 rotates clockwise, but the lower roller 251 does not rotate, so that only the uppermost sheet is fed. The fed paper is supplied to the duplex unit 40.
After being conveyed to the inside, passing through the conveying roller pairs 41, 42, and 43, and conveyed to the image forming unit 21 to transfer the image to the sheet, the fixing unit 22 fixes the image on the sheet,
The sheet is conveyed toward the first discharge roller 23 by a switching claw (not shown) and discharged to the first discharge unit 13. The second and subsequent sheets are also fed, conveyed, and discharged in the same manner as described above. In this way, copying by manual sheet feeding becomes possible. When the transport roller pair 25 is used as a sheet bundle discharge after post-processing, the clutch is not actuated by the control means 75, so that the rotation of the motor 70 is limited to the upper gear 253 and the lower gear 253. Gear 2
The drive is transmitted to the lower roller 251 via 54, so that the sheet bundle is discharged to the second discharge unit 15.

In the present invention, with respect to the above-described embodiment,
Further, it is possible to add a used paper recopy function. To explain the used paper re-copy function, a stop key 90 for immediately stopping the copy operation is provided on the operation unit of the image forming apparatus 1, and by pressing the stop key 90, the image forming operation of the image forming unit 21 is interrupted. The image forming stopping means to be stopped by the operation is operated, but for the sheet which has already been fed and has not been discharged, the stack conveying means is operated, that is, the conveying system driving motor 95 for driving the conveying roller and the discharging roller. , The transport rollers and the discharge rollers are rotated to discharge the paper to the stack unit 50. The paper discharged to the stack unit 50 can be reused as copy paper using the above-described manual paper feed mechanism. Therefore, even if a mistake is noticed during copying, the paper being transported can be reused. Can be. A mechanism having such a stop key 90 and capable of reusing a sheet in the case of an erroneous copy is described below. The same effects as described above can be obtained even if the image forming apparatus is provided with a stacking unit as long as the image forming apparatus has a stack unit for double-sided copy or composite copy. Therefore, the present invention is also applicable to an image forming apparatus that does not have a paper discharge space that enters inside from the outer surface at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction of the main body housing.

In the above-described embodiment, in the above-described embodiment, a sheet which is conveyed downstream from the image forming unit for forming an image on the sheet in the sheet conveying direction is guided to an upstream side in the sheet conveying direction from the image forming unit. Although a duplex unit was specifically used as the transport path, the present invention is not limited to this, and a paper transport path for guiding the paper from the downstream side to the upstream side of the image forming unit is built in the main body housing. The present invention can be applied even if a dedicated paper transport path for use as manual paper feed is provided.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even in an image forming apparatus equipped with a manual paper feed unit, a space for using manual paper feed is not required on the side of the main body housing, so that the installation space can be reduced. Further, even when a mistake is noticed during copying, the paper being conveyed can be reused, which is very convenient.

[0024]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a configuration of a stack unit in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating driving of a second discharge roller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional configuration.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming apparatus 11 ... Main body housing 12 ... Paper discharge space part 13 ... First discharge part 14 ... Post-processing part 15 ... Second discharge part 20 ... Paper supply part 21 ... Image forming part 22 ... Fixing part 23 ... First Discharge roller pair 24 Second discharge roller pair 25 Conveyor roller pair 27 Common roller 251 Lower roller 253 Upper gear 254 Lower gear 30 Staple unit 40 Inside double-sided unit 41, 42, 43 ... Conveyor roller pair 50 ... Stack section 70 ... Motor 75 ... Control means 90 ... Stop key 95 ... Transport system drive motor

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G03G 15/00 106 G03G 15/00 106 3F100 550 550 3F108 F-term (Reference) 2H028 BA06 BA09 BA14 BB02 BB04 2H071 BA03 DA05 DA22 DA23 DA24 DA31 3F053 BA03 BA19 BA27 3F054 AA01 AC02 AC03 AC05 BA02 BB01 BC13 BF08 DA01 DA02 3F063 AA01 AB07 AD01 BA02 BC01 CA02 3F100 AA02 CA12 3F108 GA01 GB01 HA02 HA32

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image having a paper discharge space which enters inside from the outer surface at an intermediate portion in the vertical direction of the main body housing, and a discharge portion on which the discharged paper can be deposited is formed at the bottom of the paper discharge space. In the forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus is a paper transport path that guides the paper transported downstream in the paper transport direction from the image forming unit that forms an image on the paper to the paper transport direction upstream from the image forming unit, A post-processing unit that is provided above the paper discharge space and performs a stapling process on the paper discharged above the paper discharge space; and a paper feeding unit that feeds the paper from the post-processing unit to a paper transport path Wherein the paper fed from the paper feeding means is transported to the image forming unit via a paper transport path. 2. The sheet conveying path is a double-sided unit provided on one side of the main body housing. When performing double-sided copying, the sheet is conveyed to the first side by a discharge roller for discharging the sheet to the sheet discharge space. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein after the completed sheet is switched back, a copy is made on the second side via the duplex unit and the copy is discharged. 3. An image forming apparatus having a stacking section on which sheets can be temporarily stacked in the middle of a copying operation and capable of copying on both sides of a sheet or capable of performing composite copying, stopping the copying operation. A key, a stack conveying means for conveying the paper being conveyed to the stack portion, and an image formation stopping means for stopping the image forming operation in the middle of the copying. The stop means operates to stop the image forming operation on the paper being conveyed, and the stack conveyance means operates to convey the paper being conveyed to the stack portion, and at the time of the next copy,
An image forming apparatus characterized in that when the stack section is selected as a paper feed tray, copying can be performed on sheets stacked in the stack section. 4. The post-processing section according to claim 3, wherein the stack section is a post-processing section provided at an upper portion of a sheet discharge space that enters inside from an outer surface at an intermediate portion in a vertical direction of the main body housing. Image forming apparatus.