JP2002145490A - Printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To feed a manually inserted paper sheet to a double surface printing mechanism by using a roller for double surface conveyance mounted for automatically fed paper sheets. SOLUTION: A printer device is provided with a printing mechanism in which a paper sheet 10c manually fed instead of automatic paper feed is fed and which effects printing on both surfaces of the paper sheet. By using a double-surface conveyance roller 7b to convey an automatically fed paper sheet, the manually inserted fed paper sheet 10c is fed in the double-surface printing mechanism.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer having a duplex printing function for printing on both sides of a sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer having a double-sided printing function for printing on both sides of a sheet has been developed (Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2589880, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-0122).
03, JP-A-08-091643 and JP-A-09-2
No. 18547), this type of printer device is capable of performing both-side printing on both automatically fed paper and manually fed paper.

[0003]

However, in the conventional printer, a paper feed roller dedicated to manual feeding for feeding paper manually fed is provided in addition to a two-sided conveying roller for feeding automatically fed paper. Therefore, it is necessary to secure an installation space for incorporating the paper feed roller dedicated to manual feeding, which has been an obstacle to downsizing the apparatus.

Further, since a paper feed roller dedicated to manual feed is provided, it is necessary to form a paper feeding path from the paper feed roller dedicated to manual feed to a double-sided transport roller for transporting paper automatically fed. This has also been an obstacle to miniaturization of the device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device in which a manually fed sheet is fed to a printing mechanism by using a two-sided conveying roller provided for an automatically fed sheet.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer according to the present invention is provided with a printer having a duplex printing function for printing on both sides of a sheet. A printing mechanism that performs a manual feeding operation in place of automatic paper feeding and has a function of performing printing on both sides of the paper, using a double-sided conveyance roller for conveying the automatically fed paper. And feeding the manually fed paper to the printing mechanism.

The double-sided conveying roller separates the automatically fed paper and the manually fed paper in the forward and reverse rotation directions and feeds them to the printing mechanism.

The rotation direction of the double-sided conveying roller is controlled by a detection signal for detecting the manually fed sheet.

The double-sided conveying roller feeds manually fed paper instead of the automatically fed paper to the printing mechanism by the same rotation.

Further, feeding of the manually fed paper to the printing mechanism is started based on a detection signal for detecting the manually fed paper.

The manually fed paper is inserted from the same direction as the paper feeding direction of the automatic paper feeding by the two-sided feeding roller.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printer device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation sequence of a controller for controlling the operation of the printer device shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a main body M of the printer
Is provided with a printing mechanism for printing one side at a time on the front and back sides of paper and performing double-sided printing. The printing mechanism includes a transfer unit 3 and a fixing unit 4.

The transfer section 3 charges the surface of the image carrier,
A function of irradiating the charged surface with exposure light to form an electrostatic latent image, attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image for development, and transferring the developed visible image (toner image) to paper It is provided with.

The fixing section 4 has a function of fixing the visible image transferred to the sheet to the sheet.

The printing mechanism performs printing on the paper fed to the transfer unit 3 and the fixing unit 4 with the front side as the printing surface, and reverses the back side to the printing surface and sends it to the transfer unit 3 and the fixing unit 4 again. It has a function to print on both sides of the front side and the back side of the paper by printing on the printed paper.

A paper feed tray 9 is provided on the paper loading side of the transfer section 3.
And a registration roller 2 for temporarily stopping the paper fed from the pick roller 1 and feeding the paper 10 to the transfer unit 3 in synchronization with the printing start timing of the printing mechanism. A paper guide (not shown) for guiding the paper is provided on a path from the pick roller 1 to the transfer unit 3.

On the other hand, a discharge roller 5 for discharging printed paper to a stacker 6 is provided on the paper discharge side of the fixing unit 4. A paper guide (not shown) for guiding the paper is provided on a path from the fixing unit 4 to the stacker 6.

The discharge roller 5 completely discharges the sheet to the stacker 6 in the case of single-sided printing, but stacks the sheet while holding the end of the sheet after the single-sided printing in the case of performing double-sided printing. 6, and is operated so as to feed the paper into the main body M of the printer device when performing back side printing.

In order to print on the back side of the paper, it is necessary to reverse the front side and the back side of the paper, and the paper on which one side on the front side is printed is reversed, and the back side of the paper is used as a printing surface by the printing mechanism. A feeding double-sided paper transport system is formed between the discharge roller 5 and the printing mechanism.

The two-sided conveying system includes a two-sided conveying roller 7
a and a double-sided conveying roller 7b. A paper guide (not shown) is provided on a path from the discharge roller 5 to the printing mechanism through the two-sided conveying rollers 7a and 7b.

In FIG. 1, in order to clarify the movement of the paper at the time of double-sided printing, a paper having a printing surface on the front side is placed on the paper conveyance path from the paper feed tray 9 to the discharge roller 5.
Reference numeral 0a denotes a sheet having a printing surface on the back side, and reference numeral 10b denotes a sheet on the conveyance path of the sheet from the discharge roller 5 to the registration roller 2.

Further, a double-sided conveying roller 7b for feeding the paper 10b having the back side as a printing surface to the registration roller 2 is provided close to the manual paper opening 12 side, and a feed tray is provided in accordance with the forward / reverse rotation direction of the double-sided conveying roller 7b. 9, the paper 10 automatically fed and the paper 10c fed from the manual paper slot 12 are separately fed to the printing mechanism. More specifically, the driven paper 7c is provided with a driven roller 7c,
0c is sandwiched between the two-sided conveying roller 7b and the driven roller 7c, guided by a paper guide (not shown), and fed to the registration roller 2.

A manual paper presence / absence sensor 8 for detecting the presence / absence of paper 10c to be manually fed is installed in the manual paper opening 12, and the manual paper presence / absence sensor 8 detects the paper 10c to be manually fed. The controller 11 controls the rotation direction of the double-sided conveying roller 7b by a signal.

Further, there is provided a controller 11 for controlling the driving of each of the above-mentioned components to perform double-sided printing on a sheet.

Next, the operation of the printer according to the present invention will be described. When a two-sided printing start command S1 is input from outside, the controller 11 performs two-sided printing on the paper 10c that is manually fed according to the input of the manual printing start command S2, or the paper 10 that is automatically fed from the paper feeding tray 9. Paper feed sensor 8 to determine whether to print on both sides
Is determined based on the detection signal.

When the controller 11 does not output a detection signal from the manual paper presence sensor 8, the controller 11 issues a double-sided printing start command S 1 to the paper 10 automatically fed from the paper feed tray 9.
Is determined to be a command for performing double-sided printing, and the printing mode is set to the automatic paper feed printing mode. In this case, the controller 11 controls the drive motor 13 for driving the double-sided conveying rollers 7a and 7b to rotate forward. In this case, the controller 11
Generates a forward rotation control command S2 when issuing a drive command to the duplex conveying rollers 7a and 7b.

The pick roller 1 picks up a sheet 10 from the sheet feed tray 9 under the control of the controller 11, and sends the sheet 10 to the registration roller 2 as a sheet 10a having the front side as a printing surface.

When the sheet 10a is fed, the registration roller 2 sends the sheet 10a to the transfer section 3 in accordance with the printing timing of the transfer section 3 under the control of the controller 11.

In the transfer section 3, under the control of the controller 11, single-sided printing is performed on the front side of the sheet 10 a fed by the registration roller 2, and this is sent to the fixing section 4.

The fixing section 4 fixes the visible image (toner image) transferred from the transfer section 3 to the printing surface on the front side of the sheet 10a under the control of the controller 11, and sends it out.

When the sheet 10a is fed from the fixing unit 4 under the control of the controller 11, the discharge roller 5 once discharges the sheet 10a to the stacker 6. At that time, the discharge roller 5 waits for the next command from the controller 11 while holding the rear end of the sheet 10a.

When a command is input from the controller 11,
The discharge roller 5 feeds the paper 10a to a paper guide (not shown) with the feeding direction of the paper 10a toward the two-sided conveying roller 7a.

The two-sided conveying roller 7a is connected to the controller 11
10a fed from the discharge roller 5 under the control of
Is fed into a paper guide (not shown) as a paper 10b having a back side as a printing surface.

The two-sided conveying roller 7b is connected to the controller 11
The paper 10b sent from the two-sided conveying roller 7a at the preceding stage is sent to the registration roller 2 under the control of the above.

When the sheet 10b is fed, the registration roller 2 sends the sheet 10b to the transfer section 3 under the control of the controller 11 in accordance with the printing timing of the transfer section 3.

In the transfer section 3, under the control of the controller 11, single-sided printing is performed on the front side of the sheet 10 b sent by the registration roller 2, and this is sent to the fixing section 4.

The fixing section 4 fixes the visible image (toner image) transferred from the transfer section 3 to the printing surface on the back side of the sheet 10b under the control of the controller 11, and sends it out.

The discharge roller 5 completely discharges the sheet 10 b to the stacker 6 when the sheet 10 b is sent out from the fixing unit 4 under the control of the controller 11.

This completes the double-sided printing on the front and back sides of the automatically fed paper.

On the other hand, when the manual paper presence / absence sensor 8 detects the paper 10c to be manually fed and outputs a detection signal, the controller 11 sends a double-sided printing start command S1 from the manual paper slot 12 to the manual paper feed. It is determined that the instruction is to perform double-sided printing on the paper 10c, and the printing mode is set to the manual feed printing mode.

In this case, the controller 11 outputs a command S3 for reversely rotating the double-sided conveying roller 7b based on a detection signal from the manual paper sensor 8 and controls the double-sided conveying roller 7b in reverse rotation.

Accordingly, the paper 10c inserted into the manual paper opening 12 is nipped between the two-sided conveying roller 7b and the driven roller 7c, picked up, guided by a paper guide (not shown), and sent to the registration roller 2.

When the paper 10c is completely fed into the registration roller 2 from the manual paper opening 12, the controller 11 issues a forward rotation command S4 to set the rotation direction of the two-sided conveyance roller 7b to the forward rotation direction in preparation for the duplex printing. Do it again.

When the paper 10c is fed, the registration roller 2 feeds the paper 10c to the transfer unit 3 under the control of the controller 11 in accordance with the printing timing of the transfer unit 3.

The transfer section 3 performs one-sided printing on the front side of the sheet 10 c fed by the registration rollers 2 under the control of the controller 11, and sends it to the fixing section 4.

The fixing unit 4 fixes the visible image (toner image) transferred from the transfer unit 3 to the printing surface on the front side of the sheet 10c under the control of the controller 11, and sends it out.

When the sheet 10c is sent out from the fixing unit 4 under the control of the controller 11, the ejection roller 5 once ejects the sheet 10c to the stacker 6. At that time, the discharge roller 5
Waits for the next command from the controller 11 while holding the rear end of the sheet 10c.

When a command is input from the controller 11,
The discharge roller 5 feeds the paper 10c to a paper guide (not shown) with the feeding direction of the paper 10c directed toward the duplex conveying roller 7a.

The two-sided conveying roller 7a is connected to the controller 11
10c fed from the discharge roller 5 under the control of
Is fed into a paper guide (not shown) as a paper 10b having a back side as a printing surface.

The two-sided conveying roller 7b is connected to the controller 11
The paper 10b sent from the two-sided conveying roller 7a at the preceding stage is sent to the registration roller 2 under the control of the above.

When the paper 10 b is fed, the registration roller 2 feeds the paper 10 b to the transfer unit 3 under the control of the controller 11 in accordance with the printing timing of the transfer unit 3.

In the transfer unit 3, under the control of the controller 11, single-sided printing is performed on the front side of the sheet 10 b sent by the registration roller 2, and this is sent to the fixing unit 4.

The fixing section 4 fixes the visible image (toner image) transferred from the transfer section 3 onto the printing surface on the back side of the sheet 10b under the control of the controller 11, and sends it out.

When the sheet 10b is sent out from the fixing unit 4 under the control of the controller 11, the ejection roller 5 completely ejects the sheet 10b to the stacker 6.

As a result, the paper 10c fed manually is supplied.
, The double-sided printing on both the front and back sides is completed.

(Embodiment 2) In the above description, the paper 1 automatically fed by rotating the double-sided conveying roller 7b forward and reverse
Although the case where 0 and the paper 10c fed manually are separately fed to the printing mechanism has been described, the present invention is not limited to this.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, a manual insertion direction H2 is set in a direction inclined slightly outward from the insertion direction H1 of the sheet 10b into the two-sided conveying roller 7b. A paper port 12 is provided, the paper 10c from the manual paper port 12 is detected by a manual paper presence sensor 8, and based on a detection signal from the manual paper presence sensor 8, the automatic paper supply is switched to manual paper supply to switch the paper 10c. While being set in the same direction as the rotation direction of the automatic sheet feeding, the sheet 10c may be sent to the registration roller 2 side while being sandwiched between the two-sided conveying rollers 7b.

The sheet 10c fed manually may be sent to the registration roller 2 side by pressing the sheet against the two-sided conveying roller 7b with only the lift plate (load load plate) without using the driven roller 7c.

In the case where only one side is printed on the paper 10 automatically fed and the paper 10c fed manually, one-side printing is performed without performing the process of inverting and feeding the paper by the discharge roller 5. The operation sequence of discharging the paper from the discharge roller 5 to the stacker 6 when the process is completed may be executed by the controller 11.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, the manually fed paper is fed to the printing mechanism by using the double-sided transport rollers provided for the transport of the automatically fed paper.
Unlike a conventional printer, there is no need to provide a paper feed roller dedicated to manual feeding, and the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

Since the paper fed manually is double-sided printed using the paper feeding system of the paper automatically fed, the apparatus can be downsized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation sequence of a controller for controlling the operation of the printer shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 pick roller 2 registration roller 3 transfer unit 4 fixing unit 5 discharge roller 6 stacker 7a, 7b double-sided conveyance roller 8 manual paper presence sensor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H028 BA06 BA09 BA16 3F049 DA12 EA17 EA24 LA07 LB03 3F053 BA03 BA14 BA19 BA27 EA05 EB01 EC02 ED15 LA07 LB03 3F063 AA01 AB01 AC03 AD02 AD03 BA02 BB07 CA02 3F100 AA02 CA

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printer having a double-sided printing function for printing on both sides of a sheet, a printing mechanism for printing on both sides of the automatically fed sheet,
A function of feeding paper manually fed instead of automatic paper feeding and performing printing on both sides of the paper, and using a two-sided conveyance roller for conveying the paper automatically fed, the manual paper feeding A printing device for feeding the paper to be printed to the printing mechanism. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the two-sided conveyance roller separates the automatically fed paper and the manually fed paper in the forward and reverse rotation directions and feeds the separated paper to the printing mechanism. The printer device according to the above. 3. The printer device according to claim 2, wherein a rotation direction of the double-sided conveyance roller is controlled by a detection signal for detecting the manually fed sheet. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the double-sided conveyance roller feeds manually fed paper instead of the automatically fed paper to the printing mechanism by the same rotation. 5. The printer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein feeding of the manually fed paper to the printing mechanism is started based on a detection signal for detecting the manually fed paper. . 6. The printer device according to claim 4, wherein the manually fed paper is inserted from the same direction as the paper feeding direction of the automatic paper feeding by the two-sided feeding roller.