JP2002241034A - Sheet handling device, and image forming apparatus having the sheet handling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sheet handling device capable of reliably dropping an upwardly stacked sheet bundle downwardly to the predetermined position. SOLUTION: The sheet handling device comprises a sheet stacking part capable of temporarily stacking the sheets carried from a sheet carrying part while the downstream side of the carrying direction is located higher than the upstream side thereof, an aligning means 311 capable of aligning the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking part and dropping the stacked sheets downwardly, and a reference wall 323 which is provided on the upstream side of the sheet carrying direction of the sheet stacking part to align rear ends of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking part, and the angle α formed between a sheet abutting surface of the reference wall and a guide surface of a sheet guide 311 is set in a range of 90-70 deg..

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus having the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus such as a printer is provided with a sheet processing apparatus on the sheet discharge side. For example, a face-down discharge section (FD discharge section) provided on the upper surface of the printer with an image forming surface facing downward. A sheet discharged to a certain sheet stacking unit is scooped up by a flapper, and the scooped-up sheet is conveyed to a stacking unit arranged above the sheet stacking unit of the printer. There has been proposed a sheet processing apparatus for dropping a bundle of sheets onto a sheet stacking section (discharge section) on the upper surface of the printer.

In such a small and inexpensive sheet processing apparatus in which the FD discharge section of the printer body is commonly used for stacking the sheet bundle discharged from the sheet processing apparatus, the sheet S discharged from the sheet processing apparatus is used in the printer body. F
As shown in FIG. 12, the sheet may not lean on the sheet processing apparatus or may protrude from the printer FD discharge unit to prevent the sheet from being discharged from the printer main body, as shown in FIG. .

An object of the invention according to the present application is to provide a sheet processing apparatus capable of reliably dropping a sheet bundle stacked above to a predetermined lower position, and an image forming apparatus including the same.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus in which a downstream side is arranged at a higher position with respect to an upstream side in a conveying direction, and a sheet conveyed from a sheet conveying section is temporarily stacked. And an aligning unit for performing an aligning operation of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking unit, and performing a drop operation of dropping the stacked sheets downward, and provided at an upstream side in the sheet conveying direction of the sheet stacking unit. And
A reference wall for aligning the trailing edge of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking section.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking section for temporarily stacking a sheet conveyed from a sheet conveying section, wherein the sheet stacking section is disposed at a position higher on the downstream side with respect to the upstream side in the conveying direction; Aligning means for performing the aligning operation of the sheets stacked on the unit and performing a drop operation of dropping the stacked sheets downward, processing means for processing the sheet bundle aligned by the aligning means, and the sheet A reference wall is provided upstream of the stacking section in the sheet conveying direction, and has a reference wall for aligning the rear ends of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking section.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the reference wall forms an angle of 90 between an abutting surface with which the rear end of the sheet abuts and a guide surface of the sheet formed by the alignment means. It is characterized in that it is set to a range of up to 70 degrees.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the reference wall has a central portion of the sheet having no surface in contact with the sheet in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction, and an end portion of the sheet. It comes into contact with the sheet at two places.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the reference wall is provided with a sliding member at a position abutting on the sheet.

In a sixth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the reference wall is formed of a metal plate or a pin at a portion abutting on the sheet.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the reference wall is provided on the alignment means.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above-mentioned inventions, the aligning means is arranged such that the sheet discharged from the sheet discharge port of the apparatus for supplying the sheet to the sheet conveying section is stacked on the main volume loading section. Is dropped.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the above-mentioned inventions, the apparatus main loading section is arranged above an apparatus main body of an apparatus for supplying a sheet to the sheet conveying section.

According to a tenth aspect, in any one of the above aspects,
The alignment unit is configured to contact a side surface of a sheet stacked on the first sheet stacking unit and to move a pair of guide members along a width direction of the sheet and a driving source that drives the guide member. The guide member is driven by the drive source to move to a position wider than the width of the conveyed sheet before the sheet is conveyed to the sheet stacking unit, and the sheet is When loaded into the stacking unit, the driving force of the drive source is transmitted to one or both of the guide members, so that the guide member moves to the sheet side and the side surface of the sheet is moved to the side surface of the other guide member. After the sheet is aligned by contact, the driving force of the driving source is transmitted to the respective guide members, whereby the respective guide members move in a direction in which the interval is widened and drop the sheet. And wherein the door.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet processing apparatus according to any one of the above, wherein at least an image forming means for forming an image on a sheet, and an image forming means for supplying a sheet to the sheet conveying section. And a sheet conveying means for conveying a sheet on which an image is formed by the above-described method to the sheet processing apparatus.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) First, FIG.
The first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing the overall configuration of a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus (printer) according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a printer main body as an image forming apparatus, which is independently connected to a computer or to a network such as a LAN, and based on image information and print signals sent from the computer and the network. This is an apparatus for forming (printing) an image on a sheet by a predetermined image forming process and discharging the sheet.

On the other hand, the sheet processing apparatus 300 controls the sheet discharged from the printer
1. The sheet is picked up, placed on the first sheet stacking unit in a face-down state with the image side down via a conveying unit in the sheet processing apparatus, and aligned by the aligning unit. Is a device for stapling one or more places of the sheet and discharging and stacking the sheets, or simply discharging and stacking the sheets face down.

Here, the sheet processing apparatus 300 and the printer main body 100 are electrically connected by a cable connector (not shown). Further, the sheet processing apparatus 300 has a casing section 300A for storing each section, and is detachable from an apparatus main body 100A of the printer main body 100 described later.

Next, the configuration of each part of the printer main body 100 will be described along the transport path of the sheet S to be transported.

In the printer body 100, the feeding cassette 2
00, a plurality of sheets S are stacked, and the uppermost sheet among these is sequentially separated and fed one by one by various rollers. Then, by a predetermined print signal supplied from a computer or a network,
In the printer main body 100, the toner image is transferred onto the upper surface of the sheet S in the printer main body 100 by the image forming unit 101 that forms a toner image by a so-called laser beam type image forming process.
By applying heat and pressure in the fixing device 120 on the downstream side, the toner image is permanently fixed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet S on which the image has been fixed is folded back along a substantially U-shaped sheet conveying path up to the discharge roller 130, so that the image surface is inverted, and the image surface is turned downward. In this state, the sheet is discharged face-down from the printer main body 100 to the outside by the discharge roller 130. Here, the sheet S is supplied to the flapper 30 of the sheet processing apparatus 300 based on a control signal from a control unit (not shown).
1 is determined, the printer body 100
(FD) discharge unit 12 provided at the top of the
5 is selected as it is or discharged via the sheet processing apparatus 300.

Next, the configuration of the sheet processing apparatus 300 and the movement of each unit when the sheet S conveyed by the discharge roller 130 is directed to the sheet processing apparatus 300 will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG.
And (b) shows the discharge roller 130 and the sheet processing device 3
FIG. 3A shows a cross-sectional view of the sheet processing apparatus 3.
A in FIG. 1 for 00? A section is shown, and FIG. 3B shows B? The B section is shown.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 320 denotes a conveying roller;
1 is a discharge sensor, M is a jogger motor as a driving source,
322 is a sheet return member, and 323 is a reference wall for abutting the rear end of the sheet.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transport roller 320
It is disposed above the flapper 301 on the downstream side in the sheet conveyance direction, and is rotationally driven by a drive motor (not shown). The discharge sensor 321 is disposed near the downstream side of the transport roller 320 in the sheet transport direction.
0 detects the leading edge and trailing edge of the conveyed sheet. The jogger motor M is connected to each slide guide 3 described later.
This is a motor for driving the motors 10 and 311. In this embodiment, a stepping motor is used.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the sheet return member 322 is disposed at the most downstream side in the sheet processing apparatus 300, and is configured to be rotatable about a support shaft 322a. . Here, FIG. 2A shows an initial position of the sheet return member 322, and FIG. 2B shows a state where the sheet return member 322 is pushed up by the sheet S. When the sheet return member 322 has a predetermined weight and is pushed up in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2 by an external force, the sheet return member 322 tends to rotate in the direction of the arrow (clockwise) in FIG. This allows
The sheets are stacked with their rear ends aligned with the reference wall 323.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the sheet processing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment, a right (R) slide guide 310 and a left (L) slide guide, which will be described in detail later, serve as guide members for aligning the sheet in the width direction. ) A slide guide 311 is provided.

In the sheet processing apparatus 300, when staple processing is performed based on a command output in advance from a computer or the like, before a sheet S to be stapled is discharged by a discharge roller 130, an unillustrated solenoid is used. The flapper 301 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 2 via the illustrated link. Then, the tip side of the flapper 301 is located below the nip portion of the discharge roller 130 as shown in FIG. 2, so that as shown in FIG.
The sheet S discharged from the discharge roller 130 to the outside of the apparatus is drawn upward along the flapper 301, is carried into the sheet processing apparatus 300, and is carried into the first sheet stacking unit 300B for temporarily stacking sheets. Is done.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3A, in the sheet processing apparatus 300, the right R-slide guide 310 and the left L-slide guide 311 with respect to the sheet carry-in direction move the incoming sheet. In order not to interfere with the sheet S, the sheet S is retracted to a position outside by a predetermined amount from the width direction of the sheet S, and waits for the sheet S to enter.

In the sheet processing apparatus 300, the first sheet S is transferred to the discharge roller 130 of the printer body 100.
The sheet S is carried into the apparatus main body 300A so as to be picked up by the flapper 301 and discharged by the discharge roller 320 rotated by a drive motor (not shown). The sheet is conveyed onto the guide surface of the first sheet stacking unit 300B constituted by the slide guide 311.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2A, the guide surface of the first sheet stacking section 300B is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the horizontal direction, and at the upstream and downstream sides in the sheet loading direction. , And specifically, a bent portion 300C that bends at an inclination angle α is formed between a predetermined section on the upstream side and a predetermined section on the downstream side. The guide surface of the first sheet stacking portion 300B has such a bent portion 300C to prevent the central portion of the sheet S that is not guided by the slide guides 310 and 311 from bending.

When the leading end of the sheet S carried into the apparatus main body 300A is detected by the discharge sensor 321 near the downstream side of the discharge roller 320, the drop assisting member 4
2 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2, and then, when the rear end passes through the discharge roller 320, as shown in FIG. 2B, the drop assisting member 400 is urged by a coil spring (not shown). As a result, by rotating clockwise in FIG. 2, the rear end of the sheet is pressed downward, and falls reliably on the guide surface formed by the R-slide guide 310 and the L-slide guide 311. At this time, the discharge sensor 321 is turned off.

When the leading end of the sheet S pushes up the sheet return member 322 in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2, the sheet return member 322 rotates in the opposite direction by the urging force of the tension spring 360 as described above. The rear end of the sheet is the reference wall 323
Is hit. Thereby, the first sheet stacking unit 3
The rear ends of the sheets stacked on the sheet 00B in the transport direction are aligned.

In the first embodiment, when the discharge sensor 321 is turned off, the right R-slide guide 3 is turned off.
Only 10 operates so that the alignment operation in the width direction of each sheet stacked on the first sheet stacking unit 300B is started. Specifically, the R-slide guide 31
The right (R) reference pin 330 provided on the R-slide guide 310 comes into contact with the right side surface of the sheet S and moves toward the L-slide guide 311 side when the motor 0 is driven by the motor M and moves to the left in FIG. Push the sheet S. And the sheet S
Is abutted against the left (L) reference pin 331 provided on the L-slide guide 311, thereby aligning each sheet in the width direction.

Here, the structure of the slide guide will be described in detail. FIG. 3 shows A? It is a figure explaining composition of a slide guide which showed A section. 4 and 5
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a slide guide.

Each of the slide guides 310 and 311 is provided with a guide pin 314 (314a to 314) provided on the frame F.
4d), it is possible to reciprocate in the left-right direction of FIG. 3, that is, in the direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction (the sheet width direction), and move by the transmission of the driving force from the jogger motor M. Has become.

As shown in FIG. 3B, each of the slide guides 310 and 311 has a wall for guiding both sides of the sheet S and a support for supporting the upper and lower surfaces of the sheet S, as shown in FIG. Thus, each of the sheets discharged onto the first sheet stacking unit 300B is supported by the lower surface of the U-shape, and the center of the sheet S in the width direction is guided. It is not configured.

The R-slide guide 310 has a stepped gear 31
A rack 310a having a flat gear meshing with the gear 7 is provided. On the other hand, the L-slide guide 311 also has a slide rack L having a plate gear meshing with the step gear 317.
312 is attached. Slide rack L312
Is provided so as to be relatively movable with respect to the L-slide guide 311 via a coil spring 313. Spring 3
13 has one end thereof in contact with the L-slide guide 311 and the other end thereof in contact with the slide rack L312, and urges the L-slide guide 311 and the slide rack L312 in a direction of expanding. Also, the slide rack L312
Has an embossed portion 312a that moves in the square hole 311a on the L-slide guide 311 side.

On the side wall of the R-slide guide 310, two R-reference pins 33 made of metal having excellent wear resistance.
0 is located on the side wall of the L-slide guide 311.
A reference pin 331 is provided, and when aligning sheets, the R-slide guide 31 is used as described later.
0 moves, and R-reference pins 33
The 0 and L-reference pins 331 abut.

The R-slide guide 310 and the L-slide guide 310
The slide guide 311 is supported in the height direction by a step gear 317 and a height regulating member 315.

In FIGS. 3 to 5, H denotes a stapler for stapling a sheet. The stapler H performs stapling on the upper left corner of the image surface of the sheet on which an image is formed and binds each sheet.
It is fixedly arranged on the side.

Next, the operation of each of the slide guides 310 and 311 will be described. When power is supplied to the sheet processing apparatus 300, the discharge rollers 3 driven by the drive motor
20 starts rotating, and then the jogger motor M rotates and the step gear 317 rotates, whereby the R-slide guide 3
The ten rack portions 310a are driven and retract outside.
When the jogger motor M rotates and the step gear 317 rotates, the L-slide guide 311
After the embossed portion 312a of the slide rack 312 abuts against the left end surface of the square hole 311a of the L-slide guide 311 in FIG. 3, the embossed portion 312a retracts outward. .

The R-slide guide 310 has a flag 3
When the flag unit 310f moves to a predetermined evacuation distance, the photo sensor 316 is shielded from light as shown in FIG.
Stops. This position is the home position.

A signal that the sheet S enters the sheet processing apparatus 300 is sent from the printer body 100 to the sheet processing apparatus 300.
, The jogger motor M rotates, the R-slide guide 310 and the L-slide guide 311 move inward, and as shown in FIGS. It stops at a position wider by a predetermined amount d than the width.
At this position, the L-slide guide 311 is in a state where the guide pin 314c abuts on the end and cannot move further inward. In the first embodiment, FIG.
This position shown in (a) and (b) is a standby position, and at this standby position, the side surface of the L-slide guide 311 is a reference position at the time of the alignment operation.

In this embodiment, when the size (width) of the sheet S is the maximum size that can be passed, the R-slide guides 310 and L are adjusted so that the gaps on both sides become the predetermined amounts d and d, respectively. -The standby position of the slide guide 311 is set.

When a narrower sheet is to be aligned by the sheet processing apparatus 300, the R-slide guide 310 is moved to the left by an amount corresponding to the alignment, so that the right side of FIG. The gap always has the predetermined amount d. On the other hand, in this case, the gap between the sheet and the L-slide guide 311 is wider than the predetermined amount d by half of the narrowed amount.

When the first sheet S is discharged from the discharge roller 130 of the image forming apparatus 100, the sheet S is picked up by the flapper 301 and introduced into the sheet processing apparatus 300. It is transported to 310 and 311.

At this time, after the leading end of the sheet S is detected by the discharge sensor 321, each of the slide guides 31
The stapler H is conveyed along the guide surfaces 0 and 311, and the left corner (the lower left corner in FIG. 3A) enters the opening of the stapler H. Further, the sheet S has its leading end center portion in contact with the sheet return member 322, and when the sheet S is vibrant, the sheet S is moved in the counterclockwise direction in FIG.
Then, the sheet return member 322 is rotated clockwise by its own weight, so that the rear end is aligned with the reference wall 323.

Almost simultaneously with this operation, when the trailing end of the sheet S passes through the discharge roller 320, the discharge sensor 321
Is urged by a coil spring (not shown) to rotate clockwise in FIG.
Is turned off, the trailing edge of the sheet is set to the flag 321a.
Is pressed downward, and the R-slide guide 330, L-
The first sheet stacking section 300 </ b> B constituted by the slide guide 331 surely falls onto the guide surface.

In the first embodiment, the discharge sensor 321
Is turned off, the jogger motor M starts rotating,
The slide guide at the standby position starts the alignment operation as follows. That is, at the start of the alignment operation, the jogger motor M rotates in a direction in which the slide guide moves inward. Here, the L-slide guide 311 cannot move because it is in contact with the guide pin 314c, and only the slide rack 312 provided on the L-slide guide 311 moves in a direction to contract the spring 313.
Therefore, during the aligning operation, only the R-slide guide 310 moves, and thus the R-slide guide 31 is first moved.
0 R-reference pin 330 contacts the right end face of the sheet S,
Further, when the sheet S moves to the left side in FIG. 3 and its left end surface contacts the L-reference pin 331 of the L-slide guide 311, the state shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B is obtained. . Note that, at this time, the R-slide guide 310 may be moved to a position where the R-slide guide 310 is narrower by a predetermined amount than the width of the sheet S in consideration of the sheet bending and the like.

In the first embodiment, the jogger motor M
Is that both ends of the sheet S are slide guides 310 and 31
After a temporary stop in the state of FIG. 4 abutting on 1, the reverse rotation is started and stopped when the R-slide guide 310 returns to the standby position of FIG. 3 again. The control of the movement amount of the R-slide guide 310 during this time is managed by the number of drive pulses of the jogger motor M, which is a stepping motor, based on the position of the home position that shields the photosensor 316. At this time, the L-slide guide 3
On the 11th side, only the slide rack 312 moves in the direction in which the spring 313 spreads, and the L-slide guide 311 itself does not move and is held at the reference position.
The left end portion is in a state of being in contact with the L-slide guide 311.

Next, when the second sheet (S 2) is conveyed to the sheet processing apparatus 300 in the same manner as the first sheet S, when the rear end of the sheet (S 2) passes through the discharge roller 320, When the trailing end of the sheet (S2) is dropped onto the first sheet stacking unit 300B by the weight of the flag 321a, and then the discharge sensor 321 is turned off, the alignment operation is started in the same manner as in the first sheet. That is, the jogger motor M rotates, the R-slide guide 310 moves, the R-reference pin 330 comes into contact with the side surface of the sheet (S2), and the left side surface of the sheet (S2) is further moved to the L-slide guide 311. By moving until it comes into contact with the provided L-reference pin 331, the left ends of the two sheets are aligned. Thereafter, the R-slide guide 310 moves to the above-described standby position and stops.

The above operation is repeated, and the operation for aligning the last (n-th) sheet (Sn) of one job is performed. Each R-reference pin 330 provided on the R-slide guide 310 is moved to the left side of the sheet. L-slide guide 31
In the state of FIG. 4 in which the movement of the R-slide guide 310 is stopped by abutting each of the L-reference pins 331, the small stapler H located on the left end of the sheet bundle staples the position on the left end.

According to this configuration and operation, during the alignment operation of each sheet, the L-slide guide 311 stops at the reference position and does not move, only the R-slide guide 310 moves, and the left end of each sheet moves. Since the parts are aligned with the reference position, the stapler H fixedly arranged on the L-slide guide 311 side performs the binding processing accurately and reliably. Furthermore, 1
Even when the width of each sheet conveyed in the job varies, or even when the sheet size changes from LTR to A4 in one job, the position of the left end of each sheet is uniformly aligned. The finishing of the binding process by H becomes accurate and beautiful, and an excellent effect is obtained.

In the first embodiment, when the stapling operation is completed in this manner, the jogger motor M is driven to rotate, so that the R-slide guide 310 moves from the state shown in FIG. In addition, this R-
When the movement of the slide guide 310 starts, the slide rack 312 moves to the left side in FIG. 4 on the L-slide guide 311 side, and the L-slide guide 311 itself does not immediately move.

When the position of the R-slide guide 310 passes the standby position shown in FIG.
The second embossed portion 312a comes into contact with the end surface of the square hole 311a of the L-slide guide 311 and the L-slide guide 311 starts moving to the left in FIG. 3, and both slide guides 310 and 311 move.

Further, when the interval between the supported slide guides 310 and 311 becomes close to or wider than the width of the sheet, the stapled sheet bundle is moved to the position shown in FIG.
As shown in (a) and (b), it falls downward.

Here, the dropping operation of the sheet S will be described focusing on the reference wall 323.

FIGS. 6 (a), 6 (b) and 6 (c) are cross-sectional views of the vicinity of the reference wall 323, and FIGS. 7 (a), 7 (b) and 7 (c) are cross-sectional views as viewed from the direction of arrows. is there.

As shown in FIG. 6, the reference wall 323 of this embodiment is formed at an angle substantially perpendicular to the guide surface formed by the upper surfaces of the slide guides 310 and 311.
It is integrated with the transport frame 340 of the sheet processing apparatus. FIG. 8 shows the reference wall 323 and the slide guides 310 and 31.
FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an angle α formed by a guide surface constituted by 1. To make it easier for the sheet S to fall off from the reference wall 323, it is effective to narrow the direction in which the reference wall 323 stands up, that is, to narrow α.

However, the wall 3 against which the sheet S abuts
Since the angle between 23 and the guide surface goes away from the right angle,
As the number of staple sheets increases, the sheet alignment in the sheet conveying direction deteriorates. Sheet weight, number of sheets,
In the present embodiment, α is 90 to
70 degrees is effective.

When the reference wall 323 is viewed from the direction of FIG. 7, the reference wall 323 is composed of two walls, a left wall 323a and a right wall 323b. That is, there is no wall where the sheet S abuts at the center of the sheet. This is because when the sheet S is aligned in the transport direction, the sheet S is aligned on the two left and right surfaces at the center of the sheet, the slide guide 310,
When the sheet 311 is opened and the sheet S is dropped, the sheet leans against the reference wall 323 or the area where the sheet is caught is reduced, and the sheet S is surely dropped and loaded on the FD discharge unit 125.

The sheet S is composed of slide guides 310 and 31
When 1 spreads, the fall assisting member 410 rotates clockwise and drops from the reference wall 323 where the rear end of the sheet S abuts. The fall assist member 410 is located between the left wall 323a and the right wall 323b in the direction shown in FIG. When the position of the tip of the drop assist member 410 is shown in the direction of FIG. 6, when the sheet does not exist on the slide guide (the limit position at which the sheet can be rotated clockwise), the position of FIG.
The position (a), that is, the position substantially the same as the abutting surface of the reference wall 323. This is to ensure that when the sheet is dropped, the trailing edge of the sheet that has hit the reference wall 323 and is aligned is dropped.

Next, the lower surface of the sheet S comes into contact with the guide surface of the drop guide 400, and the FD discharge section 125 of the image forming apparatus
Is guided toward the wall 125a. The sheets are stacked by contacting the wall 125a and stopping.

The sheet F
When the trailing edge of the sheet S leans against the reference wall 323, the sheet S comes into contact with the drop guide 400, and the falling timing of the leading end of the sheet S is determined by the sheet S. By falling behind the falling timing of the rear end of the camera, the player can surely fall off.

By this operation, the sheet discharged from the sheet processing apparatus is reliably loaded on the FD discharge section 125, and the sheet discharged from the printer and the sheet discharged from the sheet processing apparatus can be reliably loaded on the FD discharge section.

As described above, in the first embodiment, the FD discharge section 125 of the printer main body 100 is connected to the sheet processing apparatus 3.
Since it is shared for stacking the sheet bundle discharged from 00 and no dedicated stacking section is provided, a small and inexpensive sheet processing apparatus can be provided.

In the first embodiment, the sheet processing apparatus 300 is mounted on the apparatus main body 100A of the printer main body 100, which is an image forming apparatus, and the apparatus main body 100A
Since the conveyance path of the sheet discharged from the printer is switched by the flapper 301, it is necessary to provide a switchback mechanism for discharging and stacking the sheets on which images have been formed in the page order, or to widen the sheet interval for the switchback. It is possible to provide an inexpensive sheet processing apparatus that does not have the inconvenience that the sheet processing must be performed and does not increase the installation area.

In the first embodiment, only the R-slide guide 310 operates during the sheet alignment operation,
Although the slide guide 311 does not operate, the L-slide guide 311 may also operate during the sheet alignment operation. In this case, for example, the L-slide guide 311 can be realized by having the same configuration as the R-slide guide 310.

Further, in the first embodiment, when the sheet after the alignment operation is dropped downward, both the R-slide guide 310 and the L-slide guide 311 operate, but the sheet is moved downward. When dropping, only one of them may be operated.

Although the present invention has been described as the first embodiment, the present invention relates to, for example, an image forming apparatus which discharges a sheet to the upper surface of an apparatus. That is, a sheet processing apparatus having at least processing means such as a stapler is provided. Then, the sheet processed by the sheet processing apparatus is stacked by reliably dropping the sheet to the discharge section on the lower apparatus body side, thereby simplifying the sheet processing apparatus and reducing the cost. Could be realized.

(Second Embodiment) Referring to FIG.
An embodiment will be described.

The present embodiment corresponds to the case of a type of medium that is difficult to drop from the reference wall because of the poor slidability of the sheet S.

In this embodiment, a plate 500 made of a stainless steel plate having small surface roughness and good slidability is provided on the surfaces of the left wall 323a and the right wall 323b of the first embodiment. , Sheet S abut against the surface of plate 500 to be aligned. Slide guides 310, 31
When the sheet S falls and the sheet 1 is opened, the sheet S does not get caught because of good slidability with the plate with which the sheet S is in contact.

In addition, durability is improved because it is made of metal. In the present embodiment, a plate-like plate is shown in the figure, but the same effect can be obtained by using a columnar material such as a parallel pin having a small surface roughness.

(Third Embodiment) FIGS. 10 and 11 show a third embodiment of the present invention. 1st, 2nd
Although the reference wall 323 is integrated with the transport frame 340 in the embodiment, the slide guides 610 and 611 themselves have the reference walls 610a and 611a in the present embodiment.

As described above, since the reference wall and the slide guide are integrated with each other, the angle α, which greatly affects the dropping property, can be managed in the same part, so that the performance is improved.

[0079]

As described above, according to the present invention,
For example, in order to perform a process such as stapling on a sheet on which an image has been formed, the sheet can be surely dropped downward without being caught on a reference wall for aligning the rear end of the sheet.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, even a sheet having poor slidability can be reliably dropped.

According to the invention of claim 6, the durability is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a printer equipped with a sheet processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the sheet processing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3A is a plan view of the slide guide of FIG. 2;
(B) is a sectional view taken along the line BB of (a), showing a standby position of the slide guide.

FIG. 4A is a plan view of the slide guide of FIG. 2,
(B) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of (a), showing a state where the sheets are aligned by the slide guide.

5 (a) is a plan view of the slide guide of FIG. 2,
(B) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of (a), showing a state where the sheet is dropped.

6 (a) to 6 (c) are views showing a state where sheets are aligned and dropped by the reference wall of FIG. 2;

7 (a) to 7 (c) are views of FIG. 6 viewed from the directions of arrows.

FIG. 8 is a detailed view of the vicinity of the reference wall in FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment, in which (a) is a side view,
(B) is a view of (a) viewed from the direction of the arrow.

FIGS. 10A and 10B show a third embodiment, in which FIGS. 10A to 10C show a state in which a sheet is aligned and dropped from a reference wall.

11 (a) to 11 (c) are views of FIG. 10 viewed from the directions of arrows.

FIG. 12 shows a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Printer main body 100A Device main body 130 Discharge roller (sheet conveyance means) 125 FD discharge part (2nd sheet stacking part) 200 Feed cassette 300 Sheet processing apparatus 300A Device main body (casing part) 300B 1st sheet stacking part 300C Bending Section 301 Flapper (switching means) 310 R-slide guide (alignment means, guide member) 311 L-slide guide (alignment means, guide member) 312 slide rack 313 spring 314 (314a to 314d) Guide pin 320 Transport roller 321 Discharge sensor 322 Sheet return member 323 Reference wall 317 Step gear 315 Restriction member 316 Photosensor 325 Loading tray (second sheet loading section) 330 R-reference pin 331 L-reference pin 340 Transport frame 400 Drop guide 500 Pre DOO 610 L-slide guide 611 R- slide guide M jogger motor (matching means, the drive source) S sheet H stapler (stapling means) F frame

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kenichiro Isobe 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Masayoshi Fukatsu 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon F term in the company (reference) 3F054 AA01 AC01 BA01 BB01 BH13 DA01 3F108 GA01 GB01 HA02 HA32

Claims (11)

[Claims] A sheet stacking section for temporarily stacking a sheet conveyed from a sheet conveying section, the sheet stacking section being configured to temporarily stack sheets conveyed from a sheet conveying section; While performing the sheet alignment operation
Aligning means for performing a dropping operation of dropping the stacked sheets downward; and a reference wall provided upstream of the sheet stacking section in the sheet conveying direction and aligning the rear ends of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking section. And a sheet processing apparatus. 2. A sheet stacking section for temporarily stacking a sheet conveyed from a sheet conveying section, the sheet stacking section being arranged at a higher position with respect to the upstream side in the conveying direction, and being stacked on the sheet stacking section. While performing the sheet alignment operation
Aligning means for performing a drop operation of dropping the stacked sheets downward; processing means for processing the sheet bundle aligned by the aligning means; and And a reference wall for aligning the rear end of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking section. 3. The reference wall has an angle between a contact surface with which a rear end of the sheet abuts and a guide surface of the sheet formed by the aligning means in a range of 90 to 70 degrees. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1. 4. The reference wall is characterized in that, in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction, the central portion of the sheet has no surface in contact with the sheet, and contacts the sheet at two end portions of the sheet. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet processing apparatus performs the processing. 5. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a sliding member is provided at a position where the reference wall contacts the sheet. 6. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a portion of the reference wall that comes into contact with the sheet is formed of a metal plate or a pin. 7. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference wall is provided on the alignment unit. 8. The sheet aligning means according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is fed to an apparatus main body loading section on which sheets discharged from a sheet discharge port of the apparatus for feeding sheets to the sheet transport section are stacked or a stacking section provided in a sheet processing apparatus. The sheet processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the sheet processing apparatus is dropped. 9. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus main volume loading section is disposed above an apparatus main body of an apparatus that supplies a sheet to the sheet conveying section. 10. The alignment means contacts a side surface of a sheet stacked on the first sheet stacking unit, and drives a pair of guide members movable along a width direction of the sheet, and the guide member. The guide member is driven by the drive source to move to a position wider than the width of the conveyed sheet before the sheet is conveyed to the sheet stacking unit. When the sheet is carried into the sheet stacking unit, the driving force of the driving source is transmitted to one or both of the guide members, so that the guide member moves to the sheet side and the sheet side surface is moved to the other side. After the sheet is aligned by contacting the side surface of the guide member, the driving force of the driving source is transmitted to the guide members, whereby the guide members move in a direction in which the intervals are increased and the guide members are moved. C The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is dropped. 11. An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet, and the image forming unit supplies the sheet to the sheet conveying unit. And a sheet conveying means for conveying a sheet on which an image has been formed by the means to the sheet processing apparatus.