JP2003029480A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which can be made small-sized even when a plurality of paper rolls are loaded. SOLUTION: In the apparatus, cut sheet paper 16 of standard size is stored inside a top paper feeding unit 10 and a first paper roll 17 and a second roll paper 18 are stored in parallel to each other in the direction of paper feeding in a bottom paper feeding cassette 11. The top and bottom cassettes 10 and 11 can be attached respectively to attaching openings 31 and 32 provided in the image forming apparatus main body.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image on a standard size (for example, A4 or A3) sheet or roll paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is widely known that, in an image forming apparatus, roll paper may be used in addition to the standard size sheet paper. The use of the roll paper has an advantage that an image can be formed on a so-called long paper, which is longer than the standard size in the transport direction.

An image forming apparatus using roll paper is equipped with a standard size paper feed cassette, and is also equipped with roll paper separately from the paper feed cassette.

[0004]

Therefore, for example, when the apparatus is to be made compact, there is a problem that the standard size paper feed cassette cannot be installed when a plurality of roll papers are installed.

That is, since the space for storing the fed paper such as roll paper and sheet paper is limited, it is necessary to mount the standard size paper feed cassette when two roll papers of different sizes are mounted, especially in a small machine. There was a device that couldn't.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus which can be downsized even when a plurality of roll papers are mounted.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a first invention is an image forming apparatus provided with a mounting port into which a paper feeding cassette can be mounted. The image forming apparatus is characterized in that the roll paper feeding cassette capable of accommodating the roll paper in parallel in the paper feeding direction can be mounted in the mounting port.

According to the present invention, since a plurality of roll papers are arranged in parallel in the paper feed direction in one paper feed cassette, it is possible to mount a plurality of roll papers in a small space. Become. Therefore, the size of the device is reduced.

The second invention is the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the roll paper feed cassette is provided with a cutter for cutting roll paper.

According to the present invention, since the cutter is attached to the roll paper feed cassette, the roll paper can be cut in the paper feed cassette. Therefore, when the image forming apparatus main body is provided with a cutter, since the leading end of the rolled portion after cutting the roll paper is in the conveyance path of the image forming apparatus main body, rewinding and feeding the leading end portion Although a mechanism for retracting from the road is required, such a mechanism is not required in the present invention, so that the device can be downsized and the cost can be reduced.

A third aspect of the invention is the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a sheet paper feed cassette capable of accommodating only sheet paper is attachable to the attachment opening.

According to the present invention, the sheet paper feeding cassette or the slurry paper feeding cassette can be mounted in the mounting opening of the main body of the image forming apparatus. It is very convenient because it can be attached to.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the roll paper feed cassette communicates with a first storage unit for storing one roll paper and a second storage unit for storing the other roll paper and a first storage unit. And a transport path that guides the roll paper of to the downstream side in the transport direction,
3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transport path covers the upper side of the second storage section, and the upper side of the second storage section is opened by rotating the transport path about a spindle. is there.

According to the present invention, since the conveyor girdle covering the upper part of the second storage portion can be rotated about the support shaft, the other roll paper can be easily replaced.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are external perspective views of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a main part of the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment.

This image forming apparatus is a copying machine, and in FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 is a main body of the image forming apparatus, which has a contact glass 2 on which a copy original is placed. Three
Is an automatic document feeder (ADF), the rear end side of which is rotatably attached to the image forming apparatus main body 1 through hinge mechanisms 4 and 4, and as shown in FIG.
It is possible to stand still away from. The automatic document feeder 3 includes a feeding unit 90, 91 is a document table on which a copy document is placed, and 92 is a guide which regulates the copy document in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction. ADF contact glass 93 is provided on the side of the contact glass 2. Then, at the bottom of the automatic document feeder 3, A
A slit 94 is provided at a position corresponding to the DF contact glass 93, and when the document passes through the slit 94, the document is read by an exposure optical system (not shown). A document mat 95 is provided on the side of the slit 94 at a position corresponding to the contact glass 2. Reference numeral 5 is an operation panel for inputting copy information and the like.

A front cover 6 has a hinge mechanism 7 on the lower end side.
It is rotatably attached to the image forming apparatus main body 1 via 7, and when it is opened to the front side, it is held in a state of protruding substantially horizontally toward the front. Reference numeral 8 is a toner cartridge, and 9 is a toner recovery tank.

Below the front cover 6, two upper and lower paper feed cassettes 10 and 11 are provided. Reference numeral 10 is an upper paper feeding cassette, and 11 is a lower paper feeding cassette. The upper and lower paper feed cassettes 10 and 11 are attached to the mounting opening 32.33 of the image forming apparatus main body 1.
It is attachable to and is movable in the front-back direction in FIG. The configurations of the paper feed cassettes 10 and 11 will be described later. Further, above the front cover 6, there is provided a copy storage section 13 for storing the copy material discharged from the discharge section 12.

Reference numeral 14 is a manual paper feed section, which is a manual paper feed tray 15.
have. The manual feed tray 15 has a base end rotatably attached to the image forming apparatus main body 1 via a support shaft (not shown), and has a state in which the manual feed tray 15 projects substantially horizontally toward the side as shown in FIG. It is possible to stand up almost vertically and to be in close contact with the side surface of the image forming apparatus main body 1.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the cut sheet paper 16 of the standard size cut is stored in the upper sheet feeding unit 10 (sheet sheet feeding cassette), and the lower sheet feeding cassette 11 (roll paper feed cassette) accommodates a first roll paper 17 wound in a roll shape and a second roll paper 18 wound in a roll shape in parallel in the paper feeding direction. These upper and lower paper feed cassettes 10 and 11 are attached to mounting holes 32 and 3 provided in the image forming apparatus main body, respectively.
It can be attached to 3.

The upper paper feed cassette 10 is provided with a paper feed roller 19 at a position corresponding to the leading end of the stored sheet paper 16 so that the sheet paper 16 can be fed toward the downstream side in the transport direction. It is structured like this.

A partition plate 2 extending in a direction perpendicular to the paper transport direction is provided at a substantially central portion of the lower paper feed cassette 11 in the paper transport direction.
At 0 as a boundary, on the left side in FIG. 3, a first storage portion 21 for storing the first roll paper 17 wound in a roll shape around the shaft 25 is provided, and on the right side in FIG. A second storage unit 22 is provided in which the second roll paper 18 wound in a roll shape is stored. The first storage portion 21 has a first
Conveying rollers 27, 2 as a mechanism for feeding the roll paper 17
8 are provided, and by these, the first roll paper 17
Is configured to be able to feed paper toward the downstream side in the transport direction. In addition, the second storage unit 22 is provided with transport rollers 23 and 24 as a mechanism for sending out the second roll paper 18, whereby the second roll paper 18 can be fed toward the downstream side in the transport direction. Has become. Further, cutters 50, 50 are provided between the transport rollers 23, 24 and the transport rollers 27, 28, respectively, so that the first roll paper 17 and the second roll paper 18 fed are respectively set to a predetermined length. It can be cut into. This cutter is known per se and is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-4-28309.
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4, a moving body that rotatably supports a disk-shaped blade around a center point travels in the width direction of the roll paper and cuts the roll paper in the same direction.

A transport path 30 is provided on the downstream side of the transport rollers 23 and 24 in the transport direction and above the first storage portion 21 in FIG.
Is provided, and the second roll paper 18 sent out from the second storage section 22 is transported to the downstream side in the transport direction through the transport path 30. A transport roller 31 is provided in the transport path 30. The transport path 30 and the transport path for the first roll paper 17 fed from the first storage section 21 are joined together on the downstream side in the transport direction. Further, the first roll paper 17 and the second roll paper 18 are mounted together with the shaft 25 in the first storage part 21 and the second storage part 22, respectively, and all the roll papers are used and replaced with new roll papers. In this case, the shaft 25 of the used roll paper is taken out, the shaft 25 of the new roll paper is set at a predetermined position, and the leading end portion of the roll paper is conveyed by the conveyance rollers (conveyance rollers 27, 28 in the case of the first roll paper 17, In the case of the second roll paper 18, the replacement is completed by setting it on the transport rollers 23, 24).

Here, as shown in FIG. 4 (FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the internal structure of the lower sheet feeding cassette), the conveying path 30
The (conveyance path 30 is a unit) can be rotated about the support shaft 34 in the arrow A direction. Therefore, when the first roll paper 17 is replaced, the upper part of the first storage portion 21 can be opened by rotating the transport path 30 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. The first roll paper can be easily replaced.

Registration rollers 36 and 37 are provided on the downstream side in the conveying direction, and these rollers are opposed to each other so as to sandwich the sheet conveying path, and the roller 36 is rotationally driven by a driving mechanism (not shown). Has become. A registration switch 38 for detecting the passage of the sheet is provided below them, and the control circuit drives the registration roller 36 in response to a signal given from the registration switch 38.

If the fed paper does not pass through the registration switch 38 (the registration switch is not turned on) even after a lapse of a predetermined time from the start of paper feeding, the control circuit jams the paper (paper It is determined that it is a (clogging).

An image forming section 39 is provided above the registration rollers 36 and 37. The image forming unit 39 includes a photoconductor drum 40 on which a toner image is formed, and a cleaning unit 4 arranged around the photoconductor drum 40 along the rotation direction.
1, a charger 42, a developing unit 43, a transfer roller 44, and the like.

A fixing unit 45 is provided above the image forming unit 39. The fixing unit 45 has a pair of rollers 46 and 47 which are arranged so as to face each other so as to sandwich the sheet conveyance path. The sheet is sandwiched between these rollers to apply pressure and heat, and the sheet is transferred onto the sheet. The toner image is melted and fixed on the paper.

The discharging section 12 is provided above the fixing section 45. The discharge unit 12 has a pair of discharge rollers 48 and 49 that are arranged so as to face each other so as to sandwich the sheet conveyance path. The discharge roller 4 discharges the sheet that has passed through the fixing unit 45.
It is sandwiched between 8 and 49 and discharged into the copy storage unit 13.

Further, in the present embodiment, when the first roll paper or the second roll paper of the lower paper feed cassette 11 is selected from the operation panel 5, the mode is changed to the long paper mode suitable for the image forming process on the roll paper. It has become. Specifically, the contents of the long paper mode are divided into two elements, that is, whether a jam (double feeding of paper) using the registration switch 38 is not detected, the detection time is lengthened, or the image memory is not divided. Made of These will be described in detail below.

First, will be described. The registration switch 38 is turned on when the leading end of the sheet in the transport direction reaches the registration switch 38, and when the trailing end of the sheet in the transport direction passes the registration switch 38, the registration switch 3
8 is turned off. The time from ON to OFF is determined by the size of the paper, and the control circuit determines that double feeding occurs when this time exceeds a predetermined time and stops the operation. For example, when continuously feeding standard-size sheet paper, a gap is created between the paper sheets, and this kind of processing is possible. However, since the roll paper is continuous, the registration switch 38 will not be turned unless cut. Leave it ON,
If the judgment is made in the same length of time as in the case of the standard size sheet paper, a malfunction occurs. Therefore, in the long paper mode, such processing is not performed or the detection time is lengthened to prevent malfunction.

Next, the following will be explained. For example, when forming an image on a standard size sheet paper, the CP of the control circuit
U temporarily expands the data read from the scanner in the bitmap memory. In this bitmap memory, the original data is developed by securing an area for each page, but in the long paper mode, the CPU eliminates the division of the area for each page and sets the entire memory as one area. I try to secure it.

Next, a case of actually copying will be described. First, when the user selects, for example, the second roll paper of the lower paper feed cassette 11 from the operation panel 5 and presses the print button (the same copy is made even if the first roll paper is selected),
The copy original is fed in the length direction, and the image of the original is read by the exposure optical system arranged below the ADF contact glass 93. Further, the transport rollers 23, 24 (transport rollers 27, 28 when the first roll paper is selected) rotate to draw the leading end of the second roll paper 18 into the image forming apparatus main body 1.

The leading end of the second roll paper 18 ascends in the conveyance path, passes through the registration switch 38, hits the registration rollers 36, 37, and stops. At this time, if the leading end of the second roll paper does not pass through the registration switch 38 even after a lapse of a predetermined time, it is determined to be a jam (paper jam). In the image forming unit 39, the surface of the photoconductor drum 40 is charged by the charger 42, the photoconductor drum 40 rotates, and the reflected light of the image of the copy document read by the exposure optical system is reflected by the photoconductor drum 40. Is irradiated onto the surface of the photosensitive drum 40, and an electrostatic latent image of this image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 40. Then, the developing unit 43 becomes the photosensitive drum 4
Toner is attached to the surface of 0 to develop this electrostatic latent image.

When the second roll paper 18 is stopped and a predetermined time elapses, the registration rollers 36 and 37 rotate and the second roll paper 18 rises again. Then, the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 40 is transferred onto the second roll paper 18 while passing between the photosensitive drum 40 and the transfer roller 44. And
The second roll paper 18 reaches the fixing unit 45, and the rollers 46, 4
The toner image is melted and fixed on the second roll paper 18 by being pressed and heated between 7 and 7. Then, the second roll paper 18 on which the image is formed reaches the discharge unit 12, and is discharged to the copy storage unit 13 by the discharge rollers 48 and 49.

The second roll paper 18 is cut in the width direction by the cutter 50 when it is conveyed by a predetermined length. At this time, since the cutter 50 is provided in the lower paper feed cassette 11, a mechanism for rewinding the second roll paper 18 is not necessary (the same applies to the first roll paper). Then, when a new copy document is set on the document table 91 and the print button is pressed, the above-described operation is repeated and the next copy is performed. Incidentally, as described above, when the first roll paper of the lower paper feed cassette 11 is selected from the operation panel 5 and the print button is pressed, the copying is similarly performed.

In the above embodiment, the two roll papers, the first roll paper and the second roll paper, are stored in one paper feed cassette, but the present invention is not limited to this. One or more roll papers may be stored in parallel in the paper feed direction.

Further, the roll papers of the same size are mounted on the first roll paper and the second roll paper, and the roll paper (one roll paper) selected during copying during continuous copying is If it runs out, you may automatically feed from the other roll paper. In this case, the copying work is not interrupted, and the copying work can be performed efficiently, which is very convenient.

As described above, since a plurality of roll papers are accommodated in parallel in the paper feed direction in one paper feed cassette, it is possible to load a plurality of roll papers without enlarging the apparatus. Becomes

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, if the upper paper feed cassette and the lower paper feed cassette have the same size and can be interchanged with each other, a paper feed cassette containing only sheet paper (sheet paper feed cassette) It can be installed as a top and bottom paper feed cassette in the mounting opening of the image forming apparatus main body, or a paper feed cassette (roll paper feed cassette) that stores a plurality of roll papers can be installed as an upper and lower cassette. So it will be very convenient.

Further, in the above embodiment, an example of the image forming apparatus in which the paper feeding cassettes can be mounted in two stages has been shown, but the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus in which one or more paper feeding cassettes can be mounted. Of course.

In the above embodiment, the paper feed roller for feeding the sheet is provided on the paper feed cassette side, but instead of this, the paper feed roller may be provided on the image forming apparatus main body side. . In this case, when a paper feed cassette (roll paper feed cassette) accommodating a plurality of roll papers is mounted, the paper feed roller may not act on the roll papers.

Further, in the above embodiment, the first roll paper and the second roll paper are each provided with a dedicated cutter, but one cutter may cut the first roll paper and the second roll paper. Good. In this case, it is advisable to join the transport paths upstream of the cutter in the transport direction. By doing so, the configuration becomes simple. Further, the cutter may be provided inside the image forming apparatus main body (outside the paper feed cassette).

Although an example of a copying machine is shown in the above embodiment, the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a facsimile.

[0046]

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of the image forming apparatus shown in FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration of a lower sheet feeding cassette.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Image forming device body 10 Upper paper feed cassette 11 Lower paper feed cassette 16 sheet paper 17 First roll paper 18 second roll paper 50 cutter

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C058 AB02 AC08 AE04 AE09 AF04                       AF06 AF51 HA07 HB04 HB31                       HB33 LA02 LA24 LB10 LB17                       LB35 LC10                 2H072 AB01 AB07 BB00 CA01 CA02                       CB09 DA01 DA04 HA04 JA02                 3F343 FA02 FB02 FC18 FC30 HA36                       HC15 HC16 HC30 KB03 KB12                       KB14 LC19 MB02 MB03 MB09

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus provided with a loading slot into which a paper feeding cassette can be loaded, wherein a plurality of roll papers can be accommodated in parallel in the paper feeding direction in one paper feeding cassette. An image forming apparatus, wherein a cassette can be attached to the attachment opening. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the roll paper feed cassette is provided with a cutter that cuts the roll paper. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a sheet paper feeding cassette capable of accommodating only sheet paper is attachable to the attachment opening. 4. The roll paper feed cassette is in communication with a first storage unit for storing one roll paper and a second storage unit for storing the other roll paper and the first storage unit, and one roll paper is conveyed in a transport direction. A transport path leading to a downstream side, the transport path covering an upper portion of the second storage portion, and the upper portion of the second storage portion being opened by rotating the transport passage about a spindle. The image forming apparatus according to 1 or 2.