JP2004043171A - Short paper sheet feeding device and recording device equipped with it - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a short paper sheet feeding device capable of feeding short paper sheets of a size such as business cards without problem by using a paper sheet feeding roller capable of feeding long single paper sheets of A4 and B5 size. <P>SOLUTION: The outer peripheral face 12 of the paper sheet feeding roller 13 is set shorter than the length of a long paper sheet P in its feeding direction and longer than the length of a short paper sheet Q in its feeding direction. The tip side of a hopper 9 is controlled so as to move upward and downward between an upper position and an lower position so that when the short paper sheet Q is fed from a paper sheet feeding tray 11, only the operation range of the length shorter than that of the short paper sheet in its feeding direction between the starting end 35 and the terminal end 36 of the outer peripheral face come into friction-contact with the section from a part near the tip of the short paper sheet Q to a position near the rear end while the paper sheet feeding roller 13 is rotated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer capable of printing on short paper such as business cards, and more particularly, to a paper feeding device for sending short paper from a paper feeding tray to a printing unit, and a recording apparatus including the paper feeding device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Some inkjet printers capable of printing on cut sheets are provided with a paper feed roller having a kamaboko cross section. Such a paper feed roller is rotated around a rotation axis in a state where the hopper on which the cut sheets P are stacked is rotated upward, so that the outer peripheral surface is brought into frictional contact with the uppermost cut sheet and is moved forward. Can be sent to When the paper feed roller rotates and the cutout portion of the paper feed roller faces the cut sheet, the paper feed action of the feed roller ends, and waits for the next cut sheet to be fed. Become like
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when a short cut sheet such as a business card size or a photo card is fed by a feed roller capable of feeding the cut sheets of the Japanese Industrial Standard A4 or B5, the length of the short cut sheet is long. Because the length of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is larger than that of the paper feed roller, the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller comes into contact with the next Then, the feeding of the next cut sheet starts. As a result, the printing position may be shifted, paper may be jammed, or the like. In particular, in recent years, the distance between the paper feed unit and the paper feed roller has been increased due to an increase in the mechanical space due to an increase in the functions of the printer. Has become.
[0004]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to supply a short paper sheet such as a business card size using a paper feed roller capable of feeding a long cut sheet of A4 or B5 paper without any problem. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a recording apparatus including the same.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a short paper feeding device according to claim 1 of the present application has an outer peripheral surface that performs frictional contact with a sheet to feed the paper, and a paper feeding operation that retracts inward from the outer peripheral surface. A paper feed roller rotatable about a rotating shaft, and a paper feed tray provided below the paper feed roller, and a tip side according to a rotation position of the paper feed roller, An outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller can move to an upper position where the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller can frictionally contact the paper on the paper feed tray, and a lower position where the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller cannot frictionally contact the paper on the paper feed tray. Hopper, the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is set shorter than the length of the long paper in the feed direction, longer than the length of the short paper such as business cards and photo cards in the feed direction, The short paper When feeding paper from the paper feed tray, when the paper feed roller is rotating, only the working area having a length shorter than the length in the feed direction of the short paper between the start end and the end of the outer peripheral surface thereof, The front end of the hopper is controlled to move up and down between the upper position and the lower position so as to make frictional contact from near the front end to near the rear end of the short sheet.
[0006]
According to the present invention, of the length of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller, only the operation area substantially corresponding to the length in the feed direction of the short paper makes frictional contact with the short paper to perform the feeding operation. After the sheet is fed from the sheet feeding tray, it is possible to prevent the outer peripheral surface of the sheet feeding roller from contacting the next short sheet and starting to send the next short sheet together.
[0007]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the short sheet feeding apparatus according to the first aspect, a front end of the operation area substantially coincides with a start end of an outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller. It is assumed that.
[0008]
According to the present invention, after the start end of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller comes into frictional contact with the vicinity of the leading end of the short paper, the outer peripheral surface comes into frictional contact with the vicinity of the end of the short paper, and starts feeding the short paper forward. When the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is near the end of the short paper, the leading edge of the hopper moves downward and the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller moves away from the short paper. Will not be sent out.
[0009]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the short sheet feeding apparatus according to the first aspect, a rear end of the operation area substantially coincides with an end of an outer peripheral surface of the sheet feeding roller. It is assumed that.
[0010]
According to the present invention, even if the start end of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller rotates to the vicinity of the leading end of the short sheet, the leading end of the hopper does not rise at this time, and the starting end of the outer peripheral surface remains constant near the leading end of the short sheet. After advancing the distance, the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller comes into frictional contact with the short paper, and starts feeding the short paper forward. When the end of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is near the end of the short paper, the tip of the hopper moves downward and the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is separated from the short paper, so the next short paper after the short paper sent this time Will not be sent out by mistake.
[0011]
Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the short sheet feeding apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the short sheet feeding apparatus feeds the short sheet to the sheet feeding tray. The paper feed tray is provided with an adapter which can be attached to and detached from the paper feed tray in order to hold the paper feed roller at a position above the paper feed tray. A first cam is provided on the rotation shaft of the roller, and a first cam follower is provided on the paper feed tray side at a position corresponding to the first cam to form a first cam mechanism in cooperation with the first cam. In order to move the leading end of the hopper up and down when feeding the short paper, a second cam is provided on the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller, and the adapter is provided with a second cam at a position corresponding to the second cam. The second cam, which constitutes the second cam mechanism in cooperation with the second cam, Follower is provided, said second cam mechanism is characterized in that acting in preference to the first cam mechanism.
[0012]
According to the present invention, by attaching the adapter to the paper feed tray for printing on the short paper, the second cam mechanism is activated prior to the first cam mechanism. By the operation of the second cam mechanism, the hopper is moved so that only the working area of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feeding roller having a length shorter than the length of the short paper in the feeding direction is brought into frictional contact from near the front end to near the rear end of the short paper. The distal end moves up and down between the upper position and the lower position.
[0013]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the short sheet feeding device according to the fourth aspect, a plurality of the adapters are prepared according to a size of the short sheet, and the second cam mechanism is provided with the second cam mechanism. It is characterized in that it is set so as to correspond to the size of each short sheet according to a plurality of adapters.
[0014]
According to the present invention, the adapter is changed according to the size of the short paper, and the cam follower provided on the adapter and different depending on the paper size and the cam provided on the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller and different cam depending on the paper size are provided. Due to the operation, the timing of the vertical movement of the hopper varies depending on the size of the short paper.
[0015]
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus including the short sheet feeding device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects. According to the present invention, both long and short sheets can be fed by one sheet feed roller, and short sheets can be fed without double feeding.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view showing an ink jet printer as an example of a recording apparatus to which the short sheet feeding device of the present invention is applied. The ink jet printer 1 includes a printer main body 3, a paper feed unit 5 provided at an upper rear portion of the printer main body 3, and a paper discharge unit 7 formed in front of the printer main body 3.
[0017]
A hopper 9 is provided in the paper supply unit 5, and a plurality of sheets can be stacked on a paper supply tray 11 formed on the hopper 9. Immediately downstream of the paper feed tray 11, a paper feed roller 13 is provided. The paper feed roller 13 has a substantially semi-cylindrical shape as a whole, and has a function of nipping and feeding the paper located at the uppermost part of the paper feed tray 11 between the paper and the separation pad which is in frictional contact with the paper. It has an outer peripheral surface 12 that bears the light, and a cutout 15 that is retracted inward from the outer peripheral surface 12 and does not perform the sheet feeding operation.
[0018]
As shown in FIG. 3, a first cam 22 is provided on the rotation shaft 20 of the paper feed roller 13, and the first cam 22 cooperates with a first cam follower 24 formed on the hopper 9 side. Configure the mechanism. The first cam mechanism pushes the first cam follower 24 downward when the paper feed roller 13 rotates by a predetermined amount, whereby an upward biasing device (not shown) provided in the hopper 9 is provided. ), The front end side of the hopper 9 is pushed downward.
[0019]
Returning to FIG. 1, the paper fed from the paper feed tray 11 reaches a paper feed roller 19 composed of a lower paper feed drive roller 16 and an upper paper feed driven roller 17, and is subjected to precision in a printing process by a drive system. The sheet is fed to the print head 21 located on the downstream side of the sheet feed roller 19 while receiving the sheet feed operation.
[0020]
The print head 21 is supported by a carriage 23, and the carriage 23 can reciprocate in a direction (main scanning direction) orthogonal to the sheet feeding direction. A platen 25 is provided at a position facing the print head 21. The platen 25 supports the sheet from below when the print head 21 performs printing on the sheet.
[0021]
The distance between the print head 21 and the platen 25, that is, the paper gap, can be appropriately adjusted according to the thickness of the paper by moving the carriage 23 supporting the print head 21 up and down. In a state where the paper gap is properly adjusted, high-quality printing is performed while the paper smoothly passes over the platen 25. The paper is sequentially discharged by paper discharge rollers 27 provided in the printer 7. The paper discharge roller 27 is composed of a lower paper discharge drive roller 29 and an upper paper discharge jaw roller 31, and is a mechanism that the paper P is pulled out and discharged by the rotation drive of the paper discharge drive roller 29. .
[0022]
The ink jet printer 1 has a configuration as described above. The printer 1 can print on long papers such as A4 and B5 Japanese Industrial Standards as well as short papers such as business card sizes and photo cards. It is possible. FIG. 2 shows a driving state of the paper feed roller 13 when feeding long paper such as A4 size and B5 size. FIG. 2A shows the relationship between the length L1 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 extending linearly and the length L2 of the long paper P in the transport direction. As can be seen from FIG. <L2. Note that FIG. 4 (a ′) and FIG. 6 (a ′), which will be described later, also show the same relationship.
[0023]
In order to feed the long paper P having the length L2 in the transport direction, first, as shown in FIG. 2A, the first cam 22 and the first cam follower 24 act as a cam so as to be not shown in the drawing. Due to the action of the urging device, the leading end side of the hopper 9 rotates upward as indicated by an arrow 33, whereby the start end 35 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 frictionally abuts on the leading end 37 of the longest sheet P1 at the top. Come into contact. At almost the same time when the hopper 9 is raised, the paper feed roller 13 rotates clockwise in the drawing. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2B, the uppermost long sheet P1 on the sheet feed tray 11 is sent forward.
[0024]
As shown in FIG. 2C, when the uppermost long sheet P1 is almost completely fed, the outer peripheral surface 12 of the sheet feeding roller 13 no longer contacts the rear end 39 of the long sheet P1. The notch 15 of the paper feed roller 13 is located on the end 39. As described above, at the final stage of the paper feeding process, the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 does not contact the rear end 39 of the long paper P1, and therefore, the outer peripheral surface 12 does not contact the next long paper P2. This prevents the next long sheet P2 from being erroneously started to be fed. When one long sheet of paper P1 is sent out, the leading end side of the hopper 9 rotates downward as shown by an arrow 41 by the cam action of the first cam 22 and the first cam follower 24, and feeds the next sheet. Be prepared.
[0025]
As described above, the above-described paper feeding operation of the long paper P has been conventionally performed, and the short paper such as a business card and a photo card is formed by the paper feeding roller 13 having a size capable of feeding the long paper P. The paper feeding operation when feeding the Q will be described below with reference to FIGS.
[0026]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the periphery of the sheet feeding tray showing a state immediately before the sheet feeding operation of the short sheet Q, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a driving state of the sheet feeding roller 13 when the short sheet Q is fed. FIG. When printing on the short paper Q, as shown in FIG. 3, an adapter 43 for positioning the short paper Q at the position of the paper feed roller 13 is set on the paper feed tray 11, and The short paper Q is placed on the set area 45 formed by the above.
[0027]
The adapter 43 includes a bottom plate 45, a left wall 47 formed on the left end side of the bottom plate 45, a right wall 49 formed from the left wall 47 at a position substantially equal to the width of the short paper Q, and a rear of the short paper Q. The set area 45 is formed between the left wall 47 and the right wall 49.
[0028]
At the front end of the right wall 49 of the adapter 43, a second cam follower 53 is provided as shown in FIG. 5, and the second cam follower 53 is provided at a position corresponding to the rotation shaft 20 of the paper feed roller 13. A second cam mechanism is configured in cooperation with the second cam 55. Similar to the first cam mechanism, the second cam 55 pushes the second cam follower 53 downward when the paper feed roller 13 rotates by a predetermined amount, so that the urging device provided on the hopper 9. Acts downwardly on the front end side of the hopper 9 against the urging action of the second cam mechanism. Such a cam action by the second cam mechanism is performed prior to the first cam mechanism. That is, when the adapter 43 is attached to the paper feed tray 11, the second cam mechanism operates, but when the adapter 43 is not attached, the first cam mechanism operates.
[0029]
Also, a plurality of types of adapters 43 can be prepared according to the size of the short paper Q, and the second cam followers 53 provided for each adapter 43 are capable of feeding short paper Q described below. Thus, it can be changed for each adapter 43. FIG. 4A shows the relationship between the length L1 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 and the length L2 of the short paper Q in the transport direction. As can be seen from FIG. 4A, L1> L2. I have. In FIG. 4A, the position of the length L2 in the left-right direction with respect to the length L1 is determined by the position of the short paper Q where the short paper Q is between the start end 35 and the end 36 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the feed roller 13. Indicates whether they are in contact.
[0030]
When the short paper Q set in the adapter 43 is fed, first, the hopper 9 is actuated by the action of the urging device (not shown) as shown in FIG. Is rotated upward as indicated by an arrow 33, whereby the starting end 35 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 comes into frictional contact with the vicinity of the front end 37 of the shortest sheet Q1 at the top. At almost the same time when the hopper 9 is raised, the paper feed roller 13 rotates clockwise in the drawing. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4B, the uppermost short sheet Q1 on the sheet feed tray 11 is sent forward.
[0031]
At the timing immediately before the uppermost short sheet Q1 is completely fed out, as shown in FIG. 4C, the second cam 55 and the second cam follower 53 again act on the upper urging action of the urging device by the cam action. In opposition, the leading end of the hopper 9 pivots downward as indicated by the arrow 41, whereby the uppermost short paper Q1 separates from the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13, and thereafter remains in contact with the short paper Q1. It comes to rotate. This is apparent from the fact that the area (right side in the figure) closer to the end 36 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 does not overlap with the length of the short paper Q1 in FIG.
[0032]
Since the outer peripheral surface 12 of the sheet feeding roller 13 is separated from the short sheet Q at the above timing, the next short sheet Q2 is prevented from being erroneously sent out. After the paper feed roller 13 rotates to the position shown in FIG. 4D, it waits in the state shown in FIG. 4D until a command signal for the next short sheet Q2 is input.
[0033]
Next, another embodiment in which the short paper Q is fed by the paper feed roller 13 large enough to feed the long paper P will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, as shown in FIG. 6 (a '), the length L2 of the short paper Q in the transport direction is located rearward (rightward) with respect to the length L1 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13. Means that the area (left side in the figure) closer to the start end 35 side of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 is not used for feeding the short paper Q1.
[0034]
That is, in this example, as shown in FIG. 6A, even if the start end 35 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 rotates and passes near the leading end 37 of the short sheet Q1, the hopper 9 The tip side does not rotate upward. As shown in FIG. 5B, when rotated by the circumferential angle θ from the state of FIG. 5A, the tip of the hopper 9 is actuated by the action of the second cam mechanism and the urging mechanism as shown by the arrow 33. The upper side rotates upward, and the vicinity of the leading end 37 of the shortest sheet Q1 at the uppermost portion comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface 12 of the sheet feeding roller 13.
[0035]
By continuing rotation of the paper feed roller 13 in this state, the uppermost short paper Q1 is sent out, and as shown in FIG. 5C, at a point slightly before the terminal end 36 of the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13. The feeding of the uppermost short sheet Q1 is completed. Therefore, the outer peripheral surface 12 of the paper feed roller 13 does not come into contact with the next short sheet Q2, and the next short sheet Q2 does not start to be fed.
[0036]
After the uppermost short sheet Q1 is sent out from the sheet feeding tray 11, as shown in FIG. 5D, the tip end side of the hopper 9 rotates downward as shown by the arrow 41 by the action of the second cam mechanism. It waits to send out the next short sheet Q2.
[0037]
The two embodiments in which the short paper Q is fed by the feed roller 13 large enough to feed the long paper P have been described above. However, in the short paper feeding apparatus of the present invention, the feeding is short. When the paper roller 13 is rotating, any continuous area between the start end 35 and the end 36 of the outer peripheral surface 12 is brought into frictional contact from near the front end to near the rear end of the short paper Q. What is necessary is just to control the tip side of the hopper 9 to move up and down. The control of the vertical movement of the hopper 9 can be performed by appropriately changing the shape of the second cam mechanism, and the hopper 9 can be moved up and down at an appropriate timing using an electromagnetic valve or the like. May be.
[0038]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, of the length of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller, only the operation area substantially corresponding to the length in the feed direction of the short paper makes frictional contact with the short paper to perform the feeding operation. After the sheet is fed from the sheet feeding tray, it is possible to prevent the outer peripheral surface of the sheet feeding roller from contacting the next short sheet and starting to send the next short sheet together.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a side view showing an ink jet printer which is an example of a recording apparatus to which a short sheet feeding device of the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a driving state of a sheet feeding roller when feeding a long sheet according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the vicinity of a sheet feeding tray showing a state immediately before a short sheet feeding operation according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of a driving state of a sheet feeding roller when feeding short paper according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a side view showing the periphery of a second cam and a second cam follower according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of the driving state of the sheet feeding roller when feeding short paper according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
5 Paper Feeding Unit 9 Hopper 11 Paper Feed Tray 12 Outer Peripheral Surface 13 Feed Roller 15 Notch 19 Paper Feeding Roller 20 Feed Roller Rotary Shaft 22 First Cam 24 First Cam Follower 27 Discharge Roller 33 Arrow 35 Outer Peripheral Surface Start end 36 End of outer peripheral surface 37 Lead end of long paper 39 Rear end of long paper 41 Arrow 43 Adapter 45 Bottom plate 47 Left wall 49 Right wall 51 Rear regulating plate 53 Second cam follower 55 Second cam P Long paper Q Short Paper L1 Length of outer peripheral surface of paper feed roller L2 Length of paper in feed direction

Claims (6)

An outer peripheral surface that frictionally comes into contact with the paper to perform the feeding operation of the paper, and a portion that is retracted inward from the outer peripheral surface and does not perform the feeding operation of the paper, a paper feed roller that is rotatable about a rotation axis,
A paper feed tray is provided below the paper feed roller, and the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller can be in frictional contact with a sheet on the paper feed tray according to the rotation position of the paper feed roller at the leading end. A sheet feeder comprising: an upper position; and a hopper that can move to a lower position where an outer peripheral surface of the sheet feed roller cannot make frictional contact with a sheet on the sheet feed tray,
The outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller is shorter than the length of the long paper in the feeding direction, and is set to be longer than the length of the short paper such as a business card or a photo card in the feeding direction,
When the short paper is fed from the paper feed tray, when the paper feed roller is rotating, an action having a length shorter than the length in the feed direction of the short paper between the start end and the end of the outer peripheral surface thereof is provided. Wherein only the area is controlled so that the leading end side of the hopper moves up and down between the upper position and the lower position so as to make frictional contact from near the leading end to near the trailing end of the short sheet. Paper feeder. 2. The short sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a front end of the action area substantially coincides with a start end of an outer peripheral surface of the sheet feeding roller. 2. The short sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a rear end of the operation area substantially coincides with an end of an outer peripheral surface of the sheet feeding roller. The short paper feeding device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the short paper feeding device is detachable from the paper feeding tray to hold the short paper at the position of the paper feeding roller on the paper feeding tray. Equipped with an adapter,
A first cam is provided on a rotation shaft of the paper feed roller to move the leading end side of the hopper up and down when feeding the long paper, and the paper feed tray corresponds to the first cam. A first cam follower, which constitutes a first cam mechanism in cooperation with the first cam, is provided at the position;
A second cam is provided on the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller to move the leading end of the hopper up and down when feeding the short paper, and the adapter is provided with a second cam at a position corresponding to the second cam. A short paper feeder, characterized in that a second cam follower that constitutes a second cam mechanism in cooperation with a cam is provided, wherein the second cam mechanism acts prior to the first cam mechanism. 5. The device according to claim 4, wherein a plurality of the adapters are prepared according to the size of the short paper, and the second cam mechanism is set to correspond to the size of each short paper according to the plurality of adapters. 6. Short paper feeder characterized by the following. A recording apparatus comprising the short paper feeder according to claim 1.

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