JP2005075609A - Discharge tray and sheet discharge device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily take out sheet materials on a discharge tray in the discharge tray having stopper members. <P>SOLUTION: Two projected parts C are formed on the rear surface of the tray body 17a of the discharge tray 17 on both tip sides thereof. Holes D are formed at these projected parts so as to be opposed to each other. On the other hand, the stopper members 18 are formed by bending, for example, a metal wire material, and comprise two L-shaped mounting parts 18c and U-shaped stopper parts 18b. When the stopper part is installed, first the mounting part thereof is inserted into a torsion spring (energizing member) 19. Then, after two mounting parts are deformed by adding a force to approach two mounting parts to each other, the tip of the mounting part is inserted into the hole at the projected part formed on the rear surface of the tray body. Then a force is removed. Thus, the stopper members can be rotated in a direction for facilitating the removal of the sheet materials loaded on the tray body from a stopper position shown by a solid line in the figure where the discharged sheet materials are abutted thereon. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a sheet discharge apparatus that discharges a sheet material such as paper or OHP film after image formation, for example, in an image forming apparatus. Further, the present invention relates to a discharge tray that is provided in such a sheet discharge device and on which the discharged sheet material is placed.

  Among image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or a composite machine thereof, a tray body 2 described in, for example, Patent Document 1 and provided on a side surface of a printer apparatus body 1 as shown in FIG. There is a thing which attaches the stopper member 3 to the front-end | tip. At the time of image formation, the front end of the sheet material discharged from the discharge port 4 of the printer apparatus main body 1 is applied to the stopper member 3 to prevent the sheet material from dropping from the tray main body 2 and to remove the sheet material from the tray main body 2. It was on top.

Some image forming apparatuses include a sheet discharge apparatus having discharge trays in multiple stages in the vertical direction in order to sort the sheet material on which images have been formed.
JP 2002-114434 A

  In such an image forming apparatus, it is assumed that the stopper member 3 shown in FIG. 6 described above is attached to each tray body of a multi-stage discharge tray. Then, since the interval between the discharge trays is narrowed, when the sheet material placed on the tray body provided on the lower side is taken out after the image formation, the sheet material is caught by the stopper member and it is difficult to take out the sheet material. was there.

  Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to facilitate the removal of a sheet material placed on a tray body in a discharge tray to which a stopper member is attached.

  A second object of the present invention is to prevent forgetting to return the rotated stopper member in the discharge tray.

  A third object of the present invention is to make it easier to take out the sheet material placed on the tray body in the discharge tray.

  A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a sheet discharge apparatus including a discharge tray that achieves the first to third objects.

Therefore, the invention described in claim 1 is to achieve the first object described above.
In the discharge tray where the stopper member is attached to the tray body, and the sheet material discharged on the tray body is abutted against the stopper member and placed on the tray body.
It is characterized in that the stopper member is rotatable in a direction in which the sheet material placed on the tray body can be easily taken out from the stopper position where the discharged sheet material is abutted.

The invention according to claim 2 is to achieve the second object described above.
The discharge tray according to claim 1,
An urging member for urging the stopper member toward the stopper position is provided.

The invention described in claim 3 is to achieve the third object described above,
The discharge tray according to claim 2,
The biasing force of the biasing member is set slightly larger than the maximum load received by the stopper member by the sheet material when the discharged sheet material is placed on the tray body.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned fourth object, the invention according to claim 4
In the sheet discharge device,
The discharge tray according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is provided in multiple stages.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the stopper member can be rotated in a direction in which the sheet material placed on the tray body can be easily taken out from the stopper position where the sheet material to be discharged is abutted against the discharge tray. Therefore, when the sheet material placed on the tray body is taken out, the stopper member rotates from the stopper position, so that the sheet material can be prevented from being caught by the stopper member, and the sheet material placed on the tray body can be prevented. Removal can be facilitated.

  According to the invention according to claim 2, in the discharge tray, the stopper member is provided with an urging member that urges the stopper member toward the stopper position. Forgetting to return can be prevented.

  According to the invention of claim 3, in the discharge tray, the biasing member is applied more than the maximum load received by the stopper member by the sheet material when the discharged sheet material is abutted and placed on the tray body. Since the force is set to be slightly larger, the biasing force of the biasing member is minimized, and when removing the sheet material from the tray body, it can be rotated by applying a slight force to the stopper member. The sheet material placed on the sheet can be taken out more easily.

  According to the invention according to claim 4, in the sheet discharge apparatus, the discharge tray according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is provided in multiple stages, so that the sheet discharge apparatus including the discharge tray having the above-described effect is provided. Can be provided.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a sheet discharging apparatus according to the present invention.

  The illustrated sheet discharge apparatus includes a sheet conveyance path R formed substantially vertically inside a box-shaped apparatus main body 10. At the leading end of the sheet conveying path R, a discharge path R1 that changes direction from substantially vertical to substantially horizontal is formed.

  In the middle of such a sheet conveyance path R, for example, two sheet conveyance rollers 13a and 13b and three branch claws 14a, 14b and 14c for conveying a sheet material are provided. At the positions of the branch claws 14a, 14b, and 14c, discharge paths R2, R3, and R4 that branch from the sheet conveyance path R are formed in the same shape as the discharge path R1 described above. The discharge paths R1, R2, R3, and R4 are provided with discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 16c, and 16d, respectively.

  In addition, the sheet discharge device includes, for example, four discharge trays 17 in multiple stages in the vertical direction, on which the sheet material discharged by the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 16c, and 16d is placed on the tray body 17a. Each of these discharge trays 17 is inclined so that the tip side is slightly above, and the base end side is attached to the apparatus main body 10.

  In addition, solenoids and springs (not shown) are provided around the branch claws 14a, 14b, and 14c, respectively. Then, the branch pawls 14a, 14b, 14c are turned off by the solenoid, the home position position indicated by the solid line in the figure by the biasing force of the spring, and the solenoid is turned on by resisting the biasing force of the spring by the one-dot chain line in the figure. Each of the operating positions shown is rotatable.

  Now, a case where the sheet material is sorted into, for example, four parts by using such a sheet discharge device will be described. First, in accordance with the image formation timing of the image forming apparatus 11, the branching claws 14b and 14c are not rotated, and only the branching claw 14a is rotated to the operating position while keeping the home position.

  Thereafter, the sheet material on which the image has been formed is put from the discharge path 12 of the image forming apparatus 11 into the sheet conveyance path R of the sheet discharge apparatus. Then, after the sheet material conveyed by the sheet conveying roller 13a is put into the discharge path R4 from the sheet conveying path R at the position of the branch claw 14a, the sheet material is transferred onto the tray body 17a of the discharge tray 17 provided at the lowermost side by the discharge roller 16a. Discharge. Next, in the same manner, the sheet material for all pages of the first copy is placed on the tray main body 17a of the lowermost discharge tray 17.

  Next, in accordance with the image formation timing of the image forming apparatus 11, the branching claw 14a is returned, the branching claw 14c does not rotate, is set to the home position, and only the branching claw 14b is rotated to the operating position.

  Thereafter, similarly, the sheet material is put from the image forming apparatus 11 into the sheet conveying path R of the sheet discharging apparatus. Then, after the sheet material conveyed by the sheet conveyance roller 13a is put into the discharge path R3 from the sheet conveyance path R at the position of the branch claw 14b, it is placed on the tray body 17a of the discharge tray 17 provided second from the bottom by the discharge roller 16b. Discharge. Next, in the same manner, the sheet material of all pages of the second set is placed on the tray main body 17a of the second discharge tray 17 from the bottom.

  Next, in synchronization with the image formation timing of the image forming apparatus 11, the branching claw 14b is returned, the branching claw 14a does not rotate and is set to the home position, and only the branching claw 14c is rotated to the operating position.

  Thereafter, similarly, the sheet material is put from the image forming apparatus 11 into the sheet conveying path R of the sheet discharging apparatus. Then, after the sheet material conveyed by the sheet conveying rollers 13a and 13b is put into the discharge path R2 from the sheet conveying path R at the position of the branch claw 14c, the tray main body 17a of the discharge tray 17 provided third from the bottom by the discharge roller 16c. Drain up. Next, in the same manner, the sheet material of all pages of the third copy is placed on the tray main body 17a of the third discharge tray 17 from the bottom.

  Next, in accordance with the image formation timing of the image forming apparatus 11, the branch claw 14c is returned, the branch claws 14a and 14b do not rotate, and all the branch claws 14a, 14b and 14c are set to the home position.

  Thereafter, similarly, the sheet material is put from the image forming apparatus 11 into the sheet conveying path R of the sheet discharging apparatus. Then, after the sheet material conveyed by the sheet conveying rollers 13a and 13b enters the discharge path R1 from the sheet conveying path R, the sheet material is discharged onto the tray body 17a of the discharge tray 17 provided at the top by the discharge roller 16d. Finally, the sheet material of all pages of the fourth copy is similarly placed on the tray body 17a of the uppermost discharge tray 17.

  Now, a discharge tray 17 provided in such a sheet discharge apparatus is shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, the tray body 17a has a shape in which a front portion (notch portion A) on the front end side is cut out from a substantially rectangular shape in order to make it easier to grip the placed sheet material.

  Further, the tray body 17a has a substantially flat surface, and on the back surface, as shown in FIG. 3, a bent portion B is provided along the edge, and two protrusions C are provided on both sides near the tip. . The protrusions C are respectively provided with holes D so as to face each other.

  A stopper member 18 is attached to the front end side of such a tray main body 17a. The stopper member 18 is formed by bending, for example, a metal wire and is shown on the right side in FIG. 4 and has two L-shaped attachment portions 18a whose ends are outward from each other, and a U-shaped stopper portion 18b shown on the left side. Make with. Further, the stopper portion 18b is bent at a predetermined angle θ with respect to the mounting portion 18a to have a shape shown in the figure.

  In order to attach such a stopper member 18 to the tray body 17 a, first, for example, the tip of one attachment portion 18 a of the stopper member 18 is inserted into a torsion spring (biasing member) 19. Thereafter, the front end sides of the two attachment portions 18a are deformed by applying a force in a direction in which they approach each other (the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4), and then the front end of the attachment portion 18a is changed to the rear surface of the tray main body 17a shown in FIG. 2 is inserted into the holes D of the protrusions C provided on the surface, and then the force is removed as shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, in order to remove the stopper member 18 from the tray main body 17a, a force is applied in a direction opposite to the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. From D, the tip of the mounting portion 18a of the stopper member 18 is removed. Thus, in the illustrated example, since the stopper member 18 is detachably provided on the tray body 17a, the stopper member 18 is detached from the tray body 17a when the discharge tray 17 or the sheet discharge device is transported. The tray 17 and the sheet discharge device can be reduced in size.

  As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the torsion spring 19 keeps one end straight, while the other end is bent once to form an L shape, and contacts the tip side of the other end. A portion 19a is provided. At the time of mounting described above, as shown in FIG. 3, one end is set along the back surface of the tray body 17 a, while the other end contact portion 19 a is hung on the mounting portion 18 a of the stopper member 18.

  In addition, a notch is provided in a part of the bent portion B provided on the back surface of the tray main body 17a shown in FIG. 3, and the stopper member 18 is rotated in the notch. Then, by the biasing force of the torsion spring 19 described above, the mounting portion 18a of the stopper member 18 is constantly biased toward the stopper position indicated by the solid line in the drawing so as to abut against the back surface of the tray body 17a.

  Further, as described above, the stopper member 18 shown in FIG. 4 has the attachment portion 18a and the stopper portion 18b bent at a predetermined angle θ. Therefore, the stopper portion 18b of the stopper member 18 at the stopper position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 3 protrudes from the upper surface of the tray body 17a.

  The sheet discharge device including such a discharge tray 17 is configured such that the sheet material discharged by the discharge roller 16d shown in FIG. 1 when the sheet material is discharged is a stopper portion of the stopper member 18 having the stopper position indicated by a solid line in FIG. After abutting against 18b, the abutted sheet material S is placed on the tray body 17a. Therefore, by setting the stopper member 18 attached to the tip of the tray body 17a as the stopper position, the sheet material S is prevented from dropping from the tray body 17a. For example, when A4 size paper is used as the sheet material S and the paper is placed on the tray body 17a, the sheet material S is as shown in FIG.

  Similarly, when taking out the sheet material S placed on the tray main body 17a of the lower three discharge trays 17 having the other discharge trays 17 on the upper part thereof, the cutout portion A of the tray main body 17a is removed. After the sheet material is picked at a location, when the sheet material S is pulled in the direction a or b shown in FIG. 2, the stopper member 18 rotates in the direction indicated by the arrow as shown in FIG. The position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line, that is, the stopper portion 18b of the stopper member 18 is positioned so as not to protrude from the upper surface of the tray body 17a, and the sheet material S can be taken out without being caught by the stopper member 18. .

  Therefore, according to the present invention, the stopper member 18 can be rotated in a direction in which the sheet material S placed on the tray body 17a can be easily taken out from the stopper position where the discharged sheet material is abutted. When the sheet material S placed on the main body 17a is taken out, the stopper member 18 rotates from the stopper position. Therefore, the sheet material S can be prevented from being caught by the stopper member 18, and the sheet material S can be easily taken out. Can do.

  In the illustrated sheet discharge apparatus, the stopper members 18 are respectively attached to the leading ends of all the discharge trays 17 in order to reduce the manufacturing unit price of the discharge trays 17, but only the uppermost discharge tray 17 is stopped. It is good also as a structure which does not attach the member 18. FIG.

  Further, in such a torsion spring 19 provided in the discharge tray 17, the torsion spring 19 has a larger load than the maximum load received by the stopper member 18 by the sheet material when the discharged sheet material is abutted and placed on the tray body 17 a. It is preferable to set the biasing force slightly larger. In this way, the urging force of the torsion spring 19 is minimized, and when the sheet material S is taken out from the tray body 17a, the tray body can be rotated by applying a slight force to the stopper member 18. The sheet material S placed on 17a can be taken out more easily.

  In the above-described example, the sheet discharge device including the four discharge trays 17 in multiple stages has been described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and for example, the single discharge tray 17 is provided, and the discharge tray 17 is located below the apparatus main body 10. The same effect can be achieved even in a sheet discharge device provided with an obstacle on the upper portion of the discharge tray 17, such as in the case of preparing to enter. In the illustrated example, four discharge trays 17 are provided. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the same effect can be achieved regardless of whether the number of discharge trays 17 is singular or plural. be able to.

  In the above-described example, the example of the discharge tray 17 provided in the image forming apparatus and provided in the sheet discharge apparatus that sorts the sheet material has been described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the discharge tray 17 provided directly in the image forming apparatus main body is used. Can also be applied. Further, such an image forming apparatus includes a discharge tray 17 directly provided in a post-processing apparatus that performs punch punching or stapling on a sheet material on which an image has been formed, and a post-processing apparatus that includes a sheet material. The present invention can also be applied to the discharge trays 17 provided in multiple stages in the sheet discharge device for sorting.

It is a schematic block diagram of the sheet discharge apparatus by this invention. It is a top view of the sheet discharge apparatus. It is a partial enlarged sectional view of a discharge tray provided in the sheet discharge device. It is a perspective view of the stopper member with which the discharge tray is provided. (A) of a torsion spring with which the discharge tray is provided is a side view, and (B) is a plan view. It is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus provided with the conventional sheet discharge apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

17 Discharge tray 17a Tray body 18 Stopper member 19 Torsion spring (urging member)
S sheet material

Claims (4)

In the discharge tray that attaches a stopper member to the tray body and places the sheet material discharged onto the tray body against the stopper member and places the sheet material on the tray body,
A discharge tray, wherein the stopper member is rotatable in a direction in which a sheet material placed on the tray body can be easily taken out from a stopper position where the discharged sheet material is abutted.   The discharge tray according to claim 1, further comprising a biasing member that biases the stopper member toward the stopper position.   The urging force of the urging member is set slightly larger than the maximum load received by the stopper member by the sheet material when the discharged sheet material is abutted and placed on the tray body, The discharge tray according to claim 2. A sheet discharge device comprising the discharge tray according to claim 1 in multiple stages.

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