JP2006219304A - Multistage paper delivery tray and recorder having multistage paper delivery tray - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multistage paper delivery tray having a structure capable of selectively extending only a specific tray, in the multistage paper delivery tray having a plurality of extendable trays. <P>SOLUTION: This multistage paper delivery tray can extend stepwise a plurality of paper delivery trays in response to the size of recording paper for supporting the recording paper from the lower side; and has a first paper delivery tray 27 extendable in a drawer system, and a second paper delivery tray 35 positioned on the lower side of the first paper delivery tray 27, connected so as to be rotatable and extendable in a rotary system to the front end side of the first paper delivery tray. A cutout part 48 can be formed in the first paper delivery tray 27 so that an operator can contact with the second paper delivery tray 35 by fingers, and a gripping part 47 for extracting the first paper delivery tray 27 may be formed on the front end side of the second paper delivery tray 35. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a paper discharge tray for temporarily storing printed materials discharged after printing in a printer or the like, and in particular, develops the size of a paper receiving surface in multiple stages according to the size of the paper. The present invention relates to a multi-stage paper discharge tray that can be used.

  As an example of a conventional multi-stage paper discharge tray 101, as shown in FIG. 8, a first-stage drawn recording paper layer 105 provided so as to be able to be pulled out below the printer main body 103, and a first-stage drawn recording paper layer 105 are further provided. Some have a second-stage lead-out recording paper layer 107 provided so as to be able to be pulled out below.

  For example, when printing on B5 size paper, such a multi-stage pull-out tray is configured to draw out only the first-drawing recording paper layer 105 or the second-drawing recording paper layer 107 and receive the paper. Also, when printing on, for example, A4 size paper larger than B5, both the first and second lead-out recording paper lays 105 and 107 are pulled out to receive the paper (the state shown in FIG. 8). .

JP-A-9-188462

  However, in the multi-drawer tray as described above, even if one of the first or second drawer recording paper lays 105 and 107 is to be pulled out, depending on the pulling force, the first and second drawers are pulled out. The recording paper lays 105 and 107 may be pulled out together. Further, even if only the first-stage drawn recording paper ray 105 is to be drawn, only the second-stage drawn recording paper ray may be drawn.

  This phenomenon is caused by adjusting the difference in the frictional force between the drawer rails between the trays and the fact that the first and second drawer recording paper layers 105 and 107 are pulled out in the same direction. This is because it is difficult to do.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure capable of selectively developing only a specific tray in a multi-stage paper discharge tray having a plurality of expandable trays in order to solve the above-described problems. It is to provide a multi-stage paper discharge tray.

  In order to achieve the above object, the multi-stage discharge tray according to the first aspect of the present application is a multi-stage discharge tray that can develop a plurality of discharge trays in stages according to the size of the recording paper in order to support the recording paper from below. In the paper discharge tray, a first paper discharge tray that can be unfolded in a pull-out manner and a second paper that is rotatably connected to the lower side of the first paper discharge tray and can be unfolded in a rotary manner on the front end side of the first paper discharge tray. And a paper discharge tray.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to develop only the first paper discharge tray by performing only the operation of pulling out the multistage paper discharge tray toward the front side. At this time, since the second paper discharge tray is not pulled out together, it is not necessary to increase or decrease the force when pulling forward. If only the operation of rotating the second discharge tray is performed, only the second discharge tray can be developed. Further, when it is desired to expand all trays of the multistage discharge tray, an operation of rotating the second discharge tray after performing an operation of pulling out the multistage discharge tray to the front side may be performed.

  The invention according to the second aspect of the present invention is the multi-stage discharge tray described in the first aspect, wherein the first discharge tray has a first output so that an operator can contact the second discharge tray with a finger. (2) A notch for exposing the paper discharge tray is formed. According to the present invention, in order to rotate the second paper discharge tray located below the first paper discharge tray, the second paper discharge tray can be operated with a finger through the notch.

  The invention according to the third aspect of the present invention is the multi-stage discharge tray described in the first or second aspect, wherein the first discharge tray is held at the front end side of the second discharge tray. A portion is formed.

  According to the present invention, the first paper discharge tray connected to the second paper discharge tray can be developed by hooking a finger on the grip portion and pulling it toward the front side. On the other hand, at this time, the second paper discharge tray is not unfolded because no rotational moment acts on the second paper discharge tray.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the multi-stage paper discharge tray described in the third aspect, the gripping portion has a first position that does not generate a rotational moment in the second paper discharge tray when pulled. And a second position for generating a rotational moment in the second paper discharge tray when pulled.

  According to the present invention, only the first discharge tray is unfolded when the finger is pulled to the first position of the gripping portion, and only the second discharge tray is pulled when the finger is pulled to the second position of the gripping portion. Expands. In addition, after the finger is put on the first position of the gripping part and pulled, the first paper discharge tray and the second paper discharge tray are continuously developed by shifting the finger position to the second position of the gripping part. be able to.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the multistage discharge tray according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the multistage discharge tray is directed forward with respect to the discharge outlet of the recording apparatus. It is provided so as to be rotatable, and when the multi-stage paper discharge tray is not used, the paper discharge port is closed so that the surface of the multi-stage paper discharge tray is substantially flush with the outer surface of the housing of the recording apparatus. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, the storage state of the entire recording paper becomes compact, and at the same time, the entire storage appearance has a coherent appearance.

  Further, in the sixth aspect of the present invention, in the multi-stage discharge tray described in the fifth aspect, the grip portion functions as a handle for rotating the multi-stage discharge tray to the front side when not in use. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to unfold the first paper discharge tray by continuously pulling the grip portion while pulling the grip portion and rotating the multistage paper discharge tray toward the front side. Therefore, if the configuration of the invention of the fourth aspect is also provided, while holding the finger on the gripping part from the rotation of the multistage discharge tray to the development of the first discharge tray and the second discharge tray, A series of operations can be performed smoothly.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the multi-stage sheet discharge tray described in any one of the first to sixth aspects, the first sheet discharge tray or the second sheet discharge tray is stored or unfolded. And a means for temporarily locking.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the first discharge tray or the second discharge tray from unintentionally being unfolded or conversely stored.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the multistage discharge tray described in any one of the first to seventh aspects, the second discharge tray has a substantially semicircular shape. Is.

  According to the present invention, since the outer periphery passes through the same track during the development and storage of the second paper discharge tray, there is no risk of injury due to a corner hitting a finger or the like. It is easy to collect the recording paper by grasping the corner of the leading edge of the recording paper.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus including the multistage discharge tray according to any one of the first to eighth aspects.

  According to the present invention, a desired discharge tray state can be easily realized according to the size of the recording paper used in the recording apparatus, so that an efficient recording apparatus with good workability is provided. be able to.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an inkjet printer 1 to which a multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 according to the present invention is applied. The inkjet printer 1 includes a housing 5 that extends long in the width direction. A paper feed unit 7 is formed on the rear side of the housing 5, and a paper discharge unit 9 is formed on the front side. A window portion 11 is formed from the top of the housing 5 to the front surface, and the window portion 11 is closed in a state where it can be opened by a transparent curved plastic cover 13. An operation panel 15 for performing various operations of the printer is provided on the right side of the housing 5.

  A paper discharge port 17 is formed in the paper discharge unit 9, and as shown by a solid line in FIG. 1, the multistage paper discharge tray 3 is provided so as to close the paper discharge port 17 when the printer is not used. . When the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 closes the paper discharge port 17, that is, when the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 is stored, the outer surface 4 of the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 is substantially flush with the front surface of the housing 5. Is formed. As a result, the storage state of the entire printer becomes compact, and at the same time, the overall storage appearance has a coherent appearance.

  FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3. As shown in FIG. 2, rotation projections 19 are formed on the left and right sides of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3, and the rotation projections 19 are respectively received by protrusion receiving portions (not shown) formed inside the sheet discharge outlet 17. As a result, the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 is supported in a rotatable state on the front side as indicated by a broken line in FIG. A holding projection 21 that is biased outwardly is formed on the left side of the multistage discharge tray 3, and the holding projection 21 is placed inside the discharge outlet 17 when the multistage discharge tray 3 is stored. By engaging the formed holding projection receiving portion (not shown) in a pressed state, the storage state of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 can be maintained.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 includes an upper member 23 and a lower member 25 that constitute the tray housing 22, a drawn recording paper layer 27 and a rotating tray 35 provided in the tray housing 22. The drawn recording paper lay 27 is movable in the front-rear direction indicated by the arrows along the rail 29 formed on the lower member 25. When the drawn recording paper lay 27 is in the storage position, the rear end of the lower member 25 The elastically deformable locking pieces 33 formed at the two positions at the rear end of the drawing recording paper lay 27 are elastically deformed and temporarily locked at the two locking portions 31 formed at the The storage state of the recording paper layer 27 can be maintained.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a rotating tray 35 is provided below the drawn recording paper layer 27. The rotating tray 35 is a substantially semicircular member, and a circular supported portion 37 is formed at substantially the center thereof, and the supported portion 37 is arranged and formed in a substantially circular shape on the back surface of the drawn recording paper tray 27. The rotating tray 35 is supported so as to be rotatable with respect to the drawn recording paper layer 27 by being fitted around the support protrusion group 39 thus formed. A locking projection piece 41 that is elastically deformable is formed on the periphery of the rotation tray 35. When the rotation tray 35 is in the stored state (the state shown in FIG. 4), the locking projection piece 41 is pulled out from the recording sheet. The free rotation of the rotating tray 35 is suppressed by elastically deforming and temporarily locking to the locking projection piece receiving portion 43 formed on the back surface of the lay 27. Further, in the stored state of the rotating tray 35, the shoulder 42 of the locking protruding piece 41 comes into contact with the rotation stopping portion 45 formed on the back surface of the drawn recording paper lay 27, so This prevents rotation in the opposite direction.

  A gripping portion 47 extending downward is formed at the front end of the rotating tray 35. The gripping portion 47 functions as a handle for pulling out the drawn recording paper tray 27 from the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3, and also stores it. It also functions as a part to put a finger on when the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 in the state is rotated to the front side.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, a cutout portion 48 having a shape substantially similar to the tip of the thumb is formed on the right side of the front end of the drawn recording paper layer 27, and the rotary tray 35 is formed in the cutout portion 48. 3 and rotated 180 degrees in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3, the rotating tray 35 can be developed on the leading end side of the drawn recording paper lay 27. Note that instead of gripping the rotating tray 35 with the notch 48, if a finger is placed on the right end side (position indicated by A) of the gripping portion 47 in FIG. The rotating tray 35 can be rotated.

  When the rotating tray 35 is in the unfolded state on the leading end side of the drawn recording paper layer 27 (in the state shown in FIG. 6), the latching protrusion piece 41 is elastically deformed and the receiving portion 49 when the latching protrusion piece is used By temporarily engaging with (formed on the left side in FIGS. 5 and 5), free rotation of the rotating tray 35 can be suppressed (state shown in FIG. 5).

  As shown in FIG. 6, the rotating tray 35 has an arrow 51 indicating the direction in which the rotating tray 35 should be rotated, and below this arrow 51, as shown in FIG. A finger notch 53 is formed in the flange portion 52 around the rotating tray 35.

  The multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 of the present invention has the above-described configuration, and the operation thereof will be described below. First, when the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 is not used, as shown in FIG. 1, the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 is in a standing state so as to close the paper discharge unit 9. The protrusion 21 is engaged with a holding protrusion receiving portion (not shown) in a pressed state, so that the storage state of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 is maintained.

  When using the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3, the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 is rotated to the near side and becomes almost horizontal as shown by the broken line in FIG. . When the gripping portion 47 is further pulled toward this side from this state, the drawn recording paper layer 27 is pulled out. At this time, since no rotational force acts on the rotating tray 35, the rotating tray 35 is not unfolded along with the unfolding of the drawn recording paper layer 27. For example, when printing on a relatively small sheet such as a postcard or B5 size, it is sufficient for the length of the sheet receiving portion to be expanded only by the drawn recording paper layer 27, so printing starts in this state. do it.

  For example, when printing on A4 size paper, the paper receiving portion may not be long enough if the drawer recording paper layer 27 is unfolded, and the paper may fall from the paper receiving portion. In this case, from the state in which the drawn recording paper layer 27 is unfolded, the rotating tray portion exposed at the notch 48 is grasped with a finger and pulled forward. As a result, the rotating tray 35 rotates in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3, and the rotating tray 35 expands to the front side of the drawn recording paper layer 27 as shown in FIG. It becomes possible.

  After the printing is completed, the rotation tray 35 and the drawing recording paper layer 27 are accommodated in the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 by the operation opposite to the above, and the multi-stage paper discharge tray 3 is rotated upward so that the state shown in FIG. Return to.

  In the above-described operation, instead of gripping the rotating tray portion exposed at the notch 48 with a finger, the position of the gripping portion 47 to be hooked is shifted to the position of A in FIG. 35 can be deployed. Incidentally, in the case of adopting such a method of expanding the rotating tray 35, the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 is rotated forward from the state shown by the solid line in FIG. The operation of sequentially developing the output recording paper layer 27 and the rotating tray 35 can be smoothly performed in a series.

  Next, another embodiment of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray 3 of the present invention will be described. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the rotating tray 35 has a substantially semicircular shape. However, the rotating tray 35 may have a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 7 or other shapes, for example.

  In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the drawing recording paper layer 27 is a single-stage type, but the second stage of the two-stage type drawing recording paper layer as shown in FIG. It is also possible to employ a structure in which the rotating tray 35 as described above is further provided on the lower side of the drawn recording paper layer 107 so that the rotating tray 35 can be unfolded on the leading end side of the second-stage drawn recording paper layer 107.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to develop only the first paper discharge tray by performing only the operation of pulling out the multistage paper discharge tray toward the front side. At this time, since the second paper discharge tray is not pulled out together, it is not necessary to increase or decrease the force when pulling forward. If only the operation of rotating the second discharge tray is performed, only the second discharge tray can be developed. Further, when it is desired to expand all trays of the multistage discharge tray, an operation of rotating the second discharge tray after performing an operation of pulling out the multistage discharge tray to the front side may be performed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an ink jet printer to which the multistage paper discharge tray of the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a front view of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the multi-stage sheet discharge tray according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a rear view of the drawn recording paper lay and the rotating tray showing a state where the rotating tray is positioned below the drawn recording paper lay. FIG. 6 is a rear view of the drawn recording paper lay and the rotating tray showing a state in which the rotating tray projects to the front side of the drawn recording paper lay. The front view at the time of use of a multistage paper discharge tray which shows a mode that the drawer recording paper ray was pulled out, and the rotation tray rotated and projected to the front side of the drawing recording paper ray. The front view which shows other embodiment of the multistage discharge tray of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the conventional multistage paper discharge tray.

Explanation of symbols

  3 Multi-stage paper discharge tray, 5 housing, 9 paper discharge section, 17 paper discharge port, 19 rotation protrusion, 21 holding protrusion, 22 tray housing, 23 upper member, 25 lower member, 27 drawer recording paper lay, 29 rail, 31 Locking part, 33 Locking piece, 35 Rotating tray, 37 Supported part, 39 Supporting protrusion group, 41 Locking protruding piece, 43 Locking protruding piece receiving part, 45 Rotation stopping part, 47 Holding part, 48 Notch, 49 Receiving part when using locking protruding piece, 51 Arrow, 52 Flange, 53 Finger notch

Claims (5)

  A multi-stage paper discharge tray capable of developing a plurality of paper discharge trays in stages according to the size of the recording paper in order to support the recording paper from the lower side, The second paper discharge is located below the first paper discharge tray, is rotatably connected in a plane parallel to the surface of the paper discharge tray, and can be rotated on the front end side of the first paper discharge tray. A multi-stage paper discharge tray comprising a tray.   2. The cutout portion in which the second discharge tray is exposed is formed in the first discharge tray so that an operator can touch the second discharge tray with a finger. Multistage output tray.   3. The multistage discharge tray according to claim 1, wherein a grip portion for pulling out the first discharge tray is formed on a front end side of the second discharge tray.   4. The multi-stage sheet discharge tray according to claim 1, further comprising means for temporarily locking the first sheet discharge tray or the second sheet discharge tray in its stored state or unfolded state. .   A recording apparatus comprising the multi-stage sheet discharge tray according to claim 1.

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