JP2006232435A - Recording medium conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent generation of contamination of an image by a conveying roller and an alignment roller by enhancing an image fixing property of an image recording surface in a recording medium conveying device for conveying a recording medium after recording the image. <P>SOLUTION: The recording medium conveying device is provided with a conveying means 25 for conveying the recording medium 21 after recording an image such as paper and an OHP film and using a roller, a belt, or the like; an air blowing means 33 for blowing air to a surface, i.e., the image recording surface of the recording medium conveyed by the conveying means; and an air suction means 34 for attracting the recording medium conveyed by the conveying means from a back surface side to a conveying surface of a conveying belt and a conveying guide plate. Further, when the recording medium after recording the image is conveyed by the conveying means, air is blown to the surface, the image recording surface of the recording medium by the air blowing means and the conveyed recording medium is attracted from a back surface side to the conveying surface by the air suction means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention is a post-processing for performing post-processing such as punching and stapling on a recording medium after image recording by an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, or a complex machine thereof, or an image forming apparatus. Installed in or between devices such as recording devices, recording media ejecting devices that eject recording media after image recording or post-processing, and recording media stacking devices that stack recording media ejected by recording media ejecting devices In other words, the present invention relates to a recording medium conveying apparatus for conveying a recording medium after image recording.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a conveyance belt 2 is hung between two belt rollers 1a and 1b, and two paper suction fans 3 are arranged in the rotation of the conveyance belt 2. Some of them include a recording medium conveying device 4 that performs the recording.

  Then, charging, exposure, development, primary transfer, cleaning, static elimination, etc. are repeated to form a single-color image on the photoreceptor 5 in sequence, and then the single-color image is sequentially transferred to form a full-color image on the intermediate transfer belt 6. Then, the full-color image is secondarily transferred by the secondary transfer device 7 to record the image on the paper 8 as a recording medium, and conveyed to the fixing device 9 by the recording medium conveying device 4 described above to fix the transferred image. Was.

  In the recording medium transport device 4, one of the two belt rollers 1a and 1b is driven and the other is driven to rotate, the transport belt 2 travels counterclockwise, and the two paper suction fans 3 are operated to operate the paper 8 Was reliably conveyed to the fixing device 9 while being adsorbed to the conveying belt 2.

JP 2003-54783 A

  However, in such an image forming apparatus, when the fixing temperature of the fixing device 9 is increased, not only the running cost is increased, but also there is a problem that adversely affects the toner and surrounding devices. There was also a limit. For this reason, the paper 8 after image transfer may not be sufficiently dried even after passing through the fixing device 9, and the transport roller that transports the paper 8 after image recording. In addition, there is a problem that the image recording surface is rubbed by an alignment roller that aligns the paper 8 discharged after fixing, and the image is smeared to deteriorate the image quality. Inkjet image forming apparatuses are particularly problematic because the ink is not sufficiently dried.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface in a recording medium conveying apparatus that conveys a recording medium after image recording, and to prevent image smearing due to a conveying roller or an alignment roller. It is to prevent.

  A second object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium conveying apparatus for conveying a recording medium after image recording, improving the image fixing properties of recording media of all sizes to be used regardless of the size of the recording medium. The object is to prevent image smearing due to rollers, alignment rollers, and the like.

  A third object of the present invention is to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface to prevent image smearing and to stabilize the recording medium in a recording medium conveying apparatus for conveying a recording medium after image recording. It is to carry.

  A fourth object of the present invention is a recording medium conveying apparatus for conveying a recording medium after image recording, which is compact and downsized and inexpensive, and improves the image fixing property of the image recording surface to prevent image smearing. It is to prevent the occurrence and stably convey the recording medium.

  A fifth object of the present invention is to further improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface by improving the image fixing property of the image recording surface in a recording medium transporting device for transporting the recording medium after image recording. The object is to prevent image smearing due to rollers, alignment rollers, and the like.

  A sixth object of the present invention is to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface to prevent the occurrence of image smearing in a recording medium conveying apparatus for conveying a recording medium after image recording. It is to convey stably.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the first object described above, a conveying means using a roller, a belt, or the like for conveying a recording medium such as paper or OHP film after image recording, and its conveyance An air spraying unit that blows air onto a surface that is an image recording surface of a recording medium transported by the unit.

  Then, when the recording medium after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means, air is blown by the air blowing means on the surface which is the image recording surface of the recording medium.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the second object described above, in the recording medium conveying apparatus according to the first aspect, a direction perpendicular to a recording medium conveying direction in which air is blown by the air blowing means. The air blowing area is set to be equal to or larger than the maximum sheet passing width of the recording medium conveyed by the recording medium conveying apparatus.

  When a recording medium having the maximum sheet passing width is transported, air is applied to the entire area in the direction orthogonal to the recording medium transport direction, and air is blown onto the entire surface of the transported recording medium by an air spraying means.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the third object described above, in the recording medium conveying device according to the first or second aspect, the recording medium conveyed by the conveying means is conveyed from the back side to a conveying belt, It is characterized by comprising air suction means for adsorbing on a conveyance surface such as a conveyance guide plate.

  When the recording medium after image recording is transported by the transporting means, air is blown onto the surface of the recording medium to be transported by the air blowing means, and the recording medium to be transported is attracted to the transporting surface by the air suction means from the back side. .

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the fourth object described above, in the recording medium conveying apparatus according to the third aspect, the air blowing means and the air generating means of the air suction means are shared. The air blowing means and the air suction means are integrated.

  When the recording medium after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means, one air generating means is driven to operate both the air blowing means and the air suction means, and the air blowing means causes the air to reach the surface of the recording medium. Is sucked from the back side by air suction means.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the fifth object described above, in the recording medium conveying apparatus according to the third aspect, the air blowing area of the air blowing means is set as the medium suction of the air suction means. It is characterized in that it is provided from the area to the downstream side in the recording medium conveyance direction.

  When the recording medium after image recording is being conveyed by the conveying means, the air blowing to the recording medium by the air blowing means is continued even after the recording medium has been adsorbed by the air suction means.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the sixth object described above, in the recording medium transporting apparatus according to the third aspect, the air suction portion of the air suction means is used as the medium suction area of the air suction means. It is characterized in that it is provided upstream of the area in the recording medium conveyance direction.

  Then, when the recording medium after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means, the recording medium is attracted by the air suction means before the air blowing means starts to blow the air onto the recording medium.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the recording medium transport apparatus for transporting the recording medium after image recording, when the recording medium after image recording is transported by the transporting means, the surface is the image recording surface of the recording medium. Since air is blown by the air blowing means, the recorded image on the surface of the recording medium is dried to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface, and the occurrence of image smearing due to the conveying roller, the alignment roller, and the like can be prevented. Further, the recording medium can be stably conveyed by pressing the recording medium with the air to be blown.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the recording medium having the maximum sheet passing width is conveyed, air is applied to the entire area in the direction orthogonal to the recording medium conveying direction, and the entire surface of the recording medium is detected by the air blowing means. Since air is blown onto the recording medium, the image fixing property of the recording media of all sizes to be used can be improved and the occurrence of image smearing can be prevented.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 1 or 2, when the recording medium after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means, air is blown onto the surface of the conveying recording medium. Since the air is blown by the means and adsorbed by the air suction means from the back surface side, the recording medium can be stably conveyed by reliably suppressing the lifting of the recording medium.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 3, the air blowing means and the air suction means are integrated with the air blowing means and the air generating means of the air suction means being shared. When the recording medium after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means, one air generating means is driven to operate both the air blowing means and the air suction means, and the air blowing means causes the air to be applied to the surface of the recording medium. Since the air is sucked from the back side by the air suction means, it can be made compact, downsized, easy to handle and inexpensive.

  According to the invention of claim 5, in addition to the effect of the invention of claim 3, when the recording medium after image recording is being conveyed by the conveying means, the adsorption of the recording medium by the air suction means is completed. After that, since the air blowing to the recording medium is continued by the air blowing means, the recorded image on the surface of the recording medium is further dried to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface, and the transport roller It is possible to prevent the occurrence of image smearing due to the alignment rollers and the like.

  According to the invention described in claim 6, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 3, when the recording medium after image recording is transported by the transporting means, air is sprayed onto the recording medium by the air spraying means. Since the suction of the recording medium by the air suction means is started before starting the recording medium, the recording medium can be reliably conveyed and the recording medium can be further stably conveyed.

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 an image forming system including a recording medium conveying apparatus according to the present invention.

  Reference numeral 10 in the figure denotes an inkjet image forming apparatus. Reference numeral 20 denotes a recording medium conveying apparatus according to the present invention for conveying a recording medium after image recording by the image forming apparatus 10. Reference numeral 40 denotes a recording medium stacking device for stacking the recording media transported by the recording medium transporting device 20.

  First, although not shown in detail, the image forming apparatus 10 is a well-known one. For example, the recording head 12 such as paper or OHP film is sequentially conveyed in the sub-scanning direction one line at a time, and the inkjet head 14 is mainly used for each line feed. It moves in the scanning direction and ejects ink 16 from the inkjet head 14 to record an image on the surface of the recording medium 12. The recording medium 12 after image recording is discharged from the image forming apparatus 10 and sent to the recording medium transport apparatus 20.

  FIG. 2 shows an overall schematic configuration of the recording medium transport device 20 as viewed from obliquely above. FIG. 3 shows the direction of air acting on the recording medium 12 conveyed by the recording medium conveying apparatus 20 as viewed from the front. FIG. 4 shows the conveyance belt provided in the recording medium conveyance device 20 as viewed obliquely from above.

  As shown in the figure, the recording medium conveying device 20 includes conveying means 25 configured by winding an endless conveying belt 24 around a driving roller 22 and a driven roller 23. Then, a driving force is transmitted from a driving source (not shown) to the driving roller 22, and the conveyor belt 24 travels counterclockwise as indicated by an arrow a while the driven roller 23 is driven to rotate along with the rotation of the driving roller 22. The recording medium 12 is conveyed on the belt 24. As shown in FIG. 4, the conveying belt 24 is made porous by opening a plurality of through holes 27 on the entire surface. The through-holes 27 are provided in a row in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction a at equal intervals L0 and arranged in a certain number in each row, and a predetermined amount in each direction perpendicular to the traveling direction a. Provide alternately.

  A part of the casing 30 of the airflow generation device 28 is placed in the conveyor belt 24. The casing 30 is provided with a concave portion 32 that opens to the front side in the middle, and is formed in a U-shape when viewed from the right side, and an air blowing means 33 is provided at the upper part and an air suction means 34 is provided at the lower part. Then, an opening is formed in the lower surface of the upper housing 30 toward the concave portion 32 to open a blowing hole 35, and an upper surface of the lower housing 30 is opened to the concave portion 32 to open a suction hole 36. As a result, the air suction means 34 passes into the air blowing means 33 from the air suction means 34 to the air blowing means 33, passes through the blowing hole 35, crosses the recess 32, and passes through the suction hole 36. An air circulation passage T returning to the air suction means 34 is formed again.

  The spray hole 35 is an elongated hole that is elongated in a direction orthogonal to the running direction a of the transport belt 24, has a length A that is equal to or greater than the maximum sheet passing width B, and blows air with the air spray means 33. The air blowing area in a direction orthogonal to the maximum sheet passing width B is set to be equal to or larger than the maximum sheet passing width B. That is, when the maximum size of the recording medium 12 conveyed by the recording medium conveying apparatus 20 is A2, the length of the spray hole 35 is set to be equal to or larger than the width of A2. A plurality of such spray holes 35 are arranged in parallel in the running direction a at regular intervals. The suction holes 36 are rectangular large holes and are provided side by side in the traveling direction a.

  In the lower part of the housing 30, an air generating means 37 that is shared by the air blowing means 33 and the air suction means 34 is provided, and a fan 38 is installed as the air generating means 37. The air blowing means 33 and the air suction means The airflow generation device 28 integrated with the airflow generator 34 is configured to be compact and reduced in size, and is easy to handle and inexpensive. Then, by driving one air generating means 37 with a driving source (not shown) and rotating the fan 38, an air flow as shown by arrows b and c in FIG. Together with the air suction means 34. Such an airflow generation device 28 puts the lower part in the winding of the conveyor belt 24 and travels the conveyor belt 24 through the recess 32.

  When the recording medium 12 ejected from the image forming apparatus 10 and sent to the recording medium conveying apparatus 20 is conveyed by the conveying means 25, the air generating means 37 is driven to generate air, and the air blowing means 33 and the air suction. As shown in FIG. 3, the air blowing means 33 blows air onto the surface which is the image recording surface of the recording medium 12 as shown in FIG. The air is sucked from the side by the air suction means 34 as shown by the arrow c, and is sucked onto the transport surface formed by the transport belt 24.

  Thereby, when the recording medium 12 after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means 25, air is blown by the air blowing means 33 on the surface which is the image recording surface of the recording medium 12, so that the recorded image on the surface of the recording medium 12 is dried. As a result, the image fixing property of the image recording surface can be improved, and the occurrence of image smearing by the conveying roller, the alignment roller, or the like can be prevented. Further, the recording medium 12 can be stably conveyed by pressing the recording medium 12 with the air to be blown. Further, since air is sucked from the back side by the air suction means 34, the recording medium 12 can be stably conveyed while reliably lifting the recording medium 12 up.

  Even when the recording medium 12 having the maximum sheet passing width B is conveyed, air is applied to the entire region in the direction orthogonal to the recording medium conveying direction, and air is blown over the entire surface of the recording medium 12 by the air blowing means 33. Thus, the image fixing property of the recording media 12 of all sizes can be improved and the occurrence of image smearing can be prevented.

  In the illustrated example, as shown in FIG. 3, the air blowing area of the air blowing means 33 is provided longer than the medium suction area of the air suction means 34 by a distance L1 to the downstream side in the recording medium conveyance direction. When the recording medium 12 after image recording is being conveyed by the conveying means 25, the air blowing means 33 still applies air to the recording medium 12 after the suction of the recording medium 12 by the air suction means 34 is completed. Continue spraying. Therefore, the time for blowing air is lengthened, and further, the recorded image on the surface of the recording medium 12 is dried to improve the image fixing property of the image recording surface, and the occurrence of image contamination due to the conveying roller, the alignment roller, and the like is prevented. be able to.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the medium suction area of the air suction means 34 is provided on the upstream side in the recording medium conveyance direction by a distance L2 longer than the air blowing area of the air blowing means 33. When the recording medium 12 after image recording is conveyed by the conveying means 25, the air suction means 34 starts to adsorb the recording medium 12 before the air blowing means 33 starts air blowing to the recording medium 12. Therefore, first, the recording medium 12 can be transported more stably while the floating of the recording medium 12 is reliably suppressed.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of the recording medium stacking apparatus 40.
The recording medium stacking device 40 is provided with a drive motor 42 for conveying the recording medium. A drive pulley 43 fixed to the drive shaft of the drive motor 42 hangs an endless first transmission belt 45 between the driven pulley 44 and the drive pulley 43. The driven pulley 44 is provided with one roller constituting the first conveying roller pair 46 and the first pulley 47 coaxially. A second transmission belt 49 is wound around the first pulley 47 and the second pulley 48. The second pulley 48 is provided with one roller constituting the second conveying roller pair 50 coaxially. The rotation of the second pulley 48 is transmitted to the alignment roller 51.

  Then, by driving the drive motor 42, rotation is transmitted via the first transmission belt 45 and the second transmission belt 49 to rotate the first conveyance roller pair 46 and the second conveyance roller pair 50, and the alignment roller 51. , The recording medium 12 after image recording conveyed from the recording medium conveying device 20 is conveyed through the medium conveying path 52, discharged onto the tray 53, and returned by the aligning roller 51 to remove the trailing end. Align and stack on the tray 53.

  On the other hand, the recording medium stacking device 40 is also provided with a vertical movement drive means 55. The drive gear 56 fixed to the drive shaft of the vertical movement drive means 55 meshes with the driven gear 57. The driven gear 57 is provided with a drive pulley 58 coaxially. The third transmission belt 60 is wound around the driving pulley 58 and the driven pulley 59. A lifting platform 61 to which the tray 53 is detachably attached is fixed to the third transmission belt 60.

  Then, the drive pulley 58 is rotated through the meshing of the drive gear 56 and the driven gear 57 by driving the vertical movement drive means 55 according to the stacking height of the recording medium 12 stacked on the tray 53, and 3 Travels on the transmission belt 60, moves up and down the elevator 61, and moves the tray 53 up and down.

  Further, the recording medium stacking device 40 is provided with a shift means 63. The shift means 63 can shift the tray 53 by moving back and forth when viewed from the front. In the illustrated example, the recording medium stacking device 40 is supported by a stand 66 with casters 65 as shown in FIG.

  In the example described above, the conveying means is configured such that the drive roller 22 and the driven roller 23 are wound around an endless conveying belt 24 having a large number of through holes on the entire surface. However, the conveying means used in the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration may be adopted in which a plurality of belt-shaped transport belts are wound between the driving roller and the driven roller. Further, the recording medium may be conveyed by a pair of conveying rollers while being guided by a guide plate. At this time, the guide plate forming the transport surface is similarly made porous by opening a large number of through holes on the entire surface.

  Furthermore, in the illustrated example described above, the recording medium conveyance device 20 is provided between the image forming apparatus 10 and the recording medium stacking device 40. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, punch punching, stapling, etc. on a recording medium after image recording by an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, or a composite machine thereof, or an image forming apparatus. Installed in devices such as a post-processing device that performs post-processing, a recording medium discharge device that discharges a recording medium after image recording or post-processing, and a recording medium stacking device that loads the recording medium discharged by the recording medium discharge device Alternatively, it may be provided between these devices. In short, the present invention can be applied to a recording medium conveying apparatus that conveys a recording medium after image recording.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming system including a recording medium conveyance device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an overall schematic configuration of the recording medium conveyance device. It is a front view which shows the direction of the air which acts on the recording medium conveyed with the recording medium conveying apparatus. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conveyance belt provided in the recording medium conveyance device. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a recording medium stacking device provided in the image forming system of FIG. 1. It is a principal part block diagram of the image forming apparatus which shows the conventional recording-medium conveying apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Recording medium 20 Recording medium conveying apparatus 25 Conveying means 33 Air blowing means 34 Air suction means 37 Air generating means 38 Fan B Maximum sheet passing width

Claims (6)

Conveying means for conveying a recording medium after image recording;
An air blowing means for blowing air onto a surface which is an image recording surface of a recording medium conveyed by the conveying means;
A recording medium conveying apparatus comprising:   The recording medium conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an air blowing area of the air blowing unit is equal to or greater than a maximum sheet passing width.   The recording medium conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an air suction unit that adsorbs the recording medium conveyed by the conveying unit from a back surface side.   4. The recording medium conveying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the air blowing means and the air suction means are integrated while sharing the air generating means of the air blowing means and the air suction means.   4. The recording medium conveying apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the air blowing area of the air blowing means is provided from the medium suction area of the air suction means to the downstream side in the recording medium conveying direction.   4. The recording medium conveyance device according to claim 3, wherein the medium suction area of the air suction means is provided upstream of the air blowing area of the air blowing means in the recording medium conveyance direction.

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