JP2007168926A - Sheet processing device and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent deformation of a rear end of a bundle of sheets due to curls of the sheets (sheet member) and the deadweight etc., when the sheet bundle is conveyed to a paper delivery tray or a middle folding tray by a discharge claw. <P>SOLUTION: In a sheet processing device having a staple tray 401 for aligning the sheet member, a driven guide roller 501 which opposes to a face for stacking the sheet member of the staple tray 401 to press the sheet member and guides the sheet member in the sheet carrying direction is provided. The driven guide roller 501 is mounted to a support shaft of a knocking roller 403 in the state where the driven guide roller 501 itself does not have drive force. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus including a sheet aligning unit that performs alignment in a conveyance direction of a bundle of sheet members to be loaded and a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction, and an image forming apparatus including the sheet processing apparatus.

  As this main technique, for example, the invention described in Patent Document 1 is known. The present invention relates to a jogger fence that performs horizontal alignment of image-formed paper discharged from the image forming apparatus main body, a rear end fence that serves as a reference in the vertical direction, and a stapling device that binds aligned paper bundles. And a discharge belt with a claw for moving the bundle of sheets after binding to the paper discharge tray, and when the sheet bundle is moved by the discharge belt, the jogger fence is moved to the sheet bundle pressing position to hold the sheet bundle while The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus in which a sheet bundle is moved by a discharge belt.

In Patent Document 1, a stapling device is provided on the lower side of the staple tray, and the staple tray is provided with a jogger fence, a return roller, and a discharge belt. It describes that the paper is struck down and returned to the rear edge fence to vertically align the paper, and the bound paper bundle is lifted by a discharge claw and discharged.
Patent Registration No. 3466376

In the invention described in Patent Document 1, when the paper bundle is moved by the discharge belt, the jogger fence is moved to the paper bundle pressing position and the paper bundle is moved by the discharge belt while pressing the paper bundle.
1) When performing saddle stitching processing, when a bundle of sheets that have been aligned and stapled in the alignment tray is conveyed to a discharge tray or a folding tray by a discharge claw, the sheet curls, the weight of the sheet, etc. The trailing end of the bundle may be bent, and if these curls are bent, the conveyance quality of the paper by the discharge belt is adversely affected.

2) In addition, in order to prevent curling of the paper bundle and bending due to the weight of the paper, when trying to install a presser member that presses the rear end of the paper bundle, there is a close roller or the like in the vicinity. Cannot be installed in the (most effective) place.

3) Since the curl position of the paper changes depending on the paper size, the roller cannot be fixed at the optimum position.

4) Since the curl amount of the sheet bundle varies depending on the paper type, the conveyance quality of the sheet bundle is not stable.

There were problems such as.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet (sheet member) curled or self-weighted when a bundle is conveyed to a discharge tray or a folding tray by a discharge claw. (Sheet) An object of the present invention is to prevent the rear end of the bundle from being bent.

  In order to achieve the above object, the first means is a sheet processing apparatus comprising stacking means for aligning the sheet members, pressing the sheet member so as to oppose the sheet stacking surface of the stacking means, and transporting the sheet A sheet pressing means for guiding the sheet member in the direction is provided.

  The second means is characterized in that a plurality of the sheet pressing means are provided in the first means.

  A third means is characterized in that, in the first means, the sheet pressing means is movable along the conveying direction of the sheet member and can be fixed at an arbitrary position.

  A fourth means is characterized in that, in any one of the first to third means, the sheet pressing means comprises a driven roller having no driving force.

  According to a fifth means, in the fourth means, the driven roller is attached to a support shaft that supports a return means for moving the sheet member when the stacking means aligns the conveying direction of the sheet member. Features.

  A sixth means is characterized in that, in the fifth means, the driven roller is attached to the support shaft via a lever member, and the lever member is swingably supported with respect to the support shaft. To do.

  A seventh means is characterized in that, in the sixth means, the driven roller moves about the support shaft in correspondence with the thickness of the bundle of sheet members.

  The eighth means is any one of the fifth to seventh means, wherein the return means is separated from the stacking means when the sheet member is carried in, and comes into contact with the sheet member after carrying the sheet member and carries the sheet member in. It consists of a roller member which returns to the direction opposite to the direction.

  A ninth means is characterized in that the image forming apparatus includes the sheet processing apparatus according to any one of the first to eighth aspects.

  In the embodiment described later, the stacking means is in the staple tray 401, the sheet pressing means is in the driven guide roller 501, the return means is in the hitting roller 403, the support shaft is in the swinging support shaft 403a of the hitting roller 403, and the lever member. Corresponds to the lever 502, the sheet member corresponds to the symbol ST, and the sheet bundle corresponds to the symbol STB.

  According to the present invention, the sheet member of the stacking unit is opposed to the surface on which the sheet member is stacked, the sheet member is pressed, and the sheet member is guided in the sheet transport direction. When doing so, it is possible to prevent the trailing end of the sheet bundle from being bent due to curling of the sheet member or its own weight.

  Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a sheet processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sheet member in the present specification means a sheet-like recording medium including paper, transfer paper, film, etc., and the sheet processing apparatus has edge binding, saddle stitching, alignment, punching, bookbinding to the sheet member. This refers to a device that executes various processes such as.

  In FIG. 1, a sheet processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment aligns a stapling unit 102 with a conveying unit 102 that receives and conveys a sheet member from an image forming apparatus, which will be described later, and a staple (hereinafter simply referred to as a sheet bundle). A stapler unit 104, a saddle stitching unit 103 that performs saddle stitching and folding of sheet members, and a sorting unit (shift tray) 105 that sorts sheet members. The sheet member conveyed from the image forming apparatus is subjected to processing (stapling processing, saddle stitching processing, sorting processing, straight paper discharge) selected by each mechanism described later, and is stacked on the paper discharge tray of the sorting unit 105. .

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing further details of FIG. A sheet member is carried into the sheet processing apparatus 2 from the image forming apparatus 1. At that time, the sheet member is guided by the entrance guide plate 201 and conveyed to the entrance roller 202. The conveyed sheet member is then branched into a proof discharge path 210, a straight discharge path 220, and a staple path 240 by branching claws 232 and 231 at the end of the transfer roller 203, and discharged to a specified discharge destination. The

  When the proof paper discharge path 210 is selected, the branching claw 231 rotates by driving a stepping motor, a solenoid, and the like, and is switched, and is discharged to the proof tray 214 by the transport roller 211 and the paper discharge roller 213.

  When the straight paper discharge path (sort mode) 202 is selected, the branch claws 231, 232, and 233 are switched, and the paper is discharged onto the paper discharge tray by the transport rollers 222 and 223.

  When the staple path (stipple mode) is selected, the branch claw 232 is switched to guide the sheet member to the branch roller 243. A separation claw 242 is connected to the branch roller 243 and performs a pre-stacking process of the sheet member. This is because the post-processing time of the sheet member is ensured by the pre-stacking process. The conveyed sheet member is temporarily stopped by the stopper claw 258, and at the same time, the pressure of the pressure increasing / decreasing roller 244 is released to stack the sheet members. After that, the sheet members to be conveyed thereafter are sequentially stacked and stacked, and then the stopper claw 258 is released. The pressurizing / depressurizing roller 244 is also pressurized, and the sheet members are conveyed in a bundle.

  The plurality of sheet bundles are conveyed as they are and conveyed from the conveyance path 260 to the staple unit 4 by the branching claws 233. Further, when the branching claw 233 is switched, the pre-stacked sheet bundle can be branched from the conveying path 233 to the straight conveying path 220 as it is, and discharged to the discharge tray.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the staple unit. The stapler unit is a unit that aligns and staples the sheet members, and is provided at the lower end of the staple tray 401 as shown in FIG. The stapler unit 104 includes a staple tray 401 that is a base for aligning sheet members, a jogger 402 that aligns a substantially vertical direction (hereinafter referred to as a lateral direction) with respect to the sheet bundle conveying direction, and a tapping roller 403 that aligns the sheet member conveying direction. , An abutment plate 405, a reference tray reference fence 406, a stapler 407 that staples the aligned sheet bundle, and a discharge claw 409 that discharges the stapled sheet bundle to the shift tray 105.

  When the stipple mode is selected from the image forming apparatus, the branching claws installed in the transport path are switched. As a result, the sheet member conveyed from the conveyance unit is guided to the staple unit 104 and is discharged onto the staple tray 401 by the entrance roller 410. At this time, the hitting roller 403 is in a raised state (a state away from the staple tray 401) and is retracted to a position where it does not become a load on the sheet member carried into the staple tray 401. The abutting plate 405 stands by at a position where the leading end of the sheet member carried into the staple tray 401 abuts, and regulates the position of the leading end of the sheet member.

  When the sheet member is carried into the staple tray 401, the hitting roller 403 is lowered and the sheet member is pressed against the staple tray 401, a conveying force is obtained by the friction force, and the sheet member is abutted against the reference fence 406. The hitting roller 403 is rotating, and a vertical movement is driven by a stepping motor.

  Before the sheet member hits the reference fence 406 by the hitting roller 403, the presser claw 408 is also lowered, and the rear end of the sheet member is pressed and the rear end of the sheet member is guided to the opening of the stapler 407. . Thereafter, the jogger 402 performs horizontal alignment of the sheet member. Thereafter, the hitting roller 403, the presser claw 408, the abutting plate 405, and the jogger 402 are returned to the predetermined home position, and the next sheet member is received.

  Then, this series of operations is repeated for a specified number of sheets to complete a sheet bundle that is aligned vertically and horizontally on the staple tray 401. The aligned sheet bundle is stapled by the stapler 407. The stapler 407 is a so-called end face binding stapler, and binds the end face of the sheet bundle. The end-face stitching stapler 407 can be moved to a specified position in the width direction of the sheet bundle, and can perform a stapling operation at an arbitrary position in the width direction.

  The stapled sheet bundle is discharged by the discharge claw 409. That is, when a staple completion signal is sent, the discharge claw 409 installed around the staple tray 401 is operated, and the sheet bundle is pushed out from the staple tray 401. The sheet member pushed out by the discharge claw 409 is guided by the jogger 402 or the like and discharged onto the shift tray 105.

  With this operation, one part of the stapled sheet bundle is completed. This operation is repeated for the designated number of copies, and the designated number of sheet bundles are discharged onto the shift tray 105 and stacked.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a sheet bundle pressing structure and an operation based on this structure in the present embodiment.
In FIG. 4, a driven guide roller 501 is rotatably attached to a swing support shaft 403 a (see FIG. 2) of the hitting roller via a lever 502. In this embodiment, the hitting roller is not shown, but the driven guide roller 501 is located on the opposite side of the swinging support shaft 403a from the hitting roller 403 shown in FIG. The hitting roller 403 is the one shown in the sheet processing apparatus 100 shown in FIGS.

  In the staple tray 401 configured as described above, the sheet member ST is discharged onto the staple tray 401 by the entrance roller 410 as shown in FIG. At this time, the hitting roller 403 is in a raised state, and is retracted to a position where it does not become a load on the sheet member carried into the staple tray 401. On the other hand, since the driven guide roller 501 is supported in a free state by the lever 502 supported by the swing shaft of the roller 403, the driven guide roller 501 is in contact with the staple tray 401 only by its own weight. Therefore, the sheet member ST discharged by the entrance roller 410 enters between the driven guide roller 501 and the staple tray 401 and is discharged onto the staple tray 401. Subsequently, the next sheet member ST is discharged between the front sheet member ST and the driven guide roller 501. This paper discharge operation is repeated, and the sheets are stacked as shown in FIG. 4B to form a sheet bundle STB. When the sheet member ST for one job is discharged, the stapler 407 executes the stapling and binds the sheet bundle STB.

  The sheet bundle STB aligned and stapled on the staple tray 401 in this manner is pushed upward by the discharge claw 409 and discharged to the shift tray 105. This discharge is executed when the discharge claw 409 pushes up the rear end of the sheet bundle STB (FIG. 4C). At this time, since the discharge claw 409 pushes up the rear end of the sheet bundle STB, it is inevitable that the STBa is bent due to the weight and curl of the sheet member ST at the rear end of the sheet bundle STB. However, since the driven guide roller 501 is installed in the vicinity of the hitting roller 403 as in this embodiment, by guiding the bending STBa generated in the sheet bundle STB, the bending STBa does not swell further greatly, and the sheet The bundle can be discharged smoothly.

  In this embodiment, since the driven guide roller 501 is installed on the swing shaft 403a of the hitting roller 403, the vicinity of the position where the sheet bundle STB is bent can be reliably guided when the sheet bundle STB is released.

  Further, a plurality of driven guide rollers 51 may be installed at the most advantageous position for suppressing the bending STBa corresponding to the size of the sheet member ST, and the size of the bending (curl) STBa as shown in FIG. Thus, the driven guide roller 501 may be moved to an arbitrary position. As this moving mechanism, for example, a mechanism in which guide means such as a guide rail is installed along the sheet member conveying direction and can be fixed at an arbitrary position of the guide means. This mechanism may be fixed manually or may be moved and fixed using a screw screw. At this time, since the driven guide roller 501 does not require a driving mechanism, a position moving mechanism can be realized by a simple mechanism. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce jamming due to the bending STBa when the sheet bundle STB is released.

  This embodiment is the best mode for carrying out the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment.

As described above, according to the present embodiment,
1) Since the driven guide roller 501 is provided at a position facing the sheet member stacking surface of the staple tray 401, the stapled sheet bundle STB aligned and stapled on the staple tray 401 is discharged by the discharge claw 409 to the discharge tray 105 or half-folded. When the bundle is conveyed to the tray, it is possible to prevent the bending STBa of the rear end of the sheet bundle STB due to the curling or the own weight of the sheet member ST. Thereby, it is possible to stabilize the transport quality and discharge quality of the sheet bundle STB.
2) Since the driven guide roller 501 is installed on the swing shaft 403a of the hitting roller 403, the driven guide roller 501 can be easily added.
3) Since the driven guide roller 501 is pivotally supported by the swing shaft 403 so as to be swingable, the position of the driven guide roller 501 changes depending on the thickness of the sheet bundle. Even when the position of the bending STBa changes depending on the sheath size, it is possible to cope with this, and stable bundle conveyance quality can be obtained.
4) Since a plurality of driven guide rollers 501 are provided, stable bundle conveyance quality can be obtained even when the position of the deflection STBa of the sheet member ST changes depending on the size of the sheet member ST.
5) Since the driven guide roller 501 can adjust the position in the transport direction in accordance with the amount of bending of the sheet bundle STB, it can easily cope with the case where the amount of bending STBa of the sheet bundle STB changes depending on the paper type. Therefore, stable bundle conveyance quality can be obtained.
Etc. can be obtained.

It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of the sheet processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the detail of the conveyance part of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the staple part of FIG. It is a figure which shows the operation | movement based on the pressing structure of the sheet bundle in this embodiment, and this structure. It is a figure which shows an example of the moving mechanism of a driven guide roller.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2,100 Sheet processing apparatus 401 Shift tray 403 Tapping roller 403a Swing support shaft 501 Drive guide roller 502 Lever 104 Stapler part 105 Sort part ST Sheet member STB Sheet bundle STBa Deflection

Claims (9)

In a sheet processing apparatus having a stacking means for aligning sheet members,
A sheet processing apparatus, comprising: a sheet pressing unit that presses the sheet member so as to face a surface of the stacking unit on which the sheet member is stacked and guides the sheet member in a sheet conveying direction.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the sheet pressing units are provided.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet pressing unit is movable along a conveying direction of the sheet member and can be fixed at an arbitrary position.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet pressing unit includes a driven roller having no driving force.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the driven roller is attached to a support shaft that supports a return unit that moves the sheet member when the stacking unit aligns the conveyance direction of the sheet member.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the driven roller is attached to the support shaft via a lever member, and the lever member is supported to be swingable with respect to the support shaft.   The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the driven roller moves about the support shaft according to a thickness of the bundle of sheet members.   The return means comprises a roller member that is separated from the stacking means when a sheet member is carried in, and abuts against the sheet member after the sheet member is carried in to return in a direction opposite to the loading direction of the sheet member. The sheet processing apparatus according to any one of 5 to 7.   An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1.

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