JP2009173387A - Sheet loading mechanism, paper feeder, image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To favorably separate paper sheets before carrying them in compact constitution. <P>SOLUTION: This sheet loading mechanism is furnished with a tray 12 to load a plurality of the sheets, an actuator 20, a contact body 21 and a vibrator 22 provided on a cursor 16 as an vibration applying part to give vibration to at least the sheet on the top surface out of the sheets 30 loaded on the tray 12 by making contact with it and the cursor 15 as a driven regulating part to regulate at least the sheet on the top surface to be driven in position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a paper stacking mechanism, a paper feeding device, an image forming device using the same, and the like used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a FAX.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers have a built-in paper feeding device that supplies paper to be subjected to image formation. FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of such an image forming apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the image forming apparatus 100 generates an image as a toner image, and forms an image forming unit 111 on the paper supplied from the manual feed tray 110 or the paper feeding device 120, and the toner image on the paper. An image fixing unit 112 that fixes the printed matter is provided.

  A plurality of sheet feeding devices 120 are stacked below the image forming unit 111 and the like.

  Each sheet feeding device 120 includes a tray 121 on which sheets are stacked, and a transport mechanism 122 for guiding the sheets stacked on the tray 121 to the image forming unit 111, and the sheets unloaded from the tray 121 and the transport mechanism 122. Are carried into the image forming unit 111 through a common conveyance path.

  Here, the transport mechanism 122 has a FRR (feed roller, retard roller) system, FR (friction) in order to prevent double feeding, that is, a plurality of sheets stacked on the tray 121 are closely contacted and transported to the image forming unit 111. It has a function of separating one sheet, which is positioned at the top of the stacked sheets, from other sheets by utilizing friction between rollers and pads and the sheet, such as a pad) method.

  By the way, in recent years, special paper such as glossy paper and coated paper is used in addition to conventionally used plain paper and high-quality paper as a result of demands for diversifying recording media such as colorization of images. It has become. Since these special papers have a higher surface smoothness than plain papers and the like, they are often in close contact with other adjacent papers when stacked, especially in a humid environment. Some functions make it difficult to prevent double feeding.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, several techniques for separating the stacked sheets prior to the operation of the transport mechanism have been proposed.

  In the configuration example shown in FIG. 5, in the conveyance mechanism using the FR method, the pressure of the spring 203 that presses the friction pad 202 that is pressed against the feed roller 201 that is carried out in contact with the paper 200 is periodically changed to thereby reduce friction. The separation force of the pad 202 is increased (Patent Document 1). Note that this configuration can also be applied to other configurations of the FRR system.

Further, the configuration example shown in FIG. 6 includes an air blowing device 302 that sends air to the side surface of the paper 301 loaded in the tray 300. The uppermost sheet TP in contact with the roller 303 is peeled off from other stacked sheets P. The air blowing position can be moved up and down in accordance with the remaining amount of the paper P, and air can be circulated to the part where peeling is always required (Patent Document 2). In the configuration example, the peeled paper TP is carried out by the feed roller 304 and the retard roller 305 in the arrow direction in the figure.
JP 2002-53237 A (FIG. 3 etc.) JP 2006-1699 A (FIG. 2 etc.)

  However, the conventional techniques as described above have the following problems.

  In the configuration example shown in FIG. 5, the friction pad 202 has a structure that indirectly applies pressure for separation to the uppermost sheet to be separated, so that separation of three or more sheets is performed. In principle, it is difficult to perform stably.

  On the other hand, in the configuration example shown in FIG. 6, it is necessary to arrange the air blowing position on the side surface of the sheet 301 so as to be movable up and down, and as shown in the figure, the air blowing device 302 is juxtaposed with the tray 300 and the sheet feeding device. There is a problem in that the configuration of is complicated and large.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that a paper stacking mechanism, a paper feeding device, and an image forming apparatus using the paper stacking mechanism that are capable of separating paper well in a compact configuration before transporting are provided. The purpose is to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention includes a stacking unit that stacks a plurality of sheets,
The paper stacking mechanism includes a swinging unit that swings at least a topmost sheet among the sheets stacked on the stacking unit.

  A second aspect of the present invention is the paper stacking mechanism according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the swinging unit has a vibration applying unit that contacts and vibrates at least the uppermost sheet.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper according to the first aspect, wherein the swinging portion has a driven restricting portion that positionally restricts the driven of the at least uppermost sheet based on the vibration of the vibration applying portion. It is a loading mechanism.

The fourth aspect of the invention includes a pair of cursors for positioning the paper stacking position at a specific position on the stacking unit,
The vibration applying unit is provided on one of the pair of cursors,
The driven regulation unit is a paper stacking mechanism according to a third aspect of the present invention, which is provided on the other of the pair of cursors.

Further, the fifth aspect of the present invention is the paper stacking mechanism according to any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention,
The sheet feeding device includes a sheet unloading unit configured to unload the uppermost sheet of the sheets stacked on the stacking unit.

The sixth aspect of the present invention is a paper feeding device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention
The image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet fed from the sheet feeding device.

  According to the present invention as described above, it is possible to satisfactorily separate sheets before conveyance with a compact configuration.

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

  FIG. 1A is a plan view of a main part of a sheet feeding device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a front view.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the sheet feeding device 1 includes a housing unit 11, a tray 12 provided inside the housing unit 11, and a stop member 13 provided on the rear end side of the tray 12. Prepare.

  The tray 12 is connected to the housing unit 11 by a rotating shaft 12a on the side surface on which the stop member 13 is provided, and is rotated and inclined about the rotating shaft 12a as a rotation center by a spring mechanism (not shown). As a result, the tray 12 is inclined and can be disposed in an inclined state so that the paper in the paper feeding device 1 is in contact with the pick roller 14 and is conveyed in the direction of arrow A in the figure. Note that the mechanism for driving the pick roller 14 is not shown for the sake of simplicity.

  The paper feeding device 1 further includes a pair of cursors 15 and 16 that change the opposing width according to the size of the paper at both ends of the tray 12.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, rack rails 17 and 18 disposed in a space formed by the tray 12 and the bottom surface of the housing unit 11 are attached to the cursors 15 and 16, respectively. , Meshed with a pinion 19 attached to the back surface of the tray 12.

  By having the above structure, when one of the cursors 15 and 16 is moved, the other is interlocked to change the facing width. Thus, the paper can be positioned at a specific position suitable for conveyance according to the width of the paper to be stored. The cursors 15 and 16 are provided with a mechanism for temporarily fixing the positioned location, but the illustration is omitted for simplicity of explanation.

  Further, the cursor 16 is provided with a contact body 21 that is rotated by the actuator 20 and a vibrator 22 that is disposed outside and vibrates at a constant frequency.

  FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of the cursor 16. The wall surface of the body portion 16a of the cursor 16 is provided with a notch 16b, and the contact body 21 is disposed so as to be fitted into the notch 16b and can be rotated by a rotation shaft 16c passing through the inside of the body portion 16a. Fixed to. The contact body 21 is a member made of rubber, resin, or the like, having an inverted shape of the notch 16b.

  The rotational force from the actuator 20 not shown in FIG. 2 is transmitted to the rotation shaft 16c, and the contact body 21 rotates about the rotation shaft 16c as indicated by an arrow B in the drawing. In the figure, for the sake of explanation, only the front side in the figure of the two contact bodies 21 is shown rotating, but the two contact bodies 21 are interlocked during actual operation. Then rotate. As the vibrator 22, a known vibration generating device such as a coreless motor in which an eccentric weight is provided on the rotor is used.

  In the above configuration, the paper feeding device 1 corresponds to the paper feeding device 1 of the present invention. The tray 12 corresponds to the stacking portion of the present invention, the cursors 15 and 16 correspond to the swinging portion of the present invention, and the cursor 16, the actuator 20, the rotating shaft 16c, the contact body 21, and the vibrator 22 are the present invention. The vibration applying unit is configured. Further, the cursor 15 corresponds to a driven regulation unit of the present invention. The configuration including the cursors 15 and 16 and the tray 12 and the cursors 15 and 16 corresponds to the paper stacking mechanism of the present invention, and the pick roller 14 corresponds to the carry-out unit of the present invention.

  The operation of the sheet feeding device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the above drawings and FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (d).

  As shown in FIGS. 1B and 3A, the user places the paper 30 on the tray 12 as in the conventional example. By positioning the cursors 15 and 16 along both side surfaces of the paper 30, positioning suitable for carrying out is achieved.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, the contact body 21 is rotated by the drive of the actuator 20 and contacts the edge of the paper 30. As already described, since the tray 12 is inclined according to the remaining amount of the paper 30 so as to contact the pick roller 14, the contact body 21 can always contact the uppermost surface of the paper 30. It has a possible configuration.

  Due to the contact of the contact body 21, the edge portion of the sheet 31 including the uppermost sheet of the sheet 30 is pressed and tries to move in the surface direction, but the edge on the side facing the contact body 21 is moved by the cursor 15. Since the position 31 is restricted, the portion 31 having no escape area is bent as a whole and lifts upward while forming the gap 32.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, the vibrator 22 starts to vibrate. The vibration of the vibrator 22 is transmitted from the main body 16 a of the cursor 16 to the contact body 21 and further to the paper 30 including the portion 31. At this time, the portions 31 are separated while generating the gap 33 for each sheet while vibrating the gap 32 up and down.

  Regarding the portion 31 separated from the paper 30 by the contact of the contact body 21, the number of sheets constituting the portion 31 varies depending on the type of the paper 30, the environment where the paper feeding device 1 is disposed, and the environment such as humidity. In this embodiment, by applying vibration through the contact body 21, the portions 31 are separated one by one regardless of the number of components.

  Finally, as shown in FIG. 3 (d), when the operation of the vibrator 22 is stopped and the contact body 21 is stored in the main body 16 a of the cursor 16, the portion 31 is stacked again on the paper 30. Since the contact state between the sheets is eliminated, the separated uppermost sheet can be easily conveyed to the outside by the pick roller 14.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the contact body 21 incorporated in the cursor 16 and the vibrator 22 that vibrates the contact body 21 together with the cursor 16 are provided, so that a part of the contact body 21 comes into contact with the edge of the sheet. The uppermost paper 32 can be satisfactorily separated from the paper 30 stacked on the tray 12 by bending the whole and applying vibrations to separate the bent portions one by one.

  Since the contact body 21 and the vibrator 22 can be of a size and configuration that can be provided in the paper positioning cursor 16, the contact body 21 and the vibrator 22 have almost the same size as a conventional paper feeding device. Separation before conveyance can be realized.

  In particular, the paper feeding device of the present embodiment can obtain a strong separation force by directly applying vibration near the peeling surface of each paper, and the paper 30 can be a smooth surface such as an OHP sheet or film. This is effective when special paper with a high degree is used. In addition, various coated papers such as POD (registered trademark) have a problem of adhesion between papers due to negative pressure or the like in a humid environment. However, such papers are also effective.

  In the above description, the vibration applying unit of the present invention is configured by the two contact bodies 21 incorporated in the cursor 16 and the vibrator 22 directly provided on the cursor 16, but the present invention is limited to the above configuration. It is not a thing. The contact body 21 is not limited by its shape and number as long as it can contact the paper 30. The installation location of the vibrator 22, the number of installation, etc. may be arbitrarily determined.

  Further, the vibrator 22 and the contact body 21 may be realized as the same member. Alternatively, the entire cursor 16 may function as a contact body and rotate to contact the paper 30.

  In the above description, as an example of the swinging portion of the present invention, the contact body 21 and the vibrator 22 as the vibration applying portion are provided on the cursor 16 side, and the cursor 15 functions as the driven restriction portion as it is. Similarly to the cursor 16, the cursor 15 may be configured as a vibration applying unit. In this case, the paper 30 is applied with vibration from the opposite edge, and the separation effect can be further improved.

  Further, in the above configuration, the contact portion 21 is brought into contact with the sheet 30 to bend a part of the sheet 30 and then the vibration is applied. However, the sheet 30 is not bent and only the structure to apply the vibration to the edge portion. It may be realized. Separation effect is expected for paper with relatively low adhesion.

  Further, in the paper feeding device 1, the vibration applying unit may be provided separately from the cursors 15 and 16.

  In the above description, the vibration frequency of the vibrator 22 is described as being constant. However, the vibrator 22 may be configured to vary depending on the use condition of the paper feeding device 1 or the type of paper used for paper feeding. . For example, when it is considered that the degree of adhesion is increased in a humid environment, the separability can be improved by operating with a high frequency body, and otherwise operating with a low frequency band.

  In the above description, the paper feeding device 1 has been mainly described. However, the present invention may be realized by a single paper stacking mechanism. Furthermore, the present invention may be realized as an image forming apparatus by using the sheet feeding apparatus 1 of the present embodiment instead of the sheet feeding apparatus 120 of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.

  The present invention has an effect that a sheet can be satisfactorily separated before conveyance with a compact configuration, and is useful in a sheet stacking mechanism, a sheet feeding device, an image forming apparatus, and the like.

(A) Schematic plan view of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention (b) Schematic front view of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention The principal part enlarged view of the cursor 16 of the paper feeder of embodiment of this invention (A) A diagram for explaining the operation of the paper feeding device of the embodiment of the present invention (b) A diagram for explaining the operation of the paper feeding device of the embodiment of the present invention (c) An embodiment of the present invention FIG. 4D is a diagram for explaining the operation of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment. Configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a conventional technique Configuration diagram of a paper feeder having a paper separation function according to the prior art Configuration diagram of a paper feeder having a paper separation function according to the prior art

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper feeder 11 Case part 12 Tray 12a Rotating shaft 13 Stopping member 14 Pick roller 15, 16 Cursor 15a Wall surface 16a Body part 16b Notch 16c Rotating shaft 20 Actuator 21 Contact body 22 Vibrator

Claims (6)

A loading section for loading a plurality of sheets;
A paper stacking mechanism comprising: a swinging unit configured to swing at least a topmost sheet among the sheets stacked on the stacking unit.   2. The sheet stacking mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the swinging unit includes a vibration applying unit that applies vibration to the at least uppermost sheet.   2. The sheet stacking mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the swinging unit includes a driven regulating unit that positionally regulates the driven of the at least uppermost sheet based on the vibration of the vibration applying unit. A pair of cursors for positioning the paper stacking position at a specific position on the stacking unit;
The vibration applying unit is provided on one of the pair of cursors,
4. The sheet stacking mechanism according to claim 3, wherein the driven restriction portion is provided on the other of the pair of cursors. A paper stacking mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A sheet feeding device comprising: a sheet unloading unit configured to unload the uppermost sheet of the sheets stacked on the stacking unit. A sheet feeding device according to claim 5;
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet fed from the sheet feeding device.

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