JP2011057355A - Conveying apparatus and conveying method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conveying apparatus and a conveying method capable of suppressing occurrence of any skew. <P>SOLUTION: The conveying apparatus includes a conveying mechanism for conveying a recorded material, and a feed roller which is brought into contact with a first part of the recorded material and rotated to feed the recorded material to the conveying mechanism. The conveying mechanism conveys the recorded material out of the recorded materials to be fed from the feed roller so that the conveying forces different for the first part and a second part different from the first part are applied thereto. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport apparatus and a transport method.

  For example, a printer is known as one of recording apparatuses that perform a recording operation on a recording material. As a configuration of the printer, for example, there is a configuration in which recording sheets which are recording materials are installed in a sheet feeding cassette in a stacked state, and one sheet of the set recording sheets is picked up one by one and conveyed to the recording unit. It is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-233505 A

  However, in the method in which the recording paper is conveyed one by one, there is a possibility that a state (skew) in which the recording paper is sent obliquely with respect to the conveyance direction may occur. If the paper is transported in a skewed state, a paper jam may occur, or there may be a problem that printing is not performed at a predetermined position of the recording paper.

  In view of the circumstances as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a transport apparatus and a transport method that can suppress the occurrence of skew.

  A transport apparatus according to the present invention includes a transport mechanism that transports a recording material, and a supply roller that rotates in contact with the first portion of the recording material and supplies the recording material to the transport mechanism. The transport mechanism is configured to apply different transport forces to the first portion and the second portion different from the first portion of the recording material supplied from the supply roller. Transport.

  According to the present invention, different conveying forces are applied to the first portion that contacts the supply roller and the second portion that is different from the first portion of the recording material supplied from the supply roller. Since the recording material is transported, it is possible to transport the recording material while adjusting the transport speed between the first portion and the second portion of the recording material to be uniform. As a result, the transport mechanism can transport the recording material while maintaining an appropriate posture, so that the occurrence of skew can be suppressed.

In the conveying apparatus, the first portion is a portion of the recording material on one end side in the rotation axis direction of the supply roller, and the second portion is the rotation direction of the recording material in the rotation axis direction. A portion on the other end side is preferable.
According to the present invention, when the recording material comes into contact with the supply roller on one end side in the rotation direction of the supply roller, the second portion on the other end side in the rotation axis direction and the first portion of the recording material. Therefore, the posture of the recording material can be adjusted efficiently.

In the transport apparatus, the transport mechanism includes a transport roller that rotates in contact with the recording material, and the transport roller includes a portion corresponding to a first portion and the second portion of the recording material. It is preferable that the portion corresponding to is formed so as to apply different conveying forces.
According to the present invention, the conveyance mechanism has a conveyance roller that rotates in contact with the recording material, and the conveyance roller includes a portion corresponding to the first portion and a portion corresponding to the second portion of the recording material, Since different conveying forces are applied, different conveying forces can be efficiently applied to the recording material.

In the transport apparatus, it is preferable that the transport mechanism includes an auxiliary roller that sandwiches a portion of the recording material that is separated from the second portion with the transport roller.
According to the present invention, since the conveyance mechanism has the auxiliary roller that sandwiches the portion of the recording material that deviates from the second portion with the conveyance roller, the conveyance force in the second portion is reduced to the first portion or the like. We can weaken than other parts. Thereby, the conveyance speed of a 2nd part can be suppressed.

In the transport apparatus, the transport roller is formed such that a diameter of a portion corresponding to the second portion of the recording material is smaller than a diameter of a portion corresponding to the first portion of the recording material. It is preferable.
According to the present invention, in the conveying roller, the diameter of the portion corresponding to the second portion of the recording material is formed smaller than the diameter of the portion corresponding to the first portion of the recording material. The conveyance force in the second part can be weaker than the conveyance force in the first part. Thereby, the conveyance speed of a 2nd part can be made smaller than the conveyance speed of a 1st part.

In the transport apparatus, the transport roller has a portion corresponding to the second portion of the recording material between the recording material rather than a portion corresponding to the first portion of the recording material. Preferably, the frictional force is formed to be small.
According to the present invention, the portion of the transport roller corresponding to the second portion of the recording material has a smaller frictional force between the recording material and the portion corresponding to the first portion of the recording material. Therefore, the transport force in the second portion can be weaker than the transport force in the first portion. Thereby, the conveyance speed of a 2nd part can be made smaller than the conveyance speed of a 1st part.

The transport device further includes a support member provided between the supply roller and the transport mechanism and having a support surface for supporting the recording material, wherein the support surface is a supported surface of the recording material. It is preferable that it is formed so as to be inclined from the side toward the surface opposite to the supported surface.
According to the present invention, since the support surface is formed so as to be inclined from the supported surface side of the recording material to the surface opposite to the supported surface, the transport path of the recording material is suppressed within a predetermined space. be able to. Further, when the support surface is formed to be inclined from the support surface side of the recording material to the surface opposite to the support surface, the change in the posture of the recording material is likely to occur. Although there is a possibility that it is easy to precede the one part side, in the present invention, since the action portion is provided, a change in the posture of the recording material can be suppressed. For this reason, the space required for the conveyance path can be made compact while suppressing the change in the posture of the recording material.

  The conveyance method according to the present invention includes a supply step of supplying the recording material to the conveyance mechanism by a supply roller rotating in contact with the first portion of the recording material, and a supply from the supply roller by the conveyance mechanism A conveying step of conveying the recording material such that different conveying forces are applied to the first portion and the second portion different from the first portion of the recording material to be recorded.

  According to the present invention, recording is performed while applying different conveying forces to the first portion in contact with the supply roller and the second portion different from the first portion of the recording material supplied from the supply roller. Since the material is transported, the feeding process can be adjusted so that the moving speeds between the first portion and the second portion of the recording material are uniform, and the recording material can be adjusted in an appropriate posture to the transport mechanism. Can be supplied. As a result, in the transport process, the recording material supplied in an appropriate posture can be transported, so that the occurrence of skew can be suppressed.

It is a perspective view which shows the internal structure of an inkjet printer. It is a sectional side view which shows the outline of the internal structure of an inkjet printer. It is a perspective view which shows the structure of a rocking | fluctuating arm and a paper feed cassette. It is a figure for demonstrating the principal part of a rocking | fluctuating arm. It is a figure which shows the isometric view structure of a paper feed cassette. It is a figure which shows the structure of a 1st intermediate | middle feeding part. It is a figure for demonstrating the behavior of a recording paper. It is a figure for demonstrating the behavior of a recording paper. It is a figure which shows the other structure of a 1st intermediate | middle feeding part. It is a figure which shows the other structure of a 1st intermediate | middle feeding part.

  Hereinafter, a recording apparatus provided with the transport apparatus according to the present invention will be described. First, the ink jet printer 1 is taken up as the best mode for carrying out the recording apparatus, and the outline of the entire configuration will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an internal structure of the ink jet printer, and FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing an outline of the internal structure of the ink jet printer.

  Note that the illustrated inkjet printer 1 is a composite inkjet printer having an image reading device (scanner) (not shown) mounted on the top thereof, in addition to a soft recording medium such as paper or film, a CD (not illustrated). It is a type of ink jet printer that can perform recording even on a hard recording medium such as an optical disk including -R and DVD-R. The illustrated inkjet printer 1 is a serial printer in which a recording head 42 is mounted on the lower surface of a carriage 40 that can reciprocate in a width direction B that intersects a conveyance direction A in a recording execution area of a recording medium. The ink jet printer 1 includes a printer main body 2 that is a recording apparatus main body having a rectangular casing shape that is configured by a relatively flat surface. A paper feed cassette 11 capable of accommodating a large number of recording papers (recording media) P in a stacked state is detachably attached to the lower center of the front surface 2a of the printer body 2. Further, a discharge stacker 47 for stacking the recording sheets P after execution of recording in a stacked state is provided above the mounting surface of the sheet feeding cassette 11. In addition, an operation button (not shown) for executing various operation commands and a cartridge holder (not shown) for accommodating various ink cartridges are provided on the front surface 2a of the printer body 2.

  The paper feed cassette 11 is a member provided at the starting position of the conveyance path of the recording paper P. The recording paper P accommodated in the paper feeding cassette 11 is the highest one by the automatic feeding device (conveyance device) 3. The sheets are fed out one by one in order and conveyed toward a U-shaped inversion path 50 described later. The automatic feeding device 3 guides the upper recording paper P in the paper feed cassette 11 to the U-shaped reversing path 50 while preliminarily separating the upper recording paper P drawn rearward and the pickup roller 16 drawn rearward. A separation slope 12, a first guide roller 20 provided in a freely rotatable state at a rear obliquely upper portion of the separation slope 12, a separation roller portion 21 provided at a rear oblique upper portion of the first guide roller 20, and will be described later The first intermediate feed unit 25, the second intermediate feed unit 31, and the transport roller unit 34 are included.

  The pickup roller 16 is provided at the tip of a swing arm 17 that swings about a swing shaft 18, and is pressed against the upper surface of the recording paper P during transport and fed by rotation in the transport direction A. The upper recording paper P in the cassette 11 can be pulled out backward. The pickup roller 16 is configured such that a rubber material is attached to a surface 16a thereof and the recording paper P is easily wound around the surface and conveyed.

  The separation roller unit 21 is constituted by a pair of nip rollers including a separation driven roller 22 to which a torque limiter is connected and a separation driving roller 23, and the succeeding recording paper P that cannot be separated by the preliminary separation by the separation slope 12 is separated. The main separation function is to completely separate from the uppermost recording sheet P.

  The recording paper P conveyed by the automatic feeding device 3 is conveyed in the U-shaped reversing path 50 and guided to the recording position 51. Below the recording position 51, a platen 38 that supports the lower surface of the recording paper P that has been conveyed and defines a gap PG between the lower surface of the recording head 42 is provided. The platen 38 includes a conveyance guide unit 39 that is a support member, a platen rib 38a formed on the upper surface of the conveyance guide unit 39, and an ink collection groove for collecting excess ink that has not been used for recording. 39a. The platen rib 38a focuses on defining the conveying posture of the recording paper P.

  On the other hand, above the recording position 51, a recording head 42 which is a main component of the recording execution device 4, and a reciprocating movement guided by the carriage guide shaft 41 in the width direction B with the recording head 42 mounted on the lower surface. A possible carriage 40 is provided. Further, the recording execution device 4 includes a plurality of ink tubes and ink supply pumps (not shown) for supplying ink of each color to the recording head 42, a capping device (not shown) provided at the home position of the carriage 40, the recording paper P and a hard paper. An automatic gap adjusting mechanism (not shown) used when switching to a recording material (not shown) is provided.

  Further, a recording material discharge device 6 is provided at a downstream position of the recording position 51 in the transport direction A. The recording material discharge device 6 includes a discharge roller 43 including a pair of nip rollers of a discharge drive roller 44 and a discharge driven roller 45 and the discharge stacker 47 described above. The discharge stacker 47 is provided with an extension stacker 48 that is housed in a nested manner so as to be drawn out and retractable.

  Next, the U-shaped reversing path 50 that constitutes the transport path for the recording paper P will be described. The U-shaped reversing path 50 is provided by using the rear space inside the printer main body 2, and as an example for forming the outer guide surface 50 a of the U-shaped reversing path 50, the upper housing 83 is divided into two and located above. 84 and the upper conveyance guide 37, the lower housing 85 located below, and the upper path | route component 57 which forms the inner side guide surface 50b of the U-shaped inversion path 50 are comprised, and the U-shaped inversion path | route 50 is comprised. . The U-shaped reversing path 50 serves as a guide for guiding the leading edge of the recording paper P to the downstream side in the transport direction.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the U-shaped reversing path 50 includes a first nip roller including a first feed driving roller (conveying roller) 26 and a first feeding driven roller (auxiliary roller) 27. 1st intermediate feed part (conveying mechanism) 25, 2nd guide roller 29 which can rotate freely, 2nd intermediate feed part comprised by a pair of nip rollers of the 2nd feed drive roller 32 and the 2nd feed follower roller 33 31 is provided.

  The first intermediate feeding unit 25 is arranged on the upstream side (pickup roller 16 side) of the conveyance path of the recording paper P set between the pickup roller 16 and the conveyance roller 35. The second intermediate feeding unit 31 is arranged on the downstream side (conveying roller 35 side) of the recording paper P conveyance path.

  The recording paper P supplied to the U-shaped reversing path 50 by the feeding and guiding action of the first intermediate feeding section 25, the second guide roller 29, and the second intermediate feeding section 31 passes through the U-shaped reversing path 50. It is supplied to the nip point of the conveying roller portion 34 provided at a position near the downstream of the U-shaped reversing path 50.

  The conveyance roller section 34 is constituted by a pair of nip rollers, which are a conveyance roller 35 supported by a roller drive shaft 35a and a conveyance driven roller 36 provided in a freely rotatable state at the tip of the upper conveyance guide 37. ing. Further, the position of the transport driven roller 36 in the transport direction A is set to a position slightly shifted downstream from the position of the transport roller 35 in the transport direction A, that is, a so-called “reverse sled structure”. By adopting such a “reverse-sliding structure” conveying roller section 34, the leading edge of the supplied recording paper P is pressed against the lower platen rib 38a to prevent head rubbing and improve recording quality. I am trying.

  Further, power from a drive motor (not shown) is transmitted to the roller drive shaft 35a so that the recording paper P and the holding tray 55 can be conveyed. The roller drive shaft 35a is provided with a clutch device (not shown). By appropriately changing the engagement position of the clutch device, the ink supply pump (not shown), the capping device, the automatic gap adjusting mechanism, and the automatic supply mechanism described above are provided. The power of the roller drive shaft 35a can be selectively transmitted to the feeding device 3.

  As a hard recording material that can be set on the holding tray 55, a 12-cm or 8-cm diameter CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, Blu-ray disc that is attracting attention as a next-generation optical disc, or the future Various optical disks including those to be developed are applicable.

  Next, the configuration of the peripheral portion of the swing arm 17 will be described. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the swing arm 17 and the paper feed cassette 11, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the main part of the swing arm 17, and shows the perspective configuration of the paper feed cassette. is there. In FIGS. 3 and 5, the recording paper P is not shown for easy viewing.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the pickup roller 16 is attached to the swing arm 17 so as to be biased toward one end of the bottom surface of the paper feed cassette 11. This is to cope with conveyance of recording paper of different sizes. Therefore, the pickup roller 16 comes into contact with the recording paper P having a relatively large size (for example, A4 size) while being biased toward one end side.

  The swing arm 17 according to the present embodiment includes a pressing portion 70 that suppresses the lifting of the other end of the relatively large size recording paper P that is in contact with the pickup roller 16 being biased toward the one end. The holding part 70 is a curved surface having a substantially bowl-like cross section at the tip 70a. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the pickup roller 16 and the pressing portion 70 are arranged on the same axis, and the diameter of the tip 70 a of the pressing portion 70 is set slightly smaller than that of the pickup roller 16. Yes. In this way, by setting the diameter of the tip 70a of the pressing portion 70 to be smaller than that of the pickup roller 16, it is possible to prevent the recording paper P from coming into contact with the pressing portion 70 before the pickup roller 16 during conveyance. is doing.

  Further, the paper feed cassette 11 is provided with an edge guide 60 that is movable along the width direction of the recording paper P accommodated in the paper feed cassette 11. The edge guide 60 is appropriately moved according to the size of the recording paper P set in the cassette.

  The paper feed cassette 11 is provided with a fixed guide (not shown) that is disposed to face the edge guide 60. The edge guide 60 abuts both side edges (edges) of the recording paper P together with the fixed guide, so that the recording paper P accommodated in the paper feeding cassette 11 is in one end side of the cassette (on the opposite side to the edge guide 60). It becomes a state brought close to the end. As a result, the recording sheets P set in the cassette in a stacked state are aligned, and the recording sheets P can be smoothly conveyed.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the edge guide 60 is movable along a guide groove 61 provided in the paper feed cassette 11. Thereby, the automatic feeding device 3 can satisfactorily guide the recording paper P of different sizes set in the paper feeding cassette 11 by the edge guide 60. A protrusion (not shown) is provided on the bottom surface of the edge guide main body 60a, and the edge guide 60 is slidable by fitting the protrusion into the guide groove 61.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the first intermediate feeding unit 25 (the first feeding driving roller 26 and the first feeding driven roller 27). In order to make it easy to distinguish the figure, some of the other configurations are omitted.
As shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of, for example, five first feed drive rollers 26 are provided in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction (the left-right direction in the figure). The plurality of first feed driving rollers 26 are, for example, spaced at equal intervals from the side (one end side) in contact with the pickup roller 16 to the opposite side (the other end side) of the recording paper P in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction. Has been placed.

  A plurality of first feed driven rollers 27 are provided in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction. The first feed driven roller 27 is provided at a position corresponding to the four first feed drive rollers 26 from one end side among the five first feed drive rollers 26, but the first feed driven roller 27 is located on the most other side. The first feed driving roller 26X is not provided with the corresponding first feed driven roller 27. For this reason, in the 1st intermediate | middle feeding part 25, it is in the state in which a conveyance force is not added to the other end side of the recording paper P, and a conveyance force differs in the one end side and the other end side of the recording paper P. It has become.

  Next, the behavior of the recording paper P in the conveyance and skew removal operations of the recording paper P will be described. In this description, it is assumed that the recording paper P set in the paper feed cassette 11 has a size such that one end side is pressed by the pressing portion 70 when being conveyed by the pickup roller 16.

  The ink jet printer 1 conveys only the uppermost recording paper P among a plurality of recording papers P set in the paper feed cassette 11 by the automatic feeding device 3 (pickup roller 16) (supplying process). At this time, the recording paper P is conveyed in a state where the side portion is smoothly guided by the edge guide 60.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the recording paper P is reversed in a curved state through the first intermediate feeding portion 25 and is conveyed into the U-shaped reversing path 50 (conveying step). Then, after passing through the second intermediate feed section 31, the sheet is sandwiched between the transport roller 35 and the transport driven roller 36, and headed to a predetermined length L1. When the recording paper P is cued by a predetermined length L1, the rotation of the conveying roller 35 and the pickup roller 16 is stopped.

  When the recording paper P is made of a material having a relatively high strength, for example, when the recording paper P is picked up by the pickup roller 16, for example, the recording paper P does not follow the inclination of the separation inclined surface 12 and is opposite to the pickup roller 16 (the other end side). ) Rises with respect to the separation slope 12, and the other end side of the recording paper P may easily precede the first intermediate feeding portion 25.

  On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the first feed driven roller 27 corresponding to the first feed drive roller 26 </ b> X on the other end side is not provided. The recording paper P is transported such that a different transport force is applied between the first portion P1 that contacts the pickup roller 16 and the second position P2 that is different from the first portion P1. .

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the conveyance force is weaker on the second position P2 side (the other end side) than on the first position P1 side (the one end side). Therefore, the recording paper P can be supplied to the first intermediate feeding portion 25 in an appropriate posture. Since the first intermediate feeding unit 25 transports the recording paper P supplied in an appropriate posture, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of skew for the recording paper P transported to the recording position 51. In particular, in the present embodiment, the above-described effect can be obtained even when the recording paper P is made of a material having a relatively high strength, for example.

The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and appropriate modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, a configuration in which a part of the first feed driven roller 27 is omitted so that a different conveying force is applied to the recording paper P is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. In addition, the diameter t1 of the first feed driving roller 26X disposed on the other end side of the recording paper P may be formed smaller than the diameter t2 of the other first feed driving rollers 26. In this case, the conveyance force by the first feed driving roller 26X and the first feed driven roller 27X is smaller than the conveyance force by the other first feed drive roller 26 and the first feed driven roller 27. For this reason, the effect similar to the said embodiment can be acquired.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the friction coefficient μ1 of the surface of the first feed driving roller 26X arranged on the most other end side of the recording paper P is larger than the friction coefficient μ0 of the surface of the other first feed driving roller 26. A configuration formed to be small may be used. In this case, similarly to the case shown in FIG. 9, the transport force by the first feed drive roller 26 </ b> X and the first feed driven roller 27 </ b> X is the transport force by the other first feed drive roller 26 and the first feed driven roller 27. Smaller than For this reason, the effect similar to the said embodiment can be acquired.

P ... recording paper (recording material), P1 ... first part, P2 ... second part, 3 ... conveying device, 16 ... pickup roller (supply roller), 25 ... first intermediate feeding part (conveying mechanism), 26 ... 1st feed drive roller (conveyance roller), 27 ... 1st feed driven roller (auxiliary roller)

Claims (8)

A transport mechanism for transporting a recording material;
A supply roller that rotates in contact with the first portion of the recording material and supplies the recording material to the transport mechanism;
The transport mechanism is configured to apply different transport forces to the first portion and the second portion different from the first portion of the recording material supplied from the supply roller. Conveying device. The first portion is a portion on one end side in the rotation axis direction of the supply roller of the recording material,
The transport apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second portion is a portion on the other end side in the rotation axis direction of the recording material. The transport mechanism has a transport roller that rotates in contact with the recording material;
The said conveyance roller is formed so that different conveyance force may be applied to the part corresponding to the 1st part and the part corresponding to the said 2nd part among the said recording materials. Transport device. The transport apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transport mechanism includes an auxiliary roller that sandwiches a portion of the recording material that is separated from the second portion with the transport roller. The diameter of the part corresponding to the said 2nd part of the said recording material of the said conveyance roller is formed smaller than the diameter of the part corresponding to the said 1st part of the said recording material. Conveying device. In the transport roller, a portion corresponding to the second portion of the recording material has a smaller frictional force between the recording material and a portion corresponding to the first portion of the recording material. The conveying device according to claim 3. A support member provided between the supply roller and the transport mechanism and having a support surface for supporting the recording material;
The transport device according to claim 1, wherein the support surface is formed to be inclined from a supported surface side of the recording material to a surface opposite to the supported surface. . A supply step of supplying the recording material to the transport mechanism by a supply roller rotating in contact with the first portion of the recording material;
The recording material is applied such that different conveyance forces are applied to the first portion and the second portion different from the first portion of the recording material supplied from the supply roller by the conveyance mechanism. A conveying method comprising: a conveying step for conveying the material.

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