JP2016069141A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which can quickly feed sheets continuously in a manual feeding operation.SOLUTION: A printer 10 as an image formation device 1 comprises: a body casing 2 of the image formation device 1; an automatic feeding tray 20 and a manual feeding tray 30 for feeding sheets 3 into the body casing 2; and an image formation part 4 for forming images on the fed sheets 3. A sheet feeding roller 31, a pressing part 32, a sheet shortage detection sensor 33 and a separation pad 34 are provided in the vicinity of the tip of the manual feeding tray 30. A resist roller 35 and a resist roller vicinity sensor 36 are provided in the body casing 2. When the resist roller vicinity sensor 36 detects that the tip of the sheet 3 reaches a prescribed position in the vicinity of the resist roller 35, the pressing operation of the pressing part 32 against the sheet feeding roller 31 is released by a control part 40.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer apparatus as an image forming apparatus.

  In general, when paper is fed manually, the automatic pressing method in which the feed roller automatically presses the paper every time paper is fed, and the standby press that waits for the feed roller to be driven while it is always pressed manually. There is a contact method. In the automatic pressing method, there is a problem of delay due to the operation sound for each paper feed and the operating time of the feed roller, and in the standby pressing method, the troublesome operation at the time of paper setting is a problem.

  In contrast to the method described above, there is a technology that checks whether or not paper is present, presses the paper constantly when there is paper, and feeds the paper into the apparatus by rotating the feed roller that pressed the paper when there is no paper. Known (for example, Patent Document 1).

  In the printer supply device disclosed in Patent Document 1, when a sheet is inserted into the manual feed port, the insertion of the sheet is detected by the manual feed sensor, and the feed roller rotates to absorb the sheet into the printer, and reaches the standby position. Feed the leading edge of the paper. An object of the present invention is to perform manual feed printing without dropping the paper from the manual feed slot even if the user does not hold the paper with his / her hand.

JP-A-5-4762

  In the printer supply device of Patent Document 1, when a user wants to manually feed a plurality of sheets continuously, it takes time until the next sheet can be fed, and there is a problem that a quick manual feed operation cannot be performed. .

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer apparatus that can quickly feed sheets continuously in manual feeding operation.

  The printer apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus, and includes a manual feed tray on which paper is placed, a paper feed roller that takes the fed paper into the image forming apparatus, and a paper placed on the manual feed tray. A pressing unit that performs a pressing operation to press against the paper feed roller, a registration roller that adjusts the position of the paper sent from the paper feed roller, and a registration roller that is disposed in the vicinity of the registration roller, and the leading edge of the paper is a predetermined A registration roller proximity sensor that detects that the position has been reached, and a control unit that releases the pressing operation by the pressing unit according to the detection result of the registration roller proximity sensor.

  As one aspect of the printer device of the present invention, for example, the printer device further includes a paper breakage detection sensor that detects that the paper placed on the manual feed tray is exhausted, and the control unit is configured to detect the paper breakage detection sensor according to the detection result of the paper breakage detection sensor. The pressing operation in the pressing unit is released.

  The printer device obtained by the present invention detects that the leading edge of the sheet has reached a predetermined position by the registration roller proximity sensor, and cancels the pressing operation of the pressing unit against the paper feed roller according to a command from the control unit. Accordingly, when a plurality of sheets are continuously inserted from the manual feed tray, the next paper can be placed (set) on the manual feed tray at a timing earlier than the timing for detecting the absence of the first sheet. The paper can be manually fed early. In addition, the time for continuously placing the sheets on the manual feed tray may be shortened, and the efficiency of the sheet insertion work may be improved.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing an example of a printer apparatus according to the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an electrical configuration of a printer device according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of an operation of a pressing unit of the printer device according to the present invention.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a printer device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the main part showing an example of a printer device 10 as the image forming apparatus 1. The image forming apparatus 1 is not limited to the laser or ink jet printer apparatus 10 but may be a copying machine or a facsimile machine.

  The printer device 10 forms an image on the main body casing 2 of the image forming apparatus 1, the automatic paper feed tray 20 and the manual feed tray 30 for feeding the paper 3 into the main body casing 2, and the fed paper 3. The image forming unit 4 is provided. The paper 3 on which the image is formed by the image forming unit 4 is stacked on a paper discharge tray 5 provided on the upper portion of the main body casing 2.

  The automatic paper feed tray 20 is installed at the bottom of the main body casing 2 and is used for stacking a plurality of sheets 3 in a stack and automatically feeding the sheets 3 to the image forming unit 4. The manual feed tray 30 is installed on the side of the main body casing 2 and is used by the user to manually feed the paper 3 one by one.

  The paper 3 stacked on the automatic paper feed tray 20 is sent out to a feed roller 22 disposed in front of the automatic paper feed tray 20 by driving a pickup roller 21 provided at the upper front end of the automatic paper feed tray 20. The fed sheet 3 is sandwiched between automatic feeding pads 23 provided below the feeding roller 22, and only the uppermost sheet is separated from the other sheets 3 and taken into the image forming apparatus 1. It is.

  In the vicinity of the front end of the manual feed tray 30, a paper feed roller 31, a pressing unit 32, a paper breakage detection sensor 33, and a separation pad 34 are provided. In the main body casing 2, a registration roller 35 and a registration roller proximity sensor 36.

  The sheet 3 placed on the manual feed tray 30 is taken into the image forming apparatus 1 by driving a paper feed roller 31 installed near the front end of the manual feed tray 30. At that time, the paper 3 is pressed between the paper feed roller 31 and a pressing unit 32 that performs a pressing operation of pressing the paper 3 placed on the manual feed tray 30 against the paper feed roller 31. The pressing unit 32 of the present embodiment is installed on the inner wall of the main body casing 2 so as to be freely driven, and performs an operation of pressing and releasing the pressing with respect to the paper feed roller 31.

  The pressing portion 32 is shown as an elongated flat plate whose upper surface forms a flat shape, but may be a rotating roller shape and is not limited to a shape. The driving method of the pressing unit 32 may be a motor, a magnet, or a spring type, and is not limited to a driving method as long as the mechanism performs a pressing operation for pressing the paper feed roller 31 and an operation for releasing the pressing operation. The pressing portion 32 may be formed integrally with the manual feed tray 30. When the pressing unit 32 performs the operation of releasing the pressing operation, the manual feed tray 30 that has lifted the paper 3 automatically lowers. Otherwise, the pressing unit 32 always presses the paper feed roller 31. good.

  The out-of-paper detection sensor 33 is installed on the inner wall of the main body casing 2 above the manual feed tray 30 and detects the presence or absence of the paper 3 placed on the manual feed tray 30.

  As for the sheet 3 taken into the image forming apparatus 1 by driving the sheet feeding roller 31, for example, even when a plurality of sheets 3 are fed, only one sheet 3 is separated by the separation pad 34. The position of the sheet 3 is adjusted in order to accurately form an image on the sheet 3 in the registration roller 35 where the sheet 3 fed from the automatic sheet feeding tray 20 and the manual feed tray 30 merges. .

  A registration roller proximity sensor 36 disposed in the vicinity of the registration roller 35 detects whether or not the leading edge of the paper 3 has reached the registration roller 35.

  The image forming unit 4 includes a photosensitive drum 6, for example, a scorotron charger 7 that positively charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 6, and a laser beam 8 that is exposed. The exposed electrostatic latent image is visualized and formed on the paper 3 as an image.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the printer apparatus 10.

  The printer device 10 includes a control unit 40, a CPU 41, a ROM 42, a RAM 43, and a network interface (IF) 44. Further, the printer device 10 includes an operation unit 45, a display unit 46, and the like in addition to the image forming unit 4, the out-of-paper detection sensor 33, and the registration roller proximity sensor 36.

  The control unit 40 controls the entire printer apparatus 10 and may have a microprocessor configuration including a CPU 41, a ROM 42, and a RAM 43. The CPU 41 controls the operation of the printer device 10, the ROM 42 stores various programs and data for operating the printer device 10, and the RAM 43 temporarily stores data during program execution. The network interface 44 is connected to a communication circuit such as a LAN, for example, and performs communication with the terminal device 50 or the like connected on the communication circuit.

  The operation unit 45 performs power ON / OFF of the printer apparatus 10 and various mode selections. The display unit 46 is a display such as a liquid crystal panel or an organic EL panel that displays various setting screens and the operating state of the printer apparatus 10, and is a UI (user interface) type touch panel that performs various processes by touching a finger or a pen. It may be.

  The operation of the pressing unit 32 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the user turns on the printer device 10 and makes the manual feed tray 30 usable, the pressing unit 32 moves away from the outer surface of the paper feeding roller 31, and the paper 3 is inserted between the paper feeding roller 31 and the pressing unit 32. A space is formed. Next, when the user inserts the leading edge of the paper 3 into the formed space, the paper breakage detection sensor 33 detects the paper 3, and the pressing unit 32 performs a pressing operation on the paper feeding roller 31 according to a command from the control unit 40. The paper feed roller 31 rotates. When the first sheet is placed on the manual feed tray 30, the pressing unit 32 does not have to be separated from the surface of the paper feed roller 31.

  Following the rotation of the paper feed roller 31, the pressing unit 32 presses the paper 3 against the paper feed roller 31, and the paper 3 is fed into the main body casing 2 of the image forming apparatus 1. When the leading edge of the fed paper 3 reaches the registration roller 35, the registration roller proximity sensor 36 detects whether or not the leading edge of the paper 3 has reached a predetermined position.

  When the control unit 40 determines that the leading edge of the sheet 3 has reached a predetermined position, the pressing unit 32 releases the pressing operation on the paper feed roller 31 according to a command from the control unit 40 (see FIG. 3B). When the pressing operation of the pressing unit 32 is released, the user can place the paper 3 on the manual feed tray 30. There is a possibility that the time for continuously placing a plurality of sheets 3 on the manual feed tray 30 is shortened, and the efficiency of the insertion operation of the sheets 3 may be improved. That is, when the paper 3 is continuously inserted from the manual tray 30, the next paper 3 is placed (set) on the manual tray 30 at a timing earlier than the timing at which it is detected that the first paper 3 is lost. Therefore, the paper 3 can be manually fed early.

  The pressing operation of the pressing unit 32 may be released when the paper breakage detection sensor 33 detects the presence or absence of the sheet 3 in the manual feed tray 30 and determines that the sheet 3 is not present in the control unit 40. Then, the user does not release the pressing operation of the pressing unit 32 until the control mode in which the pressing operation of the pressing unit 32 is released based on the detection result of the registration roller proximity sensor 36 and the paper out detection sensor 33 detects the paper out of the paper 3. It is possible to select an automatic pressing mode.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A deformation | transformation, improvement, etc. are possible suitably. In addition, the material, shape, dimension, numerical value, form, number, arrangement location, and the like of each component in the above-described embodiment are arbitrary and are not limited as long as the present invention can be achieved.

  The printer apparatus according to the present invention can be applied to the use of an image forming apparatus that efficiently inserts paper manually.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1: Image forming apparatus 2: Main body caging 3: Paper 4: Image forming part 10: Printer apparatus 20: Automatic paper feed tray 30: Manual feed tray 31: Paper feed roller 32: Pushing part 33: Paper out detection sensor 34: Separation pad 35 : Registration roller 36: Registration roller proximity sensor 40: Control unit

Claims (2)

An image forming apparatus,
A manual feed tray to place paper,
A paper feed roller for feeding the fed paper into the image forming apparatus;
A pressing unit that performs a pressing operation of pressing the paper disposed on the manual feed tray against the paper feed roller;
A registration roller for adjusting the position of the paper sent from the paper feed roller;
A registration roller proximity sensor that is disposed in the vicinity of the registration roller and detects that the leading edge of the paper has reached a predetermined position;
In accordance with the detection result of the registration roller proximity sensor, a control unit that releases the pressing operation by the pressing unit,
A printer apparatus comprising: The printer device according to claim 1,
A paper out detection sensor for detecting that the paper placed in the manual feed tray is exhausted;
The control unit is a printer device that releases a pressing operation in the pressing unit according to a detection result of the paper breakage detection sensor.

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