JP2021120306A - Sheet material supply unit, image forming equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

To suppress a conveying failure by holding a stacked sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to a sheet material conveying direction in a sheet material supply part of an image forming apparatus.SOLUTION: The paper feeding unit (sheet material feeding unit) 13 includes a paper feeding tray 3, a conveyance direction position regulating member 4 moving in the paper conveyance direction, and conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b moving in the conveyance orthogonal direction. When the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into or withdrawn from the main body casing 10, the pinion gears 61 and 71 on the paper feed tray 3 mesh with the rack gears 60 and 70 on the main body casing 10 and rotate, causing the conveyance direction position regulating member 4 and the conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b to move. When the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body casing 10, the movement of the conveyance direction position regulating member 4 is configured so that the movement is completed before the movement of the conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

The present invention relates to a sheet material supply unit of an image forming apparatus.

Conventionally, the image forming apparatus has been provided with a sheet material supply unit. The sheet material supply unit is provided so as to be movable with respect to the sheet material loading tray that is inserted and pulled out from the main body housing of the image forming apparatus and the sheet material loading tray, and the sheet loaded on the sheet material loading tray. A position regulating member that regulates the position of the end portion of the material is provided, and the sheet material is supplied one by one from the sheet material loading tray to the main body housing side in a predetermined transport direction.

In such a sheet material supply unit, the position is regulated by rotating the pinion gear provided on the sheet material loading tray by engaging with the rack gear provided on the main body housing during the insertion / withdrawal operation of the sheet material loading tray into the main body housing. Techniques for moving members are already known.

For example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-60640), a sheet material loading tray that is inserted and pulled out into the main body housing of an image forming apparatus and a sheet material end that moves in the sheet material transport direction. It is provided with a transport direction position regulating member that regulates the position of the portion and a transport orthogonal direction position regulating member that moves in the transport orthogonal direction to regulate the position of the sheet material end portion, and is provided on the main body housing of the sheet material loading tray. A sheet material supply unit is disclosed in which the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member are configured to move over a predetermined position and a separated position in conjunction with the insertion / withdrawal operation.

In the above-mentioned prior art, the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member move in conjunction with the insertion operation of the sheet material loading tray into the main body housing, and the sheet material loaded on the sheet material loading tray is moved by 2. Position is regulated at the same time from the direction. However, at this time, since one of the position-regulating members that first contacted the sheet material and regulated the position presses the one-way end of the sheet material, the moving load of the other position-regulating member becomes large, and the other position. There is a problem that the regulating member may not be able to move to a predetermined position.

If the printing operation of the image forming apparatus is started in a state where the position regulating member of the sheet material does not function properly as described above and the sheet material is not positioned at an appropriate position, a sheet material transport failure may occur. The importance of transporting the sheet material in the image forming apparatus without any trouble is higher at the position of the sheet material with respect to the transport direction than at the position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction.

In the conventional sheet material supply unit, which of the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member comes into contact with the sheet material first depends on various conditions such as the size and orientation of the sheet material. It wasn't decided.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to hold the loaded sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to the sheet material transport direction in the sheet material supply unit of the image forming apparatus to suppress a transport failure.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a sheet material supply unit of the image forming apparatus, which is a sheet material loading tray which is mounted in the main body housing of the image forming apparatus so as to be insertable and retractable, and a sheet material. A transport direction position regulating member that moves in the transport direction to regulate the position of the end of the sheet material loaded on the sheet material loading tray, and a transport direction position regulating member that moves in a direction orthogonal to the sheet material transport direction to the sheet material loading tray. A transport orthogonal direction position regulating member that regulates the position of the mounted seat material end portion, a pinion gear provided on the sheet material loading tray, and a rack gear provided on the main body housing and meshed with the pinion gear. When the sheet material loading tray is inserted into and pulled out from the main body housing, the pinion gear meshes with the rack gear and rotates, so that the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member are When moving and inserting the sheet material loading tray into the main body housing, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member is configured to be completed before the movement of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member. It is a feature.

According to the present invention, when the sheet material loading tray is inserted into the main body housing, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member moving in the sheet material transport direction is completed before the movement of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member. Since it is configured, the transport direction position regulating member can be reliably moved to a predetermined position without being burdened with the moving load by the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member, and the sheet material is reliably positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the sheet material transport direction. Can be done. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a problem in transporting the sheet material.

It is a schematic block diagram of the image forming apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the sheet material loading tray which constitutes the sheet material supply part of FIG. It is a top view which shows the state which the sheet material is laminated on the sheet material loading tray of FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which the transport direction position regulating member of FIG. 3 positions the sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to the transport direction. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which the transfer orthogonal direction position regulating member of FIG. 4 positions the sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to the transfer orthogonal direction. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a moving mechanism for moving the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member of FIG. It is a top view which shows the state which the sheet material loading tray was pulled out from the main body housing of FIG. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a state in which the sheet material loading tray of FIG. 7 is completely inserted into the main body housing.

An image forming apparatus and a sheet material supply unit according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and mainly includes a main body housing 10, a scanner unit 11, an optical writing unit 12, a paper feeding unit 13 as a “sheet material supply unit”, and a transfer unit. It is configured to include a section 14, an image forming section 15, a toner replenishing section 16, a fixing section 17, and a paper ejection section 18.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the paper feed unit 13 includes a paper feed tray 3 as a “sheet material loading tray”, a transport direction position regulating member 4, and a pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b. A moving mechanism 6 for moving the transport direction position regulating member 4 and a moving mechanism 7 for moving the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are provided.

The paper feed unit 13 of this example includes a two-stage paper feed tray 3. Each of these paper feed trays 3 is pulled out toward the front of the main body housing 10 to replenish the paper 9 (sheet material), and is stored (completely inserted) inside the main body housing 10 and placed on the main body housing 10 side. Feed paper. Since the structure of each paper feed tray 3 is the same, one of the paper feed trays 3 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the paper feed tray 3. The arrow A in FIG. 2 indicates the insertion direction of the paper feed tray 3 into the main body housing 10. The arrow B indicates the transport direction of the paper 9 loaded in the paper feed tray 3 toward the main body housing 10. Arrow A and arrow B are perpendicular to each other. The alternate long and short dash line C indicates the central portion of the paper feed tray 3 in the depth direction (that is, the insertion direction into the main body housing 10).

The transport direction position regulating member 4 regulates the position of the paper 9 loaded on the paper feed tray 3 in the transport direction. The transport direction position regulating member 4 is provided so as to be movable inside the paper feed tray 3, and moves in the transport direction (arrow B direction) on the alternate long and short dash line C in FIG. The transport direction position regulating member 4 abuts on one side of the paper 9 and presses the paper 9 against the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3 to position the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport direction.

The pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b regulate the positions of the paper 9 loaded on the paper feed tray 3 in the transport orthogonal direction. The pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are arranged to face each other inside the paper feed tray 3. The pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are provided so as to be movable in a direction approaching each other and a direction away from each other, and move in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction. The pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b abut on the opposite sides of the paper 9 and sandwich the paper 9 between them, thereby positioning the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the moving mechanism 6 is provided on the endless belt 65 connected to the transport direction position regulating member 4, the gear pulleys 64 and pulleys 66, 67 for driving the endless belt 65, and the paper feed tray 3. A pinion gear 61, a pinion gear 62 for transmitting power from the pinion gear 61 to the gear pulley 64, a torque limiter 63, and a rack gear 60 (FIGS. 7 and 8) provided in the main body housing 10 and meshed with the pinion gear 61 are provided. Has been done.

In the moving mechanism 6, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into and pulled out from the main body housing 10, the pinion gear 61 is meshed with the rack gear 60 and rotates, and this rotation is performed via the pinion gear 62, the torque limiter 63, and the gear pulley 64. It is transmitted to the endless belt 65 to move the transport direction position regulating member 4. Further, the moving mechanism 6 moves the transport direction position regulating member 4 in the direction closer to the paper 9 (from left to right in FIG. 6) when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, and the paper feed tray 6 is moved. When the 3 is pulled out from the main body housing 10, the transport direction position regulating member 4 is moved away from the paper 9 (from right to left in FIG. 6).

The torque limiter 63 constituting the moving mechanism 6 cuts off the power transmission from the pinion gear 61 to the transport direction position regulating member 4 when the torque applied to the pinion gear 61 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. That is, the paper 9 pushed by the transport direction position regulating member 4 is pressed against the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3 to stop moving. Then, when the rotation of the pinion gear 61 continues after the paper 9 is stopped, the torque applied to the pinion gear 61 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. At this time, when the torque limiter 63 slips, the power transmission from the pinion gear 62 to the gear pulley 64 is cut off, and the transport direction position regulating member 4 stops.

As described above, in this example, after the transport direction position regulating member 4 positions the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport direction, the transport direction position regulating member 4 is configured to stop, so that the paper is fed. Regardless of the size of the paper 9 loaded on the tray 3, the paper 9 can be positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the transport direction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the moving mechanism 7 is provided at the rack gears 77 and 79 provided on the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, respectively, and at the central portion of the paper feed tray 3 (on the alternate long and short dash line C in FIG. 2). The pinion gear 78 that meshes with both the rack gears 77 and 79, the gear pulley 76 that meshes with the rack gear 77, the gear pulley 74, the endless belt 75 bridged between the gear pulleys 74 and 76, and the paper feed tray 3 are provided. The pinion gear 71, the pinion gear 72 and the torque limiter 73 that transmit power from the pinion gear 71 to the gear pulley 74, and a rack gear 70 (FIGS. 7 and 8) provided in the main body housing 10 and meshed with the pinion gear 71 are provided. It is composed of.

In the moving mechanism 7, the pinion gear 71 is meshed with the rack gear 70 and rotates when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into and pulled out from the main body housing 10, and this rotation causes the pinion gear 72, the torque limiter 73, the gear pulley 74, and the endless belt. It is transmitted to the rack gear 77 via the 75 and the gear pulley 76 to move one of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a. Further, in the moving mechanism 7, the power transmitted to the rack gear 77 as described above is transmitted to the rack gear 79 via the pinion gear 78 to move the other transport orthogonal direction position regulating member 5b. Further, the moving mechanism 7 moves the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b in the direction closer to the paper 9 (in the direction closer to each other) when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, and the paper feed tray 3 is moved. The transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are moved in the direction away from the paper 9 (in the direction away from each other) when the paper is pulled out from the main body housing 10.

The torque limiter 73 constituting the moving mechanism 7 cuts off the power transmission from the pinion gear 71 to the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b when the torque applied to the pinion gear 71 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. That is, the paper 9 pressed by one of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b stops moving by being pressed against the other. Then, when the rotation of the pinion gear 71 continues after the paper 9 is stopped, the torque applied to the pinion gear 71 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. At this time, when the torque limiter 73 slips, the power transmission from the pinion gear 72 to the gear pulley 74 is cut off, and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are stopped.

As described above, in this example, after the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b position the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are configured to stop. Therefore, regardless of the size of the paper 9 loaded on the paper feed tray 3, the paper 9 can be positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction.

As described above, in this example, the paper feed tray 3 is provided with two pinion gears 61 and 71. The pinion gear 61 corresponds to the "first pinion gear" in the claims, and the pinion gear 71 corresponds to the "second pinion gear" in the claims. Further, in this example, two rack gears 60 and 70 are provided in the main body housing 10, and the rack gear 60 meshes with the pinion gear 61 and the rack gear 70 meshes with the pinion gear 71 independently. The rack gear 60 corresponds to the "first rack gear" in the claims, and the rack gear 70 corresponds to the "second rack gear" in the claims. Further, the torque limiter 63 corresponds to the "first torque limiter" in the claims, and the torque limiter 73 corresponds to the "second torque limiter" in the claims.

Further, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the paper feed unit 13 starts moving the transport direction position regulating member 4 before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and the transport direction position The regulating member 4 is configured to complete the movement before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b. The distance between the pinion gear 61 and the pinion gear 71 and the arrangement of the rack gears 60 and 70 are set so as to have such a configuration.

Specifically, the pinion gears 61 and 71 are provided on the side of the paper feed tray 3, and the pinion gear 61 is arranged behind the pinion gear 71 in the tray insertion direction (direction of arrow A in FIG. 7). There is. Further, the rack gears 60 and 70 are provided inside the main body housing 10, and the rack gear 60 is arranged on the back side of the rack gear 70 in the tray insertion direction. Then, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the pinion gear 61 and the rack gear 60 mesh with each other before the pinion gear 71 and the rack gear 70.

Further, the upper limit movement amount of the transport direction position regulating member 4 before the movement of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b is started is determined by the distance between the pinion gear 61 and the pinion gear 71 in the tray insertion direction. As for the distance from the pinion gear 71 in the tray insertion direction, the amount of movement required for the transport direction position regulating member 4 to complete the movement is set before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b start moving. Further, the positions of the respective parts are set so that the pinion gear 61 and the rack gear 70 and the pinion gear 71 and the rack gear 60 do not come into contact with each other.

Further, in this example, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member 4 and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b is a completely open position of the paper feed tray 3 with respect to the main body housing 10 (the maximum size paper 9 is fed to the paper feed tray 3). It is performed only in a part of the range from the position where it can be replenished to the complete insertion position. As a result, even when a small amount of the paper feed tray 3 is attached to and detached from the main body housing 10, the transport direction position regulating member 4 and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b regulate the position of the paper 9, so that the paper feed tray 3 is pulled out. The position of the paper 9 can be regulated regardless of the amount. Further, the part of the range does not include the completely open position. As a result, it is not necessary to completely open the paper feed tray 3 due to the position regulation of the paper 9.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member 4 that moves in the paper transport direction is the movement of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b. Since the movement is completed earlier, the transport direction position regulating member 4 can be reliably moved to a predetermined position without being burdened with the moving load by the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and the paper 9 can be transported. It can be reliably positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the direction. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a problem in transporting the paper 9.

Subsequently, the operation when the paper 9 is replenished to the paper feed tray 3 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the paper feed tray 3 is pulled out from the main body housing 10, and as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of sheets 9 are loaded on the bottom plate 31 of the paper feed tray 3. Then, the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10. At this time, the transport direction position regulating member 4 moves in the transport direction as the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, and after the transport direction position regulating member 4 comes into contact with the paper 9, the transport direction position regulating member 4 moves the paper. 9 is pushed in the transport direction, moves to a position where it comes into contact with the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3, and stops. When the paper 9 is stopped, the transport direction position regulating member 4 is stopped (FIG. 4).

Further, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the transfer orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b move toward the central portion (one-dot chain line C in FIG. 2), and either one or both of them are conveyed in the orthogonal direction. After the position regulating members 5a and 5b come into contact with the paper 9, the paper 9 is pushed toward the center by the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, moves to an appropriate position in the transport orthogonal direction shown in FIG. 5, and stops. When the paper 9 is stopped, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are stopped.

By the above operation, the paper 9 on the paper feed tray 3 is positioned on all four sides by the transport direction position regulating member 4, the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3, and the pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and is placed in an appropriate position. Be retained. From this state, the image forming apparatus 1 starts a printing operation, and the paper 9 passes from the paper feeding unit 13 through the conveying unit 14, the image forming unit 15, and the fixing unit 17, and is printed in a predetermined position. It is output to unit 18.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. That is, it can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, a pair of transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are provided, but one transport orthogonal direction position regulating member may be provided. In that case, the sheet material may be positioned by positioning it with the wall of the sheet material loading tray. Further, in the above embodiment, the main body housing 10 is provided with two rack gears 60 and 70, but one rack gear may be provided.

1 Image forming device 3 Paper feed tray (sheet material loading tray)
4 Transport direction position regulating member 5a, 5b Transport orthogonal direction position regulating member 10 Housing body 13 Paper feed section (sheet material supply section)
60 rack gear (first rack gear)
61 Pinion gear (first pinion gear)
70 rack gear (second rack gear)
71 Pinion gear (second pinion gear)

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-60640

Claims (7)

It is a sheet material supply part of the image forming apparatus.
A sheet material loading tray that can be inserted and pulled out from the main body of the image forming apparatus,
A transport direction position regulating member that moves in the sheet material transport direction and regulates the position of the sheet material end portion loaded on the sheet material loading tray, and a transport direction position regulating member.
A transport orthogonal direction position regulating member that moves in a direction orthogonal to the sheet material transport direction and regulates the position of the sheet material end portion placed on the sheet material loading tray, and a transport orthogonal direction position regulating member.
The pinion gear provided on the sheet material loading tray and
A rack gear provided in the main body housing and meshed with the pinion gear is provided.
During the insertion / withdrawal operation of the sheet material loading tray into the main body housing, the pinion gear meshes with the rack gear and rotates, so that the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member move. When the sheet material loading tray is inserted into the main body housing, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member is configured to be completed before the movement of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member. Sheet material supply unit. Two pinion gears are provided on the sheet material loading tray.
One of the two pinion gears is the first pinion gear for moving the transport direction position regulating member, and the other is the second pinion gear for moving the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member. The sheet material supply unit according to claim 1. A first torque limiter that cuts off power transmission from the first pinion gear to the transport direction position regulating member when the torque applied to the first pinion gear exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
It is characterized by including a second torque limiter that cuts off power transmission from the second pinion gear to the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member when the torque applied to the second pinion gear exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The sheet material supply unit according to claim 2. Two rack gears are provided in the main body housing, and the rack gears are provided.
A claim characterized in that one of the two rack gears is a first rack gear that is meshed with the first pinion gear, and the other is a second rack gear that is meshed with the second pinion gear. Item 2. The sheet material supply unit according to item 2 or 3. The movement of the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member is performed only in a part range from the completely open position to the completely inserted position of the sheet material loading tray with respect to the main body housing. The sheet material supply unit according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which is characterized. The sheet material supply unit according to claim 5, wherein the partial range does not include the completely open position. An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet material supply unit according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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