JP2023072860A - Sheet separation device and image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

To blow air to blowout ports of a first regulation member and a second regulation member by one blower member.SOLUTION: A sheet separation device, which separates a top-layered sheet material of a sheet bundle (paper bundle P) housed in a paper feeding part 20 one by one and sends out the same in a prescribed conveying direction by a conveying part, comprises: a first regulation member (front fence 220) which regulates a front end position in the conveying direction of the sheet bundle P and has first blowout ports 221a, 221b, 223a and 223b facing the front end of the sheet bundle P; second regulation members (side fences 230) which regulate both side positions in a width direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the sheet bundle P and have second blowout ports 230a facing each other on both the sides in the width direction of the sheet bundle P; and a blower member (air blower 250) which supplies the air to the first blowout ports and the second blowout ports.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

The present invention provides a sheet separation device for separating sheet materials in the uppermost layer of a sheet bundle one by one, and a copying machine, printer, facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine or offset printing machine for forming an image on the separated sheet materials. image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers are equipped with a paper feeding section that supplies paper as a sheet material. A stack of sheets in which many sheets are stacked is accommodated in the paper feed tray of the paper feed section, and the top layer of the stack of sheets is separated one by one and conveyed to the image forming section of the image forming apparatus. there is

A sheet separator is used to separate the sheets one by one. There are a plurality of methods of sheet separation devices, and the FRR method, air assist method, air suction method, and the like are known. The air assist system is equipped with multiple rollers (pickup roller, feed roller, separation roller) of the FRR system, and the front fence (first restricting member) and side fence (second restricting member) have outlets for stacking paper. It has an air blow mechanism for blowing air toward the front end and side ends of the paper to float the paper (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

The FRR-type roller is normally arranged right above the center in the longitudinal direction of the front fence. The rubber performance of the surface of the roller deteriorates over time due to the adhesion of paper dust, etc., and thus paper conveyance failure (jam) occurs unless the roller is inspected and replaced periodically.

Conventionally, a work space for facilitating inspection and replacement of rollers is provided in the longitudinal center of the front fence (first restricting member). Therefore, the outlets of the front fence have been distributed on both ends of the front fence avoiding the center in the longitudinal direction.

For this reason, air cannot be blown from the front fence to a stack of small-size paper that fits between the left and right blow-off ports of the front fence, so air is blown from the side fences (second restricting members). there is For this reason, it is necessary to arrange air blowing members on both the front fence and the side fences, and there are problems such as a complicated structure of the fence, an increase in size, and an increase in cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enable air to be blown to the outlets of the first restricting member and the second restricting member by a single air blowing member.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the sheet separating apparatus of the present invention separates sheet materials of the uppermost layer of a sheet bundle accommodated in a sheet feeding section one by one and feeds them in a predetermined conveying direction by means of a conveying section. A first regulating member that regulates the front end position of the sheet bundle in the conveying direction and has a first outlet facing the front end of the sheet bundle, and both side positions of the sheet bundle in the width direction orthogonal to the conveying direction. a second regulating member that regulates the sheet bundle and has second outlets that face each other in the width direction of the sheet bundle; and a blower member that supplies air to the first outlet and the second outlet. Characterized by

According to the present invention, it is possible to blow air to the outlets of the first restricting member and the second restricting member with one air blowing member.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet separating device; FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sheet separating device with the sheet bundle and the end fence removed; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the sheet separating device with narrowed side fences; It is a side view of a sheet separation device. FIG. 10 is a plan view of the sheet separation device when blowing air onto a large-size bundle of sheets; FIG. 10 is a plan view of the sheet separation device when blowing air onto a small-sized sheet bundle; It is a perspective view of a front fence. It is a side view which shows the modification of a side fence. 1 is a schematic side view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an inkjet image forming apparatus; FIG.

(● Image forming equipment)
An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below by taking an electrophotographic color copier as an example with reference to the drawings. A color copier is an example of an image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus is of course not limited to a color copier. That is, the image forming apparatus can be configured as a monochrome copier, a color copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, a printing machine, or an inkjet recording apparatus, or a multifunction machine combining at least two of these. be.

The same or corresponding parts in each figure are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description thereof will be appropriately simplified or omitted. Also, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative positions, and the like in the description of each component are examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention unless otherwise specified.

In the following embodiments, a sheet material as a recording medium is described as "paper", but the recording medium is not limited to paper. Recording media include not only paper (paper) but also OHP sheets, fabrics, metal sheets, plastic films, or prepreg sheets in which carbon fibers are previously impregnated with resin.

The term "recording medium" also includes media to which developer and ink can be applied, recording paper, and recording sheets. In addition to plain paper, "paper" includes thick paper, postcards, envelopes, thin paper, coated paper (coated paper, art paper, etc.), tracing paper, and the like. In addition, the term "image formation" used in the following description refers not only to imparting meaningful images, such as characters and figures, to a medium, but also to imparting meaningless images, such as patterns, to a medium. also means

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the entire image forming section in an image forming apparatus 100 according to this embodiment. The image forming apparatus 100 receives image data, which is image information, from an image reading unit and performs image forming processing by electrophotography. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 100 includes yellow (hereinafter abbreviated as "Y"), magenta (hereinafter abbreviated as "M"), and cyan (hereinafter abbreviated as "C"). ), and black (hereinafter abbreviated as “Bk”).

An optical writing device 7 for forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of each drum is arranged above the photosensitive drums 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K. By exposing the surface of each drum to light projected from the optical writing device 7, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image data is formed on the drum surface.

Below the photosensitive drums 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K, an endless belt-like intermediate roller is supported by a plurality of rotatable rollers including a drive roller 12A, an opposing roller 12B, a tension roller 12C, and driven rollers 12D and 12E. A transfer belt 8 is provided. The photoreceptor drums 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K are arranged side by side in the belt moving direction so as to contact the horizontal path portion of the intermediate transfer belt 8. As shown in FIG.

Around the photosensitive drums 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K, yellow Y is used as a representative example, and electrophotographic process members such as a charger 2Y, a developing device 9Y corresponding to each color, a cleaning device 4Y, and a static elimination lamp 3Y are provided. are arranged in process order. Below the intermediate transfer belt 8, a paper supply unit 20 storing a large number of sheets in a stacked state, a sheet conveying device 30 constituting a registration device, a secondary transfer roller 40, and a fixing device 50 are arranged. . A pick-up roller 21, a paper handling mechanism 22, and transport rollers 23 to 25 are arranged between the paper feeding unit 20 and the paper-like body transport device 30 from the upstream side.

When the image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment forms a full-color image, first, the photosensitive drum 1Y is uniformly charged by the charger 2Y while being driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow in the drawing by the photosensitive drum driving device, and then, A Y electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoreceptor drum 1Y by irradiating a light beam from the optical writing device 7 . This Y electrostatic latent image is developed with the Y toner in the developer by the developing device 9Y. During development, a predetermined developing bias is applied between the developing roller and the photosensitive drum 1Y, and the Y toner on the developing roller is electrostatically attracted to the Y electrostatic latent image portion on the photosensitive drum 1Y.

The Y toner image thus developed and formed is conveyed to the primary transfer position where the photoreceptor drum 1Y and the intermediate transfer belt 8 are in contact with each other as the photoreceptor drum 1Y rotates. At this primary transfer position, a predetermined bias voltage is applied to the back surface of the intermediate transfer belt 8 by the primary transfer roller 6Y. The Y toner image on the photosensitive drum 1Y is drawn toward the intermediate transfer belt 8 by the primary transfer electric field generated by this bias application, and is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 8. FIG. Thereafter, similarly, the M toner image, the C toner image, and the Bk toner image are also primarily transferred so as to be sequentially superimposed on the Y toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 8 .

The four-color toner image superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 8 is conveyed to the secondary transfer position as the intermediate transfer belt 8 rotates. On the other hand, the paper picked up by the pickup roller 21 from the paper supply unit 20 passes through the paper handling mechanism 22, is conveyed by the conveying rollers 23 to 25, and is sent to the paper-like body conveying device 30 (registration device). This sheet conveying device 30 has a pair of upper and lower nipping rollers 31. The sheet nipped by the nipping rollers 31 is corrected for registration (skew and lateral registration), and the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 8 and the timing are corrected. Together, they are conveyed to the secondary transfer position.

At this secondary transfer position, a predetermined bias voltage is applied to the rear surface of the paper by the secondary transfer roller 40, and the secondary transfer electric field generated by the bias application and the contact pressure at the secondary transfer position cause an intermediate transfer. The toner images on the transfer belt 8 are collectively secondarily transferred onto the paper. The secondarily transferred toner image is then fixed on the paper by heating and pressing with the fixing device 50 . The sheet on which the image is fixed is ejected from the image forming apparatus 100 after being delivered from the fixing device 50 . Thus, a series of image forming processes are completed.

(● Sheet separation device)
Next, a sheet separation device according to an embodiment of the invention will be described. As shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C, the paper feeding unit 20 includes a pair of left and right fixed side plates 210 and a first plate disposed between the fixed side plates 210 for regulating the front end positions of the sheet bundles P _L and P _S . A front fence 220 as a regulating member, a pair of left and right side fences 230 as a second regulating member for regulating left and right side positions of the sheet bundles P _L and P _S , and a rear end position of the sheet bundles P _L and P _S . It has an end fence 240 that The side fences 230 can be moved and adjusted in the width direction of the sheet bundles P _L and P _S , and the end fences 240 can be moved and adjusted in the front-rear direction.

The front fence 220 is divided into multiple sections as described below in FIG. In this embodiment, the front fence 220 is divided into left and right fence portions 221 and 223 and an intermediate fence portion 222 .

First outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, and 223b are formed at the upper ends of the left and right fence portions 221 and 223 so as to face the front end portion of the sheet stack _PL . These first air outlets have rectangular openings and are inclined so as to be able to blow air obliquely upward against the front end of the stack of sheets _PL . By blowing air obliquely upward to the front end portion of the stack of sheets P _L , the uppermost layer of the stack of sheets P _L can be effectively loosened and separated into individual sheets.

The opening area of the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b can be made variable by attaching a slidably openable shutter plate or the like to the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b. By moving the shutter plate to a predetermined position, an air volume suitable for the paper size and paper thickness (grammage) can be blown from the first blowout ports 221a, 221b, 223a, and 223b.

On the other hand, the pair of left and right side fences 230 are formed with second outlets 230a on the inner side surfaces facing each other. The shape of the second outlet 230a is a horizontally long rectangular shape in FIGS. 2A to 2C, but it may be a vertically long rectangular shape as described later with reference to FIG.

The position of the second outlet 230 a is preferably formed at the front end of the side fence 230 near the front fence 220 . The uppermost layer of the sheet bundle is loosened by the air from the second blowout port 230a, and the sheets are separated one by one, and the pickup roller 21 and the plurality of rollers 21, 22a, 22b of the paper handling mechanism 22 smoothly move forward in the conveying direction. can be sent to

The opening area of the second outlet 230a can be made variable by attaching a shutter plate or the like that can be slidably opened and closed to the second outlet 230a. By moving the shutter plate to a predetermined position, an air volume suitable for the paper size and paper thickness (basis weight) can be blown from the second blower outlet 230a.

A pick-up roller 21 as a conveying unit and an FRR-type paper handling mechanism 22 are disposed above a central fence portion 222 positioned at the center in the width direction of the front fence 220 . The paper handling mechanism 22 has a feed roller 22a and a separation roller 22b arranged vertically. A contact portion between the feed roller 22a and the separation roller 22b is accommodated in a notch hole 280a of a horizontal guide plate 280 adjacent to the downstream side of the front fence 220. As shown in FIG.

The pickup roller 21 and the feed roller 22a are configured to be rotatable in the same direction by an intermediate idler gear G. On the other hand, the separation roller 22b is rotatable in the opposite direction to the feed roller 22a with a constant torque to prevent double feed. The pickup roller 21 and the _feed roller 22a are supported by an _arm A that can swing vertically. configured as possible.

The first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b of the front fence 220 are connected through the first duct 260 to the blower port 250a of the blower 250 as the blower member, as shown in FIG. Although FIG. 3 illustrates the first outlet 221a of the fence portion 221, other first outlets 221b, 223a, and 223b are similar.

The blower 250 is arranged downstream of the front fence 220 and below the separation roller 22b. This blower 250 can be of various types such as a sirocco fan, a turbo fan, a propeller fan, and the like.

The air volume of the blower 250 may be of a fixed type, but preferably of a variable type. By making the air volume variable, an air volume suitable for the paper size and paper thickness (basis weight) can be blown from the air blowing port 250a.

A second outlet 230a of the side fence 230 is connected through a second duct 270 to an air outlet 250a of the blower 250 . In the present embodiment, since the side fences 230 need not be provided with air blowers, the cost can be reduced, the degree of freedom in designing the side fences 230 can be increased, and the layout can be easily optimized.

The first duct 260 and the second duct 270 can be formed inside the front fence 220 and the side fence 230 as shown in FIG. is. As such a member, for example, a flexible tube member such as a rubber hose can be used.

A partition plate 290 as a switching member is arranged at the branching portion of the first duct 260 and the second duct 270 . The partition plate 290 is configured to be vertically rotatable around a fulcrum 291 , and is configured to be able to close one of the inlet portions of the first duct 260 or the second duct 270 with the partition plate 290 . The partition plate 290 can be rotated using a solenoid or the like.

Depending on whether the partition plate 290 is in the lowered position indicated by the solid line or the raised position indicated by the chain line, the air of the blower 250 can be supplied to the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b or the second outlets 230a. Also, by holding the partition plate 290 at a vertically neutral position, it is possible to supply air from the blower 250 to both the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b and the second outlet 230a. .

(Operation of the sheet separation device)
The sheet separating device operates as follows. As shown in FIG. 4A, when a sheet bundle P _L of a large size, such as A3 or A4 size, is set in the paper feed unit 20, the partition plate 290 in FIG. Rotates to blow air from the blower 250 from the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, and 223b in the direction of the arrow (the direction opposite to the paper conveying direction). As a result, the uppermost layer of the stack of sheets P _L is separated sheet by sheet as shown in FIG.

After that, one sheet of the uppermost layer is sent out leftward in FIG. When two or more sheets of paper are multi-fed by the pickup roller 21, the second sheet of paper is separated from the first sheet of paper by the separation roller 22b, and only the uppermost sheet of paper is separated by the feed roller 22a. is sent to the left.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4B, when a sheet bundle P _s of a small size such as A5 or A6 size is set in the paper feed unit 20, the first outlets 221a and 223a of the front fence 220 A side fence 230 is positioned in front of the . In this state, even if air is blown from the first outlets 221a and 223a, the front end of the sheet bundle cannot be effectively hit with the air.

Therefore, the partition plate 290 in FIG. 3 is rotated to the upper dashed line position, and the air of the blower 250 is blown out from the second outlet 230a in the arrow direction (perpendicular to the paper conveying direction). As a result, the uppermost layer of the small size sheet bundle P _S is separated sheet by sheet as shown in FIG.

After that, one sheet of the uppermost layer is sent out leftward by the pick-up roller 21 . When two or more sheets of paper are multi-fed by the pickup roller 21, the second and subsequent sheets are separated from the first sheet by the separation roller 22b, and only the uppermost sheet of paper is left by the feed roller 22a. sent in the direction Here, the sheet bundle P _L as the second sheet bundle is a stack of large _- sized sheets having a width direction larger than the size of the sheet bundle Ps as the first sheet bundle.

Also, by holding the partition plate 290 in FIG. 3 at a neutral position, air can be blown out from both the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, 223b and the second outlet 230a. In FIG. 4, when sending out large-sized paper such as A3 or A4 and having a large basis weight, the first outlets 221a, 221b, 223a, and 223b and the second outlets are used to effectively handle the uppermost layer of paper. It is desirable to blow air from both sides of 230a.

(Inspection and replacement of rollers)
The pickup roller 21, the feed roller 22a, and the separation roller 22b deteriorate the rubber performance of the surface of the rollers over time due to adhesion of paper dust or the like. For this reason, it is possible to prevent paper transport failures (jams) by periodically inspecting and replacing them. FIG. 5 shows the state when replacing the three rollers 21, 22a, 22b.

In order to replace the rollers 21, 22a, 22b, it is necessary to secure a working space of a certain size around them. Therefore, in this embodiment, the fence portion 222 located in the central portion in the longitudinal direction of the front fence 220 is configured to be separated from the other fence portions 221 and 223 so as to be removable.

By removing the central fence portion 222 forward as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 5, a sufficient work space can be formed below the three rollers 21, 22a and 22b. Therefore, inspection and replacement of the rollers 21, 22a and 22b are facilitated. After the rollers 21, 22a and 22b are removed in the direction of the arrow and inspected and replaced, the central fence portion 222 is restored to form a continuous front fence 220.例文帳に追加

(Modified example of the outlet of the side fence)
In the above-described embodiment, the outlet 230a of the side fence 230 has a horizontally long rectangular shape, but the shape of the outlet 230a is not limited to a horizontally long rectangle. In FIG. 6, vertically long rectangular outlets 230a are formed in parallel two rows on the inner surface of the side fence 230. As shown in FIG. As a result, sufficient air can be blown onto the uppermost layer of the stack of sheets P in the height direction, thereby enhancing the sheet handling effect.

In addition, the tray bottom plate 245 of the paper feeding unit 20 is often configured to be vertically swingable around a fulcrum 245a at the rear end (single support lifting). When the side fence 230 is fixed separately from the bottom plate 245, the air blowing position to the uppermost layer of the paper stack P changes when the bottom plate 245 moves up and down according to the remaining amount of paper. The height variation of the uppermost layer of the stack of sheets P can be dealt with by making the outlet 230a vertically long.

It is also possible to configure the side fence 230 so that it can move up and down as indicated by the arrow in FIG. By doing so, it is possible to cope with height fluctuations of the uppermost layer of the stack of sheets P regardless of the shape of the outlet 230a.

(Inkjet printer)
(inkjet image forming apparatus)
The present invention is not limited to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus 100 described above. FIG. 7 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an inkjet image forming apparatus 300. In FIG. The ink jet image forming apparatus 300 will be briefly described below.

As shown in the figure, sheets are separated one by one from the uppermost layer of the sheet bundle P accommodated in the sheet feeding unit 310 by the sheet separation device 312 using air, and are picked up by the aforementioned pickup roller 21 and the like. . The picked up sheet is conveyed toward the image forming section 301 by the conveying roller 25 to the positional deviation correction section 320 on the downstream side in the conveying direction.

When the sheet reaches the positional deviation correction section 320 , skew correction and lateral registration correction of the sheet are performed by the nipping rollers 31 of the sheet conveying device 30 of the positional deviation correction section 320 . The sheet whose positional deviation has been corrected by the positional deviation correction section 320 is conveyed to the image forming section 301 at a predetermined timing.

The sheet that has undergone registration correction and is conveyed to the image forming section 301 is positioned on the surface of the cylindrical drum 303 with its leading edge held by a sheet gripper 304 provided on the surface of the cylindrical drum 303 . In addition, the cylindrical drum 303 has a large number of air suction holes formed on its surface, so that the entire paper can be held in close contact with the surface of the cylindrical drum 303 by air suction from the rear surface. The paper positioned on the surface of the cylindrical drum 303 by the paper gripper 304 and tightly held by air suction is moved toward the ejection head 302 by the rotation of the cylindrical drum 303 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. be transported.

In the image forming section 301 , units of ejection heads 302 filled with predetermined ink colors are sequentially arranged along the circumferential surface of a cylindrical drum 303 . A sheet of paper held on the surface of a cylindrical drum 303 is conveyed below the ejection heads 302 of each color, and ink of each color is printed from the ejection heads 302 at a predetermined timing, thereby forming an image on the surface of the sheet. It is formed.

The cylindrical drum 303 is provided with sheet grippers 304 for gripping the leading edge of the sheet at three positions on the surface of the circumference. As a result, while the cylindrical drum 303 rotates once, images can be formed on three sheets of paper.

A sheet on which an image is formed by the image forming section 301 is conveyed to the drying section 330 . A drying unit 331 is provided in the drying section 330, and the paper passes under the drying unit 331 to evaporate moisture in the ink and prevent the paper from curling.

The paper that has passed through the drying section 330 is conveyed to the paper discharge section 340 and stacked on the paper discharge section 340 in a state in which the paper is arranged in order. The drying section 330 is provided with a sheet reversing section 351 and a sheet reversing conveying section 350 .

During double-sided printing, the paper is reversed by the paper reversing unit 351 , the paper reversing conveying unit 350 switches the conveying direction, and the paper is conveyed to the image forming unit 301 again. Before the sheet reaches the cylindrical drum 303 , the nipping roller 31 performs skew correction and lateral registration correction. The misaligned paper is conveyed to the cylindrical drum 303, sandwiched between the paper grippers 304, and held on the surface of the cylindrical drum 303 with the back surface on which no image is formed facing up.

Then, in the image forming section 301, the discharge head 302 forms an image on the back surface of the sheet held on the surface of the cylindrical drum 303, where no image is formed, in the same manner as described above. The double-sided printed paper that has passed through the drying section 330 is transported to the paper discharge section 340 and stacked in the paper discharge section 340 in an orderly aligned state in the same manner as in single-sided printing.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, the present invention can be applied to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1, the inkjet image forming apparatus 300 shown in FIG. In addition, although two types of paper bundles, a large size and a small size, have been described, paper bundles of three or more sizes can be accommodated in the paper feed unit 20. In this case, the front fence 220 The number of outlets may be increased according to paper size.

1Y, 1M, 1C, 1K: Photoreceptor drums 2Y, 2M, 2C, 2K: Chargers 3Y, 3M, 3C, 3K: Eliminating lamps 4Y, 4M, 4C, 4K: Cleaning devices 6Y, 6M, 6C, 6K: 1 Next transfer roller 7: Optical writing device 8: Intermediate transfer belt 9Y, 9M, 9C, 9K: Developing device 12A: Driving roller 12B: Opposed roller 12C: Tension roller 12D, 12E: Driven roller 20: Paper feeding unit 21: Pickup Roller 22: Paper handling mechanism 22a: Feed roller 22b: Separation roller 23 to 25: Conveying roller 30: Paper-like body conveying device 31: Sanding roller 40: Secondary transfer roller 50: Fixing device 100: Image forming device 210: Fixed side plate 220: Front fence 221 to 223: Fence part 230: Side fence 230a: Air outlet 240: End fence 245: Tray bottom plate 245a: Fulcrum 250: Blower 250a: Air outlet 280: Guide plate 280a: Notch hole 290: Partition plate 291: Fulcrum 300: Image forming apparatus 301: Image forming section 302: Ejection head 303: Cylindrical drum 304: Sheet gripper 310: Paper feed section 312: Sheet separation device 320: Positional deviation correction section 330: Drying section 331: Drying unit 340: Paper discharge section 350: Sheet reversing and conveying section 351: Sheet reversing section A: Arm G: Idler gears P, P _L , P _S : Sheet bundle

JP-A-2002-104679 JP 2009-084052 A

Claims (8)

In a sheet separation device that separates sheet materials of the uppermost layer of a sheet bundle accommodated in a sheet feeding unit one by one and feeds them in a predetermined conveying direction by a conveying unit,
a first regulating member that regulates a front end position of the sheet bundle in the conveying direction and has a first outlet that faces the front end of the sheet bundle;
a second regulating member that regulates both side positions of the sheet bundle in the width direction orthogonal to the conveying direction and has second outlets that face both sides of the sheet bundle in the width direction;
a blowing member that supplies air to the first outlet and the second outlet;
A sheet separating device comprising: A first duct that communicates with the first outlet and a second duct that communicates with the second outlet are connected to the blower port of the blower member, respectively. 2. A sheet separating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a switching member for switching air supply to said first duct or said second duct. The sheet feeding unit selects at least two types of sheet bundles, a first sheet bundle in which small-sized sheet materials are laminated and a second sheet bundle in which large-sized sheet materials are laminated that are larger in width direction than the small-sized sheet materials. can be accommodated
3. The first outlet of the first regulating member is positioned outside both sides in the width direction of the first sheet bundle when the first sheet bundle is accommodated in the sheet feeding unit. 1 or 2 sheet separators. The switching member can be switched to a second duct when the first sheet bundle is accommodated in the sheet feeding unit, and the switching member can be switched when the second sheet bundle is accommodated in the sheet feeding unit. 4. The sheet separating apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first duct can be switched to the first duct. 5. The sheet separating device according to claim 1, wherein the size of said second outlet is variable. 6. The sheet separating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first outlets of the first restricting member are arranged on both sides of the conveying section in the width direction. 7. The sheet separating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second regulating member is arranged so as to be able to move up and down. An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet separation device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, and comprising an image forming section for forming an image on the sheet material sent out by the conveying section.

Images