JP2512920B2 - Sheet circulation supply device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet circulation supply device for supplying a document sheet to an image forming processing device such as a copying machine or a facsimile.

(B) Conventional technology For example, when a plurality of originals each having a plurality of copies are copied, usually, a plurality of copies of one original are made at once, and this is performed page by page and sequentially accumulated. After the copying is completed, the sheets can be separated one by one and sorted into a plurality of sets. However, there is a problem that the sorting by man takes time and labor.

The above-mentioned sorting can be automatically performed by directly connecting the automatic sorting device to the paper discharge section of the copying machine, but this automatic sorting device has a problem that the cost is extremely increased.

As described above, there are methods shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 for performing automatic sorting without using the automatic sorting device.

That is, the sheet separating units 3 and 4 are arranged on both sides of the image copying processing unit 2 of the copying machine 1, and the sheet 5 of the original is placed on the sheet separating unit 3 on the left side in the drawing, and the first page is placed on the lower side. The final page at the top is placed on the image copy processing unit 2
When one copy is supplied to the sheet, the sheets of the original are accumulated on the sheet separating section 4 on the right side in the drawing via the conveyance belt 6 of the processing section 2.

When the first copy of one copy is completed, as shown in FIG. 6, the sheets 5 of the originals accumulated in the sheet separating unit 4 on the right side are collected.
Is passed through the image copying processing unit 2 through the conveying belt 6 of the image copying processing unit 2, and is re-collected in the left side sheet separating unit 3, and the same copying as described above is performed again.

In the case of copying in this manner, the copy sheets 8 discharged to the paper discharge unit 7 of the copying machine are collected and accumulated in each unit, so that after that, it may be sorted into each unit, which simplifies sorting work. Become.

However, since two sheet separating units 3 and 4 are required on the left and right sides, the cost is increased and the transfer time of the sheet 5 is required, so that there is a problem that a rapid copying process cannot be obtained.

(C) Problem to be Solved by the Invention The present invention can easily sort the processing sheets subjected to the image forming processing, and can reduce the cost as compared with the case where the automatic sorting apparatus is used. At the same time, by providing the circulation passage at the bottom of the paper feed passage, it is possible to return the original sheet that has come out of the placing section on which the original is placed to the placing section from the same direction as it went out. In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet circulating / feeding device in which the mounting portion can be arranged outside the device including the sheet processing.

(D) Means for Solving the Problem The present invention provides a document sheet placing section for placing a document sheet group with its document surface facing down, and a document sheet mounting section provided on the paper feed side of the document sheet placing section. A pickup roller that feeds from the top of the sheet group, a paper feed path that connects the paper feed side of the document sheet placement unit and the sheet processing unit, and feeds the fed document sheet to the sheet processing unit, A separation roller which is provided at the start end side of the paper feed path and separates the uppermost original sheet and the second original sheet, and feeds only the uppermost original sheet, a sheet processing unit, and a bottom portion of the original sheet placing unit. A circulation passage provided at a lower portion of the paper feeding passage for returning the original sheet sent back from the sheet processing section to the lowermost surface of the original sheet placing section, and sent back at the end portion of the circulation passage. Paper that can be opened when ejecting the original sheet And a take-in roller which is provided at the bottom of the original sheet placing section and takes in the ejected original sheet into the original sheet placing section.

(E) Action In the present invention, the original sheet group is placed on the original sheet placing portion with the original surface thereof facing down, and the pickup is lowered to place the uppermost original sheet on one side of the original sheet placing portion. In addition to sending out the uppermost original sheet by the separating roller, the original sheet is fed to the sheet processing section through the sheet feeding path, and the original sheet returned from the sheet processing section after the sheet processing is fed to the above-mentioned sheet feeding path. Through the circulation passage provided in the lower part, the document shutter is released from one side at the lowermost surface of the original sheet placing portion where the paper discharge shutter is opened, and is taken into the original sheet placing portion by the take-in roller, and this processing cycle is sequentially repeated. As a result, the required number of copies of the processing sheets are obtained in a sorted block state.

(F) Effect of the Invention According to the present invention, when a plurality of original sheet groups are subjected to sheet processing, the processing sheets discharged in this processing are sorted into respective portions and accumulated in blocks, so that sorting work is performed. It will be simple and easy as it will be a work of dividing each part.

Further, by feeding from the uppermost part of the original sheet group and returning it to the lowermost part, it is not necessary to use the two separating means as in the conventional example, one of the sheet feeding devices may be used, the structure is simplified, and the cost is low. Can be realized.

In addition, since the above-mentioned circulation passage is provided below the paper feed passage, the original sheet that has come out in the paper feeding direction from one side of the original sheet placing portion on which the original sheet is placed is ejected. It is possible to return the document sheet from the same direction, that is, from one side of the document sheet position section, to the placing section, and to arrange the document sheet placing section outside the apparatus including the sheet processing section. This has the effect of facilitating the handling of the original such as replacement of the original sheet group.

(G) Embodiment One embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

The drawing shows a sheet circulation supply device for a copying machine. In FIG. 2, this sheet circulation supply device 10 performs a copying process from an original sheet A (image forming process, that is, sheet process).
The sheet processing unit 11 for performing the sheet feeding is arranged on one side (left side in the drawing) to feed the original sheet A to the sheet processing unit 11, and on the upper surface of the sheet processing unit 11, the fed original sheet A A conveying belt 12 for conveying the paper in the forward and reverse directions is stretched for copying, and the other side of the sheet processing unit 11 (right side in the drawing)
Is provided with a sheet discharge section 13 for the copy sheet B which has been copied.

The above-described sheet circulation supply device 10 is configured as shown in FIG.

That is, the sheet feeding side of the original sheet placing portion 14 (hereinafter simply referred to as a placing portion) formed by a horizontal plate-like body on which the stacked original sheet A group is placed is formed in an inclined surface shape. A restriction plate 15 is provided oppositely, and the restriction plate 15 aligns and restricts the leading end of the original sheet A placed on the placing portion 14 so that it can be easily fed from the right side in the drawing.

Further, a pickup roller 16 for sending the uppermost sheet of the original sheet A to the right side in the drawing is mounted on the upper position on the sheet feeding side of the above-mentioned placing portion 14, and the pickup roller 16 is appropriately driven in the sheet feeding direction. It is provided so as to be driven by the means and moved up and down by a mechanism such as a solenoid.

The sheet feeding side of the loading section 14 and the sheet processing section 11 are connected by a sheet feeding path 17, and the upper side of the sheet feeding path 17 and the rear side of the pickup roller 16 have a pair of upper and lower sides. Separation rollers 18 and 19 are provided opposite to each other.

Among the above-mentioned separating rollers 18 and 19, the upper separating roller 18 is driven in the paper feeding direction by an appropriate driving means, but the lower separating roller 19 is in the opposite direction to the paper feeding and the upper separating roller Driven slightly slower than 18.

Therefore, when two or more original sheets A are fed at the same time, only the uppermost original sheet A is fed, and the other original sheets A positioned below are separated by the lower separation roller 19 and fed. It acts so as not to be.

Conveying rollers 20 and 21 are vertically opposed to each other at an intermediate portion of the above-mentioned paper feeding passage 17, and the upper conveying roller 20 is driven by an appropriate driving means in the paper feeding direction, and the lower conveying roller 21 is It is driven in the direction opposite to the paper feeding direction and at a slightly lower speed than the upper transport roller 20.

Therefore, the transport rollers 20 and 21 are also the separation rollers 1 described above.
Similar to 8 and 19, it has a function of separating two sheets and feeds the original sheet A fed by the pickup roller 16 to the sheet processing unit 11.

Further, a first sensor 22 is provided at the end of the above-mentioned paper feed passage 17, and this first sensor 22 detects the feeding of the original sheet A.

At the boundary between the lower portion of the above-mentioned sheet feeding passage 17 and the sheet processing portion 11, there is provided a distribution plate 23 which moves up and down by an appropriate driving means such as a solenoid.
The manuscript sheet A from 17 is guided to the sheet processing unit 11, and the manuscript sheet A sent back from the sheet processing unit 11 is guided to a circulation passage 24 described later.

The above-mentioned circulation passage 24 is provided in the lower part of the above-mentioned paper feeding passage 17 and connects the sheet processing unit 11 and the paper feeding side bottom portion of the above-mentioned placing portion 14, and an intermediate portion thereof is driven by an appropriate driving means. A discharge roller 25 that conveys the original sheet A in the discharge direction from the same direction as the side where the original sheet A is ejected (right side of the pulp of the placing portion cloth 14) (right side of the placing portion 14 in the drawing), 26 are opposite.

A second sensor 27 is provided at the end of the circulation passage 24,
The discharged document sheet A is detected.

Further, a paper discharge shutter 28 is provided at the terminal end of the circulation passage 24. The shutter 28 is closed as shown by the solid line in FIG. 1 when the original sheet A is fed, and is virtually shown in FIG. It is opened as shown by the line and is driven by an appropriate driving means.

The above-mentioned paper discharge shutter, which is the bottom of the mounting portion 14 described above.
On the inner side of 28 and the outer side apart from this, take-in rollers 29, 30 that are driven in the forward and reverse directions by appropriate driving means are mounted around these take-in rollers 29, 30.
Is loaded on the mounting portion 14, and the loaded original sheet A is rotated in the forward and reverse directions to set the original sheet A in a fixed position for feeding.

Also, a pressing plate is provided above the above-mentioned inner take-in roller 29.
The pressing plate 31 is provided so as to be movable up and down by an appropriate driving means, for example, a solenoid. The pressing plate 31 is located above when the original sheet A is fed, and is rotated downward when the original sheet A is ejected so that the original sheet A is moved. By pressing at an appropriate pressure, the original sheet A can be easily taken in by the take-in roller 29.

In the sheet circulating and feeding device 10 configured as above, the original sheet A is first placed on the placing portion 14.

The original sheets A are inverted from the original sheets A group which are sequentially stacked in the order of pages, and the first page is placed on the lower side, and the original sheets A are placed on the above-mentioned placing portion 14.

That is, the back side of the final page is located at the top.

Then, the leading end of the original sheet A group is aligned and regulated by the regulation plate 15.

Pickup roller 16 and separation roller 1 when feeding
8. The conveying roller 20 is driven in the sheet feeding direction, and at the same time, the pickup roller 16 moves downward to feed the uppermost original sheet A from one side (right side in the drawing) of the placing section 14.

The original sheet A sent out is separated by a separating roller 18 and a conveying roller.
The sheet is fed to the sheet processing unit 11 side by 20 and the two sheet weights are separated by the reverse rotation of the lower separation roller 19 and the conveyance roller 21, and only one sheet of the uppermost original sheet A is fed. .

When the leading edge of the original sheet A is detected by the first sensor 22, the driving of the pickup roller 16 is stopped and the pickup roller 16 is prevented from moving upward. Further, the driving of the separation rollers 18 and 19 is stopped and the original becomes free. The sheet A can be sent out, and the original sheet A is fed to the sheet processing unit 11 by the conveying roller 20 and the sheet feeding process is completed.

The conveyance control of the original sheet A for copying in the sheet processing unit 11 is performed by the conveyance belt 12, and when one copy process is completed in the sheet processing unit 11, the conveyance belt 12 reverses to reverse the original sheet A. Transport and send back.

The distribution plate 23 moves downward to facilitate entry of the original sheet A into the circulation passage 24, the paper discharge shutter 28 is opened to open the bottom of the placing portion 14, and the holding plate 31 is moved downward to move the original sheet. The original sheet A sent back from the sheet processing section 11 is pushed to one side (the right side in the figure) of the placing section 14 by pressing A and driving the discharge rollers 25 and 26 and the take-in rollers 29 and 30 in the discharge direction. From the bottom.

When the rear end of the discharged original sheet A is detected by the second sensor 27, after the time required for the rear end of the original sheet A to completely enter the placing portion 14, the discharge roller 25 , 26 and the take-in rollers 29, 30 are stopped, and then the distribution plate 23
Moves up to prepare for paper feeding, the paper discharge shutter 28 closes the circulation passage 24, and the holding plate 31 moves up.

After that, the take-in rollers 29 and 30 are slightly reversed in the paper feeding direction, and the leading edge of the taken-in original sheet A is conveyed until it comes into contact with the regulation plate 15, and the taken-in original sheet A is set and the paper is discharged. To finish.

Using the sheet circulation supply device 10 that operates in this way,
The operation of supplying the original sheet A in the copying machine will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3A. First, the document sheets A are arranged in page order, and the first page, that is, the first page is on the lower side, and the regulating plate 15 of the mounting portion 14 is arranged.
Align and place.

In this state, the pickup roller 16 and the separation roller 18 are driven so that the document sheet A of the last page at the top is placed on the placing section 14.
The sheet is fed to the sheet feeding path 17 on one side (the right side in the drawing)
Transport to 11.

FIG. 3 (b) Since the copy surface of the original sheet A fed to the sheet processing unit 11 faces downward, sheet processing, that is, copy processing can be performed as it is. When a copy is made, the final page is conveyed in the reverse direction, the original sheet A is sent to the circulation path 24, and returned from one side (right side in the drawing) of the placing section 14 to its bottom.

FIG. 3 (c) (d) The above-described paper feed processing, copy processing, and paper discharge processing are sequentially executed for each page from the top.

As a result, when the copying process for one copy is completed for all pages, the first page of the original sheet A is placed on the placing section 14 on the lower side, that is, the initially set initial state, and A copy sheet B with the page surface facing the upper surface is superposed on the paper output unit 13 in page order.

Therefore, by executing the required number of copies,
The copy sheets B stacked in the paper output unit 13 are stacked in blocks.

Therefore, each block of the copy sheet B can be sorted easily by separating and sorting the blocks.

Although the above-described embodiment is the one-sided copying process, the case of the two-sided copying process will be described below.

As shown in FIG. 4 (a), in the case of this double-sided copying,
A reversing roller 32 for reversing the page surface of the original sheet A is provided on the upper surface portion between the sheet circulation supply device 10 and the sheet processing unit 11.

The configuration other than the reversing roller 32 is the same as that of the first
Since it is similar to the first embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 2, the same reference numerals are used and the details thereof are omitted.

 Therefore, the operation will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 (a) First, the document sheets A are arranged in page order and placed on the placing portion 14 with the first page, that is, the first page facing down.

4 (b) The final document sheet A at the top is sent out from one side (right side in the drawing) of the placing section 14 and conveyed to the sheet processing section 11.
In this state, since the copy surface is one page before the last page, the last original sheet A is sent to the reversing roller 32 to reverse the page and supplied again to the sheet processing unit 11 to execute the copying process. .

 As a result, the final page has been copied.

FIG. 4 (c) Next, the above-mentioned original sheet A is again supplied to the reversing roller 32 to reverse the original sheet A, and is supplied to the sheet processing unit 11 to be subjected to copy processing.

When this process ends, both sides of the final document sheet A can be copied.

FIG. 4 (d) When the above-mentioned double-sided copying process is completed, the original sheet A is conveyed in the opposite direction, and the original sheet A is conveyed to the lowermost part of the placing part 14 via the circulation passage 24 on one side of the placing part 14 ( Return from the right side of the figure.

FIG. 4 (e) By repeating such processing operations in sequence,
When the double-sided copying of the second copy is completed, the first page of the original sheet A is placed on the placing section 14 downward, that is, the initial state is set first. A part of the sheets B is stacked in the state of being stacked in page order.

Then, by executing the required number of copies as described above, the copy sheets B are superposed in the order of pages on the paper output unit 13, and each unit is collected as a block and accumulated.

Therefore, the lower part of the copy sheet B can be sorted by separating and sorting this block.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when the original sheet A group is subjected to sheet processing for a plurality of copies, the copy sheets B discharged in this processing are stacked in blocks, so that the sorting work is performed. Is a work that is divided into each part, which is easy and easy.

Further, by feeding the original sheet A group stacked on the placing portion 14 from the uppermost portion and returning it to the lowermost portion, the separating means for the original sheet A may be provided on one side of the sheet feeding side, which reduces the cost. There is an effect that can be achieved.

Moreover, since the circulation passage 24 is provided at the lower portion of the paper feed passage 17, it goes out in the paper feed direction from one side (see the right side in the drawing) of the placing portion 14 on which the original sheet A is placed. The original sheet A can be returned to the placing portion 14 from the same direction as it exited, that is, from one side of the position portion 14 (see the right side in the drawing). There is an effect that the placing section 14 can be arranged outside the apparatus including the sheet processing section 11. This has the effect of facilitating the handling of the original such as replacement of the original sheet group.

The configuration of the present invention corresponds to the same part name of the above-described embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above-described embodiment.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view showing the structure of a sheet circulating / feeding device, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the structure of a copying machine, and FIGS. 3 (a)-(d) are 4A to 4E are explanatory views of the copying process showing another example, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are front views of a conventional sheet feeding apparatus. 10 …… Sheet circulation supply device 11 …… Sheet processing unit, 14 …… Standing unit 16 …… Pickup roller 17 …… Paper feed path, 18 …… Separation roller 24 …… Circulation path, 28 …… Paper discharge shutter 29 , 30 …… Take-in roller, A …… Original sheet B …… Copy sheet

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document sheet placing section for placing a document sheet group with the document surface facing down, and a pickup provided on the paper feed side of the document sheet placing section and feeding from the top of the document sheet group. A roller is connected between the sheet feeding side of the original sheet stacking section and the sheet processing section, and a sheet feeding path for feeding the fed original sheet to the sheet processing section is provided, and is provided at the starting end side of the sheet feeding path. Then, the uppermost original sheet and the second original sheet are separated from each other, the separation roller that feeds only the uppermost original sheet is connected to the sheet processing unit and the bottom of the original sheet placing unit, and the sheet is returned from the sheet processing unit. The circulation sheet provided at the lower part of the paper feeding passage for returning the original sheet to be returned to the lowermost surface of the original sheet placing section, and the circulation passage provided at the end of the circulation passage and opened when the returned original sheet is discharged. The paper discharge shutter and the document sheet stacker Provided part, the sheet circulation and supply device and a capture roller for taking in output documents sheets on the document sheet placing portion.