JP2551673B2 - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a sheet conveying device that attaches sheets to an upstream side of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, stacks sheets, and separates and conveys the sheets.

(B) Conventional Technology Among conventional sheet feeding devices that are examples of sheet conveying devices,
In particular, when a large-capacity paper can be stacked, when the additional paper is stacked, the uppermost surface of the remaining paper is lowered as much as possible to replenish the paper.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the above-described conventional example, (1) in the case of a paper feeding device having a large capacity, and when paper is additionally loaded when the remaining amount is small, the paper loading surface is Since it is located below, there is a drawback that it is difficult to replenish the paper. This is particularly noticeable when the paper feeding device is divided into a plurality of vertical stages and paper is supplied to the lowermost device near the floor.

(2) In addition, when it is not necessary to fill the sheets with paper to replenish them, it is necessary to wait until the uppermost surface of the remaining sheets reaches the sheet feeding position, which causes a lot of time loss.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding device that improves the operability of additional stacking of sheets by performing a certain descent control on the uppermost surface of the sheets regardless of the remaining amount of sheets in the apparatus. It is what

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,
In a paper feeding device for stacking paper and separating / conveying the paper, a vertically movable paper stacking base for stacking the paper,
A drive means for driving the paper stacking base up and down, and a long sensor lever that extends in the vertical direction of the paper stacking base so as to face the side surface of the paper stacked on the paper stacking base are provided. A detection unit that detects the sheet when the side surface of the sheet is in contact with the sheet stack. When the sheet is added to the sheet stacking table, the detecting unit detects the sheet added to the sheet stacking table. Further, in the paper feeding device, the drive means lowers the paper stacking base to a position where the detection means stops detecting the paper.

Further, in the paper feeding device, the paper feeding device is a lowermost unit divided into a plurality of units in the vertical direction.

Further, the drop between the uppermost surface of the sheet that has stopped descending based on the non-detection of the sheet by the detection unit and the position for separating / conveying the sheet is approximately equal to the thickness of the sheet that is likely to be additionally stacked. It is good to

Further, it is preferable to dispose the detecting means near the rear end of the minimum size sheet to be fed.

The paper feeding device may be controlled to start descending when the detecting means continues to detect the side surface of the paper for 1 to 3 seconds.

(E) Operation Based on the above configuration, when a sheet is additionally loaded in the sheet feeding device, a long sensor lever, which is provided in the detecting means and extends in the up-and-down direction, contacts the side surface of the sheet so that the sheet is moved. Detect. Then, the paper is lowered, and the drive means lowers and stops the paper stacking base to a position where the detection means does not detect the paper. The lowering stop position is set so that the difference in height between the uppermost surface of the sheet that has stopped descending and the position for separating / conveying the sheet is approximately the same as the thickness of the sheet that is likely to be additionally stacked. .

When another additional sheet is further stacked on the additionally stacked sheet, the long sensor lever comes into contact with the side surface of the sheet again to detect the sheet and lower the sheet again. Causes the drive means to lower the paper stacking platform again to a position where it stops detecting the paper. Then, the above operation is repeated. As a result, the loading of the additional paper is performed easily and efficiently.

(F) Example An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 23.

The paper feeding device of the present invention is a large-capacity front loading deck that is installed horizontally on a copying machine as an image forming device, and has divided units at the top and bottom, and opens a paper path when a paper jam occurs. The upper unit is designed to be slidable.

In FIG. 1, the sheet feeding device 2 of the present invention is connected to a main body 41 of a copying machine 1 as an image forming apparatus. The paper feeding device 2 has an upper unit 3 and a lower unit 5 which are divided into upper and lower parts. The upper unit 3 includes a manual paper feed section 42 capable of stacking about 50 sheets S, a plurality of upper / middle decks 43, 45 on which about 1000 sheets S are stacked, and the lower unit 5 includes The lower decks 6 each capable of stacking about 3000 sheets of paper S are stored.

The copying machine 1 is originally used as a cassette sheet feeding type, and when the sheet feeding device 2 of the present embodiment is connected to the copying machine 1, the cassette sheet feeding unit in the copying machine 1 is The conveyance path for the sheet feeding device 2 is formed by completely replacing the guide and the roller pair. This transport path
Hereinafter, it is referred to as an interface unit. The interface unit has paths connecting to the upper unit 3 and the lower unit 5, respectively, as described later.

The details of the configuration of the embodiment of the sheet feeding device will be described below with reference to FIGS.
A further explanation will be given with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view of a sheet feeding device 2 of the present invention and a copying machine 1 to which the sheet feeding device 2 is connected. A copying system including the copying machine 1 includes a document processing device 47 arranged above the copying machine 1 to automatically feed a document 46, a copy paper post-processing device 49 such as a sorter, and a loading table of the copying machine 1. An automatic double-sided device 50 which doubles as a sheet and is used to form images on both sides of the paper S.
And so on.

Inside the main body 41, an optical system 51 for scanning the original document 46 is provided.
And a photosensitive drum 52 on which a toner image is formed by the exposure and developing device by the optical system 51, a transfer unit 53 for transferring the toner image onto the paper S, and a fixing device 55 for fixing the toner image.

The sheet feeding device 2 is roughly divided into eight units. That is, the upper unit 3 and the lower unit 5 which are divided in the vertical direction, the manual sheet feeding section 42 on the upper unit 3, the upper deck 43 and the lower deck in the upper unit 3.
45, an upper sheet feeding unit 56 that feeds the paper S from both decks 43, 45, a lower deck 6 in the lower unit 5, and a lower sheet feed unit 7 that feeds the paper S from this unit. . Further, the paper feeding device 2 includes an interface unit 9 which is replaced with a cassette paper feeding unit originally provided in the copying machine 1.

FIG. 2 shows a front view of the sheet feeding device 2. A cover 57 that covers the manual paper feed unit 42 is provided above the paper feed device 2.
A transparent cover 59 for preventing foreign matter such as dust from entering is provided so as to be openable and closable. The main body 41 of the copying machine 1 and the paper feeding device 2
Gap covers 63 and 65 are filled between the front covers 60, 61 and 62 of the decks 43, 45 and 6.

FIG. 3 is a view of the sheet feeding device 2 shown in FIG. 2 as seen from above.

In the figure, the front door 66 of the copying machine 1 and the front covers 60, 61, 62 are on the same plane. Before the opening or or deck 43,45,6 door 66 when pulled out in front, they are required clearance d ₁ in order not to buffer each other, the gap cover 63 that closes the gap d _1, 65.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the front covers 60, 61, 62 are provided with remaining amount display portions 67, 69, 70 for displaying the remaining amount of the paper S on the respective decks 43, 45, 6 etc. Since the deck 6 is a 3000-sheet deck, the window of the remaining amount display section is longer than the other windows. Deck in this embodiment
The lock in the pull-out direction of 67, 69.70 is electrically locked by a solenoid as described later in FIG.

Reference numeral 71 is a release switch for releasing the lock, and when this switch is pressed, the lifters, which will be described later, of the respective decks 43, 45, 6 are lowered to release the lock, and the respective decks 43, 45, 6 are released.
You can pull out. Further, each front cover 60, 61, 62 is provided with a handle 72 and a paper size display section 73, respectively. On the bottom surface of the main body 41,
A plurality of casters 76 that are in contact with the floor surface 75 are fixed. Also, on the lower surface of the sheet feeding device 2, the adjuster is provided at the free end.
A leg member 77 having 79 and a plurality of casters 80 are provided. The caster 80 is lifted from the floor surface 75 when the sheet feeding device 2 is installed, and the sheet feeding device 2 is supported by the casters 76 and 76.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the inside of the paper feeding device 2 when the front covers 60, 61, 62 and the gap covers 63, 65 are removed.

The rail 81 fixed to the frame 3A of the upper unit 3,
The upper unit 3 is slidably supported by the bearing 82 axially supported by the frame 5A of the lower unit 5.
Is slidable in the direction of arrow 83. Frame 3A
A lock pawl 85 is pivotally attached to the shaft 86 by a shaft 86, and the upper unit 3 is locked or unlocked by engaging and disengaging the lock pawl 85 with one of the bearings 82.

The rail guide 87 fixed to the frame 5A is the front rail of the two front and rear rails 81 in the figure.
It is provided only on 81 and guides the rail 81 to make a linear movement when the upper unit 3 slides as shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a view of the device of FIG. 5 as viewed from the right. In FIGS. 1 and 2, between the main body 41 of the copying machine 1 and the manual paper feeding section 42, a receiving member 89 which is open upward is fixedly provided to the main body 41. The member 89 prevents foreign matters such as clips from falling into the paper feeding path.

Next, a method of installing the sheet feeding device 2 with respect to the main body 41 of the copying machine 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6.

In FIG. 4, a positioning member 91 having a groove portion and upper and lower arm portions is fixed to the lower portion of the main body 41,
A positioning pin 92 that is detachable from the positioning member 91 is fixed to the frame 3A. When the sheet feeding device 2 is installed, the positioning pin 92 is engaged with the positioning member 91 so that the main body 41
The sheet feeding device 2 is positioned with respect to. In the positioning member 91, the lower arm part is slightly long to form a guide part, and when the sheet feeding device 2 is installed, the positioning pin 91 is initially positioned.
The lower unit 5 is positioned only in the vertical direction when the lower unit 5 is pushed in by placing 92 on the horizontally extending arm arm and the lower unit 5 is in contact with the automatic double-sided device 50 as the loading base of the copying machine 1. It

Next, by operating the adjuster 79, the height direction is adjusted until the sheet feeding device 2 becomes horizontal with the main body 41. Finally, by fixing the frame 5A of the lower unit 5 and the frame of the automatic double-sided device 50 with the bolts 93 and the nuts 95, the paper feeding device 2 is positioned in the lateral direction (left-right direction) and connected to the copying machine 1. . Finally, the casters 80 of the sheet feeding device 2 are in a state of floating above the floor surface 75, so that the floor surface 75
Even if it is slightly wavy, the paper feeding device 2
Can be accurately connected to.

The positioning pins 92 are provided on the front side and the back side, respectively.
Since it is not a method of merely placing the sheet as described in JP-A-63-127934, the sheet feeding device 2 of the present embodiment is completely positioned. Further, since the vertical positioning of the sheet feeding device 2 is performed by using the pin shape as a fulcrum, the sheet feeding device 2 itself can be freely rotated with respect to the adjustment of the adjuster 79, without applying an unreasonable force. Horizontal adjustment is possible.

In FIG. 6, the lateral position of the sheet feeding device 2 is determined by sandwiching the front portion 3a of the frame 3A with the positioning member 91. The rear side positioning member 91a supports the rear side of the lower unit 5, provided that
91a is formed a little wider so as not to tightly sandwich the rear portion 3b of the frame 3A.

Here, the general structure of the frame 3A of the upper unit 3 is
It is shown in the perspective view of FIG. In the figure, a window frame-shaped frame 3a and a frame 3b are connected to the bottom stay 9 of the frame.
6, The upper stay 97 and the corner stays are fixed to form a box shape. The frames 3a, 3b have a welded structure, and the accuracy and rigidity of the entire sheet feeding device 2 are
Protected by a and 3b.

Next, the configuration of the unit of the sheet feeding device 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

Since the upper unit 3 and the lower unit 5 have been described above, the description thereof will be omitted. The manual paper feed unit 42 is screwed to the upper portion of the frame 3A. The upper feeding unit 56 is the upper unit 3
It is attached from the left side of the upper unit 3 so that it can be attached and detached when it is slid in the direction of arrow 83 (see FIG. 4).
That is, the upper sheet feeding unit 56 is slidably held by a pair of upper and lower stays 101 and 102, and the bases of the stays 101 and 102 are pivotally attached to the frame 3b by shafts 103, respectively. As described above, by attaching the upper sheet feeding unit 56 to the hinge structure to attach the frame 3b, the assembling property and serviceability of the upper sheet feeding unit 56 are improved.

As shown in FIG. 5, the lower feed unit 7 is attached to the frame 5A from above and fastened with screws. In this case also, the upper unit 3 is slid forward and backward (left and right in FIG. 5) to attach and detach the lower sheet feeding unit 7. As shown in FIG. 4, upper / middle decks 43, 45
Is mounted in the frame 3A via rails 105 and 106, and can be pulled out to the front side. The lower deck 6 is attached so as to be freely drawn into the frame 5A via a plurality of rails 107.

Next, the upper / middle decks 43 and 45 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

Since the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are composed of the same parts, respectively, and only the mounting positions of the front panels 60, 61 are different, corresponding parts will be denoted by two kinds of reference numerals and will be described in the same drawing.

The case 105 of the upper / middle decks 43, 45 is formed by combining a case bottom 106 that is open upward and has a channel shape (U-shape), a right side plate 107 and a left side plate 109 in a box shape. . Inside the case 105, a lifter plate 110 (111) on which sheets S are stacked is provided. Lifter plate 110 (111)
A slide member 112 for sliding inside the case 105 is provided on the side portion of the. In addition, the lifter plate 110 (11
Four wire fixtures 113, 115, 116, 117 are fixed to the side portion of 1) and extend to the outside from a slit 119 formed in the side wall of the case bottom 106.

A wire shaft 120 is rotatably mounted on the lower right side of the case 105, and the sprocket 12 extends from the case 105 of the wire shaft 120 at one end (the upper end in FIG. 7).
1 and the pulley 122 are fixed to each other, and the pulleys 122 and 123 are fixed to the other ends, respectively. The lifter drive motor 12 is attached to the side plate on the back side of the case 105 via a placket.
5, the sprocket 126 fixed to the output end thereof is connected to the sprocket 121 by a chain 127.

The pulley 122 has two wires 129 and 130 as described later.
One end of the lifter 110 (111) is adapted to be wound around the lifter 110 (111).
A pair of guide pulleys 131 and 132 are pivotally supported.
One wire 129 fed from the pulley 122
Is the wire fixture 1 via the guide pulleys 131, 132.
The other wire 130 is locked to a wire fixing tool 115 via a guide pulley.

As shown in FIG. 8, the method of locking the wires 129 and 130 is such that once the ends of the wires 129 and 130 are fixed to the wire fixing tools 113 and 1.
It is wound on the lower side of 15 and fastened with a screw on the opposite side, whereby the vertical stroke of the lifter 110 (111) can be maximized. Further, if only the slit 119 is extended, theoretically, the lifter 110 (111) can be moved up and down by the amount indicated by the symbol h in FIG.

The pull-down wire 133, which has one end locked to the pulley 123 and is wound, has the other end fixed to the center of the back surface side of the case bottom 106 via a ring-shaped guide bush 135. The winding directions of the wires 129, 130 and the pull-down wire 133 around the respective pulleys are opposite to each other, and the wire shaft 120
The lifter 110 (111) is moved up and down by the rotation in the forward and reverse directions.

A similar wire 1 is also attached to the side plate on the back side of the case bottom 106.
29, 130 and guide pulleys 131, 132 are arranged, and the other ends of the wires 129, 130 are wound around the pulley 122 and locked.

In this way, the lifter 110 is connected by the four wires 129 and 130.
By lifting (111) and lowering the central portion by two lowering wires 133, the lifter in the vertical direction can be moved more vertically than the lifter driven by the so-called figure-eight wire disclosed in JP-A-63-127934. Since the stroke of 110 (111) can be increased, more sheets can be stacked in the same space.

The case bottom 106 is provided with a friction plate 136 for preventing the double feeding of the final sheet and a paper out detection sensor 137 for detecting the presence or absence of the paper S on the case bottom 106.
A guide plate 139 for restricting the depth direction (width direction) of the paper S extends from the hole formed in the case bottom 106, and is adjusted within the range of arrow 141. Further, from another hole formed in the case bottom 106, a guide plate for regulating the rear end of the paper S is provided.
140 is extended, and this guide plate 140 is adjusted within the range of arrow 141 up to the medium size B4 size, and the paper S is A
In the case of 3 or LDL (11 ″ × 17 ″), it is moved to the position of arrow 143 and used.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 145 is a rail and 146 is a rail guide roller. A lock roller 147, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 14, is provided on the back side of the case bottom 106, and the lock roller 147 is for locking the upper / middle deck upper / middle decks 43, 45 in the pull-out direction. On the front side of the case bottom 106, the front panel 60,61
A cylindrical panel extension member 149 is provided for aligning with the main body 41 of the copying machine 1.

A wire 151 is wound around the end 150 of the wire shaft 120, and the end of the wire 151 is linked to the drive units of the remaining amount display units 67 and 69 shown in FIG. The upper and lower sides of the lifter plate 119 (111), that is, the remaining amount of the paper S is displayed on the remaining amount display portions 67 and 69.

Next, the lower unit 5 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. The lower unit 5 basically has a shape in which the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are elongated in the vertical direction, and therefore the description of the corresponding parts will be omitted. The case 152 of the lower unit 5 is the upper / middle deck 110
Similar to (111), it has members such as a case bottom 153, a right side plate 155, and a left side plate 156.

A wire shaft 159 is rotatably attached to the center of the lower part of the case bottom 153, and winding pulleys 160 similar to the pulley 57 are fixed to both ends thereof. The two wires 161, 162 whose ends are respectively locked to the pulley 160 are fixed to the lower stage lifter 157 via a pair of guide pulleys 163 pivotally supported on the upper part of the case bottom 153.
The wire fixing devices 165 are paired with each other. The lower side lifter 157 is similarly supported on the back side.

Further, a wire 169 is wound around a winding-down pulley 167 fixed to an intermediate portion of the wire shaft 159, and the other end thereof is locked to the lower stage lifter 157. Lower lifter 157
From drilled hole, the guide member 166 for regulating the trailing edge of the sheet S ₃ is provided. Further, the remaining amount display portion 70 shown in FIG. 2 is provided by a wire (not shown) wound around the wire shaft 159.
Are driven in conjunction with each other. The wire shaft 159 is rotatable in the forward and reverse directions by a motor (not shown).

Next, the one-pack sensor unique to the lower deck 6 will be described.

In the paper feeding device of this embodiment, the manual paper feeding unit 4
It is arranged such that the upper / middle decks 43 and 45 with 2,1000 sheets loaded and the lower deck 6 with 3000 sheets loaded. Here, the reason why the 1000-sheet deck is not placed at the lowest position is that if a small number of decks are placed near the floor surface 75, the floor surface will be loaded when the paper S is loaded.
This is because the user has to crouch up to about 75, which is not convenient.

However, even if a deck with the maximum capacity of 3000 cards is simply placed on the lower side, when pulling this out, the floor surface 75
There is a merit that the lowermost tier can have the maximum capacity because a handle can be provided at a place away from the lower tier, but if the lower lifter 157 is lowered to the lowest tier each time to load paper, the floor surface 75 There is no merit because you have to crouch up close.

Therefore, in the sheet feeding device 2 of the present embodiment, even when the lower deck 6 is pulled out only for loading the lower deck 6 on the lower deck 6, the upper surface of the sheet S ₃ on the lower lifter 157 has a certain amount. The lower limit sensor of the lower lifter 157 is provided separately from a sensor for preventing the lower lifter 157 from lowering. In this embodiment, the predetermined amount of the sheet S _3, is set to 60mm downward from the feedable position. This is because high quality paper for a copying machine is usually formed into one pack of 500 sheets, and the thickness is about 50 mm.

The advantage of the above configuration is that the sheet stacking surface is always located at a position distant from the floor surface 75, so that the sheet S ₃ can be stacked without crouching near the floor surface 75.
After loading the S _3, lifting the lower lifter 157 by pushing the lower deck 6, when raising the uppermost surface of the sheet S ₃ to feedable height also constantly since it is within 60 mm, to become quickly available feeding Is.

In this embodiment, the amount of movement is 1/6 or less compared to the conventional deck in which the lower lifter 157 is lowered to the lowermost part, so that the lowering time of the lower lifter 157 without paper is reduced and the usability is improved. Further, since the moving speed of the lower lifter 157 can be slower than that of the conventional one, there is an advantage that the capacity of the lifting motor can be reduced.

The structure of a so-called one-pack sensor that functions as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

In FIG. 10, the side plate on the front side of the case bottom 153 is
A vertically long sensor lever 170 is pivotally attached by a shaft 171 and is urged toward the paper S ₃ by a spring (not shown). The protrusion 172 provided at the free end of the sensor lever 170
They extend the lower lifter 157 side through a hole bored in the side plates, when the sheet S ₃ or the lower lifter 157 is above the height h ₁ is pushed by the sheet S ₃ or the lower lifter 157 In the retracted position (position away from the side plate). ON the side plate by the protrusion 172 of the sensor lever 170
A sensor 173 made up of a photo interrupter that is turned off is fixed. When protrusion 172 is positioned below the sheet S ₃ uppermost surface h ₁ is disengaged from the sheet S ₃ or the lower lifter 157, the photointerrupter 173 is a sensor lever 170 to pivot the lower lifter 157 side (inside) To ON.

This signal, when pulled out lower deck 6 for paper loading, the top surface of the height of the sheet S ₃ is always able to control the elevator motor so that h _1. However, when the start lowering immediately the elevating motor when supplemented with paper S _3, so surprised by the operator, even if detects that the uppermost sheet surface is increased only one pack of by the paper supply, immediately lift motor Is not driven, and a time lag of about 1 to 3 seconds is provided.

That is, loading paper S _3, the sensor lever 170 1
Only when the sheet S _{3 is} continuously pressed for about 3 seconds or more, the elevating motor is rotated in the descending direction of the lower lifter 157,
It keeps decreasing until the signal of the sensor 173 switches.

Hereinafter, when repeating this, it is possible to keep up the lower lifter 157 as possible down to the bottom, the height of the uppermost surface of the sheet S ₃ to h _1. After the lower lifter 157 is lowered to the bottom, the lift motor is not rotated. If the paper is replenished after this state, the height of the top paper will be higher than h ₁ .

The vertically long sensor lever 170 is provided near the rear end in the paper feeding direction of a paper size that can be fed by the lower deck 6. In the lower deck 6 of the sheet feeding device of the present embodiment, B5 is provided at a position about 10 mm from the rear end of B5 because B5 is the minimum size. This is because the sheet S ₄ whose leading end is bitten by the separation rollers 215, 221 described later.
If the lower lifter 157 is lowered in such a case, it leans as shown in FIG. At this time, for example, if the sensor lever 170 is located at the position indicated by reference numeral 175,
Leaning was by the paper S ₄ accidentally detected, even down much a lower lifter 157, becomes malfunctioning without change signal of the sensor 173 is. To prevent this malfunction,
As far as possible, the sensor lever 170 may be mounted in the rear end direction, but this is limited by the minimum size. For the above reason, the position of the sensor lever 170 is almost determined.

Next, the details of the pulley 122 described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 11, 12, and 13.

In FIG. 12, a boss 177 is provided on the end surface of the pulley body 176.
A groove 179 formed around the groove 179 and two grooves 180, 181 branched from the groove 179 are formed respectively, and the depth l of the grooves 180, 181 is substantially equal to the diameter of the wire. There is. The groove 180 is used for right-hand winding, and the groove 181 is the opposite. The wires 129 and 130 are connected to the inside of the pulley 122 and are composed of one wire, and are divided into two by a perforated ball 182 crimped on the wire.

The perforated ball 182 is fitted and fixed in a recess 183 provided in the groove 179 of the pulley body 176. Then, the wires 129 and 130 are sandwiched between the flange 185 and the pulley body 176, and the flange 185 is fixed by the screws 186, whereby the wires 129 and 130 are fixed. The flange 185 is also formed with a notch 187 into which the perforated ball 182 is fitted. By fixing the wires 129 and 130 made of one wire as described above, the wires 129 and 13 are fixed.
Since only the difference in the pulling force acting on 0 and 0 is applied to the perforated ball 182, the wire end can be fixed more stably than simply crimping and fixing the wire end. Further, since the wires 129 and 130 are not excessively bent, the wires 129 and 130 can be stably wound.

The flange 185 has a protrusion 189 facing the body 176 side.
Are formed, and when the wires 129 and 130 are wound once, the previously wound wire 189 is formed.
It has a function of preventing lap winding on 129 and 130, and FIG. 13 shows the lap prevention state. The height of the protrusion 189 is about 1.5 times the diameter of the wires 129 and 130.
It is about double.

FIG. 14 shows a lock unit that locks the upper / middle and lower decks 43, 45, and 5 in the pull-out direction.
It is provided corresponding to each deck.

In the same figure, a bracket 190, to which a lock roller 147 (see FIG. 7) is pivotally attached, is fixed to the side plate on the back side of the case bottom 106 of each deck upper / middle deck 43, 45. A support member 195 is fixed to the frame 3A of the upper unit 3, and a lock claw 191 is rotatably attached to the support member 194 by a shaft 192, and one end of the pull member is locked to the frame 3A. Due to the elasticity of the spring 193, it is urged counterclockwise in the figure. The claw 196 of the lock claw 191 is the shaft 19
It is formed in an arc shape centered on 2, and this claw portion 196
Locks the upper / middle decks 43, 45 so that they cannot be pulled out by engaging with the lock roller 147 when the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are pushed in and set.

A stopper 1 made of rubber is provided on the supporting member 195 of the frame 3A.
97 is fixed and works as a stopper when the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are pushed in. The base of a leaf spring 199 is fixed to the support member 195, and the leaf spring 199 acts so as to push back the pushed upper / middle decks 43, 45 forward. As a result, the lock roller 147 and the lock claw 1
The claw portions 196 of 91 are always in contact with each other, and the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are positioned in the pulling direction.

Solenoid 200 fixed to frame 3A is
Is connected to the rear end of the lock claw 191 via the. When the solenoid 200 is turned on, the lock claw 191 is rotated to the chain position, and the leaf spring 199 is displaced by d _{1 in the} direction of the arrow 202,
By slightly pushing back the upper / middle decks 43, 45 in the pull-out direction, the unlocking by the lock claw 191 is completed. The solenoid 200 is adapted to detect that the upper / middle decks 43, 45 have been pushed back by a deck pull-out sensor (not shown) and turn off.

The above lock claw 191, lock roller 147 and solenoid 20
The lock unit 10 is composed of 0 and the like. The lower deck 6 is also locked by the lock unit 10 similar to the upper / middle decks 43, 45.

In addition, the lock unit 10 described above is the frame 3
A / 5A is screwed, but upper / middle deck 4
It can be adjusted in the pull-out direction of 3, 45, 6 so that so-called lateral registration adjustment of the paper S can be performed. Stopper 197 and the leaf spring 199 is also so arranged to move with the shaft 192, the distance d ₁ and the stopper 19
The distance d ₂ and the like the side plate 7 and the case bottom 106 (153) is always to be kept constant. In the present embodiment, the d ₂ is are to 1 mm.

Further, the lock unit 10 is provided with a sensor switch (not shown) so that it can detect whether the upper / middle decks 43, 45, 6 are pulled out or locked.

As a result, the upper / middle decks 43, 45, 6 electrically prevent simultaneous withdrawal to prevent the upper / middle decks 43, 45, 6 from falling, as described later. Trap, upper / middle deck 43,45,
If any one of the 6 groups has been pulled out, pressing the switch 71 (see Fig. 2) will not allow other decks to be pulled out.

Next, referring to FIG. 15 to FIG. 18, the lower feed unit 7
Will be described.

In FIGS. 15 and 16, the lower sheet feeding unit 7 is
It has a fixed-side paper guide 206 and a movable-side paper guide 207 that form a conveyance path 205 for the paper S ₃ that is structured from the lower deck 6. The fixed side paper guide 206 is fixed to the upper part of the pair of frames 210 and 211, the lower parts of which are connected by a connecting plate 209. The movable side paper guide 207 is pivotally attached to a shaft 213 which is pivotally attached to a base 212.

A feed roller 215 is attached to the shaft 213 via a one-way clutch (not shown). A shaft 217 is rotatably provided on a pickup arm 216 whose base is pivotally attached to a shaft 213, and a pickup roller 219 is attached to the shaft 217.
Is mounted via a one-way clutch (not shown). The pulleys fixed to the shafts 213 and 217 are belt 220
Connected by. The lower sheet feeding unit 7 has a dedicated motor (not shown), and the shaft 213 is driven via an electromagnetic clutch (not shown).

The retard roller 221 that is in contact with the feed roller 215 has a function of pushing back the sheet S ₃ by double feeding, is fixed to the shaft 222 shown in FIG. 18, and is supported via a bearing 224. It is rotatably attached to the member 223. The bearing 224 is slidable in the groove of the support member 223, and is movable back and forth with respect to the feed roller 215. As shown in Fig. 15, the grooves are
It is inclined by a predetermined angle (10 ° in this embodiment) with respect to the line connecting 215 and 221. This is the retard roller 22
When driving 1, feed roller 215 and retard roller
This is to increase the pressure of 221 and thereby improve the paper feeding stability.

Roller 225 disposed downstream of retard roller 221
Is rotatably supported by the frames 110 and 111 and is directly driven by a motor. The idle roller 226, which is in pressure contact with the roller 225, is mounted in the elongated hole of the movable side paper guide 207 and is biased toward the roller 225 by the spring 227.

A roller 229 is axially supported by the movable side paper guide 207 and is pressed in the direction of arrow P by a leaf spring 230 provided in the upper unit 3. At the time of the jam of the paper S _3, the upper unit 3
The movable paper guide 207 can be pivoted to the position indicated by the dashed line in the direction of the arrow 231 by sliding in the direction in which the paper guide 207 is pulled out, and the movable paper guide 207 is released naturally, thereby facilitating jam clearance. .

In FIGS. 15 and 18, a roller 235 is pivotally supported at one end of a three-armed pressure arm 233 pivotally supported by a shaft 232. The shaft 222 is pressed by the tension spring 237 locked with the locking member 236 to press the retard roller 221 against the feed roller 215.

The release lever 240 is pivotally attached to the lower sheet feeding unit 7 by a shaft 241, and has one end biased in the direction of arrow 243 by the elastic force of a tension spring 242 locked by a fixing member (not shown). The release lever 240 is the left side plate 156 of the lower deck 6.
The lower end of the pressing member 245 fixed to the lower end is abutted to regulate the rotation.

The tension spring 242 has a greater elasticity than the tension spring 237, and when the lower deck 6 is slid in a direction in which the lower deck 6 is pulled out, the release lever 240 rotates in the direction of arrow 243 to move the end 233a of the pressure arm 233. By pressing and rotating, the pressure of the roller 235 can be released. Pressure arm 233 above
By configuring the release mechanism 11 with the release lever 240 and the like, the pressure of the retard roller 221 is automatically released when the lower deck 6 is pulled out by releasing the pressing of the retard roller 221. Become.

Although not shown here, the release lever 24
A release lever corresponding to 0 is separately provided, and the addition / removal lever can release the pressure arm 233 by sliding the upper unit 3 in the pulling-out direction. This makes jam handling easier.

Further, the nip portion between the feed roller 215 and the retard roller 221 is located at the inner opening of the frame of the frame 3a, and when the lower deck 6 is pulled out, the retard roller 221
Just the pressure releasing, draw without damaging the sheet S _3. In FIG. 16, the lower sheet feeding unit 7 is detachably attached to the lower unit 5 by its base 212. Since the feed roller 215 is a consumable item and must be replaced at a certain fixed interval, its replaceability must be improved.

The base 212 is provided with an opening 246, and the cover 24
It is designed to be opened and closed by rotating 7 and the feed roller 215 can be opened by opening the cover 247.
Can be exchanged. The retard roller 221
Since it is located below the fixed-side paper guide 206, it cannot be replaced from above. The retard roller 221 is a cartridge type unit, and after the lower deck 6 is pulled out, the cartridge can be attached and detached from the lower deck 6 side.

Since the pickup roller 219 has a durability of about 1 million sheets, the roller 219 alone is designed to be replaced by removing the entire lower unit 5. First
17 shows the pickup roller 21 of the lower sheet feeding unit 7.
9, a perspective view of the feed roller 215 and the retard roller 221 is shown.

The copier 1 of this embodiment has an ability to copy 90 sheets per minute in fixed document reading in the normal mode in cooperation with the document processing device 47, but obtains some copy sets from some document sets. Only in the case of so-called one to one, the original is fed from the tray for exclusive use of the flow reading, and the flow reading copy is performed with the optical system 51 of the main body 41 fixed.

This eliminates the loss time during the back scan of the optical system 51, so that the flash exposure and the copy speed can be increased, and 90 sheets per minute can be reduced to about 120 sheets. However, in this case, although the paper feeding speed does not change, the interval between papers is considerably shortened, and the conditions for the paper feeding device become considerably severe.

The sheet feeding device of this embodiment is designed to realize a sheet interval of 40 mm or less at a sheet feeding speed of about 500 mm / sec. In this case, the paper interval is only 40/500 = 0.08 seconds, and it is not possible to move the pickup roller 219 up and down.
By colliding with S _3, considering that such a bound of the pickup roller 219 is generated, it becomes nearly impossible.

However, the pickup roller 21
If the sheet 9 is kept pressed on the sheet S ₃ , the double-feeding prevention capability will be reduced, and the sheet S ₃ will easily be double-fed. In order to solve the above problems, in this embodiment, the pickup roller 219 of the lower unit 5 is of a variable feed pressure type.

That is, in FIG. 17, the pickup roller 219
Is swingably attached to the pickup arm 216. One end 251 of the swing arm 250 pivotally supported by the shaft 249 is located on the rear surface side of the end of the pickup arm 216, and the swing arm 250 has a tension spring 252 whose one end is locked by a stationary member. Is urged in the direction of arrow 253, that is, in the direction of lifting the pickup arm 216. Further, the swing arm 250 is connected with a solenoid 255 that acts in a direction opposite to the tension spring 252.

The upper end of the link 256 on the other end of the swing arm 250 is pivotally attached, and an L-shaped hole 257 is formed in the lower end of the link 256.
The ends of the horizontal portions of the character-shaped abutting member 259 are fitted and connected. Actuating member 259 supported by shaft 260
Is urged by a tension spring 261 in the direction of arrow 262. An abutting member 263 is fixed to the lower end of the arm portion of the operating member 259 which faces the vertical direction.

When the solenoid 255 is off, the tension spring 252 lifts the pickup arm 216 upward.
In the conventional pickup roller, this tension spring 252
The pick-up roller 219 was strong enough to lift the pickup roller 219 away from the paper S ₃ , but in the present embodiment,
Pickup roller is pressed against the sheet S ₃ in about 120g
219 has a strength such that the contact pressure is 50 g or less.

Thus, gone also bound with respect to the paper S ₃ of the pick-up roller 219, the pickup roller 219,
It is possible to pressurize and release at approximately the response speed of the solenoid 255. That is, when ON of the solenoid 255 is about 120 g, and when the solenoid 255OFF following pressure 50g is acting on the sheet S _3.

Further, the link 256, the operating member 259, etc. are for flipping up the pickup roller 219 when the lower deck 6 is pulled out, and in the set state of the lower deck 6, the abutting member of the operating member 259. 263 is lower deck 6
The link 256 is pressed by and is in the solid line position against the elasticity of the tension spring 261 and the link 256 is in a free state within the range of the elongated hole 257.

Next, when the lower deck 6 is pulled out, the operating member 259 is displaced to the broken line position by the elastic force of the extension spring 261. Therefore, the link 256 is pulled downward, and the swing arm 250 is turned in the direction of the arrow 252. By the pickup roller 219
Is jumped up.

FIG. 18 is a view of the lower sheet feeding unit 7 as viewed from the feeding direction.

In the same figure, a torque transmission member 267 acting as a universal joint is connected to a torque limiter 266 coupled to a shaft 265, and a shaft 222 having a retard roller 221 mounted thereon is attached to the other end of the torque transmission member 267. It is connected. The shaft 265 is attached to the support plate 270 via a bearing 269 with a one-way clutch. The driving force is transmitted to the shaft 265 via an electromagnetic clutch (not shown). to double feed of sheet S ₃ is rotated can be prevented.

As shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, the feed roller 215
Shaft 213 and the shaft 26 connected to the retard roller 221
5, pulleys 271 and 272 are fixedly connected to each other by a belt 273. In this embodiment, the pulley 272
And 271 are set to a rotation ratio of about 1: 2. This is because if the feed speed increases, the tangential speed of the retard roller 221 is equal to the tangential speed of the feed roller 215.
This is because the maximum number of rotations of the torque limiter 266 becomes considerably large, and this is to prevent this. This is because the torque limiter 266 radiates the excess torque as heat, and therefore it is not preferable to rotate it at a high speed.

 Next, returning to FIG. 15, the sensors will be described.

In the figure, in the base 212, the sensor 275 for keeping the height of the sheet S ₃ in a predetermined paper feed level is provided. The operation piece 276 fixed to the free end of the pickup arm 216 detects the movement of the pickup arm 216 and controls the lifter motor of the lower deck 6.

A switch 277 fixedly installed in the base 212 is for preventing runaway of the lifter motor when a microcomputer that controls the paper feeding device malfunctions, and is directly wired to the motor drive line of the lower deck 6. It is a so-called overrun switch.

On the upstream side and the downstream side of the nip between the feed roller 215 and the retard roller 221, transmissive sensors 280, 281 and 282, 283 each composed of a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion are arranged,
In this embodiment, they are provided 10 mm upstream and 20 mm downstream of the nip. The above-mentioned sensor is used as a transmissive sensor because the response speed on the return side of the sensor lever is too slow if it is a normal lever sensor.

The sensors 280 and 281 are for controlling the sheet feeding start position. As shown in FIG. 15, there is usually a predetermined distance a when the sheets are stacked and between the leading ends of the sheets and the nip portions of the rollers 215 and 221. In this embodiment, the distance a is about 25 mm apart.

Since the sheet S ₃ is separated at the nip portion during sheet feeding, it is possible to know where the sheet feeding start position, that is, the leading end position of the sheet S ₃ before sheet feeding is at the distance a (25 mm). Absent. This means that the paper feed timing is up to 25 mm.

In normal paper feeding with a large gap between sheets, this timing shift does not cause a problem, but when aiming for a sheet gap of 40 mm, a large shift will occur. That is, 40 ± 25 mm = 15 to 65 mm, which is a considerable error. The sensors provided to minimize this deviation are the sensors 280 and 281.

 The specific operation of the present invention will be described below.

At the moment when the trailing edge of the paper S fed from the lower deck 6 passes through the nip between the rollers 215 and 221, the sensors 280 and 2
From 81, it is determined whether the leading edge of the next sheet S is in the range shown in FIG. 15A or further closer to the nip. If it is closer to the nip than a, the paper is fed at the normal timing.

Then, when the next sheet S exists in the range of a, the pickup roller 219 is slightly rotated at the moment when the sheet passes through the nip portion, and the leading edge of the next sheet S is fed closer to the nip than the sensors 280 and 281. Feed at the timing. As a result, it is possible to reduce variations in the timing of feeding compared to the conventional feeding.

The sensors 282 and 283 are sensors for generating a paper feed timing, and detect the rear end of the previous paper S and generate a paper feed signal for the next paper S. The closer the sensors 282, 283 are to the nip, the smaller the paper can be fed, but while the double feed is prevented by the rollers 215, 221, the nips are pierced to some extent and then the retard rollers 221 return. In some cases, it is not so close to the nip part, so it is set to about 20 mm. Above sensor 282,28
On the downstream side of 3, a normal lever-type paper detection sensor 285 is provided.

Next, the pre-feeding method will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 15, and 23.

As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet feeding device 2 has sheets S stacked at a position far from the registration rollers 13 of the main body 41.
Normally, the copy speed of the copying machine 1 is determined by the scanning speed capability of the optical system 51. That is, on the downstream side of the registration roller 13, the maximum copy speed is obtained when the paper S is sent out in synchronization with the scanning speed of the optical system 51.

However, if a stack of originals with an unknown number of
If you send it at 47, you will not know in advance when the document will run out. At this time, if the paper feed device 2 feeds paper at a narrow paper interval so as to maximize the copy speed, and when it detects that there is no original, the next paper S is already fed. It happened that it had been lost.

The sheet S that has lost its place of origin is usually called flying paper. This is likely to occur when paper is fed from a position far from the registration roller 13 as in the present embodiment, and is particularly likely to occur in paper size paper with a narrow paper feed interval.

In order to solve this, conventionally, when the registration roller 13 and the paper S stacking position are arranged close to each other, or in the copy mode in which it is not known in advance when to end, the copy speed is sacrificed once. The sequence was such that paper feeding was started from the deck, confirming that copying was not completed each time. Further, in some cases, there is also a method in which the sheet S once fed is returned to the deck by reversing the rollers.

In the present embodiment, when the paper is fed from the lower deck 6, one flying paper is always left between the lower deck 6 and the registration rollers 13 to solve the above-mentioned problems. Hereinafter, this paper feeding method will be referred to as a pre-paper feeding method.

In the pre-feeding method, the paper S is always left in the paper path. Therefore, if the paper S is left in a curved position in the paper path,
The curl of the paper S is liable to occur, and a transfer failure, a jam, a stacking failure on a sorter, or the like is likely to occur.

In this embodiment, the number of paper paths inside the interface unit 9 is two, and the paper path from the lower deck 6 is at least R100 or more nearly linear, so that the pre-fed paper S is fed. To prevent curl. In the upper / middle decks 43 and 45, pre-feeding is not performed in this embodiment because it is difficult to form a paper path directly. Therefore, the copy speed is also slower than that of the lower deck 6.

Another reason for not performing pre-feeding on the upper / middle decks 43, 45 is that when the upper unit 3 is slid in the pull-out direction, the pre-fed paper S is separated without a paper path. It can no longer be used.
That is, the paper S is wasted. On the other hand, the paper S is not separated in the lower deck path.

In the paper feeding device 2 of this embodiment, the paper sizes that can be fed by the lower deck 6 are A4, B5, and LTR (11 ″ × 8.5 ″). There are some things to be careful about when pre-feeding. One of them is that the paper path is almost linear as described above. Second, the rear end of the pre-fed paper S is located downstream of the nip between the rollers 215 and 221.

This is if you try to pull out the lower deck 6,
If the trailing edge of the pre-fed paper S remains inside the lower deck 6, it will be an obstacle when the lower deck 6 is taken in and out, and in the worst case, the trailing edge of the pre-fed paper may be damaged. This is because there is a risk that

In this embodiment, the distance b from the registration roller 13 to the leading edge of the paper on the lower deck 6 is set as follows.

In the case of A4, B5, and LTR sizes, pre-feeding is performed because the distance b cannot be reduced until the copy speed does not decrease. In the case of B4 size, the paper feed interval is larger than the above three sizes, so it is necessary to check whether the original is finished or not, that is, after receiving the paper feed signal from the main body 41 as described above. Even if you feed
It is possible to set the distance b so that the copy speed does not decrease.

In the embodiment, the distance b is set as described above and pre-feeding is not performed for the B4 size. In FIG. 1, the position of the leading edge of the paper S when pre-feeding is performed is indicated by reference numeral 286, and the size at this time is A4.

Next, referring to FIG. 19 and FIG.
Will be described.

FIG. 19 shows a lower sheet feeding unit 7 and an upper sheet feeding unit 56.
The drive belt 273 for the feed roller 215 and the retard roller 221, the small pulley 271, and the large pulley 2 used in common with
It is a schematic diagram showing the relationship of 72 etc. Upper feed unit
Also in 56, the tangential speed of the retard roller 221 is lower than that of the feed roller 215, as in the lower sheet feeding unit 7.

FIG. 20 is a vertical sectional side view of the upper sheet feeding unit 56.

In this embodiment, the upper sheet feeding unit 56 does not perform pre-feeding for two reasons: the paper path is not a straight line, and the pre-fed sheet S becomes unusable due to the sliding of the upper unit 3. Therefore, with a smaller paper size, the copy speed may be slower than the maximum speed of the main body 41 of the copying machine 1.

In order to minimize this deterioration in copy speed, the upper paper feed unit 56 performs variable speed paper feed. Simply put, a signal that the manuscript is still there,
In other words, even if you start feeding after receiving a signal that copying is not finished yet, the main unit process speed =
The conventional method of feeding speed slows down the copy speed. At this time, the paper feed speed> the process speed of the main body 41 is to feed paper to the registration rollers 13 in a hurry to minimize the deterioration of the copy speed. In this embodiment, a sheet feeding speed of 760 mm / sec is given to a process speed of 500 mm / sec.

However, there is a problem that does not occur when the conventional process speed = paper feed speed. First, since the paper feed speed is fast, slipping is likely to occur when the pickup roller 290 is suddenly driven by an electromagnetic clutch (not shown). Secondly, as explained in the lower paper feed unit 7, the retard roller 221 is also used. The torque limiter 266 (see Fig. 18) driving the drive exceeds the permissible rotation speed due to high speed feeding. Thirdly, the feeding speed and the process speed of the main body 41 are different. That is, the printed paper S collides with the trailing edge of the previous paper S.

In order to solve the above three problems, the sequence is devised in this embodiment. First, the upper sheet feeding unit 56
The configuration will be described first.

In FIG. 20, reference numeral 291 is a dedicated motor for driving the rollers of the upper sheet feeding unit 56, 292 is a clock plate fixed to the motor shaft 293 of the motor 291, and detects the rotation speed of the motor shaft 293. It is a thing. The rotation speed of the motor 291 is controlled by this.

The rollers 295 and 296 are directly driven by the motor shaft 293 by a belt (not shown). However, a one-way clutch (not shown) is provided in the middle of the drive system so that it becomes free when the paper S is pulled out in the transport direction. Roller 297 and roller 299 are idlers,
Like the roller 227 of FIG.
Pressurized to 6. The upper / middle feed roller 215, the retard roller 221, the roller 235, etc. are the lower feed unit 7.
The description is omitted because it is the same as that described in (see FIG. 15).

However, the pickup roller 290 has a smaller diameter than the pickup roller 219 of the lower sheet feeding unit 7.
As can be seen from FIG. 1, this is because the pickup roller 290 becomes a dead space that reduces the loading amount of the paper S, and the lower deck 6 has a dead space of 3000.
Since there are 1000 upper / middle decks 43, 45 for each sheet,
Even if the roller diameter is reduced to reduce the durability, the balance can be maintained from the viewpoint of frequency of use.

The belt 301 drives the shaft 302, and the pickup roller 290.
Have been communicated to. The shaft 302 and the clock 303 are each driven via an electromagnetic clutch with the motor 291. The shafts 305 and 306 of the retard roller 221 are driven by the belt 273 similar to that shown in FIG. Lever type sensor 307,309
Are arranged respectively. As for the stays 101 and 102, as shown in FIG.
It is for attaching to.

At the time of jam clearance, the guide 310 is opened to a dashed line position,
Idler 297,299 is open. Further, the guide 310 is fixed by being pressed from the main body 41 by the spring 312 when set. Guide 312,313
Is a paper guide for receiving the paper S from the manual feed unit 42.

The side plate notch 315 reaches the nip between the rollers 215 and 221, and is provided to prevent the paper S reaching the nip portion from being damaged when the upper / middle decks 43 and 45 are pulled out. Also, unlike the lower arm, the pickup arm 316 is lifted until it separates from the paper S ₁ , S _{2 as} before. When a solenoid (not shown) is turned on or the upper / middle decks 43, 45 are pulled out, the pickup arm 316 is lifted.

A characteristic sequence for solving the above-mentioned three problems with the above configuration will be described.

When the motor 291 is rotated at the paper feed speed of 750 mm / sec and the electromagnetic clutch is connected, the pickup roller 29
In order to prevent slipping when 0 is turned, the speed of the motor 291 immediately before engaging the clutch to rotate the pickup roller 290 is set to 0, the clutch is engaged next, and then the motor 291 is started. ing.

By doing this, the pickup roller 290
Is accelerated by the rising acceleration of the motor 291 itself, a more gentle acceleration can be obtained than when the electromagnetic clutch is ON, and the pickup roller 290 can be prevented from slipping.

When turning the pickup roller 290, make sure that the pickup roller 290 contacts the upper surface of the sheet in advance.
The solenoid was turned off just before pickup. When the paper S is stopped, the clutch is turned off as in the conventional case.
It can be stopped immediately by setting to F. Further, since high speed clutching is eliminated, noise can be reduced. Next, a measure for preventing the torque limiter 266 from exceeding the permissible rotation speed will be described.

In this embodiment, the rollers 215 and 221 use φ32, and when the tangential velocity is 760 mm / sec, it is 454 rpm. In the past, the feed roller 215 and the retard roller 221 had opposite directions and the same tangential velocity, but then, the torque limiter 266 becomes the sum of the rotational speeds of both rollers, and the maximum speed is 908.
It will rotate at rpm. In this embodiment, the speed of the retard roller 221 is half that of the feed roller 215 as shown in FIG.
54 + 454/2 = 681 rpm.

However, since this still exceeds the maximum allowable speed,
In the embodiment, the electromagnetic clutch is turned on and the shaft 302, 30
760m when 5,303,306 is rotated by motor 291
I give up the maximum speed of m / sec and try to send it at a normal speed of 500 mm / sec. Then, the leading end of the fed paper S is gripped by the rollers 296 and 299 and the rollers 195 and 297, the electromagnetic clutch is disengaged, and the speed of the motor 291 is increased from 500 mm / sec to 760 mm / sec. By doing so, the maximum rotation speed of the torque limiter 266 is
It is possible to keep the speed below 454 rpm.

As a measure to prevent the paper S fed later from colliding with the previous paper S, close communication with the main body 41 is performed.
In addition, the sensor is ejected to the paper path at the finest pitch as much as possible so that the movement of the preceding paper S is always caught and the succeeding paper S is controlled. Therefore, it will not be described here in the study.

As described above, the sheet feeding device 2 of the embodiment has two sheet feeding paths. Therefore, a special paper feed mode that is used only in the above-described high-speed flow reading mode will be described. As described above, the high-speed panning reading mode is available only on the lower deck 6, but the middle deck 45
Also, it is possible to alternately feed paper from the middle deck 45 and the lower deck 6 only when the paper S of the same size as the lower deck 6 is contained. By doing this, Kau Deck 4
With Nos. 5 and 6, the paper feed interval is considerably large, so more stable paper feed can be performed.

FIG. 22 is a vertical sectional side view of the manual paper feeding unit 42.

In the figure, reference numeral 320 is a paper-out detection sensor for detecting the presence or absence of stacked paper S, and 321 is a paper stacking shutter. The paper stacking shutter 321 is interlocked with the transparent cover 59 shown in FIG. 2, and when the cover 59 is opened to stack the paper S as shown in FIG. The solid line position in FIG. 22 prevents the operator from stacking the paper S over the paper stacking shutter 321. This is because when the sheet S is applied between the feed roller 322 and the retard roller 323 at a time,
This is because if the sheet is pushed in too far, a paper feed failure will occur. The paper stacking shutter 321 is mounted so as to be rotatable about a shaft 325 in the direction of the arrow. When the cover 59 is closed, the paper stacking shutter 321 is rotated to the chain line position to be in a paper feedable state. .

The shutter of the conventional manual feed unit is driven directly by a solenoid, and the solenoid is 100% energized.
In addition, since there is a problem in that energization continues indefinitely indefinitely, a spring clutch, a cam, etc. were used to hold two positions of the shutter without energization. By providing the paper feed unit 42 with the cover 59 and interlocking the paper stacking shutter 321 with the cover 59, it is possible to reduce the cost and prevent foreign matter from entering the copying machine 1.

An open / close sensor (not shown) is attached to the cover 59 so that paper cannot be fed unless the cover 59 is closed.

The feed roller 322 is attached to the frame of the manual feeder 42.
Is supported, and the retard roller is pressed against it.
Reference numeral 323 is driven by a torque limiter (not shown). The shaft of the feed roller 322 is driven by a universal joint (not shown) so as to be slidable in the groove 326. The groove 326 is slightly inclined so that the pressing force on the retard roller 323 becomes high when driving is applied as described in FIG.

The pressure lever 329 pivotally supported by the shaft 327 is biased clockwise by a spring 330, and the pressure roller 331 pivotally supported by the lever 329 presses the shaft of the feed roller 322. Paper feed guides 332, 333 for guiding the paper S to be fed are provided on the downstream side of the rollers 322, 323.

A pickup roller 337 is pivotally supported on the free end of a pickup arm 336 whose base is pivotally attached to a shaft 335. Axis 3
A pulley 339 provided on 35, a pulley 340 provided on the shaft of the pickup roller 337, and a belt 341 are connected. When a solenoid (not shown) is turned on, the pickup roller 337 falls to the position of the chain line by its own weight and comes into pressure contact with the sheet S. Since the manual paper feed unit 42 is driven by a dedicated motor (not shown) and does not have a clutch such as an electromagnetic clutch, all the paper feeding operation is performed only by controlling the rotation of the motor.

As shown in FIG. 1, the upper cover 57 also serves as a paper stack tray for manual paper feed, and rises in a large arc toward the right side in FIG. 1, and has a maximum height at the edge of the cover 57. However, this makes it easier to handle the sheet S than when the cover 59 is flattened as indicated by a chain line 342.

FIG. 23 shows a detailed cross section of the interface unit 9.

The interface unit 9 is mounted in place of the cassette table when the paper feeding device 2 is mounted in the main body 41 of the copying machine 1, and drives the rollers 345 and 346 via an electromagnetic clutch by a dedicated motor (not shown). There is. The idlers 347 and 349 are in pressure contact with the rollers 345 and 346, respectively. Paper detection sensors 352 and 353 are arranged in the paper feed path 350, and the paper detection sensor 3 is provided in the upper paper feed path 351.
55 are provided. Reference numerals 356 and 357 are fixed guides and 35
Reference numeral 9,360 is a movement guide that can be released during jam clearance.
In the moving guides 359 and 360, the free ends rollers 363 and 365 are pressed in the P direction and fixed by leaf springs 361 and 362 attached to the upper unit 3, respectively.

By configuring the interface unit 9 in this way, by sliding the upper unit 3 in the pulling-out direction at the time of jam handling, the guides 359 and 260 are provided with the shaft 3 of the base portion.
Since the paper feed paths 350 and 351 are opened centering on 66 and 367, the jam processing becomes easy.

It should be noted that the pre-fed paper 286 (see FIG. 1) is stopped at a predetermined position after the clock is counted after the leading edge is detected by the sensors 352 and 353. The sensor 353 is not always necessary, but there is a possibility that the microcomputer forgets the stop position or the position of the pre-fed paper is changed due to other artificial causes such as power off. Therefore, rather than the stop position of the tip of the pre-fed paper 286,
The sensor is provided on the downstream side and on the upstream side of the registration roller 13 of the main body 41.

In this way, by using the two sensors 352 and 353 and sandwiching the leading edge of the pre-fed paper 286 between them, it is possible to control the completely pre-fed paper S286.

In the present embodiment, the number of pre-fed sheets is limited to one, but if the feeding path is very long, two or more pre-fed sheets can be fed. In FIG. 24, another deck 370 is attached to the lower unit 5.
From the separating part 371 of this deck 370 to the registration roller of the main body 41
The distance L to 13 has an overwhelmingly long paper feed path 372.

When a paper feed path 372 with a long distance L is needed,
The distance L and the paper S are set such that the distance L is approximately (the length of the paper S in the feeding direction + the distance between the fed paper during continuous copying) × an integer
It is also possible to pre-feed two or more sheets 373, 375 by selecting the size of.

In the paper feed path 372, paper detection sensors 377, 379, 380, 3
81 is provided to monitor the pre-fed papers 373 and 375 as described in the above embodiment.

In this case, in the case of the long size paper S, the same effect can be obtained by reducing the number of pre-fed sheets as compared with the paper size paper.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when additional sheets are stacked on the sheet feeding device, the long sensor lever of the detection means comes into contact with the sheet and the sheet descends, Since the drive means lowers and stops the paper stacking base until the detection means stops detecting the paper, the accuracy of the lowering control is improved and the workability of additional paper stacking is improved. Can be improved. Also,
When the above-described additional loading is continuously repeated, the long sensor lever is provided so as to come into contact with the side surface of the paper, so that the stacked paper is not repeatedly moved up and down but continuously repeated, so that work efficiency is improved. improves.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is an overall view of a copying machine and a paper feeder to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view of the paper feeder, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the same, FIG. The figure is also a vertical front view,
FIG. 6 is a right view of FIG. 4, FIG. 7 is a plan view of the upper / middle deck, FIG. 8 is a front view thereof, FIG. 9 is a plan view of the lower deck, FIG. 11, 12 and 13 are detailed views of the wire pulley, FIG. 14 is a plan view of the lock unit of the upper / middle / lower deck, FIG. 15 is a vertical sectional side view of the lower feed unit, and FIG. FIG. 17 is a perspective view, FIG. 17 is a perspective view of the pickup roller unit, FIG. 18 is a plan view of the retard separation unit, FIG. 19 is a side view of the same, FIG. FIG. 21 is a perspective view of the upper paper feed unit, FIG. 22 is a vertical side view of the manual paper feed unit, FIG. 23 is a vertical side view of the interface unit, and FIG. 24 shows another embodiment of the present invention. It is an overall view. S, S ₁ , S ₂ , S ₃ …… Paper, 1 …… Copier (image forming apparatus), 2 …… Paper feeder, 3 ・ ・ ・
... Upper unit, 5 ... Lower unit, 6 ... Paper feeding device (lower deck), 7 ... Lower sheet feeding unit, 9 ... Interface unit, 10 ... Lock unit, 11 ...
Release mechanism, 13 ...... Registration roller, 41 ...... Copier main body, 42 ...... Manual feed section, 43 ...... Upper deck, 45 ...... Interruption deck, 46 ...... Document, 47 ...... Document processor, 52 …… Photosensitive drum, 157 …… Paper stack (lower lifter), 159…
… Driving means (wire shaft), 160, 161 …… Driving means (wire), 170 …… Long sensor lever, 173 …… Detecting means (sensor), 286 …… Pre-fed paper.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Noriyuki Miyake 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-56-114957 (JP, A) JP-A-SHO 57-131644 (JP, A) JP-A 64-114957 (JP, A) JP-A-1-187125 (JP, A)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A paper feeding device for stacking paper and separating / conveying the paper, the paper stacking stand being capable of moving up and down, the drive means for driving the paper stacking up and down, and the paper. It has a long sensor lever facing the side surface of the sheets stacked on the stacking table and extending in the up-and-down direction of the sheet stacking table, and detects the sheet by contacting the side surface of the sheet with the sensor lever. A detection unit, and each time the detection unit detects a sheet to be added to the sheet stacking table when the sheet is replenished to the sheet stacking table, the detection unit detects the sheet until the position where the detection unit does not detect the sheet. A sheet feeding device, wherein the sheet stacking table is lowered by a driving unit. 2. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet feeding device is a lowermost unit divided into a plurality of vertically arranged units. 3. The thickness of a sheet that is likely to be additionally stacked due to the difference between the uppermost surface of the sheet that has stopped descending based on non-detection of the sheet by the detection unit and the position where the sheet is separated / conveyed. It is almost equivalent to
The sheet feeding device described. 4. The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means is arranged near the rear end of the smallest size sheet to be fed. 5. The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet feeding apparatus is controlled so as to start descending when the detecting means continues to detect the side surface of the sheet for 1 to 3 seconds.