JP2693012B2 - Sheet sorter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention is a so-called sheet called a copying machine, a transfer paper, or a recording paper carried out from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or other recording equipment. Member (hereinafter simply referred to as a sheet)
The present invention relates to a sheet sorting device (hereinafter referred to as a sorter) used for distributing and stacking sheets, and more specifically, to a shock absorbing mechanism applied to sorting sheets.

(B) Conventional technology In a sorter, generally, 10 to 20 or more or more sheet stacking stands (hereinafter referred to as bins) are provided in a spaced-apart state and are continuously arranged from the image forming apparatus at regular intervals. Then, the sheet that is carried out is sequentially conveyed to each predetermined bin by a belt-conveying means, a plurality of roller means, or a conveying means that combines these, and is fed.

When these sorters are categorized, a bin-movable sorter in which a bin group for stacking sheets moves for a certain discharge path, and a bin group is fixedly arranged, and a discharge unit is made to correspond to each bin. The bins can be classified into bin fixed sorters in which sheets are fed to each bin from a certain mainstream path by a flapper (turning means).

Next, the configuration of the bin moving sorter will be described. Conventionally, there has been known a method of moving a bin such that when the bin is moved to a position where a sheet is to be carried in, the interval between the bins is increased. For example, Patent Publication No. 56-7877
0, Sho 56-78769, Sho 57-4855, Sho 57-4856, Sho 57-1413
Means such as those described in 57 are known. This is because a pair of projection members individually attached to both sides of the end of each bin are engaged with an expansion mechanism by a rotating Geneva or a lead cam to sequentially widen the interval between the bins in the sheet loading section,
By sequentially stacking the bins on the widening mechanism, the entire bin group can be moved up and down.

Then, the ascending or descending operation is extremely increased by engaging with the groove surface of the lead cam, so that the sheet can be easily received,
After the sheets have been received, they are sequentially stacked on the upper and lower portions. At this time, the support position of the entire bin group (bin unit) is determined on the upper surface of the lead cam, and the bin unit is raised and lowered.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the above-mentioned conventional bin moving type sorter, specifically, in the sorter in which the rollers supporting both sides of the base end portion of the bottle are moved up and down by the groove side surface of the lead cam, The knife edge at the end of the groove side interrupts between the rollers and scoops up and down, but it is only necessary that this knife edge is blunt and has a curved surface that smoothes the acceleration given to the rollers. However, such a groove side surface is hard to stand up in strength and difficult to work, and it gives a shock to the roller.As a result, the operation sound is increased and the vibration at the time of shock already aligns it in the bottle. However, there is a drawback that it disturbs the alignment of the existing sheets.

Therefore, the present invention reduces the step at the portion where the spiral cam means and the roller of the bin start to engage with each other to reduce noise when the roller of the bin enters the spiral cam means, improve the sheet alignment, and improve the bin alignment. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet sorting apparatus capable of improving the durability of the roller and the spiral cam means.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and includes a columnar support roller, a large number of bins that move in the arrangement direction, and sheets in the bins. The sheet discharging means includes a sheet discharging means, a groove for engaging and transferring the roller of each bin, and an edge portion for introducing the roller of each bin into the groove. In a sheet sorting apparatus having a spiral cam means that rotates so as to spread
In the sheet sorting apparatus, the support roller has a large diameter portion that comes into contact with another support roller in the arrangement direction and a small diameter portion where a gap is formed, and the edge portion enters the gap. is there.

Further, it is preferable that the outer diameter of the small diameter portion of the support roller is formed so as to gradually decrease from the base end portion to the tip end portion of the support roller.

(E) Action Based on the above configuration, the edge portion of the spiral cam means enters into the gap of the small diameter portion of the support roller, and when the support roller of the bottle is transferred by the spiral cam means, the support roller spirals. It is possible to enter the cam means with less impact force, reduce the operating noise of the sheet sorting device, and improve the durability of the support roller and the spiral cam means and greatly improve the sheet alignment.

(F) Example Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the sorter 1 has a sorter body 6 including a pair of left and right side plates 3, a base 5 and a cover 4, and accommodates a large number of bins B ... A bin unit 9 that can be moved up and down along the guide rails 7 provided in each is provided.

The sorter main body 6 is provided with a carry-in port 10 for carrying in a discharge sheet from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, and a first sheet conveying path 11 extends from the carry-in port 10 toward the bin unit 9. A second sheet conveying path 12 is formed by branching from the first sheet conveying path 11, and an upper discharge roller pair 13 is provided on the downstream side of the first sheet conveying path 11; On the downstream side of the second sheet transport path 12, a lower discharge roller pair 15 is disposed. Further, a carry-in roller pair 16 and a flapper 17 are arranged at the branch portions of the first and second sheet carrying paths 11 and 12, and the flap 17 is selectively displaced to move from the upper discharge roller pair 13 to the bin B.
Are guided to the first sheet transport path 11, and the sheets to be discharged from the lower discharge roller pair 15 to the bins B are guided to the second sheet transport path 12.

A paper sensor 50 for detecting a sheet is provided in the second sheet conveying path 12 near the sheet discharge section. In this embodiment, the paper sensor 50 is constituted by a sword switch having a built-in photointerrupter. However, the same effect can be obtained by a transmission sensor or the like. The paper ejection sensor of the image forming apparatus (not shown) can measure the passage time of the sheet and the interval (sheet interval) between the fed sheets, and is operated by an arithmetic circuit built in the main body of the image forming apparatus (not shown). , A sheet discharge signal and a sheet interval signal, and the signals are transmitted to a microcomputer in the sorter.

The bin unit 9 is provided with a pair of frame supporting
A bin slider 20 is provided at the tip of the bin support plate 19.
The bin support plate 19 and the bin slider 20 are fixed by a bin cover 21.

In addition, from the bottle cover 21 to the bottle support plate 19, the sixth
As shown in detail in FIGS. 7 and 7, an alignment reference member 22 is fixedly provided, and an alignment rod 25 penetrating all the bins through a notch 23 provided in each bin B ... The sheets, which are freely arranged and are accommodated in the bins B, are aligned by being pressed against the alignment reference member 22 by the movement of the alignment rod 25.

The bins B stored in the bin unit 9 are:
One end thereof is movably placed in the comb-shaped groove of the bottle slider 20, and the eighth end is provided before and after the base end.
As shown in detail in the figure, a pin 26 is fixedly provided. The pins 26 pass through slits 27 provided in the front and rear bin support plates 19, respectively, and the rollers 30 are rotatably inserted into the pins 26 passing through the slits 27 through cushioning O-rings 29. The rollers 30 of each bin B are fitted into the guide rail 7 so as to be stacked, and the lowermost rollers 30
The lower guide roller 31 is rotatably supported by the bin support plate 19.
, And the uppermost roller 30 abuts on the upper guide roller 32 rotatably supported by the bin support plate 19, so that each bin B ...
Is supported by the bin unit 9 so that the bin interval is kept constant and equal to the diameter of the roller 30.

As shown in FIG. 5, the bin unit 9 is configured such that the upper guide roller 32 and the lower guide roller 31 are fitted into the guide rail 7 and can move up and down along the guide rail 7. A spring 35 is stretched between the metal fitting 33 fixed to the bin support plate 19 of the bin unit 9 and the side plate 3 of the sorter body 6, and urges the bin unit 9 to pull up. It has become.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 9, cam shaft holders 36, 36 are respectively arranged at positions of the front and rear side plates 3, 3 facing the lower discharge roller pair 15, and the cam shaft holders 36, 36 are respectively arranged. 3
Lead cam shafts 39, 39 are rotatably arranged between the bearings 6, 37 and 6, 36 and the base 5 via bearings 37, 37, respectively.
The front and rear lead cams each having a spiral cam surface are provided above the lead cam shaft 39 arranged at the front and rear.
A pulley 41 is fixed below the side plate 3, and a timing belt 43 is suspended between the pulley 41 and the shift motor 42. These lead cams 40, 40 are optionally selected. The motor can be rotated in the forward and reverse directions by a shift motor 42 that rotates in both the forward and reverse directions. Further, drive transmission from the shift motor 42 to the lead cam 40 is performed by a through shaft 48 penetrating the front and rear side plates 3 and 3 by a bevel gear 47 meshing with a bevel gear integrally formed on the upper portion of the motor output pulley 46, and the through shaft is provided. 48 front plate side bevel gears
The lead cam shaft 39 and the front lead cam 40 can be rotated via the 47, the pulley gear 46, the timing belt 43, and the pulley 41.

A clock disk 38 is fixedly mounted on a shaft opposite to the output side of the shift motor 42, and a sensor holder 45 is mounted on the side plate 3.
It is possible to read the rotation speed of the motor, that is, the rotation speed of the lead cam 40, by the interrupter 44 held via, and it is possible to freely control the rotation speed of the lead cam 40 together with the read cam control circuit in the sorter microcomputer. And

Further, the lead cam shaft 39 is provided below the lead cam 40 in FIG.
Flags 51 and 52 for recognizing the position of the lead cam 40 are fixed on the shaft. The interrupters 53 and 54 for reading the flags 51 and 52 are held by the position detector holder 55 of the lead cam 40 and supported by the rear side plate 3. The flags 51 and 52 have the same flag angles, but are out of phase by a predetermined amount, and the two interrupters 53 determine whether the bin B is the home position in the ascending direction or the home position in the descending direction. , 54 on / off combination. In this embodiment, the angles of the flags 51 and 52 are determined in accordance with the parallel portion of the lead cam 40 (about 180 °, see FIG. 3). By the way, the phase is a predetermined angle (about 30
゜) There is a deviation, and this angle deviation and interrupter 5
The position of the lead cam 40 is determined based on ON and OFF of 3,54.

Next, the movement of the bin B determined by the shape of the lead cam 40 and the roller 30 of the bin B engaged with the lead cam 40 will be described. FIG. 11 (a) shows the front side lead cam 40 and FIG. 11 (b).
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the rear lead cam 40, the roller 30, and the bin B. FIG. 11C is a plan view of the front and rear lead cams 40. As can be seen from FIG. 11, the front and rear lead cams 40 have opposite rotation directions. That is, the front and rear lead cams 40 are mirror-symmetrical. The widening portion X between the bins Ba and Bb and the widening portion Y2 between the bins Bb and Bc can be expanded.
When the binding means 49 is not provided, only the expanding portion X for carrying in the sheet P may be provided. When the lead cam 40 rotates, it moves up and down along the guide rail 7 by the groove 40a of the lead cam 40. FIG. 11 (a),
As shown in (b), the guide rail 7 has a partly bent portion because it is provided with the sheet binding means 49 in this embodiment, and this configuration is not limited.

In FIG. 3, the sheet P is discharged from the lower discharge roller pair 15 to the bin B (at this time, even if the lead cam 40 rotates, the position of the roller 30e in the height direction does not change. In contrast, the bin discharging the sheet P
Be is in a stopped state even though the lead cam 40 is rotating).

Further, in the flags 51 and 52 for detecting the position of the lead cam 40, the a and b portions which do not overlap with each other are the third.
In the lead cam diagram of the figure, they are synchronized with the vicinity of 180 degrees and 360 degrees, respectively, and when the portions indicated by b of the flags 51 and 52 are detected by the interrupters 53 and 54 (53 is ON,
(When 54 is OFF), knife edge part 40b of lead cam 40
The moment (see FIG. 1 (a)) collides with the roller 30.

Further, when the bin B descends, the knife edge portion 40c of the lead cam 40 reaches between the rollers 30 when 360 degrees has passed.
At the 360-degree point where the roller 30 is on the lead cam 40,
As shown in FIG. 7A, the a portion of the flags 51, 52 for detecting the position of the lead cam 40 reaches the interrupters 53, 54.
Specifically, the end of the flag 52 is detected by the interrupter 54.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, what is specially noted in the present embodiment is that the outer diameter of the tip thin portion 56 of the roller 30 of the bin B is gradually reduced.

 The tapering shape may be a drum shape or a conical shape.

Next, a series of operations for carrying in a sheet from the image forming apparatus into the sorter, discharging the sheet to the bin, and completing the shift will be described.

First, the copied sheet P discharged from the image forming apparatus (not shown) is discharged from the carry-in port 10 of the sorter 1 through the carry-in roller pair 16 and the flapper 17, and from the upper discharge roller pair 13 at the time of non-sorting. Sometimes, the sheet is conveyed downward by the second sheet conveying path 12. Information on the paper size, the paper interval, and the conveyance speed is transmitted to the control circuit in the sorter 1 from an image forming apparatus control circuit (not shown). Based on the above information, the microcomputer in the sorter 1 determines the rotation speed of the lead cam 40, the position where the sheet P starts to be discharged into the bin B from the lower discharge roller pair 15, the position where the discharge is completed, and the range where the bin B is shifted between the sheets. decide. Specifically, in FIG.
The position of 360 degrees in the cam diagram is a position where the bin unit 9 starts to discharge the sheet P from the lower discharge roller pair 15 when the bin unit 9 descends, and a position where the sheet P ends to discharge when the bin unit 9 rises. Also, the 180 ° position is for bin unit 9
Is a position where the sheet P starts to be discharged when is raised, and a position where the sheet P is completely discharged when is lowered. Between the sheets, each bin B is shifted at a position of 0 to 180 degrees.

Further, the operation when the roller 30 of the bin B enters the lead cam 40 will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 13, since the rollers 30 have the same outer diameter, there is a problem that the knife edge portion 40c of the lead cam 40 (same for the knife edge portion 40b) becomes weak in strength.
It is actually thick. Then, the tip of the roller 30 collides with the step formed from this thickness at an early point and gets on.

This means that when the lead cam 40 gives an impact to the bin B, it vibrates to the left and right between the engagement play with the guide rail 7 and also vibrates in the vertical direction, and the sheets P loaded in the bin B are vibrated. Moves away from the rear end stopper 57 of the bin B, as shown in FIG. When a small number of sheets P are stacked, they are restored downward due to the inclination of the bin B, but when the number of stacked sheets is large, the gravity of the information sheet P causes the bottom surface of the bin B and the bottom surface of the lowermost sheet P to be separated. The frictional resistance between the two becomes large and does not restore, and the voids 58 are formed, causing misalignment of the sheet P. In particular, a high-quality sorter that requires alignment and a staple sorter that automatically staples (by the binding means 49) are not established.

However, with the configuration of this embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b), the point of riding on the knife edge portion 40b of the lead cam 40 of the tapered tip portion 56b provided on the roller 30 is delayed, The same effect can be obtained as the tip thickness of the knife edge portion 40b is reduced, and the impact force and vibration applied to the bottle B can be reduced below a predetermined value. For example, if the radius of the tip of the roller 30 is gradually increased from the tip toward the base end,
The roller 30 moves to the lead cam 40 without any step and is gradually lifted as the radius of the roller 30 increases, so that the impact can be almost eliminated. The same applies to the knife edge portion 40c.

Thus, the alignment of the sheets P stacked on the bin B can be significantly improved.

 Next, another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the diameter of the roller 30 is constant, and the knife edge portion 40b of the lead cam 40 is retracted with respect to the rotation direction. This means that the roller 30 and knife edge
The impact due to the collision is reduced because the 40b obliquely collides. That is, it has the same effect as reducing the thickness of the tip of the knife edge portion 40b, and has substantially the same effect as the above embodiment. The same applies to the knife edge portion 40c.

In addition, a configuration in which the embodiment and the other embodiment are combined, that is, a tip thin portion 56 is formed on the roller 40, and the knife edge portions 40b and 40c of the lead cam 40 are directed outward with respect to the rotation direction. The effect of the sorter 1 can be further improved by forming the sorter 1 so as to retract.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, since the supporting roller has the large diameter portion in contact with another supporting roller and the small diameter portion in which the gap is formed, the edge of the spiral cam means is formed. It is possible to enter with less impact force, to reduce the operating noise of the sheet sorting device, and to improve the durability of the support roller and the spiral cam means and greatly improve the sheet alignment.

Further, the impact force can be further reduced by gradually reducing the outer diameter of the small diameter portion of the support roller from the base end portion toward the tip end portion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows the relationship between a roller supporting a bin and a lead cam in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) is a side view when the bin is raised, and FIG. 1 (b) is the bin lowered. FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the same, FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view thereof, FIG. 3 is a lead cam diagram thereof, FIG. 4 is a sectional front view showing a state in which a sheet in a bin is misaligned, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a sorter which has been subjected to the above, FIG. 6 is a perspective view thereof, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a bin unit thereof, FIG. 8 is a detailed cross-sectional view of a roller supporting a bottle, and FIG. Front view showing the
FIG. 10A is a plan view showing the position detecting means of the lead cam,
FIG. 10 (b) is a side view thereof, and FIGS. 10 (c) and (d) are
10 (a) is an exploded plan view, FIGS. 11 (a) and 11 (b) are front views showing the relationship between the front and rear lead cams and the bin, FIG. 11 (c) is its plan view, and FIG. 12 is another. FIG. 13 is a sectional plan view showing the embodiment of FIG. 13, and FIG. 13 is a sectional plan view of a conventional example corresponding to FIG. 1 ... Sheet sorter (sorter), 7 ... Guide (guide rail), 15 ... Sheet discharge means (lower discharge roller), 30 ... Support roller (roller), 40 ... Spiral cam means (lead cam), 40a ... groove, 40b, 40c ... end (knife edge), 56 ... support roller small diameter part, 56a ... support roller base end, 56b ... support roller tip thin section, 57 ... support roller large Diameter part, B ... bottle, P ... sheet.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP 62-259962 (JP, A) JP 49-99038 (JP, A) JP 61-69662 (JP, A) JP 63- 101275 (JP, A) Actually opened 63-62462 (JP, U) Actually opened 62-203162 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A multiplicity of bins each having a columnar support roller and moving in an array direction, a sheet ejection means for ejecting sheets to the bins, and a groove for engaging the rollers of each bin and transferring the same. And a spiral cam means that rotates to expand the bin facing the sheet discharging means, and the edge portion for introducing the roller of each bin into the groove. The sheet sorting apparatus has a large-diameter portion that comes into contact with another support roller in the arrangement direction and a small-diameter portion that forms a gap, and the edge portion enters the gap. 2. The sheet sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer diameter of the small diameter portion of the support roller is formed so as to gradually increase from the front end portion to the base end portion of the support roller.