JP2694306B2 - Document stopper position change fixing mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention enables a document stopper for regulating the front end position of a document discharged to a document discharging portion of an automatic document feeder to be positionally fixed in the document discharging direction. Regarding the mechanism for changing and fixing the position of the document stopper to be attached to the document discharge part [Prior Art] The document stopper described above regulates the front end position of the document automatically discharged to the document discharge part, This is for preventing unevenness of the originals above, and for stocking the originals in a neatly aligned state on the original discharge section.Because the originals have different sizes, the original stopper should be placed in the original discharge direction. It is necessary to fix the position so that it can be fixed. Therefore, conventionally, a long groove in the document discharge direction is provided in the document discharge portion, and a sliding member that can slide along the long groove is connected to the document stopper. Has been established.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

Here, the width dimension tolerance of the long groove and the sliding member is such that when the width of the long groove is the minimum dimension tolerance and the width of the sliding member is the maximum dimension tolerance, the sliding member moves into the long groove. It goes without saying that the dimensional tolerance is set so that it can be engaged.

For this reason, if a slight external force is applied to the document stopper, the document stopper may easily move, disturbing the stock position of the document, and it may not be possible to stock the document orderly on the document discharge section. It was

Alternatively, when the automatic document feeder is opened to manually feed a document, if the automatic document feeder is vigorously opened and closed, the shock may cause the sliding member to easily come out of the long groove. there were.

On the other hand, among the originals stocked on the original discharge section, the lowest one of the originals tends to come into close contact with the upper surface of the original discharge section, which makes it difficult to take out the stocked originals.

The first aspect of the present invention makes it possible to easily engage and change the position of the sliding member in the long groove, and to reliably prevent the document stopper from being displaced or coming off, and A second object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily take out a document whose front end is aligned from the document discharge section.

[Means for solving the problem]

In the document stopper position changing and fixing mechanism according to the first aspect of the present invention, which achieves the above object, a long groove in the document discharging direction is provided in the document discharging portion, and a sliding member slidable along the long groove is provided. Connected to the document stopper, and
At least one end side in the longitudinal direction of the sliding member has a curved portion that curves in the width direction, and the curved portion is flexibly deformed and engaged in the long groove, so that the sliding member is urged into the long groove. The feature is that it is configured to be fixed.

In the document stopper position changing and fixing mechanism according to the second aspect of the present invention, a guide member for scooping the front end of the discharged document from the upper surface of the document discharging unit is provided while providing a long groove in the document discharging direction on one side in the width direction of the document discharging unit. Is continuously connected to the document stopper with the lower part of the scooping tip abutting the upper surface of the document discharge part, and a sliding member slidable along the long groove is provided at one end in the longitudinal direction of the document stopper. And at least one end in the longitudinal direction of the sliding member is provided with a curved portion that bends in the width direction, and the curved portion is flexibly deformed and engaged in the long groove. It is configured to be biased and fixed in the long groove, and further, the biasing reaction force point of the curved portion with respect to the long groove side surface on the guide member side is located below the biasing reaction force point with respect to the long groove side surface of the other side. Characteristic A.

[Action]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, by flexibly deforming the curved portion to bias and fix the sliding member to the long groove, the position fixing of the document stoppers connected to the sliding member is achieved, and
By sliding the sliding member in the long groove 12, the position of the document stopper in the document discharging direction is changed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, further, the front end of the document discharged to the document discharge unit is guided by the guide member, and the front end of the document is stocked while being lifted upward of the document discharge unit. A gap is formed between the bottom surface of the lowest document that has been stocked and the top surface of the document ejection portion.

By setting the biasing reaction force point of the sliding member with respect to the side surface of the long groove as described above, the moment of pushing down is given to the document stopper, and by extension, the guide provided continuously to the document stopper. The lower part of the document scooping tip of the member is urged against the upper surface of the document discharge part.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an electrostatographic copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus. An automatic manuscript also serving as a manuscript holder when a manuscript is manually fed to the upper part of a copier body 1 having a contact glass (not shown) on the upper surface. A feeding device 2 is provided.

The automatic document feeder 2 pivotally mounts a housing 3 provided with a transport belt (not shown) for loading and unloading a document to and from the contact glass to the copying machine main body 1 so as to be openable and closable about a horizontal axis P. A document feeding tray 4 is provided on one end side of the document 3, and a document unloading section 5 is continuously provided on the other end side of the housing 3.
A document discharge section 7 is formed on the upper surface of the housing 3 so as to be connected to the document discharge port 6 of the document discharge section 6.
A document stopper 8 for regulating the front end position of the document a discharged and stocked in the document discharge portion 7, a fixing mechanism 9 for changing and fixing the position of the document stopper 8 in the document discharge direction, and a stocked A guide member 10 is provided for facilitating the removal of the document a.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the guide member 10
Is connected to the front side of the document stopper 8 and guides the front end of the document a discharged from the document outlet 6 by scooping up from the upper surface of the document discharge unit 7 and guiding it.
And the lower surface of the document a guided above and the document discharge section 7
A concave portion 11 for inserting a finger is formed in a gap formed between the original stopper 8 and the original stopper 8 as described later. A guide member when a downward moment is applied to the
10 is bent at the narrow portion b so that the document scooping leading end of the guide member 10 can be made intimately and closely contacted with the upper surface of the document discharge section 7.

The fixing mechanism 9 for the document stopper 8 is constructed as follows. That is, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, a long groove 12 having a draft with an upward expansion is provided on one side in the width direction of the document discharge section 7 in the document discharge direction, and along the long groove 12. A slidable sliding member 13 which is slidable on the lower surface side of the plate-shaped member 14 in a state of being divided into two in the longitudinal direction. The upper surface of the plate-shaped member 14 has one end in the longitudinal direction of the document stopper 8. And the both end portions 13a in the longitudinal direction of the sliding member 13 are curved to the side opposite to the stopper continuous side, and a gap is formed between the curved portion 13a and the plate member 14. The curved portion 13a is elastically deformable in the width direction.

Then, on the surface portion of the sliding member 13 on the stopper continuous side, the ridge portions c, c for reducing the contact surface pressure with respect to the long groove side surface 12a.
In a free state before the sliding member 13 is engaged with the long groove 12 and the surface connecting the outer surfaces of the ridges c, c and the outer surface of the curved portions 13a. Face-to-face dimension L
Is set to be slightly larger than the groove width dimension 1 of the long groove 12, and further, when viewed in the longitudinal direction of the sliding member 13, a corner portion of the lower end portion side of the curved portion 13a is formed into a curved surface S ₁ . Then the long groove 1
The sliding member 13 is easily inserted into the inside of 2.

According to the above configuration, as shown by the phantom line in FIG.
When the sliding member 13 is applied to the upper opening of the long groove 12 and a pushing force is applied to the sliding member 13, the curved portion
By the cam action of the curved surface S ₁ of 13a, the curved portion 13a is bent in the width direction and is inserted into the long groove 12 (see FIG. 6), and the ridges c, c and the curved portion 13a are formed in the long groove 12. The sliding member 13 is biased and fixed in the long groove 12 by abutting the side faces 12a and 12b with biasing force. As a result, the position fixing of the document stopper 8 connected to the sliding member 13 is achieved.

Further, by moving the sliding member 13 along the long groove 12, the position of the document stopper 8 in the document ejection direction can be changed.

The document a discharged to the document discharge unit 7 has its front end portion picked up by the guide member 10 and its front end position regulated by the document stopper 8. The lowermost document lower face and the document discharge unit upper face. And the front end positions are aligned with each other with a gap formed between them, and the documents are regularly stocked on the document discharge section 7. Therefore, by inserting a finger through the concave portion 11 of the guide member 10 into the above-mentioned gap and holding the document a stocked on the document discharge part 7, the document a stocked in the document discharge part 7 can be extremely retained. It can be taken out easily.

Moreover, as is apparent from FIG. 6, the curved surface S is formed in order to facilitate the engagement of the curved portion 13a into the long groove 12.
By forming ₁ , the urging reaction force point P _{1 of} the ridge c continuously provided on the curved portion 13a with respect to the long groove side surface 12a on the guide member 10 side is urged with respect to the long groove side surface 12b on the other side. It is located below P ₂ , and thus the curved portion 13
A pushing down moment is applied to the document stopper 8 and thus the guide member 10 based on the urging force due to the bending deformation of a, so that the document scooping tip of the guide member 10 fits well to the upper surface of the document discharge portion 7. Therefore, the original a can be urged into contact with the original a, and the original a can be scooped up and placed on the original ejecting section 7 without causing the front end of the original a to enter between the guide member 10 and the original ejecting section 7. Can be stocked.

In addition, in the embodiment, the longitudinal end portions 13a of the sliding member 13 are curved, but it is also possible to form only the longitudinal end portion on the curved portion 13a. Is the end portion 13a of the sliding member 13 in the longitudinal direction.
Needless to say, it is possible to bend the stopper to the side where the stoppers are continuously provided.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the position changing and fixing mechanism of the document stopper according to the first aspect of the present invention, the sliding member connected to the document stopper is biased and fixed so that the position of the sliding member can be changed along the long groove in the document discharging direction. By doing so, it becomes possible to reliably prevent the position of the document stopper from slipping out of the long groove leading to the disorder of the stock position of the document, and the slipping out of the document stopper from the long groove. Since it is only bent, it is possible to easily insert the sliding member into the long groove and change the position of the document stopper.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the guide member for picking up the front end of the original is continuously provided to the original stopper, the original with the front end aligned can be easily taken out from the original discharge section. In addition, by effectively utilizing the biasing force for biasing and fixing the sliding member in the long groove, the biasing reaction force rolling of the sliding member with respect to the side surface of the long groove can be set as described above. Thus, the lower part of the document scooping tip of the guide member can be urged into contact with the upper surface of the document discharge portion, and thus the front end of the document enters between the guide member and the document discharge portion. Is effectively prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electrostatographic copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a document stopper position changing and fixing mechanism, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a document stopper shown with a guide member. FIG. 4 is a vertical plan view of the sliding member, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory views of a document stopper position changing and fixing mechanism. 2 ... Automatic document feeder, 7 ... Document discharging section, 8 ... Document stopper, 10 ... Guide member, 12 ... Long groove, 12a, 12b ... Long groove side surface, 13 ... Sliding member, 13a ... Curved portion.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document stopper for regulating a front end position of a document discharged to a document discharging section of an automatic document feeder is repositioned in a document discharging direction and a position of a document stopper is fixedly mounted on the document discharging section. In the fixing mechanism, a long groove in the document discharge direction is provided in the document discharge portion, a sliding member slidable along the long groove is continuously provided to the document stopper, and a longitudinal direction of the slide member is provided. At least one end side is provided with a curved portion that is curved in the width direction, and the curved portion is flexibly deformed and engaged in the long groove, so that the sliding member is biased and fixed in the long groove. A mechanism for fixing and changing the position of the document stopper, which is characterized in that 2. A document stopper for regulating a front end position of a document discharged to a document discharging unit of an automatic document feeder is repositioned in a document discharging direction and a position of a document stopper is fixedly attached to the document discharging unit. A fixing mechanism is provided with a long groove in the document discharge direction on one side in the width direction of the document discharge section, and a guide member for scooping the front end of the discharged document from the upper surface of the document discharge section, and the lower part of the scooping tip is the document. A slide member, which is continuous with the document stopper in a state of being in contact with the upper surface of the discharge portion and is slidable along the long groove, is provided at one end side in the longitudinal direction of the document stopper, and At least one end side in the longitudinal direction has a curved portion that curves in the width direction, and the curved portion is flexibly deformed and engaged in the long groove, so that the sliding member is biased and fixed in the long groove. Further, the position change fixing of the document stopper is characterized in that the biasing reaction force point of the curved portion with respect to the long groove side surface on the guide member side is located below the biasing reaction force point with respect to the long groove side surface of the other side. mechanism.