JP2695530B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a paper in a paper feed cassette 101 provided in a lower portion of a housing 100 is reversed by a paper feed roller 102 and pulled out to convey a paper.
3 and conveys the paper in the direction of the arrow, the developed image formed on the photoconductor 104 is transferred to the paper, and the transferred image transferred to the paper is fixed to the fixing roller 1.
There is a printing device that is fixed in 05. To form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 104, an electric charge is applied from the charging charger 106 to the photoconductor 104 to charge the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor 104, and an image signal is generated from the exposure unit 107 to the charged portion. This is done by scanning the corresponding optical signal. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 108, and the developed image is transferred to a sheet by the transfer charger 109. Further, the photoconductor 104 is a cleaning unit 110.
Is cleaned by

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the paper in the paper feed cassette 112 mounted on the side surface of the housing 111 is passed through the paper feed roller 102 and the transport roller 103, and the photoconductor 10 is moved.
4 and then, the developed image on the photoconductor 104 is transferred to a sheet, and the sheet on which the image is transferred is discharged to the sheet discharge receiver 113 formed on the upper surface of the housing 111 or to the outside of the housing 110. There is a printing device that does. Since the formation and fixing of an image on the photoconductor 104 is the same as the principle shown in FIG. 6, the same parts are designated by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

[0004]

In the structure shown in FIG. 6, the height of the housing 100 is increased because the photoconductors 104 are arranged on the upper part of the paper feed cassette 101 with a space for reversing the paper. , The paper feed roller 102 and the photoconductor 104
Since the conveyance roller 103 that conveys the paper pulled out by the paper feed roller 102 to the photoconductor 104 is disposed between and, the length of the housing 100 cannot be shortened. In the case shown in FIG. 7, the housing 1 is provided by arranging the sheet feeding cassette 112 on the tangent line of the outer periphery of the lower portion of the photoconductor 104.
The height of 11 can be limited, but the paper feed cassette 1
There is a problem that the installation area becomes large because 12 projects from the side surface of the housing 111.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a sheet storage section for storing a large number of sheets in a stacked state, and a linear shape which opposes the upper surface of the sheet storage section at a predetermined interval.
Flip the paper inside the paper storage section at the end of the paper transport path.
The paper feed roller that makes it smaller than the diameter of this paper feed roller
The formed main part is the paper feed roller and the paper
Located on the same side of the paper path and in the direction along the paper path
A printing unit having an image forming unit provided and a paper retainer that is openably and closably opposed to the upper surface of the paper transport path is provided above the paper storage unit.

[0006]

[Action] for printing the range of about the upper surface of the sheet storage section for accommodating the paper unit is arranged, Ri Do it possible to reduce the installation space of the printer, the main components of the image forming section
Since the height is smaller than the diameter of the paper feed roller,
Since the diameter of the paper feed roller affects the size,
The image forming unit does not cause the device to become large,
Also, by making the paper feed roller as large as possible,
Since the curve becomes gentle when the paper is turned over
The probability can be lowered, and the paper transport path of the printing unit is opened by opening the paper retainer, so that the jam processing can be easily performed.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 are vertical sectional front views. In the figure,
1 is a paper storage unit. The sheet storage unit 1 is held by a flat sheet feeding main body 2 slightly larger than the A4 size sheet 4 and a protrusion 3 formed on the bottom of the sheet feeding main body 2 so as to be displaceable in the width direction of the sheet 4. It is composed of a mounting plate 5 and a pressing plate 6 which is held by the paper feeding main body 2 so as to be able to rise and fall. Guides 7 for supporting both side edges of the sheet 4 are formed on both sides of the mounting plate 5. The pressing plate 6 holds the paper 4 in a stacked state and is urged by a spring 8 in a direction away from the mounting plate 5. However, a stopper 9 that contacts the uppermost paper 4 is provided on the guide 7. Limits excessive upward movement. Further, an electric equipment chamber 10 is formed at the bottom of the paper feed body 2, and an electric equipment case 11 and a circuit board 12 connected to the electric parts housed in the electric equipment case 11 are provided in the electric equipment room 10. Has been. Electrical equipment room 1
A plurality of legs 14 that are brought into contact with a desk are fixed to a base plate 13 that closes the bottom of 0. Further, a lid 15 is attached to the upper surface of the paper feeding body 2 so as to be openable and closable.

A printing unit 16 is provided above the paper storage unit 1. This printing unit 1
Reference numeral 6 denotes a case 18 rotatably held on both sides of the sheet feeding main body 2 by a fulcrum shaft 17, a support body 19 fixed to the case 18, and a fulcrum shaft 20 rotatably held on the case 18. And a cover 21 that has been opened. The case 18 is integrally formed with a developer container 22 containing a developer. Further, the case 18 includes a paper feed roller 23, a photosensitive member 24 whose outer diameter is set to approximately half the outer diameter of the paper feed roller 23, a developing roller 25, and a thickness of a layer of developer. Restricting roller 26 for restricting and fixing roller 27
And rotatably held, and a motor (not shown) for driving these rotating bodies is fixed.

A charger 28 for applying a voltage to the photoconductor 24 to charge the photoconductor 24 is charged on the support 19.
An exposure unit 29 for irradiating a charged portion of the photoconductor 24 with an optical signal corresponding to an image signal to form an electrostatic latent image;
Auxiliary brush 3 for equalizing the developer remaining on the outer peripheral surface of 4
0 and a static eliminator 30a for eliminating charges from the photoconductor 24. The exposure section 29 is formed by arranging a large number of edge emitting elements in a line. The photosensitive member 24, the developing roller 25 and the regulating roller 26 in the developer container 22, the fixing roller 27 and the press roller 41, the charger 28, the exposure unit 29, the auxiliary brush 30, The image forming unit 31 is formed by the transfer roller 39 and the transfer roller 30a.

A paper transport path 32 is formed between the case 18 and the cover 21. The paper transport path 32 and the extension surface (paper feed path) of the uppermost layer paper 4 on the pressing plate 6 Are connected by a reversing path 33 formed by a part of the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 23, and a plurality of ribs 34 for facilitating the guiding operation of the sheet 4 by the reversing path 33.
Are formed in the case 18. A manual paper feed port 35 is formed at an end of the paper transport path 32 on the paper feed roller 23 side.

Further, a paper guide surface 37 is formed on the toner cartridge 36 mounted on the developer container 22, and a paper guide plate 38 facing the paper guide surface 37 is held by the cover 21. The transfer roller 39 is rotatably held by the cover 21 in contact with the photoconductor 24. The paper guide plate 38 is formed of a leaf spring, and a pinch roller 40 and the press roller 41 are urged toward the case 18 and are rotatably held at both ends thereof. Thus, the pinch roller 40 is pressed against the paper feed roller 23, and the press roller 41 is pressed against the fixing roller 27. The paper guide plate 38, the transfer roller 39, the pinch roller 40, and the press roller 41 have a paper pressing function of pressing the upper surface of the paper 4. Further, a lever 43 having a friction member 42 at the tip is biased clockwise by a spring 44 in the vicinity of the tip of the pressing plate 6 in the paper storage unit 1 so as to be rotatable about a support shaft 45. Have been. As a result, the friction member 42 moves to the paper feed roller 23.
Is elastically contacted with the outer peripheral surface of the. Further, a connector 46 for inputting a power supply voltage, an image signal, etc. is fixed to the case 18 of the printing unit 16, and a connector 4 connected to the circuit board 12 is provided in the paper storage unit 1.
7 is provided, and these connectors 46 and 47 are connected by a cable 48.

Further, the case 18 is provided with a stop lever 49. As shown in FIG. 3, the stop lever 49 is biased clockwise by a spring 50 and is rotatably held by a support shaft 51, and a stop shaft 52 facing a side edge of the stop lever 49 is provided in the case 18. Is erected on the side of. A projection 53 is formed at the lower end of the stop lever 49 to contact the upper surface 2a of the paper feeding main body 2. Here, FIG. 3 shows the sheet feeding main body 2.
3 is a side view showing the relative relationship between the upper surface 2a of FIG. That is, when the case 18 rotates upward about the fulcrum shaft 17, the relative position of the case main body 2 with respect to the upper surface 2 a changes. When the relative position of the upper surface 2a to the case 18 is L, the case 18 is located at the lower position and is in contact with the upper surface 2a of the sheet feeding main body 2. In this state, the upper surface 2a and the protrusion 53 contact each other. Rotational movement of the stop lever 49 is blocked, which causes
The upper part of the stop lever 49 projects to the manual feed port 35. The state in which the relative position of the upper surface 2a to the case 18 is H is a state in which the case 18 is located at the upper position and separated from the upper surface 2a of the sheet feeding main body 2, and in this state, the stop lever 49 is a spring as shown by a virtual line. It is rotated clockwise by the urging force of 50, and its tip end is the manual feed port 35.
Retreat below.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a structure for supporting the case 18 of the printing unit 16 with respect to the paper feeding main body 2. The fulcrum shaft 17 and the pin 54 are provided on the front and back surfaces of the case 18.
And are erected. Further, an L-shaped groove 55 for holding the fulcrum shaft 17 and a pin 5
A notch 56 is formed in the upper surface opening into which 4 is fitted, and a hook 58 that is rotatably held by the support shaft 57 and locked by the pin 54 is provided. This hook 5
8 is urged in one direction by a spring 59,
Excessive rotational movement is prevented by the pin 60.

FIG. 5 is a partial sectional view of the paper feed roller 2.
It is a side view which shows the support structure of No. 3. That is, a drive shaft 61 connected to the motor via a spring clutch (not shown) is provided. A hub 63 which is prevented from rotating by a pin 62 on the drive shaft 61 and a drive shaft 6
A hub 6 rotatably and axially slidably fitted to 1
The paper feed roller 23 is formed by a roller 4 and an elastic roller 65 rotatably fitted to one hub 63 and fixedly fitted to the other hub 64. The hub 64 is urged in one direction by a spring 66, and the hub 6
On the opposing surfaces of 3, 64, there are formed rotation transmitting portions 67 which are detachably engaged with each other in a relationship between the protrusions and the grooves. Further, a pair of rings 68 arranged on both sides of the paper feed roller 23 are fixedly fitted to the drive shaft 61. These rings 68 are set to have an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the paper feed roller 23, but a part of the outer periphery thereof has a protrusion 6 projecting with a radius larger than the radius of the paper feed roller 23.
9 are integrally formed. These protrusions 69 have the effect of pressing the uppermost sheet 4 on the pressing plate 6 to separate the sheet 4 from the sheet feeding roller 23 when the sheet feeding roller 23 is stopped. The width between the sides is set to a width that matches the width of the postcard.

In such a structure, when printing is performed using the paper 4 in the paper storage unit 1, as shown in FIG. 1, the rotation free end of the case 18 of the printing unit 16 is placed on the upper surface of the paper feeding main body 2. The state of being in contact with 2a is maintained. In this state, as described above, the leading end of the stop lever 49 protrudes upward from the manual paper feed port 35, so that the paper feeding operation from the manual paper feed port 35 is prohibited. When the paper feed roller 23 is driven in the clockwise direction, the papers 4 stacked on the pressing plate 6 are separated one by one by the friction member 42, pulled out, and inverted by the inversion path 33 toward the paper transport path 32. . The sheet 4 conveyed along the sheet conveyance path 32 has a photoconductor 24
The upper developed image is transferred by the transfer roller 39, and the transferred image is fixed by the fixing roller 27. The paper 4 onto which the image has been transferred in this manner is discharged onto the upper surface of the lid 15 of the paper storage unit 1.

In FIG. 3, the stop lever 49 is urged by the spring 50, the protrusion 53 thereof presses the upper surface 2a of the sheet feeding main body 2, and the reaction force of the pressing force is the upward rotation force, which is the printing unit 16. However, as shown in FIG. 4, when the paper is fed from the paper storage unit 1, the pin 54 and the hook 58 are engaged with each other to move the print unit 16 upward about the fulcrum shaft 17. Rotational movement is prevented.

Therefore, in FIG.
When the hook 58 is turned counterclockwise against the urging force of the pin 9 and detached from the pin 54, the stop lever 49 is turned clockwise by the urging force of the spring 50 as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. Since the projection 53 presses the upper surface 2 a of the paper feeding main body 2, the printing unit 16 is rotated upward about the fulcrum shaft 17 by the reaction force. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 2, a gap s is formed between the upper surface on the left side of the paper feeding main body 2 and the lower surface on the left side of the case 18. In this state, since the upper end of the stop lever 49 is retracted below the manual paper feed port 35, paper can be fed from the manual paper feed port 35.

As described above, since the printing unit 16 is arranged within the range of the substantially upper surface of the paper storage unit 1, it is possible to limit the installation space of the printing apparatus to a size slightly larger than the size of the paper. In this embodiment, the paper 4 in the paper storage unit 1 is inverted by the paper feed roller 23 and conveyed to the photoconductor 24, and the paper inserted from the manual paper feed port 35 is also photoconductive by the paper feed roller 23. It is possible to transport the sheets that are transported to the sheet 24 and have different sheet feeding paths by only one sheet feeding roller 23. Further, since the photoconductor 24 is arranged below the paper transport path 32, the printing unit 16
Since the photoconductor 24 is formed with an outer diameter that is approximately half the outer diameter of the paper feed roller 23, the distance between the paper storage unit 1 and the paper transport path 32 can be reduced. And the charging of the image forming unit 31,
It is possible to easily arrange each process unit for development, transfer, etc. in a small space. Moreover, the image forming unit 31 can be arranged without protruding from the upper surface of the paper feed main body 2 that stores the paper 4 and is placed on the desk.
Moreover, the printed paper 4 can also be discharged onto the lid 15 of the paper feed body 2. Therefore, the printing device can be further downsized.

In this embodiment, the outer diameter of the paper feed roller 23 is set to about 20 mm, and the outer diameter of the photoconductor 24 is set to about 10 mm. As a result, the length of the printing unit 16 in the sheet feeding direction is about 70 mm, the height is about 30 mm, and the width dimension corresponds to the width of the A4 size sheet 4, and the printing unit 16 is so small that it is suitable for personal possession. Further, even if the size of the paper 4 used changes, only the width of the printing unit 16 slightly changes, and the height and length of the printing unit 16 are maintained within certain dimensions.

Further, by rotating the cover 21 upward about the fulcrum shaft 20, the paper guide plate 38 as a paper pressing member, the transfer roller 39, the pinch roller 40, and the press roller 41 are displaced upward. Since the paper transport path 32 is opened, it is possible to easily perform the jam processing.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the image forming section for forming an image by the electrophotographic method is used for explanation, but the present invention is also applied to the one using the image forming section provided with the line type thermal head or the ink jet printer head. It is what is done.

[0022]

According to the present invention, a paper storage unit for storing a large number of sheets in a stacked state is provided, and a linear paper transport path facing a top surface of the paper storage unit at a predetermined interval .
A paper feed roller that reverses the paper in the paper storage unit at the end
And the main formed smaller than the diameter of this paper feed roller
Parts together with the paper feed roller are on the same side of the paper transport path
Images located in the direction along the paper transport path
Since the printing unit having the forming unit and the paper retainer that is openably and closably opposed to the upper surface of the paper transport path is provided on the upper portion of the paper storage unit, the printing unit on the substantially upper surface of the paper storage unit that stores the paper is provided. Since the printing unit is arranged in the range, the installation space of the printing device can be reduced, especially
The height of the main parts of the image forming unit is smaller than the diameter of the feed roller.
Therefore, the height of the entire device is directly affected by the paper feed roller.
Because the diameter is large and small, the image forming unit is
Cause the paper feed roller to be as large as possible.
By doing so, the curve when reversing the paper becomes gentle.
The probability of jam occurrence can be reduced from
Since the paper transport path of the printing unit is opened by opening the paper retainer, there is an effect that jam processing can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing a paper feeding state from a paper storage unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing a paper feed state from the manual paper feed port.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing an opening / closing operation of a manual paper feeding port by the stop lever.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a support structure of the printing unit with respect to the paper storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional side view of the paper feed roller.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the internal structure of a conventional printing device.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing an internal structure of a conventional printing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Paper Storage Section 4 Paper 16 Printing Unit 23 Paper Feed Roller 31 Image Forming Section 32 Paper Transport Path 38-41 Paper Presser

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A paper storage section for storing a large number of sheets in a stacked state is provided, and the above-mentioned paper storage section is provided at an end portion of a linear paper transport path facing a top surface of the paper storage section with a predetermined gap.
The paper feed roller that reverses the paper in the paper
The main parts formed smaller than the diameter of the paper roller are
Located on the same side of the paper transport path with the paper feed roller
An image forming unit arranged in a direction along the paper transport path,
A printing apparatus comprising a print unit having a paper retainer that is openably and closably opposed to an upper surface of the paper transport path and is provided above the paper storage unit.