JP2810757B2 - Cut sheet feeder - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Table of Contents] Overview Industrial application field Conventional technology (Fig. 4) Problems to be solved by the invention Means for solving the problem (Fig. 1) Action Embodiment (a) One Description of an embodiment (FIGS. 2 and 3) (b) Description of another embodiment [Summary] Regarding a cut sheet feeder provided in a printer and automatically feeding a stacked cut sheet to the printer, A cut sheet that is mounted on a printer whose platen is driven to rotate by a feed motor with the objective of driving the pickup roller at a low cost, with good throughput, no generation of unnecessary radio waves, no influence of static electricity noise, and low cost. A pickup for feeding the cut sheet to the platen side by rotating in contact with the cut sheet stored in a hopper; And a clutch intermittently connected to a roller, wherein the clutch is a speed clutch that intermittently rotates the feed motor to the pickup roller by a rotation speed of the feed motor, and When the feed motor rotates at the first speed, the platen rotates with the pickup roller by the connection of the speed clutch, and the feed motor rotates the first motor.
When the motor rotates at a second speed lower than the speed, the speed clutch is disengaged to rotate only the platen.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a cut sheet feeder provided in a printer and automatically feeding a stacked cup sheet to the printer.

A single printer provided with a print head facing the platen has a configuration in which a cut sheet is manually set.

A cut sheet feeder that automatically supplies cut sheets to such a printer is an optional setting, and a separate cut sheet feeder is set on the printer in response to a user request.

In this cut sheet feeder, it is necessary to drive a pickup roller for feeding out the stacked cut sheets at the time of sheet feeding.

[Conventional technology]

 FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a cut sheet feeder.

The cut sheet feeder 1 is a cut sheet (paper)
A hopper 10 on which the PP is mounted, a pickup roller 11 for feeding out the paper PP, a sub-pickup roller 12 for assisting the feeding, and a paper PP facing the pickup roller 11.
And a feed roller 14 for separating
And an ejection roller 15 for discharging printed paper,
It has a stacker 16 for stacking the discharged sheets.

The cut sheet feeder 1 is set on a platen 2 as shown in the drawing, and the pickup roller 11 and the sub pickup roller 12 are driven to feed out the paper PP on the hopper 10 one by one in cooperation with the separator 13, and the feed roller 14 is fed. To the platen 20 of the printer 2.

In the platen 2, the fed paper PP is transferred along the guide plate 21 and the guide roller 22 by the rotation of the platen 20.
It is sent so as to wind around 20, and is set in a predetermined position.

Then, it is printed by the print head 23 and the platen 20
Feeds paper in line feed, form feed,
Feeds a new line.

The sheet sent upward is also sent by the ejection roller 15 and discharged to the stacker 16.

In such a cut sheet feeder 1, the pickup roller 11 and the sub-pickup roller 12 are driven only when the paper is fed, and must not be driven at other times.

As a method of driving the pickup rollers 11 and 12, there are a conventional method using a driving force of a line feed motor for driving a platen 20 and the like of the printer 2, and a method using a dedicated motor.

In the case of using the driving force of the line feed motor, since it is necessary to drive only at the time of feeding the paper, it is necessary to provide a clutch, and an electromagnetic clutch or a mechanical clutch is used.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, the prior art has the following problems.

In the case of using a dedicated motor, wiring for the motor, the motor drive circuit, and the printer 2 is required, which not only makes the device expensive but also exposes the connection wiring to the outside, generates unnecessary radio waves, and is susceptible to electrostatic noise.

Those using an electromagnetic clutch can use the driving force of the motor of the printer, but the electromagnetic clutch is expensive, requires wiring with the printer 2, generates unnecessary radio waves, and is susceptible to electrostatic noise.

The mechanism using the mechanical clutch can use the driving force of the motor of the printer, is inexpensive, and has the advantage of not requiring the wiring to the printer 2, but to connect and disconnect the mechanical clutch, the motor is rotated in the normal and reverse directions. Since a mechanical operation such as unlocking or closing the key is required, a time lag therebetween is large and throughput is poor.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cut sheet feeder which has a good throughput, does not generate unnecessary radio waves, is not affected by static electricity noise, and can drive the pickup roller at low cost.

[Means for solving the problem]

 FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention is a cut sheet feeder mounted on a printer 2 in which a platen 20 is rotationally driven by a feed motor 24, and which contacts a cut sheet PP stored in a hopper 10. A clutch 17 intermittently connected to the pickup roller 11 for feeding the cut sheet PP toward the platen 20 by rotating
In the cut sheet feeder having the following, the clutch 17 is a speed clutch for interrupting the rotation of the feed motor 24 to the pickup roller 11 by the rotation speed of the feed motor 24, and the feed motor 24 is In the case of rotating at a speed of 1, the pickup roller 11 is connected by connecting the speed clutch.
When the platen 20 is driven to rotate and the feed motor 24 is rotated at a second speed lower than the first speed, the speed clutch is disengaged and only the platen 20 is driven to rotate. It is characterized by doing.

[Action]

In the present invention, to drive the pickup roller 11, a speed clutch 17 that connects and disconnects according to the rotational speed is used, the feed motor 24 is fed at a high speed, the speed clutch 17 is connected, and the pickup roller 11 is driven to cut the cut sheet. Simultaneously, the platen 20 is driven to discharge the cut sheet before the printing is completed. This prevents overlap between cut sheets and improves throughput.

Further, since electric connection with the printer 2 is unnecessary, unnecessary radio waves are not generated, and there is no influence of static electricity noise.

In addition, since connection and disconnection are performed by controlling the speed of the motor instead of the forward / reverse rotation as in the case of a mechanical clutch, there is no time lag, the throughput can be improved, and the cost can be reduced.

〔Example〕

(A) Description of one embodiment FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the speed clutch of FIG.

In the figure, the same components as those shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 are denoted by the same symbols.

 The description will be made with reference to FIG.

The line feed (LF) motor 24 meshes with the gear 25b of the platen 20 by the gear 25a, and rotates the platen 20.

The gear 25b of the platen 20 is the cut sheet feeder 1
The ejection roller 15 is rotated by the gear 18b of the ejection roller 15 which meshes with the transmission gear 18a on the side of the side and meshes with the transmission gear 18a.

On the opposite side of the axis of the ejection roller 15, a gear 18c
And meshes with the gear 18f of the feed roller 14 via the transmission gears 18d and 18e to rotate the feed roller 14.

On the other hand, the transmission gear 18d meshes with a gear 18f provided on the speed clutch 17.

The speed clutch 17 is provided on the shaft 11a of the pickup roller 11, and the transmission gear 18h of the shaft 11a meshes with the drive gear 18j of the sub pickup roller 12 via the intermediate gear 18i.

Therefore, when the LF motor 24 rotates, the platen 20, the ejection roller 15, and the feed roller 14 rotate, and when the speed clutch 17 is connected, the pickup roller 11 and the sub pickup roller 12 also rotate.

As shown in FIG. 3 (A), the speed clutch 17 includes an outer shaft 17a having serrated teeth on its inner surface, a hook 17c rotatable around a branch SP, and a recovery spring b for the hook 17c. The outer shaft 17a is connected to the shaft 11a of the pickup roller 11, and the inner shaft 17b is provided with a gear 18g.

Accordingly, the inner shaft 17b is rotated by driving the LF motor 24.

When the inner shaft 17b is stopped or rotating at a low speed, the clutch 17 at this speed has a hook 17 as shown in FIG.
c is located on the center side of the inner shaft 17b by the recovery spring b.

On the other hand, when the inner shaft 17b rotates at a high speed, the hook 17c is moved to the branch SP by centrifugal force as shown in FIG. 3 (B).
Centering around the recovery spring b, jumps out of the inner shaft 17b, and the tip of the hook 17c meshes with the teeth inside the outer shaft 17c.

As a result, the outer shaft 1 is rotated by the rotation of the inner shaft 17b.
7a also rotates, indicating that the clutch is engaged.

The speed required for this connection can be adjusted as desired by the spring force of the recovery spring b.

Thus, the speed clutch 17 is a kind of mechanical clutch utilizing centrifugal force.

 Next, the operation of FIGS. 2 and 3 will be described.

The LF motor 24 rotates at that speed for line feed (LF), FF (form feed), and fine line feed.
20, the ejection roller 15 and the feed roller 14 are rotated to perform a line feed of the cut sheet PP.

This driving force is also transmitted to the inner shaft 17b of the speed clutch 17 by the gear 18g. At this rotational speed, the centrifugal force is small, and the state shown in FIG.
17 is disconnected and disconnected.

When feeding the cut sheet, the LF motor 24 is
Rotate at a speed higher than normal speed such as at times.

As a result, the inner shaft 17b of the speed clutch 17 also rotates at a high speed, and the hook 17c of the inner shaft 17b projects outward,
It meshes with the teeth inside the outer shaft 17a.

Thereby, the speed clutch 17 is connected, and the outer shaft 17a rotates according to the inner shaft 17b.

For this reason, the shaft 11a of the pickup roller 11 rotates,
As the pickup roller 11 rotates, the gears 18h, 1
The sub pickup roller 12 is also rotated by 8i and 18j, and the cut sheet PP is fed out from the hopper 10.

The high-speed rotation time may be a time until the cut sheet is fed to the feed roller 14 by the pickup roller 11.

Also, at this time, the feed roller 14, the platen 20, and the ejection roller 15 also rotate at high speed, but at the time of sheet feeding, there is no cut sheet on the platen 20 or the cut sheet before printing is completed is waited for discharge. State
The sheet is discharged in synchronization with the feeding of the next cut sheet. The discharging operation at this time has an important meaning that it prevents overlap with the next cut sheet and contributes to improvement in throughput.

After the feeding, when the LF motor 24 returns to the normal speed, the centrifugal force of the inner shaft 17b decreases in the speed clutch 17 as described above, and the hook 17c returns to the inner shaft 17b side by the recovery spring b, and the speed clutch 17 Is cut off, and the pickup rollers 11, 12 stop.

On the other hand, the fed cut sheet PP is
Through the guide plate 21, the guide roller 22,
The sheet is sent by the platen 20 and set at a predetermined position.

At this time, the cut sheet before printing is completed at the same time
The sheet is discharged in synchronization with the fed cut sheet.

Since the speed clutch 17 is provided for driving the pickup roller 11 in this manner, connection and disconnection of the speed clutch 17, that is, driving and stopping of the pickup roller 11 can be performed only by controlling the speed of the LF motor 24.

For this reason, since there is no need for electrical coupling with the printer 1, unnecessary radio waves are not generated, and there is no influence from static electricity noise.

In addition, the configuration can be made inexpensive without the need for an electric cable or a drive circuit, the time lag is small, and the throughput is good.

(B) Description of Another Embodiment In the above-described embodiment, the speed clutch having the configuration shown in FIG. 3 has been described. However, it is sufficient that the connection / disconnection is performed according to the speed. A connection / disconnection configuration depending on the type can be adopted.

Also, the cut sheet feeder has been described with the configuration of FIG. 4, but may have another configuration.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, the present invention can be variously modified according to the gist of the present invention, and these are not excluded from the present invention.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

Since the speed clutch is used, connection / disconnection is performed only by controlling the rotation speed of the feed motor, so there is no need for electrical coupling with the printer, generating unnecessary radio waves and being not affected by static electricity noise. .

In addition, the rotation of the pickup roller for feeding the cut sheet from the hopper and the rotation of the platen for discharging the cut sheet after printing can be performed at the same time. Thus, the effect that the throughput is improved is obtained.

This is a kind of mechanical clutch, which can be configured at low cost, and can be realized at low cost because no drive circuit and connection cable are required.

Since connection / disconnection is performed depending on the speed, the time lag is small and the throughput is good.

[Brief description of the drawings]

 FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the speed clutch shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. In the drawing, 1 ... cut sheet feeder, 2 ... printer, 10 ... hopper, 11 ... pickup roller, 17 ... speed clutch, 18 ... power transmission mechanism, 20 ... platen, 23 ... print head, 24 ... Feed motor.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cut sheet feeder mounted on a printer in which a platen is rotationally driven by a feed motor, wherein the cut sheet is rotated in contact with a cut sheet stored in a hopper. A cut sheet feeder having a clutch intermittently connected to a pickup roller for feeding to the feed roller, wherein the clutch is a speed clutch that intermittently rotates the feed motor to the pickup roller by the rotation speed of the feed motor. And when the feed motor rotates at a first speed, the platen rotates together with the pickup roller by connecting the speed clutch, and the feed motor is slower than the first speed. When rotating at the second speed, the speed Cut sheet feeder, characterized in that for rotating only said platen by a non-engaging the clutch.