JP2971617B2 - Automatic paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic sheet feeder for selecting and conveying sheets such as originals one by one in a facsimile apparatus or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 8, an apparatus of this type includes a platen 2 on which a sheet 1 such as an original is placed, a sheet feed roller 3 for separating the sheets 1 one by one, and a separating piece. 4, an auxiliary roller 5 for feeding the paper 1 to the paper feed roller 3, a pair of transport rollers 6 for transporting the paper 1 selected by the paper feed roller 3 and the separation piece 4 to a reading unit (not shown), and the like. The paper 1 placed on the document table 2 is fed between the paper feed roller 3 and the separation piece 4 by the auxiliary roller 5, separated from the lowermost paper one by one, sent to the transport roller 6, and read by the reading unit. Had gone.

In such a conventional automatic paper feeder,
As shown in FIG. 9, the paper feed roller 3 and the auxiliary roller 5
The paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller shaft 8 are respectively attached to the paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller shaft 8 extending long on both sides, and the paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller shaft 8 are arranged at an interval wider than the width of the sheet to be used. Bearings 11 and 12 on the side plates 9 and 10
And 13 and 14 so as to be rotatable. Further, one ends of the paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller shaft 8 extend outside the side plate 10 and have gears 15 and 16 attached thereto. A motor 17 is attached to the side plate 10, and the rotational force of the motor 17 is applied to the motor shaft gear 1.
8, transmitted to the auxiliary roller 5 via the intermediate gear 19 and the gear 16, and further transmitted to the paper feed roller 3 via the intermediate gear 20 and the gear 15.

An automatic paper feeder that does not use an auxiliary roller is also known. In this case, the paper feed roller is also held by a shaft having a length longer than the paper width, and a portion outside the paper width is held. It was held rotatably by bearings (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-214548).

[0005]

However, according to this structure, the long paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller are used to hold the paper feed roller and the auxiliary roller on both side plates arranged at an interval larger than the paper width. The roller shaft 8 must be used, so that the paper feed roller shaft 7 and the auxiliary roller shaft 8
The area for incorporating the device must be ensured, which has been a major obstacle to downsizing the device. Further, the configuration is extremely inconvenient even when performing maintenance of the paper feed roller 3 with severe wear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an automatic sheet feeder which can reduce the area required for installation and can be easily maintained.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems by rotatably holding both ends of a paper feed roller shaft.
A pair of plate-shaped first bearing portions , a second bearing portion rotatably holding one end of an auxiliary roller shaft, and the auxiliary roller
The relay gear shaft that transmits the drive of the shaft to the feed roller shaft is held.
Bearing unit integrally provided with a third bearing portion to be carried
Wherein the sheet feeding roller is mounted on the head of the plate-shaped first bearing portion.
The plate-shaped first bearing portion by being pressed by the roller shaft.
A locking claw for bending, and a paper feed roller below the locking claw.
And an opening for inserting and locking the shaft .

[0008]

According to the present invention, the length of both ends of the paper feed roller shaft and the length of one end of the auxiliary roller shaft can be shortened by the above-mentioned structure, and therefore, a required set area can be reduced. When mounting the automatic paper feeder on the facsimile machine, there is ample space between the side plates on both sides and the paper feed roller and between the side plate on one side and the auxiliary roller. Accordingly, the size of the device can be reduced. Further, since the feed roller shaft is shortened, maintenance of the feed roller becomes extremely easy. In addition,
To hold the paper roller shaft, attach the shaft to the head of the plate-shaped bearing.
A locking claw that flexes the plate-shaped bearing when attaching
The shaft is inserted under the locking claw to hold it rotatably.
Paper feed without additional components
Rollers can be easily mounted, improving assembly efficiency.
You can aim up.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an automatic paper feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a state where the automatic paper feeder is incorporated in a facsimile machine, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a bearing unit used in the embodiment. The same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. 1 to 5, reference numeral 22 denotes a bearing unit that holds the sheet feeding roller 3 and the auxiliary roller 5, and details thereof will be described later. Reference numeral 23 denotes a feed roller shaft fixed to the feed roller 3, and reference numeral 24 denotes a gear attached to one end of the feed roller shaft 23 via a one-way clutch. As shown in the drawing, the portion of the paper feed roller shaft 23 extending to both sides of the paper feed roller 3 is made extremely short.
It does not extend to the side plates 9 and 10 on both sides. Reference numeral 25 denotes an auxiliary roller shaft fixed to the auxiliary roller 5;
The portion that extends from one side (to the left in FIG. 2) is made very short and does not extend to the side plate 9. 26 is a gear attached to the short end of the auxiliary roller shaft 25;
Is an intermediate gear arranged to mesh with the gears 24 and 26. These gears 24, 26 and 27 constitute driving force transmitting means for transmitting the driving force of the auxiliary roller to the sheet feeding roller.

The side of the auxiliary roller shaft 25 opposite to the side on which the gear 26 is mounted is elongated as in the prior art.
It is rotatably held on the side plate 10 through the base plate 4. A gear 16 is attached to the end. A motor 17 is held on the side plate 10, and its driving force is transmitted through a motor shaft gear 18, an intermediate gear 19, and a gear 16 to the auxiliary roller 5.
It is configured to be transmitted to. Here, as can be clearly understood from FIG. 2, since there is an extra space between the bearing unit 22 and the side plate 10, the motor 17 is placed in the space, that is, the bearing unit 22 in order to effectively use the space. Is located next to By employing this configuration, no extra space is required for disposing the motor 17 and the entire facsimile apparatus can be downsized. Further, since a space is generated between the bearing unit 22 and the side plate 9, the space can be used for mounting appropriate parts of the facsimile machine, so that the entire apparatus can be further downsized.

The bearing unit 22 has, at both ends thereof, a feed roller bearing portion 30 for rotatably supporting both ends of the feed roller shaft 23. The paper feed roller bearing 30 includes a support base 31 on which the paper feed roller shaft 23 is mounted and a locking claw 32 having a hole 32a through which the paper feed roller shaft 23 passes. As can be clearly understood from FIGS.
2a and a head 32d having an inclined surface 32c. The end of the feed roller shaft 23 is pressed into the inclined surface 32c of the head in the direction indicated by the arrow C, thereby locking. The claw 32 bends in the direction indicated by the arrow D, and the paper feed roller shaft 23 can be inserted into the hole 32a. The length of the paper feed roller shaft 23 is determined such that when both ends are inserted into the holes 32a of the locking claws 32, the ends thereof substantially penetrate the column portions 32b. With this configuration, if for some reason the paper feed roller shaft 23
When the paper feed roller shaft 23 exerts an upward force P on the upper surface 32e of the hole 32a when an upward force is applied, the force P remains true at the center point O when the locking claw 32 bends. Acting upward, there is no force acting on the locking claw 32 in the direction of arrow D, so that the paper feed roller shaft 23 does not come off from the locking claw 32 carelessly.

3, 4 and 5, the bearing unit 22 further has two upright plates 34 and 35 near one of the feed roller bearings 30. As shown in FIG. One upright plate 34
Is formed with an auxiliary roller bearing portion 34a formed of a through hole for rotatably holding one end of the auxiliary roller shaft 25.
Bearing grooves 34b and 35b for rotatably holding the shaft of the intermediate gear 27 are formed in both the upright plates 34 and 35. In the drawing, reference numeral 37 denotes a mounting portion for mounting the bearing unit 22 to a base (not shown) of the apparatus. The bearing unit 22 is integrally formed of resin or the like.

The method of using the automatic paper feeder configured as described above will be described below. Bearing unit 22
In order to attach the paper feed roller 3 and the auxiliary roller 5 to the paper feed roller shaft 23 to which the paper feed roller 3 and the gear 24 are mounted, the paper feed roller shaft 23 is pushed into the paper feed roller bearing 30 from above, and then the intermediate gear 27 shafts as bearing grooves 34b,
Then, one end of the auxiliary roller shaft 25 to which the auxiliary roller 5 is attached is inserted into the auxiliary roller bearing 34a, and the gear 26 is attached to the end. As a result, the feed roller 3, the auxiliary roller 5, and the intermediate gear 27 are held by the bearing unit 22. Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the bearing unit 22 is attached to a predetermined position between the side plates 9 and 10 using a mounting portion 37, and the right end of the auxiliary roller shaft 25 is attached to the side plate 10 via the bearing 14. Then, the gear 16 is attached to the tip. Also, the side plate 10
The motor 17, the intermediate gear 19, and the like are mounted on the gear 16 and mesh with the gear 16. As described above, the automatic sheet feeder of the present embodiment can be assembled.

When the automatic sheet feeding is performed, the power of the motor 17 is transmitted to the auxiliary roller 5 via the motor shaft gear 18, the intermediate gear 19, the gear 16, and the auxiliary roller shaft 25. Power is transmitted to the paper feed roller 3 via the gear 26, the intermediate gear 27 and the gear 24, and the paper feed roller shaft 23. As a result, the auxiliary roller 5 and the sheet feeding roller 3 rotate, and sheet feeding is performed similarly to the conventional apparatus shown in FIG.

[0015]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention
According to the above, both ends of the feed roller shaft and one end of the auxiliary roller shaft
And a relay gear that transmits the drive of the auxiliary roller to the paper feed roller
The structure for holding the shaft is provided as an integral bearing unit.
Therefore, the number of components required for each bearing can be reduced.
Not only can the number of parts be significantly reduced,
This has the effect that the size of the device can be reduced.
Also, the head of the plate that holds the feed roller shaft of this unit
A locking claw, and a feed roller below the locking claw.
An opening for inserting the shaft is provided so that the paper feed roller shaft faces
Press the plate to the outside, and the locking claw moves the plate outward.
Deflection, and the deflection of the plate part returns after passing the locking claw
Paper feed roller in the opening provided below the locking claw.
The shaft is inserted and held rotatably. Thus, the axis
Since the holding member is integrated into the unit,
Therefore, the number of parts can be reduced. This application is a paper feed roller
Equivalent effect even when the configuration is such that the auxiliary roller is replaced with the auxiliary roller
Needless to say, this is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an automatic sheet feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a state in which the automatic sheet feeder of FIG. 1 is incorporated in a facsimile machine.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a bearing unit used in the embodiment.

6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a paper feed roller bearing in the bearing unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the paper feed roller bearing shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of a conventional automatic paper feeder.

FIG. 9 is a schematic plan view showing the conventional apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper 3 Feed roller 4 Separation piece 5 Auxiliary roller 9, 10 Side plate 14 Bearing 17 Motor 22 Bearing unit 23 Feed roller shaft 24 Gear 25 Auxiliary roller shaft 26 Gear 27 Intermediate gear 30 Feed roller bearing 34a Auxiliary roller bearing

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A paper feed roller shaft is rotatably held at both ends .
A pair of plate-shaped first bearings , a second bearing for rotatably holding one end of an auxiliary roller shaft, and the auxiliary roller shaft
Holding the relay gear shaft that transmits the drive of the
A bearing unit integrally provided with a third bearing portion
And the sheet feeding row is provided on the head of the plate-shaped first bearing portion.
The plate-shaped first bearing portion is bent by being pressed by the shaft.
A locking pawl, and a feed roller shaft below the pawl.
And an opening for inserting and locking the sheet.