JP3124660B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a paper deck storage for storing and feeding a large amount of paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, not only paper feeding from a cassette provided as a whole but also a large amount of paper is located at a lower portion of a main body as shown in FIG. Many have a paper deck (hereinafter referred to as a deck) that stores and feeds the paper. In FIG. 6, there is a middle plate 102 in the storage 101, and the middle plate 102
On the upper side, for example, about 2,000 sheets of paper 103 are stacked, and the uppermost sheet moves to a predetermined sheet feeding point by moving the middle plate 102 upward and downward. Thereafter, the paper is conveyed by a paper feed roller 104, separated into one sheet by a separation roller 105, and separated into vertical path rollers 106, 107, 10.
The sheets are conveyed upward one after another by 8, 109 and sent to the image forming section. A sensor (not shown) for detecting the position in the height direction of the paper is provided at the top when the paper is successively fed, so that the middle plate 102 is gradually moved upward by a signal from the sensor. The paper feed point is controlled to be at a fixed position.

When refilling the paper 103, a storage 101
Is pulled out of the copying machine body A ',
The sheet 103 falls to the lowest point and a predetermined amount of paper 103 is loaded. At present, storage 101 from the front to the front of the copier
, The front-loading type is becoming common. When the paper 103 is supplied to the storage box 101 and the storage box 101 is set in the copying machine main unit A ', the storage box 101 is detected and the middle plate 102 is automatically moved upward and stopped at a predetermined position.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional image forming apparatus, a paper feed failure occurs in the paper feed section of the deck, and the storage box 101 is used to remove the paper having the paper feed failure. If you try to pull it out,
2 falls to the lowermost position as in the case of paper supply. However, with such a current configuration, when the storage box 101 is pulled out to remove one sheet of paper at the top, the entirety of the paper 103 falls. Therefore, when the storage box 101 is set at a predetermined position in the main body A ′ after removal. The middle plate 102 that has fallen to the lowest point
The uppermost paper on 10 2 must be raised to a predetermined position. During this time, even if you try to feed paper from the deck,
The machine can not be used to naturally operation, the user is of the intermediate plate 10 2 must wait until the end of the rise.
In particular, when only a small number of sheets are stacked on the middle plate 102, the waiting time becomes longer.

In order to pull the storage 1 out of the main body A ', it is necessary to retract the paper feed roller 104 upward so as to cut off the contact between the paper feed roller 104 and the paper. If the paper is not moved downward by an amount, the uppermost paper comes into contact with the main body frame and the like. However, it is not necessary to drop the middle plate 102 to the lowest point to remove the top sheet.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the copying machine main body A '. The right side is the front side of the main body, and half of the storage box 101 is inside the main body A'.
This shows a state in which a half is outside the main body A '. In this state, the middle plate 102 has fallen to the lowermost position, and the stacked paper 103 is about half the capacity. In this state, when the user inserts the arm into the storage box 101, the arm enters the direction shown by the arrow, reaches above the rear end regulating plate 110 of the paper 103, and enters the body A '. Unlike the cassette, the storage box 101 cannot be separated from the main body A 'and cannot be detached alone. Therefore, it is rare to put a hand in the main body A'. Paper feed roller 104 and separation roller 10
Not only 5 but also many mechanical parts are provided, and there is a possibility that a finger or the like may be damaged. Further, when the main unit is turned off, the main unit is in a standby state in which power is applied when the storage box 101 is pulled out. May occur.

From this point, dropping to the lowest point before the middle plate 102 becomes ready for paper replenishment creates an opening through which an arm or the like can enter into the main body A ', which is considered from the viewpoint of operational safety. It is not a favorable state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of efficiently moving paper stored in a storage according to the purpose. To provide.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a storage for storing paper and a moving means for vertically moving the paper stored in the storage are provided. In the image forming apparatus, wherein the entire storage can be pulled out to the outside of the apparatus, when the storage is started to be pulled out from a predetermined position in the apparatus main body, the moving means is lowered by a predetermined amount downward at a first descent point. And the moving means is further lowered to the second descent point in conjunction with the storage being pulled out of the apparatus main body and reaching a predetermined position.

Further, when the entire paper stored in the storage is pulled out of the apparatus main body, the moving means may start moving to the second descending point.

[0011]

In the image forming apparatus constructed as described above, the paper stored in the storage is lowered step by step at the first descent point and the second descent point and stopped.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the storage of the present invention. In this figure, the storage is viewed obliquely from the rear side, and a wire 3 is fixed to a middle plate 2 as a moving means in the storage 1, and the wire 3 is a wire pulley via a diverting pulley 4. Multiplied by five. The wire pulley 5 has a gear 5a that rotates in a fixed manner with the pulley. This gear 5a
Is an input gear and is driven.

A gear 6 for driving the storage 1 is located at a fixed position of the main unit, and receives power from a drive motor (not shown).
Rotate in the direction of the arrow. There is a gear 8 that meshes with the gear 6 when the storage 1 is in a paper feedable state. The gear 8 rotates integrally with the shaft 7, and the gear 9 also rotates integrally. A pulley 14 is also fixed on the shaft 7, and a wire 15 is hung on the shaft 7 in the same manner as the wire 3 on the rear side, and is connected to the intermediate plate 2 via a deflecting pulley 16.

The driving force transmitted to the gear 9 is transmitted to the gear 5a via the clutch gear 10. A control ring 11 is engaged with the clutch gear 10, and a lever 11a projects from the control ring 11. A lever 12 that is engaged with the tip of the lever 11a is supported so as to rotate about an axis 12a. When the lever 12 rotates in the direction of the arrow, the lever 11a on the control ring 11 also rotates. When the storage 1 having such a configuration is pulled out in the direction of arrow A, the release lever 13 and the lever 12 fixed on the main body by means not shown are engaged. FIG. 2 shows the arrangement of the drive gears in the direction of arrow B. The wire 3 runs behind the gear 9.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the clutch unit. The clutch gear 10 is integrally provided with a drum 10a, and a clutch spring 17 is provided around the drum 10a. The clutch spring 17 has a certain amount of interference to the clutch drum 1
0a.

The clutch spring 17 has a hook 17a and a hook 17c. The hook 17c enters a square hole 18a of an output drum 18 fixed to the main body of the storage 1 by means not shown, and is fixed in the rotation direction. Will be done. A clutch spring 17 is provided around the drum portion 18b of the output drum 18.
Fits. Further, the hook 17a enters a notch 11b in the control ring 11 that covers the outer periphery of the clutch spring 17.

When the clutch gear 10 rotates in the direction of arrow D, the gear 5a also rotates and the intermediate plate 2 rises. This is Drum 1
This is because the clutch gear 10 is in a rotatable state when the inner periphery of the clutch spring 17 slides with the inner gear 0a. In this state, when the storage 1 is pulled out to the outside of the main body, the connection of the gears 6 and 8 is disconnected, and the middle plate 2 tends to descend. Then it tightens the clutch spring 17 for a moment the clutch gear 1 0 is rotated in the direction of arrow C, the clutch gear 10 at the time of fully interference stops rotating. This is the first descent point. The operation of the clutch spring 17 will be described with reference to FIG. When the clutch gear 10 raises the middle plate 2, the hook 17a
Is in the state of 17e, and the clutch gear 10 can rotate. However, when the storage 1 comes out of the predetermined position of the apparatus main body, the hook 17a moves to 17d, and the clutch spring 17 tightens the drum 10a to stop the rotation. In this case, since the clutch spring 17 does not wind unless the drum 10a rotates by a predetermined amount, the intermediate plate 2 is slightly lowered downward. However, when the storage 1 comes out to a position sufficient to supply paper, the release lever 13 is released.
And the lever 12 are engaged with each other, whereby the lever 11a moves upward.
The cut surface 1c pushes the surface of the hook 17a on the 17b side, thereby releasing the force by which the clutch spring 17 tightens the drum 10a. As shown in FIG. 4, the hook moves to the position 17f. As a result, the clutch gear 10 starts rotating in the direction C, and the intermediate plate 2 falls to the lowest point (second descending point).

(Other Embodiment) Another embodiment will be described with reference to a perspective view shown in FIG.

In the previous embodiment, the driving force required to raise the middle plate 2 was received from the main body via the gear.
As shown in FIG. 5, the storage 1 may have the lifter motor 19 exclusively, and the output gear 19a is directly meshed with the gear 20 coaxial with the pulley. The lifter motor 19 is supplied with electric power by means not shown. Further, the electric power is controlled by a controller (not shown) located on the main body side. When the storage 1 is pulled out in the direction of the arrow, the light-shielding plate 21 fixed to the storage 1 shields the photo-interrupter 22 fixed to the main body, and the signal is transmitted to the controller of the main body. Then, the controller determines that the storage 1 has come to the paper replenishable position, rotates the middle plate 2 in the reverse direction, and lowers the storage 1 to the lowest point.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the paper stored in the storage is lowered step by step at the first drop point and the second drop point and is stopped. It can respond efficiently according to the purpose such as paper supply. Also, the return time can be shortened.

Further, the paper descends to the second descending point by the moving means after the storage is pulled out of the apparatus main body. When the paper descends to the second descending point, the entrance into the apparatus main body is the storage. , Thereby eliminating the danger of damaging the conventional finger.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a storage box showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an arrangement of drive gears of a storage according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view showing an operation of a clutch of a storage according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a clutch spring of a storage according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a storage box showing another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a copying machine to which the present invention is directed.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus to which a conventional storage is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,101 Storage 2,102 Middle plate (moving means) 5 Wire pulley 5a, 6,8,9 Gear 7 shaft 10 Clutch gear 10a Drum 11 Control ring 17 Clutch spring 18 Output drum

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A storage for storing paper, and moving means for vertically moving the paper stored in the storage,
In the image forming apparatus wherein the entire storage can be pulled out to the outside of the apparatus, when the storage is started to be pulled out from a predetermined position in the apparatus main body, the moving means descends a predetermined amount downward and stops at a first descent point. The image forming apparatus is characterized in that, when the storage is pulled out of the apparatus main body and reaches a predetermined position, the moving means further descends to a second descending point in conjunction with the storage. 2. The image according to claim 1, wherein, when the entire paper stored in the storage is pulled out of the apparatus main body, the moving means starts moving to the second descending point. Forming equipment.