JP3256612B2 - Sheet material loading 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 sheet material stacking apparatus for feeding sheet materials such as transfer paper and recording paper used in copying machines, printers, facsimiles, and various other devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, when a transfer sheet is fed in a copying machine, generally, a transfer sheet of a predetermined size is stacked in advance, and the transfer sheet such as a feed roller in the copying machine body is used to transfer the transfer sheet. The sheet is fed one by one from the upper transfer sheet.

In this case, the width of the paper stacking section is set to about 1 to 2 mm for each size of the transfer paper in consideration of the dimensional variation between the side edges when the transfer paper is cut and the expansion due to moisture absorption. Is provided as a margin. However, since such a gap is provided, a gap is formed between the transport reference surface and the skew at the time of feeding.

[0004] For this reason, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 327436 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H4-235832, a holding member is provided at a sheet material stacking position and is held in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, and skew due to the influence of a gap is prevented by the holding member. Something like that has been proposed.

[0005]

However, in such a system, since the pressing member is disposed at the sheet material loading position, it comes into contact with a large amount of sheet material, and the uppermost sheet is fed. The abutment pressure is dispersed besides the sheet material, and the essential sheet material to be fed cannot always be sufficiently held, resulting in unstable operation.

[0006]

[0007]

[0008]

According to the present invention, a sheet material is provided.
Separate the width of the loading section by adding a slight gap
A pair of transport reference planes is provided, and a stack loaded on the loading section is provided.
So that the sheet material is fed from the top sheet material
In the sheet material stacking device, the rotation reference
Supported on the top sheet by its own weight
At the same time, a pressing member pressed in the sheet material surface direction is provided,
The presser that protrudes downstream in the transport direction from the loading end.
The end of the member is bent in a substantially L shape in the sheet material surface direction.
Width regulating portion is formed with, the lower edge of the width regulating portion in front of the presser member, to form a cutout to the lowermost position of the width regulating unit and the position lower than the loading unit.

[0009]

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

According to the present invention, the loading unit destination respect presser member
The width regulating part is bent at the tip protruding downstream in the conveyance direction from the end.
Since it is curved, the holding member is only for the sheet material being fed.
Sheet material holding effect by the
The sheet material being fed can be held stably and
It is possible to-menu prevention, furthermore, to form a notch on the lower edge of the width regulating section before the pressing member, since the lowermost end position of the width regulating portion is so can be a position lower than the stacking section, the remaining amount Even when the number of sheets decreases, the skew prevention effect can be reliably maintained up to the final sheet material.

[0013]

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS.
It will be described based on. Since this configuration example is applied to, for example, a transfer paper feed unit of a copying machine, a pair of transport reference surfaces 3 is provided across a bottom plate (loading unit) 2 on which a sheet material 1 such as transfer paper of a predetermined size is loaded. Is arranged. A pickup roller 4 is pressed against the uppermost surface of the stacked sheet materials 1 so as to be able to sequentially feed sheets from the uppermost sheet material 1. The bottom plate 2 is set by a lifting mechanism (not shown) so as to rise as the stacked sheet materials 1 are reduced by feeding, so that the height of the uppermost sheet material 1 is always kept constant. ing.

Here, the transport reference surface 3 is not strictly separated by the width of the bottom plate 2 but also takes into account the variation between the side edges when the sheet material 1 is cut and the expansion due to moisture absorption, and the like. The materials 1 are spaced apart by a size obtained by adding a gap of about 1 to 2 mm to each size.

A shaft 5 is erected on the transport reference surface 3 so as to be located above the position of the uppermost sheet material 1.
The shaft 7 of the holding member 6 is attached. Here, a mounting hole 8 for the shaft 5 is formed in the shaft portion 7 as a horizontally elongated hole. Therefore, the holding member 6 is supported so as to be rotatable in a vertical plane with respect to the shaft 5 and to be able to swing slightly in a horizontal plane. As a result, the pressing member 6 having a shape extending downstream of the shaft 5 in the transport direction comes into contact with the uppermost sheet material 1 by its own weight. Further, a stopper portion 9 that straddles the upper edge of the transport reference surface 3 is also formed in a bent shape in order to restrict an unnecessary downward rotation operation. Further, the shaft portion 7 of the pressing member 6
A leaf spring 10 whose tip is bent so as to abut on the transport reference surface 3 is caulked on the side. The pressing force of the leaf spring 10 against the transport reference surface 3 causes the pressing member 6 to It is configured to have a pressing force in the surface direction (horizontal direction) of the material 1.

The tip of such a holding member 6 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the bottom plate 2 is formed to protrude to a position downstream of the leading end position of the stacked sheet materials 1 in the transport direction from the leading end position of the stacked sheet materials 1. This leading end is bent in a substantially L-shape in the sheet material surface direction (horizontal plane direction), and a width regulating portion 11 is formed so that the width becomes narrower (less than the width of the target sheet material 1) toward the leading end. ing. When the holding member 6 is attached, the leaf spring 10 is inclined by the reaction force of pressing the conveyance reference surface 3 in the sheet material surface direction. Further, an upper surface regulating portion 13 separated from the width regulating portion 11 by a notch 12 is formed at a leading end of the pressing member 6 in a sheet material loading direction in a shape bent downward. , Described below).

In such a configuration, FIG. 1A shows a steady state before sheet feeding. Thus, at the time of paper feeding, the uppermost sheet material 1 is pulled out by the pickup roller 4 in the transport direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. The pulled-out sheet material 1 comes into contact with the bending of the width regulating portion 11 at the tip of the pressing member 6, and is fed while expanding the width regulating portion 11 of the pressing member 6 against the pressing force of the pressing member 6. This allows
The sheet material 1 is fed by the holding member 6 in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction, that is, in a state where the width direction is held and guided, and skew does not occur. In particular,
The width regulating portion 11 is provided at a position protruding from the tip end position of the bottom plate 2.
, The pressing member 6 is provided only on the sheet material 1 being fed.
Works, and stable operation is achieved.

The sheet material 1 stacked on the bottom plate 2
The following describes how to deal with the case where is curled. Bottom plate 2
In the case where the sheet material 1 stacked on the sheet 1 has a leading end curl and the horizontal upper surface regulating portion 13 ′, the leading end corner of the sheet material 1 passes through the notch 12 on the width regulating portion 11 as shown in FIG. It may be possible to get on. In this case, the pressing of the sheet material 1 by the pressing member 6 (width regulating portion 11) is performed.
Cannot be obtained, and skew may occur. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the width regulating portion 11a and the upper surface regulating portion 13 are provided without the notch 12 at the tip.
It is conceivable to use a pressing member 6a made of resin having a. The function of the pressing member 6 is to apply a certain amount of pressure on the sheet material 1 so that the sheet material 1 does not jump up. It is necessary that they are in contact with each other. In the case of resin, the specific gravity is smaller than that of sheet metal, and a sufficient pressure cannot be obtained depending on the own weight.

In this embodiment, taking such points into consideration,
An upper surface regulating portion 13 is formed. That is, the upper surface regulating portion 13 inclined downward so as to become lower toward the front end.
As shown in FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. 3, the gap formed by the notch 12 does not exist above the width regulating portion 11 by bending the portion to a position lower than the upper edge of the width regulating portion 11 when viewed from the lateral direction. It has been.

According to this, the holding member 6 is made of sheet metal from which a sufficient pressure can be obtained by its own weight.
Even if the sheet material 1 has curl, the width regulating portion 1 is surely provided.
1, the paper can be fed with its width regulated.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The same parts as those shown in the above configuration example are denoted by the same reference numerals. In this embodiment, even when the number of sheet materials 1 on the bottom plate 2 becomes small, skew can be reliably prevented up to the final sheet.

First, when the sheet material 1 remaining on the bottom plate 2 is reduced when the holding member 6 of the embodiment is used, finally, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, In addition, the bent lower edge 14 of the pressing member 6 at a position before the width regulating portion 11 is in an inclined state in which the lower edge 14 contacts the tip of the bottom plate 2. In this state, a wedge-shaped gap 15 is formed between the bent lower edge 14 and the bottom plate 2 at the same height position as the width regulating portion 11. For this reason, when the remaining amount is small, the rear end corner of the sheet material 1 enters the gap 15, so that the sheet material holding effect of the pressing member 6 cannot be obtained and skew may occur.

Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The notch 16 is formed such that a step is formed at the bent lower edge of the pressing member 6 at a position before the width regulating portion 11. According to this, when the remaining amount becomes small, the pressing member 6 is pivotally displaced downward by the amount of the notch 16, and the width regulating portion 11 falls to a position lower than the bottom plate 2. . Therefore, according to the present embodiment, although a wedge-shaped gap is formed between the lower edge of the notch 16 and the bottom plate 2, the width regulating portion 11 at the leading end which has a holding effect on the sheet material 1 is formed. Because it is a lower position than such a gap part,
The sheet material 1 does not enter the gap, and the width regulating portion 1
1 and fed. Therefore, skew can be reliably prevented even when the remaining amount is small.

Further, a modification of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This modified example is a sheet material 1 having a weak stiffness such as thin paper.
Even in the case of (1), the skew is reliably prevented without causing breakage of the ear. Specifically, a protruding lower surface regulating portion 17 which is bent inward (in the direction of the sheet material surface) from the lower edge of the width regulating portion 11 formed at the tip of the pressing member 6 is integrally formed. Things.

According to such a configuration, the lower surface of the sheet material 1 fed while being held by the width regulating portion 11 is also held by the lower surface regulating portion 17. Therefore,
Even if the sheet material 1 to be fed is a stiff material such as a thin paper, the sheet material 1 does not bend when hitting the width regulating portion 11, thereby receiving the original skew prevention effect.

[0027]

[0028]

[0029]

According to the present invention, the width of the stacking portion of the sheet material
A pair of conveyances separated by a dimension with a slight gap added to the dimension
A reference surface is provided and the sheet material stacked on the
Sheet material that is fed in order from the upper sheet material
The loading device is rotatably supported on the transport reference surface.
And touches the top sheet by its own weight.
A holding member pressed in the direction of the sheet material surface;
The tip of the holding member protruded downstream from the tip in the transport direction
A width regulating portion bent in a substantially L-shape in the surface direction of the sheet material
, So only the top sheet material being fed is held down.
The sheet material holding effect of the member can be exerted,
Therefore, the sheet material being fed can be held stably and reliably.
It is possible to skew prevention, further to the lower edge of the width regulating section before the pressing member, so to form a cutout to the lower position than the loading unit the lowermost position of the width regulating section, on the stacking section Even when the remaining amount becomes small, the sheet material holding effect can be maintained up to the final sheet material, and skew can be reliably prevented.

[0030]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example of a configuration serving as a basis of the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a schematic plan view of a steady state before feeding, and FIG. It is a top view.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a pressing member including an enlarged view of a tip shape corresponding to another configuration example .

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining inconvenience when the tip is flat.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an assumed example of a tip shape.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view for explaining inconvenience when the remaining amount becomes small.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view thereof.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a holding member showing a modification of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sheet material 2 Stacking part 3 Transport reference surface 6 Holding member 11 Width regulating part 13 Top regulating part 16 Notch 17 Bottom regulating part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pair of conveyance reference planes are arranged at a distance obtained by adding a slight gap to a width dimension of a sheet material stacking section,
In the sheet material stacking device configured to sequentially feed the sheet material stacked on the stacking portion from the top sheet material, the sheet material is rotatably supported on the conveyance reference surface and is placed on the top sheet material by its own weight. A width restricting portion provided with a pressing member that is in contact with and pressed in the sheet material surface direction, and is bent substantially in an L-shape in the sheet material surface direction at the tip of the pressing member protruding downstream in the transport direction from the stacking portion tip; forming a said
At the lower edge in front of the width regulating part of the holding member,
Form a notch to set the end position lower than the loading section.
A sheet material stacking device characterized by being formed .