JP3372774B2 - Paper bundle transport device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the conveyance of laminated sheets (hereinafter referred to as sheet bundles) formed by laminating a plurality of transfer sheets, and particularly to sorting or sheet processing in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer. The present invention relates to a sheet bundle transporting device suitable for transporting a subsequent sheet bundle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer has a sorter, a plurality of identical originals are transferred by a required number of copies, and these transfer papers are sorted and arranged in parallel in a vertical direction. It is known to store one copy at a time. In particular, recently, it is known that a plurality of sheet bundles stored in a stacked state in a bin are provided with punching holes for binding and a sheet post-processing device for performing a stable process. Thus, the sheet bundle that has been subjected to the stable processing or punching processing is taken out from the bin. Further, sometimes, a sheet bundle is simply taken out from the bin without performing any sheet processing.

In such a case, the sheet bundle of each bin is once slid to the lower part of the sorter through the guide, and is moved to the upper part of the sorter through a predetermined conveying path that bypasses the inner part of the sorter and is provided on the sorter. It has been proposed that the sheets are discharged onto a discharge tray.

[0004]

By the way, in a proper place of the guide for transferring the sheet bundle on the bin to the discharge tray,
A pair of rollers that is driven and rotated about an axis orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction is provided, and the sheet bundle is conveyed to the downstream side by passing between both rollers.

However, since the sheet bundle has various thickness dimensions, it is difficult to always convey the sheet bundle properly, and the sheet bundle discharged onto the discharge tray above the sorter is not aligned. In many cases, it is in a messy state in which it is not performed at all, and there is a problem that the handling of the sheet bundle after that is troublesome.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to carry out orderly and surely carrying of a stack of papers in which a plurality of papers are stacked, and to carry it. An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet bundle conveying device that can easily handle a sheet bundle after completion.

[0007]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A sheet bundle transporting device for transporting at least a sorted sheet bundle to a downstream sheet bundle tray via a transport path, the sheet bundle transporting device being provided at an upstream portion of the transport path, and temporarily transporting the sheet bundle at an upstream portion of the transport path. A temporary stop member, a pair of roller shafts arranged immediately upstream of the temporary stop member, with the conveyance path sandwiched between them, and the pair of roller shafts, respectively. A pair of nip members provided so as to be integrally rotatable between a nip posture for nipping the upstream portion and a nip release posture for releasing the nip, and a rotation driving means for changing the posture of the pair of nip members are provided. It is characterized by becoming.

According to the present invention, the sheet bundle is guided to the conveying path by supplying the sheet bundle to the upstream end of the conveying path with the pair of nip members set in the nip releasing posture and facing each other. And moves to the downstream side, passes between the pair of nip members, reaches the temporary stop member, and is positioned.
By this positioning, the lower edge portion of the sheet bundle, which is not aligned, is aligned. In this state, the temporary stop of the sheet bundle is released, and both nip members are rotated in the opposite directions by the drive of the rotation driving means, so that the sheet bundle is moved to the downstream side in the conveyance path by the nip member that has moved to the nip posture. It is forcibly transported toward. Then, the edge of the sheet bundle that has been forcibly conveyed is aligned,
It is not necessary to manually align the edges of the sheet bundle, which is conventionally performed in the state where the sheet bundle is guided to the outside, and the sheet bundle can be easily handled.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the rotation driving means rotationally drives the rotary shaft from a time point when the positioning by the temporary stop member is released. It is what

According to the present invention, when the positioning of the sheet bundle is released, the pair of nip members are rotated by the rotation of the rotary drive shaft by the rotary drive means from that point, and the sheet bundle is nipped by the rotation of both the nip members. Then, it is forcibly transported toward the downstream side.

The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
In the invention described above, a biasing means for biasing one of the pair of roller shafts toward the other is provided.

According to the present invention, since the sheet bundle is in a good nip state in which it is constantly pressed and sandwiched by the pair of nip members by the urging force of the urging means, the sheet bundle is forcibly transferred by the driving rotation of the nip member. More surely done.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the sheet bundle transporting device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the nip member is a half-moon roller.

According to the invention, the upper and lower half-moon rollers are
With the strings facing each other, the nip release posture is set,
It takes a nip position with the arc portions facing each other.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the fourth aspect, the downstream side conveyance unit is located in the conveyance path from the pair of roller shafts to a position where the arc length of the nip member is not more than the arc length. It is characterized by being provided.

According to the present invention, the sheet bundle forcedly conveyed by the arc portions of the pair of rotating half-moon rollers arrives at the downstream-side convey section until the strings of the upper and lower half-moon rollers face each other. Therefore, the downstream-side transport unit forcibly transports the forced transport force by the half-moon rollers until it disappears, and interruption of the transport force for the sheet bundle is avoided.

[0017]

1 is a perspective view showing the overall construction of a copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus to which an embodiment of a sheet bundle conveying apparatus according to the present invention is applied. In this figure, the copying machine comprises a copying machine main body 1, a paper feeding unit 2 arranged on the right side of the copying machine main body 1, and a sorter 3 arranged on the left side of the copying machine main body 1. There is.

The copying machine main body 1 is provided with a housing 4, a contact glass (not shown) is arranged in the center of the upper surface of the housing 4, and an automatic document feeder 5 is arranged above it. . The automatic document feeder 5 includes a document placing part 6 and a document ejecting part 7, and automatically feeds a plurality of documents placed on the document placing part 6 in order on the contact glass. The material is discharged to the discharge section 7.

Further, inside the housing 4, an optical system for optically scanning an original on a contact glass, an image forming section having each component such as a photosensitive drum and a developing section, and a toner image are fixed on a sheet. Each component (not shown) such as a fixing unit and a sheet conveying system is provided.

An operation panel 8 is provided on the upper part of the housing 4, and the operation panel 8 includes a start switch 9, a copy number setting key 10, a mode selection key 11 of the sorter 3, and an interrupt copy key 12. Various setting keys such as are provided, and a display 13 for displaying the setting contents and the like is provided.

The paper feeding unit 2 feeds paper to the image forming section side of the copying machine main body 1 through a carrying system, and can accommodate papers of different sizes.

The sorter 3 is provided with a detachable housing 30. The sorter 3 is disposed on the front end side (left side in FIG. 1) of the housing 30 and a bin unit 31 for sorting the paper conveyed from the copying machine main body 1. , This bin unit 3
1 and a shift tray (sheet bundle tray) 32 for accumulating sheets having been subjected to sheet processing, and a non-sorting sheet arranged above the shift tray 32 for discharging non-sorted sheets. And a sort tray 33.

In the above copying machine, when an original is conveyed onto the contact glass by the automatic original conveying section 5, the original image is read by the optical system and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum of the image forming section. The electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image. This toner image is fed to the paper feeding unit 2
The image is transferred from the sheet to the sheet fed through the conveyance system and is fixed in the fixing unit. The sheet on which the toner image has been fixed is discharged from the sheet discharge port of the housing 4 to the adjacent sorter 3 side, and the sorter 3 sorts the sheet as necessary.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the internal structure of the sorter 3. In this figure, the sorter 3 has
In addition to the bin unit 31, the shift tray 32, and the non-sort tray 33 described above, a paper processing unit 34 for performing a predetermined paper processing such as a stapling process and a punching process on the paper stack P2 inside the housing 30, and a copying machine main body. 1 (FIG. 1), a carry-in port 35 for guiding the paper P1 discharged to the sorter 3 side into the housing 30, and a first carrying path 36 for carrying the paper carried in from the carry-in port 35 to the bin unit 31.
And a second transport path 37 for transporting the sheet bundle P2, which has been subjected to predetermined sheet processing by the sheet processing unit 34, to the shift tray 32,
A third transport path 38 for transporting the individual sheets P1 loaded from the transport port 35 to the shift tray 32, and a fourth transport path 39 for transporting the paper P1 loaded from the transport port 35 to the non-sort tray 33. Is equipped with.

The second transport path 37 and the third transport path 38
Have a configuration in which the downstream portions are shared with each other. A predetermined direction switching plate is provided at a required position of a branch point or a merging point of each of the transport paths 36, 37, 38, 39, and the sheet P1 is directed to the selected predetermined transport path by switching operation of the direction switching plate. It is like this. Regarding the sheet bundle P2, only the course reaching the shift tray 32 through the second transport path 37 is used.

The bin unit 31 includes a plurality of bins 40 arranged at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction, and a pair of side plates 41 (only one shown in the drawing) opposed to each other in the width direction of each bin 40. Each bin 40 is moved up and down by an elevating means 50 composed of a screw shaft. A driving force is transmitted to the elevating means 50 through a predetermined driving force transmitting means by the drive of the drive motor 53, whereby the elevating means 50 rotates forward and backward about the axis.

Each bin 40 is provided with a flat plate portion 42 on which the sheets are placed and accumulated, and a substantially L-shaped stopper 43 arranged on the rear end side (right side in FIG. 2) of the flat plate portion 42. There is. The first pins 46 are formed to project outward on both sides in the width direction on the front end side (left side in FIG. 2) of the flat plate portion 42.
A second pin 47 and a third pin 48 are formed to project outward on both sides in the width direction on the rear end side. This first pin 46
Is fitted in a guide groove (not shown) of the side plate 41, and the second pin 47 is fitted in the groove 51 of the spiral cam 52 of the elevating means 50, so that the bin 40 responds to the forward / reverse rotation of the elevating means 50. It is designed to move up and down. Also, the side plate 41
Is designed to move up and down in synchronization with the bin 40.

The stopper 43 regulates the fall of the paper discharged from the first conveying path 36 from the rear end side of the flat plate portion 42, and the paper accumulated on the flat plate portion 42 to one end side is processed. The flat plate portion 4 is provided via connection pins 44 that serve as rotation fulcrums on both sides in the width direction of the flat plate portion 42 so that predetermined paper processing such as stapling and punching processing by the portion 34 can be performed.
It is rotatably attached to 2.

When the sheet bundle P2 is subjected to the stabilizing process or punching process, the stopper 43 is slid rearward after the bin 40 at the position facing the sheet processing section 34 is slid down by a mechanism (not shown). By rotating clockwise around 44, the lower end of the sheet bundle P2 is located at the sheet processing section 3
It is designed to be loaded into the 4. After this mounting, the sheet bundle P2 is subjected to a stabilizing process and a punching process by the sheet processing unit 34, and then the stopper 43 is returned to the original position and the bin 40 is slid up. The sheet bundle P2 for which the sheet processing is completed is stored in the bin 40.

The second transport path 37 is provided for transporting the sheet bundle P2 which has been subjected to the stable processing or punching processing toward the shift tray 32 in this manner. The second transport path 37 has a slanted transport path 400 that is formed in the lower part of the paper processing unit 34, and is inclined downward. The bin 40 that stores the sheet bundle P2 at the corner of the paper processing has the slanted transport path 400. It is adapted to be lowered toward the carry-in entrance 400a by driving the elevating means 50.

The stopper 4 is lowered by lowering the bin 40.
Driving of the elevating means 50 is temporarily stopped in a state in which 3 faces the carry-in port 400a, and in this state, the lever 15 pivotally supported around the pin 151 at the lower end edge of the carry-in port 400a.
The rotation of 0 causes the sheet bundle P2 in the bin 40 to move to the stopper 4
It is configured to be discharged after passing over No. 3, and to be introduced into the inclined conveyance path 400 via the carry-in port 400a. An unillustrated through hole is provided at the bottom of the bottle 40 so that the tip of the lever 150 can be inserted into the through hole, whereby the lever 150 rotates clockwise around the pin 151. The sheet bundle P2 in the bin 40 is pushed up from the bottom by the movement so that it can get over the stopper 43.

In the present embodiment, the sheet conveying mechanism (sheet bundle conveying device) according to the present invention is provided on the inclined conveying path 400.
It is equipped with 410. 3 and 4 are partially cutaway perspective views showing an embodiment of the sheet conveying mechanism 410 according to the present invention. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the upper and lower half-moon rollers have respective chord portions opposed to each other ( That is, the half-moon roller is set to the nip releasing posture), and FIG. 4 shows the upper and lower half-moon rollers in which arcuate portions are opposed to each other (that is, the half-moon roller is set to the nip posture). There is. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the sheet transport mechanism 410, (a) is a view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3, and (b) is a B of FIG.
It is a line B arrow line view.

As shown in these figures, the inclined conveying path 400 constitutes a part of the second conveying path 37, and is inclined at a predetermined interval in parallel with each other (in the right direction in the drawing) and is inclined downward. And an upper guide plate 401 and a lower guide plate 402, which are arranged in parallel with each other.
It is formed by a space sandwiched between 402. An upper guide plate 404 and a lower guide plate 4 forming another part of the second transport path 37 are provided at the lower end of the inclined transport path 400.
A connection conveyance path (downstream conveyance path) 403 composed of 05 is connected. These inclined conveyance path 400 and connection conveyance path 40
A sheet conveying mechanism 410 according to the present invention is provided at a connecting portion with the sheet feeding device 3.

The lower guide plate 402 has a pair of side walls 402 formed by bending both sides in the width direction upward.
In addition to having a, the upper guide plate 401 also has a pair of side walls 40 formed by bending both sides in the width direction downward.
1a, and the side walls 4 of the pair of upper guide plates 401.
01a is fitted onto each side wall 402a of the lower guide plate 402 to form the inclined conveyance path 400, and the minimum thickness dimension of the inclined conveyance path 400 is ensured.

The paper transport mechanism 410 includes the upper guide plate 40.
Upper half-moon roller 411 (nip member) provided in No. 1
And a lower half-moon roller (nip member) 415 provided on the lower guide plate 402 so as to face the upper half-moon roller 411. The upper half-moon roller 411 is arranged at the lower end portion of the upper guide plate 401 so that the upper portion thereof is orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction.
A plurality of them are provided at a predetermined pitch so as to rotate in the same direction as 2. The upper shaft 412 is axially supported by a pair of left and right bearings 406 that are erected on both sides of the upper guide plate 401 in the width direction.

The lower half-moon roller 415 is mounted on a lower shaft 416 which is arranged at the lower end of the lower guide plate 402 so that the lower part thereof is orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction and faces the upper shaft 412. A plurality of them are provided so as to rotate together. The lower shaft 416 corresponds to the lower guide plate 402.
Are rotatably supported by a pair of left and right bearings 407 that are erected on both sides in the width direction. The lower half-moon rollers 415 are provided at the same pitch so as to face the upper half-moon rollers 411.

The upper half-moon roller 411 has an upper shaft 41.
A circular arc portion 413 centered on the shaft center of 2 and a chord portion 414 formed by cutting off a part of the circumference of the roller are provided, and the lower half-moon roller 415 also has a lower shaft 416.
A circular arc portion 417 having the same diameter as the circular arc portion 413 of the upper half-moon roller 411 and a chord portion 418 formed by cutting off a part of the circumference of the roller are provided. The string portions 414 and 418 are formed outside the shafts 412 and 416, respectively.

On the other hand, the upper guide plate 401 is provided with a plurality of roller fitting holes 408 at the lower end thereof corresponding to the respective upper half-moon rollers 411, and by rotating around the upper shaft 412, the upper half-moon rollers 408 are rotated. The circular arc portion 413 of the reference numeral 411 is set to be recessed into the inclined conveyance path 400 from the roller fitting hole 408. Further, the lower guide plate 402 is also provided with a roller fitting insertion hole 409 corresponding to the roller fitting insertion hole 408, and in this roller fitting insertion hole 409, the circular arc portion of the lower half-moon roller 415 is rotated by rotation around the lower shaft 416. 417 is configured to be inserted into the inclined conveyance path 400 from the roller fitting hole 408.

The upper and lower half-moon rollers 411, 415
In the state where the respective chord portions 414 and 418 are parallel to the sheet conveying direction (the state where the respective half-moon rollers 411 and 415 are set to the nip releasing posture), the half-moon roller 411.
The formation positions of the chord portions 414 and 418 are set so that the inclined conveyance path 400 does not enter the inclined conveyance path 400, and the inclined conveyance path 400 has the minimum thickness dimension.
As shown in FIG. 4, the diameter dimension is set so that the outer peripheral surfaces of the circular arc portions 413 and 417 can contact each other.

The lower guide plate 402 is fixed to a frame (not shown) of the sorter 3 (FIGS. 2 to 3), while the upper guide plate 401 is a biasing means, for example, a predetermined number of coils. The upper guide plate 401 is supported by the frame via the spring 420 and the coil spring 420
The urging force of (2) always pushes in the direction of the lower guide plate 402. Therefore, the inclined transport path 400
Is set to the minimum width dimension when there is no sheet bundle inside, and when there is a sheet bundle inside, the upper and lower half-moon rollers 411 and 415 are rotated so that both arc portions 413 and 417 move the sheet bundle. It is pressed and nipped (the respective half-moon rollers 411, 415 are set in the nip posture), and the reaction force causes the upper guide plate 401 to move in the direction away from the lower guide plate 402 against the biasing force of the coil spring 420. As a result, the width dimension of the inclined transport path 400 is increased.

The upper shaft 412 and the lower shaft 416 are
The driving force of the first drive motor (rotational driving means) 430 is transmitted through a driving force transmission means (not shown) so as to rotate synchronously. And the upper half-moon roller 41
The shafts 412 and 416 are synchronously set so that the chord portion 418 of the lower half-moon roller 415 is also parallel to the sheet conveyance direction when the chord portion 414 of No. 1 is parallel to the sheet conveyance direction.

An edge aligning structure 440 for aligning the edges of the sheet bundle is provided at the downstream end of the inclined transport path 400. The edge aligning structure 440 includes a support shaft 441 extending below the connection conveyance path 403 in a direction orthogonal to the paper conveyance direction, and a stopper (temporary stop member) 442 pivotally supported around the support shaft 441. , And a solenoid 445 that rotates the stopper 442 around the support shaft 441 by magnetic force.

The stopper 442 has a support shaft 4 at the rear end.
A flat plate 44 having a bracket 443a externally fitted to the plate 41
3 and a shield plate 444 formed by bending the tip end side of the flat plate 443 downward. The shield plate 444 is dimensioned so as to close the opening at the downstream end of the inclined conveyance path 400. The stopper 442 opens the opening by the transport path blocking posture in which the shield plate 444 closes the opening at the downstream end of the inclined transport path 400 and the clockwise rotation around the support shaft 441 from this posture. The posture can be changed between the transport route open posture and the transport route open posture.

An operating rod 446 made of a magnetic material, which is connected to the back surface of the flat plate 443, is fitted in the solenoid 445 in a slidable contact state, and the stopper 442 is turned on / off by turning on / off the current supplied to the solenoid 445. The posture can be changed between the transport path blocking posture and the transport path open posture.
Further, a paper sensor 450 for detecting arrival of the paper stack P2 as shown in FIG. 5 is provided at a substantially central portion in the width direction on the back surface side of the downstream end of the lower guide plate 402.

This paper sensor 450 is composed of a sensor body 45.
1 and a detection piece 452 that projects obliquely upward from the sensor main body 451 in the sheet conveying direction. The detection piece 452 is attached to the shaft 45 by a biasing means (not shown).
The sheet bundle P2 is biased counterclockwise about 3 times so that the leading end portion thereof projects slightly upward from the lower guide plate 402, and the sheet bundle P2 reaches the downstream end of the inclined conveyance path 400. The weight of the bundle P2 rotates clockwise about the shaft 453, and the rotation of the detection piece 452 causes the sensor body 4 to rotate.
51 is adapted to detect the presence of the sheet bundle P2.

The connecting and conveying path 403 has a roller pair (sheet bundle conveying section) 460 consisting of a pair of upper and lower circular rollers 461 on the upstream end side thereof. Each roller 461 is
Upper guide plate 404 and lower guide plate 405, respectively
Of the horizontal shaft 46 that is orthogonal to the paper transport direction via a bearing and traverses the connection transport path 403.
The second drive motor 4 is configured so as to rotate in two directions.
By driving 70, they rotate synchronously in opposite directions via driving force transmission means (not shown).
The sheet bundle P2 taken over from the connection conveyance path 403 to is forcibly conveyed in the sheet conveyance direction.

In such a connection conveyance path 403, the lower guide plate 405 is fixed to a frame (not shown) of the sorter 3, and the upper guide plate 404 is attached to the frame via a biasing means (not shown). ing. Then, the upper guide plate 404 resists the urging force of the urging means in accordance with the thickness dimension of the conveyed sheet bundle P2 and the lower guide plate 405.
Away from the connection conveyance path 4
03 is adapted to correspond to the thickness dimension of various sheet bundles P2.

Then, the contact points of the outer peripheral surfaces of the arcuate portions 413, 417 of the upper half-moon roller 411 and the lower half-moon roller 415 and the respective rollers 4 of the roller pair 460.
The distance between the outer peripheral surface of 61 and the contact point is 61
The dimension is set shorter than the arc length of 417.

In the present invention, when the bundle of sheets P2 is not fed from the bin 40 (FIG. 2) into the inclined conveying path 400, the upper and lower half-moon rollers 411 and 415 have the chord portions 414 and 418 convey the sheets. The first drive motor 430 is stopped in a state in which it is set in a standby posture parallel to the path and opposed to each other, and the stopper 442 is set in the transport path blocking posture.

Then, the bundle of sheets P2 is supplied from the bin 40 to the inclined conveyance path 400, collides with the shielding plate 444 of the stopper 442 which is set in the conveyance path blocking posture at the downstream end of the inclined conveyance path 400, and then the stopper is formed. At the same time, the solenoid 445 drives the solenoid 445 to change the posture to the transport path open posture, and at the same time, drives the first drive motor 430, thereby connecting the sheet bundle P2 in the inclined transport path 400 to the connection transport path 403.
I try to send it inside. In the present embodiment, since the second drive motor 470 is constantly driven, the sheet bundle P2 sent from the slanted conveyance path 400 to the connection conveyance path 403 has the roller pair 460 of the slanted conveyance path 400.
Will be forcibly transported downstream.

The arc lengths of the arc portions 413, 417 of the half-moon rollers 411, 415 are set longer than the distance until the lower end portion of the sheet bundle P2 reaches the roller pair 460 of the connection conveyance path 403. Therefore, half moon roller 411,
Before the influence of the driving force of 415 disappears, the sheet bundle P
2 is delivered to the roller pair 460, so that the sheet bundle P2 can be smoothly taken over.

Such a sheet bundle P2 is fed to the slanted conveyance path 400.
Paper transport mechanism 41 that takes over from the connection transport path 403
In order to smoothly perform the operation control of 0, a control means is provided inside the copying machine. This control means controls the first drive motor 430 based on the detection signal from the paper sensor 450.
A predetermined control signal is output to the solenoid 445. By the predetermined drive of the first drive motor 430 and the solenoid 445 by this control signal, the inclined conveyance path 400 of the sheet bundle P2 to the connection conveyance path 403.
The transfer operation is smoothly performed, and the sheet bundle P2 is end-aligned.

Specifically, in a state where the sheet bundle P2 does not exist in the inclined conveyance path 400, as shown in FIG. 3, the half-moon rollers 411, 415 have their chord portions 414, 418.
Are set in a standby posture (nip releasing posture) parallel to the sheet conveying direction, and the stopper 442 has a shielding plate 444 that closes the downstream end opening of the inclined conveying path 400. Attitude is set. When the roller pair 460 of the connection conveyance path 403 is set to the mode in which the sorted sheet bundle P2 is guided to the non-sort tray 33 by operating the mode selection key 11 (FIG. 1) in advance, the inclined conveyance is performed. It is driven regardless of the presence or absence of the sheet bundle P2 on the path 400.

Next, when the sheet bundle P2 is supplied from the bin 40 (FIG. 2) to the carry-in entrance 400a of the inclined transport path 400,
As shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, the sheet bundle P2 slides down in the inclined conveyance path 400 in a state where the lower end edges are not aligned. At this time, each half-moon roller 411,4
No. 15 is not driven and is set in the standby posture, so that the lower end of the sheet bundle P2 has the chord portions 414, 41.
8 and the stopper 4 at the downstream end of the inclined conveyance path 400.
It collides with the shield plate 444 of 42. As a result of this collision, as shown by the two-dot chain line in (a) of FIG. 5, the lower end edges of the separated sheet bundle P2 are aligned and aligned.

Further, in the state where the sheet bundle P2 collides with the shield plate 444, as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 5A, the sheet sensor 450 has its detection piece 452 tilted by the weight of the sheet bundle P2. The presence of the sheet bundle P2 is detected. The control means based on this detection outputs a control signal to the solenoid 445 and the first drive motor 430 (FIG. 3). The solenoid 445 is excited by this control signal, and the lowering of the operation rod 446 by this causes the stopper 442 to move to the support shaft 44.
The posture is changed to the transport path open posture by rotating around once.

At the same time as this attitude change, the first drive motor 43
0 is driven, and the upper half-moon roller 411 is driven by this drive.
The lower half-moon roller 415 and the lower half-moon roller 415 are driven and rotated so as to direct the sheet bundle P2 toward the connection conveyance path 403, and become a nip posture.
2 is an arc portion 413, 41 of each half-moon roller 411, 415
In the state of being pressed and sandwiched by 7, as shown in (b) of FIG. 5, it is forcibly conveyed toward the connection conveyance path 403.

By the time the half-moon rollers 411, 415 are in the standby position, the lower edge of the sheet bundle P2 is connected to the conveying path 4
03, the roller pair 460 is reached, and thereafter, the sheet bundle P2
Is conveyed downstream by the driving rotation of the roller pair 460. Further, the upper half-moon roller 411 and the lower half-moon roller 415 continue the standby posture until the next sheet bundle P is detected by the sheet sensor 450.

The present invention, as described in detail above, uses a bin 40.
The sheet bundle P2 in which a plurality of sheets of paper P1 that are supplied from the slidable conveyance path 400 and are stacked is stacked on the inclined conveyance path 40 via the half-moon rollers 411 and 415 that are in the standby posture.
The sheet bundle P2 is in a non-uniform state because it is slid down to the downstream end of 0 and is temporarily received by the shield plate 444 of the stopper 442 that is set to the conveyance path blocking posture at the opening at the downstream end. The lower edge portion of the is aligned.

Then, the stopper 442 is changed to the transport path opening posture to release the closed state of the opening by the shield plate 444, and the meniscus rollers 411 and 415 are driven and rotated to be nipped by the arc portions 413. Sheet bundle P2
Since the sheet bundle P2 is forcibly conveyed, the sheet bundle P2 is conveyed toward the connection conveyance path 403 in a state where the edges are aligned.
Thereafter, in this state, the sheet bundle P2 that has been subjected to the sorting process is conveyed to the inside of the second conveyance path 37, and is discharged to the shift tray 32 (FIG. 2) in a state where the edge alignment is completed.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but also includes the following contents.

(1) In the above embodiment, the sheet conveying mechanism 410 is applied to a copying machine, but the present invention is not limited to being applied to a copying machine, and is not limited to a printer or a facsimile. The present invention can be applied to various devices that convey sheets in a stacked state.

(2) In the above embodiment, the half-moon rollers 411, 415 have the arcuate portion 41 having the same radius.
3, 417 and chord portions 414, 418 that are linear in side view, the present invention is that the arc portions have an arc shape having the same radius, and the chord portions are linear. The function as a nip member, that is, not limited, adopting an elliptical shape in a side view as a nip member, the major axis portion of this elliptical shape as an arc portion, and the minor diameter portion as a chord portion, that is, In the state where the nip member is set to the nip posture, the sheet bundle P2 can pass through the inclined conveyance path 400 without being interfered with by the nip member, and the pair of upper and lower nip members is set to the nip release posture. May have any shape as long as it has a function of forcibly conveying the sheet bundle P2 by driving and rotating a pair of upper and lower nip members.

(3) In the above embodiment, the half-moon rollers 411 and 415 provided on the inclined transport path 400 and the roller pair 460 provided on the connection transport path 403 are driven by different drive systems, respectively. Half moon roller 4
Numerals 11, 415 are paired with roller pairs 46 while being driven intermittently.
Although 0 is driven continuously, the half moon rollers 411 and 415 and the roller pair 460 may be synchronized with each other and intermittently driven instead.

(4) In the above embodiment, the upper guide plate 401 and the upper shaft 412 are integrally lifted up and down with respect to the lower guide plate 402 according to the thickness dimension of the sheet bundle P2. Instead of this, only the upper shaft 412 may be moved up and down according to the thickness of the sheet bundle P2.

(5) In the above-described embodiment, the connecting and conveying path 403 is configured to include the roller pair 460, but a belt pair is adopted in place of the roller pair 460, and the sheet is driven by driving this belt pair. The bundle P2 may be conveyed.

[0066]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the sheet bundle conveying device is provided in the upstream portion of the conveying path, and the temporary stop member for temporarily positioning the sheet bundle in the upstream portion of the conveying path is provided. A pair of roller shafts disposed immediately upstream of the temporary stop member, sandwiching the conveyance path, a nip posture for nipping the upstream portion of the sheet bundle to each of the pair of roller shafts, and releasing the nip. The pair of nip members is provided so as to be integrally rotatable between the pair of nip releasing postures and the rotation driving means for changing the postures of the pair of nip members. By feeding the sheet bundle to the upstream end of the conveyance path in a state where the sheet bundle is set to face each other, the sheet bundle is guided to the conveyance path and moves to the downstream side, and passes between the pair of nip members. Reach the stop member And it is positioned, whereby it is possible to state that it is aligned end to bottom end portion of the sheet bundle was irregular. In this state, the temporary stop of the sheet bundle is released, and both nip members are rotated in the opposite directions by the drive of the rotation driving means, so that the sheet bundle is moved to the downstream side in the conveyance path by the nip member that has moved to the nip posture. It can be forcibly transported toward. Then, the edge of the sheet bundle that has been forcibly conveyed is aligned, and the edge of the sheet bundle is guided to the outside from the conveyance path, and the edge alignment of the sheet bundle is performed manually as in the past. It is not necessary and is convenient for facilitating the handling of the sheet bundle.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the rotation driving means drives the rotary shaft to rotate from the time when the positioning by the temporary stop member is released, the positioning of the sheet bundle is released. At that point, the pair of nip members are rotated by the rotation of the rotary drive shaft by the rotary drive unit, whereby the sheet bundle can be nipped by both the nip members and reliably forcibly conveyed toward the downstream side.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since one of the pair of roller shafts is provided with the urging means for urging the pair of roller shafts toward the other, the sheet bundle is paired with the nip by the urging force of the urging means. A good nip state in which the members are constantly pressed and sandwiched is achieved, and the forced transfer of the sheet bundle by the driving rotation of the nip member can be performed more reliably.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the half-moon roller is adopted as the nip member, the upper and lower half-moon rollers can be in the nip releasing posture with the strings facing each other, and the arcuate portions are mutually opposed. It is possible to reliably achieve the function of the nip member with a simple configuration, such as the nip posture can be set in the facing state.
This is effective in reducing the cost of parts.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the downstream side conveying portion is provided in the conveying path from the pair of roller shafts at a position that is equal to or less than the arc length of the nip member, the pair of rotating rollers is rotating. The sheet bundle forcedly conveyed by the circular arc portion of the nip member reaches the downstream side conveyance portion until the chords of the upper and lower nip members face each other, and until the forced conveyance force by both nip members disappears. In addition, the downstream-side transport unit can forcibly transport the sheet, and it is possible to reliably avoid interruption of the transport force for the sheet bundle.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overall configuration of a copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus to which an embodiment of a sheet bundle conveying device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of an internal configuration of a sorter.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an embodiment of a sheet bundle transporting device according to the present invention, showing a state in which the chord portions of upper and lower half-moon rollers are opposed to each other.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an embodiment of a sheet bundle transporting device according to the present invention, showing a state in which arcuate portions of upper and lower half-moon rollers are opposed to each other.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the sheet bundle transporting device, in which FIG.
4 is a view taken along the line AA of FIG. 4, and (B) is a view taken along the line BB of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Copier body 2 paper feeding unit 3 Sorter 31 bottle unit 32 shift tray (sheet stack tray) 33 Non-sort tray 34-bin unit 35 carry-in entrance 37 Second Transport Path 40 bottles 400 inclined transport path 403 connection conveyance path 410 Paper transport mechanism (paper bundle transport device) 411 Upper half-moon roller (nip member) 412 upper shaft 413, 417 arc part 414,418 Strings 415 Lower half-moon roller (nip member) 416 Lower shaft 440 edge-aligned structure 442 Stopper (temporary stop member) 444 Shield plate 445 solenoid 450 paper sensor 452 detection piece 460 roller pair (sheet bundle transport unit) 461 Laura 5 Automatic document feeder 6 Document placing section 7 Document output section 8 Operation panel

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-3-172269 (JP, A) JP-A-3-166160 (JP, A) JP-A-7-137890 (JP, A) JP-A-7- 291487 (JP, A) JP-A-57-93852 (JP, A) JP-A-59-198232 (JP, A) JP-A-63-267662 (JP, A) JP-A-8-175736 (JP, A) Actual development Sho 57-165634 (JP, U) Actual development Sho 61-56349 (JP, U) Actual development Sho 62-203143 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 31/30 B65H 39/11 G03G 15/00 510

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sheet bundle conveying device for conveying at least a sorted sheet bundle to a sheet bundle tray on a downstream side via a conveying path, wherein the sheet bundle is provided at an upstream portion of the conveying path. A temporary stop member that is temporarily positioned in the upstream portion of the pair of roller shafts, a pair of roller shafts that are arranged immediately upstream of the temporary stop member, and that are arranged across the transport path, and a pair of roller shafts, respectively. A pair of nip members that are integrally rotatable between a nip posture that nips the upstream portion of the sheet bundle and a nip release posture that releases the nip, and a rotation drive that changes the posture of the pair of nip members. A sheet bundle conveying device comprising: 2. The sheet bundle transporting device according to claim 1, wherein the rotation driving means drives the rotation shaft to rotate from the time when the positioning by the temporary stop member is released. 3. The sheet bundle conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an urging means for urging one of the pair of roller shafts toward the other. . 4. The sheet bundle conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the nip member is a half-moon roller. 5. The sheet bundle transporting device according to claim 4, wherein in the transport path, from the pair of roller shafts,
A sheet bundle transporting device, wherein a downstream transport unit is provided at a position that is equal to or less than the arc length of the half-moon roller.