JP3406928B2 - Sheet material sorting and storage 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 sorting / accommodating apparatus, and more particularly, for example, a copying machine having a reading device, a fax which is a communication system, a printer connected to a computer, a binding device (stapler, gluing device). Sheet sorting and storing device for sorting and storing discharged sheets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a sheet sorting / storing device for sorting and storing sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus in a storage portion such as a tray, the discharged sheets are sandwiched and lifted by a lifting / conveying device to obtain a desired sheet. There has been proposed one that is introduced into a tray and one that guides the discharged sheets to a desired tray designated by a plurality of branch paths corresponding to the height position of each tray and sorts the sheets.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art example, in the storage portion composed of a plurality of trays,
Since the number of trays and the number of trays that can be stored in each tray are fixed, it has been difficult to meet the needs of users who have a large storage capacity or access by a large number of users.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problem (and Action)] Therefore, in the present invention, the tray is configured to be detachable, and a stretching means is provided on the wall portion of the tray against which the sheet of the tray abuts. Depending on the purpose), the number of trays and the amount of trays stored can be changed to meet the needs of users.

Further, by providing a direction control member in the vicinity of the discharge roller for discharging the sheet to the tray of the elevating and conveying section,
The discharge direction to be used is controlled according to the tray storage amount (tray wall height), and stable sheet storage is performed by stable discharge.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a front view showing the entire system, and FIGS. 2 to 7 are views showing a first embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a document reading device including an optical system, and 2 is a deck, a cassette and the like. The sheet feeding device 3 is an image forming device 3a including a laser scanner 3a, a photosensitive drum 3b, and a binding device (not shown).
Is a writing device for the photosensitive drum, which receives the image read by the reading device through a memory, and writes the image from the network to the photosensitive drum 3b by a laser beam or the like through the memory. 4 is a binding device (finisher) including a stapler, a paper discharge tray and the like, 5 is a bookbinding device including a gluing section 5a, an elevator 5b and a paper discharge stacker 5c, and 6 is a sheet sorting and storing device according to the present invention.

Next, the sheet sorting and storing device 6 will be described in detail.

Reference numeral 61 is a sheet inlet portion, and the sheet inlet portion 6 is conveyed from the binding device 4 connected to the main body 1
Receives a sheet of sheets or a sheet bundle bound with staples, glue binders, etc., and flappers 65a, 65b
It is guided in the up-down direction or the horizontal direction via.
Then, one sheet S or a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or less (approximately 8 sheets or less) is guided to the upper side or the lower side (conveying vertical path 62 described later) to the sheet inlet portion 61, and a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or more is also introduced. An inlet roller pair 61a, an outlet roller pair 61b, a straight path 65, and flappers 65a and 65b operated by solenoids for guiding (nearly 9 or more) in the horizontal direction (lifting / conveying body 63 described later) are provided. . One of the entrance roller pairs 61a is a drive roller, and the other is configured to be separated by a solenoid when a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or more enters, and after the sheet bundle enters. , A driven roller that holds the sheet bundle. The pair of outlet rollers 61b and the pair of inlet rollers 61a are configured in the same manner.

Reference numeral 62 denotes a conveyance vertical path located on the downstream side of the sheet entrance portion 61, which includes a single sheet S or a small number of sheets bundles branched upward or downward at the sheet entrance portion 61, upward or downward. A vertical transport path for transporting downward, and a plurality of flappers 62a to 62h operated by solenoids are provided at positions corresponding to the heights of the trays 64a to 64j. The flappers 62a to 62h are for redirecting the sheet S or a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or less and guiding it to the elevating / conveying body 63. A plurality of vertical feed roller pairs 62i to 62q are provided on the transport vertical path 62 with a spacing in the transport direction narrower than the sheet length of the minimum size. The conveyance vertical path 62 is provided with a conveyance guide 62r for guiding the sheet S or a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or less in a substantially vertical direction, and the flapper portions 62a to 62h are provided with branch paths 66a to 66j which are bent sheet guides. Has been.

Reference numeral 63 designates a branching path 66a of the transport vertical path 62.
An elevating / conveying body which is located on the downstream side of 66i and which nips and conveys a sheet or a small number of sheet bundles, which is branched and guided by the sheet inlet portion 61 and the sailing vertical path 62. When the thick sheet bundle bound by the binding device 4 on the upstream side is fed horizontally from the sheet entrance portion 61,
This is received, sandwiched by a plurality of roller pairs 63a to 63c, and raised and lowered to the designated heights of the trays 64a to 64j. For this reason, the elevating / conveying body 63 has a driving roller on the lower side, and the conveying belt 63d is wound between two or more rollers on the lower side, and a driven roller is provided on the upper side. When a sheet bundle having a predetermined thickness or more enters, the driven roller separates upward by a driving source such as a motor, and after the sheet bundle enters a predetermined amount, the driven roller stops the separation and holds the sheet bundle. The lifting / lowering carrier 63 includes a stepping motor that drives the carrier belt 63d.
When conveying one sheet S, it rotates at the same speed as the main body process speed (400 to 1000 mm / sec), and when conveying a sheet bundle, it is much slower than the main body process speed (100 to 300 mm / sec). sec) to rotate.

Reference numeral 64 denotes a storage portion in which a plurality of trays 64a to 64j are arranged in a line in the vertical direction. The storage portion 64 receives and stores the image-formed sheets S or the sheet bundle from the elevating / conveying body 63. Each of the trays 64a to 64j is movable in the depth direction, that is, in the front-rear direction by being guided by the rail 73, and the user can specify the tray 64a to 64j.
The sheet S and the sheet bundle can be taken out by pulling 64j forward. Further, even when the sizes of the sheets S are mixed, the trays 64a to 64j are arranged with a downward slope to align the sheets.

A numeral 67 is located below the sheet inlet 61 and receives a sheet bundle from the bookbinding device 5 such as a glue binder or the binding device 4 such as a finisher connected to the upstream side, and conveys it to the elevating / conveying body 63. 2 is the seat entrance. The glue binder or finisher connected to the upstream side by providing the second sheet inlet portion 67 does not need to raise the processed and bound sheet bundle between the sheet inlet portions 61, and the upstream bookbinding device 5 The transport path of the binding device 4 can be greatly simplified.
67a is a pair of introducing rollers consisting of a driving roller and a driven roller, and the introducing roller pair 67a is the pair of rollers 61a.
Similarly to the driven rollers for the drive rollers a and 61b, the driven roller is configured to be separable and contactable to facilitate the entry of the sheet bundle.

Reference numeral 66j is a branch path, and 68 is an articulated transport path.

Next, the tray portion which is a feature of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

One of the trays 64b, d, f, h, i is skipped, and the extending member 70 is attached to the wall of the sheet abutting portion.
It is rotatably attached. The rotation center 75 has a cam shape, and the extending member 70 is rotated and locked in a substantially vertical state. Incidentally, as in this example, the extending members 70 may be provided one by one, or may be provided on all of them.

The elevating / conveying body 63 is provided with a direction control member 71 formed of, for example, a Mylar sheet which is an elastic body and has a good slidability, and the direction control member 71 is rotatably supported by a solenoid member. The solid line 71a or the alternate long and short dash line 71b can be taken.

For example, when the user needs to store a large capacity, the screw 72 is attached to the frame 1 from the right and the rear.
00, the side plate 200 is removed, the bent portion 74a is lifted a little to remove the bent portion 74a from the hole, and then the tray 64a, the rail 73, and the stay 74 are pulled out to the front side and removed, and the lower tray 64b is placed in the empty space. When the stretching member 70 is rotated upwards and locked, the stretching members 70 shown in FIGS.
It becomes the state of.

In this state, when the sheet is stored in the tray 64b, the elevating / conveying body 63 moves up and down to the original height position of the tray 64a, receives the sheet from the flapper 66a, and discharges it to the large capacity tray 64b. . At this time, the tray 64
When there is no stacked paper on b or when the amount of paper is less than a predetermined amount, the direction control member 71 is actuated by the solenoid to guide the discharged sheet downward. The direction control member 71 is activated by turning on a sensor that detects that the stretching member 70 has rotated upward and a sensor that detects that there is no stacked paper in the tray (or a sensor that detects that the amount of paper is below a predetermined amount). Solid line position 71a by the plunger solenoid
Is displaced.

After that, when the sheets are piled up to the position where the original tray 64a was at the bottom, this is detected by the sensor and the plunger solenoid is operated to restore the position to 71b.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

(For a single sheet) First, the elevating / conveying body 63 is stopped at the height position facing the tray 64h of the corresponding storage section 64 (FIG. 3). Lifting carrier 63
The entrance portion of is opposed to the branch path 66g. Flapper 62f
Switches to guide the sheet S to the branch path 66g side. The flapper 65b is switched so as to guide the sheet to the lower side of the conveyance vertical path 62. Therefore, the sheet S includes the pair of entrance rollers 61a, the conveyance vertical path 62, the branch path 66g,
It is guided to the tray 64h via the lifting / lowering carrier 63. Similarly, when the sheet S is discharged to the tray 64g, the lifting / lowering conveyance body 63 is stopped at the height position thereof, and the flapper 6 of the conveyance vertical path 62 corresponding to the stop height of the lifting / lowering conveyance body 63.
2e, and flappers 65a, 65 of the sheet inlet portion 61
Switch b respectively. By this, one sheet S
Can be sorted into adjacent trays above and below.
Even when the sheets S are bound by the binding device 4, when the sheets S are a small number of sheets, the trays 64 are operated in the same manner as described above.
A small number of sheet bundles can be separately stored in a to 64j.

(When binding a large number of sheets by the binding device 4) As shown in FIG. 4, the elevating / conveying body 63 is stopped along with the straight path 65. Flappers 65a, 65b
Switches to a position where the sheet bundle is guided to the straight path 65. Therefore, the sheet bundle is nipped by the roller pairs 63a to 63c of the elevating / conveying body 63 as shown in FIG. In this case, the driven roller is operated by a solenoid in accordance with the thickness of the sheet bundle to be separated from the drive roller, and the driven roller is returned to the original state when the sheet bundle has entered a predetermined amount, whereby the sheet bundle is sandwiched. . Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 6, the elevating / conveying body 63 is raised and stopped at a height corresponding to a desired tray, for example, the tray 64b, and the roller pairs 63a to 63c and the conveying belt 63d are rotated to form a sheet bundle. Discharge to tray 64b. FIG. 7 shows a state in which the sheet bundle has been completely discharged. After that, the elevating and lowering transport body 63 descends, stops at a position facing the straight path 65, and waits until the subsequent sheet bundle is loaded. In this way, the sheet bundles can be sorted and stored in the different trays 64a to 64j.

(When binding a large number of sheet bundles with the bookbinding device 5) The sheet bundle bound with the gluing part 5a of the bookbinding device 5 of FIG. 1 is transferred to the elevator 5b, and usually the stacker part 5
It is discharged to c and loaded. Also, the trays 64a to 64
When stored in j, the elevator 5b descends to the lowest position and rotates the belt at that position to move the sheet bundle to the right. The sheet bundle moved to the right enters between the separated roller pair 67a (FIG. 2), is then sandwiched by the roller pair 67a, and is moved to the right by the rotation of the roller pair 67a so that a straight path is obtained. You are led to 67b. At the same height as the straight path 67b, the elevating and lowering transporting body 63 is opposed and stopped, and the sheet bundle conveyed from the straight path 67b is sandwiched by the roller pairs 63a to 63c in the same manner as described above. After that, the elevating / conveying body 63 moves up to sort and convey the sheet bundle to the desired positions of the trays 64a to 64j. And the desired tray 6
The belt 63d is rotated to the height of 4a to 64j and the sheet bundle is discharged to any of the trays 64a to 64j.

As a method of using the storage unit, the address (user requesting output) of the storage bin (tray) may be fixed (fixed address) or variable (floating address) as follows. .

(How to use as a mailbox) In other words, a storage bin is set in advance as a unique one for an individual or an organization, and when a user wants to distribute a copy, by designating a distribution destination (storage bin), The copy is stored in the individual storage bin that was created. This allows individuals or organizations to receive mail for themselves from the bin.

(Use by Client) Further, the storage bin is set in advance as an individual peculiar to the individual, and the individual outputs from the computer terminal of the network to the storage bin of his / her own, the copy and processed sheet bundle to be produced. be able to. As a result, it is possible to prevent mistaking of the output paper despite the remote operation under the network.

(Others) The address of the storage bin is not fixed to an individual, but each time the address is output, it is designated by the address user or the storage bin in which the image forming apparatus is empty is automatically selected, and the storage bin is stored. You can also output to. As a result, even if a plurality of users perform remote control at the same time under the network, it is possible to prevent mistaking of the output paper.

With the above construction, one sheet, a stapled sheet bundle, and a glue-bound sheet bundle can be received and sorted and stored without lowering the operation efficiency of the main body.

(Other Embodiments) A second embodiment is shown in FIG. A stretching member 76 is provided on the paper discharge tray 64.
The discharge tray 64 is provided with a groove formed by three elongated holes 75a to 75c, and the pin of the extending member 76 is 76a,
76b is engaged.

As in the first embodiment, when the upper sheet discharge tray is removed, as shown in FIGS. 13 (a) to 13 (c), the pin 76a is disengaged from the groove 75b by the right rotation, and The pin 76b is removed from the groove 75b, and then the pin 76b is raised along the groove 75c.
The extension member 76 is installed in an upright position by fitting it into the upright position. As a result, the stacking capacity of the sheets on the discharge tray 75 is doubled.

FIG. 14 shows the third embodiment. By engaging the engagement shaft 80 of the extension member 77 with the engagement hole 79 of the paper discharge tray 64, the storage amount of the tray can be increased. In particular, the wall of the paper discharge tray 64 projects so that there is no step between the extending member 77 and the substantially vertical wall of the paper discharge tray 64.
The stretching member 77 is provided with a plurality of ribs 81 so that the sheet is not caught.

[0032]

As described above, the tray can be removed and the tray wall portion can be freely stretched.
There is an effect that the number of storage trays and the loading capacity of the storage trays can be created according to the user's request.

By providing the sheet direction control member in the paper discharge section, there is an effect that even if the depth of the tray changes, it is possible to appropriately cope with it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall configuration of a system including a sheet sorting and storing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing details of the sheet sorting and storing device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view of one sheet.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram when a bundle of multiple sheets is provided.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram following FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram following FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory diagram following FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a front view showing a first embodiment of the characterizing portion of the sheet sorting and storing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view in the A direction.

FIG. 10 is a front view of the sheet sorting storage device when the tray storage amount is increased.

FIG. 11 is an overall front view.

FIG. 12 is a detailed view of the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is an operation diagram of the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a detailed view of the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

61 Seat entrance 62 Transport vertical path 63 Lifting carrier 64 storage 67 Seat entrance 68 articulated transport path 70, 76, 77 Stretching member

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Hideaki Kosasa, Inventor Hideaki Komaru, 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor, Toshihiko Kusumoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Yoshimitsu Yamaguchi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) Reference JP-A-59-223655 (JP, A) JP-A-4-64566 ( JP, A) Actually open 61-189058 (JP, U) Actually open 4-65251 (JP, U) Actually open 2-26069 (JP, U) Actually open 54-136017 (JP, U) (58 ) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 39/11 G03G 15/00 530

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sheet material sorting / accommodating device having a tray for accommodating sheets and having a wall portion with which a sheet end portion projects, wherein the tray is detachable, and a stretching means is provided on the wall portion. Sorting storage device. 2. A sheet sorting and storing device that conveys and stores a single sheet or a sheet bundle including a plurality of sheets to a designated storage portion, and receives and conveys the single sheet or sheet bundle. In a sorting and storage device including a transport unit and a storage unit provided with a tray, the tray is configured to be detachable, and a stretching unit is provided on a wall portion with which a sheet end portion is attached, and a sheet is transferred from the transport unit to the tray. A sorting and storing apparatus, characterized in that a direction control means is provided for controlling a sheet discharging direction when discharging.