JP3556144B2 - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a printer, and more particularly, to a sheet feeding device suitable for a stack bypass using a half moon roller, an automatic document feeder, and the like.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art A paper feeder using a half-roller is known as one type of a paper feeder in a stack bypass or an automatic document feeder provided in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a printer. The paper feeding device using the half-moon roller is composed of a paper feeding device using the half-moon roller and a separating device using a torque limiter, etc., and the half-moon roller usually has a cut portion of the half-moon roller positioned below. (See FIG. 1), a plurality of sheets can be set. When feeding the paper, the uppermost sheet is fed by one rotation of the half-moon roller, but in order to prevent a so-called double feed in which the second and subsequent sheets from the top are fed at the same time, By rotating the separation roller provided with the torque limiter in the same direction as the half-moon roller, the uppermost sheet and the second and subsequent sheets are separated, and only the uppermost sheet is fed. Further, when the half-moon roller rotates with no paper set, that is, when a non-feed state occurs, the separation roller is provided with a torque limiter so that the separation roller follows the half-moon roller and rotates in the opposite direction to the half-moon roller. It is supposed to.
[0003]
Generally, in the half-moon roller type paper feeder having the above configuration, paper is set at a predetermined position when a plurality of papers are set, or when additional papers are added on the set papers. However, there is a problem that several sheets of paper from the uppermost position go further into the paper feeding unit and cannot be fed properly.
[0004]
As a means for solving this, as shown in FIG. 5, a guide member 31 is provided in the vicinity of the cutout portion 30a of the half-moon roller 30 so as to be rotatable around a pin 33, and the guide surface 31a of the guide member 31 is fixed to the half-moon roller. It is known that the guide member 31 is located in the space K between the separation roller 30 and the separation roller 40, and is prevented from rotating clockwise from the state shown in FIG. . According to this, when the sheet P is set, the sheet P is set at a predetermined position along the guide surface 31a of the guide member 31.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, even in the above-described paper feeder provided with a guide member on the half-roller, for example, despite being set properly by an operator, there is no feeling of being set, and the paper is moved back and forth. The case where the guide member rotates counterclockwise when trying to insert the paper further into the back, and the conventional problem that several sheets from the top end go deeper than the paper feeding unit has not been solved yet. Also occurred.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a sheet feeding device that can be set accurately at a predetermined position.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet feeding apparatus including: an apparatus main body; a sheet feeding unit provided in the apparatus main body and capable of feeding sheets one by one; A sheet feeding unit opening into which the leading end of the sheet can be inserted so as to be located in the sheet feeding unit, and a sheet mounting table provided for the sheet to be conveyed provided in the sheet feeding unit opening. A paper feeding means comprising a guide member provided on the half-moon roller and a driving unit for rotating the half-moon roller so that the paper is guided to an appropriate position when the paper is placed on the half-moon roller and the paper mounting table. A sheet separating unit that separates the top sheet from the second sheet when feeding the sheet on the sheet mounting table, and the leading edge of the sheet when the leading edge of the sheet is inserted into the sheet feeding unit opening. a stopper member provided on the half-moon roller so is positioned properly, the guide member and the strike Par member is a sheet feeding apparatus which is characterized in that rotatably attached to the semi-moon roller.
[0008]
According to the above means, even when the operator attempts to insert the paper to the back of the paper feeding unit when setting a plurality of papers or adding papers, the paper is caught by the stopper member and the paper is moved to the back of the paper feeding unit. Setting can be prevented, and appropriate feeding can be performed.
[0009]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows a general image forming apparatus using a half-moon roller. An original mounting table 2 is provided on an upper part of an image forming apparatus 1 as an apparatus main body. The original placed on the original mounting table 2 is scanned by an optical system 3 and an electrostatic latent image is The developing device 5 forms the electrostatic latent image on the toner image. On the other hand, only the uppermost sheet of the sheet placed on the sheet placing table 8 provided in the sheet feeding section opening 81 is fed by the sheet feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7, and the photosensitive roller is moved by the registration roller pair 9. The toner image on the photoconductor 4 is conveyed downstream in the paper conveyance direction in synchronization with the transfer of the toner image on the body 4 onto the paper, and the transfer device 10 transfers the toner image on the photoconductor 4 to the paper. The sheet on which the toner image has been transferred is further conveyed to the downstream side, the toner image is fixed on the sheet by the fixing device 11, and is discharged to the sheet discharge tray 13 by the discharge roller pair 12.
[0010]
2 and 3 are views showing only the sheet feeding device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a normal state, and FIG. 3 shows a state in which the half-moon roller has rotated half a turn. A detailed configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0011]
Referring to FIG. 2, a sheet placing table 21 having a width adjusting mechanism from the upstream side in the sheet conveying direction, a lift plate 22 for moving the leading end of the sheet upward during sheet feeding, a half moon roller 60 as a sheet feeding unit, and a separating unit as a separating unit Are formed as a pair of upper and lower rollers, and furthermore, on the downstream side, upper and lower guide plates 61 and 71 are arranged. The separation roller 70 is attached to a torque limiter (not shown).
[0012]
The half-roller roller 60 is rotatable from a driving means (not shown) via a shaft 68, and is controlled by a control means (not shown) so as to make one rotation for feeding one sheet. The separation roller 70 is also rotated by the drive from the drive unit. The half moon roller 60 is in a normal position in the state shown in FIG. 2, and in the normal position, the half moon roller 60 and the separation roller 70 are in a non-contact state, and a space K is formed. A guide member 62 is attached near the cutout surface 69 of the half-roller roller 60 so as to be rotatable about the pin 65 and to position the guide surface 63 in the space K. Further, a stopper portion 64 is provided on the downstream side of the guide surface in the sheet conveying direction, and a protrusion 66 is provided so that the guide member 62 does not rotate clockwise from the state shown in FIG. Therefore, when the sheet P is set along the guide surface 63 of the guide member 62, the leading end of the sheet P comes into contact with the stopper portion 64, and the sheet P is set at an appropriate position.
[0013]
However, even if the operator adopts the above configuration, the stopper member 50 is provided on the half-moon roller 60 on the assumption that the sheet is set further back and forth while moving the sheet forward and backward. The stopper member 50 is provided rotatably about a pin 55 on the downstream side in the transport direction from the guide member 62 provided on the half-roller 60. The stopper member 50 is provided with a stopper portion 51 so that the sheet P does not pass through the stopper member 50, and further, a guide portion 52 is provided so that the sheet P appropriately contacts the stopper portion 51. The stopper portion 51 and the guide portion 52 are exposed on the transport path. Further, a projection 53 provided on the half-moon roller 60 is provided so that the stopper member 50 does not rotate clockwise about the pin 55 even when the sheet P is set, that is, even when the leading end of the sheet P contacts the stopper portion 51. The protrusion and the protrusion 54 of the stopper member 50 are in contact with each other.
[0014]
A lift plate 22 is provided on the downstream side of the paper mounting table 21 in the paper transport direction. When feeding paper, a lifting unit (not shown) is operated by a signal from a control unit (not shown), and the loaded paper is set. The tip of P rises to the state shown in FIG. Reference numeral 23 denotes a sheet leading end contact member provided on the downstream side in the transport direction of the lift plate 22 and on the upstream side in the transport direction of the separation roller 70 so that the leading ends of the set sheets P are aligned. Upper and lower guide plates 61 and 71 are respectively provided on the downstream side in the transport direction of the upper and lower roller pairs of the half-moon roller 60 and the separation roller 70, and further downstream, the paper fed by the paper feeding means is provided. An unillustrated feed roller pair for transporting downstream in the transport direction is provided.
[0015]
Subsequently, the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows a normal state, and the operator sets the sheet P in this state. More specifically, the operator sets the sheet P on the sheet mounting table 21. At this time, the leading edge of the sheet is first set to the top of the sheet P to be set and the leading ends of several sheets from the top to the guide surface of the guide member 62. Guided to the proper position by 63. The lower sheet P is set to an appropriate position by the sheet aligning member 23. On the other hand, the top and several sheets P from the top are also set to appropriate positions by the stopper 64 of the guide member 62. However, even if the operator moves the sheet P back and forth to insert the sheet P further back, the guide member 62 rotates counterclockwise, and even if the sheet P is inserted further beyond the guide member 62, the stopper member 50 Since the sheet P is caught by the stopper portion 51, the sheet P is always set at an appropriate position.
[0016]
As described above, the sheet P properly set on the sheet mounting table 21 is controlled by a control unit (not shown) to first raise the tip of the lift plate 22 when a sheet feeding instruction is issued from the sheet mounting table 21. The lifting means operates, and then the driving means (not shown) operates so that the half-moon roller 60 makes one rotation in the direction shown in FIG. 2A, and at the same time the separation roller 70 also rotates in the direction shown in FIG. As a result, the sheet P is sorted, and only the uppermost sheet P is fed. FIG. 3 is a view showing the middle of the sheet feeding, in which the half-moon roller 60 has rotated half a turn. The guide member 62 is in the state shown in FIG. 3 by its own weight around the pin 65, but its rotation is prevented by the rotation preventing member 67 so that the guide member 62 does not rotate any more. The stopper member 50 is brought into the state shown in FIG. 3 by its own weight around the pin 55, but its rotation is prevented by the pin 66 so that the stopper member 50 does not rotate any more. Therefore, the guide member 62 and the stopper member 50 return to the normal state from the direction D shown in FIG. This is because the projections 66 and 53 cannot return to the normal state from the E direction.
[0017]
In addition, as a result of providing the stopper member 50 on the downstream side of the separation roller 70, there are the following effects. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, after the sheet P is separated by the separation roller 70 at the time of sheet feeding, the leading edge of the next sheet to be fed may reach the separation roller 70. In this state, when the operator replenishes the paper on the paper placing table, the paper whose leading end has reached the separation roller 70 is pushed downstream in the transport direction by the paper when the replenishment is performed. Although it moves slightly downstream by the unit 51, it is held at an appropriate position, so that there is no inconvenience in the next sheet feeding.
[0018]
Further, when the paper feeding operation is performed when there is no paper P on the paper mounting table 21, that is, when the half-moon roller 60 and the separation roller 70 rotate, since the separation roller 70 is attached to the torque limiter, Torque is applied to the separation roller 70 by the rotation of the direction 60 in the direction A, and the separation roller 70 rotates in the direction indicated by C in FIG. That is, the separation roller 70 follows the half-moon roller 60. Therefore, there is no concern about wear on the surface of the half-moon roller 60 and the surface of the separation roller 70.
[0019]
In the above embodiment, an example of application to a stack bypass has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to an automatic document feeder. In addition, although an example in which a separation roller is attached to a torque limiter as a separation unit has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and any known separation unit used in combination with a half-moon roller can be applied. is there.
[0020]
In the above embodiment, the stopper portion 64 is provided on the guide member 62. However, the guide member 62 may be replaced with a conventional guide member shown in FIG. 5, that is, a guide member without a stopper portion. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, when setting a plurality of papers or adding papers, even if the operator tries to insert the papers to the back of the paper feeding unit, the paper is caught by the stopper of the guide member. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the paper from being set in the back of the paper feeding unit, and it is possible to feed the paper properly.
[0022]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a general image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a view showing a sheet feeding apparatus in the present invention (half-moon roller is in a normal state).
FIG. 3 is a view showing a sheet feeding device according to the present invention (in a state where a half-moon roller is rotated half a turn).
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a sheet feeding state according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional sheet feeding device.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference numeral 21: paper loading table 50: stopper member 51: stopper portion 60: half-moon roller 62: guide member 63: guide surface 64: stopper portion 70: separation roller

Claims (1)

An apparatus main body, a paper supply unit provided in the apparatus main body and capable of feeding paper one sheet at a time, a paper supply unit opening into which the leading end of the paper can be inserted so that the leading end of the paper is located in the paper supply unit, A paper mounting table for mounting paper to be conveyed, provided at the paper opening;
The paper feeding unit is provided with a guide member provided on the half-moon roller and a driving unit for rotating the half-moon roller so that the sheet is guided to an appropriate position when the sheet is placed on the half-moon roller and the sheet mounting table. Paper feeding means, and separating means for separating the top sheet and the second sheet when feeding the paper on the paper mounting table,
When inserting the leading edge of the paper into the paper feed unit opening, a stopper member is provided on the half-moon roller so that the leading edge of the paper is properly positioned ,
The paper feeding device, wherein the guide member and the stopper member are rotatably attached to the half-roller .

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