JP3769404B2 - Sheet material transport device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sheet material conveying apparatus that is applied to an image forming apparatus or the like so that jamming can be easily performed.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 7, an electrophotographic system in which a sheet material conveyance path 104 is provided from a sheet feeding tray 101 on which sheet materials are stacked to an output stacker unit 103 via an image forming unit 102. There is an image forming apparatus 105.
[0003]
The sheet material conveyance path 104 is provided at one end of a guide plate 106 constituting a part of the sheet material conveyance path 104 in order to remove the jammed sheet material in the sheet material conveyance path 104 and eliminate the jam. There is a sheet material conveying device that rotates about a fixed shaft 107 in a direction in which the guide plate 106 is separated from the image forming unit 102. In such a sheet material conveyance path device, when a jam occurs, the guide plate 106 is rotated around the fixed shaft 107 as a rotation center to secure a work space. The jammed sheet is released by removing the jammed sheet material by placing a hand in the space thus secured.
[0004]
In addition, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2528448, there is a sheet material conveying apparatus that integrally rotates a component part of a sheet material conveying path including a guide plate about a fixed shaft as a rotation center. is there. In such a sheet material conveying apparatus, when a jam occurs, the entire sheet material conveying path is rotated to secure a work space, and the jammed paper is removed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when the guide plate 106 or the entire sheet material conveyance path 104 is rotated about the fixed shaft 107 as a rotation center, one end of the sheet material conveyance path 104 is separated from the image forming unit 102, but the fixed shaft 107 side is Since the sheet remains stationary, it is difficult to secure a sufficient space for removing jammed paper when the sheet material is jammed on the fixed shaft 107 side and a jam occurs. For this reason, there is a problem that jammed paper is not removed well, and a part of the sheet material is torn off and remains in the sheet material conveyance path 104. The invention described in Utility Model Registration No. 2528448 is the same.
[0006]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to secure a large work space on the sheet material conveyance surface side and improve workability for removing jammed paper.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The invention according to claim 1 is a guide having a leaf spring provided in the sheet material conveyance path to constitute a part of the sheet material conveyance path, and provided on one end side from the center on the back surface side of the sheet material conveyance surface. One end of the guide plate is rotatably connected to the guide plate at the other end of the guide plate, and the other end is rotatably connected to a fixed shaft fixed at a position below the one end of the guide plate. link member and the thus formed opening portion and one end of the guide the closing part and the other end is turnably provided on the rotating shaft provided downward abuts from below the leaf spring of the plate and a support member for supporting the, and, along with the second end of the support member by rotating the support member in the rotational axis so as to move downward move the guide plate downwardly , Around the fixed shaft so that the one end of the link member moves downward The link member is rotated so that the guide plate and the link member overlap each other when viewed from the axial direction of the fixed shaft, and the opening / closing portion is folded and separated from the sheet material conveyance path. I did .
[0008]
Accordingly, when the support member supporting the guide plate is rotated, the guide plate is moved downward, and the link member is rotated about the fixed shaft in conjunction with the guide plate. The sheet material conveyance path is greatly opened.
[0009]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the leaf spring and the support member are disposed above the fixed shaft, and the plate spring and the support member are in contact with the guide plate . A restricting means is provided for restricting the one end side of the guide plate from moving upward by the biasing force of the leaf spring.
[0010]
Therefore, when the leaf spring and the support member come into contact with each other, the urging force applied from the center of the guide plate toward the fixed shaft side restricts the one end portion of the guide plate from rotating upward by the restricting means. Regulate the whole board.
[0011]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, a locking means for restricting the upward rotation of the link member is provided above the rotational shaft.
[0012]
Therefore, the locking means limits the upward rotation of the link member to limit the rotation of the support member, thereby positioning the guide plate at a predetermined position.
[0013]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second, or third aspect of the present invention, the opening / closing portion is detachably provided.
[0014]
Therefore, by removing the opening / closing part from the main body, the space occupied by the opening / closing part becomes empty.
[0015]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing an image forming apparatus provided with a sheet material conveying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is a longitudinal side view showing the sheet material conveying apparatus when conveying a sheet material. FIG. It is a vertical side view which shows the sheet material conveying apparatus at the time of work. 2 is a perspective view showing the sheet material conveying apparatus, FIG. 3 is a side view showing the sheet material conveying apparatus during conveyance of the sheet material, FIG. 4 is a side view showing movement of the guide plate by the rotation of the support member, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a side view showing a state in which the link member and the support member are in contact with each other by the rotation of the support member, and FIG. 6 is a side view showing the sheet material conveying apparatus during the jam paper removing operation. Arrows A and B in the figure indicate the rotation direction of the support member.
[0016]
The sheet material conveying apparatus of the present embodiment is an example applied to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus exposes a manuscript image on a contact glass 2 optically read by a scanner unit 1 to a photoconductor 4 provided in the image forming unit 3 to perform electrostatic photography. A toner image is formed by a process, the toner image is transferred to a sheet material by the transfer device 5, and then the transferred toner image is fixed to the sheet material by the fixing unit 6.
[0017]
In such an image forming apparatus, a sheet feeding tray 8a for storing a large number of stacked sheet materials, a manual sheet feeding tray 8b, and a sheet discharge stacker unit for discharging sheet materials after image formation are disposed on the outer periphery of the main body case 7. 9 is attached. In the main body case 7, a sheet material conveyance path 10 is formed from the paper feed tray 8 a or the manual paper feed tray 8 b to the paper discharge stacker unit 9.
[0018]
The sheet material conveying device is provided with a guide plate 14 that includes a conveying belt 13 that is stretched between a driving roller 11 and a driven roller 12 and is rotatable in one direction, and that constitutes a part of the sheet material conveying path 10. ing. A leaf spring 15 is provided on the back side of the sheet material conveying surface 10a of the guide plate 14 on the downstream side in the sheet material conveying direction from the center of the guide plate 14. The free end side of the leaf spring 15 is a bent portion 15a that is bent.
[0019]
At one side of the guide plate 14 in the sheet material conveying direction, one end is rotatably provided on a rotating shaft 16 extending from the driving roller 11, and the other end is rotated around a fixed shaft 17 fixed to the main body case 7. A link member 18 provided so as to be movable is provided. The link member 18 is formed with a convex portion 18 a that is located above the fixed shaft 17 and protrudes toward the guide plate 14. The guide plate 14 and the link member 18 constitute an opening / closing part 19.
[0020]
Further, an extension portion 14a extending downward is formed at the downstream end portion of the guide plate 14 in the sheet material conveyance direction, and a convex portion 14b protruding laterally is formed at the tip of the extension portion 14a. Yes. And the control means 20 is comprised by these convex part 18a and convex part 14b.
[0021]
Next, below the guide plate 14 is provided a support member 22 having one end rotatably attached to a rotary shaft 21 provided immediately below the bending portion 15a. The other end of the support member 22 has two abutting portions 22a and 22b. One abutting portion 22a abuts on the bent portion 15a of the leaf spring 15 from below and is urged downward by the load of the guide plate 14. Has been. The other contact portion 22b contacts the link member 18 from below when the support member 22 rotates. The distance from the rotation shaft 21 to the contact portion 22a is set larger than the distance from the rotation shaft 21 to the contact portion 22b. The rotation shaft 21 is provided with a release lever (not shown) having one end fixed to the rotation shaft 21.
[0022]
Further, a positioning plate 23 is detachably provided on the main body case 7, and a convex portion 23 a that protrudes toward the link member 18 is formed on the positioning plate 23. Further, a hole 23 b is formed in the positioning plate 23, and the hole 23 b is fitted to the fixed shaft 17. The protrusion 18 b formed above the rotation shaft 21 of the link member 18 and the protrusion 23 a formed on the positioning plate 23 serve as the locking means 24.
[0023]
Next, a photosensitive member 4 that is rotatable in one direction is provided at the center of the image forming unit 3. Around the photosensitive member 4, a charger 25 for uniformly charging the photosensitive member 4, a developing unit 26 for attaching toner to an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member 4 by exposure from the scanner unit 1, A transfer device 5 for transferring the toner on the photoconductor 4 to the sheet material, a charge eliminating lamp 27 for wiping off the charge on the photoconductor 4, a cleaner 28 for removing the toner remaining on the photoconductor 4, and the like are provided.
[0024]
The fixing unit includes a pressure roller 6 a and a heating roller 6 b, and is provided downstream of the image forming unit 3 in the sheet material conveyance path 10 in the sheet material conveyance direction.
[0025]
A case where an image forming operation is performed in such a configuration will be described. First, in the image forming unit 3, exposure according to the image read by the scanner unit 1 is performed on the photoconductor 4 uniformly charged by the charger 25. By exposure, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoreceptor 4. A toner image is formed on the photoreceptor 4 by attaching toner to the latent image. This toner image is transferred to the sheet material with a bias applied when the sheet material separated and conveyed one by one from the sheet feeding tray 8a or the manual sheet feeding tray 8b passes through the transfer device 5. The toner image transferred to the sheet material is fixed to the sheet material by the pressure roller 6 a and the heating roller 6 b when passing through the fixing unit 6, and the sheet material on which the image is formed is discharged to the discharge stacker unit 9. Is done.
[0026]
Here, the sheet material removing operation when the sheet material is jammed in the sheet material conveyance path 10 will be described. First, a door (not shown) provided on the side of the image forming unit 3 of the main body case 7 is opened. Then, by operating the release lever, the support member 22 rotates about the rotation shaft 21 toward the downstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction (arrow A direction).
[0027]
Then, the contact portion 22a moves to the downstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction by the rotation of the support member 22. As the contact portion 22a moves, the contact portion 22a and the bottom surface of the main body case 7 approach each other. Along with this, the guide plate 14 moves downward due to its own weight.
[0028]
As the guide plate 14 moves downward, the position of the rotary shaft 16 where the guide plate 14 and the link member 18 are connected also moves downward. Since the end of the link member 18 on the downstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction is rotatably connected to a fixed shaft 17 that is fixed in position, the link member 18 has a rotation direction of the support member 22 around the fixed shaft 17. Rotates in the opposite direction.
[0029]
Here, since one end of the leaf spring 15 is provided downstream of the center of the guide plate 14 in the sheet material conveying direction, the leaf spring 15 is guided when the leaf spring 15 and the support member 22 are in contact with each other. The downstream side in the sheet material conveying direction of the plate 14 is urged upward. Due to this urging force, the convex portion 14b comes into contact with the convex portion 18a, the upward movement of the guide plate 14 is restricted, and the guide plate 14 moves downward in parallel.
[0030]
As the guide plate 14 moves, the link member 18 rotates downward about the fixed shaft 17, so that the guide plate 14 and the link member 18 overlap each other, and the opening / closing portion 19 becomes folded and becomes smaller. In this state, the sheet material is separated from the sheet conveyance path 10. For this reason, a large working space on the sheet material conveyance surface 10a side is secured.
[0031]
Reach out this space and remove the jammed sheet material.
[0032]
Next, an operation when the sheet material conveyance path 10 is returned to the state at the time of sheet material conveyance after the removal of jammed paper will be described. First, the release lever is operated to rotate the support member 22 to the upstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction (in the direction of arrow B) with the rotation shaft 21 as the rotation center. As a result, the support member 22 comes into contact with the link member 18, and the support member 22 pushes the link member 18 upward by the contact portion 22b. The guide plate 14 moves upward in conjunction with the movement of the link member 18.
[0033]
Next, when the link member 18 and the guide plate 14 are raised to a predetermined position, the support member 22 comes into contact with the plate spring 15, and the plate spring 15 is pushed up by the contact portion 22a. The member 18 continues to move upward. Further, the contact portion 22a moves to the upstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction by the rotation of the support member 22. When the support member 22 and the leaf spring 15 are in contact with each other, a force that urges the end of the guide plate 14 on the downstream side in the sheet material conveyance direction is applied, and is regulated by the regulation means 20. Thus, the guide plate 14 is maintained in a substantially balanced state.
[0034]
In the process of returning the guide plate 14 to the sheet material conveyance position, the distance from the rotation shaft 21 of the contact portion 22b is shorter than the distance from the rotation shaft 21 of the contact portion 22a. Compared with the case of only 22a, the operator's force for rotating the release lever is reduced, and a stable operation can be performed. Further, the abutting portions 22 a and 22 b of the support member 22 that is rotatably provided at one end on the rotation shaft 21 perform a circular motion as the rotation shaft 21 rotates. Accordingly, the guide plate 14 supported by the support member 22 can be moved intermittently and smoothly.
[0035]
When the end of rotation of the release lever, that is, when the contact portion 22a reaches the bending portion 15a, the support member 22 is restricted from rotating by the leaf spring 15. At this time, since the click feeling is transmitted to the operator, the turning end point becomes clear.
[0036]
Further, when the support member 22 is rotated to a predetermined position, the projection 18b is in contact with the projection 23a so that the link member 18 can be prevented from rotating upward and the guide plate 14 can be moved upward. Restrict. As a result, the end point of rotation of the release lever is determined, and the guide plate 14 is held at a predetermined position. And since the control means 20 positions the downstream part in the sheet material conveyance direction in the guide plate 14, the whole guide plate 14 can be hold | maintained stably.
[0037]
The opening / closing part 19 may be detachable so that it can be removed from the main body case 7. As a result, it is possible to remove the opening / closing part 19 and make a space occupied by the opening / closing part 19 to improve workability such as parts replacement and cleaning.
[0038]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first aspect of the present invention, a guide plate that is rotatably provided at the other end of a link member that is rotatably provided on a fixed shaft that is fixed at one end is provided with a rotary shaft that is fixed at one end. Since the entire guide plate supported by the support member is moved when the support member is supported by the other end of the support member that is rotatably connected and the support member is rotated, a large space is provided on the sheet material conveyance surface side. Can be secured. Accordingly, the sheet material that has jammed in the sheet material conveyance path can be easily removed.
[0039]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, a restricting means is provided above the fixed shaft, and when the leaf spring and the support member come into contact with each other by the restricting means, the guide by the upward biasing force applied from the center of the guide plate to the rotating shaft side. Since the entire guide plate is restricted by restricting the upward movement of the plate by the restricting means, the guide plate can be moved substantially in parallel only by the rotation of the support member. The workability of removing the jammed paper by wide opening can be improved.
[0040]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the locking member is provided above the rotation shaft to restrict the rotation of the link member, thereby restricting the rotation of the support member and positioning the guide plate at a predetermined position. Therefore, the guide plate can be positioned at an appropriate position only by rotating the support member, and the workability of returning the sheet material conveyance path to a predetermined position after the jam processing can be improved.
[0041]
The invention according to claim 4 is provided so that the opening / closing part can be freely attached and detached, so that the space occupied by the opening / closing part is made free by removing the opening / closing part. Workability such as cleaning can be improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing an image forming apparatus provided with a sheet material conveying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) is a vertical side view showing a sheet material conveying apparatus, and FIG. It is a vertical side view which shows a material conveying apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a sheet material conveying apparatus.
FIG. 3 is a side view showing a sheet material conveying apparatus when conveying a sheet material.
FIG. 4 is a side view showing the movement of the guide plate by the rotation of the support member.
FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state in which the link member and the support member are in contact with each other by the rotation of the support member.
FIG. 6 is a side view showing the sheet material conveying device during jam paper removing operation.
FIG. 7 is a longitudinal side view illustrating an image forming apparatus including a conventional sheet material conveying device.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Sheet material conveyance path 10a Sheet material conveyance surface 14 Guide plate 15 Leaf spring 17 Fixed shaft 18 Link member 19 Opening and closing part 20 Restricting means 21 Rotating shaft 22 Support member 24 Locking means

Claims (4)

A guide plate that is provided in the sheet material conveyance path and constitutes a part of the sheet material conveyance path, and has a leaf spring provided on one end side from the center on the back side of the sheet material conveyance surface, and one end of the guide plate said guide rotatably coupled with the other end to the plate at the other end portion the guide plate one end of rotatably is the in thus configured concatenated link member at a position fixed fixed axis beneath of provided that a closing unit, and a support member having one end supporting the closing part and the other end is turnably provided on the rotating shaft provided downward abuts from below the leaf spring of the guide plates ,And,
As the guide member is moved downward by rotating the support member around the rotation axis so that the other end of the support member moves downward, the one end of the link member moves downward. The link member is rotated about the fixed shaft so that the guide plate and the link member overlap each other when viewed from the axial direction of the fixed shaft, and the opening / closing portion is folded. A sheet material conveying apparatus configured to be separated from the conveying path . The one end side of the guide plate exceeds a predetermined height by the urging force of the plate spring when the plate spring and the support member are in contact with each other, arranged above the fixed shaft and engaging with the guide plate. the sheet material conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein is provided a regulating means for regulating a moving upward Te.   The sheet material conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a locking unit that restricts the upward rotation of the link member is provided above the rotation shaft.   The sheet material conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the opening / closing part is detachably provided.

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