JP5586501B2 - Paper post-processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus attached to an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine or a printer.

  The sheet post-processing device attached to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, for example, stacks the sheets on which the images are sequentially ejected from the image forming apparatus and stacks the stacked sheets of sheets. It is configured to perform a so-called stapling process on one side or several places on one side by stapling.

  Regarding a paper post-processing apparatus that performs this stapling process, Patent Document 1 has a bottom plate that supports the paper discharged from the image forming apparatus, and presses the paper supported on the bottom plate with a switching claw, and the paper. In contrast, the feeding direction is aligned by a tacho roller unit, and one or several places are stapled with staples. Further, Patent Document 2 has a compile tray on which sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus are stacked, and the sheets supported on the compile tray are aligned by a compile paddle, and are stapled at one place or with a staple. Several places are processed for binding.

  However, in Patent Document 1, since the switching claw for pressing the paper supported by the bottom plate and the takikoro portion for aligning the paper are driven by separate driving means, the paper post-processing apparatus is increased in size and cost. There is a problem, and in Patent Document 2, the compile paddle for aligning sheets is moved using a solenoid, a lever, etc., so that the sheets can be aligned according to the number of sheets loaded on the compile tray. However, there is a problem that the configuration for moving the compile paddle is complicated.

JP 2003-155159 A JP 2004-284756 A

  Therefore, in order to solve the above problem, the applicant of the present invention firstly disclosed, in Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-84129, a sheet aligning unit, a unit main body, and a sheet pressing means for pressing the sheet supported by the sheet support unit. A cam means for moving the paper pressing means close to or away from the paper support unit by rotation of the cam member, and an alignment means for aligning the paper supported by the paper support unit to the reference position by rotation of the alignment member, The unit body includes a rotating shaft body rotatably supported by the first support body and the second support body, and the cam member and the alignment member are fixed to the rotating shaft body. Proposed paper post-processing device. The paper post-processing apparatus according to this proposal can obtain an effect that the paper can be pressed and aligned with a simple configuration, and the size and cost of the apparatus can be reduced.

  By the way, the conventional paper post-processing apparatus including the paper post-processing apparatus according to the above proposal has a function capable of automatically stapling the paper sent from the image forming apparatus. It is considered that the paper is used by hand, that is, used manually. When the staple processing function is used in this manual, the holding of the discharge roller that discharges the stapled paper is released, and the hand sheet is inserted into the released paper. However, a cover is provided at a portion of the housing facing the discharge roller to prevent dust from entering the discharge port. For this reason, the cover becomes an obstacle when manually feeding the paper.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet post-processing apparatus capable of easily performing manual stapling.

  The present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above problems.

  In the first invention, the supplied sheets are stacked on a mounting plate having a reference surface on one end side, and the stacked sheets are aligned and brought into contact with the reference surface using an alignment mechanism. The stapled paper is shifted to the stapling position using a shift mechanism and stapled. The stapled paper is pinched by the discharge roller, moved in the direction opposite to the position of the reference surface and discharged from the discharge port. The paper post-processing apparatus is configured to have a cover that is provided at the discharge port and is opened in the manual staple processing mode.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the cover is opened in accordance with the opening operation of the discharge roller.

  According to a third invention, in the first or second invention, a configuration is adopted in which a guide member that presses the sheet toward the drive roller is provided on the support shaft of the discharge roller.

  According to a fourth invention, in the third invention, the guide member is retracted to the inside of the cover in conjunction with the opening of the cover.

  According to the present invention, since the cover that opens in the manual staple processing mode is provided at the discharge port, manual staple processing can be easily performed.

It is sectional drawing which shows schematic structure of the paper post-processing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view of the alignment unit of the sheet post-processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. (A) is the front view of the discharge port part provided in the housing | casing of the paper post-processing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and shows the state by which the discharge roller is clamped, (b) It is a front view which shows the state by which the discharge roller is open | released. (A)-(c) is sectional drawing of a discharge port part, (a) is equivalent to the X1-X1 cross section of Fig.3 (a), (c) is equivalent to FIG.3 (b) X2-X2 cross section. Yes. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a matching unit. It is X3-X3 sectional drawing of FIG.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a sheet post-processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the scale of each member is appropriately changed in order to make each member a recognizable size.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus 1. In a casing 2 having a rectangular parallelepiped, a sheet take-in unit A, a temporary holding unit B, an alignment unit C, a staple unit D, a booklet Unit E and controller F are included.

In the housing 2, a conveyance path composed of a roller group, a guide plate, and the like for conveying the paper taken into the housing 2 is incorporated. The casing 2 is configured such that a discharge port 2a is opened at a position facing a later-described discharge roller of the alignment unit C so that stapled paper can be discharged out of the casing 2. At the same time, it is configured so that a paper for pointing can be inserted into the housing 2. More specifically, the discharge port 2a is provided in a passage region for paper sent out from the housing 2 by the discharge roller, and between the tray 8 on which the paper sent out from the housing 2 is placed and the discharge roller. Is provided.
The discharge port 2a is provided with a cover 60 and a guide member 70 that characterize the present invention. These will be described after the description of the basic configuration of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 and the configuration of the alignment unit C. 3 (a) and 3 (b) and FIGS. 4 (a) to 4 (c).

  The paper take-in section A has a pair of rollers, and receives paper discharged from an image forming apparatus (not shown) from a receiving port 3 provided in the housing 2, and receives the received paper in the housing 2. It is configured to be taken in.

  The temporary storage unit B is configured around a large-diameter drum, and holds the paper fed from the paper take-in section A around the drum surface and holds the paper into the housing 2. And the timing of the work in the subsequent alignment unit C can be adjusted.

  The aligning unit C stacks one side of the paper taken into the housing 2 in contact with the reference surface (reference plate), and staples the stacked paper in an aligned state along the reference surface. It is configured to be able to shift to a position. The alignment unit C will be described in detail later with reference to the drawings.

  The staple unit D is configured to perform a binding process on one or several sides of the aligned sheets with staples (staplers). Further, the booklet unit E is configured to be able to fold the paper taken into the housing 2 as necessary.

  The controller F is configured around a CPU, and is configured to be able to control the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 in an integrated manner. The controller F is connected to a controller of an image forming apparatus (not shown) via a communication line, and is configured to be able to control the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 under the command of the controller of the image forming apparatus. ing.

  Prior to the description of the alignment unit C, the overall operation of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 having the above-described configuration will be described. Then, when the captured paper is not stapled, the tray 5 passes through one inclined position of the wing 4 (hereinafter, this position is referred to as “localization” and the other inclination position is referred to as “reverse position”). Led to. Further, when the captured paper is stapled, it is guided to the temporary holding unit B side through the wing 4 inversion. When the paper guided to the temporary storage unit B does not need to be temporarily stored, the paper is guided to the alignment unit C through the localization of the wing 6. When the paper guided to the temporary holding unit B is temporarily held, the paper is guided to the temporary holding unit B via the wing 6 and is temporarily held, and the paper is guided to the temporary holding unit B. However, when folding processing is necessary, the paper is guided to the booklet unit E through the wing 6 inversion and the wing 7 orientation, and the paper processed by the booklet unit E is temporarily stored again. It is configured to be returned to the holding unit B side.

  Now, the sheet sent from the temporary storage unit B side is received by the alignment unit C, and is loaded with one side of the sheet abutting on the reference surface. Then, the stacked sheets are shifted to a predetermined position of the next staple unit D in a state where they are in contact with the reference surface, that is, in an aligned state, and then stapled by the staple unit D. The bound sheets are discharged to the tray 8 by discharge rollers provided in the alignment unit C.

  Hereinafter, the matching unit C will be described. Since the detailed shape and the like of each part of the alignment unit C has been described in detail in the previously proposed sheet post-processing apparatus, members necessary for the description of the present invention will be described here.

  The alignment unit C includes an intake roller 10, a mounting plate 20, an alignment mechanism 30, a discharge roller 40, and a shift mechanism 50 shown in FIG.

  The take-in roller 10 is composed of a driving roller 11 driven by a motor (not shown) and a driven roller 12 rotated by rotation of the driving roller, and the conveyance direction of the paper P (see arrow a in FIG. 1) and A plurality (two in the illustrated example) are provided at predetermined intervals in the orthogonal direction. Therefore, the take-in roller 10 can take the paper P discharged from the image forming apparatus side, that is, the paper P discharged from the temporary holding unit B side in FIG.

  The placement plate 20 is formed on the bottom surface 21 on which the paper P taken in by the take-in roller 10 is placed, and on the inner side of the bottom surface 21 on the conveyance direction side of the paper P, and part of both sides are notched. The reference surface 22 is fixed to the casing of the alignment unit C. The reference surface 22 is formed in a precise straight line shape so as to coincide with one side Pe forming a straight line of the paper P. Therefore, when the paper P stacked on the bottom surface 21 is moved to the reference surface 22 by the alignment mechanism 30 as described later, one side Pe of the paper P can be aligned.

  The alignment mechanism 30 includes a flexible piece 31, a movable plate 32, and a cam 33, and is provided above the bottom surface 21 of the mounting plate 20. The flexible piece 31 is made of a flexible material such as a synthetic resin, and the shape thereof is formed in a strip shape. The flexible piece 31 is fixed to a rotary shaft 34 provided in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the paper P, and the bottom surface 21. The length is determined so that the surface (upper surface) of the paper P placed thereon can be scooped toward the reference surface 22 side. The movable plate 32 is pivotally supported so that it can rotate (swing) toward the bottom surface 21 of the mounting plate 20 with the same axis as a driven roller of a discharge roller 40 to be described later as a supporting shaft. The urging portion that is not urged is always urged away from the bottom surface 21. Further, the cam 33 is provided on the same rotation shaft 34 as the flexible piece 31, and a part of the peripheral surface of the cam 33 is always in contact with the upper surface of the movable plate 32. Yes. Therefore, when the rotating shaft 34 is rotated by the motor M and the cam 33 rotates, the movable plate 32 can swing against the urging portion.

  The discharge roller 40 is provided on the side opposite to the conveyance direction side of the paper P, and is driven by a drive roller 41 (see FIG. 3 and later) provided on a shaft 40a rotated by a stepping motor (not shown) and its drive. The roller 41 is rotated by the rotation of the roller 41 and is constituted by a driven roller 42 provided on the support shaft 42a. A plurality (two in the illustrated example) of the discharge rollers 40 are provided at a predetermined interval in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the paper P. Further, one of the pair of rollers constituting the discharge roller 40 (the driven roller 42 in the illustrated example) is configured to be separated from the other roller by a driving mechanism (not shown). Therefore, when the discharge roller 40 is separated, that is, when the discharge roller 40 is nipped, the pair of rollers 41 and 42 can be freely moved and the pair of rollers 41 and 42 are held. Can move the paper P toward the tray 8 (see FIG. 1) (see arrow b in FIG. 2).

  Although omitted in FIG. 2, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B described later, the shaft 40 a of the drive roller 41 is maintained at a predetermined distance outside the drive rollers 41, 41. Auxiliary rollers 41a and 41a having the same diameter as 41 are provided. The auxiliary rollers 41a and 41a are not provided with driven rollers like the drive rollers 41 and 41, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 12 to be described later, the shift mechanism 50 includes contact plates 51 and 51 that sandwich both sides of one side Pe of the paper P that is in contact with the reference surface 22. These contact plates 51, 51 are configured to be moved in the same direction as one side Pe of the paper P by a moving mechanism (not shown) (see arrow c in FIG. 12).

  Hereinafter, the cover 60 and the guide member 70 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIGS. 4A to 4C.

  3A is a front view of the discharge port 2a portion provided in the housing 2, and shows a state in which the discharge roller 40 is sandwiched, and FIG. 3B shows that the discharge roller 40 is opened. 4 (a) to 4 (c) are cross-sectional views of the discharge port 2a, and FIG. 4 (a) corresponds to the X1-X1 cross section of FIG. 3 (a). FIG. 6C corresponds to the X2-X2 cross section of FIG.

The cover 60 is provided inside the discharge port 2a provided in the housing 2, and when the cover 60 is closed as shown in FIG. 3A, the sheet sandwiched by the discharge rollers 40 is discharged from the discharge port 2a. It has the minimum opening which can discharge | emit from, and is comprised so that the discharge port 2a can be covered. When the cover 60 is opened as shown in FIG. 3B, the cover 60 is configured to move upward so as to form an opening into which the sheet of hand can be easily inserted into the discharge port 2a. (See the arrow a in FIG. 3B and the arrow a in FIG. 4B), and the lower end portion is configured to open so as to enter the housing 2 (the arrow in FIG. 4B). b).
Here, the opening of the cover 60 means that the cover 60 is rotated so as to open the discharge port 2a.

  That is, the cover 60 is adapted to the movement when the support shaft 42a of the driven roller 42 moves upward about the rotation shaft 34 via an opening mechanism (not shown) incorporated in the alignment unit C of FIG. That is, it is configured to be able to rotate in accordance with the opening operation of the discharge roller 40. Specifically, the cover 60 is configured to open by being pushed up from below by the upward movement of the support shaft 42a.

  Therefore, when the cover 60 is opened, the discharge port 2a can be opened widely, and the sheet can be easily inserted when the staple processing function is used manually.

  Two guide members 70 are provided on the support shafts 42a of the driven rollers 42, 42 outside the driven rollers 42, 42 while being kept at a predetermined distance from the driven rollers 42, 42. That is, the guide member 70 is determined so as to be positioned between the drive roller 41 and the auxiliary roller 41a described above.

  The guide member 70 has a rounded rectangular shape on one end side (see FIGS. 4A to 4C), and the opposite side of the guide member 70 is rotatably provided on the support shaft 42 a of the driven roller 42. ing. Further, the size of the rectangle is determined so that the rounded end can slightly protrude from the peripheral surface position of the driven roller 42 when attached to the support shaft 42a. And this guide member 70 is comprised so that it may stop at the part facing the contact location of the drive roller 41 and the driven roller 42, and may always be urged | biased with the spring which is not shown clockwise. Moreover, the guide member 70 is configured to be rotated against the spring by the rotating cover 60 and to be taken into the cover 60 when the cover 60 rotates while moving upward. That is, the guide member 70 is configured not to obstruct the opening of the cover 60.

  Next, the alignment operation of the alignment unit C having the above configuration will be described with reference to the operation explanatory diagrams of FIGS.

  Now, as shown in FIG. 5, the image forming apparatus (not shown) is operated in a state where the rotation driving of the take-in roller 10 is stopped as shown in FIG. 5, and the sheet on which an image is formed from the input unit of the image forming apparatus. Suppose that P staple processing is selected. When the stapling process is selected in this way, rotation driving of the take-in roller 10 is started (see FIG. 6).

  When the rotation driving of the take-in roller 10 is started, the clamping state of the discharge roller 40 is released, and the take-in of the first sheet P1 is started (see FIG. 7). When the taking-in of the sheet P1 exceeds a predetermined amount, that is, when it is detected by a sensor (not shown) that the one side Pe of the sheet P1 in the back of the sheet P1 is located in the alignment unit C from the position of the taking-in roller 10 (See FIG. 8), the driving of the alignment mechanism 30 is started (see FIG. 9).

  When the driving of the alignment mechanism 30 is started, the paper P1 is pushed toward the bottom surface 21 of the placement plate 20 by the swinging movable plate 32, and the paper placed on the bottom surface 21 by the flexible piece 31. The surface of P1 is scooped on the reference surface 22 side. Thereby, one side Pe of the paper P1 is brought into contact with the reference surface 22, and the posture of the paper P1 is determined. The number of swings of the movable plate 32 and the number of rotations of the flexible piece 31 are determined by the type of the paper P1. That is, the number of swings of the movable plate 32 and the number of rotations of the flexible piece 31 are determined so that one side Pe of the paper P1 can reliably contact the reference surface 22.

  The paper P2 taken into the aligning unit C by the take-in roller 10 next to the paper P1 is also brought into contact with the reference surface 22 in the same manner as the paper P1, and the posture is determined and aligned. Such alignment processing is repeated until one sheet to be stapled is taken into the alignment unit C. In the example shown in the figure, in order to simplify the drawing, one sheet to be stapled is bundled into two (see FIG. 10).

  Note that when the first sheet P is taken in, the holding state of the discharge roller 40 is not released, and the sheet P may be positioned only by rotation of the discharge roller 40 without using the alignment mechanism 30. . Specifically, the driving roller 41 of the discharge roller 40 is rotated forward until one side Pe of the paper P falls on the bottom surface 21, and then the driving roller 41 is rotated reversely because the one side Pe of the paper P contacts the reference surface 22. Accordingly, the paper P may be positioned.

  When all the sheets P1 and P2 to be stapled are taken into the alignment unit C, the sheets P1 and P2 aligned by the shift mechanism 50 are moved to a predetermined position of the staple unit D and the discharge roller 40 is driven. The rotation of the roller 41 is rotated in the direction opposite to the forward rotation (clockwise rotation in the illustrated example) when the stapled paper is discharged. The so-called reverse rotation of the drive roller 41 is performed (see arrow c in FIGS. 11 and 12).

  As described above, when the driving roller 41 is reversely rotated during the shift movement, the friction of the driving roller 41 in contact with the paper P2 is not static friction but dynamic friction, so that the paper P1, P2 does not lose the alignment state. Since the shift can be performed and the driving roller 41 is reversely rotated, the sides Pe and Pe of the sheets P1 and P2 can be moved while being pressed against the reference surface 22, so that the shift can be performed without breaking the alignment state. it can.

  When the sheets P1 and P2 stacked by the shift mechanism 50 are moved to a predetermined position of the staple unit D, the staple processing is performed on the predetermined positions of the sheets P1 and P2 stacked by the staple unit D. When the staple processing is completed, the driven roller 42 of the discharge roller 40 moves to the drive roller 41 side to sandwich the stapled paper P1, P2, and the drive roller 41 rotates in the forward direction to staple. The processed sheets P1 and P2 are discharged to the tray 8. Then, the next bundle of sheets P1 and P2 are stapled in the same manner.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. Various shapes, combinations, and the like of the constituent members shown in the above-described embodiments are examples, and various modifications can be made based on design requirements and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  A: Paper take-in section, B: Temporary holding unit, C: Alignment unit, D: Staple unit, F: Controller, P, P1, P2 ... Paper, 1 ... Paper post-processing device ( Main body of paper post-processing device), 2 ... casing, 2a ... discharge port, 3 ... receiving port, 10 ... take-in roller, 20 ... loading plate, 22 ... reference plane, 30 ... alignment Mechanism 31 ... Flexible piece 32 ... Movable plate 33 ... Cam 40 ... Discharge roller 40a ... Shaft 41 ... Drive roller 41a ... Auxiliary roller 42 ... Follower roller 42a …… Support shaft, 50 …… Shift mechanism, 51 …… Spin plate, 60 …… Cover, 70 …… Guide member

Claims (3)

The supplied sheets are stacked on a mounting plate having a reference surface on one end side, and the stacked sheets are aligned by abutting against the reference surface using an alignment mechanism, and the aligned sheets are shifted by a shift mechanism. This is a paper post-processing apparatus that shifts the stapled position to the staple position, staples the stapled paper with a discharge roller, moves it in the direction opposite to the position of the reference surface, and discharges it from the discharge port. And
A cover provided at the discharge opening and opened in the manual staple processing mode;
The discharge roller has a driving roller and a driven roller that is disposed above the driving roller and rotated by rotation of the driving roller,
When the driven roller is moved upward with respect to the drive roller, the cover is pushed by the movement of the driven roller during the opening operation of the discharge roller, and the lower end portion of the cover is positioned at the discharge port. A sheet post-processing apparatus, wherein the sheet post-processing apparatus is opened toward the reference surface side of the inner placement plate and the cover covers the lower surface of the driven roller .   The paper post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a guide member that presses the paper toward the driving roller is provided on a support shaft of the discharge roller.   The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the guide member is retracted to the inside of the cover in conjunction with opening of the cover.

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