JPH01104565A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily take out a group of sheets by starting housing from the (n+1)th line in accordance with an empty bin information when the housing of sheets for one document group starts in the middle of bins of the n'th line and extends over the (n+1)th line. CONSTITUTION:With two bin lines being connected based on a bin line connec tion signal P8 and, as an empty bin information on enabling transfer papers to be housed from the middle of the bin group of the first array of bin lines is sent from an empty bin detecting sensor P3 in a control part 10, the number of empty bins in one bin line in compared with that of other bin lines based on the number of bins N and the number of transferring copies NA, NB of documents A, B. And, when (N-NA)<NB, a sheet sorting device is controlled by a signal F3, to house a transfer paper group NB from the first bin of the second array. After that, when there is a next document group, the empty bin information is compared with the necessary number of copies of the documents and a similar control is performed. Thereby, the sheet groups of one job can be simply taken out together.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and particularly to an image forming apparatus equipped with a sheet sorting device having a plurality of bin rows.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a sheet sorting device having at least two or more bin rows (groups) attached to an image forming bag of a copying machine, a laser beam printer, etc. has been used. When storing sheets (hereinafter referred to as transfer paper) for a reserved document group, the empty bin information detected by the sheet sorting device and the required number of transfer paper copies of the reserved document group input to the image forming device are used. Because there was no way to compare the numbers, when storing copies of transfer paper from one group of originals, from the middle of the bin in the nth column (n
+1) Sometimes it crossed over to the bin in the row (Figure 1).

In this way, it is troublesome and time-consuming for the operator to remove the stored paper from two rows of bins, and
For example, in a bin-moving type sheet sorting device with two series, the bin rows straddle each other, so when you try to take out the transfer paper from the wave stored in the first series, the bin row is already moving, making it difficult to take it out. .

[Purpose] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to easily take out a group of sheets for one job stored in two bin rows even if the sheets are stored in two rows of bins. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that has the following features.

[Example] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is an image forming apparatus, 2 is a sheet sorting device, and 3 is a reserved original automatic feeder (hereinafter referred to as A and D).
, F).

Next, the operation mode of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. For example, assume that two manuscript groups A, B, and C are placed on the reservation shelf 4. Manuscript group A.

The transfer paper processing modes B and C are input by the operation unit on the image forming apparatus. Here, for ease of explanation, it is assumed that two copies of document group A, three copies of document group B, and two copies of document group C are to be made. A lever 5.5' is installed between document groups +111A, B, and C so that you can distinguish between the document groups (Fig. 3 (a)), and when the lower document group is gone, the lever 5 is activated. The partition is rotated to turn off the sensor 6 (FIG. 3(b)), and this partition detection signal is sent to the control section of the image forming apparatus, which will be described later.

After inputting the transfer paper processing mode and starting the copying operation, A
Documents are sequentially conveyed onto the platen 7 of the image forming apparatus 1 starting from the lowest sheet of the face-up document group A on the reserved shelf 4 on the DF.

When the original is fed to the proper position on the platen, the paper feed cassette 8. Paper of an appropriate size is fed into the image forming apparatus from the paper feed deck 8', etc., and the transfer paper is discharged to the sheet sorting device 2 after undergoing a transfer and fixing process within the image forming apparatus. In this embodiment, an example is shown in which the sheet sorting device is of a bin moving type, but other sheet sorting devices may of course be used.

Now, the state of the document group A after transfer is shown in FIG. 4(a), where the document group A is discharged from the platen 7 and stacked on the paper discharge tray 9. When the last sheet of document group A (the topmost sheet on the reserved shelf) is conveyed from the reserved shelf 4 to the platen, the lever 5 rotates, causing the sensor 6 to move to 0FFL/1st document (Fig. 3(b)). A group separation signal is sent to the control unit of the image forming apparatus. Upon receiving this detection signal, the control unit shifts the bins in the sheet sorting device by one bin and stores the transfer sheets of the second document group B from the next bin (Fig. 4(b)).
. This operation is repeated until the end of document group C, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 4(c).

As a result, transfer paper groups A', B', and C' corresponding to document groups A, B, and C are formed, and each group of transfer papers can be easily taken out from the sheet sorting device.

In this embodiment, a structure is adopted in which one bin is opened between the transfer paper groups, but it is also possible to quantitatively open n bins such as 1 or 2 bins.

Also, while inputting the transfer paper processing mode before starting transfer paper processing, for example, set the number of bins of the sheet sorting device to N bins, set the reserved document group to 3 groups, and further set the number of transfer copies of document groups A, B, and C. Each NA.

In the case of NB and NC [(N-(NA+NB+NC)
)/(It is also possible to calculate an integer bin by rounding down the fraction of 3-11 in the control unit and open only this number of bins in the document group 11!1.

In the explanation so far, the number of copies NA, NB, and NC of manuscript groups A, B, and C are transferred to the storage bin N of the sheet sorting device.
If the sum of is smaller than N (N>NA+NB+NC)
We have explained that, but in the opposite case, for example, NA<N< (NA
+NB), at the time of initial input, the control section issues a message to the operation section indicating that the transfer paper in the NB section cannot be stored, thereby warning the operator.

Although a reservation ADF is used in this configuration, similar control is possible with a reservation circulation type automatic document feeder (hereinafter referred to as reservation RDF). For example, even if a reservation RDF as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-85510 is combined with a sheet sorting device to form one image forming system, the control section receives a partition signal between document groups and controls the sheet sorting device in the same manner as described above. do.

However, when N < (NA + NB) as mentioned above, transfer the transfer paper for document group B up to (N - (NA + 1)) copies, empty the storage section of the sheet sorting device, and then press the start switch again. By turning on, it becomes possible to re-storage.

Additionally, if the sheet sorting device has empty bin detection means for detecting the presence or absence of transfer paper in each bin, the same process as described above is performed when (N> (NA+NB+NC)) when using the reservation ADF. Or, when N< (NA+NB),
After storing the transfer paper of document group A, when transfer paper group A' is taken out from the storage bin, an empty bin signal is output from the sheet sorting device to the comparison unit, and the number of empty bins and the number of sheets of transfer paper group B' are calculated. N.B.
When the number of empty bins N>NB, transfer paper is stored from the first bin of the sheet sorting device, and transfer paper group B'
After storage, the transfer paper group C' is stored in the bin.

Conversely, when N<NB, the empty bottle signal is compared with the initially input copying mode and the required number of copies NB, and the system is put into a standby state. As shown in Figure 5 (a), (b) and (c),
By emptying the storage bin, continuous re-storage is possible.

Also, N> (NA+NB+NC) and N< (NA+
NB), as shown in FIG. 6, an empty bin signal is sent from the sheet sorting device to the image forming apparatus control by pulling out the transfer paper group A' and making it into an empty bin, and the transfer paper group with other document group C is It is compared with the initially input transfer paper processing mode to see if it is possible to store C'. If there are enough bins to allow re-storing, the transfer paper group C' is stored as shown in FIG. 6(C).

On the other hand, if there is no storage bin for the transfer paper group C' (for example, if the state shown in FIG. 6(a) is still empty and there is no bin), the storage bin for the initially input transfer paper group C' may be empty. The image forming system δ remains in a standby state until it is completed.

In FIG. 6, the transfer paper group A' is removed from the storage bin to form an empty bin, but it is also possible to remove the transfer paper group B' to form an empty bottle and store the transfer paper group C'.

In this way, by comparing the empty bottle information and the information on the number of required storage bins for the transfer paper group in the comparison section of the image forming apparatus, when the condition of empty bottle number>required number of storage bins for the transfer paper group is satisfied, This makes it possible to control the continuous processing of transfer sheets of reserved manuscript groups into empty bins to the sheet sorting device.

Also, when 27 or more sheet sorting devices are connected, for example, when there are two sets, the transfer paper group B' is sorted as shown in FIGS.
When storing transfer paper group A', normally one bin is skipped and transfer paper group B' is stored after storing transfer paper group A', but in the present invention, the difference between the number of bins N and transfer paper group A' and the transfer paper group Compare the size with B' and when (N-NA)<NB, stop storing the transfer paper group B' in the first series as shown in FIG. I decided to store paper J¥B'.

Fig. 9 shows a flowchart of this control, and Fig. 1O shows a control block diagram. A signal is being sent to the control unit. In this embodiment, a movable bin type sheet sorting device having two bin rows is used as an example, but a fixed bin type sheet sorting device and a sheet sorting device having several bin rows are also possible.

When empty bottle information indicating that transfer paper can be stored from a bin in the middle of the bin group of the first bin row is sent to the control unit 10 by the output of the empty bottle detection sensor, the initially input copy・Compare the processing mode and required number of copies NB with the number of empty bins in one bin row, and when (N-NA)<NB and when there is the next bin row, control the control unit or sheet sorting device. Then, the transfer paper group NB is stored from the first bin of the second series. After storing in the sheet sorting device, if there is a next group of documents a, the empty bin information is compared with the required number of copies of the documents, and the same control is repeated.

FIG. 1O is a block diagram showing a control circuit for performing the above-mentioned operation, and is mainly composed of a well-known one-chip microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as MC0P) 10 with built-in ROM and RAMetc. Signals from each sensor are input to the input boats P, -P8. Pl is a copy mode input capo button on the image forming apparatus operation panel, P2 is a copy start button, P3 is an empty bin detection sensor on the sheet sorting device, and P4 is a sensor for determining the bin position of the sheet sorting device. Home position sensor (not shown), P5 is a partition sensor 6 between document groups, P6 is a document presence/absence sensor on the tray surface of the reservation shelf (not shown, but for example, a reflective sensor, etc.)
, P is a detection sensor that determines whether or not the image forming apparatus is performing transfer processing, and P8 is input with a signal from a bin row connection sensor. Also, output boats F□~F.

Output signals are outputted from each driver so as to perform control according to the flowchart in FIG. 9.

[Effects] As explained above, the sheet sorter is equipped with a comparison section that compares the empty bin information detected by the user with the required number of sheets for one job, and the comparison section or at least two bin rows are used to store sheets. When it is determined that the transfer paper will overlap, the control unit stops storing the transfer paper from the middle of one bin row and stores the transfer paper from the first bin of the next bin row. This makes it possible to collect groups and easily take them out.

[Brief explanation of the drawings] ff11 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional sheet storage operation.
The figure shows a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show a partition section of an automatic reservation document feeder, and FIGS. 4(a) to (C) FIG. 5(a) is a diagram illustrating the storage state of a group of manuscripts and a group of transfer sheets corresponding thereto.
~ (c) and Figures 6 (a) ~ (c) are diagrams illustrating the sheet storage state after emptying the bin, and Figures 7 (a) and (b).
8(a) and 8(b) are diagrams illustrating an example of seat storage according to the present invention when the number of bin rows is two. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of control operations according to the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a control block diagram. l...Image forming device 2...Sheet sorting device 3...Reservation document automatic feeder MC0P...Microcomputer (ku) (b) No./Fig. 2 Fig. 4 w (ku) Fig. 4 (b) (12) <1y) (4
N (b
]Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim] An image forming apparatus equipped with a sheet sorting device having a plurality of bin rows, comprising: a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of paper on a bin that accommodates sheets in the sheet sorting device; a comparison means for comparing empty bin information and the required number of sheet copies for one job; An image forming apparatus comprising: control means for controlling sheet storage so that, when determined by the means, storage in the nth row bin is stopped and sheets are stored from the (n+1)th row onward.