JPH01167166A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stack sheets orderly without requiring pagination by inverting a sheet fed from a sheet discharge pair roller through a U-turn carry-out path then leading into a lower sheet discharge tray provided with a tip position regulating member and stacking the sheet therein. CONSTITUTION:A sheet discharged from a device body 1 through a sheet discharge pair roller 32 is inverted through a U-turn carry path and a carrying means 144 arranged between fixed guides 140, 141 then it is discharged into a sheet discharge tray 9 assembled at the lower section of the body 1 and stacked therein. In the sheet discharge tray 9, a core type stopper 182 is provided in a notch section 183 such that its position is adjustable corresponding to the sheet size so that the discharged sheet is fed through a sheet feed mechanism 190 and the tip thereof contacts with the stopper 182. By such arrangement, sheet can be stacked ordery without requiring pagination and installation space can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Purpose of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus that improves the handling of paper ejected from the apparatus main body. Regarding equipment.

(Prior Art) Normally, a PPC copying machine has image forming process constituent means such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing built into the main body of the apparatus, and the fixed paper is transferred through a pair of paper ejection rollers. The paper is ejected outside the main body of the machine, but conventionally, the paper ejected from the main body of the machine was stacked one after another on a paper ejection tray that protruded from the side of the main body of the machine. It has become.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In this way, conventionally, paper ejected from the device main body is
The paper is stacked as is on the output tray, which is provided in the output direction and protrudes from the side of the main body of the device, so when copies are made in order from page 1, they are stacked on the output tray in the reverse order. This results in a troublesome page alignment operation, and the paper ejection tray protrudes from the main body of the apparatus, requiring a large installation space.

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and its object is to have a simple configuration, but to be able to stack sheets ejected from the device main body in accordance with the order of image formation, thereby eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus in which the installation space can be reduced, and furthermore, the sheets can be stacked in an orderly manner with their edges aligned in the paper discharge tray.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention incorporates image forming process constituent means such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing in the apparatus main body. In an image forming apparatus in which the fixed paper is ejected out of the main body of the apparatus via a pair of paper ejection rollers, a portion of the paper below the arrangement position of the pair of paper ejection rollers has entered the main body of the apparatus. a paper ejection tray provided, a U-turn ejection path that reverses the paper ejected via the paper ejection roller pair and guides it to the paper ejection tray, and a side in the traveling direction of the paper accumulated in the paper ejection tray. and a leading edge position regulating member whose position changes according to the paper size and which regulates the leading edge position of the paper stacked in the paper ejection tray, and a leading edge position regulating member such that the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with the leading edge position regulating member. A paper feeding mechanism for feeding the paper is provided.

(Function) That is, with the above configuration, the present invention reverses the paper discharged via the paper discharge roller pair through the U-turn discharge path and moves it below the arrangement position of the paper discharge roller pair. The sheets can be guided to a provided paper discharge tray and stacked, and stacking can be performed in accordance with the order of image formation, eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Furthermore, since the paper ejection tray is provided with a portion of the paper ejection tray recessed into the main body of the apparatus, the amount of protrusion of the paper ejection tray is reduced, and the installation space can be reduced. Further, a leading edge position regulating member is provided on the side in the traveling direction of the paper stacked in the paper output tray and the position changes according to the size of the paper, and the paper is arranged such that the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with this leading edge position regulating member. Because we have a paper feed mechanism that feeds
It becomes possible to stack sheets in an orderly manner in a state where the leading edge positions of the sheets are aligned in the paper discharge tray.

(Example) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the appearance of the entire image forming apparatus;
The figure shows its internal configuration.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an apparatus main body that incorporates image forming process constituent means 2 such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing. An automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 for setting and discharging documents on the document placement glass 3 is provided, and an operation panel 5 is disposed at the front edge of the top surface.

On the right side of the apparatus main body 1, there are a first paper feed cassette (hereinafter referred to as an upper cassette) 6 containing paper P such as plain paper to be supplied to the image forming process configuration means 2, and a second paper feed cassette (hereinafter referred to as an upper cassette). A lower cassette (hereinafter referred to as a lower cassette) 7 and a large capacity paper feeder 8 are installed. Further, on the left side of the apparatus main body 1, there is installed a paper ejection tray 9 for accumulating fixed paper P with a portion of the paper P ejected from the apparatus main body 1 into the apparatus main body 1. A paper discharging unit 11 having a U-turn discharging path 10 for guiding the paper to the paper discharging tray 9 in an inverted state is installed.

The apparatus main body 1 is composed of an upper unit 1a and a lower unit 1b, and as shown in FIG. And the paper delivery unit 11 is attached. Further, the lower unit 1b is equipped with the paper ejection tray 9 and the large-capacity paper feeder 8, and a paper guide that guides the paper P fed from the large-capacity paper feeder 8 toward the upper unit 1a. 12 is provided.

The image forming process configuration means 2 has the following configuration. That is, a drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 serving as an image carrier is arranged approximately in the center of the upper unit la, and charging devices 21 . Erasing device 22, exposure section 23a of exposure device 23
, developing device 24, transfer device 25. Peeling device 26. A cleaning device 27, a static eliminator 28, etc. are arranged in this order.

Furthermore, along the inner bottom of the upper unit 1a, paper P1 or the upper cassette 6 is automatically fed from the upper cassette 6, the lower cassette 7, and the large capacity paper feeder 8.
The paper P that is manually fed through the manual paper feed table 30 which also serves as a cover is passed through the image transfer section 31 between the photoreceptor 20 and the transfer device 25, and then transferred to a paper output provided on the left side of the main body 1 of the apparatus. A paper conveyance path 33 leading to the roller pair 32 is formed.

An aligning roller pair 34 is arranged on the upstream side of the image transfer section 31 of the paper conveyance path 33, and a fixing device 35 is arranged on the downstream side.

Further, in the vicinity of the mounting portion of the upper cassette 6, there is a take-out roller 41 attached to a swingable arm 40 that takes out sheets P one by one, and a take-out roller 41 that receives the sheets P taken out through this take-out roller 41 and Separation conveyance means 42 consisting of a conveyance roller 42a and a separation roller 42b that feed into the first branch conveyance path 33a forming the upstream side of the paper conveyance path 30
A transport roller 42a and a separation roller 42b are arranged to separate the manually fed paper P from each other.
A manual feed roller 43 is provided to feed the paper into the first branch conveyance path 33a through a gap between the paper and the paper.

Further, in the vicinity of the installed portion of the lower cassette 7, there is a take-out roller 45 attached to a swingable arm 44 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one, and a take-out roller 45 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one and receives the sheets of paper P taken out via this take-out paper feed roller 45. A separation conveyance means 46 is provided which includes a conveyance roller 46a and a separation roller 46b, which feed the paper into a second branch conveyance path 33b forming the upstream side of the paper conveyance path 33.

Also, in the vicinity of the attached portion of the large-capacity paper feeder 8, there is a take-out roller 48 that is attached to a swingable arm 47 and takes out sheets of paper P one by one, and a take-out roller 48 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one. Separation conveyance means 4 consisting of a conveyance roller 49a and a separation roller 49b that receive and feed into the third branch conveyance path 33c forming the upstream side of the paper conveyance path 33.
9 are arranged.

Furthermore, a paper-out detection switch 50 and a paper size detection switch 51 that also serves to detect the presence or absence of a cassette are respectively arranged in the mounting portions of the upper cassette 6 and the lower cassette 7, and a large-capacity paper feeder 8
A detection switch (not shown) for detecting the presence or absence of the large-capacity paper feeder 8 is provided on the mounting portion. The large-capacity paper feeder 8 can send and receive various signals to and from the main body 1 of the apparatus via a signal cable (not shown), and a paper out detection signal built into the large-capacity paper feeder 8 can be transmitted to and from the main body 1 of the apparatus via a signal cable (not shown). The information is transmitted to the device main body 1 side.

On the other hand, the branch conveyance path 33 a + 33 b r
33c, that is, near the upstream side of the aligning roller 34, is the branch conveyance path 33a.

A paper sensor 52 is arranged to detect the paper P conveyed via 33b and 33c.

Further, the exposure device 23 illuminates a document set on the document placement glass 3 provided on the top surface of the main body 1 with an exposure lamp 61 whose back is surrounded by a reflector 60, and detects light reflected from the surface of the document. the first mirror 62. Second mirror 63. The light is guided to the lens 65 through the third mirror 64 in order, and then the light transmitted through the lens 65 is directed to the fourth mirror 6.
6, a fifth mirror 67, and a sixth mirror 68 in order to lead to the photoreceptor 20.

The exposure lamp 61 and the first mirror 62 surrounded by the reflector 60 are mounted on a first carriage 69 that is movable back and forth along the lower surface of the document placement glass 3, and
The second mirror 63 and the third mirror 64 are
It is mounted on a second carriage 70 that moves in the same direction at half the speed of the carriage 69, and these carriages 69
70 moves from left to right in the figure in the state shown in FIG. 3 to scan the original set on the original placing glass 3 and expose an image corresponding to the original onto the photoreceptor 20 by slit exposure. It looks like this.

Incidentally, the first carriage 69 is equipped with a spotting unit 71 for specifying an area where there is document flaw, for example, when copying is desired with the area erased.

The developing device 24 is composed of an upper developing unit 75 for color development and a lower unit 76 for black development, each of which is a magnetic brush type equipped with developing rollers 77 and 78. By selectively bringing them close together and rotating them, it is possible to selectively develop black or other colors, such as red.

The cleaning device 27 brings a cleaning blade 80 into contact with the photoconductor 20 to scrape off the developer (toner) remaining on the photoconductor 20 and transfers the scraped developer (toner) to a casing 82 via an auger 81. It is configured to be carried outside and collected in a collection box (not shown).

The fixing device 35 has a heating roller 86 containing a heater lamp 85 and a pressure roller 87 that is urged to be in constant pressure contact with the heating roller 86, which are surrounded by upper and lower casings 88 and 89. In addition, the pair of paper ejection rollers 32 and the paper ejection switch 90 are integrated.

Further, the charging device 21. Transfer device 25. The stripping device 26 and the stripping device 26 each include a corona discharge device, and the static eliminating device 28 is configured to irradiate the photoreceptor 20 with light from a static eliminating lamp 95 via a green filter 96. Further, the erasing device 22 has a large number of LEDs arranged in the length direction of the photoreceptor 20, and the spot unit 7
It is possible to erase the charges in the area corresponding to the area specified by 1.

Note that a cooling fan 100 and a sub-main motor 101 are disposed above the fixing device 35 in the apparatus main body 1, and a portion of the paper conveyance path 33 is disposed between the peeling device 26 and the fixing device 35. A conveyor belt 102 forming a
is located.

Further, a high voltage transformer 103 is arranged below the conveyor belt 102, that is, at the bottom of the upper unit 1a. Reference numeral 104 denotes a static elimination brush arranged near the downstream side of the paper ejection roller pair 32.

In addition, the automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 is connected to the device main body 1.
The rear end side is hinged to allow rotation, and the document can be stacked on the document placement glass 3, which enables automatic feeding of the document, and allows copying of thick items such as books. The original document placement glass 3 can be retracted from the upper surface thereof. This automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 includes a unit main body 110 that can be superimposed on the upper surface of the document placement glass 3, and a unit main body 110 that is provided on the right end side of the unit main body 110 to transfer the original document on the document feed table 111 to the unit main body 110. or from the unit main body 110 to the document feed tray 11.
1, and a supply/discharge mechanism section 112 for discharging onto a tray 124 provided on the upper surface side of the paper.

The unit main body 110 includes a platen cover 123, a document holding sheet 113 provided on the back side of the platen cover 123 and having a white surface facing the document placement glass 3, and a recess formed in the document holding sheet 113. The feed rollers 122 are rotatable in both forward and reverse directions, and as the feed rollers 122 rotate, the document sheets supplied from the supply/discharge mechanism section 112 are transferred onto the document placement glass 3. The document is taken in to a predetermined position, and the original document on the document placement glass 3 is discharged to the supply/discharge mechanism section 112. In addition, the supply/discharge mechanism section 112 takes out the lowermost document sheet of the document D... set on the document feed table 111 using the take-out roller 114, and the feed roller 115
and the separation roller 116, and then the document is sent to the sorting gate 117. at the solid line position in FIG. A pair of conveyor rollers 118 that rotate in the take-in direction. and guide 119
The document is fed into the unit main body 110 via the guide 119. A pair of transport rollers 118 rotating in the discharge direction. The distribution gate l17. which is in a state displaced to the position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. A guide 120 is provided to surround the upper surface side of the supply roller 115. A tray 12 is placed on the original document feed table 111 via a pair of ejection rollers 121 arranged corresponding to the guide 120.
The structure is such that it is discharged at 4.

Furthermore, the large-capacity paper feed device 8 attached to the main body 1 has an elevator-type paper feed tray 130 that can accumulate sheets P in bulk, and the paper sheets P placed on the elevator-type paper feed trays 1, 30 are The topmost paper P is taken out through the roller 131 and sent to the main body 1 of the apparatus.
The sheets are sequentially taken out to a position facing a take-out roller 48 provided at the top. In this way, when the number of sheets P taken out on the elevator type paper feed tray 130 reaches a predetermined amount, a signal is sent from a detector (not shown) to the lifting mechanism 132, and the elevator type sheet feed tray 130 is raised. Paper P
is controlled so that it is at a position where it can be taken out by the take-out roller 131.

After setting the document tray on the document feed table 111 of the automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4, by operating the operation panel 5, the document can be placed from the automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 onto the document placement glass 3. is set. Meanwhile, as the drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 rotates, the photoreceptor 20 is uniformly charged by the charging device 21 . Then, with the exposure lamp 61 of the exposure device 23 turned on, the exposure lamp 6]
and a first carriage 69 carrying a first mirror 62
The second carriage 70 carrying the second mirror 63 and the third mirror 64 is set on the document placement glass 3 by moving from left to right in the figure along the lower surface of the document placement glass 3. The printed document is scanned and exposed to slit light, and an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the document is formed on the photoreceptor 20.

This electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 20 is developed and visualized by either the upper developing unit 75 or the lower developing unit door 6 of the developing device 24.

On the other hand, in synchronization with this developer image forming operation, the paper P1 automatically taken out from the upper cassette 6, the lower cassette 7, or the large-capacity paper feeder 8, or the paper P manually fed from the manual paper feed tray 30, The developer image is sent to the image transfer section 31 via the aligning roller pair 34 and is formed on the photoreceptor 20 in advance, and is transferred onto the paper P by the action of the transfer device 25 .

Then, the paper P is peeled off from the photoreceptor 20 by the peeling device 26 and transferred to the conveyor belt 1 that forms part of the paper conveyance path 33.
02 to the fixing device 35, where the developer image is melted and fixed on the paper P, and then sent to the U-turn conveyance path 10 of the paper conveyance unit 11 via the paper discharge roller pair 32, and is static-eliminated. The brush 104 eliminates static electricity. Then, the sheets are stacked in the paper discharge tray 9 with the front and back sides reversed and the leading edges aligned.

After the developer image has been transferred onto the paper P, the photoreceptor 20 faces the cleaning device 27 so that residual developer (residual toner) is scraped off by the cleaning blade 80, and then faces the static eliminator 28. By doing so, the photoreceptor 2
0 is irradiated with light to remove the electrostatic memory and return to a normal state in which the next copy operation is possible.

Next, the configuration around the paper delivery unit 11 and the paper discharge tray 9, which are the main parts of the present invention, will be described in detail with reference to other drawings.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 1, the paper delivery unit 11 has horizontal single-character-shaped first paper sheets facing each other with a gap between their mutually facing surfaces. The second fixed guides 140 and 141, the arc-shaped third fixed guide 142 provided in the extending direction of the first fixed guide 140, and the second fixed guide 14
The movable guide 143 faces the third fixed guide 142 with a gap in the direction of extension of the first fixed guide 142, and these mutually opposing surfaces constitute the U-turn conveyance path 10. ．． Second fixed guide 140.141
and the third fixed guide 142 and the movable guide 1
A conveying means 144 is disposed between the starting end of 43.

The conveyance means 144 is composed of a drive roller 145 and a driven roller 146 that rolls into contact with the drive roller 145, and the drive roller 145 is connected to the drive roller 32a of the sheet discharge roller pair 32 and a chain 147. It is designed to be interlocked via a power transmission system 150 consisting of sprockets) 148, 149, etc.
(See Figure 1).

Note that the driving force of the fixing device 35 is transmitted to the driving roller 32a of the paper ejection roller pair 32 via a gear group 151.

Further, the movable guide 143 is attached to a shaft 160 that is rotatably supported via a bearing portion (not shown), and a lever 161 is attached to one end of this shaft 160. This lever 161 has a spring 162 that always urges it in a predetermined direction and a plunger 163a of a solenoid 163 that rotates against the urging force of the spring 162.
are in a connected state, and the movable guide actuating means 1
64. When the solenoid 163 is in a non-energized state, the movable guide 143 is in a position facing the third fixed guide 142 due to the urging force of the spring 162 (the solid line position in FIG. 3). 3 (indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 3).

Further, an optical paper detector 172 is provided near the arrangement position of the movable guide 143 and is composed of a light emitting element 170 and a light receiving element 171 and detects the paper P passing through the U-turn conveyance path 10. There is.

Note that the paper delivery unit 11 having such a configuration is surrounded by a cover 173 so that the drive unit and the like are not exposed to the outside (see FIG. 2).

Furthermore, the ejection tray 9 has a first opening on the left side of the upper surface]
80 and a stopper 18 that has a thin box shape with a second opening 181 on the front end surface and serves as a tip position regulating member that regulates the tip position of the sheets P accumulated inside.
2 is installed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the stopper 182 has a substantially L-shape having a vertical plate portion 182a serving as a tip position regulating surface and a horizontal plate portion 182b parallel to the bottom surface of the paper discharge tray 9. As shown in FIG. 1, they are arranged in a nested manner through a notch 183 formed in the discharge tray 9, and are held slidably by a guide (not shown), and are movable in the left and right direction in the state shown in FIG. ing.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a rack 184 is attached to the lower surface side of the horizontal plate portion 182b of the stopper 182, and a motor 1 that can be driven in both forward and reverse directions is attached to the rack 184.
A pinion 186 fitted to the drive shaft 85 is in an engaged state, and constitutes a stopper moving means 187. Then, the drive of the motor 185 is controlled by a paper size designation signal from the operation panel 5, a document size detection signal from the automatic document feed/discharge unit device 4, or a paper size signal based on the slide position of the guide of the manual paper feed tray 30. The stopper 182 is automatically moved so that the vertical plate portion 182a, which serves as a leading end position regulating surface, is at a position suitable for the size of the sheets P to be stacked.

In addition, the stopper 182 is equipped with a paper feed mechanism 190 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, and the leading edge of the paper P fed into the paper ejection tray 9 is mounted on a vertical plate portion 182a that serves as a leading edge position regulating surface. It can be forcibly conveyed to a position where it comes into contact.

That is, a bracket 191 is integrally provided above the vertical plate portion 182a of the stopper 182 at a position that does not interfere with the positioning of the paper P, and the motor 192 is attached so that the drive shaft 192a passes through the bracket 191. There is. Furthermore, a drive shaft 192a of this motor 192
A swingable arm 193 is provided with the rotation center at .A feed roller 195 is attached to the free end side of the arm 193 via a rotating shaft 194, and the driving force of the drive shaft 192a of the motor 192 is transmitted to the pulley 197. Belt 198. The driving force is transmitted to the rotating shaft 194 via a driving force transmission system 200 consisting of a pulley 199,
The feed roller 195 is rotated. Further, the arm 193 is biased by a biasing body (not shown) to a position where the feed roller 195 is retracted outside the paper discharge tray 9 (the position shown in FIG. 3), and the motor 192 is driven. As a result, the arm 193 is rotationally displaced against the force of the biasing body to bring the feed roller 195 into rolling contact with the paper P.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the paper output tray 9
is attached to the inner bottom surface of the lower unit 1b of the apparatus main body 1 via parallel slide rails 210 and 210, and is movable in the front-rear direction, that is, in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the paper P is carried in. There is. Further, a rack 211 is attached to the lower surface of the paper ejection tray 9 in parallel with the slide rail 210, and is in mesh with a pinion 213 fitted to the drive shaft of a motor 212 that can be driven in both forward and reverse directions. This constitutes the tray moving means 216. Then, the drive of the motor 212 is controlled based on the sorting signal or grouping signal from the operation panel 5, or the original ejection signal or copy end signal from the automatic original supply/ejection unit device 4, and the ejection tray 9 is moved to a predetermined position. It is now possible to do so.

Note that an opening 220 for extending the paper output tray is formed in the front end surface of the apparatus main body 1 facing the paper output tray 9 which is movable via the tray moving means 216 as described above. A paper discharge tray 9 can be extended to the front side of the main body 1 of the apparatus.

Note that spacers 214 and 215 are interposed between the bottom surface of the paper discharge tray 9 and the slide rail 210 and the rack 211, as shown in FIG.
It is designed so as not to interfere with the rack 184 etc. attached to 2.

Next, the stacking operation of sheets P will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

First, a drive signal is sent to the stopper moving means 187 in advance, and the stopper 182 is set at a predetermined position according to the size of the paper P. Then, as shown in FIG. 7(a), the sheet P that has passed through the fixing device 35 is transferred to the first sheet discharge roller pair 32. After being fed between the second fixed guides 140 and 141, the conveying means 144
It is sent between the movable guide 143 and the third fixed guide 142 via. Next, this paper P is transferred to the conveying means 1.
(b) and (c) in FIG.
The paper is fed into the paper discharge tray 9 after passing through the state shown in FIG. At this time,
The paper P is turned upside down by passing through the U-turn conveyance path 10. Next, (d) in FIG. 7 and (b) in FIG.
), when the trailing edge of the paper P is detected by the paper detector 172, the solenoid 1 of the movable guide actuating means 164 is activated.
63 operates and the movable guide 143 moves to the third fixed guide 1.
42 and supported by the movable guide 143, the trailing end of the paper P, which is supported by the movable guide 143, quickly falls as shown by the two-dot chain line due to the stiffness of the paper itself. On the other hand, at this time, as shown in FIG. 7(d), the feed roller 195 of the paper feed mechanism 190 is in rolling contact with the paper P, and the feed roller 19
5 is in a rotated state, and the paper P is fed until the leading end contacts the stopper 182. Then, as shown in FIG. 7(e) and FIG. 8(c), the trailing edge of the paper P is detected by the paper detector 172, and the leading edge of the paper P contacts the stopper 182 for a predetermined period of time. When a sufficient period of time has elapsed, the movable guide 172 returns to the third fixed guide 142 side, and the paper feed mechanism 1 moves as shown in FIG. 7(e).
The feed roller 195 of 90 returns to a position where it does not interfere with the conveyance of the next sheet P.

Further, when the paper P to be stacked is smaller in size than the above-mentioned one, a drive signal is sent to the stopper moving means 187 according to the size of the paper P, and the stopper 182 is moved in the direction shown in FIG. It moves to the center left and is automatically set at a position that matches the size of paper P. Thereafter, the same stacking operation as described above with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 is performed, and the sheets are stacked in an orderly manner.

Further, if necessary, by inputting in advance through the operation panel 5 so that the tray moving means 216 operates, the paper discharge tray 9 on which the sheets P are accumulated can be moved to the position shown in FIG. 10 via the tray moving means 216. As shown in FIG. 11, the paper P is reciprocated by a distance δ at a predetermined timing, and the paper P is grouped into groups so that the edges in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the paper P are shifted as shown in FIG. It is also possible to sort the pages by a predetermined number.

When the copying operation is completed in this way, a signal is input to the tray moving means 216 to drive the paper output tray 9 to protrude, and the paper output tray 9 is moved by the dimension as shown in FIG. It protrudes from the front side of the main body 1,
The paper P in the paper discharge tray 9 can now be easily taken out.

According to the above-mentioned configuration in which the conveying means 144 for conveying the paper P is provided in the middle of the U-turn conveyance path 10, the paper P which is in a curved state and has a large conveyance resistance can be reliably conveyed to the paper discharge tray 9. It can be sent inside.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the paper discharged through one pair of paper discharge ports is reversed via the U-turn discharge path, and the arrangement position of the pair of paper discharge rollers is changed. Since the sheets are guided to the discharge tray provided below and stacked, the sheets can be stacked in accordance with the order of image formation, eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Furthermore, since the paper ejection tray is provided with a portion of the paper ejection tray inserted into the main body of the apparatus, the amount of protrusion of the paper ejection tray is reduced, and the installation space can be reduced. Further, a leading edge position regulating member is provided on the side in the traveling direction of the paper stacked in the paper output tray and the position changes according to the size of the paper, and the paper is arranged such that the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with this leading edge position regulating member. Since the paper feeding mechanism is provided, it is possible to stack the papers in an orderly manner with the leading edges of the papers stacked in the paper ejection tray aligned.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing the configuration of the main parts of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing the appearance of the entire image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a schematic vertical side view of the entire image forming apparatus, FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing the structure around the stopper, and FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway schematic view showing the structure around the paper ejection tray. FIG. 6 is a schematic front view, FIGS. 7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams illustrating how sheets of paper are stacked, FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating how small-sized papers are stacked, FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view showing the state in which the paper output tray is moved and stacked, FIG. 11 is a schematic perspective view showing the state in which paper is stacked when the paper output tray is moved and stacked, and FIG. 12 FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a state in which the paper ejection tray is extended out from the front of the apparatus main body. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Apparatus body, 2... Image forming process forming means, 9... Paper discharge tray, 10... U-turn conveyance path, 11...
・Paper delivery unit, 32...Paper delivery roller pair, 35.
...Fixing device, 182... Leading edge position regulating member (stopper), 190... Paper feeding mechanism, P... Paper. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Image forming process components such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing are built into the apparatus main body, and the fixed paper is ejected from the apparatus main body via a pair of paper ejection rollers. In the forming apparatus, a paper ejection tray provided below the arrangement position of the paper ejection roller pair and partially inserted into the main body of the apparatus, and the paper ejected through the paper ejection roller pair are reversed. a U-turn discharge path that guides the paper to the paper discharge tray; An image forming apparatus comprising: a leading edge position regulating member that regulates the leading edge position of a sheet of paper; and a paper feeding mechanism that feeds the paper so that the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with the leading edge position regulating member. (2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper feeding mechanism moves integrally with the leading edge position regulating member.