JPH01167178A - Sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a sorter applicable onto various types of copy machines without requiring an inverter by arranging a discharge inversion roll for inverting a sheet synchronously with a gate between the gate and a non-sort tray. CONSTITUTION:A gate 6 is brought to an imaginary line position and a discharge inversion roll 8 rotates forward under non-sort mode, and a sheet 4 is discharged through a discharge ports 2a, rear face of the gate 6, the roll 8 into a non-sort tray 9. The gate 6 is brought to a solid line position while the roll 8 stops rotation under sort mode, and the sheet is gathered sequentially in respective sheet trays 10 through the gate 6 and the carry belt 7 side. The gate 6 moves between the imaginary and solid line positions under invert sort mode and the roll 8 rotates forwardly or reversely in synchronization therewith. In other words, the sheet 4 passes first through the gate 6 (imaginary line position) and the roll 8 (forward rotation) and when the rear end of the sheet 4 passes through the gate 6, the gate 6 is brought to the solid line position and the roll 8 rotates reversely thus feeding the sheet 4 upside down into the tray 10 between a belt 7 a Mylar film 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a sorter for collating sheets continuously discharged from a copying machine.

[Conventional technology]

When copying, for example, an N-page original using a conventional copying machine, the paper copied by the copying machine is ejected from the ejection port with the copy side facing up or down, and in a copying machine equipped with an automatic document feeder, the paper is ejected from the ejection port with the copy side facing up or down. N pages or N
The pages are ejected one page at a time.

Therefore, when collating sheets discharged from a copying machine, an invert unit C for reversing the sheets is installed between the copying machine main body a and the sorter b, as shown in FIG. Copy machines are compatible with sorters.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, as shown in Fig. 10, when an invert unit C is installed between the copying machine main body a and the sorter b, the total length Ω becomes longer, which requires a large space for installation, and also causes problems such as an increase in price. was there.

[Means and operations for solving the problem] This invention was made for the purpose of improving the above-mentioned problems, and the paper that is continuously discharged from the copying machine is transferred to a non-sort tray according to a preselected mode. In a sorter that sequentially collates paper into a paper tray and a gate, the paper is rotated forward and backward in synchronization with the gate between the gate and the non-sort tray, which guide the paper to the non-sort tray and the paper tray according to the above mode. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sorter that can collate sheets discharged from a copying machine in various forms in a desired form without providing an invert unit by providing an ejection reversing roll for reversing the paper.

〔Example〕

This invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the figure, 1 is a sorter body installed on the side of the paper outlet 2a of the copying machine 2. Paper 4 is continuously discharged from the copying machine 2 by the discharge roll 3 provided inside the paper outlet 2a. Paper is sent from an inlet 1a provided in the main body 1 to a gate 6 via an isochutes 5.

The gate 6 is formed into a triangular shape, and when the sort mode is selected, the paper 4 that has reached the gate 6 at the solid line position in FIG. 1 is fed along the conveyor belt 7, and when the non-sort mode When is selected, the paper 4 is at the imaginary line position in FIG. 1, and the paper 4 that has reached the gate 6 is sent to the non-sort tray 9 via the discharge reversing roll 8.

Further, the non-sort tray 9 is located at the top of the paper trays 10 provided in multiple stages within the main body 1, and is also located at the paper entrance 9a.

An endless conveyor belt 7 is provided on the paper inlet 9a, 10a side of each tray 9, 10, the side of which is inclined low on the 10a side.

The conveyor belt 7 is wound between a drive roll 11 and a driven roll 12 that are installed vertically apart from each other below the gate 6, and is rotated in the direction of arrow (A) by a drive system (not shown). A mylar film 13 is in contact with the side surface of the paper tray 10 of the conveyor belt 7.

The mylar film 13 has a band shape, and one end is wound around a mylar drum 14 that is rotated by a drive sprocket 16 via a chain 17, and the other end moves up and down along the paper inlet 10a of the paper tray 10. The indexer 15 is connected to a flexible indexer 15, and each time the Mylar drum 14 rotates once, the indexer 15 is raised or lowered by one stage of the paper tray 10, and the indexer unit 1
5 is provided with an indexer 15a that sequentially collates the sheets 4 conveyed by the conveyor belt 7 into each sheet tray 10.

On the other hand, the discharge reversing roll 8 is provided above the mylar drum 14, and has a rotating shaft 8a rotatably supported on the frame 1b of the main body 1 as shown in FIG.
A forward rotation clutch 20 and a reverse rotation clutch 21 are provided on one end side of the rotating shaft 8a.

The normal rotation clutch 20 is connected to a gear 23 by a drive motor 22.
The normal rotation clutch 2 is connected via an endless belt 26 to a drive shaft 25 rotated via an endless belt 24.
0 is turned on, the discharge reversing roll 8 is rotated in the normal rotation direction (arrow A) by the drive motor 22.

Further, the reversing clutch 21 is connected to the drive shaft 25 via a gear 27 and an endless belt 28, and when the reversing clutch 21 is turned on, the discharge reversing roll 8 is connected to the drive motor 22.
is rotated in the reversal direction (arrow B).

Next, to explain the operation, when the non-sort mode is selected when copying with the copying machine 2, the gate 6 is placed in the position shown in FIG. It is rotated in the forward rotation direction.

As a result, the paper 4 continuously discharged from the paper discharge port 2a of the copying machine 2 is sent to the gate 6 as shown by the arrow in FIG.
All the paper is discharged from the back side of the paper via the discharge reversing roll 8 to the top non-sort tray 9.

Further, when the copying sort mode is selected, the gate 6 is moved to the position shown in FIG. 4, the forward and reverse clutches 20 and 20 are both turned off, and the discharge reversing roll 8 is stopped.

As a result, the paper 4 continuously discharged from the paper discharge port 2a of the copying machine 2 is sent to the conveyor belt 7 side by the gate 6 as shown in FIG. 10 will be sequentially collated.

Furthermore, when an invert sort mode is selected during copying, that is, a mode in which the paper 4 is ejected to each paper tray 10 in an inverted state, the gate 6 moves between the solid line and the virtual line shown in FIG. The reversing roll 8 is also rotated in forward and reverse directions as follows.

Paper 4 ejected from the ejection port 2a as in the copying machine 2
is guided by the gate 6 located at the solid line position and reaches the discharge reversing roll 8. At this time, the discharge reversing roll 8 is in a normal rotation state with the normal rotation clutch 20 connected.

When the rear end of the paper 4 passes through the gate 6, the gate 6
At the same time as the roller moves to the imaginary line position, the forward rotation clutch 20 is turned off, the reverse rotation clutch 21 is turned on, and the discharge reversal roll 8 starts to reverse rotation.

As a result, the paper 4 is reversely fed, and the paper 4 is guided to the gate 6 and connected to the conveyor belt 7 and the mylar film 1.
The paper 4 is fed into the paper tray 1o with its top and bottom sides reversed as it is sequentially collated into each paper tray 10 by the indexer 15a of the indexer unit 15 while being transported by the transport belt 7. will be done.

On the other hand, FIGS. 6 to 9 show another embodiment of the indexer unit 15. To explain this next, the indexer unit 15 moves one tray along the paper tray 10 for each rotation of the Mylar drum 14. Although it was explained in the above embodiment that the indexer unit 15 is moved, the indexer unit 15 is moved to a disk 30b having a slit 30a provided in the rotating shaft 14a of the Mylar drum 14, and is installed near the disk 30b. The position is detected by an indexer position detector 30.

Also, the home position position of the indexer unit 15 (
A home position detector 31 is provided at the topmost position of the paper tray 10, and the vertical movement of the indexer unit 15 is controlled as follows based on the position signals detected by these detectors 30 and 31. It's about to be controlled.

That is, when collating the sheets 4 discharged from the copying machine 2, the flowchart shown in FIG. The indexer unit 15 once returns to the home position by executing the flow shown in FIG. 9 at the home position (2), and thereafter the process is executed from step (2).

In step ■, the current position N of the indexer unit 15 is read based on the signal from the indexer detector 31, and in step ■
Proceed to.

In step ■, the input specified value M of the collation start tray is read, and the process proceeds to step ■, where it is determined whether the specified value M matches the current position N of the indexer unit 15, and if so, the process proceeds to step ■. Start sorting with .

If they do not match, proceed to step (2) to determine whether the specified value M is larger than the current position N, and if it is, proceed to step (2) to lower the indexer unit 15 until the specified value M and the current value N match; If it is smaller, the process proceeds to step (2) and the indexer unit 15 is raised until the designated value M and the current position N match.

When the two match, the process proceeds to step (3) and sorting is started.

Thereafter, in step (2), it is determined whether or not the conveyance of the paper 4 has been completed, and if it is continuing, the process returns to step (2) and the above operation is repeated until the conveyance of the paper 4 is completed.

This makes it possible to realize a program sorter that can collate pre-specified paper trays 1o using a sorter that uses the indexer method, and can be implemented simply by providing a home position detector 31 and an indexer unit position detector 3o. As a result, program sorters can be provided at low cost.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, this invention provides an ejection reversal roll behind the gate for selecting sorting or non-sorting, and rotates the ejection reversal roll in forward and reverse directions in synchronization with the following gate to remove sheets that will not be collated. The paper to be ejected to the non-sort tray or to be collated is distributed sequentially to each paper tray,
Alternatively, it is possible to invert the top and bottom of the paper and distribute it to the paper tray, making it compatible with a variety of copying machines with different paper output formats, as well as providing an invert unit between the copying machine and the sorter as in the past. Since this is not necessary, it is possible to eliminate problems such as the entire device becoming large and requiring a large amount of space for installation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the drive system, FIGS. 3 to 5 are action explanatory views, and FIGS. 6 to 11 = FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment, and FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional method. 2 is a copying machine, 4 is paper, 6 is a gate, 8 is an ejection reversing roll, 9 is a non-sort tray, and 10 is a paper tray. Applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Masaaki Yonehara

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a sorter that sequentially collates sheets 4 continuously discharged from the copying machine 2 into a non-sort tray 9 and a paper tray 10 according to a preselected mode, the sheets 4 are collated into a non-sort tray 9 and a sheet tray 10 according to the mode selected in advance. A sorter is provided with a discharge reversing roll 8 for reversing the sheets 4 by rotating forward and backward in synchronization with the gate 6, between a gate 6 guiding the sheets to the sheet tray 10 and a non-sorting tray 9.