JPH01214544A - Sheet storing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a top end of a sheet surely get into underside of a separating claw by constituting the separating claw in freely movable, and at the same time, arranging an energizing means making the separating claw rise on following to descent of a middle plate. CONSTITUTION:In a case of storing the maximum size of sheets S in a cassette, an operator loads numbers of sheets S to be a full load and pushes these sheets S... to F direction against a spring 9. According to this operation, the middle plate 2 is abutted to one end 73a of a link lever 73, and turns the lever 73 to clockwise direction. Thereby the other end 73b of the lever 73 is abutted to a separating claw 5 to turn the separating claw 5 to anticlockwise direction, and the separating claw 5 moves from a two-dot chain line position to full line position for being pushed up the top end thereof upper than the upmost face of the sheets S.... Still more, the operator moves the sheets S... to carrying direction until the top end of the sheets S... situates under the top end of the separating claw 5. And then, when the force in F direction is released, the middle plate 2 and the sheets S... are energized to upward by the spring 9 and the upmost sheet S is abutted to the top end of the separating claw 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a sheet storage device used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a laser beam printer. Box-shaped seat storage device (
(hereinafter referred to as cassette).

(B) Prior Art Conventionally, cassettes for storing a large number of sheets have been known, and the cassettes 1 to 1', as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, carry a large number of sheets 1-S. It has an intermediate plate 2' which controls the movement of the sea 1-S, and a regulation plate 3 which regulates the lateral movement of the sea 1-S. A plurality of long holes 4, 4 are opened in the width direction of the sheet 1 in the middle plate 2', and the regulating plate 3 can be moved into these long holes 4, 4 according to the sheet size. It is configured such that it protrudes from the elongated hole 4. Further, a separating claw 5 for separating the sheets S one by one is provided at the upper part of the downstream end of the regulating plate 3, and a side plate 8 is located on the right side of the middle plate 2' and is attached to the bottom plate of the cassette 2'. A separating claw 5 is also provided at the upper part of the downstream end of the side plate 8. A shaft 6 connected to a motor (not shown) is rotatably supported at the top of the cassette 2', and a plurality of paper feed rollers 7 are fixed to the shaft 6 to correspond to various sheet sizes. has been done.

Further, the intermediate plate 2' is urged upward by a spring 9, and the sheets 1-8 stacked on the intermediate plate 2' are pressed and urged toward the paper feed roller 7.

When a start key (not shown) is pressed, the motor starts rotating, and the driving force of the motor causes the paper feed roller 7 to
rotates and feeds the sheet S. Then, the sea 1.
8 is separated one by one by separating claws 5, 5, and only the uppermost sheet 1-S is fed.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, in the above-mentioned cassette 1', the separating claw 5 attached to the regulating plate 3 does not allow the separation claw 5, which is attached to the regulating plate 3, to load the sheets S into the cassette 1'. In case, sheet S
Because it is pushed down by the sea! - It was difficult to get the tip of the S under the separation claw 5. In addition, at this time, the tip of the sear 1-S may break or be damaged, which may cause feeding failure or skewing of the sear l-.

Therefore, the present invention raises the separation claw as the middle plate descends,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a seat storage device that solves the above-mentioned problems.

(C) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and as shown in FIG. 1 fal, fb) and FIG. ) is placed thereon and is movable up and down with respect to the main body of the apparatus, and a separating claw (5) separates the sea 1-(S) placed on the middle plate (2). In the sheet storage device (1), the separating claw (5) is configured to be movable, and the separating claw (5) is configured to be movable. ).

(e) Effect Based on the above-mentioned configuration, when stacking sheets (S) on the middle plate (2), the sheets (S) to be stacked on the middle plate (2)! When the middle plate (2) is pushed down together with -(S), the biasing means (73) pushes up the separation claw (5), and the operator inserts the tip of sea 1-(S) under the separation claw (5). Let it happen.

(F) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Note that the same parts as those described above are given the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the cassette 1 is detachably mounted in the body 11 of the subject machine 10, and is guided by guides 12, 12 in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction. It can be pulled out. Then, the aircraft 11
The pressure bonding plate 13, platen 15, light source 16, mirror 1'7
', 1'8.1'9.20.21,22, lens 23
A pair of transport rollers 2 are provided downstream of the cassette 1.
5 and a pair of registration rollers 26 are provided. Furthermore,
An image forming section 27 is disposed downstream of the roller pair 26, and a conveyor belt 29 is disposed downstream of the image forming section 27.
and a fixing device 30. Then, the fixing device 3
A paper ejection roller pair 31 is provided downstream of the paper ejection roller pair 31, and a paper ejection 1-ray 32 is provided downstream of the paper ejection roller pair 31.

Further, the cassette 1 is shown in FIGS. 14 (al, (b),
As shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, a block 33 for sheet size detection is removably attached to the rear side in the cassette insertion direction C, and the block 33 is disposed on the machine body 11 side. A provided sheet size detection switch (not shown) is operated to suppress the block 33, and the block 33 can be replaced depending on the sheet size. Further, the middle plate 2 is provided with a recess 3 as a relief part at a position facing the third and subsequent paper feed rollers 7a and 7b from the right side in the paper feed direction.
5 are formed respectively, and these rollers 7a, ? b
When feeding a narrow sheet S that is not located in the
These paper feed rollers 7a and 7b are designed not to contact the middle plate 2. In addition, what is indicated by 36 in the figure is the sheet S
This is a regulation plate that regulates backward movement, and the regulation plate 36 has holes 40 corresponding to the sheet size in the cassette 1 body.
・It can be moved and attached to the hole 41 that restricts the movement of the vertically long sea 1-S to the back side. Further, a recessed portion 42 as a first retaining portion is carved in the upper part of the back side of the cassette 1, and a plurality of cassettes 1 are stacked in the lower part of the back side of the cassette 1. A protrusion 43 is provided as a second engaging portion that fits into the recess 42 of the lower cassette 1 to position the cassettes 1 to 1. Furthermore, a handle 44 is provided on the front side of the cassette 1, and a handle 44 is provided on the left and right sides of the cassette 1.
A handle 45 for lifting is provided. Stoppers 46 made of resin are disposed at both ends of the rear side of the cassette 1, and the stoppers 46 are made of resin.
~Brim receiving part 47, step part 49, slope 50, and spring part 51
(See Figure 6).

Further, the protrusion amount and elastic limit of the stopper 46 are set so that when the cassette 1 is mounted on the body 11, the stopper 46 is elastically deformed and becomes flush with the upper surface of the cassette 1.

Note that 48 in FIG. 5 is a hole for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 7 (al), the upper part of the attachment part of the cassette (1) of the body 11 has five grooves into which the stopper 46 is fitted, and a stepped portion in which the collar 46 engages. 52, and an inclined surface 53 on the front side of the stepped portion 52.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, in the center of the front side of the cassette 1, a positioning plate 55 made of a steel plate is fixed with screws or the like.
It is designed to be attracted to a magnetic catch 57 provided on the side via a mounting plate 56. And the mounting plate 5
The magnetic catch 5 can be moved and adjusted several mm in the direction of the arrow with respect to the fuselage 11.
It is designed to adjust the position of 7.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 9(al and bl), a mounting plate 59 is provided in a portion of the fuselage 11 facing the block 33, and the mounting plate 59 is fixed to the fuselage 11. A pin 61 with a bulged tip protruding from the bracket 60
A spring 62 is compressed between the tip of the pin 61 and the mounting plate 59. Further, on the mounting plate 59, there are switches 63a, 63b, 63 for detecting the sheet size based on the position of the block 33.
switch 63d for detecting the presence or absence of cassette c and cassette 1
are arranged on the cassette 1, and a positioning protrusion 65 is provided on the cassette 1 at a position sandwiching these switches 63a to ensure a distance between the mounting plate 59 and the main body of the cassette 1.
is installed.

Furthermore, the sheets 1 to S are even applied to the paper feed rollers 7a and 7b.
As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, if
A middle plate auxiliary member 37 made of a flexible material and configured on the same plane as the middle plate 2 is configured to be able to be attached to the recess 35, thereby feeding the sheets S to the paper feed rollers 7a and 7b. It is designed to ensure a pressing force of.

As shown in detail in FIG. 12, the intermediate plate auxiliary member 37 has claws 37a at both ends.
Slit-shaped holes 35 a, 35 bored in the depressions 35
It is designed to be supported by inserting it into a.

Further, as shown in FIG. 13, a light-transmissive type sensor 1 to presence/absence sensor 67 is attached to the body 11 above the cassette 1 through a mounting plate 66. A shaft 69 is supported by the fuselage frame. Furthermore, a sensor lever 70 having a wide end 70a and a letter-shaped shape when viewed from the side is swingably supported on the shaft 69, and a detection roller 71 is provided at the other end of the lever 70 so as to be rotatable in the direction of attaching and detaching the cassette 1. is supported by In addition, the depression 3
A receiver member 68 is provided on the back side of the portion where 5 is located, and the receiver member 68 uniformly transmits the biasing force of the spring 9 to the intermediate plate 2. Furthermore, the spring 9 moves together with the regulating plate 3.

The separation claw 5 has a U-shape when viewed from the front, as shown in detail in FIGS. A link lever 73 is swingably supported at the lower part of the separation claw 5 by a shaft 75 supported by the cassette body, and one end 73a of the lever 73 is
The other end 73b rotates and biases the separation claw 5 counterclockwise by contacting the intermediate plate 2 loaded with sea 1-S and swinging clockwise.

Since this embodiment has the above configuration, the copying machine 10
When stacking a plurality of cassettes 11 outside the machine body 11, the operator inserts the protrusion 43 at the bottom of the upper cassette 1 into the recess 42 at the top of the lower cassette 1.

Thereby, a plurality of cassettes can be stacked without the lower surface of the upper cassette 1 coming into contact with the upper surface of the lower cassette 1 (see FIG. 14, fat, (bl)).

And one of these stacked cassettes
When storing the largest size sheets S in two cassettes 1 and loading them into the copying machine 10, the operator moves the regulation plate 3 to the left end of the cassette, and also moves the paper feed rollers 7a and 7b.
The intermediate plate auxiliary member 37 is attached to the recesses 35, 35 at positions opposite to the intermediate plate auxiliary members 37. Then, when a large number of maximum size sheets S (for example, width D) are stacked on the middle plate 2 of the cassette 1 (first
0), the middle plate 2 is lowered by the weight of the sheet S against the spring 9. Furthermore, when loading sheets S up to a full load, the operator loads the fully loaded number of sheets S... onto the middle plate 2.
These sheets S are loaded on top and pushed in the direction of arrow F (see Fig. 1 (bl)) against the spring 9.Then, along with these sheets S, the middle plate 2 is also pushed down in the direction F. , the middle plate 2 contacts one end 73a of the link lever 73 and swings the lever 73ie clockwise.Then, as the lever 73 swings clockwise, the other end 73b of the lever 73 is separated. The separation claw 5 is rotated counterclockwise by contacting the claw 5, and the separation claw 5 moves from the two-dot chain line position to the solid line position (
(see Fig. 1fb)), and its tip is the sheet S...
is pushed up from the top surface of the Further, the operator moves the sheet 1-S in the conveying direction until the leading edge of the sheet S is located below the leading edge of the separating claw 5, and then releases the force in the F direction. ... are urged upward by a spring 9, and the uppermost sheet +-S of the sheets S is brought into contact with the tip of the separating claw 5 and positioned. At this time, the biasing force of the spring 9 in the portion where the recesses 35 are located is uniformly transmitted to the intermediate plate 2 by the receiving member 68. Furthermore, in case B, one end 73a of the link lever 73 is not in contact with the middle plate 2, the other end 73b of the link lever 73 is not in contact with the separation claw 5, and the link lever 73 is not in contact with the middle plate 2 and the separation claw. It has no effect on When installing the cassette 1 full of sheets S into the aircraft body 11, the operator places the back side of the cassette 1 on the rails 12, 12 in the direction of arrow G (
7 (see al), the upper part of the stopper 46 is pushed downward by the inclined surface 53 on the body 11 side, and the upper surface of the stopper 46 is deformed to become flush with the upper surface of the cassette 1.

Then, when the stopper 46 exceeds the stepped portion 52, the deformation of the stopper 46 returns to its original state, and the stopper 46 and the stepped portion 52 engage, and the stepped portion 49 comes into contact with the cassette body to prevent deformation. Therefore, the cassette 1 cannot be easily pulled out in the direction of arrow H (see Tbl in FIG. 7). If it is necessary to pull out the cassette 1, rotate the cassette 1 in the direction of the arrow (see FIG. 7(c)), position the lower end of the cassette 1 at the retracted part of the rail 12, and then press the stopper 46. When the upper part of the cassette 1 becomes lower than the stepped portion 52 of the body 11, the cassette 1 is pulled out in the direction of the arrow J.

Further, when the cassette 1 is pushed into the body 11, the positioning plate 55 is attracted to the magnetic catch 57, thereby positioning the cassette 1 (see FIG. 8). On this occasion,
The positioning protrusion 65.65 on the back side of the cassette 1 is located on the mounting plate 5.
9 and moves the mounting plate 59 against the springs 62, 62 to maintain a predetermined distance between the tip of the switch 63a and the main body of the cassette 1. The block 33 includes switches 63 a, 63 b, 63 for detecting sheet size.
When one of the switches 63b, for example 63b, is turned on, the main body of the cassette 1-1 turns on the switch 63d for detecting the presence or absence of a cassette, and the ON signals of these switches 63b and 63d are transmitted to the control section. Also, by installing the cassette 1, the detection roller 71 detects the sheet S stored in the cassette 1.
The sensor lever 70 moves from the solid line position to the two-dot chain line position (see FIG. 13), and the one end 70a of the sensor lever 70 blocks the space between the light emitting part and the light receiving part of the sheet presence/absence sensor 67, so that the sensor 67 becomes OF, F. do. Then, the O of the sensor 67
The control unit that receives the FF signal determines that there is a sheet S in the cassette 1. Then, place the original on the platen 15 and press the start key.
．． 8, 1.9, 20, 21, 22, the image of the document is read by the lens 23, and an image is formed on the image forming section 27.

On the other hand, the sheets S from the cassette) 1 are separated by the paper feed roller 7 and separation claws 5, 5, and only the uppermost sheet +-S is fed. Then, the sheet S is transferred to the transport roller pair 25.
The sheet is conveyed to a registration snow roller pair 26, and a conveyance force is applied by the conveyance roller pair 25 which contacts the nip of the roller pair 26 and slips, thereby correcting the skew.

Then, it is conveyed in synchronization with the image on the image forming section 27 by a pair of registration rollers 26 that start rotating at a predetermined timing. Further, the sea 1-S is connected to the image forming section 27.
The image is copied by the conveyor belt 29 and fixed by the I!
! Transported to j30. Then, the image is fixed on the sheet 1-S by the fixing device 30, and the sheet is discharged to a paper discharge tray 32 by a pair of paper discharge rollers 31.

Further, when loading medium-sized sheets S (for example, width E) into the cassette 1, the operator moves the regulating plate 3 to match the sheet width, and places the intermediate plate auxiliary only in the recess 35 opposing the paper feed roller 7b. Attach the member 37 and press the paper feed roller 1.
6a is removed (see FIG. 10).

Thereafter, image forming work is performed by the same operations as described above. Then, when the cassette 1 no longer contains the sea 1-S, the detection roller 71 falls into the hole 48 and moves from the two-dot chain line position to the solid line position. As a result, one end 70 of the sensor lever 70
A also moves from the two-dot chain line position where the light emitting part and the light receiving part of the sensor 67 are blocked to the solid line position where the light emitting part and the light receiving part of the sensor 67 are not blocked, and the sensor 67 is turned on. Furthermore, the sensor 6
The control unit that receives the ON signal of
It determines that there is no such thing and issues an alarm on the display. Then, the operator who confirms the alarm pulls out the cassette 1, loads the sea 1-S into the cassette 1-1, and attaches it to the fuselage 11 in the same manner as described above.

Furthermore, when loading the smallest size sheet S into the cassette 1, the operator moves the regulating plate 3 to the long hole 4 near the center, and also moves the intermediate plate auxiliary member 37 in both the recesses 35, 35.
Remove. Then, the image forming operation is performed by the same operation as described above.

(G) As described in detail, according to the present invention, the separating claw is configured to be movable, and the separating claw is provided with a biasing means for raising the separating claw as the intermediate plate descends, so that the sheet By pushing up the separating claw higher from the top surface, the leading edge of the sheet can easily slip under the separating claw, thereby preventing damage to the leading edge of the sheet and preventing skewed sheet feeding and poor feeding. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 (allbl is a diagram showing main parts of a sheet storage device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are diagrams showing an image forming apparatus equipped with the present invention. 5 and 5 are diagrams showing a seat storage device according to the present invention,
Figure 6, Figure 7 [al, (bl, (c+ to 13th
The figures up to the figure show the main parts thereof. Also, Fig. 14 (a
1, (bl are diagrams showing a seat storage device according to the present invention. FIGS. 15 and 16 are diagrams showing a conventional example. 1.1'... Seat storage device, 2... Middle plate,
5. Separation claw, 73.. Urging means, 43.. Second engaging portion, S.. Sheet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sheet storage comprising a middle plate on which a large number of sheets are placed and which can be raised and lowered with respect to the main body of the apparatus, and a separation claw placed on the middle plate to separate the sheets. A sheet storage device, characterized in that the separation claw is configured to be movable, and further includes a biasing means for raising the separation claw as the middle plate descends.