JPH02100929A - Sheet storing cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to transport every sheet separately after it is separated from other sheet without causing abnormality in transportation by mounting a sheet holding plate made freely removal to a frame body, and providing a mounting part that shifts the mounting state to cause change in the resting angle of sheets. CONSTITUTION:When a sheet storing cassette 1 is set to an image forming device 5, an internal plate pushing device 6 pushes up a sheet resting plate 3, and sheets 4 rested and stored are pushed to a paper feed roller 7, fed into a separating pad 11 at a specified invasion angle, and separated each sheet apart and transported. When sheets 4 that are of different paper quality from the paper abovementioned are to be fed, the sheet resting plate 3 reverses its front and rear surfaces or its front and rear ends, or changes the shaft supporting position to shift the mounting state, and the resting angle of the sheets 4 is changed, and fed into the separating pad 11 at the specified invasion angle corresponding to the paper quality.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to the structure of a sheet storage cassette that is set in, for example, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer to supply sheets.

(Old Conventional Technology) Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and printers exist as devices to which sheets of paper or the like are supplied, and sheet storage cassettes are used to supply these sheets. Image forming apparatuses The structure of a sheet storage cassette used in , and the structure of an image forming apparatus around this sheet storage cassette is shown in FIGS. 4 and 8. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the main part of FIG. 4. A cassette middle plate 3 is located at the bottom of the cassette frame 2 of the sheet storage cassette 1. The cassette middle plate 3 is pivotally supported and attached to the cassette frame 2 at one rear end in the feeding direction of the recording paper, which is the sheet 4, and is rotatable within a certain range. When the sheet storage cassette 1 is set in the image forming apparatus 5, the middle plate 3 is pushed up by the E mechanism 6, which is a middle plate pusher on the side of the image forming apparatus 5. By this pushing up, the upper surface of the sheet 4 stacked on the middle plate 3,
It is pressed by the paper feed roller 7 on the image forming apparatus 5 side.

This paper feed roller 7 is a roller having an occluded circular shape with a portion cut out in the circumferential direction. Further, an auxiliary cam 8 is provided coaxially with the paper feed roller 7 and rotates integrally with the paper feed roller 7, and has the function of preventing double feeding during paper feeding and determining the paper pickup point of the paper feed roller 7. A paper feed roller shaft 9 that integrally fixes the paper feed roller 7 and the auxiliary cam 8 is provided with an auxiliary roller 10 that is rotatable with respect to the paper feed roller shaft 9. Furthermore, these paper feed rollers 7, auxiliary cup 48
, a separation bat 11 is provided opposite the auxiliary roller 10. The sheets 4 are separated one by one by this separation pad 11. This separation bat 11 is attached to the tips of the lower guy 1 to the plate 12 into which the separated sea 1-4 is fed. This lower guy 1-plate 12 is urged by springs 13 toward the plate 14 side toward the upper guy 1 located above, so that the separation pad 11 is brought into contact with the paper feed roller 7. The sheets 4 that are picked up at the portion where the upper surface of the stacked sheets 4 is pressed by the paper feed roller 7, that is, at the pickup section, and are guided by the upper and lower guide plates 14 and 12 and sent in are further guided to a pair of registration rollers 15. . This registration roller pair 15 has the function of further feeding the sheet 4 into the inside of the apparatus, and its position is stationary.

The intermediate plate push-up mechanism 6 that presses down the intermediate plate 3 uses the urging force of the springs 16 to press the upper surface of the sheets 4 stacked on the intermediate plate 3 against the paper feed roller 7 with a necessary pressure.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the sheet storage cassette 1 described above is greatly influenced by the thickness of the sheets 4 in terms of its ability to feed sheets and its ability to prevent double feeding. For example, when the sheet 4 is made of cardboard or an envelope, the conveyance resistance when feeding the sheet 4 to the sheet 1 is greater than when it is made of thin paper. The reason for this is that when the sheet 4 is picked up by the paper feed roller 7 and hits the separation bat 11, thin paper is stiffer and the actual angle of entry into the separation bat 11 becomes smaller, whereas thick paper and envelopes This is because the paper does not buckle and therefore remains in contact with the separation bat 11, increasing the transport resistance. Looking at this from another perspective, it can be said that this is because the paper W of the cardboard or envelope is not thin enough due to the gap between the auxiliary roller 10 and the separation roses 1 to 11.

Separated rose 1 has a large effect on this conveyance resistance.
-11 friction coefficient, the pressure between the separating bat 11 and the paper feed roller 7, the angle of entry of the sheet 4 into the separating bat 11, etc., are determined to be optimal for the sheets 1 to 4 of a certain thickness. , Sheet 1-4, which is thinner than sheet 4, is likely to cause double feeding or poor feeding. For this reason, in the past, for 17 paper and thin paper, the spring pressure of the spring 16 of the middle plate push-up mechanism 6 was changed to make a machine exclusively for thick paper or a machine exclusively for thin paper, or furthermore, by using a sheet storage cassette exclusively for envelopes. I was dealing with it. Therefore, a plurality of dedicated machines or a plurality of dedicated cassettes are required, which is inconvenient.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems, and for example, as shown with reference to FIGS. 1, 3, and 4, (2), and a sheet mounting plate (3) rotatably supported on one side (3a) by the frame (2), and the sheet mounting plate (3) has a seat 1-( 4) in a sheet storage cassette (1) in which a sheet is placed and stored, the sheet placement plate (3) is placed on one side (3a) of the sheet placement plate (3) on the frame (2). and the sheet mounting plate (3).
) A mounting part (3C) that switches the mounting state of the sheet mounting plate (3) so as to change the seat mounting angle of the sheet mounting plate (3) to a different angle.
It is characterized by having the following.

In addition, in order to properly convey the last sheet placed on the sheet placement plate, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 7, the front side of the other side (3b) of the sheet placement plate (3) Sheet separation members (26) each having a different coefficient of friction between the front and back or one side (3a) and the other 111q side (3b) on the back side or on one side (3a) and the other side (3b). , (27) may be provided.

(E) Function Based on the above-mentioned configuration, for example, as shown in FIG. (6), and the sheet (4) placed and stored on the sheet placement plate (3) is pressed against the paper feed roller (7). Then, the sheets (4) are fed into the separation pad (11) at a predetermined entry angle by the rotation of the paper feed roller (7), and are separated and conveyed one by one.

And a sheet (4) of paper quality different from the above-mentioned sheet (4)
When feeding paper, the mounting state of the sheet placing plate (3) is changed by turning the sheet placing plate (3) upside down or front to back, or changing the pivot position, and the sheet placing plate (3) is (3)
The loading angle of the upper sheet (4) has been changed, and the sheet (4)
) is the separation pad (11) at a predetermined entry angle depending on the paper quality.
The sheets are then separated and transported one by one without causing transport defects such as electrical transport.

It should be noted that the symbols in parentheses above are shown for reference and do not limit the structure in any way.Example Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described along with the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet storage cassette according to an embodiment of the present invention. Regulating plates 21 and 22 for regulating the width of recording paper sheets are disposed in three directions inside the cassette frame 2.
There are 23 locations. The left paper width regulating plate 21 and the right paper width regulating plate 22 slide in the left-right direction of the sheet of paper, and the trailing edge regulating plate 23 slides in the front-rear direction to accommodate various sizes of paper. As a result, the sheet storage cassette of this embodiment has a configuration of a universal cassette. A paper pressing member 24 and a paper presser spring 25 for urging the paper pressing member 24 are fixed to the right paper width regulating plate 22 among these regulating plates. The action of this spring 25 pushes the paper against the left paper width regulating plate 21, which serves as a reference for paper feeding.

Furthermore, a cassette middle plate 3 is located at the bottom of the cassette frame 2. This cassette middle plate 3 is for stacking sheets 4 on its surface. Separation sheets 26 and 27 are pasted to the tip of this cassette middle plate 3. This separation sheet 2627 is attached to the front and back surfaces of the cassette middle plate 3 (see FIG. 2). Note that FIGS. 1 and 2 show the state in which the cassette middle plate 3 is turned over.

The surface separation sheet 26 is made of a material with a high coefficient of friction, such as Kolkyu sweatshirt. Separation sheet 27 on the back side
A material with a low R1 friction coefficient is used. It should be noted that the front side (other side) 3b of this intermediate plate 3 in the feeding direction is in a lifted state and has an inclination of 106 or less.

This cassette middle plate 3 is provided with bearing portions 3c, 3c, one of which is open, at both ends at a rear end (one side) 3b in the supply direction with respect to the cassette frame 2, and these bearing portions 3c, 3
c is rotatably engaged with shafts 28 and 28 provided on both sides of the cassette frame 2, thereby being supported and mounted. This allows the cassette middle plate 3 to swing around the shaft 28 within a certain range. The shaft 28 has a circular cross section with two vertical sides on both sides, and by releasing a stopper on a plate spring (not shown), the cassette middle plate 3 can be rotated approximately 90'' in the vertical direction, and the shaft 28 can be rotated approximately vertically. It can be easily removed by sliding it in the direction.

The operation of the sheet storage cassette 1 having the above configuration is explained in the third section.
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. When the sheet is ordinary thin paper, the cassette middle plate 3 is in the state shown by the chain line in FIG.

In this state, the angle of intrusion of the stacked sheets 4 into the separation pad 11 is as shown in FIG. 4, as in the conventional case. That is, sheets are loaded on the cassette middle plate 3 and separated,
When feeding paper, the angle between the thin paper that is about to be picked up by the paper feed roller 7 and the separation pad 11 is the same as in the conventional example, and the angle at this time is optimal considering double feeding of thin paper, paper feeding failure, etc. angle is formed.

On the other hand, if the envelopes or other items have bulges and are difficult to cause double feeding (when feeding a stiff sheet that increases general feeding resistance, remove the cassette middle plate 3 from the cassette frame 2, turn it upside down, and then reinstall it. Change the markings to the three colors of the cassette frame.This marking is shown in the changed state in Figure 1 and the solid line in Figure 3.In this state, for example, set the sheet storage cassette 1 containing envelopes. Then, the angle formed by the paper feed roller 7 or the envelope to be picked up and the separation pad 11 becomes smaller as shown in Fig. 5.In other words, by turning the cassette middle plate 3 upside down, the axis 28 with respect to the cassette middle plate 3 is The relative position changes, and the inclination of the cassette middle plate 3 increases.As a result, the angle of the cassette middle plate 3 with respect to the originally inclined separation bat 1 becomes larger than the angle similar to the conventional one shown in FIG. Therefore, the conveyance resistance becomes small, making it difficult to cause sheet feeding defects.Also, since the separation sheet 27 that comes into contact with the sheets is made of a material with a small coefficient of friction, the sheet storage cassette is There is also little conveyance resistance to the last paper remaining on the sheet.Therefore, there is less chance of sheet feeding failures compared to the case of using conventional separation sheets 26 such as corks, weights, etc., which have a large coefficient of friction. In addition, it is possible to prevent the printing accuracy from being affected when the printer is used.

(Other Examples) In Example L, separation sheets with different friction coefficients were used for the front and back surfaces of the sheet hollow 3, but this means that one is preferable, and separation sheets with different friction coefficients are not necessarily used. This does not mean that you have to use a sheet.

Further, even if a material with the same friction coefficient is used for the separation sheet, the same effect as in the embodiment described above can be obtained by changing the shape of the separation sheet I. An example of this is shown in FIG. That is, separation sheets made of the same material are attached with different width dimensions on the front and back sides. In addition, the figure shows the state of FIG. 5 of the above embodiment. In other words, the frictional resistance of the separation sheet is smaller on the surface. Separation sheet 27 on surface 1 in the figure
The width of the portion corresponding to the auxiliary roller 1° is shorter than that of the separation sheet 1 to 26 on the back side. Therefore, the conveyance resistance of the last sheet remaining in the sheet storage cassette can be reduced.

Further, if the sheet is an envelope or cardboard, it is better not to reduce the conveyance resistance, so it is possible to not provide the front sheet at all on the back side of FIG. 1 of the above embodiment.

Although the above embodiments have been explained using a universal cassette as an example, it is of course possible to implement the present invention also in a regular size sheet storage cassette.

In the above embodiment, the inclination angle of the cassette middle plate 3 is changed by turning the front and back sides of the cassette middle plate 3, or in other embodiments, the inclination angle is changed by changing the position where the cassette middle plate 3 is pivoted. may be changed. In other words, if the angle is 56 or more gentler than the optimum angle for plain paper (thin paper) (the angle of the cassette middle plate 3 with respect to the separation butt 11), the paper feeding performance for envelopes etc. will be significantly improved. The degree of inclination angle can be changed by changing the position of the pivot of the cassette middle plate.

Further, instead of reversing the front and back of the cassette middle plate 3 to perform attachment, the attachment may be changed by reversing the front and back of the sheet feeding direction. An example of this is shown in No. 71 No. 1. In other words, the bearing portions 31 and 32 that are pivotally supported on the cassette frame 2 are connected to the cassette)
・It is installed in two places, one at the front end and the other at the rear end of the middle board, and can be changed from front to back depending on the thickness of the seat and the strength of your back. Since the front end and rear end bearing portions 31, 32 have different heights relative to the cassette middle plate, the inclination angle of the cassette middle plate 3 can be changed. In this example, separation sheets 26 with different coefficients of friction.
27 is pasted on the front and rear.

(g) As described in detail, according to the present invention, the sheet mounting plate is removably attached to the frame, and the sheet device angle of the sheet mounting plate is set to be different. Since a mounting part is provided to change the mounting state of the sheet mounting plate so as to change the angle, the mounting angle of the sheet mounting plate relative to the separation rose 1 can be changed, so multiple sheets with different thicknesses and stiffness can be mounted. A single sheet storage cassette can handle the number of sheets, preventing double feeding and feeding errors.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet storage cassette according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the tip of the cassette middle plate 3 shown in FIG. Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view, Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the seat storage cassette shown in Fig. 1 being used in the same manner as before, and Fig. 5 is an inside view of the seat storage cassette shown in Fig. 4. FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of main parts showing another embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a sheet storage cassette showing still another embodiment. A perspective view, FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part of FIG. 4. 2... Frame body (cassette frame body) 3... Sheet mounting plate (cassette middle plate) 3a... One side, 3b... Other side 3C... Mounting part (bearing part)
, 4...Sheet 7...Paper feed roller, 11
... Separation pad 26.27 ... Sheet separation member (separation sheet).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A frame body and a sheet placing plate rotatably supported on one side by the frame body, and a sheet is placed on the sheet placing plate.
In the sheet storage cassette, the sheet placement plate is removably attached to the frame on one side of the sheet placement plate, and the sheet placement angles of the sheet placement plate are set at different angles. A sheet storage cassette characterized in that a mounting portion is provided for changing the mounting state of the sheet mounting plate. 2. A sheet separating member having a different coefficient of friction between the front and back or one side and the other side is provided on the front and back of the other side of the sheet mounting plate, or on one side and the other side, respectively. Claim 1 provided
Seat storage cassette as described.