JPH02123075A - Picture forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a device to be set up in space saved contriving the smallness in size of the device total unit and operating space by providing a sorting discharge path feeding recording paper changing a direction to the right angle direction from a conveying path to a sorter arranged in a main unit side part. CONSTITUTION:A picture forming main unit part juxtaposes in its side part a sorter 1000 providing a sorting discharge path conveying copying paper, put to the front side in a refeeder 900, changing a conveying direction 90 deg., and conveying efficiency is excellent because a paper form of A3, B4, etc., fed in the lengthwise, is fed by the short way. When selection of obverse and reverse paper discharges is performed in a side of the sorter 1000, in case of the reverse paper discharge, it faces directly toward a pin sorter of a lower unit 10 by a gate 1302 positioned in the upper. While in case of the obverse paper discharge, the gate 1302, after passing through a lower guide plate 1301, is fed to the upper. A picture surface is placed in a left side of the copying paper, when its rear end part is detected by a sensor 1110, rollers 1102, 1103 are inverted, so that the copying paper is switched back.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus in which a sorter for sorting recording sheets is attached to an image forming main body.

[Prior Art] In various image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers, and facsimile machines, a sorter for Had paper sorting is often attached to the image forming main body. A general image forming main body is configured as a side-operated type in which the recording paper is handled in the side area of the image forming main body. A conveyance path for image formation is provided to convey the image from one side toward the other side. The sorters are arranged and connected to an exit portion of the image forming conveyance path of the image forming main body, that is, a side portion of the image forming main body.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In such a conventional image forming apparatus, since the image forming main body is configured to be operated from the side as described above,
In addition to the fact that the entire device is long in the left and right direction, it is difficult to remove recorded paper on which images have been formed from the tray, and to attach a paper cassette that stores unrecorded paper to the image forming main unit. Each operation must be performed on both sides of the image forming apparatus, and thus space for operation is required on both sides of the image forming apparatus. Furthermore, a space on both sides is required to prevent pedestrians from colliding with protrusions such as trays, so when installing the image forming apparatus, It's getting very big. Furthermore, if the image forming apparatus is installed in a relatively narrow space, there is a problem in that various operations on the sides as described above become inconvenient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can be miniaturized and can be installed in a space-saving manner without requiring a large operation space around the apparatus.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 provides an image forming apparatus in which a sorter for sorting recording sheets is attached to an image forming main body. , the image forming main unit is configured as a front-operated type having a conveyance path for image formation that conveys the recording paper toward the front side and the back side, and the sorter is configured to be a front operation type that is equipped with a conveyance path for image formation that conveys the recording paper toward the front side and the back side, and the sorter is configured to A sorter is arranged to be parallel to the side of the main body, and in the image forming conveyance path of the image forming main body, the sorter extends substantially perpendicularly from the image forming conveyance path and sends recording sheets to a sorter. has a configuration in which a discharge passage is provided.

Further, the invention described in claim 2 is the image forming apparatus described in claim 1, in which the sorting conveyance path is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording paper in the image forming conveyance path. I am annoyed by the configuration in which an orthogonal roller for feeding one sheet of paper is provided in the recording sheet refeeding section.

[Function] In the invention described in claim 1, since the image forming main body is configured to be operated from the front, it is possible to take out recorded paper on which an image has been formed from the tray, or to remove unrecorded paper from the tray. All operations, such as attaching the paper feed force sensor 1~ to the image forming main body, are performed from the front side of the image forming apparatus, so there is ample space and margin on both sides of the apparatus for operation. This eliminates the need for additional space, and the device can be placed close to the wall on three sides except for the front side. In addition, for the sorter installed in parallel on the side of the image forming main body, recorded sheets are oriented from the discharge path to the direction approximately perpendicular to the feeding direction of the image forming conveyance path. They are sent out after being changed, and the sorting operation is performed accordingly. During sorting, later recording sheets are also taken out from the front side. Therefore, in the sorter, there is no need for a space for operation and a space on both sides of the device, and three sides of the device except the front side can be placed close to the wall surface.

Further, in the invention described in claim 2, the recorded paper is sent out to the sorter side by the carrying force of orthogonal rollers provided in the paper refeeding section that constitutes a part of the image forming carrying path. It has become.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

First, the structure of the image forming main body according to the present invention will be described using an embodiment of a copying machine shown in FIG. The image forming main unit includes a copying machine main body C, a multistage paper feeder (PB) 400 installed at the bottom of the copying machine main body C, and a copying machine main body C.
The automatic reversing document device (ARDF) installed on the top of the
It consists of 100.

In the copying machine main body C, an original to be copied is inserted from the position shown by arrow A and stopped at a predetermined position on the contact glass 203. The operation of setting the original will be described in detail in the section on the automatic reversing original document feeder (ARDF) described later.

Next, an exposure process is performed by the optical system 200. The optical system 200 is configured such that a document image can be manipulated under a contact glass 203, and includes a light source 2 for illuminating the document.
01, movable mirrors 204, 205, and 206, a zoom lens 207, and fixed mirrors 208, 209, and 210.

The document illumination light source 201. The reflector 202 and the movable mirror 204 constitute a first scanner 220, and this first scanner 220 has a speed of (V/m; m is the copying magnification) with respect to the peripheral speed (V) of the photosensitive drum 601. At the same time, the movable mirror 205,
206, the second scanner 230 consists of (V/2
It is rotatably driven by a drive motor (not shown) so that it can be moved rightward in the figure at a speed of m).

Note that the circumferential speed of the photoreceptor drum 601 is constant regardless of whether the magnification is equal to the magnification or variable magnification.

The copy magnification is changed by changing the position of the zoom lens 207 on the optical path by driving a lens drive motor (not shown). In the figure, a zoom lens 207
When the position of is at G, m=0.5 (50% reduction)
, H indicates m=1.0 (same magnification), and ■ indicates m=2.0 (200% enlargement).

An image forming system 600 is arranged slightly to the right of the center of the copying machine main body 1, with a photosensitive drum 601 as its center. That is, the photosensitive drum 601 is uniformly charged around the photosensitive drum 601;! An IF electric charger 602, an eraser 603 for erasing unnecessary charges, a first developing device 502 and a second developing device 501 that visualize toner powder on an electrostatic latent image using a magnetic brush, and a toner image on a photoreceptor drum 601. A belt transfer device 630 that transfers the image to the recording paper, a cleaning device 608 that cleans the toner image remaining on the photosensitive drum 601-1 without being transferred to the recording paper, and the like are provided.

The belt transfer device 630 is constructed by lightly pressing an endless belt 613 stretched by a plurality of rollers 614 against the photoreceptor drum 601, and a charger 609 performs corona discharge for transfer from the back side of the endless belt 613. The charger 612 charges the endless belt 613 and electrostatically attracts the recording paper. charger 6
Reference numeral 10 denotes a charger for eliminating static electricity from the endless belt 613. The rubber blade 615 is for cleaning the residue on the endless belt 613 after conveying the paper.

There are two main paper feeding units for recording paper; one is a multi-manual paper feeding device 300 attached to the main body, and the other is a multi-manual paper feeding device (300) equipped with multiple paper feeding trays. PB)
It is 400. Multi-manual paper feeder? The paper guide 301 of the FF1300 is normally closed, but when used, it is opened as shown in the figure and recording paper is set. The set recording paper is drawn in by a feed roller 302, and only one sheet is fed by a paper feed roller 303 and a separation roller 304.

After being temporarily stopped by a pair of registration rollers 305, it is fed while being synchronized with the leading edge of the image on the photosensitive drum 601. On the other hand, in the paper feeding operation by the multistage paper feeding device 400, the paper feeding device 410 is first moved up and down toward the paper tray of the selected paper feeding stage. When the selected paper tray is reached, the vertical movement of the paper feeder 410 is stopped in response to a signal from a sensor (not shown), and then the paper tray is moved toward the paper feeder. The paper feeding method is basically the same as that of a multi-manual paper feeding device. That is, the paper is sent to the paper feed roller 412 by the feed roller 411, and then the paper is sent to the paper feed roller 412 and the separation roller 41.
3, it is separated into one sheet and fed. The fed paper passes through a conveyance roller 306 and passes through a pair of registration rollers 3.
05 and is stopped. The paper, which has passed through a pair of registration rollers 305 and is held by an endless belt 613 and has a toner image transferred thereto, has the toner image fused by a pair of heat rollers (fixing roller 701 and pressure roller 702). The recorded paper after fixing passes through a pair of fixing paper discharge rollers and heads toward the main body paper discharge tray 809 or the paper refeeding device 900.

In the case of double-sided copying, two different conveyance paths are used for A4 (or LT) size or smaller and for other sizes. First, in the case of A4 (or LT) size or smaller, when the trailing edge of the copy sheet passes through the fixing device 700, the gate 801 is displaced downward in response to a signal from the sensor 810.

At the same time, the roller 802 is reversed and the copy paper is transferred to the roller 9.
01 direction. The copy paper discharged by the roller 901 is sent to the paper feed section side by the alignment roller 908.

When all the single-sided copy papers are stacked, the bottom layer of copy paper is fed by a paper feed belt consisting of a perforated belt that rotates around a chamber 915 connected to a suction fan (not shown). Only one sheet is fed by the separation roller 910 which is rotated clockwise in the upper position. Thereafter, it passes through a conveyance roller 306 and heads toward a pair of registration rollers 305.

In the case of paper larger than A4 (or LT), the copy paper passes through the roller 802 after passing through the fixing device. At this time, the gates 803 and 804 are at the positions indicated by the solid lines in FIG. ,807,8
At the same time as 08 is reversed, the gate 804 assumes the position indicated by the broken line, and the rear end of the copy paper now becomes the front end heading toward the roller 902, and the copy paper size is A3 (or 17''). In this case, the gate 905 takes the position indicated by the broken line, and the paper is immediately discharged onto the refeeding device after passing the roller 902.

When the size of the copy paper is B4 (or 14I), the gate 905 takes the position shown by the solid line, and the gate 906 takes the position shown by the broken line, so that the copy paper that has passed the roller 903 is discharged onto the paper refeeding device. It has become. Also, when the copy paper size is A4 portrait or B5 portrait (or 11"), gates 905 and 906 take the positions of solid lines, and gate 90
7 takes the position indicated by the broken line, and the copy paper that has passed through the roller 904 is discharged onto the paper refeeding device.

The subsequent operations are the same as those for A4 and smaller sizes.

In the case of multiple (composite) copying, regardless of the size, the gate 803 is first moved to the position indicated by the broken line to send the fixed copy paper to the roller 902.

Gate 9 when the copy paper size is A3 (or 17')
05 takes the position indicated by the broken line and is immediately discharged onto the paper refeeding device after passing through the roller 902. When the copy paper size is B4 (or 14'), the gate 905 is positioned as a solid line and the gate 906 is positioned as a broken line, and the sheet is discharged onto the paper refeeding device after passing through the roller 903. Also, if the copy paper size is A4 or B5 portrait (or 11''), gate 90
5° 906 takes the position shown by the solid line, and the gate 907 takes the position shown by the broken line, and the copy paper that has passed the roller 904 is discharged onto the paper refeeding device. If the copy paper size is A4 landscape (or LT or T:), gate 905, 906, 90
7 takes the position shown by the solid line, and after passing above the gate 907 is discharged onto the paper refeeding device. An alignment roller 908 is operated to align the ejected copy sheets. The subsequent operations are the same as those for double-sided copying described above.

The configuration and operation of the automatic reversing document device (ARDF) 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.

First, in the case of a single-sided original, the original to be copied is set on the tray 101 in the direction of arrow A with the image side facing up. The set original is fed by a paper feeding mechanism similar to the multi-manual paper feeding device. In other words, the document is pulled in to the left by the pick-up roller 102, and then the document is pulled into the topmost one by the feed roller 103, which is rotated clockwise, and the separation roller 104, which is also rotated clockwise.
A sheet of original is fed toward a pair of rollers 106. This automatic document feeder feeds documents in page order. The pair of rollers 106 are stopped until the document is sent, and begin rotating a little after the leading edge of the document is reached. This causes the skew of the original (
skew) is corrected. After passing through the pair of rollers 107, the glass is guided by a guide plate 123 and sent between the contact glass 203 and the conveyor belt 118. The conveyor belt 118 is stretched by a drive roller 115, a roller 116, and a tension roller 117.

The stopping position of the original on the contact glass 203 is determined by the number of pulses starting from when the trailing edge of the original passes the sensor 127.

When scanning of the document is completed, the conveyor belt drive roller 1
15 is rotated clockwise and the document is sent out to the left in a switchback manner. The first game 1-111, which was initially in the position shown by the solid line, is displaced to the position shown by the broken line in FIG. 5(a). In other words, Fig. 5(c)
The state shown by the solid line is made. The leading edge of the document passes between rollers 112 and 113 and is delivered to tray 1.
Issued on 19th. In this state, the image side of the document is on the top side, so if the paper continues to be ejected, the order of the pages will be reversed. To avoid this, this device performs another reversal.

That is, as soon as the rear edge of the document is detected by sensor 128, roller 108 and roller 11.3 are reversed counterclockwise. At the same time, based on this inversion signal, the second gate 110 is switched to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 5(b), and the first gate 111 is also changed to the position shown by the solid line below. In this way, as shown in FIG. 5(c),
The documents pass between rollers 113 and 114 and are stacked on tray 119 with the image side facing down. The same operation is repeated one after another, and the originals are stacked in the same page order as when they were first set.

In the case of a double-sided original, the first side is covered with a contact glass 203.
The process is the same as the single-sided mode described above until it is stopped at the top. 〃
When scanning of one document is completed, the conveyor belt drive roller 1
15 is rotated clockwise and the document is sent out to the left in a switchback manner. At this time, the first gate 111 is moved upward as in the case of a single-sided original, and in addition, the third gate I-109 is also moved upward. The situation is shown in FIG. 5(d). The leading edge of the original to be reversed is guided by guides 121 and 122 and fed onto the contact glass 203 again. The stopping position of the original on the contact glass 203 is that the rear edge of the original is the sensor 1.
This is done by the number of pulses from the time when 28 is passed.

When the scanning of the second side of the document is completed, the conveyor belt driving roller 115 is rotated clockwise to send the document to the left in a switchback manner. At this time, the third gate 109 is displaced downward, and the document passes between the rollers 112 and 113 and is stacked on the tray 119 in the state shown in FIG. 5(c). This completes the feeding and discharging operation of the double-sided original. Thereafter, the same operation is repeated one after another, and the originals are stacked in the same page order as when they were first set.

Sorters 1000 as shown in FIG. 2 are arranged side by side on the side of such an image forming main body. Recording sheets are fed to the sorter 1000 so as to be turned approximately at right angles from a refeeding device for double-sided copying that constitutes an image forming conveyance path in the image forming main body. . That is, for sorting the copy sheets that have been brought to the front in the paper refeeding device 900 of the image forming apparatus main body shown in FIG. It has excellent conveyance efficiency because it feeds long sheets such as A3 and I34 sheets into short sheets.

Although this sorter 1000 is capable of switching between the front and back sides of the copy sheets to be ejected, a case will first be described in which the sorter side does not switch between the front and back sides.

When copying in page order, the sheets to be copied are stacked with the image side facing down, or if the image side is facing up, they are inserted on the f side of the previous copy sheet so that they are in the same state as the original. There must be. The latter method is less common, and is more common among drunkards, and is called back-side paper ejection.

The operation of turning the top surface of the copy paper inside out is performed on the image forming main body side. That is, as in the case of multiple (combined) copying, by switching the position l\ of the gate 803 indicated by the broken line, the sheets are stacked in the refeeding device 9001 with the image side facing down. As shown in FIG. 1, a chamber 9 below the stacked copy sheets is connected to a suction fan (not shown).
There are paper feed belts 911, 912, and 913 made of perforated belts that rotate so as to surround the copy paper 4, and the bottom layer of the copy paper is fed. Here, the paper feed belt 909 and the paper feed belts 9, 11, 912, and 913 are installed in a perpendicular relationship so that the paper feeding directions are at right angles, and the paper feed belts 911, 912, and 913 feed the paper. The direction in which
This is the front side in the figure.

Before being sent out to the sorter 1000 side, the copy sheets are uniformly gathered to the right in FIG. 1 and to the front in FIG. 2 by the action of the alignment rollers 908. Therefore, the paper feed belt 911,
When the copy paper is conveyed at steps 912 and 913, the edge of the copy paper is aligned with the front side in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, the fed copy paper passes through a guide plate 1301 and is guided upward by a gate 1302. The gate 1104a is rotated counterclockwise, and each sheet of copy paper is passed through a pair of rollers 1102a, 1102a, 103a, and then fed to the bin tray 1+-01a. For the second copy paper, game 1” 11.04 a
is opened, and for the third copy paper, game hl104c
The injection gate was opened, and so on.
1.10 l b.

It is stacked on the bin tray of t101c.

10th Novin 1101 j Game 1-110 against Ni
5 is fixed in the open position at all times.

In front-side ejection with the image side facing up, the copy sheets are first switched back in the image forming body in the same way as double-sided copying, and then stacked in the paper refeeding device 900. Paper refeeding device 9
The operation of conveying the copy paper from 00 to the sorter 1000 is the same as in the case of back side ejection.

Switch between front side paper output and front side paper output on sorter 1, O
The operations performed on the OO side will be explained based on a method in which paper processing on the image forming main body side is stacked in the paper refeeding device ff900 without switchback as in the case of multiple (composite) copying. Since the sheet is conveyed to the guide plate 1301 with the image side facing down, the above-described operation is performed when the sheet is discharged from the back side. In other words, the gate 1302 is positioned downward and the feed is directly guided to the 10 bin sorter side of the tote section. The right side of the copy paper at this time becomes the image surface. Sensor 1 detects the rear edge of the copy paper.
210 detects the rollers 1307, 1205.12
06.1207 is reversed and the copy paper is switched back to the top 10 bin sorters. Stacking in each bin is the same as in back-side discharge, but the image side is facing up on the tray.

The game 1-1.302 is displaced upward, and the copy paper is guided downward by the guide plate 1301, so that the copy paper is guided downward by the roller pair 1.
Pass through 307. - When the 11th sheet (correctly the 11th sheet as it is the operation after the 11th bin) comes, the gate 120
4a is opened, passed through rollers 1202a, 1203a, and stacked on bin tray 1201a. Thereafter, gates 1204b and 1204c are sequentially opened, and tray 1 is opened.
201b and 1201c.

Sorter 100o switches between front side and back side output
The operations performed on the side will be explained. For front side output,
Through the gate 1302 located above, it heads directly to the 10 bin sorters below. In the case of front side paper ejection, the gate 1302 is located below and the guide plate 130
After passing through 1, it is first sent upward. At this time, the image surface is on the left side of the copy paper. Sensor 1 is at the rear edge of the copy paper.
When detected at 110, rollers 1102 and 1103 are reversed, thereby switching the copy paper. The subsequent operation is the same as the other stacking operations; the game I-1204 is opened, passes through a pair of rollers 1202 and 1203, and is stacked on the 1-lay 1201.

20 such bin sorters plus 20 more
The body bin sorter is shown in Figure 3. The 20 additional bin sorters will have similar internal implants. Added 20 body bins.
Copy sheets are conveyed to the sorters by threading between the ten bin sorters. At this time, the gate 1302 is placed at an intermediate position as shown in FIG. 8(b). The copy paper that has passed through the guide plate 1301 is moved horizontally as it is and is moved to rollers 1304°1305.13.
Pass through 06. The operation after passing through the guide plate 1303 is similar to the operation of the 20 bin sorters after the guide plate 13o1.

Such a sorter can provide the following advantages.

(2) The copy paper can be taken out in the direction of the hand, and the edge of the copy paper can be placed at the front regardless of the size, improving the ease of taking out the copy paper.

(2) It is possible to easily carry out post-processing such as stapling and punching on the edges of copy paper, and it is also possible to perform manual processing.

■Even if a jam occurs during sorting, it is easy to remove the jammed paper because the edge of the copy paper is at the front.

- Relatively large size copy sheets such as A3 size and B4 size can be fed in the transverse direction, improving conveyance efficiency and enabling speedy sorting.

(, J A A maximum of 7 copies of a size paper are fed in the width direction and stacked on the bin/L/ray, so the width direction of the sorter can be shortened and space can be saved. If the number of stacked sheets is limited and the bin is sloped to a certain degree or more, the width can be further reduced.

■Since it can be expanded in stages, it is possible to provide a large-capacity sorter that satisfies the needs of users, and even in this case, it is possible to keep the sorter's transport path short and prevent a decline in conveyance performance.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention arranges a sorter on the side of a front-operated image forming main body, and changes the direction of the image forming conveyance path of the image forming main body in a substantially perpendicular direction. Since we decided to provide a discharge path for sorting the recording sheets to the sorter in such a way as to send them out to the sorter, the entire image forming apparatus including the image forming main body and the sorter can be made into a tJ1 type, and there is a large operation space around it. can be made extremely small, the image forming apparatus can be installed in a space-saving manner, and copy paper can be handled conveniently.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing the entire image forming apparatus equipped with a copying machine to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a front view showing the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 with a sorter added. 3 is a front schematic illustration showing a state in which a sorter is further added to the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is an illustration of an automatic reversing document feeder (ARDF). Enlarged side view, Figure 5 (a), (b)
(c) and (, J) are automatically reversed with the document feeder (AR).
Fig. 6 is a partially enlarged side view illustrating the configuration and operation of the document feeding unit 2 reversing unit and document transport unit of the DF), and Fig. 6 is a front enlarged view illustrating the configuration and operation of the bin/sorter located at the top of the sorter. , Figure 7 is an enlarged front view explaining the configuration and operation of the bin sorter located at the bottom of the sorter, and Figure 8 (
) and (b) are enlarged front views illustrating the structure and operation of the copy paper after passing through the sorter. Reversing document device (ARDF) 0 Q.O.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus in which a sorter for sorting recording sheets is attached to an image forming main body, the image forming main body separates recording sheets in the front side and the back side. The sorter is configured as a front-operated type having a conveyance path for image formation to be conveyed toward the image forming body, and the sorter is arranged to be parallel to the side of the image forming main body, and The image forming conveyance path in the main body is
An image forming apparatus characterized in that a sorting discharge path is provided that extends substantially perpendicularly from the image forming conveyance path and sends recording sheets to a sorter. 2. In the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, in the sorting conveyance path, the orthogonal rollers that feed the recording paper in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the recording paper in the image forming conveyance path refeed the recording paper. An image forming apparatus characterized in that it is provided in an image forming apparatus.