JPH02144367A - Sheet containing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent scattering of recording sheets by a method wherein an auxiliary tray to contain sheets when a first member is released is provided below the first guide member and in a position spaced away from sheets contained in a sheet containing space. CONSTITUTION:The forward end of a sheet 7 recorded by a recording head 8 is guided to a first guide member 14 and is contained in a sheet containing space 16 formed with the first guide member and a second guide part 15 positioned facing the first guide member. The rear end of the sheet 7 is turned over at a release part 21 by means of a conveyance force generated by a discharge roller pair 25 and 25a, and the sheets are contained in a sheet containing tray 13. When quantities of the sheets 7 are contained in the sheet containing tray 13 and exceed containing capacity, a click mechanism is released under weight of the sheets. The first guide member 14 is brought into a release state (a position shown by a chain line), and the contained sheets 7 are dropped in an auxiliary tray 30 at a stroke for containing. This constitution enables prevention of scattering of the sheets over a floor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a sheet storage device used in image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and facsimile machines, and more specifically, a sheet storage device for storing sheets ejected from an image forming apparatus. This paper relates to a seat storage device.

(b) Conventional technology Conventionally, an image forming device (hereinafter referred to as a facsimile device)
A sheet storage device (hereinafter referred to as a sheet storage tray) is known that stores sheets ejected from a facsimile machine 1, as shown in FIG. The facsimile machine 1 includes an image reading and transmitting system that reads information from a document 3 that is fed on a document table 2 using an optical system 4 and transmits the image information, and a thermal recording paper that is fed out from a recording paper roll 5 by a platen roller 6. An image receiving and recording system having a thermal head 8 is provided to record the image information received on the image forming apparatus 7 . A document storage tray 9 is provided on the left side of the facsimile device 1 to store the documents 3 sent out sequentially from the document table 2.
Further, on the right side of the main body 1 of the apparatus, after an image is recorded by the thermal head 8, a cutter 10 is used to cut the image into a predetermined length.
For example, a sheet storage tray 11 for storing recording paper 7 cut into lengths of A4 size and on which images have been formed is provided so as to protrude outward. Note that 12 is a power supply section including a power supply device and the like.

Incidentally, in recent years, there has been a strong demand for image forming apparatuses such as facsimiles to be made smaller and lighter.
Because these trays protrude on both sides, no matter how small the main body of the apparatus is, the actual installation space cannot be reduced much due to the protrusion of these trays. As a solution to this problem, it may be possible to put these trays together on one side of the device main body and omit the separate space for the trays on one side, but if the trays are concentrated on one side of the device main body in this way, the document Both drive systems for the recording paper will be concentrated on one side, which will not only reduce space efficiency inside the device but also complicate the drive system, which will not only reduce reliability but also lead to a significant increase in costs. .

Further, in the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, sheets on which images have been formed are ejected from the apparatus with the recording surface facing up and are stacked in order. Therefore, when creating a record of a multiple-page document, if you record sequentially from the first page of the document, the image-formed sheet that is ejected from the device will be placed on the tray with the first page facing down. The second and subsequent pages will be stacked on top of each other in order, and the sheets stacked in the tray will be in the reverse order of the original.

Therefore, after the recording operation is completed, it is necessary to rearrange the image-formed sheets in order from the first page, a so-called page alignment operation, which is very time-consuming.

Furthermore, paper rolled into rollers, such as thermal recording paper used in facsimiles, etc., has a strong curl and is difficult to store in an orderly manner on a conventional linear tray surface. Recently, in line with the miniaturization of the main body of the apparatus, there has been a trend to reduce the outer diameter of the roll as much as possible without changing the length of the paper, and one way to do this is to make the diameter of the core as small as possible. As a result, curling became more noticeable, and there was a strong desire to develop a paper storage method that could deal with this.

Therefore, in order to solve these problems, the present applicant first invented and applied for a sheet storage tray as shown in FIG. 4 (Japanese Patent Application No. 134175/1982). In FIG. 4, the sheet storage tray 13' is provided near the lower side of the sheet discharge port of the facsimile main body 1, and as shown in detail in FIG. a first guide member 14 that abuts and guides it downward;
The seat storage space 1 is opposed to the first guide member 14.
6 and a second guide member 15 for forming the guide member 6. The second guide member 15 is made of a plastic plate fixed to the stay 17 of the facsimile main body 1, and the lower end of the first guide member 14 is connected to the lower end of the second guide member by a pin 18. has been done.

Then, the facsimile device main body 1 and the first guide member 1
4 is provided with a click mechanism (not shown) that locks the first guide member in the state shown by the solid line in FIG.
Normally, the first guide member 14 is held in the closed position shown in the figure. However, when the multi-view recording paper 7 is stored in the sheet storage tray 13' and the storage capacity is exceeded,
The click mechanism that locks the first kite member 14 in the closed state is automatically released by the weight of the stored recording paper, and the first guide member 14 rotates with the pin 18 in the center and rotates at two points. The stay 1 of the main body 1 is in the open position shown by the chain line.
7. Then, as shown in Figure 6, the first
When the guide member 14 is in the open state, the guide member 14
forms a sheet ejection guide member, and the recording paper 7 ejected from the facsimile machine 1 moves along this first guide member. Further, when the length of the recording paper is short, or conversely when it is not long, it is preferable to use the first guide member 14 in an open state.

As shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of ribs 19 are provided on the inner wall surface of the first guide member 14 to reduce the contact resistance with the leading edge of the recording paper and to smoothly move the leading edge of the recording paper to the storage tray 13'. At the same time, the first
When the guide member 14 is locked in the closed position, there is a V-shaped narrow lance for grasping the tip of the sheet 7 that is fed downward between the guide member 14 and the second guide member 15. ]
A closed grip 20 is formed (see FIG. 8).

Furthermore, when the first guide member 14 is closed,
An opening 21 is provided at the upper end of the first guide member 14 so that when a long type of sheet material is stored, the looped rear end of the recording paper 7 is turned over and discharged sufficiently outward. It is being

Since the sheet storage tray filed earlier is constructed in this manner, the thermal recording paper 7 fed out from the roll 6 is heated in accordance with the information by the thermal head 8, and image information is recorded on the surface of the recording paper 7. Ru. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 9, the recording paper 7 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 6, passes through the cutter 10, and its tip abuts at an obtuse angle on the first guide member 14 forming the storage space 16. The leading end of the recording paper 7 is guided downward, and the leading end 7' of the recording paper 7 is held in a wedge-like manner by the gripping portion 20 at the bottom of the storage space 16. When the recording paper 7 is fed out continuously in this state, the recording paper 7 forms a loop through the opening 21 as shown in FIG. It is discharged outside the machine, and finally curls up and hangs down outside the facsimile machine 1 as shown in FIG. Next, the cutter 10 operates and cuts off the rear end of the recording paper 7, and the recording paper 7 that was hanging outside the machine is reversed in the direction of the arrow using its own weight and the rotational force of the cutter blade, and the leading edge 7' is held in the V-shaped grip portion 20, and the rear end hangs down to the outside of the machine, resulting in the state shown in FIG.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, in the sheet storage tray 13' described above, the first
The guide member 14 is locked in a closed state with respect to the second guide member 15 only by a click mechanism, and when a large amount of recording paper 7 is stored in the tray 13' and the storage capacity is exceeded, a click mechanism The mechanism is automatically released by the weight of the stored recording paper 7 and moves to the first guide member 14.
Since the paper will be in an open state, the stored recording paper 7
The problem was that they were scattered all over the desk and floor, and it took a lot of time to organize them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet storage device that stores the stored sheets in an auxiliary tray when the click mechanism is released, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. For example, referring to FIG. 1(a), the discharged sheet (
A first guide member (1) that can guide and open/close the tip of the
4), and a second guide member (15) that opposes the first guide member (14) and forms a seat storage space (16).
and an opening part (21) provided at the upper end of the first guide member (14), and the rear end of the sheet (7) is inverted at the opening part (21). In (13), the first guide member (14) is opened at a position below the first guide member (14) and away from the seat (7) stored in the seat storage space (16). Auxiliary tray (30) to store the sheet (7) when
It is characterized by the fact that it is equipped with.

(E) Function Based on the above-described configuration, the sheet (7) is guided with its leading end by the first guide member (14) into the sheet storage space (16).
and invert the rear end at the open part (21). Then, when the first guide member (14) is opened, the sheet (7) stored in the sheet storage space (16) falls and is stored in the auxiliary tray (30).

Note that the above-mentioned symbols in parentheses are shown for reference and do not limit equivalent configurations.

(F) Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments embodying the present invention will be described 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 FIG. 1(a), the facsimile machine 1 has a pair of discharge rollers 25 on the downstream side of the cutter 10.
The roller pair 25 includes a drive roller 25a connected to a motor (not shown), and a pinch roller 25b biased against the roller 25a by a spring (not shown). A lip roller 26 is disposed below the pair of rollers 25 and is rotatable and swingable only in the direction of the arrow, and the roller 26 is driven by the drive roller 25a via a belt 27. It has become. Furthermore, a friction piece 29 is provided at the tip of the first guide member 14 to prevent the recording paper 7 from slipping up. Furthermore, when the click mechanism is released, the recording paper 7 that was stored in the tray 13 is stored in a position below the sheet storage tray 13 that forms a loop and does not come into contact with the recording paper 7 whose rear end is reversed. An auxiliary tray 30 is provided.

Since the present embodiment has the above-described configuration, when the recording paper 7 that has been unwound from the recording paper roll 5 and on which image information has been recorded by the thermal head 8 according to the information is stored in the sheet storage tray 13, the recording paper 7 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 6, passes through the cutter 10, and is discharged into the sheet storage tray 13 by a pair of discharge rollers 25.

When the recording paper 7 reaches the position of the first guide member 14, its leading end 7' contacts the guide member 14 at an obtuse angle, is guided downward, and enters the storage space 16. Then, the leading end 7' of the recording paper 7 is held at the grip portion 2 between the grip roller 26 and the first guide member 14, which are being driven and rotated.
0 and is grasped. Further, when the leading edge 7' of the recording paper reaches the lower end of the storage space 16, its advancement stops or
Normally, the length of the recording paper is the ejection roller pair 25 and the storage space 16.
Since the distance is longer than the distance of the lower end, the rear end side of the recording paper 7 continues to be fed out by the pair of ejection rollers 25, forming a loop shape, and is ejected out of the apparatus from the opening part 21 with the rotation of the pinch roller 25b. . At this time, the leading edge of the recording paper 7
' is gripped by the grip roller 26 and the first guide member 14, and the recording paper 7 is subjected to frictional force by the friction piece 29 provided at the upper end of the first guide member 14, so that the lower side of the loop As the pinch roller 25b rotates, only the upper part of the loop is ejected without the part slipping up (see FIG. 1(a)).

When the thermal head 8 finishes recording on the recording paper 7, the rear end of the recording paper 7 is cut by the rotation of the cutter 10, but the discharge roller pair 25 continues to rotate, and the rear end of the recording paper 7 rotates. The pinch roller 25b ensures that the paper is turned over and discharged out of the device (Fig. 1 (b), (c)).
reference). At this time, either the recording paper 7 tends to fall due to its own weight, or is prevented from falling due to the grip of the leading edge 7' of the recording paper by the clip rollers 26 and the first guide member 14, and the resistance of the friction piece 29. Ru.

Then, when the same operation as described above is repeated and a large amount of recording paper 7 is stored in the sheet storage tray 13 and the storage capacity is exceeded, the click a mechanism that locks the first guide member 14 in the closed state is activated. It is automatically released depending on the weight of the stored recording paper 7. Furthermore, by releasing the click mechanism, the first
The guide member 14 is opened (as shown by the chain line in FIG. 1(C)), and the recording sheets 7 stored in the sheet storage tray 13 are dropped and stored in the auxiliary tray 30 all at once.

Thereafter, when the recording paper 7 is ejected from the facsimile machine 1, the recording paper 7 is directly stored in the auxiliary tray 30.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the auxiliary tray 30 may be tilted with the tip facing upward, or may not be limited to this, as shown in FIG. 2(a).
As shown in , (b) and ('c), an auxiliary tray 31 having a downward slope or ribs may be used. Note that the tray 31 shown by 31a in the figure is designed to abut the edge of the recording paper 7.・It is a folded part that matches.

(G) As described in detail, according to the present invention, when the first guide member is opened, the sheet stored in the sheet storage space is stored in the auxiliary tray. It is possible to prevent the sheets from being scattered and eliminate the trouble of arranging the sheets.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1(a), 1(b), and 1(c) are front sectional views showing a seat storage device according to the present invention. Further, FIGS. 2(a), 2(b), and 2(c) are front sectional views showing other embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, FIGS. 3 to 12 are diagrams showing conventional examples. 7... Seat, 13.13'... Sheet storage device, 14... First guide member 15
...Second guide member 16...Seat storage space, 21...Opening part 30.31...Auxiliary tray

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first member capable of guiding the leading edge of the discharged sheet and opening/closing it.
a second guide member that opposes the first guide member and forms a seat storage space; and an opening provided at the upper end of the first guide member, the opening In the sheet storage device in which the rear end of the sheet is inverted, the first guide member is opened at a position below the first guide member and away from the sheet stored in the sheet storage space. A seat storage device characterized by being equipped with an auxiliary tray for storing sheets.