JPH0248366A - Sheet postprocessor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To aim at the promotion of simplification and miniaturization of a device in structure as well as the promotion of its high speed performance by combining a finisher unit, stacking sheets for matching and stitching them, and an option unit including a folding machine or the like, together in an organic manner. CONSTITUTION:At the time of disuse of an option unit 400, after sheets out of an image former 100 are fed to a sheet carry-in port 506 of a finisher unit 500, these sheets are loaded on a processing tray 530 and subjected to matching and stitching processes, thus a sheet bundle is discharged and housed. During a process at this processing tray 530, if the sheet is taken in, it is fed to each of standby conveyor passages 509, 510 for standing-by, then it is conveyed to the processing tray 530 together with the next sheet. At time of the option unit in service, the sheet at the sheet carry-in port 506 of the finisher unit 500 is fed to the option unit 400 by selector means 513, 514 via a conveyor passage 401, and it enters the standby conveyor passage 510 from a conveyor passage 402, then it is discharged out of the processing tray 530 likewise as abovementioned.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a sheet that is connected to and mounted on the sheet discharge side of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a laser beam blinker, and subjected to various post-processing. The present invention relates to a post-processing device, and more particularly, to a combination structure of a finisher device that stacks, aligns and binds sheets, and an optional device such as a folding machine.

(B) Conventional technology Conventionally, sheet post-processing devices have mainly been configured to convey sheets ejected from a copying machine onto a processing tray, stack them, align and bind the sheet bundles, and in this case, A storage tray is provided separately from a processing tray.

In addition, when combining the above-mentioned finisher device that aligns and binds sheets with a folding machine that folds sheets in half, the finisher device is connected to the bottom end of the folding machine, and even if the folding machine is not used, the It is designed to be folded and passed through the machine.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the conventional example described above, if the processing tray part and the storage part are separate, the size will inevitably increase. Also,
In the combination of a finisher device and a folding machine, the sheet always passes through the folding machine, resulting in problems such as a long conveyance path and a large space occupancy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet post-processing device in which the processing section and the storage section of a finisher device are arranged together in a compact manner, and can be organically combined with optional devices such as a folding machine. That is.

B) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and for example, as shown with reference to FIGS. In a sheet post-processing device consisting of a finisher device (500) and an optional device (400) that are removably connected, the optional device (400)
00), the finisher device (500) is separably installed and installed, and the finisher device is installed! The conveyance path (500) from the sheet inlet (506) to the processing tray (530)
07), the standby conveyance path (509° 510) is bypassed via the switching means (513), and the standby conveyance path (509, 510) or the sheet entrance (50
6) via the switching means (514) to the optional device (4).
The carry-in conveyance path (401) to 00) is branched, and an optional device (400
) is characterized by merging the discharge conveyance path (402) from the two.

(N) Function Based on the above configuration, an image forming bag is used when the optional device (400) is not used! After the sheet from (100) is sent to the sheet inlet (,506) of the finisher (500), the sheet is transferred to the processing tray (530) by the conveyance path (507).
), are aligned and bound, and then the sheet bundle is discharged and stored. At this time, the processing tray (53
0) When a sheet is carried in during processing, that sheet is sent to the standby conveyance path (509, 510), stands by, and is conveyed to the processing tray (530) together with the next sheet.

Further, when the optional equipment fi (400) is used, the sheet at the sheet inlet (506) of the finisher device (500) is transferred to the conveyance path (514) by the switching means (513, 514).
01) to the optional device (400).

Then, the sheet from the optional device (400) enters the standby conveyance path (510) from the conveyance path (402), and is discharged from the processing tray (530) in the same manner as described above.

(F) Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, reference numeral 100 is a main body of a copying machine, and a bedistal 200 is disposed below this main body 100, which performs double-sided copying and multiple copies of the same original.
An automatic document feeder (RDF) 300 is placed on top of the main body 100.
will be provided. Further, a sheet post-processing device 600 is detachably connected to the sheet discharge side of the main body 100, and this device 11600 is configured by combining a finisher device 500 in a separable column on the folding machine 400 as an optional device. Become.

A3 main body (100) In the main body 100, reference numeral 101 is an original table glass on which the original is placed, 103 is an illumination lamp (exposure lamp) that illuminates the original, and 105, 107, and 109 are scanning units that change the optical path of the reflected light from the original. reflective mirror (scanning mirror), 11
Reference numeral 1 indicates a lens having focusing and variable magnification functions, and reference numeral 113 indicates a fourth reflection mirror (scanning mirror) that changes the optical path. 1
15 is an optical system motor that drives the optical system, 117, 119
．． 121 are sensors, respectively.

131 is a photosensitive drum, 133 is a main motor that drives the photosensitive drum 131, 135 is a high voltage unit, 137 is a blank exposure unit, 139 is a developing device, 141 is a transfer charger, 143 is a separation charger, and 145 is a cleaning device. It is.

151 is the upper cassette, 153 is the lower cassette, 155
157 is a paper feed roller, and 159 is a register roller. Further, 161 is a conveyor belt that conveys the sheet on which an image has been recorded to the fixing side, 163 is a fixing device that fixes the conveyed sheet by thermocompression bonding, and 167 is a sensor used for double-sided recording.

The surface of the photosensitive drum 131 is made of a seamless photoconductor using a photoconductor and an electric conductor. 133, rotation is started in the direction of the arrow in this figure. Next, when the predetermined rotation control and potential control processing (preprocessing) of the drum 131 are completed, the original placed on the original platen glass 101 is moved to the first scanning mirror 1.
The light reflected from the original is illuminated by an illumination lamp 103 that is integrated with the scanner 05, and the reflected light from the original is transmitted to the first scanning mirror 105, the second scanning mirror 107, the third scanning mirror 109, and the lens 111.
, and the fourth scanning mirror 113 to form an image on the drum 131.

The drum 131 is corona charged by a high pressure unit 135. After that, the image illuminated by the illumination lamp 103 (
The original image) is exposed to slit light, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the drum 131 using a known NP method.

Next, the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 131 is transferred to a developing device 139.
The toner image is developed by a developing roller 140 and visualized as a toner image, and the toner image is transferred onto a sheet by a transfer charger 141 as described later.

That is, the upper cassette 151 or the lower cassette 1
The sheet in 53 is fed into the main unit by a paper feed roller 155 or 157, and is sent toward the photosensitive drum 131 with accurate timing by a register roller 159, so that the leading edge of the latent image and the leading edge of the sheet are aligned. Thereafter, the sheet passes between the transfer charger 141 and the tram 131, so that the toner image on the drum 131 is transferred onto the sheet. After this transfer is completed, the sheet is transferred to the drum 13.
1 by the separation charger 143, and the conveyor belt 1
61 to the fixing device 163, where it is fixed by pressure and heating, and then by the ejection roller 165 to the main body 1o.
ejected out of o.

After the transfer, the drum 131 continues to rotate, and its surface is cleaned by a cleaning device 145 composed of a cleaning roller and an elastic plate.

B, pedestal (200) The pedestal 200 can be separated from the main body 1.00, and is a deck 201 that can store 2000 sheets.
and an intermediate tray 2.3 for double-sided copying.

Further, the lifter 205 of the deck 201, which can accommodate 2000 sheets, rises according to the length of the sheets so that the sheets always come into contact with the paper feed roller 207.

Further, 211 is a paper discharge flapper that switches the path between the double-sided recording side or multiplex recording side and the discharge side path, and 213, 2
15 is a conveyance path of a conveyor belt, 217 is an intermediate tray dust for holding down the sheet, and the sheet that has passed through the paper discharge flapper 211 and the conveyance paths 213 and 215 is turned over and stored in the intermediate tray 203 for double-sided copying. A multiple flapper 219 switches between double-sided recording and multiplex recording, and is disposed between the conveyance paths 213 and 215, and guides the sheet to the multiplex recording conveyance path 221 by rotating upward. 22
3 is a multiple sheet discharge sensor that detects the end of the sheet passing through the multiple flapper 219. A paper feed roller 225 feeds the sheet to the drum 131 through a path 227. 2
24 is a discharge roller that discharges the sheet to the outside of the machine.

When performing double-sided recording (double-sided copying) or multiplex recording (multiple overlapping copying), first raise the paper ejection flapper 211 of the main body 100 upwards and move the copied sheet to the conveyance path 213 of the bedicle 200.
, 215, and stored in the intermediate tray 203. At this time, the multiplex flapper 219 is lowered during double-sided recording.
At the time of multiplex recording, the multiplex flapper 219 is raised. This intermediate tray 203 can store up to 99 sheets, for example. The sheets stored in the intermediate tray 2o3 are pressed down by the intermediate tray weight 217.

During the next back side recording or multiple recording, the sheets stored in the intermediate tray 203 are fed one by one from the bottom to the register of the main body 100 via the path 227 by the action of the paper feed roller 225 and the weight 217. It is guided to rollers 159.

C, RDF (Ring type document feeder) (300) RDF
In 300, 301 is a stacking tray on which originals are set. Document size detection sensors 302 and 303 are provided at a predetermined interval in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of the document. The size of the document in the width direction depends on whether both sensors 302 and 303 are detecting the document, or only one sensor 303 (assuming that sensor 303 is located at the back of the paper) is detecting the document. This can be determined by checking whether there are any. Note that by increasing the number of sensors of this type, more accurate size can be determined. Further, the lengthwise size can be determined based on the time period during which the sensor 303 (or 302) detects the document.

In addition, in this RDF 300, the document sent from the stacking tray 301 to the exposure surface through the sheet bus 304 is sent through the sheet path 305 and returned to the stacking tray 300.
Can be loaded to.

Further, 307 is a sensor that detects one circulation of the document.

D. Sheet L-Post-processing device (600) The sheet post-processing device 600 includes a finisher device 500 that collects, aligns, and binds one or more sheets, and a finisher device 500 that folds sheets 1 to 2 in the center or folds sheets 1 to 3 in a Z shape. Folding machine 4
Consists of 00. Then, a stand 60 having casters 601
A folding machine 400 is placed on top of the folding machine 400, and a finisher device 500 is installed on top of the folding machine 400 so as to be separable. By hanging it, it can be removably connected. Therefore, by operating the handle 509, the member 10
By releasing the lock from 8 and moving the device 600 away, it becomes possible to easily clear the jam.

A finisher device 500 is a discharge roller 1 of a main body 100.
65, or a sheet carry-in port 506 at a position that coincides with the discharge roller 224 of the pedestal 200 as shown in FIG. Immediately downstream of the roller pair 501, a conveyance path 507 and an entrance conveyance path 401 to the fold a400 are branched, and an entrance deflector 513 is switchably provided at this branch. In addition, the output from the folding machine 400 ]] conveyance path 402 or a standby conveyance path 510 having conveyance rollers 505
A standby conveyance path 509 is provided which is connected to the conveyance path 401 and communicated with the conveyance path 510 via the periphery of the rollers 505, and is switchable by a folder deflector 514. Conveyance paths 507 and 510 meet at 508
The sensor lever 51 is located downstream of this merging portion 508.
A pair of ejection rollers 503 whose speeds are controlled by 6 is provided, and both sheets on the conveyance paths 507 and 510 are delivered to the processing tray 53.
It is configured to be discharged and placed on 0.

A part of the belt 504 that is in contact with the lower end or the processing tray 530 is wrapped around the lower roller 503a of the discharge roller pair 503, and the belt 504 and the roller 503 are connected to each other.
a to align the sheets on the processing tray 530 in the longitudinal direction along the rear end stopper 531. Also, a positioning plate 5 is provided for lateral alignment of the sheet.
60 and a center plate 561 are provided movably by a stepping motor 562. Furthermore, a binding machine 520 is provided above the upper end of the processing tray 530 to bind the sheets on the tray.

The processing tray 530 is approximately half the length of the sheet, and is connected to a stack tray 542 outside the device 500 in front of the tray 530 or to a movable table 541 that moves up and down by tilting the front end of the tray 530 to transfer the sheets to both trays. It is designed to be loaded across 530 and 542. In addition, the processing tray 5
For example, two sheet east moving belts 570 are installed in the vertical direction at the bottom of the tray 530 as a means for discharging the bundle of sheets bound at 30, and a pushing member 571 glued to this belt 570 protrudes from a groove 572. The rear end of the sheet bundle is pushed out (see Figure 3). Further, sub-paddles 573 made of elastic members are arranged on both sides of the belt 5700.

This sub-paddle 573 is configured to rotate at a predetermined position on the belt to hold down the sheet from curling and prevent the sheet bundle from being taken out when being discharged.

Since this embodiment has the above configuration, the folding machine 40
If it is 0 or not used, the entrance deflectors 513 and 514 are switched as shown by the solid lines in FIG. Then, the sheet is discharged onto the processing tray 530 by the discharge roller 503, and at this time, the trailing edge of the sheet is brought into contact with the stopper 531 by the belt 504 and aligned in the vertical direction. In addition, the center latch 561 moves the sheet so that it comes into contact with the positioning root 560 to align the sheets in the lateral direction, and by repeating this action, a large number of sheets are loaded onto the processing tray 530. Then, when a predetermined number of sheets is reached, the binding machine 520 binds the rear ends of the sheets to form a sheet bundle.

When the binding process is performed, the pushing member 571 is moved by the belt 570 of the processing tray 530, and the sheet bundle is pushed forward from the stopper 531 by the pushing member 571.
0 and is ejected and stored on the stack tray 542. Then, the stack tray 542 is lowered together with the moving table 541 by the number of sheet bundles to prepare for the next sheet east storage.

On the other hand, when a sheet is sent to the search inlet 506 during the binding process in the processing tray 530, the inlet deflector 513
will change as shown by the dashed line. Therefore, the sheet enters the conveyance path 510 via the conveyance path 401, the deflector 514, and the conveyance path 509, and the roller 505 is stopped by the sensor 515 and stands by. Then, the next sheet is sent to the conveyance path 507 by the entrance deflector 513, and when it reaches the merging section 508, the sheet in the conveyance path 510 is also conveyed again by the roller 505, and in this way, the two sheets are simultaneously transferred to the processing tray 530. This enables high-speed processing.

Next, when using the folding machine 400, the entrance deflectors 513 and 514 are both set as shown by the dashed line,
As a result, the sheet at the carry-in port 506 is sent to the folding machine 400 via the conveyance path 401.

Then, the sheet folded by the folding machine 400 is transferred to a conveyance path 402.
From there, the paper enters the conveyance path 510 of the finisher device 500 again and is sent, and is placed on the processing tray 530 by the discharge roller 503 in the same manner as described above. Thereafter, the folded sheets are transferred to stacks 1 to 544 immediately or after binding.
It is discharged upwards.

Although the case where a folding machine is used as an optional device has been described, a sheet curl removal device u or the like may also be used.

Further, the finisher device can be configured so that the conveyance path is branched and the sheets are discharged to the outside.For this reason, it is also possible to separately collect sheets that do not require miscopying by combining a separate tray or a shutter.

(g) As described in detail, according to the present invention, the sheet post-processing device is assembled in tandem on an optional device such as a finisher device or a folding machine, so that the size of the sheet post-processing device can be reduced.

The standby conveyance path of the finisher device is connected to the discharge conveyance path of the optional device, and sheets on the optional side are also discharged in the same way, so the discharge processing section is shared, simplifying the structure and making sheet handling easier. .

Finisher equipment: A stack 1-lay is installed immediately in front of the processing tray of a, so that it can move up and down to accommodate a large amount of sheets, so this part can be made smaller.

Since the finisher device has the standby conveyance path bypassed, it can be applied to increase the speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the sheet post-processing device of the present invention applied to a copying machine, FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of main parts, and FIG.
The figure is a perspective view of the same. 100... Image forming device (copying machine) 400... Optional device (folding machine) 401, 402
... Conveyance path 500 ... Finisher device 506 ... Carrying inlet 507, 509, 510 ... Conveyance path 513, 514 ... Switching means (entrance deflector).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a sheet post-processing device consisting of a finisher device and an optional device that are removably connected to the sheet discharge side of an image forming apparatus, the finisher device is separably installed and overlapped with the optional device; A standby conveyance path is provided bypassing the conveyance path from the sheet carry-in port to the processing tray via a switching means, and the sheet is conveyed to the optional device via the switching means in the middle of the standby conveyance path or at the sheet carry-in port. A sheet post-processing device characterized in that the path is branched and a discharge conveyance path from an optional device is merged in the middle of the standby conveyance path.