JPH0263876A - Paper feed device of page printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify maintenance work while achieving the reduction of an installation floor area by providing a paper feed roller to a base stand and vertically providing a paper hopper for elastically bringing the lower end of printing paper into contact with the paper feed roller to said stand end extending a guide member to a receiving opening from the lower end of the paper feed roller. CONSTITUTION:A cut sheet feed apparatus 6 is constituted so that a plurality of paper feed rollers 61, 62 are provided to a base stand settable to a paper feed position and a retracted position in parallel and paper hoppers 63, 64 for elastically bringing the lower end of printing paper into contact with the paper feed rollers 61, 62 are vertically provided to said stand and guide members 65, 66 are extended to the receiving opening on a main body side from the lower ends of the paper feed rollers 61, 62. Further, on this side of a housing main body 1, the paper guide plate 15 connected to a paper receiver 14 widely opened upwardly at the upper end thereof is arranged and a developing unit 30 is arranged on the rear side of the paper guide plate 15 so that a toner replenishing port is exposed when the cut sheet feed apparatus 6 is retracted. Therefore, an installation floor area can be reduced and, by retracting the paper feed apparatus, maintenance work can be simplified.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention records characters and patterns on paper based on the principles of electrophotography by irradiating a photoreceptor with a light beam controlled by a data signal. Close the page to the device that supplies the sheet with the appropriate force for the printer.

(Prior art) In order to meet the demands for improved print quality and printing speed, a light beam is controlled by print data to form a latent image on a photoreceptor drum, colored toner is attached to this and fixed on printing paper. A page printer using the principle of so-called serography has been put into practical use.

In consideration of ease of maintenance, etc., such a page printer has a starter-type housing M divided into two members N and Q that can be expanded into a crocodile mouth shape, as shown in Figure 13.
An optical writing unit is installed in the semi-Q, and a photosensitive drum is installed in the other N.
It is configured as a so-called clamshell type housing that houses a developing unit, etc., and a path extending from one side of the housing to the other side is used as a paper transport path, and printing paper is supplied from a paper cassette placed on the negative side. I'm here.

(Problem to be Solved) For this reason, since the position of the light beam generating unit and the photosensitive drum is determined via the hinge mechanism S of the housing M, the relative positioning accuracy of the two is decreased. Not only is this easy, but there is also the problem that it occupies at least twice as much floor space as the printing paper in order to secure a paper stock section and a printing path section.

In order to solve this problem, Honde Yoshihito developed the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 234167, a page printer has been proposed in which a paper conveyance path is made almost vertical, and a light beam generating unit and a photosensitive drum unit are housed on the base side. Although this type of device can reduce the installation floor space and improve the positioning accuracy of the light beam generation unit and photoreceptor drum, it also requires maintenance work for the unit located at the back of the housing body. The problem was that it was time consuming.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to reduce the installation floor space, simplify maintenance work, and reduce paper insertion during manual printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a cut sheet supply bag that can be simplified.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve such problems, in the present invention, the page printer main body is provided with a guide means at the upper part of the casing main body, and a paper feeding position and a retracting position are provided in the main body of the page printer. A paper hopper that can be set in two positions and has a paper feed roller parallel to the front on a base that moves while maintaining a horizontal state, and that makes the bottom edge of the printing paper elastically contact the paper feed roller. was set upright, and a guide member was extended from the lower end of the paper feed roller to the opening of the receiver.

(Function) By retracting the cut sheet supply bag backwards, the upper part of the loading main body is opened and the unit inside the main body can be inspected without changing the posture of the paper hopper.

(Example) The details of the present invention will be described below based on illustrated examples.

Figures 1.2.3.4 are a perspective view and a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the Sobage Precider to which the cut sheet feeding device of the present invention is applied, and the reference numeral 1 in the figure indicates a housing that accommodates a printing mechanism. At the bottom of the front side when the paper is set up, there is a paper discharge port 3 for discharging the printing paper from the paper discharge roller 2.2.2.
A lid body 4 is attached so as to be openable and closable by a hinge so as to straddle this, and side plates 5.5 for supporting various units to be described later are provided on both sides of the interior.

6 is a force/torque sheet feeding device characterized by the present invention;
Parallel 1 non-k mechanism 7.7 is provided on the upper part of the housing main body], and paper feed +Lffi (Fig. 3) and retraction position = (5th
Paper feed rollers 61.6 of the number of tanks are placed in parallel to the base 60, which can be set in the two positions shown in Fig.
2 is provided, and the lower end of the printing paper is fed by a paper feed roller 61.
Paper hoppers 63 and 64 are erected to come into elastic contact with the paper feed rollers 61 and 62, and guide members 65 and 66 extend from the lower ends of the paper feed rollers 61 and 62 to the opening 14 on the main body side. In addition, a guide member 67, 67 is attached to the front side of the receiver, which is almost above the port 14, so as to be movable in the width direction.
8 is provided. Note that the reference numeral 69 in the figure indicates the base 60.
% A locking member for fixing to the housing body 1 is shown.

On the front side of the housing body 1, a paper guide plate 5 connected to a paper tray 4 whose upper end is expanded upward is disposed, and a gate roller 17, a photoconductor drum unit 18, and a fixing unit 20 are installed in order from the top. It is arranged. The developing unit 3 is located on the back side of the paper guide plate 15 so that the toner supply port is exposed when the cut sheet supply g16 is retracted (Fig. 5).
o is arranged.

Around the photoreceptor drum 24, a charging unit 38 is arranged, which is in contact with the photoreceptor drum 24 through the magnetic brush on the surface of the magnetic sleeve 35 of the developing unit 30, and is spaced apart from the developing unit 30 by a certain distance. A static elimination unit 39 is disposed on the downstream side in the rotational direction.

Reference numeral 40 denotes an optical writing unit, which is disposed in a rear space whose front and rear sides are shielded by a partition wall 41, and uses an optical system to direct the light beam from this to the window 41a of the partition wall 41 and the developing unit 30.
The surface of the photoreceptor tram 24 is irradiated through the gap between the charging unit 38 and the charging unit 38 .

A heating roller 45 is located below the photosensitive drum unit 18.
A fixing unit 44 including a pressure roller 47 and an exhaust fan 46 are also provided. A paper guide 48 is provided on the ejection side of the fixing unit 44 to form a path for transporting the vertically moving printing paper to the paper ejection port 3 via the paper ejection roller 2.2.2.

On the other hand, the inner surface of the lid body 4 includes a paper detection lever 16 that operates a paper feeder (not shown) from above, a pinch roller 50 that contacts the gate roller 17, and a pinch roller 50 that faces the photosensitive drum 24 on the downstream side of the magnetic sleeve 35. In addition to disposing the transfer unit 51, a guide member 52 including a plurality of ribs 52a having a concave center arranged in the width direction of the paper is provided on the path from the photoconductor drum 24 to the fixing unit 44, and The sheet discharged from the drum 24 is configured so that the lid 4 side is convex.

In this embodiment, when the size of paper to be printed is selected, the corresponding paper feed rollers 61, 62, e.g. roller 62, rotate, and one sheet of paper is taken out from the hopper 64 and sent to the guide 66. is transferred to the main body 1 side. When the leading edge of the paper reaches the upper surface of the housing body 1, the upwardly expanded receiver enters the opening 14, is guided by the guide plate 15, moves the body 1 downward, and comes into contact with the gate roller 17. If the paper is roughly fed in at this stage, the paper is detected as being deflected and comes into contact with the bar 16. As a result, a signal is output from the paper detector, and the gate roller] 7 rotates to move the paper roughly downward, with the paper at the reference position "IT" above.

On the other hand, the data to be printed is controlled by the light beam generator 40, and a latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 24 by the data. This latent image is visualized by toner being applied by a developing sleeve 35 as the photosensitive drum 24 rotates. This developed image moves as far as it faces the transfer unit 51 by the rotation of the photosensitive drum 24, and is transferred onto the printing paper about 100 times there.

The printing paper that has come out of the transfer unit 5 is attached to the lid 4 with its leading edge.
as the print area expands, the back surface moves roughly downward along the guide member 52. In this way, while maintaining the curved state, the toner enters the fixing unit 44, and the toner adhering to the surface is fixed. As a result, the printing paper is transferred to the fixing unit 44 with the surface to which the unfixed toner is attached maintaining a gap from the side of the main body of the housing, and the toner attached to the surface is transferred to the fixing unit 44. The image is moved to the fixing unit 44 and fixed without rubbing against the main body side. The paper exiting the fixing unit 44 is guided by a guide member 48 and is ejected face down from the paper ejection port 3 by a paper ejection roller 2.2 with the printed side facing downward.

When the toner is consumed, the cut sheet supply device 6 is retracted rearward and the upper part of the housing body is opened (FIG. 5). At this time, since the base 60 moves while maintaining its posture horizontally, the sheets stored in the hoppers 63 and 64 do not lose their posture.

When printing on paper other than the paper stored in the paper hopper, set the guide members 67 and 68 to the width of the printing paper and insert the bottom edge of the paper vertically into the manual feed slot 68. , the paper tray enters the opening 14, contacts the gate roller 17, and bends. As a result, the paper detection lever 28
The gate roller 17 is operated and the gate roller 17 is moved, and thereafter printing is executed through the steps described above.

Incidentally, in this embodiment, the cut sheet supply device is connected to the main body side casing through one hinge, but it is also possible to provide a guide groove or the like that extends in the front direction (the opening extends from the front side) and to guide it from this (the opening). It is clear that this effect is achieved.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, the page printer is provided with a guide means on the upper part of the casing body, so that it can be set in either the paper feeding direction or the retreat position.
The base 60, which moves while maintaining a horizontal state, is provided with a paper feed roller parallel to the front surface, and a paper hopper that brings the lower end of the printing paper into elastic contact with the paper feed roller is installed. Since the guide member is extended from the lower end to the opening of the receiver, not only can the installation floor area including the main body loading area be made as small as possible, but also the loading area can be reduced by retracting the paper feeding device. ■The top of the main unit can be opened to make maintenance work easier, and at this time, the paper
Since the position of the server does not change, it is possible to prevent paper from shifting.

In addition, in the present invention, a manual feed slot is provided by attaching a guide member movable in the width direction to the tray on the front side, which is almost above the tray, so that paper can be inserted easily. Not only is this possible, but paper can be inserted parallel to the printing path, so even thick paper can be moved smoothly along the printing path.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] Figures 1 and 2 show one embodiment of the present invention, with Figure 1 showing the exterior of the device and Figure 2 showing the drum with the front lid opened. A perspective view showing a state in which the cassette is pulled out and FIG. 3.4.5 show a cross section of the same device as above,
Figure 3 is a sectional view showing the printable state, Figure 4 is the lid open state, Figure 5 is a sectional view showing the cut sheet supply device retracted, and Figure 6 is a sectional view of the conventional page printer. It is a side view which shows an example. 1... Housing body 3... Paper ejection port 4... Lid body 6... Force/sheet 1 common supply equipment 14... Paper tray is opening 15... Paper guide plate 1
7...Gel roller 18...Photoconductor drum unit 24...-Photoconductor drum 2S...Blade 30.
...Development unit 35...Development sleeve 38...
・Charging unit 40...Light pollution unit 43...
・Shrouding plate 44...Fixing unit 46...
Exhaust fan 5]...Transfer unit 60...Base 61.62...Paper feed roller 63.64
...Printing paper hopper 65,66...Guide plate 68...Manual feeder Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Harutoshi Nishikawa Katsuhiko Kimura Figure

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A casing consisting of a casing body with an open front and top surface when installed, and a lid rotatably attached to the bottom of the casing; A paper receptacle, a gate roller, a developing unit, a photoreceptor drum unit, a fixing unit, and a paper ejection roller are arranged in this order, and an optical writing unit is arranged on the rear side, while a pinch roller facing the gate roller and the photoreceptor drum unit are arranged. A transfer unit facing the paper guide member is provided on the upper part of the housing body by a guide means in a page printer main body comprising a paper guide member provided on the cover body, and can be set in two positions, a paper feeding position and a retreat position, In addition, a paper feed roller is installed on a base that moves while maintaining a horizontal state so as to be parallel to the front, and a paper hopper is installed to bring the bottom edge of the printing paper into elastic contact with the paper feed roller. A paper feeding device for a page printer comprising a guide member extending from the lower end of the roller to the receptacle. (2) A paper feeding device for a page printer according to claim 1, further comprising a guide member movably mounted in the width direction at a position on the near side, substantially above the receptacle, to provide a manual feed slot.