JPH03172278A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a printing device, provided with an inexpensive trayful detecting means suited for a small size printing device, by providing the trayful detecting means, which detects paper to be fully accumulated in a sorter tray, in the point end part of a sorter guide. CONSTITUTION:A trayful detecting lever 34, for mechanically knowing whether paper is fully accumulated or not in a tray, transmitting lever 35 and a detecting lever 36 are provided in the sorter tray 24, and a trayful detecting means 37 is secured to the point end part of a sorter guide 30. In the trayful detecting lever 34, when the paper is accumulated approaching a specified amount on the sorter tray 24, a paper detecting part 34-1 is brought into contact with the paper, and when the paper is further accumulated, the paper detecting part is pressed by the paper and rotated in a direction of arrow head D with the transmitting lever 35 given turning force in a direction of arrow head E and rotated. By additionally providing a detecting lever part 35-2, possible to intercept light, in the transmitting lever 35, since the detecting lever part 35-2 is placed in an optical axis part 37-1 of the trayful detecting means 37 to intercept light, a paper accumulated amount in the sorter tray 24 is detected to reach the specified amount.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device using the principle of an electrophotographic process, and in particular to a printing device that can inexpensively obtain tray full detection means and paper jam detection means in a sorter section. It is related to the device.

[Conventional technology]

In the small-sized printing apparatuses that have been proposed in the past for printing as output devices for personal computers and word processors, most of the sorter sections are substituted for large-sized printing presses and copying machines.

FIG. 6 shows a conventional example of this type of printing apparatus. As shown in the figure, the paper printed by the printing apparatus main body (simply referred to as main body) 112 is ejected in the direction of arrow A by ejecting means consisting of ejecting rollers 101 and ejecting sensors 102. 103 and is discharged to a sorter drive roller 105. Thereafter, the paper is sent to a bin discharge roller 107 of a desired bin by a bin switching lever 106 provided in each bin, and is discharged to a bin sorter tray 108 provided in each bin. The sorter drive roller 105 and the bin discharge roller 107 are driven by a sorter drive motor 109 via gears, belts, etc. Further, each of the bin switching levers 108 is provided with a bin plunger 110 that drives each of the bin switching levers 108. Each bin is equipped with a full detection lever 111 and a full detector 112 that indicate when the bin is full of ejected sheets.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In order to know when the tray of the sorter section is full of paper, the conventional printing devices described above have a full detection lever for each bin that moves according to the accumulation of printing paper, and a full detection lever for each bin. It was equipped with a full detector using an optical sensor to detect the position of the lever, so as a small printing device,
It ends up being expensive.

The present invention solves these problems, and the first
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a printing device equipped with an inexpensive tray full detection means suitable for small-sized printing devices.

Further, the conventional printing apparatus did not have a means for detecting a case where a sheet becomes jammed between the ejection means 103 and the sorter tray 108.

Therefore, a second object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus having a jam detection means for detecting a paper jam as described above.

Furthermore, a third object of the present invention is to provide a printing device that has both the above-described tray full detection means and a jam detection means, and a fourth object of the present invention is to provide a printing device that is inexpensive while having both of the above-mentioned detection means. The purpose is to provide a printing device.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, in order to achieve the first objective, a main body having an ejection port for ejecting printed paper, a plurality of sorter trays for storing the paper ejected from the ejection port of this main body, and a plurality of sorter trays near the ejection port are provided. a sorter guide that is rotatably supported by a rotary shaft provided and whose tip end selectively faces one of the plurality of sorter trays, and the sorter guide is configured to detect when sheets are accumulated on the sorter tray all at once; Tray full detection means for detection was provided at the tip of the front sorter guide.

In order to achieve the second object, a paper jam detection means for detecting that paper is jammed between the discharge port and the sorter tray is provided at the tip of the sorter guide.

In order to achieve the third object, a tray full detection means detects when sheets are accumulated in the sorter tray all at once, and a paper jam detector detects when sheets are jammed between the discharge port and the sorter tray. means is provided at the tip of the sorter guide.

In order to achieve the fourth object, the tray full detection means and the paper jam detection means share one detector.

[Effect] Since the present invention has the above configuration, it operates as follows.

That is, according to the first invention, the sorter guide is rotatably supported by a rotary shaft provided near the discharge port for discharging paper printed by the main body, and the tip thereof has a plurality of Since the sorter tray selectively faces one of the plurality of sorter trays, the paper discharged from the discharge port is selectively guided and accumulated in one of the plurality of sorter trays by this sorter tray.

Here, since a tray full detection means is provided at the tip of the sorter guide, it is detected when sheets are accumulated all at once on the sorter tray due to the above-mentioned accumulation effect.

Since the tray full detection means is provided at the tip of the sorter guide, when the tip of the sorter guide alternatively faces one of the plurality of sorter trays as described above, the tray full detection means also detects the tray full. It will be located on the sorter tray, and the above-mentioned detection action will be performed.

Therefore, according to the first invention, a tray full state can be detected without providing a tray full detection means for each sorter tray as in the conventional case, so that a printing apparatus having a tray full detection means can be provided at a low cost. be able to.

According to the second invention, since the paper jam detection means is provided at the tip of the sorter guide, if paper becomes jammed between the discharge port and the sorter tray, the paper jam detection means will not operate. , whereby a paper jam is detected.

According to the third invention, since the tray full detection means and the paper jam detection means are provided at the tip of the sorter guide,
, the effects of the second invention can be obtained at the same time. According to the fourth invention, since the tray full detection means and the paper jam detection means share one detector, it is possible to obtain an extremely inexpensive printing device even though it has an angle detection means. Can be done.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1, 2, and 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 1(a) and (b) are a sectional view and a bb view showing the configuration of a printing device. be. In the figure, A is the main body of the printing apparatus (referred to as the main body), and B is a sorter section having a sorter tray 24. First, the main body A will be explained.

As a printing means, a photosensitive drum 1 rotates in the direction of arrow C,
A charging device 2, a light control device 3, a developing device 4, a transfer device 5, a collection device 6, an eraser 7, a fixing device 8 provided below the photosensitive drum 1, a fixing device 8 provided on the back side of the main body A printer control device 9 and a power source 10 for electrically controlling the printing press are arranged.

A stacker part 12 that can store a plurality of sheets of printing paper 11 as a paper supply means, a pickup roller 13 that feeds out printing paper 11 one by one when requested, and a bat part 14
a gate roller 16 that sends out the printing paper 11 fed by the paper feed device 15 at a uniform speed, and a paper guide 17 that constitutes a paper path from the paper feed device 15 to the gate roller 16. is installed.

As a discharge means, a fixing paper guide 18 is provided below the fixing device 8.
A discharge paper guide 19, a discharge roller 20, and a discharge detector 21 are arranged. There is also an exhaust fan 22. The photosensitive drum 1 has a surface layer that exhibits semiconductor characteristics in that when irradiated with light, the electrical resistance of the irradiated portion decreases. The charging device 2 generates a discharge by applying a high voltage of several thousand volts between a thin metal wire and an installed electrode. The light control device 3 employs a semiconductor laser beam, and has a function of converting image information created in a control box (not shown) into an optical signal (light on/off signal) and outputting it. The devices such as 0 and above are covered by an outer case 23, and a paper outlet 23a is provided at the lower front of the outer case 23.

The process of printing by the main body A will be described below.

When the photosensitive drum 1 is rotated at a constant speed while the exterior case 23 blocks external light and the inside of the case is dark,
The surface of the photosensitive drum is charged by the charging bag N2. Furthermore, when the charged photosensitive drum 1 is irradiated with light according to image information from the light control device 3, the irradiated portion becomes an electrical conductor and a latent image is formed. The developing device 4 has toner, and brings the toner into contact with the latent image portion through the sleeve 4a to form a developed image on the surface of the photoreceptor.

On the other hand, the printing paper 11 stored in the stacker part 12 provided in the paper feeder 15 is sent out along the paper guide 17 by the pickup section roller 13, and is sent out along the paper guide 17 by the gate roller 16.
Waiting in position. At that time, the leading edge of the printing paper 11 is
It faces approximately vertically. Developed by the developing device 4,
A gate roller 16 rotates in synchronization with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 1 on which toner has adhered, and sends out the printing paper 11 toward the photosensitive drum 1. The transfer bag 0!5 is composed of a thin metal wire and a ground electrode like the charging device 2, and the toner developed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1, which has the function of charging the back side of the printing paper 11, is The image is drawn to the surface of the paper 11 and transferred. While the transferred printing paper 11 passes through the fixing device 8, the toner on the surface of the printing paper 11 is transferred to the printing paper 1.
Fixed to 1.

Next, the printing paper 11 fixed by the fixing device 8 is discharged from the discharge port 23a by the discharge means. As mentioned above, the ejection means includes the fixing paper guide 18, the ejection paper guide 19,
It is composed of a discharge roller 20. The printing paper 11 is advanced along a fixing paper guide 18 and a discharge paper guide 19 by the driving force of the fixing device 8 . When the leading edge of the printing paper 11 reaches the ejection roller 20, the driving main body gradually shifts from the fixing device 8 to the ejection roller 20. When the rear end of the printing paper 11 reaches the discharge roller 20 and comes off the discharge roller 20, the printing paper 11 is sent out to the sorter section B from the discharge port 23a.

At this time, the printing surface of the printing paper 11 is the bottom surface. Printing devices using electrophotography are often called page printers, and require the following functions in order to print at high speed and print many pages at once.

For example, when printing several pages, all you have to do is take out a few printed sheets on the tray and the pages will be ready. In this case, the printing device must store the paper in a face-down tray.

Next, the sorter section B will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Sorter section B has sorter trays 2 from 1 bin to 5 bins that accumulate printed sheets 11 face down.
There are 4 types, respectively: 1-bin sorter tray 25. 2-pin sorter tray 26. 3-pin sorter tray 27. 4-pin sorter tray 28.5-pin sorter tray 29.

A sorter guide 30, a sorter discharge roller 31, and a sorter guide means rotating shaft 32 provided in a part of the sorter guide 30 are used as sorter guide means for guiding the paper discharged from the discharge port 23a by the discharge roller 20 to the sorter tray 24. . Sorket 1424 No. 2, The tray full detection lever 34, transmission lever 35, and detection lever spring 36 are used to mechanically determine whether or not the tray is full of paper.
is provided.

A tray full detection means 37 is provided at the tip of the sorter guide 30.
is fixed. This detection means 37 is composed of an optical sensor, and its optical path is blocked by the transmission lever 35 when the paper is fully accumulated, as will be described later. Sorter tray 24 and sorter guide means rotation shaft 32
is attached to the sorter case 33.

Next, the operation of the sorter section will be explained using an example in which the first page is sorted into the first bin and the second page is sorted into the third bin. Sorter designation information is sent from a personal computer or the like to the #I device along with image information. A designation to output the first page to the 1-bin sorter tray 25 and the second page to the 3-bin sorter tray 27 is sent and stored in the printer control device 9. Printer control device 9
generates a print start command for the first page. Thereafter, the above-described printing process is followed, and when the discharge detector 21 is activated, sorter bin selection is started. Since the first page specifies output to the sorter tray 25 of one bin, the sorter guide 30 and sorter discharge roller 31 are set to the one bin discharge position as shown in FIG. The bin ejection position is also the reset position. This reset position is confirmed using a part of the sorter guide 30 in combination with a photodetector (not shown).

Next, a description will be given of the process until the sorter guide 30 and the sorter discharge roller 31 are selected at the position of the three-bin sorter tray 27 as shown in FIG.

After confirming the reset state, a pulse motor (not shown) is set in advance to drive steps up to the 3rd bin position, and the sorter guide 30 and sorter discharge roller 31 are driven by the number of steps. The guide means rotates around a rotating shaft 32 in synchronization with a pulse motor. While the three bins are selected, the paper discharged by the discharge roller 20 is sent to the sorter discharge roller 31 through the rotating sorter guide 30.

Immediately before the paper enters the sorter discharge roller 31, the aforementioned sorter guide 30 and the sorter discharge roller 31 stop moving. The sorter discharge roller 31 discharges the printing paper sent by the discharge roller 20 to the three-bin sorter tray 27. The driving force of the sorter discharge roller 31 is the same as that of the discharge roller 2o.
The driving force of
(not shown).

Thereafter, no matter which bin is selected, printed sheets can be accumulated in the desired sorter tray 24 using the method described above. Note that in continuous printing of a page printer, the printing speed is determined by the paper feed speed and the distance between the sheets, so in this embodiment, the distance between the sheets is determined from the exit of the discharge roller 20 to the exit of the sorter discharge roller 31. It is slightly longer than the distance of Therefore, when the discharge detector 21 is on, the previous printing paper is always discharged from the sorter discharge roller 31, and there is no problem even if the sorter guide 30 and the sorter discharge roller 31 are moved to select the sorter bin. do not have.

Next, the detection operation when a specified amount of paper is accumulated on the sorter tray 24 will be described. Figure 3 shows the 3-bin sorter tray 2.
7 is designated as the storage location, indicating that the amount of storage in the 3-bin sorter tray 27 has reached the regulation I. The tray full detection lever 34 is configured such that when a predetermined amount of paper is accumulated on the sorter tray 24, the paper sensing portion 34-1 comes into contact with the paper, and when the paper accumulates further, it is pushed by the paper and rotates in the direction of the arrow. 34-2 as the center of rotation.

The tray full detection lever 34 has a cylindrical protrusion 34-3 for applying rotational force to the transmission lever 35, and by rotating in the direction of the arrow, the transmission lever 3
Apply a rotational force in the direction of arrow E to 5. The transmission lever 35 is
The transmission lever rotates around the rotation shaft 35-1. The transmission lever 35 includes a detection lever part 35- that can block light.
2 is attached, and when it rotates in the E direction, the detection lever part 35-2 enters the optical axis part 37-1 of the tray full detection means 37 and blocks light. As a result, it is detected that the paper MFI4N on the sorter tray 27 has reached the specified amount. 3
Detection of objects other than bins is performed in the same way. That is, since the tray full detection means 37 is fixed to the tip of the sorter guide 30, when the sorter guide 30 moves, it moves together with the tray full detection means 37, and is positioned so as to match the transmission lever 35 provided on each bin. Detects the specified amount of accumulation. If the desired 3-bin sorter tray 27 is full as shown in FIG. After discharging, the discharging operation to the sorter is completed.

When paper is removed from the full sorter tray 24,
The transmission lever 35 is activated by the spring force of the detection lever spring 36.
The tray full detection lever 34 is in the standby position, that is,
The paper returns to the position slightly before reaching the specified amount.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be explained using FIGS. 4 and 5. Reference numeral 38 denotes a sorter discharge detection lever which constitutes paper jam detection means. The sorter discharge detection lever 38 is rotatably attached to or near the shaft of the sorter discharge roller 31, and is returned to the position shown in FIG. 4 by a spring (not shown). In this embodiment, a paper jam detection means is added to the first embodiment, so only the paper jam detection means will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the leading edge of the paper fixed by the fixing device 8 is the discharge detector 21.
, bin selection for the sorter is performed. Bin selection is performed until the paper reaches the sorter discharge roller 31. During this time, the bin selection described in the first embodiment, the detection of the specified amount of paper in the tray, and the bin selection when the specified amount has been reached are carried out.Therefore, the tray full detection means 37 is used exclusively for tray full detection during this period. Next, when the paper reaches the sorter discharge roller 31, the sorter discharge detection lever 38 is rotated by the paper as shown in FIG. 5, so that the optical axis of the tray full detector 37 is interrupted. This allows the passage of paper to be detected. After the printing paper passes through the sorter discharge roller 31, the paper is transferred to the 4-pin sorter tray 28.
When the paper is ejected, the sorter ejection detection lever 38 returns to the position shown in FIG. 4, the tray full detection means 37 enters a state in which it detects light, and the operation ends. A paper jam between the discharge roller 20 and the sorter discharge roller 31 is detected using the detection functions of the discharge detector 21 and the tray full detection means 37.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the number of tray full detection means and jam detection means of the sorter that performs electrical judgment is only one, whereas in conventional sorters, the number of tray full detection means and jam detection means is required to correspond to the number of bins. Since only one piece is needed, the price of the detector itself is reduced, the number of wiring from the detector to the control device is also reduced, and ease of assembly is improved, providing an extremely low-cost printing device. be able to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) are a sectional view and a bb view showing the overall configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the bin selection action of the sorter according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the tray full detection state of the sorter according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Diagram (a)
and FIG. 5 are cross-sectional views showing a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4(b) is an enlarged view of essential parts, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional example. l...Photosensitive drum 8...Fixing device 20...Ejection roller 2...Ejection detectors 24-29...Sorter tray 30...Sorter guide 31...Sorter ejection roller 32... Sorter guide means rotating shaft 34...tray full detection lever 35...transmission lever 37...tray full detection means 38...sorter discharge detection lever 108...bin sorter tray 111...full detection lever 112... ...Full detector or higher

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A main body that has an ejection port for ejecting printed paper, a plurality of sorter trays that store the paper ejected from the ejection port of this main body, and a rotating shaft provided near the ejection port. a tray-full detection apparatus comprising: a sorter guide that is supported so that the sorter guide can selectively face one of the plurality of sorter trays; A printing device comprising means provided at a tip of the sorter guide. (2) A main body that has an ejection port for ejecting printed paper, a plurality of sorter trays that store the paper ejected from the ejection port of this main body, and a rotating shaft provided near the ejection port. and a sorter guide that is supported such that the paper is jammed between the discharge port and the sorter tray. A printing device comprising a paper jam detection means provided at the tip of the sorter guide. (3) A main body that has an ejection port for ejecting printed paper, a plurality of sorter trays that store the paper ejected from the ejection port of this main body, and a rotating shaft provided near the ejection port. a tray-full detection apparatus comprising: a sorter guide that is supported so that the sorter guide can selectively face one of the plurality of sorter trays; means and
A printing device further comprising a paper jam detection means for detecting that paper is jammed between the discharge port and the sorter tray, at the tip of the sorter guide. (4) The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the tray full detection means and the paper jam detection means share one detector.