JPH03175459A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the handling and the jam processing of a sheet material where an image is already formed by arranging a cassette loading and unloading surface on the operation surface side of a device main body and carrying the sheet material to an image forming means part in a cassette inserting direction from a paper feeding part on a front end side. CONSTITUTION:Cassettes 10a and 10b which load and hold the sheet materials P1 and P2 are provided to the device main body 2 so that they can be loaded and unloaded. At the same time, the device is constituted so that the sheet materials P1 and P2 which are housed in the cassettes 10a and 10b inserted in the device main body 2 are introduced are carried to the image forming means part 31 after they are drawn out from the paper feeding parts 17a and 17b situated on the front end side of the cassette inserting direction. The height of the cassette loading and unloading surface is constituted as low as possible in such a way so that the paper ejecting tray 41 of the image forming device placed on a desk can be seen by the eyes of an operator sitting on a seat. Thus, the loading and unloading action of a process cartridge 3 and the jam processing are executed from the operation surface and the operability is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention provides an image forming means that uses a plurality of paper feed sections in accordance with an appropriate image forming principle such as electrophotography, electrostatic recording, or magnetic recording. Copying in which a sheet material is selectively fed from a sheet material, a target image is formed on the fed sheet material by a transfer method (indirect method) or a direct method, and the image-formed sheet material is conveyed and ejected to a paper ejecting section. The present invention relates to image forming apparatuses such as printers, printers, and facsimiles.

(B) Prior Art Conventionally, as this type of image forming apparatus, there is, for example, an image forming apparatus devised by the applicant of the present invention, which will be briefly described below.

This image forming apparatus has an image forming means section in the middle, a sheet material feeding section below the image forming means section, and a sheet material discharging section above the image forming means section. The sheet material fed from the paper feeding section is introduced into the sheet path and conveyed, and after the image forming section forms an image on the sheet material, , the sheet material is discharged to the paper discharge section.

By configuring the image forming apparatus as described above, there is an effect that there is virtually no need to create an outward stretch section such as a paper feeding section or a paper ejection section on any side of the image forming apparatus. .

Further, some image forming apparatuses have a plurality of cassettes for stacking and holding sheet materials that can be inserted into and removed from the main body of the apparatus, and are equipped with paper feeding means corresponding to each cassette. A model that combines these two is shown in Figure 4.

In FIG. 4, a first cassette 8 storing sheet material P1 is located at the bottom of the main body 2 of the image forming apparatus 1B.
1a and a second cassette 8 storing the sheet material P2.
1b, respectively, and the sheet material P1 or sheet material P2 is fed by the selective action of either the corresponding paper feed roller 82a or paper feed roller 82b.

On the downstream side of the paper feed roller 82a, there is a pair of registration rollers 83.
and a process cartridge (image forming unit) 3 are respectively provided. The process cartridge 3 is
A photosensitive drum 31, a charger 32 disposed around it,
It has developing devices 33 and 35, a cleaning device 36, and the like.

”2 The photosensitive drum 31 of the process cartridge 3 includes:
A latent image corresponding to the image information is formed by the optical unit 37, and this latent image is developed by the developing devices 33 and 35 to form a tree image. First or second cassette 81
Sheet material P fed from a, 81b (or material P 2
) is pressed against the photosensitive drum 3■ by the transfer roller 39 to transfer the image, and after the image is fixed by the fixing roller 40, the paper is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 41 consisting of the upper plate of the image forming apparatus 1B. Ru.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the image forming apparatus configured as described above, it is common practice to use the insertion/removal side of the cassettes 81a and 81b (in the direction of the arrow X in the figure) as the operation surface for the operator. However, in the case of a configuration in which the sheet material is fed from the rear end side in the insertion direction of the cassettes 81a and 81b, the transfer/fixing section, which is the image forming section, is arranged in the height direction on the operation surface side. .

In addition, since the image forming device is called a desktop and is used to output images of documents created by an operator using a personal computer or word processor, etc., it must be placed on a desk that is on the same plane as the personal computer and word processor. There are many. When an operator creates a document using a personal computer, word processor, etc., he or she often works while sitting on a chair. If you take
When the image forming apparatus is elevated, the opening/closing structure 5 that covers the fixing roller 40, paper ejection roller, etc. is located in front of it, making it difficult to see the paper ejection section and also preventing the sheet material PI.
(P2) becomes difficult to handle by hand.

Such a problem can be solved by placing the cassettes 81a and 81b in two stages.
This becomes more noticeable in the case of a configuration in which three stages are stacked in the height direction. That is, in order to make it easier for the operator to use the image forming apparatus, it is desirable that the height of the fixing roller 40 is as low as possible, and at least the paper output tray 41 of the image forming apparatus placed on the desk by the operator sitting on the chair is lower than the height of the fixing roller 40. It is desirable that the location be such that the person can be observed silently.

Further, it is desirable that the process cartridge 3 can be attached/detached to/from the image forming apparatus and the jam can be cleared from the above-mentioned operation screen.

Further, when the sheet material P2 loaded and held in the second cassette 81b on the lower stage is being fed, the first cassette 81a on the upper stage is pulled out and the sheet material P is replenished. 1 cassette 81a again into the device main body 2.
The first cassette 81a cannot be attached to the first cassette 81a.
While replacing the sheet material P1, it became impossible to form an image.
It will be a waste of time.

Furthermore, if the paper feed rollers 82a and 82b are round rollers,
When the first cassette 81a and the second cassette 81b are inserted into and removed from the main body of the apparatus, the transfer material PI is removed.

Pl comes into contact with the paper feed rollers 82a and 82b, and the frictional force causes a problem in that the transfer materials PL and P2 fly out from the cassettes 81a and 82b.

To prevent this, a mechanism is required to move the paper feed roller in conjunction with the insertion and removal of the cassette, or to lower the middle plate of the cassette, making the device complicated. Also, if a half-moon roller or the like is used as the paper feed roller, the above-mentioned mechanism may not be necessary.In particular, since the distance between the second paper feed roller 82b and the registration roller 83 becomes long, the diameter of the half-moon roller becomes large. This causes the equipment to become larger and the height of the equipment to become higher.

Furthermore, since the sheet path 6 must be configured so that paper can be fed from the second cassette 81b when the first cassette 81a is not inserted, the configuration becomes complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus configured such that the height of the cassette insertion/removal surface is as low as possible.

Furthermore, when forming an image in a process cartridge, which is an image forming unit, the present invention stops image formation by replacing the cassette on the side that is not feeding sheet materials loaded and held inside the main body of the apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that allows image forming to be carried out freely without having to do so.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a three-image forming apparatus that allows paper to be fed from the other inserted cassette even if the cassette that does not feed paper is not inserted. be.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. For example, as shown with reference to FIGS.
Image forming unit (31) that forms an image using an image forming valve type
feeding sheet materials (PL, Pl) from a paper feeding section, forming a target image on the fed sheet materials (PI, Pl),
This image-formed sheet material (PI, Pl) is transferred to the paper ejection section (26
) is an image forming apparatus (IA) that transports and discharges sheets to a
A sheet material feeding section (17a, 17b) is arranged below the image forming means section (31), and a sheet material discharging section (26) is disposed above the image forming means section (31).
17a, 17b) through the image forming means section (31) to the paper discharge section (26), the sheet path (6) is oriented in a substantially vertical direction, and the sheet is fed from the paper feed section (6). A sheet material (P+, Pl) is introduced into the sheet path (6) and conveyed upward, and this sheet material (P+, Pl) is introduced into the sheet path (6) and conveyed upward.

In an image forming apparatus (IA) configured to form an image on the sheet material (PI) in the image forming section (31) and then discharge the sheet to the paper discharging section (26), the sheet material (PI,
The cassettes (10a, 10b) for loading and holding Pl) can be inserted into and removed from the device main body (2), and the sheets stored in the cassettes (10a, 10b) inserted into the device main body (2) The material (Pl, Pl) is drawn out from the paper feed section (17a, 17b) located at the front end side in the cassette insertion direction, and then introduced into the image forming means section (31) and transported. Particularly, the present invention is characterized in that the present invention includes an opening/closing structure (5) that can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body (2), and the image forming means section (31
) When attaching or detaching the process cartridge (3) formed into a unit from the apparatus main body (2), the opening/closing structure (5) is opened and closed, and the process cartridge (3) is
) is an arbitrary direction between the insertion direction of the cassette (10a, 10b) and a substantially vertical direction.

(e) Multiple cassettes (10afob) based on the action and configuration described in E.
can be inserted into and removed from the device main body 2 from the operation surface side, and the paper feed section (17
a, 17b), the sheets 1 to PL (PL, P2) can be transported to the image forming section (31), thereby reducing the height of the operation surface of the image forming apparatus (IA).

When forming an image in the image forming section (31), the cassette 10a (or 10b) on the side that is not feeding paper is connected to the main body of the apparatus (
2) Even if the paper is not inserted into the paper cassette 10b (or 10a), paper can be freely fed from other paper cassettes 10b (or 10a).
The work of replacing sheets in the cassette 10a (or 1ob) on the side where sheets are not being fed can be performed without stopping the image forming operation.

Also, if the cassette 10a (or 10b) to be fed paper is inserted into the main body (2) of the apparatus, the other cassette 10b
Even if the cassette 10a (or 10a) is not inserted, paper feeding and image formation from the inserted cassette 10a (or 10b) can be performed. Further, the mechanism for inserting and removing the cassette does not have to be complicated.

Note that the above-mentioned symbols in parentheses are used to refer to the drawings, and do not limit the structure of the present invention in any way.

(F) Example Hereinafter, a first example of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) LA using transfer type electrophotography as a first embodiment of the present invention. What?
Components having the same functions as those shown in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals, and their explanation will be omitted.

The cassette feeder 7, which serves as a paper feeding section, may be built into the main body 2 of the apparatus, or may be a separate unit device separate from the main body 2, and the main body 2 of the apparatus may be positioned on top of this unit device. By installing the
Laser beam printer LA in combination with device main body 2
It consists of

The upper laser beam printer IA has two cassette insertion openings 9a and 9b on the front end surface (left end surface in the figure), and the first cassette 10a in the upper stage and the second cassette tab in the lower stage are indicated by arrow Y. They can be inserted and removed from each direction.

The first cassette 10a in the upper stage includes an intermediate plate 11a on which the sheet material P4 is loaded, a compression spring 12a that biases the paper feed side (the right end side in the figure) of the intermediate plate 11a upward, and a cassette. It is provided with a finger handle 13a for insertion and removal, and the second cassette 10b at the lower stage is similarly configured.

The paper feed roller 17a disposed on the rear end side of the first cassette 10a is rotated by the rotational force of the drive system (path shown) every time a paper feed start signal is issued from a control system (not shown). It is transmitted through the illustrated solenoid, control ring, spring clutch, etc., and is rotationally driven in the counterclockwise direction indicated by the arrow. This paper feed roller 17a is rotatable only in the counterclockwise direction in the figure via a one-way clutch (path shown). Further, a separation pad 19a mainly made of a friction member is in contact with the paper feed roller 17a.

Next, the material P is transferred to the sea 1 by the first cassette)-10a.
The paper feeding action of , will be explained.

When the first cassette 10a in the upper stage is inserted from the cassette insertion slot 9a in the direction of the arrow Y, the sheet material P1 stacked on the middle plate 11a (sheet material stacking section) is placed on the front end side in the cassette insertion direction (the right end side in the figure). ), the paper feed roller 17a is located above the paper feed roller 17a.

When the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller 17a is driven one rotation, the paper feed roller 17a also rotates accordingly, and the uppermost sheet material P1 loaded in the first cassette 10a is transferred to the paper feed roller 17a. Feeding force and separation pad 19
The sheet material P1 is separated from the next sheet material P1 by the separation action of a, and is fed rightward in the figure from the first cassette 10a.

This fed sheet material P1 is transferred to the guide plates 20a, 20
b and is guided by the registration roller 21a.

21b to form a loop, and is conveyed to the transfer section where the transfer roller 39 is located by rotation of both rollers 21a and 21b at a predetermined timing. Further, immediately after the registration rollers 21a and 21b start driving, the driving of the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller 17a is stopped. At this time,
Since the sheet material P8 is conveyed by the registration rollers 21a and 21b, the paper feed roller 17a rotates following the conveyance of the sheet material P1 due to the action of the one-way clutch, and does not interfere with the movement of the sheet material P1.

Next, the paper feeding operation of the sheet material P2 by the second cassette 10b will be explained.

When the lower second cassette 10b is inserted into the cassette insertion slot 9b in the direction of arrow Y, this second cassette 10
The paper feed roller 17b is positioned above the front end side (the right end side in the figure) in the cassette insertion direction of the sheet material P2 loaded on the middle plate 11b (sheet material stacking section) of b. .

When the rotating shaft of the paper feed roller 17b is driven once, the paper feed roller 17b rotates 6 times, and the uppermost sheet material P2 loaded in the second cassette 10b is rotated by the paper feed roller 17b. Feeding force and separation pad 1
The sheet material P2 is separated from the next sheet material P2 by the separating action of the sheet material P2, and is fed rightward in the figure from the second cassette 10b.

The fed sheet material P2 enters the nip portion of the pair of conveying rollers 22 to form a loop, and is tied by the pair of conveying rollers 22 in a predetermined manner to the registration rollers 21a, 21b.
sent to. Immediately after the transport roller pair 22 starts driving, the driving of the rotation shaft of the paper feed roller 17b is stopped.

At this time, the sheet material P2 is driven by the conveyance of the sheet material P2 by the action of the one-way clutch, and the movement of the sheet material P2 is not hindered. The fed sheet material P2 is guided by the guide plates 20a and 20b and placed on the registration rollers 21.
It enters the nip portion between the rollers 21a and 21b to form a loop portion, and is conveyed by the same rollers 21a and 21b at a predetermined timing to the transfer portion where the transfer roller 39 is located.

The sheet material pi (or P 2 ) conveyed by the registration rollers 21 a and 21 b is a sheet material P 1 (or P 2 ) is discharged from the paper discharge port 26 via the paper discharge roller pair 25 onto the paper discharge tray 41 in a face-down mode.

According to this embodiment, when paper is being fed from the second cassette 10b in the lower tier, the first cassette 10b in the upper tier can be fed without stopping the apparatus.
The cassette 10a can be inserted into and removed from the main body 2 of the apparatus. In addition, the cassette 10 on the side where paper is not being fed
Even if cassette 10b (or 10b) is not inserted into the device main body 2, the inserted cassette 10b (or 10b)
10a).

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the image forming apparatus showing a method of attaching and detaching the process cartridge 3 from the apparatus main body 2. As shown in FIG.

The opening/closing structure 5 is capable of rotating its base around a rotating shaft 45 from the position shown in FIG. 1 to the position shown in FIG. This opening/closing structure 5 includes one registration roller 21b, a transfer roller 39, a fixing device 23, and a pair of paper ejection rollers 2.
5. It has an integral structure with the guide plates 20b, 20c, etc., and further includes insertion guides 46a, 46b, which are holding members for the process cartridge 3, and a leaf spring 47.

The process cartridge 3 has insertion guides 46a and 46b.
The plate is inserted in the direction of arrow C along the arrow C and fixed by the plate 47. When the process cartridge 3 is attached to the opening/closing structure 5 and the opening/closing structure 5 is closed, and the opening/closing structure 5 is fixed to the apparatus main body 2 using a locking claw (not shown), the fitting groove 49a formed in the support member 49 is exposed to light. The drum support shaft of the drum 31 is fitted, the process cartridge 3 is positioned and fixed to the apparatus main body 2, and the image forming apparatus becomes ready for image formation.

In this embodiment, the direction in which the process cartridge 3 is attached to the apparatus main body 2 is such that the toner hopper 35 is connected to the developing sleeve 3.
Since the direction is such that the process cartridge 3 is located above the toner hopper 3 when the process cartridge 3 is installed in the apparatus main body 2,
Since the toner in 5 is supplied to the vicinity of the developing sleeve 33 by gravity, stable development can be performed even after the process cartridge 3 is installed. Note that a handle portion (not shown) is formed in the process cartridge 3 in the insertion direction C thereof.

In addition, if a jam occurs on the sheet material p+ (or P x ) during image formation with the laser beam printer IA,
As shown in FIG. 2, the opening/closing structure 5 is opened, the process cartridge 3 is taken out from the opening/closing structure 5, and the jammed sheet material p+ (or P2) is removed.

In addition, in this embodiment, both force sets 10a and 10b
can be inserted into and removed from the main body 2 of the apparatus from the operation surface (TllI (left end side in Figure 1) of the main body 2 of the apparatus, so the transfer/fixing section which is the image forming section is located at the rear end side of the apparatus (right end side in the figure). The height of the cassette insertion/ejection surface can be lowered.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic internal structure of a laser beam printer 1A using a transfer type electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a method of mounting the process cartridge 3. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment described above only in the mounting method of the process cartridge 3 and the members required therefor.
I will explain only that part. Components that are the same as those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and their description will be omitted.

In FIG. 3, the opening/closing structure 5 is rotatable about the rotating shaft 45 to the position shown in the figure. This opening/closing structure 5 includes a registration roller 21b, a transfer roller 39,
Fixing device 23, paper ejection roller pair 25, and guide plates 20b, 2
0c, and further includes insertion guides 46a and 46b, which are holding members for the process cartridge 3, and a leaf spring 47.

The process cartridge 3 is a laser beam printer I
A, the drum support shaft of the photosensitive drum 31 is inserted into the fitting groove 49b formed in the support member 49 provided in the apparatus main body 2, and is positioned and fixed to the apparatus main body 2. Ru. Then, the opening/closing structure 5 is closed, and the leaf spring 4 is closed.
When the Sorocess cartridge 3 is pressed and fixed by the lever 7 and the opening/closing structure 5 is fixed to the apparatus main body 2 by a lock claw (not shown), the laser beam printer LA enters an image forming state.

In this embodiment, if a jam occurs during image formation, the jammed sheet material P1 (or p t ) can be removed by opening the opening/closing structure 5 as shown in FIG. Therefore, there is no need to take out the process cartridge 3 from the opening/closing structure 5 as in the first embodiment. Also, in this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, it is possible to reduce the height of the insertion/removal surfaces of the cassettes 10a and 10b.

(G) As described in detail, according to the present invention, the cassette insertion/removal surface is arranged on the operation surface side of the apparatus main body, and the sheet material is image-formed from the paper feed section on the front end side in the cassette insertion direction. By configuring the cassette to be conveyed to the means section, the height of the cassette insertion/removal surface side can be configured to be low, making it possible to easily handle the image-formed sheet material and clear jams.

Further, according to the present invention, both the first and second cassettes
Since paper can be fed from the front end side in the insertion direction, when forming images in the image forming section, you can freely replace the cassette on the side that is not feeding sheet materials loaded and held inside the device. This eliminates the need to stop image formation during cassette replacement.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, if the cassette that feeds paper is inserted, six images can be formed even if the other cassette is not inserted, which eliminates the need for complicating the mechanism when inserting and removing the cassette. In addition, it is possible to unify the conveyance distance and feeding timing of the stacked and held sheet materials to the transfer unit, which simplifies the device configuration and paper feed control system of the image forming apparatus. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view of an image forming apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view of the image forming apparatus showing the open/closed state of the opening/closing structure, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a vertical side view showing an outline of a conventional image forming apparatus. p,, p2...Sheet material 1A...Laser beam printer (image forming device) 2...Device main body 3...Process cartridge 5...Opening/closing structure 6...Sheet path 9a, 9b. ...Cassette insertion slot 10a...first cassette, 10
b...Second cassette, 17a, 17b...Paper feed rollers (paper feed section) 20a-20e...Guide plate 2
1a, 21b... Registration roller 26... Paper discharge port (sheet material discharge section), 31... Photosensitive drum (
image forming means)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sheet material is fed from a paper feeding section to an image forming means section that forms an image using an appropriate image forming principle and image forming method, and a target image is formed on the fed sheet material. The image forming apparatus conveys and discharges the image-formed sheet material to a paper discharge section, the image forming device having the image forming means section in the middle, a sheet material feeding section below the image forming means section, and a sheet material feeding section above the sheet material feeding section. A sheet discharge section is provided respectively, and a sheet path extending from the sheet feed section through the image forming means section to the sheet discharge section in a substantially vertical direction is provided, and the sheet material fed from the sheet feed section is In the image forming apparatus, the sheet material is introduced into the sheet path and conveyed upward, an image is formed on the sheet material in the image forming means section, and then the sheet material is discharged to the paper discharge section, the sheet material being stacked and held. The cassette is inserted into and removed from the main body of the apparatus, and after the sheet material stored in the cassette inserted into the main body of the apparatus is pulled out from the paper feed section located on the front end side in the insertion direction of the cassette, the An image forming apparatus characterized in that the image forming apparatus is configured to be introduced into an image forming means section and conveyed. 2. The opening/closing structure is provided with an opening/closing structure that can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body, and when the process cartridge formed by unitizing the image forming means section is to be attached or removed from the apparatus main body, the opening/closing structure is opened/closed, and the process cartridge is 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge insertion direction is any direction between the cassette insertion direction and a substantially vertical direction. 3. A plurality of cassettes can be inserted into and removed from the device main body or the device including a paper feeding device that is separate from the device main body and performs paper feeding operation in combination with the device main body. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.