JPH0348376B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an operation selection means for selecting and activating a plurality of operation means, and in particular, the present invention relates to an operation selection means for selecting and operating a plurality of operation means. It is preferable to select one sheet stacking section from a plurality of sheet stacking sections stacking sheets of different materials and to use the selected sheet stacking section to feed the sheets to the sheet processing device. The present invention relates to an actuation selection device. Hereinafter, a copying machine will be explained as an example. When automatically feeding copy paper in a copy machine,
Sheets of different sizes must be fed depending on the size of the original, copying magnification, etc. Conventionally, two types of paper feeding devices have been used as paper feeding devices that feed sheets of different sizes depending on the size of the original document. One method is to store sheets cut to a certain size in advance in a cassette, and by loading the cassette loaded with sheets of the desired size into the machine, the sheets are automatically fed one by one. One is a cassette-type paper feeding method, and the other is a method that uses a long sheet rolled into a roll and cuts the sheet to the desired size depending on the size of the document etc. . In the method of cutting and feeding sheets, it is troublesome to control the timing of stopping or cutting the sheet, and slight errors in operation may cause irregularities in sheet length. Compared to this,
The cassette paper feeding system has no such drawbacks and is widely adopted, but it is inconvenient to select a cassette loaded with sheets of the desired size depending on the size of the original, and to attach and detach the cassette from the machine each time. There is. Therefore, in recent years, a multi-stage feeding system has been frequently used, in which multiple cassettes are set in the machine in advance and the required sheets are selected according to the document size, etc., with the least amount of loading and unloading of the cassettes. It is a paper method. FIG. 1 shows an example of a copying machine equipped with such a multistage paper feeding device. In FIG. 1, A indicates the main body of the copying machine, and B indicates a paper feeding device. Copying device main body A
consists of an image bearing drum 1, guide plates 2, 3, and 4 for guiding the copy paper, a register roller 5 that feeds the copy paper to the drum 1 in time with the image carrying drum 1, and a paper feeder B. a paper feed guide plate 6 for feeding the copy paper sent from the register roller 5 to the register roller 5;
It is provided with a conveyance roller 7 that conveys the copy paper onto which the image has been transferred from the image bearing drum 1 described above. Paper feeding device B has two cassettes 8a and 8b. The cassettes 8a and 8b have sheets 11 loaded on bottom plates 10a and 10b, respectively, which are lifted up by compression springs 9a and 9b.
a, 11b, and separating claws 12a, 12b are provided at both ends of the front edge of the sheet. Feed rollers 13a and 13b are provided so as to be in contact with the upper surfaces of the sheets stacked in the cassettes 8a and 8b. When feeding copy sheets from the cassette 8a, the feeding roller 13a is brought into contact with the upper part of the sheet 11a, and by rotating this, the sheets 11a are separated one by one by the separating claws 12a and fed out. Furthermore, when feeding copy paper from the cassette 8b, the feeding roller 13b is brought into contact with the upper surface of the sheet 11b and rotated.
The sheets 11b are sent out while being separated one by one by a separating claw 12b. In this way, feeding device B
The sheet sent out is guided by a paper feed guide plate 6, and after being timed by a register roller, it is sent to an image bearing drum 1 by a guide 2, the image on the drum is transferred, and the sheet is transferred by a guide 3. The sheet is guided and conveyed by conveyance rollers 7, and sent by guide 4 to a fixing device (not shown).
Note that, in addition to the above-mentioned feeding roller, a suction feeding device or the like is also used as a feeding device for feeding the sheet. In the multi-stage paper feeding device described above, two-stage cassettes are still often installed as shown in Figure 1, and switching between the two sizes is performed by operating a lever. When feeding paper of other sizes, it is necessary to remove the cassette from the copying machine. In this case, this is usually done using a single switching lever that protrudes outside the machine, and the free end of the lever is used to identify the cassette size, which makes it difficult to judge intuitively and can result in incorrect operation. There were disadvantages such as easy copying, wasting sheets by copying onto sheets of the wrong size, and time-consuming operations for attaching and detaching. or,
In such a manner, installing three or more cassettes in a copying machine and performing switching selection is mechanically complex, extremely difficult, and more likely to cause operational errors. In the multistage paper feeding system as described above, the sheets 11a and 11b stored in the cassettes 8a and 8b
There is also a method of always keeping the feed rollers 13a and 13b in contact with each other and rotating only the feed roller that corresponds to the size using a switch to select the sheet of the required size. The sheet and the feeding roller are always in contact with each other, and when the cassette is loaded or unloaded, the top loaded sheet may turn over, fall off, or come off the claws 12a, 12b, and then be fed. This may cause diagonal feeding or poor feeding.
The drawback is that it easily causes paper jams, and handling of the cassette when installing and removing it is very cumbersome. Also, when it comes to multi-stage cassettes with three or more stages,
Each cassette requires a timing operation using a clutch, etc. to rotate and stop the feeding roller, and as the number of stages increases, problems such as feeding failures due to timing errors become more likely to occur. In addition, many mechanisms such as clutches are required, resulting in a complicated structure and high cost. The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional technology as described above, and provides an operation selection device that can select and operate a plurality of actuation means with a small number of parts and at low cost. There is a particular thing. The operation selection device according to the present invention is characterized in that a cam is attached to a camshaft so as to be movable in the axial direction, and a cylindrical portion whose circumferential surface partially coincides with that of the cam is provided on both sides of the cam, and a plurality of cam followers are connected to the cam. The cams are arranged in parallel along a shaft, and by moving the cam in the axial direction of the camshaft, the cam selects and operates one of the cam followers. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cam follower engages with the sheet a feeding means that feeds the sheet by engaging with the sheet stacked on each of the plurality of sheet stacking sections. The support member is movably supported between a non-feeding position away from the sheet, and the cam is moved in the axial direction of the cam shaft so that the cam is moved between the sheet and the non-feeding position.
The feeding means supported by the supporting member is moved to the feeding position by selectively operating one of the supporting members to feed the sheet. Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. FIG. 2 shows a sheet feeding device used in a copying machine as shown in FIG. A feeding roller is shown that engages with and feeds the topmost sheet of sheets, and in the illustrated example, four feeding rollers are provided. These feeding rollers 20 are fixed on roller shafts 21 at intervals in the lateral direction, and the roller shafts 21 are rotatably supported at the tip of a U-shaped support member 22. is rotatably supported on a shaft 23 at its base. The shaft 23 is connected to the side plate 24
It is rotatably supported between a and 24b, one end of which is supported by an E-shaped retaining ring 25 on a bearing 26 attached to the side plate 24a, and the other end protrudes outside of the side plate 24b. A gear 27 is attached to the end. A belt 29 is placed between a drive gear 28 driven by a motor (not shown) and the gear 27, and the drive gear 28 is connected to the arrow a.
By rotating in the direction shown, the belt 29 is moved in the direction shown by arrow b , and the gear 27 is moved in the direction shown by arrow c.
This causes the shaft 23 to rotate in the direction shown by arrow d. In order to transmit the rotation of the shaft 23 to the roller shaft 21, a ladder chain 32 is provided between a gear 30 fixed at the center of the shaft 23 and a gear 31 fixed at the center of the roller shaft 21. That is, when the drive gear 28 rotates in the direction of the arrow a , the rotation is transmitted to the gear 27, the shaft 23, the gear 30, the rudder chain 32, and the gear 31, and the feeding roller 20 rotates in the direction of the arrow e through the roller shaft 21. It's summery. As described above, the shaft 21 of the feeding roller 20 is rotatably supported at the tip of the support member 22, and the support member 22 is rotatably supported on the shaft 23 by the bearing 33 at the base. This feeding roller 20
In order to move the cassette between a feeding position where it engages with and feeds sheets stacked on a cassette as shown in FIG. 1 and a non-feeding position where it is separated from the sheets, A mechanism for swinging the support member 22 about the shaft 23 is provided. This swinging mechanism has a frame member 34 joined to one side of the support member 22 and a lever 35 integrally joined to one end of this frame member. The feed roller 20 is configured to be able to swing in the vertical direction using the support member 22 and the roller shaft 21 using the roller 23 as a fulcrum. In the illustrated embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, three
3 with three cassettes 36a, 36b, 36c.
A paper feed roller and its operating mechanism as shown in FIG. 2 are provided for each cassette. That is, the cassette 36
Feed rollers 20 are provided in each of a, 36b, and 36c.
a, 20b, 20c, support members 22a, 22b, 22c that support the feeding rollers, and levers 35a, 35b, 35c that swing the support members. The above feeding rollers 20a, 20b, 20c are 1
The feeding rollers 20a, 20b,
The roller shaft 20c is connected from the drive gear 28 to the belt 29 to the gear 2 by a mechanism similar to that shown in FIG.
7, are simultaneously rotated in the direction of arrow e via the shaft 23, gear 30, rudder chain 32, and gear 31. Therefore, one of the support members 35a, 35b, and 35c that supports each feed roller is selectively operated, and the feed roller supported by this support member is engaged with the sheet on the cassette. A cam 37 as shown in FIG. 3 is provided for movement into the feed position. A cylindrical portion 38 is integrally connected to both sides of the cam 37, and the circumferential surface of the cylindrical portion 38 and the cam 37
The circumferential surfaces closest to the axis of are coincident. A cam shaft 39 passes through these axes,
It rotates the same as the cam 37 via the key 40. A gear 41 is fixed to one end of the shaft 39, and a drive gear 42 meshes with it. When the drive gear 42 rotates at a certain operation timing in the direction shown by arrow f , the gear 41 rotates in the direction shown by arrow g. and axis 3
9, the cam 37 and the cylindrical portion 38 rotate in the directions indicated by arrows h and i , respectively. The above camshaft 39 includes a cam 37 and a cylindrical portion 3.
The cam lever 43 is rotatably supported by a cam lever 43 that sandwiches the cam lever 8, and the cam lever 43 can swing in the direction shown by the arrow j . The upper end portions of the levers 35a, 35b, 35c that swing the support members 22a, 22b, 22c that support the feeding rollers 20a, 20b, 20c are connected to the cam 37 and the cylindrical portion 38 by the tension springs 44a, 44b, 44c, and depending on the position of the cam 37, the levers 35a,
Either one of 35b and 35c is selectively activated. FIG. 4 shows a state in which the machine is not operating, and the feeding rollers move the cassettes 36a, 36b,
It is located with a gap from the seats stored in 36c. In this state, the cassette can be attached and detached smoothly without coming into contact with the rollers. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the cam 37 is positioned on the lever 35a by moving the cam lever 43 in the direction of arrow j . Levers 35a, 35b, 35
c is due to the tension springs 44a, 44b, 44c,
The lever 35a is pressed by the cylindrical portion 38 and the cam 37, and swings in the direction of the arrow k while coming into contact with the cam 37 as the gear 42 rotates. The swinging of the lever 35a is caused by the frame member 34 shown in FIG.
Pass the feeding roller 20a through the support member 22 in the direction of arrow l.
It will be swung in the direction of. In this way,
The feeding of the sheets is controlled by the swinging of the feeding rollers, which causes the feeding rollers to come into contact with or separate from the stacked sheets. At that time, all three feeding rollers are constantly rotating. FIG. 5 shows that the lever 35a is swung in the direction of the arrow k by the cam 37 as described above, and the feeding roller 20a is accordingly swung in the direction of the arrow l .
The feed roller 20a is shown in contact with the sheets stacked in the cassette 36a. That is, only when the cassette 36a is selected and the feeding roller comes into contact with a sheet, the topmost one of the stacked sheets is fed in the direction indicated by the arrow m . The cassette can be selected by moving the cam lever 43 in the direction of arrow j .
By means of a mechanism (not shown) mechanically or electrically interlocked with the cam lever 43, the selected state of the cassette can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner to the user. Assume now that a sheet from the lower cassette 36a is selected. When the machine is stopped, at the positions of the cam 37 and the cylindrical portion 38 shown in FIG.
Move the cam lever 43 in the direction of arrow j so that the cam 37 comes to the lever 35a (third
figure). Then press the print button and gear 2
8, all the upper, middle and lower feed rollers rotate from the belt 29, and at a certain timing,
Gear 42 rotates. As a result, the lower feeding roller 20a begins to swing, and the sheet is fed. When copying one sheet, the cam 37 rotates once and stops, but
When copying a large number of copies, the cam 37 rotates by the number of copies, and the feeding roller swings. The stopping position of the cam 37 is the initial state, that is, the position shown in FIG. As explained above, when the present invention is applied to a sheet feeding device of a copying machine, if a cassette containing sheets of frequently used sizes is installed in the copying machine, copying of these sizes can be easily performed. Just press the selection button on the operation panel or
Since it is possible to select the paper size by operating just one lever, the selection operation is extremely simple and there is no need to copy a sheet of the wrong size. In addition, there is no contact with the feeding roller when loading or unloading the cassette, there is no chance of the topmost sheet being stacked, the claws will not come loose, and there will be no paper jams or paper jams.
Problems due to poor feeding can be easily prevented. However, according to the present invention, it is possible to install three or more cassettes in a copying machine, and if a cassette containing frequently used paper sizes is always installed, there will be almost no chance of attaching or detaching the cassette. Work efficiency is significantly improved compared to conventional methods. Furthermore, the mechanism is simple because only one drive is required to move the feed roller, and it is always rotating, and there is no need to use a clutch or the like to stop or repeat rotation of the feed roller, so there is no malfunction. It is possible to eliminate timing deviations and feeding defects. Another advantage is that the cassette can be selected with the simple action of sliding one cam.
Since the cam is rotated rather than a single drive, the structure is simple and the cost is low, no matter how many stages the cassette has. In the above description, the present invention was mainly applied to a paper feeding device of a copying machine. It can be applied to paper feeding devices, and can also handle multiple different sheets,
For example, the present invention is applicable to general sheet feeding devices that selectively feed sheets of different sizes or materials from a plurality of sheet stacking units to a sheet processing machine. In the above description, a feeding roller has been described as a means for feeding sheets from the sheet stacking section, but it goes without saying that feeding means such as a suction feeding device can be used as this feeding means. As described in detail above, the present invention moves the cam in the axial direction of the camshaft to select one of a plurality of cam followers, thereby providing a low-cost operation selection device with a small number of parts. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional sheet feeding device.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a feeding roller portion of a sheet feeding device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a cam portion of the same device, and FIGS. 4 and 5 show a cam portion. FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the relationship between the rollers and the feeding roller section. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Image carrying drum, 2, 3, 4... Guide plate, 5... Register roller, 6... Paper feeding guide plate, 7... Conveyance roller, 8... Cassette, 9...
Compression spring, 10... Bottom plate, 11... Sheet, 12
...Separation claw, 13...Feed roller, 20...Feed roller, 21...Roller shaft, 22...Support member, 23...
...Shaft, 24...Side plate, 25...Retaining ring, 26...
Bearing, 27... Gear, 28... Drive gear, 29...
... Belt, 30, 31 ... Gear, 32 ... Rudder chain, 33 ... Bearing, 34 ... Frame member, 35
...Lever, 36...Cassette, 37...Cam,
38... Cylindrical portion, 39... Camshaft, 40... Key, 41... Gear, 42... Drive gear, 43...
Cam lever, 44... tension spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cam 37 is attached to a cam shaft 39 so as to be movable in the axial direction, and a cylindrical portion 38 whose circumferential surface partially coincides with that of the cam is provided on both sides of the cam 37, and a plurality of cam followers 35a, 35b are provided. , 35c are arranged in parallel along the camshaft, and the cam selects and operates one of the cam followers by moving the cam in the axial direction of the camshaft. Selection device. 2 The cam follower is connected to a plurality of sheet stacking sections 3
Feeding means 20a, 2 that feeds the sheets by engaging with the sheets stacked on each of the sheets 6a, 36b, 36c.
Support members 35a, 35b, and 36c movably support the cams 37 and 20c between a feeding position where they engage the sheet and a non-feeding device that is away from the sheet, and the cam 37 is connected to the cam shaft 39. By moving axially, said cam selectively actuates one of said support members to move a feeding means supported by said support member to a feeding position for feeding a sheet. An operation selection device according to claim 1, wherein the operation selection device is configured to perform the operation selection device.