JPH04235098A - Sorter with stapler device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stably hold a bin when sheets are contained and shaken to a stapling position to conduct correct and positive truing up and stapling in a sorter provided with a plurality of bins for sorting and containing the sheets and a stapler device for stapling the sheet contained in said bins. CONSTITUTION:A support stay member 48 is securely provided on a part of a sorter body. On said support stay member 48, a part of a bottom of a bin 41 is constantly loaded in slide contact state. A plurality of engaging claw parts 41A are provided on said bottom of the bin. Said engaging claw parts 41A can be engaged to or disengaged from said support stay member 48. In this structure, the bin is prevented from levitating.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a sorter attached to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a laser beam printer for separating and storing sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus. The present invention relates to a sorter equipped with a bin and a stapler device that aligns and staples sheets stored on the bin.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sheet post-processing device equipped with a stapler device for binding sheets discharged from a copying machine, etc. has been used together with a machine such as a circulating automatic document feeder (RDH), and a stapler device is used for each sheet. Although there is a sheet post-processing device (finisher) for stopping the sheet, it has the disadvantage that the mechanism is complicated and expensive.

(1) A device in which a stapler device is attached to a relatively simple bin moving type sorter (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-4345
Publication No. 7) has been disclosed. This device is a sorter in which a stapler device for binding sheets stored in bins is arranged so as to be movable forward and backward relative to each bin.

(2) In other sorters, when stapling a large number of paper stacks, a fixed stapler device is provided for each bin, and each bin is moved to the stapling position to staple the paper stacks. .

(3) The sorter disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-244869 moves a bin carrying sheets to a position where staples can be driven, staples are driven,
The stapling device can also be moved vertically to staple other bottles.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Among the above-mentioned sorters with a stapler device, in the type in which the first stapler device advances and retreats, the advancing stroke differs depending on the size of the sheet, and if all the vertical intervals of each bin are wide, the sorter will not be able to move forward or backward. Larger,
There is a problem in that the mechanism becomes complicated when the stapling device widens only the gap between the bins into which it enters.

[0007] The second sorter has problems in that the overall structure of the sorter is complicated, and when the bin gap is narrow, a special stapler device is required.

[0008] In the third sorter, each bin loaded with sheets is moved straight along a bin guide and horizontally to a stapling position at appropriate times, and has the disadvantage that the structure of the apparatus is complicated.

[0009]Furthermore, in a sorter in which the bins are swung to the stapling position after sequentially accommodating the sheets, when accommodating the sheets in a predetermined position of the bin, and when stapling the bins at the stapling position by oscillating the bins,
When a large number of sheets are loaded, the support of the swingable bin becomes unstable, resulting in uneven sheets and unstable stapling accuracy.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a configuration that can reliably accommodate sheets and staple them at a fixed position even in a relatively simple sorter, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems. The purpose is to eliminate the problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a sorter equipped with a stapler device of the present invention that achieves the above object includes a plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets, and a plurality of bins for storing sheets in the bins. A sorter equipped with a stapler device that staples and staples the bins, and a swinging shaft that swingably supports the bins, and a swinging shaft that is fixed to a part of the sorter body and slidably supports the bin bottoms. and a support stay member, when storing sheets at a predetermined position of the bin, the bin is swung around a oscillating support shaft by a bin oscillating means, and the sheets stacked on the bin are moved by a stapler device. The present invention is characterized in that the support stay member is configured to support at least a portion of the bottom of the bottle when the bottle is swung to a fixed position where binding can be performed.

[0012]Further, the sorter equipped with a stapler device of the present invention includes a plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets, and a stapler device for stapling the sheets stored in the bins. and a support stay member that is fixed to a part of the sorter body and slidably supports the bottom of the bin, and the locking claw engages with the support stay member. This feature prevents the bottle from lifting up.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a sorter connected to a main body 1 of an image forming apparatus (for example, a copying machine). The sorter of the present invention includes a base section 10, a downward conveyance section 20, and an upward conveyance section 30.
and a bin moving section 40.

The base section 10 includes casters 11, a connection means 12 to the image forming apparatus main body 1, a conveyor belt 13, a driven roller 14, a guide plate 15, a drive means (not shown), etc., and is fixed on the floor. Ru.

The downward conveyance unit 20 is connected to the paper discharge roller 2 and paper discharge port 3 of the image forming apparatus main body 1, and carries the discharged sheets (
It consists of a conveyor belt 22, a driven roller 23, etc., for receiving the paper (sheet) P on a guide plate 21, conveying it downward, and sending it to the conveyor belt 13 in the base section 10. Further, a conveyance means 24 and a tray 25 are provided which branch from this conveyance path and discharge the preceding sheet P in the image forming apparatus main body 1 when a jam occurs in the ADF or the sorter. The upper part of the casing of the downward conveyance section 20 swings to be openable and closable, making it possible to take out the jammed paper in the downward conveyance section 20.

The ascending conveyance unit 30 has pulleys 32 and 33 rotatably fixed to the upper and lower parts of the support frame.
Several endless transfer belts 31 are stretched. A plurality of rollers 34 are rotatably connected to the inner side of the conveyor belt 31 and correspond to a bottle insertion opening, which will be described later. A plurality of conveyance rollers 35 roll in contact with the outer side of the conveyance belt 31 facing the roller 34 and are driven to rotate.

Further, in the middle of the conveying roller 35, branch guides 36 are located at the entrances of the bins and swing. These branch guides 36 are rotatably supported by a shaft 37 installed on the support frame, and are swung by a lever and a solenoid (not shown) provided at the end of the shaft 37. Therefore, by rotating the branching guide 36 clockwise, the lower end claw portion of the branching guide 36 intersects with the paper conveyance path composed of the conveyance belt 31 and the conveyance roller 35, and the paper is moved upward in the vertical direction. The branch guide 36 interrupts the advance and adjusts the paper receiving attitude. When the paper P is conveyed there, the paper P is deflected in a substantially perpendicular direction along the inner curved surface of the branching guide 36 and received into the bin 41 .

FIGS. 2 and 3 are partial sectional views of the constituent members and bins of the paper branching conveyance path. FIG. 2 shows the vicinity of the upper part of the sorter, and FIG. 3 shows the vicinity of the lower part of the sorter.

FIG. 4 is a top perspective view of the bottle, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the bottle viewed from the bottom, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the bottle.

A plurality of bins (for example, 20 bins) 41 arranged at equal intervals are swingably supported in the bin moving unit 40. That is, the bottom of the bottle 41 (left side in FIGS. 2 and 3) is slidably supported on a guide plate 48 fixed to the bottle moving part 40.

A slide piece 44 is fitted into a fixed shaft (swing shaft) 43 that stands upright and is supported by support members 42 fixed to the top and bottom of the frame of the bin moving unit 40, and is positioned by a pin 45. . The slide piece 44 is fitted into a recess at one end of the bottle 41 (upper right in FIG. 4), and the slide piece 44
Make 1 rotatable. Further, pins 45 driven into the fixed shaft 43 at equal intervals engage with the recesses of the slide piece 44, and hold the ends of the bottles 41 arranged in parallel at equal intervals.

The other end of the bin 41 has a rotatable roller 39 embedded in a part of the frame of the bin moving unit 40.
is supported by In this way, the bottle 41 includes the support stay member (guide plate) 48, the slide piece 44, and the roller 39.
It is supported by and is swingable about a fixed shaft 43. Note that 41A indicates three locking claws provided on the bottom side that engage with the notches of the guide plate 48.

Reference numeral 41S denotes five front stoppers provided on the paper introduction side of the upper surface of the bin 41, and the upper end of the upright surface has a curved claw portion 41B protruding inside the bin 41 like an eave, so that the rear stopper of the paper To prevent paper P from coming out of the bin due to lifting of the edges.

In FIG. 3, a sheet P (indicated by a dashed line in the figure) that has been carried into the ascending conveyance section 30 of the sorter at high speed is held between a conveyor belt 31 and a conveyor roller 35, moves upward, and is moved clockwise by a solenoid (not shown). It is deflected to the right (dotted chain line in the figure) by the swung branch claw 36 (shown in the figure, second row from the bottom), passes above the upright stopper wall 41S of the bottle 41, and After the paper P rises to the right along the inclined surface and the trailing edge of the paper P passes above the stopper 41S, the paper P changes from rising to descending, slides down on the surface of the bin 41 due to its own weight, and the paper The rear end of P hits the stopper wall 41S and stops.

At this time, even if the rear end of the curled paper P rises, the claw portion 41B provided at the top of the bin 41
This prevents it from floating up and accommodates it in the bin 41,
The sheets come into contact with the stopper wall 41S under their own weight and are aligned.

The upper surface of the support stay member 48 of the bottle moving section 40 supports the bottom of the bottle 41 in a slidable manner.

When storing paper ejected from the image forming apparatus in a predetermined position of the bin, the bin 4
1 is swingably supported by the swing support shaft 43, and the bottom surface of the bottle below the front stopper 41S of the bottle 41 is placed on the top surface of the support stay member 48,
Maintained stably. The locking claw portion 41A provided at the bottom of the bottle 41 fits into the end surface of the support stay member 48, which has a substantially L-shaped cross section, to prevent the bottle 41 from floating up.

When the bottle 41 is swung around the oscillating support shaft 43 and moved to the stapling position, the bottom of the bottle 41 slides on the upper surface of the support stay member 48;
Although the lower left portion shown in FIG. 6 is separated from the support stay member 48, the upper left portion of the bottle 41 is still placed and supported on the surface of the support stay member 48.

In this way, the bottom surface of the rear end of the bottle 41 is
Part or all of it is always supported by the support stay member 48 and held in a stable state, so even when paper is carried into the bin or when the bin is swung to the stapling position. , paper loading and stapling are always performed stably and accurately.

Further, at the top of the plurality of bins (20 sorting bins in FIG. 1) 41, a deep-bottom non-sorting bin 49 is fixedly installed. The non-sorting bin 49 is a bin that stores image-formed sheets P that do not require sorting, and can accumulate a large amount of 100 to 300 sheets.

On the other hand, a part of the fixed frame of the upward conveyance section 30 is provided with an alignment device 50 for aligning the side edges of the sheets P discharged from the copying machine main body 1 onto the bin 41. (See Figures 2, 3, and 6).

In the alignment device 50, a lower arm 52 which is fitted onto a lower support shaft 51 attached to the lower part of the frame and is swingable is swung by the driving force of a pulse motor (not shown). A lower shaft end of an alignment rod 54 is held at the tip of the lower arm 52. The upper shaft end of the alignment rod 54 is held by an upper arm 55 and is swingable. The alignment rod 54 is brought into pressure contact with the side edge of the paper P to be discharged to align the width of the paper P.

The swing angle of the arm 52 is changed according to the set number of pulses of the pulse motor so that the width of the paper P to be ejected is made equal to the size of the paper P.

A stopper wall 41D stands upright and is integral with one side of the bottle 41. A paper pressing device 60 is attached to the outer surface of the stopper wall 41D. A lever 61 is swingably supported by a shaft 62 installed on the outer surface of the stopper wall 41D. A paper pressing member 63 is attached to one end of the lever 61.

The other end of the lever 61 is connected to a bottle swinging device 70.
is pressed by a roller 72 attached to the tip of an arm 71. This pressure causes the lever 61 to swing, causing the paper pressing member 63 to press the top surface of the paper P on the bin 41 and press the paper.

Further, the substrate of the swinging device 70 of the bin 41 is attached to a common frame together with the substrate of the stapler device, and is driven vertically on the frame of the bin moving unit 40 to move each bin. The stack of sheets stacked on the oscillated bin 41 while being held down by the paper presser member 63 enters the gap between the binding parts of the stapler device and is stapled.

Next, the stapling operation of the bundle of sheets discharged into the bin 41 will be described below.

The placement positioning reference for the document to be placed on the platen glass of the copying machine main body 1 includes a center line reference;
Although there is a one-sided alignment standard, the stapling operation of sheets P aligned on one side by the bin moving unit 40 of the sorter will be described below.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the progress of movement of the paper P due to the swinging of the bin 41.

■The bin 4 is discharged from the image forming apparatus main body 1.
The sheets P ejected to the front stopper 41S are slid one by one by the swinging alignment rod 54 to the stopper wall 4.
It is pressed against 1D and the paper width is aligned with the baseline BL.

■ All the set number of sheets are in the bin 41.
When it is detected that the bottle is stored in the bottle, the arm 71 of the bottle swinging device 70 starts swinging, and the roller 7 at the tip of the arm 71 starts swinging.
2 presses the stopper wall 41F protruding downward from the side surface of the bin 41 via the buffer leaf spring 66, swings the lever 61 against the biasing force of the leaf spring 65, and the paper pressing member 63 holds the stack of sheets. Press from above to prevent paper from shifting.

[0043] When the arm 71 further swings, it presses the stopper wall 41F and presses the paper while holding it down.
The bottle 41 swings around the slide piece 44, and as shown in FIG.
The paper reaches the position indicated by the dashed line, and the paper on the bin 41 also stops (staple line SL).

[0044] At this stop position, the rear end corner of the sheet bundle is inserted into the binding gap of the stapler device 80, and staples are driven by the stapler device 80 to bind the sheets. - After stapling is completed, the arm 71 is driven and returned to its original position, and the bin 41 is spring-biased and returns to its original position, and the paper presser member 63 is separated from the surface of the paper stack, and the paper stack is pushed back into the bin. 41 and can be taken out from above.

[0045] When the stapling of the stack of sheets stored in the uppermost bin 41 of the bins 41 is completed, the common frame that integrally forms the stapler device 80 and the bin swinging device 70 is moved by the drive source. The bin 41 is lowered and is one step below.
, and perform the stapling operation in the same manner as described above. During this time, paper is being ejected to the bin 41 one or two steps below. ■After stapling all the paper bundles, each bin 41, alignment rod 54, paper presser member 63
, all the stapler devices 80 return to their original positions and enter a standby state for receiving the next discharged sheet.

[0046]

As explained above, the sorter equipped with the stapler device according to the present invention has the following effects.

[0047] ■ The bottle can be rotated smoothly.

[0048] ■ Regulation of the fixed position of the bottle and prevention of floating of the bottle are ensured.

[0049] - Prevents tilting during rotation of the bottle (stabilizes rotation).

[0050] - Guidance can be given when the bottle rotates back.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a sorter connected to an image forming apparatus main body.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the vicinity of the upper part of the sorter.

FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view showing the vicinity of the lower part of the sorter.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bin equipped with a paper holding device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the bottle seen from the bottom side.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the swinging process of the bottle.

[Explanation of symbols]

1...Image forming apparatus main body
10...Base section 20...Downward conveyance section
30... Upward conveyance section 40... Bin moving section
41... Bin (sorting bin) 41A... Locking claw part
41S...front stopper 41B...claw part
43...Fixed shaft (oscillating support shaft) 44...Slide piece
48...Support stay member (guide plate) 49...Non-sort bin
50... Aligning device 54... Aligning rod
60...Paper presser device 61...Lever
63...Paper pressing member 70...Bin rocking device
71...Arm 72...Roller
80... Stapler device 83... Stapling
P...Paper (sheet)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A sorter comprising a plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets, and a stapler device for stapling the sheets stored in the bins, comprising: a swinging shaft that swingably supports the bins; a support stay member that is fixed to a part of the sorter body and slidably supports the bin bottom, when storing sheets at a predetermined position of the bin;
and when the bin is swung around the oscillating support shaft by the bin oscillating means to a certain position where the sheets stacked on the bin can be stapled by the stapler device, the supporting stay member A sorter equipped with a stapler device, characterized in that the sorter is configured to support at least a portion of the bottom of the sorter. 2. A sorter comprising a plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets, and a stapler device for stapling the sheets stored in the bins, wherein a locking claw is provided at the bottom of the bin, and a sorter main body is provided. It is fixedly installed in a part of
The stapler device includes a support stay member that slidably supports the bottom of the bottle, and the locking claw engages with the support stay member to prevent the bottle from floating up. Sorta.