JPH0459573A - Tentering device of sheet housing tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To raise the image forming speed by setting the standard position of a movable plate between the maximum width size and the minimum width size of sheets to be used. CONSTITUTION:A movable plate 33 is moved a specific amount from a standard position corresponding to the size of sheets to be housed. As a result, the side ends of the sheets stocked in a housing tray 23 are regulated by the movable plate 33, and the tentering is carried out. In this case, since the standard position of the movable plate 33 is set between the maximum width size and the minimum width size of the sheets, the moving amount for tentering is smaller than in the conventional device whose standard position is set at the outer side of the maximum width size. Consequently, even when it is applied to a high speed image forming device, the restriction of image forming time for tentering time is little. The image forming speed is raised, accordingly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an alignment device that is provided in a paper storage tray in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and that aligns the Φ alignment of conveyed sheets. .

[Conventional technology]

For example, in the case of copying machines, devices are provided in which a duplex copying mode is set as a copying mode, in which images are formed on both sides of a sheet of paper. When a double-sided copy mode is set in such an apparatus, an image is first formed on one side of a sheet of paper, and the sheet on which this image has been formed is temporarily stored in an intermediate tray provided inside the apparatus. Then, the paper from the intermediate tray is sent to the image forming section again, and after an image is formed on the other side, it is discharged to the paper discharge tray.

As described above, in an apparatus having a double-sided copy mode, an intermediate tray is provided inside the apparatus. The intermediate tray is provided with an alignment device for aligning the conveyed sheets in the width direction. Here, the width direction of the paper refers to a direction perpendicular to the paper conveyance direction.

There are two types of paper width adjustment: a one-sided reference method in which one side of the paper is used as a reference, and a center reference method in which the paper width is adjusted using the center as a reference. For example, a center-based wheel alignment device has a pair of movable plates that are movable in the width direction of the paper, and the pair of movable plates move according to the size of the paper. ing. The movement of the movable plate in this case is controlled by the amount of movement from a reference position set outside the maximum paper size. When the paper size changes, the movable plate returns to the reference position and is moved from this reference position to a position corresponding to the paper size.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional width adjusting device as described above, the reference position of the movable plate is set outside the maximum paper size. Therefore, the amount of movement of the movable plate when changing paper is large.
In particular, when width adjustment is performed using the one-sided reference method, the amount of movement is twice as much as when using the center reference method, which is one of the causes of inhibiting high-speed operation. In addition, when copying with the original set horizontally, the size of the paper in the width direction increases, so the amount of movement required to adjust the width becomes wider (and the image forming speed depends on the moving time of the movable plate. The problem is that it is greatly affected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a paper storage tray width adjustment device that can shorten the time required for paper width adjustment and is compatible with devices that perform high-speed image formation.

[Means to solve the problem]

A paper storage tray alignment device according to the present invention is provided on a tray for storing paper, for adjusting the width of the transported paper, and includes a movable plate and a drive control means. .

The movable plate is provided so as to be movable in the paper width direction of the storage tray, and can come into contact with one side end of the paper stocked in the tray.

Further, the drive control means is for moving the movable plate a predetermined amount from the reference position depending on the size of the paper to be stored. The reference position of the movable plate is set between the maximum width size and the minimum width size of the paper used.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the movable plate is moved by a predetermined amount from the reference position depending on the size of the paper to be stored. As a result, the side edges of the sheets stocked in the storage tray are regulated by the movable plate, and width adjustment is performed.

At this time, the reference position of the movable plate is set between the maximum width size and the minimum width size of the paper, so compared to conventional devices where the reference position is set outside the maximum width size. Therefore, the amount of movement required for width adjustment is reduced. Therefore, even when the present invention is adopted in an apparatus that performs image formation at high speed, the image formation time is less restricted by the time for width adjustment.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows a copying machine employing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, this copying machine has a copying machine main body 1 and a paper feed unit 2 fixed adjacent to the copying machine main body 1. The copying machine main body l supplies paper to a case 3, an image forming section 4 disposed in the center of the case 3, a document scanning section 5 disposed above the image forming section 4, and the image forming section 4. It has a paper conveyance path 6 through which the paper is transferred and the paper is discharged from the image forming section 4.

The image forming section 4 includes a photosensitive drum disposed in the center, and a charging device and a cleaning device disposed around the photosensitive drum. Further, the image forming section 4 includes a developing device 7 arranged adjacent to the photoreceptor drum. The developing device 7 includes a main body 8 in which a plurality of rollers are housed, and a main body 8.
The toner hopper 9 is disposed above the toner hopper 9.

The toner hopper 9 has a toner replenishing roller lO at its lower end for dropping a predetermined amount of toner.

The document scanning section 5 includes an optical system 11 placed above the image forming section 4 , a document table 12 placed above the optical system 11 , and an automatic document feeder 13 provided on the document table 12 . have. The automatic document feeder 13 includes a document placement section 14 provided on the top surface of its case, a document transfer section 15 consisting of a document moving belt and the like disposed inside the case, and a document tray on which an ejected document is placed. It has a paper discharge tray 16.

The paper conveyance path 6 has a paper supply path disposed upstream in the paper conveyance direction (right side in FIG. 1) from the image forming unit 4 and a paper ejection path disposed downstream. A fixing device 17 is provided in the middle of the path. Further, a discharge roller 18 is provided on the downstream side of the fixing device 17, and a sorter 19 is provided on the outer side of the case 3 of the discharge roller 18. Further, between the fixing device 17 and the discharge roller 18, there is a branch claw 2 for switching the paper conveyance direction.
0 is set.

At the bottom of the case 3, there are a stock transport path 21 for transporting the paper from the branching claw 20, a reversing device 22 for reversing the paper from the stock transport path 21, and an intermediate tray 23 for temporarily storing the paper. A paper refeeding device 24 for feeding the paper from the intermediate tray 23 and a paper refeeding path 25 for conveying the paper from the paper refeeding device 24 to the image forming section 4 again are provided.

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the intermediate tray 23.

This intermediate tray 23 is provided with a width adjustment device 30 for adjusting the widths of the sheets that have been conveyed. The alignment device 30 includes a pair of guide plates for width alignment and a drive device for driving the guide plates.

The pair of guide plates include a fixed guide plate 32 fixed to one end of the mounting plate 31 of the intermediate tray 23 and a fixed guide plate 32 fixed to the other end of the mounting plate 31 opposite to the fixed guide plate 32. A groove 31a is formed along the width direction of the paper in the zero loading plate 31, which is composed of a movable guide plate 33 provided therein. A groove 31a is formed on the bottom surface of the movable guide plate 33.
A bottle 34 is fixed therethrough and projects downward.

The drive device includes a wire 35 fixed to a bin 34 on the lower surface of the movable guide plate 33, a pulley 36 around which the wire 35 is wound, and a stepping motor 37 for moving the wire 35. The pulley 36 is rotatably mounted on the lower surface of the mounting plate 31. Furthermore, a position detection member 38 is fixed to one end of the movable guide plate 33 in the paper conveyance direction. The reference position chamber of the movable guide plate 33 can be detected by this position detection member 38 and a photointerrupter 39 serving as a home position detection switch.

Incidentally, the upper end portions of each guide plate 32.33 are formed with inclined portions 32a and 33a, respectively, which are inclined so as to widen upward. It is designed to be easily stocked.

FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the movable position of the movable guide plate 33 and the paper size. As shown in FIG. 3, the reference position of the movable guide plate 33! (Home page: HP) is A4
The size is set between B4 size and B4 size. and,
Home position detection switch (photo interrupter)
The position when the position detecting member 38 blocks 39 from the left side in the figure is recognized as "0", and the position when the position detecting member 38 cuts off from the opposite direction is recognized as 'N1eJ'. Also, A4 size and B
The 1st digit of the movable guide plate 33 corresponding to the 5 sizes is set to 'N+J' and 'N2 J, respectively, and the positions of the B4 size and A3 size are set to 'N3 J and', respectively.
N4" is set.

This copying machine 1 has a control section 40 as shown in FIG. The control unit 40 includes a CPU, ROM, RAM, and I
It includes a microcomputer with 10 boats, etc. The control unit 4o includes an operation panel 41, a document presence detection switch 42 provided on the automatic document feeder 13, and a document size detection switch 4 provided below the document table 12.
3, a cassette size detection switch 44 for detecting the paper feed cassette size in the paper feed unit 2, and a home position detection switch 39 shown in FIG. The control unit 40 also includes a document feed drive unit 45 of the automatic document feeder 13, a cassette feed drive unit 46 for feeding paper from a cassette in the paper feed unit 2, and a stepper drive unit 46 shown in FIG. A width adjustment motor drive section 47 for driving the motor 37, an image forming section 48, and other input/output sections are connected.

Next, the operation will be explained according to the control flowcharts shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

When the program starts, step Sl in FIG.
Initial settings such as setting the copy mode to a general one-sided copy mode and setting the number of copies to "1" are performed. Note that in the initial setting of step S1, a flag F for identifying the moving direction of the movable guide plate 33 is set to "0". In addition, the movable guide plate 33
is set to the home position (position "0").

Next, in steps 32 to S4, it is determined what instruction has been given from the operation panel 41. That is,
In step S2, it is determined whether or not the print key has been pressed, and in step S3, it is determined whether or not the copy mode switching key has been pressed.

In step S4, it is determined whether a key for instructing other processing has been pressed. If the key for switching the copy mode is pressed, the program moves from step S3 to step S5. In step S5,
The copy mode is set based on a command from the operator, and the set copy modes include a mode for single-sided copying such as boat fishing, a double-sided copy mode for copying on both sides of a sheet, and the like.

When the operator presses the print key to start copying, the program moves from step S2 to step S6. In step S6, it is determined whether the copy mode is double-sided copy mode.If the copy mode is other than single-sided copy mode, the process moves to step S7, and copy processing is performed according to the set mode.

If the duplex mode is set as the copy mode, the process moves from step S6 to step S8. In step S8, the automatic document feeder 13 is instructed to feed the document. As a result, the original placed on the original placing section 14 is set on the original table 12 of the copying machine main body 1 by the original transport section 15. Next, in step S9, the original is set on the original table 12. Load the original size.

Then, in step 310, a paper feed cassette of an appropriate size is selected from within the paper feed unit 2 according to the document size read in step S9. Next, the process moves to step 311 to execute a reconciliation subroutine.

In the width adjustment subroutine shown in FIG. 5B, in step P1, it is determined whether the movable guide plate 33 is at the home position. In the initial setting of step PI, the movable guide plate 33
has been moved to the home position, so after the power switch is turned on, if it is the first document, step P
YES is determined in L.

On the other hand, after the copying process has started -1, the movable guide plate 33 has moved to a position of any size depending on the paper size, so the determination in step P1 is NO and the process moves to step P2. .

In step P2, it is determined whether the paper size selected in step SIO is the same size as the previously used size (distortion force). If the sizes are the same, this subroutine is ended and the process returns to the main routine shown in FIG. 5A. Further, if the current paper size is different from the previous size, the process moves from step P2 to step P3. In step P3, the flag F indicating the moving direction of the movable guide plate 33 is set to "1".
”. In the initial setting, flag F is "0".
”, but after the copy process starts, it is set to “0” or “1” depending on the paper size. That is, if the paper size used last time was A4 size or B5 size, flag F is set to "1", and if A3 size or B4 size, flag F is set to "0". There is. Here, it is assumed that the movable guide plate 33 moves to the left in FIG. 3 when the stepping motor 37 rotates in the forward direction, and moves to the right when the stepping motor 37 rotates in the reverse direction.

If it is determined in step P3 that the flag F is "1", the process moves to step P4. In step P4, the stepping motor 37 starts rotating in reverse. As a result, the movable guide plate 33, which had been moving leftward in FIG. 3 from the home position, moves rightward.Next, in step P5, it is determined whether the home position detection switch 39 is turned on. do. When the movable guide plate 33 continues to move rightward due to the reverse rotation of the stepping motor 37, the position detection member 38 interrupts the photointerrupter, thereby turning on the home position detection switch 39. When this is detected, the program moves from step P5 to step P6, and the rotation of the stepping motor 37 is stopped. And step P
7, the initial movement value of the movable guide plate 33 is set to "0".

On the other hand, if the flag F is "0", that is, if the movable guide plate 33 has moved to the right of the home position in FIG. 3, the determination in step P3 is NO. Then, the process moves to step P8 and the stepping motor 37 is rotated in the forward direction. As a result, the movable guide plate 33 starts moving to the left in FIG. Next, in step P9, it is determined whether the position detection member 3 of the movable guide plate 33 has interrupted the photointerrupter. When the position detection member 38 interrupts the photointerrupter and the home position detection switch 39 is turned on, steps P9 to P
Move to lO. In step PIO, the stepping motor 37 is stopped and the process shifts to step pH. In the step pH, the initial movement value of the movable guide plate 33 is set to "NoJ". That is, when the movable guide plate 33 moves to the left and the home position detection switch 39 is turned on, and conversely, when the movable guide plate 33 moves from the right direction and the home position detection switch 39 is turned on, it is turned on. In the case of Adjust the amount of movement.

As described above, the movable guy 1' plate 33 is returned to the home position (the position of "0" or "-N.") Next, in step P12, the paper size selected in step S10 is B5 or A4 size. Determine whether or not. B
5 or A4 size, the process moves to step P13, the flag F is set to "1", and step P14
Then, the rotation amount of the stepping motor 37 is instructed according to the size, and the stepping motor 37 is rotated in the forward direction. For example, if the paper is B5 size, Q indicates the movement position N2.

Then, depending on the initial position (0 or -No), the amount of movement (
A rotation amount corresponding to N=0) or (NZ +N1) is calculated, and the movable guide plate 33 moves to the B5 size digit 1. In addition, in the case of A4 size, specify position N1,
Move by (N+ 0) or (Nl + N0).

Further, if the paper size is B4 size or A3 size, it is determined No in step P12 and step P15 is determined.
to move to. In step P15, flag F is set to "0". Then, the process moves to step P16, and the stepping motor 37 is reversely rotated by a predetermined amount depending on the paper size. As a result, if the paper size is 84 size, -
The movable guide plate 33 moves to the position N, and in the case of A3 size, moves to the -N4 digit 1.

When the width adjustment subroutine (not shown in FIG. 5B) is completed, the process returns to the main routine shown in FIG. 5A and proceeds to step S12. In step S12, double-sided copy processing is performed on the paper. Next, in step S13, it is determined whether double-sided copying for the set number of sheets has been completed. If the processing for the set number of sheets has not been completed, step S12 is repeatedly executed. When the copying process for the set number of sheets is completed, the process moves from step S13 to step 514. In step S14, it is determined whether there is a document on the document placement section 14 of the automatic document feeder 13. If there is a document, the process returns from step S14 to step S8, and the processes from step S8 to step S13 described above are repeatedly executed.

When this process is repeatedly executed, if it is determined in step P2 that the paper is the same size as the previous paper in the convergence zero subroutine, the process returns to the main routine from step P2. Moreover, in the case of different sizes, the above-mentioned operation is executed. That is, in step P3, the movable guide plate 33 is moved depending on the previous paper size.
The position of the movable guide plate 33 is determined by the flag F (set in steps P13 and P15), and the rotational direction of the stepping motor 37 is thereby controlled to temporarily return the movable guide plate 33 to the home position. Thereafter, the movable guide plate 33 is moved by an amount corresponding to the paper size.

When the double-sided copying process is completed for all documents, the process returns from step S14 to step S2.

Further, if an instruction to execute other processing is input from the operation panel, steps S4 to S515
to move to. In this step S15, processing according to the input instruction is executed.

Note that a similar width adjustment operation is performed in the composite mode as well.

As described above, in this embodiment, the home position of the movable guide plate 33 is set at an intermediate position between A4 size and B size, so the amount of movement of the movable guide plate 33 is small, and the copy processing speed amplifier can be achieved.

[Other Examples]

(a) In the embodiment described above, the home position of the movable guide plate 33 was set at an intermediate position between A4 size and B4 size, but the home position may be set, for example, near a frequently used paper size.

In the above embodiments, the case where the alignment device of the present invention is provided in the intermediate tray has been described, but it can also be used in a sheet post-processing device that staples a predetermined number of sheets discharged from a copying machine, for example. The present invention can also be applied to a discharge tray.

(C) In the embodiment described above, the present invention is applied to an apparatus that performs width adjustment using a one-sided reference, but the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where width adjustment is performed using a center reference.

In this case, both of the pair of guide plates may be movable in the paper width direction, and both guide plates may be set between the maximum paper width size and the minimum paper width size.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the present invention, since the movable plate for adjusting the width of paper is set between the maximum width size and the minimum width size of the paper to be used, the amount of movement of the movable plate during width adjustment operation is small. Image forming speed can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional configuration diagram of a copying machine in which an embodiment of the present invention is adopted, FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing an intermediate tray portion thereof, and FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of FIG. 2. , FIG. 4 is a control block diagram of the copying machine, and FIGS. 5A and 5B are its control flowcharts. 23... Intermediate tray, 30... Width adjustment device, 31
... Riding board, 32... Fixed guide plate, 33... Movable guide plate, 34... Pin, 35... Wire, 36
...Pulley, 37...Stepping motor, 38.
. . . Positioning member, 39 . . . Hoe position detection switch, 40 . . . Control unit. Patent Applicant Sanda Kogyo Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Yukio Ono Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 1, N Statement I〃 Figure 5 ArIA Figure 4 Figure 5B

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A width adjustment device installed in a tray that stores paper to adjust the width of the transported sheets, which is movable in the width direction of the sheets stored in the storage tray. a movable plate that can come into contact with one side edge of the paper, and a drive control means for moving the movable plate a predetermined amount from a reference position depending on the size of the paper to be stored, the reference position of the movable plate is a paper storage tray width adjustment device that is set between the maximum and minimum width sizes of the paper being used.