JPH0471812B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] This invention relates to a paper feeding device for a copying machine, and in particular to a copying machine that improves the insertion direction of a paper feeding cassette and reduces the occurrence of noise and malfunctions. This relates to the paper feeding device of the machine.

[Prior art]

Generally, in a copying machine, paper is transported in the left-right direction inside the copying machine, and the insertion direction of the paper cassette and the paper feeding direction are the same. In contrast, the conventional copying machine is constructed so that the paper feed cassette can be inserted from either the left or right direction of the copying machine.

However, with this type of conventional copying machine, space must be secured on the side of the copying machine to insert the paper feed cassette, which increases the space required to install the copying machine. Therefore, it has the drawback that the place where it can be installed is restricted, and it is very difficult to operate because the paper feed cassette must be inserted and removed from the sides of the copying machine, that is, from the left and right. This has the disadvantage that the copying work becomes a complicated work.

Furthermore, when the paper cassette is inserted, the middle plate of the paper cassette is raised by the middle plate push-up lever so that the upper surface of the topmost sheet of the paper stack comes into contact with the paper feed roller, or the middle plate of the paper cassette is pushed up each time the paper is fed. There are devices that move the middle plate up and down by operating a lever, but the former has the disadvantage that the mechanism is complicated and that it becomes heavy due to the large load that is applied when inserting the paper feed cassette. Moreover, the latter type has the disadvantage that it generates a sound every time paper is fed, is noisy, and is prone to failure.

[Purpose of the invention]

This invention eliminates the drawbacks of the conventional copying machine as described above, and allows the paper feed cassette to be inserted from the front of the copying machine, thereby saving the space originally reserved for operating the copying machine. This makes it possible to reduce the installation space of a copying machine by making effective use of it, improve operability when installing and removing paper cassettes, and reduce malfunctions and noise generation. The purpose is to provide a paper feeding device for copying.

[Structure of the invention]

The present invention provides a paper feeding device for a copying machine in which paper is conveyed in the left-right direction, and in which a paper storage means is taken in and out from the front of the copying machine. an intermediate plate whose other end is movable up and down, and on the copying machine side,
a push-up piece for positioning the intermediate plate in a lower position, which is a non-operating position, and a raised position, which is an operating position; and a push-up piece that is operated to raise the intermediate plate to the operating position, when a copying operation is started. and a mechanism that operates the push-up piece to maintain this state during the copying operation and lower the intermediate plate to the non-operating position after the copying operation is completed. This is a configuration of a paper device.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the invention shown in the drawings will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows a copying machine equipped with a paper feeding device according to the present invention, and this copying machine is equipped with a charging corona around a photosensitive drum 1, which is an image carrier, for charging the surface of the photosensitive drum 1. Discharger 2 and lamp 3
A focusing light transmitter (self-occurring lens) that forms an electrostatic latent image by condensing light reflected from the document surface (not shown) onto the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1.
4, a developer 5 for developing the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1, and a transfer corona radiation for transferring the toner image developed by the developer 5 from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1 to paper. An electric appliance 6, a separation corona discharger 7 that separates the paper onto which the toner image has been transferred by the transfer corona discharger 6 from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1, and a separation corona discharger 7 that separates the paper onto which the toner image has been transferred by the transfer corona discharger 6 from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1 after the toner image has been separated. Cleaning devices 8 for cleaning are disposed close to the photoreceptor drum 1 and sequentially along the front in the direction of rotation thereof.

On the other hand, since the paper feed cassette 50 is in the state shown in FIG. ,
The paper passes through the U-turn roller 12, the nip roller 14, the loop section paper guide plate 17, the secondary paper feed roller (registration roller) 15, and is guided to the transfer section through the gap between the paper guide plate 19 and the transfer opening paper guide plate 18. Then, the toner image is transferred from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1 by a transfer corona discharger 6, and then separated from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 1 by a separation corona discharger 7, passed through a paper guide plate 9, and then transferred to a fixing device 10. After the transferred image is fixed, it is ejected from the apparatus by a paper ejection roller 16, and only one sheet of paper can be fed into one sheet without feeding the paper from the paper feed cassette 50. Copying is also possible when sheets are fed by the sheet feeding guide plate 20.

As shown in FIG. 6, this copying machine is provided with an insertion opening 34 for the paper feed cassette 50 on the front side, and a storage chamber for the paper feed cassette 50 is formed inside the insertion opening 34, and a storage chamber for the paper feed cassette 50 is formed at the back of the storage chamber. A paper feed cassette 50 is mounted on the wall 26.
A middle plate push-up mechanism 35 is provided for pushing up the middle plate pivotally mounted in the paper feed cassette 50 so as to be swingable in the vertical direction when the paper feed cassette 50 is inserted. This middle plate pushing up mechanism 35 is connected to the back wall 2 as shown in FIGS.
6, a drive shaft 3 in which a rotary plate 22 having a protruding pin 25 at an eccentric position passes through the back wall 26.
A pair of lever members 23 and 24 are connected to the back wall 26 and are rotatably arranged, and furthermore, a pair of lever members 23 and 24 are provided, each of which has one end pivotally connected to the rear wall 26 and can swing in the vertical direction. 23 is located above the pin 25 of the rotary plate 22, and a spring 30, which is a biasing member, is stretched between the other ends of both lever members 23 and 24. Furthermore, the back wall 2
6 is provided with a protrusion 27 for regulating the upper limit position of the other lever member 24.

The other lever member 24 has a push-up piece 2 facing the lower opening 29 of the paper feed cassette 50.
8 are connected together.

Note that 31 is a document placement table provided on the top surface of the copying machine, 32 is an operation section, and 33 is a paper discharge tray provided on the left side of the copying machine.

Next, the operation of the above will be explained.

First, when the paper feed cassette 50 is inserted into the insertion slot 34 from the front side of the copying machine, the push-up piece 28 of the middle plate push-up mechanism 35 is moved to the other side because the rotary plate 22 is in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. The lever member 24 is the fourth
It is in the state shown by the solid line in the figure, and is therefore located below the movement range when the paper feed cassette 50 is inserted in the state shown in FIG. 3, so that the paper feed cassette 50 can be smoothly inserted and positioned. It is something that

First, the power is turned on, and after operating the operation unit 32 to set predetermined conditions (number of copies, etc.), press the start button to start the copying operation. Drive shaft 2
1 is rotated by 180° from the state shown in FIG. 4 by a driving source (not shown) to the state shown by the dashed line. As the rotary plate 22 rotates, the one lever member 23 is raised by a pin 25 protruding from the rotary plate 22 and swings to the state shown by the dashed line in FIG. As the one lever member 23 swings, the member 24 swings upward via the spring 30 and assumes the state shown by the dashed line. Since the push-up piece 28 is integrally connected to the other lever member 24, the push-up piece 28 also rises and protrudes from the lower opening 29 of the paper feed cassette 50, thereby lifting the middle plate of the paper feed cassette 50. 54 and move it as shown in the fifth figure. In this case, since the upper limit position of the other lever member 24 is regulated by the protrusion 27 protruding from the back wall 26, the stack of sheets placed on the top surface of the middle plate 54 is moved to an optimal position. It is something that After this, photoreceptor drum 1
The paper feed roller 11 rotates in synchronization with the rotation of the paper at a predetermined timing, whereby the paper fed out from the paper feed cassette 50 is conveyed in the left and right directions within the copying machine, the original image is transferred and fixed, and then the paper is ejected. Tray 3
3 is discharged on top.

When the copying operation of the setting contents is completed in this way, the drive shaft 21 is rotated 180 degrees again by the drive source to reach the state shown by the solid line in FIG. In addition, the middle plate 54 of the paper feed cassette 50 is also in the state shown in FIG. 3, and there is no fear that the paper feed cassette 50 will get caught when being pulled out.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the same members as in the previous embodiment are given the same numbers and their explanations will be omitted.

In this embodiment, retractable rail members 61 are arranged on both sides of the insertion opening 34 of the paper feed cassette 50, and a tray 62 is installed between the rail members 61. Paper cassette 5
0 on the top surface of the tray 62 and then push it forward, the paper feed cassette 50 can be placed in the proper paper supply position. A middle plate pushing up mechanism 35 pushes up a middle plate 54 of the paper feed cassette 50.

In the embodiment described above, the upward U-shaped push-up piece 28 is integrally connected to the other lever member 24, and when the other lever member 24 is raised, the push-up piece 28 is connected integrally with the other lever member 24.
Although the structure is such that the center plate 54 is moved upward by the movement of the center plate 8, the present invention is not limited to this, and the main point is that the center plate 54 may be moved up and down by a swinging lever member.

〔Effect of the invention〕

By configuring this invention as described above,
The paper cassette can be inserted and removed by using the space on the front side of the copying machine that is reserved from the beginning for operating the copying machine. Since there is no need to secure space for copying, the installation space of the copying machine can be made smaller, and the operation of inserting and removing the paper cassette can be done from the same position as the copying operation, making it extremely easy to operate. improves. Furthermore, since the middle plate of the paper feed cassette is moved up and down only after the paper feed cassette is loaded and when the copying machine is started and the copying operation begins, the paper is reliably placed in the paper feed position. Furthermore, since the middle plate of the paper feed cassette moves up and down the same number of times as the number of copying operations, noise generation and malfunctions are reduced, and the paper feed cassette is fed without any load being applied when installing and removing it. This has excellent effects such as the ability to smoothly attach and detach paper cassettes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional plan view of the paper feed cassette insertion part, FIG. 3 is a view taken along the - line in FIG. 2, and FIG. Figure 4 is a view taken along the - line in Figure 2.
Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the middle plate pushing up mechanism and the middle plate of the paper feed cassette, Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the one shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing another embodiment. It is a diagram. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Photosensitive drum, 2... Charging corona discharger, 3... Lamp, 4... Focusing light transmission body, 5...
...Developer, 6...Corona discharger for transfer, 7...Corona discharger for separation, 8...Cleaning device,
9, 19... Paper guide plate, 10... Fixing device, 11
... Paper feed roller, 12 ... U-turn roller, 1
3, 14...Nip roller, 15...Secondary paper feed roller, 16...Paper discharge roller, 17...Loop section paper guide plate, 18...Transfer opening guide plate, 20...1
Sheet feed guide plate, 21... Drive shaft, 22... Rotating plate, 23, 24... Lever member, 25... Pin,
26...Back wall, 27...Protrusion, 28...Pushing piece, 29...Opening, 30...Spring, 31...Document placement table, 32...Operation unit, 33...Output tray, 34 ...insertion port, 35...middle plate push-up mechanism,
50...Paper feed cassette, 54...Middle plate, 55,5
6...Separation claw, 58...Handle, 61...Rail member, 62...Tray.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a paper feeding device for a copying machine in which paper is conveyed in the left-right direction, and in which a paper storage means 50 is taken in and out from the front of the copying machine, one end is pivotally supported by the paper storage means 50. An intermediate plate 54 whose other end is movable up and down is disposed, and the intermediate plate 54 is placed in a lower position, which is a non-operating position, on the side of the copying machine.
and a push-up piece 28 which is positioned at the raised position which is the operating position, and when the copying operation starts, the pushing-up piece 28 is actuated to raise the intermediate plate 54 to the operating position, and this state is maintained during the copying operation. A paper feeding device for a copying machine, comprising a mechanism 35 for holding the intermediate plate 54 and operating the push-up piece 28 to lower the intermediate plate 54 to the non-operating position after the copying operation is completed.