JPH05170342A - Paper feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a paper feeding device which can prevent bias traveling of paper carried by a belt and so on without dropping processing speed in relation to improvement of the paper feeding device for separating and carrying the recording paper. CONSTITUTION:A paper feeding device is provided with a separation mechanism 20 comprising a carrier belt 1 wound around a plurality of pulleys 4, 5 and 6 and traveling along a recording medium carrier path 10 and a separation roller 2 arranged at the position close to the pulley 5 on the recording medium approach side in capable of rotation, and the delivered recording medium is carried by the separation mechanism 20. And a tilting adjusting means 3 is provided for tilting a shaft of the pulley 5 against a shaft of the separation roller 2 so that bias traveling of the recording medium carried the carrier belt 1 can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a sheet feeding device for separating and conveying recording sheets.

In an optical character reader or the like, the skew feeding of the medium affects the reading accuracy and the recognition processing speed. Therefore, in the paper feeding device used in the device, the feeding device is arranged along the reference plate on the hopper. The recording sheets (recording media) stacked with the same inclination are
It is required to feed the sheets one by one and convey them straight to the reading position. However, in recent years, the demand for transport accuracy has increased, but the accuracy of the constituent parts is limited in terms of cost, and it is difficult to satisfy these conflicting conditions.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art As one type of a sheet feeding device incorporated in a printer device, a scanner device or the like, there is one that uses a belt as a separating mechanism or a conveying mechanism instead of a roller. This type of conventional sheet feeding device includes a pick roller for feeding a sheet, and a separating mechanism for conveying the recording sheet fed by the pick roller. The separation mechanism is configured to include a belt around the driving pulley and the two driven pulleys, and a separation roller with a torque limiter that contacts the belt between the two driven pulleys.

When the paper is fed, the recording paper is fed out by the pick roller. The fed-out sheet enters between the belt and the separation roller, and is pressed against the separation roller by the belt and conveyed. The separating roller rotates when the number of fed sheets is one, but when two or more sheets are fed, it is stopped by the action of the torque limiter to prevent double feeding of the sheets.

[0005]

However, in this conventional sheet feeding device, the sheet is skewed at the belt conveying portion. This is because it is difficult to improve the degree of parallelism between the shafts of the pulleys and the separation roller. Also, in the case of a sheet feeding device that conveys a sheet by a driving roller and a pinch roller, skewing of the sheet becomes a problem. To solve this problem,
There has also been attempted a method in which the belt portion retracts from the medium after the separation and feeding operation of the medium is completed, and the medium is brought into contact with the reference surface to improve the skew accuracy. However, this method is not a good idea because it reduces the processing speed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding device capable of preventing skew of a sheet conveyed by a belt or the like without lowering the processing speed.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the present invention, a conveyor belt which is stretched over a plurality of pulleys and travels along a recording medium conveying path, and the pulley on the recording medium entrance side are provided. In a paper feeding device that is provided with a separation mechanism including a separation roller that is arranged so as to rotate in contact with the conveyor belt at an adjacent position, in the paper feeding device that conveys the recording medium fed by the separation mechanism, Inclination adjusting means is provided for variably inclining the shaft of the pulley with respect to the shaft of the separation roller so as to prevent skew of the recording medium conveyed by the conveyor belt (first constitution). Configuration).

Further, in the paper feeding device which comprises a driving roller and a pinch roller which rotates in contact with the driving roller and which conveys the recording medium fed out by the conveying mechanism, the shaft of the pinch roller is provided. Is provided with tilt adjusting means for variably tilting the shaft of the drive roller so as to prevent skewing of the recording medium conveyed by the drive roller (second structure). ..

Further, in the sheet feeding device of the second structure,
The pinch roller has a barrel shape (third configuration).

[Action]

In the case of the first configuration, by variably inclining the pulley shaft on the recording medium entrance side, the inclination of the conveying belt can be accurately adjusted by the pressure adjustment, and skewing of the recording medium can be prevented.

Further, in the case of the second configuration, the skew of the recording medium can be similarly prevented by variably inclining the pinch roller shaft.

Further, in the case of the third structure, even if the pinch roller is tilted, the pinch roller surely comes into contact with the drive roller, and smooth conveyance is realized.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3 show a first embodiment.

Prior to the description of this embodiment, an outline of an OCR scanner device to which the present invention is applied will be described. 7 is O
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural explanatory view of a CR scanner device, in which 100 is a paper feeding device. A sheet (original) conveyed by the sheet feeding device 100 is sent to the reading unit 101, where the sheet is read by irradiation with the fluorescent lamp 102. The sheet of paper that has been read is sent to a transport system including a plurality of feed rollers and discharged to the stacker 103. Paper feeder 1
The structure and operation of 00 are as follows.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the structure of the sheet feeding device 100 (see FIG.
(A) is a front view and FIG. 1 (B) is a side view. In the figure, 1 is a conveyor belt, 2 is a separation roller with a torque limiter, and 3 is an inclination adjusting means. The conveyor belt 1 and the separation roller 2 form a separation mechanism 20.

The conveyor belt 1 is wound around pulleys 4, 5 and 6, and is driven by a pulley 4 which is connected to a drive source 7 via a belt or the like and runs along a recording medium conveying path 10 as shown in FIG.
Drive in the direction of arrow A in (B). Each pulley 4, 5, 6
Is supported by a support plate 8, which is supported by a spring 9
Thus, the shaft of the pulley 4 is urged in the arrow B direction. As a result, the conveyor belt 1 is brought into pressure contact with the separation roller 2. The separation roller 2 has a built-in torque limiter and is arranged close to the pulley 5 on the recording paper entrance side. Reference numeral 19 (see FIG. 1B) is the shaft of the pick roller for feeding the recording paper.

The tilt adjusting means 3 is shown in detail in FIG. 2 (FIG. 2 (A) is a front view, FIG. 2 (B) is a side view, and FIG. 2 (C) is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. 2 (B)). As shown in the figure, it is composed of a bracket 11, a screw 12, and a support 13. The bracket 11 has one end 11 a fixed to the support plate 8 and the other end having a hole 1
4 and a slit 15 that communicates with the hole 14 has a two-pronged shape. The two-forked portion is provided with a hole 16 into which the screw 12 fits and a screw hole 17 into which the screw 12 is screwed. The support 13 has one end supporting the pulley 5 and the other end having a shaft 18.

The shaft 18 is fitted in the hole 14 and fixed by screwing the screw 12 inserted in the hole 16 into the screw hole 17 and tightening. This fixing is realized by utilizing the elasticity of the forked portion of the other end 11a of the bracket 11. As a result, the pulley 5 is supported by the support plate 8, and the inclination of the shaft of the pulley 5 with respect to the shaft of the separation roller 2 can be changed by loosening the screw 12 and rotating the support 13. And it can be adjusted precisely.

In this way, by operating the tilt adjusting means 3 to variably tilt the shaft of the pulley 5 on the recording paper entrance side, the tilt of the conveyor belt 1 abutting on the pulley 5 can be precisely adjusted. It is possible to precisely adjust the skew feed (skew) correction of the conveyed recording paper.
The change in the skew of the leading edge of the sheet due to the inclination of the shaft of the pulley 5 will be described with reference to FIG.

When the shaft of the pulley 5 is inclined with respect to the shaft of the separation roller 2 in the direction of FIG. 3A, the recording paper (recording paper) conveyed in the direction of the double arrow in FIG. Medium)
The tip skew change direction of 110 is in the arrow direction. Further, when the shaft of the pulley 5 is tilted in the direction of FIG. 3B, the leading edge skew change direction of the recording paper 110 is as shown in FIG.
It becomes the direction of the arrow of (D).

A second embodiment is shown in FIGS. This example is applied to a sheet feeding device that conveys a recording sheet fed out by a conveying mechanism including a driving roller and a pinch roller that is in pressure contact with the driving roller.

FIG. 4A is a structural explanatory view of the transport mechanism of this example (FIG. 4A is a front view and FIG. 4B is a side view), and the transport mechanism 21 is driven by a drive source (not shown). The drive roller 22 is rotated by being rotated, and the barrel-shaped pinch roller 23 is pressed against the drive roller 22. The pinch roller 23 is
It is possible to variably rotate around the rotation center D, and by this rotation, skew correction of the recording paper fed between both rollers can be precisely adjusted. This pinch roller 2
The rotation of 3 can be variably and precisely adjusted by operating the tilt adjusting means 28 shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a structural explanatory view of the pinch roller inclination adjusting means 28 (FIG. 5A is a front view, FIG. 5B is a right side view, and FIG. 5C is a left side view). 24 is a fixing member, and 25 is a supporting member. The pinch roller 23 is supported by a supporting member 25, and the supporting member 25 is fixed to the fixing member 24 by screws 26. The center of the screw 26 coincides with the center of rotation D.

When the pinch roller 23 is rotated about the rotation center D (adjustment of the shaft inclination of the pinch roller 23),
The screw 26 is loosened to rotate the support member 25 around the rotation center D by a predetermined amount, and the support member 25 is fixed to the fixing member 24 with the screw 27. After that, the screw 26 is also tightened to complete the adjustment. Reference numeral 29 is a guide groove provided on the fixing member 24 side for engaging the screw 27.

FIG. 6 shows an application example of this example. In the case of this example, the axis of the pinch roller 23 is tilted with respect to the axis of the drive roller 22 to perform skew correction. Pinch roller 2
When the axis of 3 is tilted in the direction of FIG. 6 (A), the tip skew change direction of the recording sheet 110 is in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 6 (C), and the axis of the pinch roller 23 is in the direction of FIG. 6 (B). When tilted, the change direction of the leading edge skew direction of the recording sheet 110 is in the arrow direction of FIG.

Although not shown, means for adjusting the inclination of the shaft of the pinch roller 23 in this way can be a means such as that shown in FIG. 2 of the previous example.

Further, since the barrel-shaped pinch roller is used in this example, even when the adjustment method as shown in FIG. 6 is adopted, the pinch roller contacts the drive roller irrespective of the inclination amount, and skew correction, The paper is transported smoothly.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, skew correction of a recording medium can be precisely adjusted, and the recording medium can be conveyed accurately. In particular, in the case of an expression in which the tilt of a barrel-shaped pinch roller is adjusted, the pinch roller contacts the drive roller regardless of the tilt amount, and skew correction and medium conveyance are smoothly performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory view of a sheet feeding device of a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 (A) is a front view and FIG. 1 (B) is a side view.

2 (A) is a front view, FIG. 2 (B) is a side view, and FIG. 2 (C) is FIG. 2 (B). 6 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory views of a change in the skew of the leading edge of the sheet due to the inclination of the pulley shaft according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIGS.
3B shows the direction of inclination of the pulley, and FIG.
(D) shows the direction in which the skew of the leading edge of the sheet changes due to this inclination.

FIG. 4 is a structural explanatory view of a transport mechanism of a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 (A) is a front view and FIG. 4 (B) is a side view.

5A and 5B are structural explanatory views of a pinch roller inclination adjusting means of a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5A being a front view and FIG.
Is a right side view, and FIG. 5C is a left side view.

6A and 6B are configuration and action explanation diagrams of an application example of the second embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 6A and 6B show the inclination direction of the pinch roller, and FIGS. 6 (D) shows the direction of change in the skew of the leading edge of the sheet due to this inclination.

FIG. 7 is a structural schematic explanatory diagram of an OCR scanner device to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Conveyor Belt 2 Separation Roller 3,28 Tilt Adjusting Means 5 Pulley 10 Recording Medium Conveying Path

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A conveyor belt (1) which is wound around a plurality of pulleys (4, 5, 6) and runs along a recording medium conveying path (10), and the pulley (5) on the recording medium entrance side. A separation mechanism (20) comprising a separation roller (2) arranged so as to rotate in contact with the conveyor belt (1) at a position close to the recording medium, and the recording medium fed by the separation mechanism (20). In the paper feeding device for transporting the sheet, the shaft of the pulley (5) is variable with respect to the shaft of the separation roller (2) so as to prevent skew of the recording medium transported by the transport belt (1). A sheet feeding device characterized in that an inclination adjusting means (3) for inclining is provided. 2. A transport mechanism (21) comprising a drive roller (22) and a pinch roller (23) which rotates in contact with the drive roller (22), and is fed by the transport mechanism (21). In a paper feeding device that conveys a recording medium, the shaft of the pinch roller (23) is connected to the drive roller (2
A sheet feeding device characterized by being provided with a tilt adjusting means (28) for variably tilting so as to prevent skewing of a recording medium conveyed by the driving roller (22) with respect to the shaft of 2). 3. The paper feeding device according to claim 2, wherein the pinch roller (23) has a barrel shape.