JPH0524282A - Sheet feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an inexpensive sheet feeder wherein not only aligning of sheet but also transfer of sheet can be surely performed and simple construction can be accomplished in comparison with a conventional aligning device. CONSTITUTION:A stopper holder 4 provided with on its end a stopper 7 with which the leading end of a sheet can be brought into contact is disposed on the body of a device 20 so as to rotate in a vertical direction. Opposite to a lower sheet feeding roller 2 which is disposed at the rear of the stopper 7 so as to be rotated by a motor 10, a cylindrical upper sheet feeding roller 1 is provided on the holder 4 so as to be rotatable and vertically movable about a supporting axis 3 passing through the interior of the roller 1, while the axis 3 is urged downward by a spring 6. An eccentric cam 8 is in contact with the stopper holder 4 to rotate it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device used in small printers, facsimiles and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of paper feeding device, a user himself / herself inserts a print medium such as paper (hereinafter, simply referred to as paper) into a printing section. It was common that only rollers were provided for transport. However, when the user inserts the paper, the paper may be inserted obliquely, so that the oblique printing is performed on the paper, and the paper has to be newly inserted and the printing operation has to be redone.

Therefore, the present applicant has proposed a device for automatically aligning sheets even when the sheets are obliquely inserted,
I am applying. As shown in FIG. 4, this device exposes a part of the paper feed roller 32 upward from below the device body 30 through the opening 30a.
An idle roller 31 is provided so as to face the No. 2. The paper feed roller 32 is rotated by a motor (not shown). The idle roller 31 is formed of a cylindrical body, penetrates a support shaft 33 inside the roller 31, supports the roller 31 rotatably, and urges both ends of the support shaft 33 downward by springs 36. A stopper 37 is arranged in front of the rollers 31 and 32 so as to be able to move up and down. When the paper is inserted, the paper feed roller 32 rotates, and the paper is conveyed forward by the rotation of the idle roller 31 located above. At this time, the stopper 37 is descending on the apparatus main body 30, and the leading edge of the paper hits the stopper 37. After the paper hits the stopper 37, the paper feed roller 32 is rotated for a while, so that the leading edge of the paper hits the stopper 37 in the width direction and is aligned. At the position of the paper, the leading edge of which has already abutted against the stopper 37, the paper feed roller 32 idles and the paper is not conveyed any more.

FIG. 5 (a) shows a thin paper conveyance state, in which the paper A is fed under the weight of the idle roller 31. On the other hand, FIG. 5B shows a state in which a thick print medium such as a passbook is conveyed, and the passbook A and the like are sent under the urging force of the spring 36 together with the own weight of the idle roller 31.

[0005]

The above-mentioned sheet aligning device proposed by the present applicant has an advantage that thin sheets to thick sheets such as passbooks can be aligned. However, in the aligning device, when a certain load is applied to the paper, the paper feed roller idles, so that a separate means for transporting the paper is required. Therefore, there is room for improvement because the structure becomes complicated and the manufacturing cost becomes high.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and can not only align the sheets but also reliably convey the sheets. Further, the structure is complicated as compared with the aligning device described above. However, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive paper feeding device.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention has a stopper holder provided with a stopper at the front end on which the front end of the paper can abut on the main body of the apparatus. It is movably arranged, is arranged in the main body of the apparatus behind the stopper, and a cylindrical upper paper feed roller is rotatably arranged facing the lower paper feed roller rotated by a motor. A support shaft that penetrates the paper feed roller is supported on the stopper holder and is urged toward the stopper holder by a spring.
An eccentric cam is brought into contact with the stopper holder, and the stopper holder is rocked by the rotation of the eccentric cam to move the stopper up and down, and when the stopper is raised, the support shaft is lowered together with the stopper holder, and the spring is moved by the spring. The upper paper feed roller is configured to be pressed against the lower paper feed roller.

[0008]

According to the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the pressing force of the upper paper feed roller is small when the stopper is lowered onto the apparatus main body and the lower end of the stopper is in contact with the apparatus main body. In this state, when the lower paper feed roller is rotated, the paper is sent along the main body of the apparatus between the lower paper feed roller and the upper end of the paper comes into contact with the stopper. Then, when the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with the stopper all over the width direction, the lower paper feed roller idles,
The paper is aligned.

Next, by rotating the eccentric cam in a predetermined direction by a predetermined angle, the front end side of the stopper holder is swung upward to raise the stopper from above the apparatus main body.
The support shaft moves down together with the stopper holder, and the spring force that urges the support shaft downward acts on the lower paper feed roller, increasing the pressing force of the upper paper feed roller against the lower paper feed roller. When the lower paper feed roller is rotated in this state, the paper is conveyed between the upper paper feed roller and the pressing force that has increased, and the paper passes below the stopper along the main body of the device and surely moves forward. Be transported.

In this way, by rotating the lower paper feed roller, it is possible to perform two operations of aligning the sheets and conveying the sheets.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the paper feeding device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a sheet feeding device, FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1 showing a sheet alignment state, and FIG. 3 is a front view of FIG. 1 showing a sheet conveyance state. Is shown.

As shown in FIG. 1, the upper paper feed roller 1
And the lower paper feed roller 2 are arranged to face each other vertically, and the paired paper feed rollers 1 and 2 are in parallel with each other and are in contact with each other. The upper paper feed roller 1 is composed of a cylindrical body with both ends open, and a pair of upper paper feed rollers in which a support shaft 3 having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of its hollow portion is arranged at regular intervals in its longitudinal direction. It penetrates through 1.

The lower paper feed roller 2 also comprises a pair of rollers corresponding to the upper paper feed roller 2, and the motor 10
Are integrally rotatably fixed to the drive shafts 10a. Further, each paper feed roller 2 is arranged at a predetermined position of the paper feeding device main body 20, and an upper portion thereof projects from an opening 20a (FIG. 2) formed in the main body 20.

Above the main body 20, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a frame-shaped stopper holder 4 having an L-shape when viewed from the side and having a paper stopper 7 at the front end is vertically moved by a pivot shaft 19. It is supported so that it can swing in any direction. The position of the pivot shaft 19 is near the front end of the stopper holder 4, and the rear end side of the stopper holder 4 is biased upward by the spring 11, and the stopper 7 at the front end of the stopper holder 4 contacts the main body 20 in a normal state. There is. The rear end of the stopper holder 4 is in contact with the regulating member 5 so that it does not swing upward any further.

As shown in FIG. 1, the upper paper feed roller 1 has a fitting groove 1a at the center of the outer peripheral surface thereof.
Through the slider 13a that fits and slides on the spring 1
The sheet 3 is urged downward by a relatively small force such that the sheet is conveyed by the frictional force during its rotation. The support shaft 3 projects from the upper surface of the stopper holder 2
It is arranged between two protrusions 4a and is urged downward by a spring 6 having a spring force considerably larger than that of the spring 13. Further, an engaging portion 4b that extends laterally is provided at a side edge portion on the rear end side of the stopper holder 4, and an eccentric cam 8 that is rotated by a motor 9 is provided on the lower surface of the engaging portion 4b.
Are in contact with each other, and the eccentric cam 8 is rotated by the motor 9, so that the front end side of the stopper holder 4 swings upward as shown in FIG. The spring force of the spring 11 is set to be larger than the combined spring force of the spring 6 and the spring 13.

Further, just behind the paper feeder main body 20,
Sensors 16 for detecting the paper are provided on the left and right, skew sensors 15 are provided on the left and right at the position of the stopper 7, and sensors 18 for detecting the discharge of the paper are provided on the left and right just in front of the stopper 7. Has been done. Above the rear end of the stopper holder 4 and below the sensor 12,
17 are provided, the stopper holder 4 contacts the upper sensor 17 when the sheets are aligned, and the stopper holder 4 contacts the lower sensor 12 when the sheet is conveyed to detect each state.

In the above embodiment, the upper paper feed roller 1 is biased downward by the spring 13 having a relatively small spring force. However, if the weight of the upper paper feed roller 1 is set to the spring force of the spring 13, The spring 13 may be omitted.

Next, the operation of the sheet feeding device of the above embodiment will be described. When this device is started by a push button (not shown), first the stopper holder 4
The sensors 12 and 17 detect whether or not the positional relationship between the apparatus main body 20 and the apparatus main body 20 is in a state in which sheets can be received. If the sensor 17 is OFF (the sensor 12 is ON), the sheet is not ready to be received, so the motor 9 rotates the eccentric cam 8 and swings the rear end side of the stopper holder 4 until it abuts against the regulating member 5. Then, the sheet is aligned as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the paper is fed from the rear side of the apparatus main body 2
When it is inserted into 0, the left and right sensors 16 detect the paper and the motor 10 starts rotating. At this time, if the paper is inserted at an extremely slanted position, one of the two sensors 16 cannot detect the paper.
By notifying the user by an alarm or the like and prompting the user to re-insert the paper, the degree of inclination when the paper is inserted can be regulated to some extent. The lower paper feed roller 2 is rotated by the rotation of the motor 10, the upper paper feed roller 1 is also rotated, and the paper is conveyed forward, and the leading end of the paper hits the stopper 7.

Then, by continuing the rotation of the lower paper feed roller 2, when the leading edge of the paper comes into contact with the stopper 7 over its entire width, the lower paper feed roller 2 idles and the paper is no longer conveyed. In other words, the sheets come into contact with the stopper 7 and are aligned. At this time, whether or not the sheets are aligned is detected by the skew sensors 15 on both sides, and when the sensors 15 on both sides are turned on,
The rotation of the lower paper feed roller 2 is stopped, and the paper alignment work is completed.

At the same time when the sensor 15 is turned on, as shown in FIG.
3 is changed to the sheet conveying state of FIG. That is, the motor 9 starts rotating, and by the rotation of the eccentric cam 8, the front end side of the stopper holder 4 swings upward with the pivot shaft 19 as a fulcrum against the spring 11 that biases the rear end side upward. Then, the stopper 7 rises from above the apparatus body 20. At this time, the rear end of the stopper holder 4 comes into contact with the sensor 12 and the sensor 12 is turned on, so that it is confirmed that the sheet is conveyed.

In this state, the rear end side of the stopper holder 4 is lowered, and the spring force of the spring 11 for urging the rear end side upward is restricted by the eccentric cam 8 and does not act on the support shaft 3. On the other hand, since the spring force of the springs 6 on both sides of the stopper holder 4 acts on the upper paper feed roller 1 via the support shaft 3 descending, the pressing force of the upper paper feed roller 1 on the lower paper feed roller 2 is reduced. It becomes stronger and the conveyance power of the paper increases. At this time, the support shaft 3 is in contact with the upper paper feed roller 1, and the stopper holder 4 is separated from the support shaft 3. Therefore, when the lower paper feed roller 2 rotates, the upper paper feed roller 1 also rotates in a sliding manner with respect to the non-rotating support shaft 3, and the paper is surely conveyed forward below the stopper 7 along the apparatus main body 20. It Although not shown, the stopper 7
A print head is provided immediately in front of the paper, and the paper is printed. When the paper is conveyed forward from the stopper 7, the paper presence sensor 16 detects this, the rotation of the motor 9 is stopped, and the lower paper feed roller 2
Also stops rotating.

[0024]

As is apparent from the above description, the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention uses not only the paper alignment but also the paper alignment using the pair of upper and lower paper feed rollers and the stopper, which are essential means for aligning the paper. Since the paper can be reliably transported, the structure is simple, compact, and the manufacturing cost is low.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a paper feeding device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the paper feeding device of FIG. 1, showing a paper alignment state.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the paper feeding device of FIG. 1, showing a paper conveyance state.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a sheet aligning device proposed by the applicant earlier.

5A and 5B are side views of the sheet aligning device of FIG. 4, wherein FIG. 5A shows a thin sheet aligning operation state, and FIG. 5B shows a thick print medium aligning operation state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Upper paper feed roller 2 Lower paper feed roller 3 Support shaft 4 Stopper holder 6/11/13 Spring 7 Stopper 8 Eccentric cam 9/10 Motor 15/16/17/18 Sensor 20 Paper feeder main body

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B65H 9/00 B 8922-3F 9/06 B 8922-3F

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A stopper holder provided with a stopper at the front end, which can contact the leading end of the paper, is swingably arranged in the vertical direction on the main body of the apparatus, and the stopper holder is provided behind the stopper. A cylindrical upper paper feed roller is rotatably arranged so as to face the lower paper feed roller which is disposed in the main body and is rotated by a motor. The eccentric cam is brought into contact with the stopper holder by being supported on the stopper holder and urged to the stopper holder side by a spring, and the stopper holder is rocked by the rotation of the eccentric cam to move the stopper up and down, and The support shaft lowers together with the stopper holder when the paper is raised, and the spring causes the upper paper feed roller to move the lower paper feed roller. Sheet feeding apparatus characterized by being configured so as to press against error.