JPH05261984A - Automatic setting mechanism for continuous paper - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the manual work in the printing, shorten time for starting the printing, and prevent failure in positioning caused by visual observation, by feeding paper automatically in accordance with a length of a two-fold part recognized in response to detected result of paper thickness and sprocket hole at setting continuous paper. CONSTITUTION:A leading page of continuous paper 14 is folded back along machined stitches and set to an optional position at a lower part of a tractor 4. Next, the tractor 4 is driven so as to feed the paper to the upper part of the tractor. When the head of the paper passes a sprocket hole detecting mechanism 2, generated pulses are counted. After a paper thickness detecting mechanism 3 is started to detect displacement of the paper thickness, at the time that the detecting mechanism 3 has sensed the displacement of the thickness of the paper being fed, the number of counted sprocket holes are stored in a memory, so that a paper length per one page of the continuous paper 14 can be calculated from the stored value. Thereafter, the value of the counter of the detecting mechanism 2 is cleared at every completion of detection for one page, and counting is started again.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a continuous paper setting mechanism in a printing apparatus using continuous paper as a printing medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing apparatus using a continuous paper as a printing medium, as shown in FIG.
1 is inserted into the tractor pin 22 provided on the first sheet, and the continuous paper 14 is held by the paper cover 20. In this state, the tractor unit 21 is driven to feed the continuous paper 14 through the guide 19, the developing unit 18, the fixing unit 17, and the feed roller 16 and visually confirm that it has entered the stack unit 15. The portion 21 is skipped and the perforation 13 of the continuous paper 14 is visually aligned with the print start position. With the above work, the printing apparatus is in a standby state.

[0003]

As described above, in the paper setting in the conventional printing apparatus, a lot of manual work is required, and the perforation 13 of the continuous paper 14 is likely to be misaligned, and printing is performed as it is. When starting the printing, it becomes impossible to print each page on the continuous paper.
Further, since the paper length per page of the continuous paper 14 cannot be determined, it is necessary for the user to visually check, and the position of the perforation 13 must be adjusted each time.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An automatic continuous sheet setting mechanism of the present invention is a sheet thickness detecting mechanism for detecting the sheet thickness of a continuous sheet which is a printing medium, and sprockets provided on both side ends of the continuous sheet. A sprocket hole detection mechanism that detects and counts holes, and recognizes the length of the folded part of the continuous paper when setting the continuous paper according to the paper thickness and the detection result of the sprocket hole. And tractor means for automatically feeding the continuous paper in accordance with the above.

[0005]

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

1A and 1B are a side view and a partial top view of an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a fixing unit, 2 is a sprocket hole detecting mechanism, 3 is a paper thickness detecting mechanism, 4 is a tractor unit, 5 is a developing unit, 6 is a stacker unit, and 7 is a paper detecting sensor.

The sprocket hole detecting mechanism 2 is shown in FIG.
A mechanism as shown in (a) and (b) is used, and reference numeral 10 in FIG. 2 denotes a light source and 11 denotes a light receiving element. FIG. 3 shows a signal waveform generated by turning on / off the light from the light source 10 to the light receiving element 11 in FIG. That is, the period a in FIG.
The period in which the light emitted from the light source 10 passes through the sprocket hole 12 of the continuous paper 14 and is received by the light receiving element 11, and the period b is a period in which the light is blocked by the continuous paper 14 and is not received by the light receiving element 11. Is.

FIGS. 4A to 4E are partial side views showing the process of the continuous paper 14 passing through the paper thickness detecting mechanism 3 in this embodiment. The leading page of the continuous paper 14 is folded back along the perforations and set at an arbitrary position below the tractor unit 4 (FIG. 4A). Next, the tractor unit 4 is driven to feed the paper to the upper part of the tractor (FIG. 4 (b)).
When the head of the sheet passes through the sprocket hole detecting mechanism 2 (not shown), the pulses generated as shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B and 3 are counted. After the paper thickness detection mechanism 3 starts to detect the displacement of the paper thickness (FIG. 4C), when the paper thickness detection mechanism detects the displacement of the paper thickness during feeding (FIG. 4D), until then. The number of sprocket holes that have been counted is stored in the memory, and the paper length per page of the continuous paper 14 can be calculated from the stored count value of the sprocket holes.

In the subsequent feeding operation (see FIG.
(E)) Whenever the detection of one page of sprocket holes is completed, the value of the hole counter of the sprocket hole detection mechanism 2 is cleared to zero and the counting is started again. By this reset operation, the position of the perforation at the page edge of the continuous paper 14 fed on the tractor unit 4 can always be recognized. When the leading end of the continuous paper 14 begins to enter the stacker unit 6, the paper detection sensor 7 detects the presence of paper. After this, a timer for a few seconds is turned on so that the continuous paper 14 is completely
Let them enter.

After the end of this timer, paper feeding is continued until the count value of the sprocket hole at that time becomes equal to the previously stored value, and the feed operation is stopped when both count values become equal. The automatic setting of the continuous paper 14 is completed.

In the present embodiment, the case of an electrophotographic printing apparatus has been illustrated, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is clear that the effect can be obtained by any printing apparatus regardless of the printing method. Even continuous paper without perforations can be used for positioning other than the printing device because the paper length can be automatically detected by folding the paper into a length of one page.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically detect and automatically set the paper length per page of continuous paper, and to manually check the paper length for each paper and to check the paper feed. This eliminates the need for positioning work, reduces manual work during printing, shortens the time required to start printing, and realizes the phenomenon of visual positioning error.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are a side view and a partial top view of an embodiment.

2A and 2B are partial perspective views of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a signal waveform diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A to 4E are partial side views of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a conventional printing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 fixing unit 2 sprocket hole detection mechanism 3 paper thickness detection mechanism 4 tractor unit 5 developing unit 6 stacker unit 7 paper detection sensor 10 light source 11 light receiving element 12 sprocket hole 13 perforations 14 continuous paper

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A paper thickness detecting mechanism for detecting a paper thickness of continuous paper as a printing medium, a sprocket hole detecting mechanism for detecting and counting sprocket holes provided at both side ends of the continuous paper, and the continuous paper. And a tractor means for recognizing the length of the folded portion of the continuous sheet according to the detection result of the sheet thickness and the sprocket hole when setting the sheet and automatically feeding the continuous sheet according to the length. A continuous paper automatic setting mechanism characterized by being equipped with.