JPH0542241U - Automatic paper feeder hopper - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] The present invention is capable of accommodating strong rigid paper such as postcards separated / fed by the friction pad separation method and general paper separated / fed by the separation claw method. Regarding the hopper of the automatic paper feeder, it facilitates the operation of switching the width determining member (paper setting tool) for hard paper to the used state or the unused state on the pressure plate.
The purpose is to prevent damage. [Structure] The pressure plate rotatably supports a width determining member that can stand up and down, and the pressure plate is provided with a stopper that receives the rotation of the width determining member. The posture holding portion is formed, and the posture holding portion includes a receiving surface that receives the paper so as to be substantially flush with the paper receiving surface of the pressure plate, and a pressing elastic portion that gives a force for holding the width determining member in the upright state. Have

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention can accommodate rigid hard paper such as postcards that are separated and fed by the friction pad separation method, and general paper that is separated and fed by the separation claw method according to their left and right sizes. Hopper of a simple automatic paper feeder.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 Generally, in an automatic paper feeder that is detachably attached to a printer body, sheets stacked on a pressure plate of a hopper are pressed by a paper feed roller by a pressing means, and are separated and fed one by one to the printer body. However, general paper with weak stiffness is separated and fed by the separation claw method, while hard paper with strong stiffness such as postcards is separated and fed by the friction pad separation method.

As such an automatic sheet feeder, for example, one disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-31037 is known. This automatic paper feeder has a hopper slidably mounted on the frame body in the lateral direction, stacks and stores hard paper or general paper, and has a paper separation claw. It has a structure that can be detachably set. On the frame body, one friction separator that supports the hard papers stacked in the paper setting tool at the lower edge and that separates the hard papers is detachably attached, facing the friction separator. There is a paper feed roller that feeds hard paper. With this structure, one hopper realizes different separating / feeding methods.

Then, the paper setting tool is detachably attached to the pressure plate of the hopper. That is, in the case of rigid hard paper such as postcards, the paper setting tool is attached to the pressure plate, and the left and right positions of the hard paper are positioned by this paper setting tool and separated by the friction pad separation method. It is fed. In the case of general purpose paper, the paper setting tool is removed from the pressure plate, and the general paper is positioned in the left-right direction by the hopper from which the paper setting tool is removed, and then separated and fed by the separation claw method. ..

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 The hopper of the conventional automatic paper feeder is used by setting the paper setting tool on the pressure plate when handling a rigid hard paper such as a postcard, and by removing it from the pressure plate when not handling. It is troublesome to set and remove the paper setting tool to and from the pressure plate. Also, when the paper setting tool is removed from the pressure plate, the storage management of the paper setting tool is troublesome, and even if you look for it when necessary, you can immediately search for it. There is a risk of missing or damage or damage to the paper setting tool.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a width determining member (paper setting tool) for hard paper, which is used as needed, on a pressure plate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hopper for an automatic paper feeding device that facilitates the operation of switching to the used state or the unused state and prevents the width determining member from being lost or damaged.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 According to the present invention, a pressure plate that presses a stack of sheets of paper against a sheet feed roller is provided with a rotatable width determining member that has an engaging portion near a rotation axis along the sheet feeding direction. In addition, the pressure plate is provided with a stopper that receives the rotation of the width determining member when it stands up, and the pressure plate is provided with a posture maintaining portion that is located in the left-right direction adjacent to the width determining member to maintain the posture. The part is provided on the receiving surface that receives the width determining member so that the surface of the width determining member when lying down is substantially flush with the paper receiving surface of the pressure plate, and the engaging portion of the width determining member when standing up. It is characterized in that it has a pressing elastic portion for giving a turning force to hold the width-determining member in an upright state.

[0008]

[Action]

 In the present invention, when the width determining member is laid down on the concave receiving surface of the posture holding portion, the surface of the width determining member becomes substantially flush with the sheet receiving surface of the pressure plate. In the bulged state, a relatively wide ordinary paper is placed on the pressure plate with the width determining member lying down.

On the other hand, when the width determining member is in the upright state, the width determining member is given a turning force to its engaging portion by the pressing elastic portion of the posture maintaining portion, but the turning force is received by the stopper. Balanced and held upright. In such a state, a relatively narrow hard paper such as a postcard is placed on the pressure plate on which the width determining member is erected. The width determining member is used as a member for determining the horizontal position of the hard paper.

[0010]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 7 show a hopper of an automatic sheet feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer, which is composed of a printer main body 2 and an automatic paper feeder 3 which is detachably attached to the printer main body 2. There is. The automatic paper feeding device 3 has a frame 4 on which a paper feeding roller shaft 5 is rotatably mounted, and a pair of rubber paper feeding rollers 6 is provided in the middle of the paper feeding roller shaft 5. Is attached.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, 7 is a hopper located behind the paper feed roller shaft 5 and provided on the frame 4. The hopper 7 is a pair for pressing the entire paper against the paper feed roller 6. The pressure plates 8 and 8 are provided, and a pressing force is applied to the stacked sheets by a coil spring (not shown). A side guide 9 is formed at the outer end of each pressure plate 8, and a separation claw 10 is formed at the lower end corner below the side guide 9.

Separation slopes 4 A, 4 A facing the paper feed roller 6 and separating the paper are integrally provided in the frame 4. Further, a seat support 7A is movably provided on the frame 4 between the left and right pressure plates 8,8.

In FIG. 1 to FIG. 5, each pressure plate 8 is formed with a concave portion including a window portion 8A in a vertically long shape in the paper feeding direction, and a width determining member 11 is rotatably provided at the upper and lower edges of the window portion 8A. It is rotatably supported and can stand up and down with respect to the pressure plate 8. The width determining member 11 is located at a position separated from the separating claw 10 by a predetermined distance inward in the left-right direction, has a rectangular shape, and has a finger hook portion 11A formed on an upper portion thereof, and the width determining member is provided on a lower portion thereof. A cutout portion 11B for setting the member 11 is formed. An engaging portion 12 having a predetermined length is formed in the center of the width determining member 11 near the rotating shaft 11C along the sheet feeding direction.

Further, the pressure plate 8 is formed with an attitude holding portion 13 adjacent to the width determining member 11 and located inward of the pressure plate 11 in the left-right direction. The posture holding portion 13 is made of a thin plate body having two recessed grooves 15, 15 formed in the central portion of the concave surface 14, and one side portion thereof serves as a pressing elastic portion 16. The posture holding unit 13 receives the width determining member 11 so that the front surface 11A of the width determining member 11 when lying down is substantially flush with the sheet receiving surface 8B of the pressure plate 8. The pressing elastic portion 16 is composed of a plate-shaped elastic portion 16A and an inclined portion 16B formed at the tip of the plate-shaped elastic portion 16A, and is attached to the engaging portion 12 of the width determining member 11 when standing upright. The width determining member 11 is held in an upright state by applying a turning force.

Further, the pressure plate 8 is provided with a stopper formed of the wall surface 8C of the window portion 8A so as to stop the rotation of the width determining member 11 and maintain the upright position. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in the right pressure plate 8 in FIGS. 4, 5 and 2, when the width determining member 11 is laid down on the posture holding portion 13, the width determining member 8 is laid down. The surface 11A of 11 is substantially flush with the paper receiving surface 8B of the pressure plate 8. In this state, the relatively wide general paper P1 is placed on the pressure plate 8 with the width determining member 11 lying down. At that time, the side guides 9 of the pressure plate 8 are used for positioning the general paper P1 in the left-right direction, and the general paper P1 accommodated in the hopper 7 is separated by the separation claw 10.

On the other hand, as shown in the pressure plate 8 on the left side of FIGS. 1, 6, 7, and 2, when the width determining member 11 is set in the upright state, the width determining member 11 is attached to the engaging portion 12 thereof. A turning force is applied from the inclined portion 16B of the pressing elastic portion 16 of the posture holding portion 13, and the turning force is received by the stopper formed of the wall surface 8C, and the width determining member 11 is held in the standing state. In this state, a relatively narrow hard paper P2 such as a postcard is placed on the pressure plate 8 on which the width determining member 11 is erected. The width determining member 11 is used as a member for determining the lateral position of the hard paper P2 because the hard paper P2 does not engage the separation claw 10 during printing, and is accommodated in the hopper 7. The hard paper P2 is separated by the inclined slopes 4A and 4A.

According to the above-described configuration, the width determining member 11 for positioning the hard paper P2 in the left-right direction is provided so as to be up and down and inverted so that the hard paper P2 does not engage the separation claw 10 during printing. When using the hard paper P2, only the operation of raising the width determining member 11 from the pressure plate 8 is necessary, and when using the general paper P1, it is sufficient to fold the raised width determining member 11, so that the width determining member 11 is used.・ It is possible to facilitate the switching operation when not in use.

Further, since the width determining member 11 is integrated with the pressure plate 8, there is no storage management, and it is possible to prevent loss or damage when removing the paper setting tool as in the conventional example.

Furthermore, since the posture holding portion 13 necessary for holding the undulating state or the inverted state of the width determining member 11 is integrally formed of the same material as a part of the pressure plate 8, the width determining member is formed. It is not necessary to incorporate a special member 11 for holding the above two states into the pressure plate 8, and a simple structure can be obtained.

In this embodiment, the posture holding portion 13 is a thin plate body having two recessed grooves 15 and 15 formed in the central portion of the concave surface 14, and one side portion thereof is a pressing elastic portion. However, the present invention is not limited to such a mode, and the posture holding portion can be provided on the concave surface of the portion between the cutout grooves 15 and 15 (on both sides of the cutout grooves 15 and 15 of the concave surface 14 of the present embodiment). It is also possible to include a central portion without a portion) and a pressing elastic portion 16 continuous with the concave surface.

[0022]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, according to the present invention, the pressure plate is provided with the width determining member for positioning the left and right sides of the hard paper so that the width of the pressure plate can be raised and lowered. It is only necessary to raise the member, and when using ordinary paper, it is sufficient to fold the raised width determining member, which facilitates the switching operation.

Further, since the width determining member is integrated with the pressure plate, storage management is eliminated, and it is possible to prevent loss or damage when removing the paper setting tool as in the conventional example.

Further, since the posture maintaining portion necessary for maintaining the undulating state or the inverted state of the width determining member is formed as a part of the pressure plate, it is special that the width determining member maintains the above two states. It is not necessary to assemble various members into the pressure plate, and the structure can be simple.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a hopper of an automatic sheet feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the automatic paper feeder.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a main part of a hopper of the automatic paper feeder.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of a usage state of a width determining member corresponding to line AA in FIG.

7 is an explanatory view of a usage state of a width determining member corresponding to line BB in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Paper Feed Roller 7 Hopper 8 Pressure Plate 8A Window (Concave) 8C Wall Surface (Stopper) 11 Width Determination Member 12 Engagement Part 13 Posture Holding Part 14 Recessed Surface 16 Pressing Elastic Part

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An upright / inclinable width determining member having an engaging portion in the vicinity of a rotating shaft along the paper feeding direction is rotatably pivotally supported on a pressure plate that presses a stack of papers against a paper feed roller. Then, the pressure plate is provided with a stopper that receives the rotation of the width determining member when standing up, and the pressure plate is formed with a posture holding portion that is located adjacent to the width determining member in the left-right direction. , Rotating power is applied to the receiving surface that receives the width determining member so that the surface of the width determining member when lying down is substantially flush with the paper receiving surface of the pressure plate, and the engaging portion of the width determining member when standing up. A hopper for an automatic sheet feeding device, comprising: a pressing elastic portion that gives a force for holding the width determining member in an upright state.