JPH0558519A - Paper sheet feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect and display holding of paper sheets in a cassette automatically, make confirmatory work by an operator unnecessary and eliminate miscopies when paper sheets are manually fed in the condition set in the cassette. CONSTITUTION:When paper sheets are manually fed in the condition set in the cassette, a judgement of holding the paper sheets in the cassette is made by detecting that the paper sheets are set by means of a manual feeding size sensor 800 in the vicinity of a feed roller in the condition before the paper sheets are set, and that the paper sheets are not set by means of a manual feeding end sensor 801 of a manual feeding table. When incorrect holding of the paper sheets is detected, the copying action is prohibited, and miscopying is avoided beforehand by displaying the holding condition.

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 for performing cassette sheet feeding and manual sheet feeding in the same feeding path in a copying machine, etc. The present invention relates to a paper feeding device that prevents miscopying due to paper being pinched.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a paper feeding device of this type, a friction separating roller system having a feed roller rotating in the paper feeding direction and a separate roller paired with the feed roller and driven in reverse through a torque limiter is known. It is well known.
In this system, for example, the sheets accumulated and stored in the cassette are sequentially sent from the top to the nip between the feed roller and the separate roller by the pull feed roller, and in the case of double feeding, the sheets are separated and placed inside the apparatus main body. It is configured to feed sheets one by one.

In such a friction separating roller system, since the multi-fed paper is separated at the nip portion of the feed roller and the separate roller, the separated and retained paper is held in the nipping portion. Sometimes. Also,
For a paper having a relatively large inter-paper frictional force, such as recycled paper, the difference in frictional force from the inter-paper frictional force at the seam of the paper becomes large. Therefore, about 3 to 5 sheets of paper may be conveyed from the pickup roller to the feed roller in a double-fed state, and may be nipped by the nip portion between the feed roller and the separate roller.

In this case, as long as the same paper feed in the cassette or the manual feed is continuously performed, the remaining papers in the nip are sequentially fed without any trouble, but the cassette paper feed and the manual paper feed are performed. In a copying machine configured to feed paper by the same feeding path, if the paper is transferred to the manual paper feeding with the remaining paper in the cassette feeding, the following problems occur. That is, since the cassette paper is already left in the nip between the feed roller and the separate roller, even if an attempt is made to carry a paper of a different size or paper type during manual feeding, the remaining paper in the nip will be carried first. This will result in a miscopy.

Therefore, as a method of solving the above-mentioned problem of the residual paper of the friction separation roller system, the feed roller and the separate roller are temporarily reversed after the paper is fed, and the residual paper of the cassette paper sandwiched in the nip is cassette. The method of returning to is proposed.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional method of returning the remaining paper, it is always possible to surely return if the sandwiched paper is one sheet. When two or more sheets are nipped as in the case of double feeding which occurs in (2), the contact pressure of the separate roller is set to be comparatively weak, so that it may not be completely returned. In this case, since the contact pressure of the separate roller is determined by the sheet feeding condition, increasing the contact pressure causes a sheet feeding failure or the like and cannot be changed.

Therefore, when using the manual feed,
The method of checking whether or not the sheet is nipped between the nip between the feed roller and the separate roller each time can be applied to the feeding of all cassette sheets. However, since the position of the feed roller and the like is inside the main body of the apparatus, it is necessary to remove the cassette for confirmation, which is very troublesome and the workability is deteriorated. It was

The present invention has been made in view of this point, and in the case of manually feeding a sheet with the cassette set, whether or not the cassette sheet is nipped is electrically detected and displayed to confirm the operator's confirmation work. The purpose is to eliminate the need and eliminate the miscopy.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention sets a cassette and a manual feed table together in a feeding path having a set of a feed roller, a separate roller and a pickup roller. In a paper feeding device that feeds paper from one side, a first detection unit is arranged near the feed roller to detect the presence or absence of paper in that portion, and a paper feeding device arranged near the pickup roller to detect the presence or absence of paper in the manual feed table. Second detecting means for detecting,
(EN) A paper feeding device provided with a control means for processing signals of these first and second detection means when using manual paper feeding and for permitting or prohibiting copy processing to display a sandwiched state of cassette paper. Is.

Further, it is desirable that the first detecting means has a function of detecting whether or not the cassette paper is nipped before the paper is set and detecting the size of the paper after the paper is set when the manual paper feed is used. ..

Further, the control means detects the presence of paper in the state before the paper is set when the manual paper feed is used, but the second detection means detects the absence of paper in the manual feed table. If it is detected, it is judged whether the cassette paper is pinched, the copying process is prohibited, the sandwiched state is displayed, and the paper is set after the sandwiched cassette paper is removed, and after the paper is set on the manual feed table. Is preferably controlled so that the sheet size is also detected by the first detection unit.

[0012]

According to the above construction, when a cassette is set in the feeding path having a pair of feed roller, separate roller and pickup roller, the paper in the cassette is fed and the copying operation is performed. By opening and setting, the sheets on the manual feed table are fed by the same feeding path and the copying operation is performed in the same manner. Then, when the manual sheet feeding is used, for example, it is determined that there is a sheet by the first detecting unit before the sheet is set and the sheet is not sandwiched by the second detecting unit, and in this case, copying is performed. By prohibiting the processing and displaying the sandwiched state of the cassette paper, the miscopy is avoided in advance.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, the drive system of the friction separation paper feeder will be described. The paper feeder 100 has a gear 130 that rotates in a counterclockwise direction indicated by an arrow by a drive source.
A feed roller shaft 10 having a feed roller 101
It meshes with the second gear 103. An electromagnetic clutch 104 is provided between the gear 103 and the feed roller shaft 102. By turning on the electromagnetic clutch 104, the feed roller 101 is moved in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow, that is, the sheet feeding direction A.
Rotate to. A shaft rotation restricting arm 106 is attached to the feed roller shaft 102 via a one-way clutch 105 that is integrally coupled when the feed roller shaft 102 rotates in the reverse direction, and the left and right rotational displacements of the arm 106 are restricted by rotation restricting members 107 and 108. Further, the feed roller shaft 102 is provided with a gear 11 via a one-way clutch 109 which becomes free during reverse rotation.
0 is mounted, and this gear 110 meshes with a gear 112 of a pickup roller shaft 113 via an idler gear 111. A pickup roller 115 is mounted on the pickup roller shaft 113 via a one-way clutch 114 that is integrally coupled in the rotation direction, and when the electromagnetic clutch 104 is turned on, the pickup roller 115 as well as the feed roller 101 is fed in the sheet feeding direction A indicated by an arrow. Rotate to.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pickup roller 1
15 is held by a solenoid 200 via a spring 201. Then, when the solenoid 200 is turned on, the pickup roller 115 is lifted and separated from the sheet, and when the solenoid 200 is turned off, the pickup roller 115 is lowered and comes into elastic contact with the sheet.

On the other hand, the gear 117 meshes with the gear 117 of the torque limiter drive shaft 116 so as to rotate counterclockwise, and the gear 118 of this drive shaft 116 meshes with the drive side gear 119 of the torque limiter 120. There is. Then, the separate roller 122 is fixed to the driven shaft 121 of the torque limiter 120, whereby the gear 13
At the time of 0 rotation, a constant torque is applied to the separate roller 122 in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction indicated by the broken arrow regardless of whether the electromagnetic clutch 104 is ON or OFF.

6 and 7, the sheet feeding unit in which the cassette and the manual feed table are mounted will be described. 6
Reference numeral 00 denotes a sheet feeding unit. Inside the sheet feeding unit 600, the feed roller 101, the separate roller 122, and the pickup roller 115 are provided, and the cassette 610 is inserted immediately below this feeding path. Further, a manual feed table 620 is arranged immediately above the cassette of the paper feeding unit 600, and paper can be fed through the same feeding path.

The cassette 610 has a rising arm 611 inside.
It has a bottom plate 612 provided with, a back fence 613, and the like, and a large amount of sheets S are accumulated and stored. When the cassette 610 is attached to the sheet feeding unit 600 and is in the cassette sheet feeding mode, the raising arm 611 is rotated by the arm shaft 601 to raise the leading edge of the sheet S together with the bottom plate 612 as shown in FIG. The upper surface of the sheet S contacts the pickup roller 115. Then, when the upper surface of the sheet S and the pickup roller 115 reach the sheet feeding position, the sensor (not shown) stops the raising, and thereafter, the raising arm 611 rotates every time the position of the pickup roller 115 is lowered by the sheet feeding of the sheet S. Thus, the height of the upper surface of the paper S is kept constant.

The manual feed table 620 has an auxiliary plate 62 at its tip.
1 and is rotatably mounted by a shaft 602 of a supporting member 622 between an upper closed position in FIG. 6 and a substantially horizontal lower paper feeding position in FIG. When the manual feed table 620 is opened, it is switched to the manual feed mode by a changeover switch (not shown), the solenoid 200 is turned on and the pickup roller 115 is lifted, the arm shaft 601 rotates in the opposite direction to the above, and the raising arm 611 of the cassette 610 is rotated. , Bottom plate 6
12. The paper S is lowered. As a result, the auxiliary plate 621 of the manual feed table 620 is guided by the unit side plate rail and enters the paper feed position without colliding with the pickup roller 115 or the like.

Next, the paper feeding operation of the paper feeding device 100 will be described. First, the case of cassette feeding will be described. By rotating the manual feed table 620 upward and closing it, the cassette feeding mode is set. Then, the upper surface of the paper S inside the cassette 610 rises, comes into pressure contact with the pickup roller 115 that descends when the solenoid 200 is turned off, and both are set at the paper feed position so that the paper can be fed.

Then, when the start button is turned on, the electromagnetic clutch 104 is turned on and the gear 130 is rotationally driven, and the feed roller shaft 102 and the like cause the feed roller 1 to rotate.
01 rotates in the sheet feeding direction A, and at the same time, gears 110, 11
1, 112, the pickup roller shaft 113, etc. also rotate the pickup roller 115 in the sheet feeding direction A, and the upper portion of the sheet S in the cassette 610 is fed out. At this time, when the paper S enters the feed roller 101 in the double-feed state of two or more sheets as shown in FIG. 2, the separate roller 122 applies torque to the opposite paper feed direction by the torque limiter 120, so that these feeds are fed. Due to the friction separating action of the roller 101 and the separate roller 122, the feeding of the second and subsequent sheets S is blocked, and thus the sheets S are separated one by one and stably fed. On the other hand, the multi-fed sheet S ′ that has been separated and left in this case is sandwiched and held in the nip between the feed roller 101 and the separate roller 122.

After the paper feed, the electromagnetic clutch 104 is turned off while the gear 130 is driven. Therefore, the feed roller shaft 102, the feed roller 101, and the pickup roller 115 are stopped and become free, but the separate roller drive shaft 116 is driven. For this reason, the separate roller 122 is unloaded and rotates in the opposite sheet feeding direction B, and accordingly, the feed roller 101 and the feed roller shaft 102 are rotated by the one-way clutch 109 by the gear 110.
It separates from and is rotated counterclockwise. At this time,
The solenoid 200 is turned on as shown in FIG. 3 and the pickup roller 115 is lifted, whereby the multi-feed sheet S ′ nipped between the feed roller 101 and the separate roller 122 is returned to the cassette 610 side and left. Paper is prevented.

On the other hand, the arm 1 of the feed roller shaft 102
The paper 06 is rotated along with the paper feed, and is in contact with the one shaft rotation restricting member 108 as shown in FIG. When the feed roller shaft 102 rotates in the reverse direction, the one-way clutch 10
5, the arm 106 is integrally coupled and rotated as shown in FIG. 3, and contacts the other shaft rotation restricting member 107 to restrict the rotation of the feed roller shaft 102. Therefore, a load is applied to the separate roller 122, and thus the torque limiter 120 operates to stop the rotation of the separate roller 122, and thus one cycle of cassette sheet feeding is completed.

Next, the case of manual sheet feeding will be described. In this case, when the manual feed table 620 is rotated downward and opened, the mode is switched to the manual feed mode, the auxiliary plate 621 enters the paper feed position as shown in FIG. The descending pickup roller 115 is brought into pressure contact with the sheet, so that the sheet can be fed. Therefore,
When the start button is turned on, the electromagnetic clutch 104 turns off.
N, the gear 130 is driven to rotate, the feed roller 101 and the pickup roller 115 rotate in the same manner as described above, and torque is applied to the separate roller 122. Then, in this manual feeding, in the case of a plurality of sheets G, all of them enter the feed roller 101 in the double feeding state, and are separated and fed one by one by the separate roller 122. After the paper feed, the electromagnetic clutch 104 is turned off, the feed roller shaft 102 and the arm 106 are similarly rotated by the rotation of the separate roller 122 in the opposite paper feed direction, and the rotation is restricted by the shaft rotation restricting member 107. At the same time, the rotation of the separate roller 122 also stops.

By the way, in this case, the pickup roller 115 is kept in pressure contact with the paper G as shown in FIG. Therefore, the return force F of the sheet G nipped between the separate roller 122 and the feed roller 101 by the reverse rotation causes the pickup roller 115 to rotate in the reverse direction. G is prevented from returning to the manual feed table 620. Therefore, in this case, as shown in FIG.
Bends upward and is pushed back from the feed roller 101 side, but is blocked by the pickup roller 115, and the remaining paper when stopping the paper feeding is similarly prevented.

Table 1 shows the operating states of the electromagnetic clutch 104 and the solenoid 200 in the case of the above-described cassette sheet feeding and manual sheet feeding.

[0026]

[Table 1]

Next, the control means of the paper feeding device 100 will be described. First, the entire control system will be described with reference to FIG. 11, which is mainly configured by the microcomputer 1100 and has a manual feed size sensor 800, a manual feed end sensor 801, and a manual feed open / close sensor 1101 as a sensor group used in the manual feed mode. ..

The manual feed size sensor 800 is arranged immediately before the feed roller 101 as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 10, for example, three reflective photosensors 1001, 1002, 1003 are linearly arranged at a predetermined interval, and the photosensors 1001, 100 are arranged.
2, 1003 are connected in parallel. Then, only in the manual feed mode, the photo sensors 1001 and 100
2, 1003 are scanned, and the size of the manual paper G is detected by the combination of the output signals.

On the other hand, in the manual feed mode, the manual feed table 6
There is a waiting time until the paper G is set after closing 20. At this time, the photo sensors 1001, 1002, 10
03 detects the state immediately before the feed roller 101, but if the sheet S ″ of the cassette feeding is sandwiched, the photosensors 1001 and 1002 of which the sheet S ″ bends downward as shown in FIG. , 1003 is short. The outputs of the photosensors 1001, 1002, and 1003 change depending on the distance, but the distance to the sandwiched paper S ″ is short and can be detected sufficiently. As a result, the paper G is set on the manual feed table 620. Before that, it also has a function of detecting the presence or absence of the sheet S ″ that is nipped by using the time.

The manual feed end sensor 801 is provided near the pickup roller 115 with a paper detection filler 802. Then, the presence or absence of the paper G is detected by the sensor 801 detecting the tilted state of the filler 802 when there is the paper G on the manual feed table 620 and the standing state of the filler 802 when there is no paper. Manual open / close sensor 110
1 detects the open / closed state of the manual feed table 620 to detect whether the manual feed mode is set or off. Then, the signals of these sensors 800, 801, 1101 are input to the microcomputer 1100.

As a sensor group used in the cassette mode, a cassette set sensor 1102 for detecting whether or not the cassette 610 is set, a cassette remaining amount detection sensor 1103 for detecting the remaining amount of the paper S in the cassette 610, and a paper size. It has a cassette size sensor 1104 for detecting, and these sensor signals are also supplied to the microcomputer 110.
Enter 0.

In addition to the above-mentioned sensors, the microcomputer 1100 has a paper feed sensor 1105 and an operation panel 111.
Signals such as the 0 mode setting key 1111 and the copy key 1112 are input to determine the cassette mode or the manual feed mode, drive the paper transport mechanism 1120, control the main body mechanism section 1121, and display various information on the display 1113. Is configured to display the message.

Next, the operation of the manual feed mode will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the paper feed mode is checked (S1), and if the manual feed table 620 is in the closed cassette mode, the process proceeds to mode 1. On the other hand, when the manual feed table 620 is operated to be opened and detected by the manual feed open / close sensor 1101, the manual feed mode is determined to proceed to the next step, and the cassette set state is checked by the cassette set sensor 1102 (S2). If the cassette is not set, the mode 2 is entered. On the other hand, if the cassette is set and there is a risk of remaining paper when the cassette is fed, then the presence or absence of data from the manual feed size sensor 800 is checked (S3).

Here, as described above, the paper feeding device 1
When the remaining paper is normally removed when the cassette paper is fed in No. 00, there is no cassette paper in the portion of the feed roller 101. Further, in the initial stage of the manual feed mode, the paper G has not been set on the manual feed table 620. Therefore, in this normal state, the manual feed size sensor 800 detects the absence of data, and the process proceeds to S5 to instruct sheet setting.

By the way, in the case of recycled paper or the like in the above-mentioned cassette paper feeding, since a plurality of sheets are large-fed by frictional force between papers, it cannot be completely returned by removing the remaining papers by the weak contact pressure of the separating roller 122. Sometimes. In this case, as shown in FIG.
Since it is sandwiched in advance by 01, the presence of data is detected by the manual feed size sensor 800 before the paper is set. On the other hand, in the manual feed mode, the manual feed table 620 may be opened while setting the paper G, and the manual feed size sensor 800 also detects the presence of data in this case. Then, in any of these cases, the process proceeds to the next step, and the manual feed end sensor 801 checks the actual presence / absence of paper in the manual feed table 640 to determine which of the above is the case (S4). That is, when the presence of paper is detected by the manual feed end sensor 801, the above-described determination of the manual feed size sensor 800 is determined to be a normal paper set, and the process proceeds to S8 through S5, S6, and S7 described below,
The size of the manual paper G is detected.

On the other hand, although the manual feed size sensor 800 detects the presence of paper, the manual feed end sensor 80
In No. 1, when the absence of paper is detected, it is clearly determined that the remaining paper is sandwiched as shown in FIG. Then, in this case, the process proceeds to the miscopy prevention routine of mode 4, the sheet transport mechanism 1120 and the main body mechanism section 1121 are stopped to prohibit the copy operation (S12), and the cassette sheet S ″ is held on the display 1113. This is displayed to prompt the removal of the paper S ″ (S13). Therefore, the operator can confirm the sandwiching of the cassette paper S ″ by such a display, and the cassette 610 can be followed according to the instruction of the display.
To remove the feed roller 101 and the separate roller 12
By removing the cassette paper S ″ that is nipped in the nip of No. 2, it is possible to avoid the miscopy in advance.

When it is determined that the cassette paper S ″ is removed (S14), the process returns to S3 in the normal manual feed mode operation routine of mode 3. In this case,
It is judged that it has returned to the above-mentioned normal state and proceed to the next,
The display 1113 instructs to set the paper on the manual feed table 620 (S5). Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 9, the sheet G is set on the manual feed table 620, and when it is determined (S6), the manual feed end sensor 801 confirms the presence of the sheet (S7), and the manual feed size sensor 800 determines the paper size. It is detected (S8), and the sheet can be manually fed.

Therefore, when the copy key 1112 is checked (S9) and it is determined that the copy key 1112 is turned on, the paper is conveyed by the same feeding path as the cassette paper feeding as described above, and the copy in the manual feed mode is performed. The operation is performed (S10). Then, the completion of copying is checked (S11), the paper G in the manual feed table 620 is removed, and the manual feed table 620 is removed.
When is closed again, the copy end is determined and the operation in the manual feed mode is ended.

The output state of each sensor and the state of the paper in the operation of the manual feed mode described above are summarized in Table 2.

[0040]

[Table 2]

In this way, in the paper feeding device 100 that performs cassette paper feeding and manual paper feeding on the same feeding path, the time before the paper G is set is utilized every time the paper feeding device 100 is switched to the manual paper feeding mode in the cassette set state. Then, the manual feed size sensor 8
00 and the manual feed end sensor 801 detect paper. Then, the combination of the signals from both sensors 800 and 801 makes it possible to electrically detect beforehand whether or not the cassette sheet S ″ is nipped, and the result is displayed to the operator so that miscopy is prevented. Become.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a paper feeding device that performs cassette paper feeding and manual paper feeding in the same feeding path, if manual paper feeding is used in a cassette set state, it is determined in advance whether or not the cassette paper is pinched,
In the case of the sandwiched state, it is controlled so that the copy operation is prohibited and the sandwiched state is displayed. Therefore, it is not necessary for the operator to check the sandwiched state one by one, the workability is improved, and the confirmation is never forgotten. .. Further, by such control, miscopying can be avoided in advance, and the copying operation can be executed efficiently with peace of mind. In particular, the paper feeding device is provided with a mechanism for removing the residual paper when feeding the cassette. This is effective when it does not function sufficiently such as recycled paper.

Further, the judgment as to whether or not the cassette paper is pinched is
Since the time is set before the paper is set on the manual feed table, the workability is not impaired. Since this determination is made by combining the signals of the manual feed size sensor near the feed roller and the manual feed end sensor of the manual feed table, the accuracy and reliability of the determination are high. Since the manual feed size sensor has a function of detecting the paper size and the sandwiched paper, a new sensor is unnecessary, which is advantageous in terms of cost and space.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a drive system of a sheet feeding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a cassette sheet feeding state according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state after feeding a cassette according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state of manual sheet feeding according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state after manual feeding according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a sheet feeding unit for cassette sheet feeding according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a paper feeding unit for manual paper feeding according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing a state where the cassette sheet is sandwiched in the manual feeding mode according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing a paper set state in the manual feed mode according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement state of a manual feed size sensor according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a control system of the sheet feeding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation of the manual feed mode according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Paper Feeding Device 101 Feed Roller 115 Pickup Roller 122 Separate Roller 610 Cassette 620 Manual Feed Table 800 Manual Feed Size Sensor 801 Manual Feed End Sensor 1100 Microcomputer 1110 Operation Panel 1120 Paper Transport Mechanism

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sheet feeding device in which a cassette and a manual feed table are set together in a feeding path having a pair of feed roller, separate roller, and pickup roller, and paper is fed from either one of them, in the vicinity of the feed roller. A first detecting means which is disposed in the vicinity of the pickup roller to detect the presence or absence of the sheet, and a second detecting means which is disposed in the vicinity of the pickup roller to detect the presence or absence of the sheet on the manual feed table;
And a control means for processing the signals of the first and second detection means to permit or prohibit the copy processing and display the sandwiched state of the cassette paper when the manual paper feed is used. apparatus. 2. The first detecting means is provided with a function of detecting whether or not a cassette sheet is pinched before setting the sheet and manually detecting the size of the sheet after setting the sheet when the sheet is manually fed. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The control means detects the presence of paper when the manual paper feed is used and before the paper is set, but the second detection means detects the absence of paper in the manual feed table. When it detects it, it judges whether the cassette paper is pinched, prohibits the copying process, and displays the pinching status.
A method for instructing a sheet setting after the sandwiched cassette sheet is removed, and controlling the sheet size to also be detected by the first detecting means after the sheet is set on the manual feed table. Item 1. The sheet feeding device according to item 1.