JPH06211404A - Sheet discharge device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To push out and discharge even any thin and soft sheet well, by pressing the sheet from the upper part while rotatably attaching a pressing member to a sheet pushing means and rotating the pressing member at the time of moving in the sheet pushing direction. CONSTITUTION:In a sheet discharge device 1 a plate 4 for staple is arranged under a discharge port 2b in a subsequent treatment carrying passage 2. A pushing belt 11 is wound between plural roller 9, 10 which are positioned under the plate 4, and also the pushing member 12 is attached to the pushing belt 11. In this case a L-type pressing member 13 is attached pivottaly to the pushing member 12 rotatably, and also a coil spring 14 is suspended between those. The head 13' of the pressing member 13 is rotated in the direction of the plate 4 when the pushing member 12 moves in the sheet pushing direction and the sheet is pressed from the upper part. Therefore it is possible to push out and discharge even a thin and soft sheet well without bending.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applied to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a laser beam printer, and a facsimile.
The present invention relates to a sheet discharge device that pushes out a copied sheet carried in from an image forming apparatus onto a discharge tray and discharges it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a copying machine for copying an image of an original on a sheet, for example, a copied sheet conveyed from the main body of the copying machine is passed through a conveying path and a conveying roller disposed at the exit of the conveying path is rotated. By doing so, the sheets are once stacked on the pedestal. Then, after stapling the sheet by the stapling device on the sheet receiving table, the extruded member protruding above the sheet receiving table is brought into contact with the rear end of the sheet to move the sheet, thereby binding the bound sheet. It is designed to be discharged onto the discharge tray.

[0003]

In the above-described conventional sheet discharging apparatus such as a copying machine, the sheets carried in and stacked on the sheet receiving tray are stacked side by side along the shape of the sheet receiving tray only by the weight of the sheets. It is in a broken state. If the sheet is hard to bend and is made of a hard material, the problem is unlikely to occur, but if the sheet is thin or has a soft material, one or a few sheets above the bound sheet will be bent when extruded by the extrusion member. Then, as the next bookbinding sheet is piled up on the discharge tray, it is folded and becomes wrinkled. This deteriorates the quality of the bookbinding sheet.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a sheet cradle for receiving a sheet carried in from a main body device, and a discharge tray for receiving a sheet discharged from the sheet cradle. In a sheet ejecting device having a sheet extruding means capable of advancing and retracting a sheet on the sheet receiving tray onto an ejection tray, a pressing member is rotatably provided on the sheet extruding means, and the sheet extruding means extrudes the sheet. When the sheet is moved in the direction, the pressing member is rotated to press the sheet from above.

[0005]

Since the sheet discharging apparatus of the present invention has the above-described structure, when the sheet is discharged from the sheet receiving tray to the discharge tray by the sheet pushing means, the sheet is moved while pressing the upper surface of the sheet with the pressing member. Is.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, the sheet discharge device is applied to a copying machine as an image forming apparatus.

In the sheet discharging apparatus 1, the post-processing conveyance path 2 for conveying the sheet conveyed from the copying machine main body in the apparatus 1 is composed of one straight path, and is conveyed upstream from the copying machine main body. A carry-in port 2a for carrying in incoming sheets is formed, and a discharge port 2b is formed on the downstream side,
Discharge rollers 3a and 3b are provided. A staple plate 4 arranged below the discharge port 2b of the transport path 2
Is a paper exit 5 whose front end is formed on the exterior surface of the apparatus 1.
And the lower end side is inclined downward as compared with the front end side. The staple plate 4 is provided so as to be movable back and forth in a direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG.
A width plate 6 for aligning the sheets on the staple plate 4 in the width direction, a stapler 7 for binding the sheets stacked on the staple-side plate 4 aligned in the conveyance direction by a paddle (not shown) for binding with staples, and A stopper 8 for positioning the rear end of the sheets stacked on the staple plate 4 is provided.

An extruding belt 11 is wound between belt supporting rollers 9 and 10 located below the stapling plate 4, and an extruding member which is a sheet extruding means is provided at a required portion of the extruding belt 11, for example, a lower belt portion. 12, an L-shaped pressing member 13 is rotatably pivotally attached to the pushing member 12, and a coil spring 14 is suspended between one end of the pressing member 13 and a protruding portion of the pushing member 12 to hold the pressing member 13. The head portion 13 'of the head rotates in the direction of the arrow and presses against the stapling plate 4. The pushing member 12 is provided so that the driving motor that reciprocates between the belt supporting rollers 9 and 10 by the movement of the pushing belt 11 together with the pressing member 13 is connected to the belt supporting roller 9 or 10.

The pressing member 13 is a coil spring 1
Since the head 13 'of the pressing member 13 is constantly pressed against the stapling plate 4 by being biased by 4, the home position of the sheet extruding means, that is, the extruding belt 11
1, the head 13 'of the pressing member 13 can be separated from the stapling plate 4 with the pushing member 13 located at the rear of the stopper 8, as shown in FIG. A restricting member 15 that abuts one end and resists the biasing force of the coil spring 14 is provided. In addition, in the vicinity of the belt support roller 9, the pushing member 12 moves toward the paper exit port 5 and the head portion 13 ′ of the pressing member 13 can be separated from the stapling plate 4 when the pushing member 12 approaches the end. A regulation member 16 is provided.

Further, a discharge roller 17 is rotatably provided on the tip side of the stapling plate 4, is connected to a drive source, and is opposed to the discharge roller 17 and is in pressure contact with the discharge roller 1.
8 is pivotally mounted on a rotatable arm 19.

A discharge tray 20 extending obliquely outward from below the discharge roller 17 is provided in, for example, an elevating unit.

The sheet discharging operation of the present sheet discharging apparatus having the above-mentioned structure will be described below with reference to FIGS.

First, when the main body of the copying machine is set to the stapling mode, when stapling the copied sheet, it is guided to the carry-in entrance 2a of the post-processing conveying path 2 as shown in FIG. The sheet is conveyed in the post-treatment conveying path 2 and is conveyed out by the conveying rollers 3a and 3b of the rotating outlet 2b, and the stapling plate 4 or the sheet is already loaded from the leading end to the trailing end in order due to the weight of the sheet S _1. and are being stacked to fall on the sheet S _1. After the completion of carrying out the sheet S ₁ onto the stapling plate 4 is judged, the sheet S ₁ on the stapling plate 4 is aligned in the width direction by the widthwise plate 6.

Next, when the number of sheets to be processed matches the number of sheets to be stapled, the number of sheets to be processed is cleared, and then the sheet S ₁ on the stapling plate 4 is moved toward the stopper 8 by a paddler (not shown). With sheet S
The rear ends are aligned and bound by the stapler 7 with staples.

Next, when the bookbinding sheet S ₂ is discharged to the discharge tray 20 by the pushing means, as shown in FIG.
When the pushing member 12 starts to move in the direction of the paper exit 5 by driving the pushing belt 11 in the D ₁ direction, one end of the pressing member 13 on the coil spring 14 side separates from the regulating member 15 and the coil spring 14 is attached. head 13 of the pressing member 13 'presses the upper surface of the bookbinding sheet S ₂ with force, bookbinding sheet S ₂ of the pressing state is pushed by the pushing member 13,
It slides on the stapling plate 4, passes between the opened discharge rollers 17 and 18, and is discharged onto the discharge tray 20 from the leading end of the bookbinding sheet S ₂ .

Next, when the final time of discharging the bookbinding sheet S ₂ is reached, as shown in FIG.
Moves while pushing the bookbinding sheet S ₂ , and when the pressing member 13 comes into contact with the regulating member 16, the pressing member 13 resists the biasing force of the coil spring 14 and its head 13 ′ is the upper surface of the bookbinding sheet S ₂ . The bookbinding sheet S ₂ is rotated in a direction away from to release the pressure on the bookbinding sheet S ₂ , the pushing member 12 further advances in the direction of the paper exit 5, and the bookbinding sheet S ₂ is ejected and stacked on the ejection tray 20.

Next, after the bookbinding sheet S ₂ is ejected to the ejection tray 20, the ejection member 12 operates as the extrusion belt 1.
1 is driven in the direction D ₂ to move in the direction opposite to the above-mentioned moving direction, and during this time, the pressing member 13 slides because its head 13 ′ does not press on the staple plate 4 and presses. One end of the pressing member 13 comes into contact with the regulating member 15, and the head portion 13 ′ of the pressing member 13 separates from the stapling plate 4 and enters a standby state.

When the main body of the copying machine is set to the offset mode, it will be explained with reference to FIG. 1. The copied sheet is guided to the carry-in entrance 2a of the post-processing conveying path 2 and conveyed in the post-processing conveying path 2. The unloading roller 3 of the unloading and rotating exit port 2b
a, 3b, the leading end portion of the sheet is moved by the discharge roller 18, and the sheet is narrowed between the rollers 17 and 18 that are in pressure contact with the discharge roller 17 and are rotating in the arrow direction, and are conveyed and discharged to the discharge tray 20. And loaded.

[0019]

Since the sheet discharging apparatus of the present invention has the above-described construction and operation, when the sheets stacked on the sheet receiving tray such as the stapling plate are discharged to the discharging tray. Since the upper surface of the sheet is pressed and moved by the pressing member of the sheet discharging means, even a soft sheet made of a thin material does not bend, and therefore the next sheet is stacked and folded on the discharge tray to prevent wrinkles. The quality of the sheet or the binding sheet is not deteriorated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a sheet discharging device that constitutes a copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C are explanatory views showing a sheet conveying operation in a staple mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Sheet Ejecting Device 2 Post-Processing Conveying Path 4 Staple Plate 7 Stapler 11 Extrusion Belt 12 Extrusion Member 13 Holding Member 15,16 Restricting Member 17,18 Ejecting Roller 20 Ejecting Tray

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sheet pedestal for receiving a sheet carried in from a main body device, a discharge tray for receiving a sheet discharged from the sheet pedestal, and a direction for pushing a sheet on the sheet cradle onto the discharge tray. In a sheet discharging device having a sheet pushing-out means capable of advancing and retracting, a pressing member is rotatably provided on the sheet pushing-out means, and the pressing member is rotated to move the sheet from above when the sheet pushing-out means moves in the sheet pushing-out direction. A sheet ejection device characterized by holding down. 2. The sheet ejection device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet receiving base is a staple plate. 3. A staple plate for receiving a sheet carried in from a post-processing conveyance path, a discharge tray for receiving a sheet discharged from the staple plate, and a sheet on the staple plate is pushed onto the discharge tray. In a sheet discharging device having a sheet pushing member capable of advancing and retracting in a direction, a pressing member is rotatably provided on the sheet pushing member, and a biasing force is applied to press the sheet on the staple plate by the head of the pressing member. A spring having
A sheet discharging device comprising a regulating member for pressing the sheet with the head of the pressing member when the sheet is pushed out on the staple plate by the sheet pushing member toward the discharging tray.