JPH0687561A - Sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely convey recording paper while maintaining the flatness and tension of a conveyor belt stretched in a sorter. CONSTITUTION:A sorter is formed of a recording paper conveyor means formed of a wire and a conveyor belt 12 stretched along the inlet side of bins arrayed being layered in the vertical direction, and a distributor elevatingly driven to feed recording paper into a specified bin. The pressing force of a pressing roller 41 acting upon the conveyor belt 12 is imparted by the resilience of a roller holder 42 for holding the pressing roller 41, and the pressing stroke of the pressing roller 41 is regulated by the regulating face 43a of a regulating plate 43 with which the roller holder 42 comes in contact, and the regulating face 44c of a roller holder fitting plate 44.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pressing means for a recording paper conveying belt of a sorter which is connected to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer to collect recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sorter connected to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer has bins arranged in multiple stages in the vertical direction, and recorded sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus are binned in each bin. It is designed to be inserted one by one in order and collated.

As a distributing means for sequentially feeding the recording paper into each bin, for example, a distributor that reciprocates up and down along the inlet side of each fixed bin is used, and the distributor is sequentially arranged in each bin to be collected. The recording paper, which is moved and stopped and discharged from the image forming apparatus, is fed into each of the bins.

[0004]

A conveying roller for the recording sheet, which is usually stretched between the driving rollers, is actuated by a pressing roller that presses from the inside of the conveying belt toward the recording sheet conveying surface. The recording paper is surely conveyed by keeping the belt surface of the conveyance belt as flat and as tight as possible. However, since the pressing stroke of the pressing roller is not regulated in the related art, for example, when the pressing force acts stronger than the predetermined range, the pressing portion inevitably causes a bulge and the resistance of the conveyed recording paper increases to prevent the paper from bending. If it is raised or hits the guide member of the distributor that is driven up and down, smooth operation cannot be performed.

On the other hand, when the pressing force becomes weaker than the predetermined range, the conveying belt is dented or sags, so that the recording conveying force is weakened, which is a cause of conveyance failure.

The present invention solves such a problem and regulates the pressing stroke of the pressing roller acting on the conveyor belt to press the conveyor belt with a pressing force within a predetermined range to reliably convey the recording paper. The purpose is to provide a sorter that can do it.

[0007]

The object of the present invention is to provide a conveying means for sandwiching and conveying a recording sheet by stretching a conveying belt and a wire along the inlet side of a bin which is vertically stacked and arranged.
In a sorter having a distributor for vertically moving the recording paper conveyed to the entrance of each bin to be conveyed into the bin, a pressing roller for pressing the conveying belt in tension from the inside toward the recording paper conveying surface direction. Is provided to regulate the pressing stroke of the pressing roller.

[0008]

1 is a side sectional view showing the structure of a pressing roller unit of FIG. 1, a side sectional view showing the structure of a sorter provided in a distributor of FIG. 2, and FIG. 2 of FIG. It will be described with reference to a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX shown in FIG.

However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 2, the sorter 10 includes a conveyor belt 12 provided along the inlet side of a bin 51 which is vertically piled up and arranged, and a distributor 21 which reciprocates between the rows of the bin 51. It has a structure that supports vertical movement.

That is, the bins 51 are arranged in the housing 10c of the sorter 10 in order from the top by means (not shown).
········ Equipped with 51n at equal intervals.

The conveyor belt 12 includes a conveyor belt pulley 13a,
It is suspended on 13b as shown in the drawing, and is rotated clockwise when driven. The image forming apparatus 100
The recording paper on which the image has been formed is discharged from the sheet discharge port 100g of the image forming apparatus 100 and immediately inserted into the sheet receiving port 10g of the sorter 10, and the recording paper is conveyed by the conveyance roller 14 and the guide plate 16. Guided conveyor belt
It will be transported to the downward traveling section on the right side of 12.

The distributor 21 (see also FIG. 3) has a recording paper receiving member having a receiving opening 23a with a wide opening in the upper part, and is integrally attached to the distributor frame 22. And
A discharge port 23b is provided at the other end of the reception port 23a,
A pair of discharge rollers 30 that rotate in the direction of the arrow are arranged in contact with each other in the up-down direction so as to be adjacent to the discharge port 23b, and discharge the recording paper from the discharge port 23b in the direction of the arrow onto the bin 51. ing.

In FIG. 2, a conveyor belt pulley 13b is provided above the sorter 10 at both upper and lower ends in the longitudinal direction of the distributor frame 22.
Timing gear 29d and pulley 27a located on the right side of
Each end of a timing belt 28b, which is wound around 27b and a timing gear 29c located on the right side of the conveyor belt pulley 13a below the sorter 10, is connected and fixed as shown. The distributor frame 22 is suspended from above and below by pulling the timing belt 28b.

The rotating shaft of the timing gear 29b (29c) is opposite to the timing gear 29 of the timing belt 28b.
It extends to c so that the front and rear timing belts 28b can be integrally driven.

Then, the distributor 21 is placed at a position corresponding to each bin.
A positioning sensor (not shown) is provided so as to be able to stop, and the stepping motor 10m is driven by the information of the positioning sensor to stop the distributor 21 at a predetermined position for each bin 51. It has become.

A timing gear as shown in FIGS.
29d is coaxially connected to the wire winding pulley 27. The wire 24 wound around the wire take-up pulley 27 is
a, through the wire positioning roller 27b and the wire receiver 26, its tip is attached to one end of the wire spring 25, and the other end of the wire spring 25 is hooked on the rising portion of the stay (not shown) of the distributor frame 22. There is. The wire spring 25 is a spring for applying an appropriate tension to the wire 24. The wire positioning roller 27b is provided to position the wires 24 on the surface of the conveyor belt 12.

In this way, the distributor 21 drives the drive motor 10
When driven vertically by m, the wire take-up pulley 27, which has the same diameter as the timing gear 29d that is rotated by the vertical drive of the distributor 21, is rotated.
Is also wound or unwound around the wire take-up pulley 27 while maintaining an appropriate tension. That is, by driving the distributor 21 in the vertical direction, the tension with respect to the wire 24 is properly maintained regardless of the position of the bin 51 of the distributor 21.

Next, the position of the wire 24 in the section parallel to the conveyor belt 12 will be described.

In FIG. 3, a distributor frame of wires 24
In the present embodiment, the position of 22 with respect to the longitudinal direction is 8 as shown in the figure, such that there are four sets of four conveyor belts 12 and two sets of two conveyor belts 12 sandwiching the conveyor belts 12 from both sides.
A wire 24 of books is located. Further, again, the wire 2 with respect to the conveyance surface of the recording paper 101 of the conveyance belt
The position 4 is located inside the transport surface. FIG. 4 is a diagram in which this portion is extracted and shown in order to make this situation easy to understand. As shown in Figure 4, the wire
Since the position 24 is located inside the conveying surface of the conveying belt 12 by the dimension e, as described above,
The recording paper 101 conveyed by the conveying roller 12, the guide roller 16 and the guide roller 16 is conveyed by sandwiching the recording paper 101 by the conveying belt 12 and the wire 24 as shown in the figure, and thus the conveyance is large and stable. You will be able to gain strength.

The pressing roller 41 of the pressing roller unit 40, which will be described later, presses against the inside of the stretched conveying belt 12 toward the recording paper conveying surface to keep the conveying belt 12 surface flat and provide stable recording. It is designed for paper transport.

The structure of the pressure roller unit 40 of the present invention and the stroke regulation of the pressure roller will be described below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the pressing roller unit 40
Is a pressing roller 41 that presses the conveyor belt 12, a roller holder 42 that holds the pressing roller 41, a restricting plate 43 that restricts the pressing stroke of the pressing roller 41, and a pressing stroke of the pressing roller 41 when the roller holder 42 is attached. And a roller holder mounting plate 44 that regulates the.

The roller holder 42 is made of a thin steel plate having elasticity. As shown in the figure, the lower portion of the roller holder 42 is formed with a bracket 42a bent in an inverted U shape, and the pressing roller 41 is fixed to both side surfaces of the bracket 42a. Support shaft 42c
Is rotatably mounted on.

The upper portion of the roller holder 42 to which the pressing roller 41 is attached is integrally attached by being sandwiched between the holder attachment surface 44a of the roller holder attachment plate 44 formed in a bridge shape as shown in the figure and the regulation plate 43. As a result, the pressing roller unit 40 is assembled.

Therefore, the pressing roller 41 is pressed by a predetermined pressing force to the inside of the conveyor belt 12 stretched when it is attached to the sorter 10 by being imparted with elasticity by the elastic portion 42b of the roller holder 42 whose upper part is fixed as shown in the figure. I have come into contact with them.

The regulation of the pressing force of the pressure roller is regulated by a regulation plate.
As the right surface of the roller holder 42 that has moved to the right as shown by the chain line abuts on the lower end surface 43a of 43, the pressing stroke to the right is restricted so that the pressing force against the conveyor belt 12 surface does not become stronger than the set value. ing. On the other hand, when the roller holder 42 is moved to the position shown by the chain line in the figure in order to prevent the pressing roller from moving to the left and weakening the pressing force against the conveyor belt 12, the lower end portion thereof is attached to the roller holder mounting plate 44. By making contact with the regulation surface 44c, the pressing force is prevented from becoming weaker than the set value.

The range of the d dimension shown in the figure is the regulating surface of the regulating plate 43.
The operation range of the roller holder 42 near 43a, that is, the pressing stroke of the pressing roller 41 is regulated.

Therefore, the range of the pressing force of the pressing roller 41 can be confirmed at the stage of the pressing roller unit 40. The pressing force of the pressing roller 41 is, of course, set to an optimum value according to the transport characteristics of the sorter 10, and the d dimension and the roller holder are not required.
This can be dealt with by appropriately changing the elastic force of 42.

A pressing roller unit having such a structure
As shown in FIG. 1, the reference numeral 40 is attached to the frame 10f of the sorter 10 at a predetermined position via the attachment seat 44b of the roller holder attachment plate 44. Then, the pressing roller 41 is pressed against the inside of the conveying belt 12 stretched against the elastic force of the pressing roller unit 40 with a predetermined pressing force.

The position of the surface of the conveyor belt 12 is set within a predetermined range by the pressing roller 41 whose pressing stroke is regulated even if the conveyor belt 12 causes, for example, waviness or bending during the conveyance of the recording paper 101. The flatness and tension of the recording paper 101 are maintained, and the recording paper 101 is reliably conveyed by being sandwiched between the conveyor belt 12 and the wire 24.

[0032]

Since the pressing stroke of the pressing roller acting on the conveyor belt is regulated by the pressing roller unit of the present invention, the conveyor belt is always kept in the predetermined flatness and tension, and the recording paper is smoothly conveyed. At the same time, it was reliably sent into the specified bottle and collated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing the structure of a pressing roller unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing the configuration of a sorter including a distributor.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a conveyor belt, wires, and recording paper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Sorter 12 Conveyor belt 21 Distributor 24 Wire 40 Pressing roller unit 41 Pressing roller 42 Roller holder 42b Elastic part 43 Restricting plate 43a Restricting surface 44 Roller holder mounting plate 44c Restricting surface 51 Bin 101 Recording paper

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hisao Hosoya 2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji, Tokyo Konica stock company (72) Inventor Akihiko Nishiki 2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji, Tokyo Konica stock company (72) Inventor Keisuke Tanaka 2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji City, Tokyo Konica Stock Company

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transporting means for stretching and transporting a transport belt and a wire along the inlet side of bins vertically stacked and stacked, and transporting means for sandwiching and transporting recording paper, and raising and lowering drive to the inlet of each bin. In a sorter having a distributor for distributing the recording paper conveyed in a bin, the tensioned conveyor belt is provided with a pressing roller for pressing in the recording paper conveying surface direction from the inside thereof. A sorter characterized by regulating the stroke.