JPH0687562A - Sheet conveyor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify a conveyor guide in the U-turn conveyor part of a sheet conveyor device so as to reduce the cost. CONSTITUTION:The U-turn conveyor part of a sorter 10, a sheet conveyor device, is formed of each conveyor belt pulley 13b fitted to a supporting shaft 33, a conveyor belt 12 wound around the pulley 13b, each conveyor guide wire roller 32 fitted to the supporting shaft 33, one conveyor guide wire 34 wound around the roller 32, and a guide plate 16, an outer guide. The conveyor guide wire 34 wound around the conveyor guide wire roller 32 is stretched with one end thereof fixed to the frame of the sorter 10 and with the other end thereof also fitted to the frame through a spring. The stretched lateral conveyor guide wires 34 serve as the inner conveyor guide of the recording paper 101.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, or conveyance guide means in each U-turn conveyance section of a sorter which is connected to this apparatus to collect recording sheets.

[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.

Generally, in the U-turn transport section of the paper transport device, a transport path for the recording paper transport guide is formed by an outer transport guide and an inner transport guide. As shown in FIG. 6, the outer guide is provided with rollers 13 around which the conveyor belt 12 is wound.
A plate-shaped guide plate 16 formed by an arc of a substantially concentric circle is arranged, and the inner surface of the roller 36 fitted on the same axis as the support shaft of the roller 13 and the inner surface of the roller 36 are Thus, there are provided two split wires 35 that are attached to the left and right objects.

The lower ends of the wires 35 are fixedly attached to the bottom surface of the sorter 10 via springs 35a and stretched in parallel with each other and on the same plane as the conveyor belt 12. The left-side wire 35, which is divided into two, is an inner conveyance guide when the recording paper 101 discharged from the image forming apparatus is conveyed to the upper U-turn conveyance section, and the right-side wire 35 is the peripheral surface of the roller 36. It serves as an inner conveyance guide when the recording paper 101 conveyed through the conveyance path between the guide plate 16 and the guide plate 16 is conveyed to each bin 51 of the sorter 10. In this way, the wire 35, which is divided into two right and left and stretched, constitutes an inner conveyance guide, and the recording paper 101 is conveyed.

[0006]

However, if a wire 35 divided into two pieces is stretched as in the conventional case to serve as a conveyance guide for recording paper, for example, four rows are arranged in the width direction of the sorter (direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 5). It is necessary to match the position where the conveyor belt 12 provided in the above is stretched, and the tension of each wire 35 must be aligned within a predetermined tension range.
Therefore, the positioning and the tensioning of the divided wires 35 are very troublesome and cumbersome work, which causes a cost increase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide a sheet conveying apparatus which can reduce the cost by simplifying the conveying guide of the U-turn conveying section of the sheet conveying apparatus.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet conveying apparatus using a wire member as a conveying guide inside a sheet conveying path having a U-turn conveying section, in which the conveying belt conveys the wire member in the U-turn conveying section. The present invention is achieved by a sheet conveying device characterized in that a roller member that slidably fits on the same support shaft as a support shaft that supports one of the wound rollers is wound and stretched.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.
A top view showing the configuration of the transport guide in the turn transport section, the same side view as in FIG. 2, a side sectional view showing the configuration of the sorter with the distributor in FIG. 3, and XX shown in FIG. It will be described with reference to a cross-sectional view in the direction of the arrow and a diagram showing the positional relationship among the conveyor belt, wires, and recording paper in FIG.

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

Members having the same functions as those of the prior art are designated by the same symbols. In addition, a sorter for coupling the sheet conveying device to the image forming apparatus will be described as an example.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sorter 10 includes a conveyor belt 12 provided along the inlet side of a bin 51 which is vertically stacked and arranged, and a distributor 21 which reciprocates between the row 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. 4) has a recording paper receiving member having a wide opening receiving opening 23a at the upper part thereof, 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. 3, the 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
Both ends of a timing belt 28b wound around a positioning roller 27b and a timing gear 29c located on the right side of the conveyor belt pulley 13a below the sorter 10 are connected and fixed as shown. The distributor frame 22 is suspended from above and below by pulling the timing belt 28b.

The rotation 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.

The distributor 21 is placed at the 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.

Timing gears 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. 4, the distributor frame of wire 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. 5 is a diagram in which this portion is extracted and shown in order to make this situation easy to understand. As shown in FIG.
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.

In the pressing roller unit 40, the pressing roller 41 is pivotally supported by the U-shaped plate 42, and the support shaft of the U-shaped plate 42 mounts the pressing spring 43 on the base 44 attached to the sorter frame 10f. It is designed to be inserted between them.
Although not shown, the rotating shaft of the pressing roller 41 is structured to be kept parallel to the rotating shafts of the conveyor belt pulleys 13a and 13b.

The pressing force for pressing the conveyor belt 12 of the pressing roller unit 40 from the inside is such that the conveyor belt 12 escapes due to the waist of the recording paper 101 when the recording paper 101 is deflected by the distributor 21. It is the load of.

The pressing roller unit 40 presses the conveying belt 12 from the inside with a light load as described above, so that the recording paper 101 that has been sandwiched is conveyed when it is deflected by the distributor 21. The belt 12 loses the waist of the paper and escapes, so that stable conveyance can be obtained without causing stress, wrinkles, or folds in the paper.

The transport guide of the U-turn transport section of the present invention is constructed as follows.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the U-turn conveyor provided on the sorter 10 has a conveyance guide wire on the same axis as a support shaft 33 which pivotally supports a conveyor belt pulley 13b around which the conveyor belt 12 is wound. A roller (hereinafter simply referred to as a wire roller) 32 is provided. This wire roller 32 is a sorter
Each of the wires is provided alternately at five positions (not shown) in order from the top with the conveyor belt pulley 13b provided at four positions around which four rows of the conveyor belts 12 arranged in the width direction 10 are wound. A transport guide wire 34 serving as a transport guide for the recording paper 101 is wound around a V-shaped groove formed on the peripheral surface of the roller 32. The transport guide wire 34 is wound around the wire roller 32 as shown in FIG.
It is hung down to the bottom part of the
It is fixedly attached to 10h and the other end is also attached to the frame 10h via a spring 34a. The left and right transport guide wires 34 are positioned so as to be parallel to each other and substantially flush with the surface of the stretched transport belt 12 as well. Therefore, the left side of one conveyance guide wire 34 wound around the wire roller 32 and stretched is the inner conveyance guide for conveying the recording paper 101 discharged from the image forming apparatus 100 to the upper U-turn conveyance section. The right side serves as an inner conveyance guide when conveying to the bin 51.
Since the transport guide wire 34 is wound around the wire roller 32 with a predetermined tension, the wire roller 32 fitted to the support shaft 33 slides on the support shaft 33 even if the support shaft 33 rotates. It touches, but it does not rotate.

Therefore, the wire roller 32 is a conveyor belt pulley.
By contacting the flange surfaces facing each other with 13b, the vertical direction (FIG. 1) is positioned and the flange surfaces slide.

Since the one conveyance guide wire 34 stretched in this manner constitutes the inner conveyance guide in the U-turn conveyance section, the tension on the left and right, the parallelism between them, or the position with respect to the conveyance belt 12 is set. It is possible to stretch it at a predetermined position very easily without adjusting the parallelism and parallelism.

The recording paper 101 ejected from the image forming apparatus 100 is conveyed to the upper U-turn conveyance section along the conveyance path formed by the guide plate 16 and the left conveyance guide wire 34, and is bent for the guide plate 16 and the wire. Using the circumferential surface of the roller 32 or the winding surface of the transport guide wire 34 as a guide, the U-turn is performed and the transport belt 12 and the wire 24 are transported downward after being transported along the transport guide wire 34 on the right side. Distributor that stops at the position of the specified bin 51 to be collected by sandwiching and transporting
It is sent from 21 to bin 51.

Although the inner conveyance guide in the U-turn conveyance section of the sorter 10 has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the sorter 10 and may be applied to the U-turn conveyance section of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer. .

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the inner conveying guide in the U-turn conveying section is constituted by one conveying guide wire, the conveying guide wire can be stretched very easily and the conveying guide wire Since it is not necessary to adjust the parallelism and tension of each other arranged in the left-right direction and the width direction, or the position and parallelism with the conveyor belt, it is possible to significantly reduce the cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view showing a configuration of a transport guide in a U-turn transport section of a sheet transport device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing the configuration of a sorter including a distributor.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a positional relationship among a conveyor belt, wires, and recording paper.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a configuration of a transport guide in a conventional U-turn transport unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Sorter 12 Conveyor belt 13b Conveyor belt pulley 21 Distributor 22 Distributor frame 24 Wire 27 Wire take-up pulley 27b Wire positioning roller 32 Conveyor guide wire roller (roller for wire) 33 Spindle 34 Conveyor guide wire 35 Wire 36 Coro 51 Bin 101 chart 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 paper conveyance device using a wire member as a conveyance guide inside a paper conveyance path having a U-turn conveyance section, wherein one roller on which a conveyance belt is wound around the wire member in the U-turn conveyance section. A sheet conveying device, which is wound around a roller member slidably fitted to the same support shaft as the shaft supporting the roller and stretched.