JPH07102931B2 - Sheet material sorting device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printing machine or a copying machine.
The present invention relates to a sheet material sorting device for aligning and stacking discharged sheet materials, and more particularly to a sheet sorting device for sorting sheet materials by reciprocating a tray in a direction orthogonal to a sheet material discharging direction.

(B) Conventional Technology In an image forming apparatus such as a printing machine or a copying machine, a sheet material is conveyed through each device for image formation, and after image formation,
It is loaded on the output tray. A sheet material aligning device is provided for aligning and stacking discharged sheet materials.

As an example of the sheet material aligning device, there is a sheet material width regulating member that aligns the sheet material in the width direction. However, in this device, it is necessary to move the width regulating member every time the dimension of the sheet material is changed. Therefore, the device becomes complicated and large.

Therefore, a method of hitting back with a skew roller, a rotating paddle, a belt or the like is adopted.

(C) Problems to be solved by the invention When this method is adopted, when the sheet materials are sorted, the stacked sheet materials are temporarily released downward from the skew rollers, the rotating paddles, the belt, etc., and the sheet materials are moved. After that, the stacked sheet material must be raised again.

In this method, a large power source is required, and when the stacked sheet materials are raised and lowered, it is necessary to increase the speed reduction ratio in order to increase the power, and it is not possible to speed up the sheet material conveyance.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to speed up the sheet material conveyance by combining the lateral movement of the sheet material and the pickup by a roller or the like when sorting the sheet material. .

(D) Means for Solving the Problem In the sheet material sorting device of the present invention, in the sheet material discharging portion of the image forming apparatus, the tray for receiving the discharged sheet material is reciprocated in a direction orthogonal to the sheet material discharging direction. And The aligning member that contacts the sheet material on the tray and aligns the feeding direction of the sheet material, and the driving unit that separates the aligning member from the sheet material on the tray, and the aligning unit is configured by the driving unit. The above problem is solved by moving the tray by a predetermined amount in the direction orthogonal to the sheet material discharge direction while the members are separated from each other.

(E) Operation The image forming apparatus transfers a predetermined image onto the sheet material, and then discharges and aligns and stacks it on the tray member provided in the sheet material discharging portion. When sorting the sheet materials, the aligning member for discharging and aligning the sheet materials is separated from the sheet materials stacked on the tray member by the driving means, and then the tray member is orthogonal to the sheet material discharging direction. It is moved in a predetermined direction (width direction) by a predetermined amount.

After the sorting is completed, the aligning member is returned as usual.

(F) Example An example of the sheet material sorting apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a sheet material discharging unit of an image forming apparatus. The sheet material sorting device of the present invention is provided in the sheet material discharging portion.

Before describing the sheet material sorting apparatus according to the invention, the configuration and operation of the sheet material discharging unit will be described.

The sheet material on which an image is formed by the image forming apparatus (not shown) is conveyed by the conveying rollers at the entrance of the sheet material aligning apparatus (not shown) and reaches the vertical conveying bus 1.

The surface of one of the pair of registration rollers 2a and 2b is made of a rubber member, and the surface of the other roller is made of metal or resin. The drive is the fourth
As shown, it is transmitted via the clutch 302. The resist sensor 3 detects the leading edge of the sheet material,
The on / off control of the clutch 302 of the registration rollers 2a and 2b is performed. A loop space 5 is provided in the middle of the vertical transport path 1 to gently cut and raise a part of the guide plate to widen the space of the transport path to form a loop of the sheet material.

The shift control sensor 6 detects the end portion of the sheet material and changes the peripheral speed of the discharge roller 7a in two steps by a mechanism (described later) shown in FIG. Further, the shift control sensor 6 also serves as a sheet material discharge sensor. The discharge roller 7a, the belt 9 and the pressing rollers 7b, 11 are combined to form the sheet material, and the alignment tray 15
Discharge on top.

The belt 9 is stretched between the discharge roller 7a and the tension roller 12, whereby the sheet material is aligned on the alignment tray 15
When ejected to the top, the edge of the sheet material is forcibly pressed against the abutting plate 18
Aligning means 7 for aligning the sheet material in the feeding direction is configured.

The alignment tray 15 is configured to be able to move up and down in the direction indicated by the arrow X in FIG. 1 by a drive mechanism (not shown), and the upper and lower limit microswitches 16 and the lower limit microswitches 17 regulate the raising and lowering range.

The level detection arm 13 that connects the discharge roller 7a, the tension roller 12, and the thickness level detection photo interrupter 14 is configured to be rotatable about the discharge roller shaft 71a in the arrow Y direction in the drawing. Therefore, when the sheet material continues to be loaded and the loading amount increases, the level detection arm 13
Rotates in the Y direction, activates the thickness level detecting photo interrupter 14, and lowers the alignment tray 15 by an amount corresponding to an increase in the stacking amount.

When the solenoid 20 acts, the arm 19 swings the level detection arm 13 to push up the tension roller 12 upward and separate it from the surface of the sheet material.

The operation will be briefly described. First, the sheet material that has reached the vertical transport path 1 rotates the registration sensor 3 and stops the leading edge of the sheet material at the nip portion of the registration rollers 2a and 2b. At this time, the registration rollers 2a and 2b are stopped. After a lapse of a certain time after the leading edge of the sheet material passes through the resist sensor 3, a loop of the sheet material is formed in the loop space 5, registration is performed, and the resist system is driven by the drive system shown in FIG. The rollers 2a and 2b start rotating.

Immediately after the registration rollers 2a, 2b start to rotate, the registration rollers 2a, 2b rotate and move in the axial direction to move the sheet material in its width direction, and the side edges of the sheet member are set to the discharge path reference line. To position. The axial movement of the registration rollers 2a, 2b is made by the rotation of the end surface cam 304 shown in FIG. In addition, a sensor such as a photo interrupter is arranged on the reference line in order to detect the positioning of the side edge in the width direction of the sheet material.

From the above operation, the skew feeding of the sheet material is corrected, and the discharge position in the width direction is regulated.

Next, when the shift control sensor 6 detects the leading edge of the sheet material, the mechanism shown in FIG.
It is synchronized with the peripheral speed of the registration rollers 2a and 2b (in the present embodiment, it is synchronized with the higher speed of the two speed shifts).
When the shift control sensor 6 detects the rear end of the sheet material, the original speed is restored again (speed lower than the feeding speed of the transport system in this embodiment), and when the sheet material is discharged onto the alignment tray 15, the speed is sufficiently reduced. It will be the speed that was set.

The transmission mechanism will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 3, the axes represented by the symbols A, B, C, D, E, F are 2
It is a gear train that enables a gear shift. The shaft C corresponds to the discharge roller shaft 71a shown in FIG. Although not shown in FIG. 1, this mechanism is arranged in the sheet material discharging member.

Since FIG. 3 is developed and shown, the left end axis A and the right end axis (A) are the same axis.

The drive of the motor (not shown) is transmitted to the pulleys 101 and 101 'via the timing belt to drive the shaft A. Here, in a normal state, the speed is reduced via the gear trains 102 and 103 and transmitted to the gear 104 having a one-way clutch, and the discharge roller shaft 71a is rotated at one of two speeds (low speed). When the shift control sensor 6 detects the leading edge of the sheet material, the clutches 104 ', 105' are excited, and the drive transmission shafts A, D, E, F, C are arranged in this order, and the other speed (high speed) ), The discharge roller shaft 71a is rotated. Further, when the shift control sensor 6 detects the rear end of the sheet material,
The clutches 104, 105 are demagnetized, and the discharge roller shaft 71a is again rotated at a low speed in the order of A, B, C.

At this point, the vicinity of the rear end of the sheet material is the discharge roller 7a,
The paper is ejected onto the alignment tray 15 while being held by the press roller 7b. The discharging speed at that time is the above-mentioned low speed.

Next, the drive mechanism for the registration rollers 2a and 2b will be described with reference to FIG. The registration rollers 2a and 2b are rotationally driven by power from a drive source (not shown) via a gear 301, an electromagnetic clutch 302, and a gear 303. Electromagnetic clutch 30
2 is on / off controlled to transmit / block the driving force.

When the electromagnetic clutch 302 is turned on with the leading end of the sheet material reaching the nip portion of the registration roller and forming a loop, the registration rollers 2a and 2b start rotating. When the shift control sensor 6 shown in FIG. 1 detects the leading edge of the sheet material, the registration rollers 2a and 2b move the end faces in the X direction of FIG. 4 in order to align the side edges of the sheet material with the width direction reference line. The rotation of the cam 304 enables axial movement, and the axial movement stops when the sheet material coincides with the width reference line.This stop control is performed by a sensor such as a photo interrupter on the width reference line. Be seen.

With the above configuration, skew of the sheet material is corrected, and variations in the discharge position can be almost absorbed.

An embodiment of the sheet material sorting device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7. As shown in FIG. 5, the level detection arm 13 is rotatable around the discharge roller 71a. Normally, the belt 9 hung between the discharge roller 7a and the tension roller 12 is placed on the sheet material S by its own weight. The L-shaped arm 19
It rotates about the arm shaft 19a, and one end thereof is connected to the solenoid 20. The free end of the arm 19 is the level detection arm 13
Is in contact with point P. When the solenoid 20 is activated, the free end of the arm 19 rotates downward, and the level detection arm 13
Is rotated in the direction of arrow Y to separate the belt 9 from the sheet material (FIG. 6).

As shown in FIG. 7, the alignment tray 15 is configured to be moved by a predetermined amount in a direction indicated by an arrow Z in the drawing by a drive mechanism (not shown).

A series of sorting operations will be described. Sheet material S is belt 9
When the sheet is ejected onto the alignment tray 15 and a predetermined number of sheets are stacked (FIG. 5), the solenoid 20 is actuated, the level detection arm 13 is instantaneously rotated, and the belt 9 constituting the alignment means 7 is seated. It is separated from the material S (Fig. 6). Almost at the same time, after the aligning tray 15 is moved by a predetermined amount in the width direction (Z direction) of the sheet material (FIG. 7) by a drive mechanism (not shown), the solenoid 20 is turned off and the belt 9 rides on the sheet material S again. The next sheet material S is stacked on the previous sheet material S with a predetermined shift in the width direction.

Such operations are repeated, and sorting is sequentially performed.

(G) Effect of the Invention In the sorting operation by the conventional device, the aligning tray is lowered in the X direction, then moved in the Z direction (width direction of the aligning tray) and again raised in the X direction. Moving the alignment trays in the X and Z directions with the sheets loaded requires a large amount of power and a long time, but the apparatus of the present invention does not require the movement in the X direction for sorting. No power is required and the sorting operation can be speeded up. Further, since the existing equipment can be effectively used, the device becomes small and inexpensive.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a sheet material discharging unit of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a drawing similar to FIG. 1 and shows a stacked state of sheet materials. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the drive mechanism of the discharge roller. Fourth
The figure is a plan view of the registration roller drive mechanism. FIG. 5 is a side view of the sheet material sorting device of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a drawing similar to FIG. 5 and shows an operating state. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the device of the present invention. 1 ... Vertical transport path, 2a, 2b ... Registration roller, 3
...... Registration sensor, 5 ...... Loop space, 6 ...
... shift control sensor, 7 ... aligning means, 7a ... discharge roller, 7b ... presser roller, 9 ... belt, 11 ... presser roller,
12 …… Tension roller, 13 …… Level detection arm, 14
…… Photo interrupter, 15 …… Alignment tray, 18 ……
Abutment plate, 19 ... Arm, 20 ... Drive device (solenoid), 71a ... Discharge roller shaft, 102, 103 ... Gear train, 104
…… One-way clutch, 105 …… Clutch, 302 ……
Electromagnetic clutch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sheet material sorter comprising a tray on which a sheet material discharged from a sheet material discharging section of an image forming apparatus can be stacked, and the tray is reciprocally moved in a direction orthogonal to a sheet material discharging direction. The apparatus includes an alignment member that contacts the sheet material on the tray and aligns the feeding direction of the sheet material, and a drive unit that separates the alignment member from the sheet material on the tray. A sheet material sorting apparatus configured to move the tray in a direction orthogonal to the sheet material discharging direction with the aligning member separated from each other.