JPH07115792B2 - Seat sorter - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a sheet sorter which is a device for inserting a series of equivalent copy sheets such as copies from a xerographic copying machine into a receiver such as an individual accommodating portion. Regarding The number of bins is always greater than or equal to the number of copies, and the sorting operation completes each set of copies, returning each set as many times as needed to hold a complete set.

(Prior Art and Problems) In order to reduce the size of the sorter, it is desirable that the area of each accommodation portion be smaller than the area of the sheet to be accommodated therein. One way to do this is by arranging each of the bins at an acute angle to the vertical so that the'excess' region of the sheet projects beyond each bin. However, this method raises a problem of how to reliably prevent the protruding area of the sheet from collapsing and interfering with the sheet fed into the adjacent storage section.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sheet sorter having a plurality of trays that provide a sheet with sufficient strain for the protruding portions of each sheet being fed to become self-supporting.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a sheet sorter for feeding sheets in an upright state from below, which is provided with trays for copying which are horizontally aligned, Is fixed to the other trays, each tray has a bottom lip,
Adjacent to the bottom lip and having a flat seat contact surface inclined at a relatively small acute angle with respect to the vertical direction, and a wing portion extending upward from the surface of the seat contact surface, the wing portion and the seat contact surface. The line of intersection with and converging away from the bottom lip, two parallel adjoining trays between them, with a substantially uniform thickness and a cross-section that is straight at the bottom lip but sloped at the top. The length of the horizontal gap between adjacent trays and the length from the sheet contact surface to the tip of the wing are such that each tray is inside the wing of the adjacent tray. When the sheets are fed to the containing portion, the two adjacent trays cooperate with each other so as to bend the leading end portion of each sheet and are fed to the containing portion. Parallel to the feeding direction placed inside The leading edge of the sheet forms an acute angle with the sheet contact surface so as to increase the strain of the sheet, and most of the longitudinal direction of the sheet can protrude beyond the upper portion of the tray in a self-supporting state. A sheet sorter is provided.

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

EXAMPLE A sorter of the invention comprises a series of individual trays 2 aligned horizontally, each tray 2 having a main support surface 4 inclined at an acute angle to the vertical. Further, each tray 2 is provided with a horizontal flange-shaped lip 6 on the bottom edge thereof. Third
As shown more clearly in the figure, the tray 2 is formed with two asymmetrical wings 8,10. Also, as shown in FIG. 3, the flange lip 6 may be provided with a series of'charges' 12 but this is not essential. The lip flange 14 and the connecting portion 16 may be continuous.

The fold lines 18 of both wings 8, 10 are positioned at an angle with respect to the horizontal such that the outer edges of each wing are vertical when the main support surface 4 of the tray is at its operating angle with respect to the vertical. There is.

As clearly shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the space between the adjacent parallel trays 2 in the horizontal direction limits the intermediate sheet receiving / accommodating portion 20, so that the blades 8 and 10 are inclined with respect to the inclined wall of the accommodating portion. Selected to ensure overlap. This purpose will be described later.

The sorter of the present invention is applied to a bottom feeding type, in which a pair of feed rolls 22 are sequentially aligned with each accommodation portion 20,
The sheet 24 that has been sent into the storage portion 20 is discharged along the direction indicated by the arrow 26. Copies from xerophic or other copiers are typically fed along a horizontal exit path (not shown) with a pair of feed rolls 28 at one end of the path. These rolls grip each sheet sent to pass through a pair of curved guide surfaces 30, and these guide surfaces 30 extend from a horizontal path to the feed roll 28 to a path extending in parallel with the main axis of the housing section 20. And sheet 24
Deflect.

After the sheets have been fed into each of the accommodating units, the sheet feeding device shown in FIG. 1 is indexed and moved by an appropriate means (not shown), or the entire plurality of trays arranged in series are arranged. The sheet can be fed to the next tray by indexing and moving in the direction. This index movement is
This is repeated by the number of sheets to be sorted or the number of storage units.

In all of the drawings, each of the parts referred to above has the first reference numeral.

FIG. 2 shows an operation mode of the present invention, and a part thereof is omitted in the same figure for the sake of easy understanding of the drawing. When the leading edge of the sheet is sufficiently separated from the feed roll 22, the weight of the sheet causes the leading edge to start leaning toward the tray 2. One or both sides or corners of the leading edge contact one or both of the wings 8,10. If the sheet to be fed is made of a sufficiently rigid material, it will try to assume a more curved shape across the width of the sheet intersecting the feed direction 20 until the leading edge contacts the back of the facing tray. do not do. When contacting the back surface, the center of the leading edge is pushed down by the tray facing each sheet, while both side edges are pushed up by contact with the respective wing portions 8 and 10, so that the sheet bends and the degree of curvature is from the trailing edge. The greater the distance, the greater.
The speed at which each sheet is fed into the accommodating portion 20 is such that the upward movement of the sheet is stopped by gravity and the trailing edge of the sheet is completely accommodated in the accommodating portion before the trailing edge is lowered to rest on the lip 6. It is chosen to be within 20 so that the trailing edge of each sheet stays straight while the leading edge has a generally uniform curvilinear shape. This change in the shape of the sheet according to the distance from the rear edge provides the sheet with sufficient supporting strength so that the portion 34 of each sheet that protrudes beyond the upper end of the tray 2 is self-supporting. Actually, the height is 4 mm with a tray of about 150 mm.
It has been found that it can support a 25 mm sheet. That is, for example, B5 to B4 in the long edge feed orientation and 42 in the short edge feed orientation.
The size of the entire sorter is reduced due to the relatively low height of each housing, while ensuring a wide range of sheet size classifications of 5 mm and A3.

(Effects of the Invention) From the above, it will be understood that the larger the size of the sheet fed into the accommodating section due to the relatively independent shape of the tray, the greater the degree of bending that occurs and the correspondingly the supporting strength. Further, in the case of a large sheet fed with the short edge first, the curvature increases as the distance from the trailing edge increases, and the trailing edge itself is directly supported to determine its position, and The fact that the center of gravity is above the top surface of the housing ensures that the uniquely curved sheet does not gravitate out of the housing. Further, in the present invention, since each tray is inclined at a small acute angle with respect to the vertical direction, each sheet can be fed and accommodated substantially vertically, and the horizontal length of the sheet sorter can be increased. However, since a large number of long sheets can be accommodated and each tray is fixed with respect to other trays, when sorting sheets, the fed sheets are fed to one of the array trays. It suffices to move the sheet feeding device in the horizontal direction or move all the trays in the horizontal direction, and a complicated sorting mechanism is unnecessary.

From the above, according to the present invention, a series of trays having the same and simple shapes are accommodated such that a series of trays are fed into the accommodating portion and a certain sheet is curved, and a portion of the feeding sheet protruding beyond the top of the accommodating portion is self-supporting. It will be apparent to provide a bottom-fed, sheet-fed sheet sorter.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of two adjacent storage parts in a sorter of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a similar view of FIG. 1 in which copy sheets of different sizes protrude beyond the top of the storage part. FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the amount, FIG. 3 is a front view of the tray acting as one surface of the accommodation portion, FIG. 4 is a plan view of the tray shown in FIG. 3 at a predetermined position in the sorter, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a side view of the tray shown in FIGS. 2 …… Tray, 4 …… Sheet contact surface, 9 …… Bottom lip, 8,10 …… Wings, 18 …… Crossing line, 20 …… Storage section, 24 …… Sheet, 26 …… Feeding direction.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sheet sorter for feeding sheets in an upright state from below, comprising a plurality of trays (2) horizontally aligned.
Each tray is fixed relative to the other tray, each tray having a bottom lip (6) and a flat sheet contact adjacent to the bottom lip and inclined at a relatively small acute angle to the vertical. A surface (4) and wings (8, 10) extending upward from the surface of the seat contact surface, and a line of intersection between the wings and the seat contact surface converges at a position apart from the bottom lip. Thus, two parallel adjacent trays form between them a sheet receiving receptacle having a substantially uniform thickness and varying in cross-section such that the bottom lip is straight but the top is sloping. , The length of the horizontal gap between adjacent trays and the length from the sheet contact surface to the tip of the wing are such that each tray partially overlaps within the wing of an adjacent tray, When the tray feeds the sheet to the storage section, , The front ends of the sheets, which cooperate with each other to bend the front ends of the sheets and which are fed to the accommodation unit and arranged therein and parallel to the feeding direction, increase the strength of the strain of the sheets. In addition, the sheet sorter is characterized in that the sheet contact surface has an acute angle and most of the sheet in the longitudinal direction can protrude beyond the upper portion of the tray in a self-supporting state. 2. The sheet sorter according to claim 1, wherein both wing portions of each tray have different areas. 3. Lines of intersection between each wing of each tray and the sheet contact surface extend to the outer edge of each tray at different lengths from the bottom lip, and the angle between each wing and the sheet contact surface is: The sheet sorter according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the upright edges of the respective wings are in a substantially vertical plane. 4. The sheet sorter according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sheet contact surface of each tray is provided with a notched substantially rectangular recess at the upper edge thereof.