JPH0720739A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a device small in size and low in cost by feeding a transferring paper with a pair of rotors constituted of a rotor being one of a pair of rotors on a fixing part and a rotor opposed to the rotor on the fixing part. CONSTITUTION:When an original is detected by a paper feeding detecting sensor 4, a driving motor is started. When the original is detected by the sensor 4 so as to make the driving motor started, the transferring material is held and carried between the lower roller 10b in a fixing roller pair 10 used also as a paper feeding roller and a paper feeding auxiliary carrying roller 13 provided opposingly to the lower roller 10b. Thus, the transferring material is fed by the lower roller 10b in the fixing roller pair 10 and the roller 13 thermally fixing an image on the transferring material opposed to the roller 10b, so that many rollers and many guide plates can be shared to reduce the number of components. Thus, the device is made small in occupying space and low in cost.

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 recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a transfer material feeding means, a feeding roller, which is a rotating member, is arranged as a feeding means in a paper feed tray or a cassette or the like on which a transfer material is loaded. In the case of being picked and fed into the apparatus, or in the case of manual feeding, the transfer material is inserted into a pair of feeding rollers or one feeding roller, which is a pair of rotating bodies, and fed into the apparatus. Means have been taken.

When an image is formed by a process unit that operates in each process of image formation, and the image is fixed and discharged to the outside of the apparatus, the rotation is completely different from that of the pair of feeding rollers or one feeding roller. The sheet is discharged by a discharge roller as a body or a pair of discharge rollers.

On the other hand, as a means for feeding the document into the apparatus, the document is fed by a roller as a rotating body or a pair of rollers as a pair of rotating bodies which is completely different from the above-mentioned feeding roller or discharge roller. .

[0005]

As described above, the sheet-through type image forming apparatus having the manual sheet feeding portion requires many rollers as the rotating body, and it is difficult to downsize the machine. Was becoming.

Further, in the above conventional example, since the transfer material and the original document have their own transport paths, there are the following drawbacks. In addition to the roller and the guide for feeding the transfer material, the roller and the guide are required for feeding the document, so that the number of parts is large and the cost is increased. Each transport path had to be established, which was an obstacle to space saving and miniaturization, and it was difficult to always place it within easy reach while working. The rollers that feed the transfer material and the upper and lower rollers of the fixing unit of the process unit that fixes the image on the transfer material are made of quite special materials, which causes a cost increase.

Further, since many rollers are rotating bodies, a considerable space is required to establish a drive system.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which can be made compact and cost can be reduced.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a process unit that operates in each process of image formation is provided in a main body case, and an image formed by the process unit is provided. In an image forming apparatus having a pair of rotating bodies for fixing a toner to a transfer material, the rotating body is constituted by one of the pair of rotating bodies and a second rotating body provided facing the rotating body. It is characterized in that a pair of rotating bodies is provided.

Further, a third rotating body is further provided so as to face a second rotating body facing one of the pair of rotating bodies for fixing the image on the transfer material, and the third rotating body,
A second pair of rotating bodies configured with the second rotating body may be provided.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the image on the transfer material is heated and fixed by either one of the pair of rotating bodies and the pair of rotating bodies facing each other. Since the transfer material is fed into the apparatus, an inexpensive and compact image forming apparatus with a small number of parts is realized.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a view best showing the features of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is an outer frame cover which is a casing of an image forming apparatus, and 2 is an opening cover which also serves as a paper feed tray and a paper discharge tray. is there. The front and rear support plates (not shown) are provided in the outer frame cover 1, and the guide plates 3, 5, 14, 15, 26, 27, 28 supported by the support plates.
And a pair of rollers 23, 24, 25 as a pair of rotating bodies
, And Selfocsen for image reading (hereinafter SL
20), a fluorescent lamp 21, an image forming unit 7 as a process unit that operates in each process of image formation, a transfer roller 8, and an image formed by the image forming unit 7 is fixed on a transfer material. Fixing roller pair 10 as a pair of rotating bodies
From the above, the schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is made.

23 of the roller pairs 23, 24, 25
Numeral 24 is a pair of original pick rollers for feeding the original into the apparatus, and numeral 24 is a pair of rollers for pressing the original and the next pair of rollers 2
5 is a pair of platen rollers for feeding to 5, and 25 is a pair of document feeding rollers for feeding the document to the discharge side.

Then, a transport roller 9 provided to face the transfer roller 8, a sheet feed auxiliary transport roller 13 as a second rotating body provided to face the lower roller 10b of the fixing roller pair 10, and sheet feed detection. Sensors 4 and 12 are outer frame cover 1
Alternatively, it is attached to the guide plate 3 or the like.

Then, each roller pair 23, 24, 25, 1
0 is driven by the drive motor 36 on the axis of the photosensitive drum 6 in the image forming section 7 to rotate. This rotation will be described with reference to FIG. 4. The pulley 34 arranged coaxially with the photosensitive drum 6 and the original pick roller 23.
A pulley 30 coaxial with a and a pulley 31 coaxial with the platen roller 24a are rotated by a belt 37, and a part of the pulley 31 and a pulley 32 coaxial with the document feed roller 25a are connected with a belt 38. Rotate. Further, a pulley 33 that is in contact with the photosensitive drum 6 and is coaxial with the transfer roller 8 that is connected by a gear (not shown)
Then, the lower roller 10b of the fixing roller pair 10 and a pulley 35 coaxial with the lower roller 10b are connected by a belt 39 and rotated. Further, by setting the diameters of the pulleys 31 to 35 so that the rollers 23a, 24a, 25a, 8 and 10b have the same peripheral speed as the photosensitive drum 6, if the drive motor 36 rotates, the rollers 23a, 24a, 25a, 8 and 10b rotate in a required rotation direction at a required speed. Then, the roller 23 of each roller pair 23, 24, 25, 8, 10
The rollers b, 24b, 25b, 9 and 13 are in pressure contact with the rollers 23a, 24a, 25a, 8 and 10b facing each other and rotate as driven rollers.

On the other hand, the image forming section 7 includes a toner container 29,
It is composed of a sleeve 17, a photosensitive drum 6, a drum cleaning blade 18, a cleaner 19, and a charging roller 22, and is supported by a front back support plate (not shown) as one process unit.

Then, the original is inserted into the apparatus along the guide plate 3 for inserting the original, and when the original is detected by the paper feed detection sensor 4, the drive motor 36 is started.
The paper feed sensor 4 detects the transfer material by placing a transfer material on the opening cover 2 forming a paper feed tray before the original is inserted into the original insertion guide plate 3 and detected by the paper feed detection sensor 12. This is the first time.

When the drive motor 36 is started, the drive is performed by the pulleys 31 to 35 by the rollers 23a, 24.
a, 25a, 8 and 10b, the document feed is started when the document hits the document pick roller pair 23. Then, the original sent by the original pick roller pair 23 is sent along the guide plate 5, and the partial holes 5a are formed.
The image is read by the SLA 20 on the guide plate 5 that is. After that, the sheet is discharged below the opening cover 2 forming the sheet discharge tray in the path indicated by the arrow B in FIG.

On the other hand, the transfer material is first set at the position of arrow A in FIG. 5, and when the original is detected by the paper feed detection sensor 4 and the drive motor 36 is started, the transfer material is placed under the fixing roller pair 10 which also serves as the paper feed roller. It is nipped and conveyed by a roller 10b and a sheet feeding auxiliary conveyance roller 13 provided so as to face the lower roller 10b.

After passing through the space between the guide plates 14 and 15 and being fed by the transfer roller 8 which also serves as a feeding roller, a guide plate 27 for making a U-turn in the feeding direction of the transfer material.
It is sent while making a U-turn upward by 28. On this occasion,
The transfer material is fed to the transfer portion while being backed up by the document feed roller 25a so that the transfer material is not caught at the U-turn portion. Then, the image read by the SLA 20 and transferred onto the photosensitive drum 6 is transferred to the transfer material in synchronism with the transfer material, and then sent to the fixing roller pair 10 along the guide plate 16 by the heat and pressure thereof. The image is fixed to the transfer material by the fixing roller pair 10 for fixing the image to
It is discharged in the direction of arrow A in FIG.

The opening cover 2 forming the paper feed tray and the paper discharge tray is opened from the outer frame cover 1 when used and is closed so as to be integrated with the outer frame cover 1 after use.

The following effects are obtained by the image forming apparatus having the above structure.

The transfer material is fed by the lower roller 10b of the fixing roller pair 10 that heats and fixes the image on the transfer material, and the feed auxiliary transport roller 13 that is a roller opposite to the lower roller 10b. Can be used in common, leading to a reduction in the number of parts, space saving, and cost reduction.

Further, since the space of the transport path is greatly saved and the paper feeding section is simplified, the downsizing of the image forming apparatus main body is realized.

Since the transfer material is fed while coming into contact with the lower roller 10b of the fixing roller pair that heats and fixes the image on the transfer material, the transfer material, which has conventionally been apt to absorb moisture and easily jam, is also affected by the heat of the lower roller 10b. Is evaporated and the transfer material is smeared, so that the transfer material can be fed smoothly.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 show a second embodiment according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the fixing roller pair in the first embodiment is composed of a lower roller 44, a fixing member 48 provided at a fixing portion of the lower roller 44, an endless belt 45 connected to the fixing member 48, and the endless belt 45. The second rotating body 51, which is composed of an upper roller composed of rollers 49 and 50 disposed above the fixed member 48 to be driven in the figure, and which opposes the lower roller 44, an endless rotating belt 41, and The lower roller 44, which is composed of driven rollers 42 and 43, is a pressure roller for heating and fixing an image on the transfer material, and the second rotating body 51 facing the lower roller 44 feeds the transfer material.

Further, the document passes through the exposure section from the paper feed port 46 and exits from the paper discharge port 47 on the rear surface of the apparatus.
With respect to other configurations and operations, the same components as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The following effects can be obtained by adopting the above configuration.

Rotating belt 4 facing the lower roller 44
1 and the lower roller 44 make up the paper feed unit, the nip portion is widened, and wrinkles and water content of the transfer material can be adjusted, thereby realizing a paper feed unit having a wider latitude. To do.

By keeping the original document away from the fixing unit on the image forming unit 7 side, it is possible to prevent deformation such as curling of the original document and obtain a compact image forming apparatus.

FIG. 8 shows a third embodiment according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the fixing roller pair is the lower roller 52, the fixing member 48 provided in the fixing portion of the lower roller 52, the endless belt 45 connected to the fixing member 48, and the endless belt, as in the second embodiment. Fixing member 48 for driving 45
A reverse roller 51 is provided as a second rotating body which is composed of an upper roller composed of rollers 49 and 50 arranged in the upper part of FIG. 2 and is opposed to a lower roller 52 which is a pressure roller for feeding paper. It is a thing.

The opening cover 53, which is a part of the outer frame cover 1, can also be used as a paper feed tray and can supply the transfer material to the paper feed section.

The reverse rotation roller 51 is controlled by an electromagnetic clutch (not shown) and reverses during normal paper feeding. It is synchronized with a sensor (not shown) so that it stops when one transfer material is fed.

Regarding other constitutions and operations,
Since it is the same as the embodiment, the same components are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.

With such a structure, it is possible to prevent the two sheets from being fed at the time of manual feeding and to realize more reliable sheet feeding.

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a fixing roller pair is composed of an upper roller 62 for fixing an image on a transfer material and a lower roller 63 which is a pressure roller facing the upper roller 62 as in the first embodiment. The transfer material E (arrow in the figure) and the document F (arrow in the figure) are fed by being sandwiched between a roller 65 as a second rotating body facing the above and a lower roller 63.

In the case of the original F having a long distance to the exposed portion of the guide plate 76, the sorting cam 61 is fed between the sorting cam 61 and the roller 65 as shown in FIG. Guide plate 72, so that there is a gap in
It is sent to the original transport path consisting of 73 and 74.

When the transfer material E is nipped by the lower roller 63 and the roller 65, which are pressure rollers, at the timing when the image on the document F is properly placed on the transfer material E, the transfer material E is transferred as shown in FIG. The sorting cam 61 is swung by a solenoid (not shown) to such an extent that the sorting cam 61 is lightly contacted with the document F so that the material does not enter the document transport path. As a result, the transfer material E is discharged from the fixing section through the image forming section 7 via the guide plates 16 and 71.

Further, the original document F is discharged through a pair of rollers composed of a roller 65 and a roller 66 as a third rotating body facing the roller 65 via an exposure portion of a guide plate 76. With respect to other configurations and operations, the same components as those in the above-mentioned respective embodiments are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

With this structure, the manuscript
At least one of the feeding roller and the discharging roller of the transfer material also has the function of feeding or discharging the transfer material or the original, which reduces the number of parts and realizes a significant cost reduction.

[0041]

As described above, the transfer material of the fixing unit is formed by the pair of rotating bodies composed of either one of the pair of rotating bodies and the second rotating body facing the rotating body. Since paper can be fed, it is possible to provide an inexpensive image forming apparatus that includes a more reliable paper feeding mechanism, is compact, and has a small number of parts.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an overall perspective view of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 2 with an opening cover opened.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a driving portion of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a conveyance path of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a cross-sectional view of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 6 with an opening cover opened.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

10 is a schematic diagram of a sorting cam unit showing a state in which a document is fed in the image forming apparatus of FIG.

11 is a schematic view of a sorting cam unit showing a state of sorting a document and a transfer material in the image forming apparatus of FIG.

[Description of Reference Signs] 1 outer frame cover 2 opening cover 3 document insertion guide plate 4, 12 paper feed detection sensor 6 photosensitive drum 7 image forming section (process unit) 8 transfer roller 10 fixing roller pair 10a upper roller 10b lower roller (additional Pressure roller) 13 Paper feed auxiliary transport roller (second rotating body) 27, 28 U-turn guide plate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus comprising a process unit operating in each process of image formation in a main body case, and a pair of rotating bodies for fixing an image formed by the process unit on a transfer material, An image forming apparatus comprising: a pair of rotating bodies configured by one of the rotating bodies and a second rotating body provided facing the rotating body. 2. A third rotating body is further provided so as to face a second rotating body facing one of the pair of rotating bodies for fixing the image on the transfer material, and the third rotating body is provided. 2. A second pair of rotating bodies formed by the second rotating body is provided.
The image forming apparatus according to item 1.