JPH07228373A - Sheet material feeder and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a sheet material feeder formed into small size without generating improper conveyance due to a fold in a sheet material point end, jam, etc. CONSTITUTION:A device comprises a cassette 23 which is a storage member for storing recording paper 22 as a sheet material, pickup roller 25a which is a conveying rotor for feeding the recording paper 22 from this cassette 23 and a separating piece 25b which is a separating means brought into contact with this pickup roller 25a to separate the recording paper 22 sheet by sheet between the separating piece and the pickup roller 25a. A front edge part 25d as a guide means, brought into contact with the pickup roller 25a to guide the recording paper 22, is provided on the upstream in a recording paper conveying direction from a contact point B between the separating piece 25b and the pickup roller 25a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet material feeding device for feeding a sheet material applied to an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, with the development of information processing systems,
Various information processing devices have been developed. Among these devices, recording devices such as facsimile machines and printers are widely used not only in offices but also in general households.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a facsimile machine to which a conventional sheet material feeding device is applied. Recording section is recording paper 1
A cassette 142 for loading 41 is mounted at a predetermined position of the apparatus main body, and a pickup roller 143a for separately conveying the recording paper 141 one by one,
A recording separation unit 143 including a separation piece 143b, and a feeding roller pair 1 including a pair of feeding rollers 145a and 145b that conveys the separated recording paper 141a to the recording unit 144.
45, a paper feed roller 146, an inkjet head for printing, an inkjet cartridge 147 including an ink tank, and a pair of discharge rollers 148 for discharging printed recording paper 148a, 148b Has been done.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional feeding apparatus, in order to make the apparatus compact, as shown in FIG. 6, the angle α formed between the conveying direction of the recording paper 141 and the separating piece 143b is set. Large (α = α
₀ , about 40 °).

As a result, the leading edge of the recording paper 141 abuts the separating piece 143b made of a material having a high coefficient of friction at a large angle, so that the leading edge may be bent or a jam may occur, resulting in poor conveyance. It was

Further, in order to prevent this, recording paper 141
If the angle α formed between the separation piece 143b and the separation piece 143b is made small (α = α ₁ , about 25 °) as shown in FIG. 7, the flow of the recording paper 141 lie in the horizontal direction after passing through the separation portion, so that the apparatus is It becomes large in the plane direction, the size of the entire device becomes large,
Miniaturization becomes difficult.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. The object of the present invention is to prevent the defective conveyance of a sheet material due to bending of the leading edge of the sheet material, jamming, etc.
An object of the present invention is to provide a compact sheet material feeding device.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a storage member for storing a sheet material,
In a sheet material feeding device, comprising: a conveying rotary body that feeds out a sheet material from the storage member; and a separating means that is in contact with the conveying rotary body and that separates the sheet material one by one between the conveying rotary body, Guide means for guiding the sheet material is provided on the upstream side of the contact point between the separating means and the conveying rotary body in the sheet material conveying direction so as to be in contact with the conveying rotary body.

The guide means may be supported by a holding member that holds the separating means.

It is preferable that the surface of the transport rotary member is formed of an elastic material.

The guide means is preferably flexible.

[0012]

In the sheet material feeding device constructed as described above, the guide means for guiding the sheet material is provided on the upstream side of the contact point between the separating means and the conveying rotary body in the sheet material conveying direction so as to guide the sheet material. Therefore, the sheet material comes into contact with the transport rotary body on the upstream side of the contact point between the separating means and the transport rotary body.

Since the guide means is supported by the holding member which holds the separating means, the number of parts can be reduced.

By forming the surface of the rotating rotator with an elastic body, the pressure contact force between the separating means and the guiding means is adjusted.

Since the guide means has flexibility, the guide means does not apply a large pressing force to the conveying rotary member.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to illustrated embodiments.

1 and 2 are an external view and a sectional view of a facsimile as an image forming apparatus to which a sheet material feeding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the vicinity of a separating device which is a main part of the sheet material feeding device.

First, referring to FIG. 2, the overall structure of the apparatus will be described. 1 is the apparatus main body, and its upper surface cover 1a is shown.
Is inclined so that it is lowered at one end (left side in FIG. 2), and is formed compact as a whole. A document reading unit 2 is provided on one end side (left side in FIG. 2) of the apparatus main body 1, and the document reading unit 2 can slide in the document insertion port 3 and in the document insertion port 3 in the width direction of the document 4. A manuscript guide 5 is provided.

Further, a document feeding path of the document reading section 2,
That is, from the document insertion opening 3 to the top cover 1a of the apparatus main body 1.
An ADF roller 7 is provided between the document outlet 6 provided at the left end.
a and a pressing piece 7b that is pressed by the ADF roller 7a to separate the originals 4 sent from the original guide 5 one by one, and the original 4 separated by the ADF 7
A feeding unit 8 including a pair of feeding rollers 8a and 8b for feeding the sheet, a contact type image sensor 9 as a reading unit for reading image information of the document 4 conveyed from the feeding unit 8, and the contact type A CS roller 10 as a contact means for contacting the image sensor 9 and feeding the original 4 to the reading position 9a of the contact image sensor 9 with a predetermined pressing force.
And a discharge unit 11 including a pair of discharge rollers 11a and 11b for discharging the read document 4 from the document discharge port 6.
Etc. are equipped.

Next, the reading operation of the apparatus will be described.

When the document 4 is set on the document guide 5 and a reading start signal is inputted by an operation switch (not shown), a drive motor (not shown) is driven to drive the ADF roller 7a, the feeding roller 8a, the discharging roller 11a and the CS roller 10. Are rotated, and the originals 4 are separated one by one by the ADF unit 7 and conveyed to the feeding unit 8.

When the leading edge of the document 4 is detected by a DES sensor (document leading edge detection sensor) (not shown), the drive motor is stopped and the ADF roller 7a, the feeding roller 8a,
The rotations of the discharge roller 11a and the CS roller 10 are once stopped.

Next, when a predetermined time has elapsed, the drive motor is driven again, and the ADF roller 7a, the feeding roller 8a,
The discharge roller 11a and the CS roller 10 rotate respectively. After the rotation of each of the rollers 7a, 8a, 11a, 10 and the like, until the leading edge of the document 4 is conveyed to the reading position 9a of the contact image sensor 9, the contact image sensor 9 rotates the CS roller 10 around. The surface (reference color white) is read.

Next, when the leading edge of the original 4 is conveyed to the reading device 9a of the contact image sensor 9, the image information of the original 4 is read. At this time, the document 4 is pressed by the CS roller 10 from directly above the reading position 9a of the contact image sensor 9, that is, the reading line of the contact image sensor 9 and the bus line of the CS roller 10 coincide with each other. Does not rise above the reading position 9a, and the image information can be read accurately.

When the reading of the original 4 is completed in this manner, the original 4 is sent to the discharge section 11 by the CS roller 10 which also serves to convey the original, and the discharge rollers 11a,
The sheet 11b is discharged from the document discharge port 6 to the outside of the apparatus.
This completes the work of reading the image information for one sheet of the original 4.

When a read document is jammed during the reading operation, the upper cover 1a opens around the document discharge portion as the center of rotation as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. Then, the pressing piece 7b and the feeding roller (backup roller) 8 held by a member (not shown) attached to the top cover.
b, CS roller 10, discharge roller (backup roller)
As indicated by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2, 11b moves and the paper passing surface is released so that the original 4 can be easily removed.

Next, the structure of the recording unit will be described. Recording unit 21
Is mounted on the other end side (right side in FIG. 2) of the document reading section 2 of the apparatus body 1. A cassette 23 for loading a recording paper 22 as a sheet material is held by the device body 1 below the center of the device body 1. Also, the cassette cover 2
Since 4 is composed of a transparent member, the remaining amount of the recording paper 22 can be visually confirmed without pulling out the cassette 23 from the apparatus main body 1. One end side of the recording paper 22 (see FIG.
On the right side), there is a pickup roller 25 as a conveying rotary member.
a and a spring (not shown in the drawings, a spring is used for this pickup roller 25a.
An elastic member such as rubber may be used. ) A recording separation unit 2 composed of a separation piece 25b as a separation means pressed against each other.
5. Printing is performed on the recording paper 22 conveyed from the feeding unit 26, which is composed of a pair of feeding rollers 26a and 26b for feeding the recording paper 22 separated by the recording separation unit 25. An ink jet cartridge 27 as a recording unit to be performed and a paper feed roller 28 for conveying the recording paper 22 to a position substantially facing the ink jet cartridge 27.
Further, there is provided a paper ejection unit 30 including a pair of paper ejection rollers 30a and 30b for ejecting the recording paper 22 after printing from the recording paper ejection port 29.

Next, the printing operation of the recording section 21 will be described.

When the manuscript 4 is set on the manuscript guide 5 and a copy start signal or an image reception signal is input through a telephone line or the like by an operation switch (not shown), a drive motor (not shown) is driven to rotate the pickup roller 25a. The recording paper 22 in the cassette 23 as a storage member is conveyed to the separating piece 25b and the pickup roller 2
The recording paper 22 is separated one by one by the recording separation unit 25 composed of 5a and the separation piece 25b and is conveyed to the feeding unit 26.

Further, before the recording paper 22 reaches the feeding unit 26, another drive motor (not shown) is driven to rotate the feeding roller 26a, the paper feeding roller 28, and the paper discharging roller 30a, respectively. 22 is conveyed.

Next, the feeding roller 26a and the paper feeding roller 28
The PE sensor (recording paper leading edge detection sensor) (not shown) detects the leading edge of the recording paper 22 and PE.
After the sensor detects the leading edge, the recording paper 22 is conveyed for a predetermined length, and printing is started by the inkjet cartridge 27.

When the printing on the recording paper 22 is completed, the paper is discharged from the recording discharge port 29 to the outside of the apparatus by the discharge rollers 30a and 30b. This completes the printing operation of the image information for one sheet of the recording paper 22.

The recording cover 31 has a structure which can be freely opened and closed with one end (upper right portion in FIG. 2) of the apparatus as the center of rotation, as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. Therefore, the ink cartridge 27 can be easily replaced.

Next, the movement of the recording paper 22 being separated and conveyed will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In the present invention, the front edge portion 25d, which is the guiding means of the separation piece holder 25c that is the holding means (mold member) that holds the separation piece 25b, is in contact with the pickup roller 25a.

Further, since the pickup roller 25a is made of an elastic material such as rubber or sponge having a low hardness, the portion of the pickup roller 25a (contact A) which is in contact with the front edge portion 25d of the separation piece holder 25c. Only the vicinity is dented so that the pressure contact force of the contact point B between the separation piece 25b and the pickup roller 25a is not affected. Note that the amount of dent at contact point A is small
It does not affect the contact angle between 2 and the separating piece 25b at all.

The uppermost recording paper 22a of the recording papers 22 loaded in the cassette 23 is in contact with the pickup roller 25a. In this state, when the copy start signal or the image reception signal is input as described above, the pickup roller 25a is rotated by a drive source such as a motor (not shown),
The uppermost recording paper 22a is conveyed. Top recording paper 2
When the tip of 2a comes into contact with the front edge portion 25d of the separation piece holder 25c holding the separation piece 25b, this front edge portion 25d
The leading edge of the recording paper 22a is conveyed toward the contact point A between the front edge portion 25d of the separation piece holder 25c and the pickup roller 25a.

After that, the recording paper 22a receiving the conveying force by the pickup roller 25a passes through the contact point A, and is separated one by one at the contact point B between the separating piece 25b which is the separating portion of the recording paper 22 and the pickup roller 25a. , Feeding section 26
Be transported to.

At this time, the angle formed by the recording paper 22 and the separating piece 25b becomes very small, and the conveyance failure due to the bending of the leading end of the recording paper, jamming, etc. does not occur as in the conventional case where the contact angle is large. In addition, it is not necessary to lay down the transport path in the horizontal direction, and a compact feeding device can be provided.

(Other Embodiments) In the above-described embodiment, since the front edge portion 25d of the separation piece holder 25c is not deformed, the pressure contact force of the contact B between the separation piece 25b and the pickup roller 25a is affected. It is necessary to reduce the hardness of the pickup roller 25a to make it soft so as not to apply it, and the pickup roller 25a side is locally deformed to adjust the pressure contact force of the contact B.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the wall thickness of the front edge portion 35d as a guiding means of the separating piece holder 35c which is a holding means is made thin so as to have flexibility (springiness), and the uppermost position is obtained. The leading edge of the recording paper 22a is a pickup roller 35a which is a conveying roller, and a front edge portion 35d of the separation piece holder 35c.
By adopting a structure in which the pickup roller 35a is guided to the contact point C, it is not necessary to reduce the hardness of the pickup roller 35a, and it is not necessary to make it soft and there is no dent.

If the front edge portion 35d has a large flexibility (for example, an OHP sheet), the pressure contact force at the contact point D between the pickup roller 35a and the separating piece 35b as the separating means is not affected at all. Therefore, the separation performance can be improved by optimizing the pressure contact force.

Further, since the pickup roller 35a is not dented at all, the tip of the recording paper 22a and the separation piece 35 are separated.
The angle formed with b can be made smaller, and the recording paper 22a can be conveyed smoothly.

[0043]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention has the above-described structure and operation, and provides guide means for guiding the sheet material in contact with the conveying rotary body upstream of the contact point between the separating means and the conveying rotary body in the sheet material conveying direction. Since the sheet material is provided, the sheet material comes into contact with the transport rotating body on the upstream side of the contact point between the separating means and the transport rotating body, and the sheet material smoothly contacts the separating means. Therefore,
It is possible to provide a miniaturized sheet material feeding device, which does not cause a conveyance failure due to a bending of a tip end of a sheet material, a jam, and the like as in the related art, and further, does not require the transportation path to lie horizontally.

Since the guiding means is supported by the holding member for holding the separating means, the number of parts can be reduced and the structure becomes simple.

By molding the surface of the conveying rotary member with an elastic body, the pressure contact force with the separating means and the guide means is adjusted,
In particular, when the guide means is supported by the holding member, the contact point between the separating means and the transport rotary member is less likely to be affected by the contact point with the guide means, and the separating performance does not deteriorate.

Since the guide means has flexibility, the guide means does not apply a pressing force to the transport rotary body. Especially, when the guide means is supported by the holding member, the separating means and the transport rotary body are separated from each other. The contact point of is hardly affected by the contact point with the guide means, and the separation performance does not deteriorate.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a facsimile device to which a sheet material feeding device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a facsimile machine to which the sheet material feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a main part of a sheet material feeding device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a main part of a sheet material feeding device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a facsimile device to which a sheet material feeding device as a conventional example is applied.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a main portion of a conventional sheet material feeding device.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a main part of another conventional sheet material feeding device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Device Main Body 22, 22a, 141 Recording Paper (Sheet Material) 23, 142 Cassette (Storage Member) 25, 143 Recording Separation Section 25a, 35a, 143a Pickup Roller (Conveying Rotating Body) 25b, 35b, 143b Separation Piece (Separation Means) ) 25c, 35c Separation piece holder (holding member) 25d, 35d Front edge part (guide means)

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A storage member for storing a sheet material, a conveying rotary body for feeding the sheet material from the storing member, and a sheet material which is in contact with the conveying rotary body and separates the sheet material one by one from the conveying rotary body. In the sheet material feeding device having the separating means, the guiding means for contacting the conveying rotary body and guiding the sheet material is provided upstream of the contact point between the separating means and the conveying rotary body in the sheet material conveying direction. A sheet material feeding device characterized by the above. 2. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the guide means is supported by a holding member that holds the separating means. 3. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the surface of the conveying rotary member is formed of an elastic material. 4. The sheet material feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the guide means has flexibility. 5. A sheet material feeding device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, and an image forming means for forming an image on the sheet material fed from the sheet material feeding device. Image forming apparatus.