JPH0731430B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

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 including an image forming apparatus main body and a pedestal capable of accommodating sheets to be fed to the image forming apparatus main body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a relatively small image forming apparatus such as a desktop copying machine, copy paper (hereinafter referred to as paper) is used.
Generally, a cassette or a paper feed table equipped in the main body of the copying machine has been used as the accommodating means of the. However, these accommodating means must be replenished frequently because the number of sheets of paper stacked is small, and when changing the size of the paper, replace the cassette or remove the paper on the paper tray and use it again. There is a drawback that the work becomes complicated because the paper has to be replaced with paper of a size that meets the requirements. Therefore, in the case of using a cassette as a sheet storage means, attempts have been made to increase the number of sheets that can be loaded by mounting a plurality of cassettes, or to attach cassettes of different paper sizes to save the trouble of paper replacement. Since the copier itself was small, it was hard to say that the number of sheets to be loaded was sufficient. Recently, the copy speed of this type of desk-top copying machine has also increased, and a large number of sheets can be copied in a short time. Therefore, the shortage of the number of sheets to be loaded becomes more and more a problem.

In order to solve such a problem, a portion other than the sheet feeding cassette and the sheet feeding table (first sheet accommodating section) provided in the copying machine main body, for example, in a frame for mounting the copying machine main body, A second paper storage unit capable of storing a large amount of paper of a relatively frequently used size is provided, and the paper fed from this rack (hereinafter referred to as a paper feed rack) is provided on the lower surface of the copying machine main body. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 56-8161 discloses a copying apparatus which guides the image from the opening into a copying machine for copying.

[0004]

However, in such a device, the paper from the paper feed tray is jammed due to a long and complicated paper conveyance path from the second paper storage unit described above. It was difficult to remove the paper when the so-called paper jam occurred. That is, normally, when performing such jam processing for paper, the jammed paper is removed by opening the paper guide forming the paper conveyance path upward and sideward or sliding it toward you.
In such a copying apparatus, there is a problem that it is difficult for the operator to put his hand in and remove the jammed paper because the space inside the machine is limited and the open portion is narrow. In addition, if a jam occurs between the paper tray and the main body of the copier, it is difficult to access the jam paper from both the copier body side and the paper tray side, and the jam paper cannot be removed. There was a problem that it was particularly difficult.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in an image forming apparatus including an image forming apparatus main body and a paper feed tray, a sheet fed from the paper feed tray causes a jam. Even in the case, it is an object to provide an image forming apparatus that can easily remove jammed paper.

[0006]

In order to achieve such an object, the image forming apparatus of the present invention provides a first sheet accommodating section and a sheet fed from the first sheet accommodating section. It has a first sheet introduction port for introducing the image to the image transfer section and a second sheet introduction port for introducing the sheet supplied from the outside through an opening provided in the lower part to the image transfer section. The image forming apparatus main body, the sheet placing section which holds a second sheet accommodation section for accommodating a large number of sheets, and the image forming apparatus body and the sheet placing section are relatively moved to move up and down. And a paper feed means for feeding the paper in the second paper storage section to an opening in the lower part of the main body of the image forming apparatus. The frame is arranged under the main body of the image forming apparatus. It is characterized in that it is provided with a paper feeding stand.

With this configuration, the image transfer portion for forming an image on the paper is provided with the first paper accommodating means provided in the main body of the image forming apparatus and the second paper accommodating means provided in the paper feed tray. Paper is fed from both sides. In addition, when a jam occurs between the image forming apparatus main body and the paper feed tray, the image forming apparatus main body and the paper tray of the paper feed tray are separated from each other to provide a space for jam processing under the image forming apparatus main body. Is formed.

[0008]

Embodiments of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus including a copying machine main body and a paper feeding stand thereof, which is an embodiment of the present invention. First, the copying machine body 1 will be described. In FIG. 1, the copying machine main body 1 is mounted on a paper feeding stand 2. When the sheet-shaped original 3 is placed on the inclined original table and inserted into the original feeding device from the direction of arrow A,
It is sent by the transport rollers 4 and 5, and is illuminated by an illumination lamp in the meantime, and a document image is projected on the rotating photosensitive drum 7 by the fiber lens array 6. The photosensitive drum 7 rotates in the direction of arrow B, is discharged by a discharging lamp, is uniformly charged by the corona charger 9, and an original image is formed on the photosensitive drum 7 as an electrostatic latent image by the light image irradiation. . The electrostatic latent image is toner-developed by the toner developing device 10 with the toner charged to the opposite polarity to the original image, and then is conveyed to the toner image transfer portion 11 as the drum 7 rotates. On the other hand, the paper 13 in the recording paper cassette 12, which is the first paper storage unit, is taken out one by one by the swinging and rotating pickup roller 14, passes through the first introduction port formed by the two guides 15, and the paper is fed. It is sent to the registration roller 16 which is a feeding control means. The registration roller 16 feeds the sheet 13 to the toner image transfer section 11 at the same timing as the developed image on the photosensitive drum surface. In the toner image transfer unit 11, the paper 13 is conveyed between the drum 7 and the semiconductive transfer roller 17 to which the bias voltage is applied so that the toner image is transferred so as to overlap with the toner image. At this time, since the sheet 13 is conveyed in close contact with the toner image, that is, the drum 7, the sheet 13 is peeled off by the peeling claw and an air flow described later, is conveyed along the guide 19, and the roller 20 is a heat fixing device 21 having a heater. Send in. After the toner image is fixed on the paper 13 here, the discharge roller 22
Is discharged to the paper discharge tray 23. Since the toner image on the drum 7 is not completely transferred onto the paper 13 and a portion of the toner image remains on the drum 7, this residual toner is wiped off by the rotating cleaning brush 24, and the toner removed is removed by the fan. It is aspirated by the air flow produced by the rotation of 25 and collected by the filter 26. Further, the exhaust air of the fan 25 is guided to the duct 27, and the discharge port of the duct 27 is directed to the transfer portion 11 and is used in cooperation with the peeling claw 18 to effectively peel the paper 13 from the drum 7. It Reference numeral 28 denotes an opening provided on the lower surface of the copying machine main body 1. The paper supplied from a paper feed tray 2 described later is guided through this opening 28 to a second introduction port formed by two guides 29, and the registration roller 16 is provided. I will guide you to. Reference numeral 64 is a foot that supports the main body 1 of the copying machine.

Next, the paper feed rack 2 used in combination with the above-mentioned copying machine main body 1 will be described. The paper feeding stand 2 can accommodate a large number of sheets of paper, and the above-mentioned copying machine body 1
Paper can be supplied to the second inlet through the opening 28 of the. A sheet placement table 32, which is a second sheet storage unit capable of storing a large number of sheets 13, is supported by a belt 33,
It can be moved up and down. The belt 33, one end of which is fixed to the paper tray 32, is hung on the idler pulley 34,
The other end is fixed to the hoisting pulley 35. Hoisting pulley 3
Reference numeral 5 is connected to a worm wheel 36, and by driving a worm 37 meshing with the worm wheel 36 by a motor 38, the belt 33 can be wound up or unwound, whereby the sheet mounting table 32 can be moved up and down. . The idler pulley 34, the hoisting pulley 35, the worm wheel 36, the worm 37, and the motor 38 are attached to a mounting table outer frame 39 that surrounds the sheet mounting table 32. The mounting table outer frame 39 includes two rails 4
0 is slidably attached to the front side of the sheet feeding base 2 main body, which will be described later. On the other hand, the paper tray 3
A pickup roller 41 for taking out the sheets 13 placed on the sheet placing table 32 one by one is disposed above the sheet. The pickup roller 41 can be rotationally driven by a motor 43 via a belt 42, is rotatable around a fulcrum 44, and is in contact with the upper surface of the sheet 13 by its own weight. The position of the pickup roller 41 is detected by a detector (not shown), and when the pickup roller 41 falls below a predetermined level, the motor 3 is driven by a signal from a control circuit (not shown).
8 is operated, and the sheet mounting table 32 is moved up and down so that the pickup roller 41 goes above a predetermined level. As a result, the pickup roller 41 is always kept at a substantially constant position, and stable paper feeding can be performed.

Next, the paper 13 stored in the paper feed tray 2
A mechanism for sending the sheet to the copying machine body 1 will be described. When a paper pickup signal from the copying machine main body 1 is input to a control circuit (not shown), a drive signal is sent from the control circuit to the motor 43, and the motor 43 causes the pickup roller 4 to move.
1 is rotated for a certain period of time to feed out one sheet 13 of the uppermost layer. The fed-out sheet 13 is guided by a guide 45, passes through an opening 28 of the copying machine main body 1, and is further guided by a second introduction port formed by a guide 29.
It reaches 6 and stops. After that, the paper 13 is sent to the toner image transfer portion 11 by the registration roller 16 at the same timing as the developed image on the surface of the photosensitive drum, and the transfer / fixing is performed by the same operation as described above. It is discharged to 23.

Next, the paper tray 3 which is the second paper accommodating portion.
A mechanism for separating the copying machine main body 1 from the sheet mounting table 32 in order to remove the jammed sheet when the sheet is jammed from the sheet 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The paper feed tray 2 is composed of a frame 58 and a paper placement portion 59, and supports the rail 40 that supports the paper placement base 32 shown in FIG. 1 described above.
Is held by the sheet stacking section 59.
The sheet placing portion 59 is fixed to four frame columns 60 that form the frame 58. The frame column 60 constitutes a hydraulic cylinder together with a sliding cylinder 61 slidably fitted inside. The sliding cylinder 61 is a hydraulic pump 62.
Is configured to expand and contract by the operation of. A receiving tray 63 is fixed to the upper end of the sliding cylinder 61, and the legs 64 of the copying machine body 1 are fitted and held by the receiving tray 63. 2 shows a state in which the lower panel 48 of the paper feeding stand 2 shown in FIG. 1 is removed.

In the case where the copying machine main body 1 and the paper feeding rack 2 are separated from each other due to a jam or the like between the copying machine main body 1 and the paper feeding rack 2 due to such a configuration, it is not shown. By pressing the motion button, the hydraulic pump 62 operates, the sliding cylinder extends upward, and the copying machine main body 1 is pushed up to the position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line. After the jammed paper is taken out, the lower button is pressed to release the hydraulic valve of the hydraulic pump 62, and the copying machine body 1 is lowered to the position indicated by the solid line.

Next, how the paper is replenished and replaced on the paper feed tray 2 will be described. When the front door of the paper feeding tray 2 (not shown) is opened, the opening of the door is detected by a detector (not shown), the motor 38 reverses and the paper tray 32 descends. Next, release the slide lock lever (not shown),
By pulling the mounting table outer frame 39 forward along the rails 40, the operator can easily replenish or replace the sheets. After the work is completed, the outer frame 39 of the mounting table is returned to its original position, the slide lock lever is locked, and the door is closed to cause the above-described detector to operate, and the motor 38 is normally rotated to bring the sheet into contact with the pickup roller 14. And wait until.

Next, switching between the feeding of paper from the recording paper cassette 12 and the feeding of paper from the paper tray 32 in the paper feed tray 2 will be described. Whether the paper 13 is supplied from the recording paper cassette 12 or the paper feed tray 2 is controlled by a changeover switch (not shown) provided in the paper feed tray 2. At this time, the pickup roller 14 in the copying machine main body 1 and the pickup roller 41 provided in the paper feed tray 2 are controlled so that an interlock is exerted on each other. An example of a circuit that performs this control will be described with reference to FIG. The output terminal of the control circuit 49 in the copying machine body 1 is connected to the AND circuit 50 and the AND circuit.
Connect to one of the respective input terminals of the circuit 51. AN
The output terminal of the D circuit 50 is connected to the operation mechanism 52 of the pickup roller 14 in the copying machine main body 1, and the output terminal of the AND circuit 51 is connected to the operation mechanism 53 of the pickup roller 41 in the paper feed tray 2. The changeover switch 54 provided on the paper feed tray 2 is connected to the other input terminal of the AND circuit 50 and is also connected to the other input terminal of the AND circuit 51 via the inverter 55. A high level signal can be supplied from one terminal 56 of the changeover switch 54, and a low level signal can be supplied from the other terminal 57. The changeover switch 54 is switched to the terminal 56 side when the paper is supplied from the recording paper cassette 12 in the copying machine main body 1, and the terminal 57 when the paper is supplied from the paper feed tray 2.
Switch to the side. The paper feed signal generated from the control circuit 49 in the main body 1 of the copying machine generates a high level paper feed signal at the timing of feeding the paper 13 from the recording paper cassette 12 in the main body 1 of the copying machine. If the changeover switch 54 is switched to the terminal 56 side, when the control circuit 49 outputs a high level signal, the high level signal is input to both input terminals of the AND circuit 50, and the high level signal is output from the output terminal of the AND circuit 50. A level operation signal is supplied to the operation mechanism 52, and the pickup roller 14 is operated. At this time, the changeover switch 54
Since the signal sent from the AND circuit 51 to the AND circuit 51 is a low level signal by the inverter 55, a high level operation signal is not output from the output terminal of the AND circuit 51, and the pickup roller 41 does not operate. When the changeover switch 54 is changed over to the terminal 57 side, the signal sent from the changeover switch 54 to the AND circuit 50 becomes a low level signal, and the signal sent to the AND circuit 51 becomes a high level signal. Thus, when a high level signal is sent from the control circuit 49, the AND circuit 51 outputs a high level signal, and the AND circuit 50 does not output a high level actuation signal. Therefore, the pickup roller 14 in the copying machine main body 1 does not operate, but only the pickup roller 41 in the paper feeding stand 2 operates. With the above-described structure, by switching the changeover switch 54 provided on the paper feed tray 2, the paper 13 can be formed without adding a complicated circuit in the copying machine 1.
Can be easily selected from the cassette 12 or the paper feed tray 2. Copier body 1
When the distance between the pickup roller 41 on the side of the paper feed tray 2 and the registration roller 16 is longer than the distance between the pickup roller 14 on the side and the registration roller 16, the diameter of the pickup roller 41 is increased by a ratio of both distances. The drive speed of the motor 43 may be increased.

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, in addition to the recording paper cassette 12 mounted on the copying machine main body 1, the paper of the relatively frequently used size is provided in the paper feed tray 2. It is possible to store a large number of sheets on the sheet mounting table 32, which causes a problem that the number of sheets that can be stored in the conventional small-sized image forming apparatus is small and a problem that the sheet size exchange is complicated. It is possible to solve the problem and remarkably improve the operability. Further, even when a jam occurs between the copying machine body 1 and the paper feeding stand 2, the operator can easily remove the jammed paper by separating the copying machine body 1 and the paper feeding stand 2 from each other. it can. Further, in this embodiment, since the copying machine main body 1 is moved upward in parallel with respect to the paper feeding stand 2 and is separated, a new apparatus for accommodating the copying machine main body 1 at the time of separation is provided on the side of the apparatus. There is no need to secure a space, and the floor occupying area of the device can be minimized.

Next, another embodiment of the mechanism for separating the copying machine main body 1 from the sheet mounting table 32 in the copying machine shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the above-described sheet loading table 32, which is the second sheet storage section,
It is held in the sheet stacking unit 66. The paper feed tray 2 is composed of a frame 65 and a paper stacking portion 66, and the paper stacking portion 66 is provided so as to be slidable in the vertical direction with respect to a frame column 67 that constitutes the frame 65. A belt 68, one end of which is fixed to the frame, is provided between the sheet placing portion 66 and the frame 65. The other end of the belt 68 is fixed to a winding pulley 70 provided on the sheet placing section 66 via an idler pulley 69 provided on the sheet placing section 66. The winding pulley 70 can be rotated in a winding direction and a rewinding direction by driving a worm gear 72 meshed with a worm wheel 71 by a motor 73. A receiving tray 74 is fixed to the upper end of the frame pillar 67, and the legs 75 of the copying machine body 1 are fitted and held by the receiving tray 74.

In a normal use state, the sheet stacking portion 66 is shown in FIG.
When a jam occurs, the lowering button (not shown) is pressed to release the lock mechanism (not shown), and the motor 73 rotates to set the sheet loading portion 66 to 1
Go down to the position of the dotted line. Copier body 1 and paper stacking section 6
After removing the jammed paper by inserting a hand from the space formed between 6 and 6, the motor 73 is rotated in the reverse direction by pressing an up button (not shown), and the winding pulley 70 causes the belt 68 to move.
By winding up the paper, the paper stacking portion 66 rises and returns to the position indicated by the solid line.

As described above, according to this embodiment, in addition to the recording paper cassette 12 installed in the copying machine main body 1, a large amount of paper of a size that is used relatively frequently is stored on the paper mounting table 32 in the paper feeding tray 2. Therefore, the problem that the number of sheets of paper stored in the conventional small-sized image forming apparatus is small and the problem that paper size is complicated to replace is solved, and the operability is remarkably improved. Can be improved. Further, even when a jam occurs between the copying machine main body 1 and the paper feed tray 2, the paper placing portion 66 can be moved downward to separate the copying machine main body 1 from the paper placing portion 66. The operator can easily remove the jammed paper. Further, in this embodiment, since the paper stacking portion 66 is moved inside the paper feed tray 2, the above-described FIG.
As in the above example, there is no need to secure a new space for separation on the side of the device, and it is not necessary to secure a space for separation above the device as well. The effect that can be suppressed to.

[0019]

According to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus including an image forming apparatus main body and a paper feed tray, even when the paper fed from the paper feed tray causes a jam, the jammed paper can be easily removed. can do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view for explaining a separating mechanism between the copying machine main body and the sheet placing section in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a control circuit for switching a pickup roller.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view for explaining another embodiment of the separating mechanism between the copying machine main body and the sheet placing section in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image Forming Apparatus Main Body 2 Paper Feeding Stand 11 Toner Image Transfer Section 12 Recording Paper Cassette 13 Paper 14 Pickup Roller 15 Guide 16 Registration Roller 32 Paper Loading Platform 41 Pickup Roller 60 Frame Pillar 61 Sliding Cylinder 62 Hydraulic Pump 65 Frame 66 Paper Loading Table part 67 frame pillar

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first sheet storage section, a first sheet introduction port for introducing a sheet fed from the first sheet storage section to an image transfer section, and an opening provided at a lower portion. An image forming apparatus main body having a second sheet introduction port for introducing a sheet supplied from the outside through the image transfer section, and a large number of sheets
Hold the second paper storage section that stores
Paper stacking part, and the image forming apparatus body and paper stacking part
A frame that moves relative to and holds it so that it can be separated vertically
And the sheets of the second sheet storage section to the image forming apparatus book.
It has a paper feeding means for feeding to the opening at the bottom of the body,
An image forming apparatus , comprising: a paper feeding stand arranged below the main body of the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper feed tray further comprises a driving unit for relatively moving and separating the image forming apparatus main body and the paper stacking unit. Forming equipment.