JPH0818742B2 - Paper stack device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a sheet stacking apparatus including a sheet aligning mechanism in a copying machine, a printer, or the like.

"Prior Art" In a sheet stacking device in a copying machine, a printer or the like, a free end of a sheet discharge tray is slightly tilted downward so as to easily receive discharged sheets. Further, the paper is pressed by the pressing roll of the paper aligning mechanism in order to bring the leading edge of the paper into contact with the alignment stopper for alignment.

The position of the alignment stopper is moved back and forth according to the size of the paper discharged onto the paper discharge tray. As the paper discharge tray is inclined as described above and the alignment stopper is provided almost vertically to the paper discharge tray, as the amount of paper discharged onto the paper discharge tray increases, The leading edge of the paper is gradually moving away from the paper insertion portion of the output tray.

In the conventional paper stacking device, a mechanism for changing the position of the pressure roll of the paper aligning mechanism corresponding to the size change of the paper discharged to the paper discharge tray, and a stacking amount of the paper on the paper discharge tray are supported. There was no mechanism to adjust the position of the pressure roll.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional sheet stacking apparatus, as described above, the damper roll of the sheet aligning mechanism cannot be adjusted in position corresponding to a plurality of sheet sizes. Since the distance between the alignment stopper and the pressing roll is changed by changing the paper size, it is difficult to ensure accurate paper alignment accuracy.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper stacking device in which a paper aligning mechanism can always arrange a plurality of sizes of paper in a predetermined position.

[Means for Solving Problems] In the paper stacking device of the present invention, a slide plate holding a pressing roll is slidably provided on a support lever mounted on a support base, so that the paper is ejected onto a paper discharge tray. The pressure roll can always be held by the alignment stopper, that is, from the leading edge of the sheets when the size of the sheets discharged is changed, and the sheet alignment accuracy of the stacked sheets is ensured.

[Example] An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, between a pair of vertically oriented frames (the other one is not shown) 1, a conveying device 2 for conveying a sheet on which an image is recorded by a copying machine or a printer from above.
Is provided. The conveying device 2 is composed of a plurality of belts 4 stretched around a shaft 3 and a suction fan 5 arranged behind the belts 4.

The discharge tray 6 whose base is fixed to the frame 1 has a front free end slightly inclined downward. An alignment stopper 7 is attached to the paper discharge tray 6 so as to be vertically movable (generally laterally movable in FIG. 1) in a state of being substantially perpendicular to the paper mounting surface. , B5 position indicated by a solid line and a virtual line corresponding to the size of the sheet 8 discharged onto the discharge tray 6 as described later.
It is manually moved to each position of A4 and B4.

In front of the carrier device 2, a support base 9 composed of a pair of fixed side plates is vertically movably provided. A guide pulley pivotally attached to the frame 1 is attached to the support base 9.
Each end of the cable 12 hung over 11 is fixed, and the support base 9 is moved up and down by a drive source (not shown) as will be described later.

In the support base 9, there is provided a peeling mechanism including a pair of nip rolls 13 rotating in the arrow direction and a peeling claw 14 having a free end extending between the belts 4 of the conveying device 2. A support arm 15 is pivotally attached to an upper part of the support base 9 by a shaft 16. The support arm 15 is held by a stopper (not shown) substantially in parallel with the sheet mounting surface of the discharge tray 6, and the arrow It is rotatable in 17 directions. The base of the short arm 18 is fixed to one end of the shaft 16, and the short arm 18 is
When the support base 9 is raised, it can be engaged with the pin 19 fixed to the frame 1.

A sensor for detecting the stack amount of the sheets 8 is provided at the free end of the attachment member 21 whose base is fixed to the support arm 15.
22 are provided. The support arm 15 includes a slide member.
A base of 23 is slidably mounted, and a pressing roll 24 for pressing the paper 8 on the paper discharge tray 6 by its own weight is pivotally mounted near the free end of the slide member 23. At the free end of the support arm 15, a guide roll 25 that can contact the wall surface 7a of the alignment stopper 7 is pivotally mounted.

In this way, the support base 9, the support arm 15, the pressing roll 24, the guide roll 25, and the like constitute the paper aligning mechanism 26. The paper aligning mechanism 26 is in a non-actuated position 26A normally shown by a chain line, and the support arm 15 and the short arm 18 integrated with the support arm 15 are formed by a chain line in which the short arm 18 is rotated counterclockwise by a pin 19. It is located at the location indicated.

Before stacking the paper 8 on the paper discharge tray 6, the alignment stopper 7 is set at a predetermined position corresponding to the paper size.
Here, when the operation of the copying machine or the printer is started, the cable 12 rotates clockwise in FIG. 1 and the support base 9 descends, and this descending causes the support arm 15 to rotate clockwise from the position of the chain line. Move. During this rotation, the slide member 23 slides along the support arm 15 toward the free end side. The support base 9 is stopped near the paper discharge tray 6 by the sensor 22 and stands by. When the slide member 23 slides toward the alignment stopper 7 by its own weight, the guide roll
25 is arranged to face the upper part of the alignment stopper 7. As a result, the pressing roller 24 is automatically set to a predetermined position on the paper discharge tray 6 only by lowering the support base 9.

The sheet 8a conveyed by the conveying device 2 is peeled from the conveying device 2 by the peeling claw 14, and is further ejected onto the ejection tray 6 by the nip roll 13. The actuator 22a of the sensor 22 is in contact with the sheet 8 on the sheet discharge tray 6, and the sensor 22 detects it by gradually rotating as the stack amount of the sheet 8 on the sheet discharge tray 6 increases. The detection of this sensor 22 causes the cable 12 to slightly rotate counterclockwise to raise the support base 9.

As shown in FIG. 2, as the stack amount of the sheets 8 on the discharge tray 6 increases, the leading edge of the sheets 8 is displaced forward (to the right in FIG. 2) to move the nip roll 13 and the wall surface 7a of the alignment stopper 7 to each other. Is increased, and a maximum displacement of 1 occurs at the upper part of the alignment stopper 7. However, when the support base 9 is raised, the guide roll 25 of the slide member 23 rises along the wall surface 7a of the alignment stopper 7, and the slide member 23
Moves slightly toward the alignment stopper 7 side. This slide member
By moving 23, the pressing roll 24 can be always positioned at a constant distance from the alignment stopper 7, and the paper 8 on the discharge tray 6 can be aligned accurately regardless of the stack amount of the paper 8. be able to.

The above operation has been described for the case where the size of the sheet 8 is B5 and the alignment stopper 7 is set to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 1. However, when the size of the sheet 8 is A4 or B4, the alignment stopper is The pressing roll 24 can be arranged at a predetermined position only by setting 7 to the position shown by 7b or 7c.

When the stacking of the paper 8 on the output tray 6 is completed,
Support base 9 is detected by a switch or sensor (not shown).
Is raised to the upper limit position. The short arm 18 is pinned during this climb
By engaging with 19 and rotating counterclockwise, the support arm 15 rotates in the same direction, and the slide member 23 slides toward the support base 9. Paper alignment mechanism 26 is in inactive position 26
By rotating to A, the paper 8 on the paper ejection tray 6 can be easily taken out from the paper ejection tray 6.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a support base having a function of separating a sheet from a conveying device and guiding it to a sheet ejection tray is provided with a support arm that is inclined downward and is substantially parallel to the sheet ejection tray. By installing a slide member having a pressing roll that presses the paper on the support arm slidably,
When stacking a plurality of sheets of different sizes on the paper discharge tray, it is possible to set the pressing roll at a required position simply by setting the alignment stopper at a required position.
Moreover, since the guide roll is rollingly contacted with the alignment stopper, accurate paper alignment accuracy can be secured. Also,
The output tray is inclined downward, and the base of the alignment stopper is attached to the output tray so that it can move back and forth, so that the edge of each sheet naturally abuts the alignment stopper and stops. Since the parts are neatly aligned, it is not necessary to align the edges of these sheets when taking them out.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a sheet stacking apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the sheet stacking apparatus showing a change in the position of a sheet aligning mechanism due to an increase in the sheet stacking amount. 1 ... frame, 2 ... conveying device, 6 ... paper discharge tray,
7 ... alignment stopper, 8 ... paper, 9 ... support base, 12 ...
… Cable, 13 …… Nip roll, 14 …… Peeling claw, 15…
Support arm, 18 short arm, 19 pin, 22 sensor, 23 slide member, 24 pressure roll, 25 guide roll.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A base is mounted on a vertically movable support base with a free end tilted downwardly above a paper discharge tray for discharging paper, which is tilted downward and fixed at a predetermined position. A support arm, an alignment stopper that is attached to the discharge tray at its base portion so as to move back and forth and aligns sheets, and a guide roll that is slidably attached to the support arm and that is arranged at a free end are used for the alignment. A sheet stacking apparatus, comprising: a pressing roller that is in rolling contact with a stopper and presses a sheet, and a slide member that holds a sheet of various sizes at a fixed distance from an alignment stopper. 2. The pressing roller is held at a constant distance from the alignment stopper by the slide member sliding along with the alignment stopper as the number of sheets on the discharge tray increases. The sheet stacking device according to claim 1.