JPH09183545A - Staple sorter and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a staple sorter and an image forming device incorporating it, with which it is possible to manage with one staple means to lead to cost-cut, maintain the specified print processing speed, and prevent occurrence of a jam. SOLUTION: A rail 4 is installed in the stretched direction of a transport belt 11 which is laid stretching in a staple sorter 2, and on a carriage 6 moving along the rail 4, a sheet holder 8 is installed in such a way as elevating/sinking relative to the carriage 6, which moves synchronously with the transport belt 11 in the condition hat a sheet bundle S' is pressed to the belt 11 by the sheet holder 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a staple sorter having a staple device installed in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a stapler sorter having a stapling device, the sheets on which an image is formed in an image forming unit and discharged are placed on a conveyor belt and conveyed one by one, and a sort provided outside the machine. The sheets are sorted into a set and discharged, and when a plurality of sheets are bundled in the sorting unit, the sheets are stapled by a stapling device to bind the sheet bundle.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique for performing stapling after sorting, when a plurality of stapling devices are provided for each bin arranged in the sorting section, or when stapling is performed by one stapling device. Requires a moving device for moving the stapling device to a position corresponding to each bin or for moving each bin to the position of the stapling device, resulting in a complicated configuration and increased cost.

In particular, when the stapling device or the bin is moved by the moving device, there is a problem that the print processing speed is reduced by the moving time of the stapling device or the bin by the moving device and the performance of the device is deteriorated. It was

In order to solve the above problems, a stapling device is arranged upstream of the conveyor belt, and the sheets on which an image has been formed in the image forming section and discharged are sequentially placed on the conveyor belt and stacked. When a sheet bundle is formed on the conveyor belt, the stapler staples the sheet bundle, and the stapled sheet bundle is placed and conveyed by the conveyor belt. Although it is possible to perform stapling by the device, there is a risk that sheets stapled and bound due to vibration or slip of the conveyor belt may be misaligned on the conveyor belt and cause a jam.

[0006] The present invention is to solve the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a staple sorter that can be configured with a single stapling unit to reduce costs, maintain a predetermined print processing speed, and prevent jams, and an image forming apparatus including the staple sorter. It is something to do.

[0007]

A typical configuration according to the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object is to provide a staple means for driving staples to bind a plurality of sheets, and a sheet bundle stapled by the staple means. A staple sorter comprising: a conveying unit that conveys the sheet bundle and a holding unit that holds the sheet bundle conveyed by the conveying unit.

Further, a transport rotating body pair for sandwiching and transporting the sheet bundle is provided on the downstream side of the transport means in the sheet transport direction, and the distance between the transport rotating body pairs is set to the thickness of the sheet bundle. It is characterized in that it can be changed corresponding to.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that it has an interference preventing means for preventing the pair of rotary conveying members and the holding means from interfering with each other.

Since the present invention is configured as described above, when the stapled sheet bundle is conveyed, the conveying means conveys the sheet bundle while the holding means holds the sheet bundle, so that the position of the sheet bundle is changed. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of misalignment and jam.

Further, a conveying rotary body pair for sandwiching and conveying the sheet bundle is arranged on the downstream side of the conveying means in the sheet conveying direction, and the distance between the conveying rotary body pairs corresponds to the thickness of the sheet bundle. Since it can be changed, since the pair of conveying rotary members can sandwich the sheet bundle and convey the sheet bundle in accordance with the thickness of the sheet bundle, the occurrence of jam of the sheet bundle can be further reduced. I can.

Further, the interference preventing means can prevent the conveying rotary member pair and the holding means from interfering with each other, so that a part of the sheet bundle is held by the holding means. Part of the sheet bundle is not conveyed by the pair of conveying rotating bodies, so that the sheet bundle can be maintained.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a staple sorter and an image forming apparatus having the same according to the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing the configuration of a first embodiment of a staple sorter according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow chart of a control system of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a sectional explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus connected to a staple sorter according to the present invention.

First, the structure of a first embodiment of a staple sorter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 1 and a sheet S or a sheet bundle S ′ on which an image is formed by the image forming apparatus 1 are shown.
The sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is classified between the sorting unit 3 that sorts, discharges, and mounts the sheets.
The staple sorter 2 is provided with a staple device 7 that serves as a stapling unit that staples and binds staples to a sheet bundle S ′ in which a plurality of sheets S are stacked in a bundle.

On the staple sorter 2, a conveying belt 11 as a conveying means for placing and conveying the sheet S is stretched, and the conveying belt 11 is driven by a conveying belt drive motor 12. It is driven to rotate. Conveyor belt 11
A stapling device 7 is arranged on the upstream side of the.

Sheet S discharged from image forming apparatus 1
Is classified according to a user's predetermined operation. For example, when a plurality of predetermined sheets S are classified into a bundle and set to staple and bind, the image forming apparatus Sheet S discharged from 1
Is placed on the conveyor belt 11 of the staple sorter 2,
The sheets are sequentially stacked to form a sheet bundle S ', and this sheet bundle S'
A plurality of sheets S are formed by driving the staples by the stapling device 7 arranged on the upstream side of the transport belt 11 with respect to the sheet S.
A sheet bundle S'consisting of is bound.

A rail 4 having a length corresponding to the stretched length of the conveyor belt 11 is arranged in the direction in which the conveyor belt 11 is stretched (left and right in FIG. 1). A carriage 6 having a sheet holder 8 serving as a holding unit that presses the sheet bundle S ′ stapled by the stapling device 7 against the conveyance belt 11 and holds the sheet bundle S ′ against the conveyance belt 11 is a pulse motor. It is driven by 10 and movable along the rail 4.

The sheet holder 8 is movable in the vertical direction in FIG. 1 with respect to the carriage 6 by a known moving means such as a rack gear driven by a pulse motor 9, and is placed on a conveyor belt 11. The sheet holder 8 moves up and down according to the thickness of the sheet bundle S ′ to come into contact with the upper surface of the sheet bundle S ′, so that the sheet bundle S ′ can be fixed and held with respect to the conveyor belt 11. There is.

A pulse motor 10, which serves as a driving means for moving the carriage 6 carrying the sheet holder 8 along the rails 4, is driven corresponding to a conveyor belt driving motor 12 for rotatably driving the conveyor belt 11. Thus, the sheet holder 8 and the conveyor belt 11 are integrally moved in the stretching direction of the conveyor belt 11 (left and right direction in FIG. 1) to hold the sheet bundle S'and move the sheet bundle S'downstream in the sheet conveying direction. It can be conveyed to the sorting section 3 arranged on the side (hereinafter, simply referred to as “downstream side”).

Further, sensors 16 and 17 for detecting the passage of the front and rear ends of the sheet S or the sheet bundle S'and the passage of the sheet holder 8 are arranged at predetermined positions in the stretching direction of the conveying belt 11, and The detection information of the sensors 16 and 17 is the controller
The transmission timing is transmitted to the control unit 14 and the timing for raising and lowering the sheet holder 8 and the timing for rotating the conveyor belt 11 are controlled.

In the sorting section 3 arranged on the downstream side of the staple sorter 2, the sorted sheets S or the sheet bundle S'are ejected and placed for each classification, and are arranged in multiple stages in the vertical direction of FIG. A plurality of bins 15 are provided, and the sorting unit 3 moves in the up-and-down direction of FIG. 1 with respect to the staple sorter 2, so that a predetermined bin 15 is positioned at the downstream end of the transport belt 11 and is transported. The sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′ sent by the belt 11 is discharged and placed on a predetermined bin 15 for each predetermined classification.

A controller 14 for controlling the staple sorter 2 includes a CPU (microcomputer) having a timer function, a ROM (read only memory) and a RAM (random access memory), and various input / output control circuits. A control program, which has the structure shown in FIG. 2 and will be described later, is stored in the ROM.

The controller 14 also includes pulse motors 9 and 10 via a motor driver 13 having a motor drive circuit.
Also, the drive of the conveyor belt drive motor 12 is controlled. For example, the rotation angles of the pulse motors 9 and 10 are controlled by pulse signals, and the forward rotation and the reverse rotation are switched.

Next, the control operation of the staple sorter 2 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. The sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is sent to the staple sorter 2, and when a command to staple a predetermined plurality of sheet bundle S ′ is transmitted by a user operation (step S1), the controller 14 causes The motor driver 13 is controlled to drive the pulse motor 10, the carriage 6 is moved to a predetermined position, and a predetermined holding corresponding to the length of the sheet bundle S ′ in the sheet conveying direction (hereinafter, simply referred to as “length”) is held. The sheet holder 8 is set at the position (step S2).

At this time, the home position of the sheet holder 8 is set at a position higher than the maximum thickness of the stacked sheet bundle S ', and the home position is set before the operation is started in step 1. Has been done.
As a result, the sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′ discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is retracted to a position where it does not interfere with the sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′.

When the sheets S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 are sequentially stacked on the conveyor belt 11 to form a predetermined sheet bundle S ', the controller 14 causes the motor driver to operate.
13 is controlled to drive the conveyor belt drive motor 12 to rotate the conveyor belt 11 to move the sheet bundle S ′, and a predetermined position for stapling the sheet bundle S ′ is set to the stapling device 7
The conveyance belt 11 is stopped at a position opposite to the position, and stapled by the stapling device 7 (step S
3).

Here, when stapling at a plurality of positions of the sheet bundle S ', the conveyor belt drive motor 12 is appropriately driven in a predetermined direction to rotate the conveyor belt 11 to rotate the sheet bundle S'.
Is moved to set another predetermined stapling position of the sheet bundle S ′ to a position facing the stapling device 7, and the conveying belt 11 is stopped, and the stapling device 7 staples.

Then, the controller 14 is a motor driver.
13 to control the pulse motor 9 to drive the seat holder 8
1 in the downward direction of FIG. 1 to abut the upper surface of the sheet bundle S ′, and the sheet holder 8 conveys the sheet bundle S ′.
It is pressed against and fixed to be held (step S4).

Then, the controller 14 is a motor driver.
13 to control the conveyor belt drive motor 12 and the pulse motor 10
Are simultaneously driven, and the conveyor belt 11 and the carriage 6 are synchronously moved at the same speed, so that the sheet holder S conveys the sheet bundle S ′ fixedly held to the conveyor belt 11 (step S5).

When the sensor 17 detects the sheet holder 8 at a predetermined release position set at the end of the conveyor belt 11, the pulse motor 9 is driven by this detection information to raise the sheet holder 8 and the above-mentioned operation is performed. It is retracted to the home position and the holding of the sheet bundle S ′ is released (step S6
~ S7).

According to this embodiment, when the stapled sheet bundle S ′ is placed on the conveyor belt 11 and conveyed, the conveyor belt 11 holds the sheet bundle S ′ by the sheet holder 8 in the present embodiment. Since the sheet bundle S ′ is conveyed by means of the sheet bundle S ′, unlike the conventional example, the sheet bundle S ′ can be prevented from being displaced, the occurrence of jam can be reduced, and the conveying performance of the sheet bundle S ′ in the staple sorter 2 can be stabilized. The reliability can be improved.

Further, in the present embodiment, the stapling device 7
However, the number of parts can be reduced, the configuration can be simplified, the cost can be reduced, and a predetermined printing speed can be maintained.

Next, an example of the image forming apparatus 1 equipped with the staple sorter 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
The electrophotographic image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 forms a latent image by irradiating a light image on the surface of a photoconductor drum 31a composed of an electrophotographic photoconductor on the basis of image information from the reading means 30 to form a latent image. On the other hand, a toner image is formed by the developing means, and the toner image is transferred to the sheet S which is fed from the sheet cassette 32 and is made of paper or synthetic resin.

The reading means 30 emits light from a light source 30b facing an original placed on the original glass 30a with the image surface facing downward, and the reflected light is passed through a plurality of mirrors 30c and a lens 30d. The latent image is formed by irradiating the photoconductor drum 31a in the process cartridge 31 serving as an image forming unit, and the latent image is visualized as a toner image by the developing unit.

On the other hand, the sheets S stacked in the sheet cassette 32 are fed out by the feeding roller 33, separated and fed one by one by a separating means (not shown), and then reversed by the U-turn guide member 34. The pair of registration rollers 35 synchronizes with the rotation of the photoconductor drum 31a and synchronizes with the photoconductor drum 31a.
a is conveyed to the opposite image forming unit.

Then, in the image forming section, the transfer roller
The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 31a is transferred to the sheet S by applying a voltage to the sheet 36, and the sheet S having the transferred image is conveyed to the fixing unit 38 by the conveying belt 37.

The fixing means 38 comprises a fixing rotator 38a having a built-in heater and a drive roller 38b for pressing and conveying the sheet S against the fixing rotator 38a. The sheet S is fixed to the fixing rotator 38a and the drive roller. When passing between 38b, heat and pressure are applied to fix the toner image on the sheet surface of the sheet S. The sheet S that has passed through the fixing unit 38
Is discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 by the discharge roller pair 39,
It is placed on the conveyor belt 11 of the staple sorter 2.

Next, a second embodiment of the staple sorter and the image forming apparatus having the same according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the configuration of the second embodiment of the staple sorter according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a view showing a flowchart of the control system of the second embodiment. The same components as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, a pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20 as a pair of conveying rotating bodies are provided on the downstream side of the conveying belt 11 of the first embodiment, and the sheet bundle S'conveyed by the conveying belt 11 is By securely nipping and conveying the sheet bundle S ′ onto the bin 15 of the sorting section 3 by sandwiching and conveying it with the conveying roller pairs 19 and 20, it is possible to further prevent occurrence of a jam when the sheet bundle S ′ is ejected onto the bin 15. It is configured to reduce.

As shown in FIG. 4, the staple sorter 2 according to the present embodiment has a pair of conveying rollers 19 as a pair of conveying rotary members on the downstream side of the conveying belt 11 configured as in the first embodiment. 20 is disposed, the transport roller 20 provided on the lower side is fixedly disposed at a position corresponding to the upper surface position of the transport belt 11 on which the sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′ is placed, and the transport roller 20 is provided on the upper side. The transport roller 19 thus constructed is configured to be movable in the vertical direction in FIG. 4 at a position facing the transport roller 20 by a known moving means such as a rack gear driven by the pulse motor 18.

Pulse motor 18 and conveying roller pair 19, 20
Is controlled by the controller 14 via the motor driver 13, and the pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20 are rotationally driven at the same rotational speed in the direction in which the sheet S or the sheet bundle S'is conveyed.

The controller 14 controls the motor driver 13 by the controller 14 to drive the pulse motor 18 to move up and down to set the height corresponding to the thickness of the conveyed sheet S or sheet bundle S '. . Also, the controller 14
Stores a control program shown in FIG. 5 and described later in the ROM.

Further, in this embodiment, the pair of conveying rollers 19,
There is a means for preventing interference between the sheet holder 8 and the sheet holder 8, and the construction is such that the sheet holder 8 is stopped before the tip of the sheet holder 8 reaches the pair of conveying rollers 19, 20.

That is, the distance from the front end of the sheet bundle S ′ to the sheet holder 8 when the predetermined position of the predetermined sheet bundle S ′ is held by the sheet holder 8 is set as the interference prevention distance and stored in the controller 14 in advance. Then, a plurality of sensors 16 and 17 capable of detecting the positions of the front end of the sheet bundle S ′ and the sheet holder 8 are arranged at predetermined positions in the stretching direction of the transport belt 11 (left and right direction in FIG. 4), and the sheet holder It is detected by sensors 16 and 17 that 8 has approached the conveyance roller pair 19 and 20 within the interference prevention distance. Based on the detection information, the controller 14 controls the motor driver 13 to drive the pulse motor 9, The holder 8 is raised to raise the sheet bundle S '.
Release the holding action against.

With the above structure, the conveying roller pairs 19, 20 and the sheet holder 8 do not interfere with the sheet bundle S ′, and the sheet bundle S ′ is conveyed from the conveying belt 11 to the conveying roller pair 19. , 20 can be released by the sheet holder 8 at a distance that can be delivered.

As another configuration, instead of providing a plurality of sensors 16 and 17, the number of pulses of a pulse signal for driving the pulse motor 10 for moving the carriage 6 having the sheet holder 8 is counted, and the number of pulses is corresponded to this pulse information. Then, the pulse motor 9 is driven to control the sheet holder 8 to be released so that the pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20 and the sheet holder 8 do not interfere with each other and the sheet bundle S ′ is similar to the above.
The sheet holder 8 can be released at a distance where the sheet can be delivered from the conveyor belt 11 to the pair of conveyor rollers 19 and 20.

The interference preventing means constructed as described above prevents the conveying roller pairs 19, 20 and the sheet holder 8 from interfering with each other, so that the sheet bundle S'can be comfortably moved from the conveying belt 11 to the conveying roller pairs 19, 20. Can be reliably delivered to.
Other configurations are similar to those of the first embodiment, and similar effects can be obtained.

Next, the control operation of the staple sorter 2 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. The sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is sent to the staple sorter 2, and a command for stapling a predetermined plurality of sheet bundles S ′ is transmitted by a user operation, as in the first embodiment. (Step S1), pulse motor 10
Is driven to move the carriage 6 to a predetermined position, and the sheet holder 8 is moved to a predetermined holding position corresponding to the length of the sheet bundle S ′.
Is set (step S2).

When the sheets S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 are sequentially stacked and stacked on the conveyor belt 11 to form a predetermined sheet bundle S ', the conveyor belt drive motor 12 is driven to move the conveyor belt 11 up. The sheet bundle S ′ is moved and set so that the predetermined position for stapling the sheet bundle S ′ is a position facing the stapling device 7 and stapled by the stapling device 7 (step S3). When stapling at a plurality of locations, it is the same as in the above-described first embodiment.

Then, the pulse motor 9 is driven to move the sheet holder 8 waiting at the home position downward in FIG. 4 to bring it into contact with the upper surface of the sheet bundle S ', and the sheet bundle S'is conveyed to the conveyor belt. It is pressed against 11 and held (step S4).

At this time, the sheet holder 8 is provided with detection means (not shown) for detecting the thickness of the sheet bundle S '. This detecting means can detect the thickness of the sheet bundle S ′ by counting the number of pulses of the pulse signal that drives the pulse motor 9, for example. Alternatively, as another configuration, the thickness of the sheet bundle S ′ can be known in advance from the type and number of sheets such as the type of paper by a signal from a communication unit (not shown) of the image forming apparatus 1.

Sheet bundle S'obtained by the detecting means
The distance between the pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20 is set based on the thickness information of the sheet (step S5), the controller 14 controls the motor driver 13 to drive the pulse motor 18, and the conveying roller 19 to the sheet bundle S '. The pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20 are moved to a height corresponding to the thickness and fixed at a predetermined spacing corresponding to the thickness of the sheet bundle S '(step S6).

Then, the controller 14 is a motor driver
13 to control the conveyor belt drive motor 12 and the pulse motor 10
And the conveying roller pair 19 and 20 at the same time, or the conveying roller pair
Only 19 and 20 are driven at a timing delayed by a predetermined time so that the moving speed of the conveying belt 11 and the moving speed of the carriage 6 become equal, and the conveying speed of the sheet bundle S ′ by the conveying belt 11 and the conveying roller pair 19, 20. The conveyance speeds of the sheet bundle S ′ are controlled in synchronization so that they are equal.

Then, the sheet bundle S'is fixed to the conveying belt 11 by the sheet holder 8 and held in the conveying belt.
11 is conveyed (step S7), the pulse motor 9 is driven at a predetermined timing and the sheet holder 8 is lifted at a predetermined release position set at the end of the conveyor belt 11 by the operation of the above interference preventing means. Then, the holding of the sheet bundle S ′ is released (steps S8 to S9).

With the above construction, when the sheet bundle S'placed on the conveyor belt 11 and held by the sheet holder 8 and conveyed reaches the end portion of the conveyor belt 11, the sheets for the sheet bundle S'are conveyed. The holding action of the holder 8 does not interfere with the feeding action of the pair of conveying rollers 19 and 20, and the sheet bundle S ′ conveyed by the conveying belt 11 enters the nip portion of the pair of conveying rollers 19 and is nipped. The sheet bundle S'is conveyed by the conveying roller pairs 19 and 20 until it is securely placed on a predetermined bin 15 of the sorting section 3.

Therefore, the sheet bundle S'is discharged onto the bin 15.
It is possible to reduce the occurrence of jams when mounting and further improve the reliability of the device.

Next, a third embodiment of the staple sorter and the image forming apparatus having the same according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the staple sorter according to the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a view showing a flow chart of the control system of the third embodiment. The same components as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, instead of the sheet holder 8, the first conveying rotary member is used as the first conveying rotary member.
The conveyor belt 11 of the embodiment has a tension length corresponding to the tension length of the conveyor belt 11, and is stretched in parallel with the tension direction of the conveyor belt 11 so as to face the conveyor belt 11. A conveyor belt 23, which is a second conveyor rotating body that is supported and cooperates with the conveyor belt 11 to sandwich and hold the sheet bundle S ′, is provided.

The conveyor belt 23 is driven to rotate by the pulse motor 21 and is movable in the vertical direction of FIG. 6 with respect to the conveyor belt 11 by a moving means (not shown) driven by the pulse motor 22. The separation distance from the belt 11 can be changed. The pulse motors 21 and 22 are controlled by the controller 14 via the motor driver 13.

The conveyor belt 23 is provided with a detecting means (not shown) for detecting the thickness of the sheet bundle S '. This detecting means can detect the thickness of the sheet bundle S ′ by counting the number of pulses of the pulse signal that drives the pulse motor 22, for example. Alternatively, as another configuration, the distance between the upper conveyor belt 23 and the lower conveyor belt 11 can be detected by, for example, a reflection type sensor (distance sensor).

The controller 14 also stores a control program shown in FIG. 7 and described later in the ROM. Other configurations are similar to those of the first embodiment, and similar effects can be obtained.

Next, the control operation of the staple sorter 2 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. The sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is sent to the staple sorter 2, and a command for stapling a predetermined plurality of sheet bundles S ′ is transmitted by a user operation, as in the first embodiment. And (step S1), the image forming apparatus 1
The sheets S discharged from the stack are sequentially stacked on the conveyor belt 11 to form a predetermined sheet bundle S ′.
Similar to the embodiment, the sheet bundle S ′ is stapled by the stapling device 7 (step S2).

At this time, the thickness of the sheet bundle S'placed on the conveyor belt 11 is detected by the detecting means, and the distance between the conveyor belt 11 and the conveyor belt 23 is determined by the detection information. The distance is set to correspond to the thickness of ‘(step S3), the controller 14 controls the motor driver 13 to drive the pulse motor 22, and the conveyor belt 23 is translated in the downward direction of FIG. The sheet bundle S ′ is brought into contact with the upper surface of S ′, and is sandwiched and held by the conveyor belt 23 and the conveyor belt 11 (step S4).

The home position of the conveyor belt 23 is set at a position higher than the maximum thickness of the stacked sheet bundle S ', and is set to the home position before the operation is started in step 1. There is. As a result, the sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′ discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is retracted to a position where it does not interfere with the sheet S or the sheet bundle S ′.

Then, the controller 14 is a motor driver
13 to control the conveyor belt drive motor 12 and the pulse motor 21
Are simultaneously driven, and the conveyor belts 11 and 23 are synchronously rotated at the same rotational speed to convey the sheet bundle S ′ to the conveyor belt pair 1
The sheet bundle S'is conveyed while being sandwiched and held by 1, 23 (step S5), and the sheet bundle S'is discharged onto a predetermined bin 15 of the sorting section 3.

The rear end of the sheet bundle S'is the conveyor belt.
When detected by the sensor 17 arranged at a predetermined release position set at the terminal end of 11, the pulse motor 22 is driven to raise the conveyor belt 23 and retract it to the home position, and the sheet bundle S ' Release the hold.

With the above-described structure, the sheet bundle S ′ discharged from the image forming apparatus 1 is sandwiched and held by the pair of conveyor belts 11 and 23 and conveyed, and the predetermined bin 15 of the sorting section 3 is conveyed.
The sheet bundle S'is ejected and placed on the upper side surely so that the sheet bundle S'is
It is possible to reduce the occurrence of jam when ejected to the upper side and further improve the reliability of the device.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the conveyor belt 23 is used as the conveyor rotating body arranged to face the conveyor belt 11 has been described. However, as another structure, a plurality of rollers may be arranged side by side. good.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the conveying belt 11 is used as the conveying means for conveying the sheet bundle S ′ from the image forming apparatus 1 to the sorting section 3 in the staple sorter 2.
Although the case where the above configuration is adopted has been described, another configuration may be adopted in which a plurality of rollers are arranged side by side.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the case where the staple sorter according to the present invention is applied to the image forming apparatus having the electrophotographic image forming means has been described. However, as another configuration, an inkjet head or a thermal head is provided. It is also possible to apply the present invention to an image forming apparatus provided with an image forming means.

[0071]

Since the present invention has the above-described structure and operation, when the stapled sheet bundle is conveyed, the sheet bundle is held and conveyed by the holding means to shift the position of the sheet bundle. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of jam and reduce the occurrence of jam.

Further, by varying the mutual distance between the pair of conveying rotary members according to the thickness of the sheet bundle, the interval between the pair of conveying rotary members is adjusted according to the thickness of each sheet bundle having different thickness. By jamming and conveying the sheet bundle, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of jam of the sheet bundle.

Further, the interference preventing means prevents the conveying action of the conveying rotating body pair for the sheet bundle from interfering with the holding action of the holding means, so that the sheet bundle can be maintained and the occurrence of jams can be reduced. It can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a staple sorter according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a control system of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus connected to a staple sorter according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing a configuration of a second embodiment of a staple sorter according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a control system of the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view showing the configuration of a third embodiment of a staple sorter according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a control system of a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming apparatus, 2 ... Staple sorter, 3 ... Sorting section, 4 ... Rail, 6 ... Carriage, 7 ... Stapling apparatus, 8 ... Sheet holder, 9, 10 ... Pulse motor, 11 ... Conveying belt, 12 ... Drive motor , 13 ... Motor driver, 14 ...
Controller, 15 ... Bin, 16, 17 ... Sensor, 18 ... Pulse motor, 19, 20 ... Conveying roller pair, 21, 22 ... Pulse motor, 23 ... Conveying belt, 30 ... Reading means, 30a ... Original glass, 30b ... Light source , 30c ... Mirror, 30d ... Lens, 31 ... Process cartridge, 31a ... Photosensitive drum, 32 ... Sheet cassette, 33 ... Feed roller, 34 ... U-turn guide member,
35 ... Registration roller pair, 36 ... Transfer roller, 37 ... Conveying belt, 38 ... Fixing means, 38a ... Fixing rotator, 38b ... Drive roller, 39 ... Discharge roller pair, S ... Sheet, S ′ ... Sheet bundle

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical display location G03G 15/00 534 G03G 15/00 534

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A stapling means for driving staples to bind a plurality of sheets, a conveying means for conveying a sheet bundle stapled by the stapling means, and a holding means for holding the sheet bundle conveyed by the conveying means. And a staple sorter. 2. A transport rotating body pair for sandwiching and transporting the sheet bundle is provided downstream of the transporting unit in the sheet transport direction, and a distance between the transport rotating body pairs is set to a thickness of the sheet bundle. The staple sorter according to claim 1, wherein the staple sorter is configured to be changeable in correspondence with the above. 3. The staple sorter according to claim 2, further comprising interference prevention means for preventing the pair of conveyance rotating bodies and the holding means from interfering with each other. 4. The staple sorter according to claim 2, wherein the pair of conveying rotary members are constituted by a pair of conveying rollers. 5. The staple sorter according to claim 2, wherein the pair of conveyance rotating bodies are configured to be rotationally driven at the same speed in a direction in which the sheet bundle is conveyed. 6. A staple unit for driving staples to bind a plurality of sheets, a first transport rotary member for placing and transporting a sheet bundle stapled by the staple unit, and a first transport rotary member. And a second conveying rotary body which is arranged so as to be opposed to the first conveying rotary body and is capable of changing a separation distance from the first conveying rotary body according to the thickness of the sheet bundle. Sorter. 7. The staple sorter according to claim 6, wherein the first and second conveyor rotating bodies are conveyor belts and also function as holding means. 8. The staple sorter according to claim 6, wherein the first and second conveying rotary members are configured to be rotationally driven at the same speed in a direction in which the sheet bundle is conveyed. 9. An image forming apparatus comprising the staple sorter according to claim 1, further comprising image forming means for forming an image on a sheet according to image information.