JPH09190029A - Sheet ejector and image forming device provided therewith - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the needs for a lock releasing member exclusive to a paper ejection door and a handle for opening/closing the paper ejection door, as extra members, by allowing a sheet-material loading means itself to have a lock releasing function. SOLUTION: The paper ejection door 10, capable of turning in an operating position and a nonoperating position, is locked in the operating position with hooks 55F and 55R. The lock of the paper ejection door 10 is released by integrally providing the hooks 55F and 55R onto a paper ejection tray 12 on the paper ejection door 10, thereby allowing the paper ejection tray 12 to be turned from a loading position to a releasing position. Thus, the need for the lock releasing handle as an extra member is eliminated, the device is simplified and the operability of jam removal and maintenance, which are carried out when the paper ejection door 10 is opened is also improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet discharging device applied to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer which employs an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system, and more specifically, to one of a pair of conveying rollers. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet discharge device having a roller and a rotatable sheet discharge door on a main body of the apparatus, and a sheet material stacking unit that is rotatably mounted on the sheet discharge door and stacks sheet materials to be discharged. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows a color electrophotographic copying machine as an example of this type of image forming apparatus.

That is, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the basic structure of a color electrophotographic copying machine. This copying machine is an image carrier, which is an image bearing member rotatably supported in the apparatus main body 100 in the direction of the arrow shown in the drawing. It has a drum 1. Around the photosensitive drum 1, a corona charger 2, an optical system 3, a developing device 4, a transfer device 5, a cleaning device 6 and the like are arranged.

The optical system 3 is a laser beam exposure apparatus composed of a document scanning section and a color separation filter, which is used to form a color-separated light image or a light image E corresponding to the color image. Irradiate on.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 1 is the corona charger 2
The surface of the latent image is uniformly charged by the above, and a latent image is formed on the surface by receiving the light image E for each separated color as described above. This latent image is developed as a toner image by the developing device 4. To be done.

The developing device 4 is constructed as four developing devices, which are four developing devices around the photosensitive drum 1, that is, a black developing device 4BK, a cyan developing device 4C, a magenta developing device M and a yellow developing device. 4Y, and a predetermined developing device (4BK, 4C, 4M, 4Y) is moved to a developing position facing the photosensitive drum 1, and the developing device (4B
(K, 4C, 4M, 4Y), the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 1 is developed to form a resin-based toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 as described above.

On the other hand, the sheet material P accommodated in the sheet material cassette 7 passes through the sheet-by-sheet conveying system (according to the paper path indicated by the broken line in FIG. 5) at a position where it opposes the transfer device 5 photosensitive drum 1. The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 1 is transferred onto the sheet material P supplied to the transfer nip portion).

The transfer device 5 includes a transfer drum 5a rotatably supported, a transfer brush 5b, a suction brush 5c for electrostatically sucking the sheet material P, a suction roller 5g facing the suction brush 5c, It is composed of an inner corona charger 5d and an outer corona charger 5e, and a sheet material carrying sheet 5f made of a derivative sheet such as a polycarbonate film is integrally stretched in a cylindrical shape in the peripheral opening area of the transfer drum 5a. Has been done.

When the drum-shaped transfer drum 5a is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure, the sheet material P is carried by the sheet material carrying sheet 5f and rotated together with the transfer drum 5a, and the toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 is rotated. Is the transfer brush 5b
Is transferred onto the sheet material P by.

As described above, the sheet material carrying sheet 5
A desired number of color images are transferred to the sheet material P adsorbed to and conveyed by f, and as a result, a full-color unfixed toner image is formed on the sheet material P.

In the case of forming a full-color image, when the transfer of the four color (yellow, cyan, magenta, black) toner images to the sheet material P is completed as described above,
The sheet material P is separated from the transfer drum 5a by the separating means 8, and the separated sheet material P is conveyed to a heat roller fixing device 9 to be fixed with a toner image, and thereafter, a sheet discharge door 10 is provided with a sheet discharge door. The roller 11 discharges the sheet from the apparatus main body 100 and stacks it on the tray 12.

After the transfer, the photosensitive drum 1 is subjected to the image forming process again after the residual toner on the surface is cleaned by the cleaning device 6.

By the way, the paper discharge door 10 is constructed so as to be openable and closable for the purpose of jam handling and improvement of maintainability on the downstream side of the heat roller fixing device 9. That is, the lower end of the paper discharge door 10 is pivotally attached to the support shaft 13, and the paper output door 10 is opened and closed by rotating about the support shaft 13 in the directions of arrows A and B in the drawing.

Then, the apparatus main body 100 of the discharge door 10 described above.
Conventionally, there are various types of means for positioning and fixing to the side, such as a magnet and the like, but there are various types such as a snap fit and a hook, but a relatively strong holding force. A hook that is secured and does not require an adjustment assembly is generally widely used. FIG. 6 shows an example of the positioning and fixing means of the discharge door 10.

That is, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the electrophotographic copying machine showing the positioning and fixing structure of the paper discharge door 10.
In the upper part of 0, a stay 54 long in the width direction is horizontally and
The stay 54 is rotatably supported in the directions of arrows a and b, and hooks 55 are integrally formed at both ends of the stay 54. Further, the discharge door 1 is provided at the center of the stay 54 in the width direction.
A handle 56 to be gripped by the user at the time of opening / closing operation of 0 is attached. The stay 54 and the hook 55 are urged in the arrow a direction (engagement direction) by urging means (not shown).

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, when the sheet discharge door 10 is opened, the sheet discharge door 10 is rotated about the support shaft 53 in the direction of the arrow B to be closed, and the hook 55 is closed. The pair of pins 57, which are provided so as to be opposed to each other on the side of 100, are engaged with each other, so that the paper discharge door 10 can be attached to the apparatus body 1.
It is positioned and fixed on the 00 side and its closed state is maintained.

In addition, for the user to open the discharge door 10 in the closed state for jam clearance or maintenance,
It suffices to hold the handle 56 and pull it toward the front side (direction of arrow A in FIG. 6). Then, the stay 54 and the hook 55 are linked with the arrow b in FIG. 6 in conjunction with the operation of pulling the handle 56 by the user.
Since the hook 55 is disengaged from the pin 57, the paper discharge door 10 is rotated about the support shaft 53 in the arrow A direction to be opened.

[0018]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the grip 56 to be held by the user at the time of opening / closing the discharge door 10 is structurally attached to the discharge tray 12 of the discharge door 10. The discharge tray 12 becomes a hindrance when opening and closing the discharge tray 12. Especially, during the continuous image formation, the fixing device 9
When a jam occurs on the downstream side of the sheet discharge tray 10 with the discharged sheet materials P stacked on the sheet discharge tray 12.
Since it has to be opened, there is a problem that the operability is not good.

Further, the paper discharge tray 12 is generally attached to the paper discharge door 10. However, the discharged paper is discharged in the state where the discharged sheet materials P are stacked on the paper discharge tray 12 as described above. When the door 10 is opened, there is a problem that the stacked sheet materials P fall from the paper discharge tray 12.

A first object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus in which the handle position for opening and closing the sheet discharge door is improved and the operability during jam processing is improved.

A second object of the present invention is to prevent the stacked sheet materials from dropping from the sheet material stacking section even if the sheet discharge door is opened and closed while the sheet material stacking section is loaded with the sheet material. The purpose is to improve the operability during the jam processing.

[0022]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is located near a pair of discharge rollers for discharging a sheet material, and has a substantially vertical operation position and an operation position from this operation position. A rotatable discharge door and a sheet material discharged by the pair of discharge rollers are stacked at the rotated non-operating position, and the stacking position at which the sheet material is stacked and an upright position from the stacking position. A sheet material stacking unit rotatably mounted on the paper discharge door to a release position rotated in a direction; and a lock unit that holds the paper discharge door in an operating position, the lock unit including: The sheet material stacking means is formed integrally with the sheet material stacking means, and by rotating the sheet material stacking means from the stacking position to the release position, the locking means is unlocked and the discharge door can be rotated to the non-operating position. It is characterized by

In the sheet material stacking means, the other end of a holding member having one end pivotally mounted on the apparatus main body is pivotally mounted, and when the sheet material stacking means is rotated from the stacking position to the releasing position, The holding member is held in a substantially horizontal state. [Operation] Based on the above configuration, the image-formed sheet material is discharged and stacked on the sheet material stacking means by the discharge roller pair. . For example, when a jam of the sheet material occurs in the pair of discharge rollers, the sheet material stacking unit at the stacking position is rotated to the release position by a user operation.
By the rotation of the sheet material stacking means, the locking operation of the locking means integrated with the sheet material stacking means is released. In this state, by pulling out the sheet material stacking means and rotating the paper discharge door in the operating position to the non-operating position, it is possible to perform the jam processing of the sheet material of the paper discharging roller pair portion.

By allowing the sheet material stacking means to perform the unlocking operation of the discharge door and the function as a handle for opening and closing the discharge door, the conventional handle for unlocking and opening / closing provided as a separate member. Is unnecessary, and the device can be downsized and simplified.

Further, since the rotation range of the sheet material stacking means is regulated by the holding member and the free end thereof does not lower than the horizontal state when the sheet discharge door is opened to the non-operating position, the sheet discharge means does not discharge. Even if the paper door is opened, the sheet material on the sheet material stacking means does not drop.

[0026]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

<Embodiment 1> Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a paper discharge device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the image forming apparatus to which the present sheet discharging device is applied is the same as that described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, 101F and 101R indicate a front side plate and a rear side plate of the apparatus body 100 of the image forming apparatus. The paper discharge door 10 arranged between the front side plate 101F and the rear side plate 101R has a front side support plate 58F and a back side support plate 58R that form the frame thereof, and each support plate 58F, The paper discharge door 10 is mounted on the front and rear side plates 101F and 101R so as to be rotatable in the directions of arrows A and B by the support shafts 53 provided on the respective 58R.

It should be noted that the sheet discharge door 10 is restricted from rotating between a closed operating position shown in the figure and a non-operating position opened in the direction of arrow A by stoppers 50a and 50b provided on the outside and inside thereof, respectively. For example, at the time of jam clearance or maintenance in the fixing device 9 disposed on the upstream side of the paper discharge door 10, the paper discharge door 10 is centered on the support shaft 53 and is indicated by an arrow A direction from the operating position shown in the figure. It is rotated and opened.

A base of an ejection tray (sheet material stacking means) 12 is pivotally attached to the ejection door 10 by a support shaft 59, and a hook (lock) is provided on the front side of the ejection tray 12. 55F, and a hook (locking means) 5 on the back side.
The five hooks F are integrally formed. The paper discharge tray 12 is biased in the direction of arrow a by a biasing means (not shown), and the pin 57 is fixed to the apparatus main body 100.
The paper ejection door 10 is held in the closed operating position by engaging with the paper ejection door 10.

In the present embodiment, in order for the user to open the paper discharge door 10 in the closed state for the purpose of jam handling of the sheet material P, maintenance of the apparatus, etc., the user lifts the paper discharge tray 12 and shows the arrow. Just turn it a little in the b direction. With the rotation of the paper discharge tray 12, the hooks 55F, 55
Since the R is disengaged from each of the pins 57 and the engagement is released, the paper discharge door 10 is rotated about the support shaft 53 in the direction of the arrow A to be opened.

As described above, the paper discharge tray 12 has a function of releasing the hook 55 as a locking means for locking the paper discharge door 10 in the closed position and a function of a handle for operating the hook 55. As a result, the locking means and the handle, which are conventionally provided as separate members, are unnecessary, and the device can be downsized and simplified. FIG. 2 shows a mechanism for restricting the rotation of the paper discharge tray 12.

A long hole 61a formed at an upper end of a link 61 is engaged with a pin 12a provided at a free end of the paper discharge tray 12, and a lower end portion of the link 61 is a support shaft of the apparatus main body 100. It is pivotally connected by 62.

The paper discharge tray 12 is rotated from the stacking position shown in FIG. 1 to the upper release position to release the hook 55, and the paper discharge door 10 is rotated to the non-operating position as shown in FIG. Then, the discharge tray 12 is held by being regulated by the action of the link 61 to rotate substantially horizontally as shown in the figure. As a result, even if the paper discharge door 10 is rotated to the non-operating position, the sheet material P on the paper discharge tray 12 is prevented from falling.

FIG. 3 shows a paper discharge device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In the present embodiment, the hook 55F (55R is not shown) serving as the locking means is the paper output tray 1
2 is a separate member from the support shaft 52a and the discharge door 1
It is pivotally attached to 0. The hook 55F is biased by a biasing means (not shown) in a direction to engage with the pin 57 fixed to the apparatus main body 100.

The paper discharge tray 12 has a pocket 200 for preventing the sheet material P from falling, and its base is the support shaft 12.
It is pivotally attached to the paper discharge door 10 by b, and the rotation of the paper discharge tray 12 is restricted by a stopper (not shown) when it is in the stacking position of FIG. Output tray 12
Has a hook 201 in the middle part of the side part, and is engageable with the contact plate 52b of the hook 55F when the discharge tray 12 is rotated in the direction of the arrow B to be in the release position. There is. The hook 55R provided on the back side of the paper discharge door 10 is also the hook 201 provided on the back side of the paper discharge tray 12.
Can be engaged.

When a jam is caused in a sheet material in the apparatus main body 100 or during maintenance of the apparatus main body 100, the paper discharge tray 12 is rotated by the user in the direction of arrow B from the stacking position in FIG. Be moved. By rotating the discharge tray 12 to the release position, the discharge tray 1
The second hook 201 presses the contact plate 52b of the hook 55F to rotate the hook 201 in the clockwise direction in the figure to unlock the paper discharge door 10.

At this time, the discharge tray 12 is in a substantially vertical state, but since the discharge tray 12 has the pockets 200, the stacked sheet materials are prevented from falling from the discharge tray 12. Has been done. In this state, the discharge door 10
By rotating in the direction of arrow A, the paper discharge door 10 is opened from the operating position to the non-operating position as shown in FIG.

In the state where the hook 201 is pressing the hook 55F, for example, by holding the hook 201 by a click mechanism (not shown), the paper discharge tray 10 is opened to open the paper discharge tray 12 as shown in FIG. Even in the substantially horizontal state as described above, the sheet material is prevented from falling from the paper discharge tray 12.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), the base portion of the paper discharge door 10 is rotatably mounted on a support shaft 306 fixed to the main body of the apparatus. The sun gear 303 is fixed. The sun gear 303 is meshed with an idle gear 302 pivotally supported by the paper discharge door 10 by a support shaft 305.
2 has a planetary gear 301 meshed with it.

The support shaft 304 to which the planetary gear 301 is fixed is rotatably mounted on the paper discharge door 10, and the base of the paper discharge tray 12 is fixed to the support shaft 304. Output tray 12 and the planetary gear 30
1 and 1 are integrated.

When the sheet material is jammed or the apparatus is maintained, the paper discharge tray 12 at the stacking position shown in FIG. 4A is rotated by the user in the direction of arrow a (see FIG. 4C). By the above-mentioned rotation of the paper discharge tray 12, the planetary gear 301 integrally formed therewith rotates in the same direction (the arrow direction in FIG. 7C), and the idle gear 302 rotates in the arrow direction.

When the idle gear 302 rotates in the direction of the arrow, the idle gear 302 accordingly moves to the sun gear 30.
3 turns around in the direction of arrow A, whereby the paper discharge door 10 rotates in the direction of arrow A as shown in FIG. That is, the paper discharge door 10 is opened by the amount by which the paper discharge tray 12 is lifted from the stacking position to the release position.

When the paper discharge door 10 is stopped at the non-operating position by a stopper (not shown), the paper discharge tray 12 is prevented from rotating and does not rotate below the substantially horizontal state. The sheet material is prevented from falling from the paper discharge tray 12.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The lock means for locking the discharge door is unlocked by the operation of the sheet material stacking means, and the sheet material stacking means itself has a lock release function. Since it is not necessary to provide a handle for a separate member, the device can be downsized and simplified.
Then, the operation of the handle in the vicinity of the discharge door provided in the conventional apparatus is eliminated, and the user can perform the simple operation of moving the sheet material stacking means in the release position direction, and the operability at the time of jam handling is eliminated. Is improved.

Further, when the sheet material stacking means is rotated to the release position near the sheet discharge door side, the lock means provided on the sheet discharge door is unlocked to prevent the sheet material stacking means from dropping the sheet material. Since the pocket is provided, it is possible to prevent the sheet material from dropping when the sheet material stacking means is rotated toward the paper discharge door.

Further, since the rotation of the sheet material stacking means is restricted in association with the rotation of the sheet discharge door, it is possible to prevent the sheet material from falling on the sheet material stacking means at the release position.

Further, a gear train is provided between the sheet discharge door and the sheet material stacking means, the sheet material stacking means and the sheet discharge door are interlocked, and the sheet material stacking means is rotated from the stacking position to the releasing position. Since the paper discharge door is opened to the non-operating position side by a certain amount, when the paper discharge door stops at the non-operating position, it is possible to make the sheet material stacking unit at least not lower than the horizontal state. The sheet material stacking means locks the discharge door to realize the downsizing and simplification of the apparatus, and it is possible to prevent the sheet material from falling from the sheet material stacking means.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a paper discharge device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the interlocking mechanism of the paper ejection door and the paper ejection tray.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the paper discharge device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a paper discharge device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of an image forming apparatus to which the paper discharge device according to the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the paper feeding unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Photosensitive Drum (Image Forming Section) P Sheet Material 10 Paper Ejection Door 12 Paper Ejection Tray (Sheet Material Stacking Means) 50 Stopper 55 Hook (Locking Means) 57 Pins 61 Link 100 Device Body of Image Forming Device 200 Pocket 201 Hook 301 Planetary Gear 302 Idle Gear 303 Sun Gear

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A paper discharge door, which is near a pair of paper discharge rollers for discharging a sheet material, and is rotatable between a substantially vertical operating position and a non-operating position rotated from the operating position; Sheet materials discharged by a pair of paper rollers are stacked, and are rotatably mounted on the discharge door between a stacking position for stacking the sheet materials and a release position rotated in an upright direction from the stacking position. Sheet material stacking means and lock means for holding the paper discharge door in an operating position, the lock means being integrally formed with the sheet material stacking means, and the sheet material stacking means being in a stacking position. The paper discharge device is characterized in that the lock means is released by rotating the paper discharge door to a release position so that the paper discharge door can be rotated to a non-operating position. 2. The sheet material stacking means has a pocket portion for preventing the sheet material from falling on the paper discharge door side, and the locking means is mounted on the paper discharge door to stack the sheet material stacking means. 2. The sheet discharging device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet material stacking unit is released when the sheet material stacking unit is engaged when the sheet member stacking unit is rotated from the position to the release position. 3. The sheet material stacking means has a holding member, one end of which is pivotally mounted on the main body of the apparatus, and the other end of which is pivotally mounted. When the sheet material stacking means is rotated from the stacking position to the releasing position, 3. The paper discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the paper is held in a substantially horizontal state by the holding member. 4. A paper ejection door having one paper ejection roller of a paper ejection roller pair for ejecting a sheet material, and being rotatable between a substantially vertical operating position and a non-operating position rotated from this operating position. And a sheet material discharged by the pair of discharge rollers, wherein the sheet material is rotatably disposed between a stacking position for stacking the sheet material and a release position rotated in an upright direction from the stacking position. Sheet material loading means mounted on the paper door, a sun gear fixed coaxially with a support shaft that pivotally supports the paper discharge door, an idle gear meshing with the sun gear, and an idle gear meshing with the idle gear. A planetary gear that is coaxial with a spindle that pivotally supports the sheet material stacking means and that is a planetary gear that is integral with the sheet material stacking means. Interlocking with the operation of rotating from Sheet discharging device for Sharing, ABS sheet door, characterized in that the pivoted inoperative position from the operative position. 5. The paper discharge device according to claim 1, an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet material, and a paper discharge unit that discharges the image-formed sheet material to the paper discharge device. An image forming apparatus comprising: