JPH09240917A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance workability by judging the residual loading possible number of sheets of a paper discharge tray by a loading calculating means, displaying its value by a loading display means, and judging whether or not it can be housed when transfer paper already housed in the paper discharge tray is removed. SOLUTION: When a series of copying action to house a transfer paper sheet in a paper discharge tray 1 is completed by performing a copying action on the transfer paper sheet, a CPU 30 calculates the loading possible number of sheets from positional information on the paper discharge tray 1. In this case, for example, when the whole moving distance of the paper discharge tray 1 is denoted by 300mm, since transfer paper sheets can be loaded by about 150 sheets to a moving distance 40mm, whether or not a position of the paper discharge tray 1 exceeds 240mm is judged, and in the case of YES, the loading possible number of sheets is set to 150 sheets, and in the case of NO, whether or not it exceeds 200mm is judged. Here, in the case of YES, the loading possible number of sheets is set to 300 sheets, and in the case of NO, and when it exceeds 160mm, the loading possible number of sheets is set to 450 sheets, and these are respectively displayed on a display part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic copying machine,
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer with a scanner, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus that includes a movable paper ejection tray and can display the number of stackable sheets remaining in the paper ejection tray.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when copying is performed in excess of the number of sheets that can be stacked on a paper discharge tray, when the number of sheets that can be stacked on the paper discharge tray is set,
A warning is given to an operator to prohibit the image forming operation, or an image is formed until the transfer paper stored in the paper discharge tray is full, and then a warning display is given to notify the operator (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-62160).
No. 189479), when the transfer paper stored in the paper discharge tray becomes full, the paper discharge path is switched and the paper is stored in another paper discharge tray (JP-A-1-122).
872).

[0003]

As described above, according to the conventional technique, when the number of transfer sheets discharged onto the discharge tray reaches the maximum number of sheets stacked in advance on the discharge tray, the image forming operation is automatically performed. However, there is a limit to the number of sheets that can be stacked in another paper output tray, and transfer sheets that have already been copied cannot be placed on the paper output tray. When it is stored or when a large number of transfer sheets ejected by continuous copying are newly stored, the maximum number of stacked sheets is reached early, and as a result, the image forming operation is interrupted. Or the transfer tray becomes full and the transfer paper is clogged. Then, when the operator who has left the apparatus once returns to the time when the copying is considered to be finished, the copying is not finished due to the interruption, or an error state occurs. It was a waste of time that the work would have to be redone. Further, when the number of sheets that can be stored in the paper ejection tray is set to a number larger than the maximum number of sheets that can be stored, even if a warning is given in advance to prevent the image forming operation from being performed, the number of sheets that can be stacked is not displayed. Therefore, the operator could not know how much the number of copies should be reduced before it can be stored in the output tray, and the number of copies had to be adjusted by trial and error, which wasted time. Was becoming. Therefore, according to the present invention, even if transfer sheets are already stored in the discharge tray, the number of sheets that can be stacked in the discharge tray is displayed before copying is started, or the number of copy originals and the number of copies cannot be stored. In this case, an object is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing the above dead time by issuing an alarm.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object,
According to a first aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus provided with a vertically movable type paper discharge tray for stacking discharged transfer papers,
Position detection means for detecting the vertical position of the movable discharge tray, determination means for determining the number of stacked sheets on the discharge tray based on the detection result of the position detection means, and the determination means It is characterized by further comprising a stacking calculation means for calculating the remaining stackable sheet number from the stacking sheet number and a preset maximum stacking sheet number, and a stack display means for displaying the remaining stackable sheet number calculated by the stacking calculation means. And According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, input means for inputting the number of copy originals and the number of copies, and transfer sheet calculation for calculating the number of transfer sheets to be used from the input result of the input means. Means for issuing a warning when the number of used transfer sheets obtained by the transfer sheet calculating means exceeds the remaining stackable sheet number calculated by the stacking calculating means. It has a feature.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the discriminating means discriminates the number of transfer sheets stacked on the discharge tray, and the stacking calculating means discriminates the discriminating means from the preset maximum stacking number on the discharge tray. By subtracting the number of transfer sheets as a result, the remaining stackable number of sheets in the discharge tray can be known, and the value can be displayed by the stack display means. It becomes possible to easily determine whether or not the transfer paper of No. 1 can be stored in the discharge tray. In the present invention, when the number of copy originals and the number of copies are input to the input means, the transfer paper calculation means calculates the number of transfer papers to be used from the input result of the input means, and the calculation result of the transfer paper calculation means. Is provided with a warning means when the calculation result of the stack calculation means is exceeded, it is determined whether or not the transfer paper which has been copied before the start of copying can be stored in the discharge tray by the warning judgment of the warning means. I understand.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 (a) is a side view showing the main part of the paper discharge section of an electrophotographic copying machine with a stapling device (hereinafter referred to as copying machine), and FIG. 1 (b) is a simple block diagram showing its control system. It is a figure. In FIG. 1A, in the copying machine main body 10, the transfer sheet T for which copying has been completed is discharged and conveyed to the sheet discharging section 11. When passage of the transfer paper T is detected by the paper entrance sensor 13 (photosensor, filler, limit switch, etc.) placed at the entrance of the paper discharge unit 11, the control unit receiving this detection signal causes the entrance roller 14 and the branching unit to branch. The nail 15 is operated. This branch claw 15
As a result, the transfer sheet is divided into the transfer sheet toward the discharge tray 1 and the transfer sheet toward the stapling device 12. An upper conveyance roller 16, a paper discharge sensor 17, a discharge roller 18, a shift roller 19, a paper surface lever 20, two sets of paper surface sensors 21 including light emitting and receiving elements, and the like are arranged on the paper path toward the paper discharge tray 1. There is.

A lower conveying roller 22, a lower sheet-feeding sensor 23, and a brush roller 2 are provided in the conveying path toward the stapling device 12.
4 etc. are arranged. The lower carrying roller 22 is driven by a carrying motor 36 (not shown in FIG. 1) described later. The paper discharge tray 1 is driven by an up / down motor 32 and a shift motor 33, which will be described later, and is appropriately moved up / down and left / right. The stapling device 12 is provided below the staple tray 28. The staple tray 28 has a jogger fence 25 for aligning sheets, a return port roller 26, and a transfer position bound to the back of the jogger fence 25. Ejection belts 27 for ejecting the sheet bundle are arranged, and the transfer sheet bundle ejected by the emission belt 27 is stored in a sheet ejection tray 1 whose operation will be described in detail below. The present invention is not particularly related to the stapling operation of the stapling apparatus 12, and therefore the explanation of the operation is omitted.

Further, in this embodiment, the transfer paper is stored in the paper discharge tray 1 and the paper surface lever 20 is lifted, and the reflection plate attached to one end of the paper surface lever 20 changes the output state of the two paper surface sensors 21. It is changed (the paper surface lever 20 is shown by a dotted line in the figure), and the information is sent to the CPU 30 described later.
When the CPU 30 receives a change in the output state of the paper surface sensor 21, it operates the vertical motor 32 that moves the paper ejection tray 1 up and down in the descending direction, and when it detects the inverted state of the output of the two paper surface sensors 21 again, the operation is stopped. Let At the same time, the shift motor 33 of the paper discharge tray 1 is driven in a left and right direction by a certain amount so that the transfer paper stored in the paper discharge tray 1 and the subsequent transfer paper are not mixed. The above operation is repeated until the transfer paper stored in the paper discharge tray 1 is taken out or the lowering stopper that restricts the lower side of the paper discharge tray 1 operates. When the transfer paper is taken out on the way, the output of the paper surface sensor 21 changes, and the paper ejection tray 1 is operated in the ascending direction until the inverted state of the paper surface sensor 21 output is detected, so the paper ejection tray 1 is set to the uppermost position. To be done.

FIG. 1 (b) is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the main control system of the present invention. Paper is discharged based on the detection result of the position detection means 2 for detecting the vertical position of the movable paper discharge tray 1. Discriminating means 3 for discriminating the number of stacked sheets on the tray, and discriminating means 3
A stacking calculation means 4 for calculating the remaining stackable sheet number from the stacking sheet number determined by the above and a preset maximum stacking sheet number, and a stacking display means 5 for displaying the remaining stackable sheet number calculated by the stacking calculation means 4. The transfer sheet calculating means 7 is provided with an input means 6 for inputting the number of copy originals and the number of copies, and a transfer sheet calculating means 7 for calculating the number of transfer sheets to be used from the input result of the input means. A warning unit 5 or the like is provided for issuing a warning when the number of used transfer sheets exceeds the remaining stackable number calculated by the stack calculation unit 4. The determination unit 3, the stacking calculation unit 4, and the transfer sheet calculation unit 7 make up a control unit.

FIG. 2 is a main block diagram of a control system in the paper discharge section 11 of the copying machine. The signals from the switches (not shown) on the display unit of the apparatus main body and the sensors mainly attached to the drive unit are 1/0 interface 31.
Is input to the CPU 30 via. The CPU 30 operates the vertical motor 32 and the shift motor 3 according to the input signal.
3, the branch solenoid 34, the return solenoid 35, the conveyance motor 36, the paper discharge motor 37, the staple motor 38, the ejection motor 39, the stapler movement motor 40, and the jogger motor 41 are driven. The pulse signal of the carry motor 36 is input to the CPU 30 and counted, and the return solenoid 35 is controlled according to the count. The matching control means is composed of the CPU 30 and various operation programs for operating the CPU 30.

The operation when the non-staple mode in which no stapling is performed is selected in the above configuration will be described. The copy transfer paper is sent from the copying machine main body 10 and is placed at the entrance of the paper discharge unit 11 to input the paper.
3 is detected and the detection signal is input to the CPU 30,
It is received by the inlet roller 14 which rotates at a timed timing, is sent by the upper conveying roller 16, and is discharged by the discharging roller 18.
Is discharged onto the discharge tray 1. The ejected transfer paper is aligned in the vertical direction by the aligning roller 19,
The sheets are stacked on the discharge tray 1. At this time, the moving roller 1
9 is decelerated when the paper discharge sensor 17 detects the trailing edge of the paper, and improves stackability. Further, when the copied copy sheets are sequentially ejected and stored, the sheet surface sensor 21 detects the movement of the sheet surface lever 20, the CPU 30 fetches the detection result, and the up / down motor 32 is driven according to the value. , The discharge tray 1 is always kept at an appropriate height.

An encoder (not shown) is added to the vertical motor 32, and a signal pulse corresponding to the movement amount of the paper discharge tray 1 is returned to the CPU 30. Therefore, the CPU 30 can calculate the movement amount of the discharge tray 1 from the number of received signal pulses. Further, at the time of initial setting, the discharge tray 1 moves to a home position (not shown), the CPU 30 calculates the movement amount based on the detection signal at the home position, and the discharge tray 1 actually stops. It is designed so that you can see where it is.

In this embodiment, although not shown in FIG.
The discharge tray 1 is moved downward, and the lower stop limiter operates at the position immediately before the lower limit position in the lower direction. When the lower stop limiter operates, the downward movement is stopped. At the same time, the CPU 30 is notified of the stop position as the home position (reference position). As described above, in this embodiment, the lower limit detection signal from the lower stop limiter is matched with the home position signal. The CPU 30
The paper ejection tray 1 is moved in the upward direction from this home position until the inverted state of the output of the paper surface sensor 21 is detected. At this time, the movement amount of the paper ejection tray 1 is calculated from the signal pulse of the encoder of the vertical motor 32. , You can know the stop position. Further, the stackable number of sheets of the discharge tray 1 is calculated from the stop position and displayed at a designated position on a display unit (not shown).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the main operation of calculating the stackable sheet number from the stop position of the sheet discharge tray 1 and displaying it on the display unit. First, a copy operation is performed on a transfer sheet from a copy original and the copy sheet is stored in the discharge tray 1. If a change in the output of the paper surface sensor 21 is detected based on the storage result, the discharge tray 1 is lowered by the method described above. , Perform a series of copying operations to refrain from storing the next transfer sheet (step S
1). Repeat this process until the copy operation is completed (S
2 No), if the copying operation is completed (S2 Yes), C
The PU 30 calculates the number of stackable sheets from the position information of the discharge tray 1. In this case, the total movement amount of the discharge tray 1 is 3
It is about 00 mm (millimeter) and the movement amount is 40 mm
On the other hand, since it is known that about 150 sheets of transfer paper can be stacked, the determination is made every 40 mm of movement.

Therefore, it is inquired whether or not the position of the discharge tray 1 is over 240 mm before the full end of the discharge tray 1 (S3), and 24 from the home position.
If it exceeds 0 mm (S3 Yes), the remaining movable amount is about 40 to 60 mm, so the stackable number is set to 150 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S4).
If the position of the discharge tray 1 is not over 240 mm (S3 No), it is asked whether it is over 200 mm (S5), and if it is over 200 mm (S5 Y
es), the number of stackable sheets is set to 300, and step S is performed.
Proceed to 16 (S6). Returning to step S5, if the position of the discharge tray 1 does not exceed 200 mm (S5 N
o), whether or not it exceeds 160 mm (S
7) If it exceeds 160 mm (S7 Yes), the stackable number is set to 450 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S8).

Further, returning to step S7, if the position of the discharge tray 1 does not exceed 160 mm (S7 N
o), it is asked whether or not it exceeds 120 mm (S
9) If it exceeds 120 mm (S9 Yes), the stackable number is set to 600 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S10). Returning to step S9, if the position of the discharge tray 1 does not exceed 120 mm (S9 N
o), it is asked whether or not it exceeds 80 mm (S1
1) If it exceeds 80 mm (S11 Yes), the stackable number is set to 750 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S12). In step S11, if the position of the discharge tray 1 does not exceed 80 mm (No in S11), 40 m
Whether or not m is exceeded (S13), and if 40 mm is exceeded (S13 Yes), the stackable number is 90
The number is set to 0 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S14). Further, returning to step S13, the position of the discharge tray 1 is changed to 4
If it does not exceed 0 mm (No in S13), the maximum stackable number is set to 1000 and the process proceeds to step S16 (S15). In step S16, the number of stackable sheets set in each case is displayed on the display unit to notify (S1
6), end this flow.

The position detecting means 2 for detecting the position of the discharge tray 1 of claim 1 includes the encoder of the vertical motor 32, the home position detector, the CPU 30, and the CPU 30 not mentioned in the above description. Software stored in operating ROM, read / write R
It is composed of a part such as AM. Further, the discriminating means 3 for discriminating the number of sheets stacked on the sheet discharge tray 1, and the stacking calculation means 4 for calculating the remaining stackable sheet number are constituted by a CPU 30, and a part of ROM, RAM, etc. storing software. There is. It should be noted that the CPU, ROM, RAM and the like constitute a control unit. Similarly, the transfer sheet calculation means 7 for calculating the number of transfer sheets to be used from the input result of the input means 6 of claim 2.
Is the CPU 30 and the R in which the software is stored
It is composed of a part of OM, RAM and the like. In the above embodiment, the remaining stackable number is calculated by dividing the number of blocks into blocks as shown in FIG. 3, but the stackable number is calculated directly from the stop position of the discharge tray 1. It is also possible to use a method of calculating.

[0018]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the stacking calculation means can determine the remaining stackable number of sheets in the discharge tray, and the stacking display means can display the value to determine the number of copies before the start of copying. Since it is now possible to determine whether or not the number of sheets can be stored, or whether transfer sheets that have already been stored in the discharge tray can be stored, the maximum number of sheets that can be stacked in the discharge tray is reached during copying and the image forming operation is performed. Therefore, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus that prevents a problem of wasting time and wasting time. According to the invention of claim 2, when the warning is issued by the warning means, if there is a transfer sheet already stored in the paper discharge tray, it is taken out, and if the warning is still issued, the number of copy originals or the number of copies is set. By reducing the number of times to prevent the warning from being generated, it is possible to prevent a problem that the maximum number of sheets loaded in the discharge tray is reached during the copying and the image forming operation is interrupted, resulting in wasting time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a side view of a main part of an image forming apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a schematic view showing the configuration of a main control system.

FIG. 2 is a main block diagram of a paper discharge unit of the image forming apparatus showing the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a main operation of the image forming apparatus showing the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 paper discharge tray, 2 position detecting means, 3 discriminating means, 4
Load calculation means, 5 load display means, 6 input means, 7
Transfer paper calculation means, 8 warning means, 10 copier body,
11 paper discharge section, 12 stapling device, 13 paper input sensor, 14 entrance roller, 15 branching claw, 16 upper transport roller, 17 paper discharge sensor, 18 discharge roller,
19 Aligning roller, 20 Paper surface lever, 21 Paper surface sensor, 22 Lower conveyance roller, 23 Lower paper input sensor, 2
4 brush roller, 25 jogger fence, 26 return port roller, 27 ejection belt, 28 staple tray, 30 CPU, 31 1/0 interface, 3
2 vertical motors, 33 shift motors, 34 branch solenoids, 35 return solenoids, 36 transport motors, 3
7 paper discharge motor, 38 staple motor, 39 discharge motor, 40 stapler moving motor, 41 jogger motor,

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a vertically movable paper ejection tray for stacking ejected transfer paper, and position detecting means for detecting the vertical position of the movable paper ejection tray; Discriminating means for discriminating the number of stacked sheets on the discharge tray based on the detection result of the detecting means, and stacking calculation for calculating the remaining stackable sheet number from the stacked sheet number discriminated by the discriminating means and a preset maximum number of stacked sheets. An image forming apparatus comprising: a means and a stack display means for displaying the remaining stackable sheet number calculated by the stack calculating means. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The transfer sheet used comprises the input means for inputting the number of copy originals and the number of copies, and the transfer sheet calculating means for calculating the number of transfer sheets to be used from the input result of the input means. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a warning unit that issues a warning when the number of sheets exceeds the remaining number of sheets that can be stacked calculated by the stack calculation unit.