JPH092732A - Sheet discharge device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily discharge sheets from a bin of a sheet discharge device in the sheet discharge device provided with plural bins by providing a control means to decide a discharge destination of a printed sheet, and executing decising of the discharge destination to set an interval between adjacent sheets to be as large as possible. CONSTITUTION: In a sorter in a copying machine or the like, in the case of seating discharged sheets, for printing plural copies, the sheets are sorted using the same number of bins 3 as the printed copies. At this time, in a control part 7, it is determined if the number of printed copies is half the total number (10, for example) of the bins 3 or less is determined, and in the case of YES, the bins 3 of odd numbers are used in order for sorting the printed copies. For next printing action (second printing action), if the printed copies are left on the first bin or not is checked by a sheet sensor 5. When the copies are left on the first bin, it is determined that printed sheets are still on the bins of the odd numbers, and usable bins are changed to the bins of even numbers.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper discharge device for a printer used in an information processing apparatus or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine is provided with a sorter for sorting discharged sheets. Sheets discharged from such a copying machine have been sorted for one copy in order from one bin in accordance with the number of copies.

Various sorters have been proposed in the past. For example, the number of sheets that can be stored in one bin is limited, but for sorting sheets that exceed the number that can be stored, the output destination of the sheets to be discharged after the first bin exceeds the maximum number Is switched to an unused bin in which sheets are not stored, and a sorter capable of discriminating between the bin exceeding the maximum number of sheets and the switched unused bin has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 61-150695).
Issue).

Recently, a paper discharge device having a sorter function has been attached to a small device such as an electrophotographic printer compatible with a network. Since the sorter attached to such a small-sized electrophotographic printer is also miniaturized, the number of bins is small and the capacity is small. For this reason, there is a problem that the interval between the bin and the next bin is narrow, and it is difficult to take out the sheet discharged to the succeeding bin.

[0005]

In a paper discharge device attached to a small-sized image forming apparatus such as a small electrophotographic printer, the interval between the bins is narrow, so that it is difficult to take out the paper discharged to the next bin. There was a problem that it took time.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides control means for controlling a discharge destination of a printed sheet. Therefore, the discharge destination is determined so that the space between adjacent sheets is opened as much as possible.

[0007]

According to the present invention, for example, the number of printed sheets depends on the number of copies.
The paper is discharged every other bin and discharged so as to open the space between adjacent papers. Thus, even if the interval between the bins is narrow, it is not difficult to take out the discharged paper.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a structural view of a main part of a paper discharge device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The paper discharge device 1 of the present embodiment is mounted on an upper part of an electrophotographic printer 2. The paper discharge device 1 includes ten bins 3 for storing paper discharged from the electrophotographic printer 2, a passage sensor 4 for confirming discharge of paper from the electrophotographic printer 2 to the paper discharge device 1, A paper sensor 5 disposed inside the first bin, which is the uppermost bin among the bins 3, for checking whether there is paper inside the bin 3;
Mechanism 6 that enables discharge of paper to the printer, and control unit 7 that determines the discharge destination of printed paper and controls the discharge
(Comprising a CPU, a memory, etc.).

On the other hand, a controller 8 for controlling the electrophotographic printer 2 is incorporated in the electrophotographic printer 2.

The paper discharge device 1 has a sorter function for sorting discharged paper sheets according to the number of copies, and a mailbox function in which each bin serves as a personal letter box (a document or the like is discharged only to a bin designated in advance. Function). Because of this mail-back function, the bottle 3 has a drawer structure as shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system according to the embodiment. When the controller 8 of the electrophotographic printer 2 receives a print command from the host device, the controller 8 controls the electrophotographic printer 2 to start printing. Further, the controller 8 transmits information such as the number of print copies to the control unit 7. The paper printed by the electrophotographic printer 2 is sent to the paper discharge device 1. When the passage sensor 4 detects the passage of the sheet, it notifies the control unit 7 that the sheet has passed. The control unit 7 switches the gate 6 of each bin 3 to sort sheets based on the information of the controller 8 and the passage sensor 4. The sheet is discharged to the bin 3 where the gate mechanism 6 is opened.

Next, the operation of the control unit 7 of the embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, as a premise,
When the number of copies is one, the printed paper is discharged to the first bin, and when printing a plurality of copies, the paper discharge device 1 sorts the paper using the same number of bins 3 as the number of prints.

First, it is determined whether or not paper is stored in the first bin (401). If there is no paper, then it is determined whether the number of prints is less than half the total number 10 of bins 3, ie, less than 5 copies. Is determined (402). If the number of print copies is 5 or less, sorting is performed for the number of copies using odd-numbered bins in order, such as a first bin, a third bin, a fifth bin, and so on (403). This operation is repeated until all paper discharges are completed (404), and when all paper discharges are completed, the apparatus stops its operation. As a result, the printed paper is discharged every other bin, and the paper is easily taken out because the interval between adjacent papers is one bin apart.

In the next printing operation (second printing operation),
The control unit 7 first checks with the paper sensor 5 whether there is any printed paper in the first bin (401). If not, it is considered that all the printed papers including the paper of the first bin have been taken out, and steps 402, 403, and 40 are performed again.
4 is performed, and the paper is discharged to the first bin, the third bin, the fifth bin, and so on.

If paper remains in the first bin (40
1) Assuming that the printed paper is still in the odd-numbered bin, the used bin is switched to the even-numbered bin (405). Then, it is determined whether the number of print copies is 5 or less (40).
6) When the number of print copies is 5 or less, the second bin and the fourth
Sorting is performed for the number of print copies using even-numbered bins such as bins, sixth bins, and so on (407). This operation is repeated until all paper discharges are completed (408), and when all paper discharges are completed, the paper discharge bin is switched to the first bin (409) and stopped.

As described above, when a print command of 5 copies or less continues, the above operation is repeated, and the paper is discharged while alternately switching the odd-numbered bin and the even-numbered bin for each printing operation.

Next, when the number of print copies is 6 or more (4
02), the control unit 7 sets the discharge bin to the first bin, and all the discharge starts from the first bin, and discharges to the odd-numbered bin and the even-numbered bin according to the number of copies (410). For example, when the number of print copies is 6, the paper is discharged to the odd-numbered bin and the second bin, that is, the first bin, the second bin, the third bin, the fifth bin, the seventh bin, and the ninth bin. When the number of copies is 7, the paper is discharged to the odd-numbered bin, the second bin, and the fourth bin, that is, the first bin, the second bin, the third bin, the fourth bin, the fifth bin, the seventh bin, and the ninth bin. Is done.

As described above, paper is discharged every other bin until the number of print copies is half of the total number of bins, and when the number of print copies exceeds half of the total number of bins, The paper is discharged to the remaining empty bins. Thereby, the printed paper can be discharged so as to open as much as possible between adjacent papers according to the number of prints, and the printed paper can be easily removed from the apparatus. Of course, the discharge is not limited to every other bin, but may be every two bins or every third bin according to the number of prints or the bin size.

Since the apparatus of the embodiment has a mailbox function, the time in which the drawer-shaped bin 3 shown in FIG. 2 can be kept pulled out is limited for security considerations. Therefore, in a short time, it is necessary to simultaneously pull out a plurality of bins and take out the paper. In this case, if the paper is discharged every other bin as in the embodiment, even if the bin is pulled out, the adjacent bin is obstructed. Since printing is not performed, it is easy to take out the printed paper.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the paper is discharged so that the intervals between the discharged bins are widened, it is possible to obtain an effect that it is easy to take out the paper from the bin of the paper discharge device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a bottle of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a control unit according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper discharge device 2 Electrophotographic printer 3 Bin 4 Passage sensor 5 Paper sensor 6 Gate mechanism 7 Control part 8 Controller

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A paper discharge device having a plurality of sequentially arranged bins for storing printed paper, provided with control means for determining a discharge destination of the printed paper and controlling the discharge thereof. The paper discharge device, wherein the control means determines the discharge destination of the printed paper according to the number of print copies so that the space between adjacent papers is opened as much as possible. 2. A paper discharge device having a plurality of sequentially arranged bins for storing printed paper, provided with control means for determining a discharge destination of the printed paper and controlling discharge thereof. The paper ejecting device, wherein the control means controls the printed paper to be ejected at least every other bin when the number of printed copies is less than a predetermined number. 3. A paper discharge device having a plurality of sequentially arranged bins for storing printed paper, provided with control means for determining a discharge destination of the printed paper and controlling discharge thereof. According to the number of copies, the control unit may selectively use the bins for ejecting the paper for each printing operation, from one bin to odd bins and from two bins to even bins. Paper ejection device.