JPH10114442A - Spur roller, paper sheet sending device, and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide sufficient feeding power by means of a spur roller, make the trace of the spur inconspicuous, and facilitate the manufacture of the spur roller for this purpose. SOLUTION: One piece of spur roller is provided with two circular plate members 64, 64 having projections 64a along their peripheries, while the circular plate members 64, 64 are provided with hub parts 65,66. A projected part 65a of the hub part 65 on one side is inserted with pressure into a hole part 66a of the hub part 66 on the other side so as to connect both as an integrated body. As a result, the contact pressure to the paper sheet can be dispersed along the two rows of projections 64a, and the trace of the spur remaining on the paper sheet can be made inconspicuous. At the same time, sufficient feeding power can be insured in order to accomplish accurate feeding.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a spur roller, a sheet feeding device, and a printing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an ink-jet printing apparatus or the like, a printed sheet is sandwiched between a spur roller having a large number of protrusions on its outer periphery and a feed roller and fed. This is to prevent the undried ink after printing from adhering to other portions by making the projection of the spur roller almost point contact with the printing surface of the paper.

[0003] In the case where the sheet is nipped between the spur roller and the feed roller, if the nipping force is extremely small and there is a resistance in the path of the sheet, the sheet cannot be fed. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, if a stacker for storing printed paper is arranged at an angle crossing the discharge direction of the paper by the spur roller and the feed roller, the discharged paper hits the stacker and bends. While being spouted, which is a great resistance to the feed by the spur roller and the feed roller. In particular, when the paper has high rigidity such as a postcard, the resistance is further increased because it is difficult to bend. If the stacker is sufficiently separated from the spur roller and the feed roller, the problem can be solved, but the size of the printing apparatus is significantly increased.

If the contact pressure between the spur roller and the feed roller, that is, the pinching force, is increased, even paper such as a postcard can be fed against resistance, but traces of the spur roller appear on perforations on the paper. It is formed as follows.

[0005] The present invention is to obtain a sufficient feeding force by the spur roller, to make the trace inconspicuous, and to facilitate the manufacture of the spur roller therefor. In addition, the spur roller and the feed roller perform smooth paper feeding, and the spur roller and the feed roller ensure that the paper printed by the ink jet print head does not adhere to other places with the spur roller and the feed roller. It is intended to be discharged to.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention In order to achieve this object, the invention according to the first aspect is directed to a spur roller for feeding a sheet by contacting a large number of projections on the outer periphery with the sheet. A plurality of disk members, which are provided on the outer periphery and are arranged adjacent to each other, are provided at the center of each disk member, respectively.
A plurality of hub portions for supporting the respective disk members, wherein the respective hub portions are integrally connected to each other so that the respective disk members are adjacent to each other.

In this configuration, since hub portions are provided on the respective disk members and the hub portions are integrally connected to each other, it can be easily manufactured. That is, it is conceivable that one hub portion is integrally formed on a plurality of disk members by insert molding of a resin material or the like, but it is difficult because the disk members are small and are adjacent to each other. . With the above configuration, a plurality of adjacent disk members can be integrated with high accuracy, the contact pressure on the paper is dispersed, the trace is not noticeable, and a sufficient feeding force can be obtained.

A single spur roller can be provided with not only two disk members and two hub portions but also three or more disk members and hub portions.

Preferably, in the above structure, the plurality of hubs are formed by fitting a projection formed on one of the hubs in parallel with the axis of rotation into a hole formed on the other, and integrating them. Thus, the outer circumferences of the plurality of disk members can be made to coincide with each other with high accuracy, the contact pressure against the paper is reliably dispersed, the traces are not noticeable, and a sufficient feeding force can be obtained.

[0010] In addition, one of the protrusion and the hole has a deformable portion, and by press-fitting the two into a single unit, the plurality of disc members are connected without rattling, thereby facilitating paper feeding. can do.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is a paper feeder provided with the spur roller, wherein each disc member of the spur roller is arranged to face one feed roller and a plurality of spur rollers are provided. Are arranged at intervals in the paper width direction, smooth feeding over the entire width of the paper can be performed without noticeable traces of the spur rollers.

In the sheet feeder, even if there is a portion where the sheet is curved in the path of the sheet, a sufficient feeding force is obtained by the projections of the plurality of disc members and the feed roller, and the sheet is received by the curved portion. Paper can be fed reliably against the resistance of the paper.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus provided with the paper feeder, and in particular, an ink jet print head for discharging ink droplets onto the paper and printing the paper upstream of the paper feeder. In this way, the paper printed by the ink jet print head can be accurately fed with a sufficient feeding force by the projections of the plurality of disk members and the feeding roller, and the ink is not attached to other places, and is downstream. It can be discharged reliably.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings embodied in an ink jet printing apparatus.

This printing apparatus feeds out sheets one by one from a sheet 12 stored in a sheet feeding hopper 14 by a sending roller 16, and sends the sheet to the front of the printing mechanism 10 by a pair of supply rollers 31 and 32. Then, a predetermined printing is performed, and the sheet is discharged to the stacker 7 by the sheet feeding device 6. The sheet 12 is a so-called cut sheet cut into a rectangular shape having a predetermined size.

The printing mechanism 10 includes a carriage 52 which reciprocates along a guide rail 53, and an ink jet print head 51 supported by the carriage 52.
The guide rail 53 is arranged in the width direction of the paper 12 fed from the paper feed hopper 14, that is, in a direction parallel to the surface of the paper 12 and orthogonal to the feeding direction of the paper 12. During printing, ink droplets are ejected from the print head 51 toward the paper 12 passing below the carriage 52 while the carriage 52 is reciprocally driven by a drive source (not shown).
2, an image composed of characters and graphics is printed in a dot matrix format.

The sheet path from the pair of supply rollers 31 and 32 to the stacker 7 via the sheet feeder 6 is inclined at about 45 degrees from above with respect to the stacker 7, and the inclination of the sheet path from the sheet feeder 6 to the stacker 7. Length L along direction
Is smaller than the length of the postcard (about 150 mm). Therefore, the printed sheet including the postcard is discharged onto the stacker 7 while curving against the stacker 7 as shown in FIG.

The sheet feeder 6 includes a plurality of feed rollers 60 arranged in the sheet width direction, and a spur roller 61 arranged opposite to the feed rollers 60. Each of the plurality of feed rollers 60 has a cylindrical shape having a high-friction elastic material such as rubber on the outer periphery, is fixed on one shaft 62, and is rotationally driven by a drive source (not shown) via a gear 63. You.

Each spur roller 61 is formed by integrating a plurality of (for example, two) thin metal disk members 64 each having a large number of pointed projections 64a on the outer periphery. As shown in FIG. 5A, each of the disk members 64 has hub portions 65 and 66 that support the disk members at the center of the disk member. The hub portions 65 and 66 are insert-molded into the respective disk members 64 using a resin material.
And are provided integrally. One of the hub portions 65 has a cylindrical protrusion 65 protruding parallel to the rotation axis direction on one side surface thereof.
a and a rib-shaped protrusion 65b that can be elastically or plastically deformed on the outer periphery of the protrusion 65a.
Further, the other hub portion 66 has a hole 66a for fitting the projection 65a. The inner diameter of the hole 66a is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the rib-shaped protrusion 65b. The rib-shaped protrusion may be provided on the inner periphery of the hole 66a.

By pressing the projection 65a into the hole 66a while deforming the rib-shaped projection 65b, both hub portions 6a are formed.
5, 66 are connected integrally. As a result, the two disk members 64, 64 are arranged in parallel, and both disk members 64, 64
Each of the pointed protrusions 64a has the same outer diameter. That is, 2
The spur roller 61 having the row of projections 64a at intervals of about 1 mm is completed.

As shown in FIG. 6, a protrusion 67a is provided on one side of the hub 67, and a hole 67b is provided on the other side for fitting the protrusion. Thus, the hub 67 can have a common shape. Further, three or more disk members 64 can be arranged on one spur roller 61.

As shown in FIG. 4, the spur roller 61 is rotatably supported by a shaft 23 inserted into a hole 65c penetrating the center of the hub 65. On the holder member 20, a groove 21 opened to the feed roller 60 side and a groove 22 opened to the opposite side are formed continuously on both sides of the spur roller 61, and the shaft 23 has both ends in both grooves. 2
It is inserted and supported in 1,22. The shaft 23 is manufactured by a coil spring, and the spur roller 61
4a is urged to contact the feed roller 60 at a constant pressure.

In the above configuration, the printed paper is sandwiched between the spur roller 60 and the feed roller 60 and
Is discharged. When a sheet of rigidity such as a postcard is sent while being curved while hitting the stacker 7 as described above, the sheet has a large resistance to feeding. However, since the spur roller 60 comes into contact with the paper at the two rows of projections 64a on the outer periphery, even if the urging force by the shaft 23 is set to be large, the contact pressure is dispersed, and a sufficient feeding force is exhibited without any noticeable trace. Paper such as a postcard can be fed precisely at a predetermined pitch. Of course, thin paper such as ordinary office paper can also be accurately sent without noticeable traces.

Also, hub portions 65 and 66 are provided on the plurality of disk members 64, respectively, and the projections 65a of the hub portions are press-fitted into the holes 66a to be integrally connected to each other. The outer circumference of the plate member 64 can be made to coincide with the precision, the contact pressure against the paper is distributed almost evenly by the two rows of the projections 64a, and accurate feeding can be ensured without any noticeable trace. By the press-fitting, the disk member 64 is formed.
Can maintain a smooth feed for a long time without rattling with each other.

It is conceivable to integrally manufacture one hub portion on a plurality of disk members by insert molding of a resin material or the like, but the disk members are small and are adjacent to each other (about 1 mm). Therefore, fabrication is difficult. According to the above configuration, the plurality of disk members 64 can be arranged adjacent to each other with high accuracy, and the molding is facilitated.

In the printing apparatus, the printed paper is accurately fed with a sufficient feed force by the two rows of projections 64a and the feed roller 60 as described above, and high-precision printing is executed. Can be reliably discharged to In addition, the undried ink does not adhere to other portions and does not stain the paper.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the case where the postcard 12a is set in the paper feed hopper 14 based on one side thereof,
In the paper feeder, the number of disc members in the spur roller may be increased by a range H corresponding to the postcard, or the urging force of the shaft 23 may be increased, so that the postcard can be fed more reliably. Good.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a printing apparatus embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of FIG. 1 as viewed from the AA direction.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged perspective view of a sheet feeding device.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5A is a front view of a disassembled state of a spur roller.
(B) is a side view of a hub part.

FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of a spur roller according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 60 feed roller 61 spur roller 64 disk member 65, 66 hub 65a protrusion 66a hole

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A spur roller for feeding a sheet by contacting a plurality of projections on the outer periphery with a sheet, comprising: a plurality of disk members having projections on the outer periphery and arranged adjacent to each other; And a plurality of hubs respectively provided to support the respective disk members, wherein the respective hubs are integrally connected so that the respective disk members are adjacent to each other. 2. The plurality of hubs according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of hubs is formed integrally with a projection formed so as to protrude in parallel with the rotation axis with another hole formed therein. A spur roller. 3. The spur roller according to claim 2, wherein one of the protrusion and the hole has a deformable portion, and both are press-fitted and integrated. 4. A spur roller according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein each disk member of the spur roller is arranged to face one feed roller, and a plurality of spur rollers are spaced apart in the sheet width direction. A sheet feeder, wherein the sheet feeder is arranged in a position. 5. The sheet feeding device according to claim 4, further comprising a portion that bends the sheet in the path of the sheet, and feeding the sheet through the curved portion. 6. A printing apparatus comprising the paper feeder according to claim 4 or 5, and further comprising an ink jet print head upstream of the paper feeder for discharging ink droplets onto the paper for printing.