JPH10279127A - Paper feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a breakage of a detection part due to erroneous work and improper resetting of a conveyance roller by providing a fixing means which fixes the detection part at a position which is out of a pull-out space. SOLUTION: When a filler 5 is raised to exchange rollers, a clamp 18 is pressed by a projection part and is elastically deformed. Furthermore, when the projection part enters a predetermined position, the projection part is locked by an end part of the clamp which is restored, and the filler 5 is temporarily fixed. Accordingly, the filler 5 can be temporarily fixed at a position which is out of a pull-out space of rollers 9, 10 completely. Next, the exchange of rollers can be simply done by sliding the rollers 9, 10 respectively from a shaft and pulling out them in a vacant space.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feeding device in a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A transfer roller such as a feed roller for feeding a transfer material, for example, a sheet, must have a certain coefficient of friction to feed the sheet. But,
As the number of passed sheets increases, the peripheral surface thereof wears, so that the friction coefficient decreases. For this reason, the transport roller is
It is necessary to replace it with a new one at a predetermined time.
However, conventionally, since the drive shaft of the transport roller is stretched between both side plates of the sheet feeding device, in order to replace the transport roller, the drive shaft and the bearing must be removed from the apparatus main body. A cumbersome operation was required. For this reason, a paper feeder in which the drive shaft of the transport roller is cantilevered and the transport roller can be inserted and removed from its free end is considered.
And Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-12352.

On the other hand, such a sheet feeding device is provided with a transfer material detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on a sheet loading table, as described in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-3403. The detection unit of the detection means, for example, the paper filler, is usually arranged right beside the above-mentioned conveyance roller, that is, in a space for extracting the conveyance roller in many cases. That is, when the drive shaft of the transport roller is cantilevered, a large number of components such as the drive shaft and bearings are disposed on the side opposite to the direction in which the transport roller is pulled out, so that there is a spatial space for disposing the detection unit. Because there is no room for it. In addition, since it is necessary to detect the presence or absence of sheets of various sizes with a single detection unit, particularly in the case of a manual sheet feeder, it is generally distant from a conveyance roller disposed at a substantially central portion in a width direction of a sheet path. If the detection unit is disposed at a place, the detection unit is out of the small-size paper area, and the presence or absence of the paper cannot be detected. Therefore, the detection unit must be disposed as close to the transport roller as possible. As a result, when replacing the transport rollers,
It is necessary to remove the transport roller from the shaft while exchanging the detection unit and replace it.Therefore, the two operations of removing the detection unit from the work area and replacing the transport roller must be performed at the same time, which is extremely inconvenient. Occurs.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet feeding device which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantages.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a free end is provided on a loading table for loading a transfer material, and a cantilevered shaft for transporting the transfer material on the loading table. A transport roller mounted so as to be able to be removed in the direction, and a detection unit disposed in a transport roller removal space near the free end of the shaft and displaced when a transfer material is inserted on the loading table. A sheet feeding device having a transfer material detecting unit for detecting the presence or absence of a transfer material on a table, wherein the sheet feeding device has fixing means for fixing the detection unit at a position outside the extraction space. Is done.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described based on the illustrated embodiment. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a sheet feeding device when the present invention is applied to, for example, a manual sheet feeding device.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the inside of the sheet feeding device. The manual feed stand 1 is pivotally supported at fulcrums 2 and 3 and is rotatable between a position indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 1 (when manual feed is not used) and a solid line position (during manual feed). A pair of side fences 4 are provided on the manual feed stand 1 so as to be in contact with and separated from each other.
This defines the placement position of the paper placed on the bypass tray. The presence or absence of the sheet is detected by a detection unit, that is, a detection unit including the paper filler 5 and the photo interrupter 6. The filler 5 is pivotally supported so as to be rotatable about a fulcrum 51. The roller 7 is rotatably mounted on the tip 52 of the filler 5, and when there is no paper on the manual feed stand, the opening 8 provided in the reverse guide plate 8 is provided.
I'm falling into one. The rollers 7 are provided to enable the filler 5 to swing smoothly when inserting the paper. When the paper is inserted, the filler 5 becomes the fulcrum 5
1 circulates counterclockwise in FIG. The shutter portion 53 that shields the transmitting portion of the photo interrupter 6 is configured integrally with, for example, the filler 5 so as to move with the swing of the filler 5. Accordingly, as the sheet is inserted and the filler 5 swings as described above, the shutter 53 that has shielded the transmission part of the photo interrupter 6 also moves counterclockwise, and the transmission part is blocked. The state is cancelled, and the paper present state is detected.

The inserted paper is fed out by the pickup roller 9 in the nip direction of the feed roller 10 and the reverse roller 11, and the multi-fed paper is separated one by one by the pair of rollers, and further to the downstream conveyance path. It is led.
As shown in FIG. 1, the manual sheet feeder is disposed so as to protrude from the apparatus main body, and is covered by the upper cover 12, the front cover 13, the rear cover 14, and the support cover 15, as shown in FIG. .

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view showing the vicinity of the above-mentioned rollers when the filler 5 is located in the space for removing the conveying roller. Guide ribs 54 and 55 corresponding to small-size paper are provided on the filler 5. The rib 54 is disposed slightly inside the edge of the B6R size sheet, and suppresses curl of the sheet. Similarly, the rib 55 is disposed slightly inside the end of the postcard size sheet, and suppresses curl of the sheet. These ribs 54 and 55 and filler 5
Is arranged near the extension of the free ends of the shafts 16 and 17 as shown in the figure. If so, after removing the upper cover 12, the rollers 9, 10 had to be removed while lifting the filler 5, and both-hand work was required.

However, in the present invention, as shown in FIG.
The elastically deformable end 181 of the clamp 18 for holding the harness of the photointerrupter 6 overlaps with the protrusion 56 of the filler 5 when the filler 5 is sufficiently rotated, for example, by the protrusion 56. It is arranged so as to be pushed to the position 181 'shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. That is, when the filler 5 is lifted for exchanging the rollers, the filler 18 is pushed by the projection 56 to elastically deform the clamp 18 to a position 181 'shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. When it enters, the protrusion 56 is locked by the restored clamp end 181 and the filler 5 is temporarily fixed. Therefore, filler 5
Can be temporarily fixed at a position completely removed from the extraction space of the rollers 9, 10. When temporarily fixing
The filler 5 is held at the aforementioned position without being dropped simply by lifting the filler 5 lightly by hand and releasing the hand at the place where the click feeling is felt. FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view showing a state where the filler 5 is in a position at the time of maintenance, that is, a state where the filler 5 is fixed at a position shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. Next, the rollers 9 and 10 can be easily replaced by sliding the rollers 9 and 10 out of the shafts into the empty space. Further, when the photo interrupter 6 is replaced, the work is easy because the shutter 53 can be fixed at a position away from the photo interrupter.

As described above, when the harness clamp is also used as the fixing means for the filler 5, it is not necessary to provide a new member as the fixing means. In addition, the same member as the clamp 18 is used for a clamp for holding the harness at another position, for example, the clamp 19, and these clamps are detachably mounted.
It is advantageous to be able to take provisional measures by replacing the same clamp at a different location even if it is damaged and unusable.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the detecting unit can be fixed at a position outside the extracting space of the conveying roller by the fixing means, the detecting unit is not obstructed when the conveying roller is replaced. Once in place, the transport rollers can be withdrawn and replaced. In other words, since the continuous operation is performed without forcing the two simultaneous operations of exchanging the transport roller while excluding the detection unit, it is possible to avoid damage to the detection unit due to an operation error, defective resetting of the transport roller, and the like.

In the paper feeding device according to the second aspect, since the fixing means or a part of the detecting section is elastically deformed, the detecting section can be locked by the fixing means without using a special tool. The effect described in claim 1 can be achieved by a simple operation.

In the paper feeder according to the fourth aspect, a harness clamp for an electric wire for transmitting a signal of the detection means is used as the fixing means of the detection section. Without, and therefore, inexpensive. Also, even if the elastic deformation part is damaged and can no longer be used, it can be easily replaced with a harness clamp installed at another position and used, and the harness clamp is versatile Easy to obtain and easy to repair.

In the paper feeder according to the fifth aspect, since the guide rib presses the paper in the space for removing the transport roller, curling of the paper is prevented, and particularly, the transportability of a small-sized paper can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a manual sheet feeder to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the inside of a manual sheet feeder.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing, in an enlarged manner, a conveyance roller area inside the manual sheet feeding device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic partial enlarged view of an engagement area between a clamp for a harness of a photointerrupter and a protrusion of a paper filler.

FIG. 5 is a schematic partial perspective view in a state where a filler is lifted and temporarily fixed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 hand feed stand 4 side fence 5 paper filler 51 fulcrum 52 filler tip 53 shutter 54 guide rib 55 guide rib 56 projection 6 photo interrupter 7 roller 9 pickup roller 10 feed roller 11 reverse roller 18 clamp 181 clamp end

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A loading table on which a transfer material is loaded, and a transport roller for transporting the transfer material on the loading table, the transport roller being mounted on a cantilevered shaft so as to be able to be pulled out in a free end direction. A transfer material for detecting the presence or absence of a transfer material on a loading table, which is disposed in a conveyance roller removal space near the free end of the shaft and has a detection unit that is displaced when the transfer material is inserted on the loading table; A sheet feeding device having a detecting unit, comprising a fixing unit for fixing the detecting unit at a position outside the extraction space. 2. The sensor according to claim 1, wherein the detector is rotatable about a predetermined fulcrum, and at least a part of the detector overlaps at least a part of the fixing means when the detector rotates. The fixing means is disposed in the area to be
The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the overlapping portion of the fixing unit or the detection unit is elastically deformable. 3. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the fixing unit is detachable from the apparatus main body. 4. The sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a harness clamp for holding an electric wire for transmitting a signal from the transfer material detecting unit is used as the fixing unit. apparatus. 5. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit has at least one guide rib for guiding a sheet.