JPH1111701A - Paper feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make each paper cassette thin so as to make the whole paper feeding device low by storing paper of A4 size or smaller in paper trays efficiently in succession. SOLUTION: A paper feeding device is provided with a paper cassette 1 for storing paper, and rollers 6, 7a, 7b for feeding and conveying paper 3a, 3b stored in the paper cassette 1. In this case, the paper cassette 1 is provided with two paper trays 2a, 2b disposed in front and in the rear along a paper feeding direction and movable in the paper feeding direction, a tray moving means for replacing the positions of the paper trays 2a, 2b, and paper sensors 5a, 5b for detecting the presence of the paper 3a, 3b cracked in the trays 2a, 2b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feeder such as a printer in which a plurality of paper cassettes corresponding to cut sheets of A3 size are stacked and arranged in a plurality of stages.
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device capable of efficiently storing sheets of A4 size or less in a sheet tray, thereby reducing the thickness of each sheet cassette and reducing the overall number of sheet feeding devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a paper feeding device in a printer or the like, as shown in FIG.
And a plurality of paper cassettes 8 and 9 storing A3 size papers 11 and a paper feed roller 6 for feeding the respective papers 10 and 11 stored in the paper cassettes 8 and 9.

Conventionally, in such a sheet feeding apparatus, when the storage amount of the same sheet is increased, for example, as shown in FIG. 6B. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6B, the same paper cassette 9 is provided in a plurality of stages, and the papers 10 are separately stored in the plurality of paper cassettes 9 as shown in FIG. The storage capacity was increased. An example of such a conventional sheet feeding device is a sheet cassette device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-188324.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional paper feeding apparatus, when it is desired to increase the storage amount of the same paper, the height of the paper cassette is increased by the thickness of the paper amount, or a plurality of paper cassettes are required. However, there is no other choice but to store the cassettes in different cassettes.

On the other hand, in the paper feeding apparatus shown in FIG. 6, when there is, for example, an A3-size paper cassette 8, the depth of the paper-feeding apparatus needs to be at least an area capable of installing the A3-size paper cassette 8. However, this A3
When cassettes of A4 size or less are stacked on the upper or lower tier of the size cassette, wasteful space is created behind the A4 size paper cassette 9 as shown in FIG.

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the problems of the prior art, and the paper cassettes are reduced in thickness by efficiently storing sheets of A4 size or less in a paper tray. It is another object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding device capable of lowering the whole of the sheet feeding device.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper feeder comprising: a plurality of paper cassettes for storing paper; a paper feeder for feeding paper stored in the paper cassette; In a paper feeding device having rollers for conveying,
At least one of the plurality of paper cassettes, a plurality of paper trays mounted on the paper, which are disposed back and forth along the paper feeding direction and are movable in the paper feeding direction,
The apparatus is provided with a tray moving means for exchanging the positions of the plurality of paper trays.

According to the paper feeder of the present invention having such a configuration, when an A3-size paper cassette is provided in the paper feeder, an A3-size paper cassette is placed in the upper or lower tier.
By using the space created when stacking paper cassettes of size 4 or less, a plurality of paper trays loaded with paper can be arranged one after the other in a paper cassette of size A4 or less to store the paper. Thus, the paper storage amount can be increased. Thus, the height of the paper tray can be reduced to about half, or the use of the paper tray can be reduced from two to one.

In addition, since the positions of the plurality of paper trays can be exchanged, a tray on which paper is loaded can always be arranged on the paper feeding direction side, so that the printer can be prevented from running out of paper.

Further, in the paper feeder according to the present invention, the plurality of paper trays are configured to mount the same type of paper.

According to the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration, when there are a plurality of paper cassettes of A4 size or less, the paper amount of each size paper cassette can be doubled.

Further, the paper feeder according to the third aspect of the present invention is configured such that a paper cassette having a length at least twice as long as the paper cassette is provided above and / or below the paper cassette provided with the plurality of paper trays. There is.

According to the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration, cassettes of A3 size or the like are stacked and arranged on the upper or lower tier of the paper cassette in which A4 sized paper trays are arranged before and after. Thus, various types of paper cassettes can be provided without generating useless space.

Further, the paper feeding device according to the present invention is configured such that a paper cassette provided with the plurality of paper trays is provided with a paper sensor for detecting the presence / absence of paper loaded on the plurality of paper trays. .

According to the paper feeder of the present invention having the above-described configuration, the remaining amount of paper in each of the plurality of paper trays is detected by the sensor. The paper can be replenished, the paper cassette can always be kept in a paper-free state, and stable paper feeding can be ensured.

The paper feeder according to claim 5, wherein the tray moving means is provided on a bottom surface side of the plurality of paper trays and rotates in a paper feeding direction, and the ladder chain. A pulley that rotationally drives the ladder chain, and a connecting member that connects the ladder chain and the plurality of paper trays, and an end guide that guides a rear end side of the paper of the tray is configured to be freely foldable in the paper direction, The tray moving means causes the front tray of the plurality of paper trays to move on the lower surface side of the rear tray with the end guide folded, so that the positions of the plurality of paper trays are switched. It is composed.

According to the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration, by driving the ladder chain, the front and rear paper trays can be automatically replaced, and the front paper tray becomes out of paper. Also, the paper can be continuously supplied to the printer or the like because the paper tray on the rear side on which the paper is loaded is switched forward and the paper can be continuously supplied.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the paper feeder of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing one embodiment of a sheet feeding device of the present invention as viewed from a side. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing the operation of the sheet feeding apparatus of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from the side. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part showing a tray moving unit of the sheet feeding device of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view of the tray moving means shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from the side. further,
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the detection operation of the sheet sensor of the sheet feeding device according to the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the paper feeder of this embodiment includes a plurality of paper cassettes for storing paper,
In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes an A4 size paper cassette storing A4 paper, and reference numeral 8 denotes an A3 size paper cassette storing A3 paper.

The A4 size paper cassette 1 is provided with two paper storage trays 2 (a front row storage tray 2a and a rear row storage tray 2b) arranged back and forth in the paper feeding direction. Two paper storage trays 2 are movable in the paper cassette 1 in the paper feeding direction.

Specifically, the two paper storage trays 2
Is a front row storage tray 2a for storing paper 3a;
b, two trays in the rear row storage tray 2b, each of which is loaded with A4 paper.

In front of the paper cassette 1 in the paper feed direction, a paper feed roller 6 for feeding the paper 3 of the paper storage tray 2 located in the front row, and a transport roller 7 for transporting the paper to a printer (not shown) or the like. (7a, 7b) are provided. In this embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the same type of A4 paper is loaded on the two paper trays 2. However, if necessary, different types of paper can be loaded. .

The paper cassette 1 provided with the two trays 2 has two paper storage trays 2a and 2a.
A tray moving means 100 for changing the position of b is provided. The tray moving means 100 is shown in FIGS. The tray moving means 100 shown in these figures is a means for automatically moving the paper 3b of the rear-row storage tray 2b to the front-row storage section when the paper 3a of the front-row storage tray 2a is used up. It has become.

Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4,
The tray moving means 100 includes two paper storage trays 2a,
A ladder chain 101 disposed on the bottom surface side of the ladder chain 2b and rotating in the paper feeding direction; a pulley 102 (102a, 102b) for rotating the ladder chain 101;
This ladder chain 101 and two paper storage trays 2
a and 2b, respectively, connecting members 103 (103
a, 103b).

On the other hand, each of the paper storage trays 2a and 2b has
End guide 104 covering the rear end side of sheet 3
Although (104a, 104b) are provided, the end guide 104 can be folded toward the paper storage side.

Then, the tray moving means 100 having the above-described structure allows the two sheet storage trays 2a, 2
b, the tray located in front of the paper cassette moves on the lower surface side of the rear tray, and the two paper storage trays 2
The positions of a and 2b are switched.

That is, when the ladder chain 101 fixed to the front row storage tray 2a and the rear row storage tray 2b is rotated by the pulley 102, the rear row storage tray 2b moves in the paper feeding direction and is stored in front of the cassette. at the same time,
The front row storage tray 2a moves on the lower surface side of the rear row storage tray 2b in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction, and is stored behind the cassette.

At this time, while the front row storage tray 2a moves to the rear of the cassette, the end guide 104a of the front row storage tray 2a is in contact with the bottom surface of the rear row storage tray 2b and is folded to the paper storage side of the tray. Become. By repeating the above operation, the front row storage tray 2a and the rear row storage tray 2b are interchanged in the front and rear positions in the paper cassette 1.

Although the tray moving means 100 is provided on one side of the sheet tray 2 in FIGS. 3 and 4, it may be provided on both sides of the sheet tray 2. This makes it possible to move the paper tray 2 more reliably and smoothly.

Further, the tray moving means 100 may be provided on one side of the paper tray 2 and a guide means for movably guiding the paper tray 2 may be provided on the other side. For example, by providing a rotatable roller on the side surface of the paper tray 2 and forming a guide groove having the same shape as the track of the ladder chain 101 with which this roller engages on the side wall of the paper cassette 1, It can be. When the guide means is provided in this manner, the paper tray 2
Can be performed more stably.

Further, in the present embodiment, the front row paper sensor 5a and the rear row paper sensor 5a are used to determine whether or not the paper storage tray 2 located at the rear is moving and whether or not there is paper in each paper storage tray 2. A paper sensor 5b is provided.

Next, the operation of the paper feeder of this embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the schematic position diagram of FIG. 2 and the flowchart of FIG. When storing paper in the A4 paper tray 1, pull out the A4 paper tray 1,
As shown in FIG. 2A, the paper 3a is stored in the front storage tray 2a and the paper 3 is stored in the rear storage tray 2b in the A4 paper tray.
b is stored.

The paper stored in the A4 paper cassette 1 is
First, the paper 3a in the front row storage tray 2a is fed by the feed roller 6 (S1 in FIG. 5). Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, when the paper 3a in the front row storage tray 2a runs out,
If no paper is detected by the front row paper sensor 5a (S2 in FIG. 5), and if the rear row paper sensor 5b detects the presence of the paper 3b in the rear storage tray 2b (S3 in FIG. 5),
The rear row storage tray 2b is moved by the moving means 4 shown in FIG.
The tray is replaced with the front row storage tray 2a and moves forward of the cassette (S4 in FIG. 5). Then, as shown in FIG. 2C, the paper 3b of the rear row storage tray 2b that has moved forward is fed by the feed roller 6, and the feeding to the printer or the like is continued.

As shown in FIG. 2 (c), when the front row storage tray 2a moved to the rear of the paper cassette 1 detects that there is no paper by the rear row paper sensor 5b, it is externally displayed so that the user can see it. The display of the sheet half-end is displayed (S5 in FIG. 5), and the user can replenish the front row storage tray 2a with new sheets 3a during the work. Further, as shown in FIG. 2D, when both the front row paper sensor 5a and the rear row paper sensor 5b detect that there is no paper, a paper end is displayed (S6 in FIG. 5).

As described above, according to the paper feeder of this embodiment, first, the paper cassette is stored in the front and rear two rows of trays, so that the height of the paper cassette is increased as in the related art. Or increase the number of paper cassettes,
About twice the size of paper of the same size can be stored,
The sheet feeder can be made thinner or thinner.

Further, at the point when the indication of no paper is displayed on the storage tray located in the rear row, the paper cassette can be pulled out and the paper can be replenished only to the rear row storage tray, so that the remaining amount of paper in the paper cassette is maintained. Even if the number of papers decreases, more than half of the paper can always be stored in the paper cassette without adding to the remaining paper.
As a result, it is possible to reduce the trouble of feeding a plurality of sheets, which is likely to occur at the sheet boundary surface due to the addition of sheets.

[0037]

As described above, according to the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention, each paper cassette is thinned by efficiently storing sheets of A4 size or less in the paper tray, and the entire paper feeding apparatus is made of a low-rise sheet. Can be

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing one embodiment of a sheet feeding device of the present invention as viewed from a side.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing the operation of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from a side.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part showing a tray moving unit of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view of the tray moving unit shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from a side.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a detection operation of a sheet sensor of the sheet feeding device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic explanatory views showing a conventional sheet feeding device as viewed from the side, where FIG. 6A shows a case where the height of a sheet cassette is increased, and FIG. 6B shows a case where the same sheet cassette is provided in a plurality of stages. Show the case.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 paper cassette 2a front row storage tray 2b rear row storage tray 3a paper 3b paper 5a front row paper sensor 5b back row paper sensor 6 paper feed roller 7a transport roller 7b transport roller 8 paper cassette 100 tray moving means 101 ladder chain 102 pulley 103 connecting member 104 end guide

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of paper cassettes for storing paper,
In a paper feeder provided with rollers for feeding and transporting the paper stored in the paper cassette, at least one of the plurality of paper cassettes is disposed back and forth in the paper feed direction, A sheet feeder, comprising: a plurality of sheet trays, on which the sheets are mounted, which can be moved in the sheet feeding direction; and tray moving means for changing positions of the plurality of sheet trays. 2. The paper feeder according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of paper trays are loaded with the same shape of paper. 3. The paper feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a paper cassette having a length at least twice as long as the paper cassette is provided above and / or below the paper cassette provided with the plurality of paper trays. 4. The paper feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the paper cassette provided with the plurality of paper trays is provided with a paper sensor for detecting presence / absence of paper loaded on the plurality of paper trays. 5. A ladder chain provided on the bottom side of the plurality of paper trays, the ladder chain rotating in a paper feeding direction, a pulley for driving the ladder chain, and a ladder chain. And a connecting member for connecting the plurality of paper trays to each other, and an end guide for guiding a paper rear end side of the tray is configured to be foldable in a paper direction. Of the trays, the front tray moves on the lower side of the rear tray in a state where the end guide is folded,
5. The paper feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the positions of the plurality of paper trays are switched.