JPH11135956A - Manufacture of housing and apparatus for reading or forming picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To ensure a high rigidity and dimensional accuracy by forming holes through at least one metal sheet and welding the edges of the holes to form a housing. SOLUTION: The housing is made by bending one metal sheet into a box and welding bent planes to planes. In an embodiment, metal sheets 2A, 2B having square holes 2a are laid one above the other and adjacent edges a-d of the aligned square holes 2a. This edge welding facilitates welding both planes if the relative position of both planes deviates because of the dimensional allowance. As the heat quantity required for welding the edges a-d is a little, the thermal strain effect is little enough to suppress the housing deformation to min. after the welded frame is released from exclusive positioning jigs.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a housing constituting an apparatus, and an image reading apparatus such as an image scanner or an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer which is formed by the housing.

[0002]

Conventionally, fastening of the housing of the copying machine or the like is large machines is screwed, small machine spot welding, CO ₂ laser welding,
It was performed by TIG welding or the like.

[0003]

However, screw fastening causes an increase in the cost of parts and assembly with an increase in the number of fastening points, and welding reduces the dimensional accuracy as a housing due to the effect of residual distortion after welding. Besides being difficult to maintain, it is also difficult to maintain the fastening by welding and to maintain the rigidity of the housing when a large force that exerts a deformation on the housing is applied.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a method of manufacturing a housing capable of ensuring high rigidity and dimensional accuracy, and an image reading apparatus or an image reading apparatus manufactured by the method. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the present invention, at least one of a method for manufacturing a housing constituted by overlapping and welding a pair of adjacent sheet metals is provided. A housing is formed by forming a hole in a sheet metal and welding an edge of the hole.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a hole is formed in the other sheet metal, and the two sheet metals are overlapped with each other so that the holes formed therein coincide with each other. The part is welded.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the edge of the hole formed in the one sheet metal and the edge of the other sheet metal are welded.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, an edge portion of the hole formed in the one sheet metal and a flat portion of the other sheet metal are welded.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first to third or fourth aspects of the invention, the housing is formed by bending a single sheet metal into a box shape, and overlapping and welding the ends thereof. It is characterized by being performed.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first to fourth or fifth aspects, the holes formed in the sheet metal are square holes.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reading apparatus or an image forming apparatus comprising a housing manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the first to fifth or sixth aspects.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a housing 1 manufactured by a manufacturing method according to the present invention. This housing 1 is formed by forming a single metal plate (hereinafter, referred to as a sheet metal) 2 into a box shape. It is manufactured by bending and welding the bent planes S1 and S2 at a plurality of welding points A shown in the figure.

Conventionally, the plane S1 and the plane S2 are positioned by devising their shapes.
And the plane S2 were screwed or welded to form a housing. For this reason, deformation may occur due to fastening depending on variations in shape that occur due to dimensional tolerances.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the outer shapes of the plane S1 and the plane S2 are positioned with high precision by a dedicated jig (not shown). Before fastening the plane S1 and the plane S2, each plane S generated due to dimensional tolerance
In order to avoid interference between S1 and S2, as shown in FIG. 2, it is desirable to form a gap δ on the dimensional tolerance between the plane 1 and the plane 2. However, if the gap δ is too large, poor welding occurs.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the sheet metal 2 (2A, 2B) having the square holes 2a is
The edges a to d of the square holes 2a that were close to each other were welded together. If the edge portions a to d are thus welded to each other,
Even if the relative positional relationship between the plane S1 and the plane S2 in FIG. 1 is slightly shifted, the two planes S1 and S2 can be easily welded to each other.

Further, when welding the edge portions a to d, the amount of heat required for welding is small, and as a result, the influence of thermal strain is reduced. Even if it is detached, the amount of deformation of the housing 1 can be minimized.

When a high welding strength is required, the housing 1 is welded at a plurality of edges a to d.
Can be increased, and as a result, the rigidity of the housing 1 can be increased at the same time.

Further, the case where welding strength is required in a specific direction can be dealt with by arbitrarily selecting or combining welding locations from the edge portions a to d.

If such a welding method is applied, a welding method as shown in FIG. 4 is also possible.

That is, this is a method of welding the end edge of the sheet metal 2C and the edge of the square hole 2a of the sheet metal 2A, and this method is effective when there is no space in one of the sheet metals.

In addition, a welding method as shown in FIG. 5 is also possible.

That is, the plane of the sheet metal 2C and the square hole 2 of the sheet metal 2A
This is a method of welding the edge portions a to d of a. According to this method, since the sheet metal 2C to be welded to the edges a to d of the square hole 2a of the sheet metal 2A is a flat surface, the relative positional relationship due to the dimensional tolerance is further larger than the welding method shown in FIG. Margin for the influence of the displacement can be increased.

Here, FIG. 6 shows an image reading section of a copying machine having the housing 1 obtained by the above-described manufacturing method.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the image reading unit. In the image reading unit, the upper opening of the housing 1 is covered with the document table glass 3, and the document illumination unit 4 is provided inside the housing 1. The folding mirror unit 5 is housed so as to be able to reciprocate in the left-right direction in FIG.

Thus, while the original illuminating unit 4 provided with the light source moves from the illustrated 4a to 4b at the speed V, the folding mirror unit 5 moves at the speed V / 2 to the illustrated 5a.
To 5b, the platen glass 3
The image information of an original (not shown) placed on the image reading device is read by forming an image of the reflected light on a CCD 7 through a lens group 6.

By the way, the platen glass 3, the lens group 6,
The CCD 7 and the like are provided on a rail surface (not shown) on which the original illumination unit 4 and the folding mirror unit 5 run,
Is assembled with the bottom or side surface of the as a dimensional reference. still,
The rail is basically attached to the housing.

Since the optical performance of such an image reading section greatly depends on the dimensional accuracy of the components, it is consequently necessary to increase the dimensional accuracy of the housing 1 and increase the rigidity of the housing 1 to suppress deformation thereof. This leads to high optical performance.

The housing manufactured by the method of the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a printer or an image scanner or a housing of an image reading apparatus in addition to the image reading section of the copying machine described above. Of course, high performance can be ensured for these devices.

[0030]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, in a method for manufacturing a housing constituted by overlapping and welding a pair of adjacent sheet metals, a hole is formed in at least one of the sheet metals. Since the housing is formed by forming and welding the edges of the holes, it is possible to manufacture a housing that can ensure high rigidity and dimensional accuracy. When applied to an image forming apparatus, it is possible to obtain an effect that high performance can be secured in these apparatuses.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a housing manufactured by a manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a gap between sheet metals to be welded.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a sheet metal welding structure in the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a sheet metal welding structure in the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a sheet metal welding structure in the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of an image reading unit of the copying machine according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Housing 2 (2A-2B) Sheet metal 2a Square hole (hole) A Welding spot ad Edge S1, S2 Plane δ Gap

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a casing, comprising: welding a pair of adjacent sheet metals together; forming a hole in at least one sheet metal, and welding an edge of the hole. A method of manufacturing a housing, characterized in that: 2. A hole is also formed in the other sheet metal, and the two sheet metals are overlapped so that the holes formed in them overlap with each other, and an edge portion of the hole is welded. 2. The method for manufacturing the housing according to 1. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein an edge of the hole formed in the one sheet metal and an edge of the other sheet metal are welded. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein an edge portion of the hole formed in the one sheet metal and a plane portion of the other sheet metal are welded. 5. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the housing is formed by bending one sheet metal into a box shape, and overlapping and welding the ends thereof. Manufacturing method. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the holes formed in the sheet metal are square holes. 7. An image reading apparatus or an image forming apparatus comprising a housing manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1. Description: