JPH11139607A - Sheet material separating device, paper feeding device and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To excellently separate a sheet material to be fed from other paper material when sheet materials are fed one by one from a bundle of laminated paper materials. SOLUTION: This sheet material separating device to separate paper materials one by one from a plurality of laminated paper materials comprises a body 1c having a given width, height, and thickness; a slope formed on one surface of the body in a state to incline in the direction of height; a plurality of uneven surfaces formed along the slope; and a plurality of protrusions 1a and 1b formed in juxtaposition with each other. The adjoining uneven surfaces of a plurality of the protrusion parts are arranged in a state to be displaced from each other, namely, parts 4 protruding toward the paper material side and parts 5 retracting toward the paper material side are alternately arranged. A space formed between a topmost paper material to be fed by the shape of the uneven surface and an underlaying paper material and the two paper material are excellently separated from each other.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet material separating apparatus for separating sheet materials one by one from a plurality of stacked sheet materials, and a paper feeder, a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile provided with the sheet material separating apparatus. And the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a sheet feeding device for a sheet material of an image forming apparatus is provided with a separating means for separating upper sheet materials one by one from a plurality of stacked sheet materials 11. The sheet material 11 is provided so as to be oblique to the sheet material 11, and is conveyed to the sheet feeding unit 13 when the leading end of the sheet material 11 fed by the feeding means 12 contacts the separating means 10. At the previous stage, the sheet material 11 was easily separated.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following possibilities.

[0004] 1. In the case where the sheet materials are strongly adsorbed to each other, the sheet material bundle may not be sufficiently separated simply by bringing the sheet material bundle into contact with the slope of the separating means, and a plurality of sheet materials may be sent to the sheet feeding unit 13 in FIG. (This phenomenon is hereinafter referred to as "double feed.") Although a paper jam does not occur when about two or three sheets of sheet material are multi-fed, a sheet material on which an image is not formed is discharged from the image forming apparatus, and waste of the sheet material occurs.

[0005] 2. If, for example, five bundles of sheet materials are conveyed to the sheet feeding unit by the above-described double feeding, a paper jam occurs. Then, the user has to perform a paper jam process, and the user suffers from a decrease in productivity and a waste of time.

[0006] 3. Further, when the sheet material bundle double feeding as described in the above 2 occurs, the sheet material bundle is conveyed between the sheet material conveying roller pairs, and is caught by the conveying roller pairs, or the device body such as deformation of the sheet material guide plate. Could cause a malfunction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the invention of the present application is to reliably separate sheet materials when feeding a plurality of sheet materials one by one from a plurality of stacked sheet materials. To do it.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a typical configuration of the present invention comprises a main body having a predetermined width, height and thickness, and an inclined surface on one surface of the main body. And a plurality of ridges provided with a plurality of projections and depressions formed along the slope and arranged in parallel with each other, and adjacent projections and depressions of the plurality of projections Is a sheet material separating apparatus having a configuration shifted from each other.

According to the above construction, when the leading end of the sheet comes into contact with the inclined surface having a plurality of irregularities, the sheet material to be fed and the remaining sheet other than the remaining sheet are caused by the irregularities that are mutually adjacently shifted. A space is formed between the sheet material and the attraction force between them is reduced, and the sheet material is separated and fed satisfactorily.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a separating means.
The main body 1c has a width corresponding to the width of the sheet material 2, a height corresponding to the stacked amount of the sheet material, and a predetermined thickness.

The surface of the main body 1c on the sheet stacking portion 2e side is an inclined surface, and in the case of upper sheet feeding as shown in FIG.
The inclined surface is inclined outward as viewed from the sheet material stacking portion, that is, toward the front in the sheet material feeding direction as going upward from the lower portion. In the case of lower sheet feeding, the inclination is reversed.

Reference numerals 1a and 1b denote protrusions of the separating means 1, respectively, formed on the inclined surface. The outline of each ridge is
It has a wave shape in which a plurality of irregularities formed by an arc curve are arranged. Adjacent concave and convex portions of the ridge portion 1a and the ridge portion 1b are provided so as to be alternately shifted, and in the present embodiment, the phases are shifted by 180 degrees.

More specifically, in FIG. 1, in the portion 4 where the protrusion of the ridge portion 1a protrudes toward the sheet material,
The protrusion of the ridge portion 1b is retracted with respect to the sheet material side (indicated by a broken line). Conversely, at the portion 5 where the protrusion of the ridge 1a is retracted with respect to the sheet material side, the protrusion of the ridge 1b protrudes toward the sheet material. 3a is a feed roller, 3
b and 3c are paper feed rollers.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1 viewed from the direction of arrow A. As described above, a plurality of ridges 1a and 1b are provided in parallel with the sheet material traveling direction (arrow B), and adjacent ridges are alternately positioned. The adjacent ridges are appropriately spaced apart from each other, but may be adjacent without any gap.

Next, the fact that the protrusions are alternately positioned to promote separation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which the leading end of the sheet material 2 in the feeding direction is in contact with the ridges 1a and 1b. Here, for the sake of explanation, the number of both ridges 1a and 1b is reduced and depicted. Also,
The contact portion with the protruding ridge 1a protruding at the leading end of the sheet material 2 is referred to as 2a, and the contact portion with the protruding ridge 1b is referred to as 2b. When the sheet material is fed by the feed roller 3a in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 3 and comes into contact with the ridges 1a and 1b, the adjacent ridges are alternately positioned.
The contact portions 2a and 2b at the leading end of the sheet material 2 are deformed in an uneven manner as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4 (only the sheet 2 is viewed from the direction of arrow D in FIG. 1), the leading end of the sheet is fed into the sheet in an uneven shape in the width direction of the sheet. You. The sheet material 2 fed by this (1 at the top)
2c) and the second and subsequent sheet materials to be retained
As a result, the separating effect is improved, and the sheet material can be reliably separated. With the above configuration, the sheet material is reliably separated and conveyed by the ridges of the separating means. The feeding of the sheet material continues, and the feeding roller descends with a decrease in the amount of the placed sheet material.

In the above embodiment, the ridge is formed over the entire width of the separation device. However, the ridge may be formed partially as long as the sheet material can be separated.

Next, an image forming apparatus for a sheet material separated and fed as described above will be described.

In FIG. 7, the sheet material placed on the sheet material stacking section 20 is sent to a registration roller 21 by a feed roller 3a and paper feed rollers 3b, 3c.
On the other hand, the photosensitive member 22 such as an electrophotographic photosensitive drum rotates clockwise in the drawing. The surface of the photoconductor 22 is uniformly charged by the primary charger 23, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by exposure as described later, and the latent image is developed by the developing unit 24 with toner as a developer.

The developed and visualized toner image is transferred by the transfer unit 25 to a sheet material such as paper sent by the registration roller 21 at a proper timing. The photoreceptor 22 as an image carrier has a residual toner removed by a post-transfer cleaning unit 26,
Further, the process of removing the residual potential by the pre-exposure lamp 27 and forming an image again is repeated.
The transfer material on which the image has been transferred is transported to the fixing unit 30 on the transport belt of the transport unit 28. The fixing unit 30 includes a driving roller 31, a tension roller 32,
The pressure roller 33 has three rollers. A heater 34 having a resistor printed on a ceramic substrate is used as the heater. The heater 34 is supported by a heat-resistant plastic supporter 35. Further, a metal stay is attached to the plastic supporter 35 to make it stronger.

An endless heat-resistant film 36 is applied to the driving roller 31, the tension roller 32, and the heater 35. A temperature detecting element (thermistor) 37 is attached to the metal stay, and the temperature detecting element 37 is in direct contact with the back surface of the heater 34. Another temperature detecting element 38 is attached to the metal stay similarly to the temperature detecting element 37. For the heater unit having the heater 34, the plastic supporter 35, and the metal stay,
The endless film 36 is pressed by the pressing roller 33.

The transfer material that has passed through the fixing unit 30 is discharged from the fixing unit 30 by a discharge roller 40 and stored on a discharge tray 41.

The formation of the latent image on the photosensitive member is performed as follows. The exposure lamp systems 50 to 53 scan and move the original on the original glass 54 rightward from the left end in FIG. 1 and shift the original image to the first mirror 51, the second mirror 52, the third mirror 53, the zoom lens 55, the fourth lens Mirror 56, fifth mirror 57, sixth
An original is exposed on the electrophotographic photosensitive member 22 via the mirror 58.

[Other Embodiments] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a second embodiment of the present invention. This is an embodiment applied to a manual paper feeder. Here, 6 is a middle plate made of sheet material,
When the number of sheets decreases, the middle plate 6 moves upward (in the direction of arrow E). During this time, the end of the sheet material moves while contacting the ridges 1a and 1b, so that a space 2c is formed between the sheet materials as in the first embodiment of the present invention, and the separating effect can be further enhanced. This embodiment can also be applied to a cassette loaded in the image forming apparatus main body.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, the separating unit 1 of the above embodiment is applied to a sheet feeding device for re-feeding a sheet material on which an image has been formed, that is, a sheet re-feeding device at the time of double-sided copying or multiple copying. This is particularly effective for a re-feeding device that requires feeding reliability.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the fourth embodiment, the separating means 1 is movable. Using a solenoid, cam mechanism, etc. as movable means,
Vibration in the traveling direction of the sheet material or in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction is applied by the movable means. By making the separating means movable, the formation of a space between the sheet materials is promoted, and the separation effect can be further improved.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Forming an inclined surface inclined in the height direction on the main body 1 surface having a predetermined width, height and thickness, providing a plurality of projections and a plurality of protrusions along the inclined surface, Since the concavities and convexities adjacent to the plurality of ridges are shifted from each other, a space is formed between the sheet material to be fed and the remaining sheet material by contacting the leading end of the sheet material with the concavities and convexities. , Well separated. As a result, the sheet material is not wasted due to the double feeding, the productivity of the user is reduced due to the paper jam caused by the double feeding, and the time is not wasted. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the failure of the device main body such as deformation of the device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a first embodiment of a sheet feeding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1 viewed from the direction of arrow A.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which a sheet material is in contact with a ridge.

FIG. 4 is a view of only a sheet material viewed from a direction of an arrow D in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an entire image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Separation means 1a ... Protrusion part 1b ... Protrusion part 1c ... Main body part 2 ... Sheet material 2a, 2b ... Contact part of the front-end | tip part of sheet material 2 3a ... Feeding roller 3b, 3c ... Feeding roller 20 ... Sheet Material loading section 22 Photoconductor 24 Developing unit 30 Fixing unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A sheet material separating apparatus for separating sheet materials one by one from a plurality of stacked sheet materials,
A main body having a predetermined width, height and thickness, an inclined surface formed on one surface of the main body inclined in the height direction, and a plurality of irregularities formed along the inclined surface; A sheet material separating device comprising: a plurality of ridges arranged side by side, and adjacent irregularities of the plurality of ridges are shifted from each other. 2. The sheet material separating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein adjacent protrusions and recesses of the plurality of ridges are 180 degrees out of phase with each other. 3. The sheet material separating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an interval is provided between the adjacent ridges. 4. The sheet material separating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the projections and depressions of the ridge portion are formed by an arc curve. 5. A sheet material stacking section for stacking a plurality of sheet materials, and one end of the sheet material stacking section.
To 4, wherein the width of the sheet material separating device is larger than the width of the sheets to be stacked, and the inclined surface of the sheet material separating device is located inside the sheet material stacking portion. A sheet feeding device characterized in that the sheet feeding device is inclined toward the outside of the sheet material stacking section from the lower part to the upper part. 6. The sheet feeding device according to claim 5, wherein the sheet feeding device has a middle plate on which a sheet material is placed, and is a manual sheet feeding device. 7. The sheet feeding device according to claim 5, wherein a movable means for applying vibration to the separating device is provided. 8. The sheet feeding device according to claim 7, wherein the movable means applies a vibration in a direction substantially parallel or perpendicular to a surface of the sheet material. 9. The sheet feeding device according to claim 8, wherein the movable means has a solenoid or a cam. 10. A sheet feeding device according to claim 5, a sheet feeding device for feeding a sheet material from the sheet feeding device, and an image formed on the sheet material fed by the sheet feeding device. An image forming apparatus comprising: