JPH11343055A - Drive unit device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form a drive unit in a compact manner and to facilitate assembly. SOLUTION: A drive motor 41 and a drive gear train 42a for the document conveyance roller of the document reading unit of a facsimile device are incorporated in a first frame yoke 45 made of a metal. A gear train 42b on the driven side is incorporated in a second frame yoke 46, and a tongue piece 59 protruding from the tip part of a first distance holding piece 45b is fitted in a positioning hole 60 bored in the second frame yoke 46. Protrusions 62 for positioning formed on the bent tip part of second and third distance holding pieces 46a and 46b are fitted in a positioning hole 63 bored in the first frame yoke 45. The first and second frame yokes 45 and 46 are firmly intercoupled by two screws 64 in a manner to hold parallelism to each other.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drive unit in a facsimile machine, a copying machine, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine or a copying machine has a document reading unit, a recording unit for recording image data on paper, and a paper feeding unit for supplying paper to the recording unit. Is usually provided. Recently, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1476 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-216747, a driving device is used to convey a document to be read to a document reading unit, or to supply a sheet to a recording unit and pass it through the recording unit. It is disclosed that a motor and a gear train for transmitting power from a drive motor are incorporated in a single frame in advance to form a drive unit device, and the drive unit is housed in a synthetic resin case.

[0003]

However, in order to incorporate the gear train on one frame, the gears from the driving side to the driven side must be arranged in substantially one row in a plane. However, there is a problem in that the drive unit becomes bulky and large, making it impossible to reduce the size of the entire device.

The present invention has been made to solve this problem, and has as its object to provide a compact drive unit device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a drive unit device according to the present invention comprises a drive motor capable of rotating forward and reverse, and a gear for transmitting power from the drive motor to a driven portion. Row, and a frame having two frame frames for mounting them, the drive motor and the drive side gear train are arranged in one frame frame,
In the other frame, a driven gear train is arranged, and in the drive gear train, a planetary gear for switching power to the driven gear train is provided, and at least a part of the drive gear train. And a part of the driven gear train overlaps within the radius of rotation,
Two frame frames are connected to face each other.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive unit device according to the first aspect, wherein the drive-side gear train is cantilevered by one frame frame. And the driven gear train is provided on a support shaft that is supported in a cantilever manner on the other frame. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the drive unit device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the two frame frames each have an interval for maintaining an interval with a counterpart frame frame. The holding piece is formed by bending integrally.

[0007]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of main components of a facsimile machine as an example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of components of a document reading unit, and FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of a drive unit device. .

The main body case of the facsimile apparatus 1 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), a recording unit including the scanner unit 2, the process unit 3, and the fixing unit 4 and a paper supply unit 5 as a paper supply unit for supplying paper P for forming an image are mounted from above. A main lower case 1a made of a synthetic resin, and an upper case made of a synthetic resin pivotally attached to a side rear portion of the main lower case 1a so as to cover an upper side of the main lower case 1a and to be able to pivot up and down largely. A document reading unit 6 and a document feeder table 7 can be placed on the upper surface of the upper case 1b, and the upper side of the document reading unit 6 is detachably covered by an operation panel 8. I have.

A drive system unit 9 including a drive motor and a gear train for transmitting power to the process unit 3, the fixing unit 4, and the paper feed unit 5 is housed in a storage recess on the left side of the main lower case 1a (see FIG. (Not shown). A window hole 1c formed in one side of the rear surface of the main lower case 1a (in the embodiment, on the right side) can be removably opened by a sub cover (not shown) having an inverted L-shape in side view. ing.

Further, a control board 1 is provided above a bottom cover 10 made of a metal plate which covers the lower surface of the main lower case 1a.
1. NCU for enabling conversation and transmission / reception of facsimile data with another telephone device or facsimile device via low voltage power supply substrate 12, high voltage power supply substrate 13, and telephone line
(Network control unit) A board 14 is provided.

A handset (handset) 20 for conducting a conversation with another telephone device is provided in the main lower case 1.
a is placed on a receiving stand 20a protruding outward from the left side surface of a. Next, the configuration of each unit and the like in the recording unit will be described. The leading end side of the sheets P set in a state of being stacked in the feeder unit case 5a of the sheet supply unit 5 is pressed toward the sheet supply roller 16 by the support plate 15 with the biasing spring 15a in the feeder unit case 5a. Then, the sheet is separated one by one by the paper feed roller 16 and the separation pad 17 which are rotated by the power transmitted from the drive system unit 9.
The separated sheet P is fed to the upper side of the process unit 3 by a pair of upper and lower registration rollers 18, and the sheet P on which an image is formed by toner on the surface of the process unit 3 is heated by the heating roller of the fixing unit 4. After the image is fixed by the pressing roller 21 and the pressing roller 22, the image is discharged from the paper discharge port 1d and discharged onto a paper discharge tray (not shown).

A scanner unit 2 is provided at a position below a process unit 3 which is disposed substantially at the center of the main lower case 1a having a box shape having an open top in a plan view.
It is fixed to the stay part integrally formed on the upper surface side of the bottom plate part by a screw or the like. As shown in FIG. 2, a scanner unit 2 as an exposure unit has a laser emitting unit, a polygon mirror 23,
A lens 24, a reflecting mirror 25 and the like are arranged, and the upper support plate 2a
The laser beam is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 26 in the process unit 3 by passing through a glass plate that covers a horizontally long scanner hole formed so as to extend along the axis of the photosensitive drum 26. It is configured.

The process unit 3 includes the photosensitive drum 26 and the transfer roller 2 which rotates while being in contact with the upper surface thereof.
7, a scorotron type charger 28 disposed below the photosensitive drum 26, a developing roller 29 and a supply roller 3 disposed upstream of the photosensitive drum 26 in the sheet feeding direction.
0, a developer (toner) supply unit disposed upstream thereof, that is, a detachable toner cartridge 31, a cleaning device 32 disposed downstream of the photosensitive drum 26, and the like. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 26 by scanning a laser beam from the scanner unit 2 on the charged layer formed by the charger 28. The developer (toner) in the toner cartridge 31 is agitated by a stirrer (not shown) and released, and then carried on the outer peripheral surface of the developing roller 29 via the supply roller 30. The thickness is regulated. The electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 26 is visualized by the developer adhering from the developing roller 29, and the transfer roller 27 and the photosensitive drum 2
6 is transferred to a sheet P passing between the sheets 6. Then, the developer remaining on the photosensitive drum 26 is collected by the cleaning device 32.

The process unit 3 is formed into a cartridge by being incorporated in a synthetic resin case.
The cartridge-formed process unit 3 is detachably mounted on the main lower case 1a. The document reading unit 6 arranged on the upper case 1b includes a unit case 3 made of a synthetic resin as shown in FIGS.
3 is a horizontally long contact type image sensor (CI
S) 34, a document separating / feeding roller 35 and a separating pad 36 disposed near the document feeder 7, a transport driving roller 37 and a pressing roller 38 disposed on a transport upstream side of the contact type image sensor 34, A transport driving roller 39 and a pressing roller 40 disposed on the downstream side of the transport, a driving motor 41 for driving the rollers 35, 37, and 39 as driven parts, and a gear train 42 are housed in the frame. A driving unit 43 is provided, and the originals (not shown) fed one by one via the original separating / feeding roller 35 and the separating pad 36 include a pressing plate 44 having a lower surface arranged in a downwardly convex shape of white and a CIS 34. Is configured to read an image of a document when passing through the upper surface of the document.

Next, the configuration of the drive unit device 43 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. The drive motor 41 is a motor that can be rotated forward and backward, such as a stepping motor. The drive motor 41 and the drive-side gear train 42 a of the gear train 42 are included in a frame for forming a drive unit device 43. The drive motor 41 is mounted on the first frame 45 and the one flange portion 41 a
On the outer surface of the first frame frame 45 with one screw 4
7, the other flange portion 41b is clamped and fixed to a locking piece 45a cut and raised on the outer surface side of the first frame 45. The driven gear train 42 b of the gear train 42 is mounted on the inner surface side of the second frame 46.

The driving gear train 42a is formed with a pinion gear 48 fixed to an output shaft 41c of the driving motor 41, a large-diameter gear 49 meshing with the pinion gear 48, and a rotatable integrally with the large-diameter gear 49. A small-diameter sun gear 50 and a planetary gear 51 meshing with the small-diameter sun gear 50 while rotating freely, and a large-diameter drive gear 49 and a large-diameter drive gear 49 A small diameter sun gear 50;
The planetary arm 53 is rotatably supported on a shaft, and a planetary gear 51 is rotatably mounted on the tip of the planetary arm 53 (see FIG. 7).

The driven gear train 42b rotates the planetary arm 53 when the drive motor 41 rotates forward (counterclockwise rotation in FIG. 10).
Is rotated in a predetermined direction (clockwise direction in FIG. 10), the first large-diameter gear 54 meshed with the planetary gear 51, and the small-diameter gear 55 integrally formed so as to rotate integrally therewith.
And a second large-diameter gear 56 meshed with the small-diameter gear 55, and the first large-diameter gear 54 and the small-diameter gear 55 rotate on a support shaft 57 fixed in a cantilever manner to the second frame 46. A second large-diameter gear 56 is rotatably supported on a support shaft 58 which is freely rotatably supported and is also fixed to the second frame 46 in a cantilever manner.

Then, as described later, the first frame 4
When the drive-side gear train 42a and the driven-side gear train 42b are connected to each other and the second frame frame 46, as shown in FIGS. Axis 58
Are positioned within the radius of rotation of the large-diameter drive gear 49 and the like so that the rotational trajectories of the gears overlap in a side view. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a positioning tongue piece 59 protruding from the tip of a first interval holding piece 45 b formed by bending one end of the first frame frame 45 at substantially 90 degrees is attached to the second frame frame. 4
6 is fitted into a positioning hole 60 drilled. Screw holes 61a and 61b are respectively formed at the bending distal ends of the second interval holding piece 46a and the third interval holding piece 46b which are formed by being bent at substantially 90 degrees on the other end side of the second frame 46,
In addition, at one end of the bending portion of the second interval holding piece 46a,
The first frame frame 45 is provided with positioning projections 62 that fit into the positioning holes 63 formed in the first frame frame 45, and the three frame members 45b, 46a, and 46b are used to position the first frame frame 45 and the second frame.
The frame 46 is firmly connected with two screws 64 while maintaining parallelism with each other and one screw 66 (see FIGS. 7 and 11) for fixing to one of the seats 67 described later. You can do it.

Next, the operation of efficiently assembling the drive unit device 43 assembled as described above into the storage portion 65 formed on one side of the unit case 33 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 11, the second frame 46 side of the drive unit device 43 is
When fixing to the side plate 65 with two screws 66,
In FIG. 11A, two seats 67 having female screw portions 67a corresponding to the respective screws 66 are integrally protruded (see FIGS. 11 and 12B). Further, positioning bosses 69a, 69b corresponding to the positioning holes 68a, 68b formed in the second frame 46 are integrally provided on the side plate 65a. Further, on the side plate 65a, regulating projections 70, 70 which are located between the two seats 67, 67 and are slightly higher than the heights of the respective seats 67 are integrally provided.

According to this structure, as shown in FIG. 13 (a), when two places of the second frame 46 which are far apart are fixed to the upper surfaces of the seat bodies 67, 67 by the two screws 66, Are located on the seat body 67.
13 (b), the vicinity of the side edge of the middle part of the second frame 46 is pressed from below by the regulating projections 70, 70, and the middle part of the wide surface of the second frame 46 is widened. Is elastically deformed so as to be curved slightly downwardly convex, so that even with two screws 66, the second frame 46 can be positioned and restrained and firmly fixed in the same manner as the fastening and fixing with a larger number of screws. It has an effect. In addition, as this modification, the seat body 67 and the seat body 67 are arranged such that the middle part of the wide surface of the second frame 46 is slightly upwardly curved.
The arrangement positions of the 67 and the regulating protrusion 70 may be set.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 14 (a) and 14 (b), an elastic tongue 71 is protruded outward from an appropriate side edge of the second frame 46, and The distal end of the engaging portion 71 is pushed into the edge of the engaging portion 72 such as a notch or a hole in the side plate of the unit case 33 as appropriate. In this case, the height of the engaging portion 72 (preferably, the height of the seat body 67)
Is set slightly lower than the height of the control projection 70 that presses the lower surface of the middle part of the wide surface of the second frame 46 upward. According to this configuration, the second frame 46 is attached to the seat body 6.
7, the seat 67 and the tongue 71
14 presses the lower surface of the middle part of the wide surface of the second frame 46 upward, and downward at the location of the tongue piece 71 (see FIG. 14B). There is an effect that the two-frame frame 46 can be restricted so as not to move, and can be firmly fixed with only two screws.

As shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 10, the transmission gear 74 fixed to the shaft 73 of the transport drive roller 37 and the transport drive are connected to the second large-diameter gear 56 in the drive unit 43 described above. The transmission gears 76 fixed to the shaft 75 of the roller 39 are configured to mesh with each other and rotate in the same direction.
The transmission gear 78 attached to one end of the transmission gear 7
4 is engaged.

Next, the operation of the drive unit 43 will be described. When the power is turned on by operating a power switch (not shown) and original data is sent to another facsimile machine, in FIG. 10, the pinion gear 48 of the drive motor 41 which rotates forward rotates counterclockwise in FIG. And the sun gear 50 rotate clockwise. The planetary gear 51 meshing with the sun gear 50 rotates (revolves) clockwise together with the planetary arm 53 while rotating, and the planetary gear 51 abuts against the tooth surface of the first large-diameter gear 54 in the driven gear train 42b to engage the meshing power. To communicate,
The second large-diameter gear 56 is rotated counterclockwise via the small-diameter gear 55. By the transmission gears 74 and 76 meshing with the second large-diameter gear 56 and the transmission gear 78 driven via the transmission gear 74, the document separating and feeding roller 35 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, and the upstream side conveyance for document conveyance is performed. Drive roller 37
In addition, the transport drive roller 39 on the downstream side of the transport is rotated clockwise so that the documents to be read pass through the reading portion of the CIS 34 one by one.

If a paper jam (paper jam) occurs during the original reading operation, a predetermined switch for interrupting the original reading is pressed. Thereby, the drive motor 41
Rotates reversely for a predetermined short time (a predetermined amount). Then, the pinion gear 48 rotates clockwise, and the large-diameter gear 4
9, the sun gear 50 rotates counterclockwise, so that the planetary gear 51 meshing with the sun gear 50 rotates (revolves) to the left in FIG. The engagement with the radial gear 55 is released. In this state, the driven gear train 42b is freely rotatable without being restrained by the drive motor 41, so that the document located in the document transport path such as the transport drive rollers 37 and 39 can be manually transported upstream or forward. Withdrawing to the downstream side can be performed with a light force.

The drive unit apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the facsimile apparatus described above, but is a printer that prints the transmitted data on paper P based on a copy processing function and data transmission from an external device such as a personal computer (not shown). The present invention can be applied to an apparatus having a processing function and a scanner processing function of transmitting image data read using the document reading unit 6 to the external device, and using various motors such as a printer and a copying machine. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to electric equipment.

[0026]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a drive motor capable of normal and reverse rotation, a drive side gear train, And the driven-side gear train is arranged on the other frame, and the two frame frames are connected to face each other, the drive-side gear train and the driven-side gear train face each other, and at least the drive-side gear train And a part of the driven gear train overlap each other within the rotation radius of the gear, so that the length of the entire frame is longer than that in a conventional case where the gear train is arranged in substantially one row on one frame. The drive unit can be made compact by shortening the length. In addition, since power is transmitted from the drive-side gear train to the driven-side gear train via the planetary gears, when connecting the two frame frames together, it is not necessary to make the connection positioning accuracy precise. In addition, power can be easily and accurately transmitted within the revolving locus of the planetary gear, and the assembling work of the drive unit is also facilitated.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the drive-side gear train is provided on a support shaft which is supported in a cantilever manner on one frame frame, and the driven-side gear train is mounted on the other frame frame. By providing a support shaft that is cantilevered,
2 so that the drive side gear train and the driven side gear train face each other.
When the two frame frames are connected to each other, there is an effect that the support shafts can be connected compactly and easily without obstruction of the support shafts.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention,
Since the respective frame frames are connected to the mating frame frames via the space holding pieces integrally bent and formed, the drive unit can be easily assembled while accurately maintaining the space between the two gear trains. Is played.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of main components of a facsimile machine.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side sectional view of the facsimile machine.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway plan view of the facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing components of a document reading unit.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the document reading unit.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the document reading unit.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the drive unit.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of the drive unit.

FIG. 9 is a side view of the drive unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a power transmission gear system of the document reading unit.

FIG. 11 is a bottom view showing the assembled state of the drive unit.

12A is a plan view of a second frame, and FIG. 12B is a view taken along line XIIb-XIIb in FIG.

13A is a schematic plan view showing a fixed state of a second frame, and FIG. 13B is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line XIIIb-XIIIb.

14A and 14B show another embodiment of a method of fixing the second frame, in which FIG. 14A is a schematic plan view, and FIG. 14B is an enlarged sectional view taken along line XIVb-XIVb.

[Explanation of symbols]

 41 Drive motor 42a Drive-side gear train 42b Drive-side gear train 43 Drive unit 45 First frame 45b First interval holding piece 46a Second interval holding piece 46b Third interval holding piece 50 Small diameter sun gear 51 Planetary gear 54 First large Diameter gear 59 Tongue piece 60, 63 Positioning hole 62 Projection 64 Screw

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A frame comprising: a drive motor capable of forward and reverse rotation; a gear train for transmitting power from the drive motor to a driven portion; and a frame having two frame frames for mounting the same. , The drive motor and the drive-side gear train are arranged, the other frame is provided with a driven-side gear train, and the drive-side gear train is connected to the driven gear train. A driving gear, wherein at least a part of the drive-side gear train and a part of the driven-side gear train overlap within a radius of rotation, and two frame frames are connected to face each other. Unit equipment. 2. A support shaft in which the drive-side gear train is provided on one frame frame in a cantilever manner and the driven gear train is cantilevered in the other frame frame. The drive unit device according to claim 1, wherein the drive unit device is provided. 3. The frame frame according to claim 1, wherein each of the two frame frames is integrally formed with a space holding piece for holding a space between the frame frames. Drive unit device.