JPS58157672A - Sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To store recording sheets alternately from lower bins each arranged at each side of a carrier path, by providing a changing means for alternately guiding the recording sheets to the bins at both sides of the carrier path, in a sorter for sorting and storing the recording sheets transferred from a copying machine or the like. CONSTITUTION:When the front end of an interlocking shaft 31a is positioned at a point (a) in a cam groove 30a, recording sheets pass through a space between deflectors 20a, 21a. Then, upon energization of a solenoid 26 the front end of the shaft 31a is moved to a point (b) so that an interlocking plate 24a is swung about a shaft 25a, and therefore, the deflectors 20a, 21a are also swung to a position as shown in the drawing, so that the recording sheet is guided to a bin 16a. When the interlocking plate 24a is swung rightward by being pulled by a spring 28a upon deenergization of the solenoid 26a, the front end of the shaft 31a is moved along the cam groove 30a through the points (a), (b), (c) in the mentioned order, and the deflectors 20a, 21a introduces the recording sheets into a bin 17a. The front end of the shaft 31a is moved from the point (e) to the point (f) upon the reenergization of the solenoid 26a, and it returns to the point (a) upon deenergization of the solenoid.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sorter for sorting and storing recording sheets discharged from an image recording apparatus such as a copying machine.

Conventionally, in such a sorter, in order to selectively store recording sheets in a 7-eighth-up or face-down state, the trays were arranged roughly horizontally, and when stored in the face-azzo position, the trays were placed in a horizontal position, and when stored in the face-azzo position, the trays were placed in a horizontal position. The recording sheet to be sent out is pushed onto the tray from one side of the tray, and when storing it face down, the recording sheet is passed through the tray once, then reversed and pushed onto the tray from the other side of the tray. It requires two transport paths arranged so that the cargo can be loaded, making it complicated and expensive to intercept, and difficult to load. Further, when soyam occurs, it is difficult to remove the jammed sheet.

Recently, an image sorter has been developed that eliminates the drawbacks of conventional sorters as described above and can selectively store recording sheets in either the 7-eighth up or face-down configurations in an extremely simple manner, and is simple in configuration and inexpensive. One planer feed path for conveying the recording sheets carried out from the recording device, a row of bins arranged side by side on both INI+ of the conveyance path to receive the recording sheets, and a row of bins for receiving the recording sheets carried by the conveyance path. A sorter has been developed with redirection means for selectively interrogating rows of bins on either side.

An example of the recently developed sorter mentioned above is shown in FIG. This shows an example of using an electrophotographic copying device capable of double-sided copying as an image ML recording device. double-sided unit,
C indicates a sorter. Copying! The iA may be of a well-known type, and after copying a stroke on a recording sheet supplied from the recording sheet supply section 1, the copied record 7-sheet is outputted from the first output ``]2''.

The double-sided unit) B includes a conveyance system 3 for conveying the recording sheets carried out from the output roller 2 by a tray or a sorter 1, a switch provided in the middle of the conveyance thread for reversing the recording sheets,
It has a depacking device 4 and a recording thread 5 for double-sided recording, which is carried out from the exit, inverts the recording sheet, and then feeds it into the tanhi copying device for double-sided recording. . Both m1
Unit B0) Recording notebook i exit V'C outputs the recording sheet onto a tray (not shown) disposed around the side of the unit; A discharge roller 7 is arranged to feed the paper into the sorter, and a deflector 8 is provided to switch the discharge.

The recording sheet +4 carried out from the general exit 2 passes through the conveyance system 3 of the duplex unit B, is sent to the ejection roller 6 by the rector 8, and is deposited on a tray (not shown). or υ1. It is sent to an output roller 7, and is thereby sent to a sorter. When the recording sheet is reversed and sent, the recording sheet is introduced into a switchback type reversing path 10 by a deflector 9 provided in the middle of the conveyance system 3, and then transferred to the conveyance thread 3 by a roller 11. In addition, when performing double-sided recording, the VC records the sheet recorded on the first side through the double-sided recording system 5 and is introduced into the portrait image recording device, records it on the second side, and transfers the sheet to the above-mentioned conveyance system 3. sent through.

The sorter C has one conveyance path 15 for conveying recording sheets that are conveyed upward by the above-mentioned discharge roller 7 and sent to the sorter by a guide 12, a conveyance roller 13, and a guide 14, and two conveyor paths 1111' on both sides of the conveyance path. a row of bins 16, 17 arranged in parallel to each other for receiving recording sheets, and direction changing means for selectively guiding the iU2 recording sheets conveyed by the transport path to the row of bins 16 or 17 on either side thereof. There is.

The conveyance path 15 is made up of a row of driving rollers 18 and driven rollers 19, and conveys the recording sheet upward.

In the illustrated example, the rows of bins 16 and 17 are bins 16a arranged side by side in the step direction yc.

16b...16n and 17a, 17b,...
...consists of 17n. The recording sheet carried by the conveyance path 15 is deflected to the right or to the left at a desired bin by a deflector.
6a, 16b, 16n1 and 17a, 1
7b, . . . 17nK are sequentially classified and stored.

In such a sorter, from the point of view of the mechanism for sorting and storing, the recording sheets sent to the sorter are first sorted and stored sequentially in bins on one side, for example, 16a, 16b...16n. After storing in the bin on one side,
Opposite bin, e.g. 17a.

It is convenient to sort and store them sequentially in 17b...17n. However, as shown in Fig. 1, in the case where the sorter is arranged so that it extends upwards, short operators find it difficult to operate near the upper bins, that is, the bins 16n and 17n (5). It becomes difficult to remove the recording sheets stored in the storage.

The present invention attempts to eliminate the drawbacks of the above-mentioned type of sorter, and aims to provide a direction changing means that alternately guides the recording sheets spilled along the conveyance path (firstly, to the bins on both sides j of the conveyance path). This system is characterized by the fact that recording sheets are stored alternately from the bottom bin.

To explain the example VC shown in FIG. 1, the recording sheet is
First, the recording sheet is stored face down in the bin 16a, and the next recording sheet is reversed and stored face down in the bin 17a, followed by 16b.

17b...16n, 17n are alternately stored on opposite sides in this order. Considering that all 2n bottles are normally used infrequently, operability is improved by alternately storing the lower bins and the V bins as described above. In the above example, the storage bins of the sorter are configured to face upwards, but even if they are configured to face downwards, it is possible to alternately store the sheets from the direction that facilitates sheet processing (for example, from above). Good (6) Ino is not even 1° or 1.

An embodiment of the above-mentioned direction changing means is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The illustrated direction changing means includes deflectors 20a, 20b...20n and 21 provided for each valley bin.
a, 21b, and 21n, and the valley deflector is composed of a plurality of deflector elements that are aligned and self-stamped. Figure 3 shows deflectors 20a and 21.
a, and in this example, deflector 2 (
The deflector 20b is composed of five deflector elements (only three of which are shown), and the deflector 20b is composed of five deflector elements at I'cJl4*.These deflector elements are The ends of these 4Illll 22a and 23a, which are connected to each other in a fixed manner by shafts 22a and 23a, are connected to the interlocking plate 24&, and this interlocking &24a
is held so as to be able to swing freely around a shaft 25a. Therefore, by swinging the motion plate 24a from side to side, the direction within the ball distribution sorting strip of the deflector is changed to the right or left VC.

In order to swing the above-mentioned interlocking plate 24a from side to side, a piece 11'1lIrL solenoid 26a is arranged, which is connected to the interlocking plate 24a by a rod 27a, and on the opposite side of the interlocking plate 24a is a tension spring 28a. are connected. Therefore, the solenoid 26a and the tension spring 28a
When the interlocking plate 24a is swung by the action of
A cam 29a is provided for regulating the swinging of the interlocking plate so as to swing the interlocking plate alternately left and right from its neutral position. This cam 29a has a type 4 cam groove 30a formed therein, and a movement shaft 31a connected at one end to the interlocking plate 24a.
The other end slides along the cam groove 30a. The above-mentioned interlock @ 31a is bent into a piece shape at one end to fit into the small hole formed in the interlocking plate 24 a V, and is also bent into a piece shape at the other end to fit the cam %.
30a VC is in sliding engagement and is biased by its own elasticity in the direction indicated by A in FIG. Note that the above cam groove 30a is connected to the interlocking plate 24a (il
- When swinging from side to side, a third hook part is attached to the end of the interlocking shaft 31a.
In Fig. a, the cam groove 30 is configured in such a manner that point (a) moves along b-+c->d->e->f-+ 11 along the cam groove 30a, and does not move in the opposite direction.

In the above sorter, the tip of the interlocking shaft 31a has a cam quotient of 3
0 Point a) When located at point a, deflector 2
0a and 21a are at the positions indicated by solid lines, and the recording sheet is passed in the direction indicated by the second diagram. Next, solenoid 2
6a is energized, the tip of the interlocking shaft 31a moves to DIN) b in FIG. 3a, and the interlocking plate 24a moves to the shaft 25.
It swings to the right around a. As a result, the deflectors 20a and 21-a are swung to the position shown in FIG. 4, and guide the recording sheet sent from the copying machine into the bin 16a. When the recording sheet is stored in the bin 16aK, the solenoid 26a is deenergized. When the solenoid 16a is deenergized, the interlocking plate 24a is pulled by the spring 28a vc and swings to the left about the shaft 25a. Therefore, the tip of the interlocking shaft 31a is connected to the cam @ 30 in FIG. 3a.
aiCffJ moves from point (9) to b→C→d, and the deflectors 20a and 21a are stopped at the positions shown in FIG. Here, the recording sheet sent from the nuclear copying device is carried into the bin 17a.

After carrying it into the bin 17a or finishing the initial work, turn on the solenoid 16 again.
The tip of the moving shaft 31a moves from e to f in FIG. 3a, and when the solenoid 16a is deenergized, the tip +4i of the moving shaft 31a returns to the original point a, and the tip of the moving shaft 31a moves from e to f in FIG. Then, the distribution sheet will be sent along path 1) K in Figure 2. The same operation is repeated for the tentative bins 16b and 17b, and recording sheets are alternately carried into the left and right bins.

As described above, according to the present invention, one conveyance path for conveying recording sheets carried out from an image recording apparatus and a row of bins for receiving recording sheets arranged in parallel with the double press IVC of the conveyance path are arranged. In the sorter installed, the continuous sheets are guided alternately to the bins on both sides by the conveyance path, so that by alternately introducing the recording sheets from the lower bin, the recording sheet removal process can be carried out at each station. It is possible to improve operability (10).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a sorter to which the present invention can be applied, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the direction changing means according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. An explanatory diagram of the cam shown in FIG. 3, FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams each showing the state of operation of the direction changing means. A: Secondary copying box B: Double-sided unit C: Sorter 16a, 16b-16n: I 7a, 17b:
17n... Bin row 20a, 20b... 20n: 2
1a, 21b-2In --- Deflector 22a, 2
3a=・411

Claims (1)

[Claims] A sorter that sorts and stores recording sheets carried out from an image recording device has one conveyance path for conveying recording sheets conveyed out from the image recording device, and bins for receiving recording sheets arranged in parallel on both sides of the conveyance path. 1. A sorter comprising a column and a metal plate, and a direction changing means for alternately guiding the recording sheets conveyed by the conveying path to the bins on both sides.