JPS59143849A - Medium container - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable medium such as sheet or the like to be reversed continuously irrespective of the size of the medium with a simple constitution by providing a container mechanism for receiving said medium and a reversal mechanism for receiving the reversed medium. CONSTITUTION:A sheet A is discharged from a printer 1 and directed downward by an upper guide 4 to travel along an lower guide 3 through a transfer roller 5. The leading end of the travelling sheet A is drawn between the lower guide 3 and a tray 15 at a drawing-in section 21 of a drawing-in mechanism 9, bent at the leading end abruptly to turn down the rear portion of successive sheet A to the tray 15 side. And when the leading end of the sheet A abuts against a slip stopping plate 16, the short sheet A having the rear end passed by a transfer roller 5 has the rear end reversed by its own elastic force to be stocked on the tray 15. On the other hand, the longer sheets B, C have the central portion bulged so that the leading ends are stocked on the tray 15 in the same way as above mentioned after being mounted on the tray 15.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] 0) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention provides a conveying roller, a sheet reversing mechanism, and a sheet retracting mechanism for reversing documents discharged from a printer or copying machine, etc., and stocking them without reversing the order. The present invention relates to a medium storage device including a stepped tray portion that moves back and forth depending on the amount of sheet stock.

(2) Background of the Technology There is a desire for a simple and inexpensive device that can store sheets such as forms discharged from printers, copying machines, etc. in a stacker with a tray without reversing the order. The present invention has been provided in response to this demand.

(3) Prior art and problems Conventional stackers have two methods: one in which sheets such as forms ejected from the printer are stocked in the stacker as is, one is forcibly inverted within the printer, and the other is inverted toward the top or bottom of the media storage device. There were various methods for discharging it. The method described above in which sheets such as forms ejected from the printer body are directly stocked in the stacker has the drawback that the order of the sheets is not reversed and requires replacement work, and the method in which sheets are forcibly reversed within the printer body However, the paper route is complicated, the mechanism is complicated and therefore expensive9, and the sheet take-out position is too low and large due to the structure, making maintenance difficult. Furthermore, the method of inverting and ejecting the media to the top or bottom of the media storage device has disadvantages such as a narrow operator area due to its structure and the ejecting position of the sheets being too low. There was a need for a simple mechanism that would allow printed sheets to be stocked in a stacker without reversing their order.

(2) Purpose of the Invention The present invention utilizes the elasticity of sheets such as forms and their natural movement unaffected by gravity to perform more reliable operations without using complicated mechanisms. It is an object of the present invention to provide a medium storage device that enables smooth continuous reversal of sheets, does not take up much space, and is easy to maintain and operate.

(5) Structure and object of the invention According to the present invention, a storage mechanism for storing a medium, and a reversing mechanism provided in the storage mechanism for reversing and storing the medium are provided. This is accomplished by providing a media storage device with the following characteristics:

(6) Examples of the invention Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the medium storage device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the sheet pulling mechanism, Fig. 3 is a diagram of various aspects of the conveyance roller, Fig. 4 is a side view of the tray section, and Fig. 5 6 is a front view thereof, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the whole stacker of the present invention.

In the drawing, 1 is a printer main body, 2 is a discharge roller that discharges printed sheets such as forms A to a stacker, and 3 is a lower guide connected to the printer main body 1 and fixed to both side plates (not shown). An upper guide 4 is provided above the lower guide 3 up to the front side of the conveyance roller 5, and is opened together with the cover 6 upward about a hinge 7. The conveying roller 5 is pivoted on a shaft 8 in a state where it contacts the lower guide 3 at about 1/2 of the lower guide 3 or is offset (set so that the leading edge of the sheet is below the stopping position when stocking the sheet). , rotates in the direction of the drawing section 21 at a surface speed higher than the speed of the sheet to be discharged. In addition, the outer periphery of the conveying roller 5 is formed into a brush shape as shown in FIG. It is made of soft sponge, etc. The lower part of the lower kite 3 is inclined in the opposite direction to the upper part 9, and is connected to the sheet retracting mechanism 9 in a state in which it is slightly protruded from the surface of this part. The sheet retracting mechanism 9 is provided inside the lower guide 3 and is supported in a state in which it slightly protrudes from the notch 24 of the lower guide 3 toward the tray 15 side, which will be described later.
．． A sheet retracting belt 14 is looped around pulleys 12 and 13 supported by the sheet A, and the retracting belt 14 rotates in the direction of the retracting section 21, that is, in the direction of arrow a, at a speed equal to or higher than the speed of the discharged sheet A. do. Note that the goo IJ12.13 may be replaced with a rubber or sponge roller as shown in FIG. 2, as long as it can be drawn in uniformly.

The retracting portion 21 is arranged above the bent portion 25 of the lower guide 3. Reference numeral 15 denotes a tray provided with stepped portions 19 and 20, and has a surface along the sheet pull-in belt 14, the lower part of which is bent horizontally to the extent that a specified amount of sheets can be stocked, and its surface is covered with sponge, velvet, etc. A sliding stopper plate 16 made of the same material is attached. Two rollers 27 are fixed horizontally on both sides of the bending portion 26, and a beam near roller 28 is fixed horizontally on the lower side, and these are attached to a rail 29 and a shaft 30 provided on a side plate of the device (not shown). The sheet retracting mechanism 9 of the lower guide 3 is connected to the horizontal mortar section 26 of the tray 15.
The tray 15 is maintained offset by a notch provided in the movement direction, and the tray 15 is movable in the horizontal direction (arrow b) without interfering with anything else. In addition, the redo tray 15 is pressed against the sheet retracting mechanism 9 side with a constant load at any position in the movement range by the conston spring 31, which is attached at one end to the bottom of the tray 15 and the other end to the device base. The structure is such that the damper 32 provided on the shaft 30 moves in accordance with the movement. The tray 15 is provided with a step @19.20, and by providing such a step 19.20, the rear end of a long sheet (A) can be moved from the center immediately after passing through the conveyance roller 5. This is a relief to prevent the phenomenon of bending (this is called a buckling phenomenon), and a relief to smoothly move the rear end toward the tray 15 side.

The medium storage device according to the present invention has such an external structure, and its operation will be explained next.The sheet A such as a form discharged from the printer 1 is directed downward by the upper kite 4, and the conveyance roller 5, travel along the lower kite 3. The leading edge of the traveling sheet A is pulled in between the lower guide 3 and the tray 15 at the retracting section 21 by the sheet pulling belt 14 of the sheet pulling mechanism 9, and the leading edge is rapidly bent, so that the rear part of the sheet A that is coming next is pulled in between the lower guide 3 and the tray 15. falls to the tray 15 side. The leading end of the drawn sheet A abuts against a bed stopper plate 16 provided below the tray 15 and stops.

When the leading edge of the sheet A slams into the sheet stopper plate 16, if the sheet is so short that the trailing edge of the sheet A passes through the conveyance roller 5, the elastic force of the sheet itself will cause the sheet to The rear end portion is reversed and stocked on the tray 15 upside down. However, when the leading end of the sheet hits the anti-slip plate 16, if the rear end of the sheet has not yet passed through the conveyance roller 5, the sheet will be in a bundled state as shown by the broken line B1C in the figure. The center part of the sheet swells up from the lower guide 3 and is placed on the tray 15 from the side closer to the leading end. Immediately after the leading edge of the sheet hits the bevel stopper plate 16 and the trailing edge passes the conveyance roller 5, it is bounced off by the brush-like surface of the roller 5 in the direction of the lay 15, and the trailing edge of the sheet is reversed. The entire sheet is then stored upside down on the tray 15.

Note that although the sheet retracting belt 14 of the sheet retracting mechanism 9 can be rotated, the pushing force is small, and the sheet is caught in a slight gap between the lower guide 3 and the tray 15, and the tip end is attached to the lower guide 3. , the retracting mechanism 9, and the tray 15 are offset, so they maintain their state without buckling. Here, the anti-slip plate 16 is provided to prevent the tip of the sheet where the lower guide, the retracting mechanism 9, and the tray 15 are not offset from getting caught up in the retracting mechanism fully IS side. The retraction mechanism 9 is based on the song
This prevents the retraction force from decreasing due to the gap between the tray 15 and the tray 15 expanding more than necessary.

In this way, the sheets are pulled in one after another, and the tray 15 is moved to the roller 27. IJ Niarcoro 28 Nyoshirail 29, Axis 30
The top part moves by the thickness of the sheet pulled in ($). When it comes to the front of the damper 32, a stacker full detection section (not shown) provided in advance is activated and the delivery is stopped.

When some or all of the stocked sheets are taken out, the tray 15 is moved toward the drawing machine [9 side by the amount of sheets taken out by the action of the conston spring 31, stacker full detection is canceled, and sheet feeding is resumed. ('7) Effects of the Invention As explained in detail above, the medium storage device according to the present invention is capable of storing documents such as sheets ejected from a printer or a copying machine in the direction A). an upper guide 4 for converting the sheet, a retracting mechanism 9 for pulling in and reversing the sheet, a conveyance roller 5 for reversing the rear end of the sheet A, and a step section movable back and forth for sequentially stocking the sheet A pulled in by the retracting mechanism 9. This device has a simple structure and consists of a tray 15 with a pull-in mechanism 9, so that the sheet A discharged from the printer 1, etc. is dropped downward on the lower guide 3, and the sheet A is moved to the lower part of the guide 3. The front end of the seat is turned over and retracted, and the elasticity caused by the bending of the seat member is transmitted to the rear of the seat and reversed. Next, by providing the conveying roller 5, since the conveying roller 25 has a brush-shaped periphery, the leading edge of the sheet reaches the sliding stop 9L16 of the tray 15 when the sheet is long. At this time, the rear end S of the sheet is peeled off by the conveyance roller 5 and thrown away, helping to reverse the sheet.For short sheets, the conveyance roller 5 also acts as a restraint to stabilize the running of the sheet. The leading end reaches the sheet stopper plate 16 of the tray 15, and the sheet is turned over by the pull-in mechanism 9. The tray 15 is provided at the final stage of the reversing mechanism in the medium storage device according to the present invention, and is movable according to the amount of sheets that reach the sheet stopper plate 16. By taking out a part or all of the sheet, the removed sheet can be moved toward the drawing mechanism 9 side, and the sheets on the printer 1 can be continuously operated.
This is because the reversal of the rear end of the sheet can be done more smoothly by bending the part following the leading end to the reversal side on the reversed chamfer of the sheet leading edge. The tray 15, which is in contact with the next part, has a step, which has a great effect in assisting the reversal of the sheet.

As described above, the media storage device according to the present invention does not require a complicated mechanism, enables continuous reversal regardless of sheet size, does not take up much space, is easy to maintain and operate, and is provided at low cost. There is an excellent effect that can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the medium storage device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the sheet pulling mechanism, Fig. 3 is a diagram of various aspects of the conveyance roller, Fig. 4 is a side view of the tray section, and Fig. 5 is a front view thereof, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the entire medium storage device according to the present invention. 3...Lower guide 4...Upper guide 5...Conveyance roller 9...Retraction mechanism 14...Sheet retraction belt 15... ...Tray 16...Bed stop plate 17.18...Rubber or sponge roller 19
．． 20...Step part 22...Rail 27...Roller 28...Linear roller 29...Rail 31...Conston spring applicant Fuji Tsu Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 3 (a)' (b) +c+''. Figure 5 Figure G

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 0) A medium accommodating device comprising a accommodating mechanism in which a medium is accommodated, and a reversing mechanism provided in the accommodating mechanism for inverting and accommodating the medium. (2) The medium storage device according to claim 1, wherein the reversing mechanism comprises several sets of pulleys and a belt passed around the pulleys. (3) The medium storage device according to claim 1, wherein the storage mechanism is a plate-like body having a stepped portion at an intermediate portion thereof. (4) The medium accommodating device according to claim 1, wherein the accommodating mechanism is configured to be able to be separated from the reversing mechanism depending on the amount of medium to be accommodated.