JPS6026547A - Sheet detecting method in sheet arranging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the second and subsequent sheets surely and accurately by detecting a sheet stacked on a sheet arranging device and a newly carried-in sheet. CONSTITUTION:A copy sheet 102 newly carried in a tray 3 is laterally projected downward by a distance C to a copy sheet already stacked. A light source 15 and a photo detecting element 16 are positioned in such a manner as to detect that the copy sheet reaches a projection area C. In this arrangement, the sheet already stacked on a sheet arranging device 4 and the newly carried-in sheet are discriminated from each other to detect the newly carried-in sheet, and the second and subsequent sheets to be sequentially carried in can be detected surely and accurately.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a sheet detection method in a sheet alignment device.

BACKGROUND ART A sheet aligning device that operates side fences placed on the sides of sheets conveyed at intervals to align the sheet width direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction is conventionally known, and is used in copying machines. , printing machines or their peripheral equipment (
For example, it is used in automatic document feeders, punching machines, paper binding machines, etc. for the purpose of aligning sheets of copy paper, printing paper, originals, etc.

On the other hand, the sheets carried into the sheet alignment device are detected for the purpose of confirming that the sheets that are sequentially fed into the above-mentioned sheet alignment cylinder are reliably fed, or to count the number of sheets that have been fed. There is a need to. However, in a conventional sheet aligning device, the copy sheets that are sent in sequentially are stacked on top of each other at the same time as they are fed in, so the sorted sheets that have already been delivered and stacked into the aligning device and the newly delivered sheets are separated. It was difficult to distinguish between the two and detect when a new sheet was brought in. For this reason, a detector was placed near the sheet alignment device to confirm that sheet 1 was not carried into the sheet alignment device. It is not possible to expect 1-.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet sensing force method in a sheet aligning device that eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a sheet alignment device of an intermediate paper feeder in a double-sided copying machine will be described with reference to the drawings.

An intermediate paper feeder 1, only a part of which is shown in FIG. The paper is fed onto the tray 3 of the paper feeder 1. The thus-fed copy paper is aligned in the width B direction of the copy paper perpendicular to the conveyance direction A by the sheet alignment device 4 in a manner described below.

The sheet aligning device 4 has a reference side fence 5 and a reciprocating side fence 6 that extend in the copy paper conveying direction A, and these side fences 5 and 6 are arranged on both sides of the copy paper 2 that is being carried in. and are spaced apart from each other in the width direction B. In this example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the base 5a of each side fence 5.
It is fitted into a notch 7 (see also FIGS. 3 to 7) formed in the plate, and is slidably fitted into a guide rod 8 fixed to the lower blade of the tray 3. The guide rod 8 extends in the width direction B of the copy paper, and therefore each side fence can also be moved in the width direction B by a force S.

The reference side fence 5 is an endless chain 1 wound around a driving sprocket 9 and a driven sprocket 10.
1, the reciprocating side fence 6 is fixedly connected to the other driving sprocket 12 at a portion designated by the reference numeral 5b.
It is fixed to another chain 14 that is wound around the driven sprocket 13 and the driven sprocket 13 at a portion indicated by 6b. Each drive sprocket 1-9, 1.2 is driven separately and independently by a drive unit (not shown), in this example a stepping morph.
2 is driven, each of the side fences 5 and 6 can move in the width direction B described above.

The copy paper is sent out from a main paper feeder (not shown), passes through a photoreceptor and a fixing device (both not shown), and is conveyed onto the tray 3 of the intermediate paper feeder 1. If a transport problem occurs, the copy paper may not be fed to tray 3. For this reason, it is necessary to detect when the copy paper reaches the tray 3, and if the copy paper does not reach the tray, to inform the operator of this fact and to take appropriate measures. Also, a predetermined number of copy sheets including 1 sheet are sequentially fed onto the tray 3])
In order to count the number of copies, it is also necessary to fully detect that copy sheets have been fed into the tray 3.

Furthermore, as described below, the side fences 5 and 6 are arranged in the width direction B.
However, in order to control when the side fence starts operating, it is necessary to know when the copy paper has reached the tray 3.

Among the copy paper detection mentioned above, 1. For at least one purpose, the sheet aligning device 4 is provided with a detector for detecting the leading edge of the copy paper, and in this example, this detector includes a light source 15 and a light receiving element 16 as shown in FIGS. A reflective photoelectric sensor is used. The sheet alignment device 4 operates as follows so that the leading edge of the copy paper can be detected by this detector.

When the two copy sheets shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. The printer is waiting at a home position that is spaced apart from the copy paper width W so as not to interfere with the copy paper. In this case, the reference side fence 5 is moved outward by a distance indicated by t from the reference position X in the width direction at which the copy paper 2 is finally positioned on the tray 3.

The copy paper 2 advances in the conveying direction A, and both side fences are
In this example, at an appropriate time after the copy paper 2 starts to enter between When it hits the backing plate 17 and stops, the aforementioned driving sprocket 12 is rotationally driven by the stepping morph in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. is activated. In this way, the reciprocating side fence 6 presses the copy paper 2 until the side edge 2C of the copy paper 2 due to the external force hits the reference side fence 5, which is waiting at the home position, as shown in FIG. .

Next, the drive sprocket 12 (311j 1 Fig. 9 is reversed; H,, as shown in Fig. 6, the reciprocating Zide fence 6
returns to the home position shown in FIG. 3 again, and the distance between the side fences 5 and 6 becomes large again. Then, the subsequent copy sheet 2, which has been conveyed at a distance from behind the copy sheet 2 described above, enters between the two side fences 5 and 6. This subsequent copy paper is represented by a two-dot chain line in FIG.
When the paper is placed between both side fences, copy paper 1
0'2 differs from the preceding copy sheet 2 by an amount indicated by C, rather than the width force B.

The succeeding copy paper 102 is also pressed against the reference side fence 5 by the reciprocating side fence 6 and is deposited on the preceding copy paper 2 in exactly the same manner as the preceding copy paper 2 .

The above-described operation is performed every time a sheet of copy paper is fed into the tray 3. When a predetermined number of copies have been deposited on the tray 2 in this way, the drive sprocket 9 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. The copy sheets on the tray 3 are moved to position X, their width direction B is aligned, and the copy sheets are positioned at the final reference position. Next, the copy paper on the tray 3 is fed by a paper feed roller (not shown).
As is well known, the copy sheets are re-fed one by one to the photoreceptor, but since the copy sheets are aligned in the width direction as described above, it takes a force of 5 to align them at a predetermined position on the photoreceptor. can. When the copy paper is re-fed, in order to ensure its guidance, the reciprocating Zide fence 6 may be placed against or close to the side edge 2b of the copy paper as shown in FIG. Desirable 10 The copy sheets are arranged as described above, but at this time, before the reciprocating side fence 6 starts operating to press the newly loaded copy paper 102 into the tray 3 against the reference side fence 5, this The copy paper 102 protrudes downward in FIG. 6 by an amount l C in the width direction with respect to the copy paper 2 already stacked. If this area is called a protruding area C, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the protruding area C
The above-mentioned light source 15 and light receiving element 16 are positioned so that it can be detected that the copy paper has reached . That is, 1-
When the original reflectance power S of the surface of the ray 3 is set low 1 and there is no copy paper in the protruding area C, the light from the light source 15 is absorbed by the tray 3, and almost no original light enters the light receiving element 16. As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
2, the light from the light source 15 is reflected by the copy paper 102 and enters the light receiving element 16. Thus, copy paper 1
02 is surely fed into tray 3 i'1. Everything can be detected. Of course, the first copy paper 2 is in tray 3.
This can be detected in the same way when it reaches the top (see Figure 4).

As described above, the detector may be immovably fixed to the sheet alignment device, but in this example, the light source 15 and light receiving element 16 are integrally connected to the reciprocating side fence 6 via a connecting member (not shown). The light source 15 and the light receiving element 16 can operate together with the reciprocating side fence 6. This provides the following advantages.

Typically, the size of copy paper used in a copying machine is selected by an operator, and various sizes of copy paper are used.

Therefore, the width size of the copy paper carried into the intermediate paper feeder is also
It varies depending on what the operator desires. For this reason, if the home position (standby position) of the reference side fence 5 is fixed immovably, this will occur when narrow-sized copy sheets are fed into the tray 3 one after another, and when wide-sized copy sheets are fed into the tray one after another. When coming, the already mentioned protruding area C
The position varies in the width direction B. Therefore, if the above-mentioned detector is immovably fixed, there is a possibility that it will not be able to detect the copy paper that has reached the protrusion area C, depending on the width size of the copy paper. In order to eliminate this inconvenience, a plurality of detectors arranged in the width direction B are used, and a sufficient force is applied so that any detector can detect the copy paper even if the position of the protruding area C changes. 5. This increases the cost of the entire detector. In the illustrated embodiment, the detector block 5 is supported so as to be able to move together with the reciprocating side fence 6, so the home position of the reciprocating side fence 6 can be adjusted depending on the width of the copy paper. By changing the width direction B, the position 1η of the detector when the copy paper enters between both side fences is changed. C is reached and one copy of paper is detected.

Furthermore, even if the detector is not fixed to the reciprocating side fence 6, the position of the detector is changed every time the position of the protruding area C changes, so that copy paper that reaches this area C can be detected without fail. You can also do this. Alternatively, each time the width size of the copy paper changes, the home position of the reference side fence 5 is changed to BICf in the width direction, regardless of the size of the copy paper.
The protruding area may always be located at a certain position and fixed immovably so that the copy paper can be detected by a human detector.

Furthermore, in the illustrated embodiment, the copy paper is detected when it is carried in in the conveyance direction, but when the reciprocating side fence 6 force j moves to press the copy paper against the reference side fence 5, the The copy J412 may be detected by a detector that moves integrally with the fence 6. In this way, the T deviation does not need to be completely changed in the home position of the reciprocating side fence depending on the width size of the copy paper. However, it is inappropriate to use this area when detecting a copy sheet for the purpose of controlling the timing at which the reciprocating side fence 6 starts operating. This is because copy paper is detected after the reciprocating side fence starts operating.

In general, copy sheets are conveyed and aligned with reference to the center Y in the width direction (Fig. 1) (senku reference), and cases where copy sheets are conveyed and aligned with one side edge of the copy paper as a reference ( However, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 7, when aligning the copy paper with one side reference, there is no need to change the reference position X depending on the width size of the copy paper. However, when aligning the copy sheets based on the center, the reference position X may be changed in the width direction B according to the width size.

Furthermore, various modifications can be made to the illustrated configuration. For example, instead of using a reflective photoelectric sensor as a detector, a transmissive photoelectric sensor is used in which a light transmitting hole is formed in a tray, and a light source and a light receiving element are placed on each side of the hole. A sensor or a detector having an actuator actuated by the copy paper may be used. Further, as means for operating each side fence, wires, ropes, pulleys, etc. may be used, or a feed screw that is rotationally driven and a nand, etc. that engages with this and moves integrally with the side fence may be used. , appropriate means can be adopted.

It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to appropriate devices other than the intermediate paper feeding device of double-sided copying machines, such as ordinary copying machines, printing machines, facsimile machines, various printers, etc., and peripheral devices thereof.

Since this effect is detected, it is now possible to reliably and accurately detect the second and subsequent sheets that are sequentially brought in.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a part of an intermediate paper feeder including a sheet aligning device, with part of the intermediate paper feeding device shown in chain lines;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-It in FIG.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line ■--■ of No. 61. 4...Sheet alignment device 5...Reference side fence 6...Reciprocating side fence B...Width direction X...Reference position Fig. 2! I3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] When a seat crab enters between the reference side fence and the reciprocating side fence, the reference side fence is held on the outside of the seat final positioning reference position in the seat width direction, and the seat crab S is placed between both side fences. Every time the sheet enters, the reciprocating side fence kt is reciprocated to press all the sheets against the waiting reference side fence, and after the final sheet enters between both side fences, the reference side fence is moved to the reference position and the sheet is pressed. When all the sheets are finally positioned and aligned, the detector detects all the sheets that have entered between both side fences but have not yet been pressed against the waiting reference side fence. 1. Sheet detection method in sheet alignment device f4.