JPS6026562A - Sheet material receiving tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the whole device to be compact by providing a closing portion for clamping the leading end of sheet in the lower portion of a sheet receiving space formed of first and second guide members and an opening portion for allowing the tail end of a long sheet to be reversed in the upper end of the first guide member. CONSTITUTION:A narrow closing portion 19 is formed in the lower portion of a sheet material receiving space 15 formed between first and second guide members 14, 16, and an opening portion 20 formed in the upper end of the member 14. Since the opening portion 20 sufficient to discharge a loop-like recording paper 6 is formed between the upper end of the member 14, an upper case 22 and guide 23 of a body 1 when the member 14 is closed, the leading end 6' of recording paper 6 is introduced into the wedge-like receiving space 15 of the receiving tray 13. This leading end 6' is included in the closing portion 19, while the tail end of the recording paper 6 is cut off by a cutter 11. Then, the tail end of the recording paper 6 is reversed out of the device to be received by the action of elastic force of paper and turning force of the cutter blade.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sheet material storage tray, and a 3T tray is provided near the bottom of a stack of sheets of an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine or a copying machine to store sheets ejected from the image forming apparatus. This invention relates to a sheet material storage tray that receives and stores materials.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a strong demand for image forming apparatuses such as facsimile machines and copying machines to be smaller and lighter. As a result, in the past, trays for storing recording paper, manuscripts, and other sheet materials ejected from image forming apparatuses were not built into the main body of the machine but were installed in a form that protruded from the machine. It was common practice to downsize the machine itself. As a result, even if the main body of the machine is made smaller, the installation space during use becomes larger due to the protrusion of the tray section.
The drawback was that it was not miniaturized in an actual sense.

Another disadvantage was that the rolls of paper, such as thermal recording paper used in facsimile machines, tend to be tightly wound, and it is difficult to store them in an orderly manner on a linear tray surface like in the past. Recently, there has been a trend to reduce the outer diameter of the paper while keeping the length the same, especially in response to the demand for downsizing of the main body of the machine. , the winding pattern is more wJ″A
There is a strong desire to develop a paper storage method that corresponds to this trend.

Furthermore, when creating records of multiple originals using such an image forming apparatus, if the recording is performed sequentially from the first page of the original, the recorded sheets will be ejected from the apparatus with one image side facing up. Since the recorded sheets are ejected, the recorded sheets stored in the conventional tray are stacked one after the other with the first page facing down, and the sheets stacked in the tray are stacked one after the other. is in the reverse order of the original. For this purpose, conventionally, after the recording operation is completed, the recorded sea! It is necessary to perform an operation to rearrange the pages in order from the first page, that is, a page alignment operation, which is always time-consuming.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of sheet material storage trays used in conventional image forming apparatuses as described above,
To provide a sheet material storage tray that can be attached to an apparatus main body without protruding significantly outside the apparatus main body, and thus enables miniaturization of the entire apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet that can reliably hold a large number of sheet materials in a tray, that can correctly hold even tightly curled sheet materials, and that can easily take out sheet materials when taking out sheets. To provide a material storage tray.

Another object of the present invention is that after storing a large number of sheet materials,
To provide a sheet material storage l/lay capable of sequentially storing a large number of sheet materials so that there is no need to perform page alignment operations.

The sheet material storage tray according to the present invention is characterized by a first guide member against which the leading edge of the ejected sheet comes into contact and guides it downward, and a guide member that faces the first guide member to form a sheet storage space. A second guide member is provided, and a narrow I11 closing part is formed in the do part of the storage space to grip the leading end of the sheet fed downward, and a long guide member is provided at the upper end of the first guide member. The reason is that an opening part is provided that allows the rear end of the sheet to be reversed.

This will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional facsimile machine equipped with this type of sheet material storage tray. The illustrated facsimile device 1 includes an image reading and transmitting system that reads information from the document using an optical system 3 and transmits image information while feeding the document on a document table 2, and an image reading and transmitting system that feeds the document from a recording paper roll 4 according to the received image information. The apparatus is also provided with an image receiving and recording system for recording an image by a thermal head 7 on a thermal recording paper 6L that is moved by a platen roller 5. 8 is a power supply section including a power supply device and the like.

On the left side of the image forming apparatus water body 1, there is a document storage I/ray 10 for storing the documents 9 sent out sequentially from the document table 2.
Further, on the right side of the main body l of the apparatus, recorded recording paper, on which an image has been recorded by the thermal head 7 and cut to a predetermined length, for example, A4 size, by the cutter 11, is stored. A recording paper storage tray 12 is provided.

In such a conventional image forming apparatus, the tray 10
and 12 protrude from both sides of the apparatus main body l, so even if the apparatus main body is downsized, the actual installation space cannot be made much smaller due to the protrusion of these trays. If these trays are installed together on one side of the device body, 1
Although it is possible to reduce the installation space by adding two trays, if the trays are concentrated on one side of the apparatus main body, both the original and recording paper drive systems will be concentrated on one side, reducing the space efficiency inside the apparatus main body. This is not only bad, but also complicates the drive system, leading to a decrease in reliability and a significant increase in costs.

Also, the recording paper that is ejected onto the )-ray 12 is ejected with the image side facing up, so when creating multiple records in sequence, the first page is at the bottom, and the last page is at the top. Therefore, page alignment is required after the recording operation path.

The present invention eliminates the drawbacks of the four-sheet material storage tray of the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, and an embodiment thereof is shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the facsimile machine shown in FIG. 1 equipped with a sheet material storage tray according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, the same parts as shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. 11A11 The explanation thereof will be omitted.

A sheet material storage tray 13 according to the present invention is provided in the vicinity of the lower side of the recording paper sheet ejection port of the facsimile machine. Details of the sheet I/material storage tray 13 are shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet/material storage tray 13 has a first tray on which the discharge sheet is brought into contact and guides it downward.
A guide member 14 and a second kite member 16 for forming a seat storage space 15 facing the first guide member. The second guide member 16 is made of a plastic plate 1' fixed to the stay 17 of the facsimile machine main body l, and the lower end of the first guide member 14 is attached to the lower end of the second kite member. pin 1
connected by 8. In the illustrated embodiment, these guide members are shown as plates, but these guide members do not necessarily have to be plate-shaped. For example, they may be formed by arranging a plurality of side metals in the vertical direction. Any member may be used as long as it can prevent the recording paper from moving and guide it into the storage space 15.

Facsimile device main body 1 and this first guide member 14
A click mechanism (not shown) for locking the first guide member 14 in the state shown in FIG. 3 is provided between the two.
Normally, the first guide member 14 is held in the closed position shown in FIG. Thus, the first guide member 14 can be opened by rotating around the pin, and in the open position shown by the two-dot chain line, the first guide member 14 is locked by the stay 17 of the main body 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the first guide member 14 is open, the ejected recording paper 6 is
4, and therefore, in this case, the first guide member 14 forms an ejection guide. When the length of the recording paper is short or, conversely, when it is not long, it is preferable to use the first guide member 14 in an open state as described above.

In addition, when a large amount of recording paper is stored at once and the storage capacity is exceeded, the click mechanism that locks the first guide member 14 in the closed state flj': is automatically released by the weight of the stored recording paper. At least, the first kite member 14 can be in the open state E;.

When the first guide member 14 is in the closed state as shown in FIG. Narrow 1 for gripping the tip of the fed sheet material
1] is formed. In the illustrated embodiment, the sheet material storage space 15 is formed in a V-shape, and a closing part 19 is formed at the bottom thereof, but this does not necessarily have to be a V-shape. The walls may be slightly apart. In addition, the first guide member 14
In the closed state, the angle formed between the recording paper and the guide member 14 may be an obtuse angle so that the recording paper contacts the guide member 14 and is smoothly guided downward into the storage space 15.

Furthermore, when the first guide member 14 is closed,
An open portion 2 at the upper end of the first guide member 14 allows the rear end of the sheet material to be reversed when a long type sheet material is stored.
0 is formed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the first guide member 14 is closed, the loop-shaped recording paper 6 is ejected between the upper end of the first guide member 14 and the upper case 22 and guide 23 of the main body l. The opening 20 is large enough to allow the

Therefore, the wedge-shaped storage space 15 of this storage tray 13
The leading end 6' of the recording paper 6 is introduced into the storage space, and at the same time the trailing end of the recording paper 6 that is continuously fed out is cut by the cutter 11, the elasticity of the paper is reduced. Due to the rotational force of the cutter blade, the trailing edge of the recording paper is reversed and fed out of the device, and the trailing edge of the recording paper 6 hangs out of the machine while the leading edge of the recording paper 6 is held in the machine by 6 degrees. Storing is completed when it is lowered, and the operation can be continued to store the next recording paper.

In the sheet material storage tray No. 1, the distance from the closing part 19 that grips the leading edge 6° of the recording paper 6 to the cutter 11 or roller or other final tJl stacking means is the length in the normal feeding direction of the recording paper used. If the recording paper is configured to be shorter than the length of A4 size recording paper, for example, a large number of recording papers can be held with the leading edge held by the above-mentioned closing part 19 and the trailing edge hanging outside the machine. The tray allows for secure storage. With this configuration, it is possible to hold a large number of long sheets in the storage tray that does not protrude from the image forming apparatus, and it is also possible to easily take out the sheets. Further, in such a configuration, since the sheet I and the material are each held in an inverted state on the tray, there is no need for the page alignment operation required in the conventional tray.

Here, the cutter 11 described in -1- will be explained. The cutter 11 includes a movable blade 11b that rotates around @b 11 a, and a fixed blade 11c that rotates m (+) with the movable blade.
The cutting edge 11b' of the movable blade 11b has a paper /
In order to sequentially cut the recording paper like scissors, the blade is inclined at a certain angle in the longitudinal direction as shown in FIG.

Therefore, the first warp part in the longitudinal direction of the blade 11b, that is, the number 7 in the figure? The gap lid surrounded by the two-dot chain line becomes larger, and there is a risk that the fingertips may come into contact with the cutting edge and injure the fingertips. In the illustrated structure, the above-mentioned guide 23. A guide surface 23° with an inclination angle matching the inclination of the cutting edge 11b'' of the movable blade flb is formed in the extension of the movable blade flb.Therefore, the gap between the cutting edge 11b° and the guide surface 23° in the longitudinal direction of the blade is 24 always changes at the same rate, and even when it is at its maximum width, a large gap lid into which the fingertip can fit is never formed, as shown in Fig. 7, and the fingertip touches the cutting edge 11b'. There is no risk of damage, i.e. guide 2 above.
3 not only serves to guide the loop-shaped recording paper 6 out of the apparatus, but also serves as a safety cover to protect the operator's fingertips.

Next, the operation of storing sheet materials in the sheet material storage tray according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 8 to 12.

First, the thermal recording paper 6 fed out from the roll 4 is heated in accordance with the information by the thermal head 7, and image information is recorded on the surface of the recording paper 6.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 8, the recording paper 6 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 5, passes the cutter 11, and the first guide member 14 forms a wedge-shaped or V-shaped storage space 15 at its tip. is abutted at an obtuse angle. that time,
As shown in FIG. 9, a plurality of ribs 25 are provided on the inner wall surface of the first guide member 14 to reduce the contact resistance with the leading edge of the recording paper and smoothly move the leading edge of the recording paper into the storage space 15 of the storage tray 13. lead it inside. At this time, due to the wedge effect, the leading end 6' of the recording paper 6 is wedged into the bottom closed part between the storage stations.

When the recording paper is continuously fed out in this state, the recording paper 6 forms a loop through the opening 20 as shown in Fig. 1O, and the recording paper 6 is sent out of the machine using the upper surface of the guide 23 and the end surface of the upper case 22 as guide surfaces. It is discharged, and finally, as shown in Fig. 11, it curls and hangs down outside the machine body.

When the cutter 11 operates in this state and cuts off the rear end of the recording paper 6, the recording paper hanging outside the machine is reversed in the direction of the arrow using its own weight and the rotational force of the cutter blade. This series of movements of the recording paper 6 is repeated until the recording paper 6 reaches the state shown in FIG. Recording paper sheets accumulate. At this time, the leading edge 6' of the recording paper
The first is a modification of the storage tray to more effectively hold the
Shown in Figures 3a, b, and c.

FIG. 13a shows a plate spring 26 at the bottom of the second guide member 16.
This shows a tray with a mark attached to ensure that the leading edge of the recording paper is held at 6°. In FIG. 13, a friction material 27 such as rubber is attached to the surface of the second kite member 16 to prevent the edge of the paper from shifting due to frictional force. In FIG. 13C, sawtooth-like unevenness 28 is provided on the surface of the second blade member, and the edge of the paper is hooked onto this to prevent the paper from shifting by one inch. Either structure is effective when combined with a figure-7 shaped groove.

In addition, when the accumulated recording paper exceeds the storage capacity of the tray, the first
When the guide member 14 is closed, the click mechanism that locks it to the jar 1 is automatically released by the weight of the recording paper 6, leaving the first guide member 14 open and clearing the jammed jar 1 inside the machine. It can be prevented in advance. Examples of the click mechanism are shown in FIGS. 14, 15, and 16. Figure 14 shows
A click mechanism using an elastic body such as a leaf spring 29 is shown.

FIG. 15 shows how the second kite member 16 is attached to the main body stay 17.
- A magnetic force type mechanism is shown in which a first guide member is provided with a magnet h31 that is magnetically attracted to the screw 30 that is being held. FIG. 16 shows that an electromagnet 32 is provided on the second guide member, and when the first guide member is attracted by the electromagnet 32 and a predetermined number of sheets are stored,
A click mechanism is shown in which the electromagnet 32 is turned off to release the magnetic force and open the first guide member 14.

As described above, the tray described above is configured so that it can be used with the first kite member 14 opened as shown in FIG.

When the first blocking member 14 is open as shown in FIG. 4, the recording paper 6 moves along the first guide member 14, and the first guide member 14 forms an ejection guide section. . It can also be used in an open state when the length of the recording paper is short, or conversely when it is too long. Therefore, when storing a larger amount of sheets, it is possible to connect and store an external tray 33 as shown in FIG. 17 while the first guide member 14 is open.

Also, when short sheet materials are stored in the tray,
In order to facilitate the removal of the sheet material from the storage space of the tray, it is preferable to provide a notch 34 at the end of the first guide member 14 as shown in FIG. Even paper 6 can be easily taken out from the side of the guide member.

In addition, in the case of a narrow sheet material, the first guide member 16
In order to take out the sheet material from the storage space of the tray in the closed state, it is preferable to provide an elongated hole 35 at the lower center of the first guide member 14, as shown in FIGS. 19a and 19b. As a result, if the sheet material is narrow in width, the sheet material can be easily taken out while the first kite member 14 remains closed.

As is clear from the explanation in J2 below, according to the present invention, the tip of the sheet material is inserted into the closed part at the bottom of the old seat storage space, and the rear end is turned over and hung outside the machine, thereby removing the special material from the machine body. The installation space of the machine can be significantly reduced without having to protrude a tray, and the effect can be obtained that the sheet materials can be stored in a well-aligned form regardless of the winding of the sheet materials. In addition, multiple sheets of sheet material can be stored in the i-Ray with the information side facing L and arranged in page order, which not only improves installation space but also improves operability such as handling of sheet materials. However, it has the effect of providing a significant improvement. In addition, since the sheet is introduced into the tray immediately after passing through the canter, there is no need for a discharge roller and the mechanism is simple, which can be expected to significantly reduce costs and improve reliability.

Further, unlike the conventional method of placing sheet materials on the tray L, the tray holds only the leading edge, so even extremely long sheet materials can be stored.

In the present invention, in order to more effectively hold the sheet material, a leaf spring friction piece or the like is attached to the tip holding portion, thereby making it possible to further increase the holding effect. Also,
By providing a safety mechanism that automatically opens the tray when the number of sheets in the tray reaches the storage capacity, jamming of sheet materials in the machine can be prevented in advance.

In addition, the tray section is opened according to the storage 1a of the sheet 1-kA, and by connecting an external tray, the structure can accommodate a large amount of sheet material.

Furthermore, by making a notch or an elongated portion in a part of the open/close tray, it is possible to create a configuration in which short or narrow paper can be taken out with the tray closed.

It also has the effect of increasing the safety of the cutter by attaching a safety cover to the cutter that adjusts to the inclination of the cutter's cutting edge and maintains a constant clearance from the cutting edge at all times.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to storing recording paper but also to storing original documents.

Further, in the above embodiment, only an apparatus for cutting continuous paper has been described, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus using pre-cut paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional facsimile machine, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a facsimile machine equipped with a tray according to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is an illustration of the facsimile machine shown in Fig. 2 with the recording paper storage section in a closed state. Figure 4 shows the view of the recording paper storage section opened.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the paper loop state in the paper storage section according to the present invention, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of the safety cover for preventing danger from the cutter edge. 8 to 12 are explanatory diagrams showing a series of movements of paper in the paper storage section of the tray of the present invention, and FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of an application example of the paper storage section of the tray of the present invention. Figures 14 to 16
The figure is an explanatory diagram of the click mechanism related to opening and closing of the paper storage section of the tray of the present invention, FIG.
Figures 9a and 9b are explanatory diagrams of a tray according to the present invention, in which the paper storage portion of the tray is provided with a notch or an elongated portion to store short paper or narrow paper. ■...Facsimile machine body 2...Document table 3...Optical system 4...Recording paper roll 5...Platen roller 6...
・Recording paper 6゛...Recording paper leading edge 7...Thermal head 8...Power supply section 9...Original 10...Original tray 11...Cutter 12...Recording paper tray 1
3... Sheet material storage tray 14 according to the present invention... First guide member 15... Sheet material storage space 16... Second guide member 17... Stay 18... Pin 19.
... Closed part 20 ... Open part 22 ... Upper case 23 ... Guy l' 24 ... Gap 25 ... Rib 26 ... Leaf spring 27 ... Friction material 28 ... Mine Shaped unevenness 29...
Leaf spring 30...Screw 3J...Magnet 32...' Upper magnet 33...
External tray 34... Notch 35... Oblong hole Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 1 Fig. 12 Fig. 13 Fig. 15 Fig. 16 'tx t Ru/ Figure (a)cb)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A sheet material storage tray provided near the bottom of the sheet output of the image forming apparatus includes a first guide member against which the leading edge of the discharged sheet comes into contact and guides the sheet downward, and a first guide member facing the first guide member. a second seat to form a seat storage space.
A narrow type closing part is formed at the lower part of the storage space to grip the leading edge of the sheet fed downward, and a long type of guide member is formed at the upper end of the tJSl guide member. A sheet material storage tray characterized by having an open part that allows the rear end of the sheet to be reversed.