JPS6097150A - Sheet-material guiding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To certainly transport a sheet material having the deformation such as waving, curl, etc. into the rolling contact part of a transport roller by arranging a pair of guide means in thinning state in nearly V form towards the rolling contact part, onto the feeding-in side of a pair of transport rollers. CONSTITUTION:In a copying machine, the form sheet P transported one by one in separated state from a cassette is sent into a photosensor side at a prescribed timing through the rolling-contact part 12 of a pair of aligning rollers 9 and 10 as transporting rollers. In this case, a pair of guide means 16 and 17 are arranged in the thinning state in nearly V form towards the rolling contact part 12. An upper guide means 17 is constituted by installing a flexible thin-plate member 22 onto an upwardly guiding member 21 which is formed by bending a plate member. The top edge parts 16a and 17a of the both guide means 16 and 17 which are set oppositely to the rolling contact part 12 are formed into nozzle form, and a form-sheet carrying-in port 23 is formed therebetween.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a sheet guiding device that guides sheets being sent to a pair of transfer rollers that roll into contact with each other.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

This type of sheet guide device is used, for example, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, to transfer sheets such as copy paper to an image bearing member such as a photoreceptor drum from a sheet supply unit such as a paper feed cassette, and transfer the sheets to the image bearing member such as a photoreceptor drum. When sequentially feeding in response to a forming operation cycle, sheets are placed on the feed side of a pair of transfer rollers, such as an aligning roller, placed in the course of feeding, and the sheets are transferred to the rolling contact portion of the pair of transfer rollers. It serves as a guide.

Conventionally, the guide members constituting the guide device are:
It is roughly arranged along the feeding path between the sheet supply section and the transport roller, and has the effect of guiding the sheets so that they do not come off the conveyance path, and this is considered to be sufficient. was.

However, various problems have now arisen due to demands for faster sorting and higher image quality.

In other words, if there is deformation such as so-called wavy curling along the width direction of the front end of the sheet being fed into the transfer roller contact section, the biting of the sheet against the roller will vary in the width direction. The sheets often become partially twisted and wrinkled, or the sheets are fed in an inclined state in a so-called "ski-like" state, which often causes trouble in image formation on the image carrier. In particular, when the sheets are thin, they have a weak stiffness, so there is a remarkable tendency for them to cause wavy curls. Furthermore, even if the sheet is of a paper quality that does not undergo the above deformation, if it is fed into a recess with a slight inclination in the width direction from the supply section to the roll contact section, for example, it may not be able to reach the roll contact section in that state. Problems with digging in and causing skew were rare.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to prevent sorting from occurring in the width direction even if the sorted items have deformations such as wavy curls or are fed in an inclined state. To provide a sheet guiding device which has a simple structure and can perform an excellent guiding function, capable of guiding sheets straightly toward a rolling contact part of a transfer roller without variation along the line.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a pair of guide means on the feeding side of the transfer roller so as to be tapered toward the rolling contact portion of the transfer roller so as to form a substantially V-shape. A sorting material inlet facing the rolling contact portion is formed between the tip portions of the pair of guide means.

Then, one tip of the guide means, for example,
The other guide means also extends further toward the rolling contact portion, and its tip portion is configured to be brought close to one of the opposing transfer rollers.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The drawings show a sheet guide device of the present invention, an image forming device,
In particular, it shows an embodiment applied to a copying machine.

In FIG. 1, 1 is the main body of the copying machine, 2 is a document table that moves back and forth on the main body 1, 3 is a drum-shaped photoreceptor that serves as an image carrier disposed in the center of the main body I, and 4 is a part of the main body 1. This is a paper feed cassette that is attached to the side and stores copy paper P as sheets.

5- Around the photoconductor 3, a developing device 5, a transfer/separation charger 6, a cleaning device 7, and a static eliminator 8, which work together to form an image forming section, are arranged along the rotation direction of the photoconductor 3 shown by the arrow. It is arranged as follows.

In order to feed the paper P to the photoconductor 3 from the cassette 4 which constitutes a sheet supply section, there is a holder on the front side of the photoconductor 3, a tab, and an upstream side in the direction of the paper P feeding path A indicated by the broken line.
a pair of aligning rollers 9 constituting the transfer roller;
10 are arranged in a crossed state.

The paper PQtI is driven by a paper feed row 211 placed opposite the cassette 4. The row 211 is driven to rotate intermittently in synchronization with the rotation of the photoreceptor 3, and the rollers 9 and 10 are rotated one by one to feed each sheet of paper Pffi in the cassette 4.
is fed to the transfer contact section 12 (FIG. 3).

Aligning rollers 9 and 10 are normally in a stopped state, but they rotate in unison at the same time as the photoconductor rotates 30 times, and when the toner image on the photoconductor 3 reaches a specified rotational position, the alignment rollers 9 and 10 are in a stopped state. The paper P waiting at the contact portion 6-12 is bitten and sent to the photoreceptor 3 along the feeding path A.

The fed paper P receives the image transfer on the photoreceptor 3, is separated from the photoreceptor 3, and is conveyed along a path A to the next fixing device (not shown).

One row 29 of the aligning rollers 9 and 10 is the driving row 2, and the other roller 10 is the driven roller, and as shown in FIG. It has a structure divided into multiple roller parts.

Of course, these rows 29 and 10 may each be composed of a single roller that is long in the axial direction.

Note that Z3, which is placed close to the upstream side (hereinafter referred to as the feeding side) where the paper P is fed into the rollers 9 and 10, is manually operated from the manual feed section I4 provided at the top of the cassette 4. The detection lever 15 for the fed paper P is a detection switch that is actuated by the detection operation of the lever to initiate rotation of the rollers 9 and 10. On the other hand, in the case of automatic paper feeding from the cassette 4 to the paper feed row 211, the lever 13
doesn't work.

In such a configuration, the sheet guide device of the present invention includes a pair of aligning rollers 9 and 10 as transfer rollers.
A pair of guide means 16 and 17 are arranged on the feeding side of the rollers 9 and 10, and the guide means taper into a substantially V-shape toward the rolling contact portion 12 of the rollers 9 and 10. One guide means 16 is fixed to the frame 1B of the main body 1 by a bolt Z9 (FIG. 1), and is a lower guide member formed by bending a plate material. The other guide means 17 is attached to the frame I8 of the main body I? An upper guide member 21 fixed by a seat 20 (Fig. 3) and formed by bending a plate material.
and a flexible thin plate member 22 fixed thereto.

Tip portions 16a, 1 of both guide stages facing the rolling contact portion 12
7a is in the shape of a nozzle, and an inlet 23 for paper P is formed therebetween. Since both of these means 16 and 17 are elongated in the axial direction or width direction parallel to the rollers 9 and 10, the entrance 23 forms a parallel slit facing the transfer section 12.

The flexible sheet member 22 is preferably made of a plastic sheet such as Mylar (trade name), but may also be a leaf spring. This thin plate member 22 is fixed to the lower side of the upper guide member 2I by an appropriate method such as adhesion, and the tip end 16a of the other lower guide member also extends further toward the rolling contact portion 12. Tip part Z7a close to the circumferential surface of one roller 9
It consists of

The gap G between this tip portion 17 and the corresponding roller 9 is set to 1113 or less at the closest portion. In the case of the embodiment, the closest part is located at the relationship between the tip of the thin plate member 22 and the roller, but if the tip of the thin plate member 22 is curved outward, which is different from the embodiment, The contact portion will be located slightly inward from the tip of the thin plate member 22. With the above structure, as shown in FIG. .17
When the leading edge PIL of the paper P passes through the inlet 23 and heads toward the rolling contact part 12 of the rollers 9 and 10, the leading edge 171L of the thin plate member 22 presses the leading edge P from above. Then, it is stopped at the narrowed gap G between this member 22 and the corresponding roller 9. At this time, the roller 9°1
0 has not yet started rotating.

That is, the leading end Pa of the paper P is regulated in its advancing direction at the V-shaped slit entrance 23 and stopped at the gap G before reaching the transition section 12. The leading end Pa of the thread shown is held in a slightly upwardly convex and slightly curved state. In this state, the leading end Pa of the paper P has a light biasing force in the direction of restoration from the concave state.

Therefore, at the leading end Pa of the paper P, for example, P' as shown in FIG.
As shown in Figure 3, even if there is a deformation such as a wavy curl, it is suppressed and corrected by the upper and lower guide means 16 and 17 and placed at the position 10- in Fig. 3, at any location in the width direction. Retained. Father, even if the paper is slightly tilted toward the rolling contact section 12 along the arrow, as shown by P# in Fig. 2,
Since the leading edge of the paper is stopped in the narrow area of the gap G, the position is corrected so that the inclined state is parallel to the row 29.10.

For this reason, the rollers 9 and 10 move with the arrow (
When the paper P is rotated in the direction shown in FIG. 3), the paper P is fed out toward the photoreceptor 3 in a uniform and parallel state.

Although the embodiments have been described above, one guide means 17 may be constructed entirely of a flexible thin plate member, for example.

Further, although it is desirable that the tip portion Z7a be made of a flexible material as in the embodiment, it may be made of a rigid member.

In any case, it goes without saying that the guide device of the present invention can be modified in various ways, and can be applied to a wide variety of sheet conveyance systems other than copying machines as in the embodiments.

11- Plate member, 23... Loading entrance.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, even sheets with deformations such as wavy curls can be corrected and guided to a predetermined position by a pair of guide means forming a figure 7 shape.
The sheets can be conveyed in a uniform position across the width of the sheets and can be bitten together.

Therefore, there is no variation in the sheets sent out from the transport roller, and it is possible to perform processing such as high-quality image formation, and it is possible to provide a sheet guiding device with a simple structure and excellent functionality. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway vertical cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a copying machine to which the sheet guide device of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the essential parts of the sheet guide device shown in FIG. 1 in the width direction. Explanatory diagram, 3rd
The figure is an enlarged view of the sheet guide device. 9.10... Aligning roller, 12... Rolling contact part, 16.27... Guide means, 22... Flexible thin 1
2- Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue 13- Procedural amendment ■, Indication of case Japanese Patent Application No. 58-203820 2, Title of invention sheet No. 1 Guide device 3, Person making the amendment Relationship with the case Patent Applicant (307) Toshiba Corporation 4, Agent 5, Spontaneous amendment 6, Specification subject to amendment, Drawing 1982 4J] 2 Date Name I, i, Changed (all at once) 7, Contents of amendment (1) The scope of claims is amended as shown in the attached sheet. +21 Specification, page 4, line 18 to page 5, line 4, ``The present invention is...'' has been replaced with ``The present invention is...''
In order to achieve this purpose, one of the transfer rollers of a pair of transfer rollers that are in rotational contact with each other, the leading end of the guide means, and the tip of the guide means are arranged so as to taper in a substantially ■-shape toward the rotational contact portion. It forms the space between the walls and the entrance for transporting sheets. ” he corrected. (3) Similarly, on page 7, lines 16-17, delete the text "by manual operation of cassette 4". (4) Similarly, from page 7, line 20 to page 8, line 2, delete the words ``On the other hand, I don't work.'' (5) Similarly, from the 1st line from the bottom of page 9 to the 7th line of page 11, the phrase ``As above; 2... will be done.'' has been replaced with ``As above (as the two have been constructed, As shown in FIG. , the leading end 17a of the thin plate member 22 and the narrowed gap G between the corresponding roller 9. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. (6) Similarly, page 11, line 11, ``It is delivered.'' Even if there is a deformation such as a two-wave curl, it is corrected and sent to the transfer section 12. After a certain point (2.) Also, since the tip 17a of the guide means 17 is made of a flexible thin plate member, even if the tip 17a comes into contact with the transfer roller 9X, it will not damage the roller surface or cause unnecessary damage. One transfer roller 9 is made of a material with low frictional resistance to the other transfer roller 10, for example, a resin such as polyacetal or a metal roller, and the other transfer roller 10 is a rubber roller. The guide means 17 is configured so that the leading edge of the paper first (or twice) contacts the roller 9 with low frictional resistance without first contacting the roller 101 with high frictional resistance, and smoothly moves the roller pair 9, 10.
It is designed to slide into the contact point of the ” to join. (7) Figures 2 and 3 of the drawings will be corrected as shown in the attached sheet. 2. Scope of Claims (1) A pair of transfer rollers that are in rolling contact with each other, and a rolling contact portion of the transfer rollers. A sheet guide device characterized in that a sheet type guiding device is formed. (2) The gap between the leading end of the guide means and one of the transfer rollers facing the guide means is set to
A sheet guide device according to claim 1, which has a diameter of U or less. (3) The tip of the guide means is set so that the tip of the guide means is
The sheet guide device according to claim 1, which extends toward the rolling contact portion of the transfer roller. (4) The sheet guiding device according to claim 1, wherein the leading end of the guiding means is constructed of a flexible thin plate member. (5) The sheet guide device according to claim 4, wherein the flexible thin plate member is made of a plastic sheet. (6) The sheet guide device according to claim 4, wherein the flexible thin plate member is a plate spring.

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) It guides the sheets being fed to a pair of transfer rollers that are in rolling contact with each other, and on the feeding side of the transfer rollers, the pair of guide means is arranged approximately toward the rolling contact portion of the transfer rollers. A sheet guide device, characterized in that the pair of guide means are arranged in a tapered V-shape, and a sheet carry-in port facing the rolling contact portion is formed between the tip ends of the pair of guide means. (2) The sheet guide device according to claim 1, wherein the gap between the leading end of the one guiding means and the one conveying roller opposing the leading end is 1 mm or less at the closest portion. (3) The sheet guide device according to claim 1, wherein the tip of the one guide means extends further toward the rolling contact portion of the transfer roller than the other guide means. (4) The sheet guide device according to claim 1, wherein the tip of the one guide means is constructed of a flexible thin plate member. (5) The tote guide device according to claim 4, wherein the flexible thin plate member is a f-cystic sheet. (6) The notebook guide device according to claim 4, wherein the flexible thin plate member is a plate spring.