JPS61217468A - Paper sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the durability while to prevent curling of sorted paper by discharging only the uppermost or the lowermost sheet in paper bundle to be sorted against other paper bundles to projected position. CONSTITUTION:Rotatable paper discharge rollers 18, 19 are arranged movably in perpendicular against the paper feed direction (thrust direction). Upon receiving of a sorting signal, a plunger 25 will function to operate said rollers 18, 19 in thrust direction through a rolling board 22. Here, a paper held between said rollers 18, 19 will move by same distance (l) and mounted at that position. During when next paper is fed into said rollers 18, 19 (l'), the plunger 25 is turned off and reset through a spring 23. Consequently, each set of paper bundle can be sorted reliably resulting in prevention of paper curl and improvement of the durability of device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field) The present invention relates to an apparatus for sorting sheets discharged from an image recording apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine.

(Prior Art) There are cases where it is necessary to sort sheets discharged from an image recording apparatus into a predetermined number of sheets.

For example, when making multiple copies of a set of manuscripts in page order, it is desirable to separate each copy from the others.Also, when copying many copies of a single manuscript, for example, 10 A possible usage mode is to sort the sheets one by one.

For this reason, various types of paper sorting devices have been proposed in the past.

Figure 5 (al, (bl) shows the most common form of paper sorting.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5(a), if one sort is considered as a unit of paper bundles P+, Pt, Ps-...-=P, which are discharged onto the receiving plate, first, P is When the paper stack P8 is ejected to the predetermined position on the receiving plate L, the next paper bundle P8 is shifted (protruded) to the right in the figure and is ejected, and then the next paper stack P is ejected back to the original ejection position. Thereafter, the stacks of sheets to be sorted in the same manner are alternately discharged.

Various mechanisms have been proposed for ejecting and stacking paper bundles by alternating their positions. These include those that control and sort the sheets by changing the traveling direction of the sheets, and those that provide an external sheet moving means to sort the sheets after being ejected.

However, in either mechanism, the sorting in FIG. 5 is based on the positions Pt, P4. In the case of position P, all sorting operations would be repeated, which could cause problems in durability. Also, the sorted paper is shown in Figure 5 (
Like bl, both ends hang downward, resulting in curly curls.

(Objective) It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper sorting device which eliminates the drawbacks of the conventional example, has high durability, and does not cause curling of the paper during sorting.

(Structure) For this purpose, the present invention is characterized in that only one of the top or bottom sheets of the paper stack to be sorted is ejected to a position that projects from other paper stacks. It is something to do.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an internal mechanism diagram of a laser printer using a paper sorting device according to the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is an OPC (organic photoconductor) belt,
Around this area, there are provided artist equipment such as a charger 2, an optical writing section consisting of an optical unit 3 and a laser tube 4, a developing section consisting of toner 5 and a developing roller 6, a static elimination lamp 7, and a cleaning roller 8. Reference numeral 9 denotes a paper feed tray, in which the paper is fed by a prefeed roller 10, separated into one sheet by a feed roller 11 and a separation roller 12, and delivered to a conveyance roller (registration roller) 13.

Here, the image is synchronized with the image on the OPC belt l, and under the action of the transfer charger 14, the image is transferred to the paper. The paper further passes through a fixing section consisting of a fixing roller 15, a pressure roller 16, and a pair of fixing and discharging rollers 17, and then reaches the upper discharging roller 1.
8. The paper reaches the upper paper ejection roller 19, and is ejected onto the paper ejection tray 20 formed on the main body by this pair of rollers.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the pair of paper ejection rollers, showing the positional relationship with the paper.

Further, FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the main parts centering on this paper ejecting section, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a drive mechanism for a pair of paper ejecting rollers.

As shown in this figure, the present invention is characterized in that rotatable paper ejection rollers 18 and 19 are movable in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction (thrust direction). , is at the solid line position in Figure 2, and the paper is also at the position shown by the solid line, but when sorting the paper, when the sorting signal is received, the trailing edge of the paper is fixed by the fixing roller (or ejection roller in machines with paper ejection rollers). After passing the paper roller 1B, the plunger 25 shown in FIG.
19 in the thrust direction. At this time, since the paper is sandwiched only between the paper ejection rollers 18 and 19, it moves by the same distance together with the paper ejection rollers 1B and 19 (l in FIG. 2 is the amount of movement).

Therefore, the ejected sheets are stacked at a position W (the chain line position in FIG. 2), which is different from the normal position.

The plunger 25 is turned off while the next sheet is fed to the paper ejection rollers 18 and 19 (FIG. 3, 1'), and the zero-order sheet is returned to its original position by the spring 23. If the zero-order sheet also moves, Repeat the same action.

To describe the thrust operation of the upper paper discharge roller 18 and the upper paper discharge roller 19 in more detail, the tip of the swing plate 22 pulled by the plunger 25
The upper discharge roller 19 moves together with the swing plate 22 by engaging with a ring-shaped engagement groove 26 fixed to the upper paper discharge roller 19 .

The upper paper ejection roller 18 that presses against this is also driven and thrust. 24 is a stop pin of the swing plate 22.

Further, in FIG. 3, 21 is a paper guide.

According to the present invention, the plunger 25 only needs to be turned on when either the lowest sheet or the highest sheet of the stack of sheets comes to the position of the pair of sheet discharge rollers 18 and 19.

Although the control is not particularly shown, the number of copies of 1 & l is stored in the memory of the control unit manually, and this is counted every time a copy is detected by a sensor (not shown) in the paper ejection unit. It is sufficient to drive the plunger with a signal when the number of sheets matches the set number of sheets. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, only one sheet of the sorting portion will be protruded. Therefore, the same ID
(The camphor tree shown in BL only has one piece hanging down slightly, and there is no curl on the whole.

(Effects) The present invention is as described above, and according to the paper sorting device according to the present invention, the paper bundles for each group are reliably sorted, and unlike the conventional method, the paper does not become curly. It also measures the durability of the device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal mechanism diagram of a laser printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the paper ejection roller and paper, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the paper ejection section. Fig. 4 is a diagram of the drive mechanism of the paper ejection roller, Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the mode of paper sorting according to the conventional example, and Fig. 6 (a) and (bl are according to the present invention). The paper sorting is a diagram showing the mode. 18, 1!1l-----Pair of paper ejection rollers, 2
5-...- Plunger. ) TB Fi:I 't'ITfA O 2 Akira JP Sai 422N 25 ((1) (b
)65E1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a paper sorting device that sorts sheets ejected from an image recording device into different discharge positions, one of the top or bottom sheets of a stack of paper to be sorted with respect to another stack of paper is placed in a stack of paper. A paper sorting device characterized in that the paper is ejected to different protruding positions.