JPS62136436A - Automatic sheet supply/exhaust device for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the cost by using one of the regions partitioned by a mobile partitioning member as a sheet supply part, and the other as a sheet exhaust part, and thereby suppressing the space to be used. CONSTITUTION:The inside of a sheet stacker 4 is divided into two regions by a partitioning member 8, wherein one bordered by said member 8 and a back plate 5 shall form a sheet supply part 9 while the other a sheet exhaust part 10. The sheet supply part 9 is to accommodate unprinted sheets 11 and the other, exhaust part 10, to stack the sheets which have undergone printing at the body 1 of printer. Thus all sheets, unprinted and printed, can be stacked in one common stacker 4, wherein increment in sheet exhaust part corresponds to decrement in the sheet supply part 9 to contribute to suppression of the total space for sheets accommodation.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Technique 1μ = The present invention is a printer that feeds paper set in a paper feed section to a printer main body, and receives and stacks printed paper fed from the printer main body into a paper discharge section. This invention relates to an automatic paper feed/discharge device.

Automatic paper feeding and discharging devices of the above type are well known in the art. In conventional devices of this kind, a paper feed section and a paper ejection section are provided separately, and the paper fed from the paper feed section and printed on by the printer body is sent to a paper ejection section separate from the paper feed section. be discharged.

For this reason, both a paper storage space in the paper feed section and a paper storage space in the paper discharge section are necessarily required, which inevitably increases the overall space and, by extension, the structure of the automatic paper feed and discharge device. Furthermore, since the paper feeding section and the paper discharging section must be constructed from separate members, the cost of the apparatus increases.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic paper feed/discharge device of the type described at the beginning, which can eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, eliminate wasted space, and reduce costs. be.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention proposes a configuration in which one region divided by a movably supported partition member is used as a paper feed section, and the other region is used as a paper discharge section.

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

Although a so-called daisy-wheel printer having a type wheel is shown as an example in one drawing, the present invention is naturally applicable to various printers such as wire dot printers, thermal printers, inkjet printers, and typewriters.

In FIG. 1, ■ indicates the printer main body, and 2 indicates the automatic paper feed/discharge device. The automatic paper feed/discharge device 2 may be integrally assembled in advance with the printer main body 1, or may be detachably mounted. Alternatively, it may be connected.

The automatic paper feed/discharge device 2 has a paper stacker 4 supported by a frame 3, only a portion of which is shown in FIG. and two side walls 7. Stacker 4
A partition member 8 is arranged inside. The inside of the stacker 4 is divided into two areas by the partition member 8, one area, that is, the area partitioned by the partition member 8 and the back plate 5, constitutes the paper feed section 9, and the other area is the paper ejection section. It constitutes a paper section 10. Paper 11 that has not yet been printed is set in the paper feed section 9, and the paper that has been printed by the printer main body 1 as described later is stacked in the paper discharge section IO.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, two shafts 12 rotatably pass through the partition member 8, and each end of the shafts 12 is connected to the stacker 4.
It passes through long holes 13 formed in each side wall 7 of. Pinions 14 are fixed to the ends of both shafts 12 protruding from each side wall 7, and these pinions 14
are engaged with the teeth of a rack 15 fixed to the outer surface of each side wall 7, respectively. The rack 15 extends parallel to each elongated hole 13. With this configuration, the partition member 8 can move in the front and rear directions A and B with respect to the stacker 4 while maintaining a state substantially parallel to the back plate 5.6 In the example shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, Although the partition member 8 is made up of two plates joined to each other and the shaft 12 is sandwiched between them, the partition member 8 is made up of one plate and the shaft 12 is sandwiched between them.
may be passed through. Further, the shaft 12 is fixed to the partition member 8,
It goes without saying that the pinion 12 may be rotatably supported with respect to the shaft 12.

A notch 16 is formed in the lower part of the back plate 5 and the bottom plate 6 of the stacker 4, into which a part of the feed roller 17 enters, and the circumferential surface of this roller 17 is inserted into the paper feed section 9 to feed the sheets 11
is in contact with the bottom of the The feed roller 17 is rotatably supported by the frame 3 in a manner known per se, and is rotationally driven in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 1 by a drive device (not shown).

In addition, each end of both shafts 12 and 4 protruding from the stacker 4
Each end of a tension spring 19 is engaged with the book pin 18, so that the lower part of the paper 11 in the paper feed section 9 is pressed against the circumferential surface of the feed roller 17 with an appropriate pressure.

Next, to explain the operation, to set the paper to be printed, pull the partition member 8 toward you (in the direction of the arrow) against the action of the four springs 19, and then pull the partition member 8 and the back plate 5 together. A large paper feed section space is formed between the two, and paper 11 is set therein as shown in FIG. 3(a). When the partition member 8 is pulled toward the front, each pinion 14 rotates while engaging with the rack 15, so that the partition member 8 can be moved toward the front without any hindrance.

After setting the paper, when the partition member 8 is released, the partition member 8 is pulled in the direction of arrow B by the spring 19, so that the lower part of the paper comes into pressure contact with the circumferential surface of the feeding roller 17. Next, as is well known, the feed roller 17 is driven to rotate in the counterclockwise direction in FIGS. 1 and 3(a) based on the paper feed signal.
The paper is sent out from the notch 16 at the bottom of the stacker by the frictional force between the stacker and the paper 11. The fed paper is fed to the feeding roller 17.

The friction pad 20 that is pressed against this roller 17 is sent between the two. At this time, even if a plurality of sheets overlap and are fed out from the stacker 4 at the same time, the paper that comes into contact with the feeding roller 17 (see FIG. 3(a) Only the paper (located at the top) is separated from the other papers and sent in the direction of arrow C, and is fed to the printer main body 1 as shown in FIG.

It is well known that it is advantageous to provide a regulating plate 26 on the pressure plate 6 of the stacker 4 and to allow the paper to pass through a predetermined gap between the plate 26 and the feeding roller 17.

As can be seen from FIG. 1, the paper sent to the printer main body 1 is wrapped around a platen 21 which is driven to rotate clockwise, and is conveyed by rollers 22 and 23 while being held down by a presser foot. When reaching the printing position P, the hammer 24 strikes the paper via the type on a type wheel (not shown) and the ink ribbon (also not shown), thereby printing a predetermined character on the paper. After printing, the paper is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by rotation of the platen 21, sent again to the automatic paper feed/discharge device 2, and discharged to the paper discharge section 10 of the stacker 4 by a pair of paper discharge rollers 25 of the unit W2. In FIG. 1, the stacked sheets of paper discharged to the paper discharge section 10 in this manner are shown with reference numeral 11'.

As mentioned above, the paper in the paper feed section 9 is fed one by one and after printing is ejected to the paper discharge section 10, so the number of sheets in the paper feed section 9 gradually decreases, and the number of sheets in the paper discharge section 10 decreases. (Fig. 1), the partition member 8 moves in the direction of arrow B while being pulled by the spring 19, and the paper 11 to be fed is always pressed against the feeding roller 17, and the predetermined feeding is carried out. Paper pressure can be generated. Also, when the partition member 8 moves in the direction of arrow B, the four pinions 1 rotatably supported by this member 8
4 rotates while meshing with each rack 15, the partition member 8 can reliably move in parallel and apply uniform pressure to the paper 11. FIG. 3(b) shows a state in which all the sheets in the sheet feeding section 9 have been fed and all the sheets 11' are stacked on the sheet discharging section 10.

The automatic sheet feeding/discharging device 2 shown above is formed into a common stacker 4 by having a sheet feeding section 9 and a sheet discharging section 10 separated by a partition member 8, and the sheets 11 to be fed are also separated. Printed sheets 11' are also stored in the same stacker 4. In other words, the reduced number of sheets fed from the sheet feed section 9 is stacked on the sheet discharge section 10, so that the number of sheets in the stacker is always approximately constant. Therefore, if there is a paper storage space for the number of sheets of paper 11 to be fed, printed sheets can also be stored, making it possible to reduce the total paper storage space.

Although it is advantageous to use the pinion 14 and the rack 15 as in the illustrated embodiment because the pressure on the paper can be made uniform, it is also possible to omit these in some cases. Further, if the weight of the stacked sheets 11.degree. 11' and the partition member 8 allows the sheet 11 to be fed to be pressed against the circumferential surface of the feeding roller 17, the spring 19 can be omitted. In particular, when the stacker 4 is arranged horizontally as shown in FIG. ' Since the weight of the partition member 8 can be increased, paper feeding mistakes can be prevented even if the spring I9 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is omitted.

In this case, the paper fed from the paper feed section 9 is ejected to the paper discharge section 10 above the paper feed section 9, so the weight of all the paper in the stacker 4 is always approximately constant, and the paper feed section Even if the number of sheets No. 9 decreases, the force with which the lowest sheet comes into pressure contact with the feeding roller 17 does not decrease, and a constant sheet feeding pressure is always obtained.

In the example of FIG. 4, the rack and pinion are also omitted, and the partition member 8
As shown in FIG. 7 may be provided.

Conversely, the shaft 12 and the elongated hole 13 can also be omitted from the structure shown in FIG. 4, and the paper feed section 9 and the paper discharge section 10 can be separated by simply arranging the partition member 8 inside the stacker. The other configurations in FIG. 4 are the same as those in the previous embodiment, so the same or similar parts are given the same reference numerals and redundant explanation will be omitted.

In the two embodiments described above, the partition member is formed of a plate-like member, but this member may be formed in other forms, such as a net-like body, a wire, or any other suitable form. Further, although the illustrated example uses a feeding roller and a friction pad to feed and separate sheets, it is clear that the present invention can be applied to an apparatus using other sheet feeding and separating means.

■According to the present invention, the paper feed section and the paper ejection section are formed by dividing each with a partition member. In comparison, the overall space and therefore the structure of the automatic paper feed/discharge device can be reduced in size. Furthermore, since the paper feed section and the paper discharge section can be formed by a common member such as the stacker in the illustrated embodiment, it is also possible to reduce the cost of the apparatus.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing the automatic paper feed/discharge device and printer main body according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a paper stacker, and Figs. 3(a) and (b) are views of the partition member during paper feeding. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a partial front view when a pinion and a rack are added to the apparatus shown in FIG. 4. ■...Printer main body 2...Automatic paper feed/discharge device 9...Paper feed section 10...Paper discharge section 11.
11'...Paper 14...Pinion 15...
rack

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) It is movable in the printer's automatic paper feed/discharge device, which feeds the paper set in the paper feed section to the printer body, and receives and stacks the printed paper sent out from the printer body into the paper discharge section. The automatic sheet feeding and discharging device described above, wherein one area divided by the supported partition member is used as a paper feeding section, and the other area is used as a paper discharging section. (2) The automatic paper feed/discharge device according to claim 1, wherein a rotatable pinion is attached to the partition member, and the pinion is engaged with a fixedly arranged rack.