JPS6217763A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve operability by mounting a paper feeding cassette with the downstream side end coming this side along the direction of paper feeding, discharging the paper in the direction substantially opposite to the direction of mounting of the cassette, and making operation related to feeding and discharging of the paper from one side of the main body of the device. CONSTITUTION:A paper feeding cassette 26 is mounted to the inner bottom of the main body of the device 1 attachably and detachably in the same direction with the direction of manual paper feeding, and placed with the downstream side end coming to this side. A paper discharging guide 46 that forms a discharging passage for inverting and discharging recording paper after fixing is provided in the downstream side of a fixing device consisting of a heating roller 43 and a pressure roller 44. As the discharging passage is curved, it allows paper discharging in substantially opposite direction to the direction of mounting of the cassette 26. Thus, operation related to paper feeding and discharging can be made from one side of the body of the device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, an LHDC light emitting diode (LHDC) printer, etc., and in particular an apparatus in which all operations related to paper feeding and ejection can be performed from one side. It is.

(B) Conventional technology In some conventional printers and electronic copying machines, the mounting direction of the paper feed cassette and the paper ejection direction are opposite, and there is a difference of 1 between the paper feed direction in the paper feed path and the paper ejection direction. also exists.

In the former, the paper feed cassette is attached to the device main body with the upstream end facing toward you along the paper feeding direction, and this upstream end protrudes toward the near side from the device main body. .

Furthermore, in the latter case, the paper feed cassette is mounted on the side opposite to the manual paper feed side, and operations related to paper feed and ejection cannot all be performed from one side.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention As mentioned above, in the conventional technology, it is not possible to perform all operations related to paper feed and ejection from one side, or even if this operation can be performed, the paper feed cassette The upstream end of the machine protruded toward the front, making it difficult to operate.On the other hand, in recent years, so-called office automation equipment has developed, and printers and copying machines have come into widespread use. , high operability is increasingly required. Therefore,
There is a long-awaited device in which all operations related to paper feeding and ejection can be performed on one side of the main body of the device, and in which the paper feeding cassette does not protrude toward the front.The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above. The present invention aims to realize an image forming apparatus with high operability.

B) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has a device main body that includes means for forming a latent image on a latent image carrier, means for transferring a toner image onto recording paper, and recording paper. A paper feed cassette, an automatic paper feed path that guides the recording paper in the paper cassette to the transfer means, a manual paper feed path that communicates with the automatic paper feed path, and an ejector that discharges the recording paper on which the toner image has been transferred. In an image forming apparatus having an internal paper path, the paper feed cassette is detachably attached to the main body of the apparatus so that the downstream end faces toward the front along the paper feed direction, and the paper feed cassette is detachably attached to the main body of the apparatus so that the downstream end faces toward the front along the paper feed direction. The passage is configured to allow paper to be fed in substantially the same direction as the mounting direction of the paper feed cassette, and the paper discharge passage is configured to allow paper to be discharged in a direction substantially opposite to the mounting direction of the paper feed cassette. An image forming apparatus is characterized in that it is configured as follows.

(e) Function In the present invention, the paper feed cassette is installed so that the downstream end is on the front side along the paper feeding direction, and the manual paper feed slot is provided on the front side, and the paper ejection port is also provided on the front side. Since it is provided on the front side, all operations related to feeding and discharging paper can be performed from one side of the main body of the apparatus.

(v) Embodiment The drawings all show an LED printer as an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the state with the right side cover opened, FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the downstream edge of the paper feed cassette. FIG.

A photoreceptor drum (2) is rotatably installed inside the apparatus main body (1). The photoreceptor drum (2) is a cylindrical aluminum layer whose outer peripheral surface is coated with a polyvinyl carbazole photoreceptor, which is a positively charged organic photoconductive material. On the top of the photosensitive drum (21), there is a monolithic LED array (4) extending in a direction parallel to the rotational axis (3) of the photosensitive drum (21) (perpendicular to the plane of the paper).
A short focus lens array extending parallel to the monolithic LED array (4) for projecting and forming the optical image formed by the monolithic LED array (4) onto the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum (2). (5) is provided.

Further, a charging corotron (6) for uniformly positively charging (approximately 600 V) the photosensitive drum (2) is fixedly installed upstream of the short focus lens row (5).

On the downstream side of the short focus lens array (5), the charging lens;
A developing device (8) for developing with toner an electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor drum (2) by a rotron (6), a monolithic LED array (4), a short focus lens array (5), etc. ) is provided. This developing device (8) includes a magnet (H-) for conveying a developing agent consisting of a mixture of toner and carrier toward the surface of the photoreceptor drum (2).
Nia (9),! -1) A rotatably built-in screw ααaω for mixing the toner and the carrier.

ajl/fi A toner hopper that is integrally fixed on the upper part of the developing device (8). At the bottom of this toner hopper (111), the toner stored inside is transferred to the developing device (8).
) is provided with a toner supply roller for supplying toner in small quantities.

The developing device (8) has projecting parts projecting to the lower left and upper right, respectively,
A guide piece (131 (141) is fixedly installed, and the free edge of this guide piece α3 (1410) extends in a direction parallel to the rotation axis (3) line of the photoreceptor drum (2). A fixed guide rail with a U-shaped cross section (151a6
It is slidably attached to 1. In addition, this developing device (
8) At the bottom, there is a spring (In
0 Below the developing device (8), a first guide αg, a second guide 9, and a fifth guide (20
are arranged in series in parallel, a pair of manual feed rollers (211) is provided between the first guide αa and the second guide (19), and a pair of manual feed rollers (211) is provided between the second guide unit and the third guide (2). A register roller pair 12S5 (231) is provided. A manual paper feed slot (231) is provided on the upstream side (left side) of the first guide (181)
241 has been established.

The second guide α9 has a horizontal portion and a vertical portion, and the vertical portion forms an automatic sheet feeding path. Therefore, the manual paper feed path and the automatic paper feed path merge and communicate on this second guide α9. Near the lower end of this second guide α9, a conveyance roller (25
1 is provided.

■ is a paper feed cassette that is removably installed in the inner bottom of the device main body (11) in the same direction as the manual paper feed direction (right direction), and the handle part is attached to the downstream side along the paper feed direction. An idler (support) is rotatably attached to the handle of the paper feed cassette (■), and by attaching the paper feed cassette (■) to the apparatus main body (11), it is connected to the conveyance roller. The rotating shaft is held by a leaf spring so as to be pressed against the paper feed cassette core.A truncated conical coil spring C11l is attached to the downstream end of the inner bottom of the paper feed cassette core, and a coil spring C11l is attached to the upper part of this coil spring 3D. , the vicinity of the downstream end of the support plate (to) on which the recording paper is loaded is placed.The upstream edge of the support plate area is swingably mounted on the inner bottom of the paper feed cassette (■). In addition, a pair of corner separators (33 (1) are provided at the downstream corner of the paper feed cassette (2) to separate the recording sheets one by one. A rubber paper feed cooler with a cutout □□□ is provided above near the downstream end to feed copy paper one sheet at a time. ( (to) is a low-friction material made of plastic or the like to prevent the notch (to) of the paper feed roller (to) from coming into contact with the copy paper when the notch (to) faces the copy paper. The idler is made of a material and is loosely fitted to the support shaft of the paper feed roller (to) so as to be freely rotatable.

Since the manual paper feed path and automatic paper feed path are configured as described above, manually fed recording paper is fed linearly from left to right, and automatically fed recording paper is fed straight from the left to the right. After moving forward once to the left, it is reversed (U-turned) and fed to the right.
) is provided with a transfer corotron (c) for transferring the developed toner edge onto recording paper. This transfer corotron is the rotating shaft (3) of the photoreceptor drum (2)! It is inserted so that it can be inserted and removed in a direction parallel to the Further, on the downstream side of the transfer corotron (381), a peeling pawl for peeling the recording paper from the photosensitive drum (2) is provided adjacently. [Of G1υ, it is rotatably mounted on the support shaft of the upper roller (G), and its tip is urged to rotate toward the photoreceptor drum (2).

On the downstream side of the peeling claw, there is provided a fixing device that includes a heat roller into which a halogen lamp of about 800 W is inserted, and a pressure roller that is pressed against the heat roller. Note that a felt sheet impregnated with silicone oil is pressed onto the upper part of the heat roller.

On the downstream side of the fixing device, the recording paper after fixing is reversed (U
A paper ejection guide (2) is provided that forms a paper ejection path for ejecting the paper by turning the paper. In addition, there is a pair of conveyor rollers at the central part of this paper ejection guide and one pair at the ejection port, respectively.
-A group is provided.

Since this paper discharge path is curved as described above, it is configured to allow paper to be discharged in a direction substantially opposite to the mounting direction of the paper feed cassette (2).

Note that a paper ejection port 6D facing the operator side (left side) is provided at the downstream end of the paper ejection path, and this paper ejection port g
A discharge part is formed on the downstream side of the peeling claw (2).On the downstream side (upper side in the figure) of the peeling claw (2) along the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum (2), there is a part of the peeling claw (2) that cannot be completely transferred to the recording paper.
A cleaning device Q is provided for removing toner remaining on the photosensitive drum (2). The opening of this cleaning device includes a rubber blade for scraping off residual toner on the photoreceptor drum (2), and a rubber blade for scraping off residual toner on the photosensitive drum (2).
A screw conveyor is built in to discharge the toner scraped off by the machine. Further, the blade is provided with a spring force that urges the blade counterclockwise, that is, the leading edge toward the photosensitive drum (2). An erase lamp Iη for removing all residual charges on the photoreceptor drum (2) is provided on the downstream side (upper side in FIG. C) of the cleaning device.

In addition, various operation switches (to) are provided on the front side of the device body (11).

The photosensitive drum (2) and the cleaning device opening are mounted on the same chassis wheel, and they are integrally attached to the main body of the device (11) in a removable manner (see Fig. 1). Then, an electrostatic latent image is formed by the LED array (4) and the short focus lens array (5) on the surface of the photoreceptor drum (2), which is uniformly charged by the charging coat (6). is,
This electrostatic latent image is developed with toner by a developing device (8). Meanwhile, in synchronization with the formation of the electrostatic latent image, the paper feed roller for automatic paper feeding, the pair of register rollers in the pair of transport rollers rotate, and the recording paper passes through the automatic paper feed path. It is reversed and fed between the photosensitive drum (2) and the transfer corotron. Then, the toner image on the photoreceptor drum (2) is transferred to the recording paper by the transfer corotron,
The recording paper onto which the toner image has been transferred is fixed by a fixing device, passes through a paper discharge path, is turned over again, and is discharged onto a paper discharge section.

Therefore, the recording papers are stacked one after another with the recording side facing down (face down) above the paper ejection section opening, so when this stack of recording papers is turned over, the first page will be located at the top. In particular, there is no need to perform so-called page alignment.

()l Effects of the Invention In the present invention, the paper feed cassette is installed so that the downstream end is on the front side along the paper feeding direction, and the manual paper feed port is provided on the front side. Since the paper slot is also provided on the front side, all operations related to feeding and discharging paper can be performed from one side of the main body of the apparatus.

Further, the paper feed cassette does not protrude toward the operator.

Therefore, it is possible to realize a groove forming device with high operability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings all show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view, FIG. 2 is an overall internal configuration diagram, and FIG. 5 is a main part configuration diagram.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the paper feed cassette. (11...apparatus main body, +21-...photosensitive drum,
(41-I. ED array, (8)-@11 device, a8i・$
1 Kai)', α9...Second guide, ■...Third
Guide, +24) - Manual paper feed slot, ■... Paper feed cassette, Link... Corotron for transfer, ■... Paper ejection guide, 匈... Paper ejection port.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A latent image carrier, means for forming a latent image on the latent image carrier, means for transferring a toner image onto recording paper, and recording paper are stacked and housed in the main body of the apparatus. a paper feed cassette, an automatic paper feed path that guides the recording paper in the paper feed cassette to the transfer means,
In an image forming apparatus that is equipped with a manual paper feed path that communicates with an automatic paper feed path and a paper ejection path that ejects recording paper on which a toner image has been transferred, the paper feed cassette is arranged along the paper feed direction. The manual paper feeding path is configured to allow paper feeding in substantially the same direction as the mounting direction of the paper feeding cassette. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper ejection path is configured to allow ejection of paper in a direction substantially opposite to the mounting direction of the paper feed cassette.