JPS62215464A - Sheet assorting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the disarranged piling of sheets by constituting a tray so that the sheet on the tray is supported in circular form by the shape of the sectional surface vertical to the discharge direction, in a divide which discharges the sheets onto the tray, assorting the sheets in the right and left directions. CONSTITUTION:In a sheet assorting device 2 installed onto an image forming device 1, an assorting driving roller 9 for changing the transport direction for the discharged sheets to a prescribed angle and an assorting trailing roller 6 are installed in pairs, in order to count the number of discharged sheets and assort the sheets into each previously set number of sheets. The paper sheets discharged by these roller pairs 9 and 6 are loaded and piled onto a tray 4. In this case, the shape of the tray 4 is formed so that the center part is high in mountain form and the ridge line 43 is inclined upwardly along the direction of discharge, and the top edge part is gradually spread in width. Therefore, the lifting-up or projection of the sheet side edge part is prevented, and the favourable piled state of sheets can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a sheet sorting device that is attached to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a page printer.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, the sheet sorting apparatus used in image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printing machines, and page printers uses a single flat sheet as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-217957. There are those that move a shaped discharge sheet tray a fixed distance from the discharge port of the discharge sheets and sort them on a single tray plane, and those that are disclosed in Hotoku≠Sho 55-39515. By dividing a pair of paper ejection rollers in the axial direction and giving different peripheral speeds to each roller, the paper is ejected in a different direction, and the paper is sorted and stacked on a single flat tray. This is what I did.

However, in all of the preceding examples, the sheets were discharged onto a single flat tray, so errors in moving the tray, changes in the circumferential speed of the rollers, or frictional forces between the discharged sheets could occur. Due to differences, etc., the side edges of the sheets were not aligned neatly, resulting in poor sheet stacking conditions.

Therefore, the present applicant has previously applied for a sheet sorting apparatus as shown in Utility Model Application No. 60-67888, which solves the above-mentioned drawbacks. This is placed near the discharge port for sheets processed in equipment such as image forming apparatuses, and the sheet sorting means for distributing and discharging sheets in different directions, and the central part of the bottom plate lifts up into a chevron shape. The ridgeline slopes gently down toward the sheet ejection direction, and the width of the sheet placement surface, which consists of slopes on either side of the ridgeline, becomes gradually narrower toward the sheet ejection direction. A sheet end stopper wall each having a notch for taking out the sorted sheets is provided, and a tray is provided with a sheet side edge guide member on the side opposite to the ridge line of the double-ended slope, and the sorting is carried out by means. The sheets discharged to the tray slide on the inclined surface along the sheet side edge guide member in the direction in which they were sorted, and the sheet ends come into contact with the sheet end stopper wall in a line contact state and stop. The sheets are placed so that the inner edge portions of the sheets facing each other are overlapped with each other, so that the side edges of the sheets are neatly aligned and placed on the tray.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, as in the prior application, the tray is tilted left and right, and the sheets are distributed to the left and right tray surfaces, respectively, so that the inner edges of the leading ends of the sheets overlap each other. However, there are the following drawbacks when discharging wastewater.

In other words, the sheet ejected onto one tray surface is
As shown in Figure 2-1, depending on the inclination angle of the surface on which the sheet is placed, the side edge of the sheet rises and protrudes above the tray surface on the opposite side of the tray ridge line, causing A problem arises in that the sheets being discharged cannot slide down the slope properly due to the resistance of the raised and protruding side edges of the sheets, and therefore they are not placed in the prescribed position and the stacking becomes uneven. Ta.

Furthermore, if a notch is provided at the center of the tip of the tray to make it easier to take out the stacked sheets, as shown in Figure 11-1, the side edges of the sheets will be closer to the edge than the ridgeline, as described above. Instead of protruding, the leading corner of the sheet sinks into the notch, and the resulting reaction causes the central part of the side edge on the center side to lift up, and sheets discharged in other discharge directions are The sheet gets caught on the raised side edge and does not slide down the slope, resulting in the problem that the ejected sheet is not placed in the predetermined position and the stacking becomes uneven, similar to the case described above. .

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and is a sheet sorter equipped with a tray that allows the side edges of stacked sheets to be neatly aligned and to obtain a good sheet stacking condition. The purpose is to provide equipment.

[Means and operations for solving the problem] In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a tray in which the sheet discharged onto the tray is supported so that its cross section perpendicular to the discharge direction forms an arc shape. The tray is shaped like this.

By configuring the tray shape as described above and supporting the sheet in an arc shape, the sheet is supported in an arc shape on the tray, so that the side edge of the sheet is on the opposite side from the ridgeline of the tray. This prevents the sheet from floating and protruding above the tray surface, and when a notch is provided, the tip corner of the sheet falls into the notch, causing the central part of the sheet side edge to swell. Since the sheets are stacked along the tray surface, the ejection sheet slides down smoothly.
A good sheet stacking condition in which the side edges of the sheets are neatly aligned can be obtained.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the illustrated example. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a sheet sorting apparatus according to the present invention installed in an image forming apparatus 1 such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a page printer. Reference numeral 2 denotes a sorting device, which is composed of a device main body 3 and a tray 4, and is fixed to the image forming device 1 with a mounting bracket (not shown). For this sorting, the apparatus 2 is configured to receive signals from the image forming apparatus l in this embodiment and control the sorting of discharged sheets.
It may be configured such that the number of ejected sheets is counted and sorted by a predetermined number of sheets.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the sorting device 2, with some parts omitted. In the figure, reference numeral 5 denotes a main body frame, and a driven roller 6 for sorting along the sheet conveyance path 10 is attached to the frame 5 so as to be rotatable about a support shaft 36 substantially perpendicular to the conveyance direction. . On the other hand, a sub-frame 7 is rotatably attached to the main body frame 5 around a support shaft 8, and a sorting drive roller 9 is installed on the sub-frame 7 substantially perpendicular to the conveying direction of the ejected sheets. It is rotatably attached around a support shaft 26 that is coaxial with the rotation support shaft 36 of the driven roller 6 . The sorting drive roller 9 forms a pair with the sorting driven roller 6, and the sorting rollers cooperate with each other.

An upper sheet conveyance guide 11 is provided on the subframe 7 side along the sheet conveyance path 10, while a lower sheet conveyance guide 12 is fixedly provided to the main frame 5 opposite to the upper sheet conveyance guide 11. There is.

Both the conveyance guides 11° 12 are located across the sheet conveyance path 10.
A sheet detector consisting of an LED 13 and a phototransistor 14 is provided on the outside of both conveyance guides 11.
．． The passage of the sheet can be detected through the through hole provided in 12.

Guide pins 15 are provided on both sides of the lower sheet conveyance guide 12 on the sheet import side so as to protrude into the sheet 1-conveyance path 10.
The cough sheet conveyance guide 12 is fixed to a support member 16 that supports the cough sheet conveyance guide 12 . Note that this support member 16 is fixed to the main body frame 5.

In the tray 4, a tray holding portion 18, which is integrally formed with the tray 4 and is formed to protrude from a hole formed in the sheet discharge side cover 17, is inserted into a tray holding member 19 disposed within the main body frame 5. It is configured to be fixed by this. The tray holding member 19 has guide rollers (
(not shown) on the main body frame 5 in a vertically movable manner, and is biased upward by a spring 20 whose one end is hooked to the main body frame 5 and whose other end is hooked to the tray holding member 19 .

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing a portion of the sorting roller in detail. The sorting drive roller 9 is pivotally supported by fitting both ends of the roller shaft 21 into bearings 23 provided on the frame A22. A drive motor 24 is provided on one side of the frame A22, and a gear train 25 is provided.
The number of rotations and the direction of rotation are adjusted by rotating the drive roller 9 for sorting. Further, a support shaft 26 is fixed to the frame A22 by caulking or the like.
6 is coaxially and rotatably supported by the subframe 7 with its axis aligned with a support shaft 36 to be described later.

A spring A27 is attached to the end of the arm 22a of the frame A22.
is applied, and during constant sorting, the drive roller 9 is biased to face in a certain direction. Furthermore, a stopper bin A28 is provided on the arm 22a, and the stopper bin A2 is inserted into an arc-shaped hole that regulates the swing range of the stopper pin A2B provided on the subframe 7 (not shown).
B is passed through, and the direction of the drive roller 9 is set by abutting stopper bins A28 against both end surfaces of the large roller.

Further, one end of a link 29 is rotatably attached to the arm 22a by a pin 30, and the other end of the link 29 is attached to a plunger 31' of a solenoid 31 fixed to the subframe 7.

The sorting driven roller 6 is disposed opposite to the driving roller 9. At both ends of the sorting driven roller 6, stiffened rollers 32 having a slightly larger diameter than the sorting driven roller 6 are provided. The driven roller 6 and the stiffened roller 32 are made of a material with a low coefficient of friction such as polyacetal, and are configured to be able to rotate between them and a shaft 33 that is disposed through them. Both ends of the shaft 33 fit into notches formed in the frame B34, and the spring 35
The rollers are held by a driven roller 6 for sorting and a driving roller 9 for sorting. The frame B34 is provided with a support shaft 36 having the same axis as the support shaft 26 provided on the frame A22, and the support shaft 36 is rotatably supported by the main body frame 5. At the end of the arm 34a of the frame B34, a spring B is attached, similarly to the frame A22.
37 and a stopper bin 83B are provided to regulate the swing range of the driven roller 6 and to urge it to face in a certain direction.

Furthermore, a link 3 is attached to the arm 34a of the frame B34.
One end of the link 39 is rotatably attached by a pin 40, and the other end of the link 39 is attached to a plunger 41' of a solenoid 41 fixed to the main body frame 5.

Next, the operation of the sorting roller will be explained based on FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the sheet discharging operation seen from above. Hereinafter, the term "right side" or "left side" refers to the right side or left side in FIG. 4.

At the start, the image forming apparatus 1 is in an initial state in which no signal is sent out for sorting, so each solenoid 31 does not operate. Therefore, the springs A27 and B37 cause each sorting roller 6.9 to face the right side. It is now possible to In this case, assuming that the operator is on the right side, the solenoid 31.41 is placed on the right side and the spring 27.2B is placed on the left side in order to make it easier to remove the ejection sheet. If so, you can swap the placement of the solenoid and spring on the left and right,
Also, by operating the solenoid from the initial state,
Sorting may be done by directing the rollers 6.9 to the left. In addition, by arranging the solenoids that drive the drive roller 9 and the driven roller 6 on opposite sides, the solenoid operations are performed alternately, so the peak of the operating current value can be kept low, and a small-capacity power transformer can be used. can be used, making it possible to downsize the device. However, in this system, there is a risk that if the solenoid fails, it will not be possible to sort the ejected sheets or even to stack them on the right side.

In the above initial state, in this embodiment, the sorting roller 6.9 is tilted to the right by α degrees (8.5 degrees in this embodiment). Sheet A discharged from the image forming apparatus in this state
The sorting sheet is bitten by the roller 6.9, but the leading edge of the sheet remains perpendicular to the central axis 42 and advances to the right in the α degree direction toward the position indicated by sheet B. When the ejected sheet reaches the position of sheet B, its right edge contacts the guide pin 15. In a state in which the sheet is in contact with the guide pin 15, it is no longer possible to move to the right by α degrees, so the ejected sheet at the position of sheet B rotates around the guide pin 15. Then, when the sheet C reaches a state where the direction of the sheet coincides with the direction of α degrees, the rotation is stopped and the sheet is discharged in the direction of α degrees. The sheet is then stored at the position indicated by sheet D on the tray 4.

By the way, in order for the ejected sheet to rotate from the state of sheet B to the state of sheet C, the sheet must slide at the nip of the roller 6.9 during sorting, but if it is slippery,
For example, the sheet rotates due to a load caused by friction between the conveyance guides 11, 12 and the sheet, causing problems such as uneven stacking of discharged sheets on the tray 4.

The factors that cause the sheet to rotate include the width of the roller for sorting;
Although the material and nip pressure are different, we found the optimal conditions where the feed is stable, the roller rotates under the load of contact with the guide pin 15, and does not rotate under other loads, and the shape of the roller for sorting is as follows. It has been found that the shape shown in FIG. 5 is preferable.

First, since the driving roller 9 and the driven roller 6 are supported by separate frames, it is difficult to maintain constant line contact during operation, and the axes of both rollers may be misaligned, resulting in points. This may result in a contact state and the sheet feeding direction may become extremely unstable. In this embodiment, in order to prevent the occurrence of this point contact state, the diameter of the central portion of the drive roller 9 is made smaller than the diameter of the outer portion, and both rollers 6.9 are configured so that they are always in two-point contact. did. Specifically, the width 2 of the drive roller 9 is 20 to 7
0fi, outer contact width l with driven roller 6;

is 3 to 10 m, and the diameter of the center part is made small to avoid contact.The material should be a rubber such as chloroprene rubber or ethylene propylene rubber, with a hardness of 40 to 70''.The material of the driven roller 6 is polyacetal. The total nip pressure was preferably 50 to 200 g.

Further, on the driven roller side, a tension roller 32 is provided in order to give a stiffness to the discharged sheets, but this tension roller 32 is arranged near both ends of the driven roller 6 for sorting, and It is formed by a roller with a slightly larger diameter. The shape of the driven roller 6 and the waisted roller 32 forms the sheet 53 in a wave shape, and prevents the sheet 53 from bending due to its own weight. It is effective. Note that disposing this stiffened roller is a technique commonly used in a discharge device in an image forming apparatus.

In this embodiment, the diameter D2 of the buckled roller 32 is set 2 to 8 times larger than the diameter D1 of the driven roller for sorting. It was optimal to arrange 32 end faces.

Now, after a series of sheets have been ejected to the right side of tray 4, that is, for example, after printing out some data,
When moving to print out the next data, etc., the solenoid 3 is activated by a signal from the image forming apparatus main body.
1.41 is energized, thereby causing plunger 31',
41' is sucked, and the frames A22 and B34 are rotated about the spindles 26 and 36, respectively, via the links 29.39, and the sorting rollers 6.9 move to the left by α degrees (this implementation 8.5° in the example). Since the rotation angle of each frame is regulated by the stopper bins A28 and 838, even if the frame is tilted to the left, sorting is done by the shaft 21 of the driving roller 9, and sorting is done by the shaft 33 of the driven roller 6.
is held parallel to. The solenoid remains energized until the next printout is completed, that is, while the sheet is being ejected to the left. In this case, the mechanism for discharging the sheet to the left side is the same as that for discharging the sheet to the right side.

When the discharge to the left side is finished and the next data is to be printed out, the power to each solenoid 31, 41 is cut off by a signal from an image forming device such as a printer, and the sorting is performed again by the spring A27 and the spring B37. is roller 6
．． 9 is tilted to the right. This series of discharges is called a job, and the operation of sorting the jobs (in the present invention, the operation of sorting them left and right) is called job separation, and the apparatus for such sorting is generally called a job separator.

The sheets sorted and discharged left and right on the tray 4 partially overlap each other on the central axis 42, so that each acts as a "bookmark" for the other. Therefore, jobs can be distinguished no matter how many times they are repeated, making it extremely convenient to organize output sheets after printing. In addition, in this example, the angle of the left and right distribution is set to 8.5", but the angle is not limited to this, and for sorting, the left and right distribution is set at an angle of 5" to 45". Can be set within a range of °.

Next, the structure of the tray will be explained. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the tray, FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the inclination of the ridge line on the central axis, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the tray shown in FIG. 6 in the direction of arrow A. FIG. 3 is an end view taken along the slope of the ridgeline.

As can be seen from these figures, in this embodiment, the shape of the tray 4 is raised in the shape of a chevron at the center, and its ridgeline 43
is tilted upward along the discharge direction, and is configured such that its tip gradually becomes wider. The ridgeline 43 is inclined at θ1 = 20° to 40° from the horizontal plane, and the left and right bottom surfaces 44.45 are inclined at θ = 5s to 20″ with respect to the horizontal plane. A chevron-shaped sheet side edge guide member 48 is arranged facing outward at an angle of θ3=0 to 10' with respect to the perpendicular line.A notch recess 49 is provided at the center of the tip of the bottom surface in the sheet ejection direction. , the sheet stacked on the tray 4 is made easy to reach when taking out the sheets, so that the stacked sheets can be taken out all at once with one hand.A wall portion 50 is formed on the sheet discharge port side of the tray 4. A concave portion 51 is formed at a position corresponding to a convex portion 69 (not shown) provided on the sheet discharge side cover 17.Furthermore, a pair of concave portions 51 are formed in the wall portion 50 for fixing the sorter to the main body 3 of the apparatus. A tray holding portion 18 is integrally formed to protrude toward the sheet discharge port side.
There is a horizontal surface 46.4 on the left and right corners of the sheet outlet side.
7 is formed.

Next, the sheet discharging and stacking operations will be explained based on FIG. 9. During sorting, the sheets 53 discharged from the rollers 6.9 are discharged almost horizontally without bending or hanging due to the action of the waisted rollers, and come into contact with the tray 4 at a point on the ridge line 43 of the tray 4.

After that, the sheets are sorted and discharged by roller 6.9, and the discharge speed is ■. Due to the force of
reach the point. The sheet that has reached the zero point gradually falls because air is trapped between the sheet and the bottom of the tray 4, and then slides on the tray bottom 44.45 due to the ridgeline inclination angle θ8 and the bottom inclination θ2, and the sheet Side edge guide member 48
and comes into contact with the ridge 52 of the wall portion 50 and stops.

In this way, the ejected sheets are stacked one after another on the tray 4, but even if one of the stacked sheets is thick (or misaligned, or the amount of misalignment is about 1u, a considerable number of sheets will be stacked). If the sheets are misaligned, it will give the user a very uneven feeling.Therefore, it is required that the stacked sheets be neatly aligned without deviations of about 100 ml.

In the tray configured as in this embodiment, the sheet ejection speed is as follows. And, the sorting is done by the discharge angle θ4 of the roller 6°9 and the inclination angle θ of the ridge line 43 of the tray 4.

It was found that the angle and the slope θ2 of the bottom surface 44 and 45 are interrelated and influence the manner in which the sheets are deposited.

As a result of the experiment, the sheet ejection speed ■. is 300-90
At 0 mm/sec, the inclination angle θ1 of the ridgeline is 20 to 40°,
It was found that the range of the bottom surface inclination θ2 = 5 to 20'' and the roller discharge angle θ4-0 to 15'' for sorting is good.

However, since the sheet discharging speed V0 of the sorting rollers is determined by the sheet discharging speed of the image forming apparatus, other factors must be set accordingly.

The ejection speed of the page printer tested this time was 160
Therefore, when sorting, the sheet discharge speed of the device was set to 550 mm/sec, and the inclination angle θ of the ridge line was
, =29@, the inclination angle θ2 of the bottom surface was 10°, and the best sheet stacking state was obtained when the sorting roller discharge angle θ4 was 5°.

Next, we will further explain the relationship between each element that affects the sheet stackability. First, if the sheet ejection speed v0 is too fast relative to the ridgeline inclination angle θ1, or if the ridgeline inclination angle θ1 is small relative to the sheet ejection speed v0, the sheet may jump out of the tray 4, or the sheet may By the time the end reaches the wall part 50, the rear end of the sheet has completely fallen onto the bottom surface of the tray or the lower layer sheet, and the sliding stops due to frictional resistance with the bottom surface or the lower layer sheet, and before reaching the wall part 50. This causes a problem of stopping.

The most desirable embodiment is that the trailing edge of the sheet falls onto the bottom surface of the tray or the lower sheet until it reaches the wall 50, and the sliding movement is braked by the frictional resistance between the sheet and the bottom surface or the lower sheet. When the sheet reaches 50, the sheet hits the wall 50 with a considerably reduced sliding speed. On the other hand, if the sheet hits the wall portion 50 at a high speed, the sheet will be bounced back by the reaction, causing the sheets to be piled up unevenly. Therefore, the inclination angle θ1 of the ridgeline is larger than necessary.
It is also not good to set it large. In particular, when the inclination angle θ1 of the ridgeline becomes large, in addition to the phenomenon of being bounced back,
Since the sheet lacks rigidity in the thickness direction, it is prone to buckling.
This will worsen the deposition condition.

For sorting, the discharge angle θ4 of the roller 6.9 is used to adjust the point at which the tray 4 and the sheet first come into contact, and is closely related to the inclination angle θ of the ridgeline 43 of the tray.
If the angle θ formed by the edge line 43 (which is determined by the inclination angle θ1 of the ridge line 43 and the discharge angle θ4) is large, the discharged sheet may push out the sheet below it.

An appropriate bottom surface inclination θ2 is necessary to prevent the sorted sheets from shifting in the left-right direction. That is, when the ejected sheet falls onto the bottom surface, air is trapped between the sheet and the bottom surface.

Then, as the air escapes, the sheet gradually falls, but if the bottom of the tray is horizontal, the sheet will fall swinging back and forth from side to side, just like leaves falling from a tree. The sheets will be uneven. Left and right there.

It is necessary to tilt the bottom of the tray back and forth and slide the sheets on the bottom to improve alignment.

The longitudinal inclination of the tray is determined by the inclination θ1 of the ridgeline, and the horizontal inclination of the tray is determined by the inclination θ2 of the bottom surface. Since the portion of the ejected sheet beyond the contact point is already in contact with the tray, the left and right deflection is suppressed and the sheet rolls down, but not completely. In this example, since a warp sheet (a sheet with fibers extending in the conveying direction) is used, the stiffness in the thickness direction in the horizontal direction is even weaker than in the vertical direction, so the slope of the bottom surface θ2 is increased. Then it buckles,
Deposition condition worsens. Therefore, the inclination θ2 of the bottom surface cannot be as large as the inclination angle θ1 of the ridgeline.

Furthermore, if the inclination θ2 of the bottom surface is large, the sheet will not bend completely along the bottom surface on the ridgeline 43, as shown in FIG.
If the distance eI to the top surface of the deposited sheet is larger and the inclination θ2 of the bottom surface is small, the distance e2 from the ridge line 43 to the top surface of the sheet can be similarly small, as shown in FIG. 10-2. Further, when the slope θ2 of the bottom surface is large, as shown in FIG. , the deposited sheet 54 may be pushed out. In particular, the end face of the sheet has fibers that protrude, so it is easy to get caught, and this phenomenon is likely to occur.For the above reasons, the inclination θ2 of the bottom face cannot be made large;
O° was the most preferred value.

A notch 49 is provided at the tip of the tray 4 in order to make it easier to take out the accumulated sheets. However, if the notch is simply provided, the tip angle of the stacked sheets will change as shown in Figure 11-1. The portion 70 hangs down into the notch 49 due to its own weight. As a result of this drooping reaction, the center side edge central portion 71 of the sheet sorting is raised. Therefore, the sheets that are then sorted and discharged to the opposite side by changing the discharge direction come into contact with this raised side edge central portion 71, and due to the resistance, do not slide down along the slope of the ridge line 43 or the slope of the bottom surface, and are kept in a predetermined position. Since the sheets are not placed in the correct position, a problem arises in that the sheets are not stacked properly.

This problem can be solved by providing a protrusion 72 on the bottom surface of the tray near the corner of the notch 49 of the tray 4, as shown in FIG. 11-2.

That is, in the case where no convex portion is provided, the leading end corner 70 of the sheet falls into the notch due to the sheet's own weight as described above, and the central side edge portion 71 of the sheet swells due to the reaction, but if a convex portion is provided. As a result, as shown in Fig. 11-3, the distance l from the convex part 72 to the side edge of the seat becomes large, and the waist of the seat cannot withstand the weight of the seat from the convex part to the side edge of the seat, causing the seat to collapse. Since the sheet is curved and supported so that the cross-sectional shape is arcuate, the side edge of the sheet does not bulge as shown in FIG. 11-1. Therefore, the sheets sorted on the opposite side also smoothly slide down along the inclination of the tray, resulting in good sheet stacking.

In this embodiment, a convex portion was provided on the sheet placement surface near the corner of the cutout portion of the tray as a means for preventing the occurrence of a raised portion, but as shown in Fig. 11-4. As shown in FIG. 11-5, the ribs 73 are provided along the sides of the notch, and even in cases where the sheet placement surface of the tray is shaped like an arc, the convex portion is provided. Similar to the above, it is possible to prevent the formation of raised portions.

Next, a description will be given of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied in a case where a lid 75 (FIG. 12-1) that can be retracted when taking out a sheet is provided in the notch.

By providing the lid 75 in the notch, the tip corner of the sheet no longer falls into the notch as shown in Figure 11-1, but now the tray Since the distance from the ridge line 43 to the side edge of the seat is short,
Due to the waist of the sheet, the side edges of the sheet rise and protrude above the tray surface on the opposite side from the ridgeline 43 of the tray while maintaining the inclination angle of the tray surface. Therefore, when the sheets are sorted and discharged to the opposite side, the resistance of the protruding sheet side edges prevents the sheets from sliding down properly, resulting in poor sheet stacking.

This problem can also be solved by providing a protrusion 72 on the bottom surface of the tray, as shown in FIG. 12-2, as in the case where the lid 75 is not provided in the notch.

By providing the convex portion 72 on the bottom surface of the tray, the sheet is supported by the convex portion 72 so that the cross-sectional shape perpendicular to the sheet ejection direction is arcuate as shown in FIG. 11-3.

Therefore, the side edges of the sheets do not protrude beyond the edge line 43 of the tray, and the sheets are stacked along the inclination of the left and right bottom surfaces of the tray edge line 43.

Therefore, the sheets sorted on the opposite side are not subjected to any resistance from the side edges of the sheets, so they slide down along the inclination of the tray, resulting in good sheet stacking.

In this case as well, the means for supporting the sheet in an arcuate shape is not limited to the one provided with a convex part on the tray, but the means for supporting the sheet in an arcuate shape is not limited to the one provided with a convex part on the tray. It is also possible to use a tray with ribs along the section, or a tray with an arcuate sheet placement surface.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments; in short, the tray that supports the sheets is configured such that the cross section perpendicular to the discharge direction of the stacked sheets is arcuate. It would be good if it was done.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above based on the embodiment, by configuring the shape of the tray to support the discharged sheets in an arc shape, the sheets are deposited along the bottom surface of the tray on the left and right sides of the ridgeline of the tray. Therefore, the side edges of the sheet may bulge or protrude, and the sheet may be uneven due to these! 5! It is possible to prevent misalignment, and to obtain a good stacked state of sheets in which the side edges of the sheets to be distributed and discharged are neatly aligned with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which a sheet sorting apparatus according to the present invention is attached to an image forming apparatus, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the main body of an embodiment of the sheet sorting apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a part of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the sorting operation of the sorting apparatus shown in FIG. 2, and FIG.
Sorting is a plan view of the roller, Figure 6 is a perspective view of the tray,
FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view thereof, FIG. 8 is an end view thereof, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the discharge/deposition operation in the tray.
10-1 and 10-2 are diagrams showing how ejected sheets are stacked due to differences in the inclination of the bottom surface of the tray, and FIG. 11-
1 is a diagram showing how the discharge sheet falls into the notch, FIG. 11-2 is a diagram showing how the discharge sheet is piled up when a convex part is provided, and FIG. 11-3 is a diagram showing how the discharge sheet is deposited in the notch. FIGS. 11-4 and 11-5 are diagrams for explaining the deposition C shown in FIG. 2, and FIGS. FIG. 12-2 is a diagram showing how discharge sheets are stacked when a lid is provided in the notch of the tray, and FIG. 12-2 is a diagram showing how discharge sheets are stacked when a convex portion is provided. 2... Sorting is done by the device, 3... Sorting is done by the device itself. 4...Tray, 43...Tray ridgeline, 49...Notch. 72... Convex portion, 73... Rib, 75... Lid''1
-1effect'1outbi(ij8,"),,,,%)7su'
MU Academic Engineering 2 Fraud Ceremony 1 Da::: -””') Pa, -Noah Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 4 44 Figure 11- Figure 11-2 Figure 11-3 Figure 11-4 Figure 11-5 4':3'-)

Claims (1)

[Claims] Distribute the sheets onto the tray in two directions (left and right) and output them.
In a sheet sorting device, the sheets on the tray are placed so that they partially overlap each other in the center of the tray.
A sheet sorting device characterized in that the shape of the tray is configured such that the cross section perpendicular to the discharge direction supports the sheets on the tray in an arc shape.