JPS6265853A - Paper feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To position a nozzle box accurately by means of an air supply duct as a paper feed tray is inserted into the body of paper feeding apparatus by supporting the nozzle box for separating a paper rotatably while providing the air supply duct to the paper feed tray. CONSTITUTION:A nozzle box 28 is journaled rotatably to the sub-fram 33 of paper feeding apparatus body 4 at one side against a copy machine body while a roll 34 is fixed to the other side. A paper feed tray 2is provided with a pin 44 for positioning the nozzle where said pin 44 is formed with an air supply duct 60 communicated through an path 61 with an air nozzle 62. Upon insertion of the paper feed tray 2 into the paper feeding apparatus body 4, a springboard 37 will push up the roll 34 thus to push up the nozzle box 28 gradually. Consequently, the pin 44 will enter into a pin hole 40 of bracket 39 for supporting the roll 34 while a carrying roll 22 and a pinch roll 23 will form a nip thus to position the nozzle box 28.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feed device that takes out sheets of paper stacked on a paper feed tray in order from the topmost one and supplies them to a copying machine, facsimile machine, or the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As a paper feeding device that uses an air vacuum to convey paper, the applicant has proposed, for example, one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1983-020900.

To explain this paper feeding device, its main components are a suction unit that sucks the top sheet of paper stacked on the paper feed tray, and a conveyance unit that transports the paper sucked by the suction unit. a first air nozzle group that levitates the topmost paper to a position where it can be sucked by the suction means; a second air nozzle group that blows air between the topmost paper and the paper below it; and an air flow impingement wall having a slope inclined with respect to the upper surface of the stacked sheets so as to switch the direction of air flow from the air nozzle group.

In this case, the topmost sheet of paper stacked on the paper feed tray is floated by air from the first air nozzle group, and the topmost sheet behind the floated uppermost sheet and the topmost sheet immediately below it. Air ejected from the second air nozzle group through the air flow impingement wall is blown between the second sheets of paper. As a result, the uppermost sheet and the second sheet are separated, and only the uppermost sheet is sucked by the suction means, and the uppermost sheet is conveyed in a predetermined direction by the conveyance means.

In this way, the air from the first air nozzle lifts the uppermost sheet of paper on the paper feed tray, and there is a gap between the lifted uppermost sheet and the second sheet directly below it. By actively blowing air from the second air nozzle group, the top paper and the second paper directly below it are
The uppermost sheet is separated from the second sheet, and only the uppermost sheet is conveyed by the conveying means.

Problems that the invention attempts to solve1 By the way, in conventional paper feeding devices, the relationship between the air blowing position of the air nozzle group and the position of the leading edge of the paper is important for performance. ■ If the paper height is too high relative to the air blowing position of the air nozzle group, double feeding will occur; ■ If the paper height is too low relative to the air blowing position of the air nozzle group, misfeed will occur due to poor suction; If the position is too far from the air nozzle position, double feeding will occur.

In particular, it is difficult to control the height of the leading edge of the paper with curly paper such as 1-Racing Vapor.

As shown in FIG. 16, if the leading edge of the paper 21 is too high and comes into contact with the conveyor belt 12,
The air flow from the first air nozzle group 30 may not enter between the sheets, resulting in double feeding, or the paper 21 may not be able to be lifted by the first two air nozzle groups due to the stiffness of the paper 21. This may result in a misfeed. Also, the 17th
As shown in the figure, if the leading edge of the paper 21 is too low, the first two anosle group 29 will not be able to lift it, resulting in misfeed.

Furthermore, according to the conventional paper feeding device, the paper feeding device main body 4 and the paper feeding tray 2 are composed of separate subassemblies.
Since the sheet feeding device main body 4 and the sheet feeding tray 2 are positioned via a main body frame (not shown), the air blowing positions of the first and second air nozzle groups 29 and 30 and the leading edge of the paper 21 are Another problem is that it is quite difficult to set the position.

An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and to easily adjust the air blowing position of the air nozzle group and the position of the leading edge of the paper in the paper feed tray, thereby achieving a flotation or separation effect on the paper. The goal is to do this properly and reliably prevent double feeding and misfeeding of paper.

Means for Solving the Problems The paper feeding device of the present invention includes a suction means for sucking the uppermost sheet of paper stacked on a removable paper feed tray; a conveying means for conveying paper; a first air nozzle group for floating the uppermost sheet to a position where it can be sucked by the suction means; and a second air nozzle group for blowing air between the uppermost sheet and the sheets below it. the first and second air nozzle groups; rotatably supports a nozzle box in which is formed, a third air nozzle and an air supply duct to the third air nozzle are provided on the paper feed tray, and the air supply duct is set as a positioning means for the nozzle box. It consists of

According to the present invention, the third air nozzle is provided in the paper feed tray,
Since the air supply duct that supplies air to this third air nozzle is set as the nozzle box positioning means,
The first and second air nozzle groups formed in the nozzle box are positioned at desired positions and directions.

Therefore, the uppermost sheets of paper stacked on the paper feed trays 1 to 1 are levitated by the air from the first and third air nozzle groups, and the uppermost sheet of the levitated upper sheets is Air ejected from the second air nozzle group via the air flow collision wall is blown between the next lower sheets of paper. At this time, air is blown from the third air nozzle from the side of the paper stacked on the paper feed tray, which facilitates flotation and separation of the paper. This will separate the topmost paper and the next lower paper! Only the uppermost sheet of paper is suctioned by the suction means, and the uppermost sheet is conveyed in a predetermined direction by the conveyance means.

In this way, according to the present invention, the air from the first air nozzle group causes the uppermost sheets of paper on the paper feed tray to float, and the air from the third air nozzle assists this, so that the uppermost sheet of paper that floats to the surface. By actively blowing air from the second air nozzle group between the top sheet of paper and the paper below it, the top sheet of paper and the paper immediately below it are separated, so that only the top sheet of paper is separated. can be transported by a transport means.

Example Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the external structure of a copying machine to which a paper feeding device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. As shown in Fig. 3, the rail 3 allows it to be put in and taken out freely.

A paper feeder main body 4 is housed inside the copying machine main body 1 .

The paper feeder main body 4 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15.

First, a paper guide plate 25 is provided on the paper feed tray 2 for positioning the stacked papers 21.

Directly above the stacked sheets 21, a conveyor belt 12 is wound, which is rotated by a drive roller 14 and an idler roller 13 in six directions indicated by arrows in FIG. 1.4. The conveyor belt 12 is provided with a suction hole (not shown), and a negative pressure is generated near the suction hole by suction of air from the vacuum box 15. The upstream side of the intake duct 16 connected to the vacuum box 15 is connected to a vacuum fan 17, and the downstream side thereof is further connected to a nozzle box 28 via a jet duct 18. A vacuum valve 26 for sucking the uppermost sheet of paper onto the conveyor belt 12 is provided in the middle of the intake duct 16, and downstream of the vacuum valve 26, air is supplied to a first air nozzle group 29 and a second air nozzle group 30, which will be described later. A relief valve 27 is provided for this purpose.

The first air nozzle group 29 is attached to the nozzle box 28 so that the ejected air hits the upper part of the leading edge of the sheets 21 being deposited, and the second air nozzle group 30 is inclined at an angle α with respect to the upper surface of the sheets 11. The first air nozzle group 29 is attached to the nozzle box 28 so as to blow the ejected air toward the air flow collision wall 31 that is installed. The uppermost sheets of paper are floated by generating an air flow that is almost parallel to the sheets of paper stacked on top.
It is designed to be moved upward to a position where it can be sucked.

The second air nozzle group 30 is arranged to blow air between the suctioned uppermost sheet and the second sheet directly below it, thereby ensuring separation of the two sheets.

The three second air nozzle groups 30 are each oriented in a direction where η jet air is concentrated, and when these air nozzle jets collide with the air flow collision wall 31,
A stagnant pressure is created between the topmost sheet of paper and the sheet immediately below it, and as a result, the attraction force due to static electricity between the topmost sheet of paper and the sheet immediately below it is canceled out, and the two sheets are separated. It's increasing. The air flow collision wall 31 collides with the accumulated paper 2
The stagnation pressure is increased by increasing the stagnation pressure.

The uppermost sheet of paper attracted to the conveyor belt 12 is conveyed in the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. It has become.

Next, the operation of the paper feeder main body 4 will be explained. First, the vacuum valve 26 is open and the relief valve 27 is in an intermediate state. When the vacuum fan 17 is driven, the relief valve 27 and the blower duct 18 are opened. Air is then supplied to the nozzle box 28, and the first air nozzle group 29, the second air nozzle group
F jets are ejected in predetermined directions from the air nozzle group 30 and the third air nozzle 62 (see FIGS. 6 and 7), respectively.

The air from the first air nozzle group 29 and the third air nozzle 62 applies an air flow to the upper part of the sheets stacked HI on the paper feed 1-sheet 2, and is supplied from the second air nozzle group 30 to the air flow collision wall 31. The air is supplied so as to create stagnation pressure between the top sheet of paper and the sheet immediately below it.

Therefore, the uppermost sheet of sheets loaded on the paper feed tray 2 is levitated by the first air nozzle group 29 and the third air nozzle 62, and the uppermost sheet is separated from the sheet directly below it. The second air nozzle group 30 causes the air to be twisted by C.

When the vacuum valve 26 is opened and the relief valve 27 is closed, a negative pressure is generated in the vacuum box 15 through the intake duct 16 by the action of the vacuum fan 17, and this negative pressure is formed on the conveyor belt 12. This occurs in the suction holes 20 (see FIGS. 3 and 4), thereby suctioning the uppermost sheet onto the conveyor belt 12. At this time, when the negative pressure in the intake duct 16 rises to a predetermined value or more, the relief valve 27 is opened.

When a predetermined period of time elapses after the vacuum valve 26 is switched from the closed state to the open state, a clutch (not shown) connected to a drive source (not shown) is turned on, and the drive roll 1
4 in the direction of arrow A, and rotate the conveyor belt 12 in the direction of arrow B.
Drive in the direction of.

The paper transported by the transport belt 12 is transported by the transport roll 22.
, passes through the pinch roll 23 and the photosensor 32 . When the photo sensor 32 detects the leading edge of the paper passing through, the clutch is turned off to stop the operation of the drive roll 14 and to open the vacuum valve 26. As a result, the paper that had been sucked up to that point is peeled off from the conveyor belt 12, and the paper is supplied to a platen glass (not shown) of a copying machine, for example, via the conveyor belt 22.

2. Figures 3 and 4 show the plane along line m-m in Figure 1. The paper feed tray 2 is shown in a pulled-out state (FIG. 3) and a state in which the paper feed tray 2 is retracted (FIG. 4), respectively.

The paper feeder main body 4 is shown in FIG. 2 of the copying machine main body 1. 1
thl! It is supported by a bottle (not shown) on the side, and screwed to the copier body frame (not shown) at the front side. The nozzle box 28 is attached to the subframe 3 of the paper feeder main body 4 on the back side (left side in FIG. 3) of the copying machine main body 1.
3, and a lever 134 is attached to the front side (right side in FIG. 3). Also nozzle box 2
A guide 35 for guiding the paper to be conveyed is attached to the guide plate 8, and a guide plate 36 is attached to the pinch roller 23 for pinching [1-1] as shown in FIGS.
The shaft 23a is held by a spring 45.

Next, the positioning of the nozzle box 28, which is a feature of the present invention, will be explained based on FIGS. 3 to 7.

When the paper feed tray 2 loaded with paper is inserted into the copying machine main body 1, that is, the paper feed device main body 4, the plate spring 37 provided on the paper feed tray 2 pushes up the rollers 34, and further When paper feed tray 2 is inserted to the back, nozzle box 2
8 is gradually pushed upward. Here, paper feed tray 2
A pin holder 44 for nozzle positioning provided on the frame 38 of 1 is inserted into a pin hole 40 of the bracket 39 that supports the frame 34. As you further insert the paper feed tray 2 to the back, the nozzle box 2
8 is further pushed up, conveyance [coal 22 and pinch roll 23 form a nip, and the nozzle box 2
8 is positioned as shown in FIGS. 4 and 7.

Here, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the pin 44 has
An air supply duct 60 is formed, and this air supply duct 6
0 communicates with a third air nozzle 62 via a passage 61. The third air nozzle 62 is configured to blow air from the side toward the sheets stacked on the paper feed tray 2.

The third air nozzle 62 is formed into a vertically elongated hole.

Spring characteristics of spring 45 and leaf spring 37 f/! [Yo, 1st
In order to properly maintain the positions and orientations of the first air nozzle group 29 and the second air nozzle group 30, the torque T1 around the support shaft of the nozzle box 28 is set to be stronger than the torque T2 caused by the spring 45 that holds the pinch roll 23. Selected.

The connection portion between the nozzle box 28 and the jet duct 18 will be explained.

As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the blower duct 18 is fitted into a flange 48 attached to the rear frame 47 of the paper feeder main body 4, and a sleeve 49 is attached to the flange 48. It is attached so that it can slide in the thrust direction. The sleeve 749 is pressed toward the nozzle box 28 (to the right) by a coil spring 50, and a highly elastic sealing material 51 made of high-density urethane foam or the like is provided between the sleeve 48 and the nozzle box 28. ing. Such a configuration prevents air leakage even when the nozzle box 28 rotates about the fulcrum 52.

When a paper jam occurs inside the paper feeder main body 4, the paper feed tray 2 is first pulled out in accordance with the paper jam indication on the display 5 of the copying machine main body 1. As the paper feed tray 2 is pulled out, the tray bottom plate is lowered and the nozzle box 28 is slightly rotated clockwise in FIG. 3 about the fulcrum 52, thereby releasing the roll nip between the transport roll 22 and the pinch roll 23. Therefore, the jammed paper is released from the restraint state and can be easily removed.

Also, when paper feed tray 2 is pulled out, nozzle box 2
8 descends from the position shown in Fig. 12 to the position shown in Fig. 13, the paper feed path gap widens, and the nozzle box 2
The pinch roll 23 supported by 8 is operated. Therefore, the [1-
Since the lock is released, work efficiency when removing paper jams is considerably improved.

According to this embodiment, when curled sheets are piled up on the paper feed tray 2 as shown in FIG. 7, the third air nozzle 6
2 blows air to the sides of the paper, the upper part of the paper floats, the distance a between the topmost paper and the conveyor belts 1 to 12 becomes smaller, and the paper is moved onto the conveyor belt 12 by vacuum. It is possible to perform suction reliably and greatly reduce paper conveyance errors.

Detailed Description of the Invention According to the present invention, when the air supply duct and the third air nozzle are provided in the paper feed tray, the air supply duct functions to position the nozzle box. The positional relationship between the leading edge of the paper placed on top and the air blowing position of the nozzle box is set accurately and precisely from the paper feed tray assembly, minimizing the cumulative overlap between the two positional relationships. This presser foot allows sheets to be reliably conveyed one by one without double feeding or overloading.

In addition, if the paper stacked on the paper feed tray is curled and the height of the leading edge of the paper varies vertically, air is blown out from the third air nozzle to move the paper sideways. Since the paper is easily levitated from the paper, the air blowing from the first and second air nozzle groups works together to separate the paper in the highest rank from the paper in the lower rank and reliably convey it one by one. be able to.

In addition, when the paper feed tray is pulled out, the positioning of the nozzle box is released, so by rotating the nozzle box, the paper passage gap is expanded, and the nip between the drive roll and the pinch roll is easily released. The workability of removing paper jams when paper jams occur inside the paper feeder main body is significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an external configuration diagram of an example of a copying machine equipped with the feeding M1 device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the copying machine shown in Fig. 1, and Figs. 3 and 4 are paper feeding devices. Figure 1 is a sectional view taken along line ■-■ showing the main body and paper feed tray; Figures 5, 6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of main parts for explaining the insertion operation of the paper feed tray; Figures 8 and 7 are Figure 9 is a cross-sectional view of the connection between the nozzle box and the fume duct, Figure 10 is a schematic plan view showing the holding part of the pinch roll, and Figure 11 is the holding part of the pinch roll in Figure 10 not shown. A schematic side view, FIGS. 12 and 13 are schematic configuration diagrams showing the operation of the paper feeding device when removing a paper jam, and FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the paper feeding device of the present invention. FIG. 15 is a schematic perspective view showing the positional relationship between the first and second air nozzle groups and the paper on the paper feed tray. FIGS. 16 and 17 are schematic explanatory diagrams for explaining the relationship between the air blowing position and the leading edge position of the paper. 1... Copying machine main body, 2... Paper feed 1-ray, 4
...Paper feeder main body, 12...Transport belt, 14
... Drive roll, 15 ... Vacuum box, 16 ... Intake duct, 17 ... Vacuum fan, 18 ... Fumes duct,
20... Suction hole, 21... Paper, 2
8--Nozzle box, two...First air nozzle group, 30...Second air nozzle group, 31...Air flow collision wall, 40...Pin hole, 44...Pin,
52...Fully point, 60...1 supply duct, 61...Passway, 6
2...Third air nozzle. Figure 3 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14

Claims (1)

[Claims] a suction means for suctioning the uppermost sheet of sheets stacked on a removable paper feed tray; a conveyance means for transporting the sheet sucked by the suction means; and a conveyance means for transporting the uppermost sheet of paper by the suction means. A first air nozzle group that levitates the paper to a position where it can be sucked, a second air nozzle group that blows air between the uppermost paper and the paper below it, and the air nozzle group that switches the air flow direction from the second air nozzle group and an air flow collision wall having an inclined surface with respect to the upper surface of the stacked sheets, wherein the first and second
A nozzle box in which a group of air nozzles is formed is rotatably supported, a third air nozzle and an air supply duct to the third air nozzle are provided on the paper feed tray, and the air supply duct is positioned by means for positioning the nozzle box. A paper feeding device characterized by being set to.