JPS6279131A - Sheet handling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To secure such a device that is able to do duplex image formation and manual paper feeding or the like without making it into being yet oversized and complicated, by making each lowermost part of plural housing devices so as to be settable at the specified position by a shifting device. CONSTITUTION:When the reverse side of paper is set on an original mount 2 for a reverse copy and button is pressed, the surface of a flag F is reset, a motor is turned on, and a housing tray is made to go down in order to refeed the obverse copied transfer paper housed in a tray 32. Next, when the housing tray goes down and a sensor S1 detects it, the tray 32 is set to a paper refeeding position, and a bottom plate inside the tray 32 lifts up the transfer paper to a paper refeedable position automatically by a member proximate to a paper refeed roller. Then, the motor is turned on, making a paper refeeding sorter turn to ON, and rollers 34 and 35 rotate at the specified timing, delivering the transfer paper to a body paper refeeding port, whereby the reverse copy is carried out via a refeed paper conveying passage 20, and duplex copying paper is housed in an uppermost part of a tray 31. In addition, a paper refeeding part is installed in a sorter tray, thus manual feed printing is made so as to be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a sheet handling device that has a plurality of sheet storage sections and stores sheets by moving the sheet storage sections.

[Prior art]

Generally, a sheet handling device such as a sorter for distributing and storing sheets is added to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine.

However, for example, a copying apparatus having a double-sided copying function not only requires complicated devices such as a double-sided conveyance path and an intermediate tray mechanism, but also has the disadvantage of making the entire apparatus into a vehicle type.

In addition, recent copying machines have a manual copying function in addition to the cassette feeding function, which has the disadvantage of requiring a manual feeding path or the like.

〔the purpose〕

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a sheet handling device that enables double-sided image formation, manual paper feeding, etc. without increasing the size or complexity of the device. be.

〔Example〕

An example of a copying apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1(a) is a schematic diagram of a copying machine and a simple sorter used in the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a main body of the copying apparatus, and 2 is a document mounting table having a transparent platen glass, on which a document to be copied is placed in alignment with a reference position. Original table 2
Below the document illumination lamp 3. Movable mirror 4,5. A fixed lens 6, mirror 7, and photosensitive drum 10 are provided.

Around the photosensitive drum 10, a negative charger 8. Blank exposure 9. Developing device 11. Transfer charger 13. The cleaner 12 is arranged in a manner similar to that used in typical copying machines. To explain the paper conveyance path system of this apparatus, the cassette 16 that stores the transfer paper 15. Paper feed roller 14. Conveyance path 23. Registration roller 22. Transfer charger 13. Conveyor belt 21°Fuser 17. The transfer paper is transported along the path of the paper discharge roller 18. This apparatus also has a paper conveyance path for double-sided copying, and 19 in the figure is an entrance conveyance roller, which is connected to the conveyance path 23 during normal copying via a conveyance belt 20 before the registration roller 22. ing. A simple ## sorter 30 applied to the present invention is attached to the transfer sheet discharge section of the main body. The sorter 30 handles the transfer paper 1 as shown in the figure.
5 is stored in the storage tray 31 via the entrance roller 33. Here, the storage bin 31 is a storage tray up/down movement type that shifts one step at a time in the direction B in the figure in order to store the transfer paper in the next storage tray each time the transfer paper is stored in the storage bin in the sorter mode. It is. At this time, the double-sided transfer paper temporary storage tray 32 is similarly shifted in the B direction, and can also be used as a storage bin in the sorter mode. In (a) of the figure, the sorter tray 31 is shown in the position of the localization plane, that is, the sorter home position, and at this time, the transfer paper is re-fed from the temporary storage tray 32 for both sides disposed at the lowest position of the sorter tray. Refeed rollers 34, 35 are arranged to allow this. And paper refeed rollers 34 and 35 of the sorter 30
A main body side entrance roller 19 is arranged at a position opposite to the main body side entrance roller 19 .

If you press the copy button (not shown) here, the photosensitive drum 1
0 starts rotating counterclockwise and performs predetermined preprocessing.

The latent image process and the like in the example of the present invention are well-known techniques, and the details thereof will be omitted. When the photosensitive drum 10 completes the predetermined pre-processing, the original exposure lamp 3. Mirror 4.
5 moves in the input direction as shown in the figure, and at a predetermined timing, the paper feed roller 14 sends out the transfer paper 15 to the conveyance path 23. The transfer paper 15 is transferred to the registration rollers 22 via the conveyance path 23, and the photosensitive drum 1 is transferred by the registration rollers 22.
0, passes through a transfer charger 13 to transfer the toner image to a transfer paper, and is sent via a conveyance belt 21 to a fixing device 17 to fix the toner on the transfer paper. The transfer paper is then discharged from the fixing device 17 to the outside of the machine by a paper discharge roller 18. The above-mentioned sorter 30 is attached to the paper discharge section of the main body, and transfer paper is discharged to a transfer paper storage tray 31 via an entrance roller 33. In the normal copy mode, the topmost storage tray serves as a non-sort tray for copying paper. Here, a sorter mode is commanded on the main body operation section (not shown), and in the case of the sorter mode, each time the transfer paper storage trays 31 and 32 store a transfer paper, they are shifted one stage in the direction B and store the transfer paper. In this embodiment, as shown in the figure, there are five storage trays, and the lowest storage tray 32 has more space than the storage tray spacing shown by 31. For example, if the number of copy sets is 5 or more, 3
The 5th and subsequent transfer sheets are stored in the No. 2 storage tray, which is larger than the No. 31 storage tray. In addition, in the case of double-sided copying, the sorter storage trays 31 and 32 move upward, that is, in the B direction, at the same time as the copy button is turned on, and the storage tray 32 is used as a double-sided temporary storage tray, and the sorter roller 33 moves upward, that is, in the B direction. In other words, the sorter storage tray position sensor Ss (detection of the topmost storage tray) is located at the position opposite to the storage tray position sensor Ss.

When the storage tray 32 is set, the main body starts copying by the means described above, and the transfer paper on which the front surface of the document has been copied is delivered to the main body paper ejection roller 18. The desired number of sheets set by the user is stored in the storage tray 32 via the sorter roller 33. When the front side copying is completed, the user places the back side of the document on the document table 2 and presses the copy button again to start moving downward to the storage trays 31 and 32 of the sorter 30 in the direction C, and the sorter HP sensor S When detection is made at the position shown by (Q) in the figure, that is, the storage tray 32 is in a position facing the paper refeed rollers 35 and 34, and at that time, the uppermost storage tray of the storage tray 31 has just been ejected from the sorter population roller 33. 2) Place the transfer paper in a position where it can be stored.

Then, as shown in FIG. 1 (C'), the paper refeed roller 34 is moved from direction D to E in order to feed the transfer paper whose surface has been copied to the main body 1 side.
button to start refeeding the transfer paper from above.

The re-fed transfer paper passes through the rollers AS, 1c+ and the conveyance path 20, and then passes through the registration rollers 22. Conveyor belt 21. Fuser 17. Paper ejection roller 18. It is stored in the uppermost tray of the storage tray 31 via the sorter roller 33. The above-described backside copying continues until the storage tray 32 runs out of transfer paper. As explained above, in a sorter that moves up and down the storage tray, which is often a simple sorter, a refeeding section is installed at the bottom of the storage tray at the fixed position of the sorter, and the paper is refeeded to the main body at a position opposite to that position. By arranging the artificial rollers and providing a paper refeed conveyance path, double-sided copying can be realized with a very simple structure without using a complicated conveyance path. Furthermore, by providing a paper refeeding section in the sorter lower tray 32 as in the present invention, by setting transfer paper on this tray 32, in addition to paper feeding from the cassette 16, multi-manual feeding, that is, only one sheet of another transfer paper is possible. It is also possible to feed multiple sheets.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the transfer paper storage state in which the sorter storage tray 32 is at the position (in FIG. 1). Storage tray 32
As shown in the figure, unlike other storage trays 31, a vertically movable bottom plate 41 is disposed inside, that is, on the bottom plate of the tray 32. This bottom plate 41 moves in the upper direction for refeeding the transfer paper 15 to be in a state where the transfer paper 15 is refeeded. Further, a hole is partially formed in the bottom plate 41 of the tray 32 as shown at 43 in the figure, and this hole is used for detecting transfer paper.

In Fig. 3, the sorter storage tray 32 is inserted into the paper refeeding section) 2.
FIG. Tray 32 explained in FIG.
When the inner bottom plate 41 is set in the position on the sorter HP as shown in FIG. 3, the transfer paper 15 is automatically re-fed by a member 44 provided on the sorter side and a member 45 composed of a leaf spring and the like. Move upward to position 35. In the member 45, there is provided a kasuri sensor S of a transfer gong.Although a reflective sensor is used in the A-Kokushu example to detect the paper, other detection means may be used. The paper refeeding roller 34 moves from the position shown in the diagram to the E position after the paper detection sensor S3 detects the presence of transfer paper and the copy button (not shown) is turned on, and refeeds the transfer paper 15 at a predetermined timing. The paper is conveyed to the paper roller 35.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the one-chip microcomputer used in this embodiment. As is well known, the control program is masked in the R, OM and f-tamemory RAM,
Input boat A as accumulator ACC and work 10,
B, C, output) D,,E.

As shown in FIG. 4, each input/output boat is connected to a drive signal for driving each sensor and load to be controlled in this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the control program of this embodiment. The specific operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 to 4 and 5.

In FIG. 5, after the power is turned on, the data memory RAM is cleared in step 1, and the process moves to step 2. In step 2, key input and other functions of the operation panel (not shown) are performed.
It performs inputs using the manual feed button, etc., and display routines such as displaying a copy count warning. In step 3, it is determined whether the duplex instruction button has been pressed, and if it has been pressed, flag F/duplex is set and flag F/manual feed is reset.

If NO, reset F/both sides in step 4. In the next step 6, it is determined whether the manual feed button has been pressed. If the manual feed button has been pressed, the process moves to step 7, and it is determined whether the transfer paper detection sensor S shown in FIG. 3 has detected paper. If the user has set transfer paper in the tray 32, the process moves to step 8, where the flag F/manual feed is set and F/both sides are reset. If No in step 6.7, reset the F/manual feed in step 9. In the next step 10, it is determined whether the fixing device 17 has warmed up. If it has warmed up, the process proceeds to step 11. If NO, the process proceeds to step 2. In step 11, it is determined whether the copy button has been pressed. If the copy button is pressed in step 11, the process proceeds to step 11; if No, the process proceeds to step 2. First, the double-sided copying mode that is the object of the present invention will be explained.

If the double-sided copy button is pressed, F/duplex has been set in step 5, so the result is YES in step 12, and the process moves to step 5. In step 15, it is determined whether the front side or the back side of the double-sided copy is printed. If it is the front side, the answer is No, and the process moves to step 16, where the flag F/back side is set. Then, proceed to step 13, turn on the sorter motor, and turn on the cacome upItA movement to move the position of the sorter storage tray upward as shown in FIG. 1(b).
I can give it. Then, in step 14, the sorter up sensor S,
The sorter up drive is turned ON until S2 is detected. When S2 is detected, the sorter up drive is turned OFF2 in step 17.

Up to this point, the sorter from the (a) position to the (b) position in FIG. 1, that is, the lowermost sorter storage tray 32 is set to the position of the sorter entrance roller 33 in order to temporarily use it as a double-sided tray. When the sorter is set to the position shown in FIG. 1(b), the main motor of the main body 1 is turned on in step 18 to start a copying operation, and in step 19 a copying control process is performed using a well-known technique. At this time, the transfer paper is fed from the cassette 16 and discharged to the tray 32 in the sorter. Then, in step 20, it is determined whether the desired number of copies has been completed.

When the number of copies has been made, a post-copying rotation process is performed in step 21, and in step 22, the main body motor is turned off, the sorter motor is turned off, and the front surface processing is completed. Next, when the user places the back side of the original to be subjected to back side flipping on the original placing table 2 and presses the copy button, the answer is YES in step 12, YES in step 15, and step 2
Move to 7. In step 27, the flag F/front side is reset, the sorter motor is turned on, and the sorter is moved down to lower the storage tray to position q (see Figure 1) in order to re-feed the transfer paper that has been stored in the tray 32 and the front side has been copied.
Turn on the drive and press the button. When the storage tray is lowered and the sorter HP sensor S1 detects it (step 28), the sorter down drive is set to 0FFv in step 29 and the process moves to step 24. At this time, when the sorter tray 32 is lowered and moved to the paper refeeding position (see FIG. The transfer paper should be lifted to a position where it can be re-feeded. In step 24, the main body motor is turned on and the paper refeed roller 34 is turned on to start copying the back side.
Turn on the sorter refeed to set it to E Step 25
The paper refeed rollers 34 and 35 rotate at a predetermined timing, and send out the transfer paper on which the front side has been copied to the paper refeed port of the main body. In step 26, the back side copying process is performed via the paper refeed conveyance path 20, and continues until the transfer paper on the tray 32 runs out in step 27. All of the transfer sheets whose back side has been copied are stored at the top of the sorter storage tray 31.

In this way, in a simple sorter in which the sorter storage tray moves up and down, by providing a paper refeeding section at a position opposite to the storage tray at the bottom of the sorter's fixed position, and also providing a paper refeeding port on the main body side, it is possible to When copying, the transfer paper that has been copied on both sides is stored in the bottom tray of the sorter, and in the normal sorter mode, the sorter storage tray moves upwards and transfer paper can be stored one by one in this tray, which is very convenient. The simple structure allows double-sided copying and sheet storage.

By providing a paper refeeding section in the sorter tray, it is possible to perform manual copying separately from the cassette 16, and it is possible to continuously feed a plurality of sheets instead of one sheet at a time.

In this embodiment, the storage tray 32 is provided at the bottom, but it is not limited to this, and may be placed at the top.
It may also be provided in the middle.

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, double-sided image formation, manual paper feeding, etc. can be performed without increasing the size or complexity of the image forming apparatus.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1(a) is a schematic diagram of a sorter and a copying apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 1 (middle) is a diagram showing the storage position of the storage tray of the sorter, and FIG. A diagram showing
Figures 2 and 3 are sectional views showing details of the storage tray, and Figure 4 is a sectional view showing details of the storage tray.
The figure is a block diagram showing the system unit 01], and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of operations. In the figure, 1 is a copying device, 30 is a sorter, 31° and 32 are storage trays, and 34 and 35 are paper refeed rollers.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) It has a plurality of storage means for storing sheets and a moving means for moving the storage means, and by moving the storage means with the moving means, the sheets conveyed from the image forming section are In the sheet handling device for storing in the plurality of storage means, by setting a part of the plurality of storage means at a predetermined position by the moving means,
A sheet handling device characterized in that the sheet handling device is configured such that sheets can be fed from this partial storage means to the image forming section. (2) In claim 1, the image forming section is capable of forming images on both sides of the sheet, and when forming images on both sides, the part of the storage means temporarily stores the sheet on which the front surface image has been formed, and A sheet handling device characterized in that the sheet is re-fed to the image forming section for image formation. (3) The sheet handling device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sheet handling device is configured such that sheets can be manually fed from the partial storage means. (4) The sheet handling device according to claim 3, wherein the part of the storage means is capable of continuously feeding a plurality of sheets. (5) The sheet handling device according to claim 1, wherein some of the storage means are provided at the lowest part of the plurality of storage means.