JPS63668Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a sheet material storage tray, and more specifically, it is provided near the sheet ejection section of an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine or a copying machine to receive the sheet material ejected from the image forming apparatus. This invention relates to a sheet material storage tray.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a strong demand for image forming apparatuses such as facsimile machines and copying machines to be smaller and lighter.
As a result, in the past, trays for storing recording paper, originals, and other sheet materials ejected from image forming apparatuses were not built into the machine body but were attached in a way that protruded from the machine. It was common practice to downsize. As a result, even if the main body of the machine was made smaller, the installation space during use became larger due to the protrusion of the tray section, and the drawback was that the machine was not miniaturized in the actual sense. . In addition, rolled paper such as thermal recording paper used in facsimiles and the like has a disadvantage in that it has a strong curl and is difficult to store in an orderly manner on a conventional linear tray surface. Recently, there has been a trend to reduce the outer diameter of the paper while keeping the length the same, especially in response to the demand for downsizing of the main body of the machine. As paper curls become more noticeable, there is a strong desire to develop a paper storage method that can accommodate this.

In addition, when creating records of multiple original documents using such an image forming apparatus, if the recording is performed sequentially from the first page of the original, the recorded sheets ejected from the apparatus will be placed with the image side facing upward. Since the recorded sheets stored in the conventional tray are stacked with the first page facing down and the second and subsequent pages are stacked on top of it, the sheets stacked in the tray are It will be in the reverse order of the original. For this reason, conventionally, after the recording operation is completed, it is necessary to rearrange the recorded sheets in order from the first page, that is, perform a page alignment operation, which is very time-consuming.

In order to eliminate the drawbacks of the sheet material storage tray of the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, the present inventor has proposed a first guide member against which the leading edge of the ejected sheet is brought into contact and guides the ejected sheet downward; A second guide member facing the first guide member and forming a seat storage space.
A narrow closing part is formed in the lower part of the storage space to grasp the leading end of the sheet fed downward, and a long type sheet rear end is formed at the upper end of the first guide member. We have developed a sheet material storage tray that features an opening that allows the edges to be turned over.

This sheet material storage tray eliminates the drawbacks of sheet material storage trays used in conventional image forming apparatuses, and can be attached to the device main body without protruding significantly outside the device main body, thus reducing the overall size of the device. It is possible to hold a large number of sheet materials in the tray reliably, even if the sheet material has a strong curl, it can be held correctly, and it is easy to take out the sheet material when taking it out. There is no need to perform page alignment operations after storing the files.

However, in this sheet material storage tray, the storage space for sheet materials is formed between the first guide member and the second guide member that are arranged opposite to each other, so the storage amount is limited, and a large amount of sheet material can be stored. This structure is hardly suitable for storing sheet materials.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet material storage tray that can cope with the case where a large amount of sheet material is sent out in the above-mentioned type of sheet material storage tray.

The sheet material storage tray according to the present invention is provided in the sheet material storage tray provided near the sheet ejection section of an image forming apparatus, and includes a first guide member that guides the leading edge of the ejected sheet downward, and a first guide member that faces the first guide member. a second guide member for forming the seat storage space, and a closed position and an open position opposite the second guide member to form the seat storage space, with the first guide member on the lower end side. and support means for movably supporting the first guide member between the first and second positions, the first guide member being capable of connecting an external storage device in the open position.

This will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional facsimile machine equipped with this type of sheet material storage tray. The illustrated facsimile device 1 includes an image reading and transmitting system that reads information from the document using an optical system 3 and transmits image information while feeding the document on a document table 2, and a recording paper according to the received image information. An image receiving and recording system is provided for recording an image by a thermal head 7 onto a thermal recording paper 6 that is fed out from a roll 4 and transported by a platen roller 5. 8 is a power supply section including a power supply device and the like.

On the left side of the image forming apparatus main body 1, there is provided a document storage tray 10 for storing original documents 9 that are sequentially sent out from the document table 2, and on the right side of the apparatus main body 1, a document storage tray 10 is provided where images are recorded by a thermal head 7. After that, cut the cutter 11 to a predetermined length, e.g.
A recording paper storage tray 12 is provided to store recorded recording paper cut into lengths of A4 size.

In such a conventional image forming apparatus, the trays 10 and 12 protrude from both sides of the apparatus main body 1, so even if the apparatus main body is downsized, the actual installation space is still small due to the protrusion of these trays. Can't make it smaller. If these trays are installed together on one side of the device main body, the installation space can be reduced by one tray, but if they are installed all together on one side of the device main body, documents and records will be Both paper drive systems are concentrated on one side, which impairs the space efficiency inside the main body of the apparatus and complicates the drive system, which not only leads to a decrease in reliability but also to a significant increase in costs.

Also, the recording paper that is ejected onto the tray 12 is ejected with the image side facing up, so when creating multiple sheets of recording in sequence, the first page will be at the bottom and the last page will be at the top. Therefore, page alignment is required after the recording operation is completed.

The inventor of the present invention eliminates the drawbacks of the sheet material storage tray of the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, and also makes it possible to cope with the case where a large amount of sheet material is sent out. This is shown in the following drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the facsimile device shown in FIG.
This figure shows a sheet material storage tray according to the present invention installed, and in FIG. 2, the same parts as shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

A sheet material storage tray 13 according to the present invention is provided near the lower part of the recording paper sheet output of the facsimile apparatus described above. Details of the sheet material storage tray 13 are shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet material storage tray 13 has a first guide member 14 against which the ejected sheet comes into contact and guides it downward.
and a second guide member 16 for forming the seat storage space 15 facing the first guide member.
It is composed of. Second guide member 16
is made of a plastic plate or the like fixed to the stay 17 of the facsimile device main body 1, and this second
The first guide member 1 is attached to the lower end of the guide member 1.
The lower end of 4 is pivotally connected by a pin 18 as a support means. In the illustrated embodiment, these guide members are shown as plates, but these guide members do not necessarily have to be plate-shaped. For example, they may be formed by arranging a plurality of wires in the vertical direction. Any member may be used as long as it can prevent the recording paper from moving and guide it into the storage space 15.

As described above, the first guide member 14 is pivotally connected to the second guide member by the pin 18 at its lower end, and the first guide member 14 is arranged opposite to the second guide member 16 in the sheet material storage space 15. between a closed position (shown in solid lines in FIG. 3) and a substantially horizontal open position away from the second guide member 16 (shown in chain double-dashed lines in FIG. 3). It is composed of However, as long as an amount of recording paper corresponding to the storage capacity of the sheet material storage space 15 is fed out, in order to hold the first guide member 14 in the closed position, the apparatus main body 1 and the first guide member 1
A click mechanism (not shown in FIG. 3) is provided between the first guide member 14 and the first guide member 14 when the recording paper exceeds the storage capacity of the sheet material storage space 15. In this position, the first guide member 14 is moved to the stay 1 of the main body 1.
7 and held substantially horizontally. Fourth
As shown in the figure, when the first guide member 14 is open, the ejected recording paper 6 moves along the first guide member 14. Form a guide part. Furthermore, when a large amount of recording paper is stored at once and the storage capacity is exceeded, the click mechanism that locks the first guide member 14 in the closed state is automatically released by the weight of the stored recording paper. Thus, the first guide member 14 can be placed in an open state.

In the sheet material storage tray of the present invention, when the first guide member 14 is moved to the open position as described above, a large amount of records that are sent out along the ejection guide section formed by the first guide member 14 is stored. An external storage device for stacking and storing is provided, so that the sheet material storage tray described above can accommodate a large amount of recording paper.

FIG. 5A shows one embodiment of such an external storage device. External storage device 21A shown in FIG. 5A
is connected to the tip of the first guide member 14 when the first guide member 14 is moved to the open position, and stores the recording paper 6 fed out from the tip of the first guide member 14 .

FIG. 5B shows another embodiment of the external storage device described above. The external storage device 21B shown in FIG. 5B is composed of, for example, a wire-type tray, and is held at the position shown by being hooked to the machine body or the second guide member 16 at its base, and is shown in FIG. 5A. Store the recording paper 6 in the same way.

When the first guide member 14 is held in the closed position shown by the solid line in FIG. is configured to be held upside down and suspended outside the tray. To this end, in the closed position the first guide member 14 and the second member 16
A narrow closing portion 19 is formed at the bottom of the sheet material storage space 15 formed between the two, for grasping the leading end of the sheet material fed downward.
In the illustrated embodiment, the sheet material storage space 15 is formed in a V-shape, with a closing portion 19 formed at the bottom thereof, but this does not necessarily have to be V-shaped.

Furthermore, in the closed position, the first guide member 14
An open portion 20 is formed at the upper end of the housing to allow the rear end of the long sheet material to be reversed when the sheet material is stored. That is, as shown in FIG.
When the guide member 14 is closed, an opening 20 is formed between the upper end of the first guide member 14, the upper case 22 of the main body 1, and the guide 23, which is large enough to allow the loop-shaped recording paper 6 to be ejected. It is.
Therefore, the leading edge 6' of the recording paper 6 is introduced into the wedge-shaped storage space 15 of the storage tray 13, and the leading edge 6' of the recording paper 6 is held in the bottom of the storage space. When the rear end of the recording paper is cut by the cutter 11, due to the elasticity of the paper and the rotational force of the cutter blade, the rear end of the recording paper is turned over and sent out of the apparatus, and the leading edge 6' of the recording paper 6 is
Storing is completed with the rear end hanging outside the machine while it is held in the machine, and the operation can be continued to store the next recording paper.

As mentioned above, a click mechanism is provided between the device main body 1 and the first guide member 14 to hold the first guide member in the closed position while being movable to the open position. Examples of such click mechanisms are shown in FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. FIG. 6 shows one using an elastic body such as a leaf spring 24. FIG. 7 shows how the second guide member 16 is connected to the stay 17 of the main body.
A magnetic type click mechanism is shown in which the first guide member is provided with a magnet 26 that is magnetically attracted to a screw 25 that is fixed to the screw 25. FIG. 8 shows a click mechanism in which an electromagnet 27 is provided on the second guide member 16 to attract the first guide member, and when necessary, the electromagnet is deenergized to release the first guide member 14. show.

Next, the operation of storing sheet materials in the sheet material storage tray according to the present invention will be explained. Figures 9 to 13
The figure shows the operation when storing an amount of recording paper corresponding to the storage capacity of the storage space 15 formed by the first guide member and the second guide member.

First, the thermal recording paper 6 is fed out from the roll 4.
is heated by a thermal head 7 according to the information, and image information is recorded on the surface of the recording paper 6. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 9, the recording paper 6 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 5 and passes through the cutter 11.
Its tip abuts at an obtuse angle on the first guide member 14 forming a wedge-shaped or V-shaped storage space 15 . At that time, a plurality of ribs 28 are provided on the inner wall surface of the first guide member 14 as shown in FIG.
To smoothly guide the leading edge of a recording paper into a storage space 15 of a storage tray 13 by reducing contact resistance with the leading edge of the recording paper. At that time, the recording paper 6
The tip 6' of the storage space is inserted into the closed part at the bottom of the storage space. When the recording paper is continuously fed out in this state, the recording paper 6 forms a loop through the opening 20 as shown in FIG. It is discharged, and finally, as shown in Fig. 12, it curls greatly and hangs down outside the machine body.

When the cutter 11 operates in this state and cuts off the rear end of the recording paper 6, the recording paper hanging outside the machine is reversed in the direction of the arrow using its own weight and the rotational force of the cutter blade. This series of movements of the recording paper 6 is repeated until the recording paper 6 reaches the state shown in FIG. Recording paper sheets accumulate.

Next, a storage operation when a large amount of recording paper is sent out that exceeds the storage capacity of the storage space 15 will be described.

In this case, the first guide member 14 is moved to a substantially horizontal open position as shown in FIG.
At this time, the first guide member 14 forms a discharge guide section. With the first guide member 14 moved to the open position in this way, the external storage device 21A shown in FIG. 5A or the external storage device 5 shown in FIG. 5B is opened.
B is connected to the first guide member 14 or the main body 1 or the second guide member 16. The recording paper sent out from the facsimile machine is guided by the first guide member 1.
4 and are sequentially loaded and stored in the external storage device 21A or 21B.

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, the leading end of the sheet material is inserted into the closed part at the bottom of the sheet material storage space, and the rear end is turned over and hung outside the machine, thereby allowing the special material to be removed from the machine body. The installation space of the machine can be significantly reduced without having to carry a tray, and the sheet materials can be stored in an orderly arrangement regardless of the winding pattern. The paper can be stored in the tray with the pages facing up in order, which not only improves the installation space but also greatly improves operability such as handling of sheet materials. This paper has a function of pinching and holding the leading edge of the ejected sheet, which eliminates the need for ejecting rollers and has a simple mechanism, which can be expected to significantly reduce costs and improve reliability. Without impairing the original function of the tray, in the present invention, the storage capacity is greater than the storage capacity of the storage space formed between the two guide members when the first guide member is positioned opposite to the second guide member. When storing a large number of sheet materials, the first guide member is moved to the open position and an external storage device is connected, thereby producing the effect that a large amount of sheet materials can be accommodated.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to storing recording paper but also to storing manuscripts.

Further, in the above embodiment, only an apparatus for cutting continuous paper has been described, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus that uses pre-cut paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional facsimile machine, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a facsimile machine equipped with a tray according to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is an illustration of the facsimile machine shown in Fig. 2 with the recording paper storage section in a closed state. Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the recording paper storage section in an open state, Figure 5A
5B and 5B are views respectively showing an embodiment of the external storage device connected with the first guide member in the open position, and FIGS. 6 to 8 relate to opening and closing of the paper storage section of the tray of the present invention. Explanatory diagram of the click mechanism, No. 9
Figures 1 to 13 are explanatory diagrams showing a series of movements of paper in the paper storage section of the tray. 1...facsimile device body, 2...document stand,
3...Optical system, 4...Recording paper roll, 5...Platen roller, 6...Recording paper, 6'...Recording paper leading edge,
7...Thermal head, 8...Power unit, 9...Document, 10...Document tray, 11...Cutter,
12... Recording paper tray, 13... Sheet material storage tray, 14... First guide member, 15... Sheet material storage space, 16... Second guide member, 17...
...Stay, 18...Pin, 19...Occluded part, 20
...opening section, 21...external storage device, 22...upper case, 23...guide, 24...plate spring, 2
5...screw, 26...magnet, 27...electromagnet, 28...rib.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] In a sheet material storage tray provided near the sheet ejection section of the image forming apparatus 1, a first guide member 14 that guides the leading edge of the ejected sheet downward; Second guide member 1 for forming seat storage space 15 facing each other
6, and a support that supports the first guide member 14 at the lower end thereof so as to be movable between a closed position and an open position opposite to the second guide member 16 and forming the seat storage space. means 18, wherein the first guide member 14 is in the open position external storage devices 21A, 21B.
A sheet material storage tray characterized in that it can be connected to.