JPS6371071A - Collating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a collating device which enables orderly selective discharge of recording materials, is compact, and improves facility, by providing a tray selecting means which has an actuating piece rotatably engaged with a guide member. CONSTITUTION:When it is detected by a second sensor 52 that a recording material 20 is discharged to a tray 14, a control part motions a guide member 16 with a tray so that the recording material 20 is discharged to the tray 14 at a subsequent stage by means of a tray selecting means. Namely, when it is decided that the recording material 20 is discharged to some tray 14, with a solenoid 37 energized, a timing belt 38 is interlocked through a series of clutch mechanisms with the said of a motor 8, and a selecting cam member is moved. The rotary arm of the guide member 16 is rotated in a position where a cam member 31 is positioned facing the subsequent tray 14, and when the guide member 16 is forcibly lowered, the solenoid 37 is deenergized by means of a micro switch 39, and a posture for receiving the subsequent recording material is assumed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a collating device, and particularly to a collating device that is compact, has trays arranged side by side, and is operated by a single drive source for feeding, transporting, and discharging. The present invention relates to a collating device.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional collating devices, that is, collating devices widely used as recording paper post-processing devices in copying machines, etc., tray bins for sorting and storing recording materials are generally arranged in multiple stages in the vertical direction. , the recording material is delivered to the tray by ejection rollers installed at the entrance of each tray, or by moving the tray itself in the vertical direction and moving one ejection roller toward the tray population formed between the trays. It was configured to discharge the water sequentially.

However, in such conventional collating devices,
The structure is such that the trays are stacked vertically at a predetermined distance and held in a stacked state, and each tray is held in a state that extends diagonally toward the direction in which the recording material is ejected, so the overall bulk is reduced. It has no choice but to take on a higher form,
Moreover, when the recording materials are stored in the tray, the order in which the recording materials are stacked is opposite to the page order of the original document, and when you want to compile multiple pages of recorded documents, etc., you have to stack them again, which is inconvenient. There are many things.

Particularly in recent years, medium-sized copying machines have become widely used, and there is a desire to develop a collating device for such copying machines that is compact and easy to use for the operator.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

An object of the present invention is to focus on the above-mentioned conventional problems, and in order to solve the problems, a plurality of trays are fixed in an array along a conveyance means, and a discharge roller and a discharge roller provided on each tray are fixed. To provide a compact and easy-to-use collating device capable of sequentially and selectively discharging recording materials using a guide member.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of fixed trays arranged along a conveyance means, and a tray selection means that selects a recording material fed to the conveyance means. In a collating device that is capable of discharging one fixed tray selected from a plurality of fixed trays by a discharging roller attached to the fixed tray, a collating device is formed in an arc shape along each discharging roller and rotates around the axis of the discharging roller. A movably supported guide member, a movable belt movable in the direction in which the fixed trays are arranged in conjunction with a conveyance means, and a belt drive control means and movable belt capable of moving the movable belt in accordance with the arrangement interval of the fixed trays. tray selection means having a rotatable actuation piece that engages with a guide member of a fixed tray attached to the tray, and when selecting an ejection tray, the actuation piece is advanced by the belt drive control means; The recording material is characterized in that the guide member is rotated so that the guide member scoops up the recording material from the conveyance means between the discharge roller and the guide member and discharges the recording material.

[Function] According to the collating device of the present invention, when the recording material is guided to the conveyance means, the recording material is scooped up at the fixed tray selected by the tray selection means by the guide member provided around the discharge roller of that tray. At this time, the tray is selected by the belt drive control means of the moving belt that is linked with the conveying means, and the actuating piece provided on the moving belt is moved to the selected tray. This is carried out by engaging the guide member of the belt and rotating the guide member. By linking the moving belt with the conveying means, there is no need to provide a special drive source, and the structure is compact. The control operation up to the discharge of the fed recording material can be performed by the same drive source as the conveying means.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically below based on the drawings.

First, in order to make the explanation easier to understand, the following describes a one-way transport section that has a drive system for the Sakae transport path and its transport means, a tray holding section that holds individual tray bins, and a transport path for moving recording materials from the feeding port to the transport path. The overall apparatus will be explained by roughly dividing it into four main mechanisms: a feeding section as a feeding means that guides the tray, and a control section as a control means such as a tray selection means driven by the drive system of the transport section. shall be.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, where 1 is an outer case, 2 is a tray holding section, 3 is a conveyance section, and a control section is housed in the side IA of the case 1, although it is not shown. ing. 4 is a recording material supply port, 5A is an upper guide plate thereof, 5B is a lower guide plate, and 6 and 7 are feed belts and pulleys arranged along the lower guide plate 5B. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, the conveying section 3 is provided with a conveying belt 9, a conveying pulley 10A, and a driven pulley IOB, which are driven simultaneously and at the same speed as the feeding belt 6 by a feeding motor 8. A conveying path 11 for guiding the recording material is configured.

Furthermore, in FIG. 1, 12A and 12B are a driving sprocket and a driven sprocket provided coaxially with the above-mentioned transport pulley IOA and driven pulley IOB,
Reference numeral 13 denotes a chain belt extending in a bow length between these sprockets 128 and 12B. Thus, the chain belt 13 allows the discharge rollers 15 of the individual trays 14 held on the tray holding section 2 side to be interlocked. That is, +5A is a sprocket provided coaxially with the discharge roller 15, and these sprockets 1
58 are configured to be able to engage with the chain belt 13 from above, so that when the feeding motor 8 is driven, the feeding belt 6 and the conveying heald 9 are
The discharge rollers 15 are simultaneously rotated in the direction of the arrow via the chain belt 13, thereby making preparations for receiving the recording material.

16 are provided on the side trays 14, and a discharge roller shaft 15
The guide member 17 is rotatable around B, and numeral 17 is a pinch roller pivotally supported by the guide member 16. These mechanisms will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 18 indicates a guide roller disposed between the conveyance pulleys 10A and 108, and 19 indicates a static elimination brush attached to the guide member 16. This figure shows a state in which the recording material 20 is discharged to the first O bin, which is the closest to you, among the trays 14 with lO bins. has been done.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the tray 14. The tray 14 is configured to pivotally support the ejection roller shaft 15B with a bracket portion 148 on the population side, and a portion of the bracket portion 14A is further provided with a tray holding member 2A as shown in FIG.
A fixing member 14B that can be engaged with the fixing groove 2B is formed. Further, a cover portion 14C formed by bending the end of the tray 14 into an inverted U shape is provided around the discharge roller shaft 15B. Thus each tray 14 has a fixed arm 14
B is inserted into the fixing groove 2B of the tray holding member 2A to be locked and fixed, or a guide member 16 as shown in FIGS. 58 and 5B is pivotally supported on this ejection roller shaft 15B. .

Note that in FIG. 5B, the guide member 16 is connected to the roller shaft 15B.
As seen from the side, notches 16^ are formed in the guide member 16, which has a semi-circular cross-section, at positions corresponding to the conveyor belt 9, respectively. Further, a rotary arm 16B having a roller attached to its tip is provided at a shaft support to a roller shaft 15B provided at one end of the guide member 16, and a selection cam member 31 of a tray selection means, which will be described in detail later, is provided. As the rotating arm 158 is rotated in the direction of the arrow, the guide member 16 is lowered to the state shown in FIG. 5A. Furthermore,
The guide member 16 is not lowered in this way, and the conveyance is carried out along the path 11.
In other words, the guide member 1 in the tray 14 other than the first O-bin in FIG.
State 6 is obtained by a spring member (not shown),
Therefore, when being lowered, the rotating arm 16B is rotated against the spring force of this spring member.

Next, details of the conveying section 3 will be explained with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 32 denotes a common drive shaft that drives the pulley 7.10 and the sprocket 12A. The recorded recording material can be transmitted from the feeding belt 6 to the conveying belt 9 of the conveying path 11. Further, a one-way clutch cam 35 and a small gear 36A are disposed on the common shaft 32, and a solenoid 37 having a lever 37A that can be engaged with the locking surface of the cam 35 is disposed below the cam 35. ing.

36B is a large gear meshing with small gear 368, 38C is a switch actuating cam provided coaxially with large gear 36B, 3
A timing belt 8 is driven in the direction of the arrow through a large gear 36B, and the timing belt 38 allows the tray selection cam member 31 to be moved.

39 is a microswitch that is turned off by an operating cam 36C when the large gear 36B rotates once, and 40 is a microswitch for detecting the position of the first bin.

Next, referring to FIG. 7, a description will be given of a sensor that monitors the operation until the recording material is discharged onto the tray 14. Here, 51 is a first sensor that detects that the recording material is guided to the feeding port 4, and 518 is its actuating piece that projects from the lower guide plate 5B toward the feeding port 4. . That is,
When the recording material is inserted into the supply port 4 in the first sensor 51,
When the operating piece 51A is tilted, its state is detected optically, for example, and the feed motor 8 is driven to guide the recording material 20 to the conveyance path 11 by the feed heald 6 and the conveyor belt 9.

In addition, if the actuating piece 51A of the first sensor 51 does not return to its original state even after the time has elapsed for the recording material 20 to be completely guided to the conveyance path 11, the control section It is determined that a jam has occurred, and the motor 8 can be stopped.

52A and 52B are a light emitting part and a light receiving part of a second sensor disposed along the conveyance path 11 on the population side and the exit side, respectively;
This is the optical path to B. Note that this optical path 53 is provided with light emitted by the recording material 20 only while the recording material 20 is guided to the tray 14 from the conveyance path 11 without being reversed by the guide member 16, as shown in the figure. The relative positions of the light-emitting section 52A and the light-receiving section 52B are set so that the recording material does not exist on the 20 m2 feeding path 11, or even if it does exist, it is taken into one of the trays 14. The optical path 53 is not exposed to light during the transport process.

In this way, the second sensor monitors whether the recording material 20 is ejected to any of the trays 14 from when it starts to ejected until it is finished, and if the time is longer than a preset predetermined time, the control section It is determined that a jam has occurred in the middle of the conveyance path 11 or while the paper is completely discharged onto the tray 14 along the discharging roller 15, guide member 16, etc., and the motor 8 can be stopped.

Furthermore, the recording material 20 is moved to the tray 14 by the second sensor.
When it is detected that the recording material 20 has been ejected to the next tray 14, the control section can operate the guide member 16 with the tray by the tray selection means described above so that the recording material 20 is ejected to the next tray 14.

That is, when it is determined that the recording material 20 has been ejected to one of the trays 14, the solenoid 37 is energized as shown in FIG.
The timing belt 38 is interlocked by the motor 8 via j, and the selection cam member 31 is moved in the direction of the arrow. Thus, when the cam member 31 rotates the rotating arm 16B of the guide member 16 at a position corresponding to the next tray 14 and pulls down the guide member 16 to the state shown in FIG. 5A, the microswitch 39 is activated. This deenergizes the solenoid 37 and prepares to receive the next recording material.

FIG. 8 shows a circuit configuration for implementing the above operation,
Here, 41 is a control section, 42 is a power supply section, and 43 is an operation display section, and as these are commonly used as this type of collating device, their explanation will be omitted. Now, to explain the timing when the series of operations described above are carried out by the control section with reference to FIG. 9, in (8), first, when the first sensor 51 detects the recording material and becomes "on" state. , (B), the feed motor 8 is driven.

Thus, in the first sensor 51, whether the recording material or the conveyance path 11
If the paper is fed in the direction shown in FIG.

Next, the recording material is monitored by the second sensor 52, and when the recording material starts to be taken into the selected tray 14, the second sensor 52 is turned on in (B), and when the recording is finished, it is turned off. At this point, the feed motor 8 is at (C
) as shown in FIG.
As shown in D), the clutch solenoid 37 is turned on, the cam member 31 is advanced, and when the switching to the next bin is completed, the clutch solenoid 37 is turned on.

Further, in (B), if the second sensor 52 does not turn off after a predetermined period of time, it is determined that a jam has occurred, and the drive of the feed motor 8 is stopped in (C). be done.

Thereafter, each time recording materials are taken in from the feed port 4, the collating operation is performed at the timing described above.

It goes without saying that by selecting the mode in the control section 41, it is possible to continuously discharge recording materials to the same tray without operating the tray selection means.

Furthermore, in FIG. 7, the portion forming the conveyance path 11, that is, the conveyance section 3 shown in FIG. They are integrally constructed through a support frame, and in the event of a jam, the position shown by the two-dot chain line can be moved by releasing the locking part provided on the left side in Figure 7. It can be easily lowered to.

Further, a feeding mechanism (shown surrounded by a broken line) 54 including the upper guide plate 5A, the lower guide plate 5B, and a feeding means using the feed belt 6 is also rotatable around the common drive 1lh32A. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately adjust the height of the feeding port.

FIG. 10 shows the configuration of a 1112 feeding section 3 according to another embodiment of the present invention, which is a part of the structure shown in FIG. 6 that corresponds to the conveyance path 11. In addition, in order to make the explanation easier to understand, the ejection roller 15 and roller @1 provided on the tray side are
A part of 5B is separated from the tray side and is shown as an additional note.

In this example, 61 is a thin wire made of steel or resin, and in the example shown in FIG. The belts 9 and their driving means located on both sides of the wood conveying heddle 9 are eliminated, and in their place thin wires 61 of two pieces of wood are stretched.

Further, 6z is a support rod provided to hold these thin wires 61 at the same height as the upper surface of the conveyor belt 9 and maintain an accurate pitch between them, and 63 is a support rod that applies tension to the thin wires 61. .11 It is a coil spring for holding, thus,
One end of the coil spring 61 is fixed to the fixed frame 64 via the coil spring 63, and the other end is fixed to the fixed frame 64 as it is.

In the conveyance unit 3 configured in this way, when the recording material is guided onto the conveyance path ll by a feed heald (not shown),
It can be transported by the conveyor belt 9 disposed in the center with both ends smoothly supported by a plurality of thin wires 61, and as the number of conveyor belts 9 is reduced, the structure is simplified and costs are reduced. will also contribute.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, each fixed tray is provided with a guide member formed in an arc shape along its ejection roller and rotatably supported around the roller axis,
One tray selection means includes a movable belt that can be moved in the direction of arrangement of the fixed trays in conjunction with the conveying means, a belt drive control procedure that allows the movable belt to step in accordance with the arrangement interval of the trays, and a movable heald. An actuating piece that can be attached and engaged with the guide member and rotates the guide member by engagement is provided, so that the actuating piece selected by the actuating piece can be moved by advancing the moving belt by the belt drive control means. By rotating the guide member of the tray, the recording material can be scooped up by the guide member, and the recording material can be ejected to the tray by the ejection roller. Not only can this be carried out in conjunction with the conveying means, but also the entire configuration can be made compact, making it possible to provide a T-coupling device that is easy to use for the operator.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the structure of the collating device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the main components of the feeding section, conveyance section, and tray holding section, and FIG. The figure is a perspective view showing an example of the structure of the tray of the collating device of the present invention, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation when fixing the tray, and FIG. 5A is an example of the structure of the guide member attached to the tray. FIG. 5B is a perspective view showing the guide member viewed from the back side, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the structure of the feeding section, conveyance section, and tray selection means of the collating device of the present invention. A perspective view showing an example, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining the detection operation and recording material ejection operation of the recording material detection means provided in the collating device of the present invention, FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration thereof, FIG. 9 is a timing chart of the collating operation, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a conveyance section according to another embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Exterior case, 2... Tray holding part, 2A... Tray holding member, 3... Conveyance part, 4... Feeding port, 58, 5B... Guide plate, 6. ...Feeding belt, 9...Transportation belt, 10A, 10B...Pulley, 11...Transportation end, 12A, 12B...Sprocket, 13...Chain belt, 14...Tray, 14B... Fixed arm, 15... Discharge roller, 15A... Sprocket, 15B... Discharge roller shaft, 16... Guide member, 168... Notch, 16B... Rotating arm , 17... Pinch roller, 1g... Static elimination brush, 20... Recording material, 31... Cam member, 32... Common drive shaft, 33, 38... Timing held, 35...・One-way clutch cam, 36C... Switch actuation cam, 37... Solenoid, 39, 40... Micro switch, 41... Control unit, 51... First sensor, 52... No. 2 sensor, 52A... Second sensor light emitting part, 52B... Second sensor light receiving part, 53... Optical path, 54... Feeding part (feeding mechanism), 61... Thin wire, 62 ...Support rod, 63...Coil spring, 64...Fixing frame. \ Oath-N

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A plurality of fixed trays are arranged along a conveyance means, and a recording material fed to the conveyance means is selected from one of the plurality of fixed trays by a tray selection means. In a collating device capable of discharging two fixed trays by means of discharging rollers attached thereto, a guide member formed in an arc shape along each of the discharging rollers and rotatably supported on the axis of the discharging roller; a movable belt movable in the arrangement direction of the fixed trays in conjunction with the conveying means; a belt drive control means capable of moving the movable belt step by step in accordance with the arrangement interval of the fixed trays; and a movable belt attached to the movable belt and the fixed trays. tray selection means having a rotatable actuation piece that engages with a guide member of the tray; when selecting a discharge tray, the actuation piece is advanced by the belt drive control means, and the actuation piece moves the guide member; A collating device characterized in that a member is rotated so that the recording material is scooped up from the conveying means by the guide member between the discharge roller and the guide member and discharged. 2) In the collating device according to claim 1, the belt drive control means includes a clutch means capable of switching the moving belt to a stop state or an activated state, a solenoid for switching and operating the clutch means, and a solenoid capable of switching the moving belt. 1. A collating device comprising: means for detecting progress of a belt. 3) A collating device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the guide member includes a pinch roller that can come into contact with the discharge roller and a static eliminating means.