JP2007168917A - Sheet processing apparatus and image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system capable of downsizing the apparatus and ensuring correction of a sheet conveying posture.
In a sheet processing apparatus that performs one or more processing selected from stipple, sorting, and punching on a sheet that has been imaged by an image forming apparatus, an inlet guide plate 3a having upper and lower guide plates is provided. , 3b and the relay guide plate 4 are integrated, the sheet processing apparatus 200 and the image forming system can be provided.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system for performing post-processing such as stippling on an image-formed sheet. In particular, the present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus having an entrance guide plate and an image forming system.

In order to correct the transport posture of the sheet that has been carried in, that is, the sheet received from the image forming apparatus, the front end of the sheet that has been transported obliquely must hit the nip of the transport roller uniformly. Since a time difference occurs in the portion that abuts on the sheet, the downstream portion of the sheet portion that abuts on the conveyance roller first tries to bend. In order for this bending to be performed without difficulty, if the distance between the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate is not set apart, the sheet will come into contact with it when bent, making it difficult to bend, or between the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate. The sheet may become clogged, the sheet may be damaged, or the front end of the sheet may not uniformly hit the conveying roller.
Therefore, in Patent Document 1, the leading edge of the loaded paper is brought into contact with a pair of conveying rollers provided on the most upstream side in the sheet conveying direction, and the sheet is further fed in a state where the leading edge of the sheet is stopped to determine the position of the leading edge of the sheet. In a paper processing apparatus that aligns at the nip of the transport roller pair and corrects the transport posture, then sends it to the subsequent stage, performs a predetermined process, and discharges the paper. A pair of guide plates that guide the paper with respect to the transport roller pair In addition, it is disclosed that a space for allowing the sheet to bend after the sheet comes into contact with the pair of conveying rollers is provided.
In general, when the paper bends in the transport path, if the distance between the guide plates facing the paper surface of the transport path is small, it will be wavy and cannot be bent neatly in one direction. However, on the average, they cannot contact the nip of the transport roller. Therefore, it is not possible to reliably correct the paper transport posture.
Therefore, if a space that allows the sheet to bend is provided as in Patent Document 1, the sheet can be bent in one direction in this space, and the sheet conveyance posture correction in the subsequent stage can be reliably performed. Thus, it is possible to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system that can be surely bent in the intended direction and reliably correct the sheet transport posture.

JP 2003-276910 A

However, the method of Patent Document 1 has a problem that the space between the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate becomes long in order to secure the space, so that the apparatus becomes large correspondingly.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and the problems thereof are a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system capable of reducing the size of the apparatus and ensuring correction of the sheet conveying posture. Is to provide.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system that can ensure the strength and mountability of an entrance guide plate and can change only the relay guide plate in accordance with the change of the image forming apparatus to be attached.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system in which only one of the two-member guide plates is distorted so that damage at the time of collision with another object can be minimized.

The features of the present invention, which is a means for solving the above problems, are listed below.
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus that performs one or more processes selected from stipple, sorting, and punching on a sheet imaged by an image forming apparatus. The sheet processing apparatus includes guide plates that are provided above and below. The sheet processing apparatus is characterized in that at least one of the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are integrated.
The present invention is a sheet processing apparatus in which a guide plate that is not integrated is formed of two members, an inlet guide plate and a relay guide plate.
The present invention is characterized in that a guide plate in which the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are not integrated protrudes from the integrated guide plate. Here, the term “protrusion” means that “the guide plate that is not integrated is long and protrudes toward the sheet discharge roller side”.
The present invention is characterized in that the sheet discharged from the image forming apparatus abuts against a guide plate in which the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are not integrated.
According to the present invention, an image forming system includes the sheet processing apparatus described above.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system capable of reducing the size of the apparatus and ensuring the correction of the sheet conveying posture by means for solving the above-described problem. .
In addition, it is possible to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system that can ensure the strength and attachability of the entrance guide plate and can change only the relay guide plate according to the change of the image forming apparatus to be attached. It was.
Furthermore, it is possible to provide a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system that can suppress only damage of one of the two-member guide plates and minimize damage at the time of collision with another object.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that it is easy for a person skilled in the art to make other embodiments by changing or correcting the present invention within the scope of the claims, and these changes and modifications are included in the scope of the claims. The following description is an example of the best mode of the present invention, and does not limit the scope of the claims.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an image forming system including a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. The sheet processing apparatus 200 receives a sheet conveyed from the image forming apparatus 100 and performs post-processing such as punching processing and stipple processing. The sheet processing apparatus 200 conveys the sheet from the image forming apparatus 100 to the entrance side in the sheet processing apparatus 200. An inlet roller pair 2 serving as a conveyance posture correcting mechanism provided for receiving the incoming sheet, and a relay guide plate 4 and an inlet guide plate 3 for guiding the sheet are disposed there. A punch unit 201 for punching a sheet is disposed on the exit side of the conveyance posture correction mechanism.
Below the punch unit 201 is provided a punch hopper 207 for receiving punch scum. On the outlet side of the punch unit 201, a horizontal conveyance path, an upper conveyance path 202, and lower conveyance paths 210 and 211 are provided, and a sheet is branched by a branch claw 208.

A paper discharge roller 205 is provided on the exit side of the horizontal conveyance path, and sheets fed from the paper discharge roller 205 are stacked on the tray 206. In the lower conveyance paths 210 and 211, paper feed rollers 209 and 212 for feeding sheets to the staple tray 213 are provided. In the case of edge binding, the sheets fed to the staple tray 213 one by one are aligned in the direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction by the jogger 214, and then a predetermined number of sheets are collected and stapled by the stapler unit 217. Is applied to the paper discharge roller 205 from the staple tray 213 by the discharge claw 215. The sheets that have passed through the upper conveyance path 202 are stacked on the upper tray. In the case of saddle stitching, a predetermined number of sheets are aligned by the staple tray 213, and then bundled and conveyed downward by the bundle conveying roller pair 216, and the stapler unit 217 performs the binding process at the saddle stitching position. When the saddle stitching process is completed, the sheet is conveyed to the folding position by the bundle conveying roller pair 221, subjected to the middle folding process by the folding plate 218 and the folding roller 219, and discharged to the middle folding sheet discharge tray 220 by the middle folding sheet discharge roller. Loaded. The above-described configuration is known as a sheet processing apparatus, and detailed description thereof is omitted. With the above-described configuration, the present invention can reliably correct the sheet conveying posture and achieve downsizing of the system.

2 and 3 are enlarged views of the sheet delivery unit of the image forming apparatus 100 and the sheet processing apparatus 200 of FIG. The upper side of the guide plate is integrated to form an inlet guide plate 3a, and the lower side includes an inlet guide plate 3b and a relay guide plate 4. The relay guide plate 4 projects from the inlet guide plate 3a. Further, the paper feeding unit of the image forming apparatus is arranged from the top to the bottom so that the sheet a fed from the paper discharge roller 1 of the image forming apparatus 100 hits the relay guide plate 4. The abutting direction is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to abut the guide plate with the path of the sheet discharged from the image forming apparatus downward as shown in FIG.
As a result, the distance from the entrance roller of the sheet processing apparatus to the discharge port of the image forming apparatus can be shortened, and the sheet processing apparatus can be downsized, and the correction of the sheet conveying posture can be ensured. Further, it is possible to ensure the strength and attachability of the entrance guide plate, and change only the relay guide plate according to the change of the image forming apparatus to be attached. Further, only one of the two member guide plates is distorted, and loss at the time of collision with another object can be minimized.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a case where the guide plate is abutted against a non-integrated guide plate. FIG. 5 is a view showing a case where the guide plate is abutted against the integrated guide plate. According to the present invention, when a sheet ejected from the image forming apparatus abuts against a guide plate in which the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are not integrated, the sheet is placed toward one member. Is bent (see FIG. 4). Accordingly, the sheet can be bent toward one member when the sheet is abutted, and the sheet can be prevented from being damaged when the conveyance posture of the sheet is corrected.
On the other hand, if the sheet is bent, the space is not enough, and when bent, the sheet will come into contact and become difficult to bend (see FIG. 5), the sheet will be clogged between the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate, or the sheet may be damaged. If the sheet ends are not evenly bumped against the conveying roller, the sheet will not be able to be removed.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an image forming system including a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a sheet delivery unit of the image forming apparatus 100 and the sheet processing apparatus 200 in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a sheet delivery unit of the image forming apparatus 100 and the sheet processing apparatus 200 in FIG. 1. It is the figure which showed the case where it abuts on the guide plate which is not united. It is the figure which showed the case where it abuts on the guide plate which is united.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Outlet roller 2 Inlet roller pair 3 Inlet guide plate 3a Inlet guide plate 3b Inlet guide plate 4 Relay guide plate 100 Image forming apparatus 200 Sheet processing apparatus 201 Punch unit 202 Upper conveyance path 205 Outlet roller 206 Tray 207 Punch hopper 208 Branch claw 209 Paper feed roller 210 Lower conveyance path 211 Lower conveyance path 212 Paper feed roller 213 Staple tray 214 Jogger 215 Release claw 216 Bundle conveyance roller pair 217 Stapler unit 218 Fold plate 219 Fold roller 220 Middle fold discharge tray 221 Bundle conveyance Roller vs. a sheet

Claims (5)

In a sheet processing apparatus that performs one or more processes selected from stipple, sorting, and punching on a sheet imaged by an image forming apparatus,
The sheet processing apparatus is characterized in that the guide plate integrates at least one of the inlet guide plates provided at the top and bottom with the relay guide plate. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The sheet processing apparatus includes:
A sheet processing apparatus, wherein the guide plate that is not integrated is formed of two members, an inlet guide plate and a relay guide plate. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 2,
In the sheet processing apparatus, a guide plate in which the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are not integrated protrudes from the integrated guide plate. In the sheet processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The sheet processing apparatus is characterized in that the sheet discharged from the image forming apparatus abuts against a guide plate in which the entrance guide plate and the relay guide plate are not integrated. An image forming system comprising the sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1.

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