JPH01167169A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate take-out of stacked sheets by arranging a sheet discharge tray for stacking sheets inverted and discharged through a U-turn carry path such that it is incorporated partially in the lower section of a machine body projectably by a predetermined amount through a front opening. CONSTITUTION:A sheet discharged from a machine body 1 through a sheet discharge pair roller 32 is inverted through a U-turn carry path and a carrying means 144 arranged between fixed guides 140, 141 then contacted with a stopper 182 at the tip thereof and stacked sequentially in the tray 9. The sheet discharge tray 9 is arranged below the sheet discharge pair roller 32 such that it is incorporated partially in the machine body 1 and movable perpendicularly to the advancing direction of sheet. When a predetermined number of sheets are stacked, the sheet discharge tray 9 is projected by a predetermined amount through an opening 220 made through the front face of the machine body along a slide rail 210 by means of a moving means. By such arrangement, sheets can be stacked orderly without requiring pagination and the stacked sheets can be taken out easily.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus that improves the handling of paper ejected from the apparatus main body. Regarding equipment.

(Prior Art) Normally, a PPC copying machine has image forming process constituent means such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing built into the main body of the apparatus, and the fixed paper is transferred through a pair of paper ejection rollers. The paper is ejected outside the main body of the machine, but conventionally, the paper ejected from the main body of the machine was stacked one after another on a paper ejection tray that protruded from the side of the main body of the machine. It has become.

, (Problem to be solved by the invention) In this way, in the past, the paper ejected from the device main body was
The paper is stacked as is on the output tray, which is provided in the output direction and protrudes from the side of the main body of the device, so when copies are made in order from page 1, they are stacked on the output tray in the reverse order. This results in a troublesome page alignment operation, and the paper ejection tray protrudes from the main body of the apparatus, requiring a large installation space.

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and its object is to have a simple configuration, but to be able to stack sheets ejected from the device main body in accordance with the order of image formation, thereby eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Moreover, the image forming apparatus can reduce the installation space, and furthermore, the paper stacked in the paper output tray can be divided into groups or divided into predetermined number of sheets, and the stacked paper can be easily taken out. This is what we are trying to provide.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention incorporates image forming process constituent means such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing in the main body of the apparatus. In an image forming apparatus in which the fixed paper is ejected out of the main body of the apparatus via a pair of paper ejection rollers, a portion of the paper below the arrangement position of the pair of paper ejection rollers has entered the main body of the apparatus. a paper ejection tray provided, a U-turn ejection path that reverses the paper ejected via the paper ejection roller pair and guides it to the paper ejection tray, and a traveling direction of the paper accumulated in the paper ejection tray. tray moving means for displacing the paper ejection tray in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the paper so that the end portion in the perpendicular direction is shifted;
The apparatus is further provided with a tray moving means for moving the paper discharge tray so as to protrude from the apparatus main body after the image forming operation is completed.

(Function) That is, since the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, the paper discharged via the paper discharge roller pair is reversed via the U-turn discharge path, and the paper is placed below the arrangement position of the paper discharge roller pair. The sheets can be guided to a paper discharge tray and stacked, and the stacking can be performed in accordance with the order of image formation, eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Furthermore, since the paper ejection tray is provided with a portion of the paper ejection tray recessed into the main body of the apparatus, the amount of protrusion of the paper ejection tray is reduced, and the installation space can be reduced. Further, a tray moving means for displacing the paper output tray in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the sheets is provided, so that the ends of the sheets accumulated in the paper output tray in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction are shifted. With this arrangement, the sheets accumulated in the paper ejection tray can be divided into groups or divided into a predetermined number of sheets, and their post-processing can be facilitated. Furthermore, since a tray moving means is provided for moving the paper ejection tray to protrude from the apparatus main body after the image forming operation is completed, it is possible to easily take out the sheets accumulated in the paper ejection tray after the image forming operation is completed. Become.

(Example) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the appearance of the entire image forming apparatus;
The figure shows its internal configuration.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an apparatus main body that incorporates image forming process constituent means 2 such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing. An automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 for setting and ejecting documents from the document placement glass 3 is provided, and an operation panel 5 is disposed at the front edge of the top surface.

On the right side of the apparatus main body 1, there are a first paper feed cassette (hereinafter referred to as an upper cassette) 6 containing paper P such as plain paper to be supplied to the image forming process configuration means 2, and a second paper feed cassette (hereinafter referred to as an upper cassette). A lower cassette (hereinafter referred to as a lower cassette) 7 and a large capacity paper feeder 8 are installed. Further, on the left side of the apparatus main body 1, there is installed a paper ejection tray 9 for accumulating fixed paper P with a portion of the paper P ejected from the apparatus main body 1 into the apparatus main body 1. A paper discharging unit 11 having a U-turn discharging path 10 for guiding the paper to the paper discharging tray 9 in an inverted state is installed.

The apparatus main body 1 is composed of an upper unit 1a and a lower unit 1b, and as shown in FIG. And the paper delivery unit 11 is attached. Further, the lower unit 1b is equipped with the paper ejection tray 9 and the large-capacity paper feeder 8, and a paper guide that guides the paper P fed from the large-capacity paper feeder 8 toward the upper unit 1a. 12 is provided.

The image forming process configuration means 2 has the following configuration. That is, a drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 serving as an image carrier is arranged approximately at the center of the upper unit 1a, and a charging device 21 . Erasing device 22, exposure section 23a of exposure device 23
, developing device 24, transfer device 25. Peeling device 26. A cleaning device 27, a static eliminator 28, etc. are arranged in this order.

Furthermore, along the inner bottom of the upper unit 1a, paper P1 or the upper cassette 6 is automatically fed from the upper cassette 6, the lower cassette 7, and the large capacity paper feeder 8.
The paper P that is manually fed through the manual paper feed table 30 which also serves as a cover is passed through the image transfer section 31 between the photoreceptor 20 and the transfer device 25, and then transferred to a paper output provided on the left side of the main body 1 of the apparatus. A paper conveyance path 33 leading to the roller pair 32 is formed.

An aligning roller pair 34 is arranged on the upstream side of the image transfer section 31 of the paper conveyance path 33, and a fixing device 35 is arranged on the downstream side.

In addition, near the loading section of the upper cassette 6, there is a take-out roller 41 attached to a swingable arm 40 that takes out the sheets P one by one, and a take-out roller 41 that receives the sheets P taken out via the take-out roller 4. Separation conveyance means 42 consisting of a conveyance roller 42a and a separation roller 42b, which are fed into the first branch conveyance path 33a forming the upstream side of the paper conveyance path 30.
A transport roller 42a and a separation roller 42b are arranged to separate the manually fed paper P from each other.
A manual feed roller 43 is provided to feed the paper into the first branch conveyance path 33a through a gap between the paper and the paper.

Further, in the vicinity of the installed portion of the lower cassette 7, there is a take-out roller 45 attached to a swingable arm 44 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one, and a take-out roller 45 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one and receives the sheets of paper P taken out via this take-out paper feed roller 45. A separation conveyance means 46 is provided which includes a conveyance roller 46a and a separation roller 46b, which feed the paper into a second branch conveyance path 33b forming the upstream side of the paper conveyance path 33.

Also, in the vicinity of the attached portion of the large-capacity paper feeder 8, there is a take-out roller 48 that is attached to a swingable arm 47 and takes out sheets of paper P one by one, and a take-out roller 48 that takes out sheets of paper P one by one. Separation conveyance means 49 is provided, which includes a conveyance roller 49a that receives and sends the paper into the third branch conveyance path 33c forming the upstream side of the sheet conveyance path 33, and a separation roller 49b.

Furthermore, a paper-out detection switch 50 and a paper size detection switch 51 that also serves to detect the presence or absence of a cassette are respectively arranged in the mounting portions of the upper cassette 6 and the lower cassette 7, and a large-capacity paper feeder 8
A detection switch (not shown) for detecting the presence or absence of the large-capacity paper feeder 8 is provided on the mounting portion. The large-capacity paper feeder 8 can send and receive various signals to and from the main body 1 of the apparatus via a signal cable (not shown), and a paper out detection signal built into the large-capacity paper feeder 8 can be transmitted to and from the main body 1 of the apparatus via a signal cable (not shown). The information is transmitted to the device main body 1 side.

On the other hand, the branch conveyance path 33a is located at the confluence of the branch conveyance paths 33a, 33b, and 33c, that is, near the upstream side of the aligning roller 34.

A paper sensor 52 is arranged to detect the paper P conveyed via 33b and 33C.

Further, the exposure device 23 illuminates a document set on the document placement glass 3 provided on the top surface of the device main body 1 with an exposure lamp 61 whose back is surrounded by a reflector 60, and uses reflected light from the surface of the document. the first mirror 62. Second mirror 63. The light is guided to the lens 65 through the third mirror 64 in order, and then the light transmitted through the lens 65 is directed to the fourth mirror 6.
6, a fifth mirror 67, and a sixth mirror 68 in order to lead to the photoreceptor 20.

The exposure lamp 61 and the first mirror 62 surrounded by the reflector 60 are mounted on a first carriage 69 that is movable back and forth along the lower surface of the document placement glass 3, and
The second mirror 63 and the third mirror 64 are
It is mounted on a second carriage 70 that moves in the same direction at half the speed of the carriage 69, and these carriages 69
70 moves from left to right in the figure in the state shown in FIG. 3 to scan the original set on the original placing glass 3 and expose an image corresponding to the original onto the photoreceptor 20 by slit exposure. It looks like this.

Incidentally, the first carriage 69 is equipped with a spot/sotouni/soto 71 for specifying an area where the document is left, for example, when it is desired to make a copy while erasing that area.

The developing device 24 is composed of an upper developing unit 75 for color development and a lower unit 76 for black development, each of which is a magnetic brush type equipped with developing rollers 77 and 78. By selectively bringing them close together and rotating them, it is possible to selectively develop black or other colors, such as red.

The cleaning device 27 brings a cleaning blade 80 into contact with the photoconductor 20 to scrape off the developer (toner) remaining on the photoconductor 20 and transfers the scraped developer (toner) to a casing 82 via an auger 81. It is configured to be carried outside and collected in a collection box (not shown).

The fixing device 35 has a heating roller 86 with a built-in heater lamp 85 and a pressure roller 87 that is urged to be in constant pressure contact with the heating roller 86, and these are surrounded by upper and lower casings 88 and 89. In addition, the pair of paper ejection rollers 32 and the paper ejection switch 90 are integrated.

Further, the charging device 21. Transfer device 25. The stripping device 26 and the stripping device 26 each include a corona discharge device, and the static eliminating device 28 is configured to irradiate the photoreceptor 20 with light from a static eliminating lamp 95 via a green filter 96. Further, the erasing device 22 has a large number of LEDs arranged in the length direction of the photoreceptor 20, and the spot unit 7
It is possible to erase the charges in the area corresponding to the area specified by 1.

Note that a cooling fan 100 and a sub-main motor 101 are disposed above the fixing device 35 in the apparatus main body 1, and a portion of the paper conveyance path 33 is disposed between the peeling device 26 and the fixing device 35. A conveyor belt 102 forming a
is located.

Furthermore, below this conveyor belt 102, that is, the two-part unit t.1. A high voltage transformer 103 is disposed at the bottom of a. ] 04 is a static elimination blank disposed near the downstream side of the paper ejection roller pair 32.

In addition, the automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 is connected to the device main body 1.
The rear end side is hinged to the paper so that it can rotate freely, and it can be placed on the document placement glass 3, which allows for automatic feeding of the document, and it is also possible to copy thick items such as books. For this reason, it is arranged to be retracted from the upper surface of the document placement glass 3. This automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4 includes a unit main body 110 that can be superimposed on the upper surface of the document placement glass 3, and a unit main body 110 that is provided on the right end side of the unit main body 110 to transfer the original document on the document feed table 111 to the unit main body 110. or from the unit main body 110 to the document feed tray 11.
1, and a supply/discharge mechanism section 112 for discharging onto a tray 124 provided on the upper surface side of the paper.

The unit main body 110 includes a platen cover 123, a document holding sheet 1-113 provided on the back side of the platen cover 123 and having a white surface facing the document placement glass 3, and a recess formed in the document holding sheet 113. It consists of a feed roller 122 that can rotate in both forward and reverse directions and is arranged in
. . , the original paper supplied from the supply/discharge mechanism section 112 is taken in to a predetermined position on the document placement glass 3, and the document paper on the document placement glass 3 is transferred to the supply/discharge mechanism section 112. It is designed to be discharged. In addition, the supply/discharge mechanism section 112 takes out the bottom side of the document D set on the document feed table 111 using a take-out roller ] 14 and feeds it between the supply roller 115 and the separation roller 116 . Then, this original document is transferred to a sorting gate 1-117 located at the solid line position in FIG. 3, and a pair of conveying rollers 118. and a guide] 19 into the unit main body 110, and the unit main body 1. ], the document conveyed from O is guided by the guide 119. A pair of transport rollers 118 rotating in the discharge direction. i
The distribution gate 117 is displaced to the position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. A guide 120 is provided to surround the upper surface side of the supply roller 115. and this guide 120
The document is ejected to a tray 124 disposed on the document feed table 111-l: via a pair of ejection rollers 121 arranged correspondingly to the document feed tray 111-l:.

The large-capacity paper feeder 8 attached to the main body 1 also has an elevator-type paper feeder 130 that can accumulate sheets of paper P all at once. The sheets P are sequentially taken out via a take-out roller 131 to a position facing a take-out roller 48 provided in the main body 1 of the apparatus. In this way, when a predetermined amount of paper P is removed from the elevator-type paper feed tray 130, a signal is sent from a detector (not shown) to the elevating mechanism 132, and the elevator-type paper feed tray 130 is raised. The paper P is controlled to be at a position where it can be taken out by the take-out roller 131.

After setting the document tray on the document feed table 111 of the automatic document supply/discharge unit device 4, by operating the operation panel 5, the document can be placed from the automatic document supply/discharge unit i/device 4 onto the document placement glass 3. The original paper is set. on the other hand,
As the drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 rotates, the photoreceptor 20 is uniformly charged by the charging device 21 . Next, with the exposure lamp 61 of the exposure device 23 turned on, the exposure lamp 6 is turned on.
1 and a first carriage 6 carrying a first mirror 62
9, the second mirror 63, and the third mirror 64 are mounted on the document placement glass 3 by moving from left to right in the figure along the lower surface of the document placement glass 3. The set document is scanned and exposed to slit light, and an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the document is formed on the photoreceptor 20.

This electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 20'' is developed and visualized by either the upper developing unit 75 or the lower developing unit 76 of the developing device 24.

On the other hand, in synchronization with this developer image forming operation, the paper P1 automatically taken out from the upper cassette 6, the lower cassette 7, or the large-capacity paper feeder 8, or the paper P manually fed from the manual paper feed table 30, The developer image is sent to the image transfer section 31 via the aligning roller pair 34, and the developer image previously formed on the photoreceptor 20 is transferred onto the paper P by the action of the transfer device 25.

17 In one, the paper P is peeled off from the photoreceptor 20 by the peeling device 26 and transferred to the conveyor belt 1 that constitutes a part of the paper conveyance path 33.
02 to the fixing device 35, where the developer image is fused and fixed on the paper P, and then sent to the U-turn conveyance path 10 of the paper conveyance unit 11 via a pair of paper discharge rollers 32, and the static electricity is removed. The brush 104 eliminates static electricity. Then, the sheets are stacked in the paper discharge tray 9 with the front and back sides reversed and the leading edges aligned.

After the developer image has been transferred onto the paper P, the photoreceptor 20 faces the cleaning device 27 so that the remaining developer (residual toner) is scraped off by the cleaning blade 80, and then faces the static eliminator 28. By doing so, the photoreceptor 2
0 is irradiated with light to remove the electrostatic memory and return to a normal state in which the next copy operation is possible.

Next, the configuration around the paper delivery unit 11 and the paper discharge tray 9, which are the main parts of the present invention, will be described in detail with reference to other drawings.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 1, the paper delivery unit 11 has horizontal single-character-shaped first paper sheets facing each other with a gap between their mutually facing surfaces. The second fixed guides 140 and 141, the arc-shaped third fixed guide 142 provided in the extending direction of the first fixed guide 140, and the second fixed guide 14
The movable guide 143 faces the third fixed guide 142 with a gap in the direction of extension of the first fixed guide 142, and these mutually opposing surfaces constitute the U-turn conveyance path 10. ．． Second fixed guide 140.141
and the third fixed guide 142 and the movable guide 1
A conveying means 144 is disposed between the starting end of 43.

The conveyance means 144 is composed of a drive roller 145 and a driven roller 146 that rolls into contact with the drive roller 145, and the drive roller 145 is connected to the drive roller 32a of the sheet discharge roller pair 32 and a chain 147. They are interlocked via a power transmission system 150 consisting of sprockets 148, 149, etc.
(See Figure 1).

Note that the driving force of the fixing device 35 is transmitted to the driving roller 32a of the pair of paper ejection rollers 32 via a gear group 151.

Further, the movable guide 143 is attached to a shaft 160 that is rotatably supported via a bearing portion (not shown), and a chopper/<-161 is attached to one end of this shaft 160. This lever 161 includes a spring 162 that always urges in a predetermined direction and a plunger 163 of a solenoid 163 that rotates against the urging force of the spring 162.
a are in a connected state and constitute a movable guide actuating means 164. When the solenoid 163 is in a non-energized state, the movable guide 143 is moved to a position facing the third fixed guide 142 (third position) due to the urging force of the spring 162.
The structure is such that when the solenoid 163 is energized, the movable guide 143 is at a position separated from the third fixed guide 42 (as indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 3).

Further, an optical paper detector 172 is provided near the arrangement position of the movable guide 143 and is composed of a light emitting element 170 and a light receiving element 171 and detects the paper P passing through the U-turn conveyance path 10. There is.

Note that the paper delivery unit 11 having such a configuration is surrounded by a cover 173 so that the drive unit and the like are not exposed to the outside (see FIG. 2).

The ejection tray 9 also has a first opening 1 on the left side of the upper surface.
80 and a stopper 18 that has a thin box shape with a second opening 181 on the front end surface and serves as a tip position regulating member that regulates the tip position of the sheets P accumulated inside.
2 is installed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the stopper 182 has a substantially L-shape having a vertical plate portion 182a serving as a tip position regulating surface and a horizontal plate portion 182b parallel to the bottom surface of the paper discharge tray 9. As shown in FIG. 1, the tray 9 is inserted through a notch 183 formed in the discharge tray 9, and is placed in a vertical position, and is held slidably by a guide (not shown), so that it can be moved left and right in the state shown in FIG. ing.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a rack 184 is attached to the lower surface side of the horizontal plate portion 182b of the stopper 182, and a motor 1 that can be driven in both forward and reverse directions is attached to the rack 184.
A pinion 186 fitted to the drive shaft 85 is in an engaged state, and constitutes a stopper moving means 187. Then, the drive of the motor 185 is controlled by a paper size designation signal from the operation panel 5, a document size detection signal from the automatic document feed/discharge unit device 4, or a paper size signal based on the slide position of the guide of the manual paper feed table 30. The stopper 182 is automatically moved so that the vertical plate portion 182a, which serves as a leading end position regulating surface, is at a position suitable for the size of the sheets P to be stacked.

In addition, the stopper 182 is equipped with a paper feed mechanism 190 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, and the leading edge of the paper P fed into the paper ejection tray 9 is mounted on a vertical plate portion 182a that serves as a leading edge position regulating surface. It can be forcibly conveyed to a position where it comes into contact.

That is, a bracket 191 is integrally provided above the vertical plate portion 182a of the stopper 182 at a position where positioning of the paper P will not be hindered, and a motor 192 is attached such that a drive shaft 192a passes through the bracket 191. There is. Furthermore, a drive shaft 192a of this motor 192
A swingable arm 193 is provided with the rotation center at .A feed roller 195 is attached to the free end side of the arm 193 via a rotating shaft 194, and the driving force of the drive shaft 192a of the motor 192 is transmitted to the pulley 197. Belt 198. The driving force is transmitted to the rotating shaft 194 via a driving force transmission system 200 consisting of a pulley 199,
The feed roller 195 is rotated. Further, the arm 193 is biased by a biasing body (not shown) to a position where the feed roller 195 is retracted outside the paper discharge tray 9 (the position shown in FIG. 3), and the motor 192 is driven. As a result, the arm 193 is rotationally displaced against the biasing force of the biasing body to bring the feed roller 195 into rolling contact with the paper P.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the paper output tray 9
is attached to the inner bottom surface of the lower unit 1b of the apparatus main body 1 via parallel slide rails 210 and 210, and is movable in the front-rear direction, that is, in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the paper P is carried in. There is. Further, on the lower surface side of the paper ejection tray 9, there is a wall parallel to the slide rail 210.
A pinion 211 is attached and meshed with a pinion 213 fitted to the drive shaft of a motor 212 that can be driven in both forward and reverse directions, and constitutes a tray moving means 216. Then, the drive of the motor 212 is controlled based on the sorting signal or grouping signal from the operation knob 5, the original ejection signal from the automatic original supply/ejection unit device 4, the copy end signal, etc., and the ejection tray 9 is moved to a predetermined position. It is now possible to move up to

Note that an opening 220 for extending the paper output tray is formed in the front end surface of the apparatus main body 1 facing the paper output tray 9 which is movable via the tray moving means 216 as described above. A paper discharge tray 9 can be extended to the front side of the main body 1 of the apparatus.

Note that spacers 214 and 215 are interposed between the bottom surface of the paper discharge tray 9 and the slide rail 210 and the rack 211, as shown in FIG.
It is designed so as not to interfere with the rack 184 etc. attached to 2.

Next, the stacking operation of sheets P will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

First, a drive signal is sent to the stopper moving means 187 in advance, and the stopper 182 is set at a predetermined position according to the size of the paper P. Then, as shown in FIG. 7(a), the sheet P that has passed through the fixing device 35 is transferred to the first sheet discharge roller pair 32. After being fed between the second fixed guides 140 and 141, the conveying means 144
It is sent between the movable guide 143 and the third fixed guide 142 via. Therefore, this paper P is transferred to the transport means 1.
(b) and (C) in FIG.
The paper is fed into the paper discharge tray 9 after passing through the state shown in FIG. At this time,
The paper P is turned upside down by passing through the U-turn conveyance path 10. Next, (d) in FIG. 7 and (b) in FIG.
), when the trailing edge of the paper P is detected by the paper detector 172, the solenoid 1 of the movable guide actuating means 164 is activated.
63 operates and the movable guide 143 moves to the third fixed guide 1.
42 and supported by the movable guide 143, the trailing end of the paper P, which is supported by the movable guide 143, quickly falls as shown by the two-dot chain line due to the stiffness of the paper itself. On the other hand, at this time, as shown in FIG. 7(d), the feed roller 195 of the paper feed mechanism 190 is in rolling contact with the paper P, and the feed roller 19
5 is in a rotated state, and the paper P is fed until the leading end contacts the stopper 182. Then, as shown in FIG. 7(e) and FIG. 8(c), the trailing edge of the paper P is detected by the paper detector 172, and the leading edge of the paper P contacts the stopper 182 for a predetermined period of time. When a sufficient period of time has elapsed, the movable guide 172 returns to the third fixed guide 142 side, and the paper feed mechanism 1 moves as shown in FIG. 7(e).
The feed roller 195 of 90 returns to a position where it does not interfere with the conveyance of the next sheet P.

Further, when the paper P to be stacked is smaller in size than the above-mentioned one, a drive signal is sent to the stopper moving means 187 according to the size of the paper P, and the stopper 182 is moved in the direction shown in FIG. It moves to the center left and is automatically set at a position that matches the size of paper P. Thereafter, the same stacking operation as described above with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 is performed, and the sheets are stacked in an orderly manner.

Further, if necessary, by inputting in advance through the operation panel 5 so that the tray moving means 2] 6 operates, the paper discharge tray 9 for stacking the sheets P can be moved to the 10th tray through the tray moving means 216. As shown in the figure, it reciprocates left and right by a dimension δ at a predetermined timing, and as shown in FIG. It is possible to group them or to sort them into sections by a predetermined number of sheets.

When the copying operation is completed in this manner, a signal is inputted to the tray moving means 216 to drive the paper output tray 9 to protrude, and the paper output tray 9 is moved by a distance l as shown in FIG. It protrudes from the front side of the main body 1,
The paper P in the paper discharge tray 9 can now be easily taken out.

In addition, according to the above-mentioned configuration in which the conveyance means 144 for conveying the paper P is provided in the middle part of the U-turn conveyance path 10, the paper P which is in a curved state and has a large conveyance resistance can be reliably conveyed to the paper discharge tray 9. It can be sent inside.

Further, there is provided a moving means for moving the paper ejection tray 9 so that the edge of the stacked sheets P in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction is shifted, and a movement means for moving the paper ejection tray 9 from the apparatus main body 1 after the image forming operation is completed. Since one tray moving means 216 is used as the moving means for moving the tray to be delivered, the apparatus can be simplified and the cost can be significantly reduced.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the paper discharged via the paper discharge roller pair is reversed via the U-turn discharge path, and the paper is placed under the disposed position of the paper discharge roller pair. 28= Since the sheets are guided to the paper discharge tray provided on the side and stacked, stacking can be performed in accordance with the order of image formation, eliminating the need for troublesome page alignment work. Furthermore, since the paper ejection tray is provided with a portion of the paper ejection tray recessed into the main body of the apparatus, the amount of protrusion of the paper ejection tray is reduced, and the installation space can be reduced.

Further, a tray moving means for displacing the paper output tray in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the sheets is provided, so that the ends of the sheets accumulated in the paper output tray in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction are shifted. With this arrangement, the sheets accumulated in the paper ejection tray can be divided into groups or divided into a predetermined number of sheets, and their post-processing can be facilitated. Furthermore, since a tray moving means is provided for moving the paper ejection tray to protrude from the apparatus main body after the image forming operation is completed, it is possible to easily take out the sheets accumulated in the paper ejection tray after the image forming operation is completed. It has the effect of becoming.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing the configuration of the main parts of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing the appearance of the entire image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a schematic vertical side view of the entire image forming apparatus, FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing the structure around the stopper, and FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway schematic view showing the structure around the paper ejection tray. FIG. 6 is a schematic front view, FIGS. 7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams illustrating how sheets of paper are stacked, FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating how small-sized papers are stacked, FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view showing the state in which the paper output tray is moved and stacked, FIG. 11 is a schematic perspective view showing the state in which paper is stacked when the paper output tray is moved and stacked, and FIG. 12 FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a state in which the paper ejection tray is extended out from the front of the apparatus main body. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Apparatus body, 2... Image forming process forming means, 9... Paper discharge tray, 10... U-turn conveyance path, 1
1...Paper delivery unit, 32...Paper delivery roller pair,
35... Fixing device, 144... Conveying means, 216...
... Tray moving means, P... Paper. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Image forming process components such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and fixing are built into the apparatus main body, and the fixed paper is ejected from the apparatus main body via a pair of paper ejection rollers. In the forming apparatus, a paper ejection tray provided below the arrangement position of the paper ejection roller pair and partially inserted into the main body of the apparatus, and the paper ejected through the paper ejection roller pair are reversed. The paper ejection tray is aligned in the paper traveling direction so that the U-turn ejection path leading to the paper ejection tray is offset from the end in the direction perpendicular to the paper traveling direction to be accumulated in the paper ejection tray. An image forming apparatus comprising: a tray moving means for displacing the paper discharge tray in a direction perpendicular to the image forming apparatus; and a tray moving means for moving the paper discharge tray so as to protrude from the apparatus main body after an image forming operation is completed. (2) Tray moving means for moving the tray so that the ends of the sheets to be stacked in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction are shifted, and moving the paper output tray to protrude from the main body of the apparatus after the image forming operation is completed. Claim 1, characterized in that one means serves as the tray moving means for moving the tray.
The image forming apparatus described in .