JPH021062B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is for an automatic double-sided copying machine, automatic double-sided printing machine, etc., to receive and stack sheets that have been copied or printed on one side, and then re-feed the sheets for copying or printing on the other side. Regarding the double-sided tray.

When performing double-sided copying or double-sided printing using an automatic double-sided copying machine, automatic double-sided printing machine, etc., reverse the paper that has been copied or printed on one side, eject it onto the double-sided tray, stack it once, and then remove the original copy. Alternatively, this can be done by replacing the plate and refeeding the sheets stacked on the above-mentioned double-sided tray.

To outline the overall configuration of the automatic duplex copying machine as shown in FIG. It is fed to the transfer section 5 in synchronization with the rotation of the drum 4. After the toner image of the document 6 formed on the photoreceptor drum 4 through a predetermined process is transferred to the paper in the transfer section 5, the paper is separated from the photoreceptor drum 4 and transferred to the fixing section 7.
The image is fixed by a heat roll and conveyed to the paper discharge section 8. A reversing unit 9 consisting of three rollers is provided at the entrance of the paper discharge unit 8, and by changing the relative position between each roller, the paper can be reversed front to back, or transferred to the next stage without reversing. 1st gate 10
transport to. The first gate 10 is switched between a passage to a paper discharge tray 11 and a passage to a belt conveyance section 12 by a solenoid (not shown). At the end of the belt conveying section 12, there is a sorter communication outlet 13 for discharging the paper path to a sorter outside the machine, and a double-sided tray section 1.
2nd gate 1 that can be switched to the passage to 4
5 is provided. During double-sided copying, the second gate 15 is switched to the double-sided tray section 14 side during front-side copying, and the sheets on which front-side copying has been completed are fed into the double-sided tray section 14 and stacked on the tray. When a predetermined number of single-sided copies are completed, the original is replaced, and the sheets stacked in the duplex tray section 14 are re-fed one by one by the duplex tray paper feed roller.
After copying the back side through the same process as above,
Is the paper ejected to the paper ejection tray 11 according to the purpose?
The materials are discharged from the sorter communication outlet 13 to a sorter and collated.

Therefore, the paper transport modes of this device can be broadly classified into (a) paper ejection mode that ejects paper to the paper ejection tray (b) sorter mode that ejects paper to the sorter section (c) paper ejection mode that ejects paper to the duplex tray section The paper will be ejected and stacked, and the paper will enter duplex mode where it will be re-feeded.

In addition, in this device, since the reversing unit 9 is independently arranged upstream of the first gate 10, by selecting whether or not to reverse the paper in each mode, collation of ejected copies, double copying on one side, etc. can be done at will.

Now, when refeeding the paper stacked on the duplex tray, it is necessary to eject the paper into the duplex tray to avoid any inconveniences such as front/back/left/right misalignment or skew between the paper and the photoconductor or print roll. It is necessary to stack the sheets on the tray with their front edges and reference side edges aligned with a predetermined reference.

For this purpose, an example of a conventionally used suitable double-sided tray device will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. When the duplex mode is selected, the second gate 15 is switched to the duplex tray unit 14 side in FIG. The paper then makes a U-turn along the guide surface of the second gate 15, and is ejected and stacked on the tray 18 one by one by the ejection roller 17, regardless of the size of the paper, on a one-sided basis. When a predetermined number of sheets have been ejected, as shown in FIG. 3, the lower surface of the tray 18 is pushed up by a pressure roller 20 pivotally supported by the tip of a tray pressure arm 19, and the upper surface of the stack of sheets is pushed up into the tray. The paper is pressed with moderate paper feeding pressure by a paper feed roller 21 which is pivotally supported on the frame of the copying machine body above the front end of the copying machine 18, and the paper is copied on the reverse side one by one at a predetermined timing by the paper feed roller 21 and separation roller 22. The paper will be re-fed for this purpose.

In this device, as a means for aligning the sheets discharged to the tray 18, a front abutting plate 23 serves as a reference surface for aligning the leading edges of the sheets, a reference side wall 24 for aligning the side edges by abutting the reference side edges of the sheets; An inclined sponge roller 25 is provided for conveying the sheets discharged onto the tray 18 one by one toward the front abutment plate 23 and the reference side wall 24. The front abutment plate 23 is fixed to the copying machine frame in close proximity to the front end of the tray 18 and perpendicular to the paper feeding direction, and its upper end transitions to a guide plate for refeeding paper. The reference side wall 24 is provided integrally with the tray 18 so as to be perpendicular to the front abutment plate 23 and the mounting surface of the tray 18 .

The reference side wall 24 is, as shown in the plan view of FIG.
The tray 18 is provided on the side edge of the tray 18 upstream from the front contact plate 23 except for a length a, and when paper is ejected, the tray 18 is arranged such that its inner surface deviates outward by a distance b from the paper passing reference 29. moves laterally.

The inclined sponge roller 25 is provided near the corner of the front end of the tray 18 on the side where the reference side edge is provided, and is inclined at an angle of about 15 degrees with respect to the sheet feeding direction. The inclined roller 25 is pivotally supported by the free end of an inclined roller arm 27 which is pivotably supported around a drive shaft 26, and the sheet is moved onto the tray 18 by a drive belt 28 stretched between the inclined roller arm 27 and the drive shaft 26. While the tray 1 is being discharged, it is continuously rotated in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG.
The paper rotates while contacting the uppermost sheet on the tray 8, thereby applying diagonally forward force to the sheet ejected onto the tray, and the sheet ejected at position a in Figure 4 moves to position b. The upper left corner of the figure is the front abutment plate 2.
3, the upper right corner follows the arc-shaped path shown by the arrows in the figure, and returns to the reference position with the front end following the front contact plate 23 and the side edge following the reference side wall 24. Line up. In this case, since the feeding force of the inclined rollers 25 is weak, the paper will not slip after following the front abutment plate 23 and the reference side wall 24, and the paper will not jam.

Next, when refeeding the sheets stacked on the tray 18 for reverse side copying, the inclined rollers 25 are retracted from the top surface of the stack of sheets by pushing down the lifting pin 30 provided integrally with the inclined roller arm 27. and stop the rotational drive, and then the tray 18
By horizontally moving the stack by a distance b, the side edges of the aligned and stacked sheets are aligned with the sheet passing reference 29, and the tray 18 is pushed up by the tray pressure roller 20 to press the top surface of the sheet bundle against the sheet feeding roller 21. In this way, the paper is fed one by one by the paper feed roller and separation roller 22 while maintaining the reference position.

From the above explanation, the operations of the above-mentioned element members when discharging the paper to the duplex tray section, aligning and stacking the paper, and refeeding the paper are enumerated as follows.

(a) Switching the ejection direction of the second gate (b) Releasing and applying paper feeding pressure to the duplex tray (c) Lateral movement of the duplex tray (d) Lowering and lifting the inclined roller (e) Starting the rotational drive of the inclined roller Traditionally, each of the above five operations was controlled individually using a solenoid or clutch.
Not only is it expensive, but it also requires a lot of space, making it difficult to arrange and making the device large.

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of conventional double-sided trays such as double-sided copying machines, the present invention provides a double-sided tray with easy control, high reliability, and low cost by controlling the various operations described above using a single solenoid. The purpose is to provide trays.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on drawings showing embodiments thereof.

Control of the above-mentioned operations of the members related to discharging sheets to the duplex tray, alignment stacker, and sheet refeeding is performed by a duplex set cam 31 shown in FIG. 5 or 6. The double-sided set cam 31 has a "daruma" shape, which is made up of a semicircular arc with a radius r ₁ centered on its center of rotation, a circular arc with a larger radius r ₂ , and the connecting portions of these semicircular arcs connected smoothly with substantially parallel straight lines. A drive shaft 3 that has a cam shape and is constantly rotated in the direction of the arrow.
2 and a spring clutch 33. The double-sided set cam 31 is controlled as a half-rotation clutch cam by a double-sided set solenoid 34 and a pair of release levers 35 and 36 facing each other at a 180° interval, which engage and disengage from the latch sleeve of the spring clutch. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the solenoid 34 is in the off state, the lower release lever 36 engages the spring clutch 33.
The double-sided set cam 31 is held in such a position that the radius _r2 is on the left side as shown in the figure. On the other hand, as shown in Figure 6,
While the solenoid 34 is in the ON state, the upper release lever 35 engages with the ratchet sleeve, and the double-sided set cam 31 is held in a position where the radius _r2 is on the right side as shown in the figure.

On the cam surface of the double-sided set cam 31, as shown in FIG.
A follower 42 provided at the tip of a tray lateral movement lever 41 pivotally supported by another fixed shaft 40 engages with a follower 42 at a symmetrical position separated by 180 degrees.

At the other end of the tray pressure release lever 38, there is a double-sided tray pressure spring 43 and a double-sided tray pressure link 4.
4, the double-sided tray pressurizing arm 19 described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 is connected.

The tray pressure release lever 38 is further provided with an inclined roller 2.
A release lever 46 of a spring clutch 45 (see FIGS. 7 and 4) is provided for controlling the rotation of the spring clutch 5.

On the other hand, a double-sided tray lateral movement arm 48 that slides the double-sided tray 18 in the lateral direction is connected to the double-sided tray lateral movement lever 41 via a double-sided tray lateral movement connection link 47 . The double-sided tray lateral movement lever 41 further includes a second gate connecting link 49 for opening and closing the second gate 15 and an inclined roller 2.
An inclined roller lifting arm 50 is connected which engages a lifting pin 30 for lifting 5.

Since this device is constructed as described above, when the duplex mode is selected, the solenoid 34 is turned on and the duplex set cam 31 begins to rotate clockwise from the position shown in FIG. At the first 90° rotation,
The cam 31 assumes the position shown by the chain line in FIG. 6, and the pressure release cam lever 38 shown in FIG. 7 rotates clockwise and moves to the position shown in FIG. 8. This results in
The double-sided tray pressing arm 19 is rotated counterclockwise via the double-sided tray pressing link 44 to release the tray 18.
At the same time, the release lever 46 of the inclined sponge roller drive spring clutch 45 (FIGS. 4 and 8) is released to rotate the inclined roller 25 clockwise.

Next, by rotating the remaining 90 degrees, the cam 31 becomes the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, and the lateral movement lever 41 rotates clockwise, and is displaced from the position shown in FIG. 7 to the position shown in FIG. Along with this, the horizontal movement connecting link 4
The double-sided tray 1 is moved by the lateral movement arm 48 via the
8 is laterally moved along the axis by a distance b, and the reference side wall 24 of the tray 18 is brought to a position deviated outward by a distance b from the paper passing reference 29 (see FIG. 4). At the same time, the second gate connecting link 49 connects the second gate 1.
5 clockwise, tilt roller lifting arm 50
is rotated clockwise to release the engagement with the inclined roller lifting pin 30, and the inclined roller 25 is lowered by its own weight.

Double-sided set solenoid 34 is always activated during front-side copying.
is always in the on state, and each element member maintains the state shown in FIG. Since the inclined sponge rollers 25 are in contact with the uppermost paper due to their own weight, their heights are displaced according to the number of stacked sheets, and the ejected sheets are surely aligned in the manner described in detail above.

When the front copy is completed, the duplex set solenoid 34 is turned off, and the duplex set cam 31 is turned off.
It rotates clockwise from the state shown in the figure and returns to the initial state shown by the solid line in FIG. At this time, the first
At the 90° rotation position (the position indicated by the chain line in FIG. 5), the tray 18 moves laterally to the paper passing reference position, and the second gate 1
5 is displaced to the sorter connection exit side, and the inclined roller 25
is lifted to the position where it is separated from the topmost paper. Next, at the remaining 90° rotated position (the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 5), the tray 18 is pushed up by the double-sided tray pressurizing arm 19, and the uppermost paper is pressed against the paper feed roller 21, and at the same time The rotation of the inclined roller 25 is stopped, each element member is held in the state shown in FIG. 7, and paper is re-feeded.

In the above embodiment, the inclined roller 25 is connected to the drive belt 2
8. From the viewpoint of preventing wear, the rotation is stopped when not in operation, but there is no problem even if the rotation is constantly driven.

As explained above, according to the present invention, various operations necessary for paper ejection, alignment stacking, and paper refeeding of a double-sided tray of a double-sided copying machine, a double-sided printing machine, etc. can be performed in a single manner using a single solenoid via a spring clutch. By controlling the cam and controlling each element by the cam through the link mechanism, the control and the device thereof become simple, and a remarkable effect can be obtained in improving reliability and reducing costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of an example of a double-sided copying machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the double-sided tray section, and FIG. 3 shows the state at the time of paper refeeding. Fig. 4 is a partial plan view, Fig. 5 is a sectional view.
Figures 6 and 6 are front views showing the solenoid and cam and their control links in the device according to the embodiment of the present invention, with the solenoid in the OFF and ON states, respectively, and Figure 7 is the implementation of the double-sided tray section of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a front view showing the normal state of the example link mechanism, and FIG. 8 is a front view showing the state when both sides are set. 15...Discharge path switching gate, 18...Double-sided tray, 24...Tray reference side wall, 25...Incline roller, 29...In-machine paper passing reference, 31...Half-rotation cam, 33...Spring clutch, 34 ……solenoid.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A gate is provided on the inlet side of the tray that can switch the path of the paper between an outside discharge path and a discharge path to the tray, and when the paper is discharged to the tray, the gate is connected to the tray. A double-sided copying machine, a double-sided printing machine, in which the paper feeding pressure of the tray is released, and when refeeding paper, the gate is switched to the external discharge path side and paper feeding pressure is applied to the tray. In a double-sided tray such as, there is a drive shaft that constantly rotates in one direction, the axis of the shaft is the center of rotation, and the shaft has a large diameter portion with a large radius from the rotation center and a small diameter portion with a small radius from the rotation center. a cam, a clutch that connects the drive shaft and the rotary cam in a manner capable of transmitting and releasably transmitting rotational force; a clutch that engages and disengages from an engaging portion of the clutch; when engaged, the clutch releases transmission of rotational force and disengages; A release lever that sometimes transmits rotational force, a single solenoid that engages and disengages the release lever from the clutch by on/off operation, and a plurality of The other end engages with the gate and the paper feed pressure applying means of the tray, and at the first rotational position of the rotary cam, the gate is switched to the discharge path side to the tray and the paper feed pressure applying means is released, and the paper feed pressure applying means is released. At the second rotational position of the rotary cam, there is provided a link mechanism that switches the gate to the outside discharge path side and operates the paper feed pressure applying means, and when discharging paper to the tray and refeeding from the tray, By turning the solenoid on and off, the rotation of the rotary cam via the clutch causes the rotary cam to be in the first rotational position when discharging paper to the tray, and the rotary cam to be in the first rotational position when refeeding paper from the tray. A double-sided tray that has two rotation positions. 2. On the inlet side of the tray, there is a gate that can switch the path of paper between an outside discharge path and a discharge path to the tray, and when discharging paper to the tray, the gate is brought to the side of the discharge path to the tray; At the same time as releasing the paper feeding pressure of the tray, the tray is moved laterally so that the reference side wall of the tray is slightly deviated outward from the paper passing reference inside the machine, and the tray is rotated to the upper surface of the paper received one by one with one side reference. Stacking is performed by bringing the inclined rollers into contact and aligning them to follow the reference side wall of the tray.
When refeeding paper, the gate is switched to the outside discharge path side, paper feeding pressure is applied to the tray, the tray is moved laterally until the reference side wall of the tray matches the paper passing reference, and the inclined rollers are moved above the tray. In a double-sided tray of a double-sided copying machine, double-sided printing machine, etc., which is retracted from the top surface of the paper, the drive shaft always rotates in one direction, and the axis of the shaft is the center of rotation, and the drive shaft has a large diameter with a large radius from the center of rotation. a rotating cam having a portion and a small diameter portion having a small radius from the center of rotation; a clutch that connects the drive shaft and the rotating cam in a manner capable of transmitting rotational force and releasable engagement; a release lever that releases torque transmission from the clutch when engaged and transmits torque when disengaged; a single solenoid that causes the release lever to engage and disengage from the clutch through on/off operations; and one end is engaged with the cam surface of the rotary cam, and the plurality of other ends are engaged with the gate, the paper feed pressure applying means of the tray, the tray lateral movement means, and the inclined roller approaching and separating means,
At the first rotational position of the rotary cam, the gate is switched to the discharge path side for the tray, the paper feed pressure applying means is released, and the tray is moved laterally so that the reference side wall of the tray is biased outward from the paper passing reference. and bring the inclined rollers into contact with each other, and at the second rotational position of the rotary cam, switch the gate to the outside discharge path side and operate the paper feed pressure applying means until the reference side wall of the tray coincides with the paper passing reference. It has a link mechanism that moves the tray laterally and retracts the inclined rollers from above the tray, and when discharging paper to the tray and refeeding paper from the tray, the solenoid is turned on and off, and the link mechanism is operated via the clutch. A double-sided tray characterized in that the rotation of the rotary cam brings the rotary cam to a first rotational position when discharging paper to the tray, and brings the rotary cam to a second rotational position when refeeding paper from the tray.