JPH0262458B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a copying machine equipped with a sheet distributing device.

In a document copying machine, when making multiple copies of a plurality of originals, it is very time consuming to make the required number of copies of each original and then align the pages of the copies in the order of the originals. Conventionally, devices called sorters or page aligners have been used to automatically accomplish this.

However, conventional sorters can only distribute copies that have been copied and discharged from a copying machine.

Therefore, it would be convenient if copies made by a copying machine without a sorter and discharged onto one tray could later be distributed using this sorter.

Furthermore, when feeding copies into this sorter from the outside, it would be advantageous if an already provided feeding device could be used instead of a special dedicated device.

Additionally, these devices with a sorter usually have a 20- to 50-level document stacking table or copy tray (bin tray), and are suitable for copying 20 to 50 copies of a document consisting of multiple types of originals. It is rare to copy more copies than there are rows of copy trays. In such a case, the user may first have to make the same number of copies as the number of trays on the copy tray, and then change the document again to get the required number of copies, which is also extremely troublesome.

Therefore, by providing a sorter conveyance path associated with the output tray of the copying machine main body and providing a branching means at the starting point of this conveyance path, the output tray of the copying machine main body and the copy tray of each stage of the sorter can be freely used. In some cases, even when the number of copies is greater than the number of copy trays of the sorter, the paper output tray of the main body can be effectively used by ejecting the copies to the paper output tray of the main body.

What is required, for example, is to enable the sorter to distribute more copies than the number of copy trays of the sorter, which are accumulated on the main body paper discharge tray.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional examples, and
A copying machine equipped with a sheet distributing device capable of distributing copies to a sorter by feeding them from the outside even if they are not copies that have been copied and discharged from a copying machine, and which can also be used as an existing device. Device,
Furthermore, for example, a copying machine equipped with a sheet distribution device that automatically feeds copies from outside the copying machine and automatically sorts them by a sorter even when the output tray is overflowing with copies. The purpose is to provide.

A copying apparatus of the present invention capable of achieving the above object includes a sorter for distributing sheets processed and conveyed by a copying means, a feeder means for feeding one sheet from the outside, and a sheet fed one by one from the feeder means. The present invention is characterized in that it has a means for conveying the sheet to the document table, and a guide means that can switch whether the sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means is conveyed to the document table or to the sorter.

Furthermore, the copying apparatus of the present invention capable of achieving the above object is characterized by having, in addition to the above configuration, a switching means for switching between sending conveyed sheets to a sorter or to a tray.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be explained by way of specific examples with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side cross-sectional view of an exemplary copying machine according to the present invention.

A substantially cubic machine box 1 is provided with a document table 2 having a horizontally arranged transparent glass or the like in its upper opening. A flash lamp 3 is provided below the document table in the machine box so as to surround the opening. Furthermore, a first mirror 4 facing the lower document stand and set at an angle of 45 degrees or more with the horizontal, an optical lens 5 movable in the direction of the arrow for magnification change, and a horizontal mirror facing the document image forming surface 7. The second mirror 6 is set at an angle of 45° or less with
etc. will be provided. Photoreceptor 8 configured in a belt shape
is supported by rollers 9 and 10 so that the original image can pass through the imaging surface. At least one of the rollers is spring loaded to tension the belt. Along the moving path of the belt-shaped photoreceptor 8, an AC corona discharger 1 is provided to remove residual charges on the photoreceptor.
1. A primary corona discharger 12 that uniformly charges the photoreceptor, a secondary corona discharger 13 that performs an AC corona discharge with a polarity opposite to that of the primary, and a Planck exposure lamp 14 that erases charges in unnecessary areas. , and a developing device 15 having a developing roller 16 made of a non-magnetic cylinder and having a fixed magnet provided therein for supplying developer to the surface of the photoreceptor. On the other hand, transfer paper cassettes 17 and 18 containing transfer paper are detachably attached to the machine box 1. Paper feed rollers 19 and 20 are arranged on each transfer paper cassette, and a register roller 21 is provided further ahead of the paper feed path. A transfer corona discharger 22 and a cleaning unit 29, which charge the photoreceptor with a polarity opposite to that of the developer toner, are arranged at a position after the photoreceptor is developed. Further, there is a conveyor belt 23 having a suction duct inside which conveys the transfer paper after transfer, an AC corona discharger 24 for neutralizing static electricity that neutralizes the transfer paper and photosensitive plate after peeling, which is arranged adjacent to the rear of the transfer position of the photoreceptor. A heating fixing device 25 having a fixing heating roller and a pressure roller, a conveying roller 26 as a conveying means for conveying the transfer paper after fixing, an ejecting roller 27 as a conveying means or a feeding means for ejecting the transfer paper from the machine box, and the ejecting transfer paper. A receiving tray 28 and the like are arranged.

Further, an auto feeder unit 30 is disposed on the copying machine to automatically feed a large number of original sheets, and when used for exposing originals, it moves onto the original table 2 shown in dotted lines. The auto feeder unit 30 as a feeder means includes a document stacking table 31 on which original documents to be fed are stacked;
Paper feed roller 3 that sends out the original from the stacking table
2, 33, the feed roller 33 rotates in the same direction as the feed roller 32 to prevent feeding of two sheets. A white conveyor belt 34 made of rubber or the like and having good reflectivity is wide enough to cover the original platen surface, and along this conveyor belt, the inside facing the belt is treated with Teflon for good lubricity. Guide 35, document ejection roller 36
and a document discharge tray 37 on which the discharged documents are sequentially stacked. Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention has a guide x (constituting a feeding means) y so that it can be used in combination with a sorter, which will be described in detail later.

On the other hand, a sorter unit 38 according to the present invention is arranged on the machine box near the copying machine output tray. The sorter unit 38 is the discharge roller 2 of the copying machine.
The transfer paper ejected in step 7 is sent to the paper ejection tray 28, but has a switching claw 39 that switches whether to send it into the sorter unit. 'Escape to '.

The transfer paper conveyed into the sorter unit is transferred to the sorter first conveyor belt 4, which has a suction duct inside.
It is adsorbed and conveyed to 0. Along this suction conveyor belt,
A first transfer sheet that detects the number of transfer sheets sent to the sorter unit and/or the feeding timing thereof.
A detection device 41 is provided. Furthermore, a second conveyance belt 42 supports and conveys the transfer paper in a separable manner, a transfer/separation guide 43 as a distribution means that moves along the belt, and a discharge roller as a distribution means for discharging the transfer paper separated by the separation guide. 44, a separation claw 43 that detects the passage of the transfer paper, and a discharge roller 4.
A separation unit such as a transfer and second sensing device 45 is provided for issuing a signal to move the tray 4 to the next higher tray position. On the other hand, a predetermined number of stages of sorter discharge trays 46, 46', 46'', 46 are arranged along the conveyor belt.
is placed.

The operation of the specific example device configured as described above will be explained below.

First, a document is placed on the document table glass 2 of the main body of the copying machine, and a print button on the operation panel (not shown) of the main body is pressed to obtain a single copy. Copy paper is fed, for example, from a paper feed cassette 18, passes through a transfer section 22, a fixing section 25, and is ejected to a copy tray 28 by a paper ejection roller 27. The user looks at this and adjusts the image quality, how to place the documents, etc., and then sets the number of sheets using the sheet number set button on the operation panel. After performing the necessary operations to use the sorter, press the print button.

With this operation, the sorter begins to prepare for operation.
That is, the belts 40 and 42 rotate, and the first and second detection devices 41 and 45 are activated. Further, the switching pawl 39' connected to the rotating shaft of the belt 40 is switched to the position 39 by the operation of the counter-rotating clutch. 1
The first copy is fed from the cassette 18 by the roller 20, passes through the transfer section 22 and the fixing section 25, and then exits from the paper ejection roller 27.
9 and reaches the first conveyor belt 40, and is conveyed upward while being held by the belt by a suction fan installed on the back side of this belt. The leading end of the sheet is held in its mouth, and the sheet is discharged to the tray 46 at the lowest stage. Similarly to the second sheet of copy paper, after being ejected by the ejection roller 27, the sheet passes through the switching claw 39 and is ejected onto the tray 46'. At this time, when the second detection device 45 detects the second sheet of copy paper, it fixes the separation unit 43 to 45 etc. to the belt, moves it to the vicinity of the copy tray 46' one step above, and stops there. For this purpose, the copy paper is introduced at 46'. In this way, the copy paper that comes one after another is placed in the 12th copy tray 46.
Enter up to If the required number of copies is 15, the remaining three copies can be stacked on the copy tray 28 of the main body. For this purpose, as soon as the first detection device 41 detects the passage of 12 sheets of copy paper, the switching pawl 39 is driven by the shaft of the belt 40, reversed to the position 39', and stopped. A counter-rotating clutch is used to operate this switching pawl. This operation is done while the 12th sheet is passing, and the 13th
The process is completed by the time the leading edge of the sheet passes through the discharge roller 27. Therefore, copies of the 13th to 15th sheets are accumulated on the copy tray 28 of the main body. It goes without saying that the number of trays 46 shown in the illustrated example device is not limited to 12, and may be any desired number of trays that are used most frequently.

Because the present invention has been designed in this manner, even though the number of stages of the sorter tray is small, even if the number of copies exceeds this number, copying can be done very naturally in the same way as when a normal sorter is not used, and the operation is easy. It's extremely simple. Ordinary copying can also be performed by switching the sorter while it is in use. For example, when you urgently need to make several copies after finishing one original, you can operate the operation panel to switch the switching claw 39 to the 39' position and eject the paper to the main unit's copy tray, allowing you to work without confusion. You can proceed. In addition, if you want to confirm the required number of copies before or after the required number of copies, or to take some copies as a spare, you can eject them into a normal tray without putting them into the sorter. As can be understood from the above specific example, the feature of the present invention is that the switching claw 39 is activated in conjunction with the operation of the first detection device 41 that detects the number of passing copy sheets before the number of copies exceeding the number of trays arrives. The main feature is that the subsequent copies are ejected to the paper ejection tray 28 by switching. Furthermore, as a characteristic feature of the present invention, overflowing copies of more than the number of sorter trays loaded on the copy tray of the main body are removed after the copies on the copy tray of the sorter are removed and the function as a sorter is restored again.
When the sheets are transferred from the main unit's copy tray to the auto feeder unit 30 and fed one by one by the auto feeder unit, they pass through the conveyance path x, pass through the ejection roller 27, the switching claw 39, and the conveyance belt 40. , copy trays 46, 46'', etc. In this way, for example, when making 15 copies, 12 copies are processed by the sorter in advance, and the remaining 3 copies are processed by the main unit. are accumulated on the copy tray and transferred to the auto feeder 30.
By applying this to a sorter, it is distributed and processed again by a sorter. Of course, at this time, an instruction is given through the main unit or the sorter's operation panel that there are 3 parts left, and the 1st part is
The detection device 41 moves the separation unit such as the separation guide 43 or the second detection device 45 to a lower initial position upon detecting the passage of three sheets.

Next, when using it as an auto-feeder for originals, in FIG. 1, the auto-feeder transport path x is switched to y by moving the guide part z, and the auto-feeder is moved in the direction of the dotted line in the figure.
It operates as an auto feeder for originals. That is, if you want to make 15 copies of a 5-page original, set the original face up on the original board 31 of the auto feeder 30, press the print button, and one original will be placed on the paper feed roller 32.
and 33, and is set on the document table glass 2 through the transport path y. Then, 15 copies are made. 12 of them are distributed to the soda machine, and the remaining 3 are stored in the main unit's copy tray 28.
The paper is ejected.

Next, the second page of the original is paused and placed on the document table 2, and the 15 copies made are similarly 12
One sheet is output to the sorter and three sheets are output to the main body's copy tray. When the copying of the five originals is completed in this manner, the auto feeder 30 is manually or automatically moved to the right, or the conveyance path is switched from y to x. Then, the sheets (5 sets of identical 3-sheet copies) discharged to the copy tray of the main body are set on the copy board 31 of the auto feeder. When the 12 copies are removed from the sorter and the sorter is activated, 5 sets of 3 copies, or 15 copies, are sequentially sent to the sorter by the ejection roller 27, and 5 copies are placed in copy trays 46 to 46'' of the sorter. They are distributed into three copies.Although the number of trays in the sorter is small in the device of the present invention, when copying a larger number of copies, the copy tray is switched to the copy tray in the main body and the copies are deposited there, making handling easier. This method is extremely easy to use, and is widely applicable and effective to various operating methods.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, since the sorter is provided with an auto feeder device, the function of the sorter can be continued to be utilized even when the number of copies has overflowed, and the present invention can be applied to copying a large number of copies. Furthermore, since the device of the present invention can serve as the auto feeder for the sorter and the auto feeder for documents, it is possible to satisfy a wide variety of functions very easily without having to have an auto feeder for each. .

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the sorter is provided above, the apparatus can be made extremely compact without occupying any special floor space. In addition, paper conveyance paths 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
Since 25, 26, and 27 can be divided and pulled out to the left, the paper path can be fully opened, making it extremely easy to deal with problems such as jams. This was also made possible by not providing the sorter on the exit side, but instead providing it above.

As explained above, the copying apparatus according to the present invention has the following features:
The structure is such that sheets inserted from the outside can be distributed using a sorter that distributes sheets processed and conveyed by the copying means, and the means for feeding sheets from the outside to the sorter can also be used as the document feeding means. Therefore, compared to a configuration in which a dedicated feeding means is provided, the function of the apparatus can be improved without increasing the size of the apparatus. Furthermore, by providing a switching means for switching between sending conveyed sheets to a sorter or a tray, sheets overflowing from the sorter can be stored in this tray, and the stored sheets can be transferred to the feeding means. This has the advantage of being able to be sent to the sorter via the media for distribution.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an exemplary copying machine according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a machine box, 2 is a document stand, 3 is a flash lamp, 4 and 6 are mirrors, 5 is an optical lens, and 7
Reference numeral 8 indicates a document image forming surface, 8 a photoreceptor, and 9 and 10 rollers that suspend the photoreceptor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A sorter having a multi-stage tray for distributing and storing sheets processed and conveyed by a copying means, and a distributing means for distributing the sheets to the trays, and for feeding one sheet from the outside. a feeder means, a feeding means for feeding a sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means to the sorter, a means conveying a sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means to a document table, and feeding one sheet from the feeder means; a feeder unit having a guide means capable of switching between feeding the processed sheet to the sorter and transporting the sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means to the document table; is detected every time the sheet is sent to the sorter, and the operation of the distributing means is controlled every time it is detected so that the plurality of sheets fed one by one from the feeder means are also distributed to the plurality of trays of the multi-stage tray. 1. A copying machine comprising a sheet dispensing device, comprising: means for emitting a signal; 2. A sorter having a conveying means for conveying sheets processed by a copying means, a multi-stage tray for distributing and storing the conveyed sheets, and a distributing means for distributing the sheets to the trays, and the conveyed sheets. a tray for accumulating and storing sheets; a switching means for switching between feeding the conveyed sheets to the sorter or the tray for accumulating and storing; a feeder means for feeding one sheet from the outside; a feeding means for feeding the fed sheet to the sorter; a means for feeding the sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means to the document stand; feeding the sheet fed one sheet from the feeder means to the sorter; a feeder unit having a guide means capable of switching whether or not to convey one sheet fed from the feeder means to the document table; detecting each time a sheet is fed to the sorter via the feeding means; and means for emitting a signal for controlling the operation of the distributing means every time the detection is performed so that the plurality of sheets fed one by one from the feeder means are also distributed to the plurality of trays of the multi-stage tray. A copying machine equipped with a sheet distributing device.