JPH04129938A - Automatic paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a paper piece, when it is excessively pressed in, from passing between a friction plate and a paper piece separating roller by forming a space, which is about a thickness of piling two or three sheets of the paper pieces, between a point end of a stopper and a conveying surface. CONSTITUTION:When paper pieces are in a large number of sheets, a bundle of the paper pieces, having high rigidity itself, is made possible to pass between a paper piece retaining spring 18 and a peripheral surface of a paper piece pull-in roller 16 by press moving the paper piece retaining spring 18. Here, a stopper 27 is fixedly provided independently between the paper piece pull-in roller 16 and a paper piece separating roller 19 to form a space 28 of about thickness of piled two or three sheets of the paper pieces P between the point end part and a conveying surface, and a point end of the paper piece P partly collides against the stopper 27, so that these paper pieces P are stopped and prevented from passing between this friction plate 21 and the paper piece separating roller 19 by press-moving the friction plate 21.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to automatic paper feeding devices used in facsimile machines, copiers, printers, etc. It relates to separating and transporting pieces of paper one by one.

(Prior Art) An example of a conventional automatic paper feeder will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

This automatic paper feeding device consists of a paper piece guide '1 whose upper surface in the figure is a conveying surface 1a for paper pieces P, a paper piece pulling roller 2 rotatably supported facing the conveying surface 1a, and a paper piece pulling roller 2 that is rotatably supported facing the conveying surface 1a. A paper piece pressing spring 3 consisting of a leaf spring that presses the paper piece P against the outer peripheral surface, a paper piece separation roller 4 rotatably supported facing the conveying surface 1a, and a paper piece separation roller 4 supported swingably by a support shaft 5 for separating the paper pieces. It is composed of a friction plate 6 that comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4 so as to be able to move toward and away from the roller 4, and a coiled compression spring 7 that brings the friction plate 6 into pressure contact with the paper separation roller 4. Of course, the stronger the pressure of the compression spring 7, the stronger the frictional force acting between the paper separation roller 4, the paper P, and the friction plate 6. Note that, for example, in the case of a facsimile machine, the optical reading device is located on the conveyance surface 1.
It is disposed on the left side of a.

When in use, pieces of paper P such as a manuscript or recording paper are appropriately stacked and inserted in the direction shown by arrow A (to the left in the figure), and set between the pull-in roller 2 and the pressing spring 3. When facsimile transmission or copying is started, the pieces of paper P are sent out in the direction of arrow A by the rotating pull-in roller 2, separated one by one by the separation roller 4 and the friction plate 6, and further separated by an optical reader. being transported towards.

By the way, when mounting the paper piece P, as shown in FIG. 4, the tip of the paper piece P must be positioned in front of the contact area between the separation roller 4 and the friction plate 6, that is, the separation point of the paper piece P. However, when inserting the paper strips P in the direction of arrow A, if the paper strips P are pushed too hard, the overlapping paper strips P will push up the friction plate 6, as shown in FIG. There is a risk that the paper piece P may reach a position past the separation point by the friction plate 6.

This causes double feeding, that is, two or more pieces of paper are conveyed from the separation roller 4 at the same time.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional automatic paper feeding device, when loading a plurality of stacked pieces of paper, these pieces of paper are loaded past the paper piece separation roller and the friction plate. Since it was not possible to reliably prevent this, it was also not possible to reliably prevent double feeding during conveyance of paper pieces, resulting in a problem of low reliability.

The present invention aims to solve these problems, and it is possible to reliably attach a plurality of stacked pieces of paper to a predetermined position, and also to ensure that the pieces of paper are separated one by one during transportation. The purpose of this invention is to provide an automatic paper feeding device that can.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has a plurality of pieces of paper, such as originals or recording paper, stacked on top of each other on a conveying surface, and the pieces of paper are separated one by one. In the automatic paper feeding device that conveys the paper along the conveyance surface, a paper strip pulling roller is provided facing the conveying surface and rotatable in the conveying direction of the paper strip, and the paper strip pulling roller is movable toward and away from the outer peripheral surface of the paper strip pulling roller. A paper piece pressing spring that is large and biased toward the outer circumferential surface, a paper piece separating roller provided facing the conveying surface and rotatable in the conveying direction, and a paper piece separating roller that can freely come into contact with and separate from the outer circumferential surface of the paper piece separating roller. a friction plate that is in contact with and is biased toward the outer peripheral surface of the friction plate, and a stopper that is independently and fixedly provided between the paper strip pulling roller and the paper strip separation roller in the conveying direction, and the stopper A gap approximately the thickness of two or three stacked pieces of paper is formed between the tip of the paper and the conveying surface.

(Function) In the automatic paper feeder of the present invention, the paper pieces are mounted on the conveying surface between the paper piece pulling roller and the paper piece pushing spring, but when the number of piled paper pieces is small, the paper pieces themselves are Due to the low rigidity, the tip of the paper piece stops when it comes into contact with a paper piece pressing spring that is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the paper piece pulling roller.

On the other hand, when the number of pieces of paper is large, the stiffness of the bundle of paper pieces itself becomes high, so that the bundle of paper pieces pushes the paper piece pressing spring and moves between the paper piece pressing spring and the outer circumferential surface of the paper piece pulling roller. You can go through it, but
Two rollers are provided independently and fixedly between the paper strip pull-in roller and the paper strip separation roller, and overlapped between the tip end and the conveying surface.
When the tips of some of the paper strips hit the stopper that forms a gap about the thickness of three paper strips, these paper strips stop, and the paper strips push and move the friction plate. It will not pass between the paper separation roller. Then, in either case, the paper strips are sent from the paper strip pulling roller to the paper strip separating roller along the conveying surface by the rotation of the paper strip pulling roller, but at this time, the gap between the tip of the stopper and the conveying surface is Since only about 2 to 3 pieces of paper can pass through, at most about 2 to 3 pieces of paper will pass through the stopper and be sent to the paper piece separation roller. If there are only 2 or 3 pieces of paper, the friction plate cannot be pushed due to its weak rigidity, so the pressing force acting between the friction plate and the paper piece separation roller will not be reduced. A constant separating force is always applied, and the paper pieces are reliably separated one by one by the friction plate and the paper separation roller, and are conveyed past the paper separation roller.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, the configuration of an embodiment of an automatic paper feeder of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

11 is a lower paper piece guide, 12 is an upper paper piece guide, and these paper piece guides 11. The area between
It is 1a. In addition, in the right side of the figure, there is a gap of about 10 m between the lower paper piece guide 11 and the upper paper piece guide 12.
The conveyance path exit section 13 can easily accommodate about 300 pieces of paper P stacked at m, while the conveyance path exit section 13 is narrow with a gap of about 2 mm between the two paper piece guides II and 12 in the left side of the figure. It is part 14.

Reference numeral 16 denotes a paper piece drawing roller, and this drawing roller 16 whose outer peripheral portion is made of rubber is rotatably supported in the conveying direction of the paper piece P shown by arrow A. The upper part of the drawing roller 16 slightly protrudes into the conveyance path entrance section 13 through an opening 17 formed in the paper piece guide 11.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a paper piece pressing spring made of a leaf spring, and this pressing spring 18, which has the same width as the bowing roller 16, is attached to the upper paper piece guide 12 at one end, and forms an acute angle from there to the direction of arrow A. The other end, which is a free end and has a substantially dogleg shape, is in line contact with the upper end of the outer circumferential surface of the drawing roller 16 so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from it. The pressing spring 18 is biased toward the outer circumferential surface of the drawing roller 16 by its own elasticity, and presses the piece of paper P against the outer circumferential surface of the drawing roller 16 to apply a conveying force. Here, the pressure of the pressing spring 18 is such that when a bundle of up to about 5 paper pieces P is inserted into the conveyance path entrance 13, the rigidity of the bundle of paper pieces P is lost and the pressing spring 18 cannot be lifted; When paper pieces P are stacked and inserted in a bundle of ~30 sheets, the pressure spring 18 is strong enough to be easily lifted.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a paper separation roller, and the paper separation roller 19, whose outer periphery is made of rubber, has the same width as the drawing roller 16, and is rotatable in parallel with and in the same direction as the drawing roller 16. Supported. The upper part of the paper piece separation roller 19 slightly protrudes into the conveyance path exit section 14 through an opening 20 formed in the lower paper piece guide 11.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a friction plate made of rubber, and this friction plate 21 has the same width as the paper strip separation roller 19, and one end thereof is connected to the upper paper strip guide 12.
An opening 2 is attached to the upper paper strip guide 12 and extends downwardly from there at an acute angle to the direction of the arrow A, the other end having a substantially circular arc shape formed in the upper paper strip guide 12.
2, it comes into surface contact with the upper part of the outer peripheral surface of the paper separation roller 19 so as to be able to approach and separate.

Further, in the upper paper piece guide 12, a friction temporary holding member 23 made of plastic is located above the friction plate 21 and is attached to a support shaft 24.
The friction plate 21 is supported so as to be swingable in the vertical direction, and the tip of the friction temporary holding member 23 is in contact with the other end, that is, the tip of the friction plate 21 from above.

Furthermore, a coiled compression spring 26 is attached between the spring receiver 25 formed above the upper paper piece guide 12 and the tip of the friction temporary holding member 23.

By this compression spring 26, the tip of the friction plate 21, which has a degree of freedom, is urged toward the outer peripheral surface of the paper separation roller 19 via the friction temporary holding member 23, and this outer peripheral surface It is designed to be pressed against. Here, the pressure of the compression spring 26 is an appropriate pressure for separating and conveying the stacked plural sheets of paper P one by one.
When a bundle of 20 to 30 pieces of paper P is pushed in from the direction of arrow A, the pressure is such that the friction plate 21 is easily lifted up.

Reference numeral 27 denotes a stopper, and this stopper 27 is made of a hard sheet metal, and has the same width as the paper separation roller 19. The stopper 27 is fixed to the upper paper piece guide 12 at a position closest to the exit part 14 in the conveyance path entrance part 13, hangs down toward the conveyance surface 11a on the lower paper piece guide 11, and has a friction plate. It is completely unrelated to 21 and installed independently. Stopper 2
The tip of the stopper 27 faces the conveyance surface 11a at a position between the rollers 16 and 19 arranged in the conveyance direction of the paper piece P. A gap 28 of .5 to 1 mm, that is, approximately the thickness of two to three stacked pieces of paper P, is formed. In addition, the stopper 27 is 8 on the conveyance path entrance portion 13 side with respect to the conveyance surface lla.
It forms an acute angle of 0 to 90 degrees.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained.

The piece of paper P is mounted on the conveyance surface 11al in the direction of arrow A toward between the drawing roller 16 and the pressing spring 18.

At that time, due to the pressure of the pressing spring 18 mentioned above, the number of stacked pieces of paper P is small (approximately 5
When the number of paper strips P is less than one sheet, the stiffness of the bundle of paper strips P itself is low, so that the paper strips P are blocked by hitting the pressing spring 18 whose tip is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drawing roller 16.

On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 3, the number of pieces of paper P is large, 6~
When the number of sheets is 30, the rigidity of the bundle of paper pieces P itself is high, so that the inserted bundle of paper pieces P pushes up the pressing spring 18 and moves between the pressing spring 18 and the outer circumferential surface of the bowing roller 16. You can walk through it. However, even at this time, a stopper is fixedly provided between the drawing roller 16 and the paper separation roller 19 and forms a gap 28 of about 0.5 to 1 mm between the tip end and the conveying surface 11g. When the tip of the upper paper piece P hits 27, the east metal body of the paper piece P is blocked, and these paper pieces P
However, the paper does not push up the friction plate 21 and pass between the friction plate 21 and the paper separation roller 19.

Then, for example, when a facsimile machine starts sending, a copying machine starts copying, and a printer starts printing, the retraction roller 16 moves counterclockwise as shown in FIG. 2 or 3. By being rotationally driven in the circumferential direction, the paper pieces P are sent from the drawing roller 16 to the paper piece separation roller 19 along the conveying surface 11a. At this time, there is not a gap 28 between the tip of the stopper 27 and the conveying surface 11a that is large enough to allow about 2 to 3 overlapping pieces of paper P to pass through, so the stopper 27
From the bottom of the bundle of paper pieces P blocked by
Only about one sheet of paper P passes through the stopper 27 and is sent to the paper separation roller 19.

Furthermore, among the two to three pieces of paper P that are sent between the friction plate 21 and the paper piece separation roller 19, the paper pieces P on the "-" side are separated from the friction plate 21 which is biased by the compression spring 2G. Due to the frictional force acting between them, the leading edge is stopped between the friction plate 21 and the paper separation roller 19, and only the lower one paper P is removed by the rotation of the paper separation roller 19 in the counterclockwise direction as shown in the figure. , and is conveyed beyond this paper separation roller 19.

After one piece of paper P has passed the paper piece separation roller 19, the next piece of paper P on top of it is conveyed by the paper piece separation roller 19. Furthermore, when the number of pieces of paper P in the gap 28 between the stopper 27 and the conveying surface 11a decreases,
A new piece of paper P is sent to the paper piece separation roller 19 by the drawing roller 16 through the gap 28 . That is, a two-step separation is performed in which 2 to 3 sheets are first sent out from a maximum of about 30 pieces of paper P by the stopper 21, and then separated into one sheet by the friction plate 21 and the paper piece separation roller 19.

By repeating the above operations, the piled up pieces of paper P are separated one by one and conveyed along the conveying surface 11g. On the other hand, operations such as optical reading or printing are performed respectively.

By the way, as mentioned above, at most about 2 to 3 pieces of paper P are sent between the friction plate 21 and the paper piece separation roller 19, but when there are about 2 to 3 pieces of paper P, the rigidity is weak , the only thing I can do is push the friction plate 21 and raise it. In addition, since the stopper 27 is attached to the upper paper piece guide 12 independently of the friction plate 21 etc., even if the paper piece P hits the stopper 27, the friction plate 21 will not be pushed up. Therefore, the pressing force acting between the friction plate 21 and the paper separation roller 19 does not decrease, and a constant separation force always acts here, so that the friction plate 21 and the paper separation roller 19 reliably separate the paper pieces P into one sheet. They will be separated.

According to the above configuration, by providing the stopper 27 in front of the friction plate 21 and the paper strip separation roller 19, when mounting the paper strips P, it is possible to reliably mount a plurality of stacked paper strips P in a predetermined position. , it is possible to prevent the bundle of paper pieces P from being pushed too far and passing between the friction plate 21 and the paper piece separation roller 19. In addition to being able to securely attach the piece of paper P to a fixed position in this way,
Stopper 27, friction plate 21, and paper separation roller 1
By performing separation in two stages with step 9, the paper pieces P can be reliably separated and transported one by one during transport.

In this way, double feeding of pieces of paper P can be prevented and reliability is improved.

Furthermore, since there is no need to worry about pushing the piece of paper P too much during installation, the piece of paper P can be reliably inserted between the pull-in roller 16 and the pressing spring 18, so the pull-in roller 16 does not feed the piece of paper P. can also be prevented.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, in addition to a paper strip pulling roller, a paper strip pressing spring that can freely approach and separate from the paper strip pulling roller, and a paper strip separating roller and a friction plate that can freely come into contact with and separate from the paper strip separating roller, the paper strip pulling roller A stopper is independently and fixedly provided between the paper strip separation roller and the paper strip separation roller, and a gap approximately the thickness of two or three stacked paper strips is formed between the tip of the stopper and the conveying surface.
G. When loading multiple sheets of paper stacked on the conveying surface between the pull-in roller and the presser spring, these sheets can be reliably placed in place, and the friction plate may be pushed too far. In addition to this, the stopper feeds out two or three pieces of paper from multiple pieces of paper, and the friction plate and paper piece separation roller separate them into one piece. By carrying out the two-stage separation, the pieces of paper can be reliably separated and conveyed one by one during conveyance, preventing double feeding of pieces of paper, and improving reliability. Also,
The pull-in roller also prevents non-feeding in which pieces of paper are not fed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side sectional view showing an embodiment of the automatic paper feeder of the present invention, Figs. 2 and 3 are side sectional views showing the above in use, and Fig. 4 is an example of a conventional automatic paper feeder. FIG. 5 is a side sectional view showing a defect of the one shown in FIG. 4. 11a...Conveyance surface, 16...Paper pull-in roller 1
8. Paper piece pressing spring, 19. Paper piece separation roller, 21.
・Friction plate, 27...Stopper, 28...S1 ~ collar
Gap between the tip of the paper and the conveyance surface, P... piece of paper, A... conveyance direction.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an automatic paper feeder in which a plurality of pieces of paper are stacked on top of each other on a conveying surface and the pieces of paper are separated one by one and conveyed along the conveying surface, the pieces of paper are conveyed facing the conveying surface. a paper strip pulling roller provided so as to be rotatable in a direction; a paper strip pushing spring that can freely move toward and away from an outer circumferential surface of the paper strip pulling roller and biased toward the outer circumferential surface; a paper separation roller that is rotatably provided in the conveying direction; a friction plate that is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the paper separation roller so as to be able to move toward and away from the roller and is biased toward the outer peripheral surface; A stopper is provided independently and fixedly between the pull-in roller and the paper separation roller, and two stacked two are provided between the tip of the stopper and the conveying surface.
An automatic paper feeding device characterized by forming a gap approximately the thickness of one to three pieces of paper.