JPH04270694A - Sorter with stapler device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a failure in shaking a bin, ensure the trued-up of sheets in the bin, and realize a stable stapling by a method wherein a plurality of reference surfaces for truing up the rear ends of sheets contained in a shakable bin are separately disposed on a part of an inner wall of the shakable bin and a part of a fixed wall for stopping the bin. CONSTITUTION:A sorter is provided with a plurality of bins 41 for sorting and containing sheets P delivered from an image forming device body 1; bin shaking devices 70 for shaking the bins 41 for moving the contained sheets P to stapling positions; and stapler devices 80 for stapling the sheets P. A plurality of reference surfaces on which the rear ends of the sheets P contained in the bin 41 per size are abutted to be trued up are separately disposed on a part of an inner wall of the shakable bin 41 and a part of a fixed wall for stopping the bin 41 at a predetermined position.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a sorter attached to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a laser beam printer for separating and storing sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus. The present invention relates to a sorter equipped with a bin and a stapler device that aligns and staples sheets stored on the bin.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sheet post-processing device equipped with a stapler device for binding sheets discharged from a copying machine, etc. has been used together with a machine such as a circulating automatic document feeder (RDH), and a stapler device is used for each sheet. Although there is a sheet post-processing device (finisher) for stopping the sheet, it has the disadvantage that the mechanism is complicated and expensive.

(1) A device in which a stapler device is attached to a relatively simple bin moving type sorter (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-4345
Publication No. 7) has been disclosed. This device is a sorter in which a stapler device for binding sheets stored in bins is arranged so as to be movable forward and backward relative to the bins.

(2) In other sorters, when stapling a large number of paper stacks, a fixed stapler device is provided for each bin, and each bin is moved to the stapling position to staple the paper stacks. .

(3) The sorter disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-244869 moves a bin carrying sheets to a position where staples can be driven, staples are driven,
When other bottles are to be stapled, the stapling device is moved vertically.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Among the above-mentioned sorters with a stapler device, in the type in which the first stapler device advances and retreats, the advancing stroke differs depending on the size of the sheet, and if all the vertical intervals of each bin are wide, the sorter has become larger,
There is a problem in that the mechanism becomes complicated if the stapling device only widens the interval between the bins into which it enters. Further, in this sorter, a large closed-loop long hole is bored in the bin, and a matching member common to all the bins is inserted into the long hole so that the matching member can swing freely. but,
With such a bin shape, after assembling all the bins into the sorter body, it is necessary to insert the alignment member into the long hole and connect the alignment member to the upper and lower arms.
It takes a lot of time to assemble, disassemble, adjust, etc. Also,
A sorter in which sheets of different sheet sizes are stored in bins based on the center and the bins are moved to the stapling position has the disadvantage that the bins become large because the elongated holes must be enlarged.

[0007] The second sorter has problems in that the overall configuration of the sorter is complicated, and when the bin spacing is narrow, a special stapler device is required.

[0008] In the third sorter, each bin loaded with sheets is moved straight along a bin guide and horizontally to a stapling position at appropriate times, and has the disadvantage that the structure of the apparatus is complicated.

On the other hand, in order to minimize the total height of the sorter and increase the number of sheets stored in each bin, the interval between each bin must be minimized. With this bin arrangement, when the bin is swung to move the sheets to the stapling position, the upper end of the sheet rear end abutment reference wall provided inside the bin contacts the bottom of the upper bin and oscillates. Otherwise, the topmost sheet in the bin may connect to the bottom of the upper bin, damaging the sheet or causing sheet misalignment.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention makes it possible to store a predetermined maximum number of sheets in bins with minimum bin intervals, thereby reducing the overall height of the sorter and making it more compact. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sorter equipped with a stapler device that eliminates bin rocking defects and ensures stable alignment of sheets in the bins (paper alignment) to achieve stable stapling.

[0011] A sorter equipped with a stapler device of the present invention that achieves this object includes a plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets carried out from an image forming apparatus main body, and a structure in which the bins are oscillated and stored in the bins. In a sorter equipped with a bin swinging device that moves sheets to a binding position and a stapler device that staples the sheets, a plurality of sorters align the sheets by abutting the rear ends of sheets of various sizes stored in the bins. The reference plane is divided into a part of the inner wall of the swingable bottle and a part of the fixed wall that stops the bottle at a predetermined position.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a sorter connected to a main body 1 of an image forming apparatus (for example, a copying machine). The sorter of the present invention includes a base section 10, a downward conveyance section 20, and an upward conveyance section 30.
and a bin moving section 40.

The base section 10 is made up of casters 11, a connection means 12 to the main body of the image forming apparatus 1, a conveyor belt 13, a driven roller 14, a guide plate 15, a drive means (not shown), etc., and is fixed on the floor. Ru.

Further, a stay member 16 is fixed to the base portion (horizontal conveyance portion) 10 in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. A rack gear RG is fixed to the upper surface side of the stay member 16. On the other hand, rollers 17A and 17B for moving the casing are pivotally supported within the casing of the bin moving unit 40, which will be described later.
The rollers 17A and 17B slide on rails (not shown) of the base section 10, allowing the casing of the bottle moving section 40 to move in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper. That is, the bin moving section 4
A drive motor M1 is installed inside the housing of the motor 0, and drives and rotates a pinion gear PG via gears G1 and G2. Since the pinion gear PG meshes with the rack gear RG fixed to the stay member, the casing of the bin moving section 40 moves in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper due to the driving rotation of the motor M1. In addition, 18 is a rotatable roller provided coaxially with the pinion gear PG, and 18 is a rotatable roller provided on the same axis as the pinion gear PG.
6 and guide.

The downward conveyance unit 20 is connected to the paper ejection roller 2 and paper ejection port 3 of the image forming apparatus main body 1, and carries the ejected sheet P.
is received by the guide plate 21 and conveyed downward to the base portion 1.
Conveyor belt 22 for feeding to the conveyor belt 13 in 0
and a driven roller 23. Further, a conveyance means 24 branches from this conveyance path and discharges a preceding sheet in the image forming apparatus main body 1 when a jam occurs in the ADF or the sorter.
and tray 25. In addition, the above-mentioned downward conveyance section 20
The upper part of the casing swings freely to open and close, making it possible to take out the jammed paper in the downward conveyance section 20.

The ascending conveyance unit 30 has pulleys 32 and 33 rotatably fixed to the upper and lower parts of the support frame.
A plurality of endless transfer belts 31 are stretched. A plurality of rollers 34 are rotatably connected to the inner side of the conveyor belt 31 and correspond to a bottle insertion opening, which will be described later. A plurality of conveyance rollers 35 roll in contact with the outer side of the conveyance belt 31 facing the roller 34 and are driven to rotate.

Further, in the middle of the conveying roller 35, branch guides 36 are located at the entrances of the bins and swing. These branch guides 36 are rotatably supported by a shaft 37 installed on the support frame, and are swung by a lever and a solenoid (not shown) provided at the end of the shaft 37. Therefore, by rotating the branching guide 36 clockwise, the lower end claw portion of the branching guide 36 intersects with the paper conveyance path composed of the conveyance belt 31 and the conveyance roller 35, and the paper is moved upward in the vertical direction. The branch guide 36 interrupts the advance and adjusts the paper receiving attitude. When the paper P is conveyed there, the paper P is deflected in a substantially perpendicular direction along the inner curved surface of the branching guide 36 and received into the bin 41 .

FIGS. 2 and 3 are partial sectional views of the constituent members and bins of the paper branching conveyance path. FIG. 2 shows the vicinity of the upper part of the sorter, and FIG. 3 shows the vicinity of the lower part of the sorter. 4 is a top perspective view of the bottle, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of the bottle and related members.

A plurality of bins (for example, 20 bins) 41 arranged at equal intervals are swingably supported on the bin moving unit 40. That is, the bottom of the bottle 41 (left side in FIGS. 2 and 3) is slidably supported on a guide plate 48 fixed to the bottle moving part 40.

Note that reference numeral 41A indicates three locking pawls provided on the bottom side that engage with the notches of the guide plate 48. 4
1S is a stopper wall (sheet rear end abutment reference surface) provided at five locations on the paper introduction side of the top surface of the bin 41, and the top end of the upright surface has a curved claw portion 41B that extends inside the bin 41 in the form of an eave. It protrudes and prevents the paper P from falling out of the bin due to the rear end of the paper rising up.

A slide piece 44 is fitted into a fixed support shaft 43 that stands upright and is supported by support members 42A and 42B fixedly installed above and below the frame of the bottle moving unit 40, and pins 45 and E
It is positioned by a ring 43E. The inclined neck portion of the slide piece 44 has one end (
The U-shaped groove 41G shown in FIGS. 4 and 5) is inserted, and the bottle 41
can be tilted and rotated freely. Further, pins 45 and E-rings 43E driven into the fixed support shaft 43 at equal intervals support the slide pieces 44 at equal intervals, and hold the ends of the bins 41 arranged in parallel at equal intervals.

[0023] Thus, each bin 41 is arranged and held in parallel at equal intervals with a horizontal inclination angle α (for example, 30°) with respect to the fixed support shaft 43, and is capable of tilting and swinging at the above-mentioned inclination angle α.

The other end of the bin 41 has a rotatable roller 39 embedded in a part of the frame of the bin moving unit 40.
is supported by In this way, the bottle 41 is supported by the guide plate 48, the slide piece 44, and the rollers 39.
It is freely swingable around a fixed support shaft 43.

Further above the plurality of bins (20 stages of sorting bins in FIG. 1) 41, there is a deep-bottom non-sorting bin 4.
9 is fixedly installed. The non-sort bin 49 is a bin that stores image-formed sheets P that do not require sorting, and has 1
A large amount of paper from 00 to 300 sheets can be stacked.

The left end side of the non-sorting bin 49 (FIG. 2)
) A stopper wall 49S is formed on the inner wall surface of the bin 49 on the paper introduction side of the bin 49 to bring the rear end of the paper P into contact with the bin 49 to align the paper. A curved claw portion 49 is provided at the upper end of the upright surface of the stopper wall 49S.
B protrudes inside the bin 49 like an eave and prevents the paper P from escaping from the bin due to lifting of the rear end of the paper.

The sheet loading surface of the bin 41 is a lower loading surface 4 which is perpendicular to the stopper wall 41S against which the rear end of the sheet is brought into alignment and forms a gentle inclination angle (for example, about 10°) with the horizontal plane.
11, an intermediate placement surface 412 connected to the lower placement surface 411 via a curved surface 414 and forming a steep angle of inclination (for example, about 40°) with the horizontal surface, and an intermediate placement surface 412 connected to the intermediate placement surface 412 and connected to the horizontal surface. The upper mounting surface 413 forms an angle α (for example, approximately 30°).

The stopper surface 41S near the base of the bottle 41 and the lower mounting surface 411 form an angle of 90°,
Ensures alignment of paper stacks during stapling. Further, the stopper surface 41S is nearly vertical, and the lower placing surface 411 has a gentle inclination angle, thereby preventing the leading edge of the paper from buckling and ensuring alignment of the paper P by sliding on the slope.

Since the intermediate placement surface 412 is formed at a steep angle, the sheets P discharged onto the bin 41 will surely slide down due to their own weight, and the sheets will be reliably aligned. As a result, even sheets of paper that are charged with static electricity and are prone to surface adsorption, or sheets that are curled, are reliably slid down and the trailing edge of the sheet abuts against the stopper surface 41S.

The inclination angle α of the upper mounting surface 413 is slightly smaller than the inclination angle of the intermediate mounting surface 412 (approximately 30
°), it is possible to ensure the minimum interval between the plurality of bins 41 and to reduce the height of the entire sorter. Furthermore, this upper loading surface 413 is the surface on which large sheets of paper (for example, B4 size, A3 size) are ejected onto the bin 41 and are placed thereon. Due to the steep angle of inclination of α and 412 (approximately 40°), it is possible to slide down sufficiently and align the sheets. There is also a non-sort bin 49 fixed to the sorter body above the bin 41.
It has almost the same shape as bottle 41.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the bottle 41 viewed from the bottom side. A plurality of ribs 41E (inverted triangular plates as shown) are formed integrally with the bottle body on the bottom side of each bottle. The rib 41E is formed on the bottom side of a gently curved surface 414 that connects the lower mounting surface 411 having a gentle inclination angle and the intermediate mounting surface 412 having a steep inclination angle.

On the other hand, since the space between the upper part of the stopper wall 41S and the claw part 41B of the bin 41 and the guide plate 48 that supports the upper bin 41 forms an opening for carrying in the sheet, it is possible to carry in the sheet. The distance between the upper and lower bins near the section is sufficiently wider than the sheet and maximum loading thickness. On the other hand, the interval between the intermediate placement surfaces 412 of each bin 41 is set slightly wider than the maximum sheet placement height in order to keep the overall height of the sorter low and compact.

The rib 41E is provided at an intermediate position between the sheet carry-in opening and the intermediate placement surface 412, and is located between the protruding tip (top) of the rib 41E at the bottom of the upper bin 41 and the lower one. The gap between the upper surface of the bottle 41 and the curved surface 414 is set to be approximately equal to the vertical gap between the intermediate placement surface 412 and the upper surface of the bottle 41 .

Lower side surface 41EA forming the rib 41E
is the guide surface when the paper P is carried in, and the right inclined surface 41
EB is a guide surface when the paper P is aligned in the reverse direction.

By forming such a rib shape, the sheet P carried in from the sheet carry-in opening is able to pass through the rib 41.
E stabilizes the paper feed direction, and the bin 4
It is possible to stably secure a predetermined number of sheets stacked in one stack.

It is desirable that the stopper walls 41S at a plurality of locations for aligning the rear ends of the sheets P are provided so that sheets of all sizes come into contact with the left end of the bin 41 in the drawing. However, in a sorter that minimizes the distance between each bin 41 and swings the bins 41 for stapling,
When the bottle swings, the upper end of the stopper wall 41S is in the upper bin 4.
may touch or butt against the bottom of 1.

In order to prevent interference and collision between the upper and lower bins, the part of the upright wall surface of the bin 41 having the stopper wall 41S that interferes with the lower bin 41 is cut out (see section A in FIG. 5). ).

On the other hand, an auxiliary reference plate 47 was integrally fixed to the upright surface of the guide plate 48 on which the bottom surface of the rear end of the bottle 41 was placed, at a position corresponding to the notch A of the bottle 41. The auxiliary reference plate 47 has three stopper walls 47S having the same shape to compensate for the stopper walls 41S missing due to the notch of the bottle 41. A curved claw portion 47B protrudes like an eave from the upper end of the upright surface of the stopper wall 47S and has the same shape as the claw portion 41B. When the bottle 41 is urged by the spring 59 and comes into close contact with the upright surface 48A of the guide plate 48, the stopper walls 41S and 47S are on the same plane, forming a reference surface for abutting the rear end of the sheet.

Furthermore, the claw portions 41B and 47B have the same shape and the same height. When the bin 41 is swung by the bin oscillating means 70, which will be described later, the rear end of the stack of sheets placed on the bin 41 is swung to the stapling position while remaining in contact with the stopper wall 41S on the bin. However, the stopper wall 47S provided on the auxiliary reference plate 47 fixed to the guide plate 48 remains at the fixed position. Therefore, when the upper bin 41 is swung,
The lower stopper wall 47S does not interfere with the bottom of the upper bin 41.

The paper P (dotted chain line in FIG. 3) carried into the ascending conveyance section 30 of the sorter at high speed is held between the conveyor belt 31 and the conveyor roller 35, moves upward, and is swung clockwise by a solenoid (not shown). It is deflected to the right by the branch claw 36 (shown, second row from the bottom) (see Fig. 3).
The bottle 41
The sheet P passes between the curved surface 414, the inclined surface 412, and the rib 41E at the bottom of the upper row, and rises to the right. After the rear end of the sheet P passes the pressure contact position between the belt 31 and the roller 35, the sheet P is ejected by the ejection speed, and then The trailing edge of the paper is the stopper wall 41S, 47
After passing above S, the paper P changes from rising to descending, and due to its own weight, the inclined surfaces 413, 41 of the bin 41
2,411, and the rear end of the paper P slides down on the stopper wall 41.
It hits S and 47S and stops.

Subsequent sheets P are similarly carried into the bin 41, and the ribs 41E regulate the paper carrying direction, and the sheets are stably switched back and aligned over the preceding sheets P on the bin 41.

On the other hand, a part of the fixed frame of the upward conveyance section 30 is provided with an alignment device 50 for aligning the side edges of the sheets P discharged from the copying machine main body 1 onto the bin 41. (See Figures 2, 3, 5, 7). In the alignment device 50, an upper arm 55 that is fitted onto an upper support shaft attached to the upper part of the frame and is swingable is swung by the driving force of a pulse motor (not shown). At the tip of the upper arm 55, the upper shaft end of the mandrel of the alignment rod 54 is held by an alignment bearing. The lower shaft end of the mandrel of the alignment rod 54 is fitted into and held by an alignment bearing provided at the shaft end of the lower arm 52.

The outer periphery of the mandrel of the alignment rod 54 is covered with an elastic material made of foam material such as sponge, and is brought into pressure contact with the side edges of the sheets P to be discharged to align the widths of the sheets P. The alignment rod 54 has a rocking trajectory (dotted chain line) as shown in FIG.
draw On the other hand, the bin 41 swings as shown by the dashed line in FIG. 5 in order to insert the stacked sheets P into the stapler device 80.

A stopper wall 41D stands upright and is integral with one side of the bottle 41. A paper pressing device 60 is attached to the outer surface of the stopper wall 41D. A lever 61 is attached to a shaft 62 implanted in the stopper wall 41D.
is swingably supported. A paper pressing member 63 is attached to one end of the lever 61.

The other end of the lever 61 is connected to the bottle swinging device 7.
0 is pressed by a roller 72 attached to the tip of an arm 71. This pressure causes the lever 61 to swing, causing the paper pressing member 63 to press the top surface of the paper P on the bin 41 and press the paper.

Further, the board of the bin swinging device 70 is attached to a common frame together with the board of the stapler device, and is driven vertically by an elevating device on the frame of the bin moving section 40. Each bin 41 is stopped, and the stack of sheets stacked on the swinging bin 41 while being pressed by the paper presser member 63 enters the gap between the binding parts of the stapler device and staples are driven therein.

After stapling, the arm 71 swings back, and the bin 41 is urged by the spring 59 to swing back and return to the initial paper discharge position.

Next, the stapling operation of the bundle of sheets discharged into the bin 41 will be described below.

There are two reference methods for placing and positioning a document placed on the platen glass of the main body 1 of the image forming apparatus: a center line reference method and a one-sided reference method. Hereinafter, the stapling operation of the stack of sheets P discharged along the center line will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a state in which sheets are accommodated and aligned on the bin 41, and FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a state in which the bin 41 is swung for stapling.

(1) When the size of the paper (copy paper) P to be discharged from the image forming apparatus main body 1 is manually set or automatically determined, the bin moving section 40 of the sorter is electrically driven, and the size of the paper (copy paper) P discharged from the image forming apparatus main body 1 is electrically driven. When it reaches a predetermined position, it is stopped by a signal from the position detection sensor and enters a standby state. The maximum amount of movement of the bin moving unit 40 varies from the maximum paper size width (for example, 17 inches) to the minimum paper size width (for example, B5 size, 25 inches).
7 mm) minus half (for example, 87.4 mm). Further, at this standby position, the stopper wall 41D of the bin 41 is located at a distance of δ (for example, about 10 mm) from the widthwise side edge of the paper P entering. (2) In this state, the paper P enters from the left side in the figure and rises along the slope of the topmost bin 41, and then slides down due to its own weight to the stopper wall 41S of the bin 41 and the auxiliary reference plate 4.
It comes into contact with the stopper wall 47S of No. 7 and stops.

(3) After the paper P has stopped, the alignment rod 5
4 swings and presses one side edge of the paper P, shifts the paper P toward the front side by the shifting amount δ, and brings the other side edge of the paper P into contact with the stopper wall 41D. This offset amount δ is set to be approximately the same for other paper sheets of different sizes (for example, A4 size, B4 size, A3 size, etc.).

(4) Subsequently, the subsequent paper P is discharged into the lower second bin 41 by switching the branch guide 36, and the alignment rod 54 similarly swings to press the side edge of the paper P. Then, the paper P is brought into contact with the stopper wall 41D to align the paper.

(5) In the same manner, the originals are successively distributed and stored in the bins 41 corresponding to the number of originals.

(6) The CPU-controlled counting means detects that the set number of sheets P are stored in the topmost bin 41, and furthermore, the rear end of the last sheet P stored in the bin 41 is detected. , when it is detected that the optical path of the light detection means connecting the light emitting element LED provided at the upper part of the bottle moving part 40 and the light receiving element PTr provided at the lower part is in the open state, the first stage bin 41 The discharge is completed (see Figure 1).

(7) Similarly, immediately after the completion of discharging the paper to the second bin 41 is detected, or after a predetermined period of time, the top bin 41 is moved to the bin swinging device 70.
It is swayed by. That is, the bin moving unit 4 in the stopped state
When a staple signal is input to the paper presser 60, the bin swinging device 70 is first driven, the arm 71 swings, the roller 72 at the tip presses the leaf spring 66 at the lower end of the paper pressing device 60, and then the bin swinging device 70 is driven. By swinging the lever 61 counterclockwise about the shaft 62 against the spring biasing force of the upper leaf spring 65, the paper pressing member 63 presses the upper surface of the sheet on the bin 41.

(8) Subsequently, the roller 72 at the tip of the arm 71 further swings around the slide piece 44 (for example, θ=12°) to swing the bin 41 while pressing the sheet of the bin 41.

(9) The sensor of the bottle swinging device 70 detects the swinging position and the swinging of the bin 41 is stopped. (10) At this stop position, the rear end corner of the bundle of sheets is inserted into the binding gap of the stapler device 80, and the staple 83 is driven by the stapler device 80 to bind the sheets.

(11) After stapling, arm 7
1 is driven and returned to its original position, the bin 41 is spring-biased and returns to its original position, and the paper pressing member 63 is separated upward from the paper stack surface, allowing the paper stack to be taken out from above the bin 41. become.

(12) When the stapling of the paper bundle stored in the uppermost bin 41 among the bins 41 is completed,
The unit in which the stapler device 80 and the bottle swinging device 70 are integrally formed is lowered by the lifting device, and almost at the same time, the bin 41 located one step below is swung, and the stapling operation is performed in the same manner as described above. During this time, paper is being ejected to the bin 41 one or two steps below.

(13) When all the paper bundles have been stapled, the unit that integrates the bin swinging device and the stapler device returns to the topmost bin position.

Note that the stapling operation described above is performed by a sorter that stores, aligns, and staples sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus main body 1 based on the center line; however, the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can also be applied to a sorter that stores sheets that are discharged from the apparatus main body 1 on a one-sided basis, aligns the sheets, and staples them.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the sorter according to the present invention. The upright wall of the bin 41 is provided with two stopper walls 41S near the center and one stopper wall 41S on the front side in the figure, and the rear end of the paper P is abutted against the stopper wall 41S for positioning. Moreover, the upright wall other than the stopper wall 41S has a shape that has been removed by two notches A. On the other hand, two auxiliary reference plates 47 having stopper walls 47S are fixed to the upright surface of the guide plate 48. Such a notch A
Providing this is not only effective in reducing the vertical distance between the bottles, but also makes it possible to reduce the weight of the bottles.

[0063]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
When a large number of sheets are conveyed at high speed and fed into the bins of a sorter, alignment of the sheet bundles is ensured, and the interval between bins is minimized to increase the number of sheets stored in the bins. Furthermore, by minimizing the bin interval, the total height of the sorter can be kept low and it can be made more compact. In particular, in a sorter equipped with a stapler device, when the bins are oscillated to move to the stapling position, there is no interference between the upper and lower bins, and the bins are oscillated smoothly.

[0064] Furthermore, by removing part of the stopper wall, upright wall, and paper placement surface of the bin, the weight of the bin can be reduced, and the inertia when swinging the bin can be reduced, thereby stabilizing the stop position of the bin and improving the driving force. It is also effective in reducing the number of communication methods.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a sorter connected to an image forming apparatus main body.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the constituent members of the paper branch conveyance path and the upper bin of the sorter.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of the lower part of the sorter.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bin equipped with a paper alignment device.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the bottle and related components.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the bottle viewed from the bottom side.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing sheet alignment on a bin.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the swinging process of the bottle.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a bottle and a guide plate showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1... Image forming apparatus main body (copying machine main body) 10... Base section 20... Downward conveyance section
30... Upward conveyance section 40... Bin moving section
41...Bin (sorting bin) 411...Lower placement surface
412...Middle part placement surface 413...Upper placement surface
41B...claw portion 41S...stopper wall
43...Fixed shaft 44...Slide piece
47... Auxiliary reference plate 47B... Claw portion
47S...Stopper wall 48...Guide plate
49...Non-sorting bin 54...Matching rod
59...Spring 60...Paper pressing device
61...Lever 63
...Paper presser member
70... Bin rocking device 80... Stapler device
83... Staple A... Notch
P...Paper (sheet)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of bins for sorting and storing sheets carried out from an image forming apparatus main body; a bin swinging device for swinging the bins to move the sheets stored in the bins to a binding position; In a sorter equipped with a stapler device for binding the sheets, reference surfaces at multiple locations for aligning the sheets by abutting the rear ends of sheets of various sizes stored in the bin are set on the inner wall of the swingable bin. 1. A sorter equipped with a stapler device, characterized in that the stapler device is divided into a part of the bin and a part of a fixed wall that stops the bin at a predetermined position.