JPH048132Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with a mechanism for preventing paper on which an image is formed from falling.

[Prior Art] Conventional image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and printers have a type in which the main body of the apparatus can be divided into upper and lower parts for repair or parts replacement, and the upper body can be opened by rotating around a horizontal axis. Are known.

[Problems with the Prior Art] However, in the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, when a stacking section for ejected paper is provided in the upper body, there is a mechanism to prevent the stacked paper from falling when the upper body is opened. It was necessary to remove it each time, resulting in poor workability.

In addition, the above-mentioned drawbacks can be overcome by providing a loading section for ejection in the lower body, but the so-called face-down type, which ejects with the printed side facing down, has the drawback that it requires a mechanically impossible configuration. existed.

Furthermore, if the loading section is provided in the lower body, the tray-shaped loading section will protrude, resulting in an increase in the floor area occupied by the image forming apparatus as a whole.

[Purpose of the invention] In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention aims to provide an image forming apparatus in which the ejected paper does not fall when the upper body is opened, even if the upper body is provided with a stacking section for the ejected paper. purpose.

[Main points of the invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention consists of at least an upper body and a lower body, and the lower body and the upper body can be opened by rotating the upper body around a horizontal axis. The forming apparatus includes a stacking section on the upper surface of the upper body for stacking sheets on which images are formed, and the stacked sheets are not placed on the stacking section from when the upper body starts rotating until it rotates by a predetermined angle. a fixing member that is slidably held at the upper body and holds the paper firmly when the upper body rotates beyond the predetermined angle; The present invention is characterized in that it includes a stopper member that comes in contact with the paper to limit movement of the paper.

[Embodiment of the invention] An embodiment of the invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a recording apparatus which is an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the recording device is composed of an upper body 1a and a lower body 1b.
is supported on the lower body 1b by a horizontal shaft 2 so as to be openable and closable.

Further, the upper body 1a is locked to the lower mechanism 1b by a lock mechanism (not shown), so that it is not accidentally opened.

A sheet of paper on which an image has been formed in the recording apparatus 1 according to the internal configuration described later is ejected from a paper ejection port 30, and the ejected sheets are sequentially stacked on the inclined section 4 and the horizontal section 10. Further, a stopper part 11, which is a box-shaped member with one side open, is provided on the horizontal part 10, and this stopper part 11 is used to eject the largest sheet of paper to be used, and when stacked, the leading edge of the paper is placed in a box. It is located at a position where it enters the inside of the shape.

Further, a slit 6 is formed in the inclined portion 4 at a position near the side edge of the stacked sheets, and the presser metal fitting 3 passes through this slit 6 and projects upward.

The structure of the presser metal fitting 3 is shown in FIG. Presser metal fitting 3
is rotatably supported by a support shaft 7 fixed to the upper body 1a, one end of the tension spring 5 is engaged with the engagement hole 3b, and the other end of the tension spring 5 is connected to the upper body 1.
The presser metal fitting 3a is engaged with a fixed portion (not shown) of a, and the presser metal fitting 3a is urged in the direction of the arrow shown in the drawing with the support shaft 7 as the center of rotation. As mentioned above, one end of the presser metal fitting 3 penetrates the slit 6 and protrudes upward, and the paper presser piece 3a is attached to the hook-shaped tip of this one end.
is provided. A roller 3c is rotatably attached to the other end of the presser metal fitting 3, and this roller 3c comes into contact with a fixed cam, which will be described later.

Here, the internal structure of the recording apparatus 1 will be explained with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a central sectional view showing the general configuration of the recording apparatus of this embodiment. Inside the upper body 1a, there is a light source 12, an optical recording head 13, and an optical fiber bundle 1 that guides the light from the light source 12 to the optical recording head 13.
4 is provided.

The optical fiber bundle 14 is made up of a large number of optical fibers, and is arranged in a straight line in the depth direction of the drawing at the exit of the optical fiber bundle 14.

The optical recording head 13 includes an imaging lens array 13a.
, a rod lens 13b, a drive circuit board 13c, and a liquid crystal shutter 13d.

The rod lens 13b condenses the light emitted from the optical fiber and equalizes the amount of light in the longitudinal (depth of the paper) direction. The liquid crystal shutter 13d is constructed by collecting a large number of microshutters in the longitudinal (depth of the paper) direction, and the microshutters are opened and closed in response to drive signals from the drive circuit board 13c.

The drive circuit board 13c is configured by arranging a plurality of drive LSIs on a flexible printed circuit board, and is folded to reduce the occupied space. The drive circuit converts the external device signal into an opening/closing drive signal for each microshutter, and supplies the signal to each microshutter.

On the other hand, the lower body 1b is provided with an image forming section 15 and a reversing section 16.

The image forming unit 15 includes a photoconductor 17, a charger 18 disposed around the photoconductor 17, a developing device 19 for developing an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor 17, and a developed image on a sheet 9.
A transfer device 20 that transfers the image onto the paper 9, a separation roller 21 that separates the transferred paper 9 from the photoreceptor 17, and the photoreceptor 17.
It is composed of a cleaner 22 that removes residual toner on the surface, an eraser 23 that optically eliminates residual charges on the photoreceptor 17, a paper feeder, and the like.

The paper feeding device also includes a cassette 24 in which a large number of sheets of paper 9 are stacked, a paper feed roller 25 that feeds the sheets of paper 9 one by one, and a transfer unit that synchronizes the image positions of the sheets of paper 9 and the photoreceptor 17. It is composed of timing rolls 26 and the like for conveying to.

The reversing section 16 functions to reverse the paper onto which the image has been transferred in the transfer section, with the image side facing down, and is composed of a fixing section 27 that fixes the toner image by heating or the like, a reversing guide 28, a paper ejection roll 29, etc. ing. The fixing unit 27 includes a heat roll 27a and a feed roll 27b.
The paper 9 that has been thermally fixed by the heat roll 27a is sent to the curved reversing guide 28 by the feed roll 27b, and after the image surface is reversed downward, the paper 9 is transported from the discharge port 30 by the paper discharge roll 29. It is discharged onto the slope section 4 of the upper body 1a.

To explain the operation of the image forming apparatus configured as above, a drive signal from the drive circuit board 13c opens and closes the liquid crystal shutter 13d in the optical recording head 13, and the photosensitive material is uniformly charged by the charger 18. An electrostatic latent image corresponding to the recording signal is formed on the surface of the body 17.

The electrostatic latent image is visualized by a developing device 19 and transferred onto the paper 9 by a transfer device 20.

The paper 9 on which the image has been transferred is separated from the photoreceptor 17 by a separation roller 21, heat-fixed in a fixing section 27, and sent to a reversing guide 28, where it is reversed by traveling along the reversing guide 28.
Paper output roll 2 from the output outlet 30 with the printed side facing down.
It is ejected at 9.

The ejected paper 9 is placed in the inclined part 4 and the horizontal part 10.
They are loaded one after the other.

Conventionally, when the upper body 1a is rotated and both bodies are opened while the paper is still loaded on the upper body 1a, the loaded paper falls, but in the embodiment of the present invention, a stopper is used as a fall prevention mechanism. Part 1
1, a presser metal fitting 3, etc., and this fall prevention mechanism will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4a shows a state in which the upper body 1a and the lower body 1b are closed, and both bodies are maintained in the closed state by a lock mechanism (not shown). At this time, the roller 3c provided at the end of the presser metal fitting 3 is in contact with the fixed cam 8 provided on the lower main body. Due to this contact, the presser metal fitting 3 is stopped at a predetermined rotational position against the biasing force of the tension spring 5. At this time, the sheet presser piece 3a provided at the end of the presser metal fitting is separated from the stacked sheets 9.

Therefore, if a recording operation is performed in this state, more sheets 9 will be stacked between the sheet pressing piece 3a and the inclined portion 4.

For example, when opening the upper body 1a to clear a paper jam or replenish developer, the above-mentioned lock mechanism (not shown) is released. By releasing the lock mechanism, the upper body 1a can be rotated about the horizontal axis 2.

As the upper body 1a is rotated, the presser member 3
The roller 3c moves along the circumferential surface of the fixed cam 8, and the rotational position of the presser member 3 relative to the upper body 1 does not change. Maintaining distance from 9.

When the upper body 1a is rotated by a predetermined angle, the stacked sheets 9 slide on the inclined part 4 and the horizontal part 10, as shown in FIG.

When the upper body is rotated further than this predetermined angle, the shape of the fixed cam causes the presser metal fitting 3 to rotate counterclockwise with respect to the upper body 1a, and the paper presser piece 3
a comes into contact with the stacked paper 9, and further c
As shown in FIG. 3, the roller 3c and the fixed cam 8 are separated from each other, and the entire urging force of the tension spring 5 acts as a force for the paper presser piece 3a to press the paper 9.

Therefore, even if the upper body 1a is opened further,
Since the leading end of the paper 9 is in contact with the stopper part 11 and the paper 9 is further held down by the paper presser piece 3a, it will not fall from the upper body 1a.
Further, since the paper presser piece 3a presses the paper 9 after the leading edge of the paper 9 comes into contact with the stopper 11, the paper 9 can be held in an aligned state. Even if the paper 9 is weak, the paper 9 will not fall.

In addition, when closing the upper body 1a, the operation is opposite to the above-mentioned operation, and when the upper body 1a reaches a predetermined angle, the paper holding piece 3a separates from the paper 9, and even in the completely closed state, the paper The presser piece 3a is in a state separated from the paper 9, and a new paper can be stacked on top of the paper 9 if the recording operation is restarted.

[Structure of the invention] As explained in detail above, in the image forming apparatus of the invention, even if the upper body is opened, the sheets loaded on the stacking section provided on the upper body are held in an aligned state. , it will not fall, and therefore there is no need to remove the stacked paper each time it is opened.

Furthermore, since the upper surface of the upper body can be used as a paper stacking section, the floor area occupied can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a recording device which is an image forming apparatus of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an overall perspective view of the paper presser fitting in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a schematic central sectional view of the recording device, and Fig. 4a. , b, and c are schematic configuration diagrams of the fall prevention mechanism. 1...Recording device, 1a...Upper body, 1b...
Lower body, 2...horizontal axis, 3...presser metal fitting, 4...
... Inclined part, 7 ... Support shaft, 8 ... Fixed cam, 9 ...
...Paper, 10...Horizontal section, 11...Stopper section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In an image forming apparatus that includes at least an upper body and a lower body, and in which the lower body and the upper body can be opened by rotating the upper body around a horizontal axis, The upper body is provided on the upper surface of the upper body, and the stacked paper is slidably held in the loading section from when the upper body starts rotating until the upper body rotates at a predetermined angle, and the upper body rotates at the predetermined angle. A fixing member that fixes and holds the paper when the upper body rotates beyond the range, and a stopper member that limits the movement of the paper by coming into contact with the edge of the paper that slides as the upper body rotates. Features of the image forming device.