JPH08333028A - Media processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Correction) [PROBLEMS] To reduce the installation space by reducing the size of a medium processing device, and to eliminate the restriction on the cassette attachment / detachment direction. SOLUTION: A processing unit for processing a medium, cassettes 1 and 2 for storing the medium, a cassette mounting unit for mounting the cassette, and a feeding for feeding the medium accommodated in the cassette mounted in the cassette mounting unit. And a transporting unit that transports the medium fed by the feeding unit to the processing unit. The cassette is configured to be mounted in the cassette mounting portion from the medium feeding side, and is a medium transport penetrating body for transporting the medium transported from the side opposite to the processing unit as viewed from the cassette toward the transport means. A path is provided on the feeding side of the medium.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is provided with a medium unloading device for unloading a medium such as a sheet contained in a cassette, a cassette mounted in the medium unloading device, and a medium unloading device as medium supplying means. The present invention relates to a medium processing device that performs processing such as printing on a medium that has been carried out (supplied) from a medium carrying-out device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example, a case where a medium is paper and a medium processing device is an image forming device will be described. Figure 5
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structural outline of an electrophotographic recording apparatus (image forming apparatus) in which a plurality of paper cassettes are mounted in the apparatus main body.

In the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 5, the sheet cassettes 101 and 102 are mounted outside the apparatus main body 103. The paper fed from the paper cassette 101 is conveyed through the paper conveyance path 104, and the paper cassette 1
The paper fed from 02 is conveyed through the paper conveyance path 105. In either case, the sheet is conveyed to the transfer position (a), and the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 106 is transferred onto the sheet by the transfer device 107. After that, the paper follows the course of the arrow line, the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 108, and then the paper is ejected, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 106 after the transfer is discharged and cleaned.

FIG. 6 shows a plurality of paper cassettes 111 and 11.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a sheet feeding device having a sheet feeding device 2 and an image forming apparatus using the sheet feeding device. In the paper feeding device shown in FIG. 6, the paper cassettes 111 and 112 are vertically arranged below the image forming apparatus main body 113. The paper fed out from the paper cassette 111 is the paper transport path 11
The paper that has been conveyed through the No. 4 and is fed from the paper cassette 112 is conveyed through the paper conveyance path 115. In either case, the sheet is conveyed to the transfer position (B), where the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 116 is transferred to the transfer unit 117.
Is transferred to paper by. After that, the paper follows the course of the arrow line, the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 118, and then the paper is ejected, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 that has completed the transfer is neutralized and cleaned.

[0005]

However, these conventional methods have the following drawbacks. That is, in the case of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
Since 1, 102 are projected from the apparatus main body 103, the outer size of the apparatus as a whole becomes long and undesirably requires a large installation space.

Further, in the case of the paper feeding device and the image forming device shown in FIG. 6, the paper feeding mechanism 119 for feeding the paper fed from each of the paper cassettes 111 and 112 to the upper portion of the device main body 113 is provided with the device main body 113. It is necessary to provide the paper cassettes 111 and 11 from the B side.
There is a design and layout restriction that the 2 cannot be attached and detached.

An image forming apparatus and a sheet feeding apparatus as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-49743. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and it is possible to reduce the installation space by reducing the size of a medium supply device that supplies a medium such as paper, and to eliminate the restriction on the cassette attachment / detachment direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a medium processing device capable of performing the above.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention, in which the medium processing device is an image forming device.
A case where the cassette is arranged below the medium processing unit will be described as an example. In the figure, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote sheet cassettes, and the sheet cassette 1 guides the sheet fed from another sheet cassette 2 toward the sheet cassette 1 toward a sheet discharge portion 34 of the sheet fed from the other sheet cassette 1. A paper transport mechanism 3 is provided for this purpose. Reference numeral 21 denotes an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus, and the inside of the apparatus main body 21 of the image forming apparatus
In addition, a photosensitive drum 24, a transfer device 28, and a fixing device 29 are provided. Reference numerals 43, 45, 46, 47 and 48 are feed rollers. These are added for reference.

The sheet cassettes 1 and 2 are inserted into the lower part of the apparatus main body 21 from the left side to the right side corresponding to the front side of the apparatus in FIG. That is, the sheet cassettes 1 and 2 are used by being attached to the apparatus main body from the sheet feeding side. Further, in the mounted state of the paper cassettes 1 and 2, the positions for accommodating the papers in both cassettes are located on the same side with respect to the paper transport mechanism 3.

Therefore, the restriction on the attachment / detachment direction, which has been a problem in the past, is eliminated, and the cassettes 1 and 2 can be attached / detached from the A direction. Then, in the mounted state of the paper cassettes 1 and 2, the position where the paper is stored in the paper cassette 2 is arranged on the same side (the right side in the drawing) as the position where the paper is stored in the paper cassette 1 with reference to the paper transport mechanism 3. Therefore, the installation space of the device can be reduced as compared with the case where the device is arranged on the opposite side. Further, with this configuration, since the sheet conveying system such as the sheet conveying mechanism 3 is centrally provided on the cassette drawer side of the apparatus, the sheet conveying of the single-cut medium fed from the sheet cassettes 1 and 2 is performed. The operator can perform the processing for the paper jam generated in the system from the cassette drawer side.

The conveyance path of the sheet fed from each of the sheet cassettes 1 and 2 is as follows. The sheets fed from the sheet cassette 1 to the discharge section 34 are fed by the feed rollers 43, 45.
It is carried to the transfer position (c) by a carrying means such as. Further, the paper fed from the paper cassette 2 is guided to the paper conveyance mechanism 3 and conveyed to the discharge unit 34, and follows the same route as described above to the transfer position (C) which is the image forming position in the image forming apparatus. Be transported.

If the paper cassette 2 has the same construction as the paper cassette 1, the same action and effect can be obtained even if the paper cassettes 1 and 2 are mounted upside down.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure of an electrophotographic recording apparatus to which the sheet supply apparatus and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention are applied. In the figure, 21 is an apparatus main body and 22 and 23 are sheet cassettes.

In the main body 21 of the apparatus, there is a well-known electrophotographic type structural unit provided with a photosensitive drum 24, a front electric device 25, an exposure device 26, a developing device 27, a transfer device 28, a fixing device 29, a cleaner 30 and the like. It is provided. Paper cassette 22, 23
Are removably attached to the top and bottom of the attachment portion 21a below the device body 21. The paper cassette 22 guides the paper fed from the lower paper cassette 23 toward the discharge portion 34 at the front portion of a known paper cassette including a bottom plate 32 biased by a spring 31, a separation claw 33, and the like. The paper transport mechanism 35 is provided.

The sheet conveying mechanism 35 is shown to be composed of a pair of guide plates 36a and 36b in this example, and a roller 37 is provided at the exit portion thereof. In addition,
In this example, the paper cassette 23 has the same structure as the paper cassette 22 and is compatible. Each of these paper cassettes 22 and 23 is mounted in the mounting portion 21a by pushing in the arrow direction from the paper feeding side (left side in the drawing) as illustrated for the paper cassette 22 in FIG.

If the paper delivered from the paper cassette 23 becomes a jam in the paper transport mechanism 35, the paper cassette 22 is moved to the mounting portion 21 as in the paper supply operation.
After the operation of pulling out from a, the jammed paper is removed. The mounting from this direction has not been possible when the sheet transport mechanism is provided on the apparatus body side in the related art, but is possible when the sheet transport mechanism is provided on the sheet cassette side.

In the cassette mounting completed state, as shown in FIG. 2, the guide plates 36a and 36b of each cassette constituting the paper transport mechanism 35 are located on the same line. Further, when the paper cassettes 22 and 23 are completely attached, the cassette housing surfaces 22 a and 22 b on the paper feeding side of the paper cassettes 22 and 23 form the outer wall of the apparatus main body 21.
As a result, the installation space is further saved.

Next, a recording procedure of the recording apparatus using the electrophotographic system will be described with supplementary structure. When using the paper cassette 22, the paper cassette 22
Corresponding to the pick roller 381 provided on the apparatus main body side
Is rotated once clockwise in FIG. FIG. 4 is a front view showing the drive system of the pick roller. 382 is a pick roller corresponding to the paper cassette 23, 52 is an operation surface of the apparatus, and 53 and 54 are openings for inserting the paper cassettes 22 and 23. The pulley 401 is attached to the shaft 391 of the pick roller 381, and the pulley 4 is attached to the shaft 392 of the pick roller 382.
02 are loosely fitted to each other, and a belt 41 driven by a drive source is wound around the pulleys 401 and 402.

When rotating the pick roller 381,
The clutch 421 is operated to cause the belt 41 to travel a predetermined amount. As a result, the rotation of the pulley 401 causes the rotation of the shaft 391.
And the pick roller 381 is rotated. In this case, the clutch 422 is not activated. Pick roller 38
When 1 rotates, the uppermost sheet of the sheets stored in the sheet cassette 22 goes over the separation claw 33 and is sent to the discharge section 34, and is brought into contact with the roller 37 on the cassette side. The rollers 43 convey the sheet through a sheet passage 44. After that, the sheet is continuously conveyed by the feed roller 45 and reaches the transfer position (C).

On the other hand, a toner image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 24 rotating counterclockwise in FIG. 2 by a well-known procedure (pre-charging, latent image formation, development), and this toner image is transferred to the transfer position. In (c), the image is transferred by the transfer device 28 to the sheet conveyed as described above in synchronization with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 24. After that, the paper is further advanced, and the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 29, and the paper on which the fixing is completed is discharged by the feed rollers 46, 47 and 48 and discharged into the stacker 50 by the discharge roller 49.

When the paper cassette 23 is used, the clutch 4
The clutch 422 is operated without operating 21. As a result, the pick roller 382 rotates once and the paper is fed out. The fed-out sheet is conveyed by the feed roller 51 on the apparatus main body side, passes between the guide plates 36a and 36b of the sheet cassette 22, and reaches the discharge section 34. After that, recording is performed following the same process as described above.

In the above description, the two paper cassettes 22,
Although the example in which 23 is mounted vertically is used, the same paper cassette can be further mounted below the paper cassette 23 for use. In this case, the paper fed from the lower paper cassette passes through the space between the guide plates 36a and 36b of the paper cassette 23 and between the space between the guide plates 36a and 36b of the paper cassette 22 and is discharged to the discharge unit 34. .

The present invention also relates to the lower paper cassette 23.
Instead of the above, the present invention can be applied to the case where other sheet feeding means is provided. Further, according to the present invention, instead of providing the paper cassette 22 below the apparatus body 21, the paper cassette 21
Is also applicable to the case where the sheet is provided on the other side of the apparatus main body 21, and the sheet cassette 23 or other sheet feeding means is provided subsequently.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no restriction on the attachment / detachment direction of the cassette, and the cassette does not undesirably lengthen the apparatus as a whole. Also,
A system for transporting the medium from the cassette is centrally provided on the cassette drawer side of the device, and on the cassette drawer side,
Usually, the device is installed so that a space is provided for pulling out the cassette to supply the medium, and so on, in order to process the jam generated in the medium transport system,
It is not necessary to separately arrange the device in consideration of the space for jam processing, or to move the device to perform jam processing, so it is necessary to include the space for medium supply and jam processing. You can save the installation space of the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure of an electrophotographic recording apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of how to attach / detach a paper cassette of the recording apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the main structure of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the structure of a conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the structure of another conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 22, 23 ... Paper cassette 3, 35 ... Paper transport mechanism 21 ... Device body 34 ... Ejection section 36a, 36b ... Guide plate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A processing section for processing a medium, a cassette for storing the medium, a cassette mounting section for mounting the cassette, and a medium for feeding out the medium stored in the cassette mounted in the cassette mounting section. The cassette is configured to be loaded from the feeding side of the medium to the cassette mounting unit, and the feeding unit and the feeding unit that conveys the medium fed by the feeding unit to the processing unit. And a medium conveying through-passage for conveying a medium conveyed from the side opposite to the processing section as viewed from the cassette toward the conveying means, on the feeding side of the medium. Characteristic media processing device. 2. The medium processing apparatus is a medium processing apparatus used in combination with a medium carrying apparatus having a carrying means for carrying the medium, wherein the through path of the cassette transfers the medium to the carrying means. The medium processing device according to claim 1, wherein the medium processing device is configured so as to be conveyed toward.