JPH1192012A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording paper discharged from a recording paper discharge port on a tray provided below the recording paper discharge port and inclined obliquely downward toward the inside of the apparatus main body. Provided is an image forming apparatus that can be integrated with a simple configuration, without hindering space saving, and with a good guide of a recording sheet to the end of a tray, with leading edges aligned. SOLUTION: An air flow for guiding a recording sheet toward the back of a tray is formed. More specifically, an air blowing means for blowing air toward the tray at the entrance side of the tray is provided, and the wind from the air blowing means is generated by lifting the recording paper partially guided onto the tray to freely fall. The flow of each wind is formed so that a part of the recording paper is smoothly fed into the back of the tray so as to change the recording paper, thereby enabling a smooth accumulation in which the leading ends of the recording paper are aligned.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a plotter, etc., and more particularly, to an apparatus in which recording paper discharged from a recording paper discharge port is provided below the recording paper discharge port. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus configured to be stacked on a tray that is arranged obliquely downward toward the inside of a main body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known an image forming apparatus in which an image forming section and a recording paper discharge port are arranged at an upper portion of a main body, and a paper feeding section and a tray are arranged at a lower portion of the main body. In such a configuration, the recording paper such as the roll paper loaded in the paper feeding unit at the lower part of the main body is appropriately unwound and cut based on a signal from the controller, and then conveyed to the image forming unit at the upper part of the main body. . The toner image is transferred onto the recording paper by the image forming unit, and the recording paper bearing the toner image is then sent to a fixing device where the toner image is fixed, and then discharged out of the apparatus through the recording paper discharge port at the top of the main body. Is done.

Generally, recording paper discharged from a recording paper discharge port is accumulated on a tray provided outside the apparatus main body. Usually, the tray is provided so as to protrude outward with respect to the apparatus main body, and therefore, when the apparatus main body is installed, an extra space for providing the tray is required.

[0004] In order to solve such a space problem, a tray is provided not above the apparatus in the lateral direction but above the apparatus main body, as is particularly popular for SOHO.
Alternatively, there has been proposed a device having a compact design which is provided below the inside of the device and saves an installation space for a tray.

[0005] In the present applicant, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 6-1.
No. 13823 (JP-A-7-300263),
We have proposed a compact image forming apparatus in which the lower part of the main body is obliquely divided into a substantially triangular shape, a roll paper feeding unit is arranged on one side, and a recording paper tray is arranged on the other. In this configuration, the tray is arranged obliquely downward toward the inside of the main body at a position below the main body, and the recording paper discharged from the recording paper discharge port is inverted on the tray by weight so as to be inverted. Since the guide is provided, the space for the tray can be reduced as much as possible. In particular, the space can be effectively saved in an apparatus that handles large-size recording paper such as A1 and A0 sizes.

[0006]

However, in such a configuration, if the recording paper used does not have a proper "strain" strength, the paper used is particularly A1, A0.
In the case of large-sized paper such as the size, the front end of the recording paper discharged from the recording paper discharge port is stacked without being guided to the position of the stopper located at the end (lower end) of the tray due to the weight or the like. The leading edge of the recording paper is stacked on the tray in a disturbed form without being aligned.
The leading edge of the next sheet of recording paper sticks to the surface of the previously stacked recording paper, causing it to shift obliquely, or to form a wavy up and down due to the dowels, resulting in turbulent accumulation or severe paper discharge. There was a risk that it could cause clogging. In particular, the disturbance of accumulation is likely to occur when several types of papers of different sizes are continuously accumulated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has a simple structure which does not impede space saving and guides a recording sheet well to the end of a tray. Provided is an image forming apparatus capable of being aligned and integrated.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a recording paper ejected from a recording paper discharge port, which is provided below the recording paper discharge port and faces inward of the apparatus main body. In an image forming apparatus which is stacked on a tray arranged obliquely downward, an air flow for guiding recording paper toward the inside of the tray is formed.

Further, according to the present invention, the recording paper discharged from the recording paper discharge port is provided on a tray provided below the recording paper discharge port and arranged obliquely downward toward the inside of the apparatus main body. In the image forming apparatus to be integrated, a blowing unit that blows air toward the tray at the entrance side of the tray, and a wind from the blowing unit is used to lift recording paper partially guided on the tray. A guide means for forming a flow of air so that the section guides the recording paper to the back of the tray, and in particular, the guide means is provided so as to surround an air outlet of the blower means. The cover has a first opening toward the tray side at a position different from the air outlet of the air blowing means, and a second opening toward the back side of the tray. ing.

[0010]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of an image forming apparatus such as a printer according to the present invention. As shown, an image forming section 2 for forming a toner image is disposed on an upper part of the apparatus main body 1 which is functionally divided into upper and lower parts.
The lower side of the is formed a space divided into a substantially triangular shape,
In one of the spaces (front side space), a roll paper feed unit 3 is disposed, and in the other space (rear side space) 4 whose rear side is open, the recording paper is discharged from a recording paper discharge port described later. A tray 5 for stacking recording paper is arranged so as to be inclined downward toward the inside of the apparatus main body.

A fan for blowing air from the roll paper feed unit 3 to the tray 5 is provided on the inclined wall 6 which obliquely partitions the space containing the roll paper feed unit 3 and the space 4 on the tray 5 side. A blower 7 is provided. The blower 7 filters ozone generated from a corona discharger or the like of the image forming section 2 or hot air generated from a heat fixing device, and then filters the tray 5.
It works to blow to the side. In the illustrated example, two air outlets 7a of the air blower 7 are provided at a relatively inlet side position of the tray 5 so as to be separated to the left and right in a direction perpendicular to the drawing.

The image forming section 2 includes a photosensitive drum 21 having a photosensitive member on the surface and rotating in the direction of arrow A. The surface of the photosensitive drum 21 is uniformly charged around the photosensitive drum 21 according to the rotation direction. A charging device 22, an optical device 23 for providing an optical image to the charged photosensitive drum 21, a developing device 24 for developing the latent image to form a toner image, and a toner image on a recording sheet fed from the paper feeding unit 3. A transfer corona discharger 25 for transferring, an AC separation corona discharger 26 for electrostatically neutralizing and separating recording paper from the photosensitive drum 21, and a cleaning device 27 for removing a developer remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 21 after transfer. An eraser lamp 28 for uniformly eliminating the surface potential of the surface of the photosensitive drum 21 is provided so as to operate in order. The transferred toner image is sent to a fixing device 29, where it is fixed to form a permanent visible image.

After fixing, the recording paper is discharged by a pair of discharge rollers 8 and 8 from a recording paper discharge port 9 formed on the rear side of the upper portion of the main body to the outside of the apparatus. As described above, the tray 5 is disposed in the rear side space 4 at the lower part of the main body so as to be inclined downward toward the inside of the main body, and the recording paper discharged from the recording paper discharge port 9 is moved downward by its own weight. The leading end is guided toward the receiving portion 51 of the tray 5. As shown in the drawing, the receiving portion 51 of the tray 5 extends outwardly with respect to the main body from the position of the discharge port 9 so as to reliably receive the falling recording paper, and is received by the receiving portion 51. The recording paper thus collected is guided toward the inner side of the tray 5, that is, toward the lower end, and is accumulated in such a manner that the recording paper is reversed along with the inclination of the tray 5. The terminal end of the tray 5 extends substantially parallel to the lower wall of the apparatus main body toward the front side of the apparatus main body.

Reference numeral 52 denotes a stopper located at the end of the tray. The recording paper guided on the tray is fed in until the leading end of the recording paper comes into contact with the stopper, so that the leading end of the recording paper is aligned by the stopper 52. It is integrated in. Under normal conditions, the recording paper is guided smoothly to the back of the tray (stopper position) without lifting or waving of the recording paper. For example, the recording paper discharged in the next order may be caught or run up due to the lifting, and the orderly accumulation may be hindered.

Therefore, according to the present invention, one or a plurality of rod-shaped guides 10 are provided above the tray 5 so as to be substantially parallel to the upper surface of the tray 5 with a space between the guides and the upper surface of the tray 5. It is provided in such a manner. In the illustrated example, two rod-shaped guides 10 are provided side by side at an interval in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface. The upper end of each rod-shaped guide 10 is fixed to the upper end of the inclined wall 6 by a screw or the like at a position below the discharge port 9 and expands in the direction of gravity so as to swell slightly outward, and then bends toward the apparatus body. And swell slightly downward toward the lower end of tray 5
It extends almost in parallel with the upper surface of. Such a rod-shaped guide 1
0 indicates that the recording paper guided on the tray is unavoidably lifted or undulating on the tray and is pressed down to prevent the recording paper. Thus, the rod-shaped guide 10
Works so as to guide the recording paper discharged from the discharge port 9 to the stopper position at the lower end of the tray without excessive lifting or the like.

At this time, the air blow from the blower 7 provided on the inclined wall 6 assists the guide of the recording paper to the inside of the tray (stopper position at the end of the tray). As shown in the drawing, a cover (guide means) 30 that forms a box-shaped space that is open on the lower side (the inner side of the tray 5) so as to surround the blower opening 7a of the blower 7 as illustrated.
Is provided. The cover 30 is provided on the blower 7 of the blower 7.
A plurality of relatively small openings 32 are provided at positions different from a and toward the front near the entrance of the tray 5 (in this example, two openings are provided).

The wind passing through the opening 32 flows along the upper surface of the recording paper as the recording paper falls, and a pressure difference starts to occur between the upper and lower surfaces of the recording paper, and lift (force for lifting the recording paper). Occurs. Accordingly, the recording paper falls along the rod-shaped guide 10 in such a manner as to be drawn toward the upper surface (cover 30) from the leading end, and the landing on the tray 5 is not the leading end "edge" but the leading end "surface". The operation is performed so as to prevent the recording paper from being caught on the trailing end of another stacked recording paper as seen in the related art. Opening 33
The wind in the feeding direction to the back of the tray passing through the tray smoothly guides the leading end of the recording paper between the tray 5 and the rod-shaped guide 10 and passes the leading end to the back side of the tray 5. And act to accumulate.

The leading end portion 53 of the tray 5 having the stopper 52 is provided so as to be able to be pulled out from the front side of the apparatus main body to the front side. By pulling out this, the recording paper accumulated on the tray 5 can be pulled out on the front side of the apparatus main body. Can be taken from Reference numeral 54 denotes a press for holding the recording paper sent to the end of the tray 5 so as not to float, and a weight 57 is provided at the tip of an arm 54 pivotally provided about a pivot 55. The recording paper is pressed against the tray surface by the weight of the weight 57.

[0019]

As described above, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, a tray inclined toward the apparatus main body is provided in the space on the back side of the apparatus main body, and the tray is provided in two different directions from the upper surface side of the tray. By applying the wind, the recording paper can be favorably guided and accumulated on the tray.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus main body 2 Image formation part 3 Paper supply part 5 Tray 6 Sloping wall 7 Blower 30 Cover

Claims (3)

[Claims] An image forming apparatus for stacking recording paper discharged from a recording paper discharge port on a tray provided below the recording paper discharge port and inclined obliquely downward toward the inside of the apparatus body. An image forming apparatus, wherein an air flow for guiding recording paper toward the inside of the tray is formed. 2. An image forming apparatus for collecting recording paper discharged from a recording paper discharge port on a tray provided below the recording paper discharge port and inclined obliquely downward toward the inside of the apparatus body. In the apparatus, blowing means for blowing toward the tray side at the entrance side of the tray, and a part of the tray so that wind from the blowing means partially lifts the recording paper guided to the tray. Like guiding the recording paper to the back,
An image forming apparatus comprising a guide unit for forming a flow of wind. 3. The guide means comprises a box-shaped cover provided so as to surround an air outlet of the air blowing means, and the cover faces the tray at a position different from the air outlet of the air blowing means. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a first opening that opens to the outside of the tray and a second opening that goes toward the back of the tray.