JP3285219B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

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 using cut paper as recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recording paper continuously discharged from an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine, a facsimile, a laser printer or the like which uses cut paper as a recording paper is often sorted into a plurality of sheets. As a means for sorting sheets continuously discharged from the image forming apparatus into a plurality of groups, there is one means for sorting each group after the rear end of the sheet held and discharged by the discharge roller pair is separated from the discharge roller pair. Each time a sheet is fed, the paper discharge roller pair holding the paper is moved in the transverse direction to the transport direction and discharged to the paper discharge tray, and immediately after that, the paper discharge roller pair is returned to the original position. Repeat or move the output tray to the left or right in the paper discharge direction for each group (this is called a doggy tail because of the behavior of a puppy shaking its tail). A sorting method of stacking at positions shifted left and right is well known. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a state in which the sheets are stacked on the sheet discharge tray by being alternately shifted for each group by these sorting methods and sorted. However, this sorting method has the following disadvantages.

(1) If the sheet of the group shown by b in FIG. 1 is pulled out, the positions of the sheets of the group a and the group c cannot be distinguished because they are the same.

(2) Asperities are formed on both sides by sorting, so that it is difficult to carry.

(3) If the number of sheets in a group to be sorted is small, the sheet is broken and damaged during carrying.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a sorting method which is capable of solving the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional sorting method for sheets continuously discharged from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer. It is an object to provide an image forming apparatus.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image forming apparatus of the present invention has an edge portion of a recording sheet discharged from an image forming section of an image forming apparatus using a cut sheet as a recording sheet. A tag forming section for forming a tag by projecting a part of the recording paper from an edge.

[0008]

Since the image forming apparatus of the present invention is constructed as described above, a tag is formed at the edge of the first recording paper of the group of recording papers to be sorted by the tag preparation section and discharged. By directly discharging to the paper output unit without creating tags,
The recording papers of each group are stacked at the same position and are clearly separated by tags. Since the sorting of each group to be sorted is performed by the tag, even if one group in the middle of sorting is extracted, the upper and lower groups can be easily distinguished by the tag. In addition, since the groups are stacked at the same position, transport is easy even when the groups are stacked, and even if the number of sheets in a group is small, the sheet is not bent and damaged.

The detailed configuration of the above-described tag creating section, other problems of the present invention, and means for solving the problems will be clarified by the description of the embodiments described below in detail with reference to the drawings. There will be.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Prior to describing the tag producing apparatus of the present invention, an example of the configuration of a conventional laser printer will be described with reference to FIG.

An image is written on the photosensitive drum 2 by the laser writing optical device 1 and the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member 2 is developed by the developing device 3 to form a toner image. The toner image is transferred to the recording paper fed from the paper feed cassette 4 to the photoreceptor 2 via the registration roller 5 by the action of the transfer charger 6, and the recording paper on which the toner image has been transferred is fixed by a fixing device. 7 and is fixed.

The recording paper discharged from the fixing device 7 is selected in the conveyance direction by a pair of branch claws 8 capable of switching the conveyance direction in the directions indicated by arrows A, B, and C, and is used for single-sided recording and double-sided recording. Are conveyed in the direction of A or B, and those for which double-sided recording has been completed on one side are indicated by arrows C.
, The sheet is turned over by a pair of reversing rollers 9 and a reversing unit 10, re-fed to a transfer unit via a pair of registration rollers 5, transferred and fixed on the back surface, and conveyed in the direction of A or B, respectively. The paper is discharged to the paper discharge trays 11 and 12 or the foldable paper discharge tray 13 outside the machine by the paper discharge roller pair 17, 17 'or 17 ".

The tag producing apparatus according to the present invention is provided in a paper discharging unit D surrounded by a dashed line frame in FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a paper discharge unit unit on which a tag creation unit 15 is mounted.

A pair of conveying rollers 19 and a branch claw 18 are provided at a branch between the sheet conveying path leading to the sheet discharging roller pair 17 and the sheet conveying path reaching the sheet discharging roller pair 17 '. A transport roller pair 19 ′ and a branch claw 22 are provided at a branch portion between the transport path leading to the tag forming apparatus and the paper transport path leading to the tag forming apparatus.

The tag making device 15 is composed of a pair of cylindrical rollers 23 provided on a conveyance path branched to the tag making device by a branching claw 22 and a punch 24 and a die 25 facing each other across the paper path. Consisting of A solenoid 26 is provided for hitting the punch 24 toward the die 25.

The leading end of the sheet conveyed toward the tag making device 15 by the branching pawl 22 is positioned at the rear end of the punch portion (a in FIG. 1).
A sensor 30 is provided on the upstream side of the paper transport path (the lowermost part in FIG. 1) to stop the transport of the paper when it comes to a position 5 to 10 mm from the position shown in FIG.

When the sensor 30 detects the trailing end of the sheet and the sheet stops at this position, the solenoid 26 sucks and the sheet is cut by the punch 24. The shape of the punch 24 is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the lower surface and both side surfaces are in close contact with the lower surface and both side surfaces of the hole of the die 25, and the sheet can be cut by shearing. However, the thickness of one sheet of paper is provided between the upper surface of the punch and the upper surface of the hole of the die. Since the gap x larger than that is provided, the sheet is not sheared and enters the gap, and if the punch 24 is pulled out of the die 25, a "C" -shaped cut is formed in the sheet as shown in FIG. Tongue 4 with upper end connected to paper surrounded by
0 is formed.

After the punch is completed, a pair of transport rollers 19,
When the 19 'and the cylindrical roller 23 are reversed, the tongue piece 4
As shown in FIG. 4, the leading end of the cylindrical roller is hooked in the hole of the die and turned over, and when it is further reversed, it breaks along the line connected to the paper of the tongue-shaped portion as shown in FIG. The paper is reliably bent by passing through the pair 23, and the amount of difference between the amount of protrusion of the tongue and the distance between the line connecting the tongue and the paper edge protrudes outward from the paper edge, and the tag 41
Is formed.

As shown in FIG. 6, the position where the tag is formed can be changed to an arbitrary position in the lateral direction of the edge of the sheet.
As shown in FIG. 7, a punch support 27 carrying a solenoid 26 and a die 25 are screwed onto spiral feed shafts 28 and 29, respectively, and are synchronously driven by gears 32 and 33 by a single stepping motor 31. It can move by the same amount in the direction.

After the tag is created, the process returns until the trailing edge of the recording paper is detected by the sensor 30 shown in FIG.
The rotation direction of the recording paper 9 'is changed, and the punch 20 provided immediately upstream of the conveying roller pair 19 moves the recording paper 10' from the rear end of the recording paper.
When the recording paper has been conveyed to a position of 12 mm to the position where the round hole for file is punched, the solenoid 21 is sucked and the punch 20 is rotated to punch the recording paper. Is guided in the direction of the paper discharge roller 17 and is discharged to the paper discharge tray 11.

Of course, it is also possible to discharge the recording paper without punching a round hole at the rear end.

Using a round hole formed by the punch 20, a plurality of groups of papers with the tag 41 formed thereon at the highest position are discharged and stacked on a paper discharge tray or bound to a file. In order to prevent the two tags 41 and 41 'from partially overlapping as shown in FIG. 8, when the moving distance from the reference end position of the punch portion 15 is a width of the tag, a gap b between the tags In consideration of this, it is preferable to set n (a + b) in the memory (where n is a positive integer) and move the punch portion 15 based on this. In this way, when a plurality of paper groups are bound to a file by punch holes, a gap b is formed between the tags 41 having a width a, as shown in FIG.

The tag according to the present invention cannot be attached to the edge of a sheet after writing information, for example, a title name, a creation date, etc., in a state of a single tag like a commercially available tag. Some points are difficult to write. Since the tag according to the present invention is formed using a part of the recording paper recorded by the image forming apparatus, when forming an image on the recording paper, information to be written on the tag is recorded in advance at a position to be the tag. If this is done, the entry of information is completed at the time when the tag is formed, and the efficiency is improved.

In the apparatus of the present invention, as described above, the tag is formed by folding the tongue formed by the "U" -shaped notch at the line connected to the sheet and projecting from the edge of the sheet. The information written on the front side of the tag needs to be image-formed on the back side of the paper, and the information written on the back side of the tag needs to be formed on the front side of the paper. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining this. After the creation of the tag, as shown in FIG.
Is displayed and the creation date, for example, "1992,
When the date "2,24" is displayed, the characters "1992,2,24" are added to the part to be the back of the tag when the front image is formed, as shown in FIG. Then, a phrase "countermeasures against curling" is formed in a portion to be the front surface of the tag when the back surface image is formed. Then, when a tag is created, a desired description state can be obtained as shown in FIG. Therefore, in the state of binding to a file, as shown in FIG. 11, the titles of a plurality of tags can be seen at a glance when viewed from the front side of the file, and the creation date of each document can be viewed at a glance when viewed from the back side of the file. It is understood by.

When the present invention is applied to a shared printer in which a plurality of persons print using one printer,
Store this information in the printer so that the affiliation or name of the person who printed out appears on the tag created on the recording paper, and print it on the part that should be the tag on the first page of the printout. For example, it is possible to prevent the document from being identifiable at a glance and being given to another person. FIG. 12 shows an example. This example indicates that the creator of this document is “Mitsunori Sakamoto of the first design group”.

When the tag of the edge of the recording paper is used as a file index for a long time by the apparatus of the present invention, a cut is generated in the bent portion of the tongue shown in FIG. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, if the tag is reinforced with a commercially available adhesive transparent tape (cellophane tape) so that the tag slightly hangs on the paper from the front and back, tearing of the tag can be considerably prevented. In this case, if the width b of the tape 42 is larger than the width a of the tag 40 by 3 to 6 mm, the tag does not protrude from the tape, looks good, and is easy to work. If the tape is attached to only one side of the tag, the adhesive surface of the tape will be exposed at the hole where the tongue part serving as the tag was originally and the part protruding on both sides of the tag, so it is essential to attach the tape to both sides It is. Since the width of a commercially available adhesive tape is 24 mm, 20 mm, 18 mm, or the like, the dimensions of the punch may be set so that the width of the tag is 3 to 6 mm smaller than these widths. Further, as shown in FIG.
Is printed on paper at the time of image formation in advance, and the tape attaching operation becomes accurate and easy.

If a colored transparent or translucent pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is used as the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, as shown in FIG.
Tags can be color-coded red, yellow, blue, etc., so that documents can be identified, for example, by importance or by technical field.

However, since colored transparent or translucent tapes of various colors are not available everywhere, as shown in FIG. 17, a size suitable for being attached to a tag created by the apparatus of the present invention. It is preferable that a vendor of the apparatus of the present invention supply a plurality of the shapes 44 which are attached to a sheet 45 which can be easily peeled. In the example of FIG. 17, the red one is classified as “important”, the yellow one is classified as “caution”, and the blue one is classified as “reference”.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, a tag can be formed at the edge of a recording sheet. Therefore, by forming a tag on the first page of a recording sheet to be sorted, the tag can be continuously formed. Even when the recording papers of a plurality of groups of documents are discharged onto a paper discharge tray and stacked, it is possible to sort by tags. As a result, even if one group in the middle of the sorted groups of recording papers is extracted, each group above and below can be clearly distinguished by the tag. Further, since the stacked sheet bundle has no unevenness on the left and right, it is easy to carry, and even if the number of sorted groups is small, the sheet does not break.

According to the second and third aspects of the present invention, the tag is formed by cutting a part of the recording paper in a U-shape, forming a tongue-shaped portion, and folding the tag to form a tongue. It can be easily created without using another mouthpiece.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the information to be written on the tag can be written at the time of forming the image on the recording paper, so that the trouble of manually writing on the tag can be saved.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the tag can be reinforced and the tag is prevented from being torn even when the tag is used as a file index for a long period of time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a paper discharge unit of an image forming apparatus in which a tag creation device according to the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the shapes of a punch and a die constituting a punch section of the tag making device.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a tongue formed by the punch.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are an explanatory view illustrating a step of inverting the tongue and a perspective view showing a sheet leading end in which the tongue is inverted.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are an explanatory view illustrating a process of forming a fold at a joint of an inverted tongue-like portion and a perspective view showing a paper leading end portion where a fold is formed and a tag is formed; .

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing creation positions of various tags.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a mechanism for changing a tag creation position.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a state where tags are overlapped when a plurality of documents are bound in a file.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a state where tags are prevented from overlapping when a plurality of groups of documents are bound in a file.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are explanatory diagrams showing both front and back surfaces of a tag when a tag is created and information after the tag is created when information to be written in the tag is printed at the time of image formation.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a state in which a document in which words are written on both sides of a tag is bound to a file.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing an example in which the name of a document creator is described in a tag for a sheet printed by a shared printer.

FIG. 13 is a plan view for explaining a point that a tag created by the device of the present invention is easily torn.

FIG. 14 is a plan view illustrating a method of attaching a transparent adhesive tape to both sides of the tag in order to prevent the tag from being easily torn.

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing a state where the position where the tape is to be attached is printed on paper in advance.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a file in which a plurality of groups of documents in which the tapes are color-coded to identify the importance and the like of the documents are bound;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view showing a sheet to which a colored transparent tape is attached for that purpose.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a drawback of a conventional sorting method of recording paper continuously discharged.

FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional printer capable of performing both-side printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 15 Tag Making Device 17, 17 'Discharge Roller Pair 18, 22, Branch Claw 19, 19' Transport Roller Pair 20 Punch (for File Binding Hole) 21 Solenoid 23 Cylindrical Roller Pair 24 Punch 25 Die 26 Solenoid 28, 29 Feed screw 30 Paper rear end sensor 40 Tongue piece 41, 41 'Tag 42 Transparent adhesive tape 43 Guideline for attaching transparent adhesive tape 44 Colored transparent adhesive tape

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-192972 (JP, A) JP-A-49-94416 (JP, A) JP-A 63-7490 (JP, U) JP-A 49-944 18619 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application 59-24364 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application 52-135235 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application Hei 3-19071 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 39/11 B65H 33/04 G03G 15/00

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An image forming apparatus using a cut sheet as a recording sheet forms a tag by forming a part of the recording sheet at an edge portion of the recording sheet discharged from an image forming section of the image forming apparatus so as to protrude from the edge. An image forming apparatus provided with an apparatus. 2. The above-described tag producing apparatus comprises: a punch and a die which form a U-shaped notch which forms a tongue-shaped portion connected to the paper at the edge side in the vicinity of the edge of the recording paper. The punch is formed with the edge of the paper to which the tag is to be formed first, and the distance from the paper edge of the line connected to the paper of the tongue formed by the punch is determined by the protrusion of the tongue. A transport roller pair that transports the tag to a position where the projecting length of the tag to be formed is subtracted from the length, and returns the paper from the punch after forming the tongue, and the tongue formed by the punch. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a bending unit configured to bend at the joint. 3. The folding means according to claim 1, wherein the tip of the tongue-shaped portion formed by the punch portion is hooked on the die hole by transporting the paper in the returning direction by the transport roller pair, and inverted.
3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the fold is formed by passing through a pair of cylindrical rollers pressed against each other over the entire length. 4. An image to be described on the front and back sides of a tag created by the tag creating apparatus is formed in a portion that becomes a tag when forming a back side image and when forming a front side image when forming a double-sided image of the paper. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image forming apparatus is formed. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the width of the tag is smaller than the width of a commercially available transparent adhesive tape by 3 to 6 mm.