JP3416183B2 - Paper alignment device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is provided in an image forming apparatus .
Attached to the image forming apparatus, or the image
It is installed separately from the forming device and collects the paper on which images are formed.
Sheet processing apparatus .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a sheet post-processing device for post-processing a sheet discharged from an image forming apparatus, for example, a sheet post-processing apparatus having an oblique portion between the sheet receiving section and the sheet is discharged onto a bin. is there. In this paper post-processing device, after the paper is received by the receiving portion and is conveyed, the paper is aligned along the predetermined reference position in the oblique portion, and then the paper is ejected onto the bin in the aligned position. It is like this. That is, even if the reference position at the time of image formation is different, the same aligning operation is performed in the oblique portion to perform the sheet alignment with respect to the predetermined reference position of the sheet alignment.

Further, a fence portion with which the end faces of the sheets of paper stored in the bin come into contact, and a fence portion which is provided so as to penetrate through the bins and comes into contact with the sheets of paper stored in these bins and moves toward the fence portion. A paper post-processing device having a jogger bar is also commonly used.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned prior art, the former one having the oblique portion between the sheet receiving portion and the sheet being discharged onto the bin has a complicated structure. Therefore, there is a problem that a large space is required. On the other hand, with the latter one that has a fence part and a jogger bar, the configuration is relatively simple, but the operation of the jogger bar needs to be aligned with the center reference paper that is aligned with the center as the reference position, so the end face is used as a reference. In the case of end face reference sheets aligned as, there is a useless portion in the operation of the jogger rod, and thus it is difficult to quickly post-process the sheets discharged from the high speed image forming apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the actual situation in the prior art as described above, and its object is to provide a simple structure.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet post-processing device that can efficiently align sheets regardless of whether they are center reference sheets or end face reference sheets.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To achieve this object, the present invention is a paper storage device for storing conveyed paper.
Steps and one end surface of the paper stored in the paper storage means
And the reference member with which the sheet abuts
Contact the other end surface of the paper and
The paper accommodating hand, which comprises a movable member for moving the paper.
In use <br/> paper alignment device that includes a sheet aligning means align the sheets contained in the stage, it will be conveyed to the sheet storing means
Paper is transported by the end face or by the center.
Depending on the information whether it is sent, the standby position of the movable member
It is characterized by changing.

In this case, the standby position is not transported.
It is better to make it different depending on the size of the paper to be used .

[0008]

The present invention, as described above, is transported to the paper storage means.
The incoming paper is transported with the end face as the standard, or
Waiting for the movable member according to the information whether it is transported
Since the position is changed, it is possible to efficiently align the sheets regardless of whether the sheet is the center reference sheet or the end face reference sheet. At that time, the standby position is set to support the paper being conveyed.
Try to make it different depending on the ise.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the sheet post-processing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an essential part of an embodiment of the sheet post-processing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the overall structure of the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is the sheet of FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the overall structure of the post-processing apparatus, FIG. 4 is a side view showing a jogger rod portion provided in the paper post-processing apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an end surface on a bin provided in the paper post-processing apparatus of FIG. FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a state in which the standard reference sheet is discharged onto the bin, and FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a state in which the central reference sheet is discharged onto the bin provided in the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

In the sheet post-processing apparatus of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the sheet P discharged from the copying machine as the image forming apparatus.
The entrance guide plates 101 and 102 are provided at the receiving entrance A of the paper, and the switching claws 103 are provided following the entrance guide plates 101 and 102 to convey the paper P. The path above the switching claw 103 has an inlet guide plate 101,
Guide plates 110, 114, transport roller 108, driven roller 1
09, a discharge roller 111, a driven roller 115, and a proof tray 116 are provided, and the path below the switching claw 103 is a lower transfer section guide plate 205 and a lower transfer section. Driven guide plate 217, lower conveyance section guide plate 308, driven guide plates 309, 310,
The lower transport unit 200 that continues through the lower transport unit receiving roller 201, the lower transport roller 202, the lower transport unit discharge roller 203, the driven rollers 214, 215, 216, the transport rollers 301, 302, and the driven rollers 305, 306 to the deflecting unit B path. Has become.

Deflection claws 312 and deflection portion discharge rollers 304 are provided at positions corresponding to the respective bins 350 on the deflection portion B path.
Are provided respectively, and the deflection portion discharge rollers 304 are provided.
The driven roller 307 is pressed against the copy vertical feed path. The transport roller 108 and the discharge roller 111 are driven by a proof motor 117, and the lower transport unit receiving roller 2
01, the lower conveyance roller 202, the lower conveyance portion ejection roller 203, the conveyance rollers 301 and 302, and the deflection portion ejection roller 304 are driven by the drive motor 313.

As shown in FIG. 3, a stapler 701 as post-processing means is provided on the side of the group of bins 350 described above.
A stapler unit (binding unit) 700 including a chucking unit 615 that moves the paper P to the stapler 701 and an up-and-down moving mechanism that moves the stapler 701 and the chucking unit 615 to each bin 350 is arranged. Other known post-processing means include punches and other known means.

Further, a jogger rod 502, which will be described later, which forms an aligning means for aligning the sheets P before stapling (binding) is provided on the side of the group of the bins 350 on the opposite side where the stapler device 700 is arranged, and this jogger. A rocking device 500 for moving the rod 502 is arranged.

The sorter of this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
It is a 20-bin sorter, and bin sensors 321 and 323.
And paper discharge sensors 322 and 324 are provided above and below, respectively. These sensors 321, 323, 322, 3
Reference numeral 24 is a transmissive optical detection sensor including an LED and a phototransistor. The paper discharge sensors 322 and 324 perform the operation of detecting whether the paper P is discharged, and the bin sensors 321 and 323 perform the operation of determining whether or not the paper P is present in the bin 350. .

The sheet P discharged from the main body of the copying machine (not shown) is guided by the guide plates 101 and 102 and the switching claw 103.
Be transported to. The switching claw 103 feeds the sheet P to the lower transport section 200 provided below the upper transport section 100 when a solenoid (not shown) is turned off, and sends the sheet P to the upper transport section 100 when the solenoid is turned on. Operate.

The switching pawl 103 is actuated when the solenoid is turned on, and the sheet P guided in the upper transport section 100 is proof trayed by a transport device constituted by a combination of transport rollers 108 and driven rollers 109. It is discharged to 116. Next, in the bin 350 use mode such as sorting or stacking, the lower transfer section receiving roller 2 guided by the switching claw 103 is provided.
Sent to 01. Paper P discharged from the copier body
2 passes through the lower conveyance section 200 and is guided by the lower conveyance guide plate 308 and the driven guide plates 309 and 310 in FIG. 2, and the conveyance rollers 301 and 302 and the driven rollers 305 and
It is sent to the deflection unit B at 306. The deflecting section B includes a deflecting section discharge roller 304, a driven roller 307, a driven guide plate 311, and a deflecting claw 312.
Is operable by a solenoid, and the deflecting claws 312 are opened and closed by the solenoid according to the designated mode condition to guide the sheets P to the bins 350 and stack them. As shown in FIG. 1, a fence portion 460 is erected on one end surface of the above-described bin 350, and a bottle rear end is provided at a rear end portion that is orthogonal to the one end surface on which the fence portion 460 is provided. A rising portion 508 is provided upright. Further, an elongated hole portion 511 is provided at a portion opposite to the one end surface on which the fence portion 460 is provided. The long hole portions 511 are arranged in parallel along the bottle rear end rising portion 508 and open toward the fence portion 460 for a predetermined length.

Further, the long hole portion 5 provided in each bin 350
A jogger rod 502 is provided so as to penetrate through the inside of
By contacting one end surface of the paper P stored in the bin 350, the paper P can be moved toward the fence portion 460.

Further, the upper end and the lower end of the jogger rod 502 are, as shown in FIGS.
04a, 504b is in the recess,
A timing belt 507 extending in the same direction as the major axis direction of the elongated hole portion 511 in the upper region and the lower region of the 50.
a and 507b are arranged respectively. The convex portions of the holders 504a and 504b are inserted and fixed in the concave portions of the timing belts 507a and 507b. Pulleys 509, 510, 512 and 51 around which the timing belts 507a and 507b are respectively hung.
Among the three pulleys, pulleys 509 and 512 are fixed to both ends of a drive shaft 514 which is erected vertically. The lower timing belt 507b is wound around a pulley 513 provided on the output shaft of the drive motor 515.

A control signal corresponding to a paper size signal (for example, a predetermined pulse signal) is input from a control circuit (not shown) to the drive motor 515 according to the size of the paper P, so that the drive motor 515 operates for a predetermined amount. Then, the jogger rod 502 moves to a predetermined position. This allows the drive motor 5 for a certain paper size.
The driving of 15 causes the jogger rod 502 to stand by at one end surface of the paper P at a predetermined distance, for example, 10 mm. The standby position of the jogger rod 502 is changed according to a reference position signal output from the copying machine main body that distinguishes which one of the end surface and the center of the paper P is used as the reference position. The paper P discharged onto the bin 350 drops to the bin trailing edge rising portion 508, and a predetermined pulse signal is input to the drive motor 515 to drive the jogger rod 502 toward the fence portion 460. The sheet P has a predetermined amount of bite from the end surface, for example, 5 mm. Incidentally, when the jogger rod 502 returns the initial position after driving the paper P,
There are those that temporarily stop at the position of the size width of the paper P and then return to the initial position, and those that control the speed at which the paper P returns.
It prevents it from leaving 60 again. In this embodiment, the signal receiving means and the jogger control means are composed of a control circuit (not shown) including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, etc., and their operations are programmed in advance.

The bundle of sheets P accumulated on the bin 350 is driven by the jogger rod 502 to move the fence 46.
As a result, the one end surface of the bundle of sheets P is aligned. The rear end of the paper P is abutted against the rear end rising portion 508 of the bin which is orthogonal to the fence part 460 for alignment on the other end face part, and the inclination of the bin 350 is used to drop the paper P as one means for aligning. The method is adopted.

The bundle of sheets P which has been aligned as described above is bound by the stapler device 700, and
It is taken out downward in FIG. Since there is no obstacle to the taking out in this taking-out direction, the taking-out operation of the sheet P is easily performed. In such an embodiment, the jogger processing is performed according to the processing procedure shown in FIG. That is, first, as step S1, the paper P
A reference position signal for distinguishing which one of the end face and the center of the reference position is used as a reference position is received by a signal receiving means (not shown), and the standby position of the jogger rod 502 is changed according to the reference position signal. In the case of paper, the jogger bar 5 is moved to a position different from the case of the paper of the central reference in step S2.
02 waits for jogger processing. At this time, as shown in FIG.
When the paper P is ejected by waiting at the position of the distance c from 0, the jogger rod 50 reaches the distance a from the fence portion 460.
2 moves to move the end surface of the paper P to the fence portion 46.
After hitting 0, the distance c from the fence part 460 is again
It returns to the position of and waits. On the other hand, in the case of the paper of the center reference, as shown in FIG. 6, when the paper P is ejected as the procedure S3, it is waited at the position of the distance b from the fence unit 460, and the distance a from the fence unit 460 is discharged.
The jogger rod 502 moves until the end surface of the sheet P hits the fence section 460, and then returns to the position of the distance b from the fence section 460 and waits. Similarly, the position of the jogger rod 502 is changed according to the paper size signal.

In the embodiment constructed as described above, as shown in FIG. 5, in the case of the end face reference paper, the jogger rod 5 is used.
Since there is no useless part in the operation of 02 (that is, the reciprocating movement between the distances b and c from the fence portion 460), the sheets P can be efficiently aligned regardless of the center reference or the end face reference. Also, from the receiving portion for the paper P, the bin 35
Since the inclined portion is not provided until the sheet is discharged above 0, the simple configuration is sufficient. Furthermore, in the case of end face reference,
Since the distance between the standby position and the alignment position becomes short, faster processing, that is, faster CPM becomes possible.

[0024]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, there is no wasteful part in the operation of the movable member in the case of the end face reference sheet, and the efficiency is improved regardless of whether the center reference sheet or the end face reference sheet. You can arrange the paper well.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of an embodiment of a sheet post-processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing the overall configuration of the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the overall configuration of the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a portion of a jogger bar provided in the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a state in which a sheet with the end face as a reference is discharged onto a bin provided in the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

6 is a plan view showing a state in which a central reference sheet is discharged onto a bin provided in the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the sheet post-processing apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

350 bottles 460 fence section 500 swing device 511 slot 515 drive motor 520 Jogger Stick 700 stapling device (stapling means) P paper

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 39/11 B65H 31/38 G03G 15/00 518 G03G 15/00 530

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A paper storage for storing a paper being conveyed.
Means and one end of the paper stored in the paper storage means
The reference member with which the surface abuts is accommodated in the paper accommodation means.
Abutting the other edge of the paper and touching it in the direction of the reference member.
The paper accommodating member, which comprises a movable member for moving the paper.
In <br/> sheet aligning apparatus and a sheet aligning means align the sheets contained in the unit, transportable by the paper end face reference conveyed to said sheet storing means
Responsive to information sent or sent on a central basis
Then , the sheet aligning device is characterized in that the standby position of the movable member is changed . 2. The standby position according to claim 1.
May vary depending on the size of the paper being conveyed.
Paper alignment device characterized by