JP3774533B2 - Sheet storage device and image processing device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sheet storage device that stores a sheet to be supplied to an image processing apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile apparatus, or a reading apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, various apparatuses such as an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet and a reading apparatus that reads an image formed on a document are used as office equipment. Normally, sheets supplied to an image processing apparatus are stored in a sheet storage device such as a paper feed cassette or a paper feed deck, and are sent out one by one by a paper feed roller or the like provided on the apparatus main body side for image processing. It is.
[0003]
In such a sheet storage device that is stored in the main body of the image processing apparatus, since the stored sheet is not visible from the outside, the remaining amount of the sheet is unknown. Therefore, there is a case where a remaining amount display device is provided in an exposed portion of the sheet storage device so that the remaining amount of the stored sheet can be recognized.
[0004]
As a conventional sheet storage device provided with this remaining amount display device, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-211380. Here, the remaining amount display device disclosed in this publication will be schematically described with reference to FIG.
[0005]
A support means 24 for stacking and supporting the sheets is rotatably provided in the frame 22 of the sheet storage device and is biased upward by a spring 28. A display device 20 having a curved arm 30 and an arched portion 32 is rotatably supported on the frame 22 by a shaft 34, and the curved arm 30 abuts on the lower surface of the support means 24, and the arched portion 32 is supported. Is arranged so as to be able to protrude to the outside of the frame body 22. The display device 20 is heavier on the arched portion 32 side than the curved arm 30 side, and the display device 20 is rotated by the curved arm 30 following the movement of the support means 24.
[0006]
With this configuration, when there are many sheets stacked on the support means 24 (for example, 250 sheets), the curved arm 30 of the display device 20 is pushed down by the support means 24 so that the arched portion 32 is positioned in the frame body 22. And is invisible. When the sheets are fed out and the number of stacked sheets is reduced, the display unit 20 is also rotated as the support means 24 is raised, and the arch-like portion 32 is lowered to a position where it can be projected from the frame body 22 and is accommodated by the user. Informs that the remaining amount of the seat is low.
[0007]
With such a configuration, it is possible to notify the user of the remaining amount of sheets in the sheet storage device from the sheet storage device.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the conventional sheet storage device has the following problems.
[0009]
The display device 20 is rotatably supported. However, if the display device 20 does not rotate smoothly, an operation failure occurs and an appropriate remaining amount cannot be displayed. Therefore, the display device 20 is supported rotatably. There is a problem that it is necessary to increase the processing accuracy of the movable part, which increases the cost.
[0010]
In order to solve this problem, in order to force the bending arm 30 of the display 20 to come into contact with the back surface of the support means 24, a spring is provided for urging the display 20 to rotate clockwise in the figure. Although it is conceivable that the arm 30 follows the swinging of the support means, such a spring has a very weak force so as not to affect the sheet feeding pressure (pressure for pressing the sheet against the sheet feeding roller). There is a problem in that it is difficult to set the spring force, the manufacturing cost of the spring is high, and the display device may malfunction due to variations in setting.
[0011]
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to reliably display the remaining amount of sheets in the sheet storage device without adding parts such as springs.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention, sheet loading supporting fed, the intermediate plate rotatable vertically disposed in accordance with the load of the sheet, provided a rotatable arm in conjunction with the vertical movement of the insertion plate, the one end of the arm, a display unit for displaying the position of the insertion plate is arranged, the other end of the arm is provided with engaging means for transmitting the displacement of the insertion plate to the arm, the engagement means Is provided with an upper surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is raised and a lower surface engagement portion that engages when the intermediate plate is lowered so that the intermediate plate is sandwiched between the upper surface engaging portion and the lower surface. the distance between the engagement portion, at a position where the intermediate plate is increased most in a state where sheets are not stacked, the spacing a of the intermediate plate can be inserted between the upper surface engaging portion and the lower surface engagement portion, a maximum tolerance △ t of the plate thickness of the middle plate, and a maximum tolerance △ s processing between the engaging portion, and the tolerance δ a degree that does not affect the level indicator, And characterized in that all the added value (a + △ t + △ s + δ).
[0014]
In the present invention, a sheet to be fed is stacked and supported, a middle plate that can be rotated up and down according to the amount of stacked sheets is provided, an arm that can be rotated in conjunction with the raising and lowering of the middle plate is provided, A display unit is disposed at one end of the arm to display the position of the intermediate plate, and an engagement means for transmitting the displacement of the intermediate plate to the arm is provided at the other end of the arm, Comprises an upper surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is raised and a lower surface engagement portion that engages when the intermediate plate is lowered so as to sandwich the intermediate plate. the distance between the lower surface engagement portion, the sheet is in contact with the lower surface of the middle plate bottom surface engaging portion at the position of the plate in the case of full load, in the case where the sheet is a two-thirds of the total load capacity The value is such that the upper surface engaging portion is in contact with the upper surface of the middle plate at the position of the plate .
[0016]
The present invention is characterized in that the display unit is provided so as to be movable up and down while maintaining a horizontal state, and one end of the arm is engaged with the display unit.
[0017]
In the present invention, the upper surface engagement portion and the lower surface engagement portion are engagement bosses provided on the arm, and are arranged so as to sandwich an end portion of the intermediate plate between the engagement bosses. It is characterized by.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of a laser beam printer, which is an image processing apparatus equipped with a paper feed cassette, which is a sheet storage apparatus of the present invention, will be schematically described with reference to FIG.
[0019]
In the lower part of the image processing apparatus main body 100 (hereinafter referred to as the apparatus main body), sheet feeding cassettes 1 and 1 that are sheet storage apparatuses are arranged in two stages. Each of the sheet feeding cassettes 1 is supported so as to be able to be pulled out to the right side (the front side of the apparatus) in the drawing. The paper feed cassette 1 includes a frame body 4 and a middle plate 6 as a sheet support means capable of moving up and down by stacking and supporting the sheets S in the frame body 4. The middle plate 6 is moved upward by a paper feed spring 8. It is energized.
[0020]
The sheet S that is stacked and biased upward is pressed against a sheet feeding roller 102 provided on the apparatus main body 100 side, and is fed out by the rotation of the sheet feeding roller 102. The sheet that is fed out is separated (not shown). The sheets are separated one by one by a separation means such as a nail and a separation pad.
[0021]
The sheet that is separated from the sheet feeding cassette 1 and sent out is guided by the conveyance path 104 and is sent to the registration roller pair 106. The registration roller pair 106 feeds the sheet toward the image forming unit 108 at a predetermined timing so that an image is formed at an appropriate position of the sheet.
[0022]
The image forming unit 108 includes a process cartridge 110. The process cartridge 110 includes a photosensitive drum 112 serving as an image carrier, a charging unit (not shown) for charging the surface of the photosensitive drum, and a photosensitive drum. Developing means (not shown) for forming a toner image, cleaning means (not shown) for cleaning the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum, and the like are arranged. Since these are well-known techniques, detailed description is omitted.
[0023]
A transfer unit 114 is disposed so as to face the photosensitive drum 112, and the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 112 is transferred to the sheet conveyed by the registration roller pair 106 by the transfer unit 114. The sheet on which the toner image has been transferred is sent to a fixing unit 116 disposed downstream of the process cartridge 110 in the sheet feeding direction, and heat and pressure are applied to fix the toner image. The sheet on which the image has been formed is discharged onto the discharge tray 120 by the discharge roller pair 118.
[0024]
For exposure on the photosensitive drum 112, the photosensitive drum is irradiated with laser light generated by the scanner unit 122 via a polygon mirror, an imaging lens, a reflection mirror, and the like.
[0025]
Next, a remaining amount display device for the paper feed cassette 1, which is a main part of the present invention, will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a fully loaded sheet S accommodated in the sheet feeding cassette 1, and FIG.
[0026]
An arm 10 is rotatably attached to the frame 4 of the paper feed cassette 1, and a display unit 10 a that displays the remaining amount of the sheet S is provided at one end of the arm 10. Engaging means 12 that engages the intermediate plate 6 is provided at the end. The frame 4 is formed with a window 4a for allowing the display unit 10a to be visually recognized. The user can check the remaining amount of the sheet S by viewing the display unit 10a from the window 4a. . The position of the arm 10 in the frame 4 is arranged on the side in the frame 4 on the front side in the drawing direction of the paper feed cassette 1.
[0027]
The position of the arm 10 may be anywhere as long as it does not interfere with sheet feeding and can be engaged with a location where the intermediate plate 6 is greatly displaced. Further, the location of the middle plate 6 with which the engagement means 12 engages may be extended integrally from the middle plate 6, or a separate extension portion may be attached to the middle plate 6.
[0028]
When the sheet S is fully loaded, as shown in FIG. 1, the engagement means 12 at the other end of the arm 10 is pushed down by the intermediate plate 6, and the display portion 10a on the one end side of the arm 10 is raised to display the full sheet S. do. As shown in FIG. 2, when the sheet is fed out by the sheet feeding roller 102 and the stacking amount of the sheet S decreases, the intermediate plate 6 is raised and the engaging means 12 is also pushed up. As a result, it is possible to notify that the arm 10 is rotated and the display unit 10a is lowered to reduce the number of stacked sheets S.
[0029]
The engaging means 12 which is a feature of the present invention has a pair of cylindrical engaging bosses 14 and 15 provided at the other end of the arm 10, and one upper engaging boss of the engaging boss. 14 is disposed at a position where it can contact the upper surface side of the intermediate plate 6, and the other lower engagement boss 15 is disposed at a position where it can contact the lower surface side of the intermediate plate 6. , 15, the end of the intermediate plate 6 is sandwiched. The engaging bosses 14 and 15 are provided integrally with the arm 10 so as to protrude inward from the side of the intermediate plate 6 in parallel to each other (in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1).
[0030]
With this configuration, when the intermediate plate 6 rises as the sheet S decreases, the upper engagement boss 14 is pushed up to rotate the arm 10 clockwise in FIG. The lower engaging boss 15 is pushed down by the intermediate plate 6 and the arm 10 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. As a result, the arm 10 is reliably rotated in conjunction with the movement of the intermediate plate 6 and the remaining amount of the sheet S is displayed.
[0031]
The interval between the pair of engaging bosses 14 and 15 is set as follows.
[0032]
As a first setting method, as shown in FIG. 3, the middle plate 6 can be inserted between the pair of bosses 14 and 15 at the position where the middle plate 6 is raised most when no sheets are stacked. The distance a, the maximum tolerance Δt of the thickness t of the intermediate plate 6, the maximum tolerance Δs of processing between the engagement bosses 14 and 15, and an allowable value (for example, 1 to 2 mm) δ that does not affect the display The interval between the engagement bosses 14 and 15 may be set to the added value (see equation (1)).
[0033]
A = a + Δt + Δs + δ (1)
[0034]
By configuring in this way, the arm 10 can accurately follow the displacement of the middle plate 6 to accurately display the remaining amount.
[0035]
Next, a second method of setting the interval between the engagement bosses 14 and 15 will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the lower engagement boss is located at the position 6a of the intermediate plate 6 when the sheet S is full. 15 is in contact with the lower surface of the intermediate plate 6, and the upper engagement boss 15 is in contact with the upper surface of the intermediate plate 6 at the position 6 b of the intermediate plate 6 when the sheet S becomes two thirds of the total stacking amount. The interval between the engaging bosses 14 and 15 is set.
[0036]
As a result, even if the middle plate 6 malfunctions when the sheets S are fully loaded, the middle plate 6 comes into contact with the upper engagement boss 14 when the stacking amount of the sheets S is reduced to two thirds. Can be displayed by pushing up. In other words, with this configuration, even if the arm 10 malfunctions, the stacked state of the sheets S can be displayed in at least three stages: full load state, intermediate load state, and low load state. Therefore, even if the arm 10 malfunctions, the user does not know the remaining amount of the sheet S at all.
[0037]
The interval between the pair of engagement bosses 14 and 15 may be set in a range larger than the interval A set by the first setting method and smaller than the interval set by the second setting method. By setting in this way, even if the arm 10 malfunctions, the display unit 10a moves step by step, but the user can recognize the remaining amount.
[0038]
Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 shows a full state of sheets S accommodated in the paper feed cassette 1, and FIG. 2 shows a low load state.
[0039]
This embodiment is different from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that the display unit 10a is provided separately from the arm 10, and the other parts are the same. Therefore, the different parts will be described.
[0040]
A guide shaft 16 is disposed vertically on the frame body 4, and the display unit 10 a is supported by being fitted to the guide shaft 16 so as to be movable up and down. The display unit 10 a is rotatably coupled to the arm 10, and the display unit 10 a moves up and down according to the rotation of the arm 10. Therefore, when the arm 10 rotates according to the raising and lowering of the middle plate 6, the display unit 10a also moves up and down according to the rotation of the arm 10 and displays the remaining amount of sheets.
[0041]
As described above, the display unit 10a is separated from the arm 10 and is supported so as to move up and down while maintaining the horizontal state. Therefore, the display unit 10a is easy to see and the appearance is improved.
[0042]
In each of the above embodiments, a tact switch is provided in the vicinity of the arm 10 and the tact switch is operated by the movement of the arm 10 so that “sheet remaining amount display” or “sheet no-paper indication” is displayed. May be generated and sent to a controller or the like.
[0043]
In the present embodiment, the remaining amount display device of the sheet storage device that stores the sheet to be supplied to the image forming unit has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, an image reading device. The present invention may be applied to a document storage device that stores a document to be supplied.
[0044]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, the present invention can reliably display the remaining amount of sheets in the sheet storage device with a simple configuration without using a spring or the like.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a main part of a sheet storage device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a view showing a state where there are few sheets in the device shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method for setting the interval of the engaging means shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining another method for setting the interval of the engaging means shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the main part of the sheet storage device according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a view showing a state where the number of sheets is small in the device shown in FIG. Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a conventional sheet storage device.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper feed cassette 6 Middle board 10 Arm 10a Display part 12 Engagement means 14 and 15 Engagement boss 102 Paper feed roller 108 Image formation part

Claims (5)

Supports the stacked sheets to be fed, and provides an intermediate plate that can be turned up and down according to the amount of stacked sheets.
Provide an arm that can rotate in conjunction with the raising and lowering of the middle plate ,
A display portion is arranged at one end of the arm to display the position of the intermediate plate , and an engagement means for transmitting the displacement of the intermediate plate to the arm is provided at the other end of the arm ,
The engaging means includes an upper surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is raised and a lower surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is lowered so as to sandwich the intermediate plate. The intermediate plate can be inserted between the upper surface engaging portion and the lower surface engaging portion at a position where the intermediate plate rises most when the sheet is not stacked on the gap between the joining portion and the lower surface engaging portion. A value obtained by adding all of the distance a, the maximum tolerance Δt of the thickness of the intermediate plate , the maximum tolerance Δs of processing between the engaging portions, and the allowable value δ that does not affect the remaining amount display (a + Δ) (t + Δs + δ). Supports the stacked sheets to be fed, and provides an intermediate plate that can be turned up and down according to the amount of stacked sheets.
Provide an arm that can rotate in conjunction with the raising and lowering of the middle plate,
A display portion is arranged at one end of the arm to display the position of the intermediate plate, and an engagement means for transmitting the displacement of the intermediate plate to the arm is provided at the other end of the arm,
The engaging means includes an upper surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is raised and a lower surface engaging portion that engages when the intermediate plate is lowered so as to sandwich the intermediate plate. The distance between the joint portion and the lower surface engaging portion is set at a position of the middle plate when the sheets are full, and the lower surface engaging portion abuts on the lower surface of the middle plate , so that the sheet becomes two-thirds of the total loading amount. A sheet storage device having a value such that the upper surface engaging portion comes into contact with the upper surface of the middle plate at the position of the middle plate when the sheet is placed. Wherein the display unit, movable up and down while maintaining the horizontal state, the sheet accommodating device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that engaging the end of the arm to the display unit. The upper surface engaging portion and the lower surface engaging portion are engaging bosses provided on the arm, and are arranged so as to sandwich an end portion of the intermediate plate between the engaging bosses. The sheet storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 . The sheet storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, a sheet feeding unit that feeds a sheet from the sheet storage device, and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the sheet fed by the sheet feeding unit. And an image processing apparatus.

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