JP4890898B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, a PPC, or a multifunction peripheral having a paper discharge tray for stocking large-sized copied paper.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus (wide-width machine) capable of copying using large size paper such as A1 size has been known. FIG. 6 is a schematic external view showing a conventional image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying. FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus as viewed from the right side of FIG. FIG. 8 is a schematic external view showing a conventional image forming apparatus capable of large size copying with an auxiliary tray attached.
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus (wide-width machine) capable of copying a large size such as A1 size, a copied sheet is discharged to a discharge tray 2. The image forming apparatus includes a scanner unit A, an image forming unit B, and a paper feeding unit C, and has an in-body paper discharge unit 1 that discharges paper to the front of the machine.
The copied paper 8 discharged onto the paper discharge tray 2 has the largest A1 horizontal size, and the A1 vertical size is discharged later. However, there is a case where a sheet of A1 vertical size or larger is discharged to the discharge tray 2 by using a printer function or by an erroneous operation.

Further, in a machine having a function of rotating copied paper, when there is no A1 horizontal size paper, it may be switched to A1 vertical size paper and discharged to the paper discharge tray 2 in some cases. In such a case, the leading end 8-1 of the copied paper 8 that protrudes from the stock space of the copied paper 8 hangs down, and the copied paper 8 may drop.
Further, as shown in FIG. 8, even if the auxiliary tray 9 is attached, a large protruding portion causes a decrease in workability. Specifically, when reading a document with a wide-width machine, standing on the front of the apparatus is accurate. Therefore, it was necessary to perform manual feeding, so that it was limited to a small size and could not perform an effective function.

In order to solve such inconvenience, several techniques have been proposed in the past in order to align the sheets that exit from the discharge space, and to align the discharged sheets back toward the discharge port (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Patent Document 1 discloses a technique including an auxiliary tray member that is provided with a high end from an intermediate portion of a tray in order to align sheets that exit from a paper discharge space. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228867 discloses a technique for providing a bent portion with corners at the top for the purpose of preventing the paper discharge tray from being bent and aligning the paper after discharge toward the paper discharge port. Disclosure.
JP 2000-351516 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-157727

However, such a conventional technique has a problem that even if the copied paper to be discharged is prevented from dropping, buckling of the large-sized copied paper cannot be prevented.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to prevent both large-sized copied sheets from buckling and dropping, and to drop long copied sheets discharged on a short discharge tray from the short discharge tray. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can be stacked.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention described in claim 1 includes a scanner unit, an image forming unit, a paper discharge unit, and an in-body discharge tray. The paper is discharged to the paper discharge section on the rear side of the apparatus, and the copied paper on which the image is formed by the image forming section is discharged to the front discharge tray on the in-body discharge tray provided on the front of the apparatus main body. In the image forming apparatus that discharges toward the in-cylinder discharge tray, an auxiliary tray that is curved in a direction orthogonal to the discharge direction with respect to the in- cylinder discharge tray protrudes from the in-cylinder discharge tray . The auxiliary tray has a curved shape that gradually curves in a concave shape downwardly on the copied paper that is discharged along the in-cylinder discharge tray, and does not protrude from the front, and Its width is smaller than the width of the copied paper And listen formed, characterized in that a pressing member for pressing the floating from the auxiliary tray of the copied paper to the center of the direction perpendicular to the discharge direction.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the pressing member is a mylar sheet.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the pressing member is a bar.

  According to the present invention, the copied copied paper to be stocked is deformed in a direction orthogonal to the paper discharge direction, so that the paper becomes stiff and does not buckle. Even if it jumps out, it can be stocked without a support member. Therefore, it is not necessary to equip a large paper discharge tray, and space can be saved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic external view showing a first embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus as viewed from the right side of FIG.
1 and 2, reference numeral A denotes a scanner unit, B denotes an image forming unit, and C denotes a paper discharge unit.
In the present invention, an auxiliary tray 11 that guides the copied paper 12 is provided on the downstream side of the in-body discharge unit 1 including the output tray (in-body discharge tray) 2. The auxiliary tray 11 has a shape that changes from a connecting portion with the paper discharge tray 2 to a gently curved line 13. The curved line 13 is concave at the center so as to be symmetrical.
That is, according to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus that discharges a copied sheet to an in-cylinder discharge tray 2 provided in front of the apparatus main body, an arc is formed in a direction perpendicular to the discharge direction with respect to the in-cylinder discharge tray 2. The configuration in which auxiliary trays 11 curved in a shape are continuously provided is characteristic.
The large-sized copied paper 12 guided and discharged from the paper discharge tray 2 is gradually bent from the leading edge while being guided by the auxiliary tray 11 (reference numeral 14). Therefore, it is possible to prevent the fall without buckling without a support member.

Further, since the copied paper 12 immediately after being discharged from the paper discharge port 10 is sent onto the flat paper discharge tray 2, a normal paper discharge operation can be maintained.
The copied paper 12 to be stocked is deformed in a direction orthogonal to the paper discharge direction (curved so that the central portion in the width direction is concave downward), so that the copied paper 12 discharged is discharged into the paper discharge tray. Even if it jumps out of the in-cylinder discharge space, it can be stocked without a support member.
Therefore, it is not necessary to equip a large paper discharge tray, and the machine can be installed in a small space. Further, since there is no need to provide a telescopic paper discharge tray, there is no need to operate the paper discharge tray according to the paper size.

The copied paper 12 to be stocked can be deformed along the guide means 11 by the weight of the copied paper 12 by the guide means (auxiliary tray) 11 that curves downwardly in a concave shape in a direction orthogonal to the paper discharge direction. So the structure is easy. Further, since various paper widths can be handled with the same R, there is no need to provide an adjustment mechanism or the like that matches the paper width.
Furthermore, since the copied sheet 12 immediately after the sheet discharge can be received by the flat surface 2 and the leading end of the sheet can be sent in parallel to the sheet discharge mechanism, it is possible to prevent the sheet from being distorted and the occurrence of problems due to misalignment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic external view showing a second embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus viewed from the right side of FIG. In FIG. 4, symbol A represents a scanner unit, B represents an image forming unit, and C represents a paper discharge unit.
On the sheet discharge tray 2 and the center line D of the auxiliary tray 11 of this image forming apparatus, a pressing member 15 or 16 for holding the copied paper 12 attached in place by a method described later is hung.
The pressing member 15 or 16 has a function to prevent the discharged copied paper 12 from floating and to guide the curved sheet 14 so as to follow the curved shape of the auxiliary tray 11.
The mylar sheet 15 of FIG. 3 that forms the pressing member is, for example, bonded and fixed to the ceiling of the in-body discharge unit 1 on the upper side. Further, the bar 16 shown in FIG. 4 that forms the pressing member rotates in the E direction (direction along the paper discharge direction) with the hinge pin 17 disposed on the ceiling of the in-body paper discharge unit 1 as a fulcrum. ing.
By making the width of the auxiliary tray 11 larger than the width of the copied paper, buckling and dropping of the copied paper can be prevented. By pressing the center portion of the copied paper with the pressing members 15 and 16 along the guide means for bending, the copied paper can be reliably bent without floating and stable stock performance can be ensured.

FIG. 5 is a schematic external view showing a third embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the auxiliary tray 11 is provided with a notch portion 18 in the left-right direction, that is, in the center in the direction orthogonal to the paper discharge direction.
An image forming apparatus that performs large-size copying with a structure that is operated from the front has a small protruding amount of the auxiliary tray 11 by cutting the center of the guide means 11 protruding to the operator standing position on the front into a concave shape, so that the operator is close to the machine. This makes it easier to work.
Even when the copy paper manual feed mechanism is hidden under the guide means, the visibility of the manual copy paper on the manual feed table 6 can be improved. Further, when scanning is performed on the front side of the copying apparatus, it is possible to obtain an effect that the paper discharge tray (auxiliary tray) does not get in the way when a document is inserted and the copied paper does not hang down. Therefore, space saving can be achieved.

1 is a schematic external view showing a first embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus viewed from the right side of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a schematic external view showing a second embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus viewed from the right side of FIG. 3. FIG. 6 is a schematic external view showing a third embodiment of an image forming apparatus capable of large-size copying according to the present invention. It is a schematic external view showing a conventional image forming apparatus capable of copying a large size. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus viewed from the right side of FIG. 6. It is a schematic external view showing an image forming apparatus capable of large-sized copying with an auxiliary tray attached.

Explanation of symbols

  A scanner unit, B image forming unit, C paper discharge unit, 1 in-body paper discharge unit, 2 paper discharge tray, 10 paper discharge port, 11 auxiliary tray (guide means), 12 copied paper, 13 curve of auxiliary tray, 14 Curve of copied paper, 15 Presser member (mylar sheet), 16 Presser member (bar), 17 fulcrum (hinge pin), 18 Notch

Claims (3)

A scanner unit, an image forming unit, a paper discharge unit, and an in-body paper discharge tray; a document is inserted from the front of the apparatus, read by the scanner unit, and discharged to the paper discharge unit on the back side of the apparatus; In the image forming apparatus for discharging the copied paper on which the image has been formed in the forming unit to the in-body discharge tray provided on the front of the apparatus main body with the discharge direction directed to the front side,
An auxiliary tray that is curved in a direction perpendicular to the paper discharge direction is connected to the in- body discharge tray in a state where the leading end protrudes from the in-body discharge tray and does not protrude from the front of the apparatus main body. ,
The auxiliary tray has a curved shape for curving the copied paper that is discharged along the in-cylinder discharge tray gradually downwardly concavely, and the horizontal width of the auxiliary tray is the horizontal width of the copied paper Formed larger than
An image forming apparatus , comprising: a pressing member that suppresses floating of the copied sheet from the auxiliary tray in a center perpendicular to the paper discharge direction. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the pressing member is a mylar sheet. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the pressing member is a bar.

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