JP7224147B2 - sheet conveying device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a sheet conveying device that conveys sheets.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-101000 describes a stacking failure caused by the leading edge of a sheet being lifted from the stacking surface in a stacking unit on which ejected sheets (original documents) are stacked. A sheet stacking device is disclosed that includes a lifting regulating member that suppresses the occurrence of .

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2015-113200

However, in recent years, there has been a demand for conveying long documents with fold marks as shown in FIG. In the conventional ejected paper stacking unit, long documents cannot be stacked because the documents fall from the stacking surface. Furthermore, the crease marks cause the document to crumble (when a load is applied to the leading edge of the document during ejection), resulting in ejection and stacking failure.

In view of the above, the sheet conveying device according to the present invention is
a device body;
a discharge port for discharging the conveyed sheet;
a paper discharge tray on which documents discharged from the discharge port are stacked;
document holding means provided opposite to the paper discharge tray across the discharge port to hold the discharged document,
The discharge tray has a first stacking surface on the upstream side in the sheet conveying direction, a downstream side from a downstream end of the first stacking surface, and a vertically lower position than the downstream end of the first stacking surface. and a second stacking surface.

According to the present invention, the ejected paper holding means and the ejected paper extension unit prevent the ejected paper stacking failure caused by the lifting of the long sheet (original document) from the ejected paper stacking surface. be able to.

1 is a cross-sectional view of a schematic configuration of a document conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of a document conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an image reading unit in the document conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a separation feeding section in the document conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a perspective view of a schematic configuration of a document conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a main part of sheet feeding/discharging in the document conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a long folded document; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a retracted position of a paper feed pressing wire; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing how a paper feed pressing means presses a fold of a document; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a retracted position of the paper discharge extension wire; FIG. 10 is a view showing discharged sheet stackability when the second stacking surface is not positioned below the first stacking surface; FIG. 2 is another perspective view of the schematic configuration of the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is another enlarged perspective view showing the main part of sheet feeding/discharging in the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is another perspective view of the schematic configuration of the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is another enlarged perspective view showing the main part of sheet feeding/discharging in the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is another perspective view of the schematic configuration of the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is another enlarged perspective view showing the main part of sheet feeding/discharging in the document conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a paper discharge main part in the document conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a retracted position of a document pressing member; FIG. 10 is a view showing discharged paper stackability when a discharged paper holding member is provided at a paper holding position;

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the schematic configuration of the document conveying apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG.

<Schematic Configuration of Document Feeding Device>
The document conveying device 200 (sheet conveying device) is a sheet conveying device that conveys a sheet as a document and can read images on both sides or one side of the sheet by an image reading unit. For this purpose, the document conveying device 200 includes a sheet take-in device 101 . The sheet take-in device 101 has a sheet stacking table 1 on which a plurality of sheets can be stacked. The sheet stacking table 1 is configured to be movable up and down, and is controlled to move up and down by driving and controlling a sheet stacking table drive motor 2 by a control means, which will be described later. A sheet detection sensor 3 detects that the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking table 1 are at the sheet take-in position. A sheet stack detection sensor 12 detects that sheets are stacked on the sheet stacking surface 1 a of the sheet stacking table 1 . The sheet stacking table 1 has a regulating plate 1b that abuts on both ends of the sheet in the width direction that intersect (perpendicularly in this embodiment) the conveying direction of the sheet to regulate the position of the sheet in the width direction.

A pickup roller 4 (take-in means) serving as an example of a document pick-up unit feeds a sheet on the sheet stacking table 1 from the sheet stacking table 1 and takes the document into the apparatus main body from a paper feed port opened on the front surface of the apparatus main body. A pickup roller driving motor (not shown) rotates the pickup roller 4 . Further, the pickup roller 4 is moved between a take-in position and a retracted position above the take-in position by a driving means (not shown). The pickup roller 4 is moved to the take-up position when picking up the sheet, and is moved to the retracted position when the pick-up of the sheet is finished.

The feeding roller 6 is rotationally driven in a direction to feed the sheet downstream in the conveying direction. As a result, the sheet is fed into the apparatus main body of the document conveying apparatus 200 . The separation roller 7 constantly receives a rotational force for pushing back the sheet toward the upstream side in the conveying direction from a separation motor via a torque limiter (slip clutch) (not shown). When one sheet is present between the feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7, the separation roller 7, which is transmitted by the torque limiter, pushes back the sheet upstream from the upper limit value of the rotational force. The rotational force in the direction in which the sheet is fed downstream exceeds the rotational force in the direction in which the sheet is fed downstream due to the frictional force between the sheet fed downstream by and the separation roller 7, and the separation roller 7 rotates following the feeding roller 6 ( carry around).

On the other hand, when a plurality of sheets exist between the feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7, the separation roller 7 receives the rotation of the roller shaft in the direction of pushing back the sheets to the upstream side, and the sheets other than the uppermost sheet are pushed downstream. to avoid being transported to In this manner, the action of the feeding roller 6 feeding the sheet to the downstream side and the action of the separation roller 7 preventing the sheet from being conveyed to the downstream side cause the sheets to overlap, causing the feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7 to overlap each other. When fed to the nip portion, only the uppermost sheet is fed to the downstream side, and the other sheets are not fed to the downstream side, thereby separating and feeding the overlapping sheets. In this manner, the feed roller 6 and the separation roller 7 form a pair of separation rollers 42 (original separation section). Although the separation roller pair 42 is used in this embodiment, a separation belt roller pair in which either the separation roller or the feeding roller is a belt may be used instead of the separation roller pair 42. .

Further, in this embodiment, a separation pad 37 is provided on the upstream side of the separation roller 7 in order to further improve the sheet separation performance. The sheets are separated by contacting the separation pad 37 with the sheets before the sheets are separated by the separation roller 7, thereby more reliably preventing the sheets from being double-fed and conveyed. can. In this embodiment, the document separation section and the separation pad 37 constitute a separation and feeding section. A detailed configuration of the separation pad 37 will be described later.

Sheets stacked on the sheet stacking table 1 are picked up one by one by the document pickup section including the pickup roller 4 and the separation and feeding section including the feeding roller 6, the separation roller 7, the separation pad 37, and the like. , and taken into the transport path inside the document transport device 200 . After the image of the fetched sheet is read by the reading units 14 and 15, the sheet is conveyed through a U-shaped conveying path and discharged from a discharge port provided at the top of the apparatus main body.

The apparatus main body of the document conveying apparatus 200 in this embodiment is composed of an upper unit 200a and a lower unit 200b. It can be opened and closed by rotating it. The transport path is formed between the upper unit 200a and the lower unit 200b, and can be opened by rotating the upper unit 200a upward.

Further, by providing the multi-feed detection sensor 30 at a position through which the separated documents pass, it is possible to detect whether or not the documents are separated one by one by the document separating section. In this embodiment, a detection device using an ultrasonic transmission/reception unit is used as the double-feeding detection sensor 30, and double-feeding is detected by the amount of ultrasonic attenuation between the transmission/reception units arranged across the conveying path. can be done.

After the document is separated, the sheet is conveyed to a document reading position P where the image of the document is read by conveying rollers 17, 18, 20, and 21 driven by a conveying motor 10, and further by other rollers (document conveying section). transported to the outlet. Further, the conveying motor 10 drives each roller so that the sheet conveying speed can be changed according to settings such as the optimum speed for reading the sheet and the resolution of the sheet.

A transport roller pair composed of transport rollers 17 and 18, a transport roller pair composed of transport rollers 20 and 21, a transport roller pair composed of transport rollers 22 and 23, and a transport roller composed of transport rollers 24 and 25. The sheet is conveyed to the discharge stacking section 44 by the roller pair and the further downstream roller pair shown in FIG. Two guide plates, the upper guide plate 40 and the lower guide plate 41, guide the sheet conveyed by the separation roller pair, the conveying roller pair, each conveying roller pair, and the roller pair on the downstream side.

The pre-registration sensor 32 is arranged on the upstream side of the conveying rollers 17 and 18 and detects the sheet being conveyed. The post-registration sensor 34 is arranged downstream of the pair of conveying rollers 20 and 21 and detects the conveyed sheet. In the present embodiment, a sensor 33 during registration is further provided between the transport roller pair composed of the transport rollers 17 and 18 and the transport roller pair composed of the transport rollers 20 and 21. is being pinched and conveyed.

When the document is detected by the post-registration sensor 34, the control device 45 as a control means issues an image reading instruction to the reading units 14 and 15, and the image of the conveyed sheet is read. The control device 45 controls the document conveying device 200 as a whole. Such a control device 45 has a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory). The CPU controls each part while reading a program corresponding to the control procedure stored in the ROM. The RAM stores work data and input data, and the CPU performs control by referring to the data stored in the RAM based on the above-described programs and the like. Sheet images read by the reading units 14 and 15 are transmitted to an external device such as an information processing device via an interface section (not shown).

<Reading unit>
Next, the configuration of the reading units 14 and 15 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the reading units 14 and 15 are arranged so as to sandwich a conveying path along which sheets are conveyed. As shown in FIG. platen roller 14a is arranged, and the platen roller 15a as a pressing member is arranged on the opposite side across the conveying path of the reading unit 15, and the platen roller 15a is conveyed against the contact glass 54 (see FIG. 3) of each reading unit. To read images on both sides or one side of a sheet while urging the sheet from the road side. The reading units 14 and 15 may be arranged so as to be able to read mutually different surfaces of the sheet conveyed on the conveying path. Platen rollers 14a and 15a (pressing members) provided on one side and corresponding to the respective reading units are provided on the other side of the upper unit 200a and the lower unit 200b.

In the following description, reading unit 15 basically has the same structure as reading unit 14 . Therefore, the reading unit 15 will be described only with regard to the differences from the reading unit 14, and redundant description will be omitted.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the reading unit 14 on a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. FIG. 3A shows the state (document reading position) when reading the document, and FIG. 3B shows the state (shading position) when reading the color reference member.

The reading unit 14 includes a line image sensor 50 as a reading section capable of reading an image of a sheet (original document) conveyed by the conveying rollers 20 and 21, and a sensor box as a housing section for movably housing the line image sensor 50. 51 , a glass holding unit 52 consisting of a contact glass 54 , a glass holding member 55 , a color reference member 56 and a protective member 57 , and a moving mechanism 58 for moving the line image sensor 50 . Since the line image sensor 50 reads the sheet through the contact glass 54, if the contact glass 54 is damaged, image defects may occur. Therefore, it is desirable that the contact glass 54, the glass holding member 55, the color reference member 56, and the protective member 57 be integrated. Therefore, it is necessary to replace the contact glass 54 after installing the document feeder 200 . In the present invention, the contact glass 54 can be replaced together with the glass holding unit 52 . The glass holding member 55 has a substantially frame shape, and while covering the periphery of the contact glass 54, a protective member 57 is attached to the upper portion of a portion thereof.

Further, the line image sensor 50 is movable within the sensor box 51, as will be described later in detail, and is therefore connected to the sensor box 51 by a cable 53 so as to be relatively movable. Input/output signals of the line image sensor 50 are transmitted/received to/from the control device 45 via the cable 53 .

As described above, the glass holding unit 52 of the reading unit 14 includes the contact glass 54 that guides the sheet conveyed by the conveying rollers 20 and 21 to the document reading position P as the first position, and the glass holder that holds the contact glass 54 . a member 55; The contact glass 54 is fixed to the sensor box 51 while being held by a glass holding member 55 on the sheet conveying side of the line image sensor 50 . Therefore, the line image sensor 50 reads the image of the sheet conveyed to the document reading position P through the contact glass 54 .

Further, the reading unit 14 has a color reference member 56 on the contact glass 54 that serves as a white reference, and a protective member 57 that is a covering member that prevents the color reference member 56 from being scraped off by passing paper. The color reference member 56 is arranged on the opposite side of the line image sensor 50 with the contact glass 54 interposed therebetween. 3(b)). In this embodiment, the color reference member 56 is adhered onto the contact glass 54 by adhesion.

The protective member 57 covers the sheet conveying side with respect to the color reference member 56 . Since the protection member 57 comes into contact with the sheet, it is provided with an inclination for scooping up the sheet upstream in the conveying direction, and has a shape that does not easily cause paper jams in the case of thin paper or the like.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the reading unit 14 includes a moving mechanism 58 as a moving mechanism for moving the line image sensor 50. can be moved. Note that the control may be performed by the control device 45 .

The document conveying apparatus 200 having such reading units 14 and 15 conveys a sheet (original document) by conveying rollers 20 and 21 and the like to read an image. Specifically, the conveyed sheet is illuminated by the light sources of the reading units 14 and 15, and the reflected light from the document is focused on the sensor surface of the line image sensor 50 by a rod lens array or the like. After that, the reflected light collected by the line image sensor 50 is photoelectrically converted and output to the control device 45 , and the control device 45 generates document image data based on the output signal of the line image sensor 50 . It should be noted that the photoelectrically converted image data may be output to the control device 45 after undergoing image processing and various conversions.

In the reading unit 14, the light source and the rod lens array have unevenness in the amount of light, and the sensitivity of the line image sensor 50 is also uneven. Therefore, in order to enable uniform image reading, the output values (data) obtained when the color reference member 56 is read by the line image sensor 50 are used to obtain the output values of the line image sensor 50 when reading the document. The image data has been corrected. This correction is generally performed after optimizing the light emission amount of the light source for illuminating the document and optimizing the amplification factor (gain) when amplifying the image signal output of the line image sensor 50 . Hereinafter, a series of corrections for the line image sensor 50 to uniformly read the image information of the document, including the adjustment of the amount of light emission and gain described above, will be referred to as shading correction.

A color reference member 56 for acquiring data for shading correction is formed on the surface of the contact glass 54 (the surface on which the sheet is conveyed) by a method such as printing, painting, gluing, or pasting with tape. is provided at a position shifted from the document reading position P by . In this embodiment, the color reference member 56 is a white reference member, and the white reference surface serving as the white reference is the contact surface between the color reference member 56 and the contact glass 54 . Since the color reference member 56 is the surface of the contact glass 54 on the conveying path side that is the same distance as the distance from the line image sensor 50 to the document at the document reading position P, appropriate shading correction is performed to obtain good image quality. can be done.

Note that the color reference member 56 does not have to be fixed to the contact glass 54 . For example, the color reference member 56 may be fixed to the sensor box 51 in which the line image sensor 50 moves. In this case, the contact glass 54 is fixed to the sensor box 51 and does not move relative to the color reference member 56 .

3, the reading position of the line image sensor 50 becomes the document reading position P (first position) when reading the document, and the color reference reading when acquiring data for shading correction. It is moved inside the sensor box 51 so as to be at the position Q (second position). In this manner, the line image sensor 50 moves in the sub-scanning direction along the sheet conveying direction (see FIG. 3).

In this embodiment, when the user turns on the document feeder 200 and gives an instruction to start reading an image, the controller 45 issues an instruction to perform shading correction. The moving mechanism 58 is controlled so that the reading position moves from the document reading position P to the color reference reading position Q.

<Platen roller>
Next, protective members for the reading units 14 and 15 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, platen rollers 14a and 15a are arranged on the opposite side of the document reading position P. As shown in FIG. The platen roller 14a and the platen roller 15a are rotated by transmission of drive from the transport roller 25 and the transport roller 24, respectively. Therefore, even if thin paper or the like is passed as a sheet to be conveyed, it is smoothly guided to the document reading position P, and jamming is unlikely to occur.

In this embodiment, the upper unit (reading unit 14 and platen roller 15a) of the transport path in FIG. 2 is biased toward the lower unit (platen roller 14a, reading unit 15) of the transport path. Specifically, the bearing holder of the platen roller 14a is fitted and fixed to a metal main chassis or the like that forms the conveying path of the document conveying device 200, and the reading unit 14 positioned above it is fixed. It is provided so as to be movable toward the platen roller 14a side. The reading unit 14 is pressed by an urging member such as a spring, and can come into contact with or separate from the platen roller 14a depending on the thickness of the sheet.

Further, the reading unit 15 is fitted and fixed to a metal main chassis or the like that forms the conveying path of the document conveying device 200, and the platen roller 15a positioned above it moves toward the reading unit 15 side. provided as possible. This embodiment is an example, and in order to obtain the same effect, the lower unit may be biased by the upper unit.

<Separation and feeding part>
As described above, in this embodiment, the separation pad 37 and the document separation section constitute the separation feeding section. FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of the separating and feeding section, the sheet stacking table 1 and the document pickup section. Sheets stacked on the sheet stacking table 1 are picked up by the pickup roller 4 toward the feed roller 6, and the sheet separated into one sheet at the nip portion between the feed roller 6 and the separation roller 7 is further downstream. The sheet is conveyed toward the side and fed into the main body of the apparatus. At this time, the separation pad 37 contacts the sheet upstream of the nip between the feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7, so that the sheet can be separated before entering the nip. In this embodiment, the center portion of the nip portion between the feed roller 6 and the separation roller 7 in the transport direction is located slightly downstream of the center of the roller shaft of the feed roller 6 in the transport direction. A roller 7 is arranged slightly downstream. The separation pad 37 is arranged to extend from the upstream side of the center of the roller shaft of the feeding roller 6 toward the center of the feeding roller 6 .

In the following description, the direction in which the roller shaft that is the center of rotation of the feeding roller 6 and the separation roller 7 extends is the width direction (horizontal direction) of the sheet to be conveyed.

FIG. 5 shows a document conveying device 200 provided with a paper feed pressing means 60, a document pressing means 70 and a paper ejection extension unit 80 (paper ejection tray). In this embodiment, the paper feed pressing means 60, the original document pressing means 70, and the paper ejection extension unit 80 are attached detachably from the document conveying device 200. Each of the extension units 80 may be integral with the main body.

In FIG. 6, a paper feed holding means 60 composed of a paper feed holding wire 61, a paper feed holding roller 62 and a spacer rubber tube 63, and a first paper discharge extension member 81 and a second paper discharge extension member 82 are shown. FIG. 11 shows an enlarged perspective view of the configured paper ejection extension unit 80. FIG. The outer peripheral portion of the paper feed pressing roller 62 is made of urethane, and the paper feed pressing wire 61 is rotatable about an axis extending in the sheet width direction facing the sheet stacking table 1 . A plurality of paper feed pressing rollers 62 serving as the center of rotation are provided on the shaft so as to press a plurality of positions across the width of the document, and a spacer rubber tube 63 is provided between them. In the present embodiment, an example in which three paper-supply pressing rollers 62 are provided is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this.

The paper feed pressing rollers 62 reduce the friction that the fed document receives from the paper feed pressing means, thereby facilitating the feeding of the document (preventing non-feeding). The outer peripheral portion of the paper feed pressing roller 62 is made of urethane in this embodiment, but may be made of rubber or resin.

Further, long documents as shown in FIG. 7 are suitable as documents to be stacked on the sheet stacking table 1 in the present embodiment shown in FIG. A paper extension member 1c is provided.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the retracted posture of the paper feed pressing means 60. As shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram of a long folded document 100 that has been folded one or more times in the conveying direction to form a bellows shape. FIG. 7 shows an example of a long folded document in which a document having a size of four A4 size documents is folded into four in a bellows shape.

The paper feed pressing wire 61 is attached so as to be rotatable around the first hole 81d of the first paper discharge extension member 81, and the first folded portion of the long folded document 100 stacked on the sheet stacking table 1 is attached. It is possible to change the posture between the paper feed holding posture shown in FIG. 5 and the retracted posture shown in FIG.

Note that the sheet stacking table 1 of the document conveying device 200 in this embodiment can be raised and lowered. The document feeding position (height) is determined by a document detection lever that faces the sheet stacking table 1 vertically upwards. Stop. The document detection lever is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body. When the sheet stacking table 1 rises and the document placed on the sheet stacking table 1 pushes up the document detecting lever facing the sheet stacking table 1 by a predetermined amount, the sheet stacking table 1 stops rising and the paper is fed. be started. When the document is fed and a space is created between the document and the document detection lever, the document detection lever is lowered by its own weight. Then, the sheet stacking table 1 is raised by a predetermined amount, and the document detecting lever is pushed up by a predetermined amount. As described above, the feeding position (height) of the document is determined by the document detecting lever facing the sheet stacking table 1. are always substantially constant.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the long folded document 100 is fed in this embodiment. When the paper-supply pressing means 60 in this embodiment is in the paper-supply pressing posture, as shown in FIG. The inclined portion 100b on the upstream side in the conveying direction from the apex of the first folded portion 100a can reduce the force (the force in the conveying direction D) pushing the document stacked under the fed document toward the downstream side in the conveying direction. , it is possible to reduce the occurrence of double feeding associated therewith. This embodiment is suitable for conveying a long folded document 100 in which four A-size documents are folded as shown in FIG. It is set at a position 210 mm away from the leading end of the sheet stacking table 1, which corresponds to the width of an A4 document, and can press the first folded portion 100a.

In the present embodiment, the paper feed pressing means 60 presses the position of the first folded portion 100a of the long folded document 100, and for this purpose, it is necessary to press on the upstream side of the pickup roller 4. FIG. In this embodiment, the paper feed pressing means 60 is attached to the paper ejection extension unit 80, and the paper ejection extension unit 80 is attached so as to extend from the ejection stacking section 44 toward the front of the main body of the apparatus. The pressing means 60 can also easily press the sheet stacking table 1 at a position away from the front of the apparatus main body (a position away from the pickup roller 4 on the upstream side).

In this embodiment, the discharged long folded document 100 is stacked on the first stacking surface 81 a of the first paper discharge extension member 81 and on the second paper discharge extension member 82 . In the conventional discharge stacking unit, the long folded document 100 fell off the discharge stacking surface and could not be stacked. In this embodiment, by attaching a paper ejection extension unit 80 (first paper ejection extension member 81 and second paper ejection extension member 82) to the ejection stacking section 44, it is possible to stack the long folded document 100. is.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the retracted posture of the second discharge extension member 82. As shown in FIG. The second paper discharge extension member 82 is rotatably mounted around the second hole 81e of the first paper discharge extension member 81, and is in contact with the contact portion 81b shown in FIG. It is possible to change the posture between the paper posture and the retracted posture shown in FIG. When the second paper ejection extension member 82 is in the paper ejection posture, the gap between the second paper ejection extension member 82 and the sheet stacking table 1 is narrow, making it difficult to set the document on the sheet stacking table 1. The member 82 is retracted to the retracted position. By doing so, the document can be easily set on the sheet stacking table 1 .

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the curling of discharged paper. When the second stacking surface 82a is not located below the first stacking surface 81a as in the present embodiment, the leading edge of the document being ejected is positioned at the top of the ejected and stacked document as shown in FIG. 11(a). When a load is applied to the double-folded portion 100c, the document is crushed, and as shown in FIG. Sometimes it becomes impossible.

In this embodiment, the second discharge extension member 82 has a second stacking surface 82a below the first stacking surface 81a in the vertical direction, as shown in FIG. A step is provided on the stacking surface at the position where the second mountain-folded portion 100c in the middle portion of the long folded document 100 in the conveying direction is stacked, and the first folded document 100 on the leading end side of the second mountain-folded portion 100c of the long folded document 100 is stacked. By locating the mountain-folded portion 100a below the first stacking surface 81a in the vertical direction and preventing the second mountain-folded portion 100c from projecting vertically upward from the first stacking surface 81a, the document being discharged can be 11(b) can be made difficult to form.

(Another aspect of the discharge extension unit)
12, 14, and 16 are perspective views of the schematic configuration of the document conveying device having a second stacking surface 82a having a shape different from that of the first embodiment, and FIGS. 13, 15, and 17 respectively correspond to them. A discharge extension unit 80 is shown. In the first embodiment, the step between the first stacking surface 81a and the second stacking surface 82a is formed substantially perpendicularly, but it may be gently lowered as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 14, the second stacking surface 82a may be formed with an inclined surface up to the tip. Also, as shown in FIG. 16, the second stacking surface 82a may have an R-shaped curved surface. Moreover, although not shown, the inclination may be provided in stages.

It should be noted that the second stacking surface 82a in the description up to this point forms a virtual surface with a pair of left and right wire rods provided with a gap in the width direction in the sheet conveying direction. is included in the virtual plane, it is referred to as the second stacking plane 82a. Of course, the surface forming the second loading surface 82a may be provided on the virtual surface including the wire rod.

FIG. 18 shows a perspective view of the document pressing means 70 composed of the document pressing member 71, the rotating shaft 72, the first mounting plate 73 and the second mounting plate 74. As shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the document pressing member 71 presses the long folded document 100 with a pressing surface 71a formed of sheet metal, but it may be pressed with an edge of sheet metal, a wire, or the like.

<Document holding means>
FIG. 19 is a diagram showing the retracted posture of the document pressing member 71. As shown in FIG. The document holding member 71 is attached to a first mounting plate 73 so as to be rotatable about a rotary shaft 72, and has a holding posture shown in FIG. 5 and a holding posture shown in FIG. It is possible to change the posture to the evacuation posture. When the document pressing member 71 is in the pressing posture, the document pressing member 71 is substantially parallel to the first stacking surface 81a.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory view showing how the long folded document 100 to be ejected is preferably ejected by the document pressing member 71 even if the loop 100d is generated. FIG. 20(a) shows the long folded document 100 immediately after being ejected. When the document pressing member 71 is in the pressing posture, the long folded document 100 being ejected is positioned at the second peak in the middle of the conveying direction. When the folded portion 100c forms the loop 100d, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 20(c), the loop 100 reaches the second stacking surface 82a and prevents the loop 100d from blocking the trailing document discharge path.

The document presser member 71 contacts the loop 100d of the long folded document 100 and receives an upward force, but does not retract upward due to its own weight. In this embodiment, the pressing surface 71a of the document pressing member 71 is arranged on the upstream side in the transport direction from the second stacking surface 82a of the second discharge extension member 82. If a loop 100d of the document occurs at , and blocks the delivery path of the succeeding document, the pressing surface 71a may be extended downstream in the transport direction. A releasable lock may be provided so that the document pressing member 71 is not retracted upward by the long folded document 100 .

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 20, the tip of the document pressing member 71 is positioned upstream in the transport direction from the second stacking surface 82a. As shown in FIG. 20(c), if the long folded document 100 can be conveyed to the second stacking surface 82a to the position where the second mountain fold portion 100c reaches, the document is retracted downward by the second stacking surface 82a. , the occurrence of the loop 100d to the second folded portion 100c of the long folded document 100 is suppressed. In this embodiment, the loop 100d generated in the state shown in FIG. 20(b) is pressed by the document pressing member 71, thereby allowing the long folded document 100 to smoothly reach the state shown in FIG. 20(c). can be exerted, and it is possible to suitably prevent discharged paper stacking failure.

In this way, by pressing the second folded portion 100c of the long folded document 100 with the document pressing member 71, a suitable form for causing the long folded document 100 to reach the second stacking surface 82a is the document pressing surface. The first mountain-folded portion 100a is conveyed downstream from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a while the second mountain-folded portion 100c is pressed by the downstream end of the stacking surface 71a. Further, for this purpose, the long folded document 100 is discharged to the discharge stacking section 44 by the discharge roller 26 (see FIG. 1) located at the most downstream side of the conveying path, so that the first folded portion 100a of the long folded document 100 is the first. The length from the discharge roller to the front end of the first stacking surface 81a is set to the length from the upstream end (the rear end in the transport direction) of the long folded document 100 so that the long folded document 100 is conveyed downstream from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a. It is preferable to make it shorter than the one-peak bent portion 100a. In this embodiment, the length from the discharge roller 26 is specifically the length from the position where the paper leaves the nip of the discharge roller 26, that is, the length from the downstream end of the nip. .

The long folded document 100 according to the present embodiment described above has a length corresponding to four A4 size documents arranged continuously in the short side direction as shown in FIG. It is a long document folded into a shape, and a suitable example for this has been described.

In this case, assuming that the width w is the length of the A4 size sheet in the lateral direction, the length from the discharge roller 26 to the tip of the first stacking surface 81a is set to be shorter than 3w in order to satisfy the above relationship. It can be conveyed so that the first folded portion 100a exceeds the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a, and more preferably, the length from the discharge roller 26 to the tip of the first stacking surface 81a is shorter than 2.5w. Thus, regardless of the actual height of the discharge roller 26 from the first stacking surface 81a and the height of the document pressing member 71 from the first stacking surface 81a, the first mountain bent portion 100a is aligned with the first stacking surface 81a. can be transported beyond the downstream end of the

Further, by setting the distance in the conveying direction between the downstream end of the document pressing member 71 and the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a to be w or less, the first folded portion 100a is positioned on the first stacking surface 81a. At times, the document pressing member 71 can press the second folded portion 100c. In particular, if the document pressing member 71 is extended from the discharge roller 26 in the transport direction over a length of 2w or more, the second mountain folded portion 100c can be reliably pressed.

However, the length from the discharge roller 26 to the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a is set to 2w or more and less than 3w so that the document pressing member 71 and the first stacking surface 81a are not excessively long. It is preferable that the length from the downstream end to the downstream end of the first loading surface 81a be w or less. Similarly, the length from the discharge roller 26 to the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a is set so that the third mountain-folded portion 100e shown in FIG. The height is preferably w or more. For the same reason, the length L from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a to the abutment portion 82c (see FIG. 6) of the downstream end of the second discharge extension member 82 is preferably 3w or less.

In this embodiment, considering the folding of the long folded document 100, the length from the discharge roller 26 to the downstream end of the document pressing member 71 is 2w, and the length from the discharge roller 26 to the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a is 2w. is 2.3w. Also, the length from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a to the abutment portion 82c of the downstream end of the second discharge extension member 82 is 2w or less, specifically 1.95w. This is because, in the present embodiment, alignment is improved by setting the dimension so that the second folded portion 100c of the long folded document 100 is located near the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a in the discharge extension unit 80. By setting the length from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a to the abutment portion 82c of the downstream end of the second discharge extension member 82 from 1.9w to 2w, the distance shown in FIG. The long folded documents 100 that are sequentially discharged can be stacked on the discharge extension unit 80 in this state.

Note that the length L from the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a to the abutment portion 82c at the downstream end of the second discharge extension member 82 may be variable. For example, by making the length L variable within the above-mentioned range of 3w or less, the second mountain fold portion 100c can be adjusted to the downstream end of the first stacking surface 81a according to the folding condition and size of the document to be actually discharged. It is possible to adjust so as to be close to each other.

Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. A pair of discharge restricting plates 44a are provided so as to face each other in the width direction in the discharge direction (conveyance direction), but only one of them is visible in FIG. The ejection restricting plate 44a is provided movably in the width direction of the document, and the ejection stacking section 44 is provided with grooves serving as rails for guiding its movement. As shown in FIG. 6, the discharge extension unit 80 has a claw portion 81f that catches the groove on the upstream side in the discharge direction. A pair of left and right claw portions 81f are provided, and a protruding stacking surface 81g protruding upstream is provided at the central portion of the claw portions 81f.

The function of the projecting stacking surface 81g will be described below. Originally, the discharge extension unit 80 is provided at a lower position immediately after the discharge roller 26 as much as possible to prevent the discharged document from colliding with the upstream end of the discharge extension unit 80 . can. However, the document conveying device 200 according to the present embodiment supports all kinds of document types and document sizes, and the position of the discharge regulation plate 44a is provided at a position shifted downstream from the position of the discharge roller 26. . The discharge extension unit 80 is attached to the groove that guides the movement of the discharge regulation plate 44a. A member 82 is attached so as to protrude. Therefore, in order to keep the mounted state of the paper discharge extension unit 80 stable even when the document is stacked on the paper discharge extension unit 80, the claw portion 81f is hooked on the upstream side in the groove portion as described above. Install while rotating the whole. In this way, since the paper ejection extension unit 80 is attached by rotating, it is necessary to provide the claw portion 81f at the lower portion of the upstream end of the paper ejection extension unit 80, thereby allowing the first stacking surface 81a to be ejected. The position becomes distant from the roller 26 . Correspondingly, by protruding the protruding stacking surface 81g to the upstream side, the first stacking surface 81a can be substantially extended to the upstream side, and the discharged document can be placed on the upstream side of the discharge extension unit 80. It prevents you from colliding with the edges. The amount of protrusion of the projecting stacking surface 81g is such that it does not hit the output stacking section 44 when the output extension unit 80 is attached by rotating.

As described above, the paper discharge extension unit 80 according to the present embodiment is attached to the main body of the document conveying device 200, and has a paper feeding port opening on the front surface of the main body of the device and a U-shaped conveying unit. The present invention is particularly suitable for documents conveyed along a path and ejected from a paper ejection port that opens above the paper feed port on the front surface of the main body of the apparatus.

Although the document conveying device 200 of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the embodiments described above can be appropriately modified or combined. be.

1 sheet stacking table 4 pickup roller 6 feeding roller 7 separation rollers 14 and 15 reading unit 37 separation pad 60 paper feed pressing means 61 paper feeding pressing wire 62 paper feeding pressing roller 63 spacer rubber tube 70 document pressing means 71 document pressing member 72 Rotary shaft 73 First mounting plate 74 Second mounting plate 80 Paper discharge extension unit 81 First paper discharge extension member 81a First stacking surface 81b Contact portion 81c Abutment portion 81d First hole 81e Second hole 82 Second Discharge extension member 82a Second stacking surface 100 Long folded document 100a First folded portion 100b Inclined portion 100c Second folded portion 100d Loop 200 Document transport device D Transport direction

Claims (11)

an apparatus main body for conveying a sheet having a folded portion in a direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction;
a paper feed port for feeding the sheet;
a discharge port for discharging the conveyed sheet;
a paper discharge tray on which the sheets discharged from the discharge port are stacked;
document pressing means provided opposite to the paper ejection tray across the ejection port and pressing a loop formed on the ejected sheet;
a paper feed holding means that is attached to the paper discharge tray and holds the folded portion of the sheet stacked on a sheet stacking table for stacking the sheet fed to the paper feed port;
the paper feed pressing means is vertically spaced apart from the sheet stacking table;
The discharge tray has a first stacking surface on the upstream side in the sheet conveying direction, a downstream side from the downstream end of the first stacking surface, and a vertically lower position than the downstream end of the first stacking surface. A sheet conveying device, comprising: a second stacking surface; The paper discharge tray includes a first paper discharge extension member having the first stacking surface and a second paper discharge extension member forming the second stacking surface,
2. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second sheet ejection extension member is rotatably provided on said first sheet ejection extension member, and is switchable between a sheet ejection posture and a retraction posture. 3. The sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second discharge extension members are wire rods provided at intervals in the width direction in the conveying direction of the sheet. 4. The sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge tray is detachable from a discharged sheet stacking section provided in the apparatus main body. The document pressing means has an attachment member for attachment to the apparatus main body,
5. The sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a document holding member that is rotatable with respect to the mounting member and that can be switched between a holding posture and a retracted posture. The document pressing member has a document pressing surface that presses the sheet,
6. The sheet conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the document pressing surface is parallel to the first stacking surface. 7. The sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said document holding means is detachable from said apparatus main body. 2. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sheet feeding pressing means is provided at a position facing said sheet stacking table on which said sheets taken into said sheet feeding port are stacked. 9. The sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sheet holding means is rotatably attached to said discharge tray. The paper feed pressing means is positioned at a distance corresponding to the width of an A4 size sheet in the lateral direction from the downstream end of the sheet stacking table in the conveying direction with respect to the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking table. 2. The sheet conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet conveying device is provided corresponding to the contact position. The sheet is a long folded document having a first length in the conveying direction and a second length shorter than the first length in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction,
The first length is a length formed by continuously arranging four sheets of A4 size documents in the short direction of the A4 size documents,
The second length is the length in the longitudinal direction of the A4 size document,
The long folded document is one A4 size document and one A4 size document formed by arranging four sheets of the A4 size document continuously in the width direction of the A4 size document. 2. The sheet conveying device according to claim 1 , wherein the first document is folded in a bellows shape at the boundary between the other document of A4 size adjacent thereto .

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