JP7456170B2 - Sheet material supply section, image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a sheet material supply section of an image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image forming apparatuses have been provided with a sheet material supply section. This sheet material supply unit includes a sheet material loading tray that is inserted into and pulled out from the main body of the image forming apparatus, and a sheet material loading tray that is movable relative to the sheet material loading tray, and a sheet material loading tray that is movable with respect to the sheet material loading tray. and a position regulating member that regulates the position of the edge of the material, and supplies the sheet materials one by one from the sheet material stacking tray to the main body casing side in a predetermined conveyance direction.

In such a sheet material supply section, the position is regulated by rotating the pinion gear provided on the sheet material loading tray by meshing with the rack gear provided on the main body casing when the sheet material loading tray is inserted into or pulled out from the main body casing. Techniques for moving parts are already known.

For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-60640) discloses a sheet material loading tray that is inserted into and pulled out from the main body casing of an image forming apparatus, and a sheet material stacking tray that moves in the sheet material conveying direction to and a transport direction position regulating member that moves in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction to regulate the position of the end of the sheet material. A sheet material supply unit is disclosed in which a transport direction position regulating member and a transport orthogonal direction position regulating member move between a predetermined position and a separated position in conjunction with insertion and withdrawal operations.

In the above conventional technology, the conveyance direction position regulating member and the conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating member move in conjunction with the insertion operation of the sheet material stacking tray into the main body casing, and the sheet materials stacked on the sheet material stacking tray are moved in two directions. The position is controlled from both directions at the same time. However, at this time, one of the position regulating members, which first contacted the sheet material and regulated its position, is pressing against the edge of the sheet material in one direction, so the moving load of the other position regulating member becomes large, and the position of the other position is increased. There has been a problem in that the regulating member may not be able to move to a predetermined position.

As described above, if the sheet material position regulating member does not function properly and the printing operation of the image forming apparatus is started in a state where the sheet material is not properly positioned, sheet material conveyance problems may occur. In order to convey a sheet material without any problems in an image forming apparatus, the position of the sheet material in the conveyance direction is more important than the position in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction.

In addition, in the conventional sheet material supply section, which of the conveyance direction position regulating member and the conveyance direction position regulating member comes into contact with the sheet material first varies depending on various conditions such as the size and orientation of the sheet material. It was not decided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to suppress conveyance defects by holding stacked sheet materials at appropriate positions with respect to the sheet material conveyance direction in a sheet material supply section of an image forming apparatus.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a sheet material supply unit of an image forming apparatus, comprising: a sheet material stacking tray that is mounted in a main body housing of the image forming apparatus so as to be insertable and removable; a transport direction position regulating member that moves in a sheet material transport direction to regulate a position of an end of a sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking tray; a transport orthogonal direction position regulating member that moves in a direction orthogonal to the sheet material transport direction to regulate a position of an end of a sheet material placed on the sheet material stacking tray; a pinion gear provided on the sheet material stacking tray; and a rack gear that is provided on the main body housing and meshes with the pinion gear. During insertion/pulling out operations, the pinion gear engages with the rack gear and rotates, thereby moving the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member, and when the sheet material loading tray is inserted into the main body housing, the transport direction position regulating member completes its movement before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member completes its movement, and the sheet material loading tray is provided with two pinion gears, one of which is a first pinion gear for moving the transport direction position regulating member and the other is a second pinion gear for moving the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member.

According to the present invention, when inserting the sheet material stacking tray into the main body housing, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member that moves in the sheet material transport direction is completed before the movement of the transport direction position regulating member. As a result, the conveyance direction position regulating member can reliably move to a predetermined position without bearing the movement load due to the conveyance direction position regulating member, and the sheet material can be reliably positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the sheet material conveyance direction. I can do it. Therefore, problems in conveying the sheet material can be suppressed.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of a sheet material stacking tray that constitutes the sheet material supply section of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state in which sheet materials are stacked on the sheet material stacking tray of FIG. 2. FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a state in which the conveyance direction position regulating member of FIG. 3 positions the sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to the conveyance direction. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a state in which the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member of FIG. 4 positions the sheet material at an appropriate position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction. FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a moving mechanism for moving the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member of FIG. 5; 2 is a plan view showing a state in which a sheet material stacking tray is pulled out from the main body housing of FIG. 1; FIG. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a state in which the sheet material loading tray of FIG. 7 is completely inserted into the main body case.

An image forming apparatus and a sheet material supply section according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and mainly includes a main body housing 10, a scanner section 11, an optical writing section 12, a paper feed section 13 as a "sheet material supply section", and a conveyance section. The image forming apparatus includes a section 14, an image forming section 15, a toner replenishing section 16, a fixing section 17, and a paper discharging section 18.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the paper feed section 13 includes a paper feed tray 3 as a "sheet material stacking tray", a conveyance direction position regulating member 4, a pair of conveyance direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, It includes a moving mechanism 6 that moves the transport direction position regulating member 4, and a moving mechanism 7 that moves the transport direction position regulating members 5a and 5b.

Note that the paper feed section 13 of this example includes two stages of paper feed trays 3. These paper feed trays 3 are each pulled out in front of the main body casing 10 to replenish paper 9 (sheet material), and are stored (completely inserted) inside the main body casing 10 when placed on the main body casing 10 side. Feed paper. Since the structure of each paper feed tray 3 is the same, one of the paper feed trays 3 will be explained.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the paper feed tray 3. Arrow A in FIG. 2 indicates the insertion direction of the paper feed tray 3 into the main body casing 10. Arrow B indicates the direction in which the paper 9 set in the paper feed tray 3 is transported toward the main body casing 10 side. Arrow A and arrow B are perpendicular to each other. A dashed-dotted line C indicates a central portion of the paper feed tray 3 in the depth direction (that is, the insertion direction into the main body housing 10).

The conveyance direction position regulating member 4 regulates the position of the sheets 9 stacked on the paper feed tray 3 in the conveyance direction. The transport direction position regulating member 4 is movably provided inside the paper feed tray 3, and moves in the transport direction (direction of arrow B) on the dashed line C in FIG. The transport direction position regulating member 4 contacts one side of the paper 9 and presses the paper 9 against the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3, thereby positioning the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport direction.

The pair of conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b regulate the position in the conveyance orthogonal direction of the paper 9 loaded on the paper feed tray 3. The pair of conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b are arranged facing each other on the inside of the paper feed tray 3. The pair of conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b are provided so as to be movable in directions approaching and separating from each other, and also move in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction. The pair of conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b abut against opposite sides of the paper 9, respectively, and sandwich the paper 9 between them, thereby positioning the paper 9 in the appropriate position in the conveyance orthogonal direction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the moving mechanism 6 includes an endless belt 65 connected to the conveyance direction position regulating member 4, a gear pulley 64 and pulleys 66, 67 that drive the endless belt 65, and provided on the paper feed tray 3. Consisting of a pinion gear 61, a pinion gear 62 and a torque limiter 63 that transmit power from the pinion gear 61 to the gear pulley 64, and a rack gear 60 (FIGS. 7 and 8) provided in the main body housing 10 and meshed with the pinion gear 61. has been done.

In the moving mechanism 6, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into or pulled out from the main body housing 10, the pinion gear 61 is engaged with the rack gear 60 and rotates. It is transmitted to the endless belt 65 to move the transport direction position regulating member 4. Further, the moving mechanism 6 moves the transport direction position regulating member 4 in a direction approaching the paper 9 (from left to right in FIG. 6) when inserting the paper feed tray 3 into the main body housing 10, and 3 from the main body casing 10, the transport direction position regulating member 4 is moved in a direction away from the paper 9 (from right to left in FIG. 6).

The torque limiter 63 configuring the moving mechanism 6 cuts off power transmission from the pinion gear 61 to the transport direction position regulating member 4 when the torque applied to the pinion gear 61 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. That is, the paper 9 pushed by the transport direction position regulating member 4 is pressed against the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3 and stops moving. Then, when the rotation of the pinion gear 61 continues after the paper 9 stops, the torque applied to the pinion gear 61 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. At this time, the torque limiter 63 slips, cutting off power transmission from the pinion gear 62 to the gear pulley 64, and the transport direction position regulating member 4 stops.

As described above, in this example, after the transport direction position regulating member 4 positions the paper 9 at an appropriate position in the transport direction, the transport direction position regulating member 4 is configured to stop. Regardless of the size of the sheets 9 loaded on the tray 3, the sheets 9 can be positioned at appropriate positions with respect to the transport direction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the moving mechanism 7 includes rack gears 77 and 79 provided on the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, respectively, and a center portion of the paper feed tray 3 (on the dashed line C in FIG. 2). a pinion gear 78 that is meshed with both the rack gears 77 and 79; a gear pulley 76 that is meshed with the rack gear 77; a gear pulley 74; an endless belt 75 that spans between the gear pulleys 74 and 76; A pinion gear 71 that is connected to the gear pulley 74, a pinion gear 72 and a torque limiter 73 that transmit power from the pinion gear 71 to a gear pulley 74, and a rack gear 70 (FIGS. 7 and 8) that is provided in the main body casing 10 and meshes with the pinion gear 71. It is composed of

In the moving mechanism 7, a pinion gear 71 is engaged with a rack gear 70 and rotates when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into or pulled out from the main body casing 10, and this rotation is caused by a pinion gear 72, a torque limiter 73, a gear pulley 74, and an endless belt. 75 and gear pulley 76 to the rack gear 77 to move one of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a. Further, in the moving mechanism 7, the power transmitted to the rack gear 77 as described above is transmitted to the rack gear 79 via the pinion gear 78 to move the other transport orthogonal direction position regulating member 5b. Furthermore, the moving mechanism 7 moves the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b in the direction closer to the paper 9 (in the direction closer to each other) during the operation of inserting the paper feed tray 3 into the main body housing 10. When the sheet 9 is pulled out from the main body casing 10, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are moved in a direction away from the sheet 9 (in a direction away from each other).

The torque limiter 73 constituting the moving mechanism 7 cuts off power transmission from the pinion gear 71 to the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b when the torque applied to the pinion gear 71 exceeds a predetermined threshold. That is, the sheet 9 pushed by one of the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a, 5b stops moving by being pressed by the other. Then, when the rotation of the pinion gear 71 continues after the paper 9 stops, the torque applied to the pinion gear 71 exceeds a predetermined threshold value. At this time, as the torque limiter 73 slips, power transmission from the pinion gear 72 to the gear pulley 74 is cut off, and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b stop.

As described above, in this example, after the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b position the paper 9 at an appropriate position with respect to the transport orthogonal direction, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are configured to stop. Therefore, regardless of the size of the paper 9 loaded on the paper feed tray 3, the paper 9 can be positioned at an appropriate position with respect to the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction.

As described above, in this example, the paper feed tray 3 is provided with two pinion gears 61 and 71. The pinion gear 61 corresponds to a "first pinion gear" in the claims, and the pinion gear 71 corresponds to a "second pinion gear" in the claims. Further, in this example, two rack gears 60 and 70 are provided in the main body case 10, and the rack gear 60 and the pinion gear 61 are configured to mesh with each other independently, and the rack gear 70 and the pinion gear 71 are configured to mesh with each other independently. The rack gear 60 corresponds to a "first rack gear" in the claims, and the rack gear 70 corresponds to a "second rack gear" in the claims. Further, the torque limiter 63 corresponds to a "first torque limiter" in the claims, and the torque limiter 73 corresponds to a "second torque limiter" in the claims.

Further, in the paper feed section 13, when inserting the paper feed tray 3 into the main body housing 10, the transport direction position regulating member 4 starts moving before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and the transport direction position The regulating member 4 is configured to complete its movement before the position regulating members 5a and 5b in the transport orthogonal direction. The distance between pinion gear 61 and pinion gear 71 and the arrangement of rack gears 60 and 70 are set so as to have such a configuration.

Specifically, the pinion gears 61 and 71 are provided on the side of the paper feed tray 3, with the pinion gear 61 positioned further back than the pinion gear 71 in the tray insertion direction (the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 7). The rack gears 60 and 70 are provided inside the main body housing 10, with the rack gear 60 positioned further back than the rack gear 70 in the tray insertion direction. Then, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the pinion gear 61 and the rack gear 60 mesh before the pinion gear 71 and the rack gear 70 mesh.

Further, the upper limit movement amount of the conveyance direction position regulating member 4 before the movement of the conveyance direction position regulating members 5a, 5b starts is determined by the distance between the pinion gear 61 and the pinion gear 71 in the tray insertion direction. The distance in the tray insertion direction from the pinion gear 71 is set to the amount of movement necessary for the transport direction position regulating member 4 to complete its movement before the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b start moving. Further, the positions of the respective parts are set so that the pinion gear 61 and the rack gear 70 and the pinion gear 71 and the rack gear 60 do not come into contact with each other.

In addition, in this example, the transport direction position regulating member 4 and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b are moved to the completely open position of the paper feed tray 3 with respect to the main body casing 10 (the largest size paper 9 is moved to the paper feed tray 3). This is done only in a partial range between the position where it can be refilled) and the fully inserted position. As a result, even when the paper feed tray 3 is attached or removed from the main body housing 10 by a small amount, the conveyance direction position regulating member 4 and the conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b regulate the position of the paper 9, so that the paper feed tray 3 can be pulled out. The position of the paper 9 can be regulated regardless of the amount. Further, the partial range does not include the fully open position. Thereby, it is not necessary to completely open the paper feed tray 3 to regulate the position of the paper 9.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, the movement of the transport direction position regulating member 4 that moves in the paper transport direction is the same as the movement of the transport direction position regulating members 5a and 5b. Since the transport direction position regulating member 4 is configured to complete its movement earlier than the paper transport direction, the transport direction position regulating member 4 can be reliably moved to a predetermined position without being burdened with the moving load by the transport direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and the paper 9 can be moved completely before the paper transport. It is possible to reliably position the device at an appropriate position with respect to the direction. Therefore, problems in transporting the paper 9 can be suppressed.

Next, the operation when replenishing the paper feed tray 3 with paper 9 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the paper feed tray 3 is pulled out from the main body housing 10, and as shown in FIG. 3, multiple pieces of paper 9 are loaded onto the bottom plate 31 of the paper feed tray 3. Then, the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10. At this time, the transport direction position regulating member 4 moves in the transport direction as the paper feed tray 3 is inserted into the main body housing 10, and after the transport direction position regulating member 4 comes into contact with the paper 9, the paper 9 is pushed in the transport direction by the transport direction position regulating member 4, and moves to a position where it comes into contact with the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3 and stops. When the paper 9 stops, the transport direction position regulating member 4 stops (FIG. 4).

When the paper feed tray 3 is further inserted into the main body casing 10, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b move toward the center (dotted chain line C in FIG. 2), and either one or both of the transport orthogonal directions are moved. After the position regulating members 5a, 5b come into contact with the paper 9, the paper 9 is pushed toward the center by the position regulating members 5a, 5b in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction, moves to an appropriate position in the direction perpendicular to the transport shown in FIG. 5, and then stops. When the paper 9 stops, the transport orthogonal direction position regulating members 5a and 5b also stop.

As a result of the above operations, the paper 9 on the paper feed tray 3 is positionally regulated on all four sides by the transport direction position regulating member 4, the side wall 32 of the paper feed tray 3, and the pair of transport direction position regulating members 5a and 5b, and is placed in the proper position. Retained. From this state, the image forming apparatus 1 starts the printing operation, and the paper 9 is passed from the paper feed section 13, through the conveyance section 14, the image forming section 15, and the fixing section 17, and is then discharged with the print at a predetermined position. It is output to section 18.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. That is, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, a pair of transport orthogonal position regulating members 5a and 5b are provided, but one transport orthogonal direction position regulating member may be provided. In that case, the sheet material may be positioned between the sheet material and the wall of the sheet material stacking tray. Further, in the above embodiment, the main body housing 10 is provided with two rack gears 60 and 70, but the number of rack gears may be one.

1 Image forming device 3 Paper feed tray (sheet material loading tray)
4 Transport direction position regulating member 5a, 5b Transport direction position regulating member 10 Housing main body 13 Paper feed section (sheet material supply section)
60 Rack gear (first rack gear)
61 Pinion gear (first pinion gear)
70 Rack gear (second rack gear)
71 Pinion gear (second pinion gear)

JP2016-60640A

Claims (6)

A sheet material supply section of an image forming apparatus,
a sheet material loading tray that is inserted into and pulled out from the main body casing of the image forming apparatus;
a conveyance direction position regulating member that moves in the sheet material conveyance direction and regulates the position of the end portion of the sheet material stacked on the sheet material stacking tray;
a conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating member that moves in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction and regulates the position of an end portion of the sheet material placed on the sheet material stacking tray;
a pinion gear provided on the sheet material loading tray;
a rack gear provided in the main body housing and meshed with the pinion gear;
When the sheet material loading tray is inserted into or pulled out from the main body casing, the pinion gear is engaged with the rack gear and rotates, so that the transport direction position regulating member and the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member move; When inserting the sheet material stacking tray into the main body casing, the movement of the conveyance direction position regulating member is configured to be completed before the movement of the conveyance direction position regulating member,
The sheet material loading tray is provided with two pinion gears,
One of the two pinion gears is a first pinion gear for moving the transport direction position regulating member, and the other is a second pinion gear for moving the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member.
A sheet material supply unit characterized by: a first torque limiter that cuts off power transmission from the first pinion gear to the transport direction position regulating member when the torque applied to the first pinion gear exceeds a predetermined threshold;
A second torque limiter that cuts off power transmission from the second pinion gear to the transport orthogonal direction position regulating member when the torque applied to the second pinion gear exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The sheet material supply unit according to claim 1 . The main body housing is provided with two of the rack gears,
The sheet material supply section according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that one of the two rack gears is a first rack gear that meshes with the first pinion gear, and the other is a second rack gear that meshes with the second pinion gear. The movement of the conveyance direction position regulating member and the conveyance orthogonal direction position regulating member is performed only in a part of the range from a fully open position to a fully inserted position of the sheet material stacking tray with respect to the main body casing. The sheet material supply unit according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , characterized in that: The sheet material supply unit according to claim 4 , wherein the partial range does not include the fully open position. An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet material supply section according to any one of claims 1 to 5 .

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