JPS6229340B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a feeding device for sheets such as transmission originals used in facsimile machines and the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Sheets used in facsimile machines and the like, such as transmission originals, come in a wide variety of sizes and materials, such as tracing paper and plain paper. It is not easy to accurately feed sheets with different thicknesses, surface smoothness, stiffness, etc., while separating them one by one under the same feeding conditions. do not have. On the other hand, in a facsimile machine or the like, when a large number of original documents are continuously transmitted one by one, for example, an automatic document feeder is used that separates and feeds the stacked originals one by one.

This automatic document feeder handles stacked documents.
For example, it can accommodate around 50 sheets or more. As a means of separating and feeding such original sheets one by one, a document feeder that suctions and adsorbs each sheet one by one to a vacuum head, or a roller and friction pad is used, taking into consideration the material type of the sheet. Sheets are fed using a document feeder or the like that is brought into contact and frictionally separated.

By the way, some facsimile machines of this type have a function that allows unattended reception on the receiving side, and in this case, when used together with the automatic document feeder described above, the operator on both the sending and receiving sides has to There is no need to wait, and labor-saving functions can be achieved. However, the sheet separation effect in the automatic document feeder is not always completely guaranteed; for example, there may be cases where there are sheets of extremely different material types among the stacked documents, or there may be a situation where there are changes in the ambient temperature, humidity, etc. When environmental conditions change, the conventional document feeder described above
Problems such as multiple sheet feeding may occur.

If such a problem occurs, for example, a certain document sheet will no longer be sent,
If such a problem occurs in transmission, so to speak, in paper feeding, the operator will be forced to wait in some way on the sending side.

The present invention allows the permissible number of sheets to be fed to a certain extent.
Using a sheet holder that can store these sheets in a staggered manner, the sheet loading table that positions and fixes the sheet holder is moved intermittently, and the leading edge of the sheet is placed between the sheet feeding roller and the sheet holder. The configuration is extremely simple, allowing the sheets to be fed accurately one by one by placing them in an equal sheet feeding means, eliminating the need to select the type of sheet material and eliminating the need to feed multiple sheets at the same time. It is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple sheet feeding device.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus configuration for conceptually explaining an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, in the case of manual feeding, the original sheet O is advanced along the manual feeding table 1 in the direction of the arrow, and its leading edge is
The sheet is gripped by sheet feeding roller pair 2. The sheet feeding roller pair 2 is rotating in the direction of the arrow.
Due to this rotational feeding action, the sheet O is fed into the facsimile apparatus main body 3, and at the time of this feeding, the image of the original sheet is read by the reading device 4. Note that as the sheet feeding means, a pair of endless belts may be used in addition to the pair of sheet feeding rollers.

On the other hand, a plurality of original sheets O ₁ , O ₂ , O ₃ are housed in a sheet holder 5 that constitutes one of the apparatuses of the present invention. Note that from a practical standpoint, the sheet holder 5 is designed to be able to accommodate approximately 5 to 10 original sheets, but in the following explanation, for convenience, it is assumed that the sheet holder 5 can accommodate 3 sheets. A seat holder shall be applied.

Each sheet is arranged from the bottom to the top sheet.
The sheets are sequentially shifted and retreated at equal intervals in the sheet feeding direction, and each sheet
Each sheet is separated by a sheet holder 5. As will be described later, the sheet holder 5 is positioned and fixed with respect to the sheet loading table 14, and in this state, the leading edge of the lowest original sheet _O1 is
It is located close to the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2.
Now, assuming that the amount of shift of each sheet is L, the sheet hocker 5 is intermittently moved by a length of approximately L towards the sheet feeding roller pair 2, and during this movement, the lowest The leading end of the original sheet O ₁ is held by a pair of rollers 2 , and the sheet is pulled out from a holder 5 and conveyed into the facsimile apparatus main body 3 , and the sheet image is read by a reading device 4 . After the trailing edge of the original sheet O ₁ passes through the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2, the holder 5 moves intermittently again by a length of approximately L towards the pair of feeding rollers 2, and the leading edge of the next sheet O ₂ passes through the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2. is held by a pair of rollers 2 and conveyed into the main body 3 of the apparatus.

In this way, each sheet is automatically fed one by one from the bottom to the top. The above is a conceptual explanation of the present invention, but in any case, each sheet is shifted in advance, and therefore, for example, even if extremely different sheet materials are mixed, multiple sheets can be There is no risk of sheet feeding, and therefore, once the sheet holder is set on the transmitting side, there is no need for the operator to stand by.

Next, the sheet feeding device of the present invention will be explained specifically and in detail.

In FIG. 2, the frame member 6 is fitted with two guide shafts 7 and 8 (see FIG. 3), and
The positioning pin 11 is slidable on both guide shafts, and the positioning pin 11 is inserted into the recess 8a of the guide shaft 8.
The frame member 6 is selectively positioned and fixed on the guide shaft by engaging the distal end portion of the frame member 6 with the elasticity of the extensible spring 9.

On the other hand, in FIGS. 2 and 3, four guide rollers 13 are rotatably mounted at appropriate positions on the bracket 12, and these guide rollers engage with the guide shafts 7 and 8, respectively. This allows the bracket 12 to move freely in the axial direction of the guide shaft. A sheet mounting table 14 is fixed on the bracket 12 with screws.
There are two ruler pins 15, 1 on this table 14.
6 is implanted as shown in FIG. A holder pressing plate 17 is hinged to one end of the table 14, and this pressing plate 17 is given the ability to rotate in the direction of pressing the table 14 by the elasticity of a swinging coil spring 18.

Two solenoids 21 and 22 are fixed to a support member 19 fixed inside the frame member 6 so as to face each other. The swinging member 23 is pivotally connected to the support member 19 by a shaft pin 24 as shown in FIG. It is designed to be able to swing around.
An intermittent locking member 26 is attached to the swinging member 23 with a stud pin 27.
The intermittent locking member 26 is rotatable around the stud pin 27.

As shown in FIG. 4, the intermittent locking member 26 has a habit of rotating clockwise around the stud pin 27 due to the elasticity of the spring 28. Standing stop pin 2
It is blocked by 9. A pair of locking pieces 26a and 26b are formed on the intermittent locking member 26, and one of the locking pieces 26a and the other locking piece 26b are inclined downward as shown in FIG. ing.

In FIG. 4, the bracket 12 is provided with projections 12a at equal intervals. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, a tension spring 31 is hung between the bracket 12 and the frame member 6, and the tension elasticity of this spring 31 causes the bracket 12 to move in the direction of arrow A, that is, in the direction of arrow A. A moving behavior towards sheet feeding roller pair 2 is provided. The movement of the bracket 12 due to this habit is prevented by the protrusion 12a on the spring 31 side being locked by one of the locking pieces 26a of the intermittent locking member 26, as shown in FIG. Protrusion 1 of the above bracket
2a, the solenoids 21 and 22, the swinging member 23, the intermittent locking member 26, and the tension spring 31 move the sheet loading table 1 every time the sheet is fed one by one.
4 intermittently in the sheet feeding direction.

In FIG. 2, the sheet holder 5 is placed on the sheet placing table 14, and the two ruler pins 15 and 16 are fitted into the holes drilled at one end of the holder 5. It is positioned and fixed on the top. The sheet holder 5 is designed to store, for example, the rear end side of about 5 to 10 original sheets. In addition, the second
For convenience, the figure shows a seat holder that can accommodate three sheets.

The seat holder 5 is made of a flexible thin material such as a polyester sheet, for example, as shown in FIG.
The holder 5 is positioned on the table 14 by fitting the ruler pins a and 5b into the ruler pins 15 and 16, respectively.

Here, while turning over the sheet holder 5 shown in FIG. 7 one by one, the original sheets are sequentially inserted from the lowest sheet to the upper sheet.
After inserting the sheets, each sheet is separated and shifted. After performing such preparatory work, the holder press plate 17 shown in FIG. 6 is opened, the sheet holder 5 is fitted to the ruler pins 15 and 16 as shown in FIG. 14. After that, close the holder press plate 17 as shown by the imaginary line,
Hold down the holder 5 with relatively light force. The holder pressing force in this case is substantially determined by the elasticity of the spring 18.

In the above state, the leading edge of the lowest original sheet O ₁ is placed in a position close to the mutual contact portion of the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2, and the top sheet O 1 is placed in the order of L (see FIG. 1). This means that they will be moved back at equal intervals.

Here, assuming that the transmission preparation work in the facsimile device has been completed, when an operation button (not shown) of the sheet feeding device is pressed, the solenoid 22 shown in FIG. 3 is energized. Then, the swinging member 23 is rotated clockwise via the wire 25 around the shaft pin 24 to the position shown in FIG. As a result, one of the locking pieces 26a of the intermittent locking member 26 retreats upward, so that the protrusion 12a of the bracket 12 that was engaged with it is released from its restrained state, so that the bracket 12 Due to the elasticity of the spring 31, it moves quickly in the direction of arrow A.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, when the swinging member 23 rotates, the other locking piece 26b reaches into the moving path of the protrusion 12a, so that the bracket 12
When progresses in the direction of arrow A, this time the next protrusion 1
2a hits the other locking piece 26b, and in this state the bracket 12 stops. That is, the bracket 12 is intermittently moved by half the pitch of the protrusion 12a. This amount of movement approximately corresponds to the amount L of mutual displacement of the original sheets described above.

That is, in FIG. 2, the bracket 12 moves intermittently in the direction of arrow A together with the loading table 14, and at this time, the leading edge of the lowest original sheet _O1 is held in the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2. be included.
Then, the sheet O ₁ is pulled out from the holder 5 and fed into the main body of the facsimile machine by the rotational feeding action of the roller pair 2, and is then transferred to the reading device 4.
(See FIG. 1) reads the image on the original sheet. On the other hand, after the table 14 moves intermittently, the leading end of the sheet O ₂ is placed near the mutual contact portion of the roller pair 2 .

In FIG. 2, after the rear end of the sheet O ₁ has passed the roller pair 2, this state is detected by an appropriate detection means such as a micro switch. By the signal
The solenoid 21 in FIG. 5 is energized. Then, the swinging member 23 moves to the shaft pin 2.
4 in the counterclockwise direction to the position shown in Figure 3. Then, one locking piece 2 of the intermittent locking member 26
6b is retracted downward, and the other locking piece 26a
reaches the travel path of the protrusion 12a.

That is, in FIG. 4, the second protrusion 12a, which has been engaged with the locking piece 26b, now engages with the locking piece 26a. During this process, the bracket 12 is intermittently moved by a length of approximately L as in the previous case, so that the leading edge of the original sheet O ₂ in FIG. 2 is held by the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2. While being pulled out from the holder 5, it is fed into the main body of the facsimile apparatus. Next, after the rear end of the sheet O ₂ passes the roller pair 2, the solenoid 22 is energized, and as a result, the bracket 12 moves intermittently in the same way, and the third original sheet O The leading end of the sheet _{O 3} is held by the pair of sheet conveying rollers 2, and the sheet O ₃ is pulled out from the holder 5 as shown in FIG.
It is sent into the main body of the facsimile machine.

In this way, the two solenoids 21 and 22 are alternately excited, so that the protrusion 12a of the bracket 12, the locking piece 26a of the intermittent locking member 26,
26b is repeatedly engaged and disengaged, and due to this action, the bracket 12 moves intermittently, so to speak, the sheet holder 5 intermittently moves toward the pair of feeding rollers 2, and the original sheet is They are sent one by one. In this case, the next sheet to be fed is shifted backward by a predetermined amount with respect to the sheet to be fed, so when the sheet holder 5 is intermittently moved, the leading edge of the next sheet is It cannot reach the pair of feeding rollers 2, and multiple sheets cannot be fed at the same time. Therefore, when this device is applied to a facsimile device, on the sending side,
Once the sheet holder is set, the facsimile machine can be operated unattended, which helps save labor in this type of transmission work. Also,
There is no restriction on the material of the original sheet, such as tracing paper or plain paper, and there is no problem even if extremely different sheet materials are mixed together.

In addition, in FIG. 2, the holder pressing plate 17
This prevents the sheet from slipping out of the holder when the sheet holder 5 moves intermittently, but the pressing force in this case needs to be smaller than the rotational feeding force of the sheet feeding roller pair 2. . Since the pressing force is substantially determined by the strength of the spring 18, the elastic strength of the spring 18 may be set to an appropriate value.

As shown in FIG. 8, after the sheet loading table 14 has finished its intermittent movement and all the sheets in the holder have been fed, the table 1
By manually retracting the table 14, the table 14 can be returned to its original position, that is, the position shown in FIG. At this time, since the intermittent locking member 26 is rotatable in the counterclockwise direction in FIG.
The protrusion 12a of the bracket 12 is connected to the intermittent locking member 2.
6, the member 26 is rotated counterclockwise, and finally, the intermittent locking member 26 engages the spring 28.
When the bracket 12 rotates clockwise due to its elasticity and abuts against the stopper pin 29, the bracket 12 is locked in its original position by the intermittent locking member 26. With this configuration, the intermittent locking member 26 does not prevent the table 14 from returning to its backward position.

The device 32 shown in FIG. 2 is, for example, an integrated unit, and when automatically feeding original sheets, the entire unit is attached to the main body of the facsimile machine as appropriate, and manual paper feeding is performed. In this case, the entire unit is removed from the main body of the facsimile machine, and sheets are manually fed along the manual feed table 1. Note that even with the unit attached, it is possible to manually feed paper from the sheet placement table 14.

The sheet holder 5 is constructed so that it can accommodate the maximum allowable number of sheets and one spare sheet, and the one spare sheet is placed at the top. It may also be made to function as a protective sheet.

By the way, in FIG. 2, if the sheet size changes, for example if it becomes smaller than that shown in FIG. By advancing the pin 11 toward the roller pair 2 along the guide shafts 7 and 8 and engaging the tip of the pin 11 in the recess 8b of the guide shaft 8, a small-sized sheet can be positioned. In this case, the leading end of the lowest sheet will be placed near the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2. In this way, by providing pin engagement recesses at appropriate locations on the guide shaft, it is possible to feed sheets of different sizes.

On the other hand, when setting sheets, the leading edge of the lowest sheet is moved a predetermined distance from the sheet feeding roller pair 2.
It's okay to be apart. That is, in this case, the table 14 may be moved intermittently so that the leading end reaches the pair of sheet feeding rollers 2 when the table 14 is moved intermittently by a predetermined pitch. However, in this case, it takes time until the sheet is actually fed. However, in any case,
Since paper feeding is performed automatically, a labor-saving function is achieved.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the frame member 41 and the guide shaft 42 are fixed, and the bracket 43 and the sheet loading table 44 are moved intermittently. In this embodiment device, ruler pins 45 and 46 on the table 44 are provided in the moving direction of the table 44, and holes 47a and 47b in the sheet holder 47 are provided.
The pins 45 and 46 are fitted together. The holder pressing plate 48 can be opened and closed in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the table.

With this configuration, the distance from the ruler pin 46 to the leading edge of the lowest original sheet is determined to be constant, and a sheet holder that can maintain such a constant distance must be prepared according to the sheet size. For example, sheets of different sizes can be fed without moving the frame member 41. In this case, since there is no need to move the frame member 41, the apparatus itself can be compactly assembled and close to the main body of the facsimile apparatus, resulting in a stable configuration without "flare" or the like.
In this embodiment as well, the table driving means for intermittently moving the sheet loading table is exactly the same as that in the previous embodiment.

The driving means, as shown in FIG.
This type of sheet feeding device is inexpensive and has a simple structure because it uses a driving means composed of a spring 31, a protrusion 12a of the bracket 12, an intermittent locking member 26, etc., and does not require a driving motor or the like. can be made into something.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no need to select the type of sheet to be automatically fed, and simultaneous feeding of multiple sheets is completely eliminated. It is possible to provide a simple sheet feeding device that has an extremely simple configuration and is inexpensive.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sheet feeding system diagram for schematically explaining the apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of a sheet feeding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of the sheet feeding apparatus described above. 4 is a cross-sectional plan view of the sheet feeding device, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the operation mode of the swinging member and intermittent locking member provided in the sheet feeding device, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the sheet feeding device. perspective view of the device;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing one example of the sheet holder, FIG. 8 is a side sectional view of the sheet feeding device in which the bracket has finished its intermittent movement, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a sheet feeding device. 2... Sheet conveying roller pair, 5, 47... Sheet holder, 12... Bracket, 12a... Protrusion, 14, 44... Sheet mounting table, 21,
22... Solenoid, 23... Rocking member, 26...
...Intermittent locking member, O ₁ , O ₂ , O ₃ ... Seat.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Sheet feeding means 2 arranged in the sheet feeding direction on the sheet loading tables 14, 44
The sheet is positioned and fixed on the sheet loading table, and a plurality of sheets O ₁ , O ₂ , O ₃ are placed on the lower sheet.
Sheet holders 5 and 47 store sheets while separating them one by one from each other in a state where the sheets are sequentially shifted and retreated in the sheet feeding direction from O ₁ to the upper sheet O ₃ ; and the sheet holder. Table driving means 12a for intermittently moving the sheet loading table toward the sheet feeding means each time a sheet is fed one by one starting from the lowest sheet _O1 among the sheets stored in the table. , 21, 22, 23, 26, and 31.