JPH0115464B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a paper conveyance device that conveys a sheet of paper in an image forming apparatus that can be separated into an upper mechanism and a lower mechanism.

(Prior Art) A device as shown in FIG. 3 has conventionally been used to convey a sheet paper on which a powder toner image is formed to the paper ejection side in an electrophotographic apparatus or the like.

That is, inside the endless belt 11 that conveys the sheet paper 10, a vacuum tank 13 is provided which is connected to a blower 12 that is driven by a motor (not shown) and generates an air suction force.
When conveying the sheet paper 10 peeled off from the photoreceptor, the endless belt 11 is rotated in the direction of arrow X, and at the same time, the blower 12 is driven to suck air from the numerous air intake ports 14 formed in the vacuum tank 13. By doing so, the sheet paper 10 is attracted to the endless belt 11 and transported reliably.

On the other hand, in recent years, in order to facilitate maintenance and removal of paper jams in electrophotographic apparatuses, the main body 16 is separated into an upper mechanism 16a and a lower mechanism 16b with a paper conveyance path 16c indicated by a dotted line as a boundary, as shown in FIG. , one in which the upper mechanism can be opened upward has been developed. When a conventional air suction type paper conveyance device as shown in FIG. 3 is used in such an apparatus, a vacuum tank, duct, blower,
There is a problem in that all the motors have to be incorporated, making the main body 16 quite large. Therefore, in order to reduce the size and weight of the main body 16 and further reduce the cost, a blower 17a as shown in FIG.
It is preferable that the motor 18 also serves as the motor for the cooling fan 20 of the main body 16;
0 is structurally incorporated into the upper mechanism 16a, and the vacuum tank 17b, duct 17c, and blower 17a cannot be separated, making such a layout difficult.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) Conventionally, the air suction mechanism was indivisible;
It is not possible to efficiently incorporate an air suction mechanism into a device that can be separated into an upper mechanism and a lower mechanism, which is an obstacle to reducing the size, weight, and cost of the device.

Therefore, the present invention aims to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and is a paper conveying device that can be easily incorporated into a device whose main body can be separated into upper and lower parts, and which can be made smaller and lighter, and can also be made lower in price. The purpose is to provide

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a separable joint part in a part of the duct.

(Function) The present invention uses the above means to connect the ducts at the joint during image formation, and when separating the main body vertically for maintenance etc., separates the ducts at the joint. This is to ensure efficient incorporation.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. A large number of through holes 23a are formed on the surface of a plurality of endless belts 23 that are stretched around rollers 22 in a lower mechanism 21 of the main body, and inside the endless belt 23 there is a vacuum having air suction holes 24a and 24b in the upper part. A tank 24 is provided. On the other hand, the upper mechanism 26 of the main body
A blower 27 that generates an air suction force and a cooling fan 28 that cools the main body are coaxially provided, and both are driven by a motor 30 that is a drive mechanism. A duct 31 continues between the vacuum tank 24 and the blower 27, and a separable joint 32 is formed in the middle of the duct 31 parallel to the separation plane between the upper mechanism 26 and lower mechanism 21 of the main body. A sealing member 33 made of sponge is attached to the upper end 32a, and the joint 32 is simply joined with the sealing member 33 in close contact with the lower end 32b. It is becoming more and more common.

Next, we will discuss the effect. When copying, upper mechanism 2
6 is closed on the lower mechanism 21, and the duct 3
The joint portion 32 of No. 1 also has an upper end 32a and a lower end 3.
2b are closely joined via a seal member 33. The cooling fan 28 is then driven by the motor 30.
At the same time, the blower 27 is rotated, and the air suction holes 24a, 24 of the vacuum tank 24 are rotated through the duct 31.
Air is sucked from b, and at the same time, the endless belt 23 is rotated in the direction of arrow y. As a result, when a sheet of paper (not shown) having a powder toner image after the transfer process comes into contact with the end of the endless belt 23, the through holes 23a and the air suction holes 24b
The sheet paper is transported in the direction of the arrow y while being attracted to the endless belt 23 by air suction from the endless belt 23.
The paper is ejected through a fixing device. Next, if a paper jam occurs during copying or maintenance is required, the operator rotates the upper mechanism 26 in the direction of arrow z to separate the upper mechanism 26 from the lower mechanism 21 as shown in FIG. The paper conveyance path etc. are opened, and the duct 31 is separated at the joint 32 accordingly. When the upper mechanism 26 is closed again after paper jam removal or other maintenance is completed, the joint portion 32 of the duct 31 is also automatically joined.

With this configuration, the motor of the cooling fan 28 can also be used as the motor of the blower 27, and the upper and lower parts of the main body can be separated without compromising the compactness and weight reduction of the main body, which improves operability during maintenance. Also, the joint part 32 of the duct 31 can be improved.
Since separation and joining are automatically performed simply by opening and closing the main body, operability is not impaired when the main body is separated or closed.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and can be modified in various ways. For example, the shape of the endless belt or duct, the position of the joint, etc. are not limited. In addition, the shape of the joint and the material of the sealing member are arbitrary.A groove is cut at the end of the joint, and a rubber wire, etc. that is thicker than the cross section of the groove is inserted into the joint. The joints may be closely joined; in this way, there is no need to attach the seal member using adhesive, and the seal member can be attached simply by fitting the rubber wire into the groove. , the installation work can be done easily and in a short time. Further, the direction in which the upper mechanism of the main body is opened is also arbitrary.

As explained above, according to the present invention, by forming the duct so that it can be separated from the joint part, flexibility is created in the layout of the paper conveying device, and even when used in a device in which the top and bottom of the main body can be separated, It is possible to improve operability during maintenance, etc. without compromising the reduction in size and weight of the main body, as well as the reduction in price. In addition, there is no need for special operations to separate and connect the joints of the ducts, and the operability of separating and closing the main body is not impaired, and the joints are tightly connected via the sealing member. Therefore, the paper can be transported reliably without air leakage at the joint.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a partially omitted perspective view showing the state when the joint is separated; FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the joint when the joint is separated; FIG. and FIG. 4 shows a conventional device, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view thereof.
FIG. 4 is a schematic layout diagram showing the main body of the electrophotographic apparatus which can be separated into upper and lower parts. 21... Lower mechanism, 23... Endless belt, 24... Vacuum tank, 26... Upper mechanism, 27... Blower, 28... Cooling fan, 3
0...Motor, 31...Duct, 32...Joint part, 33...Seal member.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus whose main body is separable into a lower mechanism having a paper conveyance path and an upper mechanism having a blower that generates an air suction force and rotating on the lower mechanism, an endless belt that conveys the air, a vacuum tank provided opposite to the endless belt and having an air intake port, and a sealing member that extends between the vacuum tank and the blower and is separable at a predetermined position. and a duct having a joint portion that is abutted and jointed through a duct, and the joint portion is separated or joined as the upper mechanism is opened and closed.