JPH0543631B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention includes an intermediate storage section that temporarily stores sheets on which images have been formed, and can repeatedly supply the sheets to the image forming section with the sheets reversed or non-reversed. The present invention relates to an image processing device.

[Prior Art] There is a so-called composite image forming method in which a sheet (primary processing sheet) on which an image is formed on one side is reversed an even number of times (resultingly, it is not reversed) to form an image on the same surface, and A so-called double-sided image forming method is well known in which a sheet on which an image has been formed is reversed an odd number of times (resultingly, reversed once) and then supplied to an image forming section to form images on both sides of the sheet. Hereinafter, unless there is a particular need to distinguish, the combining or double-sided image forming operation will be referred to as secondary processing, and the sheet will be referred to as a secondary processing sheet.

In order to perform such secondary processing on a plurality of sheets, it is common practice to provide an intermediate storage section that temporarily stores the primary processing sheets.

It is convenient for such an intermediate accommodating part to be provided with openings for feeding out at both front and rear ends of the accommodating part depending on the mode of secondary processing.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, such an intermediate storage section is part of a circulation system that branches from the discharge path of the image forming section and merges with the unprocessed sheet supply path. The circulation path including the intermediate storage section is one of the longest in a transport system, and the intermediate storage section itself is usually difficult to see from the outside and is installed in a location that is difficult to access.

Therefore, jams are likely to occur in the intermediate accommodating portion and its vicinity, and once the jam occurs, it is difficult to restore the jam.

However, the occurrence of jam in the intermediate storage section is
The main reason for this is thought to be that the laminated sheets come in various sizes, and because they are unrolled in both the front and back directions, the sheets tend to lose their neatness.

[Object of the Invention] It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus that can ensure the orderliness of sheets in an intermediate storage section that temporarily stores sheets on which images have been formed, and can prevent the occurrence of jams.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

<Configuration> (Overall Configuration) The image processing device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a mounting table 2,
A sheet conveying device 4 placed on this mounting table 2,
An image forming apparatus such as a copying machine 5 attached to the sheet conveying apparatus 4 is provided.

(Configuration of Copying Machine 5) The copying machine 5 includes a platen 77 made of contact glass on which a document is set, and a document cover 75 attached to the back side with a hinge so that it can be opened and closed.
The image forming section 7, the intake section 11 into which the paper feed cassette 9 is set, the paper feed rollers 13, 15 that send out the sheets of the paper feed cassette 9 set in the intake section 11, and these paper feed rollers 13, 15.
Paper feed path 1 that conveys sheets sent out by
7, 19, and a paper feed path 21 that transports sheets from the sheet transport device 4, and a paper feed path 17, 19, 2.
A registration roller 55 that aligns the leading edge of the sheet fed from 1 and takes the sheet feeding timing, a conveyor belt 57 that conveys the sheet whose posture has been corrected by the registration roller 55 to the image forming section 7, and a paper discharge roller 95 for discharging the sheet on which the image is formed.

The image forming section 7 includes a slit illumination device 79 movable in the left-right direction along the platen 77, two movable reflecting mirrors 81 that guide a light image of an image of a document illuminated by the slit illumination device 79,
83, a lens 85, and two fixed reflectors 87,
89; a photosensitive drum 59 that forms an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image of the document on the outer peripheral surface exposed by the exposure optical device; a charging device 61; an unnecessary charge eraser 63; A developing device 65 that visualizes the electrostatic latent image formed on the drum 59 with toner, a transfer device 67 that transfers the toner on the photosensitive drum 59 onto a sheet, a separating charge device 69, and a sheet transfer device from the photosensitive drum 59. a separation claw 71 that separates the
, a conveyance roller 91 , and a fixing device 93 are provided.

Incidentally, in order to perform composite copying, toner of a plurality of colors is provided, and copies are made using toner of a designated color.

(Configuration of Sheet Conveyance Device 4) The sheet conveyance device 4 includes a paper discharge path 101 for discharging sheets discharged from the copying machine 5, and a paper discharge tray 103 for storing sheets discharged from this paper discharge path 101. , a reversing path (first path) 105 for reversing the front and back sides of the sheet copied by the copying machine 5;
Then, there is an intermediate storage unit, for example, an intermediate tray 107, which stores the sheet conveyed through this reversing path 105, and the sheet stored in the intermediate tray 107 is reversed from the side opposite to the storage side to the image forming unit 7 of the copying machine 5. and a paper feed path (second path) 109 that supplies the sheets stored in the intermediate tray 107 from the storage side to the image forming unit 7 (third path).
111 is provided.

The paper ejection path 101 is provided with a conveyance roller 102 and a paper ejection roller 104 . Further, a switching guide 108 is provided at the branching portion to the reversing path 105.

A conveying roller 106 is provided on the reversing path 105 .

The intermediate tray 107 is provided with a stopper 113 as a front regulating member movable back and forth at its tip, and a stopper 115 as a rear regulating member at the rear thereof. These stoppers 113, 115
is driven by a motor or solenoid. Note that the stopper 113 is adapted to move according to the sheet size.

Further, at the tip of the intermediate tray 107, there is provided a front feed roller 11, for example, a feed roller 11, which is movable up and down.
7, a paper feed roller 119 as a rear feed-out rotating body is also provided at the rear, and an intermediate tray 107
The sheets stored in the paper feed path 109 start from the top paper.
Alternatively, the paper is sent out to the paper feed path 111.

Furthermore, a guide 120 is provided on the storage side of the intermediate tray 107 to guide the sheet to the paper feed path 111.

A guide 121 is provided in the paper feed path 109 as a front delivery opening.

Further, the paper feed path 111 is provided with a guide 123 as a rear delivery opening, a guide 125, conveyance rollers 124, 126, and the like.

At the confluence of the paper feed path 109 and the paper feed path 111, there is a paper feed roller 12 that rotates in the sheet conveyance direction.
7, and a separation roller 129 that rejects the sheet that follows the sheet conveyed by the paper feed roller 127.
and is provided.

<Operation> Next, the operation will be explained.

(Double-sided copying operation)...See FIG. 2 First, the document cover 75 is opened, the document is set on the platen 77, and copying conditions are set. The stopper 113 moves as shown in FIG. 2A in accordance with the size of the copy sheet designated by the setting of the copy conditions.

In this state, when the copy button is pressed, a sheet is fed from the paper feed cassette 9 according to the size and the image forming section 7 copies the sheet. The copied sheet is discharged by a paper discharge roller 95 and supplied to a reversing path 105 by a switching guide 108. This sheet is discharged to the intermediate tray 107 and stored as shown in FIG. 2B.

When the above operations are performed for the set number of sheets, the platen 7
The user turns over the original on the intermediate tray 107 or sets the next original to prepare for copying onto the back side of the sheet stored in the intermediate tray 107. When this preparation for copying is completed, the second
As shown in Figure C, the paper feed roller 119 falls onto the sheet and rotates to feed out the top paper.

The leading edge of the fed sheet rises along the guide 120 as shown in FIG. The direction of this sheet is changed by a guide 123, and the sheet is conveyed along the paper feed path 111 by conveyance rollers 124 and 126.

Then, the sheet is sent out by the paper feed roller 127, the sheet following this sheet is rejected by the separation roller 129, and the separated sheets are supplied from the paper feed path 109 to the paper feed path 21 of the copying machine 5. be done. Then, the image forming unit 7 copies the sheet on the back side, and the sheet is discharged from the paper discharge path 101 to the paper discharge tray 103 . This operation is performed until there are no more sheets stored in the intermediate tray 107.

(Synthetic copying operation)...See FIG. 3. As in the case of double-sided copying, the original is set on the platen 77, and copying conditions are set. At this time, the toner color is also specified. The stopper 1 is set according to the size of the copy sheet specified by this copy condition setting.
13 moves as shown in FIG. 3A.

In this state, when the copy button is pressed, the sheet is copied onto the sheet from the paper cassette 9 according to the size, as in the case of double-sided copying, and then transferred to the reversing path 1.
05 to the intermediate tray 107 as shown in FIG. 3B.
is supplied to

When the above operation is performed for the set number of sheets, the stoppers 113 and 115 are moved to the right as shown in FIG. 3C. Further, the next document is set on the platen 77, and the toner color is designated.

When this preparation for copying is completed, the paper feed roller 117 falls onto the sheet and rotates to feed out the uppermost paper as shown in FIG. 3D.

The tip of this fed sheet is at the guide 12.
1, the paper is separated into one sheet by a paper feed roller 127 and a separation roller 129, and the paper is transferred to the paper feed path 21.
is supplied to

Then, the image forming unit 7 copies the previously copied sheet using toner of a different color, and the sheet is discharged from the paper discharge path 101 to the paper discharge tray 103 . This operation is performed until there are no more sheets stored in the intermediate tray 107.

[Modification] An embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but
The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and for example, the following modifications are possible.

(1) In the above embodiment, the copying machine 5 and the sheet conveying device 4
Although the image processing apparatus 1 is shown as being separate from the image processing apparatus 1, the copying machine and the sheet conveyance apparatus may be integrated.

(2) In the above embodiment, during composite copying, the intermediate tray 10
7, feed the sheets from the top paper to paper feed path 1.
11, as shown in FIG. Alternatively, the paper may be fed to the paper feed path 131.

(3) In the above embodiment, the paper feed path 111 is the paper feed path 1.
09, but as shown in FIG. 5, the paper discharge port of the paper feed path 135 as the third path is located in front of the paper feed roller 117, so that the same paper feed is used both during double-sided copying and composite copying. It may also be supplied from path 109.

Note that the shutter 1 is located below the paper feed roller 117.
37 is provided, and when double-sided copying is performed, it is closed and paper feed path 1 is provided.
The reversed sheet fed from the tray 35 is sent out from the paper feed roller 117, and when composite copying is performed, it is opened and the sheet from the intermediate tray 107 is sent out as is.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, after a sheet on which an image has been formed in the image forming section is stored in the intermediate storage section, the sheet is again inverted or non-inverted and fed to the image forming section. In the image processing apparatus, a first path is opened at one end of the intermediate storage section and guides sheets from the image forming section to the intermediate storage section; a second path for returning sheets from the intermediate storage section to the imaging section through the front delivery opening; and an opening of the first path to the intermediate storage section; having an adjacent rear delivery opening;
Based on a third path for returning the sheet to the image forming section through the rear delivery opening and sheet size information, the sheet moves back and forth in the sheet entry direction along the intermediate storage section, and enters from the first path. a front regulating member that regulates a front edge of the sheet and retracts from the front delivery opening when the sheet is fed from the front delivery opening to the second path; While the sheet is maintained in the regulation position based on the size information of the sheet, when the sheet enters the intermediate storage section from the first path, or the sheet is moved from the rear delivery opening to the third
When the sheets are fed out to the second path, they are retracted from the rear delivery opening, and when the sheets are fed out from the front delivery opening to the second path, they are regulated and stacked by the front regulating member based on the sheet size information. Since a rear regulating member is provided that pushes the trailing edge of the sheet and moves the leading edge of the sheet to the paper ejection position of the delivery section, the sheets can be organized in the intermediate storage section that is difficult to see from the outside and difficult to access. It is now possible to reliably guarantee that the occurrence of jams due to poor organization can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of an image processing apparatus, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams of its operation. Moreover, FIGS. 4 and 5 are configuration explanatory diagrams of modified examples of the present invention. 1... Image processing device, 7... Image forming section, 10
5... Reversing path (first path), 107... Intermediate tray (intermediate storage section), 109... Paper feeding path (second path), 111... Paper feeding path (third path),
113...stopper (front regulating member), 115...
...Stopper (rear regulating member), 117...Paper feed roller (front delivery rotary body), 119...Paper feed roller (rear delivery rotation body), 121...Guide (front delivery opening), 123... Guide (rear delivery opening).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an image processing apparatus that stores a sheet on which an image has been formed in an image forming section in an intermediate storage section, and then supplies the sheet again to the image forming section after being inverted or non-inverted to form an image. , a first path opening at one end of the intermediate storage section and guiding sheets from the image forming section to the intermediate storage section; and a front delivery opening at the other end of the intermediate storage section; a second path for returning sheets from the intermediate storage to the imaging section through a front delivery opening; and a rear delivery opening adjacent the opening of the first path to the intermediate storage. a third path for returning the sheet to the image forming section through the rear delivery opening; and a third path for returning the sheet to the image forming section along the intermediate storage section based on sheet size information;
a front regulating member that regulates a front edge of a sheet that enters from the front path, and retracts from the front delivery opening when the sheet is fed from the front delivery opening to the second path; The section regulating member is maintained at a regulating position based on sheet size information, and when the sheet enters the intermediate storage section from the first path, or when the sheet is fed out from the rear delivery opening to the third path. At times, when the sheet is retracted from the rear delivery opening and fed out from the front delivery opening to the second path, the trailing edge of the stacked sheets is regulated by the front regulating member based on sheet size information. An image processing apparatus comprising: a rear regulating member that pushes the front end of the sheet and moves the leading edge of the sheet to a paper ejection position of the front delivery section.