JPH0645255B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording device such as a laser printer or a copying machine, and more specifically, to a recording mode according to the position of a movable guide that is interlocked with a discharge tray. The present invention relates to a recording device that controls designation.

(Prior Art) When adding a double-sided printing function or a multiplex printing function to a recording device capable of single-sided printing, a conveyance for returning the recording paper discharged after completion of the single-sided printing to the image forming unit again. It is necessary to add a path. In this case, a re-feeding unit for re-feeding the recording paper to the image forming unit is attached to the lower part of the original recording device (hereinafter referred to as the recording unit),
Further, it is generally performed to receive a recording sheet from the recording section and attach a conveying section for delivering the recording sheet to the re-feed section to the recording sheet receiving side of the re-feed section across the recording sheet discharge side of the recording section. Be done.

By the way, in such a recording apparatus, when it is desired to perform one-sided printing on a special recording paper such as a bag-shaped recording paper that is poor in flexibility, a one-sided recording loading tray (manually set on the recording unit or the transport unit ( (Hereinafter referred to as a straight paper ejection tray) is added, and when the tray is closed in conjunction with the straight paper ejection tray, the conveyance path is opened to the re-feed unit side, and when the tray is opened, the straight paper ejection tray is opened. A movable guide is provided on the tray side that is switched to open the transport path.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, when the straight paper ejection tray and the movable guide are provided as described above, the position of the movable guide can be switched by a manual operation of the operator. If the operator selects the double-sided print mode with the open state, after the first image is recorded on the recording paper, which should have images originally recorded on both sides,
Immediately, the sheet is ejected to the straight sheet ejection tray, is not fed to the re-feeding section, and the desired double-sided printing cannot be performed.

(Purpose) The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to perform only one recording operation on a recording sheet, even though the operator has specified the double-sided or multiple-prepare mode. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that can effectively prevent a malfunction of being discharged to the inside.

(Summary of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a recording unit including an image forming unit, and a recording sheet having the first image discharged from the recording unit, to a second image recording unit. In order to perform the re-delivery to the recording unit, a transport unit, a discharge tray that can be opened and closed in the middle of the transport unit, and the discharge tray is closed in association with the operation of the discharge tray. In some cases, the recording apparatus is configured to include a movable guide that is opened to a side for retransmitting the recording paper to the recording unit, and, when it is opened, a movable guide that is switched to open the conveyance path to the discharge tray side. , A detection switch for detecting the switching position of the movable guide, and a recording mode for receiving the detection signal from the detection switch and performing the second image recording when the conveyance path is open to the discharge tray side are designated. If the recording mode is The feature is that a control means for denying the designation of the mode is provided.

Thus, even if the recording mode for performing the second image recording is designated while the paper discharge tray is open, an error message is displayed and the designation is rejected, so that the malfunction of the device is surely performed. To be prevented.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of a recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional side view showing a configuration around a straight paper ejection tray section of the recording apparatus, in which 1 is a recording section, The recording unit 1 is divided into an upper unit 1a and a lower unit 1b, and the upper unit 1a is openably and closably connected to the lower unit via a pin 2. The upper unit 1a is usually the first unit. It is closed as shown in the figure, and its opening and closing is locked by a lock mechanism (not shown). The upper unit 1a includes an image forming unit 3, a flapper 4, and a transport path 5.
And the like, and the reverse discharge tray 6 is provided on the upper surface thereof.
On the front surface (the left end surface in the drawing), there are provided straight paper discharge trays 101 which are single-sided recording paper stacking trays constituting a second paper discharge tray. Further, the lower unit 1b is configured to include fixing rollers 7, 7, a paper feeding / separating roller 8, a horizontally extending conveyance path 9, and the like, and an upper stage is provided at a rear portion (right end portion in the drawing) of the lower unit 1b. A paper feed cassette 10 is detachably mounted, and a plurality of recording papers 11 ... Are stored in the upper paper feed cassette 10.

On the other hand, a re-feed unit 12 is provided below the recording unit 1, and the re-feed unit 12 includes a flapper 15, forward / reverse rollers 16, 16, a sheet separating roller 17, and a linear reversing pocket 18. , An S-shaped conveying path 10 that connects the reversing pocket 18 and the conveying path 9 and an arc-shaped conveying path 20 that joins with the conveying path 19 and the like, and the lower part of the lower feeding section. A paper cassette 21 is detachably mounted, and a plurality of recording papers 11 ... Are stored in the lower paper feed cassette 21.

A transport unit 22 is provided at the front of the re-feeding unit 12 so that the lower end of the transport unit 22 is pivotally mounted by a pin 23 so as to be openable and closable. A tension spring 24 stretched between them constantly urges the closing side (the recording unit 1 and the re-feeding unit 12 side), and a roller portion 22a provided at the upper end of the roller 22a of the recording unit 1 is shown in the figure. Surface 1c
Is in contact with. The transport section 22 is provided with an arc-shaped transport path 25 that connects the transport path 9 and the reversing pocket 18.

Here, the details of the straight paper ejection tray 101 will be described with reference to FIG.
Reference numeral 01 is provided to eject a recording paper such as a bag-shaped recording paper which is poor in flexibility without jamming, and is rotatable on the paper discharge side of the recording unit 1 by a rotary shaft 102. When the reversing paper ejection tray 6 is used for paper ejection, the paper is closed on the paper ejection side of the recording unit 1 as indicated by the solid line in the figure, and a magnet catcher (not shown), etc. The opening and closing is locked by an arbitrary locking means. An auxiliary tray 104, one end of which is rotatably supported by a rotary shaft 103, is folded and stored in the straight paper discharge tray 101, which is used when a long recording paper is loaded. It was opened and used.
A hole 101a and a handle portion 101b are formed in the straight paper discharge tray 101, and a portion 101c in the drawing constitutes a holding portion and a portion 101d constitutes a paper receiving surface.

On the other hand, a movable guide 106 pivotally attached to a rotary shaft 105 is provided in the upper portion of the transport unit 22,
An operating lever 107 is integrally projectingly provided on the movable guide 106. Then, the movable guide 106 is biased in one rotation direction (counterclockwise direction in the drawing) by the tension spring 108 hung on the operating lever 107, and the straight paper discharge tray 101 is closed. Sometimes it is in the solid line position in the figure. The movable guide 106 feeds the recording paper 11 guided by the flapper 4 of the recording unit 1 to the conveying unit 22 in the direction of the re-feeding unit 12 (the direction of the solid line arrow in FIG. 1) or the straight paper ejection tray. It functions as a switching guide for selecting whether to feed in the direction 101 (the direction of the broken arrow in FIG. 1), and a receiving portion 106a and a paper receiving surface 106b are formed in a part thereof.

In addition, the operating lever 1 of the movable guide 106 of the transport unit 22
In the vicinity of 07, a detection switch 1 such as a micro switch
20 is provided, and the detection switch 120 is engaged with and disengaged from the end of the operation lever 107 by the rotation of the operation lever 107 in accordance with the switching operation of the movable guide 106, thereby performing ON / OFF operation. Movable guide 10
The position of 6 is detected. The detection switch 120 constitutes a part of the error message display system shown in FIG. 3, and the detection signal is sent to the control device 130 incorporated in the recording device and further to the external device 140 such as a controller. Sent. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 150 denotes a display device incorporated in the recording device.

Further, a fixed lower guide 109 is fixedly provided in the carrying section 22 adjacent to the movable guide 106, and when the straight paper discharge tray paper discharge 101 is closed, the fixed lower guide 109 and the movable guide 109 are fixed. Between 106, a passage 111 between the flapper 4 and the guide plate 110 and a passage 112 continuous with the transport passage 25 are formed.

Next, the recording operation in the normal double-sided print mode without using the straight paper ejection tray 101 of the recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. Or, the recording paper 11 fed by 17 receives the recording of the first image from the image forming unit 3 on its upper surface, is conveyed in the direction of the arrow in the figure along the conveying path 9, and passes between the fixing rollers 7, 7. As a result, the first image is fixed. The image forming unit 3 is a unit including an image forming mechanism for electrophotographic recording, which includes a photosensitive drum, an optical recording unit, a developing device, a cleaner, and the like. Here, the image forming unit 3 to the fixing roller 7, The portion up to 7 will be referred to as an image forming portion.

Then, the recording paper 11 on which the first image is fixed is guided by the flapper 4 and is sent to the carrying section 22 along the carrying path 25, and then enters the re-feeding section 12 and the forward / reverse roller 16,
It is sent to the reversing pocket 18 by 16, and the direction thereof is reversed by the reverse rotation operation of the forward / reverse rotation rollers 16 and 16 and the switching operation of the flapper 15 from the illustrated solid line position to the broken line position, and thereafter, the S-shaped conveyance is performed. It is sent back to the conveyance path 9 through the path 19 and enters the recording unit 1 again. Then, the inverted and retransmitted recording paper 11 is transferred to the image forming unit to the first position.
The second image is recorded on the surface opposite to the surface on which the image of
After the fixing, the flapper 4 switched to the position shown by the dotted line in the figure conveys it upward along the conveying path 5, and finally it is sequentially stacked on the reverse discharge tray 6.

Although the recording operation in the double-sided print mode has been described above, in the case of the single-sided print mode, the recording paper 11 is recorded at the position indicated by the dotted line in FIG. Guided by the flapper 4 switched to, the paper is immediately sent to the reversal discharge tray 6 along the transport path 5, and is sequentially stacked on the reversal discharge tray 6.

Next, a recording operation for single-sided printing on a recording paper having a poor flexibility such as a bag-shaped recording will be described with reference to FIG.

In this case, the recording and fixed recording paper 11 is ejected and stacked on the straight paper ejection tray 101, but the operator puts a finger on the cue 101b of the straight paper ejection tray 101 and the straight paper ejection tray 101 is ejected. When is pushed open, the straight paper discharge tray 101 rotates about the rotation shaft 102 in the direction of arrow a and is set at the position shown by the broken line in the drawing. When the recording paper 11 is long, the auxiliary tray 1 folded inside the straight paper discharge tray 101 is used.
04 may be rotated about the rotary shaft 103 in the direction of the arrow b in the drawing to widen it.

When the straight paper ejection tray 101 is pushed open as described above, the straight paper ejection tray 101 is pressed by the pressing portion 101.
The receiving portion 106a of the movable guide 106 is pressed by c, and the guide 106 is rotated around the rotary shaft 105 in the direction of the arrow c in the figure against the tensile force of the tension spring 108. The guide 106 is moved to the broken line position. Then, the paper receiving surface 106b of the movable guide 106 is
A tray surface for stacking the recording paper 11 is configured together with the paper receiving surface 101d of the straight paper discharge 101. At this time, the front end portion of the movable guide 106 is accommodated in the hole 101a formed in the straight paper ejection tray 101, and interference with the straight paper ejection tray 101 can be avoided. or,
When the movable guide 106 rotates to the position shown by the broken line in the figure, a part of the movable guide 106 overlaps the fixed lower guide 109. However, the overlapping portions are formed in a comb-teeth shape to prevent mutual interference.

Thus, the upper paper feed cassette 10 or the lower paper feed cassette 2
The recording sheet 11 fed from the sheet feeding / separating roller 8 or 17 has a predetermined image recorded and fixed on one side by the image forming section of the recording section 1 and then the switching operation of the flapper 4 and the movable guide 106. Is directly sent in the direction of the broken line arrow in FIG. 1 and sequentially stacked on the straight paper discharge tray 101 (see FIG. 2).

By the way, when the straight discharge tray 101 is closed and the screen print mode is designated by the operator, the recording paper 11 has the first image recorded and fixed on one side thereof in the image forming section of the recording section 1. After that, the conveyance path 2 passes through a passage 111 between the flapper 4 and the guide plate 110 and a passage 112 between the movable guide 106 and the fixed lower guide 109.
5, is guided to the conveyance path 25, and the re-feed unit 12
Then, the recording operation similar to that described above is repeated.

However, since the movable guide 106 can change its position by the manual operation of the operator as described above, if the operator selects the double-sided print mode with the straight paper ejection tray 101 open, the images are originally printed on both sides. The recording paper 11 to be recorded is immediately discharged to the straight paper discharge tray 101 after the first image is recorded, and is not sent to the re-feeding unit 12, and the desired double-sided printing is performed. There is a problem that you cannot get it.

Thus, in this embodiment, the movable guide 106 is the second
If it is switched to the broken line position in the figure, the detection switch 120
Operates by engaging an operating lever 107 that rotates with the movable guide 106, and sends a detection signal to the control device 130 and the external device 140, as shown in FIG. At this time, if the double-sided print mode is designated, the apparatus can actually perform only single-sided printing, so the exterior device 140 sends an error display and a double-sided print prohibition command signal to the control device 130, and the control device 130 outputs the error. Upon receiving the command signal, an error message is displayed on the display device 150 and the designation of the double-sided print mode is not accepted.

Thus, even if the operator mistakenly specifies the double-sided print mode with the straight paper ejection tray 101 left open, an error message is displayed and double-sided printing is not executed, so malfunction of the apparatus is reliably prevented. .

According to the recording apparatus described above, double-sided printing cannot be performed using the straight paper ejection tray 101, but special recording paper such as recording paper with poor flexibility that must use the straight paper ejection tray 101 can be printed on both sides. Even if it is not possible, it is practically not a problem. Further, in the above embodiments, the recording apparatus using the electrophotographic recording in the image forming section was mainly described, but the recording apparatus to be the subject of the present invention includes other electrostatic recording, thermal recording, thermal transfer recording, etc. A recording device having an image forming unit adopting a recording method is included. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the one in which the re-feeding unit for double-sided printing is added to the recording device capable of single-sided printing has been described. The present invention can also be applied to a recording apparatus to which a re-feeding unit having two functions of double-sided printing and multiplex printing is added.

In the above embodiment, the forward / reverse rotation rollers 16, 16,
Although the reversing unit including the flapper 15, the reversing pocket 18 and the like is provided in the re-feeding unit 12, this may be provided in the transporting unit 22, and the straight paper ejection tray 101 is not limited to the recording unit 1. It does not matter if it is attached to the transport unit 22. Furthermore, the straight paper ejection tray 101
As for the movable guide 106, as in the above embodiment,
The application is limited only to a recording apparatus that has a so-called shell type recording unit 1 including lower units 101a and 101b, and has a transport unit 22 that rotates following the recording unit 1. However, these may be applied to a recording apparatus having any other arbitrary configuration. In this case, the processing unit added below the recording unit is not limited to the re-feeding unit, and the third stacking tray or It may have other functions.

(Effects of the Invention) As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, even if the recording mode for performing the second image recording is designated when the discharge tray is open, an error message is displayed and Since the designation is rejected, it is possible to reliably prevent the malfunction that the recording sheet is carried out after only one recording operation, even though the operator has designated the recording mode for performing the second image recording. The effect is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a recording apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view showing a configuration around a straight paper ejection tray portion of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a block showing a configuration of an error message display system. It is a figure. 1 ... Recording unit, 12 ... Refeed unit, 22 ... Conveyor unit, 1
01: straight paper ejection tray, 106: movable guide, 120: detection switch, 130: control device, 1
40 ... External device, 150 ... Display device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A recording unit including an image forming unit, and a recording sheet for receiving the recording of the first image discharged from the recording unit, for retransmitting to the recording unit in order to perform the second image recording. When the transport unit, the discharge tray set to be openable and closable in the middle of the transport unit, and the discharge tray closed in association with the operation of the discharge tray, the recording sheet is retransmitted to the recording unit. Side, and when the recording path is open, a recording device configured to include a movable guide that is switched to open the transportation path to the sheet ejection tray side detects the switching position of the movable guide. When a detection switch and a detection signal from the detection switch are received and a recording mode for performing the second image recording is specified when the conveyance path is open to the sheet discharge tray side, the recording mode is specified. Control means to reject Recording apparatus characterized by.