JPH07102939B2 - Sheet sorter - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention is attached to a sheet handling apparatus that handles sheets such as copy sheets, recording sheets, and plastic sheets such as copiers, facsimiles, printers, and the like, and the sheets are sequentially carried out from the sheet handling apparatus. The present invention relates to a sheet sorting device that functions to sort a plurality of sheets into a plurality of sheet stands.

2. Description of the Related Art In the above sorting operation, when a large number of sheets are carried out from the sheet handling apparatus, the number of sheets may not be enough on the sheet table provided in one sorting apparatus. In such a case, conventionally, a method has been adopted in which another sorting device is connected to the one sorting device and the above-mentioned shortage of sheet stands is supplemented by a sheet stand provided in the other sorting device. ing.

In the conventional sorting device, in consideration of the above-mentioned connection use, one sorting device is provided with a sheet receiving port and a sheet discharging position at a predetermined position so that sheets can be transferred to and from another sorting device. An exit is provided, and when the two sorting devices are connected, the sheet discharge port of the upstream sorting device and the sheet receiving port of the downstream sorting device are automatically connected to form a sheet conveying path. The sheet is sent to the sorting device on the downstream side via the conveying path.

However, in this conventional device, since the sheet receiving port and the sheet discharging port are provided at predetermined positions, it is not possible to connect each other unless the sorting devices that match each other in advance are connected. There was a drawback in not having.

Aim The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet sorting apparatus that is compatible, that is, can be connected to various types of sheet sorting apparatuses.

Structure The present invention achieves the above-mentioned object, and a plurality of sheet bases for storing the sheets to be sorted, and a sheet transfer device that is movable between these sheet bases and is fed from an upstream side sheet handling device such as a copying machine. A sheet transfer means capable of holding and holding the formed sheet once and further conveying the sheet toward the sheet table;
The sheet sorting apparatus includes a sheet unloading unit that is arranged to face the moving path of the sheet transfer unit and has a variable arrangement position.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on examples.

FIG. 1 shows a copying machine 1 which is an example of a sheet handling apparatus and a first sheet sorting apparatus 2 which is an embodiment of the present invention, and the first sheet sorting apparatus 2 which is another sheet sorting apparatus. The state which connected the sheet sorting apparatus is shown.

The configuration of the copying machine 1 is well known in the prior art, and copy products (so-called copies, hereinafter simply referred to as sheets) are continuously carried out from the paper discharge roller pair 4 and sent to the first sheet sorting apparatus 2. . The first sheet sorting apparatus 2 includes a sheet receiving port 5, a sheet receiving / conveying path 6, a plurality of (11 in the figure) sheet stands 7 for storing sheets to be sorted, and a position in front of these sheet stands 7 ( Arrow A in the left side of the figure)
Alternatively, it has a sheet transfer means 8 which can be moved up and down like B.

As shown in the side sectional view of FIG. 2 and the front sectional view of FIG. 3, the sheet transfer means 8 includes a drive roller 10 supported by a support frame 9 and a driven roller 11 pressed against the drive roller 10. Have The drive roller 10 is rotated in the clockwise direction in FIG. 2 by the motor 13 via the one-way clutch 12. 1
The directional clutch 12 inhibits the drive roller 10 from rotating counterclockwise in FIG. The rotation and stop of the drive roller 10 are controlled by a controller 16 provided in the bottom of the first sheet conveying device 2 in FIG.

In FIG. 2, a sheet receiving port 17 is provided on the left side of the driving roller 10.
However, a sheet discharge port 18 is provided on the right side of the sheet discharge port. A sheet detection sensor 19 is disposed in the sheet receiving port 17, and when a sheet enters the sheet receiving port 17, the sheet detecting sensor 19 detects the leading edge of the sheet,
A signal to that effect (sheet detection signal) is output. This sheet detection signal is input to the controller 16.

As shown in FIG. 3, the support frame 9 includes a wire 20, upper and lower pulleys 21 and 22 for supporting the wire, a shaft 23 for supporting the lower pulley 22, and a pulley 24 attached to the shaft 23. An elevating means for the support frame 9 including a motor 26 for driving the pulley 24 via a wire 25 is additionally provided. As the motor 26 rotates in both forward and reverse directions, the wire 20 is pulled upward (A) or downward (B), respectively, and the support frame 9, and thus the sheet transfer means 8 is moved up and down accordingly. The controller 16 (FIG. 1) controls which of the sheet bases 7 is to be moved up and down and stopped.

According to a program stored in the ROM of the microcomputer in the controller 16, the following sheet sorting work is performed. First, the sheet transfer means 8 is set at the wake position (on the right side in the drawing) of the sheet receiving and conveying path 6.
In this state, the sheet is sent to the sheet receiving port 17 of the sheet transfer means 8 via the sheet discharging roller pair 4 of the copying machine 1, the sheet receiving roller 5 of the sheet sorting device 2 and the sheet receiving and conveying path 6.

When the leading edge of the fed sheet is detected by the sheet detection sensor 19 and the sheet detection signal is sent to the controller 16, the controller 16 causes the drive roller 10 to move for a predetermined short time.
And then stop its rotation. Drive roller 10
By this rotation and stop of the sheet, the leading end of the sheet is nipped and held by the driving roller 10 and the driven roller 11, and stopped in this state.

When the holding of the sheet is completed, the controller 16 makes the third
The elevating means such as the wire 20 shown in the figure is operated to elevate the sheet transfer means 8 in the A direction or the B direction and carry it to the front of the desired sheet base 7. After that, the drive roller 10 is driven to rotate again, and the temporarily stopped sheet is carried into the desired sheet table 7. After that, the same operation is repeated, and the plurality of sheets sequentially discharged from the copying machine 1 are sorted on the sheet table 7.

There are cases where the number of sheets discharged from the copying machine 1 becomes large and the number of sheets on the sheet table 7 of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2 is insufficient. Therefore, in this embodiment, the second sheet sorting device 3 can be attached to the downstream position of the first sheet sorting device 2.

The second sheet sorting device 3 includes a sheet receiving roller 27 and a sheet receiving / conveying path 28 at the bottom, and further includes a sheet transfer device 29 and a sheet table 30 that perform the same operations as those of the first sheet sorting device 2. There is. In order to connect the sheet receiving roller 27 of the second sheet sorting apparatus 3 and the sheet transfer means 8 of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2, a sheet constituted by a sheet conveying roller 31 and a sheet conveying path 32 at the bottom of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2. A carry-out means 33 is provided. In the present case, the sheet unloading means 33 is provided at the bottom of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2, but its mounting position can be changed in the vertical direction as necessary. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, it can be set substantially at the center in the vertical direction. The reason will be described later.

As described above, when the number of sheets on the sheet table 7 of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2 becomes insufficient, the sheet transporting means 8 faces the sheet unloading means 33 as shown by the broken line in FIG. Set to position. Then, the sheet is sent to the sheet receiving roller 27 and the sheet receiving / conveying path 28 at the second sheet sorting position 3 via the sheet unloading means 33. After that, the sheet transfer operation is performed by the sheet transfer means 29 in the same manner as the sheet transfer means 8 described above, and the sheets are sorted on the sheet table 30. If the second sheet sorting device 3 is provided with the same sheet unloading means 33 as the first sheet sorting device 2, another sheet sorting device can be additionally provided to increase the sheet storage capacity.

In this embodiment, sheets are transferred from the first sheet sorting device 2 to the second sheet sorting device 2.
In order to transfer the sheet to the sheet sorting apparatus 3, the sheet transfer means 8 that moves up and down is used to carry the sheet to the sheet unloading means 33. Therefore, the sheet unloading means 33 is not limited to the bottom portion of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2 as shown in FIG. 1, but can be installed at any position in the vertical direction of the first sheet sorting apparatus 2. This means that the sheet entrance (sheet receiving roller 27 and sheet receiving / conveying path 28 of the embodiment) of the attached second sheet sorting device 3 can be adapted to any position. There is. For example, as in the second sheet sorting device 43 shown in FIG. 4, the sheet receiving roller 27 and the sheet receiving and conveying path 28 are arranged in the same vertical direction as the sheet receiving roller 5 and the sheet receiving and conveying path 6 of the first sheet sorting device 2. If it is provided in the substantially central portion, the sheet unloading means 33
As shown in the figure, move it to almost the center of the row of the seat base 7,
Connect to the sheet receiving roller 27. In this case, when transferring the sheets to the second sheet sorting apparatus 43, the sheet transfer means 8 is fixedly arranged at the position shown in the figure which connects the sheet receiving and conveying path 6 and the sheet unloading means 33, and the copying machine 1 The sheet from the sheet is fed to the second sheet sorting device 43 as it is through the sheet receiving port 5 and the sheet receiving and conveying path 6.

The sheet unloading unit 33 is not limited to the combination of the sheet transporting roller 31 and the sheet transporting path 32, and any other configuration capable of transporting a sheet can be adopted.

Effect According to the present invention, by using the movable sheet transfer means (8) and the sheet unloading means (33) whose arrangement position is variable, it is possible to provide wide compatibility at the time of contacting the sheet sorting apparatus. Became possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an embodiment, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of an example of a sheet conveying means, FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of the sheet conveying means, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. It is a figure which shows the modified usage example. 1 ... Sheet handling device (copying machine) 7 ... Sheet table 8 ... Sheet transfer means 33 ... Sheet unloading means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of sheet bases for accommodating sheets to be sorted, and movable between these seat bases so that a sheet sent from an upstream side sheet handling device can be temporarily held and held further toward the above-mentioned sheet bases. A sheet sorting apparatus comprising: a sheet transporting unit that can transport a sheet; and a sheet unloading unit that faces a moving path of the sheet transporting unit and has a variable placement position.