JPH07110715B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electrostatographic copying machine or a facsimile.

[Prior Art] In an image forming apparatus (for example, an electrostatic photocopier), generally, set sheets in a sheet feeding cassette loaded in the image forming apparatus main body are automatically fed one by one to an image forming unit, or The means for manually feeding the cut sheets one by one to the image forming unit through the manual feeding port is adopted.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

In such an image forming apparatus, the larger the size of the cut sheet used for image formation, the larger the space required to store the cut sheet. Is set and the roll paper is cut into a desired size in advance by this device, and the cut cut paper is fed to the image forming unit. The work of cutting each time was very troublesome and extremely inefficient.

Alternatively, the above roll paper cutting device is integrally incorporated into the image forming apparatus main body, and when the roll paper mode is selected as the paper feed mode, the roll paper is cut into a predetermined size and fed to the image forming unit. It is possible to do
Since it is necessary to newly design and manufacture an image forming apparatus having a special and complicated structure, it is costly, and
A user who owns an image forming apparatus having a function of feeding a cassette or manually feeding must separately obtain an image forming apparatus with a built-in roll paper cutting device, which wastes the existing image forming apparatus. There is inconvenience.

The present invention has been devised in view of such actual circumstances, and uses the existing image forming apparatus as it is, and does not impair the maintainability such as the jam processing, and the original cutting Being able to selectively take the form of paper feed and the form of roll and paper feed, and the skew of the roll paper that tends to occur when the form of roll paper feed is revealed after maintenance. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing sheet feeding and diagonal cutting.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, which has achieved the above object, a roll paper loading unit, a paper feed roller unit for feeding and feeding the roll paper, and a roll paper fed by the paper feed roller unit are predetermined. A sheet feeding unit body consisting of a cutting means for cutting to length and a sheet discharging section for cut sheets,
A roll paper feeding unit is configured by being able to move up and down with respect to a unit frame whose horizontal level can be freely adjusted, and the unit frame of the roll paper feeding unit is connected to the paper feed port side of the image forming apparatus body. On the other hand, the position regulating means for regulating the upward movement of the paper feeding unit main body with the paper ejection unit facing the paper feeding port is provided with both sides in the axial direction of the roll paper between the paper feeding unit main body and the unit frame. In addition, a fixing means for fixing the sheet feeding unit main body whose upward movement is restricted to the unit frame is provided.

[Operation] According to the above characteristic configuration, in addition to the cut paper feeding mode by the image forming apparatus itself, the roll paper of the roll paper feeding unit is cut into a predetermined length and fed. be able to.

Further, by moving the sheet feeding unit body downward, various kinds of maintenance can be performed without being disturbed by the sheet feeding unit body.

Further, since the paper feeding unit main body is fixed in position with the paper discharge section facing the paper feeding port, the horizontal level of the unit frame is adjusted in that state to feed the paper to the image forming apparatus main body side. If the relative positional relationship of the unit frame to the image forming apparatus main body is initialized so that the various roller axes on the unit main body side are parallel to each other, after that, simply fix the paper feeding unit main body in the raised position, The various roller axes are placed parallel to each other.

〔Example〕

 Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an electrostatographic copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus.
The copying machine main body 2 is mounted on the moving deck 1, and the roll paper feeding unit 6 that cuts the roll paper 3 to a predetermined length and discharges the cut paper 4 to the manual feeding port 5 of the copying machine main body 2 is copied. It is connected to the machine body 2.

The copying machine body 2 is configured as follows. That is, the reciprocating means 9 for reciprocating the document with respect to the exposure section 8 is provided on the upper part of the device case 7, and the large paper feed cassette 10 is provided on the lower part side of the device case 7 so as to be drawn out to the roll paper feeding unit 6 side. In addition, the photoconductor 11 is horizontally mounted on the device case 7, and the charging unit 12, the exposure unit 8, the developing unit 13, the transfer unit 14, the paper separating unit 15, and the cleaning device 16 are arranged around the photoconductor 11. In addition, a pair of paper discharge rollers 17 is provided above the paper feed port 5.

Further, a sheet passing guide 18 is provided from the supply portion of the sheet feeding cassette 10 to the sheet feeding port 5, and a sheet feeding / conveying path 19 is arranged from the sheet feeding port 5 to the transfer portion 14, and after transfer / separation. Paper ejection transport path 21 that feeds cut sheets to the fixing unit 20
Is provided.

The roll paper feeding unit 6 also has a unit frame 23 mounted on the paper feeding port 5 side of the copying machine main body 2 via a connecting mechanism 22,
Paper feed unit body that can be raised and lowered with respect to this unit frame 23
24, of which the unit frame 23 is the bottom frame 25
The vertical frames 26 are erected on both left and right sides of the vertical frame 26, the guide rails 27 are provided on the front and rear sides of the vertical frame 26, and the tie rods 28 are attached to the upper ends of the left and right vertical frames 26, and the lower part of the bottom frame 25 is attached. The caster wheels 29 are provided at the four corners of the shaft so as to be freely slidable, so that the horizontal level can be adjusted and moved.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the paper feed unit main body 24 is provided with rollers 30 loosely fitted on the guide rails 27 in the vicinity of the upper and lower four corners of the elevating frame 32 via a support shaft 31. Along with the unit frame 23 and the elevating frame 32, urging means (for example, a gas spring) 33 for lifting and elevating the elevating frame 32 is provided on both left and right sides, and a roll is provided on the lower side of the elevating frame 32. Paper 3 loading section
34 is provided, and the paper feed roller means 35 and the roll paper 3 are set to a predetermined length in the middle of the paper passage extending from the paper feed section above the roll paper loading section 34 to the manual paper feed port 5 and the paper discharge section b. Roll paper cutting means 36 for cutting is provided.

The support shafts 31 of the four upper and lower rollers 30 on the copying machine main body 2 side
Is designed so that its axis is oriented in the left-right direction of the unit and the runout of the roll paper feeding unit 6 with respect to the transfer machine main body 2 in the front-back direction is prevented. Also,
Spindle 31 of four upper and lower rollers 30 on the side opposite to the copying machine body 2
Is designed so that its axis is oriented in the front-rear direction of the unit and the lateral deviation of the roll paper feeding unit 6 with respect to the copying machine main body 2 is prevented.

A discharge guide plate 37 is obliquely provided above the roll paper cutting means 36, and a cover 38 that also serves as a discharge guide surface is provided on the front side of the unit in association with the roll paper loading portion 34. A guide plate 39 which is attached so as to be openable and closable and forms a paper discharge path with the cover 38, and a guide member 40 which guides the cut paper 4 discharged through the paper discharge path to the moving deck 1 side are provided.

Incidentally, reference numeral 41 in the drawing is a cover fixing means, which is the lifting frame 32.
A locking pin a is provided on the plate, and a hook member 42 that can be engaged with and disengaged from the locking pin a is pivotally attached to plate portions 43 that are connected to both sides of the cover 38. 44 is cut paper 4 and unit frame 23
Is a bent guide member that is taken out to the bottom tray 45 of FIG.

According to the above configuration, the cut paper 4 fed from the paper feed cassette 10, the manual cut paper 4 fed through the paper feed port 5, or the paper feed port fed out from the roll paper feeding unit 6 A so-called cut sheet 4 obtained by cutting the roll sheet 3 fed to the sheet 5 at a predetermined timing is discharged to the roll sheet feeding unit 6 side through a pair of sheet discharge rollers 17 after image formation, and the cut sheet 4 is cut. Is guided by the paper discharge guide plate 37 and the cover 38 to reach the guide member 40 through the space between the cover 38 and the guide plate 39, and the guide member 40 bends the path to the movable deck 1 side to cut the cut. The leading end of the paper 4 contacts the bent portion of the bending guide member 44, and the trailing end of the cut paper falls off the guide member 40 and is taken out onto the bending guide member 44 and the tray 45.

Next, the specific structure of the connecting mechanism 22 will be described.
This one, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4-6,
Position regulating means 46 for regulating upward movement of the sheet feeding unit body 24 with respect to the unit frame 23, and fixing means 47 for fixing the sheet feeding unit body 24 whose upward movement is regulated to the unit frame 23. I have it.

That is, the vertical frame 26 is provided with the connecting member 48 for the copying machine main body 2 and the position regulating member 49 having an S-shape in plan view in a state of being connected to the upper side of each guide rail 27 on the copying machine main body 2 side. The support shaft 31 of the upper roller 30 of the paper feed unit main body 24 is used as a position regulating member, and a concave portion c into which the position regulating member 31 is inserted from below is formed in the lower edge portion of the position regulating member 49, and With the paper discharge unit b of the paper feed unit body 24 facing the manual paper feed port 5 of the copying machine body 2, the position-regulated member 31 is engaged and contacted with the recess c of the position regulation member 49. The position regulating means 46 is configured to set the position and regulate the upward movement of the sheet feeding unit main body 24 with respect to the unit frame 23.

On the other hand, the fixing means 47 comprises a recess c and a hook member 50 which holds the position regulating member 31 engaged with the recess c, and the hook member 50 is pivotally attached to the position regulating member 49. At the same time, the biasing means 51 for biasing and holding the hook member 50 at the holding position is provided with the position regulating member 49 and the hook member 50.
It is provided over the continuous arm 52.

Then, the tip end portion of the hook member 50 with which the position-regulated member 31 comes into contact with the elevation of the sheet feeding unit body 24 is attached to the inclined cam surface d.
Are formed on the inclined cam surface d and the position regulating member 31.
Thus, a cam mechanism 53 that switches the hook member 50 to the holding release position against the urging force of the urging means 52 as the paper feeding unit body 24 moves up and down is configured.

Therefore, when the paper feeding unit body 24 is moved upward,
When the position regulating member 31 comes into contact with the inclined cam surface d at the tip of the hook member 50, the hook member 50 is once switched to the holding release position and the position regulating member 31 is recessed in the position regulating member 49. By ascending to c, the upward movement is regulated, and the hook member 50 is switched to the holding position, so that the position regulating member 31 whose upward movement is regulated is the concave portion c.
And the hook member 50.

In this state, the caster wheels 29 are threadedly adjusted so that various roller axis lines on the roll paper feeding unit 6 side and various roller axis lines on the copying machine main body 2 side are parallel to each other.
Adjust the horizontal level of the roll paper feeding unit 6,
In addition, the unit frame 23 is temporarily fastened and connected to the copying machine main body 2 via the connecting member 48 to perform a paper feeding test, and the roll paper 3
If the skewed sheet feeding and the diagonal cutting occur, the caster wheels 29 should be set to further increase the parallelism of the roller axis.
After finely adjusting the screw advancement of the roll paper 3 and confirming that the roll paper 3 is fed and cut in a predetermined manner, the unit frame 23 is permanently connected to the copying machine main body 2.

If the roll paper feeding unit 6 is connected to the copying machine main body 2 in this way, after that, the paper feeding unit 6 is provided for maintenance such as replenishment of the cut paper 4 to the paper feeding cassette 10 and jam processing. Even when the main body 24 is lowered, by raising the paper feeding unit main body 24 to fix and fix the position, the paper feeding unit main body 24 is moved to the original paper feeding position in a state where the various roller axis lines are parallel to each other. The roll paper 3 that can be returned to the above and is likely to occur when the form of roll paper feeding is revealed after maintenance.
Diagonal sheet feeding and diagonal cutting are reliably prevented.

Next, the driving means 54 provided in the roll paper feeding unit 6
With reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, the drive means 54 is provided with a motor (an example of drive means) M inside one of the vertical frames 26, and outputs the motor shaft 55. mounting gear G _1, and, second gear G ₃ which meshes with the first gear G ₂ to mesh with the output gear G ₁ to the gear G ₂
Is rotatably provided on a gear bracket 56 pivotally attached to the motor shaft 55.

On the other hand, the paper feed unit main body 24 is provided with an input gear G ₄ which meshes with the second gear G ₃ in a state where the paper feed unit main body 24 is lifted and the lifting movement is restricted by the position restricting means 46. A belt type transmission mechanism 57 is interlocked with an input shaft 58 of the input gear G ₄ , and an output shaft 59 of the belt type transmission mechanism 57 has the paper feed roller means 35 and roll paper cassette means.
The gear mechanism G with respect to 36 is meshed.

Reference numeral 61 in the drawing denotes a spring for urging and swinging the gear bracket 56 toward the copying machine main body 2 side, and urges the second gear G ₃ to the input gear G ₄ of the paper feeding unit main body 24 at the paper feeding position. 62 is a stopper for preventing the swinging of the gear bracket 56 against the biasing force of the spring 61,
The second gear G ₃ is provided so as to prevent the gear bracket 56 from swinging in a state where the second gear G ₃ is thrust into the ascending / descending locus of the input gear G ₄ .

When the sheet feeding unit main body 24 at the sheet feeding position is lowered for maintenance or the like, the input gear G ₄ is lowered together with the sheet feeding unit main body 24, so that the second unit frame 23 side
The meshing of the gear movement mechanism by the gear G ₃ and the input gear G ₄ on the side of the paper feed unit body 24 is released.

Therefore, even if the switch M is accidentally operated to activate the motor M during maintenance with the paper feed unit main body 24 lowered, the drive of the input gear G ₄ is cut off, so the paper feed roller is stopped. Since the means 35 and the roll paper cutting means 36 are not driven, the maintenance such as the jam treatment can be safely performed.

In addition, the position regulating member 31 in the embodiment is replaced with the position regulating member 47.
Provided on the side of the unit frame 23 as the
It is possible to provide the position regulating means 46 by providing 47 as the position regulating member 31 on the side of the sheet feeding unit main body 24, and further by fixing the hook member 50 on the side of the sheet feeding unit main body 24. It is possible to configure the means 47.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, by equipping the image forming apparatus main body with the roll paper feeding unit, in addition to the cut paper feeding mode by the image forming apparatus main body, the roll paper feeding unit is provided. The roll paper of the paper unit can be cut into a specified length and fed into it, and by moving the paper feed unit body downward, it is disturbed by the roll paper feed unit. It is possible to easily perform various types of maintenance without having to do so.

In addition, since the paper feed unit body is fixed in position on the unit frame with the paper discharge section of the paper feed unit body facing the paper feed opening, the horizontal level of the unit frame is adjusted in that state, and the image is adjusted. If the relative positional relationship of the unit frame with respect to the image forming apparatus main body is initialized so that the various roller axes of the forming apparatus main body side and the paper feeding unit main body side are parallel to each other, the paper feeding unit main body will rise after that. The various roller axis lines can be placed parallel to each other simply by fixing them in position, and thus, when the roll paper feeding mode is revealed after the maintenance, the diagonal feeding and the diagonal feeding of the roll paper are performed. Cuts are reliably prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical side view of an image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a vertical plan view of a roll paper feeding unit, FIG. 3 is a vertical side view of a paper feeding unit main body, and FIG. 4 is a roll paper feeding unit. FIG. 5 is a side view of the connecting mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the connecting mechanism. 2 ... Image forming apparatus body (copier body), 3 ... Roll paper, 4 ... Cut paper, 5 ... Paper feed port, 6 ... Roll paper feed unit, 23 ... Unit frame, 24 ... Paper feed unit main body, 31 ... Position regulation member (support shaft), 34 ... Roll paper loading section, 35 ... Paper feed roller means, 36 ... Roll paper cutting means, 46 ... Position regulation means, 47 ... … Fixing means, 49 …… Position regulating member, 50 …… Hook member, 51 …… Biasing means, 53 ……
Cam mechanism, b ... Paper ejection section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A roll paper loading section, paper feed roller means for feeding and feeding the roll paper, cutting means for cutting the roll paper fed out by the paper feed roller means to a predetermined length, and cut paper A roll paper feeding unit is configured by providing a paper feeding unit main body including a paper discharging section so as to be able to move up and down with respect to a unit frame whose horizontal level can be freely adjusted. Positioning means for connecting the paper feed unit side of the image forming apparatus main body and restricting upward movement of the paper feed unit main body with the paper discharge unit facing the paper feed port are provided as the paper feed unit main body. An image forming apparatus, which is provided on both sides of the roll paper in the axial direction between the unit frame and fixing means for fixing the sheet feeding unit main body whose upward movement is restricted to the unit frame. 2. The position regulating means comprises a position regulating member and a position regulated member which abut against each other as the sheet feeding unit body rises, and the fixing means comprises the position regulating member and the position regulated member. And a biasing means for biasing the hook member to the gripping position. The biasing means is biased as the sheet feeding unit main body moves up and down. A cam mechanism for switching the hook member to the holding release position against the force.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is provided between the hook member and the position regulating member.