JPH0774063B2 - Sheet aftertreatment device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention is for classifying and storing sheets attached to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine or a laser beam printer and discharged from the image forming apparatus. The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus, and more particularly to a sheet post-processing apparatus that includes a large number of bins and aligns sheets stored in the bins.

(B) Conventional Technology In a sheet post-processing apparatus that aligns sheets stored in a bin, a notch is provided in the bin, and an aligning member is inserted into the bin from the notch to align the sheets. .

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, in the above-described sheet post-processing apparatus, in addition to the cutout portion formed from the rear portion of the bin in order to take out a small-sized sheet on the bin, the bin for the alignment member described above Since the notch portion needs to be provided from the side of the bottle, the strength of the bottle may be insufficient and the bottle may be bent, and the sheet may be caught in the notch portion to make alignment impossible.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a sheet post-processing device includes a large number of bins arranged in multiple stages and a large number of the large number of bins. An aligning elongated hole formed in each of the bins and the elongated holes of the plurality of bins penetrating in the multi-stage direction and pushing the end faces of the sheets discharged and stored in the bins to align the sheets in a lateral alignment. Means and moving means for moving the aligning means in the elongated hole between the aligned position and the non-aligned position, and in the portion of the bin on the upstream side of the elongated hole in the sheet discharging direction, It is characterized in that a thick portion having an inclined surface protruding from the bottle and having a height gradually increasing toward the downstream side is provided.

Further, a taper surface in the sheet discharge direction for guiding the sheet may be provided on the downstream end surface of the elongated hole in the sheet discharge direction.

Further, the major axis of the elongated hole may be inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the sheet discharging direction.

In addition, the elongated hole can be formed of a concentric circle having a center at a predetermined position.

(E) Operation Based on the above-described configuration, the sheet discharged onto each bin is discharged so that the leading edge of the sheet rubs the surface of the bin. When the leading edge of the sheet reaches the thick portion on the upstream side of the long hole, the leading edge moves toward the downstream side along the inclined surface of the thick portion.
As a result, the leading edge of the sheet jumps over the long hole using the inclined surface as a so-called jump base and reaches the downstream side of the long hole.
Therefore, the leading edge of the sheet does not get caught in the long hole.

As described above, the thick portion provided on the upstream side of the long hole and having the inclined surface of which the height gradually increases functions as a reinforcement for the bottle and as a jump base for the seat.

In the sheet discharging direction, when a taper surface is formed on the downstream end surface of the elongated hole, the leading edge of the sheet is more unlikely to be caught in the elongated hole due to the combination with the thick portion.

(F) Example Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the sorter 1 is composed of a machine body 12 and a bin unit 11, and the machine body 12 is provided with a carry-in roller pair 3 in the vicinity of the carry-in entrance 2, and the carry-in roller pair 3 is provided. A flapper 7 for switching the sheet transport direction to the transport path 5 or 6 is disposed downstream. One of the transport paths 5 extends in a substantially horizontal direction, and a paper discharge roller pair 8 is arranged downstream thereof, and the other of the transport paths 6 extends downward and the paper discharge rollers are provided downstream thereof. Pair 9 is provided.
Further, a large number of bins are provided downstream of the pair of discharge rollers 8 and 9.
A bin unit 11 including 10 is supported in a vertically movable manner by a spring 13 having one end fixed to a body 12 being hooked on a hook 14 and the spring 13 carrying the weight of the bin unit 11. Guide rollers 15 and 15 are rotatably supported on the upper and lower portions of the base side of the bin unit 11, and the rollers 15 and 15 are provided on the machine body 12 so as to extend in the vertical direction. It is configured to be fitted in the groove 16 and roll in the groove 16 to guide the bin unit 11. Further, a drive motor 17 is arranged in the machine body 12, and a thrust bearing 20 is arranged in the bottom plate 19.
The rotary shaft 22 carries the thrust load by the thrust bearing 20. The shaft 22 is rotatably supported at the lower end by the bearing 20 and at the upper end by the bearing 20 '(see FIG. 6). The rotary shaft 22 and the lead cam 21
And the sprocket 23 is fixed. A chain 25 is stretched around the sprocket 23 and the shaft of the motor 17, so that the rotation of the motor 17 is transmitted to the rotary shaft 22 via the chain 25.

Further, as shown in detail in FIG. 1, the bin unit 11 includes a bottom frame 26 composed of an inclined portion and a horizontal portion, and frames 27, 27 vertically provided on the front side and the rear side of the front end of the frame 26. And a cover 29 supported by the frames 27, 27
The unit main body 30 composed of the unit main body 30 is provided.
Is provided. A support plate 32 is fixed to the inner side of the base end of the frame 26, and a fan-shaped gear 33 is attached to the support plate 32.
Is rotatably supported. A pulse motor 35 is disposed below the support plate 32, and a gear 36 fixed to the output shaft of the motor 35 meshes with the fan-shaped gear 33. Further, a lower arm 37 is fixed to the fan gear 33, and the arm 37 is configured to rotate integrally with the fan gear 33. An arm 39 is provided at a position facing the arm 37 of the cover 29 so as to be fixed to a shaft 40 rotatably supported by the cover 29. A shaft 41 is installed at the center of rotation of the arm 37. A matching rod (aligning means) 42 is provided between the tip of the arm 37 and the tip of the arm 39, and the aligning rod 42 is configured to swing by a sector gear 33. Further, the arm 37 is provided with a light shielding plate 43,
By turning the light shielding plate 43 integrally with the arm 37,
The home position sensor 45 arranged on the back side of the frame 26 is configured to be turned on and off.

As shown in detail in FIG. 4, the bottle 10 has engagement plates 46 formed on the front side and the back side of the tip, respectively, and the engagement plates 46 are provided on the inner side of the frame 27. By engaging with (not shown), the bottle 10 is supported on the front end side. Support shafts 47 are fixed to the front and rear sides of the base end of the bottle 10, respectively,
A roller 49 is rotatably supported on the support shaft 47.
Further, the bottle 10 is provided with a long hole 50 having a minimum width 1 which is longer than the rotation distance of the alignment rod 42 and is sufficiently wider than the width of the alignment rod 42 at a predetermined distance L from the shaft 41. Long hole
A taper surface 51a is attached to the downstream side surface of the sheet A in the sheet discharge direction (sheet discharge direction) A (see FIG. 5). Also, the bottle 1
The corner portion 10a on the far side of the front end of 0 is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the sheet storage surface 10b, the base end portion 10c stands upright with respect to the sheet storage surface 10b, and the bin 10 is a machine body. The front end is inclined upward by a predetermined angle with respect to 12, and by this inclination, the seat slides on the sheet storage surface 10b and the rear end abuts on the base end portion 1c so that the front-back direction is aligned. There is. Also,
A cutout portion 51b extending from the tip of the bin 10 to the substantial center of the sheet storage surface 10b is formed, and the cutout portion 51b is for facilitating the taking of a small size sheet placed on the sheet storage surface 10b. It is a thing.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, in the bottle 10, the roller 49 is inserted into the guide groove 16 by penetrating the elongated hole 52 formed in the frame 26. Bottle of
The ten rollers 49 are mounted on the guide roller 15. In addition, the rollers of the bin 10 one step above the bottom bin 10
The roller 49 of the lowermost bin 10 is placed on the roller 49 of the lowermost bin 10, and the roller 49 of the lower bin 10 thus supports the roller 49 of the uppermost bin 10 to thereby cause the bottle 10 to move. The base end side of ... is supported. And the long hole 50 of the bottle 10 ...
The aligning rod 42 is fitted in the sheet, and the aligning rod 42 swings in the elongated hole 50 between the aligning position and the non-aligning position to bring the sheet S into contact with the aligning reference plate 31. It is configured to match.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the lead cam 21 is provided with a groove 21a which is slightly wider than the roller 49 and is spirally formed. The groove 21a engages with the roller 49. The rotation of the lead cam 21 causes the roller 49 to move up and down along the groove 21a.

Since the present embodiment has the above-described configuration, the image-formed sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus is the entrance 2
Is carried into the machine body 12 by the carry-in roller pair 3, and is carried to the flapper 7 by the roller pair 3. At this time, when a non-sort mode in which the sheets S are not classified is instructed from an operation unit (not shown), the flapper 7 is switched to a position for guiding the sheets S to the conveyance path 5 by a solenoid (not shown), and the carry-in roller pair 3 is used. The conveyed sheet S is guided to the conveyance path 5. Then, the sheet S is discharged to the uppermost bin 10 by the discharge roller pair 8 through the transport path 5. At this time, the front end of the sheet S passes over the long hole 50, but the front end of the sheet is guided by the taper 51a and the long hole 5
It does not catch 0 (see Fig. 5). Then, the sheet S discharged onto the bin 10 slides on the bin main body 51 due to the inclination of the bin main body 51 and comes into contact with the base end portion 10c, but at a position apart from the alignment reference plate 31 (eighth position). It is at the position indicated by the dashed line in FIG. Then, in this state, the pulse motor 35 rotates by a predetermined amount according to the sheet size information from the image forming apparatus, and the rotation of the motor 35 causes the gear 36 to rotate. The fan gear 33 is rotated by the rotation of the gear 36,
The upper and lower arms 37, 39 rotate integrally with the 33. This allows
The aligning rod 42 located at the tips of the upper and lower arms 37, 39 rotates in the elongated hole 50 from the home position H in the arrow direction to move the sheet S from the two-dot chain line position to the solid line position to move the sheet S. Abut and align with the alignment reference plate 31 (see FIG. 8). Then, after a predetermined time, the pulse motor 35 reverses and the alignment rod 42
When is returned to the home position H, the light shielding plate 43 blocks the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion of the home position sensor 45, the sensor 45 is turned on, the pulse motor 35 is stopped, and the alignment work is completed. It should be noted that, without returning to the home position H, the sheet is moved to a standby position that does not hinder the discharge of the sheet S, the second and subsequent sheets are aligned from the standby position, and after alignment, the sheet is returned to the standby position again. Good. Then, the second sheet S is discharged from the image forming apparatus, the sheet S is aligned and stored on the uppermost bin 10 by the same operation as described above, and the predetermined number of sheets S ... Upper bin 10
Stored on top.

When the sort mode for sorting and storing the sheets S is input from the operation unit (not shown), the sheets S discharged from the image forming apparatus are carried into the machine body 12 from the carry-in port 2 by the carry-in rollers 3. , Is guided to the transport path 6 by a flapper 7 switched by a solenoid (not shown). Then, the sheet S passes through the conveyance path 6 and is moved downward by the pair of discharge rollers 9 in the bin unit.
It is discharged to the uppermost bin 10 of 11. Then, in the same manner as described above, the alignment rod 42 swings to bring the sheet into contact with the alignment reference plate 31, and align the sheet. Then, when a start signal is issued when an image is formed on the second sheet S, the drive motor 17 rotates by a predetermined amount, and the rotation of the motor 17 causes the chain 25 to rotate.
Is transmitted to the rotating shaft 22 through the rotation of the rotating shaft 22, and the rotation of the shaft 22 causes the lead cam 21 to make one rotation. Then, the uppermost bin 10 located at the position C for storing the sheet S discharged from the pair of discharge rollers 9 moves to the position B by the roller 49 rising along the groove 21 a of the lead cam 21. Then, the second-stage bin 10 located at the D position is raised to the storage position C (see FIG. 6). In this way, every bin 10 ...
As the bottle unit 11 itself rises step by step, the vertical distance between the bins also rises. Then, the second sheet S is image-formed by the image forming apparatus and discharged, and is stored in the second-stage bin 10 moved from the position D to the storage position C by the same operation as described above. In this way, every time the image forming operation on the sheets S is started, the bins 10 ...

In the above-described embodiment, the slot 50 is formed at the position of the predetermined distance L from the shaft 41 with the minimum width l. However, the slot 50 'is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. The longitudinal portion may be located on the circumference of a circle having a radius L and a radius L + 1 centered at 41.

Further, on the downstream side of the tapered surface 51a of the bin main body 51 in the sheet discharge direction and on the portion adjacent to the elongated hole 50 other than the tapered surface 51a,
As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a thick portion 51b that is inclined with respect to the bottle body 5 is provided. The thick portion 51b reinforces the bottle body 51. Further, the thick portion 51b formed on the upstream side of the long hole 50 functions as a jump base for the sheet S. That is, the thick portion 51b on the upstream side has an inclined surface 51J that rises from the bottle main body 51 and gradually increases in height toward the downstream side.

The sheet S discharged to each bin 10 has its leading edge at the bin 10
It is discharged by rubbing the surface of. When the leading edge of the sheet S reaches the thick portion 51b on the upstream side of the long hole 50, the leading edge is lifted by the inclined surface 51J of the thick portion 51b and moves along the inclined surface toward the downstream side. As a result, the leading edge of the sheet S jumps over the long hole 50 using the inclined surface as a so-called jump base and reaches the downstream side of the long hole 50. Therefore, the leading edge of the sheet S does not get caught in the long hole.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the alignment rod 42 is adapted to rotate, but not limited to this, it may be linearly moved as shown in FIG. 50 ″
Also has a linear shape, the contact portion between the elongated hole 50 ″ and the sheet S is reduced, and the sheet S is more difficult to be caught in the elongated hole 50 ″.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, on the upstream side of the long hole in the bottle,
By providing the thick portion having the inclined surface whose height gradually increases toward the downstream side, the sheet at the time of discharge can jump along the inclined surface and jump over the long hole by using the thick portion as a jump base. Therefore, it is possible to effectively prevent the posture of the sheet after being discharged from being disturbed by the leading edge of the sheet being caught in the long hole. Moreover, the strength of the bottle itself can be improved by the thick portion.

When the tapered surface is provided on the downstream end surface of the elongated hole in the sheet discharge direction, the leading end of the sheet is more difficult to be caught in the elongated hole.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a bottle and a matching member according to the present invention. 2 is a perspective view showing a sheet post-processing apparatus including the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a front view thereof. 4 is a plan view showing the bottle according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. Further, FIG. 6 is a front view showing the state of the lead cam and the bin, and FIG. 7 is a plan view thereof. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the operation of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing an elongated hole,
10 is a plan view showing a thick portion, FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line EE of FIG. 10, and FIG. 12 is a plan view showing another elongated hole. 1-sheet post-processing device, 10-bin, 42-alignment member, 50,50 ', 50 "-long hole, 51a-tapered surface, 51b-
Thick part, 51J …… Sloping surface.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A large number of bottles arranged in multiple stages, closed oblong holes formed in each of the plural bottles, and long holes of the plural bottles penetrating in the multi-stage direction. ,
An aligning unit that pushes an end surface of the sheet discharged and stored in the bin to align the sheet widthwise; and a moving unit that moves the aligning unit between the aligning position and the non-aligning position in the elongated hole, A thick portion having an inclined surface protruding from the bin and gradually increasing in height toward the downstream side is provided at a portion of the bin on the upstream side of the elongated hole in the sheet discharging direction. Sheet post-processing device. 2. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a taper surface in the sheet discharge direction for guiding the sheet is provided on an end surface of the elongated hole on the downstream side in the sheet discharge direction. 3. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the major axis of the elongated hole is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the sheet discharging direction. 4. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elongated hole is formed of a concentric circle having a center at a predetermined position.