GB2137596A - Sheet sorting device - Google Patents

Abstract

A sheet sorting device S in which sheets P are sorted with trays 41.....415 is being moved so that one of the trays, e.g. 44, corresponds to the sheet outlet 1,1 of an image forming apparatus C, is provided with a sheet conveying portion 14.....21 for causing sheets carried from the outlet 1,1 into the sheet sorting device S to be discharged out of the sheet sorting device S, thereby bypassing the device S and being passed into an adjacent sorting device S1 e.g. when the trays are full. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sheet sorting device Background of the invention Field of the invention This invention relates to a sheet sorting device (sorter) which effects distribution, accumulation, etc.

of sheet materials, called copying paper, transfer paper or recording paper (hereinafter simply referred to as sheets) carried out from an image forming apparatus such as a copying apparatus, a printer or other recording apparatus.

Description of the prior art Generally, a sorter has ten to twenty or more steps of sheet accumulating beds (hereinafter referred to as trays) and sorts and accumulates on each tray one of sheets continuously carried out at predetermined intervals from other apparatus such as a copying apparatus. Usually, the sorter can only accomplish sortings less than the number of trays the sorter has.

Therefore, particularly in a sheet sorting device in which sorting is effected with tray groups being moved, to increase the number of trays, the trays must be arranged by usually stacking them one upon another, and this leads to too great a height of the trays which in turn may result in an inconvenience.

It is therefore a general aim of the present invention to provide a moved sheet sorting device (hereinafter referred to as a sorter) which is improved in view of the above-noted disadvantages peculiar to the prior art.

In one aspect the present invention aims to provide a sorter which can accomplish multi-sorting by juxtaposing a plurality of sorters without the number of trays possessed by each sorter being limited.

In another aspect the present invention aims to provide a sorter having a mechanism capable of carrying out sheets from the sorter.

In a further aspect the present invention provides a sorter which is characterized in that it enables sheets to be accumulated outside the sorter or enables sheets to be conveyed to the next process station such as a binding aperture forming process station, a binding starching process station or other subsequent process station.

The invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional front view of a sheet sorting device provided with the conveying device of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but showing the conveying device in its used condition.

Figures 3 and 4 are longitudinal cross-sectional front views of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a different form of sheet sorting device.

Figure 5 is a front view of the other side of the sheet receiving port forming mechanism of trays.

Description of the preferred embodiments An embodiment of the present invention shown in the drawings will hereinafter be descrubed specifically. In Figures 1 and 2, a sheet P discharged by the discharge rollers 1 and 1 of a copying apparatus C passes to the entrance of a sorter S disposed in opposed relationship with the discharge rollers and is directed by carry-in guides 2 and 2 to conveyor rollers 3 and 31. The sheet receiving port 4' of one of a group of trays 4 provided stepwise, for example, the tray 44, corresponds to the nip of the conveyor rollers 3 and 31 and the sheet is placed onto the tray 44. Of course, design may be made such that the discharge rollers 1 and 1 of the copying apparatus C serve also as the conveyor rollers 3 and 31.

For example, each of fifteen steps of tray groups 41, 42 ..., 415 arranged in upwardly inclined relationship with the direction of sheet conveyance has its sides (this and other sides as viewed in the Figures) vertically tiltably supported by a tray support plate 5.

Means for opening the receiving port 4' may be conventional one and an example thereof is shown in Figure 5.

The rear portion of each tray is supported with the slot 41 of the tray being slidably engaged with a support shaft 40 provided in the support plate 5. On the entrance side of each tray and between each tray and the support plate 5, a lever 43 having a pivot shaft 42 on the support plate 5 is provided for each tray, one end of the lever being mounted on the tray by means of a pin 47, and a roller 44 is provided on the free end of the lever 43. Reference numeral 45 designates a cam plate which forms the aforementioned receiving port 4' during upward movement of the tray groups, and reference numeral 46 denotes a cam plate for returning the trays during downward movement of the tray groups. The cam plate 46 is divided into upper and lower cams at the position of the guide rollers 3 and 31.

When the trays are moved up by the support plate 5, the roller 44 belonging to the tray 42 strikes against the cam plate 45 and the lever 43 pivots clockwisely about the pivot shaft 42 to thereby force the entrance side of the tray 42 upwardly in addition to the amount of upward movement of the support plate 5. Accordingly, the upper portion of the entrance side of the tray 43 is widened and becomes ready to receive the sheet into the tray 43.

When the trays are moved down, the roller 44 of the tray, e.g. 43, so far kept in its forced up state by the cam plate 45 as previously mentioned becomes spaced apart from the cam plate 45 thereof and then bears against the return cam 46, and the lever 43 pivots counter-clockwisely and returns to its original position with the entrance side of the tray 43 thereof pulled down.

M designates a motor disposed in the lower portion of the strut 7. A chain (or wire) 8 is passed over a transmission wheel 9 on the shaft of the motor and a transmission wheel 10 provided on the upper portion of the strut, one end of the chain being connected to the upper portion of the support plate 5 and the other end of the chain being connected to the lower end of the support plate 5 through a coil spring 11. Accordingly, if the motor M is rotatively driven clockwisely as viewed in the Figure, the tray groups 41, 42 1 415 and a sheet conveying device provided below the lowermost tray 415 and disposed substantially horizontally in inclined relationship with the tray groups are moved up with the support plate 5.

The support plate 5 is moved up and down along the strut 7 by at least a distance corresponding to the distance from the uppermost tray 41 to the sheet conveying device provided in the lowermost portion of the tray groups.

The sheet P discharged from the copying apparatus C is placed from the guides 2, 2 and carry-in rollers 3, 31 of the sorter S onto the corresponding tray 44. By the placement detection signal, the support plate 5 supporting the tray groups is moved up and the entrance of the tray 45 is moved up to a position opposed to the paper discharge rollers 3, 31 and waits for the carrying-in of the sheet. By such an operation being repeated, sheets P are successively placed onto the trays up to the lowermost tray 415.

According to the present invention, the sheet sorting device in which the tray groups as illustrated are moved together by moving means and one of the trays in the group is caused to correspond to the sheet conveying means of the image forming apparatus, whereby sheets are distributed is provided with a device for conveying sheets out of the sheet sorting device.

The conveying device is installed below the lowermost tray of the tray groups 4 and comprises sheet conveyor belts 19, 21, pulleys 14, 16, 14, 15 over which these belts are passed, rollers 17,18 for hoiding down the belts, and upper and lower carry-in guides 20, 201, provided just above and substantially in parallelism to the belts 19, 21. If the belts 19, 21 are made of an electrically conductive material such as electrically conductive rubber two thereby erase the charges of sheets, conveyance of sheets will be further stabilized. Alternatively, sheets may be brought into contact with or into proximity to an electrically conductive member (for example, a needle-like member). The belts 19 and 21 may be replaced by rollers or the like.

When the tray groups are successively moved up by one stage as previously described and distribution of sheets into the lowermost tray 4n is completed, the receiving ports of the guides 20 and 211 of the conveying device come to face the conveyor rollers 3 and 31 upon next upward movement, as shown in Figure 2. A gear G (not shown) on the shaft of the pulley 15 is operatively associated with a gear G2 (not shown) on the guide roller 3 through an idle gear G1, and the belts 21 and 19 are driven thereby.

This driving by the operative association between the gears is not restrictive, but an exclusive drive source for the belts 19 and 21 may be provided.

By the conveyance guides 20 and 201 being projected to ahead of the support plate 5, the sheets P discharged from the copying apparatus C are carried out of the sorter S one after another by the conveying device.

Accordingly, as shown in Figure 2, another sorter S1 is juxtaposed tandem with the sorter S and sheets are sorted and received into the trays 4 of the sorter S1 and therefore, sorting of many sheets can be easily accomplished even if the number of trays per sorter is small. The carrying of sheets into the second sorter S1 is effected in the same manner as the carrying of sheets into the first sorter S from the copying apparatus C and no special sheet guide means or the like is required between the sorter S and S1, and this leads to simplicity of the device.

Also, a stapler, an aperture-making device or other finisher may be used in place of the second and subsequent sorters.

Figures 3 and 4 show another embodiment.

A sheet P discharged by the discharge rollers 1,1 - of the copying apparatus C passes to the entrance of a sorter S3 disposed in opposed relationship with the discharge rollers and is directly placed onto a tray 221 disposed in upwardly inclined relationship with the direction of sheet conveyance. The sorter S3 may of course be provided with conveyor means as designated by 2 and 3 in Figure 1.

Each of trays 221 and 22n have the beds 39 at their outward ends superposed one upon the other and are supported for pivotal movement and lengthwise sliding movement on a support member 231. Reference numeral 24 designates guide plates positioned on the opposite sides (this and other sides as viewed in the Figure) of trays 227 - 228, reference numeral 25 denotes a guide slot formed in each guide plate 24, and pins 261 - 26 are projectedly provided on the opposite side surfaces of trays 221 - 228 and these pins are slidably inserted in the slots 25 while overlapping one another in succession.

Below the lowermost tray 228, a sheet conveying device comprising belts 19,21, pulleys 14, 15, 14, 16, a belt keep roller 17 and carry-in guides 20, 201 which are similar to those of the previous embodiment is mounted on the support member 231 substantially in the same inclined relationship as the tray groups. Designated by 23 is an arm supporting the support member 231 from below it.

A pin 269 inserted in the slot 25 is provided on the carry-in guide 201 or the support member 231, and the lower end of a wire 28 is connected thereto. The wire 28 is wound on a take-up drum 27 containing a take-up spring therein, via a deflecting roller 29 provided on the guide plate 24. The lowermost pin 268 of the overlapping pins 261 - 268 rests on the carry-in guide 20.

When, in the sorter S3 on the left-hand side of Figure 3, it is confirmed that the sheet P has been placed onto the tray 221, the take-up drum 27 operates and the wire 28 is taken up thereon to raise the pin 269. When that pin is raised,the support member 231 and the conveying device 14 - 19, 20, 2 1 assembled thereto pivot rightwardly about the fulcrum 232 of the support arm 23, thereby pushing up the sheet receiving side of the tray groups 221 228. The trays 221 - 228 and the conveying device 14 20 move in the direction in which the pins 261 - 269 move along the slots 25.

The pin (e.g. 261) of the tray (e.g. 221) which is receiving the sheet stops at the boundary between the upward slope 25a and the vertical portion 25b the slot 25. When, in that state, the aforementioned raising action is effected, the pin 261 is pushed up onto the vertical slot portion 25b.

At that time, a Geneva wheel 38 journalled to the guide plates 24 is rotated by drive means, not shown, and by the Geneva wheel being synchronized so that a concave groove 381 therein becomes coincident with the pin 26a, the pin 261 and the tray 221 are raised along the vertical slot 25b and the next pin 262 is held down by the peripheral surface 382 of the Geneva wheel 38, whereby the raising action by the take-up drum 27 is stopped.

When the pin 261 arrives at the upper end of the vertical slot 25b, the engagement thereof with the groove 381 of the Geneva wheel is released and the pin is received by the peripheral surface of that wheel during continuous rotation thereof and thus, the tray 221 is held in its state indicated by dot-anddash line 221.

By the above-described operation, the second tray 222 becomes ready to receive sheets and thereafter, the above-described cycle is repeated and, when the carrying of sheets into the last tray 228 is completed, the take-up drum 28 is operated by the completion signal and the support member 23 is raised to the position of Figure 4 in which the conveyance guides 20 and 201 are positioned on the line of carry-out direction of the carry-out rollers 1 and 1 of the copying apparatus C. At that time, the pins 261 - 268 of the trays are received in the upper inclined slot 25c, as shown in Figure 4.

When the sheet conveying device changes from its inclined position of Figure 3 to its substantially horizontal position as shown in Figure 4, the shaft of the pulley 15 becomes operatively associated with the shaft of the guide roller 1 through a gear, not shown, and an idle gear G3, whereby the belts 21 and 19 are driven. Designated by G4 is an idle gear for operatively associating the shaft of the belt pulley 16 with the shaft of the belt pulley 15 of the next sorter S4.

This embodiment also has an operational effect similar to that of the previous embodiment, in addition to sorting and receiving sheets in the next sorter S4 installed in opposed relationship with the preceding sorter as shown.

Claims (16)

1. A sheet sorting device in which sheets are sorted with tray groups being moved so that one of the tray groups successively corresponds to the sheet carry-out portion of an image forming appar atus and which is provided with a sheet conveying portion for causing the sheets carried from said sheet carry-out portion into said sheet sorting device to be discharged out of said sheet sorting device, thereby bypassing the sheets into a juxtaposed next sheet sorting device.

2. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 1, wherein said sheet conveying portion is disposed below the lowermost tray of said tray groups.

3. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 1, wherein said sheet conveying portion has an elec tricallyconductive member which is in contact with or proximate to the sheets.

4. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 1, wherein said sheet conveying portion is disposed at an angle of inclination relative to said tray groups.

5. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 1, wherein said sheet conveying portion is disposed with substantially the same inclination as said tray groups.

6. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 1, wherein said sheet conveyinvg portion is movable between at least two positions, i.e., a horizontal position and an inclined position.

7. A sheet sorting device in which tray-group units are parallelly connected, each tray-group unit having plural trays for receiving sheets discharged from a sheet carry-out portion and providing with a sheet conveying portion below the lowermost tray of the unit for causing the sheets carried out from said sheet carry-out portion into the unit to be passing out of the unit.

8. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 7, wherein said sheet conveying portion being disposed at an angle of inclination relative to said tray groups.

9. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 7 wherein said sheet conveying portion being disposed at an angle of inclination substantially equal to the inclination of the tray groups.

10. A sheet conveying device according to Claim 7 wherein sheet conveying portion being movable between at least two positions of horizontal state and inclined state.

11. A sheet sorting device comprising: a plurality of trays for receiving and accommodating sheets supplied to a supply position of the device; means for moving said trays so as to cause successively supplied sheets to be received by successive said trays; and means operable to convey sheets from said supply position and discharge them from the sorting device without being stored in the trays.

12. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 11 wherein said conveying means comprises means defining a guide way, and wherein said moving means is operable to dispose said trays in succession, and then said guideways defining means, in position to receive sheets from said supply position.

13. A sheet sorting device according to Claim 12 wherein said conveying means further comprises sheet driving means arranged to be driven, when said guideway defining means is in said sheet receiving position, so as to drive the supplied sheets along said guideway.

14. A sheet sorting device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

15. A sheet sorting device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1,2 and 5 of the accompanying drawings.

16. A sheet device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.