JP2005206345A - Nip guiding slope and special printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a nip guiding slope and a special printer capable of setting height of a conveying path for reciprocating media with different thicknesses on the same conveying path to proper height, and preventing a medium from moving when it is conveyed between a pair of conveying rollers. <P>SOLUTION: A bar-like member having a slope 15a with both ends inclined for guiding the medium to a nip, and a nip guiding slope 15 comprising leaf springs 15b communicated with each of tips on both ends for activating the bar-like member independently from the action of drive rollers 3 in a direction perpendicular to the medium conveying direction according to thickness of the medium passing through the nip are arranged on a special printer having a medium conveying path 2 for reciprocating media with different thicknesses on the same conveying path integrally with a rotation shaft of the drive rollers 3 in a vertical direction near the drive rollers 3. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a nip guide slope that stably guides media having different thicknesses, and a special printer including the nip guide slope.

  Conventionally, media with different thicknesses such as thin paper such as single sheets and thick booklets such as passbooks are sandwiched by a pair of transport rollers consisting of a drive roller and a driven roller that can rotate forward and reverse, and reciprocate in the same transport path. Special printers that can be operated are known. In such a special printer, each drive roller is provided with a slope that operates in conjunction with the rotation shaft of the drive roller, and the medium is guided to the nip of each pair of transport rollers by this slope.

In addition, when the sheet material is conveyed, the conveyance guide plate that is rotatable about the central axis of the conveyance roller among the conveyance guide plate pair that connects between the conveyance roller pair is a moment caused by the elastic force of the booklet. Is known to spread by (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-28522 A

  In the above-mentioned special printer, since the drive roller and the slope operate in conjunction with each other, in order to transport media having different thicknesses on the same transport path, the height of the transport path is the thickest considering thick media. Need to be set higher. For this reason, a thin medium or a medium with low stiffness escapes to an extra space just by slightly colliding with the outer periphery of the driving roller or the driven roller, resulting in a delay in entering the nip of the conveying roller pair. Further, when a difference occurs in the entry of the conveyance roller pair into the nip on the left and right sides of the medium due to bending or the like, skew is caused and print quality is deteriorated.

  Moreover, in the thing described in patent document 1, since a conveyance guide plate is rotated and expanded by the moment by the elastic force of a sheet material, there is a possibility that the sheet material may be adversely affected by the contact between the sheet material and the conveyance path. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to set the height of a conveyance path for reciprocating media having different thicknesses in the same conveyance path to an appropriate height. It is an object of the present invention to provide a nip guide slope and a special printer that can prevent a medium rampage when transporting between sheets.

  The present invention relates to a rod-shaped member having a slope in which both end portions are inclined in the same direction in order to guide the medium to the nip, and a direction perpendicular to the medium conveyance direction depending on the thickness of the medium passing through the nip through the nip. The nip guide slope is composed of, for example, a leaf spring that is connected to each end of the both ends that are operated independently of the operation of the drive roller, and has a transport path for reciprocating media having different thicknesses in the same transport path. A pair is arranged near the drive roller of the special printer and in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the drive roller.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to set the height of the conveyance path for reciprocating media having different thicknesses in the same conveyance path to an appropriate height, and further, it is possible to prevent medium runaway when conveying between a pair of conveyance rollers. Nip guide slopes and special printers can be provided.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a cross section of the special printer 1, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a medium conveyance path for conveying a medium. As shown in FIG. 1, a medium transport path 2 is provided inside the special printer 1, and a plurality of drive rollers are provided in the medium transport path 2 from upstream (right side on the paper surface) to downstream (left side on the paper surface). 3 are arranged. Each of these drive rollers 3 uses a motor (not shown) as a drive source, and can be driven forward (clockwise in the figure) and reverse (counterclockwise in the figure) around the fulcrum shaft. And the driven roller 4 which is rotatably supported by the fulcrum shaft so as to face the plurality of driving rollers 3 is disposed. These driven rollers 4 are arranged so as to form a nip having a predetermined width, and are moved up and down in the vertical direction according to the thickness of the medium transported in the medium transport path 2. The driving roller 3 and the driven roller 4 constitute a conveying roller pair. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the medium transport path 2 is formed by arranging a guide plate 5 for guiding the drive roller 3 side and a guide plate 6 for guiding the driven roller 4 side with a certain gap therebetween. Yes. The guide plate 5 forming the medium conveyance path 2 is set to a distance D which is a predetermined distance from the nip extension line (shown by a one-dot chain line) of each conveyance roller pair in which the medium is actually conveyed, and from the nip extension line. The distance to the guide plate 6 is a distance 3D that is three times the predetermined distance D to the extension line of the nip between the guide plate 5 and the conveying roller pair. Therefore, since the tip of the medium inserted from the insertion / ejection port 7 for inserting / extracting the medium into / from the medium conveyance path 2 faces downward due to gravity or the like, it contacts the driven roller 4 arranged on the most upstream side. Will increase.

  A printing unit 8 is provided at an intermediate portion of the medium conveyance path 2. The print unit 8 is formed by a platen 9 and a print head 11 mounted on a carrier 10 that moves along the platen 9. The carrier 10 is reciprocated by receiving, for example, a driving force obtained by converting the rotational driving of the transport motor 12 that can rotate forward and backward into linear motion by the belt 13.

  Next, the nip guide slope 15 provided in the medium transport path 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a view showing the guide plate 6 for guiding the driven roller 4 from above, and FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the nip guide slope according to the present invention. 4 shows the II cross section in FIG. In this embodiment, the nip guide slope 15 will be described below in a case where the nip guide slope 15 is arranged so as to straddle the four driven rollers on the upstream side.

  FIG. 3 shows the guide plates 6 corresponding to the four driven rollers 4 on the upstream side. Each guide plate 6 is provided with two holes 14 for projecting a part of the driven rollers 4. Of these guide plates 6, on the upstream side and downstream side of the guide plate 6, a notch 6a for arranging the nip guide slope 15 is provided outside the hole. The nip guide slopes 15 are arranged in pairs so as to straddle the upstream notch 6a and the downstream notch 6a so as to be in a direction substantially parallel to the medium transport direction. It should be noted that the distance between the cutout portions 6a provided in the width direction needs to be set to be narrower than the narrowest one of the various media used in the special printer 1, but the wider one is as much as possible. The effect of aligning the entry height of the medium is enhanced. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a notch 6a for disposing the nip guide slope 15 slightly outside the hole 14 corresponding to the driven roller 4.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the nip guide slope 15 is used to guide the medium to the nip of the most upstream conveying roller pair when conveying the medium from the upstream to the downstream among the straddling driven rollers 4. Or a rod-like member having slopes 15a whose both ends are inclined downward in order to guide the medium to the nip of the most downstream conveying roller pair when the medium is conveyed from the downstream side to the upstream side. In the vertical direction, the tip of the slope 15a of the nip guide slope 15 is arranged so as to be substantially coincident with the guide plate 6, and the end of the slope 15a is arranged so as to be substantially coincident with the nips of the conveying roller pairs at both ends. doing. The material of the nip guide slope is, for example, a wire, but may be made of resin.

  In addition, the nip guide slope 15 is connected to a leaf spring 15b as an operating means for operating in the vertical direction with respect to the medium transport direction in accordance with the thickness of the medium passing through the nip at the tip of both the slopes 15a. . The leaf spring 15b is fixed at a predetermined position of an internal mechanism (not shown). At this time, the leaf spring 15b is fixed so that the portion of the nip guide slope 15 that is substantially parallel to the medium conveyance path 2 that is not the slope 15a is substantially coincident with the extension line of the nip of each conveyance roller pair in the vertical direction. To do. The elastic force of the leaf spring 15b is determined in consideration of the thickness of various media used in the special printer 1. For example, when a thin paper such as a single sheet is transported at the position shown in FIG. 4, when passing a thick booklet such as a passbook, the thickness is lowered by the thickness as shown in FIG. The elastic force of the leaf spring 15b is determined so as to move to the side.

  Therefore, as described above, the nip guide slope 15 has the slopes 15a at both ends disposed in the notch 6a and the leaf spring 15b fixed to a predetermined position of the internal mechanism. Are arranged so as to be paired with each other in the direction perpendicular to the rotation axis (arrangement means), and thus operate independently of the operation of the drive roller 3.

  Next, the operation of the medium that transports the medium transport path 2 provided with the nip guide slope 15 will be described. When the medium is inserted from the insertion / ejection port 7, a sensor (not shown) detects the medium and each drive roller 3 starts to rotate forward. The leading end of the medium comes into contact with the slope 15 a of the nip guide slope 15. Since the nip guide slopes 15 are arranged as a pair, even if the position of the front end of the medium is shifted, the front ends are aligned by abutting against each slope 15a. And it rushes into the nip of a conveyance roller pair along the slope 15a. At this time, the leaf spring 15b hardly operates in the case of thin paper such as a single sheet, but in the case of a booklet such as a passbook, there is a thickness, so that the leaf spring 15b operates vertically downward by the thickness. Therefore, any thickness of medium can be smoothly guided to the nip.

  The medium guided to the nip in this way is transported downstream by the pair of transport rollers along the nip guide slope 15. Therefore, when the medium is transported from the pair of transport rollers to the pair of transport rollers, the medium can be transported smoothly without causing a medium disturbance.

  Then, the paper is conveyed from the nip guide slope 15 to the printing unit 8. After the printing process is performed, each drive roller 3 rotates in the reverse direction and conveys the medium from the downstream side to the upstream side. Since the nip guide slope 15 has the same configuration on the downstream side and the upstream side, the same action as when the medium is transported from the upstream side to the downstream side is performed also when the medium is transported from the downstream side to the upstream side. Can be obtained. Then, the medium is discharged from the insertion / ejection port 7.

  According to this embodiment, since the nip guide slope 15 is independently arranged without being interlocked with driving of the drive roller 3, the height of the medium transport path 2 for reciprocating media having different thicknesses in the same transport path. Can be set to an appropriate height without making it higher than necessary, and a situation in which the conveyance force is reduced due to resistance when a thick medium enters the nip of the conveyance roller pair can be prevented. That is, it is possible to solve the conflicting demands of increasing the conveyance force but increasing the resistance force, and decreasing the resistance force but decreasing the conveyance force.

  Further, the medium comes into contact with the slope 15a of the nip guide slope 15, enters the nip of the transport roller pair with the same rush height, and is transported along the nip guide slope 15 between the transport roller pairs. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the medium from being disturbed when transporting between the pair of transport rollers, and to minimize the skew. Therefore, it is desirable to arrange the nip guide slope 15 so as to straddle the driven roller 4 as much as possible.

  In the above embodiment, the nip guide slope 15 is arranged so as to straddle the four driven rollers 4. However, as shown in FIG. 6, the nip guide slope 15 may be provided for each driven roller 4. Abutting against the slope 15a of the nip guide slope 15, the rush heights are made uniform and the nip of the conveying roller pair can be rushed into, and the skew caused by the leading edge at the time of rushing can be suppressed. With such a configuration, the skew can be effectively suppressed when it is difficult to dispose the nip guide slope 15 across the driven roller 4 depending on the special printer 1.

  In the above embodiment, the driving roller 3 is disposed on the upper side, the driven roller 4 is disposed on the lower side, the nip guiding slope 15 is disposed so as to straddle the driven roller 4, and the slope 15a is inclined downward. However, the configuration in which the nip guide slope 15 is arranged is not limited to this, and the driven roller 4 is arranged on the upper side and the driving roller 3 is arranged on the lower side, and the nip guide slope is configured in the same manner as in the above embodiment. It may be arranged. Further, when the guide plate 5 is provided at the position of the distance 3D above the extension line of the nip of each conveyance roller pair and the guide plate 6 is provided at the position of the distance D below, the medium conveyance path 2 is configured. When the medium is inserted from the insertion / ejection port, there is a high possibility that the medium abuts on an upper roller (either a driving roller or a driven roller). In this way, when there is a high possibility that the medium inserted (or conveyed) into the roller disposed on the upper side of the special printer 1 is in contact with the medium, the slope 15a of the nip guide slope 15 is inclined upward, and the tip thereof The same effect can be obtained even if the plate spring 15b provided on the inner mechanism is fixed at a predetermined position above the internal mechanism.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage, and a plurality of components disclosed in the above-described embodiment. Various inventions can be modified by appropriately combining the components.

1 is a diagram schematically showing a cross section of a special printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which expanded the medium conveyance path in the embodiment. The figure which shows the example of arrangement | positioning of the guide plate of a driven roller in the same embodiment, and a nip guide slope. The figure which shows the nip guide slope at the time of conveying the thin medium in the embodiment. The figure which shows the nip guide slope at the time of conveying the thick medium in the embodiment. The figure which shows the other example of the nip guide slope in the same embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Special printer, 2 ... Medium conveyance path, 3 ... Drive roller, 4 ... Driven roller, 5, 6 ... Guide plate, 6a ... Notch part, 15 ... Nip guide slope, 15a ... Slope, 15b ... Leaf spring

Claims (4)

The drive roller and the follower are provided in a transport path for reciprocally moving media having different thicknesses by a pair of transport rollers composed of a drive roller capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions and a rotatable follower roller disposed opposite to the drive roller. In a nip guide slope that guides the medium to the nip with the roller,
A rod-like member having a slope with both ends inclined in the same direction to guide the medium to the nip;
And operating means connected to the leading ends of the both ends for operating the rod-like member independently of the operation of the driving roller in a direction perpendicular to the medium conveying direction according to the thickness of the medium passing through the nip. ,
A nip guide slope that is disposed in the vicinity of the drive roller as a pair in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the drive roller. There is a transport path for reciprocally moving media having different thicknesses on the same transport path by a drive roller capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions and a rotatable driven roller disposed opposite to the drive roller, and the medium is transported by the transport path. In a special printer that conveys to a printing unit and performs printing based on predetermined print data, and discharges the medium printed by the printing unit to the outside through the recording conveyance path,
A rod-like member having a slope inclined at both ends in the same direction to guide the medium to the nip, and the rod-like member perpendicular to the medium conveying direction according to the thickness of the medium passing through the nip A nip guide slope comprising operating means connected to the respective tips of the both end portions to operate independently of the operation of the drive roller;
A special printer comprising: a disposing means for disposing the nip guide slope in the vicinity of the driving roller so as to form a pair in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the driving roller. Provided on a conveyance path for reciprocally moving media having different thicknesses by a plurality of conveyance roller pairs comprising a plurality of drive rollers capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions and rotatable driven rollers respectively disposed opposite to the plurality of drive rollers. , In a nip guiding slope for guiding the medium to the nip between each driving roller and the driven roller,
A rod-like member having a slope that spans the plurality of roller pairs and has both ends inclined in the same direction in order to guide the medium to the nip of the conveying roller pairs at both ends;
And operating means connected to the leading ends of the both ends for operating the rod-like member independently of the operation of the driving roller in a direction perpendicular to the medium conveying direction according to the thickness of the medium passing through the nip. ,
A nip guide slope that is disposed in the vicinity of the plurality of drive rollers as a pair in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the drive rollers. It has a conveying path for reciprocally moving media having different thicknesses by a plurality of conveying roller pairs each composed of a plurality of driving rollers capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions and a rotatable driven roller disposed opposite to each of the plurality of driving rollers. In the special printer that conveys the medium to the printing unit by the conveyance path, performs printing based on predetermined print data, and discharges the medium printed by the printing unit to the outside through the recording conveyance path,
A rod-shaped member having a slope that spans the plurality of conveyance roller pairs and has both ends inclined in the same direction to guide the medium to the nips of the conveyance roller pairs at both ends, and the rod-shaped member passes through the nip. A nip guide slope composed of operating means connected to the leading ends of the both ends that are operated independently of the operation of the driving roller in a direction perpendicular to the medium conveying direction according to the thickness of the medium;
A special printer comprising a disposing means for disposing the nip guide slope in the vicinity of the driving roller as a pair in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the driving roller.

Images