JP5286319B2 - Intermediate transport unit and image forming apparatus having the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an intermediate transport unit and an image forming apparatus including the intermediate transport unit.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers, and facsimile machines are sometimes provided with a finisher for post-processing recording paper (recording medium) that has been image-formed and discharged from a main body. In some image forming apparatuses, an intermediate conveyance unit for delivering the recording paper discharged from the main body to the finisher is prepared as an optional part.
Such an intermediate transport unit is installed in the paper discharge tray of the main body, and is configured to transport the recording paper discharged toward the paper discharge tray through its own transport path and deliver it to the finisher. Has been.

JP 2006-301445 A

By the way, the recording paper discharged from the main body is discharged through a fixing roller that fixes the toner to the recording paper by heating. The paper discharge tray is heated as hot recording paper accumulates. For this reason, conventionally, a blower fan for blowing cooling air to the discharge tray is installed in the main body.
However, when the intermediate transport unit is installed on the paper discharge tray as described above, the recording paper does not accumulate on the paper discharge tray, and the paper discharge tray does not heat, so the main body is provided. The fan is not used.
On the other hand, in the intermediate transport unit, the transport path is heated in order to transport high-temperature recording paper. For this reason, the intermediate transport unit is independently provided with a blower fan for cooling the transport path.

  As described above, in the conventional image forming apparatus, when the intermediate conveyance unit is installed, each of the main body unit and the intermediate conveyance unit is provided with a blower fan for cooling although it is not necessary, and the cost increases. Will be invited.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and can reduce the apparatus cost of the image forming apparatus by enabling the conveyance path to be cooled without providing a blower fan separate from the main body in the intermediate conveyance unit. For the purpose.

  The present invention adopts the following configuration as means for solving the above-described problems.

  A first aspect of the present invention is an intermediate transport unit that delivers the recording medium discharged to a paper discharge tray of a main body that forms an image on a recording medium to a finisher, and is already installed in the main body. A configuration is adopted in which an introduction duct is provided for introducing cooling air from a blower fan that blows air to the paper discharge tray into its own conveyance path.

  According to a second invention, in the first invention, the introduction duct is already connected to the guide duct that is already installed in the main body and guides the cooling air from the blower fan to the discharge tray. Adopt a configuration that

  According to a third invention, in the second invention, the introduction duct adopts a configuration in which the entire cooling air discharged from the guide duct is taken in.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the finisher receives a main body that forms an image on a recording medium, a finisher that performs post-processing of the recording medium on which the image is formed, and the recording medium ejected from the main body. An image forming apparatus provided with an intermediate conveyance unit to be passed, wherein the intermediate conveyance unit includes the intermediate conveyance unit according to any one of the first to third inventions.

According to the present invention, the cooling air from the blower fan already installed in the main body is introduced into the transport path of the intermediate transport unit by the introduction duct. For this reason, the conveyance path of the intermediate conveyance unit is cooled by the cooling air supplied through the introduction duct, and the conveyance path can be cooled without installing a blower fan separately from the main body unit for the intermediate conveyance unit. .
Therefore, according to the present invention, the conveyance path can be cooled without providing a blower fan separate from the main body in the intermediate conveyance unit, and the apparatus cost of the image forming apparatus can be reduced.

1 is a front view schematically showing a copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which an intermediate conveyance unit is attached to the copying machine main body according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state where an intermediate conveyance unit is removed from the copying machine main body according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of the intermediate conveyance unit in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a connection portion between a copying machine main body and an intermediate conveyance unit in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of the introduction duct with which the intermediate conveyance unit in one embodiment of the present invention is provided. It is a perspective view for demonstrating the flow of the cooling air in the intermediate conveyance unit in one Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which an intermediate conveyance unit according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the scale of each member is appropriately changed in order to make each member a recognizable size. In the following description, a copying machine will be described as an example of an image forming apparatus to which the intermediate conveyance unit of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing a color copying machine P having an electrophotographic system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the copying machine P includes a copying machine main body 100 (main body portion), a finisher 200, and an intermediate conveyance unit 300.

  The copying machine main body 100 includes an image reading unit 1 that reads an image of a document, and a printing unit 2 that performs printing on recording paper (recording medium) based on the read image data.

  The image reading unit 1 irradiates an image of a document with light and receives reflected light to read the image of the document as image data. The image reading unit 1 receives light returned from the light source device or the document that irradiates the document with light. It includes a light receiving sensor that receives light and converts it into image data.

The printing unit 2 includes an image forming unit (image forming unit), a fixing unit, and a paper feeding unit.
When the copying machine P is a color copying machine, the image forming unit has a photoreceptor (drum) corresponding to each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (BK). The photosensitive member includes a laser beam output device that outputs beam light for writing an electrostatic latent image, a deflection mirror that guides the beam beam to the photosensitive drum, an fθ lens that corrects the beam beam by fθ, and the beam beam to the photosensitive member. A laser scanning unit (optical scanning device) composed of many optical devices such as a polygon mirror that scans in the axial direction of the drum is provided, as well as a charger, a cleaning device, and a static elimination device. It has been.

  The fixing unit includes a heating roller, and is configured to transfer a toner image formed on the photosensitive member to a transfer belt or the like and fix the transferred toner image on a recording sheet. .

  The paper feed unit includes a paper feed cassette and a paper feed tray. The paper feed cassette is configured so that sheets can be stacked on a cassette that is detachable from the copying machine main body 100 and supplied one by one from the stacked sheets to the fixing unit. The paper feed tray is configured so that paper is stored in an open / close tray provided on a part of the side surface of the copying machine main body 100 and can be supplied to the printing unit 2 one by one from the stored paper. Yes.

  The copying machine main body 100 includes a paper discharge tray 3 for discharging recording paper on which an image has been formed by the printing unit 2. If the copying machine P does not include the finisher 200 and the intermediate conveyance unit 300, the recording paper is stored on the paper discharge tray 3. However, the copying machine P according to the present embodiment includes a finisher 200 and an intermediate conveyance unit 300. An intermediate transport unit 300 is installed on the paper discharge tray 3.

In addition, the copying machine main body 100 includes a blower fan 4 that generates cooling air to be supplied to the paper discharge tray 3 when the intermediate transport unit 300 is not installed on the paper discharge tray 3, and a blower fan 4. And a guide duct 5 for guiding the cooling air generated by the discharge tray 3.
In the copying machine P of the present embodiment, as described above, the blower fan 4 and the guide duct 5 that are originally provided for cooling the paper discharge tray 3 are used to cool the transport path of the intermediate transport unit 300. Used for. The details will be described later.

  The finisher 200 is a device for performing post-processing such as stapling and punching on the recording paper that has been printed by the copying machine main body 100, and records from the copying machine main body 100 via the intermediate conveyance unit 300. It is connected to the intermediate transport unit 300 so as to receive paper.

The intermediate transport unit 300 delivers the recording paper discharged from the copying machine main body 100 to the finisher 200.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the intermediate conveyance unit 300 is attached to the copying machine main body 100, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which the intermediate conveyance unit 300 is removed from the copying machine main body 100.
As shown in these drawings, the intermediate transport unit 300 is installed in the upper space of the paper discharge tray 3 of the copying machine main body 100.

  In the copying machine P having such a configuration, as described above, the image data is acquired by the image reading unit 1, and the printing unit 2 performs printing on the recording paper based on the image data. The recording paper discharged from is supplied to the finisher 200 via the intermediate conveyance unit 300 and is post-processed (post-processing).

Next, the intermediate transport unit 300 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the intermediate transport unit 300 provided in the copying machine P.
As shown in FIG. 4, the intermediate transport unit 300 includes a transport path 302 for transporting the recording paper to the back side of the front cover 301.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a connection portion between the copying machine main body 100 and the intermediate conveyance unit 300. In FIG. 5, a part of the front cover 301 of the intermediate transport unit 300 and a part of the cover of the copier body 100 are omitted so that the connection state between the copier main body 100 and the intermediate transport unit 300 can be easily seen. doing.
As shown in FIG. 5, the intermediate transport unit 300 includes an introduction duct 303 inside the front cover 301 and in front of the transport path 302.

The introduction duct 303 introduces cooling air from the blower fan 4 already installed in the copying machine main body 100 into the conveyance path 302 of the intermediate conveyance unit 300 itself.
The introduction duct 303 is directly connected to the guide duct 5 already installed in the copying machine main body 100 and is configured to take in cooling air discharged from the guide duct 5. In order to make more effective use of the cooling air, it is preferable that the entire cooling air discharged from the guide duct 5 is taken in.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the introduction duct 303. As shown in this figure, the introduction duct 303 includes an inlet opening 303a and an outlet opening 303b, and a flow path connecting the inlet opening 303a and the outlet opening 303b therein.
The inlet opening 303a is opened toward the guide duct 5 and has substantially the same opening area (opening shape) as the outlet opening of the guide duct 5. The exit opening 303b is opened toward the conveyance path 302 connected to the fixing unit side discharge unit.

  When the blower fan 4 is operated and cooling air is generated, the cooling air is guided through the guide duct 5 and flows from the outlet opening 303 b of the guide duct 5 into the inlet opening 303 a of the introduction duct 303. The cooling air that has flowed into the inlet opening 303a of the introduction duct 303 flows through the flow path inside the introduction duct 303 and is discharged from the outlet opening 303b, so that as shown by the arrows in FIG. Supplied. As a result, the conveyance path 302 is cooled by the cooling air.

As described above, according to the intermediate transport unit 300 in the present embodiment, the cooling air from the blower fan 4 already installed in the copying machine main body 100 is introduced into the transport path 302 of the intermediate transport unit 300 by the introduction duct 303. Therefore, the conveyance path 302 of the intermediate conveyance unit 300 is cooled by the cooling air supplied through the introduction duct 303, and the conveyance path is provided without installing the blower fan 4 separately from the copier body 100 with respect to the intermediate conveyance unit 300. 302 can be cooled.
Therefore, according to the intermediate conveyance unit 300 in the present embodiment, the conveyance path 302 can be cooled without providing a separate blower fan from the copying machine main body 100, and the apparatus cost of the copying machine P can be reduced. .

Further, in the intermediate transport unit 300 according to the present embodiment, the introduction duct 303 is directly connected to the guide duct 5 already installed in the copying machine main body 100.
For this reason, the cooling air discharged from the guide duct 5 can be efficiently taken into the introduction duct 303, and the cooling air can be easily supplied to the transport path 302.

Further, in the intermediate transport unit 300 in the present embodiment, the introduction duct 303 takes in all the cooling air discharged from the guide duct 5.
For this reason, since the cooling air discharged from the guide duct 5 can be supplied to the transport path 302 without leakage, the transport path 302 can be efficiently cooled.

As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. Various shapes, combinations, and the like of the constituent members shown in the above-described embodiments are examples, and various modifications can be made based on design requirements and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention.
In the above-described example, the image forming apparatus is a copying machine. However, the image forming apparatus may be a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine having these functions.

  P: Copying machine (image forming apparatus), 3 ... discharge tray, 4 ... blower fan, 5 ... guide guide, 100 ... copying machine body (main body), 200 ... finisher, 300 ... intermediate Conveying unit, 301... Front cover, 302... Conveying path, 303... Introduction duct, 303 a.

Claims (4)

An intermediate transport unit that delivers the recording medium discharged to a paper discharge tray of a main body that performs image formation on the recording medium to a finisher;
An introduction duct that is installed in the main body and introduces cooling air from a blower fan that blows air to the paper discharge tray into its own conveyance path ,
The main body has a guide duct for guiding cooling air generated by the blower fan,
The introduction duct is
An inlet opening disposed opposite the guide duct;
An outlet opening that opens toward the transport path and discharges the cooling air in a direction parallel to the front and back surfaces of the recording medium transported through the transport path and perpendicular to the transport direction of the recording medium;
An intermediate transport unit comprising:   2. The intermediate conveyance according to claim 1, wherein the introduction duct is directly connected to a guide duct that is already installed in the main body and guides cooling air from the blower fan to the discharge tray. unit.   The intermediate transport unit according to claim 2, wherein the introduction duct takes in all cooling air discharged from the guide duct. A main body that performs image formation on the recording medium, a finisher that performs post-processing of the recording medium on which image formation has been performed, and an intermediate conveyance unit that delivers the recording medium discharged from the main body to the finisher. An image forming apparatus comprising:
An image forming apparatus comprising the intermediate conveyance unit according to claim 1 as the intermediate conveyance unit.