JPH0725475B2 - Sheet stacking device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention is connected to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printing machine, or a printer, and stacks sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus in a bin. The present invention relates to a sheet stacking device.

(B) Conventional technology Conventionally, a sheet stacking apparatus that has a plurality of bins and sequentially distributes sheets to these bins. If sheets remain in the bins at the start of work, the sheets of the work Some allow the start of work when the size is larger than the size of the remaining sheet.

(C) Problem to be Solved by the Invention In the above-described sheet stacking apparatus, when the size of the sheet in the work is smaller than the size of the sheet remaining in the bin, the aligning unit causes the remaining sheet to align when aligning the sheet on the bin. Therefore, it is inconvenient to work on sheets of various sizes unless the residual sheet is removed from the bin before the work can be started.

Therefore, the present invention provides a configuration for holding the aligning means at a predetermined position or the like so as not to interfere with the stacking of the sheets when there is a residual sheet in the bin, though it is a simple control, and thus the above-mentioned problem occurs. The purpose is to eliminate points.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and for example, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a bin (B) for accommodating a sheet (P) is shown. ), The home position (43a), the standby position (43c), and the width-shifting position (43b) are selectively taken to press the end portion of the sheet (P) to be stored in the bin (B). 43c) to the width aligning position (43b) to align the sheet (P), and then the standby position (43
The aligning means (43) returning to c) and the detecting means (S3) for detecting the presence or absence of the sheet (P) remaining in the bin (B) are provided, and the sheets (P) are sequentially stacked in the bin (B). In the sheet stacking apparatus (1) configured as described above, when a work start signal is input when a sheet remaining in the bin (B) is detected, the aligning means (43) is moved to the home position (43a) or the sheet regardless of the sheet size. Control to move to a predetermined position away from the sheets accommodated in the bin (B) and hold it at the home position (43a) or the predetermined position, and to permit stacking of the sheets in the bin (B) It is characterized by having means (99).

(E) Operation Based on the above configuration, when the copy button of the copying machine is pressed and a work start signal is input while the sheet remains in the bin (B), the aligning means (43) causes the bin ( It is moved to and held at the home position (43a) or a predetermined position separated from the seat so as not to interfere with the seat accommodated in B). Then, regardless of the size of the sheet, the stacking of the sheet in the bin (B) is permitted, and the sheet (P) is stacked and accommodated in the bin (B) without being disturbed by the aligning means (43). .

The reference numerals in parentheses above are for reference and do not limit the configuration in any way.

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

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the sorter 1 includes a pair of front and rear side plates 2, a base 3, a body 6 having a cover 5, and a number of bins B ... Become.

The machine body 6 is equipped with a carry-in roller pair 11 near a carry-in entrance 10 for carrying in a sheet discharged from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, and a non-sort path 12 and the non-sort path are provided downstream of the carry-in roller pair 11. A sort path 13 branching from 12 is arranged. The non-sorted path 12 extends almost horizontally,
A non-sort sheet discharge roller pair 15 that serves as a non-sort sheet discharge port is disposed downstream thereof, and the sort path 13 extends downward, and a sort sheet discharge roller pair 16 that serves as a sort sheet discharge port is provided downstream thereof. An electric stapler 17 is arranged so as to face the sort discharge roller pair 16.

In the vicinity of the carry-in roller pair 11, a flapper 19 that is displaced to switch the sheet conveying direction and the flapper 19 are provided.
There is a flapper solenoid 20 that drives the sheet.When the flapper solenoid 20 is turned on, the flapper 19 is displaced so that the sheet conveyance direction is toward the non-sorted sheet ejection port 15 side, and when the flapper solenoid 20 is off, the sheet conveyance direction is changed. It is selected on the side of the sort discharge port 16.

Further, a transport motor 21 is disposed near the carry-in roller pair 11, and drives the carry-in roller pair 11, the non-sort discharge roller pair 15 and the sort discharge roller pair 16 when the sheet P is distributed to the bin B. .

Note that the non-sort path sensor 12 is a non-sort path sensor.
S1 and sort path sensor S2 are provided in sort path 13.

Further, the bin unit 9 is arranged downstream of the non-sort paper discharge roller pair 15 and the sort paper discharge roller pair 16, and the bin unit 9 has one end fixed to the machine body 6 and the other end hooked to the bin unit 9. The weight is carried by a spring 23 hooked on 22 and is supported so as to be able to move up and down. And
The upper end of the bottle unit 9 is provided with an upper guide roller 2 on the upper end thereof.
5, or a lower guide roller 26 is rotatably supported on the lower portion, and these upper and lower guide rollers 25, 26 are attached to the body 6
It is fitted to a guide plate 27 provided so as to extend in the vertical direction, and rolls in the guide plate 27 to guide the bin unit 9 when the bin unit 9 moves up and down. . Further, a bin unit drive motor 29 is arranged in the machine body 6, and the sort discharge roller pair 16 of the machine body 6 is further arranged.
A cam shaft holder 30 is arranged in the vicinity, and a lead cam shaft 31 is rotatably supported between the cam shaft holder 30 and a thrust bearing 34 arranged on the base 3. A lead cam 32 is arranged above the lead cam shaft 31, and a sprocket is arranged below the lead cam shaft 31.
33 is fixed, a chain 35 is stretched between the sprocket 33 and the bin unit drive motor 29, and the lead cam 32 is rotated in both forward and reverse directions by selection. It is designed to be able to rotate.

Further, as shown in detail in FIG. 4, the bin unit 9 is provided with a frame 36 composed of an inclined portion, a vertical portion and a horizontal portion, and vertically provided on the front side and the rear side of the tip of the inclined portion of the frame 36. Bottle unit body composed of vertical frames 37, 37 and a bin cover 39 supported by the vertical frames 37, 37
An alignment reference plate 41 for abutting a sheet is provided upright on the front side of the bin unit body 40. Furthermore,
The bin unit 9 has a large number of bins B ... And a matching rod 43 that moves around the center axis of movement 42. The bin B has, as shown in detail in FIG. An engaging plate 46 is formed on each side, and the engaging plate 46 engages with a supporting plate (not shown) provided inside the vertical frame 37 to support the front end side of the bin B. It is like this. Roller support pins 47 are fixed to the front and rear sides of the base end of the bin B, and a bin roller 49 is rotatably supported on the pin 47. Further, the bin B is provided with a long hole 50 which is longer than the rotation distance of the alignment rod 43 and is sufficiently wider than the width of the alignment rod 43 at a predetermined distance from the center axis 42 of movement. A base end portion B1 of the bin B stands upright with respect to the sheet storage surface B2, and the tip end of the bin B is inclined upward with respect to the machine body 6 by a predetermined angle (see FIG. 1). Thus, the seat is slid on the seat storage surface B2 and the rear end thereof is brought into contact with the base end portion B1 to be aligned in the front-rear direction.

Then, the bin B is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3,
Bin roll 49 bin unit protruding from the long groove 52 provided on the proximal end of the body 40 are fitted into the guide plate 27 of the body 6, bin roll 49 _n is the lower guide roller 26 of the lowermost bin B _n The bin roller 49 of the bin B placed on the uppermost bin B _n one step higher than the bin B _n of the lowermost bin B _n is the bin roller 49 _n of the lowest bin B _n.
The bin roller 49 of the upper bin B is supported by the bin roller 49 of the lower bin B such that the bin B is supported on the bin unit main body 40. As shown in detail in FIGS. 5 and 6, the lead cam 32 is spirally engraved with a cam groove 32a that is slightly wider than the bin roller 49. At this time, the bin roller 49 of the bin B located at the position opposed to the sort discharge roller pair 16 is placed on the cam groove 32a, and as shown in FIG.
The a bin roll 49c of the bottle B _c in one rotation direction the lead cam 32
Move to the intermediate position (position 49b in the figure), and further 1
It moves to the position (49a position in the figure) which passes the lead cam 32 by one rotation. Then, when the lead cam 32 further rotates once, the bin roller 49a located at the position passing through the lead cam 32 pushes up the upper bin roller 49, the upper bin roller 49 pushes up the upper bin roller 49, and the highest bin roller 49 is moved. The upper guide roller 25 is pushed up to raise the bin unit 9 step by step (see FIG. 1). Then, as the bin rollers 49 move, the bins B ... Are sequentially moved, and at that time, at a position facing the sort paper discharge roller pair 16, for example, as shown in FIG. a bottle B _b to accept the bottle B _a located on both upper and lower sides of the bottles B _b, wide opening X than the other bins B ... spacing between the bottles B _c, X is formed. Thus, the rotation of the lead cam 32 causes the bin unit 9 to move up or down. A bin home position sensor S5 is arranged on the machine body 6 so as to face the hook 22 of the bin unit 9 lowered to the lowest position, and the home position set to the lowest position by the bin home position sensor S5. The bin unit 9 moved to is detected.

A flag 55 is arranged on the lead cam shaft 31, and a lead cam sensor S4 is arranged so as to face the flag 55. One of the lead cams 32 is detected by detecting the flag 55 of the lead cam sensor S4. The rotation is detected and the stop position of the lead cam 32 is detected. Further, the reference numeral 53 in FIG. 6 is an O-ring press-fitted into the bin roller 49 to absorb the vibration of the bin B when it is moved up and down.

Further, transmissive in-paper detection sensors S3, S3 are arranged above and below the base end of the bin unit 9 (see FIG. 1), and when all the sheets P are taken out from the bin unit 9. The absence of sheets is detected by the in-bin paper detection sensors S3, S3, and the end of one operation is determined.

Further, as described above, the bin unit 9 is provided with the alignment rod 43, and the alignment of the sheet P by the alignment rod 43 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 4.

A supporting plate is provided on the rear side of the base end of the frame 36 of the bin unit 9.
A lower arm 61 is arranged on the support plate 60, and one side of the lower arm 61 is rotatably supported by a lower rotary shaft (not shown) protruding upward from the support plate 60. Has been done. The lower end of the moving center shaft 42 is fixed to one side of the lower arm 61 coaxially with the lower rotation shaft, and the lower end of the alignment rod 43 is fixed to the other side. The upper end of the alignment rod 43 and the upper end of the movement center shaft 42 are fixed to the upper arm 62, and the alignment rod 43 and the movement center shaft 42 are connected by the upper arm 62 and the lower arm 61. The movement center shaft 42 is rotatably supported by the upper rotation shaft 63 protruding downward from the bin cover 39, and the alignment rod 43 is movable around the movement center shaft 42 as a fulcrum. Furthermore,
A fan-shaped gear 65 whose center of rotation coincides with the center of movement of the lower arm 61 is fixed to the lower arm 61, and a matching rod drive motor 66 is arranged below the support plate 60. The output gear 67 of the motor 66 meshes with the sector gear 65, and the alignment rod 43 is moved by the rotation of the alignment rod drive motor 66.

Then, when aligning the sheet P, the aligning rod 43 moves from the home position 43a to the width-shifting position 43b that is determined corresponding to the size of the sheet P, abuts on the end of the sheet P, and is aligned with the alignment reference. The sheet P is aligned in cooperation with the plate 41, and further moved to the standby position 43c to wait for the alignment of the next sheet P.

The matching rod drive motor 66 is a stepping motor, and the amount of movement of the matching rod 43 is determined by the given number of pulses.

Further, a light shielding plate 69 is fixed to the lower arm 61,
By moving the light shielding plate 69 integrally with the lower arm 61,
The alignment rod position sensor S9 fixed to the frame 36 is turned on / off.

Further, as described above, the electric stapler 17 is arranged in the vicinity of the sort discharge roller pair 16, and the solenoid 71 and the stapler spring 72 are arranged in the electric stapler 17 as shown in FIG. . A link pin 73 is fixedly attached to the link 71a of the solenoid 71.
A solenoid spring 76 is stretched between the electric stapler 17 and the stapler pin 75 provided on the electric stapler 17.
71a is engaged with the stapler pin 75 via a long hole 77 provided at the tip thereof. Further, a binding position stopper 79 is fixedly provided on the electric stapler 17, and the electric stapler 17 is normally stopped by the action of a stapler spring 72.
When the sheet P is in contact with 80 and is retracted to the retreat position 17b (the solid line position in the figure) outside the sheet path, and the sheet P on the bin B is bound by the action of the solenoid 71, the binding position 17a (the chain line position in the figure). ), The binding position stopper 79 is brought into contact with the reference plate 81 and positioned, and the sheets P stored in the bin B at the position facing the sort discharge roller pair 16 are bound by the stapler needle 82.

A reference numeral S6 in FIG. 7 is a binding position sensor, which detects the electric stapler 17 positioned at the binding position 17a and outputs a detection signal. Then, when the binding stop mode is selected, the binding start is started. The signal turns the solenoid 71 on and the electric stapler
The solenoid 17 moves about the fulcrum 85 by the action of the solenoid 71, moves to the binding position 17a, and positions the binding position stopper 79 in contact with the reference plate 81.

In this case, the head portion 17c of the electric stapler 17, as shown in FIG. 5, upper opening X formed between the bin B _b and the upper bin B _a for accommodating the stapling to be sheet
To the binding position 17a, and the anvil portion 17d moves from the lower opening X to the binding position 17a.

Then, when the electric stapler 17 is positioned at the binding position 17a, the binding position sensor S6 is turned on, the electric stapler 17 is driven, and the stapler 82 staples are driven into the sheet P.

When the stapler needle 82 has been driven in, the solenoid
71 is turned off, the electric stapler 17 is returned by the action of the stapler spring 72 until it comes into contact with the stopper 80, and the binding for one bin is completed.

Further, the control device 98 for controlling the operation of the sorter 1 is
As shown in the figure, it is mainly composed of a well-known microcomputer with built-in ROM, RAM, etc., each part such as the in-bin paper detection sensor S3 is connected, signals from these parts are input, and a driver An output signal is output to each device via.

On the other hand, when the copy button or the like is pressed and a work start signal is input to the control device 98 when the sheet P remains in the bin B, the aligning rod is moved and held at the home position 43a. A control means 99 programmed to permit the distribution of the sheets P is provided, the control means 99 comprising:
The sheet P remains in the bin B, and the paper detection sensor inside the bin
When the copy start button of the image forming apparatus is pressed and the work start signal is input while S3 detects that there is a sheet,
First, the aligning rod 43 is returned to the home position 43a so as not to get in the way of distributing and accommodating the sheet P in the bin B, and is held so as not to move to the position (43a). Control to allow the distribution of.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow shown in FIG.

When a copy start signal is input (Step 1), the presence / absence of a sheet in the bin B is detected by the in-bin sheet detection sensor S3, and when the presence of a sheet is detected (Step 2), the alignment rod 43 returns to the home position 43a. Even if the sheet P is moved (Step 3) and held at that position (Step 4) and the sheet P is accommodated in the bin B, the sheet P accommodated in the bin B is not aligned (Step 5). Then, for example, the conveyance motor 21, the bin unit drive motor 29, and the like are allowed to drive, the distribution operation of the sheet P to the bin B is permitted, and the sheet P is blocked by the alignment rod 43 regardless of the size. Without each bin B
Will be distributed to. This allows the sheets P to be accommodated in the bins B even when they are mixed in various sizes. Further, the aligning rod 43 is always moved and held at a fixed position (home position 43a) regardless of the sheet size. There is no need to compare sizes with the sheets to be distributed. Therefore, the signal transmission system is simplified and the control for moving the matching rod 43 is also simplified. That is, when the moving position (retracted position) of the alignment rod 43 is appropriately changed according to the sheet size,
If the sheet size is out of specification, the alignment bar 43
However, in the present embodiment, there is no such problem.

In the mixed loading mode, the binding mode for binding sheets is prohibited.

In this embodiment, the aligning rod is returned to and held at the home position when the sheet remains in the bin, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the aligning rod may be retracted to any position away from the sheet. Good.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when the work start signal is input when the sheet remaining in the bin is detected, the aligning means is returned to the predetermined position separated from the sheet accommodated in the bin. In addition, since the control means for controlling the holding of the sheets in the bin and permitting the stacking of the sheets in the bin is provided, when the work start signal is input when there are sheets remaining in the bin, the aligning means is operated. Sheets of various sizes can be stacked even if they are moved to a predetermined position where they do not get in the way and held in that position, and sheets remain in the bin. The inconvenience of can be eliminated.

Further, since the position at which the aligning unit retracts is constant regardless of the sheet size, it is not necessary to detect the sheet size when retreating, or to compare the size of the remaining sheet and the newly stacked sheet. Therefore, the signal transmission system can be simplified and the control can be facilitated. That is,
When the retracting position of the aligning means is appropriately changed according to the sheet size, especially when the sheet size is out of the regulation, it becomes very difficult to control the position of the aligning means.
According to the present invention, there is no such problem.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a sorter according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a bottle thereof, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sorter, and FIG.
Figures 8 to 8 are views showing the respective parts, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the bin unit, FIG. 5 is a side view of the lead cam, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the lead cam, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the electric stapler. , FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a control device, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart. 1 ... Sheet stacking device (sorter), 21 ... Conveyor motor,
29 …… bin unit drive motor, 43 …… alignment means (alignment rod), 43a …… predetermined position (home position), 43b ……
Width-shift position, 99 ... control means, B ... bin, P ... sheet, S3 ... detection means (paper detection sensor in bin).

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-50-44020 (JP, A) JP-A-59-177251 (JP, A) Actually opened 62-63266 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bin for accommodating sheets, a home position, a standby position, and a width-shifting position are selectively taken and moved from the standby position to the width-shifting position so as to press an end portion of the sheet to be stored in the bin. A sheet stacking device that stacks the sheets sequentially in the bin, and that aligns the sheets with each other, and then returns to the standby position, and a detection unit that detects the presence or absence of sheets remaining in the bin. When a work start signal is input when a sheet remaining in the bin is detected, the aligning means is moved to the home position or a predetermined position separated from the sheets accommodated in the bin and the home position or the predetermined position regardless of the sheet size. A sheet stacking apparatus, comprising: a control unit that holds the sheet in the bin and controls the sheet to be loaded in the bin.