JPS6131015B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a paper feeding device for copying machines, printing machines, etc.

2. Description of the Related Art A paper feed device is well known that includes a paper feed tray for storing paper that is removably attached to a main body of a machine, and a paper feed member that makes contact with the uppermost sheet on the paper feed tray and feeds the uppermost sheet. This type of paper feeding device has the advantage that the paper feeding tray is attached to the main body of the machine so that it can be moved in and out, making it easy to perform tasks such as replacing or replenishing paper on the paper feeding tray. . However, simply configuring the paper feed tray so that it can be moved in and out of the machine itself may cause interference between the paper feed member and the stacked sheets during this loading/unloading operation, which may cause damage to the paper feed member. For this reason, conventional apparatuses of this type are constructed in such a way as to avoid interference between the paper feeding member and the paper, but the conventional apparatuses have the drawback of being complicated in their construction.

Furthermore, there is also a known paper feeding device in which, if two sheets of paper are accidentally fed during paper feeding by a paper feeding member, the feeding of the second sheet is prevented by a paper separating means. In this case, the second sheet whose feeding is blocked remains held by the sheet separating means. In this state, when the paper feed tray is pulled out of the main body of the machine in order to replace or replenish the paper on the paper feed tray, the second sheet of paper is also taken along with the movement of the paper feed tray, and the paper feed tray is moved. The portion protruding from the paper feed tray may get caught on the side plate of the main body of the machine or the like, causing damage to the paper or a paper jam in the main body of the machine.

The present invention aims to provide a novel paper feeding device that eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, sheets of paper 2 are stacked and placed on a paper feed tray 1 (see FIG. 2) of a paper feed device, and a paper feed member configured as a paper feed roller 3 is in contact with the topmost sheet of paper. ing. When this paper feeding roller 3 rotates, the uppermost paper is sent out by the frictional force with the roller 3, and the feeding path is indicated by the arrow A in FIG.
Indicated by A sheet separating means 4 is provided behind the sheet feeding roller 3 in this feeding path A.
This means 4 serves to separate the sheets to be fed from the other sheets when two sheets are accidentally fed as will be described later.

The paper separating means 4 in this example consists of a feeding rotary body configured as an upper separating roller 5 and a separating rotary body configured as a lower separating roller 6,
These upper and lower separation rollers 5 and 6 are located in pairs.

A support shaft 7 that fixedly supports the upper separation roller 5 is rotatably but immovably supported on a side plate 8 of the apparatus (see FIG. 3). A rotatably supporting support plate 10 is mounted so as to be relatively rotatable. With this configuration, the support plate 10 can rotate around the support shaft 7, and normally the paper feed roller 3
By coming into contact with , the state shown in solid lines in FIG. 1 is maintained. The upper separating roller 5 and the paper feeding roller 3 have gears 1 fixed to their respective support shafts.
1 and 12, and an intermediate gear 13 rotatably supported by the support plate 10.

In FIG. 2, the paper feed table 1 is moved up and down by a lifting device. This elevating device is fixed to an endless belt 14 placed on both sides of the paper feed tray 1, and the endless belt 14 is hung around pulleys 15 and 16. A drive belt 17 is wound around each lower pulley 16 of these pulleys, and this drive belt 17 is connected to a reversible drive motor 18.
It is adapted to be driven by a drive pulley 19 of. With this configuration, when the drive motor 18 rotates, the belts 17 and 14 work together to move the paper feed tray 1 up and down. Reference numeral 20 denotes a guide member that guides the paper feed tray 1 when it moves up and down.

The guide member 20 and the drive motor 18 are fixedly supported on a slide member 21 that is slidably supported in the direction of arrow B. This slide member 21 is extracted by its hanging bracket 21a and fixed to the drive belt 22, and this belt 2
2 is a reversible extractor and is adapted to be driven by a drive motor 23. The extraction drive motor 23 is fixedly supported on the side plate 8 of the device. 2
4 is a stopper of a stopper means fixed to the side plate 8 of the slide member 21;
4 is pivotally connected to the side plate 8 by a pivot pin 25, and is given a counterclockwise rotational habit by a tension spring 26a. It engages with a hole 21b formed in the bracket. Locking claw 24a
When the slide member is engaged with the hole 21b, movement of the slide member is prevented, but when the solenoid 26 connected to the other end of the stopper 24 is energized,
The stopper 24 rotates clockwise and its claw 2
4a is engaged and disengaged from the hole 21b. The solenoid 26 is fixedly supported by the side plate 8.

In FIG. 3, a shaft 27 that fixedly supports the lower separation roller 6 is rotatably supported by the left and right side plates 8. In this case, the shaft 27 is supported by a self-aligning bearing 28 on the left side plate 8, and a belt 29 and a pulley 30 for driving the lower end separating roller are provided at the outer shaft end of this bearing. The shaft 27 is supported by an eccentric boss 32 attached to an eccentric boss receiving plate 31 attached to the right side plate 8, and this eccentric boss is connected to a second solenoid 34 via a pressure arm 33 ( (See also Figure 4). When this second solenoid 34 is deenergized, the pressure arm 33
is at the position shown by the chain line in Fig. 4, and at this time axis 2
7 is tilted around the self-aligning bearing 28, and a gap is created between the two separation rollers 5 and 6. At this time, the drive belt 29 and therefore the lower separation roller 6 are also stopped. When the second solenoid 34 is energized, the pressure arm 33 is pulled by the solenoid 34 and assumes the position indicated by the solid line, and both separation rollers come into contact. The eccentric boss 32, the pressure arm 33, and the second solenoid 34 provide a manual pressure release means for moving the lower separation roller 6 of this example between a position where it is pressed against the upper separation roller 5 and a position where it is separated from the upper separation roller 5. It consists of

During the paper feeding operation, each of the above components of the paper feeding device occupies the state shown by solid lines in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the upper and lower separation rollers 5 and 6 are also in contact with each other as shown in FIG. 3. . When the support shaft 7 of the upper separation roller 5 starts rotating in response to a paper feed signal from a control circuit (not shown), this rotation is caused by the gears 11, 13, 12.
is transmitted to the paper feed roller 3 via the paper feed roller 3.
rotates clockwise in FIG. As a result, the uppermost sheet is sent out in the direction of arrow A, passes between upper and lower separation rollers 5 and 6, and is then conveyed to a pair of delivery rollers (not shown). in this case,
The upper separation roller 5 is rotating clockwise in synchronization with the paper feed roller 3, but the lower separation roller 6 is either stopped or driven by the drive belt 29 (FIG. 3) to rotate clockwise in FIG. It is rotated slowly in the direction opposite to the paper feeding direction, for example, at a circumferential speed of about 1/20 of the paper feeding speed. Therefore, if two sheets are accidentally fed by the paper feed roller 3, the uppermost sheet will be sent forward through the upper and lower separation rollers, but the second sheet will not be sent beyond the lower separation roller 6. Not sent. In this way, the uppermost sheet and the second sheet are separated, and only the sheet to be fed is sent out.

When several sheets of paper are fed and the level of the uppermost paper decreases, the support plate 10 rotates slightly clockwise around the support shaft 7 (this amount of rotation is indicated by the chain line in Figure 1). ).
At this time, the first paper height detection switch 35 in contact with the support plate 10 detects this, and in response to the command signal, the above-mentioned drive motor 18 (FIG. 2) rotates clockwise, and the paper feed tray 1 is lifted up. When the uppermost paper reaches an initial predetermined level, the switch 35 stops the drive motor 18. Thus, the top sheet is always maintained at a substantially constant level.

To pull out the paper feed tray 1 out of the main body C of the machine to replenish or replace the paper 2, press a button "OUT" (not shown). At this time, a control circuit (not shown) controls the second solenoid 34 shown in FIG.
is deenergized, and thus, as explained above in conjunction with FIG. .

Next, when the button "OUT" is further pressed, the drive motor 18 rotates counterclockwise in FIG.
6 and 15 to the paper feed tray 1.
descends. As a result, the support plate 10 rotates clockwise around the support shaft 7, but as shown by the chain line in FIG. 1, the support member 10 rotates only slightly and is stopped by the stopper pin 36. Therefore, the paper feed roller 3 and the uppermost paper are separated from each other without any problem.

When the paper feed table 1 is lowered and the uppermost paper reaches the position shown by the chain line in FIGS. 1 and 2, the second height detection switch 37 in contact with the uppermost paper detects this and The rotation of the drive motor 18 is stopped by the signal command. At about the same time, the first solenoid 26 is energized, thereby causing the stopper 2
4 is rotated clockwise, and its locking pawl 24a is engaged and disengaged from the hole 21b. Further, after the operation of the first solenoid 26, the extraction drive motor 23 is rotated counterclockwise after a slight time delay, thereby moving the slide member 21, paper feed table 1, etc. It is moved to the left in the figure (in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1) and pulled out to the outside of the main body of the machine C. The state at this time is schematically shown in FIG. 2 by broken lines.

During the lowering and pulling out operations of the paper feed table 1, the upper and lower separating rollers 5,
6 are spaced apart from each other, so even if the next sheet to be fed is located on the separating rollers 5 and 6, this sheet will be taken by the lowering and pulling operation of the sheet feed table 1 without any problem, and the sheet will be removed. This will prevent damage to the equipment. Note that before separating the upper and lower separating rollers 5 and 6, the lower separating roller 6 is moved by a drive belt 29 shown in FIG.
The lower separating roller 6 is rotated in the opposite direction to the paper feeding direction via It is advantageous to move it downward.

In order to store the paper feed tray 1 in the main body of the machine C, an operation that is completely opposite to the above operation is performed.

As described above, according to the above configuration, by lowering the paper feed table, the uppermost sheet and the paper feed roller are separated from each other, and it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience that the paper feed roller hits the paper when the paper feed table is pulled out. In this case, it is sufficient to lower the paper feed tray a small distance. Further, even in the case of a paper feeding device having a paper separating means as in the above embodiment, there is no problem such as damage to the paper.

Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be modified in various ways. For example, the belt 14,1 used in the above embodiment
7, 22 and pulleys 15, 16, 19 may be replaced with chains and sprockets, and the paper feeding rotary body and paper separating means can be constructed not only as rollers as shown in the figure, but also as belts. You can also do it. Further, the separating member in the paper separating means can be configured not only as a roller or a belt as shown in the figure, but also as a flat plate-shaped or sled-shaped member, for example. It is also possible to replace the paper height detection switch with an optical detection device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partial side view of a paper feeding device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial front view of the paper feeding device, and FIG.
The figure is an explanatory diagram of the separation roller contact/separation mechanism, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a part of the mechanism. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Paper feed table, 2... Paper, 3... Paper feeding member, 4... Paper separation means, 5... Feeding rotary body, 6... Separation rotary body,
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20... Lifting device, 21... Slide member, 24... Stopper, 26... Solenoid, 32, 33, 34... Pressure release means, C... Mechanical main body.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Includes a paper storage paper feed tray 1 that is removably mounted on the main body of the machine C, and a paper feed member 3 that comes into contact with the uppermost paper 2 on the paper feed tray and feeds it out. , in a paper feeding device such as a copying machine or a printing machine, an elevating device (14 to 2
0), a slide member 21 that supports the elevating device and the paper feed tray, a drive device 23 that moves the slide member outside the machine main body, and stopper means (24 to 26) that fixes the slide member to the machine main body. and a detection means 37 for detecting separation of the paper feeding member and the uppermost paper, and the paper feeding tray is lowered by the elevating device and the paper feeding member is separated from the uppermost paper. The paper feeding device is characterized in that the stopper means releases the slide member from fixation in response to a separation detection signal from the detection means when the separation is detected. 2. A paper feed tray 1 for storing paper which is mounted on the machine main body C so as to be removable, a paper feed member 3 for feeding out the uppermost paper 2 on the paper feed tray, and A copying machine, a printing machine, etc., comprising a paper separating means 4 disposed after the paper feeding member, the paper separating means consisting of a feeding rotary body 5 and a separating rotary body 6 pressed against each other to form a pair. In the paper feeding device, lifting devices 14 to 20 for lifting and lowering the paper feeding table are provided.
a slide member 21 that supports the elevating device and the paper feed table; a drive device 23 that moves the slide member outside the machine main body; and a stopper means (24 to 26) that fixes the slide member to the machine main body. a detection means 37 for detecting separation between the paper feeding member and the uppermost sheet; and a pressure release means for moving the separating rotary body between a position where it is pressed against the feeding rotary body and a position where it is separated. (32 to 34), wherein the pressure release means holds the separating rotary body in a position where it is in pressure contact with the feeding rotary body only during the sheet feeding operation.