JPS62211266A - Discharge tray device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize a device by placing a sheet with a size smaller than a defined size on an upper tray while allowing a sheet with a size larger than said defined size to fall and to be housed in a lower tray, in the captioned device for a copying machine, etc. CONSTITUTION:An upper tray 20 provided on the lower course side of a printed image forming part 12 consists of a horizontal part 20a, an inclined part 20b and a stopper 21. A lower tray 23 is provided in a position for receiving a sheet which slides down from the upper tray 20. When a sheet is of a small size (size A4, lateral feed) it is placed on the horizontal part 20a of the upper tray, when a sheet is of a medium size (size A3, longitudinal feed), it is placed on the inclined part 20b. And, when a sheet is of a large size (size A1, longitudinal feed) it slides on the upper tray 20 due to its larger size and falls and enters a lower tray 23, and is housed in the tray 23 while learning on its inclined side part 23a with its upper part being folded. Thereby, the device can be miniaturized.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (a) Industrial Utilization This invention applies to copying machines, printers, facsimiles, etc.
The present invention relates to a tray device for placing and storing sheets on which images are formed by an image forming device and then discharged.

(b) Conventional technology Recently, image forming apparatuses, especially copying machines, that use large-sized sheets have come into use. Due to the difficulty in handling the paper, it was not possible to use small paper, and conversely, there was no ejection tray for large copy paper, so each paper was handled by hand.

→ The problem that the invention aims to solve is that it is possible to copy from A1 size to A4 size.If a copying machine is provided with a dedicated tray for each, it would be necessary to prepare trays that are eight times different in area, and the trays can be placed horizontally. In the case of holding this, a large projected floor area of 600 x 850 m/a+ was required, which was not very practical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide a compact discharge tray device capable of placing and storing sheets of multiple sizes, and also having a function as a collator.

(B) Means for Solving the Problems The tray device of the present invention includes an upper tray provided on the discharge side of an image forming apparatus and having an inclined portion, and an upper tray provided below the exit side of the upper tray and provided with an inclined portion. It consists of a lower tray with a storage section open to the upper tray, sheets of a size smaller than a predetermined size are placed on the upper tray, and sheets of a larger size are placed on the upper tray.
- is characterized in that it is dropped and stored in the lower tray.

Specifically, - As shown in FIG. 1 by way of example,
An upper tray 20 is provided downstream of the image forming section 12 of the image forming apparatus.
,beneath! - Provided as Ray 23.

The upper tray 20 includes an upper tray horizontal portion 20a, an upper tray inclined portion 20b, and a stopper 21. The lower tray 23 is connected to the upper tray 2 on the outside of the image forming apparatus.
It is provided at a position to receive a sheet that slides down from the 0 position, and is configured such that when in use, the side portion 23a is set in an upwardly open position, and when not in use, it can be folded to the position shown by the broken line 23'.

(e) Operation Based on the above-described configuration, the sheet output from the image forming section 12 is discharged onto the upper tray 20 by the feed rollers 16, 16'. If the sheet is of a small size, for example A4 size, and is fed horizontally, it is placed on the upper tray horizontal portion 20a. If the sheet is of medium size, for example A3 size, and is fed vertically, it is placed on the upper tray inclined portion 20b. At this time, in order to prevent the sheet from falling, the stopper 2] is made to protrude to the dotted line position in Figure 1 (see Figure 2). If the sheet is a large size, for example A1 size, and is being fed vertically, the sheet will slide on the upper tray 20 (the stopper 21 is retractable), fall freely, and fall to the lower part 1- +, -, ? 23, and as shown in FIG. 1, the tray is stored with the upper side bent while leaning on the inclined side 23a of the lower tray.

(f) Example An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a copying machine will be shown.

The copying machine shown in FIG. 1 has a reader section R at the top and sends image signals to a printer section P. The printer section P has a two-way paper feeding mechanism for roll paper and a cassette.

The roll paper 1 is fed by feed rollers 2, 2', cut into a predetermined length by a cutter 3, and then passed through a guide 5,
The paper passes through the paper feed rollers 6, 6' and the guide 7, is corrected if it is skewed by the register rollers 8, 8', and is sent to the quantitative feed rollers 16, 16' by the guide 9 and rollers 10, 10'. , the row, U16. When the paper is gripped by lft', feeding of the paper stops at that point. When paper feeding stops, the print head (image forming unit) 12 moves from the front to the back in FIG. 1 based on the image signal from the reader R, and then prints an inkjet having 128 nozzles with a head width of, for example, 16 pels. Approximately 8 when using the head
A sheet with a length of wm/wa is fixedly fed by rollers 16, 16
' and then return the head during that time. This operation is repeated to print across the entire sheet.

When feeding paper from the cassette 30, the sheet is fed by the half-moon feeding roller 31, and then sent through the guide 32 to the electric feeding rollers 16, 16', and the subsequent operations are the same as described above. In the drawing, when the sheet is held by the suction duct 111 between the rollers 16 and 16' that feed it in a fixed amount, the fan is turned to reduce the pressure inside the suction duct 11, and the sheet is sucked into the duct 11 in a flat shape. A predetermined distance is maintained so as not to contact the head 12.

The passing of the leading end of the sheet is detected by the lamp 13 and the light receiving element 15, and the metering feed rollers 16, 16' and the print head 12 are controlled.

When the entire area of the sheet is printed, the roller 16 that feeds the sheet
, 16' rotate continuously and deliver sheets to the upper tray 20 or the lower tray 23.

The discharge device consists of an upper tray 20, a lower part 1, and a tray 23, and the upper tray 20 consists of a horizontal part 2a and an inclined part 20b. Further, a stopper 21 is installed on the exit side of the inclined portion 20b so as to be retractable, and a lower tray 23 having an upwardly open storage section is arranged below the exit side of the upper tray 20.

If the sheet size is, for example, a small size M&M such as an A4 size horizontal feed, and is placed on the horizontal part 20a of the upper tray 20, and a medium size such as an A3 size vertical feed, the upper 1, the lay 20 The stopper 21 projects upward to place the sheet on the slope of the upper tray. If the sheet size is large, for example A1 size, the stopper 21
The large-sized plate is stored in the tray 23 (at the bottom) as shown in Figure 1.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the upper tray 20 is composed of the horizontal part 20a and the inclined part 20b. However, if there is no need to separate small size sheets, the horizontal part 20a is not necessary and the inclined part 20b is not required. Loosely, I with the sheet! If it stops naturally with Jm force, stopper 2] is not required.

In this case, the large size sheet is transported by the feed rollers 16, 16'.
When the paper is ejected, its leading end protrudes from the exit side of the upper tray 20, so that it naturally falls onto the lower tray 23 due to the weight of the leading end. Furthermore, a low swivel may be fixedly provided, which functions as a stopper in the case of a small size, and which can be curled once and then climbed over in the case of a large size.

Also, if the sheet is not large-sized, the top and bottom! - Can be used as a collator using Ray. first,
Copy the first sheet with the stopper retracted and store it in the lower part 1 L-423. The second sheet is placed in the upper part 1-20 with the stopper 21 protruding. If the upper tray horizontal portion 20a is inclined and a stopper is provided between the upper tray horizontal portion 20a and the inclined portion 20b, it can be used as a three-stage collator.

In addition, when the large-sized sheet 1- is not in use or is not used as a printer, the lower tray 23 should be folded to the dotted line position 23' in Figure 1 so that it does not get in the way of the viewer. I can do it. FIG. 2 shows an example of the operating mechanism of the stopper 21 of the upper tray 20 for handling small size sheets.

The operating mechanism of the stopper 21 includes a shaft 26 to which the stopper 21 is fixed, and a lever 27 to which one end is fixed to the shaft 26.
, and a solenoid 28 connected to a lever 27. When the solenoid 28 is actuated, the shaft 26 rotates clockwise, and the shaft 1 and the collar 21 move toward the upper tray inclined portion 20b.
stand out. When the solenoid 28 is turned off, the stopper 21 falls downward under its own weight and is retracted from the tray 20.

(G) As described in detail, the invention is composed of an upper tray having an inclined portion and a lower tray located below the exit side of the upper tray and serving as a storage portion with an open upper part. , the area occupied by the tray can be reduced, and therefore the image forming apparatus can be designed to be compact.

In addition, by dividing the tray for large sheets and the tray for small sheets into two areas (upper and lower), it is possible to easily store a storage section for sheet cassettes, etc. in the middle, and when inserting or removing a cassette, the tray or the It can be installed without removing the sheet.Furthermore, it can be used as a simple collection.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows a perspective view of the upper tray according to the invention. 1... Roll paper, 12... Image forming section, 20
・Upper tray, 21...S1-7 bar, 23
... lower ml-ray, 30... cassette for notes. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Consisting of an upper tray provided on the discharge side of the image forming apparatus and having an inclined portion, and a lower tray provided below the exit side of the upper tray and having a storage portion open upward, the tray is of a predetermined size. A discharge tray device characterized in that sheets of the following sizes are placed on the upper tray, and sheets of a larger size are dropped and stored on the lower tray.