JP2001151369A - Sheet conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispose a pressing-force adjusting member at an oscillating end of an adjusting link for pressing up it to a retard roller and to provide a means protecting the lower end of a screw of the adjusting member, for structuring a sheet separating device so as to adjust a nip pressure. SOLUTION: The pressing-force adjusting member 50 for adjusting a pressing force for the retard roller 12 is disposed on an intermediate frame 30 of an automatic document conveying device on the opposite side of a transmission gear group 42 in relation to the retard roller 12. A pressing up portion 52 of an adjusting link 51 in the pressing-force adjusting member 50 energizes up a shaft 13 of the retard roller 12, the adjusting link 51 is oscillatably provided via a spindle 53, a pressing plate 55 energized by a spring 59 is arranged at the other end, a cover member 37 for covering an projection of a screw member 58 is disposed, and a guiding operation of a discharged sheet is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper conveying apparatus provided in an image reading apparatus, and more particularly to a sheet conveying apparatus for covering a screw for adjusting a retard roller pressing for separating originals discharged from a reading section one by one. It relates to an apparatus having a cover.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image reading apparatus provided in an image forming apparatus or the like, a document conveying path is formed in a horizontal U-shape, and a document tray and a discharge tray are arranged so as to be vertically overlapped.
A system that constitutes a transport device is used. In the paper transport device, a pickup roller for sending out a document from a document tray is arranged at an end of the document tray, and sheets picked up by the pickup roller are separated one by one by a sheet separating device, and an image is formed. It is configured to be fed toward the reading unit of the reading device.

In the case where the image reading apparatus is configured as a miniaturized one and is arranged above an image forming apparatus in combination with a flatbed scanner mechanism (FBS), the paper transport path of the image reading apparatus is substantially reduced. It is necessary to form the device into a U-shape, and to configure the device as a mechanism for feeding a sheet while bending the sheet with a very small radius. In the U-shaped transport path, a guide is provided around the intermediate frame to guide the sheet, and the intermediate frame supports a retard roller of the sheet separating device and is disposed on the upper frame. The nip pressure is set to a predetermined value between the two rollers. Further, in order to discharge the read original to the discharge tray, a discharge roller device disposed at the end of the paper transport path is arranged, and the documents sent out by the discharge roller device are sequentially stacked on top. I have to.

In the case where the sheet separating apparatus is constituted by a combination of a separate roller and a retard roller, when the sheet is to be fed out from the uppermost sheet of the sheets stacked on the tray, the retard roller is disposed below the separate roller. Is done. The adjustment of the pressing force (nip pressure) between the two rollers needs to be performed directly on the retard roller. Therefore, when the adjustment is performed using a driver or the like, the adjustment is not performed from the lower part (or inside) of the apparatus. Not get
The adjustment work was very troublesome. The reason for having to provide a mechanism for inserting a driver from the lower surface of the intermediate frame is that there are constraints such as the structure of the drive transmission mechanism for the retard roller and the configuration of the pressing force applying mechanism arranged inside the intermediate frame. Because there is.

[0005]

In particular, by providing the pressing force adjusting mechanism so as to directly act on the retard roller, there is also a problem that the height (thickness) of the intermediate frame is increased. Was. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of the thickness of the intermediate frame, it has been considered that a mechanism for adjusting the pressing force on the retard roller can be adjusted by turning a screw from the upper surface of the intermediate frame. However, it has been found that when the mechanism for adjusting the pressing force of the retard roller is a screw provided in the vicinity of the retard roller, the problem of the thickness of the intermediate frame cannot be easily solved. Therefore, in order to adjust the pressing force of the retard roller, it has been considered to extend the link to the end (tray side) of the intermediate frame. However, particularly when the intermediate frame is formed to be thin and the link is extended to the end of the tray, there is a problem that the adjusting screw disposed at the end of the adjusting link projects toward the discharge path. In addition, there is a concern that the operation of depositing the discharged paper on the discharge tray may be affected.

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned conventional paper conveying apparatus, the structure of the adjusting member for adjusting the nip pressure of the paper separating mechanism is simplified, and the cover of the adjusting screw which is provided so as to protrude into the discharge path is provided. It is intended to be used as a guide.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a sheet is separated one by one by a separate roller and a retard roller pressed against the separate roller, the paper is transported in a U-turn, and the paper is directed to a tray by a discharge roller device. The present invention relates to a paper transport device for discharging. The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is characterized in that a concave portion is formed as a mounting portion for a pressure adjusting member of the retard roller on the downstream side of the discharge roller device of the paper transport path, and a screw for adjusting a pressing force is provided in the concave portion. A cover for covering the screw is provided. With the configuration as described above, the screw does not protrude from the end of the discharge path, so that there is no trouble in discharging the paper.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the cover has a guide surface for forcibly turning the sheet fed by the discharge roller device downward. Then, the guideability for the discharged paper can be improved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the mounting recess is formed in a frame that supports a conveying means including the retard roller and the discharge roller device. Therefore, the mechanism of the pressing force adjusting member can be simply configured.

[0010]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet conveying device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, an automatic document feeder (AD) used in combination with a facsimile machine or an image forming apparatus and used for reading a document image is used.
F) Explanation is made with reference to 1 as an example. In the automatic document feeder 1, the sheet is transported through a transport path configured in a substantially U-shape in a horizontal direction, and the transport path includes a transport path 14 from an insertion port 14a, a curved path 20, ,
The image forming apparatus includes a discharge path 24 connected to the discharge tray 72, and is configured to read a document image by a reading device at a position of the platen 23 disposed below the curved path 20. In the automatic document feeder 1, an intermediate frame 30 and an upper frame 3 are provided in combination with a base frame 2 disposed above the image forming apparatus. The intermediate frame 30 is provided so as to be swingable about the axis of the drive roller 17 of the transport roller device 15.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, a pickup roller 5 positioned at a paper insertion opening 14a, a paper separation device 10, a transport roller device 15, and a large-diameter drive roller for transporting a paper in a paper transport path. 21, a plurality of pinch rollers 22 and 26, and a discharge roller device 25. Of the rollers, the upper frame 3 includes a pickup roller 5 for taking in a sheet from a tray, a separate roller 11 of a sheet separating device 10,
A pinch roller 16 of the transport roller device 15 and a pinch roller 22 for the large-diameter drive roller 21 are provided. Further, the two pinch rollers 16 and 22 are mounted on a roller support frame 8 supported by a stay 7 disposed on the upper frame 3 via a not-shown biasing spring and a support arm member, It is pressed with a certain pressing force against the corresponding drive roller. Further, a guide plate 9 facing the large-diameter roller 21 of the curved path 20 is disposed on the upper frame 3 to guide the paper on the curved path 20.

The intermediate frame 30 has a document tray 7
1, an upper cover 35 (see FIG. 2) as a lower guide plate of the sheet insertion port 14a, the retard roller 12 of the sheet sorting apparatus 10, and the drive roller 1 of the transport roller apparatus 15.
7 and a drive roller 27 of the discharge roller device 25. The base frame 2 has a large-diameter drive roller 2 for performing a transport operation at the curved portion 20 of the paper transport path.
1, a pinch roller 22a, and a pinch roller 26 of a discharge roller device 25 are arranged. On the base frame 4, a reading unit and a guide plate member of a transport path 24 on the discharge side are disposed. And in the device having the configuration as described above,
Paper jam handling and transport roller device 1 in the paper transport path
When adjusting the nip pressure of the nip portion 5 and performing other maintenance, the work can be performed by opening the paper transport path by exposing sequentially from the upper frame or exposing each component. It can be so.

In the automatic document feeder 1, in order to feed a sheet along a sheet feed path, a sheet insertion port 1 is provided.
The paper is taken in by the pickup roller 5 arranged corresponding to the tray 5 of 4a, and is sent to the transport path 14. Then, a separating action for the sheet is provided between the separate roller 11 and the retard roller 12 of the sheet separating apparatus 10, and only one sheet is fed toward the transport roller apparatus 15. The paper transported by the transport roller device 15 is nipped between the large-diameter drive roller 21 and the pinch roller 22 at the curved portion 20 of the paper transport path, passes through the reading section of the platen 23,
a from the discharge path 24 through the nip portion with the drive roller 2
The sheet 7 is fed toward a discharge tray by a discharge roller device 25 provided with the pinch roller 7 and the pinch roller 26 facing each other. A pressing force adjusting mechanism 50 is provided for the retard roller 12 of the sheet separating device 10 to adjust the nip pressure between the retard roller 12 and the separate roller 11. The nip pressure between both rollers can be adjusted according to the state of operation.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the intermediate frame 30 arranged in the automatic document feeder 1. The intermediate frame 30 is formed of a sheet metal, and a frame frame 31 is arranged on the upper part thereof. And a drive roller 1 of the transport roller device 15.
7 is provided so as to be swingable about a shaft 18. In order to drive the retard roller 12 disposed on the intermediate frame 30, a transmission gear group 42 supported by a transmission link 40 is disposed, and a gear provided on the shaft 18 of the drive roller 17 of the transport roller device 15. From the gear group 42
The drive is transmitted via the. Then, the transport roller device 15
The driving force transmitted to the shaft 18 of the driving roller 17 is transmitted to the output gear 43 at the end through the transmission gear group 42,
When the output gear 43 meshes with a gear provided on the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12, the drive transmission to the retard roller 12 is performed, and when the sheet separating operation is performed, the retard roller is moved in the sheet conveying direction by the separate roller 11. 12 is rotated so as to be conveyed in the reverse direction.

In order to position the retard roller 12 so that the axis of the separate roller 11 is aligned with the axis of the separate roller 11, an intermediate link 45 is attached and detached via a pin member 44 provided at an end of the transmission link 40. Combinations are possible. The intermediate link 45 is configured so as to be movable upward of the apparatus by holding a handle 48 by hand, and the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12 is rotatably supported by the upper shaft support 46, and the lower shaft support 47 is detachably supported with respect to the pin member 44. By positioning the two links 40 and 45 via the pin member 44, the state in which the gear 43 at the end of the transmission gear group 42 meshes with the gear provided on the shaft 13 is maintained.
2 is transmitted. Therefore, by using the means for supporting the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12 via the intermediate link 45, the pressing position where the retard roller 12 and the separate roller 11 come into contact can always be set to a constant position, and both rollers The nip position does not change.

In addition to the drive transmission mechanism, a pressing force adjusting member 50 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is provided to set the pressing force of the retard roller 12 against the separate roller 11. The pressing force is adjusted by the screw member 58 and the spring 59 in combination with the pressing plate 55. Adjustment link 51
Is disposed on the opposite side of the transmission link 40 via the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12, and is connected to the intermediate frame via a shaft support 53 provided on the shaft 28 of the drive roller 27 of the discharge roller device 25. 30 so as to protrude toward the tray side. One end of the adjusting link 51 that can swing through the shaft support 53 is configured as a pressing portion 52 that contacts the lower surface of a corresponding member provided on the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12, and a pressing plate fixed to the other end. 55 is provided, and the pressing portion 5 is pressed by the pressing action of the spring 59 from the pressing plate.
2 acts to press the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12 from below.

The adjusting link 51, the pressing plate 55, and the adjusting members such as the springs in the pressing force adjusting member 50 are provided by combining members having the structure shown in FIG. The pressing plate 55 fixed to the portion is provided with a plurality of claw insertion holes 56, 56a, 56b for locking and holding a cover member 37 described later, and a screw hole 57 for a screw member 58 provided with a spring 59. I have. The pressing plate 55 is a portion corresponding to the notch 32 as a concave portion provided at the end of the frame 31 and is positioned on the lower surface of a horizontal portion 33a formed by folding an upper portion of an end rising portion 33 of the frame. Adjustment hole 34 and screw hole 57
Are arranged so as to overlap. A screw member 58 provided in correspondence with the adjusting hole 34 and the screw hole 57 has a screw portion at the lower end mounted in the screw hole 57 of the pressing plate 55 and the flange 5.
A spring 59 disposed on the frame 8a is located between the frame 59 and the horizontal portion 33a.

As shown in FIG. 2, the adjusting link 51 and the pressing plate 55 are combined, and the pressing force adjusting member 50 in which the spring 59 is disposed is moved from the adjusting hole 36 provided in the upper cover 35 to a position like a screwdriver. The height at which the screw member 58 is inserted into the screw hole 57 of the pressing plate 55 is adjusted by inserting a tool. By adjusting the height of the screw member 58 with respect to the horizontal member 33a on the frame, the spring 59 is expanded and contracted, the pressing force by the spring 59 is adjusted, and the adjusting force is applied via the pressing plate 55. The pushing action of the pushing portion 52 of the link 51 against the shaft 13 of the retard roller 12 is performed. By appropriately adjusting the height of the screw member 58 of the pressing force adjusting member 50, the nip pressure between the separate roller 11 and the retard roller 12 is set to a constant value, and the sheet separating operation is performed satisfactorily. .

When the pressing force adjusting member 50 is
In the automatic document feeder 1 as shown in FIG. 1, the upper frame 3 is pivoted about the support shaft 4 by being disposed at a position protruding to the end on the tray side with respect to the tray 0. Then, the upper surface of the intermediate frame 30 is opened, and a tool can be inserted through the adjustment hole 36. However, the provision of the pressing force adjusting member 50 at the end of the intermediate frame 30 on the tray side causes a problem that the screw member 58 protrudes from the upper surface of the discharge path. The problem is that the intermediate frame 30 is configured to be thin and the frame 31
This is particularly noticeable when the height of the sheet is to be as low as possible.
It is assumed that the protruding end of the screw member 58 interferes with the sheet sent out toward the sheet 2. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in the drawing, the cover member 37 is positioned in the notch 32 as a concave portion of the frame frame 31 with respect to the concave portion in which the screw member projects on the lower surface of the frame frame 31. , So that the lower end of the screw member 58 does not protrude into the discharge path.

Claw members 39, 39a, 39 provided on the cover member 37 for positioning the cover member 37
b into the claw insertion holes 56, 56a, 56b of the pressing plate 55, and the cover member 37 is
To be able to move up and down. Also, the cover member 37
Each of the claw members 39 to 39 b is inserted into the insertion hole 5 of the pressing plate 55.
6 to 56b so as to be slidable in the vertical direction, even when a force is applied to push up from the lower surface of the cover member 37, the pressing action on the shaft 13 via the adjusting link 51 is not affected. Has no effect.

The cover member 37 is made of a plastic material. The cover member 37 is provided with a downwardly inclined portion 38 in the lower surface of the cover member 37 in the moving direction of the paper so that the paper discharged by the discharge roller device 25 can be moved. It is guided downward along the slope portion 38 and is deposited on the discharge tray 72. Even if the sheet discharged to the discharge tray 72 is applied with a force to bend through the U-shaped conveyance path, the sheet is sent out toward the discharge tray 72 at the slope of the cover member 57. Since the guide is guided downward by the portion 58, the effect of jumping upward is suppressed. Therefore, even when a large number of sheets are stored in the discharge tray 72, the sheets discharged thereon are discharged while being guided by the cover member 37, so that the storage capacity of the discharge tray 72 is improved. Can be maintained. The cover member 37 is located at the center of the end of the frame 31 and applies a pressing action to the vicinity of the center of the sheet to be discharged. The configuration of the slope for guiding the paper
It can be set arbitrarily.

The example shown in FIG. 4 shows the configuration of a reading device 60 provided integrally with the image forming apparatus. A scanning unit frame 61 is provided with a scanning device 63 configured as shown in FIG. . The scanning device 63 includes a full-rate carriage 64 provided with a lamp 64a and one mirror m1, and two opposing mirrors m2, similarly to a device used in a conventional copier scanning device. m3
Are provided in combination with a half-rate carriage 65 for disposing the. Then, the reading information of the document is transmitted to the CCD 69 via the lens device 68, the optical signal is converted into an electric signal, and transmitted to the image information processing section of the image forming apparatus. In the scanning device 63, in order to drive the full rate carriage 64 and the half rate carriage 65, a driving pulley 6 having a diameter set to 2: 1 is used.
6, 66a are coaxially arranged, and a mechanism is provided for moving the two carriages in conjunction with each other via wires 67, 67a wound around the respective drive pulleys.

An original of a book is placed on the upper part of the frame 61, and the FBS (flatbed scanner) is used.
And a platen 23 disposed below the document feeder 1 corresponding to an ADF (automatic document feeder). The platen 6
2, the document is set by opening the upper opening / closing frame 70, and by closing the upper opening / closing frame 70, the platen cover 73 presses the image surface of the original on the upper surface of the platen to scan the set original. Do. For the original set on the platen 62, the full-rate carriage 64 of the scanning device 63 reciprocates by the length of the original in the scanning direction according to the detection information of a sensor (not shown). Reads image information while moving at half the speed of the full rate carriage 64, and outputs an image signal via the CCD 68.

Using the reading device 60, the document tray 7
When scanning the original set in 1, the setting of the original in the original tray 71 is performed by operating the control device in response to a detection signal of a detection unit (not shown), or using the original conveyance unit in the control panel. This is performed by inputting a command to perform the scanning. Then, the full-rate carriage 6 of the scanning device 63 is
4 is stopped at a position corresponding to the platen 23, the half-rate carriage 65 is moved to the left end of the scanning unit frame 63, and the originals are sequentially transferred from the original tray 71 one by one.
The document is transported into the mold transport path, and the image of the document is read at the platen 23. Therefore, the scanning unit frame 61
, The two platens 62,
A scanning device can be set in correspondence with the image processing apparatus 23 to perform an operation of reading an arbitrary document. The image information can be transmitted by using the transmission function of the facsimile apparatus, or by using the function of the copying machine. It can print on recording paper. The automatic document feeder 1 shown in the embodiment
Is used alone and the automatic document feeder 1
And a reading device configured integrally with the FBS can be configured alone as a reading device. In general, it can be used as a document reading unit provided integrally with an image forming apparatus or as a reading device of a facsimile machine.

In the example of the reading device 60 shown in FIG. 4, a means for adjusting the nip pressure in the sheet separating device 10 is provided as shown in FIGS.
A cover member 37 is provided at a portion where paper is discharged to the discharge tray 72.
By arranging, it is possible to satisfactorily set the sheet separating action and the accommodation capacity of the sheet discharged toward the discharge tray. And
When the screw member 58 is adjusted with respect to the pressing force adjusting member 50, since the upper surface of the intermediate frame 30 is easily exposed when the upper frame 3 is opened, the adjusting operation can be easily performed. In the case where a paper jam occurs in the U-shaped conveyance path, for example, the intermediate frame 30 is opened via the drive roller shaft 18 of the conveyance roller device 15 (see FIG. 2) to facilitate the jam processing. Can be done.

[0026]

Since the apparatus of the present invention is constructed as described above, a concave portion is formed as a mounting portion for a pressing adjustment member on the downstream side of the discharge roller device in the paper conveying path, and the concave portion is formed in the concave portion. By providing the pressure adjusting screw and providing the cover for covering the screw, the screw does not protrude from the end of the discharge path, so that there is no trouble in discharging the paper. In addition, since the cover has a guide surface for forcibly moving the sheet fed by the discharge roller device downward, the guideability for the discharged sheet can be improved. Further, since the concave portion serving as the mounting portion of the cover is a screw mounting portion for adjusting the pressing force of the retard roller, the mechanism of the pressing force adjusting member can be easily configured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a structure of an automatic document feeder.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of an intermediate frame arranged in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a pressing force adjusting member disposed at an end of an intermediate frame.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an image reading apparatus incorporating the mechanism of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 automatic document feeder, 2 base frame, 3
Upper frame, 5 Pickup rollers, 9
Guide plate, 10 paper separating device, 11 separate roller, 12 retard roller, 14
Conveying path, 15 conveying roller device, 16 pinch roller, 17 driving roller, 20 curved path, 21
Large-diameter drive roller, 23 platen, 24 discharge path, 25 discharge roller device, 30 intermediate frame, 31 frame frame, 32 notch,
33 end rising part, 34 screw hole, 35 upper cover, 36 adjustment hole, 37 cover member, 3
8 slope portion, 40 conduction link, 45 intermediate link, 50 pressing force adjusting member, 51 adjusting link, 52 push-up, 55 pressing plate, 57
Screw hole, 58 screw member, 59 spring,
60 reading device, 62 platen, 63 scanning device, 64 full rate carriage, 65 half rate carriage, 68 lens, 69
CCD.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H076 BA14 BA17 BA24 BA36 BA42 BA65 3F101 FB12 LA02 LB02 3F343 FA03 FC01 JD08 JD33

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sheet conveying device that separates sheets one by one by a separate roller and a retard roller pressed against the same, conveys the paper in a U-turn, and discharges the paper toward a tray by a discharge roller device. A concave portion is formed as a mounting portion for the pressure adjusting member of the retard roller on the downstream side of the discharge roller device in the sheet transport path, a screw for adjusting the pressing force is provided in the concave portion, and a cover for covering the screw is provided. A paper transport device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The sheet conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the cover has a guide surface for forcibly turning a sheet fed by a discharge roller device downward. 3. The mounting recess, wherein the retard roller is
3. The sheet conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet conveying device is formed on a frame that supports a conveying unit including a discharge roller device.