JP2010143710A - Skew correction device and recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a skew correction device capable of coping with even large degree of inclination of sheet and to provide a recording device. <P>SOLUTION: This skew correction device corrects the position of sheet P in a process in which a tip part S of the sheet P to be conveyed from the upstream side to the downstream side in the direction of conveyance in accordance with the turn of a conveyance roller is abutted on a registration roller 29 and is bent and deformed. This skew correction device includes a pair of side guides 42, 43 provided at an interval in the direction of width crossing the direction of conveyance between the conveyance roller and the registration roller 29 and capable of guiding both of side ends in the direction of width of the sheet P. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a skew correction apparatus and a recording apparatus including the skew correction apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet printer (hereinafter referred to as “printer”) is widely known as a recording apparatus that attaches a recording material (ink) to a sheet. This printer performs printing (recording) by ejecting ink supplied to the recording head from a nozzle formed on the recording head to a sheet such as recording paper.

  In such a printer, if the sheet is conveyed in an inclined state, the sheet may be wrinkled or folded, and the inclined printing may be performed on the sheet, resulting in a decrease in print quality. It was. In view of this, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-228688, there is a mechanism provided with a mechanism that corrects the inclination (skew) of a sheet supplied while being inclined with respect to the conveyance path.

That is, in the printer of Patent Document 1, the sheet is sent from the upstream side to the downstream side in the sheet conveyance direction as the conveyance roller rotates, and the leading edge that is the downstream end of the sheet is in a state where rotation is stopped. By contacting the roller, the vicinity of the leading edge of the sheet is bent. Therefore, the sheet is rotated so that the inclination with respect to the conveyance path is eliminated and the skew is corrected, and thereafter, the sheet is conveyed to a printing unit where printing is performed in accordance with the rotation driving of the registration roller with which the leading end is in contact. It has become.
JP-A-8-295439

  By the way, in the printer of Patent Document 1, since the sheet is rotated depending on the restoring force of the deformed sheet itself, when the sheet is conveyed in a greatly inclined state, the inclination is not sufficiently corrected. There was a fear.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a skew correction apparatus and a recording apparatus that can cope with a case where the degree of inclination of a sheet is large.

  In order to achieve the above object, the skew correction apparatus of the present invention causes the leading end of a sheet conveyed from the upstream side to the downstream side in the conveyance direction to be bent and deformed by the rotation of the conveyance roller. A skew correction device that corrects the position of the sheet in a process, and is provided between the transport roller and the gate member with a gap in the width direction intersecting the transport direction, and the width direction of the sheet A pair of side guides capable of guiding the both side ends of each are provided.

  According to this configuration, the sheet conveyed to the downstream side in the conveyance direction by the conveyance roller is conveyed to the gate member with both ends in the width direction guided by the pair of side guides. That is, when the sheet is sent in a state of being greatly inclined, the inclination is roughly corrected by the side guide while being conveyed to the gate member. Therefore, when the sheet comes into contact with the gate member, the degree of inclination is small, so that the inclination of the sheet can be sufficiently corrected by the bending deformation accompanying the contact with the gate member. That is, it is possible to cope with a case where the degree of inclination of the sheet is large.

  In the skew correction apparatus of the present invention, the interval in the width direction on the upstream side in the transport direction of the pair of side guides is wider than the interval in the width direction on the downstream side in the transport direction.

  According to this configuration, since the gap in the width direction of the pair of side guides is wide on the upstream side in the transport direction, the sheet supplied by the transport roller can be easily introduced between the side guides. Further, since the interval in the width direction of the pair of side guides is narrow on the downstream side in the conveying direction, the inclination is roughly corrected by conveying the sheet introduced between the side guides so as to be in sliding contact with the side guides. be able to.

The skew correction apparatus of the present invention further includes a vibration device that vibrates the pair of side guides.
According to this configuration, the vibration device vibrates the pair of side guides. That is, since the side guide applies a force to the contacted sheet, when the direction of the sheet and the side guide is different, the force is applied to the sheet in a direction in which the inclination is corrected. It becomes. Therefore, the effect of correcting the sheet inclination can be enhanced.

  The skew correction apparatus according to the present invention includes a first guide member that supports the sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller from below in the vertical direction and guides the sheet to the gate member, and a vertical direction that is more vertical than the first guide member. And a second guide member provided at an upper position for guiding the sheet to the gate member.

  According to this configuration, the sheet that is bent and deformed in contact with the gate member is restricted from moving in the width direction and the vertical direction by the first guide member, the second guide member, and the pair of side guides. . That is, position correction can be performed by smoothly guiding the conveyed sheet to the gate member.

The recording apparatus of the present invention includes the skew correction apparatus and a recording unit that performs a recording process on the sheet subjected to the position correction.
According to this configuration, since the recording is performed on the sheet whose inclination in the conveyance direction is corrected by the skew correction device, it is possible to suppress the recording deviation with respect to the sheet and improve the recording quality.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a printer which is a kind of recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. In the following description, when referring to “front-rear direction”, “left-right direction”, and “up-down direction”, the direction indicated by an arrow in each figure is used as a reference.

  The printer 11 shown in FIG. 1 is a large-sized ink jet printer that can perform printing that can accommodate a size of about A1 size or B1 size. The printer 11 includes a main body frame 12, and a setting unit 13 on which a sheet P such as recording paper can be set is provided on the back side of the main body frame 12.

  Further, in the main body frame 12, a feeding roller 14 for feeding the sheet P set in the setting unit 13, a skew correction device 15 for correcting the position of the fed sheet P, and a sheet on which position correction has been performed. A printing device 16 serving as a recording unit that performs printing processing on P is accommodated. Further, on the front side of the main body frame 12, a discharge unit 17 that guides the sheet P that is subjected to printing processing and discharged from the main body frame 12 is provided.

  The printing device 16 extends in the left-right direction (a direction orthogonal to the paper surface in FIG. 1), and has a rod-shaped guide shaft 18 supported at the left and right ends by the main body frame 12, and can be reciprocated in the left-right direction by the guide shaft 18. A supported carriage 19 and a recording head 20 provided on the lower surface side of the carriage 19 are provided. The carriage 19 is movable in the left-right direction, which is the main scanning direction, as the carriage motor (not shown) is driven.

  An ink cartridge (not shown) containing ink is detachably mounted in the main body frame 12, and the mounted ink cartridge is connected to an upstream end of an ink supply path (not shown). ing. A valve unit 21 to which the downstream end of the ink supply path is connected is mounted on the carriage 19. The ink stored in the ink cartridge is pumped to the valve unit 21 through an ink supply path by a pressure pump (not shown), and is supplied from the valve unit 21 to the recording head 20. Further, a nozzle opening (not shown) capable of ejecting ink is provided on the lower surface side of the recording head 20.

  Below the carriage 19, a feeding roller pair 22 is located at a position behind the recording head 20, and a platen serving as a support for the sheet P is located in front of the feeding roller pair 22 and below the recording head 20. A feed roller pair 24 is provided at a position where 23 is in front of the platen 23. Then, the feeding roller pair 22 and 24 feeds the sheet P toward the front side, which is the downstream side in the transport direction, and the nozzle of the recording head 20 that moves in the main scanning direction (left and right direction) together with the carriage 19. The recording process for the sheet P is performed by alternately performing the printing process for ejecting ink from the openings.

  Further, the skew correction device 15 is provided in the middle of the conveyance path 25 for conveying the sheet P toward the printing device 16. Specifically, on the conveyance path 25, the sheet P fed by the feeding roller 14 is rotated in accordance with the rotational drive of the drive shaft 26 in order to convey the sheet P toward the front side that is the downstream side in the conveyance direction. A metal transport roller 27 and a registration roller 29 that is positioned downstream of the transport roller 27 in the transport direction (front side) and rotated in accordance with the rotational drive of the drive shaft 28 are provided. Under the transport roller 27, a hard rubber driven roller 31 that rotates about the rotation shaft 30 as the transport roller 27 rotates is provided so as to make a pair with the transport roller 27. . A driven roller 33 that rotates about the rotation shaft 32 as the registration roller 29 rotates is provided below the registration roller 29 so as to make a pair with the registration roller 29.

  In the skew correction device 15, the sheet P is conveyed toward the front side by rotating the conveying roller 27 in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. It hits 29. Then, the skew of the sheet P is corrected by further rotating the conveying roller 27 for a predetermined time from that state.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the skew correction is an aligned state in which the leading end S extending in the left-right direction of the rectangular sheet P in plan view is orthogonal to the transport direction (front-rear direction) (state indicated by a solid line in FIG. 2). The position of the sheet P is corrected so that That is, in order to appropriately perform the recording process, it is necessary to supply the sheet P in an aligned state to the printing apparatus 16, but the leading end S of the sheet P is not aligned with respect to the conveyance direction during the feeding or conveyance process. The skew correction state (state indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 2) may occur in an orthogonal state, so that the skew correction device 15 corrects the position of the sheet P.

  Specifically, for example, when the right end Sr side of the sheet P is conveyed in the preceding skew state, the right end Sr side of the leading end portion S of the sheet P hits the registration roller 29 first. Then, by further rotating the conveying roller 27 in this state, the sheet P is rotated about the right end Sr side that hits the registration roller 29 while gradually bending upward, and the left end Sl side of the leading end S is the registration roller. A position correction is performed by hitting 29. After such position correction is performed, the aligned sheet P is conveyed to the printing device 16 side by rotating the registration roller 29 counterclockwise in FIG.

Next, the configuration of the skew correction device 15 will be described in detail.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conveyance path forming member 34 disposed in the vicinity of the conveyance roller 27 in the conveyance path 25, a conveyance path forming member 35 disposed in the vicinity of the driven roller 31, and the registration roller 29 A conveyance path forming member 36 disposed in the vicinity and a conveyance path forming member 37 as a first guide member disposed in the vicinity of the driven roller 33 are provided. The front side (upper surface) of the sheet P subjected to the printing process is guided by the transport path forming members 34 and 36, and the back surface (lower surface) side is guided by the transport path forming members 35 and 37, while passing through the transport path 25. It is transported from the upstream side (rear side) toward the downstream side (front side).

  Between the conveyance path forming members 35 and 37, a lower guide unit 38 is arranged that lifts the leading end of the conveyed sheet P upward and starts bending deformation. Further, on the front end side of the conveyance path forming member 34, an upper guide means 40 that presses the sheet P that is guided by the lower guide means 38 and that is inclined in the conveyance direction upward is provided from the upper side. Further, a guide plate 41 as a second guide member that guides the leading end portion of the sheet P toward the registration roller 29 is provided on the rear end side of the conveyance path forming member 36. That is, in the skew correction device 15, the sheet P is guided by the lower guide unit 38 and the bending deformation of the sheet P is controlled by the upper guide unit 40 and the guide plate 41, so that the position correction can be performed with higher accuracy. ing.

Next, the side guides 42 and 43 disposed between the conveyance roller 27 and the registration roller 29 in the conveyance direction of the sheet P will be described.
As shown in FIG. 2, the pair of left and right side guides 42, 43 having a rectangular shape in plan view extending in the front-rear direction is formed on the transport path 25 in the width direction (left-right direction) intersecting the transport direction (front-rear direction) of the sheet P. It is provided so as to make a pair at positions on the left and right outer sides. The side guides 42 and 43 guide the conveyed sheet P from the left and right sides to the registration roller 29. That is, the range of the conveyance path 25 in the vertical direction is determined by the conveyance path forming members 34 to 37, while the range in the horizontal direction is determined by the side guides 42 and 43.

  The pair of side guides 42 and 43 are provided in a non-parallel manner in a substantially V shape so that the distance between both in the left-right direction is narrow at the front and wide at the rear. However, the narrowest distance between the front end portions of the side guides 42 and 43 is equal to or greater than the maximum width of the sheet P that can be printed by the printer 11.

Further, vibration devices 44 such as a vibrator for vibrating the side guides 42 and 43 are attached to the side guides 42 and 43, respectively.
Next, the operation of carrying out skew correction by transporting the sheet P in the skew correction apparatus 15 will be described with reference to FIG.

  Now, for example, when the sheet P is conveyed in a skewed state in which the right end Sr precedes, the sheet P is spaced from the rear end side of the side guides 42 and 43 that are wider than the width of the sheet P, between the side guides 42 and 43. Break into. Then, the left end Sl side of the front end portion S of the sheet P abuts on the side guide 42 disposed on the left side, or the right end R of the sheet P is disposed on the right side at a position rearward of the front end portion S. Abut.

  Then, since the side guides 42 and 43 are vibrated by the action of the vibration device 44, the sheet P that has reached the side guides 42 and 43 receives a force in the direction in which it is pushed back. That is, the left end S1 of the leading end S of the sheet receives a rightward force from the left side guide 42, and the right end R of the sheet P receives a leftward force to rotate the sheet P.

  Since the side guides 42 and 43 are narrowed toward the front in the left-right direction, as the conveyance roller 27 is driven to rotate and the sheet P is sent to the front side on the registration roller 29 side, the sheet P becomes the side guide. The position is roughly corrected along the lines 42 and 43.

  Further, the sheet P in which the skew state is eased in this way is guided in the vertical direction by the conveyance path forming member 37 and the guide plate 41, and the right end Sr side of the leading end S first hits the registration roller 29. Then, the sheet P is gradually bent and deformed, and the position correction is performed so that the sheet P is rotated with the right end Sr abutting against the registration roller 29 as a fulcrum and is aligned.

According to the above embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) The sheet P conveyed to the downstream side (front side) in the conveyance direction by the conveyance roller 27 is conveyed to the registration roller 29 with both ends in the width direction guided by the pair of side guides 42 and 43. That is, when the sheet P is sent in a state of being largely inclined, the inclination is roughly corrected by the side guides 42 and 43 while being conveyed to the registration roller 29. Therefore, when the sheet P comes into contact with the registration roller 29, the degree of inclination is small. Therefore, the inclination of the sheet P can be sufficiently corrected by the bending deformation accompanying the contact with the registration roller 29. it can. That is, it is possible to cope with a case where the inclination degree of the sheet P is large.

  (2) Since the gap in the width direction of the pair of side guides 42 and 43 is wide on the upstream side (rear side) in the transport direction, the sheet P supplied by the transport roller 27 can be easily placed between the side guides 42 and 43. Can be introduced. Further, since the distance in the width direction between the pair of side guides 42 and 43 is narrow on the downstream side (front side) in the transport direction, the sheet P introduced between the side guides 42 and 43 is in sliding contact with the side guides 42 and 43. Thus, the inclination can be roughly corrected.

  (3) The vibration device 44 vibrates the pair of side guides 42 and 43. That is, since the side guides 42 and 43 apply force to the contacted sheet P, when the direction of the sheet P and the side guides 42 and 43 is different, the inclination of the sheet P is corrected. Force is applied in the direction of Therefore, the effect of correcting the inclination of the sheet P can be enhanced.

  (4) The sheet P that has been bent and deformed in contact with the registration roller 29 is restricted from moving in the width direction and the vertical direction by the conveyance path forming member 37, the guide plate 41, and the pair of side guides 42 and 43. That is, the position correction can be performed by smoothly guiding the conveyed sheet P to the registration roller 29.

  (5) Since recording is performed on the sheet P whose inclination with respect to the conveyance direction is corrected by the skew correction device 15, it is possible to suppress the recording deviation with respect to the sheet P and improve the recording quality.

In addition, you may change the said embodiment as follows.
When the rigidity of the sheet P is high, the sheet P conveyed to the front side by the conveyance roller 27 is conveyed to the registration roller 29 and abuts while maintaining its shape. Therefore, it is good also as a structure which does not provide the guide plate 41 and the conveyance path | route formation member 37, or provides only any one.

In the above embodiment, the vibration device 44 may not be provided.
In the above embodiment, the pair of side guides 42 and 43 may be provided in parallel to each other.

The gate member is not limited to the registration roller 29, and can be realized as a plate-like member that can move in the vertical direction.
In the above-described embodiment, the recording apparatus is embodied in the large-sized ink jet printer 11, but is not limited to this, for example, a small recording apparatus corresponding to the A4 size, a printer of another system such as an electrophotographic system, a FAX, etc. The skew correction apparatus according to the above-described embodiment may be provided in an apparatus, a copy apparatus, or a multi-function machine having a plurality of functions. Furthermore, a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects or ejects liquid other than ink may be employed. The present invention can be used for various liquid ejecting apparatuses including a liquid ejecting head that ejects a minute amount of liquid droplets. In addition, a droplet means the state of the liquid discharged from the said liquid ejecting apparatus, and shall also include what pulls a tail in granular shape, tear shape, and thread shape. The liquid here may be any material that can be ejected by the liquid ejecting apparatus. For example, it may be in a state in which the substance is in a liquid phase, such as a liquid with high or low viscosity, sol, gel water, other inorganic solvent, organic solvent, solution, liquid resin, liquid metal (metal melt) ) And a liquid as one state of the substance, as well as particles in which functional material particles made of solid materials such as pigments and metal particles are dissolved, dispersed or mixed in a solvent. Further, representative examples of the liquid include ink and liquid crystal as described in the above embodiment. Here, the ink includes general water-based inks and oil-based inks, and various liquid compositions such as gel inks and hot melt inks. As a specific example of the liquid ejecting apparatus, for example, a liquid containing a material such as an electrode material or a coloring material used for manufacturing a liquid crystal display, an EL (electroluminescence) display, a surface light emitting display, a color filter, or the like in a dispersed or dissolved state. It may be a liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting, a liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting a bio-organic material used for biochip manufacturing, a liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting a liquid as a sample used as a precision pipette, a textile printing apparatus, a microdispenser, or the like. In addition, transparent resin liquids such as UV curable resin to form liquid injection devices that pinpoint lubricant oil onto precision machines such as watches and cameras, and micro hemispherical lenses (optical lenses) used in optical communication elements. A liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid onto the substrate or a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects an etching solution such as an acid or an alkali to etch the substrate may be employed. The present invention can be applied to any one of these liquid ejecting apparatuses.

1 is a schematic front view of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment. Explanatory drawing explaining skew correction.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Printer (recording apparatus), 15 ... Skew correction apparatus, 16 ... Printing apparatus (recording means), 27 ... Conveyance roller, 29 ... Registration roller (gate member), 37 ... Conveyance path formation member (1st guide member) , 41 ... guide plate (second guide member), 42, 43 ... side guides, 44 ... vibration device, P ... sheet, R ... right end, S ... tip.

Claims (5)

A skew correction device for correcting the position of the sheet in the process of bending and deforming the leading end of the sheet conveyed from the upstream side to the downstream side in the conveyance direction with the rotation of the conveyance roller, abutting against the gate member,
A pair of side guides provided between the transport roller and the gate member with a gap in the width direction intersecting the transport direction and capable of guiding both side edges of the sheet in the width direction; A skew correction apparatus characterized by the above. 2. The skew correction device according to claim 1, wherein an interval in the width direction on the upstream side in the transport direction of the pair of side guides is wider than an interval in the width direction on the downstream side in the transport direction. . The skew correction apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a vibration device that vibrates the pair of side guides. A first guide member that supports the sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller from below in the vertical direction and guides the sheet to the gate member;
4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a second guide member that is provided at a position above the first guide member in a vertical direction and guides the sheet to the gate member. 5. The skew correction apparatus according to one item. A recording apparatus comprising: the skew correction apparatus according to claim 1; and a recording unit that performs a recording process on the sheet on which the position correction has been performed.

Images