JPH062982Y2 - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device, and more particularly to a sheet feeding device attached to an image forming apparatus.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in order to supply paper to an image forming apparatus, in addition to a cassette paper feeding method in which a paper feed cassette automatically feeds paper,
Along with the main body of the image forming apparatus, there are a manual feeding method in which sheets are supplied by hand one by one, and a stack method in which a plurality of sheets are stacked and automatically fed one by one.

Among them, in the stack type paper feeding device, an elevating plate is vertically movably attached to the front end of a paper feeding tray in which a plurality of sheets are stacked, and the vertical movement is controlled in association with the rotation of an eccentric cam, It is configured such that sheets are brought into contact with a front feed roller that rotates at a fixed position from below and are fed one by one to a sheet feed roller.

Further, the paper feed tray is adapted to the width of the paper and regulates both side positions of the paper so that the posture of the paper to be fed is not biased with respect to the image forming apparatus and is fed straight and correctly. The side regulation plate is provided.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, there is an elevating plate and a forward feed roller between the front end of the side regulation plate provided on the paper feed tray and the paper feed roller, and the paper is fed by the forward feed roller from the paper feed tray through the elevating plate. When fed to the rollers, the paper is released on both sides from the side regulation plate of the paper feed tray whose both ends are regulated in the correct position in the correct posture.

Therefore, the sheet moves on the elevating plate in response to the drive of the front-advancing roller, and by the time there is no means for regulating both ends of the sheet, the balance of the left and right of the sheet is unbalanced, and the sheet is in an oblique state. However, there is a problem in that the sheet may be fed in, which causes a problem in image formation.

The present invention aims to solve the problems of the conventional sheet feeding device.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following paper feeding device.

That is, according to the present invention, a paper feed tray having a paper feed side regulating means for regulating the positions of both sides of the paper by sliding in the left-right direction according to a desired paper size, and provided at the front end of the paper feed tray. A stack type sheet feeding device comprising a vertically movable slide plate and a pre-feed roller for feeding sheets one by one above the lift plate. Side regulating means for the lifting plate is provided that regulates the positions of both sides of the paper by sliding to the left and right according to the size,
One end of the lifting plate side regulating means is pivotally supported by one end of the paper feeding side regulating means provided in the paper feeding tray, and the other end is extended to the forward feed roller. The paper feeding device.

[Action]

In the above structure, since the paper is regulated on both sides by the side regulating means provided on the lifting plate, the paper is supplied to the image forming apparatus while maintaining the correct posture at the correct position even after passing through the paper feed tray. To be done.

〔Example〕

With respect to the embodiments of the present invention, how the structure of the present invention is practically embodied will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a side plate of an image forming apparatus, and a side plate 1 has a sheet feeding tray 2 for stacking a plurality of sheets for feeding. Are fixed so as to project to the outside of the image forming apparatus.

The paper feed tray 2 is provided with two long grooves 2a, 2a, and the upper surface of the paper feed tray 2 is brought into contact with both left and right sides of a paper to be placed so that the paper and its posture are properly regulated. Two paper feed side regulating plates 3, 3 for guiding are arranged,
Sliding members 3a, 3a slidable in the long grooves 2a, 2a are attached to the paper feed side regulating plates 3, 3, respectively, so that the side regulating plates 3, 3 can be slid at equal distances in the left-right direction with respect to the sheet traveling direction. This makes it possible to apply the side regulation function to paper of different sizes.

An elevating plate 4 which can be vertically swung is provided at the front end of the paper feed tray 2 in the paper advancing direction. The elevating plate 4 also has two long grooves 4a, similar to the case of the paper feed tray 2. 4a is provided.

Further, on the upper surface of the elevating plate 4, two elevating plate side regulating plates 5 (5) (side regulating plates) for regulating the positions of both sides of the sheet are arranged.

Slide members 5a and 5a are attached to the lower portions of the two lifting plate side regulating plates 5 and 5, respectively, and the lifting plate side regulating plates 5 and 5 are attached to the long grooves 4a and 4a of the lifting plate 4.
Is fitted so as to be slidable in the lateral direction.

Further, each of the lifting plate side regulating plates 5 and 5 has its one end 5b and 5b supported by supporting shafts 5c and 5c, respectively, at the tip 3 of the sheet feeding side regulating plate 3 and 3 provided on the sheet feeding tray 2.
It is pivotally supported by b.3b so as to be vertically swingable, and the other end thereof is extended to the forward feed roller 6.

Further, the side regulating plates 5, 5 for the lifting plate can be integrally moved and adjusted in the lateral direction when the side regulating plates 3, 3 of the shaft support are laterally moved and adjusted in accordance with the sheet size. .

Above the elevating plate 4, a forward moving roller 6 that moves the paper forward by rotation is rotatably supported and fixed to the side plate 1 by a rotation shaft 6a.

In addition, the elevating plate 4 is a spring member 7 attached to the lower part.
Is urged upward by.

Therefore, the leading edge of the sheet on the elevating plate 4 is pressed from below the front aligning roller 6.

Due to this pressure contact operation, the side plate 5 for lifting plate,
For structural convenience, the rotary shaft 6a of the front shifting roller 6 can be arranged with a part cut away.

Further, the engaging portion 4b on the side of the elevating plate 4 and the eccentric cam 8 are connected by the connecting member 9, and the eccentric cam 8 is connected to the drive gear 1
It can be rotated by receiving the drive of 0, and the elevating plate 4 can be vertically swung against the elastic force of the spring member 7.

The fact that the side regulating plates 5, 5 for the lifting plate are provided on the lifting plate 4 is the most characteristic of the present invention, whereby the paper is fed while keeping the correct posture while both sides are regulated to the end. It is sent to the paper roller 12.

Needless to say, the width L of the forward feed roller needs to be smaller than the minimum sheet width used.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory view of the embodiment, and the operation will be described with reference to sectional views.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a side plate of the image forming apparatus, and the side plate 1 has a cutout supply port 1a.
A side regulating plate 3 is provided on the upper surface of the paper feed tray 2 on which the paper P to be supplied is stacked, and regulates the side position of the paper P.

Further, inside the supply port 1a, there are an elevating plate 4 arranged at the front end of the sheet feeding tray 2 and an elevating plate side regulating plate 5 of side regulating means provided on the upper surface of the elevating plate 4. The base end 5b of the lifting plate side regulating plate 5 is pivotally supported on the tip of the side regulating plate 3 of the paper feeding tray 2 by a support shaft 5c so as to be vertically slidable.

A forward feed roller 6 is provided above the elevating plate 4, and the elevating plate 4 is urged upward by the elastic force of a spring member 7 provided at the lower part of the elevating plate 4 so that the leading edge of the paper P is moved. It can be pressed against the forward feed roller 6.

The paper P has its leading end aligned by the rotation of the forward feed roller 6 and the stopper 11a of the guide plate pair 11, corrects the position and posture of the paper P, and rotates one by one through the space between the guide plates and in the forward direction. The paper is fed between the paper feed roller 12 and the double feed prevention roller 13 which is driven to rotate in the opposite direction through the torque limiter. However, even if one or more sheets are fed, this double feed prevention function prevents the double feed. Guide plate pair 14 one by one while preventing feeding
After that, it is sent to the registration roller pair 15.

FIG. 2 shows the states of the elevating plate 4 and the spring member 7 when the paper feed tray selects the paper feed state.

That is, the elevating plate 4 is lowered, the spring member 7 is in a compressed state, and the space between the sheet feeding roller 6 and the elevating plate 4 is widened, so that the paper P can be easily inserted.

Next, at the time of paper feeding, the elevating plate 4 rises in synchronism with the timing, the sheets P are brought into pressure contact with the front feed roller 6, and the front feed roller feeds the sheets P one by one to the paper feed roller 12.
Descends downward.

The up-and-down swing of the elevating plate 4 performed in accordance with the sheet feeding timing is performed by the rotation of the eccentric cam 8 described in FIG.

FIG. 3 is also an explanatory view of the operation of the same embodiment. In order to avoid redundancy of parts names of respective parts, the same parts as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

The difference between this figure and FIG. 2 is that no sheets are stacked and the lift plate 4 is pushed upward by the spring member 7.

However, even when the paper feed tray is selected to be in the paper feed state, at the moment when the paper is fed one by one in accordance with the paper feed timing described in FIG. 4 is in the raised state, and by repeating this vertical movement frequently, stack-type sheet feeding is performed by the sheet feeding tray.

In this embodiment, the stack type sheet feeding device has been described, but the present invention can be applied not only to the stack type sheet feeding device but also to an automatic document feeder.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the present invention, an elevation plate which can be vertically swung is provided at the front end of a paper feed tray in which a plurality of sheets are stacked, and the elevation plate side regulation means for regulating both ends of the sheets. In addition, since the front feed roller that feeds the paper one by one to the paper feed roller is provided above the elevating plate, the position and posture of the paper is maintained by the side regulation means even after passing through the paper feed tray. Since the sheet is fed to the image forming apparatus by the forward feed roller as it is, the occurrence of skewed sheet feeding can be eliminated and the sheet feeding quality can be improved.

Further, since the lifting plate side regulating means is extended to the forward feed roller, the position and the posture of the paper on the lifting plate are surely held by the lifting plate side regulating means, so that the sheet can be accurately fed to the forward feed roller. It is fed.

Further, since the lifting plate side regulating means is pivotally supported by the sheet feeding side regulating means provided on the sheet feeding tray,
When the paper feed side regulating means is moved in the lateral direction to the left and right according to the paper size, the elevator plate side regulating means can be moved integrally in the lateral direction accordingly. There is no need to move the lifting plate side restricting means separately in the left and right lateral directions, and as a result, the working efficiency is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 and FIG.
The figure is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment. 2 ... Paper feeding tray, 3 ... Paper feeding side regulating plate (side regulating means), 4 ... Elevating plate, 5 ... Elevating plate side regulating plate (side regulating means), 6 ... Forward feed roller.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A paper feed tray having paper feed side regulating means for regulating the positions of both sides of the paper by sliding in the left-right direction according to a desired paper size, and provided at the front end of the paper feed tray. A stack type sheet feeding device comprising a vertically movable slide plate and a pre-feed roller for feeding sheets one by one above the lift plate. Elevating plate side regulating means for regulating the positions of both sides of the paper by sliding in the left-right direction according to the size are provided, and one end of the elevating plate side regulating means is provided in the paper feeding tray. A sheet feeding device, characterized in that the side regulating means is pivotally supported at one end and the other end is extended to the front feed roller.