JPH069085A - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a paper feeding device capable of feeding paper both from a paper feeding cassette and from a manual feeding tray while saving space and at low cost by providing a driving means which has a changeover means for changing over the rotating direction of a semilunar paper feeding roller in accordance with a selected position and by which the semilunar roller is turned in the paper feeding direction. CONSTITUTION:Paper feeding from a paper feeding cassette side is carried out by positioning a similunar paper feeding roller 9 by means of a movable member 20 in the paper feeding position of the paper sheet 5 on a paper feeding cassette 4, and by turning the roller in the paper feeding direction by a driving means having a changeover means 25. On the other hand, paper feeding from a manual feeding tray side is carried out by positioning the semilunar paper feeding roller by means of the movable member in the paper feeding position of the paper sheet 12 on a manual feeding tray 11, and by turning the roller in the paper feeding direction by the driving means having the changeover means 25. Thus, both the paper feeding from the paper feeding cassette and the paper feeding from the manual feeding tray can be made by commonly using one semilunar paper feeding roller, so that space elimination and cost reduction can be achieved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device applied to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in this type of image forming apparatus, a paper feed cassette accommodating paper such as transfer paper is mounted in the main body of the apparatus to feed the paper. Further, in order to perform interrupt copying, easy copying to different-sized paper, and the like, in many cases, manual paper feeding is possible instead of paper feeding from a paper feeding cassette.

An example of such a paper feeding device of the paper feeding cassette / manual paper feeding type is, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-5473.
There is one as shown in Japanese Patent No. In this, the upper cover part of the paper feed cassette attached to the main body of the device is also used as a manual feed tray, and the upper cover part that serves as a manual feed tray is slidable in the paper feed direction with respect to a common half-moon-shaped feed roller. By providing the upper cover portion and pushing the upper cover portion up to the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller portion, manual sheet feeding can be performed instead of sheet feeding from the sheet feeding cassette.

[0004]

Considering the space saving of the main body of the apparatus such as a copying machine, it is necessary to incorporate the paper feed cassette into the main body of the apparatus to eliminate the protrusion to the outside. In this respect, in the case of the conventional dual-purpose sheet feeding device as in the above-mentioned publication example, it is essential that a part (half) of the sheet feeding cassette protrudes out of the apparatus main body (completely built-in). As such, the upper cover cannot be slid as it is, making manual paper feeding inconvenient), which is incompatible with space saving.

There is also a method of utilizing the dead space above the paper feed cassette for manual paper feed, but in this case,
A half-moon-shaped paper feed roller and its peripheral mechanism are required only for manual paper feed. At present, such a half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller is expensive, and it is not a good idea to increase the cost for manual paper feeding.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a paper feed cassette and a manual feed tray are provided on both sides of a common conveyance path entrance, and the paper on the paper feed cassette is supported by a movable member. And a half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller that is selectively positioned at a sheet feeding position for the sheet on the manual feed tray, and has a switching unit that switches the rotation direction of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller according to the selected position. A driving means for rotating the half-moon shaped paper feeding roller in the paper feeding direction is provided.

In this case, according to the second aspect of the invention, the manual feed tray is provided in the apparatus main body so as to be retractable and retractable, and the half-moon shape is interlocked with the positional displacement between the paper feed set position and the retractable storage position of the manual feed tray. The movable member is provided with an interlocking mechanism that positions the paper feed roller between the paper feed position on the manual feed tray and the paper feed position on the paper feed cassette.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the switching means directly transmits the drive between the driving means and the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller in accordance with the selected position of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller. A pair of a rotary spring clutch and an idler that indirectly transmits the rotation of the one-rotation spring clutch is provided.

Further, in the invention according to claim 4, the manual feed tray is a corner claw separating and feeding tray in which the corner claws are integrally formed on the side fence.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the manual feed tray has a movable bottom plate which is urged toward the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller by a pressure spring and stacks sheets, and the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller feeds the sheet. In the front, an eccentric cam for displacing the movable bottom plate in a separating direction is fixedly provided on the shaft of the crescent-shaped sheet feeding roller.

Further, in the invention according to claim 6, a protective cover for covering the outer peripheral portion of the selected half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is provided on the side of the manual feed tray in association with the position variation of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller.

In this case, according to the invention of claim 7, the protective cover is independently attached to and detached from the movable member.

Further, in the invention according to claim 8, there is provided a protective cover having a mylar which is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller on the inner surface side facing the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller.

[0014]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is positioned at the sheet feeding position of the sheet on the sheet feeding cassette by the movable member, and is rotated in the sheet feeding direction by the driving means. Paper is fed from the paper cassette side. On the other hand, the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is positioned at the paper feed position of the paper on the manual feed tray by the movable member, and is rotated in the paper feed direction by the drive means, so that the paper is fed from the manual feed tray side. As a result, paper feeding from the paper feeding cassette and paper feeding from the manual feed tray can be performed by using one half-moon shaped paper feeding roller, and space saving and cost reduction can be achieved.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the manual feed tray can be retracted and stored in the main body of the apparatus, the manual feed tray is kept in the stored state when the manual paper feed is not performed. Becomes If manual feeding is required, the half-moon feeding roller is also moved to the paper feeding position for this manual feeding tray by simply displacing this manual feeding tray to the paper feeding set position. Become.

Here, the rotation direction of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is opposite between when the paper is fed from the paper feed cassette and when the paper is fed from the manual feed tray, and the rotation direction is switched by the switching means. In the invention according to claim 3, the switching means is composed of a pair of a single-rotation spring clutch and an idler, and the rotation of the single-rotation spring clutch is transmitted directly from the single-rotation spring clutch side. Reverse rotation in the rotation direction is ensured in the case of indirectly transmitting via the.

Further, in the manual paper feeding, it is difficult for the operator to understand how much the manual paper should be inserted and inserted, and if the manual paper feeding is insufficient, the separating performance is adversely affected. In this respect, according to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the manual feed tray is formed as a corner claw separation paper feed tray, the leading edge of the manual feed paper is positioned by the corner claw. Such corner claws are formed integrally with the side fence, which leads to cost reduction.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, with respect to such a manual feed tray, the movable bottom plate urged by the pressure spring is displaced in the separating direction in association with the rotation of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller. Since the eccentric cam is provided, the manual paper can be easily set without being disturbed by the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller.

On the other hand, according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the protective cover for covering the outer peripheral portion of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is provided when the sheet is fed from the manual feed tray located outside the main body of the apparatus, the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is protected. The outer peripheral surface is prevented from being soiled, and stable paper feeding performance is secured.

Further, in the invention according to the seventh aspect, since such a protective cover is detachably attached alone, cleaning and replacement of the half-moon shaped paper feeding roller can be easily performed.

Further, in the invention of claim 8,
Since the mylar that is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is provided on the inner surface side of the protective cover, the paper dust and the like are removed by the mylar when the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller rotates, and stable paper feeding performance is secured. .

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, a pair of registration rollers 1 provided immediately before the photoconductor transfer portion is provided, and a pair of guide plates 3 that guide the registration rollers 1 in the vertical direction to form a common conveyance path 2 are provided. ing. The common conveyance path 2 has an entrance at the lower end side, and a paper feed cassette 4 is horizontally arranged inside the apparatus main body with respect to the entrance.
The paper feed cassette 4 has a movable bottom plate 6 for stacking paper 5 such as transfer paper, a pressure spring 7 for urging the movable bottom plate 6 upward, and a corner for separating the paper 5 at the time of paper feed. It has a corner claw separation sheet feeding cassette structure including claws 8. At the sheet feeding position for the sheet 5 in the sheet feeding cassette 4 as described above, a half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 9 which is responsible for sheet feeding from the uppermost sheet side is provided. That is, the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is normally in non-contact with the paper 5, and has an outer shape having an arc length that makes one rotation during paper feeding to feed the paper to the registration roller 1. A guide plate 10 formed in an arc shape is provided along the outer circumference of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 between the paper feed side of the paper feed cassette 4 and the entrance of the common transport path 2.

Further, the side opposite to the sheet feeding cassette 4 with respect to the entrance of the common conveying path 2, that is, this sheet feeding cassette 4
A manual feed tray 11 is provided on the outside of the main body of the apparatus opposite to. This manual feed tray 11 is also the paper feed cassette 4
Similarly to the above, it is based on a corner claw separation paper feed tray structure, and has a movable bottom plate 13 for stacking manual feed paper 12.
A pressure spring 14 for urging the movable bottom plate 13 upward and a corner claw 15 for separating at the time of feeding are formed. The corner claw 15 is formed integrally with the side fence 16. As shown in FIG. 2, such a manual feed tray 11 is provided so as to be rotatable and openable and closable about the support shaft 17 by about 90 °, and the manual feed set position as shown in FIG. And a retracted storage position along the outer surface of the apparatus main body as shown in FIG.

However, in this embodiment, the position of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is also linked to the opening and closing of the manual feed tray 11 as described above. A mechanism for displacing the sheet feeding roller 9 is added, and the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 9 is also used. First, the shaft 18 of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is supported by a tip end side of a lever 20 which is rotatable and movable together with a support shaft 19 arranged directly under the common transport path 2. A gear 21 is fixed on the support shaft 19 as shown in FIG. 2, and is meshed with a gear 23 provided on the support shaft 17 via an idle gear 22. These gears 21
23 to 23 form an interlocking mechanism 24.

Accordingly, the lever 20 (henceforth, the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller 9) is interlocked with the opening and closing of the manual feed tray 11 by approximately 90 °.
Will also be displaced by approximately 90 °. More specifically, when the manual feed tray 11 is located at the retracted storage position with respect to the apparatus body, the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is located at the paper feed position with respect to the paper feed cassette 4 side (see FIGS. 1A and 2). When the manual feed tray 11 is located at the manual paper feed set position, the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is located at the paper feed position with respect to the manual paper feed tray 11 side (solid line in FIGS. 1B and 2). See). At this time, the guide plate 10 is also integrated so as to be displaced along with the displacement of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9. Therefore, the manual feed tray 1 as shown in FIG.
When the sheet is fed from the 1 side, the manual sheet 12 is guided between the manual tray 11 and the entrance of the common transport path 2.

By the way, as can be seen from FIGS. 1A and 1B, when the paper is fed from the paper feed cassette 4 side and when the manual feed tray 1 is used.
It is necessary to reversely rotate the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 when the paper is fed from the 1st side. In this respect, the present embodiment is configured so that the driving means provided with the switching means 25 as shown in FIG. That is,
A one-rotation spring clutch 27 that is directly connected to a motor or the like and is rotated by a drive gear 26 that serves as a drive source, and an idler 28 that makes one rotation by the one-rotation spring clutch 27.
And a pair of and are arranged side by side in the horizontal direction, and the axis 1 of the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller
8 depending on the positional displacement of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9
A gear 29 that meshes with the rotary spring clutch 27 or the idler 28 is provided.

As a result, when the paper is fed from the paper feeding cassette 4, the transmission path of the drive gear 26, the rotary spring clutch 27, and the gear 29 is formed as shown by the solid line in FIG. The sheet 9 is fed by rotating the uppermost sheet 5 in the sheet feeding cassette 4 once in the clockwise direction (sheet feeding direction). On the other hand, when the paper is fed from the manual feed tray 11 side, the gear 29 moves the idler 2 as shown by the phantom line in FIG.
Since it engages with the displacement on the 8 side, the transmission path of the drive gear 26, the one-turn spring clutch 27, the idler 28, and the gear 29 is formed, and the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 is placed on the uppermost manual feed paper 12 on the manual feed tray 11. The sheet is fed by rotating once counterclockwise (sheet feeding direction).

By the way, the paper feeding from the side of the manual feed tray 11 will be added. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, an eccentric cam 30 having a large diameter is fixed to the end of the shaft 18 on the cutout side of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9, and together with the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9. It is set to rotate. As a result, as shown in FIG. 9A, the eccentric cam 3 is provided before the sheet feeding, in which the cutout side of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 9 is located on the manual feed tray 11 side.
0 pushes down the movable bottom plate 13 against the pressure spring 14 to form a space between the movable bottom plate 13 and the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9. Therefore, the manual paper 12 can be easily set without being disturbed by the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller 9. At this time, the manual feed tray 11 itself is also provided with the corner claws 15, and the front end of the manual feed paper 12 can be easily positioned by the corner claws 15. After that, when the sheet is manually fed and the half-moon-shaped feed roller 9 rotates, the eccentric cam 30 retreats to a position away from the movable bottom plate 13 as shown in FIG. It acts on the movable bottom plate 13, and a necessary sheet feeding pressure is secured between the manual sheet 12 and the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 9. When multiple sheets of manual paper 12 are set, the separating function is the corner claw 1.
Secured by 5.

Further, in the present embodiment, the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 can be exposed to the outside of the main body of the apparatus during manual paper feeding, so that the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 has an arc shape so as to cover the outer peripheral portion thereof. A protective cover 31 is provided. The protective cover 31 is located on the side opposite to the guide plate 10 with respect to the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller 9, and is detachably attached to the lever 20 or the like so as to be rotationally displaced integrally with the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller 9. It is set so as to cover the outside of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller 9 exposed when the manual feed tray 11 is positioned at the manual paper feed set position as shown in FIG. 1B. This allows
It is possible to prevent the operator from accidentally touching the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 9 and prevent dust from adhering to maintain the sheet feeding function. Here, since such a protective cover 31 is independently attachable / detachable, by removing the protective cover 31, the half-moon shaped paper feeding roller 9 can be easily cleaned or replaced.

By the way, the half-moon feeding roller 9 is generally
As shown in FIG. 6, the rubber rubber 9 is provided on the surface of the roller body 9a.
When the rubber rubber 9b becomes dirty, the paper feeding performance is deteriorated. In this respect, as shown in the figure,
If the protective cover 31 is used and a plurality of mylars 32 contacting the surface of the rubber rubber 9b are provided on the inner surface of the protective cover 31, the mylar 32 removes the adhered paper powder and the like each time the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller 9 rotates. Therefore, the paper feeding performance is maintained.

[0031]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the paper feed cassette and the manual feed tray are arranged on both sides of the entrance of the common conveyance path, and the paper on the paper feed cassette is supported by the movable member and the paper on the paper feed cassette. A half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller selectively provided at a sheet feeding position for a sheet on the manual feed tray is provided, and the half-moon shaped sheet roller is provided with a switching means for switching the rotation direction of the half-moon shaped sheet feeding roller according to the selected position. Since a driving means for rotating the sheet feeding roller in the sheet feeding direction is provided so that the position of one half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is movable and the rotation direction thereof is also switched, it is possible to perform feeding from the sheet feeding cassette. Paper feeding from the manual feed tray can be performed by also using one half-moon-shaped paper feed roller, and space saving and cost reduction can be achieved in the dual feed cassette / manual feed tray system. it can.

In this case, according to the second aspect of the invention, since the manual feed tray is provided so as to be retractable and retractable with respect to the main body of the apparatus, the manual feed tray can be stored when the manual feed is not performed. In addition, it can have a space-saving appearance, and when manual feeding is required, simply move this manual feeding tray to its paper feeding set position, and the interlocking mechanism will move the half-moon-shaped feeding roller to this manual feeding tray. By shifting to the paper feed position to enable manual paper feed, the operation of selecting and switching between paper feed from the paper feed cassette and paper feed from the manual feed tray becomes natural and a special selection mechanism is required. It will not be done.

Further, the rotation direction of the half-moon-shaped paper feeding roller is opposite between the time of feeding from the paper feeding cassette and the time of feeding from the manual feed tray, and the rotation direction is switched by the switching means. According to the invention of Item 3, the switching means is constituted by a pair of one one-rotation spring clutch and an idler, and the rotation of the one-rotation spring clutch is directly transmitted from the one-rotation spring clutch side. Since the reverse rotation in the rotation direction is ensured in the case of indirectly transmitting the electric power via the switch, a simple and inexpensive switching means will suffice.

Further, in manual paper feeding, it is generally difficult for the operator to understand how much manual paper should be inserted and inserted, and if the manual paper feeding is insufficient, the separation performance is adversely affected. According to the invention described in claim 4, since the manual feed tray is formed as the corner claw separation sheet feeding tray, the leading edge of the manual feed paper can be positioned by the corner claw, and the setting operability is improved,
Moreover, since such a corner claw is formed integrally with the side fence, the cost can be reduced.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in such a manual feed tray, the movable bottom plate urged by the pressure spring is displaced in the separating direction in association with the rotation of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller. Since an eccentric cam is provided, the manual paper can be set easily without being disturbed by the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller during manual paper feeding, and the necessary paper feeding pressure can be secured during the manual paper feeding operation. it can.

According to the sixth aspect of the invention, since the protective cover is provided to cover the outer peripheral portion of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller when the sheet is fed from the manual feed tray located outside the apparatus main body, the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is provided. The outer peripheral surface of the sheet can be prevented from being soiled, and stable sheet feeding performance can be secured.

In this case, according to the invention of claim 7, such a protective cover can be detached independently, so that the half-moon shaped paper feeding roller can be easily cleaned and replaced.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 8, since the mylar which is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is provided on the inner surface side of the protective cover, the paper dust or the like is rotated by the mylar when the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is rotated. It can be removed and stable feeding performance can be secured.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a front view when a paper is fed from a paper feed cassette side, and FIG. 1B is a front view when a paper is fed from a manual feed tray side.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing an opening / closing mechanism and an interlocking mechanism of a manual feed tray.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a driving unit including a switching unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a half-moon-shaped feed roller and the like.

5A and 5B are views showing the vicinity of a manual feed tray, in which FIG. 5A is a front view before sheet feeding, and FIG.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a protective cover with mylar.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Common transport path 4 Paper feed cassette 5 Paper 9 Half moon paper feed roller 11 Manual feed tray 12 Paper 13 Movable bottom plate 14 Pressure spring 15 Corner claw 16 Side fence 18 Axis 20 Movable member 24 Interlocking mechanism 25 Switching means 27 1 Rotation spring clutch 28 Idler 30 Eccentric cam 31 Protective cover 32 Mylar

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A paper feed cassette and a manual feed tray are disposed on both sides of a common conveyance path entrance, and a paper feed position for a paper on the paper feed cassette and a paper on the manual feed tray supported on a movable member. A half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is selectively located at the position, and the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is rotated in the paper-feed direction by a switching means for switching the rotation direction of the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller according to the selected position. A sheet feeding device, characterized in that it is provided with a driving means. 2. A manual feed tray is provided in the main body of the apparatus so as to be retractable and retractable, and the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller is provided on the manual feed tray in association with the positional displacement between the paper feed set position and the retracted storage position of the manual feed tray. 2. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet feeding device is a movable member provided with an interlocking mechanism for positioning the sheet feeding position of the sheet and the sheet feeding position of the sheet on the sheet feeding cassette. 3. The switching means drives between the driving means and the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller in accordance with a selected position of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller.
One single-turn spring clutch that transmits directly and this one
3. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, further comprising a pair with an idler that indirectly transmits the rotation of the rotary spring clutch. 4. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the manual feed tray is a corner claw separating / feeding tray formed by integrally forming a corner claw on a side fence. 5. The manual feed tray is provided with a movable bottom plate which is biased by a pressure spring toward the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller to load paper thereon, and the movable bottom plate is provided before the paper feed by the half-moon-shaped paper feed roller. An eccentric cam for displacing the sheet feeding device in a separating direction is fixedly provided on the shaft of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller, and the sheet feeding device according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4. 6. A protective cover for covering an outer peripheral portion of the selected half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller is provided on the side of the manual feed tray in association with a position change of the half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller. , 3, 4 or 5 sheet feeding device. 7. The sheet feeding device according to claim 6, wherein the protective cover is independently detachably attached to the movable member. 8. The sheet feeding device according to claim 6, wherein a protective cover is provided with a mylar on the inner surface side facing the half-moon shaped sheet feeding roller, the mylar being in contact with the outer circumferential surface of the half-moon shaped sheet feeding roller.