JP2009007081A - Recording medium storage device and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

There are provided a recording medium storage device and an image forming apparatus that are less likely to cause a conveyance failure due to a height deviation even in a special recording medium such as an envelope, regardless of the type of recording medium that can be used with a simple configuration.
A recording medium storage unit for stacking and storing a recording medium to be fed and an end of the recording medium stacked in the storage unit are regulated, and a conveyance end of the recording medium is regulated with respect to an apparatus body. A feed cassette having side fences 81 and 82 and a back fence 90 that can move in the direction in which the recording medium is loaded. Display sheets 40, 41, and 42 with 47 are provided.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording medium storage device and an image forming apparatus.

The recording medium storage device is a paper feeding cassette or the like on which paper that is a recording medium to be fed to the image forming apparatus main body is loaded. An example of a conventional paper feeding cassette is shown in FIG.
In FIG. 8, the paper feed cassette 100 has side fences 101 and 102 and a back fence 103 that regulate the end portions of paper stacked and stored on a bottom plate (not shown).

  In such a paper feed cassette 100, not only sheets such as plain paper, thin paper, and thick paper, OHP sheets, and label paper but also envelopes and bags are often loaded for feeding. When sheets other than sheets are stacked on the sheet cassette, the height of the stacked sheets differs on the four sides of the sheet.

  For example, when the envelopes 110 shown in FIG. 9 are stacked on a plurality of paper feed cassettes 100, the top surface of the stacked envelopes 110 has a deviation in height between the opening 111 and the bottom 112 of the envelope 110 as shown in FIG. become. Due to this height deviation, the paper feed roller 120 hits strongly on the bottom 112 side of the envelope 110 and weakly hits on the opening 111 side. That is, the contact pressure and the conveyance force are biased in the left-right direction between the envelope 110 and the paper feed roller 120. When the paper feeding roller 120 rotates in this state, the conveying force for conveying the bottom 112 side of the envelope 110 is strong, so that an oblique feed (skew) occurs such that the bottom 112 side precedes the opening 111 as shown in FIG.

  Further, the printing paper includes a gusseted bag 130 as shown in FIG. 12, and when a plurality of the bags 130 are stacked, the block forms a central portion 131 of the paper and a gusseted end as shown in FIG. A large height deviation will occur with the part 132. In the case where the cassette is loaded in the state of the block having the large height deviation, when the bottom plate rises, the upper surface of the sheet greatly gets over the sheet feeding roller 120 and the side fences 101 and 102 as shown in FIG. In most cases, a guide plate, a structure for holding a paper feed cassette, another paper feed cassette, or the like exists above the paper feed roller or the side fence. Therefore, as described above, when the upper surface of the sheet greatly exceeds the sheet feeding roller and the side fence, the sheet is strongly caught by these members. And finally, this catch causes a conveyance failure.

JP-A-2005-231821 Japanese Patent No. 3768852 Japanese Patent No. 3326997 JP-A-5-229676 JP 2006-103949 A JP 10-35901 A JP-A-5-69963 JP-A-5-319596

  In order to eliminate / reduce such problems in conveyance, the following countermeasure means exist. These means aim to eliminate the unevenness of the contact pressure (contact pressure) between the paper and the roller, and the above Patent Documents 1 to 4 flatten the upper surface of the paper by pressing the upper part of the paper and eliminate the unevenness of the contact pressure of the roller. It is configured as follows.

In Patent Documents 5 to 7, a part of the bottom plate is lifted to flatten the upper surface of the paper so that the uneven contact pressure of the roller is eliminated.
Furthermore, Patent Document 8 is configured to change the inclination of the conveyance roller so as to follow the height deviation of the paper.

  However, each of the above-described prior arts has a problem that large dedicated parts or a large change in configuration is required, or sheets other than specific sheets may not be stacked.

  The present invention eliminates the above-described conventional problems, and regardless of the type of recording medium that can be used with a simple configuration, a recording medium storage device and an image that are less likely to cause a conveyance defect due to height deviation even in a special recording medium such as an envelope An object is to provide a forming apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention regulates a recording medium storage unit that stacks and stores recording media to be fed, and an end of the recording medium stacked in the storage unit, and In a recording medium storage device having an end guide member that is movable in a direction that regulates the conveyance end of the recording medium, a display mark indicating the loading amount of the recording medium is attached to the inner wall surface of the end guide member. Proposed is a recording medium storage device provided with a display member.

  In the present invention, the end guide member is a side fence that restricts both sides orthogonal to the feeding direction of the recording medium, and a back fence that restricts the rear end of the recording medium, and the display member is the side fence. And it is effective when it is provided in at least two or more of the back fence.

Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the display mark is a scale extending in the vertical direction with respect to the end guide member.
Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the display mark is a mark that indicates the upper limit of the loading capacity of different types of recording media.

  Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the display member provided on the side fence is provided on the most downstream side of the side fence in the recording medium feeding direction.

  Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the display member provided on the side fence extends from the inner wall surface of the side fence to the leading edge on the downstream side in the recording medium feeding direction.

  Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the display member provided on the side fence reaches the outer wall surface from the inner wall surface of the side fence via the leading edge on the downstream side in the recording medium feeding direction. .

Furthermore, the present invention is effective when the leading edge on the downstream side in the feeding direction of the recording medium of the side fence is formed thin.
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention proposes an image forming apparatus comprising the recording medium storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily know the height displacement of the recording medium loaded in the storage unit, and further, by limiting the sheet loading amount for each sheet type, it is possible to easily avoid the loading state in which a conveyance failure is likely to occur. can do.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an image forming apparatus equipped with a recording medium storage device according to the present invention. An image forming unit 100 is provided inside the image forming apparatus main body 10, and the image forming unit 100 includes an image carrier 11 formed of a drum-shaped photoconductor. Around the image carrier 11, a charging device 12, a developing device 13, a transfer / conveying device 14, a cleaning device 15 and the like are arranged. In addition, a laser writing device 16 is provided above the image forming unit 100. The laser writing device 16 includes a scanning optical system (not shown) such as a light source composed of a laser diode or the like, a rotating polygon mirror for scanning composed of a polygon mirror, a polygon motor, an fθ lens, and a mirror. A fixing device 17 is provided on the left side of the cleaning device 15 in the drawing. The fixing device 17 includes a fixing roller 18 having a built-in heater, and a pressure roller 19 for pressing the recording medium against the fixing roller 18 from below.

  In addition, a duplex unit 22 is provided below the image forming unit 100 inside the image forming apparatus main body 10, and a sheet feeding cassette 23 that is a four-stage recording medium storage device is further provided below the duplex unit 22. . Each paper feed cassette 23 stores paper as a recording medium made of paper or an OHP sheet. The paper in each paper feed cassette 23 is transported to a common paper feed path C via a feed path indicated by a symbol B in the drawing by a feed device 70 described later, and a transfer / conveyance device 14 below the image carrier 11. Sent to.

  When forming images on both sides of the paper, first, the paper in the paper feed cassette 23 is sent to the transfer unit to transfer the image onto one side of the paper, and the image is fixed on the paper by the fixing device 17. Let Thereafter, the sheet passes through the reverse path E branched from the middle of the sheet discharge path D extending from the exit of the fixing device 17 to the sheet post-processing device 31, and is sent to the duplex unit 22. The sheet sent to the duplex unit 22 is again sent to the transfer section below the image carrier 11 through the refeed path A, and the image is transferred to the surface opposite to the one side.

  An image reading unit 24 and a contact glass 26 are provided above the image forming unit 100 of the image forming apparatus main body 10. An automatic document feeder 27 is provided on the contact glass 26 so as to cover the contact glass 26. The automatic document feeder 27 is provided so as to be openable and closable with respect to the contact glass 26. On the right side of the image forming apparatus main body 10 in the figure, a manual feed tray 28 for guiding the paper manually fed by the user into the common paper feed path C is provided so as to be openable and closable. On the right side of the image forming apparatus main body 10 of the image forming apparatus main body 10, there is a mass feeding device 30 that can stack a large amount of sheets inside and can move up and down a large amount of stacked sheets. It is attached. The paper fed from the large-volume paper feeder 30 is connected to the common paper feed path C via the supply path F.

Next, the feeding device 70 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conveying unit of the separation unit 34 feeds the uppermost sheet from the sheet feeding cassette 23 on which a large number of sheets are stacked by a pickup roller 63 and a feed roller 61. The reverse roller 62 is a general FRR paper feeding method in which a pair of feed rollers 61 are pressed and urged to separate sheets one by one.

  The sheet fed from the separation unit 34 is conveyed to the conveyance unit 71 via the feeding path B. The conveyance unit 71 includes a grip roller 35, and the sheet is nipped by the first pressure urging roller 35 a and the second pressure urging roller 35 b and sent to the conveyance path C. The guide member 72 has a curved shape and forms a merge of the supply path B and the conveyance path C. The feeding device 70 is arranged up and down with an interval L, and the sheet fed from the lower stage is sent to the image forming unit via the conveyance path C shared with the upper stage.

  A sheet post-processing device 31 is attached to the left side of the image forming apparatus main body 10 in the figure. The sheet post-processing device 31 accepts the paper discharged through the paper discharge path D and discharges it as it is on the upper paper output tray 32 or performs post-processing such as stapling or punching to perform upper paper output. The sheet is discharged onto the tray 32 or the lower discharge tray 33.

  In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, when a user sets a document in the image reading apparatus 200 in advance and presses a start switch (not shown), a copying operation is started. First, image information of a set original is read by the optical reading device 20, and the information is temporarily stored in a storage device (not shown). At the same time, when the image carrier 11 of the image forming unit 100 is rotated in the clockwise direction in the drawing by a driving means (not shown), the surface thereof is uniformly charged by the charging device 12, and then the optical reading device 20 described above. The read image information is read from the storage device, and the laser writing device 16 writes the image information at a predetermined timing, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the image carrier 11. The electrostatic latent image is visualized by the toner attached by the developing device 13 and arrives at the transfer / conveyance device 14.

  On the other hand, a sheet corresponding to the print request is selected from a plurality of paper feed cassettes 23 provided in multiple stages in the apparatus main body 10, and the feeding device 70 corresponding to the selected sheet is driven. The sheet is transferred from the separation unit 34 to the conveyance unit 71 through the feeding path B, joins the conveyance path C, and is further conveyed upward by the plurality of conveyance rollers 35. Then, after the slack is formed at the stage where it hits the registration roller 36, the conveyance is temporarily stopped. Then, the registration roller 36 rotates in accordance with the arrival and timing of the toner image formed on the image carrier 11 and feeds the paper to the transfer position of the image carrier 11.

  Thus, a toner image is transferred to the fed paper material by the transfer / conveyance device 14 and is transferred from the transfer / conveyance device 14 to the fixing device 17. In the fixing device 17, the fixing roller 18 and the pressure roller 19 are used. Heat and pressure are applied to fix the transferred image. The sheet on which the toner image is fixed is delivered to the post-processing device 31 through the paper discharge path D, and is discharged outside the apparatus. The image carrier 11 after transfer is cleaned by the cleaning device 15 to remove residual toner, and is prepared for the next similar image formation.

  When images are formed on both sides of the paper, the paper passes through a reverse path E that branches from the middle of the paper discharge path D, is reversed by the duplex unit 22, and is re-feeded to the registration roller 36 via the re-feed path A. The Then, after another image formed on the image carrier 11 is also transferred to the back surface of the sheet by the transfer / conveyance device 14, the transferred image is fixed by the fixing device 17 and transferred to the post-processing device 31. , Discharged outside the machine.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing one of the four paper feed cassettes 23.
In FIG. 3, a bottom plate 80 that pushes up the loaded paper in the paper storage portion of the paper feed cassette 23, and a pair of side fences 81 and 82 that are movable in the Q direction for guiding both side edges of the paper in the paper feed direction. A back fence 90 is provided that is slidable in the direction of arrow P along guide means 91 provided on the bottom surface of the storage section that guides the rear edge of the sheet in the conveyance direction.

  In the sheet feeding cassette 23 in this embodiment, display sheets 40 and 41 as display members are provided on the inner wall surfaces of the side fences 81 and 82 by sticking or the like. The display sheet 42 is provided by sticking or the like. In FIG. 3, the display sheet 41 attached to the side fence 82 does not appear because it is on the back side of the fence. Display sheets 40, 41, and 42 are attached to the display sheets 40, 41, and 42 as display members with a scale 45 as shown in FIG. In this case, the display sheets 40 and 41 adhered to the inner wall surfaces of the side fences 81 and 82 have the same size, but the display is symmetrical and the display sheet 42 adhered to the back fence 90 is the display sheet 40, The width is smaller than 41.

  When the recording medium such as a plurality of envelopes is placed on the sheet feeding cassette 23 configured in this way, as shown in FIG. 10, the height is displaced in the left-right direction, and a plurality of gussets are attached. When a recording medium such as an envelope is placed, displacement occurs at such a height that the center sinks in the left-right direction, as shown in FIG. At that time, the amount of displacement of the height can be easily known from the scale 45 of the display sheets 40, 41, 42 provided on each fence. That is, the difference in height between the left and right sides can be understood from the display sheets 40 and 41 of the side fences 81 and 82, and the difference in height between the center and the end is determined from at least one of the display sheets 40 and 41 of the side fences 81 and 82 and the back fence. It can be seen from 90 display sheets 42. The amount of displacement is compared with a risk amount that is likely to cause a conveyance failure such as skew or jam that is set from data obtained by experiments or the like. When the displacement amount exceeds the dangerous amount, the number of stacked sheets is reduced, and the displacement amount can be made less than the dangerous amount to prevent the occurrence of a conveyance failure. Specifically, for example, if the danger amount is set to 5 mm, when the displacement amount is 5 mm or more, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a conveyance failure by reducing the number of stacked sheets and making the displacement amount less than 5 mm. it can. Since it is preferable that the display sheets 40 and 41 be as close to the sheet feeding roller as possible, the display sheets 40 and 41 are preferably provided downstream of the side fences 81 and 82 in the sheet feeding direction.

By the way, a conveyance failure such as skew or jam due to a stacking error in the sheet feeding cassette 23 also occurs due to excessive stacking of sheets.
Therefore, in another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 5, upper limit marks 46 and 47 indicating the limit of sheets stacked on the recording sheets 40, 41 and 42 are added. The upper limit marks 46 and 47 are also set from data obtained by experiments and the like, and the upper limit of sheets that can be stacked in the paper feed cassette 23 differs depending on the type of plain paper and envelope. Are provided with two upper limit marks 46 and 47 for envelope and plain paper.

  Thus, when stacking sheets on the sheet cassette 23, it is possible to check from the upper limit marks 46 and 47 whether the upper limit set for the sheet is exceeded. By reducing the number of sheets, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a conveyance failure. The display sheet 40 may be provided with a scale 45 shown in FIG. 4 and upper limit marks 46 and 47 shown in FIG.

  Incidentally, in the paper feeding cassette 23 shown in FIG. 3, the side indicated by reference numeral F is the front side of the image forming apparatus, the side indicated by reference numeral R is the back side of the image forming apparatus, and the front side is pulled out in the direction of arrow S. It is out. Therefore, the display sheet 41 adhered to the inner wall surface of the front side fence 82 can be confirmed by looking into it from above, but it is certainly difficult to see compared to the display sheet 40 of the side fence 81 and the display sheet 42 of the back fence 90. It is.

  Therefore, in another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 6, a part of the display sheet 41 attached to the inner wall surface of the front side fence 82 has a leading edge 82a on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction from the inner wall surface of the fence. To the outer wall. Therefore, the user can know the amount of sheets loaded without looking into the inner wall surface of the side fence 82. At this time, if the thickness of the side fence 82 is large, the display sheet 41 and the paper are separated from each other, and an error is likely to occur. Therefore, when the side fence 82 is thick, the display sheet 41 is brought close to the stacked sheets. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7A, a thin portion 82b is formed on the leading end side to make the display sheet 41 thinner, or FIG. As shown, it is preferable to form a taper 82c to make it thin.

1 is an overall schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged explanatory diagram illustrating a feeding device of the image forming apparatus in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is an overall perspective view of the paper feed cassette that has been pulled out. (A), (b), (c) is a figure which shows the display sheet provided in each fence. It is a figure which shows the display sheet of another embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the affixed state of the display sheet in other embodiment of this invention. (A), (b) is a perspective view which shows the modification of a near side fence, respectively. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional paper feed cassette. It is a perspective view which shows the envelope loaded on a paper feed cassette. It is a perspective view which shows the state which loaded the envelope on the paper feed cassette. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a skew that occurs in the paper feed cassette of FIG. 10. It is a perspective view which shows the gusseted bag loaded on a paper feed cassette. It is a perspective view which shows the state which piled up the multiple sheets with the gusset. It is a perspective view showing the state where a plurality of gusseted bags were stacked on the paper feed cassette.

Explanation of symbols

23 Paper cassette 40, 41, 42 Display sheet 45 Scale 46, 47 Upper limit mark 81, 82 Side fence 90 Back fence

Claims (9)

A recording medium storage unit for loading and storing the recording medium to be fed;
An end guide member that regulates an end of the recording medium loaded in the storage unit and is movable in a direction to regulate the conveyance end of the recording medium with respect to the apparatus body;
In a recording medium storage device having
A recording medium storage device, comprising: a display member provided with a display mark indicating the load amount of the recording medium on an inner wall surface of the end guide member.   2. The recording medium storage device according to claim 1, wherein the end guide member is a side fence that regulates both sides orthogonal to a feeding direction of the recording medium, and a back fence that regulates a rear end of the recording medium, A recording medium storage device, wherein display members are provided on at least two of the side fence and the back fence.   The recording medium storage device according to claim 1, wherein the display mark is a scale extending in a vertical direction with respect to the end guide member.   5. The recording medium storage device according to claim 1, wherein the display mark is a mark that indicates an upper limit of a load amount in different types of recording media.   The recording medium storage device according to claim 2, wherein the display member provided on the side fence is provided on the most downstream side of the side fence in a recording medium feeding direction. .   6. The recording medium storage device according to claim 5, wherein the display member provided on the side fence extends from the inner wall surface of the side fence to a leading edge on the downstream side in the recording medium feeding direction. Recording medium storage device.   6. The recording medium storage device according to claim 5, wherein the display member provided on the side fence reaches from the inner wall surface of the side fence to an outer wall surface via a leading edge on the downstream side in the recording medium feeding direction. A recording medium storage device.   8. The recording medium storage device according to claim 7, wherein a leading edge on the downstream side in the feeding direction of the recording medium of the side fence is formed thin.   An image forming apparatus comprising the recording medium storage device according to claim 1.

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