JP3315217B2 - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feeding device applied to an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet feeding cassette for storing 500 sheets of paper, and a sheet feeding cassette for storing 250 sheets of paper. In the case where 500 sheets of paper are stored in the sheet cassette, the sheets are placed on a tray that can be moved up and down, and the tray is raised by a driving motor to lift the sheets to the position of the feed roller. The paper is fed by rotating the feed roller.

[0003] Further, in a device for storing 250 sheets of paper in a sheet cassette, a sheet is lifted to a feed roller position by a spring provided in the cassette, or a sheet is picked up by a pickup roller. -That transports the paper to the printer.

[0004]

However, in the case where 500 sheets are stored in the sheet cassette, there is a problem that the cost is increased because the tray is raised by using an expensive drive motor. .

[0005] A paper cassette that stores 500 sheets of paper has a large weight, and cannot be lifted by a spring alone, unlike a sheet cassette that stores 250 sheets of paper, and when a pickup roller is used. In this case, the vertical stroke of the pickup roller becomes large, and the paper feeding distance becomes longer as the paper is fed, which takes time. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding apparatus capable of feeding sheets satisfactorily without requiring a driving motor or the like even in a sheet feeding cassette for storing 500 sheets.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an apparatus main body having a paper feeding mechanism, a paper feeding cassette provided to be able to enter and exit the apparatus main body, and A mounting member for mounting the paper provided thereon, a movable regulating member for restricting an end of the paper mounted on the mounting member in a direction perpendicular to a paper feeding direction, and the mounting member described above. An urging member that urges the sheet feeding mechanism, and when the sheet feeding cassette is inserted into the apparatus main body, operates by the insertion force to lift the placing member,
Lifting means for restricting a force for lifting the placing member by contacting the regulating member.

Further, an apparatus main body provided with a paper feeding mechanism, a paper feeding cassette which is provided so as to be able to enter and exit the apparatus main body, and has a projection at an end in an insertion direction, and is provided in the paper feeding cassette A mounting member for mounting the paper, a movable regulating member for restricting an end of the paper mounted on the mounting member in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction, and A biasing member for biasing the mechanism; and a rotating member for rotating when the paper cassette is inserted into the apparatus main body by abutting against a projection of the paper cassette to press the mounting member. And a moving member.

[0008]

[0009]

[0010]

When the paper feed cassette is inserted into the apparatus main body, the lifting means operates by the insertion force to lift the mounting member in the paper feed cassette and feed the paper to the paper feed member. In this way, by utilizing the insertion force of the paper feed cassette, it is possible to feed 500 sheets of paper without using a drive motor or the like.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 2 shows an image forming apparatus 1 and a sheet feeding device 2 on which the image forming apparatus 1 is placed. A paper feed cassette 3 also serving as a manual paper feed unit is mounted on one side of the image forming apparatus 1, and a paper discharge tray 4 for receiving sheets is mounted on the other side. A document cover 5 and an operation unit 6 are provided on the upper surface of the image forming apparatus 1.

The paper feeder 2 has an upper part in a main body 7 thereof.
The middle and lower sheet cassettes 8A, 8B, and 8C are provided so as to be freely inserted and removed. The paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B, 8C enter and exit from the front side of the main body 7. The paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B and 8C are arranged in the apparatus main body 7 as shown in FIG. 3, and paper is selectively fed from each of the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B and 8C. The fed sheet is transported to an image transfer unit (not shown) in the image forming apparatus 1 via the transport path 25, and the image is transferred.

In the transport path 25, each paper feed cassette 8
Register rollers 26 are provided corresponding to A, 8B and 8C. Further, each of the sheet cassettes 8A, 8B, 8
Each of the trays 31 is provided with a tray 31 as a mounting member, and 500 sheets of paper are stacked and mounted on the tray 31. One end of the tray 31 is rotatably supported, and the other end is urged upward by a coil spring 10 as an urging member as shown in FIG.

Further, a pickup roller 13 is provided at an upper portion on the other end side of the tray 31 so as to be vertically movable.
The sheet is taken out by the pickup roller 13 and sent to the feed roller 11. A separation pad 12 for separating sheets is pressed against the lower surface of the feed roller 11. The feeder 11 is mounted on a drive shaft 20, as shown in FIG. 5, and arms 17 are rotatably mounted on the drive shaft 20. The pickup roller 13 is mounted between the arms 17 and 17 via a shaft 21. The drive shaft 20
The drive belt 18 is stretched between the shaft and the shaft 21. Further, the drive shaft 20 and the arms 17, 1
7 is connected via spring clutches 15 and 15, and when the drive shaft 20 is rotated, that is, when the feed roller 11 is rotated, the arms 17 and 17 are rotated downward to pick up the roller. 13 is lowered. The arm 17 is urged upward by a torsion spring 19, and is rotated upward when the drive shaft 20 stops rotating, so that the pickup roller 13 is raised.

The spring clutches 15, 15
Is larger than the force of the torsion spring 19 and the tray 3
1 is greater than the force of the spring clutches 15, 15 to lower the pickup roller 13. By the way, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, a plurality (three) of lifting means corresponding to each of the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B and 8C is formed in an L-shape in the inner part of the apparatus main body 1. The molded lifting levers 32 are provided. The lifting lever 32 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 33, and a rotating roller 34 is attached to a tip end thereof, and the other end is urged by a spring 35. The spring 35 is provided with a first gear 36 as shown in FIG.
Is connected to the projection 36a. The first gear 36
Is meshed with a second gear gear 37, and the second gear 37 is provided with a projection 38.

On the other hand, each of the sheet cassettes 8A, 8B, 8
On the insertion end side of C, as shown in FIG.
The pressing projection 39 is provided in the sheet feeding cassette 8.
When the A, 8B, and 8C are inserted into the apparatus body 1, the second
The second gear 37 is rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 6 by contacting the projection 38 of the gear 37. FIGS. 7 and 8 show the end of the lifting lever 32 on the side of the rotary roller 34.
As shown in the figure, when the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B, 8C are inserted, they are located on the bottom side.

As shown in FIG. 9, a paper width guide body 40 is provided in the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B and 8C as a regulating means which slides in accordance with the size of the paper. The lifting lever-3 is attached to the lower end of the paper width guide body 40.
2 comes into contact with each other to regulate the amount of rotation. That is, when the size of the paper is small and the guide body 40 is located near the center of the cassette as shown in FIG. 7, the lifting lever 32 has a small amount of rotation, and the size of the paper is large, so that the guide is large as shown in FIG. As the body 40 is positioned closer to the end in the cassette, the amount of rotation of the lifting lever 32 increases.

The sheet cassettes 8A, 8B, 8C
The sum of the force of the inner spring 10 and the force of the lifting lever 32 is smaller than the weight of 400 to 500 sheets. At this time, paper can be fed by a later-described slope unit 45 of the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B, and 8C. However, when the number of sheets is 1 to 400, the sheet is lifted by several mm, and the force of the spring 10 is adjusted so that the sheet always comes within the range of the slope portion 45 of the sheet feeding cassettes 8A, 8B, and 8C.

In the figure, reference numeral 14 denotes an empty lever, and the empty lever 14 is provided with paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B, 8
When the paper cassette 8A, 8B, 8C is pulled out, the paper cassette 8A is lowered.
At the time of insertion of A, 8B and 8C, a paper size detection switch is provided to detect cassette insertion as in the related art.

After detecting the insertion of the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B, 8C, the empty lever 14 detects the presence or absence of paper. If there is no paper, a hole is provided in the tray 31 and the absence of paper is detected. Then, the paper cassette 8A,
8B and 8C are inserted into the apparatus main body 1, the pressing projections 39 at the insertion ends of the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B and 8C are moved to the second position.
Of the gear 37 is pressed. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 6, the second gear 37 rotates, and the rotation causes the first 36 to rotate in the direction of the arrow. Due to the rotation of the first gear 36, the spring 35 is pulled, and the lifting lever 32 rotates about the support shaft 33 to rotate the rotation roller 34.
Is moved upward. Thereby, the tray 31 is lifted upward.

When the paper is thus lifted, the feed roller 11 is rotated by the rotation of the drive shaft 20. As a result, the spring clutches 15, 15 are connected, and the arms 17, 17 are turned downward against the urging force of the torsion spring 19 to lower the pickup roller 13 and drive. The belt 18 is run, the pickup roller 13 is rotated, and the sheet is taken out. The picked-up sheets are sent to the feed roller 11 and are separated and supplied one by one by the action of the separation pad 12.

After the above-mentioned sheet feeding is completed, the feeder 1
When the rotation of 1 is stopped, the pickup 13 is lifted by the force of the torsion spring 19. However, at the time of the paper feeding described above,
The paper feed position becomes unstable depending on the number and weight (type) of paper, but as shown in FIG. 4, the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B,
A slope portion 45 is formed in the portion of the paper feeding port of 8C, so that the paper can be fed stably by the slope portion 45.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the paper is of a small size, the paper feed cassettes 8A, 8B,
The paper is lifted only by the force of the spring 10 in 8C, and the tray 31 is lifted by increasing the pushing force of the lifting lever 32 provided on the apparatus main body 1 side as the size increases. It is possible to lift and feed 500 sheets of paper without requiring a driving motor or the like.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 10, a lifting lever 51 may be configured. That is, the prescribed position of the paper width guide 40 (A5, A5
4, A3) A projection 52 and a cutout 53 are formed at the position of the lifting lever 51 that comes to the position, and these projections 52 and the cutout 53 are brought into contact with the paper width guide 40, so that the size of each sheet is changed. The lifting force may be finely adjusted.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the mounting member is lifted by the lifting means driven by the insertion force of the paper cassette, 500 sheets can be fed without lifting the mounting member by using a special driving motor as in the related art. This has the effect of reducing costs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a sheet feeding cassette and a lifting lever according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a sheet feeding apparatus including the sheet feeding cassette and a lifting lever of FIG. 1 and an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram showing the sheet feeding device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a paper feed cassette and a paper feed mechanism of the paper feed device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the sheet feeding mechanism of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a lifting lever and a driving unit of the sheet feeding device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the operation of the lifting lever of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing the operation of the lifting lever of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a paper guide of a paper feed cassette of the paper feed device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a side view of another embodiment of the lifting lever of FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

7: apparatus main body, 8A, 8B, 8C: sheet cassette, 10
... spring (biasing member), 13 ... pickup roller (paper feed mechanism), 31 ... tray (placement member), 32 ... lifting lever
(Lifting means), 40: paper width guide (regulating member).

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-288730 (JP, A) JP-A-56-113631 (JP, A) JP-A-3-64937 (JP, U) JP-A-2- 72238 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 61-116637 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 57-540 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Utility Model 3-1144 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 1/12 B65H 1/24 B65H 1/26 G03G 15/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An apparatus main body having a paper feeding mechanism, a paper feeding cassette provided in the apparatus main body so as to be able to enter and exit, a mounting member provided in the paper feeding cassette for mounting sheets, A movable regulating member that regulates an end of the sheet placed on the placement member in a direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction, and a biasing member that biases the placement member against the sheet feeding mechanism, When the paper cassette is inserted into the apparatus main body,
Lifting means which operates by the insertion force to lift the placing member and regulate the force for lifting the placing member by contacting the regulating member. Paper equipment. 2. An apparatus main body having a paper feeding mechanism, a paper feeding cassette which is provided in the apparatus main body so as to be able to move in and out, and has a projection at an end in an insertion direction; A placing member for placing the sheet, a movable regulating member for regulating an end of the sheet placed on the placing member in a direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction, and An urging member for urging the mechanism, and when the paper feed cassette is inserted into the apparatus main body,
A rotating member that rotates by abutting on a protrusion of the paper cassette and presses the placing member.