JP2007176684A - Paper post-processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inexpensively provide a paper post-processing device superior in efficiency in staple processing. <P>SOLUTION: A staple unit 5 of the paper post-processing device 1 has an intermediate tray 21 loading paper 3, an edge aligning mechanism 22 capable of moving the paper 3 in the width direction Y1 by registering the paper 3 loaded in the intermediate tray 21 in the width direction Y1, and a single stapler 20 movable along the tip side 23 of the paper 3 loaded in the intermediate tray 21. The stapler 20 moves along the tip side 23 after performing stapling of a first place in the paper 3, and the edge aligning mechanism 22 moves the paper 3 in the inverse direction of the moving direction of the stapler 20 synchronously with the movement of the stapler 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a paper post-processing apparatus that is mounted on an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and can perform post-processing such as stapling on paper on which an image has been printed.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sheet post-processing apparatus capable of aligning a plurality of image-printed sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and performing a stapling process on the aligned sheet bundle is known. This type of paper post-processing apparatus has two pairs of staplers, as described in, for example, Patent Document 1, and a front end binding that binds two positions of the front end of the aligned paper bundle with each pair of staplers, and a paper The center binding is performed by binding the center of the bundle in the longitudinal direction along the short direction.

Further, the paper post-processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2 has a single stapler, and the single stapler moves along the paper in a state where the paper is stationary. Stapling processing is performed on the location.
JP 2005-263441 A JP 2004-244154 A

However, since the paper post-processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1 includes a plurality of staplers, the apparatus becomes expensive.
Further, in the paper post-processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2, since the stapler is moved to perform the stapling process, the processing takes time and the processing efficiency is poor.
The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet post-processing apparatus that is inexpensive and efficient in stapling.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a stacking method for receiving and stacking the leading edges (23) of a plurality of printed sheets (3) sequentially output from the image forming apparatus (2). A width adjusting mechanism (abutting on the tray (21) and the side (31) perpendicular to the leading edge of the paper loaded on the stacking tray) and aligning the paper bundle in the direction (Y1) perpendicular to the transport direction (X1) ( 22), a stapler (20) that moves along the leading edge of the stack of sheets stacked on the stacking tray and staples a plurality of positions along the leading edge of the sheet, and the stapler staples one position along the leading edge of the sheet. Thereafter, in synchronization with the movement to the next stapling position, the sheet post-processing device (1) includes control means (15) for driving the width adjusting mechanism so that the sheet bundle moves in the direction opposite to the moving direction of the stapler. ).

In addition, the alphanumeric characters in parentheses represent corresponding components in the embodiments described later. The same applies hereinafter.
According to this configuration, the width adjusting mechanism aligns a plurality of sheets stacked on the stacking tray, and the stapler moves along the leading edge of the sheet to staple at a plurality of positions along the leading edge of the sheet. The control unit synchronizes the movement of the stapler toward the next stapling position and the movement of the sheet in the direction opposite to the movement direction of the stapler by the width adjusting mechanism. Thereby, since the moving distance of the stapler along the leading edge of the sheet can be shortened, the moving time of the stapler can be shortened, and the processing efficiency of the sheet post-processing apparatus can be improved.

In addition, since the stapling process is performed using a single stapler, the cost of the sheet post-processing apparatus can be suppressed.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a discharge mechanism (24, 27, 28, 34) for discharging stapled paper from the stacking tray, and the control means feeds the paper in the width direction (Y1) by the width adjusting mechanism. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is discharged by a discharge mechanism after being moved to ().

According to this configuration, the plurality of sheets stacked and aligned at the center in the width direction of the stacking tray are discharged from the stacking tray while being brought close to one side in the width direction of the stacking tray. As a result, it is possible to shorten the time until the sheet is returned to the central portion in the width direction of the stacking tray. As a result, the processing efficiency of the sheet post-processing apparatus can be further improved.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the control means causes the width-adjusting mechanism to cause the sheets to be moved in different width directions for each bundle of sheets to be stapled. It is a post-processing device.

According to this configuration, the bundle of sheets stacked on the stacking tray is brought to a different direction in the width direction of the stacking tray and stapled for each copy. Then, the sheet is discharged from the stacking tray while being moved to one side in the width direction of the stacking tray. As a result, the discharged sheet bundle is discharged with being shifted alternately for each copy, and the sheet bundle can be easily sorted.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the control means causes the width-adjusting mechanism to cause the sheet to be moved in the same direction in the width direction for each bundle of sheets to be stapled. It is a post-processing device.

According to this configuration, the bundle of sheets stacked on the stacking tray is brought to the same direction in the width direction of the stacking tray and stapled for each copy. Then, the sheet is discharged from the stacking tray while being moved to one side in the width direction of the stacking tray. As a result, the sheet bundle discharge time can be shortened, so that the processing efficiency of the sheet post-processing apparatus can be improved.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the control means causes the stapler to wait in advance at a first stapling position on the side in which the width adjusting mechanism moves the paper for each bundle of sheets to be stapled. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet post-processing apparatus is a sheet post-processing apparatus.

According to this configuration, efficient stapling can be performed by previously waiting the stapler at the first stapling position of the sheet.
When a bundle of sheets is moved in a different direction in the width direction of the stacking tray for each bundle of sheets to be stapled, the stapler is made to wait at a position corresponding to the bundle. That is, the standby position of the stapler is alternately switched in the width direction.

On the other hand, when the sheet bundle is moved in the same direction in the width direction of the stacking tray for each sheet bundle to be stapled, the standby position of the stapler is the same position in the width direction.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the control unit is configured such that the width-adjusting mechanism moves the sheets while the plural sheets are stacked on the stacking tray and are aligned in the width direction by the width-adjusting mechanism. 6. The paper post-processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the stapler is moved in advance to a certain first stapling position and is kept waiting.

  According to this configuration, while the sheet bundle is stacked on the stacking tray and aligned in the width direction by the width adjusting mechanism, the stapler is moved to the first stapling position of the sheet and kept on standby. The processing efficiency of the paper post-processing apparatus can be improved.

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a sheet post-processing apparatus 1 performs predetermined post-processing on an image-printed sheet 3 discharged from a copying machine 2 serving as an image forming apparatus, and performs punching on the sheet 3. A punch unit 4 and a staple unit 5 for performing a stapling process on the paper 3 are provided. The punch unit 4 and the staple unit 5 are accommodated in a housing 6, and are arranged along a sheet conveyance path 7 formed in the housing 6.

The punch unit 4 performs a punching process for making a hole at a predetermined position of the paper 3, and is disposed in the vicinity of the paper carry-in port 8 formed on the side surface of the housing 6.
The staple unit 5 aligns a predetermined number of sheets 3 conveyed to the staple unit 5 and performs a stapling process along the leading edge 23 of the aligned sheet bundle 3. It is arranged on the downstream side in the transport direction X1.

  Further, a branch guide 9 and a standby drum 10 are provided between the punch unit 4 and the staple unit 5 in the paper transport path 7. The branch guide 9 is rotatably held in the housing 6, and the sheet 3 can be guided in a predetermined direction by rotating the branch guide 9. That is, when the stapling process is performed on the sheet 3, the sheet 3 is guided toward the stapling unit 5. When the stapling process is not performed on the sheet 3, the sheet 3 is formed on the side surface of the housing 6 opposite to the sheet carry-in port 8. The paper 3 is guided toward the paper discharge port 11 that has been made.

  The standby drum 10 is for temporarily waiting for a specific sheet 3 conveyed to the staple unit 5, and can be wound around the surface of the standby drum 10. That is, when the stapling unit 5 performs a stapling process on the plurality of sheets of paper bundles 3, the standby drum 10 transfers the first sheet 3 of the next section conveyed during the stapling process of the previous section. It is possible to wait until the operation of the staple unit 5 is completed. As a result, the stapling process can be performed without temporarily stopping the discharge of the sheet 3 of the copying machine 2.

  Further, the sheet 3 on which the predetermined post-processing has been performed is discharged to the discharge tray 12 through between the discharge roller pair 33 disposed in the vicinity of the sheet discharge port 11. The discharge tray 12 extends upward from the sheet post-processing apparatus 1, and a part thereof protrudes from the housing 6. The discharge tray 12 is held by an elevating belt 14 stretched between a pair of support rollers 13, and the discharge tray 12 is moved up and down as the support roller 13 and the elevating belt 14 are rotationally driven by a drive source (not shown). Move. Thereby, the discharge tray 12 can move up and down according to the amount of the paper 3 discharged from the paper discharge port 11.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the electrical configuration of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1. 1 and 2, the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 includes a control device 15 that controls the operation of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1. The control device 15 includes a punch unit 4, a staple unit 5, and a branch. A branch guide driving mechanism 16 for driving the guide 9 and an input unit 17 provided in the copying machine 2 are electrically connected.

The input unit 17 is for selecting post-processing to be performed on the paper 3. In this input unit 17, it is selected to perform either punch processing or stapling processing or both punch processing and stapling processing. can do.
The control device 15 controls the punch unit 4, the staple unit 5, and the branch guide driving mechanism 16 based on the post-processing selected by the input unit 17. That is, when punch processing is selected, the control device 15 causes the punch unit 4 to perform punch processing. When punch processing is not selected, the sheet 3 is not punched and the punch unit 4 is punched. Pass through.

  When the staple processing is selected, the control device 15 rotates the branch guide 9 by the branch guide driving mechanism 16 to guide the paper 3 to the staple unit 5 and cause the staple unit 5 to perform the staple processing. . When the stapling process is not selected, the control device 15 rotates the branch guide 9 by the branch guide driving mechanism 16 to guide the sheet 3 to the sheet discharge port 11.

Next, the staple unit 5 will be described in detail.
FIG. 3 is a front view schematically showing the lower unit 18 and the stapler 20 of the staple unit 5. First, referring to FIG. 1, the staple unit 5 includes a lower unit 18, an upper unit 19 that faces the lower unit 18 at a predetermined interval, and a stapler 20 that performs a stapling process on the paper 3. The sheet 3 conveyed to the staple unit 5 through the sheet conveyance path 7 is conveyed between the upper unit 19 and the lower unit 18.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, the lower unit 18 is for stacking a predetermined number of sheets 3 and aligning the stacked sheets 3. An intermediate tray 21 for stacking sheets 3, and an intermediate tray A width adjusting mechanism 22 that aligns the sheets 3 stacked on the sheet 21 in a width direction Y1 orthogonal to the conveyance direction X1 of the sheets 3;
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the intermediate tray 21 has a rectangular shape and is larger than the sheet 3 conveyed to the staple unit 5. Further, at the center in the width direction of the intermediate tray 21, a support member 24 that receives the leading edge 23 of the sheet 3 conveyed to the intermediate tray 21, and a substantially T-shaped protruding member 25 that holds the trailing edge of the sheet 3. Is attached.

As shown in FIG. 1, the support member 24 and the protrusion member 25 protrude from the upper surface 26 of the intermediate tray 21, and the protrusion member 25 is disposed above the intermediate tray 21 relative to the support member 24.
The support member 24 is held by a pair of first belts 28 stretched around a plurality of rotating shafts 27, and moves from the center of the intermediate tray 21 to the lower range along the transport direction X1 of the paper 3. Can do. That is, the control device 15 rotationally drives the rotary shaft 27 and the pair of first belts 28 by the drive source 34 connected to the rotary shaft 27. As a result, the support member 24 moves as the pair of first belts 28 rotates.

  The protruding member 25 is held by a second belt 32 stretched around a plurality of rotating shafts 27 and can move from the upper part of the intermediate tray 21 to the central range along the conveyance direction X1 of the paper 3. . That is, the control device 15 drives the rotary shaft 27 and the second belt 32 to rotate by a drive source (not shown) connected to the rotary shaft 27. Thereby, the protruding member 25 moves with the rotation of the second belt 32.

The width adjusting mechanism 22 includes a pair of width adjusting guides 29 provided on the upper surface 26 of the intermediate tray 21 and two drive sources 30 respectively connected to the pair of width adjusting guides 29. The drive source 30 is connected to the control device 15 and is controlled by the control device 15.
The pair of width adjusting guides 29 extend along the conveyance direction X <b> 1 of the paper 3 and are held by the intermediate tray 21. Further, the pair of width adjusting guides 29 can be moved independently in the width direction Y1 by the two driving sources 30, respectively. As a result, the pair of width adjusting guides 29 abuts on the side 31 perpendicular to the leading edge 23 of the paper 3 conveyed between the width adjusting guides 29, and the paper 3 can be aligned in the width direction Y1. Further, the sheet 3 conveyed between the width adjusting guides 29 can be moved in the width direction Y1.

The stapler 20 is provided independently of the intermediate tray 21 and is disposed below the intermediate tray 21. Further, a driving source 35 is connected to the stapler 20, and the control device 15 controls the driving source 35 so that the stapler 20 can move along the width direction Y <b> 1 of the intermediate tray 21.
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the stapling process. With reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4, the sheet 3 conveyed to the intermediate tray 21 is conveyed between a pair of width adjusting guides 29 as shown in FIG. The front end side 23 is received by the support member 24 waiting in position. At this time, the pair of width aligning guides 29 are arranged symmetrically with respect to the center line C1 of the intermediate tray 21, and the width between the width aligning guides 29 is slightly larger than the length of the leading edge 23 of the paper 3. ing. Further, the protruding member 25 is retracted to a position that does not interfere with the sheet 3 conveyed to the intermediate tray 21.

Then, the pair of width adjusting guides 29 are moved in the width direction Y1 by the two driving sources 30 and come into contact with the side 31 of the paper 3. Further, the protruding member 25 is moved along the conveyance direction X <b> 1 of the paper 3 and presses the rear end side of the paper 3. As a result, the sheet bundle 3 is aligned in the width direction Y1 and the transport direction X1.
After the sheet bundle 3 is aligned, the support member 24 is moved below the intermediate tray 21, and the sheet bundle 3 is moved to a predetermined staple height as shown in FIG. 4B. The sheet bundle 3 is stapled at the leading edge 23 by the stapler 20 waiting in advance at the first staple position on the left side of the sheet bundle 3.

  Thereafter, the stapler 20 is moved rightward along the leading edge 23 of the sheet 3 as shown in FIG. At this time, the control device 15 moves the pair of width adjusting guides 29 to the drive source 30 in synchronization with the movement of the stapler 20, and the sheet bundle 3 between the width adjusting guides 29 is opposite to the moving direction of the stapler 20. Move to the left, which is the direction. As a result, the stapler 20 and the sheet bundle 3 move in opposite directions, and the stapler 20 and the sheet bundle 3 reach the second stapling position. That is, by moving the sheet bundle 3 in the direction opposite to the moving direction of the stapler 20, the moving distance D2 of the stapler 20 can be shortened compared to the moving distance D1 of the stapler 20 when the sheet bundle 3 does not move.

  After stapling is performed at the second position on the leading edge 23 of the sheet bundle 3, the control device 15 controls the drive source 34, whereby the rotary shaft 27 and the pair of first belts 28 are driven to rotate. As the first belt 28 rotates, the support member 24 as a discharge mechanism moves upward. As a result, the sheet bundle 3 is discharged from the intermediate tray 21 while the sheet bundle 3 is width-adjusted to the left of the intermediate tray 21 by the support member 24. Then, the sheet bundle 3 is discharged to the discharge tray 12 through the sheet discharge port 11 by the discharge roller pair 33. Thereby, the time for moving the sheet bundle 3 to the center of the intermediate tray 21 in the width direction Y1 can be shortened.

  Further, when the stapling process is performed on a plurality of sheets of paper bundles 3, the paper bundles 3 are discharged alternately shifted in the width direction Y1 in order to classify each section. That is, as described above, after the sheet bundle 3 is discharged from the intermediate tray 21 while being left-justified to the left of the intermediate tray 21, the next sheet bundle 3 is shown in FIG. As described above, the sheet bundle 3 is conveyed to the center of the intermediate tray 21 in the width direction. The sheet bundle 3 is moved to the first stapling position on the right side of the sheet bundle 3 while being aligned in the transport direction X1 and the width direction Y1 by the width adjusting mechanism 22, the support member 24, and the protruding member 25. Then, the first stapling is performed by the stapler 20 that is waiting at that position.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5B, the sheet bundle 3 is shifted to the right side of the intermediate tray 21 by the width shifting mechanism 22, and the control device 15 moves the stapler 20 to the left in synchronization therewith. .
Then, the sheet bundle 3 is stapled at the second position by the stapler 20 and, as shown in FIG. 5C, the sheet bundle 3 is left to the right of the intermediate tray 21 and is removed from the intermediate tray 21 by the support member 24. Discharged.

Further, after the stapling is performed, the next sheet bundle 3 is discharged from the intermediate tray 21 while being left-justified to the left of the intermediate tray 21, and such operations are sequentially performed on the subsequent sections. Repeated.
As a result, the sheet bundle 3 is discharged from the intermediate tray 21 while being alternately shifted left and right, and is conveyed to the discharge tray 12 while being alternately shifted left and right. Therefore, the sorting of the sheet bundle 3 can be facilitated.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the movement distance of the stapler 20 in the width direction Y1 can be shortened by moving the sheet bundle 3 in the direction opposite to the movement direction of the stapler 20 by the width adjusting mechanism 22. . Thereby, since the movement time of the stapler 20 can be shortened, the processing efficiency of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 can be improved.
In addition, since the sheet bundle 3 subjected to the stapling process is discharged with the intermediate tray 21 being alternately shifted to the left and right, the time for moving the sheet bundle 3 to the center in the width direction Y1 of the intermediate tray 21 is shortened, and after the sheet The processing efficiency of the processing apparatus 1 can be further shortened.

Furthermore, since a single stapler 20 staples a plurality of locations of the sheet bundle 3 without using a plurality of staplers 20, an increase in cost of the sheet post-processing apparatus 1 can be suppressed.
The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the claims. For example, in the above embodiment, the example in which the intermediate tray 21 and the stapler 20 are provided independently has been described. However, the intermediate tray 21 and the stapler 20 may be connected to each other so as to be relatively movable.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which only the front end binding stapler 20 for stapling the front end side 23 of the sheet bundle 3 has been described. However, in addition to the front end binding stapler 20, a center binding stapler is provided. You may do it.

1 is an illustrative sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically illustrating an electrical configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus. It is a front view which shows roughly the lower unit and stapler of a stapler unit. It is a figure for demonstrating the operation | movement of a staple process. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an operation of a stapling process for the next sheet bundle.

Explanation of symbols

1 Paper post-processing device 2 Copier (image forming device)
3 paper 15 control device (control means)
20 Stapler 21 Intermediate tray (stacking tray)
22 Width adjusting mechanism 23 Tip side 24 Support member (part of discharge mechanism)
27 Rotating shaft (part of discharge mechanism)
28 1st belt (part of discharge mechanism)
34 Drive source (part of discharge mechanism)
31 Side X1 Transport direction Y1 Width direction

Claims (6)

A stacking tray for receiving and stacking the leading edges of a plurality of sheets of printed images sequentially output from the image forming apparatus;
A width-adjusting mechanism that abuts on a side perpendicular to the leading edge of the paper loaded on the stacking tray and aligns the paper bundle in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction;
A stapler that moves along the leading edge of the stack of sheets stacked on the stacking tray and staples a plurality of locations along the leading edge of the sheet;
Control that drives the width adjusting mechanism so that the bundle of sheets moves in the direction opposite to the moving direction of the stapler in synchronization with the movement of the stapler after stapling at one position along the leading edge of the sheet and then moving to the next stapling position. And a sheet post-processing apparatus.   A discharge mechanism that discharges stapled paper from the stacking tray is provided, and the control unit discharges the paper by the discharge mechanism after the paper is moved in the width direction by the width adjusting mechanism. Item 2. A sheet post-processing apparatus according to item 1.   3. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the sheet shifting mechanism to shift sheets in different width directions for each bundle of sheets to be stapled.   3. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the sheet shifting mechanism to shift sheets in the same direction in the width direction for each bundle of sheets to be stapled.   5. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein, for each bundle of sheets to be stapled, the stapler is made to wait in advance at a first stapling position that is a side in which the width adjusting mechanism moves the sheets. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to any one of the above.   The control means is configured such that a plurality of sheets are stacked on the stacking tray and are aligned in the width direction by the width aligning mechanism, while the width aligning mechanism is at a first stapling position on the side in which the sheets are aligned. 6. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the stapler is moved in advance and kept waiting.

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