JPH05132240A - Image former - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the skew of a sheet and a feeding failure or the like from occurring by enabling a distance between side fences to be finely adjusted in accord with a range of the sheet to be conveyed. CONSTITUTION:In an image former for refeeding plural pieces of sheets, housed in an intermediate tray to reform the sheet once imaged. piece by piece by a separating member and a refeeding member, it is provided with a pair of movable fences 41 to do the side regulation of the sheet to be housed or discharged and stacked at a position at both sides of the specified sheet, having them moved up to a sheet reference position, and thereby the sheets are trued up to the reference position. In succession, a distance between the movable fences 41 and 41 is finely adjusted by an input signal out of an operating part 79 or the like of the image former via driving systems 80-86, through which optimum side regulation takes place in accord with the sheet applied by a user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, and more particularly to a device for discharging and stacking sheets from the image forming apparatus, or a sheet for re-forming an image on which the image has been formed once. The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device that re-feeds sheets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine provided with a double-sided mode for forming an image on both sides of one sheet, or a multiplex mode for forming a plurality of images on the same side. FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the outline of the image forming apparatus.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 14, the image forming apparatus M includes an image forming section 11, a sheet feeding section 12 for feeding a sheet S to the image forming section 11, and an image forming section 11. The fixing unit 13 that fixes the image on the formed sheet S, the sheet discharge unit 16 that discharges the sheet S on which the image formation is completed, 1
The intermediate tray 17 that temporarily stores the sheet S that has been image-formed and is fed again to the image forming unit 11, the re-feed sheet guiding unit 7 that guides the sheet S to be re-fed to the intermediate tray 17, and the intermediate tray. Sheet re-feeding units 22 that feed the sheets S stored in 17 again to the image forming unit 11 are arranged.

When the double-sided mode or the multiplex mode is selected in the apparatus, the sheet S, on which the image is formed once by the image forming section 11, is immediately fixed by the fixing section 13 when the image is fixed by the fixing section 13. The sheet is re-fed to the image forming section 11 by the sheet re-feeding section 22 after being stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17 by the re-feeding guide section 19 without being discharged to the sheet. ing.

However, the sheets S which are loaded and stored in the intermediate tray 17 starting from the sheet feeding section 12 often pass obliquely because they have passed through a long conveyance path, and are also loaded on the intermediate tray 17. Since the sheet also skews when it is stored, there is a variation in the position when facing the intermediate tray 17 (variation in the lateral direction with the traveling direction of the sheet S as the vertical direction). Therefore, the sheets S stacked / stored on the intermediate tray 17 are in a state of being stacked in pieces, and if they are re-fed as they are, they may cause skewing or improper feeding, or jams. Further, particularly in the multiplex mode, if the position of the re-feed sheet S in the lateral direction shifts, a shift occurs in the superimposed images (horizontal registration shift).

Therefore, in order to prevent this, the regulation side plate 2 which is moved by the driving force of the intermediate tray 17, the motor and the like.
3, 23 are arranged, and the regulation side plates 23, 23 regulate both side ends of the sheet S entering the intermediate tray 17 to correct the orientation and lateral position of the sheet S (width adjustment).

Further, the intermediate tray 17 is provided with a half-moon-shaped sheet feeding roller 25, and the sheet refeeding section 22 is provided with a sheet refeeding roller 26 and a separation roller 27. Some of the lower sheets of the sheets S stacked / stored on the intermediate tray 17 are one of the half-moon shaped feeding rollers 25.
The joint (nip) between the sheet re-feed roller 26 and the separation roller 27 along the sheet S guide 15 by rotating twice.
It is sent to A '. Then, these re-feed rollers 26
The sheets S fed into the nip portion A'between the separation roller 27 and the separation roller 27 are rotated one by one from the lowest sheet S by the rotation of the re-feeding roller 26 and the separation roller 27, respectively, as shown in FIG. It is re-fed to the separated image forming unit 11.

Next, another conventional image forming apparatus is shown in FIG.
It shows in FIG.

FIG. 20 is a sectional view showing the outline of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 21 is a schematic perspective view of the double-sided sheet re-feeding apparatus.
In the image forming apparatus, as shown in FIG. 20, an image forming unit 1, a sheet feeding unit 12 that feeds a sheet to the image forming unit 11, and an image on the sheet formed by the image forming unit 11 are fixed. A fixing unit 13, a sheet discharging unit 16 that discharges a sheet on which an image has been formed, an intermediate tray 1 that temporarily stores a sheet that has been image-formed and then fed to the image forming unit 11 again.
7, a sheet re-feeding sheet guiding section 7 for guiding the sheet to be re-fed to the intermediate tray 17, and a sheet re-feeding section 22 for re-feeding the sheet stored in the intermediate tray 17 to the image forming section 11. It is arranged.

When the double-sided mode or the multiplex mode is selected, once the sheet on which the image is formed by the image forming section 11 is fixed by the fixing section 13, the sheet is not immediately discharged to the sheet discharging section 16. Re-feed sheet guide unit 19
The sheets are stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17, and when a predetermined number of sheets are stored, the sheet re-feeding unit 22 separates and feeds the sheets one by one, and the sheets are fed again to the image forming unit 11. When the second image is formed, the fixing unit 13
Then, the image is fixed and then discharged to the sheet discharge section 16. However, the sheets that are stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17 starting from the sheet feeding unit 12 are often skewed because they have passed through a long transport path, and are also stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17. Since it also skews at this time, variations in the orientation and position on the intermediate tray 17 (variations in the horizontal direction with the sheet advancing direction as the vertical direction) occur. Therefore, the sheets stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17 are in a state of being stacked separately, and if the sheets are re-fed as they are, the sheet will be skewed.
Otherwise, it may cause feeding failure, or even jam (paper jam). Further, particularly in the multiplex mode, if the position of the re-fed sheet shifts in the horizontal direction, a shift occurs in the superimposed images (horizontal registration shift). Therefore, in order to prevent this, a side regulating side plate 8 that moves vertically to the traveling direction by a driving force of a motor or the like is arranged on the intermediate tray 17, and the side regulating side plate 8 enters the sheet entering the intermediate tray 17. Moves to a position that matches the size, and when storing, waits in a position that is slightly wider than the sheet size, and the sheet is in the intermediate tray
7, the side regulation side plate 8 moves to the sheet regulation position in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the sheet, and the jogging operation is repeated for each sheet to store the sheet on the intermediate tray 17. It is configured to regulate both side edges of the sheet to correct the orientation and lateral position of the sheet (width adjustment).

Further, as a method of separating and feeding the stacked sheets one by one, a claw separation method in which a claw portion is hooked on the leading end of the sheet to separate the sheets by elasticity of the sheet, or a sheet is generated by a frictional force between the friction pad and the sheet. And a retard receiving a rotational driving force opposite to the conveying direction via a sheet feeding roller that rotates in the normal direction and a predetermined torque limiter as shown in the sheet refeeding unit 22 described in the present embodiment. When multiple sheets are fed to the separation section by the roller, the sheet on the retard roller side is returned in the reverse direction,
There is a retard separation method in which only the sheet on the paper feed roller side is fed.

Further, the double-sided sheet re-feeding method is roughly classified, and after all sheets are stacked on the intermediate tray 17,
There are an upper separation method in which sheets are separated from upper sheets one by one and re-fed, and a lower separation method in which sheets are separated and fed one by one from lower sheets of the stacked sheets shown in FIGS.

Next, regarding the sequence of double-sided image formation, in the upper separation system, after stacking a predetermined number of sheets with the first side image-formed on the intermediate tray, the sheets are separated one by one from the top to the image forming section. Since the sheet is configured to be fed, the image forming operation for the second side cannot be started until the sheet is separated and fed from the intermediate tray.
Therefore, it takes a long time to form the image on the second side and discharge the sheet out of the machine, and in particular, in a high-speed image forming apparatus, productivity (productivity) in double-sided image formation becomes low. there were.
Therefore, the following method has been attempted in the lower separation method to solve this problem. First, the sheets with the image formed on the first side are successively stacked on the intermediate tray on the upper side,
Before the image formation for the first surface of the predetermined number of sheets is completed and all the sheets are stacked on the intermediate tray, the sheets previously stacked on the intermediate tray are separated from the lower side and fed to the image forming unit. That is, the sheet is re-fed while being stored. As a result, the image formation on the second side can be started before all the sheets on the first side are stacked on the intermediate tray, and therefore the image forming operation for the first side and the image for the second side can be continuously performed, so that the double-sided image can be formed. It was constructed so as not to reduce productivity in formation.

[0014]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the intermediate tray is carried in and stacked on the upstream side of the feeding of the auxiliary feed roller which is swingably arranged above the intermediate tray. In particular, the curl paper on the leading end in the transport direction directly hits the transport upstream side of the auxiliary feed roller during transport and stacking, and becomes a catch, or curls and the paper on the downstream side hits the caught paper in order, In addition to making the degree of sheet S clogging severe and making the device inoperable,
Even the papers already aligned on the intermediate tray are unusable jammed papers and cannot be used.

Further, in the conventional apparatus shown in FIGS. 20 and 21, in the double-sided storage and refeed operations, the side regulation side plate moves to a position corresponding to the sheet size entering the intermediate tray, and the sheet size during storage. The sheet is easier to store in the intermediate tray by waiting at a position slightly wider than that, and the side regulation side plate regulates both side edges of the sheet by performing a jogging operation in which the side regulation side plate moves to the sheet regulation position in the direction perpendicular to the sheet traveling direction. It is necessary to perform two operations of correcting the sheet orientation and the lateral position (lateral registration correction).
When the sheets are stacked on the intermediate tray,
If the timing of re-feeding the sheets is the same, for example, if the operation of the side regulation side plate is adjusted to the timing of storing the sheets, the position that regulates the sheets during re-feeding shifts to the outside of the normal position. Therefore, the orientation and lateral position of the sheet cannot be corrected, and the sheet skews. Also, if the side regulation side plate moves when the sheet is re-fed, the position of the side regulation side plate will come to the inside of the regular sheet storage position when the sheet is stored. The sheet to be ejected may be skewed, and when the sheet is accommodated, the sheet collides with the side regulation side plate and causes storage failure.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the operation of the side regulating side plate at the time of storage and the operation of the side regulating side plate at the time of sheet re-feeding may be performed independently with a time shift. However, this means that the operation of storing one sheet and then re-feeding one sheet is not performed, and the operation of storing and re-feeding the sheet is not performed, so that time is required for that and double-sided image There was a drawback that the productivity (productivity) in formation was low.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding device provided with a side fence which allows sheets stacked on an intermediate tray to be stacked in an appropriate state without causing storage failure. is there.

[0018]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a plurality of sheets stored in an intermediate tray in order to re-image a sheet on which an image has been once formed are provided one by one. In an image forming apparatus that performs re-feeding with a separating member and a re-feeding member, in the intermediate tray storage unit that stacks the plurality of sheets, the sheets that are stored or discharged are stacked at predetermined positions on both sides of the sheet. A sheet aligning device of an image forming apparatus that has a pair of movable fences for side regulation, and moves the movable fences to a sheet reference side position to align the sheet at the reference position. The feature is that the distance between the movable fences can be finely adjusted through a drive system by an input signal.

A sheet discharging device for the tray or an intermediate tray for accommodating the image-formed sheet for re-imaging, a separating member and a re-feeding member, and a plurality of the accommodating trays accommodated in the intermediate tray. In an image forming apparatus including a re-feeding unit that separates and re-feeds a plurality of sheets one by one, a predetermined number of sheets are stored or discharged in the intermediate tray storage in which the plurality of sheets are stacked. The sheet aligning device of the image forming apparatus that aligns the movable fences opened outward from both side positions of the sheet to the reference position by moving the pair of movable fences to a predetermined sheet reference side edge position. A horizontal part that slides, a vertical part that is high enough to align a specified number of sheets to be stacked, and a part or all of the upper part of the vertical part that is continuous from both sides of the sheet Inclined surface that opens outwardly from the sheet on both sides according to higher than the loading surface in accordance with open toward the sheet conveying side upstream open to higher becomes inclined or stacked sheet tip conveyance upstream side from the position toward the sheet conveyance upstream side,
Alternatively, it is characterized in that it has an inclined surface which satisfies all of the above.

Further, each of the plurality of sheets stored in the intermediate tray has an intermediate tray for storing the image once formed on the sheet so as to re-image the sheet, and a separating member re-feeding member. In an image forming apparatus including a sheet re-feeding unit that separates and re-feeds the sheet, a side regulating side plate that corrects the orientation and the lateral position of the sheet is provided in the intermediate tray unit. Is partially divided into upper and lower parts and is divided into a storage side regulating side plate and a re-feeding side regulating side plate, and a re-feeding device is provided.

[0021]

According to the above configuration, the distance between the side fences is adjusted according to the width of the sheet to be conveyed, by driving and finely adjusting by inputting through the operation unit of the image forming apparatus, the sheet is adjusted to the sheet used by the user. By optimally regulating the side of the sheet, the sheet can be re-fed without any skew or feeding failure.

Further, the side regulating side plate provided in the intermediate tray portion is partially divided into upper and lower parts to be divided into a storing side regulating side plate and a re-feeding side regulating side plate, and each side regulating side plate is independent or driven. Driven by the drive, the storage side regulation side plate opens and closes the stored sheets to a position where it is easy to store, and the lateral registration of the sheets is roughly corrected to guide and store them in the intermediate tray. The regulation side plate performs a jogging operation and regulates both side edges of the sheet to correct the orientation and lateral position of the sheet. Therefore, the sheets are stored while regulating the lateral registration of the sheets and separated and re-fed one by one. can do. Therefore, double-sided image formation can be performed without lowering productivity.

[0023]

EXAMPLES Details of the present invention will be described in detail based on examples.

The outline of the configuration of the electrophotographic copying machine as the image forming apparatus M to which the present invention can be applied is the same as that shown in FIG. 6, and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the peripheral portion of the intermediate tray 17, in which the image-formed sheet S is fed to the intermediate discharge portion 19a.
It is configured to be conveyed onto the intermediate tray 17 via the pair of conveying rollers 39 and 40. Alignment of the sheets S in the width direction on the intermediate tray 17 is performed by the side guides 41 and 42. A sheet stopper 43 is arranged in the re-feeding direction of the intermediate tray 17. The sheet stopper 43 is rotatable about a rotation shaft 45, is biased by a spring 46, and is in pressure contact with an upper surface 47 of the intermediate tray of the leading end 43a thereof. A part 43 b of the sheet stopper 43 is connected to the solenoid 49.

When a predetermined signal is input to the solenoid 49, the solenoid 49 is turned on and the seat stopper 43 is pulled up against the biasing force of the spring 46. In this state,
The sheet stopper tip portion 43a is separated from the upper surface 47 of the intermediate tray by t, and the sheet S can pass therethrough. A sheet feeding auxiliary roller 25 is disposed below the sheet stopper tip portion 43a, and the roller 25 comes into contact with the sheet S through an opening provided in the upper surface 47 of the intermediate tray.

Further, a detection lever 50 for detecting a sheet is provided on the front side of the pair of feed rollers 12, 26, 27, and the detection lever 50 causes the sheet S to reach a normal position by a photo interrupter 51. It is designed to detect whether or not. The operation of this embodiment is as follows.

After setting the number of sheets for double-sided copying or multiple copying from an operation section (not shown), the original is set in the automatic document feeder, and a copy start switch (not shown) is turned on. The image is formed on the image forming unit 11 by the image forming unit 11, the image on the surface is fixed by the fixing device, and the image is discharged from the intermediate discharge unit 19a to the intermediate tray 17 through the re-feeding guide unit 19. .. At this time, the solenoid 49 is also turned on at the same time when the copy start switch is turned on, and the sheet stopper 43 is released.

Therefore, the first sheet S flies in the air after being discharged from the intermediate discharge section, and the sheet S is positioned in the width direction between the upper surface of the intermediate tray 47 and the side fences 41 and 42. After that, the sheet passes through the gap t between the sheet stopper 43 and the upper surface 47 of the intermediate tray, and the roller pair 12, 26, 2
7 and stops at the nip A. The sheets S stacked here are detected by the sheet detecting means 52 and 53. Simultaneously with this detection, the solenoid 49 is turned off, and the sheet stopper 43 is biased by the spring 46 to be closed.

The second and subsequent sheets S are auxiliary fed by a stacking auxiliary roller 55 whose surface rotatable around the shaft 35 is made of foamed urethane foam or the like until it sequentially abuts against the sheet stopper 43. Here, in the stacking auxiliary roller 55, the leading edge of the sheet discharged from the intermediate discharge section 19a and flying in the air is prevented by the roller 55 from the sheet stopper 4a.
Only when it comes close to the position 3, the auxiliary roller driving means 57 driven by a solenoid (not shown) rotates.

The stacking auxiliary roller 55 sequentially feeds the stacked sheets S to the sheet stopper 43 at the position 55 ', and the leading end of the stacked lower sheet S is the upper sheet S.
Stack it like a tile so that it comes out first. Here, the distance between the tip of the bottom sheet and the tip of the second sheet is 2 and 3
The distance is larger than the distance between the leading edges of the first sheet or the nth sheet and the n + 1th sheet (n> 2), and only the lowest sheet S is projected and stacked in advance.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part of the stacking auxiliary roller 55. A flexible sheet 55a is provided on the sheet passing side of the stacking assisting roller 55, and on the sheet passing side of the movable guide 55b that holds the stacking assisting roller 55 and rotates around the shaft 56, on the upstream side of the movable guide 55b. ing. This flexible sheet 55
In order to fill the gap between the guide 55b and the roller 55, a is a guide line 55b from above the guide 55b to a position near the contact point of the roller 55 in a substantially tangential state of the roller 55.
Is mounted on. The flexible sheet 55a smoothly guides the tip of the sheet S discharged from the intermediate tray discharge port 19a or the like to the surface of the auxiliary roller 55, and particularly guides the sheet tip when the discharged sheet tip is in the upper curl,
The sheet S hits the surface of the roller 55 directly, and when the roller 55 descends to the 55 'position, there is no stacking failure due to curling of the leading edge of the sheet or the like.

In FIG. 4, the surface of the flexible sheet 55a is stacked on the drive belt 56b and the front surface of the pulley 56a for driving the roller 55 through the pulley 55c by the cutout portion 55a 'and the tongue formed thereby. The curled sheet S is covered so as not to hit the curled sheet S, and the downstream side of the cutout portion '55a' has a substantially V-shaped recess so that the downstream side is not caught. As a result, the stacked sheets S and the flexible sheets 55a and 55b are
Also, it is possible to secure a sufficient space x near the guide shaft 56, and as shown in FIG.
The original function of auxiliary feeding of the sheets S stacked at the position 34 'when 5 is lowered is realized only at the leading end position of the flexible sheet 55a.

Next, in order to re-feed the stacked sheets S, the copy start switch of the operation unit (not shown) is pressed. By this switch operation, the solenoid 49 is turned on again and the sheet stopper 43 is released. Then, the sheet feeding auxiliary roller 25 and the sheet refeeding roller 26 rotate to convey the sheet S downstream. As a result of this rotation of the rollers, only the lowest sheet S, which is ahead of the protrusion, is paired with the roller pair 12,
It is sandwiched by 26 and 27 and conveyed to the downstream side. However, the sheet bundle stacked in a tile shape on the lowermost sheet S is also dragged by the lowermost sheet S, and the roller pair 5 located downstream.
It is dragged toward 9,60 and moves downstream.

The second sheet S immediately above, which is in contact with the bottom sheet S, is always dragged in the downstream direction as it moves due to friction with the surface of the bottom sheet S. Since the sheet S receives the force, the roller pair 12, 2 is immediately before the bottom sheet S passes through the roller pair 12, 26, 27.
6, 27 are turned off, the lowermost sheet S is pulled out by the downstream roller pair 59, 60, and the roller pair 12, 26,
27 will be driven by the one way it has.

At that time, the second sheet S comes into contact with the nip portion A of the roller pair 12, 26, 27 and is stopped. This is the link 2 in which the second sheet S is engaged with the spring 27c which is attached to the spring 27c by the separation roller 27.
This is because the separation roller 27 acts to return the second sheet S by the torque limiter (not shown) while being pressed by the paper feed roller 26 via 7a. As a result, it is not pinched and conveyed by the roller pair 12, 26, 27.

Next, when the second sheet S is re-fed, the third sheet S hits the nip portion A of the roller pair 12, 26, 27 by the same operation as the first sheet. Stop in contact. The sheet S conveyed by the pair of rollers 12, 26, 27 is pulled out by the pair of rollers 59, 60, and then nipped by the large pair of rollers 61, 62, and then the registration roller pair 66,
The toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 is re-fed to 67, and the toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 is transferred to be used again for image formation.

2 to 4, the intermediate tray 17 is shown.
The shape operation of the main parts of the upper side fences 41 and 42 will be described. 3 shows a view A (left view) in FIG. 2 (front view), and FIG. 4 shows a view B (upper view) in FIG. 2, respectively.

In the figure, the sheet S is a sheet discharge section 7.
a side fence 4 discharged from a and placed on the intermediate tray 17
It is stored between the front and back of 1, 42. Side fence 4
1, 42 are vertical portions 41 continuous from the horizontal portion and having a height h.
The height h is sufficient to accommodate and align the maximum number of stacked sheets S. The slanted portions 41a, 42 from the upper portions of the vertical portions 41b, 42b.
The side fence is continuous to a. The inclination of the side fences 41, 42 is such that, with respect to the horizontal span L ₁ for storing the stacked sheets, the upstream side is open by the span L _T in FIG. 4 (in the embodiment, 0.5 ° <tan.
^{_{-1 × (L t / L 1}} ) <30 °), and also the vertical portion 41b in FIG. 3, with respect to the span h ₁ in the height direction of the housing of the stacked sheet from the top of the 42b, the span of L _T in FIG. 3 Only in the storage direction, the upstream side is open (0.5 ° <
tan ^-1 × (L _T / h ₁ ) <45 °).

In the embodiment, furthermore, tapered portions 23e and 24 which are horizontally tapered from the upper portions of the inclined portions 41a and 42a in the storage direction.
The side fences 41 and 42 are stored and re-fed in a fixed state by the taper inclined portion in the storage direction of the width L _T that holds e and securely stores the sheet S in the downward direction.

In FIG. 4, with respect to the sheet width L _{S on} which the side fence regulation width L is stacked, the storage of the sheets S during book mode copying of the normal pressure plate is L = L when the width is narrow.
23, 2 with the stepping motor 50 so that _S becomes
4 side fences are driven.

When the jogging width is wide, the sheet S is stored in a state of being shifted by one side of the jogging amount L _J (3 mm in the embodiment), and then one or more times L = L _S and L = L _S.
Perform reciprocal jogging with + 2 × L _J ,
Aligning the stacked sheets S at the vertical portion 41b, 42b, by the side regulating, when re-feeding is L = L _S + L _n of side fences as (1.2 mm in this embodiment) vertical section 41b, 42
b has a side regulation effect to suppress the skew during re-feeding and reduce the side regulation resistance at the time of re-feeding due to the vertical portions 41b and 42b of the side fences so that the paper feed auxiliary roller 25 and the feed retard Re-feeding by lower separation by the roller pairs 12, 26, 27 can be stably performed.

On the other hand, in the RF mode, the originals are exchanged between sheets in the case of multi-sided copying or multi-copying. Therefore, the storage operation of the sheet discharged from the intermediate discharge section 19a on the intermediate tray 17 and the feed retard roller are performed. Pair 12,2
Since it is necessary to perform the skip operation for simultaneously performing the re-feeding operations according to Nos. 6 and 27, even if the jogging operation is quickly performed, the sheet S is folded and the storage is defective. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the side fence distance L is L = L. _S + L _m (L _m <L _n , L _m = 0.5 mm in the first embodiment, 0 <L _m <in other embodiments
By fixing it to 2), side fences 41, 42
Since the space on the storage side is wide, the storability is good, and due to the side regulation effect of the lower vertical portions 41b and 42b, it is possible to achieve both improvement of the storability and realization of re-feeding without skewing. ..

The side regulation width L of the side fences 41 and 42 shown in FIG.
When first moved by the home position sensor 4
5 is a flag 4 attached to the back side fence 42
The side regulation width L is reproduced by the number of driving steps of the stepping motor 50 from the position where 2f is cut. This side regulation width L is an LTR with the same paper width used as an example.
Side even as it width, in the case of a wide cut as the overall trend, if the side regulating width of _{L = L S + L m,} L m =
When the paper size L _S is wide or narrow such that 0.5 falls within the tolerance of the paper size of the regular standard value, the home position sensor position is finely adjusted with respect to the paper size L _S. The need arises.

In FIG. 4, this sensor fine adjustment mechanism 20
Indicates. The fine adjustment of the sensor is performed after the fixing screw 70 is loosened. The home position sensor mounting plate 71 is threaded so that the hexagon socket head bolt 73 engages, and a compression spring is provided between the bolt positioning portion mounted on the base plate of the stepping motor 76 and the sensor mounting plate 71. 72
Are arranged around the thread of the bolt 73. When the bolt 73 is rotated by θ rad, only (θ / 2π) × PICH (PICH is determined by the screw of 49), the sensor plate 47
Also, fine adjustment of the sensor position 45 is realized.

Even if the sensor position is not finely adjusted, the number of steps is switched from the home position sensor position to the regulation width L when the side fences 41 and 42 are operated by an input from a keyboard (not shown). The same fine adjustment of the side regulation position can be performed.

As described above, even when the paper used by the user is cut or the paper size is out of the standard, the intermediate tray can be stored in 6 and the stackability at the time of sheet re-feeding is good.
Multiple copies can be provided speedily.

Further, in FIGS. 2 and 4, the conductive polyethylene sheet 2 is provided on the horizontal surfaces 23 and 24 of the side fence.
3c and 24c are attached, and when the sheet S having a lower curl that is easily caught is stored on the sheet, the leading end of the sheet is guided so that the sheet S does not have a lower curl or a catch.

Further, this guide is extended to ensure delivery with the guide on the intermediate tray 17 which continues downstream over the length of the tip end L _O , and the side fences 41,
L _O to the gap L _G of 42 tips and the intermediate tray 17
Polyethylene sheets 41c and 42c so that> L _G
Is provided. Also, polyethylene sheets 41c, 4
A rib protruding upward from the side fence horizontal portions 41d, 42d escapes in the center of 2c, and a V-shaped tapered hollow hole is provided on the downstream side to prevent the sheet S from being caught on the downstream side. By lowering the resistance of the stacking surface without impairing the function of the ribs 41d and 42d, jams at the time of storing the lower curl paper are eliminated and the stacking property is improved.

In FIG. 41, side fences 41, 42
The fine adjustment of the distance will be described.

By inputting the correction amount of the paper width to the size degree according to the paper width used by the user from the operation unit 79,
The driving force of the stepping motor 75 via the motor driver 77 causes the belt 8 to pass through the gears and the pulley rows 80 and 81.
2, when the central pinion 83 is driven, the rack 85 engaged with the pinion is rotated by the rotation of the pinion.
86 move in the opposite direction by the same amount of displacement, whereby fine adjustment of the distance between the side guides 41, 42 engaged with the racks 85, 86 can be performed. As a result, it is possible to prevent a jam such as a paper feed failure that occurs when the side guides are relatively wide with respect to the paper and a skew when the side guides are relatively narrow with respect to the paper, and to perform a stable copy operation at all times. A high-quality copy is realized under optimal transport conditions according to the sheet actually performed by the user, particularly in the RF skip mode, with improved productivity.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Although the side fence shape for stacking and re-feeding sheets in the image forming apparatus main body has been described in the above-described embodiment, an example in which the inclined surface is applied to the side fence shape in the sheet discharging unit and the stacking device in FIG. Show.

In FIG. 7, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine having a double-sided and multi-feed mode having an automatic document feeder at the top, an image forming section 11 is provided in the image forming apparatus main body M.
Sheet feeding section 1 for feeding sheets to the image forming section 11
2. A fixing unit 13 for fixing the image on the sheet formed by the image forming unit 11; a flapper for the sheet discharge and stack units 16 and 15a that can discharge or temporarily stack and re-feed the image-formed sheet. The sheet after fixing is directly or by a pair of four rollers 15 and 27 by the operation of 1 and the sheet stacked on the stack portion 16 is fed through 11 auxiliary feeding rollers and separating and re-feeding means 42 and 42. Every sheet,
It is re-fed to the image forming unit 1 through the re-feeding path 7.

Here, the stack portion 16 is side-regulated by a pair of side fence portions as in the above embodiment. The pair of side fences is a plane parallel to the loading surface, and a loading surface and a vertical surface 16a continuous to the loading surface. Further, it has an inclined surface 16a which is continuous with the vertical surface 16a and spreads in the width direction upstream of the discharge stacking of the sheet conveyance. When a plurality of double-sided or multiple copies are performed by the automatic document feeder on the upper part of the image forming apparatus, the width L between the pair of side fences of the 5b portion of the stack portion 16 of the transfer sheet after the image formation and fixing of the first surface is As in the case of FIG. 41, the width L of the stacked sheet during stacking and re-feeding
s + Lm (Lm is 0.5 in the embodiment) 16
Since the side fence drive means of c is positioned and the sloped portion of the side fence entrance 16a is smooth, storage failure can be suppressed, and at the same time, the sheet can be securely cut to prevent vertical skew of the side fence 16b. Rolling and re-feeding the bottom sheet of the upper sheets that are stacked in a stationary state during both sheet stacking and re-feeding, to provide double-sided and multiple-productivity copies. .. In addition, the reversing mechanism 1 shown in FIG.
9 and the branching intermediate discharge / conveyance path 19a are not necessary, and thus the vertical space of the image forming apparatus is advantageous.

As in the case of FIG. 5, the side fences 16 described above drive and finely adjust the distance between the side fences 16 via the motor driver, the stepping motor, and the drive system (16c) in accordance with the input from the operating section. As a result, similar to the above-described embodiment, skewing that occurs when the side guides are wider than the paper width and stacking failure during stacking that occurs when the side guides are narrower than the paper width and refeeding It prevents jamming such as paper feeding failure and always provides stable and high quality copy under optimal transport conditions according to the sheets actually used, and realizes high productivity especially in the RF skip mode.

When the number of joggings and the stroke during the sheet stacking and the re-feeding are small, the lowermost sheet of the stacked upper sheets is sequentially re-feeded at the same time, and the double-sided and multiple-productivity is high. You can get a copy. In this case, the reversing mechanism 19 in FIG. 19 and the branching intermediate discharge / conveyance path 19a are not necessary, so that the vertical space of the image forming apparatus is advantageous.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the overall construction of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the schematic construction of the intermediate tray section.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the structure of the intermediate tray portion, and FIG. 12 (a).
12a (c) is a diagram showing a state in which sheets are re-fed from the intermediate tray, and FIGS. 13 to 16 are states in which the re-feeding side regulating side plate is performing a jogging operation, and the storing side regulating side plate, respectively. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view and a side view in the seat advancing direction showing a state in which the sheet is opening and closing.

Reference numeral 1 is an image forming unit, reference numeral 12 is a sheet feeding unit for feeding a sheet to the image forming unit 11, and reference numeral 13 is a fixing unit for fixing the image of the sheet formed by the image forming unit 11.
Reference numeral 10 is a document processing device that feeds the set documents one by one to the image reading unit, 16 is a sheet discharge unit that discharges the sheet on which image formation has been completed, and 17 is once image-formed and is fed again to the image forming unit 11. Intermediate tray for temporarily storing the sheet to be fed, 19 a re-feed sheet guide portion for guiding the sheet to be re-fed to the intermediate tray 17, and 8a, 8b respectively guide the sheet to the intermediate tray 17 and open / close the sheet by the opening / closing operation. It is a storage side regulating side plate that roughly corrects the lateral registration and guides it to the intermediate tray. The regulation side plate is a refeed side regulation side plate that performs a jogging operation by a drive source (motor or the like) not shown to regulate both side edges of the sheet to correct the orientation and lateral position of the sheet. The storage side regulating side plate 8a is biased in the closing direction,
The solenoid 96 fixed to the refeed side regulating side plate via the wire 99 operates in the opening direction. Reference numeral 22 denotes the sheet stored in the intermediate tray 17 again for the image forming unit 1
In the sheet re-feeding unit 22 that feeds the sheet 1, a retard roller 27 is rotated in the reverse direction via a torque limiter, a re-feeding roller 26, and a sheet-feeding auxiliary roller 25 that feeds the sheet to the re-feeding unit 22. , 62a, 62 are a pair of feeding rollers that feed the sheet fed from the intermediate tray 17 to the image forming unit 11, and 91 guides the sheet ejected from the intermediate ejecting unit 19a onto the intermediate tray 17, A sheet stopper that is rotatable by a support shaft 93 and is urged on the intermediate tray 17 by an urging spring 93a that guides the sheets to be stacked on the intermediate tray 17;
Solenoids 40, 41 separated from above 7 are a pair of feeding rollers for discharging the sheet to the intermediate tray 17 at the intermediate discharge portion 19a.

When the duplex mode or the multiplex mode is selected from the operation unit (not shown), the number of copies is set, and the copy start key is turned on, the sheet is fed from the sheet feeding unit 12, and the image forming unit 11 displays the image. After being formed
When the image is fixed by the fixing unit 13, the image is not immediately discharged to the sheet discharging unit 16 but is passed through the re-feed sheet guiding unit 19 and is stacked and stored on the intermediate tray 17 from the intermediate discharging unit 19a. At this time, the solenoid 18 is off, and the sheet stopper 91 is in contact with the upper surface of the intermediate tray 17. The sheet discharged from the intermediate discharge unit 19a hits the intermediate tray 17 along the surface of the sheet stopper 91 and is stacked. At this time, the side regulating side plate 8 for storage
a is biased by a torsion spring 97 and kept in a closed state by an abutment (not shown), the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b and the storing side regulating side plate 8a are perpendicular to the sheet advancing direction. It stands by at a position slightly outside of the seat, and the seat is easily seated by the seat stopper 9
1. Guided to the intermediate tray 17. When the sheet is stored in the intermediate tray 17, the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b and the storing side regulating side plate 8a slightly move to a sheet size position in a direction perpendicular to the sheet advancing direction by a drive source (not shown). Then return to the original storage position and prepare for the storage of the next sheet. Further, the sheet discharged from the intermediate discharge portion 19a is similarly stacked on the previous sheet along the surface of the sheet stopper 91. At this time, the sheet is also stored together with the refeed side regulating side plate 8b. Side regulating side plate 8a
Stands by at a position slightly outside the sheet size in the direction perpendicular to the sheet advancing direction, and the sheet is easily guided to the sheet stopper 91 and the intermediate tray 17. When the sheet is stored, the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b and the storing side regulating side plate 8a repeat the above-described operation, so that the orientation and the lateral position of the sheet can be corrected while the sheet is stored on the intermediate tray 17. it can. In this way, immediately before the sheets of which the first side is image-formed are stacked and the set number of sheets of the first side are formed, the intermediate tray 1
7, the sheet re-feeding preparation is started, and the sheet re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b, which has been moving to store the sheet, is different from the sheet re-feeding side regulating side plate 8a. It will be done independently.

At the same time that the second side of the document is guided to the document reading portion by the document processing device 10, the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b moves slightly outward from the side regulating position corresponding to the size of the sheet, and the sheet size is again determined. When the sheet orientation and the lateral position (horizontal registration) are completely corrected by repeating the jogging operation of returning to the position corresponding to the sheet, the sheet re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b becomes a side adapted to the sheet size. Stop at the regulation position and regulate the lateral registration of the seat. At this time, as shown in FIG. 12B, the solenoid 95 is turned on and the sheet stopper 91 is released, and the sheet stopper 91 is separated from the upper surface of the intermediate tray 17 by the distance t against the urging force of the spring 16. Can be passed. Then, the sheet feeding auxiliary roller 25 and the sheet refeeding roller 26
Rotates to convey the sheet downstream, and the retard roller 27 reversely rotates via the torque limiter. Then, the lowest sheet of the sheets stacked on the intermediate tray 17 is nipped by the roller pair and is about to be conveyed downstream. At this time, the sheet stacked on the lowermost sheet is also conveyed along the lowermost sheet to the pair of rollers and is nipped by the pair of rollers, but as shown in FIG. Pushed back to the upstream side,
As shown in (b), only one sheet is nipped and conveyed by the roller pair, and is fed to the feeding roller pair 62a, 62. Further, by this operation, the sheets stacked on the intermediate tray 17 are separated one by one, sent to the image forming unit 11 to form an image on the second side, and the fixing unit 13 fixes the image on the sheet. It is discharged to the discharge unit 16.

Further, at this time, the sheet most re-fed from the intermediate tray 17 is conveyed to the image forming section 11 at a timing immediately after the image formation of the first side is completed, and the image forming section 11 is completed.
Since the image formation on the second side is performed with continuous operation,
There is no loss of productivity in double-sided image formation.

During the re-feeding operation, the storage side regulating side plate 8a is opened and closed independently of the movement of the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b. For example, when the re-feeding side regulation side plate 8b is in the sheet regulation position, as shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 4, the storage side regulating side plate 8a is fixed in a state where the solenoid 96 is turned on and is opened, so that the sheet can be easily accommodated in the intermediate tray 17, and the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b.
Is moved to a position slightly outside the sheet size,
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 16, the solenoid 96 is turned off to close the storage side regulating side plate 8a, and the solenoid 96 is turned on to perform the opening / closing operation to substantially correct the lateral registration of the sheet and the intermediate tray 17 Induce to.
After the lateral registration of the schematic sheet is corrected by the opening / closing operation of the storage side regulating side plate 8a, the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b.
Since the lateral registration is further corrected and stored during the jogging operation of, the sheets are eventually stored in the intermediate tray 17 while correcting the lateral registration and sequentially stacked on the sheets. Therefore, it is possible to perform sheet re-feeding while stacking sheets on the intermediate tray and correcting the lateral registration.

In the above embodiment, the side regulating side plate 8 for storage is provided.
The operation of a is fixed to the open state when the refeed side regulation side plate 8b is in the sheet regulation position, and when the refeed side regulation side plate 8b moves to a position slightly outside the sheet size, it is stored. Although it has been described that the side regulating side plate 8a is in the closed state, it does not stipulate the operation of the side regulating side plate 8a for storage, and the opening / closing operation may be performed according to the timing of the sheets to be stored.

Next, FIG. 17 and FIG. 18 show another embodiment.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 9 to 16, the storage side regulating side plate is opened and closed by a drive source independent of the drive source of the refeeding side regulating side plate. An embodiment in which the storage side regulating side plate is opened / closed by the driving source of the regulating side plate will be described.

17 and 18 are cross-sectional views in the sheet advancing direction showing the state in which the side regulating side plates for storage are opened and closed, respectively. The difference from the first embodiment is that there is no independent drive source and the link 24 rotatably supported by the support plate 102 to which the storage side regulating side plate 8a is fixed.
Is connected to the tip end of the link 24 and is rotatable by a biasing spring 97 by the radius of the link 24.

When the sheet re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b is in the sheet regulating position, the storing side regulating side plate 8a tries to rotate in the direction a by the urging force of the torsion spring 97 as shown in FIG. It is regulated by the link 2101 and fixed in the illustrated state. Next, the refeed side regulating side plate 8
If b moves to a position slightly outside the sheet size,
As shown in FIG. 8, the storage side regulating side plate 8a is rotated and fixed and maintained to the position regulated by the link 2101 by the urging force of the torsion spring 97, and is in the closed state as shown in the figure. By repeating this operation, when the re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b is in the sheet regulating position, the storing side regulating side plate 8a is fixed in the open state to facilitate the storing of the sheet in the intermediate tray 17, and The storage side regulating side plate 8a is formed by the jogging operation of the paper feeding side regulating side plate 8b.
Opens and closes to correct the lateral registration of the sheet, then guides the sheet to the intermediate tray 17, and the lateral registration is further corrected and stored during the jogging operation of the sheet re-feeding side regulating side plate 8b. Are stored in the intermediate tray 17 while correcting the lateral registration, and are sequentially stacked on the sheets. Therefore, it is possible to perform sheet re-feeding while stacking sheets on the intermediate tray and correcting the lateral registration.

[0069]

As described above, the side regulation width of the movable fence of the intermediate tray or the discharge tray can be finely adjusted by the user through the driving means or the like according to the paper actually used by the user. This prevents jams such as stacking failures during stacking and paper feed failures during refeeding that occur when the side guides are relatively narrow relative to the paper width, and the side guides are relatively wide relative to the paper width. Prevents skewing during re-feeding that occurs when the width is wide, and always provides stable, high-quality copies under optimal transport conditions according to the sheets actually used, and especially high productivity in the RF skip mode. It has the effect of being realized.

By stacking the slope shape of the storage priority on the upper part of the movable fence of the intermediate tray or the discharge tray to prevent skewing at the time of re-feeding, the stacking of sheets is performed in the fixed state of the movable fence. While maintaining good
Enables refeeding without jams and skew, and realizes the skip mode by using the automatic document feeder together by simultaneously performing the stacking operation of the sheets on the intermediate tray and the refeeding operation during double-sided copying and multiple copying. Double-sided / multi-copying can be realized more quickly, and total productivity can be improved.

Further, the side regulating side plate for correcting the lateral registration of the sheet provided in the intermediate tray portion is partially divided into upper and lower parts to be divided into a storing side regulating side plate and a re-feeding side regulating side plate. By driving the regulating side plate independently or by being driven, the side regulating side plate for storage opens and closes the stored sheet to a position where it is easy to store, and roughly corrects the lateral registration of the sheet and guides and stores it in the intermediate tray. In addition, the re-feeding side regulation side plate can perform a jogging operation to regulate both side edges of the sheet to correct the orientation and lateral position of the sheet, so that the sheet can be stored without any problems and Since the registration can be corrected, the lateral registration of the sheets can be corrected and the sheets can be separated and re-fed while continuously storing the sheets. Therefore, since the sheet can be sent to the image forming unit immediately after the image formation on the first side and the image formation on the first side and the image formation on the second side can be continuously performed, the double-sided image formation can be performed without lowering the productivity. It became so.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a movable fence section according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the movable fence section.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the movable fence portion.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional side view showing the entire sheet feeding device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a stacking auxiliary roller portion.

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional side view of an image forming apparatus that can also be provided by the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of an image forming apparatus provided with a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing a sheet stacking state on the intermediate tray.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional side view of an image forming apparatus to which another embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the intermediate tray portion of the same.

FIG. 11 is a side view of an intermediate tray portion of the same.

FIG. 12 is an operation diagram of a state where sheets are similarly fed from the intermediate tray.

FIG. 13 is a vertical sectional side view showing a state in which the re-feeding side regulating plate is also opening and closing.

FIG. 14 is a vertical sectional side view of the refeed side regulating plate.

FIG. 15 is a vertical sectional side view of the re-feeding side regulating plate.

FIG. 16 is a vertical sectional side view of the re-feeding side regulating plate.

FIG. 17 is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing an open state of the storage side regulating plate according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a vertical sectional front view showing a closed state of the storage side regulating plate.

FIG. 19 is a vertical sectional side view showing an example of a conventional sheet feeding device.

FIG. 20 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of an image forming apparatus to which another conventional sheet feeding device is applied.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view of the intermediate tray portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 M image forming apparatus S sheet 11 image forming unit 17 intermediate tray 25 re-feeding auxiliary means 26, 27 re-feeding member 41, 42 front and back of side fence 43 sheet stopper 77 motor controller 79 operation unit (input unit) 80 driving unit 81 Drive Means 82 Drive Means 83 Drive Means 85 Drive Means 86 Drive Means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for re-feeding a plurality of sheets stored in an intermediate tray to re-image a sheet once image-formed by a separating member and a re-feeding member. In the intermediate tray storage unit in which the plurality of sheets are stacked, the sheets to be stored or discharged and stacked are provided with a pair of movable fences for side regulation at positions on both sides of a predetermined sheet. A sheet aligning device of an image forming apparatus that aligns to a reference position by moving to a position, and the distance between the movable fences can be finely adjusted via a drive system by an input signal from an operation unit of the image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus characterized by doing so. 2. A device for discharging a sheet onto a tray or an intermediate tray for storing an image-formed sheet for re-imaging, a separation member and a re-feeding member, and a plurality of sheets stored in the intermediate tray. In an image forming apparatus including a re-feeding unit that separates and re-feeds one sheet at a time, a predetermined number of sheets to be stored or discharged in the intermediate tray storage in which the plurality of sheets are stacked. The sheet aligning device of the image forming apparatus that aligns the movable fences opened outward from both side positions of the sheet to the reference position by moving the pair of movable fences to a predetermined sheet reference side edge position. A horizontal part that slides, a vertical part that is high enough to align a specified number of stacked sheets, and a part or the whole of the upper part of the vertical part that is open outward from both sides of the sheet. The inclined surface which becomes higher as it goes to the upstream side of the sheet conveyance, or the inclined surface which opens to the upstream side of the stacked sheet from the leading edge position of the stacked sheet and opens outward from both sides of the sheet as it becomes higher than the stacking surface as it goes upstream of the sheet conveyance side, or either An image forming apparatus characterized by having an inclined surface that also satisfies the above. 3. A sheet having an image once formed thereon and having an intermediate tray for accommodating the sheet for re-imaging, and a separating member re-feeding member, and each of the plurality of sheets accommodated in the intermediate tray. In an image forming apparatus including a sheet re-feeding unit that separates and re-feeds the sheet, a side regulating side plate that corrects the orientation and the lateral position of the sheet is provided in the intermediate tray unit. An image forming apparatus provided with a sheet re-feeding device, characterized in that the sheet is divided into upper and lower parts and divided into a storage side regulating side plate and a re-feeding side regulating side plate. 4. The intermediate tray is provided with a side regulating side plate for correcting the orientation and lateral position of the sheet, and the side regulating side plate is partially divided into upper and lower parts, and a side regulating side plate for storage and a side for re-feeding are provided. 4. An image forming apparatus having a sheet re-feeding device according to claim 3, wherein the image forming apparatus is divided into a regulation side plate and each side regulation side plate can be independently driven.