JPH06234432A - Paper feeding tray for paper feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the looseness at the time of the movement of the front and rear adjusting plates of a paper feeding tray, and the resulting lateral slippage or skew of a document. CONSTITUTION:The shape of a recessed part 15a2, in which the protruded part 14c of position retaining means 14c, 15a2 for a paper feeding tray enters, is made larger than, a play caused when front and rear adjusting plates 36 and 37 are moved. Consequently, slippage due to the play of the front and rear adjusting plates 36 and 37 can be completely eliminated, and the registor slippage in a lateral direction or skew of a document can be prevented to perform the correct delivery of a fed document.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tray in a document feeding apparatus, and more particularly to a sheet feeding tray in which a front and rear regulating plate is movable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows a general automatic document feeder. The original documents stacked on the paper feed tray 2 are sent out by the paper feed roller 20 and separated one by one by a separation unit 21 including a conveyance roller and a separation roller.
The registration rollers 22 convey the sheet at a predetermined timing onto the platen glass 16 of the image forming apparatus by the conveyor belt 23.

Conventionally, a paper feed tray 2 in an automatic document feeder has a pair of front and rear side plates 4 for restricting a document and is slidable in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction. is there. The front and rear side plates 4 are moved in a direction in which they are brought into contact with and separated from each other by interlocking means (for example, a rack and a pinion gear) provided in the main body of the paper feed tray.

In the paper feed tray 2, when the user holds and moves the front side plate 4 by hand, the other rear side plate 4 is moved.
Are interlocked with each other so that they are brought into contact with each other.
For documents larger than the maximum document size, the front and rear side plates will move further apart. In this way, it becomes possible to feed the originals with the front and rear side plates fitted to each other.

FIG. 5 shows an example in which a rack and a pinion gear are used as the interlocking means.

In the figure, reference numeral 36 denotes a front regulation plate to which a rack 38 is fixed, and this rack 38 is meshed with a rack 41 fixed to the rear regulation plate 37 via a pinion gear 39. In the above structure, when the user holds the front regulation plate 36 and tries to fit the gaps between the regulation plates 36 and 37, the state shown in FIG. 6 (a) is changed to that shown in FIG. 6 (b). When the front regulation plate 36 is adjusted to the paper width, the distance e from the center 40 to the front regulation plate 36 is half the paper width, but the distance f from the center 40 to the rear regulation plate 37 is half the paper width. + Backlash.

On the contrary, holding the front regulating plate 36, the regulating plates 36,
When the space between 37 is widened, the state shown in FIG.
As shown in (d), when the front regulation plate 36 is placed between the sheets, the distance g between the center 40 and the front regulation plate 36 becomes half the paper width, but the distance between the center 40 and the rear regulation plate 37 is reduced. The distance h is half the paper width minus the backlash.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the mechanism for interlocking the front and rear regulating plates always causes backlash, and the user operates only one regulating plate to move the front and rear regulating plates. When the width of the regulation plate is determined, the backlash directly affects the registration of the original in the horizontal direction, which causes the original to be fed in the horizontal direction, or the front and rear of the original to be fed. If the regulation plate is too wide, it may skew or
On the other hand, if it is too narrow, there is a risk of defective feeding.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper feed tray of a paper feed device that prevents backlash when the front and rear regulating plates are moved, and lateral deviation and skewing of a document due to the backlash.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it regulates both ends of a document and is movable front and rear regulating plates (36, 37). )
And a guide means (15) for guiding the front / rear restriction plates (36, 37), and the front / rear restriction plates (36, 37).
In the paper feeding tray of the paper feeding device in which the document feeding position is set by 37), the front / rear regulating plates (36, 3)
Position holding means (1) for holding each moving position of (7)
4c, 15a ₂ ).

Position holding means (14c, 15a ₂ ) for the front / rear regulation plates (36, 37) are provided on the front / rear regulation plates (36, 37) and the guide means (15), respectively. And a V-shaped or U-shaped concave portion (15a ₂ ) with which the convex portion (14c) is engaged,
The front and rear regulating plates (36, 37) are configured such that the convex portion (14c) enters the concave portion (15a ₂ ) earlier than the play during movement of the front and rear regulating plates (36, 37).
It is characterized by absorbing the play of.

[0012]

[Operation] Based on the above configuration, the front and rear regulation plates (36, 3
7) When one is operated to move, the other regulating plate (37, 36) moves in the opposite direction in conjunction with this, and the position is held by the position holding means (14c, 15a ₂ ).
The convex portion (1) that constitutes the position holding means (14c, 15a ₂ ).
4c) has a V-shaped or U-shaped recess (15a)
The shape of ₂ ) is larger than the play of the other regulating plate (37, 36) when the front and rear regulating plates (36, 37) are interlocked, so that only one regulating plate (36, 37) can be operated. However, the play of the front and rear regulation plates (37, 36) is absorbed and is not affected.

As a result, it is possible to prevent lateral misregistration and skew of the fed document.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a document processing apparatus tray 1 according to the present invention, in which 2 is a paper feed tray for setting a document, 3 is a front regulation plate, and 4 is a rear regulation plate, which will be described later. The front and rear regulation plates 3 and 4 can be moved as shown by the arrows in the figure,
It works together. Reference numeral 5 denotes a document processing apparatus main body, to which one document processing apparatus tray is connected.

FIG. 2 shows a structure in which the front and rear regulating plates 3 and 4 are movable. 6 is a first rack connected to the rear regulating plate 4, and 7 is a second rack connected to the front and rear regulating plate 3. rack,
8 is a pinion gear meshing with the first and second racks 6 and 7, 9 is a mounting shaft of the pinion gear 8, 10 is a stopper arm for fixing the rear regulating plate 4, 11 is a fulcrum of the stopper arm 10, and 12 is a fulcrum. Stopper arm 10
And the second rack 7 and the stopper arm 1
It is a zero return spring.

In the above structure, a series of operations will be described. When the minimum size original (B5-R) is used, the front and rear regulating plates 3 and 4 are located at the positions shown in FIG. The racks 6 and 7 and the pinion gear 8 mesh with each other. When the front regulation plate 3 is moved, the rear regulation plate 4 also moves accordingly.
At this time, the stopper arm 10 presses the contact 12 at the bottom dead center of the guide surface of the second rack 7 by the action of the return spring 1. Next, when the size is A4R, LTR-R, etc., the front and rear regulation plates 3, 4 are opened to the position as shown in FIG. 2 (b). At this time, the first and second racks 6 and 7 and the pinion gear 8 are still in mesh with each other, and the stopper arm 10 is also at the same position.

Next, when the size is A3 or A4, the front and rear regulating plates 3 and 4 are opened to the position shown in FIG. 2 (c). At this time, when the second rack 7 pushes the contact 12 of the stopper arm 10 up to the top dead center, the tip 10a of the stopper arm 10 meshes with the recess 6a of the first rack 6, and the first rack 6 is It is completely fixed. At the same time, the second rack 7 is disengaged from the pinion gear 8.

Next, in the case of an indeterminate size of A3 or A4 size or more, since the second rack 7 is disengaged from the pinion gear 8, only the front regulation plate 3 has the toothless portion 7a sliding on the pinion gear 8. And the rear regulation plate 4 serves as a reference. (FIG. 2 (d)) FIG. 3 shows a mechanism for making the front and rear regulation plates 3 and 4 click for each document size. Reference numeral 14 is a click spring for generating a click, and 15 is a guide rib for guiding the click spring 14. The guide rib 15 has a notch 15a into which the contact of the click spring 15 is inserted.
₁ , 15a ₂ and 15a ₃ are provided. When not only the rack and the pinion gear but also the front and rear regulation plates 3 and 4 are moved, there is always a backlash or a backlash misalignment, and the misalignment may cause a lateral misregistration or skew to the image.

Therefore, the shape of the notch of the guide 15 is shown in FIG.
V-shaped as shown in (b). In the figure, make C more than the amount of backlash, and provide it on both front and rear regulation plates 3 and 4,
Even if the user operates only the front regulation plate 3 to determine the document size, the projection 14c of the spring portion 14b of the click spring 14 surely enters the notch of the guide rib 15 of the rear regulation plate 4, and the document size is stable. You can decide.

FIG. 4 shows the concave portions when the sizes of the originals are close to each other. For example, since the A4R and the LTR-R have a difference of only 6 mm, in the case of the mechanism in which the front and rear regulation plates 36 and 37 are interlocked, the gap between the notches into which the click springs 14 can enter is only about 3 mm. By betting the shape of the notch into a V-shape or a U-shape, the notch opening will be adjacent to the notch.
Even if it overlaps a little like "d", there is no problem because the entry vertex portion 32 exists.

The play that occurs in the structure in which the front and rear regulating plates 36 and 37 are interlocked with each other varies, but in the case of the rack and the pinion gear used in this embodiment, only the values on both sides (0.15 mm × sin 20 °) × 2 = 0.1 mm occurs, and 0.5 mm or more is required to improve slidability. At this time, the shape of the tip of the convex portion of the click convex concave portion as the position holding means is an inverted V shape or an inverted U shape, the concave portion is a V shape or a U shape, and the convex tip end dimension is 1
mm and the dimension of the recess opening is 3 mm,
A play of 1.5 mm can be absorbed. In addition, if the angle of the V-shaped concave portion or the U-shaped concave portion is set to an acute angle, the convex portion can be easily inserted.

[0023]

As described above, in the paper feed tray of the present invention, the shape of the concave portion into which the convex portion of the position holding means is inserted is larger than the backlash generated when the front and rear regulating plates move. -It is possible to completely remove misalignment due to backlash of the rear regulation plate, prevent registration misregistration and skew feeding of the document in the horizontal direction, and accurately feed the document to be fed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a paper feed tray according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating details of a regulation plate of the paper feed tray.

FIG. 3A is a plan view showing a click mechanism of a regulation plate of the tray. FIG. 3B is an enlarged view of the portion (A) of FIG.

[Figure 4] Detailed view of the click-in section

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a document feeding device.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of an interlocking mechanism section of a sheet feeding tray of a conventional sheet feeding device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Document Feeding Device 2 Paper Feed Tray 14 Click Spring 14c Convex 15 Guide Ribs (Guide Means) 15a ₂ Recesses 14c, 15a ₂ Position Holding Means 36 Front Regulation Plate 37 Rear Regulation Plate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A front / rear regulation plate for regulating both end portions of a document, which is movable in conjunction with each other, and a guide means for guiding the front / rear regulation plate. A sheet feeding tray of a sheet feeding device for setting the feeding position of a document by a plate, characterized by having position holding means for holding the respective moving positions of the front and rear regulating plates. . 2. The front / rear restriction plate position holding means is a V-shape or U-shape with which the projections provided on the front / rear restriction plate and the guide means and the projections engage. Of the front / rear regulating plate so that the convex portion is inserted into the concave portion earlier than the play during movement of the front / rear regulating plate.
The sheet feeding tray of the sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the play of the rear regulation plate is absorbed.