CN100421964C - Paper feeding mechanism and printing device using same - Google Patents

Abstract

A paper feeding mechanism is composed of a paper separating plate with a paper feeding supporting plate for holding paper, a paper taking roller in the front of said paper feeding supporting plate for rolling the paper downward, an elastic member connected to said paper taking arm for providing an acting force to drive said paper taking roller to close the paper, and a paper separating plate with a paper feeding arm for dynamically regulating the distance between paper taking roller and paper feeding supporting plate.

Description

Paper feeding mechanism and printing device using the paper feeding mechanism

technical field

The invention relates to a paper feeding mechanism and a printing device using the paper feeding mechanism, in particular to a paper feeding mechanism with fixed paper feeding rollers to drive documents and a printing device using the paper feeding mechanism.

Background technique

In the design of facsimile machines, printers, and even multifunctional business machines, in order to meet the requirements of a large number of paper jobs, there is usually a paper feeding mechanism. The user can put a large amount of paper into the paper feeding mechanism, and the paper feeding mechanism can separate the paper and feed the paper into the machine one by one for faxing, printing, photocopying and other operations.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a typical paper feeding mechanism. As shown in the figure, the paper feeding mechanism 10 has a paper slot 12 , a paper separator 14 , a rotating shaft 16 , a paper picking arm 18 and a paper picking roller 19 . Wherein, both ends of the rotating shaft 16 are fixed on both sides of the paper slot 12 , and the paper separator 14 is installed at the lower end of the paper slot 12 . Meanwhile, one end of the paper picking arm 18 is pivotally connected to the rotating shaft 16 , and the other end is connected to the paper picking roller 19 . As the thickness of the paper in the paper slot 12 changes, the paper pickup arm 18 rotates around the rotating shaft 16 to adjust the position of the paper pickup roller 19 so that the paper pickup roller 19 is continuously pressed against the upper surface of the paper.

It is worth noting that, in the paper feeding mechanism 10 of FIG. 1 , the paper pickup roller 19 must continuously press against the upper surface of the paper and exert a positive force on the paper to generate enough friction to drive the paper. Please refer to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B , which are side views of the paper feeding mechanism in FIG. 1 in a full paper state and an empty paper state. As shown in the figure, the torque T generated by the rotation of the rotating shaft 16 not only drives the paper pickup roller 19 on the paper pickup arm 18 to rotate, but also drives the paper pickup arm 18 to rotate in a forward direction, so that the paper pickup roller 19 is pressed against the The upper surface of the paper 20, and exert sufficient positive force on the paper 20. In addition, when the paper pick-up roller 19 drives the paper 20 to be fed downward, the lower edge of the paper 20 is blocked by the paper separator 14 to cause buckling. This bending action causes the outermost paper 20 to be separated from other papers, so as to be fed out separately.

As shown in FIG. 2A , in the paper-full state, the contact position between the pick-up roller 19 and the paper 20 is P1 , and the separation distance between P1 and the paper separator 14 is D1 . As the amount of paper 20 decreases until the empty paper state shown in Figure 2B, the paper pickup roller 19 is pressed against the bottom surface of the paper slot 12, and its contact position with the paper slot 12 is P2, while P2 is in contact with the paper separator 14. Paper separation distance is D2. As mentioned above, as the number of papers 20 changes, the moving path of the paper pickup roller 19 is an arc S centered on the rotating shaft 16 . On the contrary, the position of the paper separator 14 is fixed. Therefore, as the number of papers changes, the contact position between the paper pick-up roller 19 and the paper 20 is constantly changing, resulting in a change in the paper separation distance.

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a schematic diagram of another typical paper feeding mechanism. Compared with the paper feeding mechanism in FIG. 1 , the rotating shaft 26 of this paper feeding mechanism is installed under the paper slot 22 , and the paper fetching arm 28 presses upward and rightward to the surface of the paper. Since the paper picking arm 28 is also pivotally connected to the rotating shaft 26, as the amount of paper changes, the moving path of the paper picking roller 29 forms an arc S' centered on the rotating shaft 26. As a result, the contact position between the paper pickup roller 29 and the paper is constantly changing, resulting in a change in the paper separation distance.

Generally speaking, the longer the paper separation distance, the greater the buckling of the paper when it is blocked by the paper separator. However, if the distortion is too large, the effect of paper separation will be affected, resulting in paper jamming. Conversely, if the paper separation distance is reduced, the rigidity of the leading edge of the paper increases and it is less likely to be twisted. In this case, if the paper is to be twisted, the pick-up roller must apply greater friction to the paper, and at the same time, the resistance generated by the paper separator is also relatively increased. Therefore, the paper will be subjected to a large force, which easily leads to damage to the paper. At the same time, the excessive resistance of the paper separator may easily cause the paper picking roller to rotate idly.

To sum up, if the paper separation distance is too large or too small, the effect of paper separation will be affected, and accidents such as paper jams or paper damage will occur. However, whether it is the paper feeding mechanism in Figure 1 or Figure 3, the paper separation distance The size will obviously change with the number of papers placed in the paper slots 12 and 22, that is, it is impossible to maintain a stable and consistent paper separation effect.

Therefore, in order to improve the paper-separating stability of the paper-feeding mechanism and avoid paper jamming and paper damage at the same time, so as to improve the operation efficiency of the office machine and save time wasted in eliminating paper-jamming, how to improve the design of the paper-feeding mechanism so that paper separation Keeping the distance at a certain value as much as possible has become the area that most needs to be improved.

Contents of the invention

The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a paper feeding mechanism, which has a consistent paper separation distance regardless of the number of papers placed in the paper slot, so as to provide a stable paper feeding effect.

The paper feeding mechanism of the present invention is used to feed paper into the business machine, and includes a paper separating board, a paper feeding pallet, a paper picking roller, a paper picking arm and an elastic member; The feed inlet, and on the upper surface of the paper separation board, there is a paper feeding tray to place the paper; The paper separation board is fed into the business machine; the paper pick-up arm is located above the paper separation board and is connected to drive the paper pick-up roller, while the elastic member is connected to the paper pick-up arm to provide a force to drive the paper pick-up roller against the paper, so that the paper pick-up roller The distance from the feeding tray can be dynamically adjusted according to the thickness of the paper. Also, the moving range of the paper picking arm is larger than the paper thickness variation between full paper and empty paper.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic member uses a torsion spring, so that the torsion spring can provide substantially similar torques when the pick-up roller is closest to and farthest from the feeding tray.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the paper fetching arm drives the paper fetching roller to move along a direction parallel to the paper separation board, so as to maintain the distance between the paper pickup roller and the paper separation board, which is the so-called paper separation distance.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic member uses a tension spring, so that the tension spring can provide substantially similar torques when the pickup roller is closest to and farthest from the paper feeding tray.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the weight of the paper-feeding arm is directly used to drive the paper-feeding arm to slide obliquely downward, so that the paper-feeding roller continues to be pressed against the paper, so the use of elastic members can be omitted.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the moving directions of the paper feeding pallet and the paper picking arm are perpendicular to each other, so as to provide a stable positive force.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention can be further understood through the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the schematic diagram of a typical paper feeding mechanism;

2A and FIG. 2B are side views of the paper feeding mechanism of FIG. 1 in a full paper state and an empty paper state;

Fig. 3 is the schematic diagram of another typical paper feeding mechanism;

Fig. 4A and Fig. 4B are side views of a preferred embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention, in the state of full paper and the state of empty paper;

5A and 5B are side views of another embodiment of the sliding structure of the paper-feeding arm and the roller rail in the paper-feeding mechanism of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a side view of another embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention;

Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B are another embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention, side views of the full paper state and empty paper state;

8A and 8B are side views of another embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention, in the full paper state and the empty paper state.

Detailed ways

In the following description, in order to achieve the consistency of the technical explanation of the present invention, in different embodiments, if there are components with the same function but slightly different shapes, they are still represented by the same names and figure numbers.

Please refer to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B , which are side views of a preferred embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention under full paper status and empty paper status. As shown in the figure, the paper feeding mechanism can be externally attached to a business machine (not shown) or a printing device (not shown), or directly installed in a business machine or a printing device. The paper feeding mechanism includes a paper separating board 104 , a paper feeding tray 102 , a paper picking roller 109 and a paper picking arm 108 . Wherein, the paper separation board 104 is aligned with the paper feeding port A of the business machine, and on the upper surface of the paper separation board 104, a paper feeding tray 102 is obliquely erected for placing the paper 120 . The paper pickup roller 109 is located on the front side of the paper feeding tray 102 and is pressed against the paper 120 to roll the paper 120 to feed downward through the paper separation board 104 into the MFP. The paper fetching arm 108 is located above the paper separating board 104 and is connected to drive the paper fetching roller 109 . It is worth noting that the moving range of the paper picking arm 108 is greater than the paper thickness variation between full and empty papers. Therefore, the distance between the paper picking roller 109 and the feeding tray 102 can be dynamically adjusted according to the thickness of the paper 120 . It should be noted that in this embodiment, the state of feeding paper is described, but it is not limited thereto, and the paper feeding device of the present invention can be applied to other types of recordable media, such as transparencies.

As shown in the figure, in order to guide the moving direction of the pick-up arm 108 , a roller guide 106 is disposed adjacent to the feeding tray 102 . In order to adjust the position of the paper fetching arm 108 according to different paper thickness changes, there is an inclination angle x between the roller guide rail 106 and the paper feeding pallet 102 . The paper fetching arm 108 has a first protruding shaft 122 and a second protruding shaft 124 , which are respectively slid in the roller guide rail 106 . Therefore, it is ensured that the pickup arm 108 can move along the direction parallel to the roller guide rail 106 , in other words, the pickup roller 109 is movably arranged on the roller guide rail 106 . In addition to ensuring its moving direction by the first protruding shaft 122 and the second protruding shaft 124 arranged on the paper picking arm 108, as shown in Figure 5A and Figure 5B, a strip-shaped protrusion 126 can also be used instead of the first The protruding shaft 122 , the second protruding shaft 124 , and the elongated protrusion 126 have approximately the same width as the roller guide rail 106 . Therefore, it is ensured that the pick-up arm 108 can only move linearly along the direction of the roller guide rail 106 .

A tension spring (tensional spring) 110 is connected to the paper pickup arm 108 along the direction of the roller guide rail 106, so as to provide an active force to drive the paper pickup roller 109 to move relative to the paper feeding tray 102, and can selectively contact the paper 120 contacts to drive the paper 120 . Also, in order to keep the distance between the pickup roller 109 and the paper separation plate 104 (the so-called paper separation distance a) constant under both the full paper state and the empty paper state, the direction of the roller guide rail 106 is parallel to the paper separation plate 104 Therefore, the pick-up arm 108 drives the pick-up roller 109 to move along the direction parallel to the paper separating board 104 .

Also, in order to further ensure that the moving direction of the paper picking arm 108 is parallel to the direction of the paper separating plate 104, please refer to FIG. At the paper feeding pallet 102, and the paper fetching arm 108 has a first protruding shaft 152 and a second protruding shaft 154, which are respectively slid in the aforementioned two guide grooves 142 and 144, and the paper fetching roller 109 is arranged on these two between the protruding shafts 152 and 154 . Therefore, it is ensured that the pickup roller 109 can move along the direction of the guide slots 142 and 144 .

Generally speaking, if the paper feeding mechanism is installed in a printing device, the aforementioned paper feeding tray 102 , paper separating board 104 and roller guide rail 106 are all arranged on the casing of the printing device. That is, it is fixed relative to the paper picking arm 108 and the paper picking roller 109 .

In addition, there is an inclination x between the roller guide rail 106 and the paper feeding pallet. When the inclination angle x is 90 degrees, that is, the roller guide rail 106 and the paper feeding pallet 102 are substantially perpendicular to each other, and the aforementioned tension spring The elastic restoring force of 110 can be fully converted into a positive force to make the paper pickup roller 109 press against the paper 120, therefore, it can be used as a stable source of positive force.

It should be noted that, in the present invention, the position of the paper fetching arm 108 changes dynamically as the number of papers 120 changes. Therefore, the traditional transmission method shown in FIG. 2A is not applicable here. In order to solve this problem, the present invention utilizes the design of the Swing Gear (Swing Gear) group to transmit the power of the motor to the paper pickup roller 109. As shown in FIG. 4A, the rotating gear set 130 includes a rotating plate 132, a central gear 134 and a rotating gear 136. The central gear 134 and the rotating plate 132 are connected to the rotating shaft of a motor (not shown). , the central gear 134 and the rotating gear 136 are positioned on the rotating plate 132 and mesh with each other. The power generated by the motor not only drives the rotating plate 132 , but also makes the rotating gear 136 mesh with the relay gear 138 on the paper fetching arm 109 . At the same time, the rotation of the central gear 134 and the rotating gear 136 drives the paper-taking roller 109 whose shaft is connected to the relay gear 138 to rotate.

In the foregoing embodiments, the tension spring 110 is used as the source of force for driving the pickup roller 109 to press against the surface of the paper 120 , but the tension spring 110 is not limited thereto. Please refer to FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B , which are side views of another embodiment of the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention under full paper state and empty paper state. In this embodiment, the torsion spring 112 is used to replace the tension spring 110 shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B to drive the pickup roller 109 to press against the surface of the paper 120 . It is worth noting that, in order to make the paper pickup roller 109 in the position closest to and farthest from the paper feeding tray 102 (ie, the state of empty paper and the state of full paper), the torsion spring 112 can provide a moment of substantially similar magnitude, torsion The original length of the spring 112 should be increased as much as possible, so as to reduce the change of the elastic restoring force under the change of the unit length of the spring.

In the aforementioned embodiment of FIG. 4A and FIG. 7A , elastic members are used, ie tension springs and torsion springs therein, to force the paper pickup roller 109 to press against the surface of the paper 120 , but it is not limited thereto. Please refer to Fig. 8A and Fig. 8B, in another embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned roller guide rail 106 is used as a chute, and the direction of the roller guide rail 106 has an inclination angle y, and slides on the roller The paper fetching arm 108 in the guide rail 106 is driven by its own weight, and slides obliquely downward to continuously press against the paper 120 . Therefore, the positive force of the pick-up roller 109 acting on the paper surface is determined by the aforementioned inclination angle y and the weight of the pick-up arm 108 , and this embodiment can also omit the use of elastic members.

It can be seen that, compared with the traditional paper feeding mechanism, the paper feeding mechanism of the present invention has the following advantages:

As shown in Fig. 4A, Fig. 5A and Fig. 6, the present invention utilizes the roller guide rail 106 to guide the moving direction of the paper picking arm 108, so that the paper picking roller 109 moves along the direction parallel to the paper separating board 104, thereby ensuring paper separation. Keep a certain distance. Therefore, the paper separation stability of the paper feeding mechanism can be improved, and the phenomenon of paper jamming and paper damage can be avoided at the same time, so as to improve the operation efficiency of the business machine and save time wasted in removing paper jams.

As shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 7A , the present invention utilizes the elastic member (ie, the tension spring 110 and the torsion spring 112 ) as the main source of the normal force exerted by the pickup roller 109 on the paper 120 . Therefore, an appropriate elastic member can be selected to provide an appropriate positive force according to requirements, so as to improve the paper separation stability of the paper feeding mechanism.

The above-mentioned preferred embodiments are used to describe the present invention in detail, rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and those who are familiar with this type of technology can clearly understand that some changes and adjustments can be made appropriately without losing the gist of the present invention, and also without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (11)

1. a printing equipment comprises:

One housing, this housing comprises:

One paper feed supporting plate can be for placing recordable media;

One fen cardboard is positioned at the leading edge of this paper feed supporting plate, so that this recordable media is separated by this paper feed supporting plate one by one; And

One guide rail is arranged at contiguous this paper feed supporting plate place, and and this paper feed supporting plate between accompany an inclination angle;

One pickup roller is arranged on this guide rail in movable mode, makes this pickup roller can be with respect to the motion of this paper feed supporting plate, and optionally contacts with this recordable media and drive this recordable media; And

One elastic component is arranged between this pickup roller and this housing, provides an active force to move to this paper feed supporting plate to order about this pickup roller.

2. printing equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein, this guide rail is parallel to this minute cardboard in fact.

3. printing equipment as claimed in claim 1 comprises that also a motor and a turn gear train are fixed in this printing equipment, and this motor rotates by this pickup roller of this turn gear set drive.

4. printing equipment as claimed in claim 1 comprises that also getting the paper arm is arranged on this guide rail, and this is got has one first prominent axle and one second prominent axle on the paper arm, sleeve to respectively in this guide rail.

5. printing equipment as claimed in claim 4, wherein, this guide rail comprises two mutual parallel guide grooves, and this first prominent axle that this gets the paper arm and this second prominent axle sliding closing in this two guide groove respectively, and this pickup roller is arranged between this two prominent axle.

6. printing equipment as claimed in claim 1 comprises that also getting the paper arm is arranged on this guide rail, and this is got has a strip projection on the paper arm, sleeve in this guide rail, and making this get the paper arm can slide along the direction of this guide rail.

7. a paper feed mechanism is installed on a printing equipment, and with this printing equipment of recordable media feed-in, this paper feed mechanism comprises:

One fen cardboard is positioned at the medium feed-in mouth of this printing equipment;

One paper feed supporting plate tiltedly stands in the upper surface of this minute cardboard, to place this recordable media;

One pickup roller is positioned at the front side of this paper feed supporting plate, and is pressed together on this recordable media, makes with this recordable media of scrolling to move down, via this printing equipment of this minute cardboard feed-in;

One chute be positioned at this minute cardboard top, and its trend has an inclination angle; And

One gets the paper arm, sleeve in this chute, and connect this pickup roller, simultaneously, this weight of getting the paper arm own is ordered about this and is got the oblique lower slider of paper arm, and make this pickup roller continue to be pressed on this recordable media, and this moving range of getting the paper arm is greater than the varied in thickness of filling on this paper feed supporting plate between this recordable media and any this recordable media of unloaded.

8. paper feed mechanism as claimed in claim 7 comprises that also a motor and a turn gear train are fixed in this printing equipment, and this motor rotates by this pickup roller of this turn gear set drive.

9. a paper feed mechanism is installed on a printing equipment, but with this printing equipment of programmed recording medium feed-in, this paper feed mechanism comprises:

One fen cardboard is positioned at the medium feed-in mouth of this printing equipment;

One paper feed supporting plate tiltedly stands on the upper surface of this minute cardboard, but is somebody's turn to do programmed recording medium to place;

One pickup roller is positioned at the front side of this paper feed supporting plate, but and be pressed together on this programmed recording medium, move down but should programmed recording medium make, via this printing equipment of this minute cardboard feed-in with scrolling;

One gets the paper arm, be positioned at this minute cardboard top, and connect this pickup roller, with drive this pickup roller make along parallel in fact this minute cardboard direction move, and this moving range of getting the paper arm is greater than the varied in thickness of filling on this paper feed supporting plate between this recordable media and any this recordable media of unloaded; And

One elastic component is connected to this and gets the paper arm, but provides an active force to order about this pickup roller closing to being somebody's turn to do programmed recording medium.

10. paper feed mechanism as claimed in claim 9, wherein, this elastic component is an extension spring or a torsionspring.

11. paper feed mechanism as claimed in claim 9 comprises that also a motor and a turn gear train are fixed in this printing equipment, and this motor rotates by this pickup roller of this turn gear set drive.

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