JP2007126273A - Medium feeding apparatus, liquid ejecting apparatus and recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily adjust a position of a feeding roller for feeding a feeding object medium. <P>SOLUTION: A position adjusting member 20 of the feeding roller 82 for feeding the feeding object medium is arranged in a feeding frame 89 for journaling the feeding roller 82. Thus, even when a medium feeder is incorporated into the other device, since installation work and position adjusting work of the feeding roller can be performed before its incorporation work, a highly accurate position adjustment can be easily made. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medium feeding apparatus that feeds a medium to be fed, a liquid ejecting apparatus including the medium feeding apparatus, and a recording apparatus.

  An ink jet printer, which is one of general recording apparatuses, is provided with an automatic paper feeder at the upper part on the back side. This automatic paper feeder is disposed opposite to the hopper that supports the paper together with the paper support, the paper feed roller that feeds the supported paper, and the paper feed roller. A retard roller is provided for separating the uppermost sheet and the lower sheet when the sheets are double fed. In order to accurately feed the paper by the paper feed roller and to separate the paper by the retard roller, it is important to adjust the interval between the paper feed roller and the retard roller. For this reason, an adjustment member that adjusts the position of the paper feed roller by pressing the shaft of the paper feed roller from above is attached to the main frame that defines the front side of the printer and the back side of the printer (see Patent Document 1). .

JP-A-8-333026

  In the above-described assembly or maintenance work of the ink jet printer, the operator attaches the paper feeding roller to the automatic paper feeding device, then installs the automatic paper feeding device in the printer body, and then adjusts the position of the paper feeding roller. It is necessary to adjust by. Therefore, this position adjustment work is difficult because it needs to be performed in a limited work space, and there is a possibility that the number of work steps may increase when an unskilled worker adjusts the position with high accuracy.

  The present invention has been made in view of the various problems as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a medium feeding device capable of easily adjusting the position of a feeding roller for feeding a medium to be fed, and its An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid ejecting apparatus and a recording apparatus provided with a medium feeding device.

  To achieve the above object, in the medium feeding device of the present invention, in the medium feeding device having a feeding roller for feeding a medium to be fed, the position adjusting member of the feeding roller is pivoted on the feeding roller. It is characterized in that it is provided on a feeding frame to be supported. As a result, even when the medium feeding device is incorporated into another device, the feeding roller mounting operation and the position adjusting operation can be performed before the assembling operation, so that highly accurate position adjustment can be easily performed. it can.

  The position adjusting member includes a beam member whose both ends are supported by the feeding frame so as to be freely displaceable and fixed, and a contact member fixed to the beam member and abutting the shaft of the feeding roller. Then, the beam member is displaced, the shaft of the feeding roller is pressed by the contact member, and the position of the feeding roller is adjusted. Thereby, since the position adjusting member can be configured with simple components, an increase in component costs can be suppressed to a low level.

  In order to achieve the above object, the liquid ejecting apparatus of the present invention is a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid onto a medium to be ejected, and includes the above-described medium feeding devices. The recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium, and includes the above-described medium feeding devices. Thereby, it is possible to provide a medium feeding device or a recording device that exhibits the above-described effects.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below do not limit the invention according to the claims, and all the combinations of features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the invention. Absent.

  FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views of an overall appearance configuration of an ink jet printer, which is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention, seen obliquely from the front and rear, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the outline, and FIG. 4 is a sectional side view showing the outline of the internal configuration. This ink jet printer 100 is, for example, a sheet of paper of a size such as L size / 2L size, postcard, JIS standard A4 size, A3 size nobi, A2 size, etc. (hereinafter simply referred to as paper (feed medium, ejected medium, (Recording medium)) and a function capable of recording with ink (liquid).

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inkjet printer 100 is entirely covered with a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 101. An operation unit 110 is provided on the upper right front side of the housing 101 shown in FIG. 1, and a cartridge storage unit 120 is provided on the upper left front side of the housing 101 shown in FIG. Further, a first rear paper feed unit 130 is disposed on the rear side of the upper surface shown in FIG. 1, and a second rear paper feed unit 140 is disposed on the back side shown in FIG. A paper discharge unit 150 and a front paper supply unit 160 are arranged on the front side shown in FIG. 1, and a waste ink collection unit 170 is arranged on the right side of the front side shown in FIG. In addition, inside the ink jet printer 100, the sheet conveying unit 180 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 including the characteristic part of the present invention, the control unit 190 shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, and FIGS. The recording unit 200 shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a rectangular opening 102 is formed between the operation unit 110 and the cartridge storage unit 120 on the upper surface of the housing 101 and the first rear paper feeding unit 130. . The opening 102 is covered with a printer cover 210 having a substantially rectangular flat plate shape. The printer cover 210 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow a in the figure around a rotation axis at the rear end. The user can easily perform maintenance work of internal mechanisms such as the paper transport unit 180 and the recording unit 200 through the opening 102 by lifting the printer cover 210 and opening the opening 102.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the operation unit 110 includes a substantially rectangular operation panel 111, and a liquid crystal panel 112 that displays an operation state and the like is disposed at a substantially central portion of the operation panel 111. Buttons 113 such as a power system for turning on / off the power, an operation system for operating a paper cueing or ink flushing, a processing system for performing image processing, etc. are disposed on both sides of the panel 112. . Since the user can operate the button 113 while checking the liquid crystal panel 112 for confirmation, an erroneous operation can be prevented.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cartridge storage unit 120 stores the ink cartridges 121 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 that store inks of various colors for printing (9 colors in this example) in a detachable manner. ing. The cartridge storage unit 120 is covered with a cartridge cover 122 having an L-shaped cross section. The cartridge cover 122 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow b shown in the figure around the rotation shaft at the rear end. Since the user can easily replace the ink cartridge 121 by lifting the cartridge cover 122 and opening the cartridge storage unit 120, work efficiency can be improved.

  The first rear paper feeding unit 130 is for automatic paper feeding (ASF), and as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the first rear paper feeding unit 130 opens and closes a first paper feeding port 131 that opens upward in a rectangular shape, A four-stage first paper support 132 having a function of supporting one sheet or a plurality of sheets to be fed is provided. The first paper support 132 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow c shown in the drawing with the rotation axis at the rear end as a center. As the paper fed by the first rear paper feeding unit 130, relatively thin paper (for example, plain paper or photographic paper having a thickness of about 0.08 mm to 0.27 mm) is used.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user completes the setting by placing a finger on the hole 132 a provided in the center of the front of the first paper support 132 and lifting the first paper support 132 and pulling out the multistage portion. Therefore, the storage and management necessary for the detachable paper support becomes unnecessary. Furthermore, since the first paper support 132 has a multistage structure, it is possible to reliably support papers to be fed of various sizes. In addition, after the ink jet printer 100 is used, the first paper support 132 can be closed by pushing the multi-stage portion into the first paper support 132 to close the first paper feed port 131, thus preventing dust from entering the printer body. In addition, the first paper support 132 can be stored compactly.

  The second rear paper feeding unit 140 is for manual paper feeding. As shown in FIG. 2, the second rear paper feeding unit 140 has a function of opening and closing a second paper feeding port 141 opened in a rectangular shape toward the rear, and a sheet to be fed. A two-stage second paper support 142 having a function of supporting sheets is provided. The second paper support 142 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow d shown in the figure around the rotation shaft at the lower end. The sheet fed by the second rear sheet feeding unit 140 is a sheet having a thickness that cannot be fed at the conveyance angle in the first rear sheet feeding unit 130 (for example, an image material sheet having a thickness of about 0.29 mm to 0.48 mm). Or special paper). Further, since the first rear paper feeding unit 130 is used for automatic paper feeding (ASF), the paper is picked up by the paper feeding roller 82. Therefore, when paper dust adheres to the paper feeding roller 82 and accumulates, the paper is fed. There is a possibility that the paper roller 82 slips and causes poor feeding. For this reason, paper that easily generates paper dust (for example, Velvet Fine Art Paper with a thickness of about 0.48 mm or Ultra Smooth Fine Art Paper with a thickness of about 0.46 mm) is manually fed by the second rear paper feeding unit 140. Need to make paper.

  Before the user uses the ink jet printer 100, the user completes the setting by placing a finger on the upper part of the second paper support 142 and pushing down the second paper support 142 to pull out the multistage portion. Storage and management necessary for support are not required. Furthermore, since the second paper support 142 has a multistage structure, it is possible to reliably support papers to be fed of various sizes. In addition, after the ink jet printer 100 is used, the second paper support 142 can be closed by pushing the multi-stage portion into the second paper support 142 to close the second paper feed port 141, thus preventing dust from entering the printer body. In addition, the second paper support 142 can be stored compactly.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the paper discharge unit 150 has a function of opening and closing a paper discharge port 151 that opens in a rectangular shape toward the front and a function of stacking one or a plurality of paper to be discharged. 3 is provided with a two-stage stacker 152 of a first stacker 51 and a second stacker 52 shown in FIG. The first stacker 51 is attached to the tip end side of the second stacker 52 so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow e shown in the figure around the rotation axis. The second stacker 52 is attached so as to be able to project and retract by moving in parallel obliquely up and down with respect to the paper discharge outlet 151.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user puts his finger on the top of the first stacker 51, rotates the first stacker 51 to open the paper discharge outlet 151, and touches the tip of the first stacker 51 with his finger. Since the setting is completed by picking and pulling the second stacker 52 in parallel and projecting the second stacker 52 obliquely upward, storage and management required for a detachable stacker are not required. Furthermore, since the stacker 152 has a multi-stage structure, sheets of paper of various sizes can be reliably stacked and loaded, and the recorded paper is always discharged from the front side, so that the user can The paper can be easily taken out. After the use of the ink jet printer 100, the second stacker 52 is moved obliquely downward and stored by pushing the tip of the first stacker 51 by hand, and the first stacker 51 is attached to the first stacker 51 with a hand. Since the one stacker 51 can be rotated backward to close the paper discharge port 151, dust can be prevented from entering the printer body, and the stacker 152 can be stored compactly.

  The front paper feed unit 160 is for manual paper feed, and includes a paper feed tray 161 disposed above the stacker 152 at the paper discharge outlet 151 as shown in FIG. The paper feed tray 161 is provided so as to be horizontally movable with respect to the paper discharge outlet 151. As the sheet fed by the front sheet feeding unit 160, a relatively thick sheet (for example, matboard sheet having a thickness of about 1.2 mm) that cannot be folded during conveyance is used.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user gently pushes the front end of the paper feed tray 161 to remove the stopper of the paper feed tray 161 and the paper feed tray 161 protrudes from the paper discharge outlet 151. Further, after using the ink jet printer 100, the paper feed tray 161 is put in the paper discharge outlet 151 by pushing the front end of the paper feed tray 161 lightly so that the stopper of the paper feed tray 161 is engaged. Therefore, the arrangement space efficiency of the paper feed tray 161 can be increased.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the waste ink collection unit 170 accommodates a waste ink tank 171 that stores waste ink and the like so as to be removable. The waste ink tank 171 stores waste ink or the like that is discarded when the recording head 202 is cleaned or the ink cartridge is replaced. When the waste ink tank 171 is full of waste ink or the like, the user only has to pull out the waste ink tank 171 and insert a new waste ink tank 171. Therefore, the user can easily replace the waste ink tank 171. be able to.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the paper transport unit 180 is disposed from the first rear paper feed unit 130 and the second rear paper feed unit 140 to the paper discharge unit 150, and has an automatic paper feed mechanism ( Medium feeding device) 181, transport mechanism 182, and paper discharge mechanism 183. As shown in FIG. 4, the automatic paper feed mechanism 181 includes a hopper 81 that lifts the paper supported by the first paper support 132 and a paper feed roller (feeder) that picks up the paper lifted by the hopper 81. (Feed roller) 82, a retard roller 83 that separates the sheets fed by the sheet feed roller 82 into only one sheet, a paper return lever 84 that returns the remaining sheets separated by the retard roller 83 to the hopper 81, and the like. ing.

  The hopper 81 is formed in a flat plate shape on which paper can be placed, and is disposed substantially in parallel with the rear wall. The lower end is located near the paper feed roller 82 and the upper end is located near the top of the rear wall. It is arranged to do. The hopper 81 is attached such that the other end of a compression spring (not shown) having one end attached to the rear wall is attached to the back surface on the lower end side, and the lower end side turns around the upper end side by expansion and contraction of the compression spring. It is installed.

  The paper feed roller 82 is formed in a D-shape with a part of the cross-section cut away, and is disposed in the vicinity of the lower end of the hopper 81. The paper feed roller 82 intermittently rotates and frictionally feeds the paper lifted by the hopper 81. It is supposed to send. The retard roller 83 is disposed so as to be able to come into contact with the paper feed roller 82, and when the paper is fed by the paper feed roller 82, only the uppermost paper is frictionally separated from the lower paper. Yes. The paper return lever 84 is formed in a claw shape and is disposed in the vicinity of the paper feed roller 82 so that the lower layer paper separated by the retard roller 83 is hooked on the claw and returned to the hopper 81.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the transport mechanism 182 is provided with a paper feed roller 85 that feeds paper in the sub-scanning direction in synchronization with the recording operation, a driven roller 86, and the like. The paper feed roller 85 is disposed on the upstream side of the transport of the platen 203 and feeds the paper fed by the paper feed roller 82 together with the driven roller 86 to the platen 203.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the paper discharge mechanism 183 includes a paper discharge roller 87, a first jagged roller 88a, a second jagged roller 88b, and the like. The first knurled roller 88 a is disposed on the downstream side of the platen 203, and the second knurled roller 88 b and the paper discharge roller 87 are disposed on the downstream side of the first knurled roller 88 a so as to pass through the platen 203. The incoming paper is first discharged by the first jagged roller 88a, and is then nipped by the second jagged roller 88b and the paper discharge roller 87 to be discharged onto the stacker 152. Note that the first and second serrated rollers 88a and 88b are held by the same holding member (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 190 includes a main board 191 that constitutes a printer controller. The main board 191 is mounted with control elements and storage elements such as CPU, ROM, RAM, and ASIC (not shown) and other various circuit elements. Then, the paper conveyance unit 180, the recording unit 200, and the like constituting the print engine are controlled.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the recording unit 200 includes a carriage 201 that moves in the main scanning direction in synchronization with the recording operation, a recording head 202 that ejects ink in synchronization with the recording operation, and a flat sheet during recording. A holding platen 203 and the like are disposed. As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 201 is inserted into the carriage guide shaft 204 and connected to the carriage belt 205 above the platen 203. When the carriage belt 205 is actuated by a carriage motor (not shown), Along with the movement, it is guided by the carriage guide shaft 204 to reciprocate.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the recording head 202 is mounted on the carriage 201 so as to be spaced from the platen 203 by a predetermined distance, and two types of black, for example, photo black and matte black ink, yellow, cyan, Seven inks of light cyan, magenta, light magenta, gray, and red can be ejected. That is, the recording head 202 is provided with a pressure generating chamber and a nozzle opening connected to the nozzle plate, and is controlled from the nozzle opening toward the sheet by storing ink in the pressure generating chamber and pressurizing it with a predetermined pressure. Ink droplets of different sizes are ejected. The platen 203 is disposed between the paper feed roller 85 and the paper discharge roller 87 so as to face the recording head 202, and supports the conveyed paper surface. Next, details of the automatic paper feeding mechanism 181 including the characteristic part of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the automatic paper feeding mechanism 181, and FIG. 6 is a side view thereof. This automatic paper feed mechanism 181 is provided with the above-described paper feed roller 82, retard roller 83, paper return lever in a paper feed frame (feed frame) 89 that surrounds the both sides of the printer and the back side of the printer. 84 etc. are arranged. That is, the retard roller 83 is disposed opposite to the lower side of the paper feed roller 82, and a plurality (five in this example) of paper return levers 84 are arranged on both sides of the retard roller 83.

  The paper feed roller 82 is inserted into a paper feed roller shaft 82 a rotatably supported at both ends on both side surfaces of the paper feed frame 89 and is rotated. In order to prevent paper skew during paper feeding, a plurality of (five in this example) auxiliary paper feed rollers 82b are provided on the paper feed roller shaft 82a at predetermined intervals from the paper feed roller 82. It is designed to rotate. A position adjusting member 20 for the paper feed roller 82 is disposed above the paper feed roller shaft 82a.

  The position adjusting member 20 includes a beam member 21 and a contact member 22. The beam member 21 is a rod member made of a metal such as channel-type or angle-type metal such as aluminum, or plastic, and both ends thereof are supported by the paper feed frame 89 so as to be displaceable and fixed. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, both ends of the beam member 21 are inserted into vertically elongated holes 89a drilled on both side surfaces of the paper feed frame 89, supported so as to be movable up and down, and fixed with screws or the like. It has become.

  The abutting member 22 is a sheet metal whose one end is bent in an L shape and the other end is notched in a U shape having substantially the same diameter as the diameter of the paper feed roller shaft 82a. Two are fixed at equal intervals on both sides. That is, one end of the contact member 22 is fixed to the lower surface of the beam member 21 with a screw or the like so that the other end of the contact member 22 can contact the upper side of the peripheral surface of the paper feed roller shaft 82a.

  In such a configuration, the work sequence when incorporating the automatic paper feed mechanism 181 into the ink jet printer 100 is as follows. First, the paper feed roller shaft 82 a of the paper feed roller 82 is attached to the paper feed frame 89, and then the paper feed frame 89. The position adjusting member 20 is attached to the sheet feeding roller 82 to adjust the position of the sheet feeding roller 82. In this position adjustment operation, by loosening the screws fixing both ends of the beam member 21 and moving the beam member 21 up and down, the pressing force applied to the paper feed roller shaft 82a by the contact member 22 is weakened or strengthened. . Thereby, the position of the paper feed roller 82 can be adjusted by changing the bending state of the paper feed roller shaft 82a. Thereafter, the automatic paper feeding mechanism 181 is incorporated into the ink jet printer 100. Accordingly, the position adjustment operation of the paper feed roller 82 can be performed in a wide work space before the automatic paper feed mechanism 181 is incorporated into the ink jet printer 100, and even a non-skilled worker can easily perform high precision. Position adjustment can be performed.

  As described above, according to the ink jet printer 100 of the present embodiment, since the position adjusting member 20 of the paper feed roller 82 is provided on the paper feed frame 89 that supports the feed roller 82, the automatic paper feed mechanism 181. Even when the printer is incorporated into the ink jet printer 100, the attachment operation and the position adjustment operation of the sheet feeding roller 82 can be performed by the automatic sheet feeding mechanism 181 alone before the assembly operation, and the highly accurate position adjustment can be easily performed. Can do. Further, since the automatic paper feeding mechanism 181 can be incorporated into the ink jet printer 100 after the paper feeding roller 82 is attached and the position is adjusted, the assembling cost can be reduced. Furthermore, the replacement time for repairing the automatic paper feeding mechanism 181 can be shortened.

  Further, the position adjusting member 20 is fixed to the beam member 21 so that both ends of the position adjusting member 20 are displaceably and fixedly supported by the paper feed frame 89, and abuts against the paper feed roller shaft 82 a of the paper feed roller 82. Since the abutting member 22 is displaced, the beam member 21 is displaced, and the abutting member 22 presses the sheet feeding roller shaft 82a of the feeding roller 82 to adjust the position of the sheet feeding roller 82. The member 20 for position adjustment can be comprised, and the increase in component cost can be suppressed low. Further, since the beam member 21 can be displaced simultaneously or separately at both ends of the beam member 21, the position of the paper feed roller 82 can be adjusted with high accuracy.

  Although an ink jet printer has been described as an example of the recording apparatus, any recording apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus and a copying apparatus can be applied. In addition to a recording apparatus, the meaning of a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid corresponding to its use from a liquid ejecting head onto an ejected medium instead of ink and attaches the liquid to the ejected medium is, for example, a liquid crystal display or the like Color material jet head used for manufacturing color filters, electrode material (conductive paste) jet head used for electrode formation for organic EL display and surface emitting display (FED), bio-organic jet head used for biochip manufacturing, precision pipette The present invention can also be applied to an apparatus equipped with a sample ejection head or the like.

1 is a perspective view of an overall appearance configuration of an ink jet printer that is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention, viewed obliquely from the front. FIG. It is the perspective view which looked at the whole external appearance structure of the printer of FIG. 1 from diagonally back. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an automatic paper feed mechanism of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5.

Explanation of symbols

20 Position adjusting member, 21 Beam member, 22 Contact member, 82 Paper feed roller, 82a Paper feed roller shaft, 82b Auxiliary paper feed roller, 89 Paper feed frame, 100 Inkjet printer, 101 Housing, 102 Main frame, 110 Operation unit, 120 Cartridge storage unit, 130 First rear paper feed unit, 140 Second rear paper feed unit, 150 Paper discharge unit, 160 Front paper feed unit, 170 Waste ink collection unit, 180 Paper transport unit, 181 Automatic paper feed Mechanism, 190 control unit, 200 recording unit, 201 carriage, 202 recording head, 203 platen, 210 printer cover

Claims (4)

In a medium feeding apparatus having a feeding roller for feeding a medium to be fed,
The medium feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a member for adjusting the position of the feeding roller is provided on a feeding frame that axially supports the feeding roller. The position adjusting member has a beam member whose both ends are supported to be displaceable and fixed to the feeding frame, and a contact member fixed to the beam member and abutting on the shaft of the feeding roller, The medium feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the beam member is displaced, and the position of the feeding roller is adjusted by pressing the shaft of the feeding roller with the contact member. A liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid onto a medium to be ejected,
A liquid ejecting apparatus comprising the medium feeding device according to claim 1. A recording device for recording on a recording medium,
A recording apparatus comprising the medium feeding device according to claim 1.

Images