JPH0569618A - Manual paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] In a manual paper feeding device used in a printing device, skew at the time of paper feeding can be corrected without reducing the number of sheets that can be fed per unit time. [Structure] Conveying rollers 5 and 6 for feeding a sheet to a printing unit, and feeding rollers 3 and 4 for feeding the sheet to the conveying rollers 5 and 6.
And a single sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 arranged upstream of the sheet feeding rollers 3 and 4 in the sheet feeding direction and capable of detecting two or more sheet leading edge positions before the sheet reaches the sheet feeding rollers 3 and 4. Have.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manual sheet feeder used in a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1, for example, a manual sheet feeding device is arranged at a sheet feeding upstream position and holds a sheet from a sheet feeding start position until the sheet is nipped by sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2. The base plate 9 is attached near both ends in the width direction on the base plate 9, and guides both the left and right sides of the paper, and can be moved in parallel in the left-right direction according to each paper size, and can be adjusted in a U-shape and an inverted U-shape. The guides 10 and 11 for inserting paper, the base plate 9 and the guides 10 and 11 for inserting paper are arranged above the regulating member 8 for regulating the direction of the upper surface of the paper, the central portion of the regulating member 8, and are manually fed. A sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 for detecting the leading edge of the sheet is provided. Further, a pair of sheet guides 5 and 6 for holding and guiding the sheet from the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 to the conveying rollers 3 and 4 and the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 and the conveying rollers 3 and 4 which are conveying means to the printing position. have.

When the paper is fed by the manual paper feeding device, first, the paper insertion guides 10 and 11 are moved to match the width of the paper to be fed, and the paper insertion guide 1 is moved.
A sheet is set on the base plate 9 along 0 and 11, and the sheet is manually advanced in the direction of the feed rollers 1 and 2. When the sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 detects the leading edge of the sheet at a position before the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2, the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 start rotating at an extremely low speed to nip the sheet, and the sheet guides 5 and 5.
Feeding is started in the direction of the conveying rollers 3 and 4 via 6. At that time, the transport rollers 3 and 4 are rotating at the same low speed as the paper feed rollers 1 and 2, and the sheet passes through the transport rollers 3 and 4 and is positioned downstream of the transport rollers 3 and 4 and immediately after passing. When the leading edge of the sheet is detected by a sheet feeding confirmation sensor (not shown) that detects the leading edge of the sheet, the feed rollers 1 and 2 and the transport rollers 3 and 4 are accelerated to a predetermined sheet feeding speed, and printing (not shown) is performed. The paper is quickly supplied to the section.

With the above-described structure, the skew correction of the sheet of the manual sheet feeder is performed by the guides 10 and 11 for inserting the sheet.
The both ends of the sheet in the left-right direction are regulated by the paper, and when the leading edge of the sheet passes the sheet leading edge detection sensor 7, the leading edge of the sheet is brought into contact with the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 which start rotating at an extremely low speed. This is done by making the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 parallel to the axial direction.

[0005]

However, since the sheet is fed at an extremely slow feed speed until the leading edge of the sheet passes the conveying rollers 3 and 4, the number of sheets that can be fed per unit time is small. .. As one of solving means for increasing the number of sheets that can be fed per unit time, the leading edge of the sheet passes between the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 and the conveying rollers 3 and 4. It is conceivable to provide a paper passage detection sensor for detecting the sheet feeding speed and increase the feeding speed of the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 and the conveying rollers 3 and 4 to a predetermined feeding speed at the same time as the detection. Even when the method is adopted, it is necessary to increase the distance between the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the transport rollers 3 and 4 by securing the installation area of the newly installed sensor, which also causes the paper feed per unit time. The number of possible sheets is reduced, and the number of sensors is increased by one, resulting in an increase in cost.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and immediately after the leading edge of the manually fed sheet is fed by the sheet feeding means without increasing the number of sheet detection sensors. An object of the present invention is to provide a manual paper feeding device capable of increasing the feeding speed to a predetermined feeding speed and increasing the number of sheets that can be fed per unit time.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a manual sheet feeding device used in a printing apparatus, a conveying unit for feeding a sheet during printing, and a sheet feeding unit for feeding the sheet to the conveying unit. Means, a paper guide for guiding the paper fed from the paper feeding means to the conveying means, and a paper guide arranged upstream of the paper feeding means in the paper feeding direction until the paper reaches the paper feeding means by manual feeding. It is provided with detecting means for detecting the leading edge of the paper at at least two places, and control means for switching the paper feeding speed of the paper feeding means from low speed to high speed based on the detection signal from this detecting means.

[0008]

According to the above construction, by moving the actuator of the detecting means located at the upstream position of the paper feeding means at the leading edge of the manually fed sheet, the detecting means detects the time when the leading edge of the sheet passes through the paper feeding means. To detect. The distance between these two predetermined locations is calculated and stored in advance. When the leading edge of the paper is first detected by the detecting means, the paper feeding means is driven at an extremely low speed, and then the second time difference is read by the second detection, whereby the leading edge of the paper is fed to the paper feeding means. Calculate the estimated time to reach. Based on this time, the control means immediately increases the feed speed of the paper feed means and the transport means to a predetermined speed immediately after the time when the leading edge of the paper is predicted to reach the paper feed means. Therefore, at the moment when the leading edge of the sheet hits the sheet feeding unit, the sheet feeding unit is driven at an extremely low speed, and skew correction is performed. After that, the paper is fed and conveyed at a predetermined speed.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A manual sheet feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a manual paper feeding device according to this embodiment. Paper feed rollers 1 and 2 are rotatably supported by a body frame (not shown),
Further, conveying rollers 3 and 4 are rotatably supported at positions downstream of the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 in the sheet feeding direction. A pair of paper guides 5 and 6 for guiding the paper from the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 to the carry rollers 3 and 4 are provided between the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the carry rollers 3 and 4. Further, a base plate 9 for holding the paper is provided at a position upstream of the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 which is a paper supply start position, and a guide 10 for inserting a paper for guiding the left and right side edges of the paper is provided on the base plate 9. , 11 and a regulation member 8 for regulating the direction of the upper surface of the paper.
Further, it has a sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 which is located at the central position of the regulating member 8 and which detects the leading edge of the sheet set on the base plate 9 at a predetermined position. The sheet set on the base plate 9 by being guided by the regulating member 8 and the sheet insertion guides 10 and 11 is pushed by hand and moved forward to pass through the sheet leading edge detection sensor 7, and the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 1. The sheet is sandwiched by the sheet 2 and fed to the printing position from the conveying rollers 3 and 4 through the sheet guides 5 and 6.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the paper edge detection sensor 7. The paper edge detection sensor 7 includes a light emitting unit 16 and a light receiving unit 17.
An actuator 18 is rotatably supported between the light emitting section 16 and the light receiving section 17. The actuator 18 is provided with a rotary shaft 19 for mounting the actuator 18 between the light emitting unit 16 and the light receiving unit 17 so as to be rotatable.
And a fan-shaped optical path blocking portion 20 for blocking the optical path, and a rectangular paper contact portion 21 for contacting the paper when the paper passes and rotating the actuator 18. Also,
The optical path blocking unit 20 has a slit 20a, and when the slit 20a is located in the optical path, the optical path is not blocked and the light from the light emitting unit 16 reaches the light receiving unit 17.

Next, the operation of the actuator 18 when the paper passes through the paper leading edge detection sensor 7 is shown in FIG. When the paper feeding operation is not performed, the optical path blocking unit 20 of the actuator 18 is at the position shown in (a) by its own weight. At this time, the optical path blocking unit 20 of the actuator 18 does not block the optical path (the center of the sensor optical path is indicated by S), so that the light reaches the light receiving unit 17. Next, the paper is manually fed from the paper feed start position, and when the leading edge of the paper reaches the point A as shown in (b), the paper contact portion 21 of the actuator 18 is pushed to rotate the actuator 18 to the rotary shaft. Rotate around 19. As a result, the optical path blocking unit 20 moves and blocks the optical path. When it is confirmed that the optical path is blocked, at the same time, the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 start rotating at an extremely low speed. At this time, the transport rollers 3 and 4 also start to rotate at the same speed. When the paper is further inserted, as shown in (c), the actuator 18 further rotates, the optical path blocking unit 20 moves, and the slit 20a appears on the optical path, so that the optical path is not blocked and the light emitting unit is not blocked. The light from 16 reaches the light receiving unit 17. When the paper continues to be pushed in and reaches the point B as shown in (d), the optical path blocking unit 20 of the actuator 18 again blocks the optical path.

Here, the point A shown in FIG.
Since the distance X to the point B shown in (d) can be calculated on the drawing, the distance X is stored in advance in software, and when the paper is fed, the distance X is started at the point A in (b). 2 from the point B in (d) since the optical path blocker 20 blocked the optical path.
By counting the time until the light path blocking unit 20 blocks the light path for the second time by software, the speed at which the paper is advanced from the state of (b) to the state of (d) can be calculated. Further, since the distance Y from the point B of the sheet leading edge position to the point C where the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 are shown in (d) can also be calculated on the drawing, the distance Y is calculated as AB above.
By dividing by the speed of the sheet in between, the time from the point B at which the leading edge of the sheet is detected for the second time to the point C at which the leading edge of the sheet reaches the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 is known. That is, the sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 detects that the leading edge of the sheet has passed the point A and then passes the point B, and at the same time calculates the time to reach the point C where the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 are located. Therefore, it is possible to increase the rotation speed of the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the conveyance rollers 3 and 4 to a predetermined rotation speed immediately after the leading edge of the paper reaches the paper feed rollers 1 and 2, that is, point C. Is possible. This makes it possible to expect an increase in the number of print copies without impairing the effect of preventing skew.

FIG. 4 shows a block configuration for controlling the manual sheet feeder according to this embodiment. The detection signal of the sheet leading edge detection sensor 7 is input to the control unit 22, and the control unit 22 sequentially controls the speed of the drive motor 23 based on the detection signal of the sensor 7. The drive motor 23 rotationally drives the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the transport rollers 3 and 4. FIG. 5 is a graph showing changes in the rotation speeds of the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the transport rollers 3 and 4, and the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 and the transport rollers 3 and 4 have the leading end of the paper in FIG. When it reaches the point and is detected by the sheet leading edge position detection sensor 7 (t1), it starts rotating at an extremely low speed, and then the leading edge of the sheet reaches point C in FIG. The time (t2) predicted to be sandwiched is calculated, and the speed is increased to a predetermined speed at the timing of this time t2. Here, at the moment when the leading edge of the sheet reaches the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2, the sheet feeding rollers 1 and 2 are in a low-speed drive state before being accelerated, so that the sheet leading edge is set to the rollers 1 and 2. The skew of the paper can be corrected while it is being touched.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the light-transmitting type sensor is used as the sheet leading edge detecting sensor 7 to detect the two leading edge positions of the sheet has been described.
If it can be detected at more than one place, the target operation can be achieved.
Further, the paper leading edge detection sensor 7 detects that the paper is the paper feed roller 1,
Anything that can detect the position of the tip at two or more places before reaching 2 can be replaced with anything. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the driving speed of the paper feed rollers 1 and 2 is set to two stages of low speed and high speed (predetermined speed), but such step control is not always necessary. The speed may be continuously controlled from low speed to high speed in the vicinity of time t2 in FIG.

[0015]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the manual sheet feeder of the present invention, the sheet feeding is performed based on the signal detected by the sheet leading edge detection sensor provided at the upstream position of the sheet feeding means in the sheet feeding direction. Since it is possible to calculate the timing for increasing the feeding speed of the paper unit from the low speed to the predetermined speed, after the skew correction during the manual paper feeding is completed,
The paper feeding speed of the paper feeding means and the conveying means can be rapidly increased, and the number of sheets that can be manually fed per unit time can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a manual sheet feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a light transmissive sheet leading edge detection sensor of the manual sheet feeding device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of control in this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a control mode of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 paper feed rollers (paper feed means) 3, 4 transport rollers (transport means) 7 paper edge detection sensor (detection means) 22 control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A manual sheet feeding device used in a printing apparatus, wherein a conveying unit for feeding a sheet during printing, a sheet feeding unit for feeding a sheet to the conveying unit, and a sheet for feeding the sheet sent out from the sheet feeding unit. A paper guide that guides you to the means,
Based on a detection signal which is arranged upstream of the paper feeding means and which detects the leading edge of the paper at at least two places before the paper reaches the paper feeding means by manual feeding. A manual sheet feeding device comprising: a control unit that switches the sheet feeding speed of the sheet feeding unit from a low speed to a high speed.