JPH06199430A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To compose an image forming device compact in size as well as to improve the promotion of efficiency in a setup space. CONSTITUTION:An inserting port 43 of a sheet loading means 20b is installed in the front and side of an image forming device 100, and further, the inserting port installed at the side is positioned in the lower part of a sheet discharge tray 27. In succession, the sheet loading means 20b loading a large size sheet is attached from the inserting port at the side, and even if this sheet loading means 20b is jumped out so larger than the image forming device 100, this jumped out part is situated beneath the sheet discharge tray 27, so that a setup space of the image forming device 100 is not enlarged, thereby expediting the promotion of efficiency in terms of space and, what is more, it comes compact in size.

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 facsimile machine and a copying machine, and more particularly to a method of attaching sheet stacking means for stacking sheets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile machine or the like which uses a cut sheet as a sheet, many cut sheets are used by accommodating the cut sheet in a cassette container corresponding to the sheet size. In the cassette, by changing the position of the partition plate provided in the container, a universal cassette that supports multiple paper sizes in one container, a dedicated cassette that supports only one paper size, and a similar paper size Switchable cassettes are provided. In the facsimile machine, for example, a B4 dedicated cassette, an A4 / letter switching cassette, a legal dedicated cassette and the like are prepared.

Further, since a facsimile machine using a cut sheet does not know what the paper size to be received is before communication, it has a page memory and records on a cut sheet for each page or for each communication. Often.
At this time, if the apparatus prepares two or more types of paper sizes (so-called double cassette, etc.), it is possible to record on the optimum paper size (normal transmission original size) according to the information stored in the page memory. become.

Also, with respect to the direction and position of inserting the cassette into the device, a so-called front loading system is adopted in which the device, which has been set in the shape of a blade and protrudes to the side of the conventional device, is stored in a shelf form from the entire surface of the device. The installation area can be reduced, and the user can easily insert and remove the cassette.

[0005]

However, when comparing the front loading method with the side loading method which does not have a blade shape and accommodates a cassette under the image forming apparatus, the front loading method may be different depending on the size of the sheet 17 to be used. However, there is a drawback that the installation area becomes large. For example, if the image forming apparatus is A4 (21
0 × 297), letter (216 × 279), and legal (216 × 356) three types of recording cut sheets can be used, as shown in FIG. If the seat is picked up from the right and flows to the left, 3
It is dominated by the legal size, which is the longest of the sizes, and given the usage rate of legal size, there is a strong sense that users are provided with an unnecessarily large size. As shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, if the legal cassette is a side-loading method of popping out of the image forming apparatus, the width of the image forming apparatus can be set to A4 size, and the installation area is 59 mm from the legal. Becomes smaller.

Usually, A4 or letter is used most of the time. Therefore, it is not a good idea to store the legal cassette in the image forming apparatus without intentionally popping it out because the image forming apparatus is enlarged. However, as described above, the side loading has a drawback that it is difficult to insert and remove the cassette, and it is necessary to secure a space on the right side of the image forming apparatus to insert and remove the cassette.

Therefore, the present invention has good operability and
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus with good space efficiency.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a sheet (1
Sheet stacking means (20a, 20b) for stacking and storing 7)
And insertion / removal ports (43, 44) capable of attaching / detaching the sheet stacking means (20a, 20).
3, 44) are provided on the front and side of the apparatus, and the sheet stacking means (20b) for loading a large size sheet (17) is inserted into the insertion port (44) provided on the side of the apparatus. It is characterized by being done.

Further, there is provided a sheet discharging means (27) for discharging the image-formed sheet (17), and the sheet discharging means (27) stacks a large size sheet (17). It is provided in the same direction as the insertion opening (44) of the loading means (20b).

Further, sheet stacking means (20a, 20b) for stacking and storing sheets (17) used for image formation, and an insertion opening (43) for making the sheet stacking means (20a, 20b) detachable. And the insertion port (43) is continuously provided on the front surface and the side surface of the apparatus, and the sheet stacking means (20b) is provided from the front side of the apparatus with the insertion port (4).
3), when the sheet stacking means (20b) for stacking a large size sheet (17) is inserted, a part of the sheet stacking means (20b) protrudes from the side surface of the apparatus. It is characterized by

Further, it has a sheet discharging means (27) for discharging the image-formed sheet (17), and the sheet discharging means (27) is provided on the side surface of the apparatus with the insertion port (4).
It is provided in the same direction as 4).

[0012]

With the above configuration, the sheet stacking means (20
a, 20b) are provided on both sides and front of the image forming apparatus, and large-sized sheet stacking means (20b) is inserted into the side insertion ports (43, 44). I will wear it.

Further, the insertion openings (43, 44) provided in the image forming apparatus are provided so as to extend across the side surface and the front surface, and when the sheet stacking means (20a, 20b) is inserted from the front surface,
Make sure that the protruding part is on the side of the device.

The above-mentioned reference numerals in parentheses are for comparison with the drawings, but do not limit the structure of the present invention.

[0015]

【Example】

<First Embodiment> A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a perspective view of the image forming apparatus 100, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view thereof. First, the overall configuration of the image forming apparatus 100 will be described. Reference numeral A denotes a document reading unit that is an optical unit, which reads information written on a document, converts the information into an electric signal, and outputs it as an image signal. An image forming unit B forms an image on a sheet according to an image signal from the document reading unit A. Further, C is a sheet conveying unit, which conveys the sheet supplied from the stacking and accommodating cassette (sheet stacking unit) to the image forming unit B, and discharges the image-formed sheet.

In FIG. 1, D is an operation panel provided with the number of images formed, image formation density, a transmission switch, etc., and E is a telephone.

The configuration of each part of the image forming image forming apparatus 100 will be sequentially described below.

[Document Reading Unit] As shown in FIG. 2, the document reading unit A has a document placing table 1 and the document placing table 1 is placed with the surface of the document 3 facing down. The original 3 is guided by the side guides 2 to regulate the placement position, and the original 3 is sequentially fed from the bottom. This paper feed is preliminarily conveyed by the preliminary conveyance roller 4a and the pressure contact member 4b that is in pressure contact therewith, and is separated one by one by the separation roller 5a and the pressure contact member 5b that is in pressure contact with this. After that, the separated and fed original 3 is conveyed by a conveying roller 6a and a pinch roller 6b which is in pressure contact with the conveying roller 6a, and an image described on the original 3 is converted into an electric signal by a contact type contact sensor 7 which is an optical means. Becomes an image signal. The document 3 from which the image has been read is discharged to a document discharge tray 9 mounted on the left side surface of the main body of the image forming apparatus 100 by a discharge roller 8a and a pinch roller 8b that is pressed against the discharge roller 8a.

[Image Forming Means] The image forming means B is configured as a laser beam printer in the first embodiment and has a photosensitive drum 11. The photosensitive drum 11 rotates counterclockwise, and a charger 12 is provided around the photosensitive drum 11 to charge the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. Then, a laser beam is emitted from the laser transmitter 13 according to the image signal, and is irradiated on the rotating photosensitive drum 11 which is reflected and charged by the polygon mirror 14 to form an electrostatic latent image. Toner is made to adhere to the electrostatic latent image by the developing unit 15 to form a visible image. The toner image is transferred to the sheet 17 conveyed between the photosensitive drum 11 and the transfer roller 16 that is in pressure contact with the photosensitive drum 11 to form an image. The photosensitive drum 11 after the toner transfer is cleaned by the cleaning member 18.

The photosensitive drum 11, the charger 12,
The developing unit 15 and the cleaning member 18 are housed in an image forming cartridge 19, and the cartridge 19 is detachably housed in the main body of the image forming apparatus 100.

[Sheet Conveying Means] Next, the sheet conveying means C
The cassette 20 for accommodating the sheets 17 is detachably attached to the lower part of the main body of the image forming apparatus 100 as will be described later.
Sheets 17 made of cut sheets are stacked and accommodated in the sheet 0. The uppermost sheet 17 is fed by a half-moon-shaped feeding roller 21, and the sheet 17 and the photosensitive drum 11 are synchronized with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 11 by a pair of conveying rollers including a driving roller 22a and a pinch roller 22b. The paper is fed between the transfer roller 16. Here, the image formation is performed as described above, and then the sheet 17 has the fixing roller 24a having the heater 23 built-in and the pressure roller 24b that is pressed against the fixing roller 24a.
Then, heat and pressure are applied to fix the toner. Then, the sheet discharge tray 27 is formed by the transport rollers 25a and 25b and the discharge roller pair 26a and 26b.
(Sheet discharging means).

In FIG. 1, A4 / letter cassette 20a
The (sheet stacking means) is configured to be inserted and removed in the F direction. The A4 / letter cassette 20a will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, 30 is a container of the cassette body, 31 is a movable side pressure plate that regulates the width direction of A4 size and letter size, and 32 is a groove hole for mounting the rear end plate that regulates the length direction (in the letter size. (Used when converting) 33 is a removable projecting piece provided to detect the sheet size and to detect that the cassette is properly inserted. Further, 34a is a protrusion where a sensor provided in the image forming apparatus 100 for detecting the remaining amount of sheets faces a mechanism portion configured to be set / released when the cassette is inserted and removed, and 35 is a sheet separating sheet. Separation claws for removing the sheet, 36 a recessed portion that the sheet remaining amount sensor has escaped so as to fall when there is no paper, 37 a pressing plate for pressing the sheet upward, and 38 affixed to indicate whether the cassette is A4 or letter. It is a seal.

FIG. 4 shows a legal (L
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the GL) cassette 20b (sheet stacking means), and the shape of the protrusion 34b for releasing the remaining sheet amount sensor is shown in FIG.
In contrast to, the dater is attached along the insertion direction S. Insertion and removal of the cassettes 20a and 20b will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 5, 39 is the image forming apparatus 1.
Ribs provided on the 00 side for guiding the insertion and provided orthogonally. Also, the intersections are cut so as not to interfere with each other. Further, a groove portion 40 that is loosely fitted to the rib 39 is also provided on the bottom surface of the cassette body container 30, and the width thereof is set to be slightly wider than the width of the rib 39.
FIG. 6 is a partial schematic diagram of the image forming apparatus 100 for explaining the configuration of the cassette insertion portion. Reference numeral 41 is a reflection type photo sensor for detecting the sheet size and the presence / absence of the cassette. In the first embodiment, two photosensors 41 are provided because it is necessary to recognize the presence or absence of a cassette and four types of A4, letter, and legal. Four
Reference numeral 2 denotes a sheet remaining amount detection sensor and its release mechanism portion, the details of which are shown in FIGS. Reference numeral 43 is an insertion / removal opening (insertion opening) of the A4 / letter cassette 20a, and 44 is an insertion / removal opening (insertion opening) of the legal cassette 20b.

FIG. 7 shows the release mechanism portion in a state where the cassette is not inserted. The actuator 45 contacting the uppermost surface of the sheet 17 has escaped upward (upward in FIG. 7) and the cassette 20 is inserted. It does not come into contact with you when you take it off. The actuator 45 is integrally formed with a shield plate 47 for turning on and off a sheet remaining amount sensor 46, which is a photo interrupter, and a portion 48 in contact with a seesaw-shaped member 49. The member 49 is a torsion coil spring 5
It is in contact with the member 51 that is biased in the a direction by 0. Since the member 51 is biased in the a direction, the member 49 pushes the end portion 48 of the actuator 45 in the b direction. As a result, the actuator 45 rotates in the c direction to turn off the photo interrupter 46, and the actuator 45 can escape in the c direction.

When the cassettes 20a and 20b are inserted,
Protrusions 34a, 34 provided on the cassettes 20a, 20b
b slides toward the leg portion 52 of the member 51 from the F direction or the S direction.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of the release mechanism section in a state where the cassettes 20a and 20b are inserted in the image forming apparatus 100. The protrusion 34a pushes the leg portion 52 in the F direction, or the data portion of the protrusion 34b moves in the S direction to move the leg portion 52 in the F direction.
Push in the direction. As a result, the member 49 becomes free, and the actuator 45 becomes rotatable in the e direction due to its own weight balance. Then, the actuator 45 descends in the f direction until it comes into contact with the uppermost surface of the seat 17. If there is no sheet 17 as shown in FIG. 8, cassettes 20a, 20a
The actuator 45 descends to the recess 36 provided in b. At this time, if the shape of the shielding plate 47 is set so that the photo interrupter 46 is turned on, the remaining amount of the sheet 17 can be detected.

In the above description, the A4 and letter cassettes are described as being changed by a partition plate in a common container, but they may be divided into dedicated cassettes. Further, the separation method of the cassette is the claw separation method, but other separation methods may be used. Further, the mechanism for linking the detection of the remaining amount of paper to the insertion / removal of the cassette and releasing the reset is not limited to the above configuration. The sensor with / without the cassette is not limited to the reflection type sensor, and the same applies to other switches such as a push type sensor. Further, although the above description has been made with respect to the single-cassette facsimile, it goes without saying that a sheet-feed image forming apparatus 100 having a plurality of cassettes may be provided. <Second Embodiment> A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Since the basic structure of the image forming apparatus in the second embodiment is substantially the same as that in the first embodiment, the same reference numerals are given and the description thereof is omitted.

In the first embodiment, the legal cassette is inserted / removed from the right side S direction as shown in FIG. 1. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. You may insert and remove from the left side. FIG. 9 is a perspective view in which the legal cassette 20b is inserted into the image forming apparatus 100. The legal cassette 20b is inserted from the S ′ direction, and the rear end of the legal cassette 20b is located in the image forming apparatus 1.
It is jumping out of 00. Since the sheet discharge tray 27 and the document discharge tray 9 are provided above the projecting legal cassette 20b, a large installation area becomes unnecessary. In addition, even if done in this way, there are almost no design problems. <Third Embodiment> A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The basic configuration of the image forming apparatus 100 according to the third embodiment is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, and thus the same reference numerals are given and the description thereof is omitted. In FIG. 10, the cassette insertion opening is continuously provided on the front and side surfaces of the image forming apparatus 100. The cassettes 20a and 20b (a legal cassette is illustrated in FIG. 10) are configured to be mounted in the F direction. FIG. 11 shows a perspective view of the legal cassette 20b. Further, the main body of the image forming apparatus 100 is provided with a rib 39 for guiding the insertion of the cassettes 20a and 20b as shown in FIG.
It is adapted to be loosely engaged with the groove portion 40 of the.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the legal cassette 20b inserted into the image forming apparatus 100. The left end portion of the legal cassette 20b is projected from the image forming apparatus 100. The cassette 20 that popped out
Since the sheet discharge tray 27 and the document discharge tray 9 are arranged above b, the installation area is not increased and the design is not spoiled.

In the above description, the cassette 20b is projected to the left side in FIG. 13, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the cassette may be projected from the right side by reversing the feeding direction.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image forming apparatus does not become large even when the sheet stacking means for stacking a large legal size is used, and the operability is reduced and the space efficiency is improved. Became possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the image forming apparatus applied to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a sheet stacking unit applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a sheet stacking unit applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a detailed view of a mounting portion of the image forming apparatus and the sheet stacking unit applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an attachment portion of the image forming apparatus and the sheet stacking unit applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a mechanism releasing mechanism of the image forming apparatus applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a mechanism releasing mechanism of the image forming apparatus applied to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to Example 3 of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a sheet stacking unit applied to Example 3 of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of an attachment portion of an image forming apparatus and a stacking unit applied to the third embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to Example 3 of the invention.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to a description of conventional technology.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to a description of conventional technology.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus applied to a description of conventional technology.

[Explanation of symbols]

 17 sheets 20a A4 / letter cassette (sheet stacking means) 20b legal cassette (sheet stacking means) 27 sheet discharge tray (sheet discharge means) 43,44

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sheet stacking unit for stacking and storing sheets to be used for image formation, and an insertion port for detachably attaching the sheet stacking unit, the insertion port being provided on a front surface and a side surface of the apparatus. An image forming apparatus, wherein the sheet stacking means, which is provided and stacks large-sized sheets, is inserted into the insertion opening provided on the side surface of the apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sheet discharging unit that discharges the image-formed sheet, and the sheet discharging unit stacks a large size sheet. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is provided in the same direction as the insertion port of. 3. A sheet stacking means for stacking and storing sheets to be used for image formation, and an insertion opening for detachably attaching the sheet stacking means, the insertion opening being provided on a front surface and a side surface of the apparatus. When the sheet stacking means that are continuously provided and are inserted into the insertion opening from the front of the apparatus and the large size sheets are stacked, the sheet stacking means 1 The image forming apparatus is characterized in that the portion is protruded from the side surface of the apparatus. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a sheet discharging unit that discharges an image-formed sheet, the sheet discharging unit including the insertion opening provided on the side surface of the apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image forming apparatuses are provided in the same direction.