JPS636117Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a sheet material storage tray, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a sheet material storage tray that receives sheet material discharged from an image forming device installed near the sheet discharge portion of an image forming device such as a facsimile machine or a copying machine. This invention relates to a sheet material storage tray.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a strong demand for image forming apparatuses such as facsimile machines and copying machines to be smaller and lighter.
As a result, in the past, trays for storing recording paper, manuscripts, and other sheet materials ejected from image forming devices were not built into the machine body, but were attached in a way that protruded outside the machine. It was common to downsize the . As a result, even if the main body of the machine is made smaller, the installation space during use becomes larger due to the protrusion of the tray section.
The drawback was that it was not miniaturized in an actual sense. In addition, rolled paper such as thermal recording paper used in facsimiles and the like has a disadvantage in that it has a strong curl and is difficult to store in an orderly manner on a conventional linear tray surface. Recently, there has been a trend to reduce the outer diameter of the paper while keeping the length the same, especially in response to the demand for downsizing of the main body of the machine. As paper curls become more noticeable, there is a strong desire to develop a paper storage method that can accommodate this.

In addition, when creating records of multiple original documents using such an image forming apparatus, if the recording is performed sequentially from the first page of the original, the recorded sheets ejected from the apparatus will be placed with the image side facing upward. Since the recorded sheets stored in the conventional tray are stacked with the first page facing down and the second and subsequent pages are stacked on top of it, the sheets stacked in the tray are It will be in the reverse order of the original. For this reason, conventionally, after the recording operation is completed, it is necessary to rearrange the recorded sheets in order from the first page, that is, perform a page alignment operation, which is very time-consuming.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet material storage tray that can reliably hold a large number of sheet materials in the tray, can correctly hold even tightly curled sheet materials, and can easily take out the sheet materials. It is to be.

The sheet material storage tray according to the present invention is characterized by a first guide member against which the leading end of the ejected sheet comes into contact and guides it downward, and a guide member that faces the first guide member to form a sheet storage space. a second guide member, the convex part of the first guide member is combined with the concave part of the second guide member, and a narrow width member is configured to grip the leading end of the sheet fed downward into the lower part of the storage space. This is due to the formation of a blockage.

This will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional facsimile machine equipped with this type of sheet material storage tray. The illustrated facsimile device 1 includes an image reading and transmitting system that reads information from the document using an optical system 3 and transmits image information while feeding the document on a document table 2, and a recording paper according to the received image information. The apparatus includes an image receiving and recording system for recording an image by a thermal head 7 on a thermal recording paper 6 that is unwound from a roll 4 and transported by a platen roller 5. 8 is a power supply section including a power supply device and the like.

On the left side of the image forming apparatus main body 1, there is provided a document storage tray 10 for storing original documents 9 that are sequentially sent out from the document table 2, and on the right side of the apparatus main body 1, a document storage tray 10 is provided where images are recorded by a thermal head 7. After that, cut the cutter 11 to a predetermined length, e.g.
A recording paper storage tray 12 is provided to store recorded recording paper cut into lengths of A4 size.

In such a conventional image forming apparatus, the trays 10 and 12 protrude from both sides of the apparatus main body 1, so even if the apparatus main body is downsized, the actual installation space is still small due to the protrusion of these trays. Can't make it smaller. If these trays are installed together on one side of the device main body, the installation space can be reduced by one tray, but if they are installed all together on one side of the device main body, documents and records will be Both paper drive systems are concentrated on one side, which impairs the space efficiency inside the main body of the apparatus and complicates the drive system, which not only leads to a decrease in reliability but also to a significant increase in costs.

Also, the recording paper that is ejected onto the tray 12 is ejected with the image side facing up, so when creating multiple records in sequence, the first page should be at the bottom and the last page should be at the top. Therefore, page alignment is required after the recording operation is completed.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the sheet material storage tray of the conventional image forming apparatus, and one embodiment thereof is shown in FIG.

Fig. 2 shows the facsimile machine shown in Fig. 1 equipped with a sheet material storage tray according to the present invention. The detailed explanation will be omitted.

A sheet material storage tray 13 according to the present invention is provided near the lower side of the recording paper sheet discharge port of the facsimile apparatus described above. Details of the sheet material storage tray 13 are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Note that FIG. 3 is a side view of the storage section in a closed state, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the storage section in an open state. As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet material storage tray 13 has a first guide member 14 as an opposing member against which the ejected sheet is brought into contact and guides it downward, and a first guide member 14 that is opposed to the first guide member. The second guide member 16 is configured to form a seat storage space 15. The second guide member 16 is made of a plastic plate or the like fixed to the stay 17 of the facsimile device body 1, and the lower end of the first guide member 14 is connected to the pin 18 at the lower end of the second guide member 16. connected by. In the illustrated embodiment, these guide members 14 and 16 are shown as plates, but these guide members do not necessarily have to be plate-shaped, and may be, for example, a plurality of wires arranged in the vertical direction. In short, any member may be used as long as it can prevent the recording paper from moving and guide it into the storage space 15.

A third guide member 14 is inserted between the facsimile device main body 1 and the first guide member 14.
A click mechanism (not shown) is provided to lock the first guide member 14 in the state shown in the figure.
is held in the closed position shown in FIG. Thus, the first guide member 14 can be opened by rotating around the pin, and in the open position shown by the two-dot chain line, the first guide member 14 is locked by the stay 17 of the main body 1. As shown in FIG. 4, when the first guide member 14 is open, the ejected recording paper 6 moves along the first guide member 14. forms a discharge guide. If the recording paper is too short or too long,
It is preferable to use the first guide member 14 in an open state as described above. Furthermore, when a large amount of recording paper is stored at one time and the storage capacity is exceeded, the click mechanism that locks the first guide member 14 in the closed state is automatically released by the weight of the stored recording paper. Thus, the first guide member 14 can be placed in an open state.

When the first guide member 14 is in the closed state as shown in FIG.
Sheet material storage space 1 formed between members 16 of
A narrow closing portion 19 is formed at the lower part of the sheet material 5 as a gripping portion for gripping the leading end of the sheet material fed downward. In the illustrated embodiment, the sheet material storage space 15 is formed in a V-shape, and a closing portion 19 is formed at the bottom thereof, which is provided below the second guide member 16 as shown in FIG. It is formed by combining a comb-shaped notch 21 as a recess provided thereon and a rib-like protrusion 22 as a protrusion provided on the first guide member 14 .

Note that this does not necessarily have to be V-shaped,
The wall surfaces formed by both members may be slightly apart at the lower end. In addition, when the first guide member 14 is closed, the angle formed between the recording paper and the guide member 14 is an obtuse angle so that the recording paper contacts the guide member 14 and is smoothly guided downward into the storage space 15. It is enough.

Further, when the first guide member 14 is closed, an open portion 20 is formed at the upper end of the first guide member 14 to allow the rear end of the sheet material to be reversed when a long type sheet material is stored. . That is, as shown in FIG. 6, when the first guide member 14 is closed, the upper end 14 of the first guide member 14
An opening 20 sufficient for ejecting the loop-shaped recording paper 6 is formed between the upper case 23 and the guide 24 of the main body 1. Therefore, the recording paper 6 6' is introduced into the wedge-shaped storage space 15 of the storage tray 13, and the leading end of the recording paper 6 is held in the bottom of the storage space. When the rear end is cut by the cutter 11, the rear end of the recording paper is reversed and sent out of the device due to the elasticity of the paper and the rotational force of the cutter blade, and the leading edge 6' of the recording paper 6 is fed into the machine. Storing is completed with the rear end hanging out of the machine while it is held in the machine, and the operation can be continued to store the next recording paper.

In the sheet material storage tray described above, the distance from the closing part 19 that grips the leading edge 6' of the recording paper 6 to the cutter 11 or roller or other final ejection means is the length in the normal feeding direction of the recording paper used. For example, if the length is shorter than the length of A4 size recording paper, a large number of recording papers can be held with the leading edge held by the above-mentioned closing part 19 and the trailing edge hanging outside the machine. The tray allows for secure storage. With this configuration, a large number of elongated sheet materials can be held in the storage tray that does not protrude from the image forming apparatus, and can also be easily taken out. Also,
In such a configuration, the sheet materials are held in the tray in an inverted state, so that the page alignment operation required in conventional trays is also unnecessary.

Next, the operation of storing sheet materials in the sheet material storage tray according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 11.

First, the thermal recording paper 6 is fed out from the roll 4.
is heated by a thermal head 7 according to the information, and image information is recorded on the surface of the recording paper 6. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 7, the recording paper 6 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 5, passes through the cutter 11, and the leading end of the recording paper 6 is conveyed by the rotation of the platen roller 5. It abuts against the guide member 14 at an obtuse angle. At this time, as shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of ribs 22 are provided on the inner wall surface of the first guide member 14 to reduce the contact resistance with the leading edge of the recording paper and smoothly move the leading edge of the recording paper into the storage tray 13. It is guided into the storage space 15. At that time, recording is performed using a V-shaped wedge effect formed by the combination of the comb-tooth-shaped notch 21 of the second guide member 16 and the rib-shaped protrusion 22 of the first guide member 14. paper 6
The tip 6' of the storage space is inserted into the closed part at the bottom of the storage space. When the recording paper is continuously fed out in this state, the recording paper 6 forms a loop through the opening 20 as shown in FIG.
It is discharged to the outside of the machine, and finally, as shown in FIG. 10, it curls greatly and hangs down outside the machine body.

When the cutter 11 operates in this state and cuts off the rear end of the recording paper 6, the recording paper hanging outside the machine is reversed in the direction of the arrow using its own weight and the rotational force of the cutter blade. 11, in which the leading end 6' is held in the closing part of the wedge-shaped storage space and the rear end hangs down outside the machine. This series of operations of the recording paper 6 is repeated, and the recording paper sheets accumulate in the tray 13.

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, the leading end of the sheet material is inserted into the closed part at the bottom of the sheet material storage space, and the rear end is turned over and hung outside the machine, thereby allowing the special material to be removed from the machine body. The installation space of the machine can be significantly reduced without having to travel for a special tray. Moreover, the effect is obtained that the sheets can be stored in a well-aligned state regardless of the winding of the sheet materials. Moreover, multiple sheets can be stored in the tray with the information side facing up and arranged in page order, which not only improves installation space but also greatly improves operability such as handling of sheet materials. There is an effect that can be obtained. Also,
Since the paper can be guided into the tray immediately after passing through the cutter, there is no need for paper ejection rollers, which simplifies the mechanism and can be expected to significantly reduce costs and improve reliability.

Furthermore, unlike the conventional method of placing sheet materials on a tray, the tray holds only the leading edge, so even extremely long sheet materials can be stored.

In the present invention, a concave portion is provided on one side of the member forming the tray, and a convex portion is provided on the other side of the member, and by combining these at the narrow closing portion of the tray, a V groove with an acute angle at the bottom is formed. However, the leading edge of the sheet material fed into the groove can be held more reliably by the wedge effect.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to storing recording paper as a sheet material but also to storing manuscripts. Further, in the above embodiments, a case has been described in which continuous paper is cut as a sheet material, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus using pre-cut paper. Furthermore, in the present invention, the concave portions and convex portions are not limited to comb-like notches and rib-like protrusions, and of course members that engage with each other can be applied.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional facsimile machine, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a facsimile machine equipped with a tray according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a state in which the recording paper storage section of the facsimile machine shown in Fig. 2 is closed. An explanatory diagram,
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the recording paper storage section in an open state, and FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the tray according to the present invention, in which each member having a concave portion and a convex portion is combined with a narrow closing portion.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a tray in which a V-groove is formed. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a sheet loop state in a sheet storage section according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 7 to 11 are diagrams of a tray according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a series of movements of the sheet in the sheet storage section. 1...facsimile device body, 2...document stand,
3...Optical system, 4...Recording paper roll, 5...Platen roller, 6...Recording paper, 6'...Recording paper leading edge,
7...Thermal head, 8...Power unit, 9...Document, 10...Document tray, 11...Cutter,
12... Recording paper tray, 13... Sheet material storage tray according to the present invention, 14... First guide member,
15... Sheet material storage space, 16... Second guide member, 17... Stay, 18... Pin, 19...
Closed part, 20... Opening part, 21... Comb tooth-shaped notch, 22... Rib-shaped projecting part, 23... Upper case, 24... Guide.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A sheet material clamping section 19 comprising substantially V-shaped opposing members 14 and 16 that are disposed opposite to each other and clamp the leading end side of the sheet material being conveyed; An opening section 20 that allows reversal feeding of the loop-shaped rear end side of the sheet material whose leading end side is clamped by the sheet material clamping section 19 and a loop is formed at the rear end side.
and a midway portion of the sheet material, which is located above the sheet material holding part 19, and whose leading end side is held by the sheet holding part 19 and whose rear end side is sent out from the opening part 20 and hangs down. and a support upper end portion 14a that supports the sheet material storage tray, wherein the opposing members 14 and 16 form the holding portion 19 by combining the uneven portions of each other at the bottom portions.