The present application claims priority to and incorporates by reference the entire contents of Japanese priority document 2007-231659 filed in Japan on Sep. 6, 2007.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet aligning device, a sheet processing device, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sheet processing devices, such as finishers in image forming apparatuses, are required to have sheet aligning mechanisms for precisely aligning sheet recording media (hereinafter, referred to as “sheet(s)” as appropriate) discharged on sheet trays. For example, sheet processing devices that include sheet aligning mechanisms near sheet discharge portions are known. Those sheet aligning mechanisms align the sheets on the sheet trays.
A conventional sheet processing device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-167104. This technology provides a sheet processing device that aligns a sheet discharged from a discharging unit in a sheet discharging direction. A stacking unit of the sheet processing device is provided with an end fence, and a sheet is properly aligned when a leading edge of the sheet, which is discharged on a sheet tray by the discharging unit, hits the end fence. The sheet processing device includes a returning unit, that is, a rotation member that aligns a sheet by applying stress to the sheet on the sheet tray so that the sheet is moved toward the end fence and hits the end face. The returning unit can be set on arbitrary positions along the sheet discharging direction.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-179326 discloses another conventional sheet processing device. This technology provides a sheet processing device that performs sorting and aligning of sheets on a sheet tray using less driving power regardless of how many sheets are present on the sheet tray. The sheet processing device includes a discharging unit that discharges a conveyed sheet, a stacking unit on which the sheet discharged by the discharging unit is stacked, and an aligning unit that aligns the sheet stacked on the stacking unit. The aligning unit includes a mechanism for aligning a sheet at a predetermined position in a direction (a shift direction) perpendicular to a sheet discharging direction and another mechanism for aligning the sheet at different positions in the shift direction perpendicular to a sheet discharging direction with respect to each stack of sheets.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-356270 discloses still another conventional sheet aligning device, an image forming apparatus, and a sheet processing device. This technology provides an aligning mechanism that can align a sheet on a sheet tray even when the sheet is curled. The sheet aligning device include a discharging unit that discharges a conveyed sheet, a stacking unit on which the sheet discharged by the discharging unit is stacked, and an aligning unit that aligns the sheet stacked on the stacking unit. The aligning unit aligns a sheet by sandwiching side edges of the sheet in a direction parallel to a sheet discharging direction. The aligning unit is rotatably supported on a rotation axis such that a base point of the aligning unit can rotate within a predetermined range. A position of the aligning unit is adjusted so that the aligning unit can sandwich the side edges of the sheet by controlling amount of rotation of the rotation axis.
However, in the conventional sheet processing devices, sheets are aligned when sheets are discharged on the sheet tray. Therefore, if curled sheets or Z-folded sheets are stacked on the sheet tray, a trailing edge of the stack of the sheets becomes thick, and a positional relationship between a shift jogger and side edges of the stack of the sheets is disturbed. This leads to degradation of precision of sheet alignment.
Furthermore, in the sheet processing device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-356270, the shift jogger includes a detecting unit that detects a state of a sheet stacked on the stacking unit. However, this method is effective only in a shift mode and it is ineffective in a normal stacking mode.
It is an object of the present invention to at least partially solve the problems in the conventional technology.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet aligning device including a discharging unit that discharges a sheet in a first direction; a stacking unit that receives and stacks therein the sheet discharged by the,discharging unit; an aligning unit that performs an alignment operation to align the sheet stacked in the stacking unit in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; a detecting unit that detects a sheet position of either one of a first sheet placed at a top of a stack of sheets in the stacking unit and a second sheet placed just below the first sheet; and a controlling unit that controls an alignment position at which the aligning unit is to perform the alignment operation based on the sheet position detected by the detecting unit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet aligning device including a discharging unit that discharges a sheet in a first direction; a stacking unit that receives and stacks therein the sheet discharged by the discharging unit; an aligning unit that performs an alignment operation to align the sheet stacked in the stacking unit in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; a detecting unit that detects a position of one of the sheet in the stacking unit, a surface of a stacking unit, and a surface of a sub stacking unit arranged on the stacking unit; and a controlling unit that controls an alignment position at which the aligning unit is to perform the alignment operation based on the position detected by the detecting unit.
The above and other objects, features, advantages and technical and industrial significance of this invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
According to the embodiments, a discharging unit corresponds to a sheet feeder (a pair of discharging rollers) 10, a stacking unit corresponds to a sheet tray 17, an aligning unit corresponds to a sheet jogger 16, and a detecting unit corresponds to a sheet detection filler 15 and a sensor 12.
The system according to the embodiment includes an image forming apparatus 500 and the sheet processing device 2. The sheet processing device 2 includes a sheet conveyor path A, a proof-tray conveyor path B that leads to a proof tray, an upper conveyor path C, a staple processing path D, a center-fold processing path E, a saddle-stitch processing path F, and a sheet discharge path G. The system includes a plurality of sheet feeders, punches, staplers, folding plates, folding rollers, and the like along with the above paths.
In the system, the image forming apparatus 500 outputs a sheet 1 to a sheet inlet 2a of the sheet processing device 2. Then, an inlet sensor S1 detects the sheet 1, and then sheet feeders (e.g., rollers) 4, 5, 6 convey the sheet 1 along the sheet conveyor path A. The sheet 1 is further conveyed to the upper conveyor path C by rotation of switch valves 2e and 2f and a sheet feeder 7.
The sheet 1 conveyed to the upper conveyor path C is further conveyed by sheet feeders (e.g., rollers) 8, 9, 10, to the sheet discharge path G and discharged from a sheet outlet 19 to the sheet tray 17. A sheet discharge sensor 11 is arranged near the sheet outlet 19 to check the state of sheets to be discharged.
Upon stacking sheets on the sheet tray 17, the sheet processing device 2 performs control to maintain a predetermined distance between a return roller 18 and a stack of sheets by using the sensor 12 and the sheet detection filler 15 with sensors 13 and 14.
In
When the sheet 1 is discharged from the sheet outlet 19, the sheet jogger 16 shifts the sheet 1 in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction before the sheet 1 falls down to the sheet tray 17. After the sheet 1 is stacked on the sheet tray 17, the return roller 18 shifts the sheet 1 in a direction parallel to the sheet conveying direction.
The sheet 1 discharged from the discharging rollers 10 falls down to the sheet tray 17. The sheet 1 stacked on the sheet tray 17 is aligned in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction by the sheet jogger 16. Then, the return roller 18 aligns the sheet 1 in a direction parallel to the sheet conveying direction. Thus, the sheet 1 is aligned. A predetermined distance “a” is always maintained between the stack of sheets and the return roller 18 by using the sensor 12. Specifically, the sheet tray 17 is shifted up or down depending on whether a sheet is detected by the sensor 12.
If the sheets are not curled, a positional relationship between the sensor 12 and the sheet detection filler (sensor) 15 is such that the sensor 12 detects a sheet earlier than the sheet detection filler 15. However, if the sheets are curled as shown in
Specifically, the distance “a” shown in
An example in which the sheet detection filler 15 does not shift the sheet tray 17, that is, when the sheet tray 17 is shifted up or down based on the sensor 12, is described below with reference to
To solve the above situation, the sheet processing apparatus according to the embodiment is configured such that, when a situation shown in
In this manner, the sheet detection filler 15, instead of the sensor 12 that detects a sheet, determines a height of a sheet placed at a top of the stack or a sheet that is placed just below the sheet placed at the top of the stack.
It is preferable to arrange the sheet detection filler 15 such that the sheet detection filler 15 can detect a center portion of a normal sheet (non-curled and non-folded sheet) as shown in
The sheet jogger 16 is returned to an original position (a position shown in
A sheet is discharged by the discharging rollers 10 and stacked on the sheet tray 17 (Step S101). It is determined whether the sheet detection filler 15 is turned ON (Step S102). When the sheet detection filler 15 is turned ON (Yes at Step S102), the sheet jogger 16 is shifted to a position appropriate for aligning side edges of a sheet (Step S103). When one job is completed (Yes at Step S104), the sheet jogger 16 returns to an original position (Step S105).
In another embodiment, as shown in
A leading edge of a Z-folded sheet becomes thick because of folding. Therefore, if positions of stacked Z-folded sheets are detected by using the sheet detection filler 15 and the sheet jogger 16 is rotated and shifted as shown in
Only the sheet aligning function of the sheet jogger 16 has been explained above. The sheet jogger 16 also has a sorting function for sorting a bundle of sheets one by one in an alternate manner in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction for each job. In this case, the sheet jogger 16 performs sheet alignment while performing sorting operation as appropriate.
In the embodiment, sheets are aligned based on a detection state of a sheet placed at the top of a stack of sheets on the sheet tray 17 or the sub tray 20. However, a position of the sheet jogger 16 can be controlled based on a state of other sheet, such as a sheet placed just below a sheet at the top of the stack. Furthermore, at an initial state, or when sheets are removed from the sheet tray 17 or the sub tray 20 during discharging operation, sheets are not present in the sheet tray 17 or the sub tray 20. At this state, a position of a surface of the sheet tray 17 or the sub tray 20 is detected so that a position of the sheet jogger 16 is controlled based on the detected state.
As described above, according to the embodiments, sheets stacked on the sheet tray 17 can be precisely aligned by detecting a state of a sheet on the sheet tray 17 and controlling a position of the sheet jogger 16 based on a detected state of the sheet. Furthermore, stacked sheets can be precisely aligned by arranging the sheet detection filler 15 on a position suitable for detecting a state of a sheet. Moreover, stacked sheets can be aligned for each job by returning the sheet jogger 16 to an original position every time one job is completed. Thus, sheets can be precisely aligned. Furthermore, Z-folded sheets can be precisely aligned.
According to an aspect of the present invention, sheets stacked on the sheet tray can be precisely aligned.
Although the invention has been described with respect to specific embodiments for a complete and clear disclosure, the appended claims are not to be thus limited but are to be construed as embodying all modifications and alternative constructions that may occur to one skilled in the art that fairly fall within the basic teaching herein set forth.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-231659 | Sep 2007 | JP | national |