Patent Application
20060067762
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-281779, filed Sep. 28, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus (finisher) for bundling sheets sent from an image forming apparatus, thereby carrying out, for example, staple processing and a waiting tray for use in the post-process apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A post-process apparatus comprises: a processing tray for bundling sheets sent from an image forming apparatus, thereby carrying out, for example, staple processing, and ejecting the processed bundles of sheets; and a storage tray for holding the ejected bundles of sheets. A staple processing speed of the post-process apparatus is slow as compared with an image processing speed of the image forming apparatus. Thus, if a sheet is directly sent to the processing tray, a sheet to be staple processed next is transported while a preceding sheet is staple processed. In order to prevent this problem, conventionally, a buffer mechanism for adjusting a carrying-in timing of a sheet at a front stage of the processing tray is proposed.
Japanese Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 2583594 discloses a mechanism for retaining sheets is provided at a transport passage for sending sheets sent from an image forming apparatus to a processing tray. However, in this case, there is a need for increasing the transport passage in length, and, as a result, the post-process apparatus is likely to be large in size.
Japanese patent document 2: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-60118 discloses a mechanism comprising an arm for flicking a sheet onto a transport belt and a paddle for abutting a distal end of the sheet held on the transport belt against a push-out claw formed on the transport belt to align the distal end of the sheet. However, in this mechanism, the arm, the push-out claw and the like are provided independently, and they are not mounted on one rotary shaft.
The Inventors proposes here that a waiting tray is newly allocated as a buffer mechanism at an upper stage of a processing tray. The waiting tray according to this proposal is allocated to be proximal to the upper stage of the processing tray, and a sheet transported from an image forming apparatus to the processing tray is temporarily retained here in a waiting mode. At a time point when retention in a waiting mode is released, that is, at a time point when staple processing of a bundle of sheets at the processing tray terminates, and then, the bundle of sheets is transported from the processing tray to a storage tray, the sheet is supported on a bottom face of the waiting tray. By opening this tray, the sheet is then dropped at the distal end side (upstream side when the sheet is transported to the waiting tray) to the processing tray. By using this waiting tray, equipment can be allocated with a simple mechanism without a need to increase a transport passage in length and providing a space. As a result, a post-process apparatus can be made compact. Moreover, it is possible to sent the sheets to the processing tray without any malfunction.
However, when a sheet is dropped from the waiting tray onto the processing tray, if such dropping is prolonged and an unstable sheet floating state is prolonged, the sheet is not held in a proper location of the processing tray. As a result, alignment of the bundles of sheets held on the processing tray is likely to be unreliable and unstable. Therefore, it is important to reduce such a sheet floating unstable state to the minimum, and then, establish a stable state in which the sheet is held on the processing tray within a short period of time.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the unstable sheet floating state to the minimum with respect to a sheet released from the support on the waiting tray to establish the stable state in which the sheet is held on the processing tray within a short period of time. It is another object of the present invention to provide a sheet post-process apparatus and a waiting tray capable of reliably carrying out sheet processing on the processing tray speedily and reliably, for example, alignment processing of the distal end in the sheet transport direction, by establishing the above stable state.
In order to solve the above described problem, the present invention comprises the following features.
1. A sheet post-process apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
a waiting tray which temporarily retains a transported sheet in a waiting mode, and releases the retention to drop the sheet;
a processing tray which bundles sheets dropped from the waiting tray to carry out predetermined processing, and ejects the sheets; and
a storage tray which holds the bundle of sheets processed and ejected on the processing tray,
wherein the waiting tray comprises:
left and right lower face support members which support left and right lower faces in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and release the support of the left and right lower faces during release of the retention;
a distal end lower face support member which supports a distal end lower face in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and releases the support of the sheet distal end during release of the retention;
an upper face slash member which slashes a sheet distal end upper face in a processing tray direction during release of the retention; and
a rotary shaft allocated in association with the distal end face in the transport direction of the sheet retained in a waiting mode, and
the rotary shaft coaxially mounts the distal end upper face support member and the upper face slash member, and rotates the members, thereby moving the distal end lower face support member from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the retention and moving the upper face slash member to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing tray direction.
2. A sheet post-process apparatus according to 1, wherein the waiting tray further comprises an alignment paddle member which aligns a distal end of sheets held on the processing tray during sheet alignment on the processing tray, and
the rotary shaft coaxially mounts the paddle member together with the distal end lower face support member and the upper face slash member, and rotates the members, thereby moving the distal end lower face support member from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the support and moving the upper face slash member to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing tray direction, and then moving the paddle member to a location for aligning the sheets.
3. A sheet post-process apparatus according to 1, wherein the waiting tray is allocated to be proximal to an upper stage of the processing tray,
the processing tray and the waiting tray are allocated in an inclined shape which is high at a proximal end side of a sheet to be transported and which is low at a distal end side thereof, the processing tray and the waiting tray are short in length of a sheet transport direction thereof than a length of a standard sheet to be held, and
a part of the proximal end side in the transport direction of the sheet held on the processing tray is held on the storage tray.
4. A waiting tray for use in a sheet post-process apparatus, for temporarily retaining a transported sheet in a waiting mode and releasing the support to drop the sheet onto a processing tray, the waiting tray comprising:
left and right lower face support members which support left and right lower faces in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and release the support of the left and right lower faces during release of the retention;
a distal end lower face support member which supports a distal end lower face in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and releases the support of the sheet distal end during release of the retention;
an upper face slash member which slashes a sheet distal end upper face in a processing tray direction during release of the retention; and
a rotary shaft allocated in association with a distal end face in the transport direction of a sheet retained in a waiting mode, and
the rotary shaft coaxially mounts the distal end upper face support member and the upper face slash member, and rotates the members, thereby moving the distal end lower face support member from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the retention and moving the upper face slash member to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing tray direction.
5. A waiting tray according to 4, further comprising: an alignment paddle member for aligning a distal end of sheets held on a processing tray during sheet alignment on the processing tray;
wherein the rotary shaft coaxially mount a paddle member together with the distal end lower face support member and the upper face slash member, and rotates the members, thereby moving the distal end lower face support member from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the support and moving the upper face slash member to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing tray direction, and then, moving the paddle member to a location for aligning the sheets, and then moving the paddle member to a location for aligning the sheets.
6. A waiting tray according to 4, wherein the upper face slash member is made of a soft elastic member.
7. A waiting tray according to 5, wherein the paddle member is made of a soft elastic member, and in a location for aligning a sheet dropped onto the processing tray, the paddle member comes into contact with the upper face of the sheet in an elastically curved state, and aligns a distal end of the sheet to be pushed against a distal end side opposite to the transport direction.
8. A sheet post-process apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
waiting means for temporarily retaining a transported sheet in a waiting mode, and releasing the retention to drop the sheet;
processing means for bundling sheets dropped from the waiting means to carry out predetermined processing, and ejecting the sheets; and
storage means for holding the bundle of sheets processed and ejected on the processing means,
wherein the waiting means comprises:
left and right lower face support means for supporting left and right lower faces in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and releasing the support of the left and right lower faces during release of the retention;
distal end lower face support means for supporting a distal end lower face in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and releasing the support of a sheet distal end during release of the retention;
upper face slash means for slashing a sheet distal end upper face in a processing means direction during release of the retention; and
a rotary shaft allocated in association with a distal end face in the transport direction of a sheet retained in a waiting mode, and
the rotary shaft coaxially mounts the distal end upper face support means and the upper face slash means, and rotates the means, thereby moving the distal end lower face support means from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the retention and moving the upper face slash means to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing means direction.
9. A sheet post-process apparatus according to 8, wherein the waiting means further comprises alignment means for aligning a distal end of sheets held on the processing means during sheet alignment on the processing means, and
the rotary shaft coaxially mounts the alignment means together with the distal end lower face support means and the upper face slash means, and rotates the means, thereby moving the distal end lower face support means from a location for retention in a waiting mode to a location for releasing the support and moving the upper face slash means to a location for slashing the sheet distal end upper face in the processing means direction, and then, moving the alignment means to a location for aligning the sheets.
In the present specification and claims, a proximal end side, a distal end side, and a sheet width are defined as follows. That is, when a transport direction of a sheet to be transported to a waiting tray is defined as a reference, a downstream side in the transport direction is defined as a proximal end side; an upstream side in the transport direction is defined as a distal end side; and a length in a transverse direction when the sheet transport direction is defined as a longitudinal direction is defined as a sheet width. In addition, a sheet denotes a copy sheet on which a toner image (developed image) is copied and which is sent from the image forming apparatus.
According to the present invention, a distal end lower face support member for supporting a distal end lower face in a transport direction of a sheet retained in a waiting mode is provided together with left and right lower face support members for supporting left and right lower faces in the transport direction of the sheet retained on the waiting tray in a waiting mode. Thus, even if the sheet to be retained on the waiting tray in a waiting mode is easily bent, the sheet can be prevented from accidentally slipping off from the waiting tray onto the processing tray.
Further, after retention in a waiting mode has been released, when the sheet is dropped from the waiting tray to the processing tray, retention of the left and right lower face support members is released, and at the same time, retention of the distal end lower face support member is released. During this release of the retention, the upper face of the sheet distal end portion is slashed by a slash member, whereby this sheet is forcibly dropped from the distal end side to the processing tray. As a result, the proximal end side of the sheet is located at its upper side during dropping; the distal end side of the sheet is located at its lower side, and the sheet is first dropped from the distal end side to the processing tray. By forcibly dropping the sheet, a stable state in which the sheet is held on the processing tray can be established within a short period of time. In addition, the sheet is dropped from the distal end side, whereby the sheet can be dropped with good posture and the alignment property of the sheet distal end portion is improved.
Next, the paddle member pulls the distal end of the sheet toward the distal end side of the processing tray while retaining the upper face of the sheet forcibly dropped and held on the processing tray. Thus, the sheet distal end can be aligned.
In addition, according to the present invention, the distal end retainer member, slash member, and paddle member (or the distal end retainer member and slash member) are coaxially attached. Thus, equipment is simplified, and these members can be driven by one drive source. As a result, equipment can be made inexpensive and compact.
The distal end retainer member is made of a resin, whereby a sheet can be stably dropped without being caught. Since the slash member is made of a soft rubber or the like, even if a sheet is slashed at a high rotation speed, the sheet is not damaged. The paddle member is formed in an arm shape and is made of a soft rubber or the like, whereby the paddle can be significantly slackened. Therefore, the sheet distal end can be stably pulled (aligned) regardless of the number of sheets held on the processing tray. Further, even if there is a portion at which a mechanism is dense (for example, allocation of a rotating shaft), the paddle member is slacked and released, thus, enabling packaging without particularly considering allocation of these members.
<Waiting Tray>
The waiting tray will be described in detail with reference to
On the waiting tray 10, left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b for supporting both sides of the lower face of a sheet carried into the waiting tray are provided in the left and right widthwise direction. A space between the left and right lower face support members is open. Therefore, a center section of the sheet lower face is not supported. The upper faces of these left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b each are formed in a flat shape, and a curved face which is upwardly curved is formed at its top end side. Instead of this curved face or together with the curved face, a roller which is rotatable in an arbitrary direction may be engaged. The left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are formed to be wide in width at a proximal end side thereof and to be narrow in width at a distal end side thereof. As a result, the width of the opening portion formed between the lower face support members is wide at the proximal end and narrow at the distal end side. The width used here denotes a transverse direction in the case where the sheet transport direction is defined as a longitudinal direction. The left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are set in location in which a sheet side face can be supported fully on the left and right lower face support members when a sheet is retained in a waiting mode. On the other hand, the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are set in location in which these support members are released when the support of the sheet is released. When the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are set in this location, the sheet can be dropped from the distal end thereof on the processing tray 12. The left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are driven by a waiting tray motor 34 drive motor (not shown). By this waiting tray motor 34, the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are slid to adjust the opening width of the opening portion, thereby opening and closing the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b.
The waiting tray roller 28 returns the sheet transported to the waiting tray to the distal end side, and aligns the sheet distal end by abutting the sheet distal end against a distal end 60 of the waiting tray. In this case, although the sheets are located upwardly when they are transported to the waiting tray, the roller is lowered in the case where the sheet distal end is aligned. Then, the sheets are rotated while the sheets are compressed, and the sheets are pushed back. In addition, also in the case where the sheets are transported from the waiting tray directly to the storage tray, the waiting roller is lowered and is rotated while the sheets are compressed, and the sheets are ejected. In this case, the rotation direction of the waiting tray roller 28 becomes inverted from that in the case where the sheets are abutted against the distal end side.
On the waiting tray 10, there is provided the sheet sensor 70 (refer to
FIGS. 19 to 21 are enlarged views each showing a rear side of the waiting tray 10. Below the inlet roller 22, a rotary shaft 72 is arranged along the distal end face of a sheet to be retained in a waiting mode. On this rotary shaft 72, a distal end lower face support member 74, an upper face slash member 76, and a paddle member 78 are coaxially allocated to be projected in a peripheral direction with predetermined intervals. (In this example, the distal end lower face support member 74 and the upper face slash member 76 are allocated in order with an interval at an angle of 90 degrees, and the upper face slash member 76 and the paddle member 78 are allocated in order at an angle of 90 degrees). When the sheet is retained in a waiting mode, the distal end lower face support member 74 is set in a location for supporting a sheet distal end lower face (preferably, a center portion thereof) as shown in
In the present embodiment, although the upper face slash member 76 and the paddle member 78 are provided on the rotary shaft 72 together with the distal end retainer member 74, the present invention includes a structure in which the paddle member is not provided. In this case, the invention may employ, for example, a structure in which two sets of distal end retainer members and upper face slash members are combined, that is, a structure in which a first distal end retainer member, a first upper face slash member, a second distal end retainer member, and a second upper face slash member are allocated on the rotary shaft 72 in a cross shape at an angle of 90 degrees. In this structure, the rotary shaft is returned to its original location by rotating it at 180 degrees.
<Processing Tray>
The processing tray 12 carries out longitudinal or transverse alignment with respect to bundles of sheets dropped from the waiting tray 10, and carries out predetermined processing (for example, staple processing). This processing tray is allocated in a inclined shape which is high at the proximal end side and which is low at the distal end side.
As shown in
As shown in
When a predetermined number of sheets are aligned and held on the processing tray 12, staple processing is carried out by the stapler 14.
As shown in
<Storage Tray>
As shown in
In the case where sheets are directly ejected from the waiting tray 10, the storage tray is risen up to a location which corresponds to a sheet outlet of the waiting tray.
(Description of Operation)
Now, an operation of the post-process apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 17.
<Operation in Case where Staple Processing is Carried Out>
As has been already described, staple processing on the processing tray is slow as compared with that on the image processing apparatus. Thus, when a sheet transported from the image processing apparatus is processed on the processing tray, a buffer unit is provided at the front stage thereof. Then, it is necessary to make a next sheet standby not so as to be transported to the processing tray until the staple processing on the processing tray has completed. In this example, a description will be given with respect to a case in which a bundle of three or more sheets is staple processed on the processing tray, and in which first and second sheets are made standby on the waiting tray, and the third and subsequent sheets are not required to be made standby.
A first sheet is transported from the image processing apparatus to the waiting tray 10 via the inlet roller 22 and the paper feed roller 24. The sheet is retained by the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b and the distal end retainer member 74; the waiting tray roller 28 is lowered in this retained state, and a sheet distal end is aligned (this alignment is made with the distal end 60 of the waiting tray 10 (upstream side)).
Next, the waiting tray roller 28 is risen, and is ready for accepting a second sheet 20a. When the second sheet 20a is sent to the waiting tray 10, the waiting tray roller 28 is lowered to align a location of the sheet with the distal end 60 of the waiting tray 10. Then, the waiting tray roller 28 is risen (
That is, the left and right lower face support members 10a and 10b are opened to release the support of both side faces of the sheet. At this time, the rotary shaft 72 is rotated at the same time. With this rotation, an operation of releasing the support of the distal end retainer member 74 and an operation of slashing the sheet distal end upper face by the upper face slash member 76 are carried out at the same time, and the sheet is forcibly dropped onto the processing tray. Next, the distal end in the transport direction of the sheet dropped in the processing tray 12 is aligned by the alignment paddle member 78. In this manner, the standby retention, retention release, and alignment processes can be carried out sequentially by rotating operation of one rotary shaft. After these processes have terminated, the rotary shaft 72 returns to its original location in which the sheet distal end is retained by the distal end retainer member 72.
Then, with respect to the third and subsequent sheets, the waiting tray is kept in a state in which the support of the sheet is released, and the sheet is transported from the paper feed roller 24 directly to the waiting tray.
In the processing tray 12, a predetermined number of bundles of sheets 21 are formed to be held on two bundles of sheets 20b. At this time, the longitudinal and transverse alignment mechanisms 38 and 47 function, and longitudinal and transverse sheet alignments are executed. At this time, as shown in
The processing tray 12 is allocated to be obliquely inclined together with the waiting tray 10. Thus, the distal ends 60 and 62 of the respective trays are located at the lowest position, and the sheet 20 and the bundle of sheets 21 can be aligned with the distal ends 60 and 62 by its own weight of the sheet 20 and the bundle of sheets 21.
Next, as shown in
<Processing in Case where no Post-Process is Carried Out>
In the case where no post-process is carried out (such as a case in which no staple processing is carried out or a case in which jamming occurs), as shown in
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments. Constituent elements shown in the embodiments can be changed to other constituent elements as long as they have same functions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-281779 | Sep 2004 | JP | national |
