This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-276596, filed on Sep. 22, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus for correcting skews and performing punching processes on the sheets delivered from an image forming apparatus such as an MFP (multi function peripherals), which is a composite digital machine, a copying machine or a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatus such as MFPs, copying machines and printers are provided at a sheet delivery section of the image forming apparatus main body with a post-processing unit for performing post-processing operations including an operation of sorting sheets where an image is formed, that of stapling sheets and/or that of punching sheets.
In such a post-processing unit, the sheet of paper delivered from the image forming apparatus can move aslant and become skewed relative to the sheet delivering direction. When the skewed sheet of paper is subjected to a punching process (and punched), one or more than one holes can be produced at wrong positions by the punching process to give rise to a problem for a succeeding filing operation. For this reason, the post-processing unit is equipped with a skew correcting means for correcting the skew (if any) of the sheet of paper before the punching process.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-274699 describes a sheet processing apparatus that can correct skews. The apparatus described in the above-cited Patent Document comprises a punch unit for performing a punching process on the sheet of paper being delivered to it and the sheet of paper is made to abut a nipper of an inlet roller arranged upstream of the punch unit in order to correct the skew, if any, of the sheet of paper. However, with the apparatus described in the above-cited Patent Document, the sheet of paper that has been corrected for the skew is forced to travel a long distance before it gets to the punch unit. Therefore, the sheet of paper can be skewed again during the travel over that distance.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-193493 described a punching processing apparatus that can correct the skew, if any, of a sheet of paper. In the punching processing apparatus described in the above-cited Patent Document, a registration member (registration roller) is arranged downstream relative to the punching means of the apparatus and the front end of the sheet of paper being delivered from an image forming apparatus main body is made to abut the registration member by the sheet conveying force of the sheet delivery roller of the image forming apparatus main body in order to correct the skew, if any.
However, since punching processing apparatus described in the above-cited Patent Document utilizes the sheet conveying force of the sheet delivery roller of the image forming apparatus main body, a certain degree of positional accuracy is required for aligning the image forming apparatus main body and the post processing apparatus to by turn poses limitations to the mechanical configuration of the post processing apparatus.
In view of the above-identified circumstances, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus having a simple configuration that can correct the skew, if any, of a sheet of paper and accurately execute a punching process.
Throughout this description, the embodiments and examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus of the present invention.
Now, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described by referring to the accompanying drawings. Throughout the drawings, the same or similar components are denoted respectively by the same reference symbols.
The printer section 14 typically has a tandem type color laser printer. The printer section 14 includes a laser 141 and a photosensitive drum 142. A charging device 143, a developing device 144 and a transferring device 145 are arranged around the photosensitive drum 142. Toner is supplied to the developing device 144 from a toner cartridge.
Now, the operation of the printer section 14 will be described below. The surface of the photosensitive drum 142 is scanned for exposure by the laser beam from the laser 141 to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 142. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 144 to form a toner image on the photosensitive drum 142. The toner image is then transferred onto a sheet of paper P by the transferring device 145. For a color printing process, toner cartridges of four colors including cyan, magenta, yellow and black are arranged in a row and photosensitive drums and optical units of the respective colors are provided.
The sheet feeding section 15 has a plurality of sheet feeding cassettes for containing sheets of paper of various different sizes. A sheet of paper P is sent from one of the sheet feeding cassettes to conveyor belt 16 and an image is formed on the sheet of paper P. The sheet of paper P on which an image is formed is then delivered to the outside by way of the sheet delivery section 17 and conveyed to the finisher 20.
The finisher 20 performs post-processing operations such as stapling and punching on the sheet of paper P and delivers it to either a sheet delivery tray 21 or a sheet delivery tray 22. The sheet delivery trays 21, 22 are driven to move up and down by a sheet delivery tray drive section so that the sheet of paper P is delivered to either of the trays.
The finisher 20 is provided with a sheet processing apparatus 30 according to the present invention. The sheet processing apparatus 30 comprises a punching unit 40 for punching the sheet of paper P conveyed from the image forming apparatus 10 and a skew correcting section 50 for correcting the skew of the sheet of paper P before punching the sheet.
On the other hand, a first conveyer roller pair 51 and a second conveyer roller pair 52 are arranged respectively at the sheet feeding side and at the sheet discharging side of the punching unit 40 to convey the sheet of paper P from the upstream side to the downstream side. Since the sheet of paper P flows from the printer section 14 toward the tray 21 or the tray 22, the side of the printer section 14 is referred to as upstream side and the side of the tray 21 or the tray 22 is referred to as downstream side in the following description.
Additionally, a third conveyer roller pair 53 is arranged further downstream relative to the second conveyer roller pair 52. The conveyer roller pairs 51, 52 and 53 are driven to rotate respectively by conveyor motors 54, 55 and 57.
The first conveyer roller pair 51 includes upper and lower conveyer rollers 511, 512, which are driven to rotate by the conveyer motor 54 to convey a sheet of paper P, pinching it between them.
The second conveyer roller pair 52 also includes upper and lower conveyer rollers 521, 522, which are driven to rotate by the conveyer motor 55 to convey a sheet of paper P, pinching it between them. The second conveyer roller pair 52 can change the condition of contact of the rollers 521, 522 by means of a load controller 56. More specifically, the second conveyer roller pair 52 has a functional feature of registration roller where the rollers 521, 522 are brought into tight contact with each other and a functional feature of slipping roller where the rollers 521, 522 are brought into loose contact with each other. At the time of the operations of conveying a sheet of paper P, and correcting the skew (as will be described in greater detail hereinafter), the second conveyer roller pair 52 operates as a registration roller and a slipping roller, respectively.
Similarly, the third conveyer roller pair 53 includes upper and lower conveyer rollers 531, 532, which are driven to rotate by the conveyer motor 57.
A sensor 58 is arranged between the sheet feeding side of the punching unit 40 and the first conveyer roller pair 51 to detect the condition of being conveyed of the sheet of paper P. In this embodiment of the invention, the sheet of paper P is turned upside down (with the image carrying surface facing downward) when it is conveyed in the direction of arrow X. Any of a variety of mechanisms for turning the sheet of paper P upside down may be used for the purpose of the present invention.
In
When the size of sheet of paper is selected by the user by way of the operation section 13, the control section 66 controls the image forming operation so as to shift the position of the third conveyer roller pair 53 according to the information on the selected size. Alternatively, a size sensor for detecting the size of the sheet of paper to be used for an image forming operation may be provided and the position of the third conveyer roller pair 53 may be shifted according to the information on the detected size of sheet of paper.
Now, the operation of the sheet processing apparatus 30 according to the present invention will be described by referring to
As a sheet of paper P is brought in and the sensor 58 detects that the leading end of the sheet of paper P passes the first conveyer roller pair 51, the motor 57 stops to by turn stop the third conveyer roller pair 53. As shown in
More specifically, the third conveyer roller pair 53 is located downstream relative to the second conveyer roller pair 52 and operates as a stopper that appears at a position good for blocking the forwardly moving sheet of paper P that is being conveyed after passing the second conveyer roller pair 52. On the other hand, the second conveyer roller pair 52 operates as a slipping roller, while the rollers of the second roller pair 52 are being made to lightly touch each other. Thus, if the sheet of paper P is skewed, the skew is corrected as the sheet of paper P is forced to abut the third conveyer roller pair 53 while it is slightly bent.
Then, the eccentric cam 42 of the punching unit 40 is driven to rotate by the punching motor 43 and the hole cutting blade 41 is forced to move downward as shown in
After the punching process, the second conveyer roller pair 52 is controlled by the load controller 56 so as to operate as a registration roller. Then, conveyer motors 54, 55, 57 are driven to rotate and the sheet of paper P is conveyed in the direction indicted by the arrow X in
Thus, the sensor 58 detects the time when the sheet of paper P is fed in and the leading end thereof passes the first conveyer roller pair 51 and time when the tail end of the sheet of paper P passes the first conveyer roller pair 51 and notifies the control section 61 thereof. The control section 61 controls the motor drive circuits 63, 64, 65 and the load controller 56 by referring to the outcome of detection of the sensor 58. Note that the upstream first conveyer roller pair 51 is made to stop its operation during the skew correcting operation (between
Since the hole cutting position of the punching process is defined by a predetermined distance L1 (e.g., 12 mm) from the tail end p0 of the sheet of paper P as viewed in the direction of conveying the sheet of paper P, it is important to define the gap L2 between the third conveyer roller pair 53 and the hole cutting blade 41 to be equal to the difference of the length L0 of the sheet of paper P as viewed in the direction of conveying the sheet of paper P and the distance L1 (L2=L0−L1).
As described above, with a sheet processing apparatus 30 according to the present invention, a sheet of paper P is conveyed from the upstream to the downstream and, upon detecting a suitable condition of conveying the sheet of paper P, the third conveyer roller pair 53 is stopped to allow the leading end of the sheet of paper P to abut the third conveyer roller pair 53 and correct the skew, if any. In other words, the skew, if any, of the sheet of paper P is corrected at the downstream side as viewed in the direction of conveying the sheet of paper P and the punching process is conducted at the upstream side so that it is always possible to cut a hole at the right position. Additionally, the mechanism of the apparatus can be designed without difficulty because all the conveyer roller pairs including the first, second and third conveyer roller pairs 51, 5253 can be arranged in the finisher 20.
In other words, the shutter 59 operates as a stopper for the sheet of paper P that appears at a position downstream relative to the second conveyer roller pair 52 to block the sheet of paper P that is being conveyed and moving forward after passing the second conveyer roller pair 52. It is important to define the gap between the shutter 59 and the hole cutting blade 41 of the punching unit 40 to be equal to L0−L1, where L1 is the distance between the hole cutting position and the tail end p0 of the sheet of paper P as shown in
Thus, while the leading end of the sheet of paper P is made to abut the third conveyer roller pair 53 in the embodiment of
For the purpose of controlling the forward and backward movements of the shutter 59 with regard to the route of conveying the sheet of paper P, a motor drive circuit 67 for driving the motor 60 is provided and controlled by control section 61 and the operation of the shutter 59 is controlled in response to the outcome of detection of the sensor 58 as shown by dotted line in
The position where the shutter 59 is made to project is adjustable and the gap between hole cutting blade 41 of the punching unit and the stopper 59 can be changed according to the size of the sheet of paper being conveyed. In other words, the position where the shutter 59 is made to project is controlled by the control section 61 according to the information on the size of the sheet of paper.
For example, when a size of sheet of paper is selected by way of the operation section 13, the position where the shutter 59 is made to project is controlled and changed, if necessary, according to the information on the selected size of sheet of paper. Alternatively, it may be so arranged that a size sensor for detecting the size of the selected sheet of paper and the position where the shutter 59 is made to project is controlled and changed, if necessary, according to the information on the detected size of sheet of paper.
In the instance of
Thus, with a sheet processing apparatus according to the invention as described above, the sheet of paper being conveyed from the upstream side to the downstream side is made to abut the stopper in order to correct the skew, if any, thereof before it is subjected to a punching process after the skew correction. Therefore, a sheet processing apparatus according to the present invention can always punch a sheet of paper at the right position.
Although exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art that a number of changes, modifications or alternations to the invention as described herein may be made, none of which depart from the spirit of the present invention. All such changes, modifications and alterations should therefore be seen as within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2005-276596 | Sep 2005 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5509645 | Shinno et al. | Apr 1996 | A |
5586479 | Roy et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
5681036 | Wakahara et al. | Oct 1997 | A |
6361036 | Nakazawa | Mar 2002 | B1 |
6907806 | Okamoto et al. | Jun 2005 | B1 |
7520498 | Hattori et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
7546081 | Tokita et al. | Jun 2009 | B2 |
20010049990 | Takaishi et al. | Dec 2001 | A1 |
20060261544 | Tamura et al. | Nov 2006 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2002-193493 | Jul 2002 | JP |
2002-274699 | Sep 2002 | JP |
2004-331299 | Nov 2004 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20070062359 A1 | Mar 2007 | US |