Patent Application
20160159588
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet stacking apparatus on which sheets are stacked and an image forming apparatus provided with the sheet stacking apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus forms an image by an image forming unit on a sheet fed from a sheet feed cassette or a manual feed tray. The sheet with the image formed thereon is discharged outside the apparatus by an ejection roller. The sheet discharged outside the apparatus is stacked on a discharge tray.
An image forming apparatus typically has a door to allow access to a conveyance path or a maintenance section for jam clearance and maintenance. The door is opened and closed relative to an apparatus main body about a shaft provided at a lower portion of the apparatus main body.
The door may be provided with a discharge tray (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-190029 and No. 2010-8967), or a manual feed tray (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-341987). In these configurations, the sheets stacked on the discharge tray or the manual feed tray may fall at the time at which the door is opened. Then, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-190029, an angle of the discharge tray is adjusted by a link at the time of opening and closing of the door to prevent the sheets from falling. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-341987, a fall prevention claw is provided at an end of the manual feed tray. Ends of the stacked sheets are made to abut against the claw for the fall prevention.
The configuration in which the angle of the discharge tray is adjusted by the link at the time of opening and closing of the door as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-190029 becomes complicated.
The configuration in which the fall prevention claw for the sheets is provided in the tray as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-341987 has the following problem: if the door is opened quickly, the sheet may move quickly until being dammed up by the fall prevention claw and may cross over the fall prevention claw, whereby falling of the sheet cannot be prevented. If a distance from the center of the shaft of the door to the tray is long, the tray provided in the door moves quickly at the time at which the door is opened, and the sheet stacked on the tray falls more easily.
The present invention prevents sheets stacked on a sheet stacking unit provided in a door from falling at the time at which the door is opened with the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking unit.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a sheet stacking apparatus includes a door pivotable relative to an apparatus main body, a sheet stacking unit including a sheet stacking surface which is tilted with one end side located higher than the other end side when the door is closed, on which sheets are stacked, and which is tilted with the one end side capable of being located lower than the other end side when the door is opened, the sheet stacking unit being provided in the door, and a load application unit configured to apply load to a pivot of the door before the sheet stacking surface becomes substantially horizontal in a case that the door is opened.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
A sheet S is fed by a sheet feeding unit 110 at image formation timing of the image forming apparatus. The sheet S fed by the sheet feeding unit 110 passes through a conveyance path, and is conveyed to a skew correction apparatus 120. After being subject to skew correction and timing correction in the skew correction apparatus 120, the sheet S is sent to a secondary transfer portion 130. The secondary transfer portion 130 is constituted by a secondary transfer inner roller 131 and a secondary transfer outer roller 132 which substantially face each other. The toner image is transferred to the sheet S under predetermined pressure force and electrostatic load bias while being nipped by these rollers 131 and 132.
An image formation process performed in parallel with a conveyance process of the sheet S to the secondary transfer portion 130 described above is described.
In accordance with signals of transmitted image information, an exposure apparatus 142 emits light to a photosensitive member 141 of which surface is charged uniformly by a charging unit, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive member 141 via a diffraction unit and the like suitably. Toner development is performed by a developing unit 143 to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member 141, and then a toner image is formed on the photosensitive member 141.
Then, predetermined pressure force and electrostatic load bias are applied by a primary transfer apparatus 144 to transfer the toner image to an intermediate transfer belt 145. In the case of
Next, the intermediate transfer belt 145 is described. The intermediate transfer belt 145 is driven to be conveyed in the direction of arrow A in
As described above, a full color toner image is secondarily transferred to the sheet S in the secondary transfer portion 130 by the conveyance process of the sheet S and the image formation process. The sheet S is then conveyed to a fixing unit 150. The fixing unit 150 causes the toner to melt with heat from a heat source of a heater or the like, and be fixed to the sheet S while pressurizing the sheet S with predetermined pressure force by the opposing rollers. The image forming unit 140 is constituted by the photosensitive member 141, the exposure apparatus 142, the developing unit 143, the primary transfer apparatus 144, the intermediate transfer belt 145, and the fixing unit 150.
The conveyance path of the sheet S with the image fixed thereto by the fixing unit 150 is switched by a first switching member F1. Then the sheet S is discharged to a first discharge tray 170 by first discharge rollers 160, or discharged to a second discharge tray 171 by second discharge rollers 161. In some cases, the sheet S to which the image is fixed and which is proceeding toward the second discharge rollers 161 is inverted by an inversion operation of the second discharge rollers 161, and is discharged via a third switching member F3 to a third discharge tray 180 by third discharge rollers 162 described later. In some cases, the conveyance path of the sheet S inverted by the second discharge rollers 161 is switched by the third switching member F3. The sheet S is then fed to a re-conveyance path for image formation on the back side thereof by the image forming unit 140 again.
Next, a configuration of a door 190 provided in an image forming apparatus body 100 (hereafter, referred to as an apparatus main body) is described.
The dashed line in
The door 190 is provided with a third discharge unit constituted by the third discharge rollers 162 and the third discharge tray 180 as a sheet tray of the present embodiment.
The sheet S discharged by the third discharge rollers 162 is discharged on an upper surface (i.e., a sheet stacking surface) 21 of the third discharge tray 180 as a sheet stacking unit on which the sheets S are stacked.
As illustrated in the perspective views of
The present embodiment is applicable to the sheet S of any length (i.e., size) to be discharged on the third discharge tray 180 by sliding the third discharge extension tray 182 and the third discharge stopper tray 183.
As illustrated by
The rack member 204 includes a gear teeth-less portion 205. When the pinion gear 202 is located opposite to the gear teeth-less portion 205 of the rack member 204 and the rack gear 203 and the pinion gear 202 do not engage with each other, the rotary damper 201 of the damper unit 200 applies no resistance (i.e., load) to the pivot of the door 190. When the pinion gear 202 as a damper gear engages with the rack gear 203 of the rack member 204, the rotary damper 201 applies load to the pivot of the door 190. In the present embodiment, after a predetermined idling section (i.e., a section in which the rotary damper 201 applies no resistance) from the state where the door 190 is closed (i.e., a closed position), the pinion gear 202 engages with the rack gear 203 of the rack member 204 to apply load to the pivot of the door 190. Hereinafter, the damper unit 200 applying load to the pivot of the door 190 is referred to as “the damper unit 200 exerts a damper action” or “resistance to the door 190 by the damper unit 200 takes effect.” A relationship between an opening and closing angle of the door 190 and an idling section in which the gear teeth-less portion 205 is located opposite to the pinion gear 202 or a section in which the pinion gear 202 engages with the rack gear 203 and the damper action of the damper unit 200 takes effect is described with reference to
When the door 190 is further opened from the state of
Torque of the rotary damper 201 is set so that the resistance T by the damper unit 200 becomes small relative to the moment by the gravity W which is self weight of the door 190. That is, the following relational expression holds: WLsinθd>T. Therefore, even if an operator releases his/her hand from the door 190, the door 190 is continuously opened slowly by self weight against the resistance T by the damper unit 200 from the state of
If the door 190 is opened under operating force in the open direction by the operator, the damper unit 200 prevents the door 190 from being moved significantly quick. Therefore, the following situation less often occurs in which, when the door 190 is opened quickly by the operator, the sheets S on the third discharge tray 180 cross over the stopper portion 184 and fall from the third discharge tray 180.
When the door 190 is opened as illustrated in
As described above, the image forming apparatus as the sheet stacking apparatus on which the sheets S are stacked includes the stopper portion 184 that dams up the sheets S and is provided in the third discharge tray 180, and the damper unit 200 that applies the resistance T in the open and close direction when the door 190 is opened and closed. The resistance T applied by the damper unit 200 can reduce the speed at which the door 190 is opened. Therefore, even if the door 190 is opened with the sheets S stacked on the third discharge tray 180, since the sheets S which are about to fall can be dammed up reliably by the stopper portion 184, the sheets S hardly fall from the third discharge tray 180.
In the present embodiment, the damper unit 200 exerts the damper action when the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal. Here, “the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal” refers to a state in which the sheets S on the third discharge tray 180 do not move by self weight along the third discharge tray 180. At the timing at which the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal, that is, before the timing at which the sheets S begin to move along the third discharge tray 180 tilted so that the downstream end in the conveyance direction C is located downward, the damper unit 200 exerts the damper action. Therefore, the sheets S can be dammed up reliably by the stopper portion 184.
The damper unit 200 takes effect from the position at which, after the door 190 is moved a predetermined idling distance from the closed state, the centroid G of the door 190 exceeds the vertical line passing through the shaft 191. Therefore, the resistance T by the damper unit 200 has no influence on the operation force generated when the door 190 is opened to release the hook portion keeping the closed state, or when the door 190 is closed to engage the hook portion. Further, the resistance T in the open and close direction of the door 190 by the damper unit 200 is set to become small relative to the moment by self weight of the door 190. Therefore, the door 190 is opened by self weight without stop, even if the operator releases his/her hand from the door 190 during the opening or closing of the door 190. Thus, the above-described operation and effect are exerted by the damper unit 200 and, at the same time, usability about opening and closing of the door 190 is high.
In the present embodiment, the resistance T by the damper unit 200 takes effect when the tilt of the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal. Here, the state where “the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal” includes the following state where the third discharge tray 180 is substantially horizontal: a state where the third discharge tray 180 is tilted with the downstream side in the conveyance direction C located downward but the sheets S do not move along the upper surface of the third discharge tray 180.
In the present embodiment, the tilt of the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal at the same time as the resistance T by the damper unit 200 takes effect. However, the third discharge tray 180 may be located at a position before becoming substantially horizontal, that is, the downstream side of the third discharge tray 180 in the conveying direction may be tilted upward from the horizontal direction. It is only necessary that the damper unit 200 exerts the damper action on the door 190 before the sheets S on the third discharge tray 180 begins to move (i.e., fall) along the third discharge tray 180 due to the tilt of the third discharge tray 180. That is, it is desirable that the damper unit 200 begins to apply load to the pivot of the door 190 after the door 190 begins to open and before the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal. More desirably, an angle Δt at which the third discharge tray 180 is tilted in the horizontal direction is greater than an angle θd at which the door 190 is opened by the time the damper unit 200 exerts the damper action.
In the form in which the resistance T by the damper unit 200 takes effect when the tilt of the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal has been described. However, the resistance T by the damper unit 200 may take effect after the tilt of the third discharge tray 180 becomes substantially horizontal. Also in this case, the impact caused when the door 190 is stopped by the regulating unit 22 at the open position is diminished by the damper action of the damper unit 200, whereby the sheets S hardly cross over the stopper portion 184. Usability of this case is high in that the region where the resistance T by the damper unit 200 in the pivoting region of the door 190 takes effect is small and, therefore, the user can move the door 190 to the open position quickly.
In any of the above forms, the resistance T by the damper unit 200 takes effect in a part of the pivoting region from the closed position (
Although the damper unit 200 is formed by the rotary damper 201, other systems that lower the speed at which the door 190 opens may be used.
As the rotary damper 201, a damper which applies load unidirectionally, that is, applies load to the door 190 when the door 190 pivots in the open direction, and applies no load when the door 190 pivots in the close direction may be used. The damper in this case has high usability because the closing operation of the door 190 becomes easy.
In the above embodiment, a form in which the rack member is provided in the door 190 and the rotary damper is provided in the apparatus main body 100 has been described. It is only necessary, however, to provide a rotary damper including a pinion gear at one of the apparatus main body 100 and the door 190, and to provide a rack which engages with the pinion gear in the other. That is, as in the modification illustrated in
Although the third discharge tray 180 is described as the sheet stacking unit provided in the door in the present embodiment, this configuration is not restrictive. The present invention is applicable to any configurations in which a sheet stacking unit is provided in a door opened and closed relative to an apparatus main body of a sheet stacking apparatus on which sheets are stacked. For example, the present invention is applicable to a configuration in which, as illustrated in
Although an electrophotographic image forming unit has been described as an example of the image forming unit which forms an image on a sheet, the present invention is applicable also to an image forming apparatus provided with an inkjet image forming unit.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-245210, filed Dec. 3, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-245210 | Dec 2014 | JP | national |
