Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Noriaki Okamoto

Keiji Okumura

Takeshi Aoki

Satoru Hayama

Keiichi Taguchi

Yoshio Sugishima

Jun Miyoshi

Yuichiro Iwase

Toru Himegi

A sheet stack handling apparatus discharges sheet stacks from a bin of a sorter disposed on the side of an image forming apparatus, and includes a sheet stocker, a sheet stack transporting route, and a sheet grasping mechanism. The stack handling or discharge apparatus is disposed on the front side of the sorter. The sheet stocker is disposed in the bottom of the discharging apparatus and stores the sheet stacks. The sheet stack transporting route is provided in the discharging apparatus and extends laterally from the side of the bin and downward to the sheet stacker. The sheet stack grasping mechanism is disposed under the sheet stack transporting route. The sheet stack grasping mechanism grasps a sheet stack in a bin of the sorter, then moves length-wise away from the image forming apparatus, and then moves width-wise to transfer the stack from the bin into the sheet stocker.

Apparatus for discharging sheets from a sorter

A sorter for sorting sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus, comprising a sorter frame; a plurality of bins disposed in the vertical direction, for making stacks of the discharged sheets; a bin frame incorporating the bins and having an opening on a front side adapting the sorter for a stack-removal operation; a processing mechanism provided on the image-forming-apparatus side of the bins, for processing the stacks; a first driving mechanism for driving a bin at a bin-processing position opposite the processing mechanism to slide toward the processing mechanism for feeding the image-forming-apparatus side end of said stack to the processing mechanism; a single unit slide guide for guiding a bin at the bin processing position toward the processing mechanism; a second driving mechanism including a pair of rods disposed vertically on the front and back sides of the sorter frame, the rods move the bins and the bin frame vertically and support the bins from either side at a position inward from an image-forming-apparatus end of the bins, whereby the bins extend outward from the bin support position toward the image-forming-apparatus; and a tamping mechanism including a member for abutting with a side of the stacks to make neat stacks of sheets in the bins, the abutting member is provided on the front side of the sorter frame and beside the bin support position of the rod.

Sorter for an image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus including a sheet finish-processing unit for finish-processing sheets discharged from a copying machine to which the unit is laterally positioned and stored thereby into a plurality of stacks. A sheet stack finish-processing mechanism of the unit, incorporating a stapler, is shiftable by an associated drive mechanism in the widthwise direction along the adjacent end of a positioned stack in storage. A sheet stack handling mechanism therein draws the end of the positioned stack into a finishing locale of the finish-processing mechanism, and subsequent to a finishing (stapling) operation, returns the finished sheet stack into storage. Thereupon, the stack is transversely discharged frontward of the image forming apparatus from storage, during which operation a subsequent finishing operation is concurrently executable; by such discharge a number of copy stacks greater than the number of stacking storages can be processed. The stacks are linearly inserted into and withdrawn from the finish-processing mechanism, eliminating the need for complex movements thereof, and allowing the finish-processing mechanism to be functional at a number of linear positions along the stack end margin. Furthermore, the sheet stacks are discharged to the apparatus front, wherein they are readily accessible for removal by an operator.

Sheet finish-processing unit in image forming apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Noriaki Okamoto