Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Nisca Corporation

Other

Nisca Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyoaki Namba

Kyosuke Taka

Osamu Wakuda

Kenji Okada

Tsuyoshi Asahara

Kenichi Iwamoto

Yoshikado Yamada

Hideki Mimura

Hiranaga Yamamoto

Yuji Sugimoto

Ken-ichi Iwamoto

Souichi Takata

Masakatsu Itoigawa

Kazuaki Sano

Yuuji Sugimoto

Yoshihumi Shibano

Kenzi Okada

Takashi Saito

Kazuyuki Kubota

Tadasu Taniguchi

Motoaki Okitsu

Hiroshi Saegusa

Yoshihisa Ogasawara

Kazuaki Karasuda

There is disclosed a sheet post-processing device which can staple a corner of a sheet bunch conveyed from an image forming device and makes a transverse width of a housing smaller or compact. By disposing a stapler in one end on a sheet processing tray inside a sheet conveying port, the transverse width of the housing is made smaller. For this purpose, the sheet post-processing stores sheets conveyed from the image forming device, matches the sheet bunch stored staples the matched sheet bunch and transfers the matched sheet bunch toward the other end of the sheet bunch and subsequently transfers the stapled sheet bunch toward one end of the sheet bunch.

Sheets post processing device including stapler for variable widths

There is disclosed a sheet accumulation processing device having a shielding mechanism of a sheet discharge opening which is simple in mechanism, low in cost and requires no complicated control. In the device, after an end of a sheet bunch sent via one end of a slit opening formed in a housing front face of the device is received by a sheet holding means disposed in the slit opening in a predetermined receiving position, the sheet holding means with the sheet bunch held therein is moved along the opening and, in a predetermined discharge position in the slit opening, discharges the sheet bunch onto a sheet accumulating tray in front of the housing. In the discharge position, a sheet holding section of the holding means is rotated forward and downward from its sheet-bunch holding condition and protruded forward from the housing front face, then releases the sheet bunch to place the sheet bunch onto the sheet accumulating tray. The slit opening in the discharge position changes from a closed condition to an opened condition dependent on the rotating movement of the sheet holding section, and subsequently changes from the opened condition to the closed condition dependently when the sheet holding section is retreated into the slit opening. The sheet holding section can thus be protruded and retreated via the housing front face.

Sheet accumulation processing device

A method and apparatus for resetting a sheet processing device is disclosed in which even if a trouble occurs, a sheet processing can be continued after resetting without wasting the previous processing. In a sheet processing device in which a set of sheets conveyed from an image forming device is discharged to a discharge tray after a predetermined processing process, the processing process is finely divided into plural function units and the function units are individually reset. In a memory device, a status flag indicating the condition of each module unit is assigned to each unit. The presence of a partially performed operation is confirmed by the status flag, and only the function unit having partially performed operation is reset to its initial condition.

Reset method and reset device in unusual operation of sheet processing device

There is disclosed a sheet accumulation processing device in which sheets with images formed thereon are processed as a bunch before the sheet bunch is efficiently sorted and discharged to any one of plural discharge trays. The device comprises a load-carrying device for piling plural sheets; a sheet bunch discharging means for discharging a sheet bunch piled on the load-carrying device via a discharge port; plural discharge trays for storing the sheet bunch discharged by the sheet bunch discharging device; a discharge tray moving device for moving the discharge trays; a tray position detecting device for detecting positions of the discharge trays relative to the discharge port; a sheet presence detecting device for detecting presence of the sheets on the discharge trays; and a control device for selecting the discharge tray to which the sheet bunch is to be discharged based on detection results of the tray position detecting device and the sheet presence detecting device and moving the selected discharge tray by the discharge tray moving device. The control device selects a discharge tray which stores no sheet and is positioned closest to the discharge port as the discharge tray of the sheet bunch, and moves the selected tray to the discharge port, thereby minimizing the operation of moving the tray and shortening a setup time.

The intermediate tray of a copying machine for copying on both sides of recording paper or recording paper feeding apparatus incorporates a mechanism for loosening and separating recording papers by air blow in order to prevent duplicate feed. Conventionally, such constitution could not be commonly applied to recording papers of plural sizes, and the recording paper vibrated due to the air flow to give off a loud noise. In the invention, the air flow is formed by plural nozzles arranged in the widthwise direction of the recording paper, and the nozzles near the both ends are controlled by opening and closing depending on the paper size. When the recording paper is conveyed by vacuum attracting to the belt, the recording paper is attracted closely to the belt, eliminating the space for allowing the air flow to enter in, so that vibration may be prevented.

Sheet feeding apparatus

Air flows are jetted at leading edge of sheets from nozzles aligned along the widthwise direction of the sheets so as to separate the bottommost or uppermost sheet from the remaining sheets. When the sheets are large-sized, all the aligned nozzles form the air flows for separating the sheets. When the air flows from all the nozzles are jetted at the small-sized sheets, the sheets are liable to flap. Accordingly, the nozzles arranged near the both ends are closed, so that only the nozzles jetting the air flows to effectively separate the small-sized sheets are used.

Sheet feeding apparatus capable of feeding sheets of plural sizes

Recording papers stacked up on a tray are conveyed as being attracted in vacuum by the conveying belt located above or beneath. To convey the recording papers one by one, air flow is blown to the front edge of the recording papers to separate. Accordingly, plural nozzles are disposed in the widthwise direction of the recording paper, and the air flows from the nozzles are directed to converge at the upstream side in the conveying direction front the front edges of the recording papers. By setting this converging position near the both ends in the widthwise direction of the recording papers, the recording papers may be separated securely and stably.

When stacking up recording papers on a tray and conveying one by one from the top or bottom, they are conveyed by attracting in vacuum to a conveying belt. An example of conveying from the bottom is illustrated. When one recording paper is conveyed, its rear end comes into the attraction region of the conveying belt, and the second recording paper is attracted into the region out of the first recording paper in the attraction region, which results in duplicate feed. Therefore, the size of the attraction region is variable depending on the size of the recording paper so that the attraction region of the conveying belt may not come out from the rear end of the recording paper until the first recording paper is conveyed and its front end is held by the rear rollers of the conveying belt or the like.

Sheet feeding apparatus that uses a variable vacuum surface and timer to

A sheet feeding apparatus enables the uppermost sheet in sequence in a stack of recording papers be lifted by air flow to separate and to convey the recording paper. The feeding apparatus comprises a laying plate on which plural sheets are stacked, a sheet feeding means disposed above the stacked sheets, which means partially deforms the first sheet in sequence by negative pressure at the leading end part of the sheet, and air forming means which injects air flow between the first sheet and the next sheet near the both ends in the widthwise direction of the recording paper, which flow comprises a straightforward air flow, and an air flow directed outwardly in the widthwise direction. The recording paper is separated from the next sheet by the air flow.

Top sheet feeding apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus for reconveying copy paper sheets carrying an image to a transfer section by suction. Along the transport path to the apparatus is arranged a curl inducing mechanism that induces curls in the copy paper sheets, whereby the copy paper sheets with upwardly curled edges are loaded in the apparatus. With this arrangement, the copy paper sheets are surely separated by injecting air, thereby preventing multi-feeds.

Sheet feeding unit incorporating a curl inducing mechanism

Air flows from an air flow forming means are jetted to near the downstream end of a plurality of sheets stacked on a laying plate so as to separate either a uppermost sheet or a bottommost sheet from the remaining sheets. The uppermost sheet or the bottommost sheet is vacuum attracted to a vacuum attracting area defined in a feeding belt by a vacuum attracting box. Based on the size of the sheet, the open suction area uncovered by the stacked sheets in the vacuum attracting area is controlled, thereby enabling the feeding belt to control the power of suction thereof to the sheets. Accordingly, a multiple feeding of the sheets can be prevented due to an excessive power of suction.

A feeding device in accordance with the present invention includes an arm mounted such that one edge thereof is rotatably supported and is capable of moving freely in the horizontal plane, a rotating section rotatably supported by the other edge of the arm and is capable of rotating freely in the horizontal plane to at least two paper feed positions, i.e. longitudinal and lateral feed positions, and a pivotal paper holding plate that is capable of rising. A rotating device is rotatably mounted in the vicinity of a corner of the rotating section and moves back and forth in a straight line in a direction orthogonal to the paper feed direction and permits the rotating section to rotate. A flexible joint is provided which is capable of pivoting in at least two directions and supports the pivotal paper holding plate at one point located in the corner formed by a non-feeding side of the rotating section when the rotating section is set in the longitudinal feed position and the non-feeding side of the rotating section when the rotating section is set in the lateral feed position, such that the pivotal paper holding palte uses the non-feeding side of the rotating sections as fulcrums when the pivotal paper plate pivots and rises.

Feeding device having a pivotal copy material holding plate

A sheet supplying device has at least one sheet stacking portion for stacking a plurality of sheets to be fed, a unit for drawing the sheets out of the sheet stacking portion to feed the drawn sheet to a predetermined path, and a unit for returning a sheet into the sheet stacking portion. This sheet is drawn by the drawing unit but stayed in a position that the leading edge thereof is out of the sheet stacking portion.

Sheet supplying device

An apparatus for controlling a sheet supplying device having a feeding device capable of feeding a copying sheet from a plurality of stacked copying sheets in a sheet stacking portion and a reversing device capable of returning copying sheets desired not to be fed at an instance of feeding process includes an unit for applying a rotational driving force to the feeding device so as to draw a copying sheet out of the stacked copying sheets in the sheet stacking portion by rotating the feeding device in one direction, and an unit for applying a rotational driving force to the reversing device so as to return a copying sheet desired not to be fed to the sheet stacking portion at a time when a plurality of copying sheets are simultaneously fed out from the sheet stacking portion by rotating the reversing device in another direction. The apparatus also includes an unit for controlling both of the applying units such that the rotational driving force applied to the feeding device is stopped at a time when a copying sheet to be fed has passed on the feeding device and the rotational driving force applied to the reversing device is kept to apply to the reversing device at least for a predetermined time period after stopping to apply the rotational driving force to the feeding device. The applying unit for applying the rotational force to the feeding device is capable of applying a rotational force which is enable to rotate the feeding device in the another direction. The controlling unit is capable of applying a rotational driving force to the feeding device so as to rotate in the another direction for a constant time period.

Apparatus for controlling a sheet supplying device

A feeding device in accordance with the present invention includes an arm mounted such that one edge thereof is rotatably supported and is capable of moving freely in the horizontal plane, a rotating section rotatably supported by the other edge of the arm and is capable of rotating freely in the horizontal plane to at least two paper feed positions, i.e. longitudinal and lateral feed positions, and a pivotal paper holding plate that is capable of rising. A rotating device is rotatably mounted in the vicinity of a corner of the rotating section and moves back and forth in a straight line in a direction orthogonal to the paper feed direction and permits the rotating section to rotate. A flexible joint is provided which is capable of pivoting in at least two directions and supports the pivotal paper holding plate at one point located in the corner formed by a non-feeding side of the rotating section when the rotating section is set in the longitudinal feed position and the non-feeding side of the rotating section when the rotating section is set in the lateral feed position, such that the pivotal paper holding plate uses the non-feeding side of the rotating sections as fulcrums when the pivotal paper plate pivots and rises.

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Nara, Japan

Toyoaki Namba