Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-08
2001-06-26
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
C271S225000, C271S314000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06250626
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet discharging apparatus wherein a sheet conveyed thereto is received by a pair of rotating blades thereof and then conveyed downwards.
2. Description of the Related Art
In Japanese Patent Application No. 6-101236, the present applicant proposed an invention relating to a sheet discharging apparatus for a printing machine. This invention has been made public in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-309496. This invention will be explained referring to
FIGS. 4
to
10
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 4
, an outlet
300
a
of a printing machine
300
is connected to an inlet of a sheet discharging apparatus
101
through a sheet conveying apparatus
100
. The sheet conveying apparatus
100
has plural endless belts driven by a conveying motor. A post card as a sheet is printed by the printing machine
300
, and conveyed by the sheet conveying apparatus
100
, and then received in the sheet discharging apparatus
101
. Ink on the post card as received is dried while the card is supported and conveyed in the sheet discharging apparatus
101
. Then, the post card is dropped onto a tray
116
situated in a lower part of the sheet discharging apparatus
101
, and stored therein.
As illustrated in
FIG. 5
, the sheet conveying apparatus
100
includes a conveying surface
102
for guiding a sheet and a belt
105
for conveying the sheet along the conveying surface
102
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 5
, the sheet discharging apparatus
101
has, as a main body, a frame
110
approximately in a form of a box. On an upper portion of the frame
110
, two shafts
111
are situated along two side edges of the sheet to be conveyed, respectively. Each shaft
111
has a rotating blade
112
including four plates.
As illustrated in
FIG. 6
, the two shafts are situated parallel with each other and rotated inwardly in directions opposite to each other. Namely, the left shaft rotates clockwise, and the right shaft rotates anticlockwise, as seen in a vertical plane perpendicular to the shaft
111
. The two rotating blades
112
fitted on the respective shafts coincide with each other in rotational phases thereof. Namely, positions of respective plates of one rotating blade coincide with those of the other rotating blade in the rotational direction.
As illustrated in
FIG. 5
, in the frame
110
, a pair of upper and lower driving axes
113
is situated below each of the shafts
111
. The driving axes
113
,
113
of the same pair are connected by two belts
114
. Each of the belts
114
has many receiving flaps
115
formed at a predetermined distance therebetween.
A discharging tray
116
is drawably situated at the bottom of the frame
110
.
The sheet, after being printed thereon by the printing machine
300
, is discharged to the outside of the machine. The printed sheet discharged from the printing machine
300
is placed on the conveying surface
102
of the sheet conveying apparatus
100
. The belt
105
moves along the conveying surface
102
. The sheet is supported at both side edges thereof by the pair of the rotating blades
112
. Upon rotation of the shaft
111
, the sheet is downwardly conveyed and held by the receiving flaps
115
therebetween. Moving belts
114
convey the sheet downwardly. Ink printed on the sheet is dried during conveyance, and then the sheet is dropped onto the discharging tray
116
to be stacked thereon.
In using the sheet discharging apparatus, inconvenience such that the printing sheet comes out of the belts
114
or plural sheets are supported on one receiving flap
115
may be caused. In this case, the printing sheet must be taken out from between the belts
114
,
114
by a hand inserted between the two rotating blades
112
,
112
. The rotating blade
112
is freed from rotation of the shaft
111
when being touched by the hand and not driven by the shaft
111
. Thus, safety in such manual operation is ensured even when the shaft
111
is rotating. Namely, the rotating blades
112
may not bite hands of an operator in such operation.
That is, in the sheet discharging apparatus
101
, the rotating blade
112
and the shaft
111
are not completely connected with each other, therefore the rotating blade
112
can rotate freely relative to the shaft
111
when being affected by force. Namely, as illustrated in
FIGS. 7 and 8
, the rotating blade
112
includes an axis portion
120
rotatably fitted on the shaft
111
and four plates attached to an outer circumferential surface of the axis portion
120
. The four plates are arranged to be spaced apart by an angle of 45°. A coil spring
130
is fitted on the shaft
111
on a rear side of the rotating blade
112
. A stopper
131
is fitted on the shaft
111
on a rear side of the coil spring
130
. An engaging member
132
, a pin, is attached to the shaft
111
on a forward side of the rotating blade
112
. Engaging holes
135
are formed on a front-end portion of the rotating blade
112
. The form of the engaging hole coincides with that of the engaging member
132
. The coil spring
130
presses the rotating blade
112
, thereby forcing the engaging holes
135
to be engaged with the engaging members
132
. Thus, the shaft
111
and the rotating blade
112
are joined to rotate together.
When the rotating blade
112
is pressed in a direction opposite to the pressing direction of the coil spring
130
, the coil spring
130
is compressed, thereby allowing the rotating blade
112
to come out of the engaging members
132
. When the pressing force disappears, the rotating blade
112
is pressed by the coil spring
130
to come into contact with the engaging members
132
, again. Thus, the rotating blade
112
and the shaft
111
come to rotate together.
As previously mentioned, in the sheet discharging apparatus
101
, the rotating blade
112
and the shaft
111
are not completely connected with each other. The rotating blade
112
gets detached from the shaft
111
when being pressed in the direction for compressing the coil spring
130
, thereby being freed from rotation of the shaft
111
. And, when the outer force disappears, the rotating blade
112
is pressed by the coil spring
130
to again contact the engaging members
132
, thereby interlocking the shaft
111
. However, unless the engaging members
132
engage the engaging holes
135
, a rotational phase between the shaft
111
and the rotating blade
112
is not set at a predetermined constant state. Consequently, after the operation as mentioned before for removing the printing sheet, phases of the respective two rotating blades
112
,
112
, i.e. positions of the plates
121
of each rotating blade in the rotational direction, may be displaced relative to each other.
Suppose a printing sheet
200
is supplied onto the two rotating blades
112
,
112
whose phases are displaced relative to each other by an angle of 15° as illustrated in FIG.
9
. In the drawing, the left rotating blade
112
L is set at a predetermined proper phase for receiving the printing sheet
200
to be processed, and a phase of the right rotating blade
112
R is displaced by an angle of 15°. As illustrated in
FIG. 10
, if the printing sheet
200
is supplied towards the rotating blades
112
L,
112
R, it collides with the plate
121
of the rotating blade
112
R in the displaced phase. The rotating blade
112
R fails to regularly receive the printing sheet
200
, or fails to convey the sheet to the belt
114
. In this way, sheet jamming occurs while conveying the sheet.
An object of the present invention is, in a sheet discharging machine having a pair of rotating blades detachably connected to respective rotating shafts, to allow phases of the two rotating blades to always coincide with each other.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A sheet discharging apparatus as defined in a first aspect of the present invention is adapted to receive a sheet conveyed thereto, the sheet discharging apparatus comprises a pair of axes situated parallel to each other at a predetermined distance away from each other, the axes
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Riso Kagaku Corporation
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