Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi – Control means energized in response to activator stimulated... – Responsive to work material – the product or means engaging...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-08
2001-01-09
Vo, Peter (Department: 3721)
Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi
Control means energized in response to activator stimulated...
Responsive to work material, the product or means engaging...
C493S385000, C493S445000, C493S025000, C270S058120, C271S235000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06171225
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a finisher which gives such additional-workings as creasing, folding, punching, stapling and binding works to sheets discharged from such image forming devices as printers and copying machines. More particularly, this invention relates to a finisher which is provided with a sheaf-conveying unit which nips and conveys a sheaf of sheets temporarily stacked and aligned in a receiving tray unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various finishers, which give various additional-workings to sheets with an image formed surface which are outputted from such image forming devices as printer and copying machines, have been proposed. The term “additional-workings” as used herein means various working processes such as sorting sheets, stapling sheets, folding sheets in two (double-folding), creasing sheets (creasing), or folding sheets in a cross section like a letter Z (Z-folding), binding sheets with mucilage, and punching sheets for filing. The finisher generally is provided with a receiving tray unit for temporarily storing such sheets as have been folded and punched. The sheaf of sheets, which has been stacked and aligned in the receiving tray unit, is conveyed to a stapler and is stapled.
The finisher is further provided with a regulating device disposed on the receiving tray unit as projected. The regulating device contacts a leading end of the sheaf, which falls on the leading end side when the sheaf is conveyed toward the stapler, in order to adjust the leading end of the sheaf.
In a number of the conventional finishers, conveyance of a sheaf for stapling is performed by actuating a chuck unit for nipping a sheaf stacked and aligned in the receiving tray unit, and generating a movement of the chuck unit toward the stapler (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/633,452).
The sheets, which are received in the receiving tray unit, are slightly curled under the influences of heat and pressure during the image formation. The conventional finisher forces the leading end of the sheaf to contact the regulating device for alignment without regard to the curl in the sheets.
It possibly results in completing the alignment in a state that some leading edges of the sheets ride aslant on the regulating device, thus the sheets of sheaf is stapled having the misalignment or deviation relative to the coveying direction. The misalignment will naturally impair the appearance of the stapled sheaf.
Provision of such retaining devices as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,867 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 57-72537 is conceivable for adjusting the deviation of the sheet conveying direction caused by the curls in the sheets. However, it entails the addition of another mechanism different from the sheaf conveying mechanism and results in complicating the construction and boosting the cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of this invention is to provide a finisher which is capable of correcting a deviation or misalignment caused as by curls in sheets while precluding the possibility of complicating the construction and adding to the cost.
To accomplish the object, this invention concerns a finisher which is characterized by comprising a receiving tray unit which stores and stacks sheets, a regulating device which is disposed as projected from the receiving tray unit and contacts an end face of a sheaf of sheets stacked in the receiving tray unit, and a sheaf-conveying unit which is formed as a pair of conveying devices which converge or diverge from each other, and nips and conveys the sheaf in the receiving tray unit, the sheaf-conveying unit producing at least one cycle of converging and diverging motions and pressing the sheets before nipping and conveying the sheaf.
In the finisher, the paired conveying devices of the sheaf-conveying unit produce at least one cycle of converging and diverging motions before nipping and conveying the sheaf. The converging and diverging motions of the conveying devices press down the leading edges of the sheets even when the leading edges of sheets are in a state riding on the regulating device owing to the curls in the sheets. It results in adjusting the misalignment of sheets and producing a stapled sheaf which is aligned and enjoys a fine appearance, for example. The unit, which adjusts the misalignment, functions also as a conveying unit which nips and conveys the sheaf. The finisher neither needs to incorporate an additional mechanism which adjusts the misalignment nor entails complication or enlargement of equipment or increase of cost. Namely, this invention provides a finisher which is capable of correcting a misalignment caused as by curls in sheets and completing a perfect alignment while precluding the possibility of complicating the construction and adding to the cost.
The conveying devices of the sheaf-conveying unit are specifically formed of a pair of rollers or a chuck unit.
The finisher is connected to an image forming device which forms images on sheets, and gives various additional-workings to sheets with an image formed surface which are outputted from the image forming device. The finisher folds sheets. The additional-workings include stapling and binding. The sheaf includes folded sheets.
When the sheaf-conveying unit is formed as a pair of rollers (paired rollers), it is preferable that the paired rollers are made of the same material with a desired hardness and have the same diameter. The paired rollers, which are rotated by one drive source, are preferably constructed to produce no rotations during converging and diverging motions. The paired rollers are constantly urged with a fixed pressure. Moreover, one of the paired rollers (the second roller) moves relative to the other of the paired rollers (the first roller), where the first roller is fixed.
The finisher is further provided with a conveying unit which is capable of conveying sheets one by one to the receiving tray unit. The sheaf-conveying unit preferably produces one cycle of converging and diverging motions each time that the receiving tray unit receives a sheet conveyed by the conveying unit.
The finisher is further provided with a stapler which staples a sheaf of sheets. The stapler staples the sheaf which is nipped and conveyed by the sheaf-conveying unit.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3698705 (1972-10-01), Funk et al.
patent: 4852867 (1989-08-01), Johdai et al.
patent: 5032876 (1991-07-01), Murakami
patent: 5288062 (1994-02-01), Rizzolo et al.
patent: 5382011 (1995-01-01), Tani
patent: 5639078 (1997-06-01), Mandel et al.
patent: 5649695 (1997-07-01), Lawrence
patent: 57-72537 (1982-05-01), None
Nonoyama Masahiro
Suzuki Norihiko
Desai Hemant M.
Minolta Co. , Ltd.
Sidley & Austin
Vo Peter
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