Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – With means to align sheet
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-20
2001-10-02
Skaggs, H. Grant (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
With means to align sheet
C271S198000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296248
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sheet conveying apparatuses, and more particularly to a sheet conveying apparatus capable of conveying a rectangular sheet in such a manner that a center line of the sheet relative to a conveyance direction of the sheet coincides with a predetermined center line for conveyance.
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. 3
to
8
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 3
, 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 conveying a sheet. In the center of the conveying surface
102
, an opening
103
is formed along a conveying direction. That is, two sheet guiding plates are situated along a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction at a predetermined distance away from each other, thereby forming the conveying surface
102
. The distance between the two sheet guiding plates can be optionally adjusted. In the opening
103
, sheet conveying means is situated. The sheet conveying means
103
includes a pair of pulleys
104
and three belts connecting the pulleys. The belts are parallel to each other. Upper surfaces of the belts contacting a bottom surface of the sheet
106
coincides with the conveying surface
102
. The belts
105
convey the sheet
106
with the upper surfaces thereof contacting the bottom surface of the sheet
106
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 4
, 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 supporting means
112
comprising four plates.
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. As illustrated in
FIG. 6
, in a view perpendicular to the conveying direction, a distance between the right and the left belts
114
,
114
is relatively wide in an upper portion and approximately coincides with a width of the sheet
106
in a lower portion.
A discharging tray
116
is drawably situated at the bottom of the frame
110
.
The sheet
106
, after being printed thereon by a not-shown printing machine, is discharged to the outside of the machine. The printed sheet
106
discharged from the printing machine is placed on the conveying surface
102
of the sheet conveying apparatus
100
. The belt
105
moves while contacting the bottom surface of the sheet
106
, thereby moving the sheet
106
along the conveying surface
102
. The sheet is positioned while being guided by the sheet guiding plates at both side edges thereof, and conveyed to the sheet discharging apparatus
101
. The sheet
106
is supported by the pair of the supporting means
112
of the sheet discharging apparatus
101
. 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 therein.
As illustrated in
FIG. 5
, a center line L
1
of the rectangular sheet
106
as discharged from the printing machine is parallel to the conveying direction, but this does not necessary coincide with a center line L
2
of the sheet conveying apparatus
100
for conveyance. Conventionally, if the distance between the sheet guiding plates of the sheet conveying apparatus
100
is arranged to coincide with the width of the sheet
106
, the center line L
1
of the sheet
106
in the conveyance direction is to coincide with the center line L
2
for conveyance while the sheet
106
is conveyed to pass through the distance. However, as a matter of fact, it is difficult to make the center line L
1
in the conveyance direction of the sheet
106
to coincide with the center line L
2
precisely by using the sheet guiding plates.
Namely, the distance between the sheet guiding plates is adjustable according to the width of the sheet
106
; therefore, it is inevitable that irregularity may occur in positioning the sheet guiding plates due to such adjustability. Hence, in the case where a sheet of a size is conveyed, it is difficult to always place the sheet guiding plates in constant positions determined according to the size. Further, the distance between the sheet guiding plates must be adjusted fairly broader than the width of the sheet to allow the sheet to pass through the distance. Thus, in the conventional sheet conveying apparatus, the distance between the sheet guiding plates is adjusted broader than the width of the sheet to be guided, and the distance actually adjusted may include irregularity.
Accordingly, in the case where the center line of the rectangular sheet does not coincide with that of the sheet conveying apparatus when the sheet is discharged from the printing machine, it is difficult to correct the position of the sheet by the sheet guiding plates so that the center line of the sheet coincides with that of the sheet conveying apparatus.
Suppose that, as illustrated in
FIG. 6
, the sheet
106
is fed into the sheet discharging apparatus
101
in such a manner that the center line L
1
does not coincide with the center line L
2
. As illustrated in
FIG. 7
, two side edges of the sheet
106
are not positioned equally to the pair of the supporting means
112
, respectively. That is, in
FIG. 7
, the right side edge of the sheet
106
insufficiently engages the right supporting means, but the left side edge of the sheet
106
sufficiently engages the left supporting means. Therefore, when the supporting means
112
rotate in the direction shown by arrows in the drawing, as illustrated in
FIG. 8
, the right side edge of the sheet
106
leaves the supporting means
112
, thereby falling onto the receiving flap
115
. Then, the left side edge of the sheet
106
engages the left supporting means
112
. Accordingly, the sheet
106
inclines relative to the pair of the belts
114
,
114
, so that the sheet can not be appropriately passed from the supporting means to the belts.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet conveying apparatus capable of conveying the rectangular sheet in such a manner that the center line of the sheet coincides with a center line thereof for conveyance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a sheet conveying apparatus for conveying a rectangular sheet comprises conveying means for conveying the sheet while contacting a bottom surface of the sheet on a conveyance surface, and a pair of elastic members disposed on two sides of the conveying means, the elastic members guiding the sheet while contacting respective side edges of the sheet when the sheet is conveyed by the conveying means so that a center line of the sheet coincides with a center line for conveyance.
According
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Rico Kagaku Corporation
Skaggs H. Grant
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