Sheet-material associating – Associating or disassociating – Sheet associating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-17
2001-05-15
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet-material associating
Associating or disassociating
Sheet associating
C270S058130, C270S058180, C270S058120, C271S213000, C271S217000, C414S794200, C414S791200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231039
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparautus adjacent to a sheet discharging section of an image forming system such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile and so on. More particularly, it relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus capable of performing post-process such as a stapling or a punching to sheets on which images are formed by the image forming system.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the image forming system is developed from analogue type into digital type. The digital image forming appartus can perform one or more function(s) of copy function, print function, facsimile function and selectively discharge the sheets on which images are formed.
That is, since the digital image forming system can store image data to be copied or printed, the image forming system can print the images on the sheets and discharge the sheets on which the images are formed, according to sequency which user wants. Therefore, a sheet post-processing apparatus of the analogue image forming system requires a plurality of accommodation trays for sorting and accommodating the sheets, but a sheet post-processing apparatus of the digital image forming system, without a plurality of accommodation trays, can sort and accommodate the sheets by only one accommodation tray for temporarily accommodating the sheets until sheets are completely discharged from the image forming system.
As an embodiment of the new sheet post-processing apparatus, when the digital image forming system copies a manuscript consisting of a plurality of sheets to make a plurality of duplicates, the image forming system repeatedly performs operation which prints and discharges the manuscript successively until all the sheets are accommodated into the accommodation tray. Thereafter, the sheet post-processing apparatus accommodates the sheets into a tray which has a stacker function. In this case, if necessary, the sheet post-processing apparatus can staples(or punches) the discharged sheets before accommodating the sheets into the stacker.
Further, the accommodation tray for temporarily accommodating the sheets has an aligning function to align the sheets accommodated therein and an offset function to accommodate bundles of sheets to be post-processed in zigzags.
The sheet post-processing apparatus of the digital image forming system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,340 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,837, and the sheet post-processing apparatuses are briefly explained in the following, referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus is adjacent to a discharging section
2
of the image forming system
1
and is provided with a copy sheets discharged from the discharging section
2
. The copy sheets transferred to the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus are discharged from a sheet oulet
9
by a conveyer
4
and is accommodated into an aligning tray
5
slantedly disposed. In this case, an end of each of the copy sheets is supported by a pusher
8
disposed at lower portion of the aligning tray
5
so that the copy sheets may be aligned. Further, in order to accurately align the copy sheets, the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus has a roller
7
for moving the copy sheets accommodated into the aligning tray
5
toward pusher
8
.
When the process as above-mentioned is repeated and the sheets are completely discharged from the image forming system, a solenoid
5
a
connected to the aligning tray
5
operates to align a side of each of the sheets accommodated into the aligning tray
5
. Then, the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus performs a post-process by a punch(not shown) or a stapler
10
to the aligned sheets. Thereafter, the pusher
8
supporting the end of each of the sheets is forwardly moved by a motor
8
a
so that the post-processed sheets are accommodated into an accommodation tray
6
.
Further, the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus has a motor
6
a
capable of vertically moving the accommodation tray
6
. The motor
6
a
moves the accommodation tray
6
to the position suitable for accommodation of the sheets. That is, when a bundle of sheets is accommodated into the accommodation tray
6
, the motor
6
a
moves the accommodation tray
6
downward by a predetermined distance so that upper end of the accommodation tray
6
is positioned in place capable of accommodating the next bundle of sheets.
Furthermore, the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus has a motor
6
b
for horizontally moving the accommodation tray
6
in order to offset the sheets. As shown in
FIG. 2
, when a bundle of sheets is completely accommodated into the accommodation tray
6
, the motor
6
b
moves the accommodation tray
6
horizontally. At this time, when the next bundle of sheets is accommodated into the accommodation tray
6
, the previous bundle of sheets and the next bundle of sheets are positioned in zigzags. Therefore, when a plurality of bundles of sheets are accommodated into the accommodation tray
6
, it may be prevented that staples imbeded into the bundles are stacked and a portion of the sheets accommodated into the accommodation tray is higher than the other portions.
However, since the conventional sheet post-processing apparatus aligns a side of each of the sheets accommodated into the aligning tray by the solenoid, there is a problem that sizes of the sheets used for the apparatus should be uniform.
Further, when a plurality of sheets are accommodated into the accommodation tray, since a large of load is applied to the motor for horizontally moving the accommodation tray, expensive motor capable of generating great driving force should be used for the apparatus in order to bear the load.
Furthermore, since the conventional apparatus has a plurality of elements for moving the sheets(that is, a pusher, a motor to operate the pusher and so on), the structure is complex.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a sheet post-processing apparatus capable of accommodating variant size sheets by mechanism consisting of simple and cheap elements.
In order to accomplish the above object, the sheet post-processing apparatus, according to the present invention, comprises: a conveyer for conveying the sheets discharged from an image forming system; a conveying device for conveying the sheets discharged from the image forming system; a pair of upper trays for accommodating the sheets conveyed by the conveying devices, and being horizontally moved in order to align the sheets accommodated therein and fall down the aligned sheets; a pair of upper tray driving devices for providing a driving force to the upper trays; a transmission unit for transmitting the driving force of the upper tray driving device to the upper trays; a lower tray for loading the sheets fallen from the upper trays; and a lower tray driving device for moving the lower tray in upper and lower directions in order to retain distance between the upper trays and the lower tray within a predetermined range.
In this case, the transmission unit of the present invention comprises a base plate having a first and a second supporting bars, a plurality of erect portions formed on the each upper tray member and having a through hole for passing the supporting bar, a plurality of belts to be moved by the driving force provided from the motors, a plurality of abutments fixed to the upper tray members and the belts so that the upper tray members are moved together the belts.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3410424 (1968-11-01), Rooney, Jr.
patent: 4473425 (1984-09-01), Baughman et al.
patent: 4611741 (1986-09-01), Wilson
patent: 5021837 (1991-06-01), Uto et al.
patent: 5285249 (1994-02-01), Mahoney
patent: 5385340 (1995-01-01), Hiroi et al.
patent: 5447298 (1995-09-01), Watanabe et al.
patent: 5803706 (1998-09-01), Achelphohl
patent: 5961274 (1999-10-01), Bors
patent: 6106219 (2000-08-01), Newsome et al.
patent: 403111372A (1991-05-01), None
patent: 8-9451 (1996-01-01), Non
Ellis Christopher P.
Mackey Patrick
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Sindoricoh Co., Ltd.
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