Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – To receiver for pack of sheets
Reexamination Certificate
1996-12-20
2001-01-30
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
To receiver for pack of sheets
C271S184000, C271S250000, C414S791200, C270S058310, C270S052030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179287
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to a sheet accumulation apparatus, for example, a sheet accumulation apparatus for accumulating cut sheets (hereinafter, “sheet”) which are discharged from the main assembly of an image forming apparatus after an image is formed thereon. It also relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, or a facsimile, which comprises such a sheet accumulation apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to such a sheet accumulation apparatus that accumulates and jogs the discharged sheets to abut them to a reference, with slight displacement of the uppermost or bottom most sheet, and an image forming apparatus comprising such a sheet accumulation apparatus.
In a conventional sheet accumulation apparatus, the sheets are sorted into a set of sheets, and each set is delivered into a different tray as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 313,261/1990.
However, in the conventional sheet accumulation apparatus, trays must be shifted for each set of sheets. Therefore, in order to increases the number of sheet sets or sheets in each set, which can be handled by a conventional sheet accumulation apparatus, the number of trays must be increased, and in addition, a large power source is necessary to move a large number of trays. As a result, apparatus size becomes larger, increasing the apparatus cost and also requiring a larger space for the apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned shortcomings of a conventional sheet accumulation apparatus, and its object is to provide a sheet accumulation apparatus capable of slightly displacing the topmost or bottommost sheet of each sheet set from the rest in order to make it easier to separate the accumulated sheet sets from each other, and also to provide an image forming apparatus comprising such a sheet accumulation apparatus, since such a sheet accumulation apparatus and an image forming apparatus can eliminate the need for size increase and also can afford cost reduction.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus comprising sheet discharging means for discharging sheets; a stacking tray for stacking sets of the sheets discharged by said sheet discharging means; a retaining tray for retaining one sheet discharging by said discharging means; shifting means for shifting, in a direction crossing with a direction of the discharging of the sheet, the one sheet on said retaining tray; feeding means for feeding the one sheet to said stacking tray; whereby the sets of the sheets are grouped with the sheet shifted by said shifting means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus comprising sheet discharging means for discharging sheets; a first tray for stacking the sheets discharged by said discharging means; aligning means for moving the sheets supported on said first tray in a direction crossing with a direction of discharging of the sheet, to align the sheets; first driving means for driving said aligning means; a first sheet regulating member for regulating the sheets moved in a direction crossing with the discharging direction by said aligning means; second driving means for retracting said first sheet regulating member from said first tray; a second sheet regulating member disposed more remote from said aligning means than said first sheet regulating member; and moving means for moving the sheets supported on said first tray to second tray adjacent the first tray.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus comprising sheet discharging means for discharging sheets; a first tray for stacking the sheets discharging by said discharging means; aligning means for moving the sheets supported on said first tray in a direction crossing with a direction of discharging of the sheet, to align the sheets; first driving means for driving said aligning means; a first sheet regulating member for regulating the sheets moved in a direction crossing with the discharging direction by said aligning means; second driving means for retracting said first sheet regulating member from said first tray; a second sheet regulating member disposed more remote from said aligning means than said first sheet regulating member; and moving means for moving the sheets supported on said first tray to a second tray adjacent said first tray; control means for controlling said second driving means to retract said first sheet regulating member and for controlling said first driving means to align a first one sheet of the set of the sheets by abutting it to said second sheet regulating member.
In this aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that said control means controls said second driving means so as to reset said first sheet regulating member to an upper surface of said first tray, and controls said first driving means so as to abut second and subsequent sheets of the set of the sheets to said first regulating member.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus comprising sheet discharging means for discharging sheets; a first tray for stacking the sheets discharged by said discharging means; aligning means for moving the sheets supported on said first tray in a direction crossing with a direction of discharging of the sheet, to align the sheets; first driving means for driving said aligning means; a first sheet regulating member for regulating the sheets moved in a direction crossing with the discharging direction by said aligning means; second driving means for retracting said first sheet regulating member from said first tray; a second sheet regulating member disposed more remote from said aligning means than said first sheet regulating member; and moving means for moving the sheet supported on said first tray to a second tray adjacent said first tray; control means for controlling said second driving means to retract said first sheet regulating member and for controlling said first driving means to align a last one sheet of the set of the sheets by abutting it to said second sheet regulating member.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet stacking apparatus comprising sheet discharging means for discharging sheets; an alignment tray for stacking the sheets discharged by said discharging means in an aligned state; aligning means for aligning the sheets on said alignment tray by moving them in a direction crossing with a sheet discharging direction; a sheet regulating member disposed opposed to said aligning means; a stacking tray for receiving the sheets on said alignment tray; wherein said sheet regulating member is movable between a first position for receiving the sheet moved by said aligning means and a second position retracted from said first position to increase a movement distance through which the sheets are moved from said first position in a direction crossing with said discharging direction.
The present invention is also applicable to an image forming apparatus comprising an image forming section, and a sheet accumulation apparatus in which the sheets on which an image has been formed in the image forming section are discharged and accumulated in the same manner as described above.
With the provision of the above described structure, adjacent two sets of sheets are separated by a single sheet slightly displaced from the rest. More specifically, after the first set of sheets is accumulated in a first tray and is conveyed into a second tray, the first sheet regulating member is retracted to a position (second position) below the sheet accumulation surface of the first tray. Then, the first (bottommost) sheet of the following set of sheets is conveyed into the first tray, and this sheet is aligned on the second sheet regulating member by the abutting means. Thereafter, this sheet is conveyed into the second tray by the conveyin
Namiki Hiroaki
Watanabe Tomoyuki
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Ellis Christopher P.
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Ridley Richard
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