Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – To receiver for pack of sheets
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-29
2004-03-09
Bollinger, David H. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
To receiver for pack of sheets
C271S221000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702279
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sheet treating apparatus in a copier, a laser beam printer or the like, and an image forming apparatus provided with the same, and more particularly to a sheet treating apparatus improved so that during the alignment and stitching process of sheets on the surfaces of which images have been formed by an image forming apparatus and which are delivered, particularly the processing operation of aligning the sheets, the grouping of the sheets by aligning means can be effected and also the alignment of the grouped sheet bundle can be effectively effected, and an image forming apparatus provided with such sheet treating apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Generally, as sheet treating apparatuses, there have already been proposed and put into practice numerous apparatuses comprising a combination of first treating means for aligning and grouping sheets on which images have been formed and stapling a part of the bundle sheet as required, and second treating means for receiving and containing each aligned sheet bundle or stapled sheet bundle, including apparatuses disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-199123.
The construction of the aligning portion of a conventional sheet treating apparatus of this type is schematically shown in
FIG. 33
of the accompanying drawings. In
FIG. 33
, the conventional sheet treating apparatus is comprised of a pair of carrying-out rollers
701
comprising a lower carrying-out roller
701
a
and a carrying-out roller
701
b
for carrying out sheets P from a sort path
700
, a treating unit
800
having first treating means for receiving, aligning and grouping the sheets P carried out, and stapling a part of the sheet bundle as required, and a stack tray
900
for containing and stacking therein each sheet bundle bundle-delivered after treatment.
Knurled belts
702
are wound on several axial locations between the lower carrying-out roller
701
a
and the carrying-out roller
701
b
of the pair of carrying-out rollers
701
, and sheet guides
703
are disposed at appropriate locations among the knurled belts
702
.
The treating unit
800
has a treating tray
801
inclined by the downstream side (the left upper portion as viewed in
FIG. 33
) thereof with respect to the direction of delivery of the sheets P being positioned upwardly and the upstream side (the right lower side as viewed in
FIG. 33
) thereof being positioned downwardly, a trailing end stopper portion
802
at the upstream side end portion, a pair of right and left aligning members
803
in the widthwise direction of the sheet, a pair of bundle delivery rollers
804
comprising a set of lower and upper bundle delivery rollers
804
a
and
804
b
disposed downstream of the treating tray
801
, a swingable guide
805
having an upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
on the underside of the leading end thereof, and supporting the upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
for movement toward and away from the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
, and a pull-in paddle
806
disposed above the intermediate portion.
In this case, the lower and upper bundle delivery rollers
804
a
and
804
b
of the pair of bundle delivery rollers
804
receive the sheet P from the pair of carrying-out rollers
701
onto the treating tray
801
with the upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
brought into its open state in which it is spaced apart from the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
by the swinging control of the swingable guide
805
, and the upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
is brought into its closed state in which it is in contact with the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
in synchronism with the termination of the reception, and also the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
is rotatively driven in a clockwise direction to thereby bias the received sheet P so as to pull it back to the upstream trailing end stopper portion
802
side, i.e., the upstream side, on the treating tray
801
, and then the upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
is again spaced apart from the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a.
Also, the sheet P biased to the upstream side is continuedly subjected to the pulling-back action by the rotative driving of the pull-in paddle
806
and also is aligned by the operation of the aligning members
803
, and the feeding-in action for the end portion of the sheet by the rotation of the knurled belts
702
is applied thereto, and the sheet P is dashed against the trailing end stopper portion
802
via the sheet guides
703
, and the aligning operation is terminated in this manner.
The knurled belts
702
, as shown in
FIG. 33
, are wound on the lower delivery roller
701
a
adjacent to the lower portion between the pair of carrying-out rollers
701
, i.e., adjacent to the treating tray
801
and are made rotatable and also, there is provided an idle runner
791
idly rotated in contact with the lower inner peripheral surface of the knurled belts
702
, and during the paddling and aligning operations which will be described below, and particularly at the start of the aligning operation performed subsequently to the paddling operation, the idle runner
791
is pulled and operated toward the rearward side (the right side) as viewed in
FIG. 33
, and further to the supporting surface side of the trailing end stopper portion
802
by a solenoid
792
through a link
793
, whereby the knurled belts are pulled toward the inner side of the sheet guide
703
above them and are deformed (as indicated by the broken line in
FIG. 33
) so as not to hamper the sheet P from being dashed against the trailing end stopper portion
802
.
The sheet P delivered from the pair of carrying-out rollers
701
slides on the treating tray
801
until it is dashed against the dashing support surface
802
a
of the trailing end stopper portion
802
by its own gravity and the action of the pull-in paddle
806
which will be described later and the feeding action by the underside of the knurled belts
702
while the trailing end edge of the sheet P is downwardly guided by the sheet guides
703
.
The sheet P having dashed is aligned widthwisely of the sheet by the aligning members
803
to thereby form a sheet bundle.
The sheet bundle aligned on the treating tray
801
is subjected to the stitching process and so on at the aligning position, whereafter the upper bundle delivery roller
804
b
is brought into contact with the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
, and the lower bundle delivery roller
804
a
is now rotatively driven in a counter-clockwise direction, whereby the sheet bundle having been subjected to the treatment is bundle-delivered onto the stack tray
900
.
In the above-described example of the conventional art, however, the knurled belts have been driven at two positions, i.e., a position in which they contact with the sheet shown in FIG.
33
and feed the end portion of the sheet to the trailing end stopper portion
802
and a retracted position in which they are completely spaced apart from the sheet and are hidden behind the sheet guides
703
.
Therefore, when as shown in
FIG. 32
of the accompanying drawings, the number of sheet bundles is great (the height of the bundles is great), the area of contact between the sheet P and the knurled belts
702
becomes large and therefore, the feeding-in force for the sheet P becomes greater than necessary and the sheet P might run upon the trailing end stopper portion
802
or might be buckled. On the other hand, if the height of the knurled belt
702
at the feeding-in position is made great in accordance with the case where the height of sheet bundles is great, when the number of sheet bundles stacked in the treating tray
801
is small, the area of contact between the sheet P and the knurled belt
702
will become small or they will not come into contact with each other, and the feeding-in force for the sheet will become small and it may become impossible to feed the sheet P to the trailing end stopper portion
802
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
So, it
Adachi Seiichiro
Hayashi Ken-ichi
Bollinger David H.
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
LandOfFree
Sheet treating apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Sheet treating apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sheet treating apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3258171