Sheet conveyance unit and sheet conveyance system including same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10919720-B2
Application number	US-201916359205-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2019
Priority date	Mar 29, 2018
Publication date	Feb 16, 2021
Grant date	Feb 16, 2021

Abstract

A sheet conveyance unit includes a sheet inlet port, an inlet guide, and a guide switching mechanism. The inlet guide has an upper guide and a lower guide below the upper guide. The guide switching mechanism switches a position of the inlet guide between a conveyance position at which the upper guide and the lower guide face each other with a first distance and a separation position at which the upper guide and the lower guide are spaced from each other by a second distance greater than the first distance. To connect the sheet conveyance unit to the sheet discharge unit, the inlet guide is disposed to the separation position before the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide, and is disposed to the conveyance position after the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet conveyance unit being connected to a sheet discharge unit which discharge a sheet,
the sheet conveyance unit comprising:
a sheet inlet port which is connected to a discharge guide provided in the sheet discharge unit;
an inlet guide which is disposed at the sheet inlet port and has an upper guide facing an upper surface of the sheet and a lower guide disposed below the upper guide so as to face a lower surface of the sheet;
a conveyance member which conveys the sheet conveyed into the sheet conveyance unit along the inlet guide; and
a guide switching mechanism which switches the inlet guide between a conveyance position at which the upper guide and the lower guide face each other with a first distance and a separation position at which the upper guide and the lower guide are spaced from each other with a second distance greater than the first distance,
wherein,
to connect the sheet conveyance unit to the sheet discharge unit,
the inlet guide is disposed to the separation position by the guide switching mechanism before the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide, and is disposed to the conveyance position after the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide.

2. The sheet conveyance unit according to claim 1 ,
wherein
the upper guide and the lower guide are each supported to be swingable upward and downward with a downstream side thereof with respect to a sheet conveyance direction as a fulcrum and with an upstream side thereof with respect to the sheet conveyance direction as a swing end, and
the guide switching mechanism swings the swing end of the upper guide and the swing end of the lower guide in directions away from each other at the conveyance position, to thereby switch the position of the inlet guide to the separation position, and swings the swing end of the upper guide and the swing end of the lower guide in directions approaching each other at the separation position, to thereby switch the position of the inlet guide to the conveyance position.

3. The sheet conveyance unit according to claim 2 ,
wherein
the guide switching mechanism comprises
a slide lever which is supported to be slidable in a horizontal direction,
an upper guide lever which is supported, below the swing end of the upper guide, to be slidable upward and downward,
a lower guide lever having an engagement piece which engages with an upper surface of the swing end of the lower guide and is supported to be slidable upward and downward,
a first rotation member which is connected to the lower guide lever and is rotated by sliding of the slide lever,
a second rotation member which is connected to the upper guide lever and is rotated by rotation of the first rotation member in a direction reverse to a direction in which the first rotation member rotates, and
a biasing member which biases the swing end of the lower guide upward,

the inlet guide is brought to the separation position by sliding the slide lever in a predetermined direction
to cause the first rotation member to rotate in a first direction to move the lower guide lever downward to swing the swing end of the lower guide downward against biasing force of the biasing member, and
to cause the second rotation member to rotate in a second direction, which is a direction reverse to the first direction, to move the upper guide lever upward to swing the swing end of the upper guide upward, and

the inlet guide is brought to the conveyance position by sliding the slide lever in a direction reverse to the predetermined direction
to cause the first rotation member to rotate in the second direction to move the lower guide lever upward to allow the biasing force of the biasing member to cause the swing end of the lower guide to swing upward, and
to cause the second rotation member to rotate in the first direction to move the upper guide lever downward to allow self weight of the swing end of the upper guide to cause the swing end of the upper guide to swing downward.

4. The sheet conveyance unit according to claim 3 , further comprising
a restriction portion which restricts downward rotation of the swing end of the upper guide caused by the self weight thereof.

5. The sheet conveyance unit according to claim 4 ,
wherein
the discharge guide includes a discharge upper guide which faces the upper guide and a discharge lower guide which faces the lower guide,
when the discharge guide is inserted between the upper guide and the lower guide of the inlet guide at the conveyance position,
in a case where a vertical center of a discharge path formed by the discharge guide substantially coincides with a vertical center of an inlet path formed by the upper guide and the lower guide of the inlet guide at the conveyance position, the discharge upper guide is located below the upper guide and the discharge lower guide is located above the lower guide,
in a case where the vertical center of the discharge path is located at a higher position than the vertical center of the inlet path, the swing end of the upper guide is pushed up by the discharge upper guide to move away from the restriction portion, and the swing end of the lower guide is caused by the biasing force of the biasing member to rotate upward while being in contact with a lower surface of the discharge lower guide, and
in a case where the vertical center of the discharge path is located at a lower position than the vertical center of the inlet path, the swing end of the lower guide is pushed down by the discharge lower guide against the biasing force of the biasing member to rotate downward while being in contact with the lower surface of the discharge lower guide, with the swing end of the upper guide supported by the restriction member.

6. The sheet conveyance unit according to claim 2 , further comprising
a conveyance guide which is disposed on a downstream side of the inlet guide in the sheet conveyance direction and includes an upper conveyance guide on which the upper guide is swingably supported, and a lower conveyance guide on which the lower guide is swingably supported,
the upper conveyance guide is rotatable upward and downward with one end side thereof in a width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction as a fulcrum, and the conveyance guide is opened by rotating the upper conveyance guide upward.

7. A sheet conveyance system comprising:
the sheet conveyance unit according to claim 1 ; and
the sheet discharge unit which is connected to an upstream side of the sheet conveyance unit with respect to the sheet conveyance direction, and which has the discharge guide which is connected to the inlet guide.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Fuchi Masami
• Kakuta Masayuki
• Izumichi Sachio
• Okada Seiji
• Hibino Risa

Classifications

• B65H2402/60

  Coupling, adapter or locking means · CPC title

• B65H2402/10

  Modular constructions, e.g. using preformed elements or profiles · CPC title

• B65H2404/74

  Guiding means · CPC title

• B65H2404/6112

  and displaceable for changing direction of transport · CPC title

• B65H29/52 Primary

  Stationary guides or smoothers · CPC title