Sheet post-processing device and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016002001-A1
Application number	US-201514755762-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2015
Priority date	Jul 2, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A sheet post-processing device includes a tray, an evacuating member, a regulating member mounted on the tray, and a feed mechanism. The tray can receive sheets thereon. The evacuating member temporarily evacuates, from a conveyance path, sheets being conveyed, stacks the evacuated sheets into a pile, and conveys the pile of sheets onto the tray through the conveyance path. The feed mechanism includes a spongy elastic member and moves the pile of sheets along the tray toward the regulating member. When stacking three or more sheets into a pile, the evacuating member performs the stacking such that, in the pile conveyed to the tray, an edge of each intermediate sheet protrudes toward the regulating member beyond an edge of an uppermost sheet and an edge of a lowermost sheet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A sheet post-processing device that performs post-processing on printed sheets, the sheet post-processing device comprising:
a tray configured to receive sheets thereon, an evacuating member configured to
temporarily evacuate, from a conveyance path, sheets being conveyed,
stack the evacuated sheets into a pile, and
convey the pile of sheets onto the tray through the conveyance path;
a regulating member mounted on the tray; and a feed mechanism that includes a spongy elastic member and configured to move the pile of sheets along the tray toward the regulating member, wherein when stacking three or more sheets into a pile, the evacuating member performs the stacking such that, in the pile conveyed to the tray, an edge of each intermediate sheet protrudes toward the regulating member beyond an edge of an uppermost sheet and an edge of a lowermost sheet.

2 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 1 , further comprising
an ejection roller configured to move sheets on the tray in a direction opposite to a direction in which the sheets are moved by the feed mechanism.

3 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 2 , wherein
the feed mechanism includes a feed roller being a spongy elastic member, and the feed roller is coaxial with the ejection roller.

4 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 3 , wherein
the feed roller is larger in diameter than the ejection roller.

5 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 2 , wherein
the feed mechanism is located closer to the regulating member than the ejection roller is.

6 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the evacuating member performs the stacking such that, in the pile conveyed to the tray, an edge of the lowermost sheet protrudes toward the regulating member beyond an edge of the uppermost sheet.

7 . The sheet post-processing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the pile of sheets includes a plurality of intermediate sheets between the uppermost sheet and the lowermost sheet, and edges of the intermediate sheets increasingly protrude toward the regulating member in order of an increasing distance from the tray.

8 . An image forming apparatus comprising:
a main body for printing an image on one or more sheets, and the sheet post-processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the main body feeds sheets requested to be fed to the sheet post-processing device from among the one or more printed sheets.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Kotani Takashi

Classifications

• B65H2401/111

  Elastomer · CPC title

• B65H2404/1441

  involving controlled actuator · CPC title

• B65H2801/27

  Devices located downstream of office-type machines · CPC title

• B65H31/3027

  by the nip between moving belts or rollers (pile being formed between belts or rollers B65H29/145) · CPC title

• B65H2301/4213

  of a limited number of articles, e.g. buffering, forming bundles · CPC title