Sheet discharge tray and a multiple bin sorter equipped with the same

Abstract

A sheet discharge tray for stacking discharged sheets has a detachable member detachably mounted to a main unit from which the sheets are discharged, and a fastening member, attached to the main unit, for fastening the detachable member to the main unit. By mounting the detachable member to the main unit, the tray is configured to link the detachable member and the fastening member, thereby increasing the structural rigidity of a multi-bin sorter. The sheet discharge tray ensures the rigidity of the apparatus, makes packaging work easier when shipping the product, has a compact structure, and is capable of protecting accessory parts such as a static electricity discharging member and sheet detecting members.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT [0001] The present invention relates to a sheet discharge tray and to a multi-bin sorter equipped with the same, and more particularly to a sheet discharge tray for stacking discharged sheets and a multi-bin sorter arranged with a plurality of sheet discharge trays in up and down directions. [0002] Conventionally, sorters that sequentially sort sheets, having discharge trays or a plurality of bins for sequentially stacking by placing sheets formed with characters and / or images by an image forming apparatus such as a copier or printer thereupon, or a sheet discharge apparatus or sheet stacking apparatus, such as a mailbox that separates and stores user print jobs to each bin are well known in the art. Discharge trays in these apparatuses are detachably equipped at sheet discharge outlets (on the apparatus body). An example of such technology is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-249273. [0003] Various reasons for pr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019] The second aspect attains the same effects as the first aspect of the present invention. Sheet discharge trays of the first aspect are arranged in plurality in up and down directions to have the notable effects of facilitating packaging work when shipping the product and reducing the costs associated with product distribution (packaging).

[0020] According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is preferred that the fastening member be configured as one body with an upright surface of the main unit formed with sheet discharge outlets, in order to ensure rigidity and to make the system more compact. Also, the fastening member has static electricity discharging members on its bottom surface for eliminating static electricity charged to discharging sheets, and is integrally composed with the upright surface of the main unit formed with sheet discharge outlets. It is preferred that the fastening member has a projecting shape to protect members positioned below, from above.

[0021] Furthermore, if the system is configured to include a movable lever, equipped near a sheet discharge outlet, that rotates to touch a top surface of sheets stacked on a tray, a sensor for detecting the stacking state of sheets stacked on the tray along with the rotation of the movable lever, and first preventing means in a direction opposite to the direction of sheet conveyance for preventing sheets from being inserted to above the movable lever, the first preventing means prevents sheets from being inserted to above the movable lever even if a user carelessly inserts sheets into the tray from a direction opposite to the direction of sheet conveyance. Thus, sheets are unable to be above the movable lever, so the benefit is that mis-operations caused when sheets are discharged to the tray from the sheet discharge outlet will not occur, the sheet stacking state is accurately detected, and any discharge problems of sheets discharged from the sheet discharge outlet will not occur.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, this configuration prevents reduced detecting accuracy caused by damage during shipment or by carelessly touching the part while a user is operating the main unit.

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