Sheet conveying apparatus, sheet treating apparatus and image forming apparatus

Abstract

A sheet conveying apparatus provided with a pair of discharging rollers having a first roller and a second roller disposed in opposed relationship with the first roller, a roller supporting member which rotatably supports the first roller, and is movable between a first position in which the first roller can cooperate with the second roller to discharge a sheet and a second position in which the first roller is spaced apart from the second roller, a driving member which pivotally moves the roller supporting member, a drive transmitting portion which transmits drive to the driving member, and a single drive source which transmits the drive to the drive transmitting portion. The roller supporting member is provided with a cut-away tooth gear portion and a cam stopper portion, and the driving member has a cut-away tooth gear and a cam corresponding to the cut-away tooth gear portion and the cam stopper portion, respectively, of the roller supporting member, and by these, the movement of the roller supporting member from the first position to the second position and the movement of the roller supporting member from the second position to the first position are effected.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus, a sheet treating apparatus and an image forming apparatus provided with the same, and particularly to a sheet treating apparatus which realizes sheet treatment of large capacity with a saved space and at a low cost and by saved electric power, and an image forming apparatus provided with the same.

2. Description of Related Art

Heretofore, some of image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers and facsimile apparatuses have been provided with sheet treating apparatuses adapted to successively introduce sheets having images formed thereon into the apparatus, and subject these sheets to a binding process, in order to mitigate the time and labor required to bind sheets such as sheets for copying machines on which images have been formed.

As such sheet treating apparatuses, there are known ones of a type which are provided near the sheet discharging port of an image forming apparatus main body, align the sheets printed on the image forming apparatus main body side, and then successively supplied from the discharging port, and thereafter subject those sheets to a binding process and discharge them.

Among such conventional sheet treating apparatuses, there are known ones in which conveying rollers become spaced apart from each other during the binding process to thereby form on a conveying path an intermediate stacking portion for carrying out sheet treatment, alignment is effected and the binding process is carried out, and the conveying rollers again nip the bundle of sheets therebetween and convey the sheets.

In the apparatus wherein as described above, the rollers are spaced apart from each other for the alignment, an actuator for performing the roller spacing operation becomes necessary discretely from an actuator used for the aligning operation, whereby the apparatus has become bulky and costly.

Also, in view of the problem as noted above, there has been developed an apparatus in which the drive of a motor rotatable in forward and reverse directions is selectively transmitted to aligning means and spacing means by a drive transmitting portion, and the aligning operation of the aligning means, the spacing operation of the pair of rollers and the drive control of the pair of rollers are selectively performed to thereby achieve space saving, lower costs and electric power saving.

However, what is used in the conventional apparatus is of a construction in which a roller holding member is raised by the use of a cam alone to thereby space the pair of rollers apart from each other (cf. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-130326) and to obtain a large space for stacking a large volume of paper, it is necessary to give a great difference between the maximum radius and minimum radius of the cam, and as a result, a large cam must be used, and this has led to the problem that the apparatus becomes bulky. Also, torque must be set in accordance with the maximum radius portion of the cam, and great torque becomes necessary for spacing the pair of rollers apart from each other, whereby a large motor becomes necessary, and this has also led to the problem that the apparatus becomes bulky and costly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

So, the present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and has as its object to provide a sheet conveying apparatus and a sheet treating apparatus which realize the treatment of a large volume of paper with a saved space and at a low cost and by saved electric power, and an image forming apparatus provided with the same.

The present invention is provided with a pair of conveying rollers having a first roller and a second roller disposed in opposed relationship with the first roller, a roller supporting member which rotatably supports the first roller, and is movable between a first position in which the first roller can cooperate with the second roller to convey a sheet and a second position in which the first roller is spaced apart from the second roller, a driving member which pivotally moves the roller supporting member, a drive transmitting portion which transmits drive to the driving member, and a drive source which transmits the drive to the drive transmitting portion, and is characterized in that the roller supporting member has a gear portion, and the driving member has a gear meshing with the gear portion of the roller supporting member, and effects the movement of the roller supporting member from the first position to the second position by the meshing engagement between the gear portion and the gear.

Also, the present invention is characterized in that the roller supporting member is provided with a cam stopper portion, and the driving member has a cam corresponding to the cam stopper portion of the roller supporting member, effects the holding of the roller supporting member in the first position by the engagement between the cam and the cam stopper portion, and effects the movement of the roller supporting member from the second position to the first position by the release of the engagement between the cam and the cam stopper portion.

Also, the present invention is characterized in that the movement of the roller supporting member from the first position to the second position and the movement thereof from the second position to the first position are effected by the driving of the drive source transmitted from the drive transmitting portion to the driving member in only one direction.

According to the present invention, there can be provided a sheet conveying apparatus and a sheet treating apparatus which can achieve space saving and low costs and electric power saving, and an image forming apparatus provided with the same. Particularly, the construction of the driving system of the sheet treating apparatus which can form an intermediate stacking portion capable of stapling a large volume of paper can be inexpensively realized by a compact and simple construction. Also, torque used becomes smaller than in the conventional construction comprising only a cam, and electric power saving is realized and therefore, the electric power supply capacity of the apparatus can also be made small. Thus, the post-treatment of a large volume of paper in the sheet conveying apparatus, the sheet treating apparatus and a laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) provided with the same can be realized a construction of saved space, low cost and saved electric power.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the general construction of a laser beam printer which is an example of an image forming apparatus provided with a sheet treating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pair of discharging rollers provided in the sheet treating apparatus.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of the essential portions of the sheet treating apparatus, FIG. 3B is a side view of the essential portions of the sheet treating apparatus, and FIGS. 3C and 3D show stamp means as it is seen from a direction indicated by the arrow A of FIG. 3A.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show a state in which a slide guide provided in the sheet treating apparatus is located at a home position and a bundle of sheets falls.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate the movement of each portion in the binding operation of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show a state in which sheets are aligned by the slide guide.

FIG. 7 illustrates the drive transmitting portion of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate the drive transmission during the spacing operation and the drive interrupting operation of the pair of discharging rollers of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIG. 9 illustrates the mechanical construction of the discharging roller supporting member and spacing gear of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrates the cut-away gear shapes of the discharging roller supporting member and the spacing gear of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate the spacing operation of the pair of discharging rollers.

FIGS. 12A and 12B illustrate the drive transmission during the approaching operation of the pair of discharging rollers of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate the drive transmission during the paddle rotating operation of the sheet treating apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a side view of the drive transmitting portion of a sheet treating apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15A is a plan view of the vicinity of the pair of discharging rollers of a sheet treating apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 15B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XVB-XVB of FIG. 15A.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are cross-sectional views of the vicinity of the pair of discharging rollers of the sheet treating apparatus shown in FIG. 15A taken along line XVI-XVI.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an image forming process system constituted by an image forming apparatus provided with a sheet treating apparatus and an image reading apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the reference numeral 100 designates a printer provided with an image reading portion 200, and after an image is formed on a sheet supplied from a sheet supplying cassette 101, two discharging routes are set. They are an A conveying path 105 which U-turn-conveys a sheet to the upper portion of a writing scanner 104 by fixed sheet discharging rollers 102 and a pair of runners 103, and effects reversal conveyance, and a B conveying path 106 which effects direct conveyance.

Also, a sheet treating apparatus 300 is adapted to stack on a stacking portion 301 the sheets discharged out of the printer main body 100, and thereafter effect the alignment of the sheets by aligning means 302, bundle the sheets in each predetermined job and staple the sheets at one or more portions thereof and discharge and stack them on a second stacking portion 303, or simple discharge and stack the sheets on a second stacking portion 303 in a face-down or face-up posture.

Description will now be made of the construction of the sheet treating apparatus 300 and the movement of each portion when the sheet S conveyed from the printer main body 100 travels toward the sheet treating apparatus 300.

In FIG. 1, the sheet treating apparatus 300 is provided with a discharging upper roller 330a, a discharging lower roller 330b, a resilient paddle 321 for moving the sheet in an aligning direction, and a reference wall 322 against which the trailing edge of the sheet is rammed.

A pair of discharging rollers 330 constituted by the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b, as shown in FIG. 1, is rotatively driven by a driving motor M1 which will be described later. Also, the discharging upper roller 330a is supported on a discharging roller supporting member 331 as a pivotally movable roller supporting member.

Further, in the present embodiment, the pair of discharging rollers 330, as shown in FIG. 2, is such that the roller main bodies 330a1, 330a2 of the discharging upper roller 330a as a first roller and the roller main bodies 330b1, 330b2 of the discharging lower roller 330b as a second roller are disposed in a so-called staggered fashion so as to come into between the respective roller main bodies. Thus, there is provided a so-called comb-tooth construction in which the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b do not contact with each other. Also, the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b are adapted to overlap each other in the axial direction thereof.

The discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b overlap each other as described above, whereby when the sheet (bundle) is discharged by the pair of discharging rollers 330, the sheet (bundle) becomes wavy and the rigidity of the sheet (bundle) becomes strong. As a result, the sheet (bundle) comes to be discharged straight without being downwardly flexed even after it has passed the pair of discharging rollers 330. Further, this rigidity becomes stronger as the amount of overlap of the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b becomes greater, and as the rigidity thus becomes stronger, the distance by which the sheet (bundle) is discharged straight becomes longer.

As shown in FIG. 2, the roller main bodies 330b1 contacting with the opposite end portions of the discharging lower roller 330b are formed so as to be larger in diameter toward the outer portions thereof, thereby raising the opposite end portions of the sheet (bundle).

The sheet (bundle) is thus given rigidity to thereby lengthen the distance by which the sheet (bundle) is discharged straight, and raise the opposite end portions of the sheet (bundle), whereby even when the amount of curl and the discharging direction of the sheet discharged from the printer main body 100 differ greatly due to the difference in the kind of paper or a fixing mode or a printer mode, and irrespective of whether the stapling process has been carried out or not, the leading edge of a sheet (bundle), when it is discharged, can be prevented from contacting with an already discharged sheet (bundle), and the stackability of the sheet (bundle) can be improved.

On the other hand, slide guides 302a and 302b which will be described later are driven by a jogger motor M, which in the present embodiment is a stepping motor. Also, the paddle 321 as aligning means is formed of a flexible material such as rubber, and a plurality of such paddles are fixed to a paddle shaft 350 in a direction orthogonal to a sheet conveying direction. When the sheet is discharged from the printer main body 100, the paddles are rotated counter-clockwisely by the driving of the paddle shaft 350, whereby the sheet S is moved in a direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction which is an aligning direction, and contacts with the reference wall 322 and is aligned.

Also, as shown in FIG. 3A, in the sheet treating apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment, the slide guides 302a and 302b which will be described in detail later are provided as aligning members which effect the widthwise alignment of the sheet. The letter M designates a jogger motor as a drive source, and in FIG. 3A, the letter H denotes a stapler as binding means for stapling the sheet bundle to thereby carry out a binding process to the sheet bundle, and this stapler H is fixedly disposed on the slide guide 302a side to carry out stapling on the left upper corner portions of the image bearing surfaces of the sheets on which images are formed to thereby bind the sheets.

Now, in the present embodiment, this sheet treating apparatus 300 is designed to be capable of stacking, aligning and stapling the sheets on a first stacking portion 301, discharging and stacking the sheets onto a second stacking portion 303, and discharging and stacking the sheets onto the second stacking portion 303 simply in a face-down or face-up posture.

Description will now be made of the simple stacking operation of discharging and stacking the sheets onto the second stacking portion 303 in the face-down posture. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4A, the bottom surfaces of the right slide guide 302a and the left slide guide 302b with respect to a sheet carrying-in direction are retracted to a position in which they do not contact with the sheet S carried in, i.e., a position outer by a predetermined amount from the widthwise direction of the sheet in which the sheet S is not supported.

Accordingly, the sheet S conveyed by a pair of inlet rollers 362 passes the front of the stapler H, and then is conveyed by the pair of discharging rollers 330 constituted by the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b, and falls toward a second sheet discharging portion 303, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4B.

Description will now be made of the operations of stacking, aligning and stapling the sheets on the first stacking portion 301, and discharging and stacking the sheets onto the second stacking portion 303. In this case, the slide guides 302a and 302b, as shown in FIG. 3A, wait at a waiting position in which they can place the sheets carried thereto and do not interfere with the side edge portions of the sheets. In the present embodiment, when the size (width) of the sheet S is a maximum size which can be passed, the waiting position of the slide guides 302a and 302b is set so that as shown in FIG. 3B, the gaps on the opposite sides may be of a predetermined amount “d”.

Also, at this time, the interval between the end surfaces of the bottom surfaces of the two slide guides 302a and 302b is smaller than the width of the sheet S. Design is made such that the two slide guides 302a and 302b are at such positions, whereby they can constitute the first stacking portion 301 for supporting the sheet S coming in, together with a sheet guide portion between the reference wall 322 and the pair of discharging rollers 330. Accordingly, the sheet conveyed by the pair of inlet rollers 362 passes the front of the stapler H, and then is conveyed by the pair of discharging rollers 330, and is further conveyed onto the guide surface of the first sheet stacking portion 301 constituted by the slide guides 302a and 302b.

On the other hand, immediately after as shown in FIG. 5A, the first sheet has been conveyed onto a surface formed by the slide guides 302a and 302b, the discharging roller supporting member 331 is clockwisely pivotally moves as shown in FIG. 5A, whereby the discharging upper roller 330a supported by the discharging roller supporting member 331 is upwardly retracted, and the pair of discharging rollers are spaced apart from each other.

Also, at the same time, the drive connected to the pair of discharging rollers 330 is cut off to thereby stop the rotation of the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b. When the trailing edge of the sheet S completely passes between the pair of inlet rollers 362, the paddles 321 make one bull rotation counter-clockwisely about the paddle shaft 350 while contacting with the upper surface of the sheet S. Thereby the sheet S is rammed against the reference wall 322, thus completing the aligning operation in the conveying direction.

Next, only the left slide guide 302b operates, and the width wise aligning operation of the sheet S stacked on the first sheet stacking portion 301. Specifically, the slide guide 302b is driven by the jogger motor M and is moved to the right side in FIG. 4A, whereby the slide guide 302b contacts with the left side edge of the sheet S and pushes the sheet S toward the slide guide 302a side.

The right side edge of the sheet S then strikes against the slide guide 302a, whereby the widthwise alignment of the sheet is effected. Setting is done so that the sheet S may be moved to a stapling position set in the position wherein the sheet contacts with the slide guide 302a and has been aligned. After the aligning operation, the slide guide 302b is moved in a direction to widen more than the width of the sheet S so as to be capable of coping with the conveyance of the next sheet again at the waiting position.

In order to keep the thus aligned state, near the right end portion of the sheet in its aligned state, there is provided stamp means 380 as holding means of which the lever 380b provided with a frictional member 380a as shown in FIG. 3C is moved in a vertical direction and presses the aligned sheet to thereby hold it at a predetermined position.

This stamp means 380 is provided with a lever 380b pivotally movable in a vertical direction. After the aligning operation has been completed and before the sheet coming in next contacts with the aligned sheet, the lever 380b upwardly pivotally moved as shown in FIG. 3D is downwardly pivotally moved by a solenoid (not shown), and presses the upper surface of the sheet as shown in FIG. 3C, whereby the sheet in its aligned state is moved by the coming-in of the next sheet so as to prevent the alignment from being disturbed.

After the alignment of the first sheet has been completed in this manner, the second sheet is conveyed, but during the conveyance of the second and succeeding sheets, the pair of discharging rollers 330 are spaced apart from each other and therefore, after the trailing edge of the sheet S has completely passed through the pair of inlet rollers 362 and before the aligning operation is started, the stamp means is upwardly moved, thus terminating the holding operation. The aligning operation thereafter is entirely similar to that of the first sheet and therefore need not be described.

Such an operation is then repetitively performed and the operation of aligning the last (nth) sheet (Sn) in one job is performed, and the left side edge portion of the sheet is rammed against the slide guide 302b, and in the state of FIG. 6A in which the movement of the slide guide 302b has been stopped, the right position of the trailing edge of the sheet bundle is stapled by the stapler H.

On the other hand, when the stapling operation is terminated in this manner, the discharging roller supporting member 331 is counter-clockwisely rotated as shown in FIG. 5B, whereby the discharging upper roller 330a supported by the discharging roller supporting member 331 is downwardly moved, and the pair of discharging rollers 330 are formed. Thereafter, the drive is connected to both of the rollers of the pair of discharging rollers 330 to thereby start the rotation of the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b.

Simultaneously with this operation, the jogger motor M is rotatively driven, whereby the slide guides 302a and 302b are moved from the state shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B in a direction in which the spacing therebetween widens. When thereafter, the spacing between the two slide guides 302a and 302b becomes approximate to or widen than the width of the sheet, the stapled sheet bundle supported by the slide guides 302a and 302b downwardly falls as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5B, and is stacked on the second stacking portion 303.

Reference is not had to FIGS. 7 to 12A and 12B to describe a construction for rotating the paddle shaft 350 and a construction for upwardly retracting the discharging roller 330a supported by the discharging roller supporting member 331.

FIG. 7 shows a gear train for transmitting the drive to the discharging upper roller 330a, and a gear train for transmitting the drive to the discharging lower roller 330b. In FIG. 7, the reference numeral 505 designates a discharging upper roller gear fixed to the shaft 505a of the discharging upper roller 330a, and the reference numeral 506 denotes a discharging lower roller gear fixed to the discharging lower roller 330b. Also, the discharging upper roller gear 505 receives the drive from an idler gear 503 through a belt 504, and the discharging lower roller gear 506 receives the drive from a discharging lower roller idler gear 508 (disposed coaxially with the spacing gear 404) belt-driven from the idler gear 503. Also, during the initial state shown in FIG. 7, the discharging roller supporting member 331 is designed to be biased by a spring P in a direction in which the rollers are moved toward each other, and strike against stopper means (not shown), and the position of the discharging upper roller 330a is determined by this stopper means, and the amount of nip between the pair of discharging rollers 330 is prescribed.

Also, the present driving train includes the paddles 321 and a roller spacing drive system, besides a conveying drive system for driving the discharging upper roller 330a and the discharging lower roller 330b. The conveying drive system is for receiving rotation from a motor gear 501 fixed to the shaft of the driving motor M1, and driving two pairs of rollers, i.e., the pair of discharging rollers 330 and the pair of inlet rollers 362 mounted on a gear 513 to thereby convey the sheet.

Also, the paddle 321 and the roller spacing drive system are rotated by a driving force form a motor gear 401 driven by a driving motor M2 which is a single forwardly and reversely rotatable drive source. A rocking holder 450 which is a rocking member which rotatably supports a changeover gear 403 for selectively transmitting the driving of the driving motor M2 to the paddles 321 or the discharging roller supporting member 331 and a step gear 402 meshing with the motor gear 401, and rocks with the center of rocking movement 450a as a fulcrum is rocked. Thereby, the changeover gear 403 is selectively connected to a spacing gear 404 having a cut-away tooth gear 404a (which will be described later) and a cam gear 404b (which will be described later) for spacing the pair of-discharging rollers 330 apart from each other by the driving of the driving motor M2, or a paddle idler gear 406 for transmitting the drive of the driving motor M2 to the paddle 321.

A predetermined frictional force acts between the step gear 402 and the rocking holder 450 so that when the step gear 402 is rotated with the rotation of the motor gear 401, the rocking holder 450 may be rocked by the rotation of this step gear 402. In the present embodiments, design is made such that when the rocking holder 450 is counter-clockwisely rocked, the changeover gear 403 is connected to the spacing gear 404, and when the rocking holder 450 is clockwisely rocked, the changeover gear 403 is connected to the paddle idler gear 406, so as to transmit the drive.

Also, in FIG. 7, a drive releasing plate 550 supporting the drive transmitting gear 502 and rockable about the center of rocking movement 550a is clockwisely biased by a spring 555. When the discharging roller supporting member 331 spaces the pair of discharging rollers 330 apart from each other, a releasing lever portion 331a presses the drive releasing plate 550 to thereby release the drive transmission from the drive transmitting gear 502 to the idler gear 503 disposed on the paddle shaft 350, thereby releasing the drive to the pair of discharging rollers 330.

A drive transmitting portion 500 is constituted by the changeover gear 403, the spacing gear 404, the paddle idler gear 406 and the releasing lever portion 331a provided on the discharging roller supporting member 331.

The operation of upwardly retracting the discharging upper roller 330a in the drive transmitting portion 500 of such a construction will now be described with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B to FIGS. 11A and 11B. FIGS. 8A and 8B show a state in which the paddle gear 407 and the paddles 321 are not shown.

FIG. 8A shows the drive transmission during the spacing operation of the discharging upper roller 330a. When the motor gear 401 is clockwisely rotated, the step gear 402 is rotated while counter-clockwisely rocking the rocking holder 450. Thereby, the changeover gear 403 comes into meshing engagement with the spacing gear 404. When the changeover gear 403 thus comes into meshing engagement with the spacing gear 404, the rocking holder 450 is not rocked any further. Also, when in this state, the changeover gear 403 is not in meshing engagement with the paddle idler gear 406.

Subsequently, the details of the spacing operation by the spacing gear will be described with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B to FIGS. 12A and 12B. FIG. 9 shows the construction of the spacing gear 404 and the construction of the discharging roller supporting member 331. The spacing gear 404 as a driving member is comprised of the cut-away tooth gear. 404a, the cam gear 404b and a drive transmitting gear 404c to which the drive is transmitted from the changeover gear 403. Also, the discharging roller supporting member 331 has a cut-away tooth gear portion 331b and a cam stopper portion 331c.

Also, in the present embodiment, the cut-away tooth gear portion 331b of the discharging roller supporting member and the cut-away tooth gear 404a of the spacing gear are such that as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, the second gears (indicated by black paint) as counted from the teeth 331b1 and 404a1 meshing with each other at first are blank. This is because the presence of the second teeth does not mean that the first teeth 331b1 and 404a1 mesh with each other when the spacing operation is started, but as shown in FIG. 10B, the tooth 404a1 meshes with the tooth 331b2 to thereby prevent predetermined meshing engagement from deviating, and effect stable spacing. The cut-away tooth gear portion 331b and the cut-away tooth gear 404a can obtain a similar effect even if they are ordinary gears, but the precise control of the driving motor becomes necessary. To make complicated motor control unnecessary, one of the gears can be of a cut-away tooth gear construction, and by both gears being cut-away tooth gears, more reliable meshing engagement is realized.

The spacing operation will now be described with reference to FIGS. 8A, 8B, 11A and 11B. As described in connection with FIG. 8A, when the changeover gear 403 meshes with the spacing gear 404, the spacing gear 404 is counter-clockwisely rotated by the clockwisely rotated changeover gear 403 and meshes with the cur-away tooth gear portion 331b of the discharging roller supporting member 331 to thereby begin to push up the discharging roller supporting member 331. Then, as shown in FIG. 11A, the cam gear 404b follows the rotation of the cut-away tooth gear 404a and is rotated, and abuts against the cam stopper portion 331c of the discharging roller supporting member in a position in which the spacing gear 404 has been rotated by 104 degrees. At this time, the meshing engagement between the cur-away tooth gear 404a of the spacing gear 404 and the cur-away tooth gear portion 331b of the discharging roller supporting member is released.

In the present embodiment, when the cut-away tooth gear 404a has been rotated by 131 degrees, the driving of the driving motor M2 is stopped, and the discharging roller supporting member 331 is held by the cam gear 404b and the pair of discharging rollers 330 becomes paced apart from each other. Along therewith, as shown in FIG. 8B, the releasing lever portion 331a of the discharging roller supporting member 331 pushes the drive releasing plate 550, whereby the meshing engagement between the drive transmitting gear 502 and the idler gear 503 is released and the driving of the pair of discharging rollers 330 is stopped. As described above, the driving for spacing is effected by the cut-away tooth gear, whereby reliable driving becomes possible by small torque and also, it becomes possible to cope with an increase in the spacing distance. Also, stable holding becomes possible by the cam. The aforedescribed rotational angle is an angle derived by the construction of the present embodiment, and of course, the rotational angle when the construction has been changed differs.

On the other hand, thereafter the aligning operation is terminated and further, the driving motor M2 is clockwisely rotated, whereupon as shown in FIG. 11B, the spacing gear 404 is further rotated counter-clockwisely, and the holding by the cam gear 404c is released. Along therewith, the discharging upper roller 330a is lowered together with the discharging roller supporting member 331 and approaches the discharging lower roller 330b, thus bringing about a state shown in FIG. 12B. This discharging roller supporting member 331 is biased by the already described pressure spring P shown in FIG. 7, and by this pressure spring P, the discharging upper roller 330a is biased toward the discharging lower roller 330b with predetermined pressure. Also, it is to be understood that at this time, the discharging roller supporting member 331 is rammed against and held by stopper means (not shown).

Also, the spacing gear 404 is counter-clockwisely rotated, whereby the drive releasing plate 550 is returned to a home position shown in FIG. 7. By these series of operations, the spacing and nearing of the pair of discharging rollers 330 and the release and connection of the drive to the pair of discharging rollers 330 are effected.

The rotating operation of the paddles 321 in the drive transmitting portion 500 of such a construction will now be described with reference to FIGS. 13A and 13B. FIGS. 13A and 13B show a state in which the idler gear 503 and the drive transmitting gear 502 are not shown.

When the motor gear 401 is counter-clockwisely rotated, the step gear 402 is rotated while clockwisely rocking the rocking holder 450, whereby as shown in FIG. 13B, the changeover gear 403 comes into meshing engagement with the paddle idler gear 406. When the changeover gear 403 thus comes into meshing engagement with the paddle idler gear 406, the rocking holder 450 is not rocked any further. Also, at this time, the changeover gear 403 and the spacing gear 404 are not connected together.

The paddle idler gear 406 is in meshing engagement with the paddle gear 407 fixed to the paddle shaft 350, whereby the paddle shaft 350 is counter-clockwisely rotated and as a result, the paddle 321 is counter-clockwisely rotated. When the paddles 321 are thus counter-clockwisely rotated, the sheet is moved to the side opposite to the sheet conveying direction and contacts with the reference wall 322, and is aligned.

As described above, the drive of the forwardly and reversely rotatable single driving motor M2 is selectively transmitted to the paddle 321 and the discharging roller supporting member 331 by the drive transmitting portion 500 so that the aligning operation by the paddle 321, the spacing operation of the pair of discharging rollers 330 and the drive control of the pair of discharging rollers 330 may be selected performed, and the spacing construction is effected by the use of the cut-away tooth gear and the cam gear in combination, whereby the construction of the driving system of a sheet treating apparatus which can form an intermediate stacking portion capable of stapling a large volume of paper can be inexpensively realized by a compact and simple construction. Also, the torque used becomes smaller than in the conventional construction using only a cam, and electric power saving is realized and therefore, the power supply capacity of the apparatus can also be made small. Thereby, the post-treatment of a large volume of paper in the sheet treating apparatus 300 and the laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) 100 provided with the same can be realized by a construction of saved space, low cost and saved electric power.

Second Embodiment

FIG. 14 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, and the portions thereof overlapping those of the first embodiment need not be described.

FIG. 14 represents a drive transmitting portion 600 in the second embodiment. A gear 401 mounted on the driving motor M2 for effecting the spacing of the pair of discharging rollers 330 and the driving of the paddles 321 is in meshing engagement with a drive transmitting gear 601 which is in meshing engagement with both of the spacing gear 404 and the paddle idler gear 406.

Also, the spacing gear 404 has incorporated therein a one-away clutch 602 for transmitting only counter-clockwise drive, and the paddle idler gear 406 has incorporated therein a one-way clutch 603 for transmitting only clockwise drive. Thus, the drive transmitting portion 600 effects the spacing and nearing of the pair of discharging rollers 330 when the motor is counter-clockwisely rotated, and effects the driving of the paddle 321 when the motor is clockwisely rotated.

By adopting the above-described construction, in the present embodiment, not only an effect similar to that of the first embodiment is obtained, but also it becomes possible to effect the selection of the spacing of the motor driving and the driving of the paddles without using a rocking gear and therefore, the rocking space can be omitted and the apparatus can be further downsized. Also, the rocking time by the rocking gear is unnecessary and by only the changeover of the rotating direction of the motor, the spacing and the driving of the paddles can be changed over and therefore, it also becomes possible to cope with still a higher speed.

Third Embodiment

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 16A and 16B show a third embodiment of the present invention, and the portions thereof overlapping those of the first embodiment need not be described.

FIG. 15A shows the construction of the vicinity of a pair of discharging rollers in a sheet treating apparatus according to the present embodiment. FIG. 15A is a plan view of the vicinity of the pair of discharging rollers, and FIG. 15B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XVB-XVB of FIG. 15A. In FIG. 15A, for example, the same reference characters as those in FIG. 2 designate the same or corresponding portions. FIGS. 15A and 15B show a stamp member 700 vertically pivotally movable with a shaft 700b as a fulcrum, a pulley 702 provided on a paddle shaft 350, a stamp cam 703, and a belt 701 passed over the pulley 702 and the cam shaft 705 of the stamp cam 703. When the paddle shaft 350 is rotated by the construction shown in the already described first or second embodiment, the rotation of this paddle shaft 350 is transmitted to the cam shaft 705 through the belt 701, whereby the stamp cam 703 is rotated.

On the other hand, FIGS. 16A and 16B are cross-sectional views taken along the line XVI-XVI of FIG. 15A. FIG. 16A shows a state in which the stamp cam 703 is in a home position. When the stamp cam 703 is thus in the home position, the stamp member 700 presses the sheet by its underside.

When the paddle shaft 350 is rotated counter-clockwisely as viewed in FIG. 16A, the stamp cam 703 is also rotated counter-clockwisely about the cam shaft 705 to thereby push up a contacting portion 700a with the stamp member 700 by an amount corresponding to H, thus assuming the position of FIG. 16B. By the stamp member 700 being thus pushed up by the amount corresponding to H by the stamp cam 703, the sheet holding operation by the stamp member 700 is released.

In the present embodiment, the positions of the stamp cam 703 and the paddle 321 are set to such a positional relation that the paddles 321 contact with the sheet S when the stamp member 700 is releasing its pressing operation. Thereby, the sheet holding operation by the stamp member 700 can be performed by the driving motor M2 for performing the sheet aligning operation, etc. by the paddles 321, even if a discrete actuator such as a solenoid is not provided, and downsizing and electric power saving can be realized more inexpensively.

By adopting the construction as described above, according to the first embodiment, the construction of the driving system of the sheet treating apparatus which enables the intermediate stacking portion capable of stapling a large volume of paper to be retractable can be inexpensively realized by a compact and simple construction. Also, the spacing drive using the cut-away tooth gear becomes smaller in the torque used than the conventional construction using only a cam, and can realize electric power saving and can therefore also make the power supply capacity of the apparatus small. Also, without the gear diameter being made large, a large space for spacing can be secured. Thereby, the post treatment of a large volume of paper in the sheet treating apparatus 300 and the laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) 100 provided with the same can be realized by a construction of saved space, low cost and saved electric power.

Also, according to the second embodiment, of course, an effect similar to that of the first embodiment is obtained, and the rocking space can be curtailed, whereby a sheet treating apparatus more compact than that according to the first embodiment can be realized. Also, the rocking time by the rocking gear is unnecessary and the spacing and paddle driving can be changed over by only the changeover of the rotating direction of the motor and therefore, still a higher speed can be coped with.

Also, according to the third embodiment, not only an effect similar to that of the first and second embodiments is obtained, but also the sheet holding operation by the stamp member can be performed by the driving motor for performing the sheet aligning operation, etc. by the paddles even if a discrete actuator such as a solenoid is not provided, and downsizing and electric power saving can be realized more inexpensively.

This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2003-405141 filed on Dec. 3, 2003 and 2004-302244 filed on Oct. 15, 2004, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

Claims

1. A sheet conveying apparatus comprising:

a pair of conveying rollers having a first roller and a second roller disposed in opposed relationship with said first roller;

a roller supporting member which rotatably supports said first roller, and is movable between a first position in which said first roller can cooperate with said second roller to convey a sheet and a second position in which said first roller is spaced apart from said second roller;

a driving member which pivotally moves said roller supporting member;

a drive transmitting portion which transmits drive to said driving member; and

a drive source which transmits the drive to said drive transmitting portion,

wherein said roller supporting member has a gear portion, said driving member has a gear meshing with said gear portion of said roller supporting member, and a movement of said roller supporting member from said first position to said second position is effected by the meshing engagement between said gear portion and said gear.

2. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said roller supporting member is provided with a cam stopper portion, said driving member has a cam corresponding to said cam stopper portion of said roller supporting member, a holding of said roller supporting member in said first position is effected by an engagement between said cam and said cam stopper portion, and a movement of said roller supporting member from said second position to said first position is effected by a release of a holding of the engagement between said cam and said cam stopper portion.

3. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the movement of said roller supporting member from said first position to said second position and the movement of said roller supporting member from said second position to said first position are effected by a drive of said drive source only in one direction transmitted from said drive transmitting portion to said driving member.

4. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said gear portion of said roller supporting member and said gear of said driving member is a cut-away tooth gear.

5. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said gear portion of said roller supporting member is of such a shape that at least one of a second and succeeding teeth as counted from a tooth meshing with a tooth of said gear of said driving member at first is blank, and is of such a shape that a last tooth mesh with said gear of said driving member.

6. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said gear of said driving member is of such a shape that at least one of a second and succeeding teeth as counted from a teeth meshing with a tooth of said gear portion at first is blank, and is of such a shape that a last tooth mesh with said gear of said driving member.

7. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a spring which biases said roller supporting member toward said first position.

8. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a driving of said pair of conveying rollers is interrupted by the movement of said roller supporting member from said first position to said second position.

9. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a driving of said pair of conveying rollers is transmitted from a pulley disposed at a center of rotation of said roller supporting member by belt driving.

10. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when said pair of conveying rollers are in said first position, a plurality of roller members provided axially of said first roller are designed to come into between a plurality of roller members provided axially of said second roller.

11. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a paddle which effects alignment in a sheet conveying direction, wherein said drive transmitting portion is designed to selectively perform an aligning operation by said paddle, or a spacing operation of said first roller by said driving member, by forward and reverse rotation of said drive source.

12. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said drive transmitting portion is held by a rocking member, and rocks said rocking member by the forward and reverse rotation of said drive source to thereby selectively transmit a drive of said drive source to said paddle or said driving member.

13. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said drive transmitting portion has a first one-way clutch which transmits a drive only in one direction, and a second one-way clutch which transmits only drive in a direction opposite to that of said first one-way clutch, and selectively transmits a drive of said drive source to said paddle or said driving member by the forward and reverse rotation of said drive source.

14. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said paddle is provided with a resilient paddle member which moves the sheet in an aligning direction while rotating about a rotary shaft.

15. A sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a sheet stamp member which presses an upper surface of the sheet and holds the sheet, wherein said sheet stamp member releases a sheet pressing operation in operative association with the aligning operation of said paddle.

16. A sheet treating apparatus comprising:

a sheet conveying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6; and

a stapler which carries out a binding process to sheets.

17. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming portion which forms an image on a sheet; and

a sheet conveying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6.