US 5,178,382 AGranted

Tray transferring apparatus of sorter for copy machine

AssigneeSindo Ricoh Co., Ltd.

InventorsJae H. Chung, Yeon K. Jung

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Abstract

A tray transferring device of sorter for copy machine comprising first and second slot liners each having an inclined middle portion, third and fourth slot liners formed on said opposite side plates of the sorter, first and second transfer wheels mounted at respective inclined middle portions of said first and second slot liners, power transferring means connected between said first and second transfer wheels, rack movement controlling means mounted at said opposite side plates, rack driving means each connected to said rack movement controlling means, a pair of racks each engaging with said rack driving means, a base pin extending between respective lowest portions of said first and second slot liners, tray supporting means fixedly connected to said opposite side plates. The present invention can provide a tray transferring device which can prevent the instantaneous increase of the load from a tray transferring device during the successive transferring of the bin trays so that the total load to be loaded to the tray transferring device may be reduced, thereby causing the bin tray to be smoothly transferred, and reduce the noise which may be generated from the intermittent and instantaneous movement of the bin tray, and also increase the transferring speed of the bin tray.

Claims8

Dependent claims

In a sorter for a copy machine, the sorter having opposite side plates and provided with a tray transferring device for transferring bin trays each having a pair of pins, said tray transferring device comprising;

first and second slot liners formed on opposite side plates of the sorter, respectively, and each having an inclined middle portion extending toward an ejecting section of the copy machine;
a first transfer wheel mounted at said inclined middle portion of said first slot liner and including a rounded portion having a first height difference between a start point and a last point of a guide passage adapted for contacting one pin of said pins in order to guide said pin, said first height difference being larger than a diameter of said pin;
a second transfer wheel mounted at the inclined middle portion of said second slot liner and including a rounded portion having a second height difference between a start point and a last point of a guide passage adapted for contacting the other pin of said pins in order to guide said pin, said second height difference being larger than a diameter of said pin;
power transferring means connected between said first and second transfer wheels and adapted for providing the same rotation rate therefor;
rack movement controlling means mounted at said opposite side plates and adapted for controlling a driving rate of racks by using a rotation power of said first and second transfer wheels;
rack driving means each connected to said rack movement controlling means;
a pair of racks each engaging said rack driving means and having a lower portion fixedly connected to said pin of a lowest positioned bin tray, and
supporting means fixedly connected to said opposite said plates and adapted for supporting said bin trays.

5 more elements

first and second slot liners formed on said opposite side plates of the sorter, respectively, and each having an inclined middle portion extending toward an ejecting section of the copy machine;
third and fourth slot liners downwardly formed on said opposite side plates of the sorter;
a first transfer wheel mounted at the inclined middle portion of said first slot liner and including a rounded portion having a first height difference between a start point and a last point of a guide passage adapted for contacting one pin of said pins in order to guide said pin, said first height difference being larger than a diameter of said pin;
a second transfer wheel mounted at the inclined middle portion of said second slot liner and including a rounded portion having a second height difference between a start point and a last point of a guide passage adapted for contacting the other pin of said pins in order to guide said pin, said second height difference being larger than a diameter of said pin;
power transferring means connected between said first and second transfer wheels and adapted for providing the same rotation rate therefor;
rack movement controlling means mounted at said opposite side plates and adapted for controlling a driving rate of racks by using a rotation power of said first and second transfer wheels;
rack driving means each connected to said rack movement controlling means;
a base pin extending between respective lowest portions of said first and second slot liners;
a pair of racks each engaging with said rack driving means and having a lower portion fixedly connected to each end of said base pin;
and
tray supporting means fixedly connected to said opposite side plates, respectively, and forming a supporter movable upward and downward along said third and fourth slot liners in order to provide the same upward and downward movements for inner and outer portions of said bin trays at the same time during movement of the bin trays.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.