JP2002187628A - Automatic document feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic document feeding device of a simple structure, preventing document damage while maintaining visibility below a document loading stand, without cost increase. SOLUTION: This automatic document feeding device feeds a document loaded on a document loading part to a document reading position and then ejects the same to a document ejection part. An opening part is provided above the document ejection part of the document loading part and an inclined part is provided in a down stream side of the opening part in a document sending direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder for automatically and sequentially feeding documents placed on a document placing portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Documents stocked on a document placing tray are sent out one by one, and are conveyed through a conveyance path including a position where a reading means provided on an image forming apparatus is disposed.
An automatic document feeder configured to discharge to a document discharge unit is attached to many image forming apparatuses and is used effectively.

Conventionally, there has been known an automatic document feeder in which a tray for placing a document and a discharge tray for the read document are arranged vertically.

According to such an automatic document feeder, there is no need to secure a space for newly arranging a document discharge tray. Therefore, both trays can be efficiently arranged, and the size of the automatic document feeder can be reduced. Can contribute.

However, in such an automatic document feeder, since the document discharge tray is arranged below the document placing tray, even if the read document is discharged onto the document discharge tray. There is a problem that the document is hidden behind the document placing tray, so that the operator easily forgets to take the document.

[0006]

As an automatic document feeder which solves this problem, there is known an automatic document feeder having a document tray as shown in FIG.

A notch 6101 is formed in a part of the document placing tray 600, and an operator can see a document discharge tray below the document placing tray 600 through the notch. Therefore, an effect of preventing forgetting to take a document can be expected.

However, the original placing tray 600
Cover member 6 made of colorless and transparent plastic resin
202 was attached.

When an operator places a document on the document placing tray, the corner of the document may be caught on the edge of the notch 6101 and may be damaged. Notch 61 so as not to touch the edge
01 is closed by a cover member 6202.

However, the material of the cover member 6202 which is in sliding contact with the document must satisfy conditions such as being less likely to be charged, being less likely to be damaged, and the like. There was a point.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic document feeder which has a simple structure, does not cause a document breakage accident while ensuring visibility below the document placing tray, and does not increase the cost. And

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic document feeder which transports a document placed on a document placing portion to a document reading position and discharges the document to a document discharging portion. Providing an opening above the document discharge section in the section,
This is achieved by an automatic document feeder, wherein an inclined portion is provided downstream of the opening in the document feed direction.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the configuration of an image forming apparatus provided with an automatic document feeder according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes an image reading unit 10, a laser writing unit 20, an image forming unit 3
0, a paper feeding unit 40 and a paper reversing unit 50 as main components.

An automatic document feeder 60 is shown above the image reading section 10.

For the sake of convenience, the configuration of the image reading unit is described in the form of scanning a document P placed on a document table 100 made of glass.
Are an illumination lamp 110 for illuminating the original P and a mirror 111
A first mirror unit 11 provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the left-right direction of the figure, and a pair of mirrors 120 arranged in a V-shape, and in the same direction as the first mirror unit while maintaining the optical path length. Mirror unit 12 that can move in parallel to
And an optical system including an image sensor 14 such as a CCD.

In the above description, the document P is directly copied on the document table 100 without using the automatic document feeder 60.
It is also used as a reading means of the original conveyed by the.

In this case, the first mirror unit 1
The first and second mirror units 12 are fixed to a position on the left side of the position in the figure, but details will be described later.

In any of the above embodiments, the image information formed on the image pickup device 13 is subjected to image processing and is temporarily stored in a memory as image data.

The laser writing unit 20 includes a polygon mirror 220 for deflecting a laser beam generated from a semiconductor laser (not shown), an fθ lens 230, and a mirror 240.

The driving of the semiconductor laser is controlled in accordance with the image data stored in the memory.

The image forming section 30 is a portion where an image corresponding to image data is finally formed on a sheet, and is disposed around the OPC photosensitive drum 300 and the photosensitive drum.
A band electrode 310 for uniformly charging the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 300, and a toner image for converting an electrostatic latent image formed on the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 300 into a toner image as a visible image.
A developing device 330 including a developing sleeve 333; a transfer pole 340 for transferring the toner image onto a sheet described later;
A separation pole 350 for separating the sheet from the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 300 and a cleaning unit 360 for cleaning the photoconductor drum after transfer are provided.

The reflected light from the mirror 240 in the laser writing section 20 is reflected by the band electrode 310 and the developing device 33
Then, the photosensitive drum 300 is irradiated with the light passing through 0.

Reference numeral 370 denotes a transport belt, and 380 denotes a fixing device including a pair of rollers configured to rotate by pressing against each other. At least one of the rollers is a heating roller.

Reference numerals 385 and 390 denote paper discharge means, each comprising a pair of rollers.

Reference numeral 395 denotes a switching member for switching the path of the sheet after fixing, and is provided between the sheet discharging means 385 and 390.

The paper supply section 40 has a storage container (hereinafter referred to as a paper supply tray) 400 for storing paper and a paper supply roller 410 as main elements.

The paper feed tray 400 can be pulled out from a fixing portion of the apparatus, and a paper mounting plate 405 is rotatably provided at the bottom of the paper feed tray.

Reference numeral 450 denotes a working plate, the base of which is fixed on a rotating shaft 460 provided through a wall of a paper feed tray 400 provided outside the paper storage area.

The rotation of the working plate 450 acts on the free end of the paper placing plate 405 via the contact portion, and has a relation of rotating the paper placing plate in a counterclockwise direction.

The rotation of the sheet placing plate 405 causes the one end of the sheet bundle placed thereon to rise.

Further, the uppermost sheet of the sheet bundle on the sheet mounting plate 405 is placed on the sheet feeding roller 410 at a fixed position.
The power supply to the motor, which is the driving source, is cut off so as to contact the lower surface of the
The paper mounting plate 405 is configured to maintain the state as it is via the rotation shaft 460 and the operation plate 450.

When the number of sheets decreases as the number of formed images increases, the sheet placement plate 405 is further rotated to control the drive source so that the relation between the top sheet and the sheet feed roller 410 is always kept constant. It is supposed to.

Reference numeral 420 denotes a sheet for transfer, and 430 denotes a transport roller.
It is provided.

Reference numeral 440 denotes a registration roller which is driven and controlled to re-feed the sheet 420 so as to overlap the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 300.

The sheet reversing section 50 is provided with the switching member 39.
5, a plurality of pairs of transport rollers 510 provided on the transport path, a plurality of pairs of transport rollers 510 provided on the transport path,
The transport path 520 connected to the transport path 25 and a plurality of pairs of transport rollers 530 disposed on the transport path are main elements.

The automatic document feeder 60 includes a document placing tray 600 constituting a document placing section according to the present invention, and a document discharge tray 630 constituting a document ejecting section according to the present invention for discharging a read document. And a transport section. The transport section includes a document feed roller 602, a separation transport roller 603, transport rollers 605 and 607, an exposure roller 608, a transport roller 609, a discharge roller 611, an auxiliary roller 613, and the transport roller 605. Conveying path switching member 61 provided on the original conveying path between
5,616.

The feed roller 602 and the exposing roller 60
The other rollers except for the roller 8 are a pair of rollers, and the auxiliary roller 613 in the present embodiment is used when copying both sides of a double-sided document, and in this case, the discharge roller below the auxiliary roller is used. It is configured to rotate in contact with the upper roller of the roller 611.

The upper discharge roller 611 has a configuration in which a driven roller portion and a drive roller portion are coaxially combined.

An appropriate guide member for forming a document conveying path is provided between the rollers.

In the figure, reference numeral 601 denotes a document guide member arranged on both sides of the document P placed on the document tray 600 so as to regulate both sides (surfaces) of the document P. In accordance with the size of P, it can be moved in the width direction (front and back directions in the figure) with reference to the center, and can maintain a fixed position.

Reference numeral 650 denotes the document guide member 60.
The document loading tray 6 on the opposite side to the side where 1 is attached
The document guide member 60
1 and can be moved in the same direction.

The guide member 650 has a tapered guide portion 655 gradually narrowing in the traveling direction of the document P to be discharged at an end near the discharge portion (ie, near the auxiliary roller). The narrowest width formed by the guide portion is configured so as not to hinder the advance of the side of the document P to be discharged.

Reference numeral 633 denotes the document discharge tray 63.
0 is a fixed regulating plate provided on both side ends.

In the above configuration, the original placing tray 600
When copying one side of the original P placed on the original feeding roller 602, the original P sent out by the original feed roller 602 is separated.
Only one sheet is fed out, and reaches the position of the exposure roller 608 via the switching member 615 and the conveyance roller 607 at the illustrated position. After the copy surface is read at the reading position 105, the conveyance roller 609 is read. And reaches the discharge roller 611 via the switching member 616 at the position indicated by the broken line, and the discharge roller 611 causes the guide member 650 to move.
The document is discharged onto the document discharge tray 630 under the action of.

When using the automatic document feeder,
The first mirror unit 11 of the optical system constituting the image reading unit 10 is positioned below the reading position 105 below the exposure unit roller 608, and the second mirror unit 12 is also positioned at a predetermined position. Can be

Next, the conveyance of the document P when copying both sides of the document according to the present embodiment, with the addition of roller control and the like different from the above, will be described as follows.

In the description of this section, the expression "discharge roller 611" indicates the upper conveying roller.

As in the case of single-sided copying, one document P sent to the transport section follows the same route as described above, that is, after passing through the exposure section roller 608 and the transport roller 609, this time the solid line position Switching member 6 switched to
By 16, the sheet is transported between the auxiliary roller 613 and the discharge roller 611.

The auxiliary roller 613 is lowered before the document arrives, and rotates counterclockwise while contacting the discharge roller 611.

The auxiliary roller 613 and the discharge roller 611
The document P conveyed by the above is discharged to the lower side of the partition plate 620, and is transported until the other end portion is sandwiched between the two rollers.

In the document conveyance up to this point, the reading of the document P is not performed.

After the other end of the document P is sandwiched between the two rollers, the two rollers are controlled to rotate in the opposite direction, and the other end of the document P is now the leading end. Transported to the left.

At this time, the switching member 616 is located at the position indicated by the broken line, and assists the leading edge of the document P to be conveyed toward the switching member 615.

Before the leading edge of the document reaches the switching member 615, the switching member 615 is rotated clockwise from the illustrated position to form a transport path leading to the transport roller 607.

Accordingly, the document P is conveyed through the lower guide surface of the switching member 615, and then the second surface (the document is conveyed first and passes through the reading position at the reading position 105 below the exposure roller 608). When the surface at is set to the first surface, the surface opposite to the first surface is read, and the image forming process of the second surface by the image forming apparatus is executed as described later.

The original P whose second surface has been read reaches the auxiliary roller 613 and the discharge roller 611 again via the switching member 616 which has already been switched to the solid line position. 615 is directed to the reading position 105 via the lower guide surface.

An image forming process based on the read image information is executed on the image forming apparatus side.

After the original is read upside down, the first side is read at the reading position and conveyed through the switching member 616, the first side is placed on the original discharge tray 630 by the pair of discharge rollers 611. It is discharged down.

In the course of discharging, the document discharged in the flying state is regulated in the width direction by the guide member 650.

The image forming process in the image forming apparatus having the above-described structure is roughly as follows. However, the control of the conveyance of the document P when the automatic document feeder is used has been described in detail, so that it is simplified. Plan.

When an original P is placed on the original placing tray 600 and a start of a copying operation is instructed by an appropriate button operation such as a push button, one original P is separated from the original bundle.
It sequentially passes through the reading position 105.

A mirror 111 of the first mirror unit 11 is fixed below the reading position 105, and reflected light from the document P based on exposure of the illumination lamp 110 is reflected by the mirror 111 and the second mirror unit. Via the upper mirror 120 and the projection lens 13,
An image is formed on the image sensor 14.

The image information formed on the image sensor 14 is subjected to image processing and then temporarily stored as image data in a memory (not shown).

On the other hand, each means or member constituting the image forming section 30 operates according to the image forming operation, and the band electrode 310 uniformly charges the peripheral surface of the rotating photosensitive drum 300.

Next, the image data stored in the memory is read out, and a laser exposure according to the image data is applied to the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300 to form an electrostatic latent image.

The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device 330 to form a toner image (visible image).

During this time, the specified size paper 420 supplied from the paper feed tray 400 of the selected paper feed unit 40 is momentarily stopped in a state where the leading edge of the paper 420 has entered the registration roller 440. The sheet is fed again with the rotation of the registration roller, which is driven and controlled at the timing of superimposing the toner image on the sheet 300, and is directed to the transfer area.

The toner image on the photosensitive drum 300 is sequentially transferred onto the sheet 420 by the action of the transfer pole 340 in the transfer area.
By the operation of 50, the photosensitive drum 300 is separated from the peripheral surface.

The separated sheet 420 is transported by the conveyor belt 370.
The toner is melted by the heating and pressurizing actions of the fixing device 380 through the
0 is fixed.

When the image formation is in the one-sided copy mode of the original, the sheet that has passed through the fixing device 380 is discharged to a paper discharge tray (not shown) via paper discharge rollers 385 and 390.

On the other hand, in the case of the double-sided copy mode, the path of the sheet 420 after passing through the fixing device 380 is changed by the switching member 395 and descends on the conveying path 500.

The leading end of the sheet 420 descending beyond the conveyance path 500 enters a gap provided between the bottom of the image forming apparatus main body and the bottom of the sheet feeding tray 400.

At the end of the downward conveyance, the rear end of the sheet 420 is nipped by the conveyance roller 510 located at the lowermost end, and moves upward by the rotation of the conveyance roller 510 in the opposite direction. to go into.

Then, in the step of successively entering the supply passage 425, the surface on which no image has been recorded becomes the photosensitive drum 30.
0 and the registration rollers 44
It is transported toward zero.

On the other hand, the original P is also inverted on the transport path, the original surface that has not been copied yet is read at the reading position 105, and an image is formed through the steps described above.

The original P whose both sides have been read is discharged onto an original discharge tray 630, and the fixing device 38
The transfer material 420 that has passed through 0 is discharged to a discharge tray outside the apparatus.

Such an operation is repeated as many times as necessary to form a desired image.

After the transfer step, the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300 is cleaned by the cleaning means 360, and is then provided for new image formation.

FIG. 2 shows an original placing tray 60 according to the present invention.
0 has an opening 610 as shown.

As is clear from FIG. 1, the document placing tray 600 is located above the document discharge tray 630.
The operator operates the document discharge tray 630 through the opening 610.
The upper document can be viewed.

The position of the opening 610 is not limited to the position shown in the figure, but should be changed as appropriate according to the position of the document discharged onto the document discharge tray 630.

For example, when the original discharged onto the original discharge tray 630 is located in the upstream direction (the right direction in FIG. 1 and the downward direction in FIG. 2) in the original conveying direction on the original placing tray 600. The opening 610 is
It should be formed more upstream in the document transport direction.

That is, the position of the opening 610 in the document transport direction should be determined according to the position of the discharged document.

In this embodiment, the operator operates the opening 610 in the vertical direction of the document conveying direction from the left side in FIG. 2, so that the position on the left side in FIG. It is more preferable to dispose it at a position closer to the operator side on the tray 600) because the visibility is improved.

The shape and size of the openings 610 may be any as long as they do not affect the placement, transportability and visibility of the original.
There may be more than one 0.

In the present invention, in order to prevent the document from being damaged when the document is placed on the document placing tray 600, the edge of the opening 610 in the document conveying direction on the document placing tray 600 is selected. Downstream direction (left direction in FIG. 1,
A taper 620 constituting an inclined portion of the present invention is formed at an edge portion (in the upper direction in FIG. 2).

The taper 620 smoothly guides the corner of the original when the original is placed in the direction in which the original is placed, thereby preventing the original from being damaged.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line XX in FIG.

As shown, the taper 620 is chamfered and formed at a predetermined angle θ.

Here, it is preferable that θ is not less than 20 ° and not more than 30 °. If the angle is less than 20 °, the angle is steep, so that the thickness of the taper 620 is small and there is a problem in durability.

[0093]

According to the present invention, it is possible to smoothly guide a document without using a colorless and transparent cover member, which requires a relatively high cost, while ensuring visibility under the document placing tray. Now you can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a configuration of an image forming apparatus including an automatic document feeder according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of a document placing unit.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an opening of a document placing unit.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a conventional document placing unit.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 10 Image reading section 20 Laser writing section 30 Image forming section 40 Paper feeding section 50 Paper reversing section 60 Automatic document feeder 600 Document placing tray 601 Document guide means 630 Document discharge tray 650 Guide means

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Osamu Kato 3-1-1, Sakaemachi, Higashimurayama-shi, Tokyo (72) Inventor Nobutaka 1-7-7, Minamicho, Higashi-Kurume-shi, Tokyo (72) Inventor Keisho Ito 1-24-24 Ishihara-cho, Kawagoe-shi, Saitama F-term (reference) 2H076 BA35 3F343 FA03 FB01 FC30 GA01 GC01 HD01 KB03

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An automatic document feeder for conveying a document placed on a document placing portion to a document reading position and discharging the document to a document discharging portion, wherein an opening is provided above the document discharging portion in the document placing portion. An automatic document feeder, comprising: an inclined portion provided downstream of the opening in the document transport direction. 2. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1, wherein an upstream end of the inclined portion in the document feed direction is chamfered and has an angle of not less than 20 ° and not more than 30 °.