JP2002137863A - Automatic document carrier device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic document carrier device constituted to be capable of restraining irregularity of document to be discharged to a document delivery part to the utmost. SOLUTION: This automatic document carrier device constitutes its characteristic feature of (1) providing a guide means to be interlocked with a document guide means provided on a document placing part on the document delivery part and (2) providing the guide part on the document delivery part which becomes gradually narrower toward the advancing direction of the document.

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 An automatic document feeder configured to feed out a stock document one by one and to feed a feed path including a position where a reading means provided on an image forming apparatus is disposed, and then discharge the document to a document discharge section. The apparatus is attached to many image forming apparatuses and is used effectively.

Such an automatic document feeder has a guide plate which can be moved in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of a document in a document placing portion, and has a side surface corresponding to documents of various sizes. It is configured to be able to contact and regulate the position.

[0004]

On the other hand, a document discharge section for stocking a document that has been read is generally formed of a plate having a flat surface or a gentle curved surface.

For this reason, the discharged originals tend to be irregular, especially in the width direction, and when there are a large number of originals, there is a problem that it takes time to arrange them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic document feeder configured to minimize irregularities in documents discharged to a document discharge unit. It is in the thing.

[0007]

The object of the present invention can be achieved by the following constitution.

(1) An automatic document feeder characterized in that guide means interlocked with document guide means provided on a document placing section are provided in a document discharge section.

(2) The automatic document feeder according to (1), wherein the guide means in the document discharge section has a guide portion gradually narrowing in a direction in which the document advances.

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a 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 convenience, the configuration of the image reading unit is a platen 100 made of glass.
In a mode of scanning the document P placed on the document P, the image reading unit 10 includes an illumination lamp 11 that illuminates the document P.
0 and a mirror 111, and a first mirror unit 11 provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the left-right direction of the drawing,
A pair of mirrors 120 arranged in a V shape is provided,
The optical system includes an optical system including a second mirror unit 12 capable of moving in parallel in the same direction as the first mirror unit while maintaining an optical path length, a projection lens 13 having a fixed position, and an imaging device (CCD) 14.

In the above description, the original 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 modes, the image information formed on the image pickup device 13 is subjected to image processing and 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 drive of the semiconductor laser is controlled in accordance with the image data stored in the memory.

The image forming section 30 is a section for finally forming an image corresponding to image data on a sheet, and is a drum-shaped charge holding member (in the embodiment, an OPC photosensitive member. And a band electrode (hereinafter, referred to as a charging unit) disposed around the photosensitive drum for uniformly charging the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300.
310, a developing device (hereinafter referred to as developing means) 33 including a developing sleeve 333 for converting an electrostatic latent image formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300 into a visible image (toner image).
0, a transfer pole (hereinafter, referred to as a transfer unit) 340 for transferring the toner image onto a sheet to be described later, and a separation pole (hereinafter, referred to as a separation unit) 350 for separating the sheet from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300. And a cleaning unit 360 for cleaning the photosensitive drum after the transfer.

The reflected light from the mirror 240 in the laser writing section 20 passes between the charging means 310 and the developing means 330 and irradiates the photosensitive drum 300.

Reference numeral 370 denotes a conveying belt, and 380 denotes a fixing device (fixing means) composed of 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. 395 is a switching unit (switching member) for switching the path of the sheet after fixing.
And is provided between the paper 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 components.

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

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 relationship of rotating the paper placing plate 405 counterclockwise.

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 drive source (motor) is cut off so as to abut against the lower surface of the sheet at a predetermined pressure and stop at that position, and the sheet placement plate 405 is kept as it is via the rotation shaft 460 and the action plate 450. It is configured to hold the state.

When the number of sheets decreases as the number of formed images increases, the sheet mounting 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 transfer sheet, and 430 denotes a conveying 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 paper reversing section 50 is provided with the switching means 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 feeder together with a document placing table 600 constituting a document placing section and a storage table 630 constituting a processed (meaning-read) document discharging section. The unit includes a document feed roller 602,
Separating / conveying roller 603, conveying rollers 605 and 607, exposure roller 608, conveying roller 609, discharge roller 61
1. Auxiliary roller 613 and transport rollers 605 and 6
A document transport path switching member (hereinafter, simply referred to as a switching member) 615, 616 provided on the document transport path between the document feed path 07 and the original transport path 07 is provided.

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 plate (guide means) for forming a document conveying path is provided between the rollers.

In the figure, reference numeral 601 denotes document guide means arranged on both sides of the document P placed on the document table 600 so as to regulate both sides (surfaces) of the document P. In this embodiment, the document P It can be moved in the width direction (front and back directions in the figure) based on the center in accordance with the size of, so that a fixed position can be maintained.

Reference numeral 650 denotes the document guide means 60.
The document table 600 on the side opposite to the side on which
Guide means comprising a guide plate provided above can move in the same direction in conjunction with the document guide means 601.

The guide means 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 (close to the auxiliary roller). The narrowest width composed of parts is
The width is set so as not to hinder the progress of the side of the discharged document P.

Reference numeral 633 is a fixed regulating plate provided on both side ends of the storage table 630. In the above configuration,
When copying one side of the document P placed on the document table 600, only one sheet of the document P sent out by the document feed roller 602 is sent out under the control of the separation conveyance roller 603, and
After reaching the position of the exposure unit roller 608 via the switching member 615 at the illustrated position and the transport roller 607 and reading the copy surface at the reading position 105, via the transport roller 609 and the switching member 616 at the broken line position. The sheet reaches the discharge roller 611 and is discharged onto the storage table 630 by the discharge roller 611 under the action of the guide means 650.

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.

Note that, 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 sheet of the original P sent to the transport unit passes through the same route as described above, that is, after passing through the exposure unit roller 608 and the transport roller 609, this time, 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 so far, the document P is not read. 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 as described above. Transported to

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, and under the same control as described above, the switching member 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 turned upside down, the first side is read at the reading position, and is conveyed through the switching member 616.
It is discharged with the first side down on top 0.

During the discharge, the document discharged in the flying state is regulated in the width direction by the guide means 650.

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

When the original P is placed on the original mounting table 600 and the start of the copying operation is instructed by operating a suitable button such as a push button, one original P is separated from the original bundle and the reading position 105 is sequentially set. pass.

A mirror 111 of the first mirror unit 11 is fixed below the reading position 105, and the light reflected from the document P based on the 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 pickup device 14 is subjected to image processing and then temporarily stored in a memory (not shown) as image data.

On the other hand, each unit or member constituting the image forming unit 30 operates according to the image forming operation, and the charging unit 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 means 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 in which the leading edge of the paper 420 bites into 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 superimposition with the toner image, 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 means 340 in the transfer area, and the sheet 420 is transferred to the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300 by the action of the separation means 350. Separated from

The separated sheet 420 is transported by the transport belt 370.
The toner is melted by the heating and pressurizing action of the fixing unit 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 means 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 unit 380 is changed by the switching unit 395 and descends on the conveying path 500.

The leading end of the sheet 420 descending over 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 is 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 yet been copied 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 the storage table 630, and the transfer material 420 that has passed through the fixing means 380 is discharged onto a discharge tray outside the apparatus.

Such an operation is repeated a required number of times, and a desired image is formed. After the transfer step, the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 300 is cleaned by the cleaning unit 360, and is then provided for new image formation.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the configuration of the document guide means provided above the document table and the guide means provided below the document table (document discharge section) for regulating the discharged document. (A) is a side view, (b) is a bottom view,
(C) is a plan view.

In the figure, the document guide means 601 and the guide means 650 are provided with the document placing table 600 interposed therebetween. Part).

The structure mainly composed of the above-mentioned document guide means 601 and guide means 650 is the same as that of the document table 6.
The sheet is opposed to both sides in the width direction of 00, and its side (in the case of a volume state, it can also be called a side) is regulated in accordance with the size of the document, so that lateral displacement can be suppressed.

As for the moving direction, when one of the structures moves outward in the width direction of the document table, the other structure automatically moves outward in the opposite direction.

In other words, the right document guide means 601
Is moved to the left by hand, the guide 650 integrated with the document guide 601 moves to the left.

The above operation is carried out by using the screw 65
7, a gear 6 fixedly provided at the center in the width direction of the document table 600 through the movement of the toothed lever 670 fixedly provided.
Rotate 80 clockwise.

The rotational force of the gear 680 is controlled by a toothed lever 660 fixed to the other (left) guide means 650.
Is moved rightward, and as a result, the guide means 650 and the document guide means 601 integrated with the guide means are moved rightward.

With the above configuration, by operating one of the document guide means 601, the guide means 6 for the discharged document is provided.
50 can be linked to perform regulation according to the size of the document, so that the documents can be quickly assembled.

Further, in the structure of the guide means 650, a tapered guide portion which gradually narrows in the direction of travel of the discharged document (means toward the center of the document table) is provided, so that the discharged document is provided. Can be easily aligned in the width direction.

The screw 65 is allowed to move linearly in the structure comprising the document guide means and the guide means.
A slit S that penetrates and is movable is formed in the document table.

[0082]

According to the operation of moving the document guide means, the guide means provided in the document discharge section can be linked and positioned at a predetermined position, so that the operability is good and the discharged document can be easily handled.

[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 schematic diagram for explaining a configuration of document guide means provided on an upper side of a document placing table and guide means provided on a lower side (document discharge section) of the document placing section for regulating a discharged document. (A) is a side view, (b) is a bottom view, and (c) is a plan view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 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 placement table 601 document guide means 630 storage table 650 guide means

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masaru Aoki 2970, Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo Konica Corporation (72) Inventor Norihiko Nishimoto 73-7-1 Aburadaira, Akiruno-shi, Tokyo F-term (reference) 2H076 BA35 BA36 BA39 3F054 AA02 AC01 BA02 BE03 BE12 BG04 BH08 BJ02 3F343 FA03 FB01 GA01 GB01 GC01 GD01 HE02 HE11 5C062 AA05 AB02 AB30 AB35 AD01 BA00

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An automatic document feeder, wherein a guide means interlocked with a document guide means provided on a document placing section is provided in a document discharge section. 2. The guide means in the document discharge section,
2. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1, further comprising a guide portion that gradually narrows in a direction in which the document advances.