FR2665995A1 - AUTOMATIC FEEDING METHOD WITH RECYCLING OF DOCUMENTS FOR COPYERS. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for automatically advancing documents. It relates to a method in which documents are transmitted one by one from the bottom of a stack placed on a table (21). The method includes detecting the size of each document, changing the timing of the advance of the document according to the detected size, interrupting the discharge operation for a predetermined period after discharge of the immediately preceding document. , and resuming the discharge operation after the predetermined period so that the document is discharged from the recording position. Application to copiers.

Description

The present invention relates to a food appliance

  Automatic Document Recycling System for use with a copier or similar device

  image recording, and it concerns more precisely

  a document supply process which can be

used with such a device.

  An automatic document feeder which can automatically transmit the documents one by one to a recording position of a copier or similar image recording apparatus, is widely used at present. is often produced as a recycling device that automatically transmits documents stacked on its table, one by one, to an exposure position on a copier glass holder and returns each of the documents that has been exposed to the table, at the top of the pile that remains on the table It is common, in such a recycling device, to use a single source

  motor for the training of two independent devices

  devices, that is to say a device for extracting documents

  one-to-one batteries and a

  document to the copier glass holder

  The document is intended to facilitate the miniaturization of the feeding apparatus. A document feeding method that can be used with such apparatus returns a document that has been illuminated at the display station to the table at the same time as the document. advance the document

next from the table.

  The problem posed by the conventional process of feeding

  Automatic document handling is that at least two documents can not advance in a single feeding operation and, as a result, the interval between successive documents is relatively large and gives poor transport performance. process opposes the increase in the working speed of

  the feeding apparatus In order for the feed apparatus

  automatic recycling of documents may have

  high speed, it is necessary that the moments of the food

  the document format can be changed so that the interval between successive documents can be reduced. In addition, the last document to be returned can be retrieved to

  the table almost simultaneously with the document the previous

  However, these solutions pose another problem because, since the interval between the last document and the one immediately preceding it is reduced, the last document can come into contact with the previous document and can bend or get stuck under the

  document that precedes it immediately.

  The subject of the invention is therefore the provision of an automatic document feeding method which enables the operation of an automatic feeding apparatus with high speed document recycling.

  with no evacuation error, so the stack

  documents illuminated on a table

  document support can be accurate.

  The invention also relates to an improved document feeding method for such a feeding apparatus.

  According to the invention, a method of automatically feeding

  a document stack for advancing a stack of documents placed on a table of an automatic feeding apparatus, one by one, to an image recording position of an image recording apparatus on which

  the automatic document feeder is mounted

  ments, and to evacuate each of the documents that has undergone an image recording operation from the position

  registration so that the last document and the docu-

  sent immediately before the last document are evacuated successively, includes steps for detecting the format of each of the documents transmitted.

  successively from the stack, change of the sync-

  feeding a document to match the detected format of the document

  evacuation operation for a predetermined period of time

  after the immediately preceding document has been evacuated from the registration position, and resumed from the evacuation operation after the expiration of the predetermined period so that the last document is removed from the

the recording position.

  Other features and advantages of the invention

  will be better understood by reading the description

  which will follow of embodiments, made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of an automatic document recycling feeding apparatus, allowing the implementation of a method of automatic document feeding according to the invention; Figure 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a control system associated with the power supply apparatus;

  FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the operation

  particular evacuation pattern to an embodiment; Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the evacuation check processing in the present embodiment; and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the verification processing of the last document in this mode.

of realization.

  Referring first to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings which show an automatic document recycling feed apparatus in which the invention can be implemented, and a control assembly which is

  As shown, the apparatus which bears the reference

  11 is mounted on the body 10 of a copier and covers a document holder 12 formed of glass and placed at the upper part of the body 10 The apparatus 11 comprises a table 21 which must be loaded with a stack of documents , and a feed section 22 for advancing the one-to-one documents from the table 21 to the feed plate.

  12, the lowest document being transmitted the first

  A section 23 transports the evacuated document from section 22 to the glass support 12 and discharges it out of this support 12 A turning section 24 ensures the overturning of the document driven by the transport section 23. A section 25 of FIG. return returns the document that comes out of the section 24 of flipping towards the part

  upper stack of documents placed on the table 21.

  A control system 100 shown in FIG. 2

  controls the operation of the various aforementioned sections.

  The table 21 is disposed at a first end of

  11 (on the upstream side, given the direction of trans-

  documents) Two side barriers 31 and

  32 A rollers and 32 B sampling are placed on the table 21 abutments 33 are supported on the upper part of the stack of documents, on the table 21, at the free ends or anterior, under the action of the forces

  gravity The document conveyed by a recycling path

  clage, which is described in the following, and returned from the rear is in abutment against the front ends of the stops 33 and is thus separated from the documents stacked initially on the table 21 Simultaneously, the stop members 33 prevent skewing biased documents A document sensor 34 is placed in front of the rolls of

  32 A and 32 B to determine whether documents

  The stop members 33 are each supported by the side walls, not shown, of the apparatus 11 so that they can turn upwardly and downwardly. control of Figure 2 powers an electromagnet, not

  represented, following a start signal that is trans-

  The electromagnet then moves the stop members 33 upwards so that the documents can be returned and returned to the table 21 to be transmitted again. A pressure sheet 36 is made in the form of a flexible sheet of "Mylar" or the like and is placed downstream of the stop members 33 in the direction of transport of the

  documents The pressure sheet 36 which is also

  born by the aforementioned electromagnet, is movable vertically and, during the descent, it pushes the upper part of the stack of documents while being deformed. The feed section 22 has a guide 41 which extends from a position adjacent to the stop members 33 to one end of the glass support 12. An endless belt 42

  is arranged along the guide 41 A roll 43 of separa-

  The invention is maintained in pressurized contact with the belt 42 and has a freewheel clutch, not shown. The extraction rollers 44 and 45 cooperate in extracting the separated document by the belt 42 and the separating roller 43, and its movement towards the glass support 12 A sensor 46 is placed on the downstream side of the stop members 33 so that it determines whether the last document of the stack loaded on the table 25 has been transmitted or not.

  sensor 47 is controlled by the anterior and posterior edges

  of the transmitted document A 48 advance engine represents

  FIG. 2 is also incorporated in the feed section 22. The belt 42 and the separating roller 43 only drive the lower document from the stack to the feed section 22.

  the extraction rollers 44 and 45 given the difference

  rotation speed of the roller 43 and the roller

  42 and the difference in coefficient of friction between them and the documents A clutch 49 shown in FIG. 2 selectively interrupts the transmission of energy to the separation roller 43 When the position sensor 47 located at the location where the section 22, the clutch 49 is disengaged so that it interrupts the transmission of energy to the separation roller 43. A rotary encoder, not shown, is connected to the transmission section 23. extraction roll 45 which is driven by the other extraction roll 44 The rotary encoder and the marked position sensor 47 constitute in combination

  a device for detecting the format of a document.

  The transport section 23 has an endless belt 53 which passes over two rollers 51 and 52. Several rollers 54 push the lower end of the belt 53 against the

  glass support 12 Section 23 transport, when

  it is driven by a motor 55, carries a supported document from the feeding section 22 to a predetermined exposure position on the glass holder 12 and then drives the document which has undergone remote illumination The exposure position is determined such that, for example, the posterior edge of a document substantially coincides with the left end of the support 12 as shown in FIG. the sensor 47 has detected the posterior edge of a document, the belt 53 changes direction according to the number of the encoder

  which is sensitive to rotations of the extraction roller 45.

  The turning section 24 has a curved guide 61 which rises from the other end of the glass support 12, a roll 61 for turning the periphery is disposed along the guide 61, a pressure roller 63 which pushes towards the roller 62 reverser, a selector in the form of a pawl 64 placed downstream of the roll 62 and reversible movable between two positions indicated in solid lines and broken line in the figure, a sensor 65 which detects an existing document in such a path of overturning conveyance, and a motor 66 shown in FIG. 2 and intended to drive the overturning roll 62 The guide 61 can return a document that moves along the overturning transport path The motor 66 intended to drive the rollers 62 and 63 which cooperate is independent of the motor 55 associated with the belt 53 The rotation of the motor 66 is controlled

  by action in solidarity with the functioning of the court

  In the full-line position, the selector 64 guides a document that has been illuminated (for example a document with only one or two faces, one side of which has been lit). To the return section 25 In the phantom position, the selector 64 causes the flipping of a document which has been illuminated (for example a document with two faces, one side of which has been illuminated) and driven back to the support 12 of glass. The return section 25 includes a movable evacuation unit 71 on the table 21 and along it in the document conveying direction, guides 72, 73, and 74 connected to the rear of the unit 71. evacuation to form a guide section that can contract during movement of the unit 71, and a belt 75 for conveying a document from the section

  24 This unit 71 of assessment,

  a guide 76 which defines a discharge path from the belt 75 to the table 21, several pairs of discharge rollers 77A and 77B placed along the guide 76, a motor 78 for driving the rollers 77 A and 77 B, and a cover 79 When a stack of documents is disposed to abut against the stop members 33, a drive, not shown, moves the return section 25 to a location at which the rear edge of the stack is positioned A pressure plate 81 is also incorporated in the return section and pushes the documents towards the separation roll 43

  as soon as section 25 is positioned as indicated above

  In addition, a sensor 82 is placed in the vicinity of

  the output of the return section 25 The sensor 82 transmits

  puts evacuation information after return detection

  of a document by section 25 back This informa-

  tion is transmitted to the control assembly 100 shown in FIG. 2 with the information from the various

other sensors.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the control assembly 100 comprises a central processing unit CPU 101, an input-output interface circuit 102, a circuit

  TTL logic 103, a read only memory 104, a clock circuit

  box 105, a reset IC 106, input and output buffer circuits 107, 108 and 109, a counter 110, motor control ICs 111 to 114, driver circuits 115 to 118, etc. The individual elements of the control assembly 100 are conventional and are not described in more detail. According to control programs stored in the memory 104, the processing unit 101 controls the motors 48, 55, 66 and 78 the electromagnet 35, an electromagnet 83 associated with the selector 64, an electromagnet 84 associated with the pressure plate 81, etc. FIG. 2 also shows a motor 95 for driving the separation roller 43 and diodes

  photoemissives for display 96.

  During operation, a stack of documents is placed on the table 21 with the face upwards, and the front edge is in abutment against the members 83. Next, the opposite side barriers are moved towards each other so that the edges of the stack are guided, and the evacuation assembly 71 is moved to a position corresponding to the size of the documents. When a start-of-copy key on the body of the copier is depressed, the control assembly 100 As a result, the lower document of the stack placed on the table 21 is extracted by the supply section 22 of the transport section 23, to the exposure position formed on the support 12 of the The positioned positioning sensor 75 and the encoder, ie the format detection device, detect the format of the document being transported The moments of advance and return of the document are controlled from

  varies according to the detected format of the document.

  More specifically, as a result of a control signal from the body of the copier, the sensor rolls 32A and 32B which are in contact with the underside of the document stack are driven to advance the document. The belt 42 and the roller 43 in turn drive the lower document towards the extraction rollers 44 and 45. At this time, the stop members 33 have moved towards the endless belt 42 and the separation roller 43. The document which has reached the rollers 44 and 45 is driven by them and the belt 53 towards the exposure position on the support 12 The aforesaid format detection device detects the format of the document thus conveyed.

  32 A and 32 B sensor rollers and the feed section

  22 are controlled according to the detected format of the document, so that the moment of transport of the document is controlled so that the interval between the successive documents is minimal, within a predetermined range As a result, the largest number of documents can to be transmitted successively to the support 12 in a given period, according to the format of the document, and an advance

fast document is made easier.

  The document occupying the exposure position on the glass support 12 is illuminated by a reader incorporated in the

body 10 of the copier.

  The reversal section 4 and the return section 25 evacuate the document which has been exposed to the upper part of the stack on the table 21,

  by turning it over More precisely, the belt 53 transmits

  Bring the illuminated document to the turning section 24. The overturning roll 62 and the overturning section pressing roll 63 drive the document along the guide 61 so that the document is returned when it reaches the section 25 back, the document is conveyed by the belt 75 along the

  guides 72, 73 and 74 and is extracted in the upper section

  The documents retrieved successively from the return section 25 in the aforementioned manner abut against the stops 33 and are thus separated from the documents on the table 21 by the evacuation rollers 77 A and 77 B and the guide 76. placed underneath and stacked

initially on the table 21.

  In the embodiment considered for illustrative purposes, the central unit 101 of the control unit executes particular operations relating to the evacuation of documents as represented in FIGS. 3 to 5 In FIG. 3, the central unit 101 determines whether an evacuation start flag is raised or not (not Pll) and, if the answer is positive, whether a last flag is raised or not (P 12) If the response at step P 12 is positive, the unit central unit 101 determines whether the number of a counter of last document incorporated in the central unit 101 is equal to "1" or not (P 13). If the answer given to step P 13 is positive, the central unit 101 determines whether the size of the document is relatively small, for example the format of a letter having its length horizontally, or not (P 14) If the answer given to any of the steps P 12 to P 14 is negative, the program proceeds to not P 16 for

  performing an ordinary evacuation operation.

  It is assumed that the documents are transmitted successively

  The last document is transmitted to the glass support 12 after the document has been placed in the display position on the support, until the last document of the stack initially placed on the table 21 remains thereon. At this time, if the document size is relatively small, two documents are placed on the glass support In the embodiment considered, after the last document has been illuminated, the previous document and the last document or document are returned successively to the upper part of the stack, one behind the other At this moment, after the evacuation of the one of the two documents which is the first on the stack of documents, the operation

  evacuation is interrupted for a pre-determined period

  mined and the last document is then evacuated.

  More precisely, as represented in FIG. 3, if all the responses given at steps P 12 to P 14 are positive, the central unit 101 waits for the expiration of a

  predetermined delay time (P 15) and then performs the operation

  evacuation ration (P 16) The predetermined delay is selected so that two successive documents of interest are not in mutual contact during evacuation, i.e. they are evacuated safely while being mutually separated. As a result, even if the interval between the last document and the immediately preceding document is reduced, the first document can not be in contact with the last document. This is useful to prevent the last document from being folded by the document.

previous or their nesting.

  FIG. 4 shows the evacuation verification processing In this operation, the central unit 101 determines whether or not a passing flag is raised (P 21) and, depending on the result of the decision, the fact that the sensor of Exhaust 82 closed (P 22) or open (P 24) is determined If the evacuation sensor 82 has closed, the central unit 101 raises the passage flag (P 23). is open as indicated by the pitch P 24, the central unit 101 checks an incorporated timer to determine whether a predetermined period has elapsed (P 25) If the response given at step P 25 is positive,

  the central unit 101 stops supplying the evacuation motor

  78 (P 26) The central unit 101 then counts down an evacuation control counter which is also incorporated (P 27) and causes the counting of the counter of the last document (P 28) to be counted. The step P 28 is followed by a step P 29 for determining whether the evacuation control counter is 1 or not If the response given at step P 29 is positive, the central unit 101 raises the evacuation start flag

(P 30).

  FIG. 5 shows the last document verification procedure. As indicated, the CPU 101 determines whether the advance of the document has ended or not (P 31) and, if the response is positive, whether the sensor 46 is is closed or not (P 32) If the sensor 46 is open, indicating that no leading edge of the document is in front of the stop member 33 (i.e. the last document has advanced ), the central unit 101 keeps the number of documents that have not been evacuated and which are in the transport path, in the counter of last document Then, the central unit 101 raises a

flag of last document.

  As mentioned above, in the mode of

  As an illustration, the central unit 101 of the control unit 100 allows the immediate return of the last document after the preceding document and, at this moment, it evacuates the last document after the flow.

  a predetermined period following the previous document.

  The apparatus 11 can therefore operate at a high speed and it does not exhibit the evacuation errors and allows a

  secure stacking of documents on the table 21.

  Of course, various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art to the processes which have just been described solely as non-limiting examples.

  without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (5)

  A method of automatically feeding documents for advancing a stack of documents placed on a table (21) of an automatic document feeder (11), one by one, to a recording position of image of an image recording apparatus on which the automatic document feeding apparatus is mounted, and to evacuate each of the documents which has undergone an image recording operation, from the recording position , so that the last document and the document transmitted immediately before the last document are evacuated successively, the method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps: (a) the detection of the format of each of the documents transmitted successively by the stack, (b) changing the timing of the document advance to match the detected format of the document, (c) interrupting an evacuation operation for a predetermined period of time after the document   immediately preceding was removed from the position of registration, and   (d) the resumption of the evacuation operation at the   of a predetermined period so that the last   document is removed from the registration position.   2 Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the lower document of the stack is transmitted first, the last document being the one which is the most up in the pile.   3 Process according to claim 2, characterized in that it further comprises a step (e) of return documents sucked successively, the upper part of the battery.   Method according to claim 3, characterized in that step (c) comprises a step (f) of interrupting the discharge operation during the predetermined period after the immediately preceding document has returned on the pile.   Method according to claim 4, characterized in that step (b) comprises a step (g) of changing the synchronization of the return of the document so that it   corresponds to the detected format of the document.   Process according to Claim 1, characterized in that the image recording apparatus is a copier,   and the recording position is the exposure position   formed on a glass support (12) of the copier.