JP2000177852A - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase working efficiency in a manual feed mode, and to feed a paper sheet promptly without jam even if a sheet such as a compound paper is fed for a paper feeder capable of switching a consecutive paper feed mode and a manual feed mode. SOLUTION: A device loads paper sheets on a hopper 4c, and feeds a paper sheet manually or consecutively with a paper feeder roller 5 provided above. The device lifts up and down the hopper 4c, and enables a separation roller and a retard roller provided downstream preventing double feeding to drive for consecutive paper feed. The device lifts up and holds the hopper 4c in a position where a paper sheet can be nipped against the paper feeder roller 5, and simultaneously release the double feeding preventing action enabled by the separation roller and the retard roller for manual feed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feeder provided in an image reading apparatus such as an image scanner, and more particularly to a paper feed hopper for loading paper in accordance with continuous paper feeding and manual sheet feeding. The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device in which settings can be switched by interlocking a double feed prevention function unit with the setting unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image scanner for reading an image by reading a large amount of various documents and performing electronic filing, for example, includes an automatic paper feeder (A) for continuously feeding originals.
DF) is generally widely used. This automatic paper feeder includes a hopper on which sheets are stacked and mounted, and a paper feed roller disposed above the hopper, in contact with the uppermost sheet of paper, and picks up and feeds the sheet, and further near the outlet of the hopper. And a separating roller and a retard roller for preventing double feeding of sheets. The retard roller has a built-in torque limiter. When there is no paper feed, it contacts the peripheral surface of the separation roller and rotates in the paper feed direction. When one sheet is nipped, it also rotates in the paper feed direction. . When two or more sheets are nipped, the retard roller rotates in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction by the function of the torque limiter, and simultaneously feeds the multi-fed sheet to the hopper side and feeds the sheet by the sheet feeding roller. It has a function of sending out only one sheet of paper.

In such an automatic paper feeder provided with a double feed prevention mechanism using a combination of a separation roller and a retard roller, sheets stacked and mounted on a hopper are fed one by one in order from the topmost one. Operation is possible.

However, there are various types of documents processed by an image scanner or the like. In many cases, documents having different thicknesses and different friction coefficients and different sizes are used together as a bundle. For this reason, for example, depending on the relationship between the thickness and the friction coefficient between the stacked sheets and the condition of the friction coefficient with the separation roller and the retard roller, double feeding may not be avoided. Therefore, if even a single document such as an important document or a confidential document fails to be read and is left as it is, the user will be greatly damaged.

[0005] As described above, even if the double feed prevention mechanism provided with the separation roller and the retard roller is provided, perfect double feed prevention has not been achieved at present. There is a case where manual handling is performed one sheet at a time. Therefore, in the conventional automatic paper feeder, there is often used one capable of switching to a manual paper feed mode as well as a continuous paper feed mode.

[0006]

In such an automatic paper feeder, in the continuous paper feed mode, a stack of a plurality of papers is bundled and mounted on a hopper.
The hopper is set at a lowered position away from the paper feed roller to make it easier to load paper, and when there is an instruction to start paper feeding after loading paper, raise the hopper to the top of the loaded paper. The upper sheet is brought into contact with the sheet feeding roller to start continuous sheet feeding one by one. When all the sheets have been fed from the hopper, the hopper returns to the initial lowered position again.

On the other hand, in the manual feed mode, the operation of the hopper is the same as in the continuous feed mode. That is,
The hopper is set to its lowered position, and the apparatus waits for paper to be manually fed. When a paper sensor provided on the bottom of the hopper detects manual paper feeding, the hopper is raised to feed the manually fed paper. When the feeding of one sheet of manual paper is completed, the hopper is lowered again to return to the initial position.

Thus, in the case of the manual feed mode, 1
Feeding starts after waiting for the hopper to rise when manual sheets are fed.After feeding is completed, the hopper is lowered again to accept the next sheet. Rise and fall every time. Therefore, for example, when sheets such as bi-sheets are fed one after another by hand, the processing time per sheet becomes longer, which is inefficient.

Further, in the conventional automatic paper feeder, even when the continuous paper feed mode is switched to the manual feed mode, the separation roller and the retard roller are in a state of preventing double feed.
The paper multi-fed by the separation roller and the retard roller is returned to the hopper. On the other hand, in the manual feed mode, since only one sheet is originally fed, double feed cannot occur, and the functions of the separation roller and the retard roller are unnecessary. For example, in the case of a compound leaf slip or the like in which the description can be printed on the lower sheet using carbon paper, only the items described on the cover may be left as an image record. In this case, if the sheet is fed by hand as a double leaf, the glued portion of the sheet is peeled off by the separation roller and the retard roller, and the sheet is fed while being wrinkled. For this reason, not only a clear image cannot be obtained even if the sheet is fed to the image reading unit, but also the multi-leaf sheet is entangled and immediately causes a paper jam.

As described above, in the conventional sheet feeding apparatus, the operation time is long when the apparatus is used in the manual feed mode, and the separation roller and the retard roller remain in the same state of preventing double feed as in the automatic sheet feeding. There is a problem that the occurrence rate of the jam increases in the paper feeding.

According to the present invention, there is provided a paper feeder capable of switching between a continuous paper feed mode and a manual feed mode, in which the work efficiency can be improved when used in the manual feed mode and, for example, even a double-sheet paper can be fed quickly without a jam. The task is to do so.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a hopper on which a plurality of sheets can be stacked, a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on the hopper, a hopper control means for moving the hopper up and down, A paper feed roller that feeds the loaded paper, a continuous paper feed mode that continuously feeds a plurality of papers loaded on the hopper, or the detection means detects that paper is loaded on the hopper Then, when the continuous paper feed mode is instructed by the paper feed mode instructing means for instructing the manual feed mode for feeding the loaded paper, the hopper controlling means is controlled to control the hopper. After lowering and controlling the hopper control means in accordance with the instruction to start feeding the paper loaded on the hopper, the hopper is raised, and then controlling the paper feed roller to use the hopper. When the feeding of the paper loaded on the hopper is completed and the feeding of the paper loaded on the hopper is completed, the continuous feeding control means for controlling the hopper control means to lower the hopper and the manual feeding When the mode is instructed, the hopper control means is controlled to hold the hopper in the raised state, and the feeding means is controlled in response to the detection means detecting that paper is present on the hopper. A manual paper feed control means for controlling a paper roller to feed the paper on the hopper.

In such a configuration, the hopper is kept at the raised position when the paper is manually fed.
The hopper does not move up and down every time one sheet of paper is manually fed, and the work time for manual feeding can be reduced.

[0014]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hopper capable of stacking a plurality of sheets, detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on the hopper, hopper control means for moving the hopper up and down, A paper feed roller that feeds paper loaded on the hopper, a continuous paper feed mode that continuously feeds a plurality of papers loaded on the hopper, or paper is loaded on the hopper by the detection unit. When it is detected, the paper feed mode instructing means for instructing a manual feed mode for feeding the loaded paper, and when the continuous paper feed mode is instructed by the paper feed mode instructing means, the hopper control means is controlled. The hopper is lowered, the hopper control unit is controlled in accordance with an instruction to start feeding paper loaded on the hopper, and the hopper is raised. Together to start the feeding of the sheet, when the sheet feeding of the sheet mounted on the hopper is completed,
A state where the hopper is raised by controlling the hopper control means when the manual feed mode is instructed by the continuous paper feed control means for controlling the hopper control means to lower the hopper and the paper feed mode instruction means; And manual feed control means for controlling the paper feed roller to feed the paper on the hopper in response to the detection means detecting the presence of paper on the hopper. A paper feeder characterized by having a hopper lowered in the continuous paper feed mode to load a plurality of sheets on the hopper, and a hopper raised in the manual feed mode. This has the effect of shortening the sheet feeding time for each sheet while maintaining the state as it is.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a double feed preventing means disposed downstream of the paper feed roller to prevent double feed of paper fed from the paper feed roller, and the paper feed mode instruction. When the continuous feeding mode is instructed by the means, the double feeding preventing action by the double feeding preventing means is enabled, and when the manual feed mode is instructed by the feeding mode indicating means, the double feeding preventing action by the double feeding preventing means is enabled. 2. A sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for invalidating the double feed prevention function in the manual feed mode to prevent the paper from being damaged by the double feed prevention function. It has the effect of preventing.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing an image reading apparatus provided with the sheet feeding device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a main part of the sheet feeding device.

As shown in the figure, the image reading apparatus has a main body 1 movably containing a scanning module 1b of an optical system, a document cover 2 attached to the upper surface of the main body 1 so as to be openable and closable, and a document sheet. Feed and scan module 1b
And a sheet feeding device 3 for passing the reading unit around the reading unit.

The main body 1 has an operation panel 1a on its front side and a control unit (not shown) for controlling all the operating devices, and a platen (not shown) for reading a large-sized sheet is provided on its upper surface. Is arranged. When this platen is used, the document cover 2 is opened, paper is placed on the platen, and the scanning module 1b is moved in the direction indicated by a dashed line in FIG.
The image of the paper on the platen is read.

The paper feeding device 3 is a combination of a lower housing 3a attached to the base end side of the document cover 2 so as to be openable and closable in the vertical direction, and an upper housing 3b which is openable and closable in the vertical direction with respect to the lower housing 3a. It is what it was.

The lower housing 3a is provided with a hopper unit 4 in a posture to cover the document cover 2 above. The hopper unit 4 is provided with guards 4a and 4b disposed on the left and right end faces when viewed from the operation panel 1a side in FIG. 1, and a hopper rotatably connected to the distal ends of these guards 4a and 4b by pins 4c-1. 4c, and a guide 4d arranged on the upper surface of the hopper 4c. The hopper 4c is elastically urged upward by a support spring (described later) incorporated in the hopper unit 4, and the guide 4d is moved in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 1 to restrain the sheet with the guard 4a. Further, a paper sensor 4e for detecting whether a paper is loaded on the hopper 4c is provided on the bottom surface of the hopper 4c. The paper sensor 4e emits light through a slit (not shown) provided in the hopper 4c, and detects the presence or absence of a paper by the presence or absence of the reflected light.

The paper feeding device 3 includes a paper feeding roller 5 for picking up and feeding out paper from the hopper unit 4, a separation roller 6 for preventing double feeding of paper, and a retard roller 7 with a built-in torque limiter. Downstream of the separation roller 6 and the retard roller 7, a plurality of transport rollers 8 on a transport path between the separation roller 6 and the collection tray 2 a provided on the upper surface of the document cover 2 via an image reading unit by the scanning module 1 b.
a and 8b are arranged.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a hopper 4c and a paper feed roller 5 respectively.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a driving mechanism for setting a positional relationship with the hopper 4c and a posture of the hopper 4c.

The hopper 4c whose base end is pivotally supported by the pin 4c-1 is arranged such that its tip end is sunk below the paper feed roller 5 and urges the lower surface toward the paper feed roller 5 side. The support spring 9 is abutted. The support spring 9 uses a torsion coil spring, and is wound around a support shaft 9c provided inside the hopper unit 4, and both ends in the winding direction protrude from the support shaft 9c to hooks 9a, 9b.
And Then, while the tip end of one hook 9a is abutted against the bottom surface of the hopper 4c, the other hook 9b
Are connected to the hopper drive mechanism 10.

The hopper drive mechanism 10 includes a drive motor 10a
And a gear train 10b connected to the output shaft and an eccentric cam 10c attached to the last gear.
The eccentric cam 10c is a circular cam and is eccentrically arranged with respect to the rotation shaft of the gear at the last stage. When the eccentric cam 10c is in the position shown in FIG. Since it is minimum, the urging force by the hook 9a is also small, and the hopper 4c is set in a posture separated downward from the paper feed roller 5. Also, as shown in FIG.
When the eccentric cam 10c is rotated by 180 ° by 0a,
The hook 9b is pushed up, and accordingly, the hook 9a also pivots upward and pivots the hopper 4c to press the upper surface thereof against the peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 5. The pressing force at this time is such that the sheet feeding roller 5 rotates quickly to nip between the sheet feeding roller 5 and the hopper 4c when one sheet is manually inserted.

Since the space between the hopper 4c and the paper feed roller 5 is open in FIG. 3A, the stacked sheets P are placed on the hopper 4c as shown in FIG. It can be inserted between the paper feed roller 5. At this time, the paper P
The hooks 9a and 9b of the support spring 9 are bent and deformed by the weight of the support spring 9, and the hopper 4c is tilted downward from the posture shown in FIG. When the eccentric cam 10c is rotated clockwise, the hooks 9a and 9b of the support spring 9 are tightened as shown in FIG. 4B, and the hopper 4c is urged by the restoring force. The uppermost sheet of the stacked sheets P is strongly pressed against the feed roller 5. When the paper P is fed one by one by the paper feed roller 5, the stacking thickness of the paper P decreases, but the urging force of the support spring 9 causes the peripheral surface of the paper P to be fed. Is kept almost uniform irrespective of the change in the lamination thickness.

As described above, the attitude of the hopper 4c is changed by the hopper drive mechanism 10, so that in the attitude setting shown in FIG. 3A, the stacked paper is loaded and picked up continuously by the paper feed roller 5 one by one from above. By setting the attitude of the hopper 4c shown in FIG. 3B, it is possible to correspond to the continuous paper feed mode and the manual feed mode in which sheets are set one by one and fed. In the manual feed mode, the driving of the retard roller 7 is also stopped at the same time so that the separation of the paper by the separation roller 6 and the retard roller 7 is not necessary, and the multi-leaf paper can be passed. FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic longitudinal sectional views of a main part of a mechanism for canceling the double feed prevention function by switching the mode and stopping the driving of the retard roller 7.

The retard roller 7 is mounted via a torque limiter (not shown) between the retard roller 7 and a support shaft 7a whose both ends are supported by bearings (not shown) disposed in the upper housing 3b. As described above, when one sheet is nipped between the separation roller 6 and the sheet, the torque limiter rotates in the sheet feeding direction indicated by a counterclockwise arrow in the figure, and the two sheets are nipped. At times, the sheet is rotated in the direction indicated by the clockwise arrow to push the multi-feed sheet back to the hopper 4c. The support shaft 7a is always driven to rotate in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction, and the rotation direction of the retard roller 7 is switched by the function of a torque limiter.

The retard roller driving mechanism 11 for rotating the support shaft 7a of the retard roller 7 is fixed to a drive motor 11a, a drive gear 11a-1 attached to its output shaft, first and second intermediate gears 11b and 11c, and a support shaft 7a. Driven gear 11
d and an intermediate gear 11e meshing therewith, with a shifter 12 disposed between the intermediate gears 11c and 11e. The drive motor 11a drives not only the support shaft 7a of the retard roller 7 but also the separation roller 6 and the paper feed roller 5 in conjunction with each other to drive simultaneously. The rotation is transmitted by a gear train or a belt drive. (Not shown).

The shifter 12 is fixed to a main shaft 12b rotatably supporting a first-stage gear 12a meshing with the intermediate gear 11c. The main shaft 12b is rotatably mounted on the upper housing 3b, so that the shifter 12 can rotate the main shaft 12b. Rotate around. The shifter 12 includes a first-stage gear 12 a
A second stage gear 12c and a third stage gear 12d, which together form a gear train, are rotatably arranged, and when the shifter 12 is in the attitude shown in FIG.
The third stage gear 12d is separated from the intermediate gear 11e in the posture shown in FIG. In order to control the movement of the shifter 12, the lever handle 1 is operated.
2e is attached as a sheet feeding mode instructing means in the present embodiment, and the lever handle 12e is arranged to protrude out of the lower housing 3b as shown in FIG.

Further, a sensor 13 for detecting the rotational attitude of the shifter 12 is provided near the shifter 12. The sensor 13 can be, for example, an optical sensor.
5 is input to the control unit whether it is in the posture of FIG. 5 or the posture of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a control system in the sheet feeding device of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the control system includes a control unit 20 for controlling the entire sheet feeding device, a hopper control unit 21 for controlling the elevating operation of the hopper 4c, and a sheet feeding control unit for controlling the driving of the sheet feeding device 3. 22 and these control units 2
The continuous paper feed control means and the manual paper feed means in this embodiment are constituted by 0, 21 and 22. The hopper control unit 21 controls the operation of the drive motor 10a to control the elevating operation of the hopper 4c as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the paper feed control unit 22 controls the rotation and stop of the paper feed roller 5. .
The control unit 20 includes a sheet sensor 4e for detecting whether the sheet P is mounted on the hopper 4c and the shifter 1.
The signal from the sensor 13 that detects the posture of the second is input,
The driving of the paper feed roller 5 and the elevating operation of the hopper 4c are controlled based on the respective signals. That is, when the shifter 12 is in the posture of FIG. 5, the sensor 13 detects that the continuous paper feed mode is set, and inputs a signal to the control unit 20. When the shifter 12 is in the posture of FIG. Is detected, and a signal is input to the control unit 20.

In such a control block, when the continuous feed mode (FIG. 5) is detected by the sensor 13 based on the attitude of the shifter 12, the control unit 20 controls the hopper control unit 21 to 4c is held in the lowered state, that is, the state shown in FIG. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4A, during a period in which the sheet P is placed on the hopper 4c and a signal indicating that a document is present is input from the sheet sensor 4e to the control unit 20, the sheet feeding is started from an external PC or the like. , The control unit 20 controls the hopper control unit 21 to operate the drive motor 10a to rotate the eccentric cam 10c. Thus, the hopper 4c is raised and set to the state shown in FIG. 4B, and thereafter, the paper feed roller 5 is driven by the control of the paper feed controller 22 to start continuous paper feed. When the feeding of all the sheets on the hopper 4c is completed and a signal indicating that there is no original from the sheet sensor 4e is input to the control unit 20, the drive motor 10a is operated to lower the hopper 4c again.
The state shown in FIG.

On the other hand, when the manual feed mode is detected by the sensor 13 based on the attitude of the shifter 12, the control unit 20 controls the hopper control unit 21 to operate the drive motor 10a to raise the hopper 4c. (B) is maintained. Then, when the sheet is manually inserted on the hopper 4c and the sheet sensor 4e detects the sheet, the control unit 20 controls the sheet feeding control unit 22 to drive the sheet feeding roller 5 based on the detection signal, and the manually inserted sheet 1 is detected. Sheets (or a set of sheets in the case of a compound sheet) are fed by the feed roller 5. After the feeding of one sheet of paper P is completed, unlike the case of the continuous paper feeding mode, the hopper 4c is not lowered after the paper is fed but is kept at its raised position, that is, the state shown in FIG. 3B. And wait for the next sheet.

In the above configuration, when the sheets P are stacked and mounted on the hopper 4c and are continuously fed, the shifter 12 is set to the posture shown in FIG. 5 by the lever handle 12e. At this time, the sensor 13 detects the continuous paper feed mode based on the attitude of the shifter 12, inputs the signal to the control unit 20, and the hopper 4c is driven by the hopper control unit 21 to drive the hopper 4c to the state shown in FIG. Is set to the posture for continuous paper feeding. Then, as shown in FIG. 4A, during a period in which the paper P is mounted on the hopper 4c and detected by the paper sensor 4e, an instruction to start paper feeding is issued from the host computer shown in the external view. When the hopper 4c is input to the control unit 20, the hopper 4c is set to the posture shown in FIG. 4B by the hopper control unit 21. Thereafter, the paper supply control unit 22 controls the paper supply roller 5, the separation roller 6, the retard roller 7, The transport rollers 8a and 8b are rotated and fed.

In the continuous paper feed mode, the shifter 1
2, the third gear 12d meshes with the intermediate gear 11e, so that the drive gear 11a-1 of the drive motor 11a
Is transmitted by the gear train, and the support shaft 7a of the retard roller 7 is driven to rotate in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction. Therefore, the retard roller 7 functions together with the separation roller 6 to prevent the double feeding of the sheet from the hopper 4c, and the continuous feeding by the sheet feeding roller 5 is performed while preventing the double feeding of the sheet by the separation roller 6 and the retard roller 7. It becomes possible.

Further, when all the papers P on the paper feed hopper 4c are fed and a signal indicating that there is no original is input to the control unit 20 from the paper sensor 4e, the paper feed control unit 22 controls the paper feed roller 5 and the other parts. Is stopped. And
The hopper 4c is moved by the hopper control unit 21 as shown in FIG.
Is returned to the initial position.

On the other hand, when the sheets are fed one by one on the hopper 4c in the manual feed mode, the lever handle 12e is operated to set the shifter 12 to the posture shown in FIG.
At this time, the sensor 13 detects the manual feed mode by changing the attitude of the shifter 12, inputs the signal to the control unit 20, and sets the hopper 4c to the attitude shown in FIG. Then, when the sheet is manually inserted and detected by the sheet sensor 4e, the sheet feeding roller 5 is automatically driven by the control unit 20 and the sheet feeding control unit 22, and one sheet is fed. After this paper feeding, the paper sensor 4e inputs a detection signal indicating that there is no original to the control unit 20, but during the period in which the manual feed mode is set, the hopper 4c
Is held in the posture shown in FIG. 3B, and prepares for the paper feeding operation of the next manually inserted paper.

That is, in the conventional manual feed mode, the hopper 4c rises, feeds, and feeds each time one sheet is fed manually.
The operation of lowering the hopper 4c is repeated. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, once the mode is switched to the manual feed mode, the hopper 4c is always kept in the raised state unless the mode is released, so that the processing time per sheet in the manual feed mode is reduced. Is greatly reduced.

When the manual feed mode is set,
Since the shifter 12 rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 6 around the main shaft 12b, the second-stage gear 12d is separated from the intermediate gear 11e and becomes rimless, and the transmission of rotation from the drive motor 11a to the support shaft 7a side of the retard roller 7 is performed. Absent. Therefore,
Even in the manual feed mode, the drive motor 11a continues to operate to drive the paper feed roller 5 to feed paper. However, since no driving force acts on the support shaft 7a of the retard roller 7,
There is no load for turning the retard roller 7 in the direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction. Therefore, when the sheet from the hopper 4c is nipped with the separation roller 6, the retard roller 7 rotates with the movement of the sheet and allows the sheet to pass quickly.
Further, even when a multi-leaf slip or a thick sheet is fed, the retard roller 7 is similarly rotated in the sheet feeding direction because the rotation drive for preventing double feed is cut off. Therefore, the multi-leaf paper can be fed to read the image of only the cover without being peeled off unnecessarily.

In this embodiment, the double feed prevention and the release setting of the separation roller 6 and the retard roller 7 are mechanically operated by operating the lever handle 12e, but the control system shown in FIG. Another means for detecting the switching is provided, and the separation roller 6 is provided in the continuous paper feeding mode.
The retard roller 7 and the retard roller 7 may be driven by a driving mechanism, and the driving may be interrupted in the manual feed mode.
Further, in the present embodiment, the rotation transmission to the retard roller 7 is interrupted. However, the sheet separating action may be invalidated by, for example, separating the retard roller 7 from the separation roller 6. Further, instead of using the separation roller 6 and the retard roller 7 as the double feed prevention means, a separation pad may be used to separate the separation roller and the separation pad in the manual feed mode.

[0041]

According to the present invention, when feeding continuously, the hopper is moved up and down to load a large number of sheets and can be fed one by one. In manual feeding, the hopper is kept at the raised position. As described above, it is not necessary to raise or lower the hopper each time one sheet of paper is manually fed, so that the time required for manual feeding can be greatly reduced.

In the case of continuous paper feeding, the double feeding function can be operated to prevent the double feeding of the stacked sheets. In the case of manual feeding, the double feeding function is automatically released. Can also promptly feed the paper without causing a paper jam.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an image reading device provided with a sheet feeding device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of a main part showing a paper transport path from a hopper to image reading and discharging and an arrangement of a scanning module;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic views of a main part showing a hopper driving mechanism for making the hopper compatible with an automatic paper feed mode and a manual feed mode, together with the hopper and the paper feed roller, and FIG. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an initial setting of the hopper. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing a posture setting of the hopper in the manual feed mode.

4A and 4B are schematic diagrams showing a positional relationship between a hopper and a paper feed roller in a continuous paper feed mode, where FIG. 4A shows a state in which paper is loaded on the hopper in the initial setting of FIG. FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating a state in which the sheet feeding state is set.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a main part showing the attitude of the shifter, the rotation transmission to the retard roller, and the attitude of the hopper in the continuous paper feeding mode.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a main part showing the attitude of the shifter, the rotation transmission to the retard roller, and the attitude of the hopper in the manual feed mode.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of control of the sheet feeding device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 1a Operation panel 1b Scanning module 2 Document cover 2a Collection tray 3 Paper feeder 3a Lower housing 3b Upper housing 4 Hopper unit 4a, 4b Guard 4c Hopper 4c-1 Pin 4e Paper sensor (detection means) 5 Paper feed roller 6 Separation Roller 7 Retard roller 8a, 8b Transfer roller 9 Support spring 9a, 9b Hook 9c Support shaft 10 Hopper drive mechanism 10a Drive motor 10b Gear train 10c Eccentric cam 11 Retard roller drive mechanism 11a Drive motor 11b, 11c Intermediate gear 11d Driven gear 11e Gear 12 Shifter 12a First-stage gear 12b Main shaft 12c Second-stage gear 12d Third-stage gear 12e Lever handle (feed mode indicating means) 13 Sensor 20 Control section 21 Hopper control section (hopper control means) 22 Feed control

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3F063 AA01 AB07 AC01 AD02 AD03 BA02 CA04 CB07 CD03 3F343 FA03 FB01 GA02 GB01 GC01 GD01 HB02 HD07 HD17 JA01 JD09 JD33 KB03 KB19 KB20 LA04 LA15 LC11 LC12 MA02 MA09 MA23 MB04 MB12 MC17 MC20

Claims (2)

[Claims] A hopper on which a plurality of sheets can be stacked; a detection unit for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on the hopper; a hopper control unit for raising and lowering the hopper; and feeding a sheet mounted on the hopper A paper feed roller, a continuous paper feed mode for continuously feeding a plurality of papers stacked on the hopper, or feeding of the loaded paper when the detection means detects that paper is loaded on the hopper. Paper feed mode instructing means for instructing a manual feed mode for paper, and when the continuous paper feed mode is instructed by the paper feed mode instructing means, controls the hopper control means to lower the hopper, and is mounted on the hopper. After controlling the hopper control means in response to the instruction to start feeding the paper, and raising the hopper, controlling the paper feed roller to start feeding the paper in the hopper. Further, when the feeding of the paper loaded on the hopper is completed, the continuous feed control means for controlling the hopper control means to lower the hopper, and the manual feed mode is instructed by the paper feed mode instructing means. Controlling the hopper control means to hold the hopper in the raised state, and controlling the paper feed roller in response to the detection means detecting the presence of paper on the hopper. And a manual paper feed control means for feeding paper on the hopper. 2. A multi-feed prevention means disposed downstream of the paper feed roller to prevent multi-feed of paper fed from the paper feed roller; and a continuous paper feed mode by the paper feed mode instruction means. Means for enabling the double feed prevention action by the double feed prevention means when instructed, and disabling the double feed prevention action by the double feed prevention means when the manual feed mode is instructed by the paper feed mode instructing means. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, further comprising: