JP2000177871A - Feeding device and image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To positively separate overlappingly fed sheets to execute stable feeding action by controlling a sheet delivery means and a sheet separating means on the basis of information of a sheet detecting means. SOLUTION: A feed tray 26 is provided with a sheet detecting means 27 for detecting sheets S. A sheet separating means comprises a feed roller 33 and a separating roller 43. A gear is fixed to a pull-out driving roller 48a, and driving is transmitted to a,separating roller driving shaft 45 through the gear. Since the gear is fixed to the pull-out driving roller 48a and the separating roller driving shaft 45, a pair of pull-out rollers 48a, 48b and the separating roller driving shaft 45 are synchronously rotated. The gear is selected to rotate a pair of pull-out rollers 48a, 48b in a sheet conveying direction and to rotate the separating roller driving shaft 45 in a reverse direction to the conveying direction, that is, when a pull-out clutch is connected, driving of a motor is transmitted, and a pair of pull-out rollers 48a, 48b are rotated in the sheet conveying direction. At the same time, the separating roller driving shaft 45 is rotated in a sheet returning direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer, and a feeding device in an image reading apparatus for reading a document image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional image forming apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a multi-feeding device of a conventional image forming apparatus, and is configured to be capable of continuous feeding using a retard separation method.

In FIG. 1, a plurality of sheets S are stacked on a feeding tray 101, and the sheets S are fed from an upper surface stacked by a pickup roller 102. The rotation of the pickup roller 102 is controlled by a feed clutch 108 so that the sheet S is transported to the transport roller 103 and the separation roller 10.
After the sheet is fed to the nip of the separation section consisting of 4, the sheet is retracted from the sheet by the pickup solenoid 106. The sheets S separated one by one in the separating unit are transported by a transport roller pair 105 driven and stopped by a transport clutch 109.
To an image forming unit (not shown).

The retracting of the pickup roller 102 is performed when a plurality of sheets S are conveyed to the separation unit during the sending operation by the pickup roller 102 (hereinafter referred to as a double feed). This is because the return force of the sheet is not hindered and the double feed is reliably prevented.

[0005] Further, the user can transfer the sheet bundle to the feeding tray 10.
When set to 1, the pickup roller 102 is retracted by the pickup solenoid 106 when the main body is not operating so that the pickup roller 102 does not hinder the setting operation.

Further, when a user sets a sheet bundle,
A shutter 110 is provided at the end of the feed tray 101 to give the user a feeling of setting so that the sheet bundle does not enter the separation section due to a user's erroneous operation, and a pickup failure due to a user's setting error does not occur. Is provided. The shutter 110 is configured to be rotatable by a shutter solenoid 107 so as to operate appropriately.

[0007]

On the other hand, with the recent increase in the speed of image forming apparatuses and image reading apparatuses and the diversification of materials, the retard separation system according to the above-mentioned conventional example prevents double feed, has high speed, and has high productivity. It is becoming difficult to achieve sex. That is, in order to cope with various materials in the retard separation method, the return torque of the separation roller 104 is increased, or the transfer roller 10 of the separation roller 104 is used.
It is necessary to reduce the pressure applied to 3.

[0008] However, this is a transport roller 103 and a separation roller
Sliding easily occurs with the transport roller 103.
In addition, the wear of the separation roller 104 is accelerated, and the durability life is shortened. Therefore, the number of regular replacements of consumable parts increases, which not only increases the maintenance cost of the apparatus, but also impairs the high speed and high productivity of the apparatus. In addition, it is possible to extend the durability life by increasing the outer diameter of each roller and increasing the circumference thereof, but in that case, there is a problem that the apparatus becomes large.

Further, with the increase in the transport speed, slippage between the pickup roller 102 and the sheet S tends to occur particularly at the time of pick-up (at the start of sheet transport), and feeding jam tends to occur. For this reason, measures have been taken to increase the pressure of the pickup roller 102 so that the above-mentioned slip does not occur. However, conversely, double feed is likely to occur during pickup, and the durability of the pickup roller 102 is increased. The service life is significantly shortened, and as in the above case, the maintenance cost of the apparatus is increased and the apparatus is enlarged.

Further, as described above, in adopting the retard separation method in the conventional multi-feeding apparatus, the pickup roller 102 for sending out the sheet S from the sheet bundle, and the retraction of the pickup roller 102 including the pickup solenoid 106 are retracted. A mechanism, a shutter 110 for preventing erroneous operation by the user, and a mechanism such as a shutter solenoid 107 for controlling the shutter 110 are required.
There is a problem that it is difficult to reduce the size of the apparatus in order to secure a space for installing these mechanisms, and the manufacturing cost is high due to the complicated configuration.

In view of the above problems, a feeding apparatus and an image processing apparatus according to the present invention have a simple configuration to prevent double feeding at the time of pickup, and to stably feed various kinds of materials. A feeding device capable of performing separation, achieving low maintenance cost, achieving high speed and high productivity, and reducing the cost and size of the device by simplifying the configuration of the feeding device. It is intended to provide.

[0012]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a typical configuration of a feeding apparatus and an image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes sheet feeding means for sending sheets from a stacked sheet bundle; A sheet separating unit that separates and conveys the sheet sent by the sheet sending unit; and a sheet detecting unit that is provided near a separating operation position of the sheet separating unit and that detects the presence or absence of a sheet. The sheet sending means and the sheet separating means are controlled on the basis of the above information.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a feeding device and an image processing device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the multi-feeding device, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a driving mechanism of the multi-feeding device, and FIGS. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the feeding unit, FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the feeding device, and FIG. 8 is a time chart illustrating the operation of the feeding device. In the present embodiment, a description will be given using a copying machine which is an image forming apparatus as an image processing apparatus.

(Overall Configuration) Referring to FIG.
A document table 2 made of a transparent glass plate is provided at the upper part of the document table, and a document pressure plate 3 for pressing a document P placed on the document table 2 with the image surface facing down is attached. On the lower side of the platen 2, a lamp 4 for irradiating the document P,
An optical system including reflection mirrors 5 to 10 for guiding the irradiated light image of the document P to the photosensitive drum 12 and an imaging lens 11 is provided. The lamp 4 and the reflection mirrors 5, 6, 7
Moves at a predetermined speed in the direction of arrow a and scans the document P.

In the image forming section, the photosensitive drum 12 is a charger.
The surface is uniformly charged by 13 and an electrostatic latent image is formed by the light image emitted from the optical system. The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device 14 to visualize a toner image, the toner image is transferred to a sheet S by a transfer charger 15, and the sheet S is separated from the photosensitive drum 12 by a separation charger 16. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 12 is removed by the cleaner 17.

Sheets are supplied to the image forming section from a sheet storage section 18 such as a feed cassette or a feed deck provided below the apparatus or a multi-feed apparatus described later. A plurality of sheet storage units 18 are provided so as to stack sheets S of each size. The sheet storage units 18 can be detached from the copying machine main body 1 to stack the sheets S. The sheets S stacked in each sheet storage section 18 are sent out by a pickup roller 19, and are separated by a separation roller pair.
The sheets are separated and fed one by one by 20. The fed sheet S is conveyed after correcting the skew and the vertical registration by the registration roller pair 21 arranged on the upstream side of the photosensitive drum 12, and the image is transferred.

On the downstream side of the image forming section, a transport section 22 for transporting the sheet S on which the toner image has been transferred, and a transport section 22
A fixing device 23 for fixing the image on the sheet S conveyed by the printer as a permanent image is provided. The sheet S on which the image is fixed by the fixing device 23 is discharged to the discharge tray 25 by the discharge roller 24 and stacked.

(Feeding Apparatus) Next, a multi-feeding section which is a feeding apparatus according to the present invention will be described. The multi-feeding unit can individually feed in various modes and materials, and has a feeding tray 26 on which sheets S are stacked outside the apparatus. The sheet tray 26 is provided with a sheet detecting means 27 which is constituted by a photo interrupter or the like and detects a sheet S on the tray.

At the lower portion of the feed tray 26, a front plate 28 and a rear plate
An intermediate plate 30, which is a swingable sheet sending means, is attached to 29 (see FIG. 3). The middle plate 30 is a fulcrum 30a,
A pressure spring that can rotate around 30b and is a pressure means
The sheet S is pressed against the feed roller 33 by 32a and 32b. A cam abutting portion 30c is provided at an end of the middle plate 30, and is extended to a position where it abuts on the cam 40 through a hole 29a of the rear side plate 29. This cam 40 turns on the solenoid 41
/ OFF, it is possible to control pressurization and release of pressure on the feed roller 33 of the intermediate plate 30 via the cam contact portion 30c. Further, a felt 31 is attached to the tip of the middle plate 30 to prevent double feeding of the sheet S and to reduce an impact when the middle plate 30 is pressed.

The feed roller 33 is fixed to a support shaft 34, and the support shaft 34 is rotatably supported by a front plate 28 and a rear plate 29. A feed clutch 36 is provided at an end of the support shaft 34, and can be disconnected from the drive from the motor M via a gear 50a of a pull-out clutch 50 and an idler gear 39 at an end of a pull-out drive roller 48a to be described later. It is configured as follows. When the feed clutch 36 is turned on, the drive of the motor M is transmitted, and the gear train is selected so that the feed roller 33 rotates in the sheet conveying direction. Feed roller 33
The one-way 37 is interposed between the support shaft 34 and the front side plate 28 so that the support shaft 34 does not rotate in the reverse direction.

A separation roller 43 is pressed against the feeding roller 33 by pressing means 44a and 44b, and constitutes a sheet separating means. In the vicinity of a nip formed by the feed roller 33 and the separation roller 43 (hereinafter, referred to as a separation nip), there is provided a feed sensor 56 which is a sheet detecting means constituted by a photo interrupter or the like. The feed sensor 56 detects whether or not the sheet S is fed by the rotation of the feed roller 33, and is provided at a position where the state where the leading end side of the sheet S is nipped or abutted by the separation nip can be detected. ing.

A pull-out roller pair 48 is disposed further downstream of the separation nip, and the pull-out driven roller 48b is urged against a pull-out drive roller 48a by pressurizing means 49a, 49b. The pull-out driving roller 48a is rotatably supported on the front side plate 28 and the rear side plate 29 by bearings (not shown), and has a pull-out clutch 50 at an end thereof. It is configured so that driving can be disconnected.

A gear 52 is fixed to the pull-out drive roller 48a, and the drive is transmitted to the separation roller drive shaft 45 via the gear 53. The gear 52,
53 is a pull-out drive roller 48a and a separation roller drive shaft, respectively.
Since it is fixed to 45, the pull-out roller pair 48 and the separation roller drive shaft 45 rotate synchronously. The pulling roller pair 48 rotates in the sheet conveying direction, and the separation roller driving shaft 45 rotates in the direction opposite to the conveying direction.
52 and 53 are selected. That is, when the pull-out clutch 50 is turned on, the drive of the motor M is transmitted, and the pull-out roller pair 48 rotates in the sheet conveying direction, and at the same time, the separation roller drive shaft 45 rotates in the sheet returning direction.

As described above, the pull-out roller pair 48 and the separation roller drive shaft 45 are synchronized with each other, and the control is performed by one pull-out clutch 50. Therefore, the apparatus is simplified and driven independently of the feed roller 33. It is possible to do.
Therefore, even when the feeding roller 33 is stopped, the returning operation by the separation roller 43 can be operated, and a stable feeding device without double feeding can be provided.

The separation roller 43 is rotatably mounted on a separation roller drive shaft 45 via a torque limiter 44 for generating a predetermined torque. The torque value of the torque limiter 44 and the pressurizing means 44a and 44b of the separation roller 43 cause the separation roller 43 to follow the feed roller 33 by frictional force when only one sheet S is present in the separation nip or when there is no sheet S. Only when two or more sheets S are present in the separation nip, the torque value and the spring pressure are set so that the separation roller 43 reversely rotates to generate a return force.

Between the separation roller 43 and the middle plate 30, there is provided an abutting plate 46 which serves as an abutting portion when the user sets the sheet S on the feeding tray. A guide guide 47 formed of a thin plate such as a polyethylene sheet or a SUS material is attached to the tip of the abutting plate 46, and guides the tip of the sheet S to the separation nip. Thereby, the sheet S
Prevents the leading end of the sheet S from being turned or broken due to the leading end of the sheet S abutting against the separation roller 43.

When the user sets the sheet bundle, the middle plate 30 is separated from the feed roller 33, and the sheet bundle can be set until the user easily contacts the abutment plate 46. Has become. Further, the abutment plate may be simply installed at a predetermined position, and it is not necessary to move the abutment plate unlike a conventional shutter member, so that a shutter control means is not required, and the cost and the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

(Operation of Feeding Apparatus) Next, regarding the sheet feeding operation from the feed tray 26, the operation state diagrams shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, and the timing chart shown in FIG. Explanation will be made by using FIG.

When a start button (not shown) is pressed while the sheet bundle is stacked on the feed tray 26, the motor M starts rotating (S1), and then the CPU 57 (see FIG. 1) turns on the pull-out clutch 50. Output a signal (Fig. 4 (a), S
2). Thus, as described above, the pulling roller pair 48
Starts rotating in the sheet conveyance direction, and the separation roller drive shaft 45 rotates in the direction opposite to the sheet conveyance direction,
A predetermined return force is generated at 43 by the torque generated by the torque limiter 44. But feed roller 33 is one way 37
The rotation in the reverse direction is regulated by the action of
The separation roller 43 urged by this is stopped by the frictional force.

Next, the feed sensor 56 determines the presence or absence of the sheet S (S3). If there is no sheet, the solenoid 41 is turned on to press the middle plate 30 against the feed roller 33 to perform the sending operation. Start. In the state where the sheets are stacked on the normal feeding tray 26, the sheet bundle is stopped while the leading end of the sheet bundle abuts against the abutting plate 46.
56 is not detected. The case where the sheet is detected by the feed sensor 56 before the start of feeding will be described later.

When the sending operation is started, the solenoid 41 is turned on by a signal from the CPU 57 after a predetermined time has elapsed (S4), and the middle plate 30 is pressed against the feeding roller (FIG. 4B).
). Next, the feed clutch 36 is turned on by a signal from the CPU 57.
(FIG. 4 (c), S5), the feed roller 33 rotates,
The uppermost sheet stacked on the feed tray 26 is conveyed by the pressing force of the middle plate 30 and the frictional force of the surface of the feed roller 33.

Here, if only one sheet S is picked up as shown in FIG.
Is driven in the feeding direction, but when two or more sheets are fed as shown in FIG. 6A (so-called double feeding), the separation roller 43 acts to return the double fed sheet. However, at this time, since the middle plate 30 is pressed against the feeding roller 33 by the pressing spring 32, the separation operation by the separation roller 43 may be hindered, and the sheet S that has been multi-fed may not be returned. There is.

When the leading end of the sheet reaches the feed sensor 56, the feed sensor 56 is turned on (S6) and the sheet S is conveyed a predetermined distance L1 (S7). The feed roller 33 is temporarily stopped (FIG. 4D)
, S8). The distance L1 is set so as to be smaller than the distance L from the separation nip to the nip of the pull-out roller pair 48, and the leading end of the sheet is reliably stopped before the pull-out roller pair 48 during the feeding operation. Make up. After that, the solenoid 41 is also turned off (S9), and the intermediate plate 30 and the felt 31 are separated from the feeding roller and the pressure is released (FIGS. 5A and 6B).

If the feed sensor 56 does not detect the presence of paper even after a predetermined time has elapsed from the ON signal of the feed clutch 36, the feed clutch 36 is turned off once and the sending operation is performed again. Make up. As a result, the rate of occurrence of conveyance failure in the feeding operation can be reduced.

At this time, since the pulling clutch 50 is maintained in the ON state, the separation roller driving shaft 45 is continuously rotating in the direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction. Therefore, when the intermediate plate 30 is separated from the feed roller 33 and the binding force on the multi-feed sheet is released, the separation roller 43 starts reverse rotation at this time,
As shown in FIG. 6 (b), the multi-feed sheet is returned to the separation nip. When only one sheet is nipped in the separation nip without double feeding, the feeding roller 33, the separation roller 43, and the sheet S are kept stationary by the action of the frictional force between the sheet and the separation roller 43. can do.

On the other hand, if the sheet is detected by the feed sensor 56 before the start of feeding (S3), it means that the leading end of the sheet is located at the separation nip as shown in FIG. 6C. I have. This is because if a double feed has occurred during the previous sheet sending operation (S4 to S9), the next sheet to be conveyed is separated, and the leading end thereof is left in the separation nip. As described above, when the next sheet is already held in the separation nip, the sending operation becomes unnecessary.

If a sheet is detected by the feed sensor 56 before the start of feeding (S3), the re-feeding described below is directly performed without pressing the middle plate 30 against the feed roller (S4). The process proceeds to the sending operation (S10).

In a state where the sheet S is nipped by the separation nip and the middle plate 30 is separated from the feeding roller 33, the feeding clutch
36 is turned on again to drive the feed roller 33 (FIG. 5 (b)
, S10). When the conveyance of the sheet S once stopped is restarted, the leading end of the sheet S is delivered to the pair of drawing rollers 48 which are rotated in advance. In the event that double feed sheets remain in the separation nip during this re-feed operation,
During the operation of the pull-out roller pair 48, the separation roller drive shaft 45 is rotating in the reverse direction, and the middle plate 30 is separated from the feeding roller 33. Therefore, at that time, the separation roller 43 starts reverse rotation to return the multi-fed sheet, so that the multi-fed sheet can be reliably prevented.

A registration sensor 54 (see FIG. 2) composed of a photo interrupter or the like is provided near the upstream side of the registration roller pair 21. Thus, after detecting the leading edge of the sheet S (FIG. 5 (c), S11), the registration sensor 54 and the registration roller pair are detected by the timer means provided in the CPU 57.
After measuring a time corresponding to the distance to 21 and transporting it until a proper loop is formed between the pulling roller pair 48 and the registration roller pair 21 (S12), the pulling clutch 50 and the feed clutch 36 are stopped. A signal for controlling the timing is issued (FIG. 5D, S13).

The formation of a loop is known as a means for correcting the skew of the sheet S, and the sheet S is controlled by a registration roller by an image leading edge synchronization signal generated by the photosensitive drum 12 or an optical device for exposing the image. The pair 21 and the pull-out roller pair 48 are rotated (S15). As a result, the sheet S is conveyed again, sent to the photosensitive drum 12, and the toner image is transferred by the transfer charger 15. After a predetermined time t1 has elapsed (S17) after the trailing edge of the sheet S has passed through the registration sensor 54 (S16) and the trailing edge of the sheet S has surely passed the nip of the registration roller pair 21, the registration clutch 55 (FIG. 2) is turned off (S18). At this time, a so-called auxiliary feeding operation for driving the feeding roller 33 until just before the rear end of the sheet S passes through the separation nip may be performed.

The above operation is repeated until the predetermined number of sheets are completed. When the image formation is completed for the predetermined number of sheets (S19), the pulling clutch 50 is turned off (S20), the motor M is stopped (S21), and the image formation is started. finish.

[Other Embodiments] In the above embodiment, the middle plate 30 as a swing member is configured to be separated from and brought into contact with the feeding roller 33. However, the sheet on which the feeding roller 33 is stacked is not shown. The present invention can be applied to a configuration in which a sheet detecting unit is provided near a nip between a separation roller and a conveyance roller to which the separation roller presses even if the separation roller is configured to be separated.

Although the retard separation method has been described as the sheet separation means, the so-called Duplo separation method in which a friction member is pressed may be used to provide the effect of the present invention by providing the sheet detection means near the separation action position. Obtainable.

In the above embodiment, the feeding roller 3
3. Although the description has been made using the motor M as the driving means of the separation roller 43 and the pull-out roller pair 48, the present invention is not limited to this, and a main motor or the like for driving the photosensitive drum 12 and the fixing device 23 may be used. Alternatively, the drive may be distributed. Although the solenoid 41 is used as the control means of the middle plate 30 and the feed clutch 36 is used as the control means of the feed roller 33, the rotation and the stop may be controlled by using a stepping motor. .

In the above description, the sheet is temporarily stopped after the feeding operation. However, if the middle plate 30 is separated before the leading end of the sheet enters the pull-out roller pair 48,
The same effect as the present invention can be obtained. In this case, the feeding operation can be performed at a high speed because the sheet is not stopped,
Further, productivity can be improved. Although the description has been made using the example in which the present invention is applied to the multi-feeding unit, the present invention can be applied to a cassette feeding unit and a deck feeding unit.

In the above embodiment, the feeder according to the present invention is applied to an image forming apparatus. However, for example, an image reading unit is provided downstream of the feeder according to the present invention in the sheet conveying direction. And image reading devices.

[0047]

As described above, in the feeding apparatus and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the driving of the feeding roller and the sheet feeding means are constituted by the detection signal of the sheet detecting means provided near the sheet separating means. By controlling the operation of the middle plate, the multi-feed sheet can be reliably separated, and a stable feeding operation can be performed.

If the sheet detecting means detects the sheet before the start of the feeding operation, it means that the leading end of the sheet is in the separating means. Therefore, the feeding operation is not performed here to prevent double feeding. In addition to this, the time required for the sending operation can be reduced, and the productivity can be improved.

Further, the feeding operation is performed again when the sheet detecting means does not detect a sheet even after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of the feeding operation, so that the rate of occurrence of conveyance failure in the feeding section is reduced. be able to.

Further, when the sheet sending means is constituted by a feeding roller and a swinging member which can be separated from and brought into contact with the feeding roller, a pickup roller becomes unnecessary, and a low-cost and compact feeding apparatus can be provided. it can.

Further, since the stacked sheets are configured to be pressed against the feed roller by the swinging member, the leading end of the sheet bundle can be defined simply by providing an abutting member in order to define the leading end of the sheet bundle. it can. Therefore, there is no need to move the shutter as in the case of the conventional shutter member, so that the shutter control means is not required, and the cost and the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a main part of the multi-feeding device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a driving mechanism of the multi-feeding device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the multi-feeding unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the multi-feeding unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the multi-feeding unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the feeding device.

FIG. 8 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the feeding device.

FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a multi-feeding device of a conventional image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 M ... Motor P ... Document S ... Sheet 1 ... Copier body 2 ... Document table 3 ... Document pressing plate 4 ... Lamp 5-10 ... Reflection mirror 11 ... Imaging lens 12 ... Photosensitive drum 13 ... Charger 14 ... Developer 15 … Transfer charger 16… Separation charger 17… Cleaner 18… Sheet storage unit 19… Pickup roller 20… Separation roller pair 21… Registration roller pair 22… Transport unit 23… Fixer 24… Discharge roller 25… Discharge tray 26… Supply Feed tray 27… Sheet detecting means 28… Front plate 29… Rear plate 29a… Hole 30… Medium plate 30a… Support point 30b… Support point 30c… Cam abutment section 31… Felt 32… Pressure spring 33… Feed roller 34 … Supporting shaft 36… Feeding clutch 37… One way 39… Idler gear 40… Cam 41… Solenoid 43… Separation roller 44… Torque limiter 44a… Pressure means 44b… Pressure means 45… Separation roller drive shaft 46… Abutment plate 47 …guide Id 48 ... roller pair 48a ... pull drive roller 49 ... pressure means 50 ... pulling clutch 50a ... gear 51 ... gear 52 ... gear 53 ... gear 54 ... registration sensor 55 ... registration clutch 56 ... feed sensor 57 ... CPU

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G03G 15/00 510 G03G 15/00 510 F term (Reference) 2H072 AA02 AA05 AA24 AB01 BA03 BA20 3F048 AA02 AA04 AB01 BA14 BB02 BD07 DA06 EA05 EB11 3F343 FA02 FB02 FB03 FC01 GA01 GB01 GC01 GD01 JA01 JD03 JD08 JD09 JD33 JD34 KA03 KA06 LA04 LA15 LC11 LD11 LD26 MA03 MA15 MA33 MA45 MA56 MB04 MB13 MB14 MC23

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A sheet sending means for sending sheets from a stacked sheet bundle, a sheet separating means for separating the sheets sent by the sheet sending means, and a sheet separating means provided near a separating position of the sheet separating means. A sheet detecting device for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet, wherein the sheet feeding device and the sheet separating device are controlled based on information of the sheet detecting device. 2. The sheet detecting device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet detecting device detects the presence of the sheet at a position where the sheet can be sent out by the sheet separating device.
A feeding device as described. 3. If the sheet detecting means detects that there is no sheet before the sheet sending means performs a sheet separating operation after the sheet sending operation by the sheet sending means, the sheet detecting means performs sheet separation. 3. The sheet feeding device according to claim 2, wherein when the presence of the sheet is detected, a sheet separating operation is performed without performing a sheet transmitting operation by the sheet transmitting unit. 4. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet feeding means includes a rotatable roller and a swing member configured to be able to contact and separate from the roller.
A feeding device according to any one of the preceding claims. 5. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet sending means is a roller configured to be able to contact and separate from the sheet. 6. The sheet separating means includes a rotatable feeding roller and a separating roller rotatable in a direction in which the sheet is pressed against the feeding roller and returned by a predetermined torque. The method according to claim 1, wherein:
The feeding device according to the item. 7. The sheet separating means comprises a rotatable feed roller and a friction member which is pressed against the feed roller and has a predetermined frictional force on its surface. The feeding device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein 8. The sheet feeding means includes a feeding roller configured to be rotatable, and a swing member configured to contact and separate from the feeding roller. 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: the feed roller; and a separation roller that is driven to rotate in a direction in which the feed roller comes into contact with the feed roller and returns the sheet with a predetermined torque. A feeding device as described. 9. The sheet feeding device according to claim 8, further comprising an abutting member for defining a leading end of the stacked sheets between the swing member and the sheet separating means. 10. The feeding device according to claim 1, an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet fed from the feeding device, or an image of the fed sheet. An image processing apparatus, comprising: an image reading unit that reads an image.