JP2000321959A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device in which a cooling fan cooling the inside of a main body part is efficiently controlled. SOLUTION: The image forming device having the cooling fan 201 cooling the inside of the main body part possesses a sorter detecting part 407 detecting that a sorter is attached to the side of the main body part and a controlling means controlling rotation of the cooling fan 201 at high speed at the time of receiving a signal of the detection from the sorter detecting part 407.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having an optical system disposed in a main body and a cooling fan for preventing a temperature of a platen glass from rising.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a document exposure scanning device of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, there is a device which adopts a document table fixing system. In this type of document exposure scanning apparatus, a document is placed downward on a platen glass and set by pressing it from above with a pressure plate. When the image forming process is started, the light source starts irradiating, and starts moving together with the first mirror while irradiating the original on the platen glass.

In this type of image forming apparatus, a halogen lamp is generally used as a light source for irradiating a document. Halogen lamps generate a large amount of heat, so when copying a document, the temperature of an optical system including a platen glass and a mirror increases due to the halogen lamps. In order to prevent this temperature rise, a cooling fan is provided behind the copier main body and near the scanner home position. The cooling fan draws outside air into the main body and discharges air sucked from a looper provided on a left side surface when viewed from the front of the main body.

[0004]

However, a copying machine is often provided with a sorter as an option. When this sorter is mounted on the side of the main body of the copying machine, the looper is often closed due to the mounting position. As a result, there is a problem that the hot air that should be discharged from the looper originally stays in the main body, and the optical system and the platen glass cannot be efficiently cooled. As a method of solving such a problem, there is a method of selecting a cooling fan capable of obtaining a reliable cooling effect even when the sorter is attached to the main body of the copying machine. However, when such a cooling fan is provided, if the sorter is not attached for any reason, for example, the purchaser may not purchase the sorter as an option,
Alternatively, if the user removes and uses the sorter with his / her intention, the cooling fan becomes over-spec and not only consumes wasteful power but also generates noise unnecessarily.

Further, a copying machine has been proposed which controls the number of rotations of a cooling fan according to the number of copies. Even when control is performed with this configuration, a cooling effect can be expected. However, when the transfer paper size or copy magnification is changed,
Since the moving distance of the scanner changes, even if such a configuration is adopted, the optical system and the platen glass cannot be efficiently cooled in all modes. That is, since the cooling fan is designed in accordance with the copy mode with the maximum heat load, the specification in the copy mode with the low heat load is over, wasteful power is consumed, and the noise becomes unnecessarily large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an image forming apparatus capable of efficiently controlling a cooling fan for cooling the inside of a main body.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling an inside of a main body, wherein a sorter is provided on a side surface of the main body. Detecting means for detecting that the cooling fan has been mounted on the cooling fan and transmitting a signal, and control means for controlling the high-speed rotation of the cooling fan when receiving a signal indicating the detection from the detecting means. It is characterized by doing.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling a main body, wherein the air sucked by the cooling fan is discharged. An opening formed on a side surface other than the side surface of the main body to which the sorter is mounted, an opening / closing mechanism for adjusting an opening state of the opening, and detecting that the sorter is mounted on a side surface of the main body. Detecting means for transmitting a signal from the detecting means, and an opening control means for controlling the opening and closing mechanism to close the opening when receiving a signal indicating the detection from the detecting means. It is characterized by the following.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling a main body, comprising: a moving amount determining unit for determining a moving amount of a scanner; Control means for controlling the rotation of the cooling fan according to the movement amount of the scanner determined by the movement amount determination means.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [First Embodiment] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Here, a case where the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is a copying machine will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical system of a copying machine according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a copying machine main body according to the first embodiment, and FIG. It is a schematic perspective view. The copying machine according to the first embodiment includes a main body 100 and an optional sorter 30.
2 is provided. The main body unit 100 includes a platen glass 101 on which the document 10 is placed, a pressure plate 103 that presses the document placed on the platen glass 101 from above, an optical system 110 that exposes the document 10 on the platen glass 101,
A cooling fan 201 for cooling the optical system 110 and the platen glass 101 and a looper 301 as an air outlet are provided. The optical system 110 includes a light source 104 that irradiates the original placed on the platen glass 101 and a first light that reflects light from the original while moving in the direction of arrow A together with the light source 104.
It includes a mirror 105, and a second mirror 106 and a third mirror 107 that move in the direction of arrow B at half the speed of the first mirror 105. The reflected light from the optical system 110 passes through a zoom lens 108, a fourth mirror 109, a fifth mirror (not shown), and a sixth mirror (not shown), and reaches a photosensitive drum (not shown). An electrostatic latent image is formed. In this specification, the scanner is a light source 104 that reciprocates along the platen glass 101 and a first light source 104.
It includes a mirror 105. Further, a halogen lamp is used as the light source 104.

When the image forming process is started, the light source 1
04 starts irradiation, and original 1 on platen glass 101
While irradiating 0, it starts to move in the direction of arrow A together with the first mirror. Accordingly, the second mirror 106 and the third mirror 1
07 moves in the direction of arrow B at half the speed of the first mirror 105, and
The original image is a zoom lens 108, a fourth mirror 109, a fifth
The light is irradiated onto a photosensitive drum (not shown) via a mirror (not shown) and a sixth mirror (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 2, the cooling fan 201 is provided on the rear side of the main body 100 and near the scanner home position (the position shown by the dashed line in FIG. 2). Since the halogen lamp used for the light source 104 generates a large amount of heat, the temperatures of the light source 104 and the platen glass 101 increase. A cooling fan 201 is provided to prevent this temperature rise. The cooling fan 201 sucks air outside the machine into the main body 100, and the main body 10 shown in FIG.
The air sucked from the looper 301 provided on the left side of the “0” is discharged.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control unit according to the first embodiment. The control unit according to the first embodiment includes a CPU 401 that controls the entire apparatus, a ROM 402 that stores a control program and various data in a nonvolatile manner,
RAM 403 used as a work area or a temporary storage area for data used in the first process, and an I / O unit 404 interfacing the CPU 401 with various input / output devices.
And Connected to the I / O unit 404 are a sorter 302, an automatic document feeder DF406, a sorter detection unit 407 for detecting whether the sorter 302 is mounted, and a fan rotation speed control unit 408 for controlling the rotation of the cooling fan 201. Although not shown in FIG. 4, an operation unit and a display unit are also connected. These input / output devices are CPU 40
1 is controlled.

In the first embodiment, when the sorter 302 is mounted on the main body 100, the sorter detector 407 detects this and sends a signal to the CPU 401 via the I / O unit 404. When the start key for starting the image forming process is pressed, the CPU 401 sends a signal to the fan rotation speed control unit 408 to rotate the cooling fan 201 at high speed. The fan rotation speed control means 408 receives this signal and controls the rotation speed of the cooling fan 201 to an appropriate high speed when the sorter is mounted. On the other hand, when sorter 302 is not mounted on main body 100, sorter detecting section 407 does not emit a signal. Therefore, when the start key for starting the image forming process is pressed in the state where the sorter is not mounted, the CPU 40
1 sends a signal to the effect that the cooling fan 201 rotates at a low speed to the fan rotation speed control means 408. Fan speed control means 4
08 receives this signal and controls the cooling fan 201 to an appropriate low speed in the state where the sorter is not mounted. In the present embodiment, when the number of copies set by the user is one, the cooling fan 201 is not rotated to save power. The number of copies is not limited to one.

Next, the processing procedure of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of the first embodiment. When the main switch is turned on and the power of the main body 100 of the copying machine is turned on, it is determined in step S501 whether a sorter is mounted. If the sorter is not mounted, that is, if the sorter detection unit does not emit a signal, the process proceeds to step S502 to start copying after waiting for an instruction to start the image forming process. In step S504, the number of copies X set by the user is checked. If the number of copies X is greater than 1, the cooling fan is rotated at low speed (step S50).
7) On the other hand, if it is determined in step S501 that the sorter is mounted, that is, if the sorter detector 407 detects the mounting of the sorter and sends a signal to the CPU,
The process proceeds to step S503 to start copying after waiting for an instruction to start the image forming process. In step S505, the number of copies X set by the user is checked. If the number of copies X is greater than 1, the cooling fan is rotated at high speed (step S508). If it is determined in step S504 and step S505 that the number of copies X is 1, the cooling fan is not rotated (step S50).
6). It should be noted that the presence / absence of the sorter is detected only when the main switch of the copying machine main body is turned on, and until the power supply of the copying machine main body is turned off, the control of the cooling fan is performed in each routine with or without the sorter. Is performed.

Next, the fan speed control means 408 will be described. FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of the fan rotation speed control means 408 of the first embodiment. The fan speed control means 408 shown in FIG.
Resistors 602 and 604 for limiting a current flowing into the base of each transistor, a resistor 606 for voltage drop, a diode 607 for releasing a back electromotive force generated when the cooling fan 201 stops, and terminals 608 and 609. Is provided.

When the number of copies is set to two or more and the start key for starting image formation is pressed while the sorter is mounted, a fan high-speed rotation signal (low signal) is input to the terminal 608. As a result, the transistor 603, which is a switching means, is driven, 24 V power is supplied to the cooling fan 201, and the cooling fan 201 rotates at high speed. On the other hand, when the number of copies is set to two or more and the start key for starting image formation is pressed when the sorter is not mounted, a fan low-speed rotation signal (low signal) is input to the terminal 609. As a result, the transistor 605 as a switching means is driven, and power is supplied to the cooling fan 201. By the way, since the resistor 606 is inserted in the circuit in this case, a voltage obtained by subtracting the voltage drop of the resistor 606 from 24 V is supplied to the cooling fan 201, and the rotation speed of the cooling fan becomes low. The resistance value of the resistor 606 is set so that the number of rotations of the cooling fan that can suppress the temperature rise of the platen glass when the sorter is not mounted can be obtained. In the first embodiment, when the number of copies is one or less, the cooling fan is not rotated, but this number can be changed to an appropriate number.

According to the first embodiment, the sorter detector detects whether or not the sorter is mounted. When the sorter is mounted, the cooling fan is used to cool the optical system and the platen glass. By controlling the cooling fan to rotate at high speed, and when the sorter is not mounted, by controlling the cooling fan to rotate at low speed, the cooling fan can be controlled more efficiently, saving power and reducing noise compared to conventional devices. The reduction can be achieved, and the optical system and the platen glass can be reliably cooled.

In the above-described first embodiment, the case has been described in which the number of rotations of the motor is controlled by voltage. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the number of rotations of the motor may be controlled by frequency. You may make it control.

[Second Embodiment] A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a control unit of a copying machine according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical system in the copying machine of the second embodiment. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a looper (hereinafter, referred to as a left side) provided on the left side when viewed from the front of the main body.
This looper is also called a left looper. ), Another looper (hereinafter, also referred to as a right looper) is provided on the right side surface. The newly provided right looper is provided with an opening / closing mechanism for adjusting the opening state of the right looper, and further provided with a motor 702 for driving the opening / closing mechanism and a looper opening / closing driving means 701 for controlling the motor 702. Have been. The other points are the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, in the second embodiment, components having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. The right looper 801 of the second embodiment is provided on the right side of the main body 100 as shown in FIG. The opening and closing mechanism includes a looper opening and closing plate 802 provided inside the right looper 801 for opening and closing the right looper, and a looper opening and closing plate 802.
And a belt 804 spanned between the two pulleys.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described. In the operation of the second embodiment, detailed description of the same operations as those of the first embodiment will be omitted to simplify the description. In the second embodiment, when the sorter 302 is attached to the main body 100, the sorter detector 407 detects this, and outputs a signal indicating that the signal is detected to C.
Send to PU401. Upon receiving this signal, the CPU 401 sends a signal to the looper opening / closing drive unit 701 to drive the motor 702 to rotate. This rotates the pulley,
The looper opening / closing plate provided inside the right looper 801 moves downward and moves to the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. As a result, the right looper 801 is opened, and the air sucked into the main body is discharged to the outside through the right looper. Therefore, in the second embodiment, even when the sorter is mounted, the optical system and the platen glass can be efficiently cooled.

When the sorter is not mounted,
That is, when the sorter detecting unit 407 is not sending a signal to the CPU 401, the CPU 401 sends a signal to the looper opening / closing driving unit 701, moves the looper opening / closing plate upward, and closes the right looper. When the sorter is not attached,
The reason why the right looper 801 is closed is that not only the air sucked with the right looper opened but also the air sucked from the left looper is also used.
If the air is discharged from the right looper, the optical system and the platen glass may not be cooled effectively. More specifically, when performing enlarged copying or when the document size is small, the amount of movement of the scanner is small, so that the temperature of the platen glass near the scanner home position particularly rises. At this time, if the right looper 801 is kept open, the heated air flows to the right in the main body, and the temperature of the portion of the platen glass where the temperature has not risen increases. Also, when the scanner moves to the right end of the platen glass, for example, when performing A3 size copying, the temperature of the entire surface of the platen glass increases.
Since the temperature rise curve becomes gentler as the amount of movement of the scanner increases, there is not much problem even if the right looper is closed. In addition, when the right looper is provided, opening it when the sorter is not installed, the opening becomes wider, the flow velocity becomes slower, and the warmed air flows inside the main body compared to the case where only the left looper is provided. It is not preferable because the time for staying at the surface becomes long.

According to the second embodiment, the provision of the right-side looper and the opening control means allows the inhaled air to be discharged from the right-side looper even when the sorter is mounted. As compared with the conventional apparatus, the size of the cooling fan is small, so that power consumption and noise can be reduced as compared with the conventional apparatus, and the optical system and the platen glass can be reliably cooled.

In the above-described second embodiment, a case has been described in which the additional looper is provided on the right side of the main body. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It may be provided on the rear side.

[Third Embodiment] A third embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The third embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that in the third embodiment, the number of rotations of the cooling fan is controlled by the amount of movement of the scanner. Other points are the same as in the first embodiment. Also, the drawings of the third embodiment are the same as the drawings of the first embodiment, and therefore, the display of the drawings and the detailed description thereof will be omitted to avoid redundant description. In the third embodiment, a case where a sorter is not mounted will be described.

The temperature rise of the platen glass depends on the amount of movement of the scanner. The amount of movement of the scanner is determined by the CPU based on conditions such as the size of the document, the size of the transfer paper, and the copy magnification. When copying small-size paper such as A5 or B5, the amount of movement of the scanner is small, and when performing enlargement copying such as 200% or 141%,
The amount of movement of the scanner from the home position becomes shorter, or the movement time becomes longer. For this reason, in this case, the temperature of the platen glass near the scanner home position rises rapidly. At this time, the cooling fan 201 is driven in a rated state to cool it. On the other hand, when copying large-size paper such as B4 or A3, the amount of movement of the scanner is large, and when performing reduced copying, the amount of movement of the scanner is large or the moving speed is high. For this reason, although the temperature of the platen glass rises, the temperature rise becomes relatively slow. Therefore, in the latter copy mode, cooling is performed by reducing the rotation speed of the cooling fan. As a result, power can be saved, and the optical system and the platen glass can be reliably cooled. Note that the threshold value of the movement amount of the scanner differs depending on the capacity of the cooling fan used and the like, and is determined for each device.

According to the third embodiment, by controlling the rotation of the cooling fan according to the amount of movement of the scanner, the rotation of the cooling fan can be controlled regardless of the size of the transfer paper and the copy magnification. Efficient control can save power and reduce noise, and can reliably cool the optical system and platen glass.

In the above-described third embodiment, the case where the rotational speed is controlled in two stages has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the cooling fan is controlled in accordance with the amount of movement of the scanner. The rotation speed may be changed in three or more steps.

[Other Embodiments] The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but includes improvements, modifications, etc. within the scope of the claims. Is done. For example, in each of the above embodiments, the case where the image forming apparatus is a copying machine has been described, but the image forming apparatus may be an image scanner or the like. Further, the present invention may be a combination of the first embodiment and the second embodiment. That is, the number of rotations of the cooling fan may be controlled depending on the presence or absence of the sorter, and a right looper may be provided to control the opening state of the looper. Further, the present invention may be a combination of the second embodiment and the third embodiment. That is, a right looper may be provided to control the opening state of the looper, and the number of rotations of the cooling fan may be controlled by the amount of movement of the scanner. Further, the present invention may be a combination of the first embodiment and the third embodiment. That is, the rotation speed of the cooling fan may be controlled by the presence or absence of the sorter, and the rotation speed of the cooling fan may be controlled by the moving amount of the scanner.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, whether or not the sorter is mounted is detected by the sorter detecting means, and when the sorter is mounted, the cooling fan is controlled to rotate at a high speed. When the sorter is not mounted, the cooling fan is controlled to rotate at a low speed, so that the cooling fan can be efficiently controlled to save power and reduce noise as compared with the conventional apparatus, and to reduce the optical system. And an image forming apparatus capable of reliably cooling the platen glass.

According to the present invention, since the right opening of the main body and the opening control means are provided, the air can be discharged to the outside from the right opening even when the sorter is mounted. Therefore, the cooling fan is smaller than the conventional device, so that it is possible to reduce the power consumption and noise as compared with the conventional device, and to cool the optical system and the platen glass reliably. An apparatus can be provided.

According to the present invention, the rotation of the cooling fan is controlled by the amount of movement of the scanner, so that the rotation of the cooling fan can be efficiently controlled regardless of the size of the transfer paper and the copy magnification. As a result, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus that can save power and reduce noise, and can surely cool the optical system and the platen glass.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical system of a copying machine according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a main body of the copying machine according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of the copying machine according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a fan speed control unit 408 according to the first embodiment.
FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a control unit of a copying machine according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical system in a copying machine according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Document 100 Main Body 101 Platen Glass 103 Pressure Plate 104 Light Source 105 First Mirror 106 Second Mirror 107 Third Mirror 108 Zoom Lens 109 Fifth Mirror 110 Optical System 201 Cooling Fan 301 Looper 302 Sorter 401 CPU 402 ROM 403 RAM 404 I / O unit 406 Automatic document feeder 407 Sorter detection unit 408 Fan rotation speed control unit 603, 605 Transistor 602, 604, 606 Resistance 701 Looper open / close drive unit 702 Motor 801 Right looper 802 Looper open / close plate 803 Pulley 804 Belt

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H027 EC20 ED04 ED21 EE04 EE07 EF06 EF09 JA11 JB15 JB17 JB24 JB27 JC04 2H071 AA59 BA13 BA17 BA23 BA27 DA02 DA24 2H072 AA18 AB17 FC16 2H076 AA07 EB08 A04 EA08 CB

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling the inside of a main body, detecting means for detecting that a sorter is mounted on a side surface of the main body and transmitting a signal, and the detecting means Control means for controlling the high-speed rotation of the cooling fan upon receipt of the detection signal from the image forming apparatus. 2. An image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling a main body, wherein the image forming apparatus is formed on a side surface other than the side surface of the main body portion on which a sorter is mounted in order to discharge air sucked by the cooling fan. An opening, an opening / closing mechanism for adjusting an opening state of the opening, a detection unit for detecting that the sorter is mounted on a side surface of the main body unit, and transmitting a signal, and the detection from the detection unit. And an opening control unit that controls the opening / closing mechanism to close the opening when receiving a signal indicating that the image forming apparatus has performed the operation. 3. An image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling a main body, comprising: a moving amount determining unit for determining a moving amount of a scanner; and a moving amount of the scanner determined by the moving amount determining unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: a control unit configured to control rotation of the cooling fan. 4. An opening formed on a side surface other than the side surface of the main body to which the sorter is mounted for discharging air sucked by the cooling fan, and an opening / closing mechanism for adjusting an opening state of the opening. Detecting means for detecting that the sorter is mounted on the side surface of the main body unit and transmitting a signal; and upon receiving a signal indicating the detection from the detecting means, controlling the opening / closing mechanism. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an opening control unit that closes the opening. 5. A moving amount determining means for determining a moving amount of the scanner, and a control means for controlling rotation of the cooling fan according to the moving amount of the scanner determined by the moving amount determining means. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 6. A moving amount determining means for determining a moving amount of the scanner, and a control means for controlling rotation of the cooling fan in accordance with the moving amount of the scanner determined by the moving amount determining means. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: 7. An image forming apparatus having a cooling fan for cooling a main body, wherein an opening formed on a side surface of the main body is openable and closable in order to discharge air taken in by the cooling fan. An image forming apparatus comprising: