JP2001199585A - Image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image reader capable of properly executing the imprint printing at all times while preventing an inkjet-type nozzle head from being electrostatically charged by the fed paper. SOLUTION: In this image reader comprising an inkjet-type imprinter 9 in addition to a scanning head 8 mounted on the way of a conveying path of the paper P, the conveying path of the paper P is formed just in the upstream of the imprinter 9, a static-elimination brush 10 is mounted by utilizing an electrically earthed guide 4, and the paper P is projected into the imprinter 9 after the charged static electricity is eliminated from the paper P by the static-elimination brush 10 for preventing the electrostatic charging of a nozzle head 9c of the imprinted 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus such as an image scanner, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus which eliminates a malfunction caused by static electricity in an imprinter for engraving and printing a processed paper mark.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among image reading apparatuses such as an image scanner for reading an image from a large number of documents and making an electronic file, a facsimile apparatus and various copying apparatuses,
2. Description of the Related Art Image scanners and facsimile apparatuses having an imprinter have been conventionally known. For example, an imprinter of a facsimile apparatus prints a color mark of “done” on transmitted original paper. Also, in the image scanner device, engraving printing with the same marking is performed on the document that has been read.

Since the imprinter is an auxiliary device in a sense, it is preferable that the imprinter has a small occupied area and a small power consumption. For these reasons, an ink jet printer that ejects ink from nozzles to perform printing is generally used as an imprinter. This ink jet printer is configured to be able to print characters and images by ejecting charged ink droplets based on print image information.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art In image scanners and facsimile apparatuses, in order to process a large amount of sheets, those which bundle these sheets, mount them on a hopper or a tray, and automatically feed the sheets are mainly used these days. When sheets are stacked and fed as described above, static electricity is likely to be generated due to friction at the time of feeding and feeding the sheets and the capacitance of the sheets themselves.

On the other hand, in an ink jet printer, the nozzles are arranged toward the surface of the paper. Therefore, when a large amount of statically charged paper is continuously fed, the nozzles are likely to be electrostatically charged from the paper. When the nozzles are charged by static electricity in this way, it becomes easy to adsorb fine dust on the paper, and a state in which fine droplets of the ejected ink droplets adhere and condense.

As described above, when fine droplets of dust or ink droplets adhere around the nozzle, the nozzle orifice gradually closes the nozzle orifice, leading to clogging. Therefore, the ejection of the ink droplets from the ink jet printer becomes defective or cannot be performed at all, and the printing is missing or the printing itself cannot be performed.

As described above, the imprinter provided in an image reading apparatus such as an image scanner or a facsimile apparatus has a problem that imprinting is greatly affected by static electricity charged from a fed sheet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus which can always perform good imprint printing by preventing static electricity of nozzles of an ink jet printer due to fed paper.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a paper feeding means for feeding stacked papers one by one, a transport path for transporting the paper from the paper feeding means, and a feed path disposed in the middle of the transport path. An image reading apparatus, comprising: reading means for reading an image of a sheet conveyed through the conveyance path; and an ink-jet type imprinter arranged upstream or downstream of the reading means for printing on the sheet. A static electricity removing means for removing static electricity charged on the paper is disposed upstream of the printer, so that the electrostatic charge on the nozzle head of the imprinter can be suppressed.

In such a configuration, printing is performed by the imprinter after the static electricity on the paper is removed by the static electricity removing means. Therefore, the nozzle head of the ink jet type imprinter can be prevented from being electrostatically charged, and dust on the nozzle head can be prevented. And adhesion of minute droplets of ink droplets can be prevented.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper feeding means for feeding stacked sheets one by one, a transport path for transporting the paper from the paper feeding means, and An image reading apparatus, comprising: a reading unit that reads an image of a sheet that is arranged and conveyed along a conveyance path; and an inkjet-type imprinter that is arranged upstream or downstream of the reading unit and prints on the sheet. A static electricity removing means for removing the static electricity charged on the paper,
An image reading apparatus characterized in that it is possible to suppress electrostatic charging of the nozzle head of the imprinter,
Since the printing is performed by the imprinter after the static electricity on the paper is removed by the static electricity removing means, the nozzle head of the ink jet type imprinter can be prevented from being electrostatically charged.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the static elimination means guides the sheet by forming a transport path, and a conductive guide electrically grounded and a conductive guide electrically connected to the guide. 2. An image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image reading device comprises a guide for forming a sheet transporting path, and said guide is formed as a grounding path, and the sheet is not damaged by bending deformation of said discharging brush. Has the effect of making paper.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an image scanner that reads a document image from various types of paper or sheet material will be described as an example of an image reading device.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an image scanner having a charge eliminating mechanism according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the image scanner comprises a main body 1 having a built-in reading section of an optical system and a paper conveyance path, and an automatic paper feeder 2 as paper feeding means. The main body 1 has an operation panel 1a on the front and a controller (not shown) for controlling all devices inside. On the upper surface of the main body 1, there is provided a collection tray 1b for receiving the paper fed from the automatic paper feeder 2 and having finished the image reading by the reading unit.

The automatic paper feeder 2 has a main body 1 on which paper is mounted.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view from a paper feed hopper to a paper transport path and a collection tray.

The automatic paper feeder 2 has a paper feed hopper 2b incorporated in a housing 2a so as to be rotatable up and down.
The paper feed hopper 2b has a pair of paper guides 2d and is driven by being connected to a motor (not shown). When feeding paper, the paper P is directed upward until the paper P comes into contact with the paper feed roller 3 as shown in FIG. Is urged to rotate.

The paper feed roller 3 picks up the paper P on the paper feed hopper 2b one by one from above and feeds out the same.
On the downstream side, a separation roller 3a for preventing double feeding of the paper P
And the retard roller 3b. A pair of flat guides 4 and 5 are arranged substantially horizontally so as to be continuous with the separation roller 3a and the retard roller 3b.
a and 6b are provided. The secondary guides 6a and 6b have a shape detouring upward, and have their ends facing the collection tray 1b from an opening 1c opened in the main body 1. Then, the paper P is transferred from the guides 4 and 5 to the secondary guides 6a and 6b.
A plurality of conveying rollers 7 for feeding the paper are arranged.

A scanning head 8 for reading a document image of the paper P is disposed at a position at an appropriate distance from the separation roller 3a and the retard roller 3b. The scanning head 8 is a unit configured as a reduction optical system including a CCD camera and the like. Immediately upstream of the scanning head 8, an imprinter 9 having a static elimination mechanism for eliminating static electricity carried on the paper P is arranged.

The imprinter 9, as described in the prior art, is of an ink jet type and has a carriage 9a which moves in the width direction of the guides 4, 5 (a direction perpendicular to the drawing in FIG. 2), and is mounted on the carriage 9a. Ink tank 9b
And a nozzle head 9c arranged at the lower end of the ink tank 9b, and further provided with a target block 9d for guiding a charged ink droplet to the guide 5 side. Note that such an ink jet printing mechanism is conventionally known.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing a main part of a portion surrounded by a circle A shown by a dashed line in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. For removing static electricity is provided. That is, as shown in FIG. 4 (a perspective view of the guide 4 including the neutralizing brush viewed from below), the neutralizing brush 1 extends over the entire length in the direction of the guide 4.
0s are arranged as groups spaced at regular intervals. These static elimination brushes 10 are made of, for example, a conductive material such as stainless steel fiber, and are made by bundling a plurality of fibrous materials having an appropriate outer diameter into a set. It contacts almost the entire surface in the width direction.

In the guide 4, circular openings 4a are formed at regular intervals in the width direction so that ink droplets from the nozzle head 9c of the imprinter 9 reach the paper P. The charge removing brush 10 is arranged immediately upstream of these openings 4a. That is, when the paper P is transported,
The surface of the paper P after contact with the charge removing brush 10 has an opening 4a.
The ink droplets are ejected from the nozzle head 9c at a predetermined time during the passing period, and a predetermined mark or the like is imprinted before the original is read by the scanning head 8.

Here, the guide 4 is a conductive panel using a metal plate, and is assumed to be electrically connected to a ground terminal (not shown) provided on the main body 1 and grounded. Then, if the static elimination brush 10 is electrically connected to the guide 4 and attached thereto, the static elimination brush 10 is also grounded.

In the above configuration, when the reading start button 1a-1 of the operation panel 1a is pressed, the paper feed roller 3 and other roller groups start rotating, and the paper P on the paper feed hopper 2b is guided one by one by the guide 4. , 5. At this time, when two or more sheets P are coincident with each other, only the lower sheet is fed by the retard roller 3b to the sheet feeding hopper 2b.
Returned to the side. When the paper P advances between the guides 4 and 5, a mark such as read by the imprinter 9 and other information are printed on the surface of the paper P before the scanning head 8 reads the document image.

Here, before the paper P enters the imprinter 9, the neutralization brush 10 contacts the upper surface of the paper P. For this reason, even if the sheet P is charged with static electricity, the static electricity charged on the sheet P is removed by the neutralization brush 10 grounded via the conductive guide 4. Therefore, when the paper P passes through the portion of the imprinter 9, static electricity from the paper P does not reach the nozzle head 9c. This prevents the nozzle head 9c from being charged with static electricity, and prevents the surface of the paper P, such as dust and ink droplets, from adhering to the surface. As a result, the ejection holes of the nozzle head 9c are partially blocked or clogged. No clogging. Therefore, the ink droplets are always satisfactorily ejected from the nozzle head 9c of the imprinter 9, and clear printing can be performed on the paper P.

In the above description, the imprinter 9 is arranged on the upstream side of the scanning head 8, but instead the imprinter 9 is provided on the downstream side of the scanning head 8, and the scanning head 8 reads an original. After that, printing by the imprinter 9 may be performed. In this case as well, disposing the neutralizing brush 10 immediately upstream of the imprinter 9 is the same, thereby preventing the nozzle head 9c from being clogged.

Further, as shown in FIG.
The second imprinter 1 is located before the discharge roller 7a, which is located on the side of
1 may be arranged. The second imprinter 11 has exactly the same configuration as the imprinter 9 on the guides 4 and 5 side, and may be provided with the charge removal brush 12 immediately upstream of the nozzle head 11c. In FIG. 2, a portion indicated by a dashed-dotted circle B is exactly the same as the structure shown in FIG.

By providing the second imprinter 11 in this manner, other information can be printed on the paper P, and an operation for compensating for a printing failure or failure by the upstream imprinter 9 can be performed. Then, the static electricity of the paper P is removed again by the discharging brush 12. Therefore, after exiting the imprinter 9 on the upstream side, the guides 4 and 5 and the secondary guides 6a,
Even if the sheet P is charged with static electricity due to friction when passing through the sheet 6b, the static electricity is removed from the sheet P immediately before the sheet is discharged by the sheet discharging roller 7a. For this reason, the sheets P discharged from the opening 1c and mounted on the collection tray 1b can be collected and stacked without any disorder without being disturbed.

Although the present embodiment has been described as a charge eliminating mechanism in an image scanner, the present invention can be applied to all facsimile machines and other image reading devices of printers.

[0030]

According to the present invention, even if the paper is electrostatically charged, the static electricity is eliminated before the paper enters the imprinter, so that the nozzle head of the ink jet type imprinter is not electrostatically charged. . Therefore, dust on paper and minute droplets of ink droplets do not adhere to the nozzle head, and partial blockage and clogging of the nozzle ejection holes are prevented,
Good imprint printing is always possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an image scanner provided with a static elimination mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view from a paper feed hopper to a paper transport path and a collection tray.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a main part of a portion surrounded by a dashed-dotted line circle A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a guide including a static elimination brush as viewed from below.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 1a Operation panel 1a-1 Stop button 1b Collection tray 1c Opening 2 Automatic paper feeder 2a Housing 2b Paper hopper 2d Paper guide 3 Paper feed roller 3a Separation roller 3b Retard roller 4,5 Guide 6a, 6b Secondary guide 7 Conveying roller 7a Discharge roller 8 Scanning head 9 Imprinter 9a Carriage 9b Ink tank 9c Nozzle head 9d Target block 10 Static elimination brush 11 Imprinter 11c Nozzle head 12 Static elimination brush

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 1/04 H04N 1/12 Z F term (Reference) 2C056 FA10 HA31 3F101 AA02 AA08 AA13 FA04 FB17 FD08 LA11 LB03 5C062 AA02 AA05 AB02 AB30 AB31 AB32 AB33 AB35 AC04 AD06 AF16 BA00 5C072 AA05 BA13 BA20 NA01 NA10 RA07 XA04

Claims (2)

[Claims] A sheet feeding unit for feeding the stacked sheets one by one; a conveying path for conveying the sheets from the sheet feeding unit; and a conveying path arranged in the middle of the conveying path and conveyed along the conveying path. An image reading apparatus comprising: a reading unit that reads an image of a sheet, and an ink-jet type imprinter that is arranged upstream or downstream of the reading unit and prints on the sheet. An image reading apparatus, comprising: a static electricity removing means for removing the charged static electricity, so that the electrostatic charge on the nozzle head of the imprinter can be suppressed. 2. A static electricity removing means comprising: a conductive guide which forms a transport path to guide the sheet and is electrically grounded; and a conductive static elimination brush which is electrically connected to the guide. The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the image reading device is configured.