JP2001245102A - Reading sensor, image reader and image processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sensor for image reader and image processing equipment, having high quality by smoothing the read and transport of original copy, by reducing flaws of the copy during transport and by suppressing. deterioration in image quality. SOLUTION: It is provided with a read out means, which includes LED array 4c, SELFOC lens (R) 4d and sensor substrate 4e, having the surface touching with normally on the copy S, then rotating cylinder 4a to rotate following to carry the copy S and reading out an image data on the copy touching normally on the surface via the rotating cylinder 4a.

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 and an image forming apparatus for reading an image of a document and forming an image on a recording material, such as a scanner, a copier, a printer, and a facsimile apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a reading sensor provided in an image reading apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of image reading apparatus,
As shown in FIG. 4, the contact sensor 4 of the image reading device
The first reading surface is a fixed flat glass, and the original is pressed and conveyed by the opposing feeding roller 42.

[0003]

However, in the case of the prior art as described above, when the original is pressed and conveyed by the opposing feed roller 42, the original rubs against the flat glass, so that the original scratches and the photographic original are damaged. Problems such as sticking have occurred.

When there is no original, the feeding roller 42
The glass surface of the contact sensor 41 was directly rubbed, and dirt and the like adhered to the glass surface of the contact sensor 41, causing image disorder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to smooth the reading and conveying of the original, reduce the damage of the original during the conveying, and improve the image quality. It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-quality image reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus capable of suppressing the deterioration, and a reading sensor applied to these apparatuses.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a reading sensor to which the present invention is applied. Image reading means for reading image information of a document abutting on the contact surface via the driven member.

[0007] It is also preferable that the driven member is a rotating body.

It is preferable that at least an area of the driven member that can be read by the image reading means is transparent.

It is also preferable that the image forming apparatus is provided in a container having an opening, the contact surface is positioned at the opening, and the image information of the document is read through the opening.

In the image reading apparatus, there is provided the reading sensor described above, and a document conveying means provided to face the contact surface and for nipping and conveying the document at a nip portion with the contact surface. The driven member is driven by the document conveying means.

[0011] It is also preferable that at least an area of the document conveying means facing an area readable by the image reading means is white.

An image forming apparatus includes the above-described image reading apparatus and image forming means for recording image information read by the image reading apparatus on a recording material.

[0013]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the dimensions of the components described in this embodiment,
The material, the shape, and the relative arrangement thereof should be appropriately changed depending on the configuration of the apparatus to which the invention is applied and various conditions, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the following embodiments.

As a sequence of the description, first, the schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus will be described, and then the configuration and operation of the image reading apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described.

First, a schematic configuration of a facsimile apparatus as an image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes an apparatus main body, which includes an image reading unit 2 for reading an image of a document S as a reading target, and an image recording unit 15 for recording an image on a recording sheet P as a recording target. I have.

The image reading section 2 includes an upper cover 8 having a document table 8a on which a plurality of documents S can be placed, a contact image sensor 4 as a reading sensor for reading image information of the document S, and a contact image sensor 4. A feed roller 3b as a document conveying means for pressing and conveying the original S to the image sensor 4, and the originals S placed on the original mounting table 8a are sequentially fed one by one and unloaded via the contact type image sensor 4. Document transport unit 3
And an upper document guide 5 and a lower document guide 7 that form a conveyance path for the document S.

The upper cover having the document table 8a is attached to the apparatus main body 1 so as to be easily opened and closed so that the cartridge can be exchanged and the jam clearance described later can be easily performed.

The document table 8a is provided with a slider 8b slidable in a width direction perpendicular to the direction of transport of the document S. The slider 8b holds both ends of the document S placed on the document table. They can be aligned.

The contact type image sensor 4 includes an LED array 4c, a selfoc lens (registered trademark) 4d, and a sensor substrate 4e as image reading means.
As shown in (1), light is radiated from the LED array 4c as a light source to the image information surface of the original S (contacted with the contact surface of the cylindrical rotating body 4a as a driven member), and reflected light reflected from the image information surface Is imaged on the sensor element of the sensor substrate 4e by the selfoc lens 4d to read image information.

The image reading section 2 of the image reading apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described later in detail.

The image recording section 15 includes a recording paper loading section 23 for loading recording paper P as a recording target, and a recording paper loading section 23.
Paper feeding section 12 for sequentially feeding recording paper P one by one from
An image forming unit 11 that records and forms an image on the fed recording paper P, a laser scanner 13 that irradiates the image forming unit 11 with laser light as image information, and a recording paper P that is discharged after reading is completed. Shared discharge tray 1 for loading and holding
9, a recording paper discharge table 18 for stacking and holding the recording paper P discharged in U-turn after recording, and a transport guide 17 for guiding and supporting the recording paper P to be transported.

In the recording paper feeding section 12, when feeding is started, the recording paper P pressed against the separation roller 12b is separated one by one by the separation roller 12b and the separation pad 12a pressed against the separation roller 12b. Thereafter, the timing is adjusted by the transport roller 12c and the transport roller 12d, which is pressed against the transport roller 12d and is driven to rotate, so that the leading edge of the image (toner image) formed by the image forming unit 11 and the leading edge of the recording paper P coincide. Is transferred between the photosensitive drum 11a of the image forming unit 11 and the transfer unit 11f.

The recording paper stacking section 23 is provided with a plurality of recording papers P.
Can be loaded, and the number of sheets that can be set
It is about 00 sheets. Further, there are three types of recording paper that can be stacked and set: A4 size, letter size, and legal size.

In the image forming section 11, first, a laser beam, which is an image signal, is emitted from a laser beam oscillator of the laser scanner 13 based on the image signal. This laser light is reflected by a polygon mirror 13b and a return mirror 13c.
Thus, the photosensitive drum 11a of the image forming unit 11 is irradiated, and an image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11a.

In the image forming section 11, the photosensitive drum 1
Reference numeral 1a denotes a process cartridge 11e which is incorporated in a frame together with a charging means 11b, a developing means 11c and a cleaning means 11d as process means acting thereon, and the process cartridge 11e is detachably attached to the apparatus main body 1. Have been.

Therefore, at the time of the above-described image formation, the surface of the photosensitive drum 11a uniformly charged by the charging means 11b is irradiated with laser light from the laser scanner 13 to form a latent image, and the latent image is formed by the developing means 11c. A visualized image (toner image) is formed by the supplied toner.

In the image forming section 11, a transfer means 1 for transferring the toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11a to the recording paper P is provided around the photosensitive drum 11a.
1f, and a fixing unit 14 for fixing the transferred toner image to the recording paper P is disposed in a recording paper transport path downstream of the photosensitive drum 11a. In the drawing, reference numeral 16 denotes a discharge roller.

Therefore, the recording paper P fed from the recording paper stacking section 23 to the image forming section 11 at a proper timing is transferred to the toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11a by the transfer means 11f. The toner image is conveyed along a conveyance guide 17, the toner image is fixed by a fixing unit 14, and is discharged to a common discharge tray 19 or a recording paper discharge table 18 by a discharge roller 16.

If a jam occurs during recording,
By opening the open / close bar of the upper cover 8 having the document mounting table 8a, the recording paper P staying inside the apparatus can be easily taken out.

FIG. 1 is a diagram that best illustrates the features of the present invention. As shown in the image reading apparatus of FIG.
The original S loaded on the original placing table 8a is sandwiched between the preliminary press-contact arm 3h and the separation roller 3a pressed against the same, and when the document conveyance starts, the preliminary press-contact arm 3h and the separation roller 3a pressed against the preliminary press contact arm 3h cause The sheet is fed to the portion 3c and separated and fed one by one by a separation roller 3a pressed against the friction piece 3c.

Further, the image reading section 2 sequentially feeds the original line while bringing the original sheet S into close contact with the paper feed roller 3b pressed by the pressing spring 3d and the cylindrical rotary member 4a as a driven member of the contact image sensor 4. After reading the image information of the document S, the document S is discharged to the common discharge tray 19.

During this time, the original S is guided by the upper original guide 5 and the lower original guide 7. At this time, the cylindrical rotating body 4a, which is the reading surface of the close contact type image sensor 4, rotates, so that the feed roller 3b rotates smoothly when there is no original, and also reduces the frictional load on the glass surface when the original is transported. And the conveyance force of the feed roller 3b can be improved. The cylindrical rotator 4a is made of a transparent member, and enables reading while rotating.

Further, conventionally, the feed roller rubs against the glass surface, so that there were restrictions on the material, surface condition, pressing force of the roller, and the like. However, since there is no such limitation, the cost of the feed roller can be reduced.

Furthermore, since there is no rubbing with the glass surface, surface scratches and the like of an original which is not desired to be stained can be reduced, and the original reading / conveying performance is dramatically improved.

Further, by making the feeding roller 3b white, it is possible to read an original such as a thin paper without any problem.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a close contact type image sensor with a cylindrical rotating body. As shown in FIG. 2, by holding the cylindrical rotating body 4a in a resin case 4b, dust is generated inside the cylindrical rotating body 4a. , Dust and the like are prevented from entering.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A driven member that has an abutting surface that abuts on the original and is driven by the conveyed original, and an image reading unit that reads image information of the original that is in contact with the relevant surface via the driven member, Since there is no rubbing with the contact surface, it is possible to reduce surface scratches and the like of a document that is not to be soiled, so that it is possible to improve the document reading / conveying performance and to provide a high quality apparatus.

Further, the driven member is driven by the document conveying means, so that there is no friction with the contact surface, so that the conveying force of the document conveying means can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a main part of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a contact image sensor of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional automatic sheet feeder.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus main body 2 Image reading part 3 Original conveyance part 3a Separation roller 3b Feeding roller 3c Friction piece 3d Press spring 3h Pre-pressing arm 4 Contact image sensor 4a Cylindrical rotating body 4b Resin case 4c LED array 4d Selfoc lens 4e Sensor Substrate 5 Upper document guide 7 Lower document guide 8 Top cover 8a Document placement table 8b Slider 11 Image forming unit 11a Photoconductor drum 11b Charging unit 11c Developing unit 11d Cleaning unit 11e Process cartridge 11f Transfer unit 12 Recording paper feeding unit 12a Separation pad 12b Separation roller 12c Transport roller 12d Transport roller 13 Laser scanner 13b Polygon mirror 13c Folding mirror 14 Fixing means 15 Image recording unit 16 Discharge roller 17 Transport guide 18 Recording paper discharge stand 19 Common discharge Tray 23 Recording paper loading section

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3F049 CA11 DA12 EA27 LA02 LA05 LA07 LB02 5C051 AA01 BA04 DA03 DB01 DB22 DB29 DE13 EA08 FA01 5C072 AA01 AA05 BA17 CA05 DA02 EA07 NA01 RA16 UA03 XA01 XA04

Claims (7)

[Claims] A driven member that has a contact surface that comes into contact with the document and that is driven by the conveyed document; and image reading means that reads image information of the document that comes into contact with the contact surface via the driven member. A reading sensor, comprising: 2. The reading sensor according to claim 1, wherein the driven member is a rotating body. 3. The reading sensor according to claim 1, wherein at least an area of the driven member that can be read by the image reading unit is transparent. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is provided in a container having an opening, and the contact surface is positioned at the opening, and image information of a document is read through the opening. 2. The reading sensor according to 1. 5. The reading sensor according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, further comprising: a document conveying means provided to face the contact surface, the document conveying means nipping and conveying the document at a nip portion with the contact surface. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driven member is driven by the document conveying unit. 6. An area facing at least an area readable by the image reading means in the document conveying means,
The image reading device according to claim 5, wherein the image reading device is white. 7. An image forming apparatus comprising: the image reading apparatus according to claim 5; and an image forming unit that records image information read by the image reading apparatus on a recording material.