JP2002255362A - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a cost of a paper feeder by reducing the number of part items by paying attention to a shutter and a document sensor arranged in the almost same position of the paper feeder in the paper feeder having a pickup roller for taking in a document, a paper separator for separately carrying one by one the document taken in by the pickup roller, and the shutter for cutting off the document in an intermediate position of the pickup roller and the paper separator so that the document is not pushed in the paper separator when loading the document. SOLUTION: The shutter 20 is made to also serve as a sensor 18 for detecting the existence of the document. Actually, the shutter 20 is rotatably constituted, one end of the shutter 20 is formed as a suspending part 20b for regulating a position of the document tip, and a detecting object part 18a of the sensor 18 is arranged on the other end. A stopper 21 is attached to the shutter 20 to regulate a rotational movement of the shutter 20, and a detecting part 18b of the sensor 18 is arranged in the stopper 21.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper feeder for conveying a document to an automatic document feeder, and more particularly, to a shutter provided at an intake of the automatic document feeder.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an automatic document reading apparatus,
An automatic document feeder (ADF) is provided as a sheet feeder that separates documents placed on a document feed tray one by one and transports the documents to a reading device. A pickup roller for taking in the original, a paper separating device including a separate roller and a retard roller for separating and conveying the original taken in by the pickup roller one by one, and A shutter and the like are provided at an intermediate position between the pickup roller and the sheet separating device.

A pickup arm is swingably extended around a shaft of the separate roller, and the pickup roller is pivotally supported at a tip end of the pickup arm. The shutter is attached to the pickup arm, and the shutter moves up and down in conjunction with the swinging operation of the pickup arm to open and close the document feeding path.

Before the automatic document reading apparatus is started, that is, when a user sets a document in the ADF, the shutter closes the document feeding path. In this state, the user inserts the document until the leading end of the document hits the shutter. As a result, the original is set in the inlet with the leading edges aligned.

A document sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a document and its size is arranged at an inlet of the ADF, and the setting of the document into the inlet is detected by the document sensor, whereby the ADF can be activated. It becomes a state.
Conversely, when the document is not set, the ADF is not activated even if a start operation is performed, thereby preventing the document from being fed at an idle speed. In other words, by preventing the pickup roller from lowering in a state where the document is not detected by the document sensor, the drive transmission means from the separate roller to the pickup roller can be used without unnecessary collision between the pickup roller and the paper feed tray. To prevent damage.

When a start operation is performed in a state where the original is inserted into the inlet, the pickup arm is tilted and the pickup roller is lowered, and in synchronization with this, the shutter opens the original feeding path. In this way, only the uppermost document is first separated and taken in by the pickup roller, the separate roller, the retard roller, and the like, and the documents are taken in one by one sequentially.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the AD
Attention is paid to a shutter and a document sensor, which are arranged at substantially the same position at the inlet to F, to reduce the number of components and to reduce the cost of the sheet feeding device.

[0008]

The present invention uses the following means to solve the above problems. That is,
A pickup roller for taking in the document, a sheet separating device for separating and transporting the documents taken in by the pickup roller one by one, and the document is pushed into the sheet separating device when the documents are stacked. In a paper feeder provided with a shutter that shuts off at a middle position between the pickup roller and the sheet separating device so that the document is not removed, the shutter is also provided with a detection unit that detects the presence or absence of a document.

Further, the shutter may be rotatable, an abutting portion for regulating the position of the leading end of the document may be provided at one end of the shutter, and a detected portion of the detecting means may be provided at the other end. Is provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a stopper is provided on the shutter, and the rotation of the shutter is regulated by the stopper.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a facsimile apparatus F provided with an ADF 8, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing the ADF 8, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view near the intake port 8a of the ADF 8, showing the state of the shutter 20 in which the rotation restriction has been released.

A facsimile apparatus provided with an automatic document reading apparatus provided with the sheet feeding apparatus of the present invention will be described. First, a schematic configuration of the facsimile machine F will be described with reference to FIG. The facsimile apparatus F has a configuration in which a reading unit 2 is disposed above a recording unit 1. In the recording unit 1, a recording device 3 and a paper feed cassette 4 are installed vertically, and a paper feed cassette 4 is provided. After the paper deposited in the paper is fed to the recording device 3 and recorded, the recording paper discharge tray 5
It is configured to be discharged from.

On the other hand, in the reading section 2, a reading case 1
A reading device for reading the contents of a document or the like is housed in the reading case 3, and the document placed on the upper surface of the reading case 13 is scanned by the reading device to perform reading. A document holding cover 7 configured to be openable and closable about one side thereof is disposed above 13,
The document placed on the upper surface of the reading case 13 is pressed by the document pressing cover 7 from above.

Further, at one end of the document holding cover 7,
An automatic document feeder (ADF) 8 is additionally provided as a paper feeder for automatically feeding the original to the reading unit 2. The ADF 8 separates the originals placed on the original feed tray 9 one by one. To the one end of the upper surface of the reading case 13 and read the contents by the reading device in a stationary state.
Document discharge tray 1 formed on the upper surface of document holding cover 7
It is configured to discharge to zero. The document supply tray 9 is provided with two guides 9a and 9b.
b is configured to be movable in the document width direction so as to guide the side of the document conveyed by the ADF 8.

That is, the reading section 2 is used as a flat bed type scanner for scanning a reading device to read a still original, and is a sheet feed type scanner for reading while feeding the original with the reading device fixed in position. It is configured so that it can be used as.

An operation panel 15 is provided on one side of the reading case 13, and various kinds of operation keys on the operation panel 15 are operated to read the contents of the original.
The user sets the destination for facsimile transmission of the read contents, and records the received contents and the read contents in the recording device 3.
Or to record.

Next, the configuration of the ADF 8 will be described.
In this description, the direction in which the document D is taken in the document supply tray 9 in the side view shown in FIG. 2 is defined as the front, and the front, rear, left, and right positions of each structure are described. As shown in FIG. 2, a pickup roller 26 for taking in a document, and a sheet separating device 11 for separating and transporting the document taken in by the pickup roller 26 one by one are provided in an intake port 8a into the ADF 8. Is provided. The sheet separating device 11 includes a separate roller 23 and a retard roller 31 which is in pressure contact with the separate roller 23. The arm 24 is supported by a shaft supporting the separate roller 23 as a fulcrum.
The pickup 24 is pivotally supported at the tip of the arm 24. The rotation driving force of the separate roller 23 is transmitted to the pickup roller 26 via a belt or the like provided in the arm 24.

A shutter 20 is vertically provided at an intermediate position between the pickup roller 26 and the sheet separating device 11. The shutter 20 has a hanging portion 20b as an abutting portion that hangs downward and forward, and an upright portion 20c that rises upward and rearward, and forms a rotation fulcrum shaft 20a in the middle thereof. The shutter 20 is configured to be able to rotate back and forth about the rotation fulcrum shaft 20a. A spring (not shown) is attached to the shutter 20, and applies a biasing force to the shutter 20 in the direction of rotating the hanging portion 20 b downward. Therefore, in the case of FIG. 2 in which the original is not abutted against the shutter 20b, the shutter 20b lowers its hanging portion 20b to have a substantially "C" shape in a side view, and shuts off the sheet feeding conveyance path 36 to prevent the original. Hold position and orientation.

A sensor 18 is provided near the tip of the upright portion 20c of the shutter 20, and a detected portion 18a which can cross the detecting portion 18b of the sensor 18 is provided at the tip of the upright portion 20c of the shutter 20. Provided. The shape of the detected portion 18a is such that the original is
In the state where the shutter 20 is not in contact with the hanging portion 20b, the detected portion 18a crosses the detecting portion 18b, while the document D is pushed in as shown in FIG. When moved, the detected part 18a is configured to separate from the detecting part 18b.

A tongue piece 20d protrudes from the tip of the upright portion 20c of the shutter 20, and the upright portion 20c
A stopper 21 is provided at a position facing the tongue piece 20d at the rear of the device. The stopper 21 is a rotation fulcrum shaft 21
It is configured to be rotatable about a, and an actuator such as a solenoid is used, and its position and orientation can be switched to the horizontal position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 or the hanging position shown in FIG.

In this configuration, when the original D is pushed in from the state shown in FIG. 2 and hits the hanging portion 20b of the shutter 20 when the stopper 21 is at the horizontal position, the shutter 20 pushed by the leading end of the original D When the tongue piece 20d rotates by a small amount against the spring, the tip 21b of the stopper 21 abuts on the tongue piece 20d as shown in FIG. 3 to restrict further rotation of the shutter 20. Accordingly, the shutter 20 is fixed in a state where the document D is pushed into the inlet 8a by a certain depth or more, and the leading end of the document D is prevented from being pushed into the sheet separating device 11 located downstream,
The leading end of the document D is aligned by the hanging portion 20b of the shutter 20. The spring attached to the shutter 20 has a small spring force so that the shutter 20 does not push back the document D once set and abutted against the hanging portion 20b.

The state shown in FIG. 2 is a state in which the document is not completely inserted into the intake port 8a. In this state, the shutter 20 is substantially "K" as shown in FIG. 2 by the urging force of the spring.
Then, the paper feed path 36 is closed. In the state shown in FIG. 2, the detected portion 18a of the shutter 20
Crosses the detecting portion 18b of the sensor 18, whereby the sensor 18 detects that the document D is not set. In this state, the start button of the operation panel 15 cannot be operated. On the other hand, the state shown in FIG. 3 is a state in which the original is inserted into the inlet 8a and is abutted against the shutter 20 that closes the paper feed path 36. In this state, the shutter 20 is in the state shown in FIG. From a small amount,
The detected part 18a moves away from the detecting part 18b of the sensor 18. As a result, the sensor 18 detects that the document D is set, and the start button on the operation panel 15 can be operated. In this way, the shutter 20 also serves as the document detecting means.

When the stopper 21 is turned to the hanging position by an actuator (not shown) such as a solenoid, the tip 21b of the stopper 21 is disengaged from the tongue piece 20d, and the shutter 20 can be turned clockwise. Then, the shutter 20 is rotated by an actuator (not shown) such as a solenoid, and the hanging portion 20 b is moved to the sheet feeding path 36.
And is held in a substantially “heavy” shape. In this way, the original D can be sent to the downstream paper separating device 11.
The turning means of the shutter 20 and the turning means of the stopper 21 are not limited to the above description. For example, a configuration may be employed in which the actuator is not specially provided, but is linked to the lowering of the arm 24 of the pickup roller 26.

Further, by arranging a plurality of shutters 20 also serving as the document detecting means according to the present invention in the left-right direction as shown below, not only the presence or absence of the document D on the document supply tray 9 but also the setting It is possible to adopt a configuration in which the size of the original D can be recognized.

That is, regardless of the size of the original D,
The document D is placed on the document feed tray 9 with one end face (the right end face in this case) of the document D aligned with the document guide 9a (shown in FIG. 1) serving as an alignment reference plane. The other end surface (that is, the left end surface) of one document D is guided by sliding the document guide 9b movable in the left-right direction. The AD
At the inlet 8a of F8, first, a shutter 20 is provided at a position in front of the document guide 9a, and the left side of the arrangement position of the shutter 20 is referred to as Japanese Industrial Standard A row 5 (A5). Other shutters are positioned at positions corresponding to the width of the original D of each size, such as row B No. 5 (B5), row A No. 4 (A4), row B No. 4 (B4), row A No. 3 (A3), etc. 20 ・
.. Are arranged in parallel, and the sensor 18 and the stoppers 21, 21.
Is arranged. Note that the shutter 20 disposed at a position in front of the document guide 9a on the position reference side has a sensor 18
It is good also as composition which does not attach. This is because it is sufficient to detect the size of the document and the presence / absence of the document set simply by attaching the sensor 18 to each of the other shutters 20 arranged in parallel.

In this configuration, the original guides 9a and 9b
3 comes into contact with some of the plurality of shutters 20, 20,..., As shown in FIG.
... does not abut. Which shutter 20 comes into contact is determined by the size of the document D. Conversely, which one of the sensors 18 provided for the shutter 20 detects the document D is determined. If it is checked, the size of the set document D can be recognized.

In this way, the original D is detected by the sensors 18, 18,...
When the ADF 8 is detected, the ADF 8 can be activated. When the start operation is performed, the actuator is excited, and the stopper 21 in the horizontal state rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise in side view, and FIG. Evacuate with the drooping posture shown. Then, the shutters 20 are all rotated clockwise, and the paper feed path 36 is opened as shown in FIG.

The start operation drives the drive shaft 22 of the separate roller 23 to rotate.
With the rotation of 2, the separate roller 23 rotates clockwise in the side view shown in FIG. 3, and the pickup roller 26, which is urged upward, turns downward against the urging force. When the pickup roller 26 is pressed against the upper surface of the document D, the pickup roller 26
Start rotation in the same direction as 3. Then, the rotation of the pickup roller 26 causes the uppermost document D to be fed between the separation roller 23 and the retard roller 31 and to be conveyed downstream.

Separate roller 23 and retard roller 3
Before the original D is fed between the rollers 23 and 31, or after only one original D is fed between the rollers 23 and 31, the retard roller 31 moves between the separate roller 23 and the original D. The frictional force causes a torque limiter (not shown) to run idle, and the direction opposite to the driving direction of the retard roller 31 (FIG. 2).
Then, the document D is sent to the downstream side.
On the other hand, when two or more originals D are fed between the separate roller 23 and the retard roller 31, the rotation direction of the retard roller 31 is reversed, and the original D is pushed back to the original feed tray 9 side. (Clockwise in FIG. 2). Therefore, the second and subsequent originals D to be fed along with the uppermost original D conveyed downstream are pushed back to the original feed tray 9 by the retard roller 31, and the uppermost original D is conveyed. Only the document D is separated and conveyed.

Then, A
The document D fed into the DF 8 is a separate roller 2
The first feed roller 32 and the extra roller 3
2a, and the first feed roller 3
The paper is conveyed in the paper feed conveyance path 36 by 2.

Further, the original D is supplied to the second feed roller 33.
The sheet is conveyed in the sheet feeding path 36 by the extra roller 33 a and passes through the document reading section 38. At this time, the contents of the document D are read by the reading device 6 in the reading case 13. Thereafter, the sheet is conveyed downstream by the second feed roller 33 and the extra roller 33b, and further discharged to the document discharge tray 10 through the discharge conveyance path 37 by the discharge roller 34 and the extra roller 34a.

[0032]

As described above, the present invention has the following advantages. That is, claim 1
A pickup roller for taking in the original, a paper separating device for separating and transporting the originals taken in by the pickup roller one by one, and a document for preventing the original from being pushed into the paper separating device when the originals are stacked. And a shutter that shuts off at a position between the pickup roller and the sheet separating device, the shutter also has a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a document. And the detection means are integrated, the number of parts can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced.

Further, the shutter is configured to be rotatable, an abutting portion for regulating the position of the leading end of the document is provided at one end of the shutter, and a detected portion of the detecting means is provided at the other end. Since the shutter is provided with the shutter function and the sensor function, the number of parts can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the shutter is provided with a stopper, and the rotation of the shutter is restricted by the stopper, so that the original is inserted deep into the ADF inlet. Then, the rotation of the shutter is regulated by the stopper, and the leading end of the document is blocked in front of the sheet separating device. Therefore, a plurality of originals are not fed in when the original is taken in, so that the stability and reliability of the feeding can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a facsimile apparatus F to which an ADF 8 is attached.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing the ADF 8;

FIG. 3 is an AD showing a state of a shutter 20 whose rotation is restricted.
FIG. 7 is a side cross-sectional view near the intake port 8a of F8.

FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view of the vicinity of an intake port 8a of the ADF 8 showing a state of the shutter 20 in which rotation restriction has been released.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 8 ADF 8a Intake port 18 Sensor 18a Detected portion 18b Detecting portion 20 Shutter 20a Rotating fulcrum shaft 20b Hanging portion 20c Standing portion 21 Stopper 21a Rotating fulcrum shaft 23 Separate roller 26 Pickup roller 31 Retard roller

Claims (3)

[Claims] A pickup roller for taking in a document;
A paper separating device that separates and transports the documents taken in by the pickup roller one by one, and a pickup separating roller and the paper separating device so that the documents are not pushed into the paper separating device when the documents are stacked. A sheet feeder having a shutter that shuts off at a position, wherein the shutter also has a detection unit that detects the presence or absence of a document. 2. The shutter according to claim 1, wherein said shutter is rotatable, a contact portion for regulating the position of the leading end of the document is provided at one end of said shutter, and a detected portion of said detecting means is provided at the other end. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The sheet feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a stopper is attached to the shutter, and the rotation of the shutter is regulated by the stopper.