JP2003163770A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus in which a cover with an automatic document feeder (ADF) can be opened/closed, a paper feed cassette can be opened/closed, and a power source can be turned on/off even in the state both of the user's hands are full. <P>SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus 1 is provided with a cover 4 with an ADF 5 attached to be opened/closed to a flat bed scanner 3 arranged on the upper part of a main body 2 of the apparatus, a foot switch 11 for opening/ closing the cover 4 with the ADF, paper feed cassettes 8 and 9 provided to be opened/closed on the front side part of the main body 2 of the device, foot switches 12 and 13 for respectively opening/closing the paper feed cassettes 8 and 9, and a foot switch 14 for turning on/off the power source. When the respective foot switches 11-14 are operated by the foot, according to the ON/ OFF of such respective switches, opening/closing of the cover 4 with the ADF, opening/closing of the paper feed cassettes 8 and 9 and the ON/OFF of the power source is automatically performed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

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 used in a facsimile machine, a copying machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a conventional image forming apparatus has a flat bed scanner (FBS) arranged on an upper portion of an apparatus main body, and a cover having an automatic document feeder (ADF) has an FB.
In many cases, the structure is such that it is hinged on S to be openable and closable, a paper feed cassette is arranged to be able to move in and out of the front side of the apparatus main body, and a power switch is provided on the side or the upper portion of the apparatus main body.

In such a conventional apparatus, when copying, the cover with ADF is opened by hand to expose the reading surface of the flat bed scanner, the original is placed on the reading surface, and the cover with ADF is opened again after copying. The original on the scanning surface is removed. In addition, when replenishing paper in the paper feed cassette, the paper feed cassette is pulled out by hand and pushed back again after the paper is set. Furthermore, turn on the power /
When shutting off, the power switch is operated by hand.

[0004]

In such a conventional apparatus, when the manuscript is held in both hands and both hands are blocked, the manuscript is first lowered near the device before copying. You have to open the cover with ADF and you have to do it by hand to close it. Especially ADF
When many originals are copied one by one without using, the cover with ADF must be opened and closed by hand every time the originals are copied one by one, which is troublesome. When replenishing the paper, the paper feed cassette must be strongly pulled out with a certain amount of force, and the paper feed cassette must be pushed back after replenishment. Further, when both hands are closed, it may be troublesome to turn on / off the power switch.

The present invention was made in view of such a current situation, and even when both hands are closed,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of opening / closing a cover with an ADF, opening / closing a paper feed cassette, and turning on / off a power supply.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a cover with an automatic document feeder which can be opened and closed and which is provided in the apparatus body. And a control means for controlling opening / closing of the cover with the automatic document feeder according to ON / OFF of the foot switch.

According to this apparatus, even if both hands are closed, the foot switch can be operated by operating the foot switch.
It is possible to open and close the cover with DF.

An image forming apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is such that an openable and closable sheet feeding cassette provided in the apparatus main body, a foot switch provided in a lower portion of the apparatus main body, and a sheet feeding apparatus according to ON / OFF of the foot switch. And a control means for controlling opening / closing of the paper cassette.

According to this apparatus, it is possible to open and close the sheet feeding cassette by operating the foot switch with the foot even when both hands are closed.

An image forming apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention includes a power source,
It is characterized by comprising a foot switch provided at a lower portion of the apparatus main body, and a control means for controlling supply / interruption of electric power from a power source based on ON / OFF of the foot switch.

According to this apparatus, even when both hands are closed, the power can be turned on / off by operating the foot switch with the foot.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to embodiments.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment. The image forming apparatus 1 is a multi-function machine that also serves as a copying machine and a facsimile machine. A flat bed scanner (FBS) 3 is arranged on an upper portion of a main body 2 of the apparatus, and a cover 4 having an automatic document feeder (ADF) 5 is provided.
Is hingedly connected to the FBS 3 at the rear side so that it can be opened and closed in the direction of the arrow a (direction around the alternate long and short dash line), and the operation section 6 and the display section 7 are integrally provided on the FBS 3 so as to project toward the upper front side of the apparatus body 2. And the first and second parts on the front side of the device body 2.
Paper feed cassettes 8 and 9 are inserted and set so that they can be opened and closed (movable in and out) in the directions of arrows (front and back), and a power switch 10 is provided on the right side of the apparatus main body 2. However, since these respective units are the same as those of the conventional device, the details are omitted.

The image forming apparatus 1 is characterized in that the apparatus main body 2
The first to fourth foot switches 11, 12, 1 on the bottom of the
3 and 14 are provided. The first foot switch 11 is for opening and closing the ADF-equipped cover 4, the second foot switch 12 is for opening and closing the first paper feed cassette 8, and the third foot switch 13 is provided.
Is for opening and closing the second paper feed cassette 9,
The foot switch 14 is used to turn on / off the power supply similarly to the power switch 10.

A block diagram of the configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 is shown in FIG. The MPU (central processing unit) 20 functions as an overall control unit of the present device 1, and the MPU 20 has a ROM 2
1, the RAM 22, the operation unit 6, and the display unit 7 are connected, and further, the first to fourth foot switches 11 to 14 are connected via the I / O port 35. The ROM 21 stores in advance a program for controlling the operation of the entire device. The RAM 22 stores data required for control by the MPU 20, data that needs to be temporarily stored during control operation, and the like.

The operation unit 6 has a numeric keypad for inputting numbers such as a telephone number and a FAX number, a one-touch key, a speed key, operation keys for instructing various operations, and the like.
The display unit 7 outputs a soft copy of various information such as a telephone number, a FAX number, and a remaining toner amount of the printer, which are input by the operation of the operation unit 6, and displays the information. A liquid crystal display or a CRT display is used as the display unit 7. The first to fourth foot switches 11-14 are as described above.

The MPU 20 has an image memory 23,
Codec [CODEC (encoder / decoder: Coder and
Decoder)] 24, modem 25, NCU (Network Cont
rolUnit) 26, a motor controller 38 as a control means for controlling opening / closing of the ADF-equipped cover 4, and opening / closing of the first and second sheet feeding cassettes 8 and 9, and power supply control as a control means for controlling power supply / interruption. The circuit 30 and the image processing unit 36 are connected.

The image memory 23 stores the image data read by the FBS 3 and also externally connects the line L and the modem 25.
The image data received via is stored. Codec 24
Encodes image data to be transmitted and decodes the received image data. The modem 25 modulates / demodulates transmission / reception data, specifically, modulates transmission data, which is originally a digital signal, into an analog voice band signal and sends the analog voice band signal to the line L via the NCU 26, and vice versa. The received analog voice band signal is demodulated to a digital signal. The NCU 26 is controlled by the MPU 20,
It has a function of controlling the connection between the line L and the device 1, a function of transmitting a dial pulse according to the telephone number of the communication partner, and a function of detecting an incoming call. The line L is connected to a general public telephone line (not shown).

The motor controller 38 controls the operation of the cover opening / closing motor 31 with the first motor driver 27, and corresponds to the first foot switch 11 with the controller 38 and the driver 27. Further, the motor controller 38 controls the operation of the first paper feed cassette opening / closing motor 32 by the second motor driver 28, and the controller 38 and the driver 28 correspond to the second foot switch 12. Further, the motor controller 38
Controls the operation of the second paper feed cassette opening / closing motor 33 with the third motor driver 29.
8 and the driver 29 correspond to the third foot switch 13. The power supply control circuit 30 controls supply / interruption of electric power from the power supply 34 and corresponds to the fourth foot switch 14.

The image processing unit 36 is connected to a CCD 37 as a scanner for reading an original image and outputs image data by performing image processing such as binarization processing.

In the image forming apparatus 1 having such a structure, when both hands are closed due to a document being held or the like, the user may press the desired one of the foot switches 11 to 14 with his / her feet. For example, when copying a document, if the first foot switch 11 is stepped on with a foot, the ADF-equipped cover 4 automatically opens and the reading surface of the FBS 3 appears. If you press the foot switch 11 again after setting the original on the reading surface,
The cover 4 with ADF automatically closes. When removing the original after copying, press the foot switch 11
The cover 4 with an ADF is opened, and if the foot switch 11 is further stepped on after taking it out, the cover 4 with an ADF is closed.

When supplying paper to the paper feeding cassettes 8 and 9, if the second foot switch 12 or the third foot switch 13 is stepped on, the first paper feeding cassette 8 or the second paper feeding cassette 9 is opened. It comes out automatically from the device body 2. When the foot switch 12 or 13 is stepped on again after the paper is replenished, the paper feed cassette 8 or 9 is automatically set in the apparatus main body 2.
Of course, when the power is turned on / off, the fourth foot switch 14 is operated with the foot.

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus 1, by operating the foot switches 11 to 14 with the feet, the cover 4 with the ADF is opened / closed, the paper feeding cassettes 8 and 9 are opened / closed, and the power is turned on / off. Therefore, even if both hands are closed, those operations can be performed easily.

In this embodiment, the cover 4 with ADF is opened / closed, the paper feed cassettes 8 and 9 are opened / closed, and the power is turned on / off.
Although the three off operations are performed by the foot switches 11 to 14, only one operation or two operations may be performed. Further, although the first and second sheet feeding cassettes 8 and 9 are prepared, the number may be one or three or more. In this case, it goes without saying that foot switches are provided according to the number of paper feed cassettes.

[0025]

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the first aspect, even when both hands are closed,
The ADF-equipped cover can be opened / closed by operating the foot switch with the foot.

According to the image forming apparatus of the second aspect, even when both hands are closed, it is possible to open and close the paper feed cassette by operating the foot switch with the foot. According to the image forming apparatus of the third aspect, the power can be turned on / off by operating the foot switch with the foot even when both hands are closed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Image forming device 2 device body 3 Flatbed scanner (FBS) 4 Cover with ADF 5 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) 6 Operation part 7 Display 8,9 paper feed cassette 10 power switch 11-14 Foot switch 27 First Motor Driver (Control Unit) 28 Second motor driver (control means) 29 Third motor driver (control means) 30 power supply control circuit (control means) 38 Motor controller (control means)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03G 21/00 376 G03G 21/00 376 398 398 F term (reference) 2H012 CB13 2H027 EJ17 FA22 GA13 GA20 2H071 AA35 AA46 AA48 DA01 DA22 DA34 EA16 3F343 FA02 FB01 FC30 GA01 GB01 GC01 GD02 HA16 HA29 HB03 HC25 KB03 LA04 LA12 5C062 AA02 AA05 AB17 AB22 AB30 AC10 AD02 AE15

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cover with an automatic document feeder that can be opened and closed provided on the apparatus body, a foot switch provided on the lower portion of the apparatus body, and an automatic document feeder according to the on / off state of the foot switch. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a control unit that controls opening and closing of the attached cover. 2. An openable and closable sheet feeding cassette provided in the apparatus main body, a foot switch provided in a lower portion of the apparatus main body, and a control for controlling opening and closing of the sheet feeding cassette according to ON / OFF of the foot switch. An image forming apparatus comprising: 3. A power supply, a foot switch provided at the bottom of the apparatus main body, and control means for controlling supply / interruption of electric power from the power supply based on ON / OFF of the foot switch. Image forming apparatus.