JP2007197104A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document reading device and image forming device capable of reducing the number of trays and also simplifying a path. <P>SOLUTION: An image reading device 66 has a scanner part 68 and a document feed/delivery part 70. The scanner part 68 includes a document receiving port 76 for receiving documents, a reading means 100 for reading the documents received from the document receiving port 76, and a document delivery port 78 for delivering the documents read by the reading means 100. The document feed/delivery part 70 includes a plurality of document feed/delivery trays 72a to 72d and a moving means 108 for moving the plurality of document feed/delivery trays 72a to 72d. When reading of a document bundle on the document feed/delivery tray 72b is completed, the document feed/delivery trays 72a to 72d are lowered at one stage. Then, the next document bundle on the document feed/delivery tray 72c is read and delivered to the document feed/delivery tray 72b. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a document reading apparatus that reads a document, and an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile.

  A conventional document reading apparatus is provided with one paper feed tray and one paper discharge tray, and a single document bundle is placed on the paper feed tray. It is designed to be discharged to the tray. For this reason, when trying to read a plurality of document bundles related to a plurality of jobs, the document bundle must be placed on the paper feed tray every time one document bundle is read, and the reading efficiency is poor.

  Therefore, a plurality of paper feed trays and paper discharge trays can be provided, and a bundle of originals of multiple jobs can be placed on the paper feed tray for each job. A document reading apparatus has been proposed in which a bundle of documents is discharged for each job to each of the discharge trays (Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-238952 A

  However, since the invention described in Patent Document 1 has a structure in which a plurality of paper feed trays and paper discharge trays are provided, there are problems that the number of trays is large and a large number of paper paths are necessary and complicated. there were.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an original reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus capable of reducing the number of trays and simplifying a path.

  The first feature of the present invention is that a scanner unit having a document receiving port for receiving a document, a reading unit for reading a document received from the document receiving port, and a document discharging port for discharging a document read by the reading unit. A document supply / discharge tray having a document supply / discharge tray and a moving unit for moving the document supply / discharge tray, and the document supply / discharge tray after the supply of the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit is completed. And a control means for controlling the moving means so as to be moved to the document discharge port of the document. Therefore, the document supply / discharge tray, which has finished supplying the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit, is moved to the document output port of the scanner unit. The number of trays can be reduced, and the path can be simplified.

  Preferably, there are at least three document supply / discharge trays, and the next document bundle is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray after the supply of one document bundle to the document receiving port of the scanner unit is completed. To do. Accordingly, the document bundle for a plurality of jobs can be read at a time by placing the document bundle on two of at least three document supply / discharge trays.

  Preferably, the distance between the document receiving port and the document discharge port of the scanner unit and the distance between the at least three document supply / discharge trays are substantially the same. Accordingly, the moving means can move the at least three document supply / discharge trays together to align the next document supply / discharge tray with the document receiving port and the document discharge port, thereby simplifying the moving means. it can.

  Further, preferably, the document receiving port and the document discharging port of the scanner are formed so as to be separated from each other in a substantially vertical direction, and the moving means moves the document feeding / discharging tray along a substantially vertical direction. . Therefore, since the document feeding / discharging tray is moved in the vertical direction by the moving means, the horizontal width of the document reading apparatus can be reduced.

  Preferably, a pickup roll for picking up the documents stacked on the document supply / discharge tray, and the pickup roll are connected to the document supply / discharge tray when the document supply / discharge tray is moved by the moving means. Retracting means for retracting to a position to avoid interference. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the pickup roll from interfering with the document feeding / discharging tray by this retracting means.

  Preferably, the document supply / discharge tray includes a side guide for regulating a position of the document in the width direction, and a tilting mechanism for tilting the side guide when the document is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray. When the document supply / discharge tray is used as the paper supply tray, the width direction of the document can be regulated by the side guide, while when the document supply / discharge tray is used as the discharge tray, the side guide can be tilted. The guide can be smoothly received without disturbing the document to be discharged.

  The second feature of the present invention is that a scanner unit having a document receiving port for receiving a document, a reading unit for reading a document received from the document receiving port, and a document discharging port for discharging a document read by the reading unit. A document supply / discharge tray having a document supply / discharge tray and a moving unit for moving the document supply / discharge tray, and the document supply / discharge tray after the supply of the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit is completed. The image forming apparatus includes a control unit that controls the moving unit to move the document to a document discharge port and an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet. Therefore, since the document supply / discharge tray, which has finished supplying the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit, is moved to the document discharge port of the scanner unit, the sheet supply / discharge tray is used for both feeding and discharging. The number of trays can be reduced, the path can be simplified, and the image forming means is provided, so that a printer function can be provided.

  Preferably, the image forming unit forms an image read by the reading unit on a sheet. Therefore, it is possible to provide a copy function for copying a document.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an outline of an image forming apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 10 includes an image forming apparatus main body 12, an image forming unit 14 is mounted in the image forming apparatus main body 12, and a sheet discharge unit 16 described later is provided on the upper portion of the image forming apparatus main body 12. In addition, for example, two-stage sheet feeding units 18 and 18 are disposed below the image forming apparatus main body 12. Further, a plurality of paper feeding units can be optionally arranged below the image forming apparatus main body 12.

  Each paper feed unit 18 has a paper feed unit main body 20 and a paper feed cassette 22 in which paper is stored. A paper feed pickup roll 24 is disposed in the upper part near the rear end of the paper feed cassette 22, and a paper retard roll 26 and a paper feed roll 28 are disposed behind the paper pickup roll 24.

  The main transport path 32 is a paper path from the paper feed roll 28 to the paper discharge port 34, and this main transport path 32 is near the back side (the left side surface in FIG. 1) of the image forming apparatus main body 12, and is the It has a portion formed substantially vertically from the paper feed unit 18 at the lower end to the fixing device 36 described later. A transfer device 42 and an image carrier 44 which will be described later are arranged on the upstream side of the fixing device 36 in the main conveyance path 32, and a resist roll 39 is arranged on the upstream side of the transfer device 42 and the image carrier 44. Further, a sheet discharge roll 40 is disposed in the vicinity of the sheet discharge port 34 of the main transport path 32.

  Accordingly, the sheet fed from the sheet cassette 22 of the sheet feeding unit 18 by the sheet pickup roll 24 is turned by the cooperation of the sheet retard roll 26 and the sheet feed roll 28, and only the uppermost sheet is the main transport path. 32, is temporarily stopped by a resist roll 39, and at a timing, a developer image is transferred between a transfer device 42 and an image carrier 44, which will be described later, and the transferred developer image is transferred to the fixing device. It is conveyed to 36. The fixing device 36 has a heating roll 37 provided with a heater or the like inside, and a pressure roll 38 that is pressed against the heating roll 37 and forms a nip portion together with the heating roll 37, and is conveyed. Heat and pressure are applied to the developer image transferred to the paper to fix the developer image on the paper. The sheet on which the developer image is fixed is discharged from the sheet discharge port 34 to the discharge unit 16 by the sheet discharge roll 40.

  However, in the case of duplex printing, it is returned to the reverse path. That is, the front of the sheet discharge roll 40 in the main conveyance path 32 is divided into two forks, and a switching device 46 is provided in the divided part, and a reverse path 48 is formed from the divided part to the registration roll 39. Yes. The reversing path 48 is provided with transport rolls 50a to 50c. In the case of double-sided printing, the switching device 46 is switched to the side that opens the reversing path 48, and the paper discharge roll 40 is in front of the rear end of the paper. At that time, the discharge roll 40 is reversed, the paper is guided to the reverse path 48, and is discharged from the paper discharge port 34 to the paper discharge unit 16 through the registration roll 39, the transfer device 42, the image carrier 44 and the fixing device 36. Is.

  The paper discharge unit 16 has an inclined part 52 that is rotatable with respect to the image forming apparatus main body 12. The inclined portion 52 has a lower sheet discharge port portion and is inclined so as to gradually increase toward the front direction (right direction in FIG. 1), with the sheet discharge port portion as a lower end and an increased tip as an upper end. Yes. The inclined portion 52 is supported by the image forming apparatus main body 12 so as to be rotatable around the lower end. As shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 1, when the inclined portion 52 is rotated upward and opened, an opening portion 54 is formed, and a process cartridge 64 described later can be attached and detached through the opening portion 54. .

The image forming unit 14 is, for example, of an electrophotographic type, and is charged by an image carrier 44 made of a photosensitive member, a charging device 56 made of, for example, a charging roll that uniformly charges the image carrier 44, and a charging device 56. An optical writing device 58 that writes a latent image on the image carrier 44 with light, a developing device 60 that visualizes the latent image of the image carrier 44 formed by the optical writing device 58 with a developer, and the developing device 60. A transfer device 42 composed of, for example, a transfer roll for transferring the developer image produced by the toner onto the paper, a cleaning device 62 composed of, for example, a blade for cleaning the developer remaining on the image carrier 44, and the paper transferred by the transfer device 42 The image forming apparatus includes a fixing device 36 that fixes a developer image on a sheet. The optical writing device 58 is composed of, for example, a scanning type laser exposure device, and is arranged in the vicinity of the front surface of the image forming apparatus main body 12 in parallel with the paper feeding unit 18 described above, and exposes the image carrier 44 across the developing device 60. . The exposure position of the image carrier 44 is the latent image writing position P.
In this embodiment, a scanning laser exposure apparatus is used as the optical writing device 58, but an LED, a surface emitting laser, or the like can be used as another embodiment.

  The process cartridge 64 is obtained by integrating the image carrier 44, the charging device 56, the developing device 60, and the cleaning device 62. The process cartridge 64 is disposed immediately below the inclined portion 52 of the paper discharge portion 16 and is attached / detached via the opening portion 54 formed when the inclined portion 52 is opened as described above.

A document reading device 66 is provided on the front upper portion of the image forming apparatus main body 12. The document reading device 66 includes a scanner unit 68 fixed to the top of the image forming apparatus main body 12 and a document feeding / discharging unit 70 fixed to the front side of the scanner unit 68. The scanner unit 68 has a shape that does not interfere with the process cartridge when the process cartridge 64 is removed. The document supply / discharge unit 70 includes, for example, four document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d, and these document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d protrude to the front side of the image forming apparatus 10, and the document supply / discharge trays. When placing an original on 72a-72d or taking out an original, it can be performed from the front side or the side of the image forming apparatus 10.
The image forming apparatus main body 12 is provided with a setting device (not shown) for setting a mode such as a print mode, a copy mode, a facsimile mode, and a scan mode, and the number of copies. When the print mode is set, the image forming apparatus 10 forms an image on a sheet based on image data input from the outside. When the copy mode is set, an image is formed on a sheet based on the document image data read by the document reading device 66. When the facsimile mode is set, the document image data read by the document reading device 66 is transmitted to the transmission destination. When the scan mode is set, the document image data read by the document reading device 66 is stored in the storage device.

  2 and 3, details of the document reading device 66 are shown. The scanner unit 68 includes a scanner unit main body 74, and the scanner unit main body 74 is fixed to the image forming apparatus main body described above. A document receiving port 76 and a document discharge port 78 are opened in the front direction of the scanner unit main body 74. The document receiving port 76 and the document discharge port 78 are arranged at a predetermined distance in the vertical direction. The document receiving port 76 is connected to a document receiving chute 80, and the document receiving chute 80 is provided with a document retard roll 82 and a document feed roll 84 in contact with the document retard roll 82. The document received in the document receiving port 76 is rolled by the document retard roll 82 and the document feed roll 84 and enters the document receiving chute 80. The document receiving chute 80 is provided with a document receiving and conveying roll 86. The document discharge port 78 is connected to a document discharge chute 88, and document discharge rolls 90 and 92 are provided on the document discharge chute 88.

  The platen roll 94 is arranged so that the exit of the document receiving chute 80 and the entrance of the document discharge chute 88 are tangential. A platen glass 96 is in contact with the lower end of the platen roll 94, and light from the light source 98 strikes the document through the platen glass 96. The light reflected on the original is received by an image sensor 100 made of, for example, a CCD serving as an original reading means through a platen glass 96, and the light received by the image sensor 100 is converted into an electric signal and output as an original image. . The auxiliary rolls 102 and 104 are in contact with the platen roll 94. Accordingly, the original received from the original receiving port 76 enters the original receiving chute 80, is rolled by the original retard roll 82 and the original feed roll 84, and is conveyed to the platen roll 94 by the original receiving / conveying roll 86, and the auxiliary roll. 100 and 102 change the direction along the surface of the platen roll 92, the light from the light source 96 is reflected through the platen glass 96, read by the image sensor 100, enters the document discharge chute 88, and enters the document discharge roll 90. , 92 and discharged from the document discharge port 78.

  The document feeding / discharging unit 70 includes a document feeding / discharging unit main body 106, and the document feeding / discharging trays 72a to 72d described above are provided on the document feeding / discharging unit main body 106 so as to be movable in a substantially vertical direction. ing. The document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d are connected to an elevating device 108 which is a moving means including a chain or the like, and the elevating device 108 controls the movement along a substantially vertical direction. The distance between the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d is substantially equal to the distance between the document receiving port 76 and the document discharging port 78 of the scanner unit 68 described above. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the lowermost document supply / discharge tray 72 a is in a position facing the document discharge port 78, the second document supply / discharge tray 72 b from the lower side faces the document receiving port 76. As shown in FIG. 3, when it is lowered by one step, the second document supply / discharge tray 72b from the bottom faces the document discharge port 78, and the third document supply / discharge tray 72c from the bottom is the document reception port. 76.

  Document sensors 110a to 110c for detecting whether or not there are documents in each tray are provided in trays other than the lowermost document supply / discharge tray.

  Further, a pickup roll 112 is disposed at the upper end of the document feed / discharge trays 72 b to 72 d facing the document receiving port 76. As shown in FIG. 4, the pickup roll 112 is connected to the document feed roll 84 via a connecting member 114. The connecting member 114 is rotatable about the support shaft of the document feed roll 84. When the document supply / discharge tray 72b (or 72c) is lowered from a position facing the document receiving port 76, the connecting member 114 is lowered from above. In order to avoid interference between the incoming document feed / discharge tray 72c (or 72d) and the pickup roll 112, the pickup roll 112 rotates, for example, counterclockwise, and moves to a position where the pickup roll 112 does not interfere. As a means for retracting the pickup roll 112, the connecting member 114 may be rotated by a motor. For example, the lowering of the document feeding / discharging tray 72c (72d) may be performed by using a rack and pinion or a cam. The connecting member 114 may be rotated in conjunction with the motor.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, side guides 116 are provided in the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d. The side guide 116 regulates the position of the placed document in the width direction (perpendicular to the conveyance direction) and is moved so as to face both the document receiving port 76 and the document discharge port 78. When the side guides 116 of the document supply / discharge trays 72 b and 72 c are located at positions facing the document discharge port 78, the side guide 116 is tilted by the tilting mechanism 118.

  The tilting mechanism 118 has a rail 120 provided on the document feeding / discharging unit main body 106. The rail 120 extends in the vertical direction, is recessed so as to be separated from the scanner unit at the document receiving position facing the document receiving port 76, and protrudes toward the scanner unit at the document discharging position facing the document discharging port 78. Is formed. One end of an operating bar 122 is in contact with the rail 120. The operation bar 122 is slidably supported in the document feeding / discharging direction on the bottom surface portions of the document feeding / discharging trays 72b and 72c. The operation bar 122 is pulled toward the anti-scanner section 68 by a first elastic body 124 provided between the document supply / discharge trays 72b and 72c. Therefore, the operation bar 122 moves in the document feeding / discharging direction along the shape of the rail 120.

On the other hand, the side guide 116 has a rotating shaft 126, and stands on the document supply / discharge trays 72 b and 72 c by a second elastic body 128 formed of, for example, a torsion spring provided around the rotating shaft 126. Yes. A movable piece 130 is formed on the side guide 116 so as to protrude downward, and this movable piece 130 protrudes downward through a sliding hole 132 formed in the document supply / discharge trays 72b and 72c. The movable piece 130 is formed obliquely. Therefore, when the operation bar 122 hits, the side guide 116 can be brought down against the second elastic body 128 by the component force.
The sliding hole 132 is slidable in the width direction of the document, and the position of the side guide 116 in the width direction can be adjusted according to the width of the document. The side guide 116 may be one if it is a side register, but can be provided on both the left and right sides if it is a center register. In this embodiment, the side guide 116 is tilted at the discharge position. However, as another embodiment, the side guide 116 may be moved away from the maximum document width to be placed.

  In FIG. 6, the setting signal from the setting device 136 and the detection signals from the document sensors 110a to 110c are input to the control circuit 134, and these signals are processed to process the scanner unit 68 and the document feeding / discharging unit 70. Is to control.

FIG. 7 shows a control flow by the control circuit 134 when the scan mode is set by the setting device 136.
First, the control circuit 134 performs initial setting in step S10. In the initial setting, the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d are returned to the positions shown in FIG. 2 and the tray number N is set to 2, for example. The tray number N = 2 corresponds to the document supply / discharge tray 72b, the tray number N = 3 corresponds to the document supply / discharge tray 72c, and the tray number N = 4 corresponds to the document supply / discharge tray 72d.

  In the next step S12, it is determined whether or not there are documents on the document supply / discharge trays 72b to 72d corresponding to the tray numbers based on the outputs of the document sensors 110a to 110c. If it is determined in this step S12 that there is a document, the process proceeds to the next step S14, where the document is conveyed from the document supply / discharge trays 72b to 72d, and in the next step S16, an image of the document is obtained by the image sensor 100. In the next step S18, the original is discharged to the original supply / discharge trays 72a to 72c. In the next step S20, it is determined whether or not there are documents on the document supply / discharge trays 72b to 72d supplying the documents. If it is determined in step S20 that there is a document, the process returns to step S14 and is repeated until there are no more documents on the document supply / discharge trays 72b to 72d. If it is determined in step S20 that there are no more documents on the document supply / discharge trays 72b to 72d, or if it is determined in step S12 that no document is placed from the beginning, the process proceeds to step S22. Is incremented. In the next step S24, it is determined whether or not N> 4. If it is determined that N> 4 is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step S26, and the lifting / lowering device 108 is lowered so as to lower the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d by one step. And return to step S12. If it is determined in step S22 that N> 4, the process is terminated.

  That is, when the scan mode is set, each of the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d is set at the position shown in FIG. 2, and the lowermost document supply / discharge tray 72a is opposed to the document discharge port 78, and 2 from below. The th document feeding / discharging tray 72 b faces the document receiving port 76. The document on the document supply / discharge tray 72b is read until there is no more bundle of documents placed on the document supply / discharge tray 72b, and the read document is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray 72a. When there are no more documents in the document supply / discharge tray 72b, the document supply / discharge trays 72a to 72d are lowered by the elevating device 108, and the second document supply / discharge tray 72b from the lower side is discharged as shown in FIG. Opposite to the outlet 78, the third document feeding / discharging tray 72c from below faces the document receiving port 76. In this state, the document on the document supply / discharge tray 72c is read until there is no document bundle placed on the document supply / discharge tray 72c, and the read document is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray 72b. At this stage, the document supply / discharge tray 72b serves as both supply and discharge of documents. When there are no more documents on the document supply / discharge tray 72 c, the document supply / discharge trays 72 a to 72 d are lowered by the lifting device 108, and the third document supply / discharge tray 72 b from the lower side is connected to the document discharge port 78. The uppermost document feeding / discharging tray 72d faces the document receiving port 76. In this state, the document on the document supply / discharge tray 72d is read until there is no more bundle of documents placed on the document supply / discharge tray 72d, and the read document is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray 72c. At this stage, the document supply / discharge tray 72c serves both for supplying and discharging documents. Further, when a document feeding / discharging tray is provided, the above operation is repeated, and a plurality of document bundles corresponding to the job can be automatically read sequentially.

  As described above, the present invention can be used for an image reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus that automatically read a plurality of jobs.

1 is a side view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a side view showing an initial state of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a side view showing a state during operation of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a side view showing the vicinity of a pickup roll used in the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. (A) is a perspective view showing the vicinity of a document feed / discharge tray used in the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, (b) is a side view showing the vicinity of a side guide of the document feed / discharge tray, (C) is sectional drawing of the arrow c direction of (b). FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control device in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a control flow in a scan mode in the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming apparatus 12 Image forming apparatus main body 14 Image forming means 66 Document reading apparatus 68 Scanner part 70 Document feeding / discharging part 72a-72d Document feeding / discharging tray 76 Document receiving port 78 Document discharging port 94 Platen roll 96 Platen glass 100 Image Sensors 110a to 110c Document sensor 112 Pickup roll 114 Connecting member 116 Side guide 118 Tilt mechanism 120 Rail 122 Actuating bar 130 Movable piece 134 Control circuit

Claims (8)

A scanner unit having a document receiving port for receiving a document, a reading unit for reading a document received from the document receiving port, and a document discharging port for discharging a document read by the reading unit;
A document supply / discharge section having a document supply / discharge tray and a moving means for moving the document supply / discharge tray;
Control means for controlling the moving means to move the document supply / discharge tray, which has finished supplying the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit, to the document discharging port of the scanner unit;
A document reading apparatus.   2. The document according to claim 1, wherein there are at least three document supply / discharge trays, and the next document bundle is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray after the supply of one document bundle to the document receiving port of the scanner unit is completed. Reader.   3. A document reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a distance between a document receiving port and a document discharging port of the scanner unit is substantially the same as a distance between the at least three document feeding / discharging trays.   The document receiving port and the document discharging port of the scanner are formed to be separated from each other in a substantially vertical direction, and the moving unit moves the document feeding / discharging tray in a substantially vertical direction. Document reader.   A pickup roll that picks up the documents stacked on the document supply / discharge tray, and the pickup roll is retracted to a position that avoids interference with the document supply / discharge tray when the moving means moves the document supply / discharge tray. The document reading apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a retracting unit that causes the document to be retracted.   6. The document supply / discharge tray has a side guide that regulates a position in the width direction of the document, and has a tilting mechanism that tilts the side guide when the document is discharged to the document supply / discharge tray. The document reading apparatus described. A scanner unit having a document receiving port for receiving a document, a reading unit for reading a document received from the document receiving port, and a document discharging port for discharging a document read by the reading unit;
A document supply / discharge section having a document supply / discharge tray and a moving means for moving the document supply / discharge tray;
Control means for controlling the moving means to move the document supply / discharge tray, which has finished supplying the document to the document receiving port of the scanner unit, to the document discharging port of the scanner unit;
Image forming means for forming an image on paper;
An image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image forming unit forms an image read by the reading unit on a sheet.

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