JP2008154111A - Image forming apparatus, and image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow an image forming apparatus equipped with an image reader to be easily manufactured, repaired, and so on. <P>SOLUTION: A contact type image sensor is used for an imaging reading unit, and a sensor main body 41 thereof is energized by a second coil spring 46 toward a cover glass 43 to insert a spacer 47 between the sensor main body 41 and cover glass 43, so that the cover glass 43 is held from outside by a glass retainer 48. Consequently, the cover glass 43 can be fixed to the sensor main body 41 without using an adhesive etc., while held at a fixed distance to the sensor main body 41. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus that reads an image of a document, and an image forming apparatus that includes the image reading apparatus and has a function of forming a read image on a recording sheet.

Conventionally, a contact image sensor called a CIS (Contact Image Sensor) has been widely used in an image reading apparatus provided in an image forming apparatus. The image reading apparatus includes a sheet feeder type image reading apparatus that reads an image while conveying a document to a fixed CIS at a constant speed, and scans a sensor body in the sub-scanning direction from below a glass document table. There is a flatbed type image reading apparatus that reads an image while reading the image. As an example of a sheet feeder type image reading apparatus, Patent Document 1 discloses an image reading apparatus that prevents irregular reflection by configuring a CIS cover glass so as to be fixed over the entire area of the platen roller in the axial direction. ing. Further, as an example of a flat bed type image reading apparatus, Patent Document 2 discloses an image reading apparatus in which rollers are provided between the CIS and the cover glass in order to keep the distance between them constant. In addition, as a technique related to an image reading unit applied to an image reading apparatus, Patent Document 3 discloses that a plurality of grooves are provided in the upper end surface of a CIS housing member, and the upper end surface of the housing member is formed by an adhesive filled in the groove. A technique for bonding a cover glass to a cover glass is shown.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-23668 JP-A-9-107436 JP-A-5-91246

  However, in the sheet feeder type image reading apparatus as shown in Patent Document 1, it is difficult to fit a spring metal fitting into a groove formed over the entire area of the platen roller in the axial direction. There is a risk of deteriorating productivity. Further, since the image reading unit shown in Patent Document 3 has a configuration in which a cover glass is bonded to a housing member, if this technique is applied to a sheet feeder type image reading apparatus, the housing member If any problem occurs in the sensor main body disposed inside, repair becomes difficult. In addition, there is a problem that the adhesive scatters around the parts in the manufacturing process of the image reading apparatus. Further, there arises a problem that a transparent cover member mounted on the CIS is clouded by a gas generated as the adhesive is dried.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image reading apparatus having a structure that can be easily manufactured and repaired easily, and an image forming apparatus including the image reading apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1
A document feed tray that supports the loaded document, a document transport mechanism that transports the document supported by the document feed tray, and reads an image of the document transported by the document transport mechanism and converts it into an electrical signal. An image reading unit, and an image reading unit having a document discharge tray for holding a document on which an image is read by the image reading unit;
A recording paper feed tray that supports the loaded recording paper, a recording paper transport mechanism that transports a document supported by the recording paper feed tray, and an image that is recorded on the recording paper transported by the recording paper transport mechanism An image forming unit having an image forming unit to form and a recording paper discharge tray for holding a recording sheet on which an image is formed by the image forming unit;
The image forming means is a thermal head having a micro heating element that generates heat in accordance with image data read by the image reading means or image data input from the outside,
The image reading means is a contact image sensor that reads an image of the original while being in contact with the original conveyed by the original conveying mechanism, and includes a sensor main body having a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and a housing member that houses the sensor main body. And an image forming apparatus having a transparent cover glass with which a document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism comes into contact, and a platen roller that closely contacts the document with the cover glass.
The image reading means is provided on the back side of the housing member, and is provided on the back side of the sensor body, the first coil spring for urging the housing member toward the platen roller, and the sensor body is A second coil spring biased toward the cover glass, spacers interposed between the sensor body and the cover glass at both ends of the sensor body, and the cover glass to hold the cover glass A glass retainer mounted on the housing member from the outside, and a retainer fixing screw for fixing the glass retainer to the housing member,
The sensor body is the same as that employed in a flatbed image reading device,
The glass retainer is mounted from the outside of the cover glass, and the cover glass is fixed to the housing member by fastening the retainer fixing screw, while the distance between the cover glass and the sensor body is kept constant by the spacer, The sensor body is fixed in the housing member by the biasing force of the second coil spring.

The invention of claim 2
A document conveying mechanism that conveys the document, and an image reading unit that reads an image of the document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism and converts the image into an electrical signal,
The image reading means is a contact image sensor that reads an image of the original while being in contact with the original conveyed by the original conveying mechanism, and includes a sensor main body having a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and a housing member that houses the sensor main body. And an image reading apparatus having a transparent cover glass with which a document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism comes into contact, and a platen roller for bringing the document into close contact with the cover glass.
The image reading means is provided on the back side of the sensor main body, biasing means for biasing the sensor main body toward the cover glass, and the sensor main body and the cover glass at both ends of the sensor main body. A spacer interposed between the glass plate and a glass retainer mounted on the housing member from the outside of the cover glass to hold the cover glass.

The invention of claim 3 is the image reading apparatus according to claim 2,
The image reading means further includes a coil spring provided on the back side of the housing member and biasing the housing member toward the platen roller.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the cover glass is fixed to the housing member by attaching the glass retainer from the outside of the cover glass and fastening the retainer fixing screw, the cover glass can be accommodated without using an adhesive. It becomes possible to fix to the member. Further, by loosening the retainer fixing screw, the glass retainer and the cover glass can be detached from the housing member. Therefore, when a problem occurs in the sensor body, the repair can be easily performed. In addition, a spacer is inserted between the sensor body and the cover glass, and the second coil spring urges the sensor body toward the cover glass, so the distance between the cover glass and the sensor body (corresponding to the thickness of the spacer) The sensor main body is fixed at an appropriate position in the housing member while keeping the constant. Accordingly, the sensor main body and the cover glass can be fixed to the housing member with a simple configuration. Further, since the same sensor body as that used in the flat bed type image reading apparatus, that is, a sensor body with a relatively low unit price can be used, the manufacturing cost of the image forming apparatus can be reduced. Further, since the glass retainer is mounted on the outside of the cover glass, dust does not enter the inside of the housing member. Furthermore, since the housing member is urged toward the platen roller by the first coil spring, the document positioned between the platen roller and the cover glass is brought into close contact with the cover glass. Thereby, the distance between the sensor main body and the original becomes equal to the sum of the spacer thickness and the cover glass thickness, and the image can be read at an appropriate distance according to the focal length of the sensor main body.

  According to the invention of claim 2, since the cover glass is fixed to the housing member by mounting the glass retainer from the outside of the cover glass, the cover glass can be fixed to the housing member without using an adhesive. . In addition, a spacer is inserted between the sensor body and the cover glass, and the urging means urges the sensor body toward the cover glass, so the distance between the cover glass and the sensor body (corresponding to the thickness of the spacer) The sensor body is fixed at an appropriate position in the housing member while being kept constant. Thus, the sensor body and the cover glass can be fixed to the housing member with a simple and inexpensive configuration.

  According to the invention of claim 3, since the housing member is biased by the coil spring toward the platen roller, the document positioned between the platen roller and the cover glass is brought into close contact with the cover glass. Thereby, the distance between the sensor main body and the original becomes equal to the sum of the spacer thickness and the cover glass thickness, and the image can be read at an appropriate distance according to the focal length of the sensor main body.

  An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a document feed tray 2 that supports a document, a document transport mechanism 3 that transports a document supported on the document feed tray, and an image of a document that is read by electricity. An image reading unit (image reading unit) 4 that converts the signal, a document discharge tray 5 on which documents read by the image reading unit 4 are stacked, and a recording sheet feeding tray that supports the loaded recording sheet 6, a recording paper transport mechanism 7 for transporting a document supported by the recording paper feed tray 6, and an image forming unit (image forming means) for forming an image on the recording paper transported by the recording paper transport mechanism 7 ) 8, the recording paper discharge tray 9 on which the recording paper on which the image is formed by the image forming unit 8, and the image data read by the image reading unit 4 are transmitted to an external device via a telephone line or the like. At the same time, the image forming unit 8 forms That a communication unit 10 that receives data from an external device image, is formed by the housing 11 or the like for supporting the respective sections.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the document transport mechanism 3 and the image reading unit 4 and the periphery thereof. As an image reading unit, generally, a reduction optical system image sensor using a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a lens, and a light emitting element and a light receiving element arranged in close contact with a document and arranged in the main scanning direction are used. A contact-type image sensor for reading the image is used. In the present embodiment, the latter contact image sensor is used as the image reading unit 4.

  The document transport mechanism 3 includes a paper feed roller 31 that sends a document supported by the document feed tray 2 to the image reading unit 4, and a document separation unit that separates a document driven by the paper feed roller 31 from other documents. 32, a discharge roller 34 that discharges a document whose image has been read by the image reading unit 4, a pressing roller 35 that presses the document against the discharge roller 34, and the like.

  FIG. 3 shows a main part of the image reading unit 4. The image reading unit 4 is conveyed by a sensor main body 41 having a light emitting element 41 a and a light receiving element 41 b (see FIG. 2) arranged on a straight line, a housing member 42 that houses the sensor main body 41, and a paper feed roller 31. A transparent cover glass 43 with which the document is brought into contact, a platen roller 44 (see FIG. 2) for bringing the document into close contact with the cover glass 43, and a first coil spring 45 (see FIG. 2) provided on the back side of the housing member 42. ) Etc. In the present embodiment, the same sensor body 41 as that used in a flat bed type image reading apparatus is used as it is. The sensor main body of the contact image sensor used in the flat bed type image reading apparatus can be obtained at a relatively low price. One end of the first coil spring 45 is in contact with the housing 11 and the other end is in contact with the back surface of the housing member 42, and biases the housing member 42 toward the platen roller 44.

  4 and 5 show the internal configuration of the image reading unit 4. The image reading unit 4 includes a pair of second coil springs 46 provided on the back side of the sensor body 41, a pair of spacers 47 interposed between the sensor body 41 and the cover glass 43, and a cover glass. A glass retainer 48 attached to the housing member 42 to hold the lens 43 and a pair of retainer fixing screws 49 for fixing the glass retainer 48 to the housing member 42 are provided. The pair of second coil springs 46, spacers 47, and glass retainers 48 are arranged in parallel to the longitudinal direction of the image reading unit 4. One end of the second coil spring 46 is in contact with the bottom surface of the housing member 42, and the other end is in contact with the back surface of the sensor body 41, and urges the sensor body 41 toward the cover glass 43. The spacers 47 are disposed at both ends of the sensor body 41. The spacer 47 protrudes from the upper surface so that both ends thereof are in contact with the cover glass 43. The glass retainer 48 is formed so as to cover three sides of the cover glass 43 in a front view (see FIG. 3), and has a screw hole through which the retainer fixing screw 49 is inserted. Further, the tip 48 a of the glass retainer 48 is engaged with an engaging portion 42 a formed on the housing member 42. Further, the glass retainer 48 is colored black to shield outside light, and is mounted on the housing member 42 from the outside of the cover glass 43 (the platen roller 44 side).

  In the present embodiment, the image forming unit 8 employs a thermal head having a minute heating element that generates heat in accordance with image data read by the image reading unit 4 or image data received by the communication unit 10. The image forming unit 8 may use another print engine used in an ink jet printer or a laser beam printer.

  According to the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment having the above configuration, the cover glass 43 is fixed to the housing member 42 by attaching the glass retainer 48 from the outside of the cover glass 43 and fastening the retainer fixing screw 49. Therefore, the cover glass 43 can be fixed to the housing member 42 without using an adhesive. Further, by loosening the retainer fixing screw 49, the glass retainer 48 and the cover glass 43 can be separated from the housing member 42. Therefore, when a problem occurs in the sensor body 41, the repair can be easily performed. In addition, the spacer 47 is inserted between the sensor body 41 and the cover glass 43, and the second coil spring 46 biases the sensor body 41 toward the cover glass 43. The sensor main body 41 is fixed at an appropriate position in the housing member 42 while keeping the distance (corresponding to the thickness of the spacer 47) constant. Thereby, the sensor book 41 and the cover glass 43 can be fixed to the housing member 42 with a simple configuration. In addition, since the sensor body having a relatively low unit price, which is employed in the flat bed type image reading apparatus, can be used, the manufacturing cost of the image forming apparatus can be reduced. In addition, since the glass retainer 48 is attached to the outside of the cover glass 43, dust or the like does not enter the housing member 42. Furthermore, since the first coil spring 45 biases the housing member 42 toward the platen roller 44, the document positioned between the platen roller 44 and the cover glass 43 is brought into close contact with the cover glass 43. As a result, the distance between the sensor main body 41 and the document becomes equal to the sum of the thickness of the spacer 47 and the thickness of the cover glass 43, and the image can be read at an appropriate distance according to the focal length of the sensor main body 41. . In addition, by inserting spacers having different thicknesses between the sensor main body 41 and the cover glass 43, the distance from the sensor main body 41 to the document can be adjusted in accordance with the specifications of the sensor main body 41.

  The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and at least the sensor body 41 is biased toward the cover glass 43 by the second coil spring 46, and the spacer 47 is interposed between the sensor body 41 and the cover glass 43. And the cover glass 43 may be configured to be held from the outside by the glass retainer 48. The present invention can be variously modified. For example, the present invention is not limited to an image forming apparatus having an image reading function and an image forming function, and may be applied to an image reading apparatus having only an image reading function. .

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing a configuration of an image reading unit in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the image reading unit. AA line sectional view in FIG. BB sectional drawing in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 3 Document conveyance mechanism 4 Image reading part (image reading means)
41 sensor body 42 housing member 43 cover glass 44 platen roller 45 first coil spring (biasing means)
46 Second coil spring 47 Spacer 48 Glass retainer 49 Retainer fixing screw

Claims (3)

A document feed tray that supports the loaded document, a document transport mechanism that transports the document supported by the document feed tray, and reads an image of the document transported by the document transport mechanism and converts it into an electrical signal. An image reading unit, and an image reading unit having a document discharge tray for holding a document on which an image is read by the image reading unit;
A recording paper feed tray that supports the loaded recording paper, a recording paper transport mechanism that transports a document supported by the recording paper feed tray, and an image that is recorded on the recording paper transported by the recording paper transport mechanism An image forming unit having an image forming unit to form and a recording paper discharge tray for holding a recording sheet on which an image is formed by the image forming unit;
The image forming means is a thermal head having a micro heating element that generates heat in accordance with image data read by the image reading means or image data input from the outside,
The image reading means is a contact image sensor that reads an image of the original while being in contact with the original conveyed by the original conveying mechanism, and includes a sensor main body having a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and a housing member that houses the sensor main body. And an image forming apparatus having a transparent cover glass with which a document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism comes into contact, and a platen roller that closely contacts the document with the cover glass.
The image reading means is provided on the back side of the housing member, and is provided on the back side of the sensor body, the first coil spring for urging the housing member toward the platen roller, and the sensor body is A second coil spring biased toward the cover glass, spacers interposed between the sensor body and the cover glass at both ends of the sensor body, and the cover glass to hold the cover glass A glass retainer mounted on the housing member from the outside, and a retainer fixing screw for fixing the glass retainer to the housing member,
The sensor body is the same as that employed in a flatbed image reading device,
The glass retainer is mounted from the outside of the cover glass, and the cover glass is fixed to the housing member by fastening the retainer fixing screw, while the distance between the cover glass and the sensor body is kept constant by the spacer, An image forming apparatus, wherein the sensor body is fixed in the housing member by a biasing force of a second coil spring. A document conveying mechanism that conveys the document, and an image reading unit that reads an image of the document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism and converts the image into an electrical signal,
The image reading means is a contact image sensor that reads an image of the original while being in contact with the original conveyed by the original conveying mechanism, and includes a sensor main body having a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and a housing member that houses the sensor main body. And an image reading apparatus having a transparent cover glass with which a document conveyed by the document conveying mechanism comes into contact, and a platen roller for bringing the document into close contact with the cover glass.
The image reading means is provided on the back side of the sensor main body, biasing means for biasing the sensor main body toward the cover glass, and the sensor main body and the cover glass at both ends of the sensor main body. An image reading apparatus comprising: a spacer interposed therebetween; and a glass retainer attached to the housing member from the outside of the cover glass to hold the cover glass.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image reading unit further includes a coil spring provided on a back side of the housing member and biasing the housing member toward the platen roller.

Images