JP2011182473A - Image reading apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image reading apparatus, miniaturized in the whole of the device and superior in usability and operability while having a display means and an operating means in an image reading apparatus body. <P>SOLUTION: The image reading apparatus includes an original carrying path 10, through which original is fed and carried while which is formed substantially in a flat plane from a paper feed tray 2, the image reading apparatuses 15, 16 which read the image of the original under being carried through the original carrying path 10, a liquid crystal display device 4 capable of displaying the image of the original, and a scanner control circuit board 18 which controls the image reading apparatus, wherein the original carrying path 10 includes a route which passes between the liquid crystal display device 4 and a scanner control circuit board 18 in the form of a plane. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an original reading type image reading apparatus that reads an image formed on an original while conveying a sheet-like original, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus including a display unit capable of displaying a read image.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an original reading type image reading apparatus that reads an image formed on an original while conveying a sheet-like original is configured as shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10, for example. Each of these apparatuses includes a paper feeder for feeding a document, a scanner apparatus main body 100 (or 200) as an image reading apparatus that reads a document image while conveying the fed original, and the scanner apparatus main body 100. (Or 200) provided independently or integrally with the display device 101 (or 201) for displaying the read image and various setting screens, the operation unit 102 such as a touch panel provided integrally with the display device 101, and a keyboard. 202 and the like.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 9, some of these apparatuses include a recording apparatus 103 that records a read image, and another apparatus that can directly connect to a network and transmit the read image. . Such a device can be used without a personal computer (hereinafter simply referred to as “PC”).

  Further, a motherboard having at least a part of a PC function, a circuit board for carrying a document and controlling driving of an image reading sensor, and the like are accommodated in the housing of the apparatus.

JP-A-10-289307 JP 2004-356822 A

  However, in the apparatus such as the conventional example, although there is an advantage that it can be used without using a PC, a large screen display means that can clearly read an image read in the apparatus, An operation means such as a keyboard necessary for operation and setting is required. For this reason, the entire apparatus must be enlarged, or an input means such as a display device or a keyboard must be connected separately from the apparatus main body, which is very inconvenient and inconvenient to carry the apparatus.

  Also, in recent years, a housing made of a plastic material that is frequently used for the purpose of reducing the size and weight of the device, reducing the cost, and improving the degree of freedom in design is different from the metal housing, and the above-mentioned motherboard and drive control. The function of shielding / reducing radiation noise generated from electrical circuit boards is poor. For this reason, in order to shield and reduce radiation noise generated from the mother board and the circuit board for drive control, it is necessary to separately attach a shield member made of sheet metal or the like, which increases the cost.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems. An image reading apparatus having a display device and an operation means in the image reading apparatus main body, and having a reduced size as a whole and excellent in usability and operability. Is to provide.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide an image reading apparatus capable of reducing radiation noise generated from an electric circuit board in the apparatus body efficiently and at low cost.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image reading apparatus according to the present invention includes a document stacking unit for stacking documents and a sheet feeding / conveying unit that feeds and transports the documents stacked on the document stacking unit one by one. A document conveyance path formed in a substantially flat shape from the document stacking unit, and an image reading means for reading an image of the document being conveyed on the document conveyance path by the sheet feeding conveyance means And at least one of a display unit capable of displaying an image of the read document, and a circuit board having at least one of a function of driving the image reading device and a function of controlling the image reading device. The path has a path that passes between the display unit and the circuit board in a planar shape.

  According to the present invention, the entire configuration of the apparatus can be reduced in size and the usability and operability can be improved by the efficient configuration and arrangement of components and transport paths. Further, radiation noise generated from the electric circuit board in the apparatus can be reduced efficiently and at a low cost.

1 is an external perspective view of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of the image reading apparatus in FIG. 2. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing a configuration of a liquid crystal display device 4. FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows schematic structure of the image reading apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows schematic structure of the image reading apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of the image reading apparatus in FIG. 6. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows schematic structure of the image reading apparatus which concerns on the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows an example of the conventional image reading apparatus. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows another example of the conventional image reading apparatus.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the image reading apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of the image reading apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “apparatus main body”), and 2 is disposed above the apparatus main body, and can be stored in the apparatus main body 1 and pulled upward. A paper tray 3 is a paper feed port into which the original P is inserted. The original P is stacked on the paper feed tray 2 with its lower end inserted into the paper feed port 3 with its surface facing downward.

  Reference numeral 4 denotes a liquid crystal display device (LCD) disposed at an inclination on the front surface of the apparatus main body 1, and a touch panel 5 for inputting operation instructions is disposed on the upper surface thereof. Reference numerals 6 and 7 are restriction guide plates for restricting the left and right direction of the original P, and are attached to the inside of the paper feed port 3 so as to be movable in the left and right directions according to the original width.

  Further, the apparatus main body 1 has an upper frame 8 and a lower frame 9 which are molded from a resin material. Inside the apparatus main body 1, it is sandwiched between the upper frame 8 and the lower frame 9 at a position substantially parallel to the liquid crystal display device 4, and is inclined from the upper rear side to the lower front side of the apparatus main body 1 to convey a document in a planar shape. A path 10 is formed. Note that the document transport path 10 may be substantially planar even though there are some irregularities.

  A feed roller 11, a retard roller 12, a transport roller pair 13, and a paper discharge roller pair 14 are disposed on the document transport path 10. Further, an upper image reading unit 15 and a lower image reading unit 16 each including a contact image sensor as image reading means are disposed between the conveying roller pair 13 and the paper discharge roller pair 14. Has been. The image reading units 15 and 16 are arranged so as to sandwich the document conveyance path 10 and can read both the front and back surfaces of the document P conveyed on the document conveyance path 10 substantially simultaneously.

  Reference numeral 18 denotes a scanner control circuit board for driving and controlling each part of the apparatus main body 1 fixed to the lower frame 9. Reference numeral 19 denotes a mother board, which is fixed to a bottom plate 20 that is a main housing made of sheet metal that covers the bottom of the lower frame 9. Reference numeral 21 denotes a back cover.

  In the above-described configuration, the original P set on the paper feed tray 2 is separated and fed one by one by the feed roller 11 and the retard roller 12 and fed to the transport roller pair 13. Further, the document P is conveyed to the image reading units 15 and 16 at a constant speed by the conveyance roller pair 13, and first, the image on the back side is read by the image reading unit 15, and then the image on the front side is read by the image reading unit 16. . Thereafter, the document P is discharged from the discharge port 22 by the discharge roller pair 14. The same operation is performed for the second and subsequent originals P, and the originals P are discharged and stacked in the same order as when they are stacked on the paper feed tray 2.

  The read signals output by the image reading unit 15 and the image reading unit 16 reading the images on the front and back surfaces of the document P are subjected to AD conversion and predetermined image processing by the scanner control circuit board 18 and transferred to the motherboard 19 as image data. Is done. Then, image data is transmitted to the liquid crystal display device 4 from an image display / output interface circuit (not shown) on the mother board 19 and the image of the document P is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 4 almost simultaneously with the image reading of the document P. Is possible. Further, the liquid crystal display device 4 can display various operation screens such as setting of a reading mode, and the operator touches a touch panel 5 installed on the liquid crystal display device 4 to set various setting items. You can enter the set value of.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the upper frame 8 is rotatably supported by the lower frame 9 with a pivot shaft 23 provided in the vicinity of the paper discharge roller pair 14 as a fulcrum. The document P may cause a paper jam on the conveyance path 10, and the contact glass, the feed roller 11, the retard roller 12, the conveyance roller pair 13 and the like of the image reading units 15 and 16 may become dirty. In such a case, paper jam processing or cleaning of the contact glass and various rollers can be easily performed by rotating the upper frame 8 and opening the document conveyance path 10.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the image reading apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 3, a scanner control circuit board 18 is a circuit board that mainly controls conveyance of an original and reading timing of an image and performs signal processing of a read signal. The scanner control circuit board 18 inputs drive pulses and control signals to image reading sensors (not shown) of the image reading units 15 and 16. Further, in response to an output signal from the document detection sensor 24, the paper feeding motor 25 and the conveyance motor 26 are driven and the image reading units 15 and 16 are controlled. The mother board 19 includes a main CPU and has a function equivalent to that of a PC.

  The display / operation unit 27 includes a touch panel 5, a liquid crystal display device (LCD) 4, and an inverter circuit board 28 for lighting a backlight in the liquid crystal display device 4. The relay board 29 relays between the display / operation unit 27 and the mother board 19.

  A scanner control circuit board by a high-frequency pulse signal for driving each image reading sensor in the image reading units 15 and 16 and a CPU clock set at a high frequency so as to process the read image data at high speed. Since radiation noise is generated from 18 and the mother board 19, it is necessary to take measures to keep it below the regulation value.

  FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of the liquid crystal display device 4.

  As shown in the figure, the liquid crystal display device 4 includes a backlight 41 having an illumination member such as a lamp, a reflector, and a light guide plate, an optical sheet 42 that makes light from the backlight 41 uniform illumination light, and a backlight. 41 and a resin chassis 43 that holds and fixes the optical sheet 42, a sheet metal shield member 44 that is a lower casing, a sheet metal shield member 46 that is an upper casing that holds and fixes the liquid crystal panel 45, and a liquid crystal panel The main components are a driver IC for driving 45 and a circuit board (not shown) on which electronic components are mounted.

  Since the housing of the liquid crystal display device 4 is composed of sheet metal shield members 44 and 46 made of a conductive member, the liquid crystal display device can be obtained by electrically connecting at least one point of the housing to the ground of the device body 1. 4 itself can be used as a shield member for shielding radiation noise generated from the scanner control circuit board 18 and the mother board 19.

  In the present embodiment, the liquid crystal display device 4 is fixed to the upper frame 8, but the sheet metal shield members 44 and 46 and the bottom plate 20 which is a main housing made of sheet metal and also serves as a ground for the apparatus main body 1 are not suitable. It is electrically connected by the illustrated ground wire or ground member.

  Since the shield effect is enhanced by providing the sheet metal shield members 44 and 46 so as to face the arrangement surface of the electronic components of the circuit board serving as a radiation noise generation source, the liquid crystal display device 4 having the shield member and the circuit board (this embodiment) In the embodiment, it is effective to arrange the scanner control circuit board 18) at a substantially parallel position.

  On the other hand, the liquid crystal display device 4 is disposed at a position substantially parallel to the planar document transport path 10, so that a wasteful space is generated inside the upper frame 8 even when the display device has a large screen size. Therefore, the entire apparatus can be reduced in size.

  Further, by tilting the display surface of the liquid crystal display device 4 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the visibility of the display surface is improved, the operability of the touch panel 5 is improved, and the usability of the device is improved.

  Further, since the document conveyance path 10 is provided substantially in parallel with the display surface of the liquid crystal display device 4 and is inclined, it is easy to set and take out the document P, and also when displaying an image of the read document, It is easy to check against the manuscript.

  Further, the liquid crystal display device 4 has a display width larger than the maximum width of a readable document, and can display an image read by the image reading unit at the same magnification without breaking both sides. Is preferable. In such a case, there is an effect that it is possible to easily specify and set an image reading range or the like by using a touch panel on the screen when setting a document. For example, if there are wide margins on both sides of the image formed on the original, set the effective reading width on the touch panel so that the margins on both sides are not read while checking against the original superimposed on the touch panel. Can do.

  FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  In the present embodiment, a sheet metal member 50 for fixing the casing of the liquid crystal display device 4 is provided on the back surface of the liquid crystal display device 4. Further, the scanner control circuit board 18 for driving control of the apparatus main body 1 is disposed on the upper frame 8 side and fixed to the sheet metal member 50 from the side not facing the liquid crystal display apparatus 4, so that the liquid crystal display apparatus 4 and The scanner control circuit board 18 and the document conveyance path 10 are arranged at substantially parallel positions.

  Further, the mother board 19 in the lower frame 9 is arranged at a position substantially parallel to the document conveying path 10. The mother board 19 controls the entire scanner via the scanner control circuit board 18 and the relay board 29.

  The sheet metal member 50 is made of a conductive member, but also serves as a fixing member for the liquid crystal display device 4 and the scanner control circuit board 18.

  According to the configuration of the present embodiment, the shield effect by the sheet metal member 50 is enhanced with respect to the scanner control circuit board 18 for driving control and the mother board 19 which are sources of radiation noise, and radiation noise can be further reduced. It is. In addition, the size of the sheet metal member 50 can be set according to the size of the substrate serving as a noise generation source regardless of the screen size of the liquid crystal display device 4 or the size of the sheet metal shield member that is the casing of the liquid crystal display device. Therefore, a more stable shielding effect can be obtained.

  The scanner control circuit board 18 is electrically connected to at least the sheet metal member 50, and the mother board 19 is electrically connected to at least the main chassis of the main body and the bottom plate 20 serving as the ground of the apparatus main body 1. The sheet metal member 50 is electrically grounded to the bottom plate 20.

  FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

  In the present embodiment, the sensor substrates 30 and 31 are located at positions adjacent to the back surfaces of the image reading unit 15 and the image reading unit 16 provided substantially parallel to the upper and lower portions of the document conveying path 10 and the document conveying path 10. They are arranged substantially in parallel. The sensor substrates 30 and 31 are substrates for inputting drive pulses and control signals to the image reading sensors of the image reading units 15 and 16 and processing read signals from the image reading sensors.

  In the first and second embodiments, the image processing unit of the scanner control circuit board 18 performs AD conversion or the like on the read signals output by the image reading units 15 and 16 respectively reading the front and back surfaces of the document P. Processing was in progress. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the read signal is subjected to AD conversion and shading correction by the sensor boards 30 and 31, and then sent to the scanner control circuit board 18 as a digital signal.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the sensor boards 30 and 31 are arranged at positions adjacent to the image reading units 15 and 16 so as to reduce the external noise added to the analog signals from the image reading units 15 and 16. It is.

  On the other hand, due to high performance (higher resolution, higher reading speed) of the image reading apparatus, radiation noise is likely to be generated from the sensor substrates 30 and 31 and becomes a main radiation noise generation source in the apparatus. For this reason, similarly to the first and second embodiments, the liquid crystal display device 4 or the sheet metal member 50 serving as a shield member is arranged at a position substantially parallel to the sensor substrates 30 and 31, whereby the sensor substrates 30 and 31. It is possible to efficiently reduce the radiation noise generated from the.

  In addition, since the sensor substrates 30 and 31 are disposed at positions adjacent to the image reading units 15 and 16, the wiring connecting the two can be shortened, and radiation noise generated from the wiring can be reduced.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, a liquid crystal display device is mounted as a display device. However, for example, a display device such as an organic EL display or a plasma display can be used.

  In the present embodiment, a contact image sensor (CIS) is mounted as an image reading unit, but the present invention is not limited to this, and an image reading device mounted with a CCD sensor using a reduction optical system as shown in FIG. Needless to say, the present invention is applicable.

  FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 8, the image reading apparatus according to the fourth embodiment has a CCD sensor mounted on the image reading unit, 32 and 33 are reflection mirrors, 34 and 35 are lenses, and 36 and 37 are CCD sensors.

  In each image reading unit, the front and back images of the document P are read by the CCD sensors 36 and 37 through the mirrors 32 and 33 and the lenses 34 and 35, respectively. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

  Further, as described in the third embodiment, the same configuration is adopted when a sensor substrate for driving and controlling the CCD sensors 36 and 37 is disposed in the vicinity of the CCD sensors 36 and 37.

  In each of the above embodiments, the number of image reading units is two, but may be one. Note that when there are two image reading units as in each of the above embodiments, it is more difficult to suppress radiation noise, and thus the application of the present invention is more preferable.

  In addition, although a description has been given of a scanner that incorporates a motherboard having a function corresponding to a PC and can be used without being connected to the PC, the present invention is not limited thereto. The present invention can also be applied to a scanner that does not have a built-in motherboard and has a function of transferring a read image to a host computer such as a PC connected to the outside.

  Moreover, the scanner provided with the circuit board which integrated the motherboard and the scanner control circuit board may be sufficient.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image reading apparatus 4 Liquid crystal display device 5 Touch panel 10 Document conveyance path 15 Image reading part 16 Image reading part 18 Scanner control circuit board 19 Mother board 50 Sheet metal members 30 and 31 Sensor board

Claims (9)

An original stacking unit for stacking originals;
A sheet feeding and conveying means for feeding and conveying the documents stacked on the document stacking unit one by one;
A document conveyance path formed in a substantially flat shape from the document stacking unit while the document is fed and conveyed;
Image reading means for reading an image of a document being transported on the document transport path by the paper feed transport means;
Display means capable of displaying at least an image of the read document;
A circuit board having at least one of a function of driving the image reading device and a function of controlling the image reading device;
The image reading apparatus, wherein the document transport path has a path that passes between the display unit and the circuit board in a planar shape. An upper frame provided with the display means; and a lower frame supporting the upper frame;
The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the path is a path sandwiched between the upper frame and the lower frame. An upper frame to which the display means is fixed; and a lower frame that supports the upper frame;
The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the path is a path sandwiched between the upper frame and the lower frame.   The image reading means is provided between the display means and the circuit board, and a plurality of the image reading means are arranged so as to sandwich the path, and reads images on both sides of a document conveyed on the path. Item 4. The image reading apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 3.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document stacking unit is provided so as to be housed in an image reading apparatus main body.   6. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conductive member that is electrically grounded to the image reading apparatus main body and covers a back side of the display unit.   The document stacking section is disposed above the image reading apparatus main body, and the path is formed in a substantially flat shape inclining from the upper rear side to the lower front side of the image reading apparatus main body. The image reading apparatus according to any one of 1 to 6.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is capable of displaying an image of the read document and an operation screen, and has a touch panel for inputting an operation instruction. apparatus.   9. The image reading apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the display unit has a screen size having a display width equal to or larger than a maximum width of a readable document, and can display the read image at an equal magnification.

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