JP2015111229A - Reader and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a reader configured to prevent reduction in reading accuracy due to deterioration of optical transparency when lubricant adheres to a document platen, while reducing noise.SOLUTION: A reader includes: a drive mechanism 400 arranged in an internal space of a housing 202, to move a reading unit 300; and a support member 500 which is arranged in the housing 202, between a document platen 203 and the drive mechanism 400. The drive mechanism 400 includes: an endless member 401 partially connected to the reading unit 300; a driving source M1 for driving it; and a plurality of transmission members 402-405 for transmitting driving force of the driving source M1 to the endless member 401. The transmission members include: gears 402-404 which receive the driving force from the driving source M1 and have teeth surfaces on which lubricant adheres; and a pulley 405 on which the endless member 401 is wound, to receive the driving force of the gears. The support member 500 is arranged between at least the gears 402-404, out of the gears 402-404 and the pulley 405, and the document platen 203.

Description

  The present invention relates to a reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a support structure for members used for reading scanning.

As is well known, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, or a facsimile machine may be equipped with a document reading device capable of optically scanning a document.
The document reading apparatus may employ a scanner scanning system that reads a document placed on a contact glass used as a document placement table, for example, with a reading element mounted on a carriage that moves in the sub-scanning direction.
In this scanning method, the entire surface of the document can be scanned with a scanning region by an image sensor provided as a reading element in the main scanning direction of the carriage and a scanning region by movement of the carriage in the sub-scanning direction.

For driving the carriage, there is a technique using an endless toothed belt that is rotationally driven by a drive motor disposed below the document placement table in the housing of the document reading apparatus (for example, Patent Document 1).
In the technique using the toothed belt, a gear train including a drive motor disposed in a recess formed below the document placement table in the document reading device casing and a plurality of gears to which the driving force is transmitted. May be used as a drive mechanism for the toothed belt. A toothed belt has a carriage having an image sensor attached to a part thereof. Therefore, the carriage can reciprocate in the sub-scanning direction according to the direction in which the extension portion of the toothed belt moves.

By the way, when scanning the document on the document table, it is important to maintain the focusing accuracy not to change the distance between the image sensor provided on the carriage and the document.
For this reason, in the above-described technique, the state in which the image sensor on the carriage side is in contact with or close to the surface of the document table facing the carriage is maintained.

  On the other hand, each gear provided in a gear train used for carriage movement is often supplied with a lubricant such as grease for the purpose of reducing frictional resistance when the tooth surfaces mesh with each other. However, the lubricant may be scattered around by the centrifugal force generated when the gear rotates.

In the above-described technique, the gear train is disposed in a state of being close to the document placing table, and therefore, the lubricant that is scattered toward the document placing table is not prevented. For this reason, a part of the lubricant scattered toward the document table may adhere to the inner surface of the document table. In particular, when the gear train is moved closer to the document table for the purpose of reducing the size of the apparatus as well as reducing the focusing accuracy described above, part of the scattered lubricant tends to reach the document table. .
The lubricant adhering to the document placement table remains as a stain on a part of the document placement table, and reduces the light transmittance at that portion. For this reason, there arises a problem that the reading accuracy of the document placed on the document placing table deteriorates.

  In many cases, the structure of the document reading apparatus is such that the upper surface of the housing is only covered with the document placement table, as in the above-described technique. For this reason, as a problem different from the adhesion of the lubricant to the document table, sounds such as a collision sound (meshing sound) when a plurality of gears mesh with each other are likely to leak to the outside, and the environment in which the document reading apparatus is used There is a problem of causing noise generation.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus that suppress a reduction in reading accuracy due to a deterioration in light transmittance due to adhesion of a lubricant to a document table, and suppress noise.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a reading unit that reads an image of a document placed on a document placement table while moving, a casing on which the document placement table is attached, A driving mechanism disposed in an internal space for moving the reading unit; and a support member provided between the document table and the driving mechanism in the housing. An endless member partially connected to the unit; a drive source that drives the endless member; and a plurality of transmission members that transmit the driving force of the drive source to the endless member. The member includes a gear that receives a driving force from the driving source, and a lubricant that adheres to a tooth surface, and a pulley that is wound around the endless member and receives the driving force. A small number of the gear and the pulley Both in the reading device which is disposed between the document table and the gear.

  According to the present invention, the support member provided between the document placement table and the drive mechanism in the housing is provided between at least one of the plurality of gears and pulleys used in the drive mechanism and the document placement table. Since it is arranged, it is possible to prevent the lubricant adhering to the gear from being scattered on the document table. Thereby, it is possible to prevent deterioration of reading accuracy by preventing deterioration of light transmittance. In addition, the sound generated from the transmission member can be blocked by the support member positioned between the transmission member and the document table.

1 is an external view of an image forming apparatus using a reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is an external view of a reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the internal structure of the reader which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the principal part modification of the internal structure shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of an effect | action of the reading apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the internal configuration shown in FIG. 4 with the scanner cover provided on the top surface of the housing removed. It is a figure which shows an example of the conventional structure of a reader. It is a figure for demonstrating the difference of an effect | action with the structure shown in FIG. 4, and the structure shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
An image forming apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is configured such that a reading device 102 is mounted on an upper surface of an apparatus main body 101 provided with an image forming processing unit, and a document conveying device 103 is mounted on the reading device 102.
Although not shown, an image forming unit that executes an electrophotographic copying process is provided inside the apparatus main body 101.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the reading device 102 extracted from FIG.
In FIG. 1, a reading apparatus 102 includes a scanner cover 201 and a casing 202 that forms the apparatus main body. The scanner cover 201 is provided with a contact glass 203 corresponding to a document table and a contact glass 204 for a document feeder. Among the contact glasses, the document feeder contact glass 204 is a glass surface used when reading a document conveyed by the document conveying device 103 (see FIG. 1). In the following description, it is prefaced that the contact glass 203 and the document feeder contact glass 204 may be simply expressed as contact glass.

FIG. 3 shows an internal configuration for explaining details of the reading apparatus 102.
In FIG. 3, the reading apparatus 102 includes a housing 202 to which a scanner cover 201 equipped with a contact glass 203 and a document feeder contact glass 204 is detachably attached on the upper surface.

The housing 202 includes a drive mechanism 400 that is disposed in the internal space and moves the reading unit 300.
The drive mechanism 400 includes an endless belt 401 as an endless member partially connected to the reading unit 300, and a drive motor M1 that is a drive source that drives and moves the endless belt 401. The drive mechanism 400 also includes a plurality of transmission members 402 to 405 that transmit the driving force of the drive motor M1 to the endless belt 401.

  Among the plurality of transmission members 402 to 405, the transmission members denoted by reference numerals 402 to 404 are supplied with a lubricant such as grease on the tooth surface for the purpose of reducing meshing friction between the tooth surfaces, and a gear to which the lubricant adheres. It is used.

Of the gears 402 to 404 that receive the driving force from the driving motor M1, the gear 402 is for driving attached to the output shaft of the driving motor M1, and the gear 403 is an intermediary idle member. The gear 404 is driven and integrated with a pulley 405 that receives a driving force from the gears 402 to 404 around which a part of the endless belt 401 is wound. Pulley 405 is
This is a driven unit integrated with a pulley 405 that receives the driving force of the gears 402 and 403.
A gear 403 used as an intermediary idle member has gears 403B and 403B ′ that mesh with driving and driven gears 402 and 404, respectively.

The endless belt 401 is wound around another pulley 406 provided at a position different from the drive mechanism 400 in the housing 202, and circulates between the pulleys 405 and 406, thereby reading unit 300. Are moved in the sub-scanning direction (the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 3A).
Thereby, the image of the original placed on the contact glass 203 is read while the reading unit 300 moves. Note that reading scanning of the reading unit 300 with the contact glass 204 as a target is executed by fixing the reading unit 300 to face the contact glass 204 and reading the movement of the document side.

On the other hand, a support bracket 500 as a support member is provided between the contact glass 203 and the document feeder contact glass 204 and the drive mechanism 400 in the housing 202.
The support bracket 500 is a member that supports the drive motor M1, the gears 402 to 404, and the pulley 405. The pulley 405 is supported by the support bracket 500 by being integrated with the gear 404.

  The support bracket 500 is disposed in the housing 202 between at least the gears 402 to 404 and the contact glasses 203 and 204 described above including the pulleys 405. Accordingly, the gears 402 to 404 supported by the support bracket 500 are respectively arranged on the opposite side of the surface facing the contact glasses 203 and 304 in the support bracket 500.

  Of the gears 402 to 404, the main body M2 of the drive motor M1 to which the drive gear 402 is attached to the output shaft 402A (see FIG. 3B) projects the output shaft 402A downward from the support bracket 500. It is mounted on the upper surface of the support bracket 500 so that it can. In this case, the upper surface of the support bracket 500 corresponds to the surface of the support bracket 500 facing the contact glasses 203 and 204.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the gears 402 to 404 are connected via an output shaft 402 </ b> A inserted through the support bracket 500, a rotation shaft 404 </ b> A, and a rotation shaft 403 </ b> A provided below the support bracket 500. It is supported rotatably.
The rotating shaft 404A protrudes upward from the surface of the support bracket 500 facing the contact glasses 203 and 204, and a pulley 405 around which the endless belt 401 is wound is integrated with the protruding shaft portion. ing.

The support bracket 500 forms a space for accommodating the gears 402 to 404 disposed on the side opposite to the surface facing the contact glasses 203 and 204.
That is, when the wall part shown by the code | symbol 202D in FIG. 5 is provided in the side of the gears 402-404, the support bracket 500 has the upper surface of the space enclosed by wall part 202D, as shown in FIG. It is formed in a flat plate shape.
Further, the support bracket 500 is not limited to a flat plate shape, and the lower portion is opened by, for example, drawing so as to be bent from the flat plate surface so as to include a peripheral wall corresponding to the wall portion 202D shown in FIG. It is also possible to form it in a box shape.

  When the support bracket 500 is formed in a flat plate shape, the support spaces of the gears 402 to 404 are covered by screwing 501 (see FIG. 3B) at the four corners of the peripheral wall 202D shown in FIG. Further, when the support bracket 500 has a box shape with an open bottom, the support bracket 500 is provided with a fastening portion such as a folded portion (not shown) on the contact surface with the bottom plate of the housing 202 to fasten and fix the gears 402 to 404. Attach so as to cover the support space.

Here, the configuration shown in FIG. 5 will be described as follows.
The inside of the housing 202 is used to block the space surrounding the guide rail 202B that guides both ends of the reading unit 300 in the main scanning direction, the support portion 202C of the pulley 405, and the gears 402 to 404 positioned below the support bracket 500. The above-described wall portion 202D is formed.
Fastening portions to which screws 501 for fixing the support bracket 500 are fastened are formed on the upper surfaces of the four corners of the wall portion 202D. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 300 </ b> A indicates a connecting portion that connects the reading unit 300 and the endless belt 401.

In the above configuration, the support bracket 500 is disposed between the contact glasses 203 and 204 used as the document placement table and the gears 402 to 404 used in the drive mechanism 400. Thereby, even when the lubricant such as grease supplied to the gears 402 to 404 is scattered to the periphery due to the centrifugal force generated when the gears 402 to 404 are rotated, the lubricant is prevented from moving toward the contact glasses 203 and 204. can do.
In particular, since the support bracket 500 has a shape that can cover a support space in which the gears 402 to 404 are accommodated and supported, even when the lubricant scatters from the gears 402 to 404 to the periphery, the support bracket 500 is supported. It can be prevented from leaking out of the space.

Further, the support space for only the gears 402 to 404 is provided on the opposite side of the surface of the support bracket 500 facing the contact glasses 203 and 204.
Accordingly, the height of the support space in the height direction (indicated by reference numeral H1 in FIG. 3 (B)) is not provided in the support space because the drive motor M1 and the pulley 405 that are significantly different from the gears 402 to 404 are occupied. The size of the reading device 102 can be reduced.

Next, a modification of the main configuration shown in FIG. 3 will be described.
In FIG. 4, the arrangement of the pulleys 405 shown in FIG. 3 is changed.
In FIG. 4, the pulley 405 is disposed below the gears 402 to 404 on the same side as the surface of the support bracket 500 where the gears 402 to 404 are supported.
In this configuration, the dead space existing below the gears 402 to 404 in the support space for the gears 402 to 404 shown in FIG. 3 can be used as the arrangement space for the pulley 405. As a result, the space occupied by the extended portion of the endless belt 401 in the housing 202 can be included in the support space of the gears 402 to 404, so that the drive mechanism 400 can be reduced in size. In particular, since the reading unit 300 can also be arranged near the bottom of the reading device 102 in accordance with the extended position of the endless belt 401, the height of the reading device 102 in the height direction can be reduced and the size can be reduced.

Further, in this configuration, since the insertion hole formed in the support bracket 500 for inserting the rotation shaft 404A of the gear 404 in the configuration shown in FIG. 3 can be made unnecessary, the mechanical strength of the support bracket 500 is reduced. You can avoid it.
Further, since the insertion hole is not necessary, the portion of the flat surface of the support bracket 500 that communicates with the outside of the support space of the gears 402 to 404 is reduced. Thereby, the sound leakage through the insertion hole which can become a communication part with the exterior of support space can be decreased.

  In the configuration shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the support bracket 500 is disposed between the contact glasses 203 and 204 and the gears 402 to 404 among the members used for the drive mechanism 400, and the drive motor M <b> 1 is supported by the support bracket 500. It is mounted on the top surface.

On the other hand, the scanner cover 201 equipped with the contact glasses 203 and 204 is detachably provided on the upper surface of the housing 202. For this reason, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, when the scanner cover 201 is removed from the upper surface of the housing 202, the upper surface of the housing 202 is opened and the drive motor M <b> 1 mounted on the support bracket 500 can be directly accessed. It will be in a state that can be.
FIG. 6 shows the inside of the housing 202 with the scanner cover 201 removed. In FIG. 6, the upper surface side of the support bracket 500 is opened and the drive motor M1 can be accessed. As shown in FIG. 6, the scanner cover 201 is not limited to a type of removing the scanner cover 201 toward the upper side of the housing 202, but may be a type of removing the scanner cover by sliding it in the horizontal direction.
As described above, maintenance such as maintenance and inspection of the drive motor M1 can be performed only by removing the scanner cover 201, so that the workability is improved by reducing the number of parts that need to be removed and attached. Can do.

3 to 5, since the gears 402 to 404 are arranged on the side opposite to the surface facing the contact glasses 203 and 204 in the support bracket 500, noise is generated compared to the conventional technique. The action which suppresses is heightened. Hereinafter, this operation will be described.
FIG. 7 shows the configuration described in the above-described technique as an example of a conventional reading device. In this configuration, the gears 402 to 404 and the pulley 405 are arranged on the document mounting table (each contact glass 203 on the support bracket 500). 204) side surface. 7 are the same as those used in FIGS. 3 and 4 for the sake of convenience in order to clarify the difference in the arrangement structure of gears used as transmission members.
In this configuration, there is nothing corresponding to the support bracket 500 that can block the lubricant scattered from the gears 402 to 404 between the gears 402 to 404 and the contact glasses 203 and 204. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 8A, sounds such as meshing sounds from the gears 402 to 404 directly reach the scanner cover 201 and easily leak to the outside. In FIG. 8, the magnitude of sound leakage is represented by the size of the arc line.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8B, when the support bracket 500 described above is provided, the gears 402 to 404 are arranged unlike the configuration shown in FIGS. 7 and 8A. Since the support space is covered by the support bracket 500, there is little sound leakage to the outside.
In this case, the space between the support spaces for the gears 402 to 404 and the contact glasses 203 and 204 is shielded by the support bracket 500. As a result, it is possible to suppress leakage of sounds such as a meshing sound generated from the gears 402 to 404 to the outside of the reading apparatus 102.

As mentioned above, although preferable embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to this specific embodiment, Unless it is specifically limited by the above-mentioned description, this invention described in the claim is described. Various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the invention.
For example, the present invention is not limited to the gear used for one of the transmission members, but may be a claw wheel, a sector gear, a geneva gear, or the like capable of meshing transmission similarly.
The effects described in the embodiments of the present invention are only the most preferable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects of the present invention are limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention. is not.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 102 Reading apparatus 202 Case 203 Original mounting table 300 Reading unit 400 Drive mechanism 401 Endless member 402-404 Transmission member, gear 405 Transmission member, pulley 500 Support member M1 Drive source

JP 2013-58979 A

Claims (5)

A reading unit that reads an image of a document placed on the document table while moving;
A casing on which the document table is mounted on an upper surface;
A drive mechanism arranged in the internal space of the housing to move the reading unit;
A support member provided between the document table and the drive mechanism in the housing;
The drive mechanism includes an endless member partially connected to the reading unit, a drive source that drives the endless member, and a plurality of transmission members that transmit the driving force of the drive source to the endless member. With
The plurality of transmission members include a gear that receives a driving force from the driving source and a lubricant adheres to a tooth surface, and a pulley that is wound around the endless member and receives the driving force of the gear,
The reading device is a reading device in which the support member is disposed between at least the gear and the pulley and between the gear and the document table.   The reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support member supports the gear and the pulley below the opposite side of the document placing table.   The reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support member forms a space for accommodating at least the gear among the gear and the pulley. The document table is provided so that the internal space of the housing can be opened upward,
4. The reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driving source is supported on a side of the supporting member facing the document placing table. 5.   An image forming apparatus using the reading device according to claim 1.

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