JP2793439B2 - Automatic document feed mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder mounted on a facsimile, an image scanner, or the like, for automatically feeding a plurality of documents one by one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Referring to FIG. 11, an automatic document feeder 1000 generally applied to a facsimile or the like includes a pair of upper and lower casings 1001a and 1001a divided vertically.
1001b. On the upper part of the lower casing 1001b, a paper guide plate 1002 constituted by a member different from the lower casing 1001b is provided.
A document transport path 1003 for transporting a document, a document insertion port 1004 opening on the upstream side of the document transport path 1003, and a document output port 1005 on the downstream side are defined between the document feed path 1002 and the lower surface of the upper casing 1001a. I have.

The original transport path 1003 is provided with an original insertion port 1004
Introducing section 1003a for introducing the manuscript inserted from
A bent portion 1003b bent downward from 1003a;
b, a processing unit 1003c extending to the discharge port 1005 side, and the introduction unit 1003a has a width capable of inserting a plurality of originals. In the original transport path 1003, an original feed unit 1006 for feeding the original document downstream is provided at an introduction portion 1003a, and an original feeding device 1006 is provided at a bent portion 1003b. Paper feeding means 1007 for transporting to the side, and a document transport means provided in the processing unit 1003c.
1008, contact type image sensor 1009 and original discharge means 1010
Are sequentially arranged.

The document conveying means 1008 conveys the document to the contact type image sensor 1009 side. The original discharge means 1010
Discharges the paper read by the contact image sensor main body 1009a to the document discharge port 1005. The contact-type image sensor 1009 is for separating and scanning an image, which is two-dimensional information of the conveyed paper, for each pixel,
A contact image sensor main body 1009a is provided. The contact-type image sensor main body 1009a is fixed to the lower casing 1001b by bolts 1009c via a frame 1009b, and includes a contact glass 1009d facing the processing section 1003c. Here, the contact glass in the conventional device
1009d slightly protrudes above the upper surface of the paper guide plate 1002, so that the upstream end face is cut obliquely so that the paper does not get caught on the contact glass 1009d during paper transport. Face 1009e
It has.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional configuration shown in FIG. 11, a cut surface 1009e in which the upstream end surface is obliquely cut is formed on the contact glass 1009d of the contact type image sensor main body 1009a. Therefore, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost of the contact glass 1009d increases accordingly. In particular, the contact-type image sensor main body 1009a has a problem that the maintenance cost is increased because the replacement frequency is relatively high.

Further, the cut surface 10 of the contact glass 1009d
It is conceivable to abolish 09e and attach a film-shaped lumirror to the contact glass 1009d. In this case,
The contact-type image sensor 1009 must be replaced together with the mirror, which causes a problem of high maintenance cost. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic document feed mechanism with a low maintenance cost for a contact image sensor.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic document transport mechanism for guiding an underside of a document to be transported. An opening through which a long contact type image sensor closely contacted with the lower surface of the image sensor, and an image sensor, on the upstream side in the transport direction of the image sensor, so as to prevent the original from colliding with the upper edge of the image sensor on the upstream side in the transport direction. In the automatic document feeder provided with a thin plate for guiding a document to the upper surface of the image sensor, the thin plate is an upper end surface of the image sensor, an upstream portion in the feed direction, and an opening of a document guide plate adjacent thereto. The thin plate is fixed to the concave portion at a height that can avoid a collision between the document and the edge of the upstream side in the transport direction while straddling the concave portion formed on the upper surface of the edge. Toss It is intended.

[0008]

According to the automatic document feeder having the above-mentioned structure, the thin plate for preventing the original from colliding with the upper edge of the image sensor is fixed to the original guide plate side. Only the sensor can be replaced. The thin plate is fixed at a predetermined height, and collision between the edge of the thin plate on the upstream side in the transport direction and the document is avoided.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 6 is an external view of a facsimile 10 employing the automatic document feeder 100 of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of the facsimile 10. Referring to these drawings, the facsimile 10 includes an upper housing 11a, a lower housing 11b that supports the upper housing 11a via a support shaft P1, and a spring member 11c that urges the upper housing 11a in a direction in which the upper housing 11a is opened. It includes a main body 11, a telephone 12 attached to the main body 11, a modem 13 connected to the telephone 12 to modulate or demodulate a signal, and a transmission / reception control unit connected to the modem 13, and is optically converted. Optical system 14 for transmitting image information, transfer paper cassette 15a, photosensitive drum 15b, developing device 15c, charging charger 1
5d, transfer charger 15e, peeling charger 15f,
A recording unit 15 that includes a cleaning device 15g, a fixing device 15h, a paper discharge tray 15i, and the like, records the image converted into optical information by the optical system 14 on transfer paper, and transmits transmission information to the control unit of the optical system 14. Transmission means 16 for transmission. As in the case of the general facsimile 10, in the receiving process, the original information is received from the facsimile of the transmission destination via the telephone 12, demodulated by the optical system 14, and further decrypted. In the transmission process, the image information of the document is converted into an electric signal by the transmission means 16 and further encoded, then modulated into a transmission signal and transmitted to the receiving facsimile in the transmission process. It is configured as follows. The facsimile 10 according to the present embodiment is set so that a hard copy of a document can be obtained by transmitting a transmission signal from the transmission unit 16 to the recording unit 15.

The automatic document feeder 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention constitutes a main part of the transmission means 16.
The automatic document feeder 100 includes an upper casing 101a and a lower casing 1 mounted on the main body 11.
01b including the casing 101
The document guide plate 102 disposed inside the document guide plate 1 and the document guide plate 1
02, and an original insertion port 1 formed at the upstream end of the original transport path 103.
And a document discharge port 105 formed at the downstream end of the document transport path 103.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a main part of the automatic document feed mechanism 100. Referring to FIG. 7, an original guide plate 102 for guiding the lower surface of a conveyed original has an opening P9b.
And a housing portion 102c having a space for housing the close-contact type image sensor 109 is provided continuously with the opening P9b. The accommodation portion 102c is formed with a bottom surface portion 102f formed integrally with the document guide plate 102.
And a section having a U-shaped cross section composed of a pair of side wall portions 102g. In the figure, arrow K
Indicates the document transport direction. Openings P8b, P10
“b” is for projecting the peripheral surface of the transport roller for transporting the original document above the document guide plate 102.

The image sensor 109 reads a document in close contact with the lower surface of the document to be conveyed. The image sensor 109 includes an image sensor main body 109a formed of a long rectangular parallelepiped, and a pair of plate-shaped fixing portions 10 sandwiching both longitudinal ends of the image sensor main body 109a.
9b and 109c, and a plate-shaped contact glass 109d fixed to the upper surface of the image sensor main body 109a and in close contact with the lower surface of the document. The fixing portion 109b,
The cross-sectional shape of the image sensor 109c is slightly larger than the cross-sectional shape of the image sensor main body 109a.

At the edge of the opening P9b on the upstream side in the transport direction K, a rectangular concave portion 102b is formed as shown in FIG. 2, and in this concave portion 102b, as shown in FIG.
A part of 20 is pasted. This Lumirror 120
Is the contact glass 109d of the image sensor 109
In order to prevent the original from colliding with the upper edge portion on the upstream side in the transport direction of the image sensor 109, the image sensor 109 is straddled between the upstream portion 109g of the upper end surface of the contact glass 109d in the transport direction and the concave portion 102b. The document is guided from the upstream side in the conveyance direction to the upper surface of the contact glass 109d.
The mirror 120 is fixed to the concave portion 102b by a height that can avoid collision between the original and the edge 120a of the mirror 120 on the upstream side in the transport direction (in this case, the original guide plate 10).
2 (the same height as the upper surface 102a).

As described above, the image sensor 10
9 is fixed to the document guide plate 102 side so as to prevent collision with the contact glass 109d.
By bending the mirror 120 upward, only the image sensor 109 can be replaced. Therefore, maintenance work of the image sensor 109 is easy.
Further, unlike the conventional case where the end face of the contact glass is cut obliquely, the manufacturing cost does not increase. Further, the maintenance cost can be reduced as compared with the case where the image sensor and the image mirror are simultaneously replaced by attaching the image mirror to the image sensor.

Referring to FIG. 2, the size of opening P9b is
The size of the image sensor 109 is set so that the image sensor 109 can be put in and out of the storage section 102c from above the document guide plate 102 through the opening P9b. The opening P9
When viewed from above, the portions 102h and 102i (both ends in the longitudinal direction) through which the fixing portions 109b and 109c at both ends of the image sensor 109 pass or are accommodated, when viewed from above, have the widths of the fixing portions 109b and 109c. They are almost the same and are set wider than the other parts.
Thereby, the image sensor 109 housed in the housing section 102c can be positioned in the width direction.

At both ends in the longitudinal direction of the opening P9b, the image sensor 109 housed in the housing 102b through the opening P9b is positioned in the height direction and the longitudinal direction as shown in FIGS. A rigid piece 102d and an elastic piece 102e are arranged as a pair of locking means for locking in a state. The rigid piece 102d is a flat plate-shaped protruding piece integrally formed on the upper surface 102a of the document guide plate 102.
9b. Housing part 1 for rigid piece 102d
02c, the upper edge portion 109 of the fixed portion 109b of the image sensor 109 housed in the housing portion 102c.
e, and a stepped portion 102j is formed which is positioned in the longitudinal direction and the height direction in contact with e.

Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG.
e is integrally formed so as to rise from the bottom portion 102f of the housing portion 102c, and can be elastically bent along the longitudinal direction of the housing portion 102c around the lower end portion. At the upper end of the elastic piece 102e, there is provided a finger hook 102k that is inclined outward to flex the elastic piece 102e outward (in the direction of releasing the lock). The elastic piece 102e has an engaging portion 102m that is continuous with the lower portion of the finger hook portion 102k and that is inclined in a direction opposite to the finger hook portion 102k. This engagement part 102m
Is a fixing unit 109 of the accommodated image sensor 109.
c is engaged with the upper edge 109f.

The elastic repulsive force of the elastic piece 102e is applied to the image sensor 109 via the inclined engaging portion 102m.
Of the fixing portion 109c in the longitudinal direction and the downward direction. The downward force is applied to the fixing portion 10.
9c is pressed against the bottom surface portion 102f, whereby the fixing portion 109c is positioned in the height direction,
This positioning state is maintained. The force in the longitudinal direction is applied to the fixing portion 109b of the image sensor 109,
Work to press against the step 102j of the rigid piece 109,
Thereby, the image sensor 109 is positioned in the longitudinal direction, and this positioning state is maintained.

When the image sensor 109 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 102c through the opening P9b, the image sensor 109 is tilted so that one of the fixing portions 109b is lower, and the fixing portion 109b is positioned below the rigid piece 102d. After being sunk into the elastic piece 10
While the elastic piece 102e is deformed outward along the finger hook portion 102k of 2e, the fixing portion 109c is pushed down until it comes into contact with the bottom surface portion 102f. Then, the image sensor 10
9 is locked as described above by the rigid piece 102d and the elastic piece 102e. Also, the image sensor 109
When taking out from the accommodation portion 102c, the elastic piece 102e
Is pushed out to release the lock, and the take-out operation is performed in the reverse process to the above-described case of housing.

As described above, since the image sensor 109 is put into and taken out of the accommodating portion 102c through the opening P9b from above the document guide plate 102, the image sensor 109 can be attached and detached without removing the document guide plate as in the related art. It can be performed. Therefore, the maintenance work of the image sensor is simple. In addition, the accommodation unit 10
Since the image sensor 109 accommodated in 2c can be locked at a predetermined position, the attachment accuracy is good despite easy attachment and detachment.

FIGS. 8 to 10 show another embodiment relating to the mounting of the mirror. Referring to these drawings, this embodiment differs from the embodiment of FIG. 1 in that the embodiment of FIG. 1 directly attaches mirror 120 to upper surface 102 a of document guide plate 102, In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the mirror 120 is attached to a fixing member 150, and the fixing member 150 can be detachably attached to the document guide plate 102.

The fixing member 150 is made of an angle material having an inverted L-shaped cross section, and has an upper surface 150a and a vertical portion 150a.
b and a pair of lock portions 150c. The upper surface portion 150a is provided in the concave portion 15 to which the mirror 120 is attached.
0 d, and is accommodated in the concave portion 102 b of the document guide plate 102 in a state where the fixing member 150 is attached to the document guide plate 102.

The vertical portion 150b extends downward from one edge of the upper surface portion 150a, and is inserted into the housing portion 102c together with the image sensor 109. In a state where the vertical portion 150b is housed in the housing portion 102c together with the image sensor 109, the lower end 150e of the vertical portion 150b is
c against the bottom surface 102f, and the fixing member 150
Are positioned in the height direction by the bottom surface portion 102f. Thus, the mirror 120 is connected to the image sensor 1.
09 is positioned at a required height along the upper surface of the contact glass 109d.

The lock portion 150c is made of an elastic piece extending downward from the other end edge of the upper surface portion 150a.
50f. The lock portion 150c is penetrated through a through hole 102n provided in the concave portion 102b of the document guide plate 102, and connects the arrowhead portion 150f to the rib 1 of the document guide 102.
02p, the fixing member 150
Of the document guide plate 102 is elastically locked.

According to this embodiment, in addition to having the same operation and effect as the embodiment of FIG. 1, as shown in FIG. Image sensor 1 in 102c
Since the space 160 adjacent to the image sensor 09 is provided, the image sensor 109 can be freely moved in the accommodation portion 102c, and the image sensor 109 can be easily attached and detached. Therefore, maintenance work on the image sensor 109 is further facilitated.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the document guide plate 102 may be formed integrally with a side plate of the lower casing 101a. In this case, the image sensor 109 is connected to the document guide plate 1.
02, the image sensor 1
The positioning accuracy of the document 09 with respect to the document guide plate 102 is extremely improved.

In addition, various design changes can be made without changing the gist of the present invention.

[0028]

As described above, according to the automatic document feeder mechanism of the present invention, it is not necessary to replace the entire mirror when attaching and detaching the image sensor as in the prior art, so that the maintenance cost of the image sensor can be reduced. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an attached state of an image sensor in an automatic document feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a main part of the automatic document feed mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing an attached state of an end portion of the image sensor.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a housing section for housing an image sensor.

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state where an image sensor is housed in a housing unit.

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a facsimile including an automatic document feed mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration of the facsimile.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view showing a modified example of mounting a mirror.

FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view showing an attached state of the image sensor and the mirror.

FIG. 10 is a schematic sectional view showing a state in which the mirror has been removed.

FIG. 11 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional automatic document feed mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 102 Document guide plate 102a Upper surface 102b Recess 102c Housing 102d Rigid piece (locking means) 102e Elastic piece (locking means) 109 Image sensor P9b Opening 120 Mirror (thin plate) 150 Fixing member

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Masayuki Mizuno 1-2-2, Tamazo, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-6-37994 (JP, A) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04N 1/04-1/207

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A document guide plate for guiding a lower surface of a document to be conveyed; an opening formed in the document guide plate and penetrating a long contact type image sensor closely contacting the lower surface of the document; An automatic document feeder provided with a thin plate that guides the document from the upstream side in the transport direction of the image sensor to the upper surface of the image sensor so as to avoid collision of the original with the upper edge portion on the upstream side in the transport direction. In the state where the thin plate is straddled by the upper end surface of the image sensor, the upstream portion in the transport direction, and the concave portion formed on the upper surface of the opening edge of the document guide plate adjacent thereto, An automatic document transport mechanism, wherein the automatic document transport mechanism is fixed to the concave side at a height that can avoid collision between the document and the edge on the upstream side in the transport direction.