JP3359719B2 - Document separation apparatus and method of manufacturing separation belt thereof - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document separating apparatus,
In particular, the present invention relates to a document separating apparatus that uses a separation roller for separating and feeding the document and a separation belt that presses the document against the separation roller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document separating apparatus automatically circulates, for example, a copy document onto a contact glass of a copying machine, and returns the read copy document to a document stack on a document table again. It is frequently used in automatic document feeders of the type. In this type of document separation device, a separation roller and a document blocking member that comes into contact with the separation roller are provided on the upstream side of the document table. As the document blocking member, for example, the document blocking member is pressed against the separation roller at a predetermined winding angle. A separation belt is employed. In this type of apparatus, the separation roller is brought into contact with the lowermost document of the document bundle on the document table, rotated in the transport direction, and the separation belt is moved at a predetermined pressure to the lowermost document moving together with the separation roller. At the same time, the subsequent document stacked above the document is prevented from entering between the separation belt and the separation roller, and only the lowermost document is separated.

[0003]

However, such a conventional document separation apparatus has the following problems. When there is unevenness in the separation belt As shown in FIG. 3A, when there is large unevenness on the surface of the separation belt 21 wound around the separation roller 20 at a predetermined angle,
When the document is conveyed in a state where the convex portion and the image forming portion 1a of the document are overlapped, the image forming portion 1a is scratched by the convex portion of the separation belt 21, and the formation portion of the image forming portion 1a collapses. The toner adheres to the rear, resulting in rubbing stains 1b (see FIG. 3C).

When the separation roller has irregularities As shown in FIG. 4A, for example, when a knurl is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the separation roller 30, the contact surface A between the separation roller 30 and the separation belt 31 The separation pressure concentrates on the knurled convex portion 30a, and the image forming portion 1a easily adheres to the separation belt 31 at that portion, and the toner adhered to the separation belt 31 further adheres to the subsequent document, resulting in transfer stain 1c. (FIG. 4
(b)).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to prevent a rubbing stain and a transfer stain by smoothing a surface of a separation belt against a separation roller and an outer peripheral surface of the separation roller to a predetermined surface roughness.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an original separating apparatus for separating an original by winding a flat separation belt around a rotating separation roller at a predetermined angle. The separation belt is formed of a cloth-like base material and a rubber-like elastic material coated on the base material, and a contact surface of the separation belt with the separation roller and an outer peripheral surface of the separation roller are formed on a surface of plain paper. The invention according to claim 2 is a method for manufacturing a separation belt in a document separation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the height of the unevenness is equal to or less than the roughness. After applying the rubber-like elastic material to the base material of the separation belt, the material is cured, and the surface thereof is pressed to smooth the surface to a height equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper. Features A.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the original is separated and conveyed by the separation belt and the separation roller in which the press contact surface and the outer peripheral surface are smoothed to have an uneven height equal to or less than the surface roughness of the plain paper. Therefore, it is possible to effectively suppress the occurrence of rubbing stains and transfer stains on the document image.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the separation belt is smoothed by press working. Therefore, required surface finishing can be easily performed.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a view showing an embodiment of a document separation apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the separation belt. First, the configuration will be described.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a document, which is placed on a document table 2. A rotatable separation roller 5 is disposed in front of the document table 2, and a flexible guide made of a mylar or the like supported by a guide plate 3 is used to approach the document table 2 to the separation roller 5. A member 4 is provided so that paper feeding can be performed smoothly. One end of the separation belt 6 wound around the separation roller 5 by a predetermined angle θ is directly fastened to a holder 7 fixed to the exterior cover 10 with screws 11, and the other end is locked to a pin 8. One end of a spring 9 is locked to the pin 8, and the other end of the spring 9 is locked to the holder 7, so that a predetermined tension is always applied to the separation belt 6. The separation belt 6, as shown in FIG.
After coating a rubber-like elastic material 16 (for example, liquid urethane rubber) on both sides of a cloth-like base material 15 (for example, a cloth made of polyester fiber), the material is cured to a predetermined hardness by vulcanization, and is subjected to press working. The surface is smoothed and formed. The height of the unevenness of the contact surface 6a to the separation roller 5 is equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper normally used in a PPC copying machine. The separation roller 5 is made of a relatively soft material such as chloroprene rubber, and its outer peripheral surface 5a is formed by polishing or the like in the same manner as the contact surface 6a of the separation belt 6, that is, the height of the unevenness of the surface is normal. Finished to be as small as or less than the surface roughness of the paper. In this embodiment, the force (separation force) required for pulling out only one lowermost document from the document bundle by the separation belt 6 and the separation roller 5 is about 70.
The tension applied to the separation belt 6 by the spring 9 is about 1.5 kg, and the contact pressure (surface pressure) between the separation belt 6 and the separation roller 5 is about 300 to 400 g / cm ² .

Next, a method of manufacturing the separation belt and its operation will be described. First, when manufacturing a separation belt, a cloth-like base material 15 is coated (applied) with a liquid rubber material, which is a material of the rubber-like elastic material 16, and the surface is leveled with an appropriate blade or the like, and then vulcanized. Thereby, the material layer of the rubber-like elastic material 16 is cured to a predetermined hardness. Next, the material layer of the rubber-like elastic material 16 is pressed by a press machine having a processing surface finished to a predetermined surface roughness and a heating means, and the surface of the separation belt 6 on the separation roller 5 side is equal to the surface roughness of plain paper. Smoothing is performed until the following uneven height is obtained. When the separation belt 6 thus manufactured is attached to the holder 7 and brought into contact with the separation roller 5 at a predetermined surface pressure, a separation operation can be performed.

Next, a stack of originals, with the image surface facing upward, is placed at a predetermined position on the original placing table 2 in advance. When a copy start switch (not shown) is turned on, the separation roller 5 and a call roller (not shown) start rotating, and a part of the document bundle is sent to the separation belt 6 side. Documents stacked above the lowermost document 1 while being sandwiched between the separation rollers 5 are prevented from entering the separation roller 5 by the separation belt 6. The document 1 is separated from the separation belt 6 by the rotation of the separation roller 5.
And the separation roller 5 are conveyed after passing through the range of the angle θ where the separation roller 5 is in contact. At this time, since the surface of the separation belt 6 is smoothed to have an irregularity height equal to or less than the surface roughness of the plain paper, the image forming portion 1a on the original 1 is shaved to stain the rear original image surface. In addition, since the outer peripheral surface 5a of the separation roller 5 is also smoothed to have an uneven height equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper, the separation pressure is not concentrated, and the It is less likely that the toner that has been peeled off due to a part or all of the toner adheres to the separation belt 6 and that the toner on the separation belt 6 adheres to the subsequent document image surface to cause transfer contamination.

As described above, in this embodiment, the contact surface 6a of the separation belt 6 with the separation roller 5 and the outer peripheral surface 5a of the separation roller 5 are smoothed until the height of the unevenness is equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper. Therefore, as the document is separated and conveyed, the toner on the document image surface is deformed or peeled off to deteriorate the image by rubbing, or the peeled toner is transferred to the subsequent document image surface and stains the subsequent image. Transfer dirt can be minimized, and the separation / transport operation can be performed continuously while maintaining a clean original.

Further, the separation belt 6 applies the material of the rubber-like elastic material 16 to the base material 15 and then cures the material.
The surface is pressed and smoothed until the height of the unevenness is equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper, so that the required surface finish can be easily performed.

[0015]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a document is separated and transported by a separation roller and a separation roller having a surface smoothed until the height of unevenness is equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper. Therefore, it is possible to effectively suppress the occurrence of rubbing stains and transfer stains on the original image, and it is possible to provide an original separating apparatus with very little original contamination.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the separation belt is smoothed by press working, a required height of the unevenness can be obtained while facilitating surface finishing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of a document separation apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the separation belt according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view of a process of generating rubbing stains in the related art.

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view of a transfer stain generation process in the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Original 5 Separation roller 5a Outer peripheral surface 6 Separation belt 6a Contact surface 15 Base material 16 Rubber-like elastic material

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 3/52 320 B65H 3/06

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document separating apparatus for separating a document by winding a flat separation belt around a rotating separation roller at a predetermined angle, wherein the separation belt is coated with a cloth-like base material and the base material. The separation belt is made of a rubber-like elastic material, and the contact surface of the separation belt with the separation roller and the outer peripheral surface of the separation roller are smoothed until the height of the unevenness is equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper. Document separation device. 2. A method for manufacturing a separation belt in a document separation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a material of a rubber-like elastic material is applied to a base material of the separation belt, and the material is cured. A method for producing a separation belt, characterized in that the surface is pressed and smoothed to a height of irregularities equal to or less than the surface roughness of plain paper.