JP3403064B2 - Copier - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copying apparatus, and more particularly, to a reader unit for reading image information of a document as a digital signal and a printer unit for writing the image information of the document from the reader unit onto a recording medium. The present invention relates to a copying machine in which the entire apparatus is made compact by arranging the copying machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image information of a document is read as a digital signal (digital information) using a reading element such as a CCD (line sensor), and the read digital signal is passed through a signal image processing circuit and a laser beam scanning system. Various copying machines (digital copying machines) for writing on the surface of a photosensitive drum as a recording medium have been proposed.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a main part of an optical system of this type of digital copying apparatus.

In the figure, first, the document 3 is read by the reader unit.
The image of No. 1 is illuminated by the illumination system 33, and the luminous flux (light beam) based on the image information of the illuminated original 31 is passed through the first, second, and third moving mirrors 35, 36, 37 for scanning. The reflected light is imaged on the surface of the image reading means (line sensor) 39 by the imaging system (imaging lens) 38, and the original 31
Image information of the document 31 is read, and then the image information of the original 31 is transferred to the printer unit via a signal image processing circuit (not shown). Then, in the printer unit, a light beam optically modulated based on the image information of the document 31 read by the reader unit is emitted from the laser beam scanning system 41, and is passed through the folding mirror unit 42 to the photosensitive drum 4 as a recording medium.
Images are formed on the three surfaces, and the image information of the original 31 is recorded.

In this type of digital copying apparatus, as shown in the figure, the printer section is located below the reader section in the drawing.

[0006]

In such a copying apparatus, when the reader section for reading the image information of the original document and the printer section for writing the image information are considered independently, the reader section is especially the glass platen surface of the original table. If the document placed on the document is scanned by a plurality of scanning moving mirrors or the like to read the image information of the document, then the structure shown in FIG.
The printer is located at the bottom.

Therefore, a space is required in the height direction of the apparatus (direction from the bottom of the apparatus to the platen glass) independently of the reader section and the printer section. There was a problem that it was very difficult to make it compact.

According to the present invention, the reader unit and the printer unit constituting the copying apparatus are configured by sharing the space between the document table glass and the recording medium (photoreceptor), thereby making the entire apparatus compact. It is an object of the present invention to provide a copying machine capable of performing the above.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a copying apparatus illuminates a document placed on a platen glass surface with an illumination system, and scans a light beam based on image information of the illuminated document. A reader unit which forms an image on the surface of the image reading means by an image forming system through the unit and reads the image information of the document, and a digital image signal based on the image information of the document read by the reader unit. And a printer section for recording the image information of the original by transmitting the light beam modulated by the laser beam scanning system to the laser beam scanning system and forming an image on the recording medium surface via the folding mirror section. And the reader unit and the printer unit share a space between the original platen glass and the recording medium, and the image forming system and the laser beam scanning system include:
The optical axis of the image forming system and the optical axis of the laser beam scanning system are substantially parallel to each other, and both are arranged to be inclined with respect to the glass surface of the document table, and the folding mirror section is provided on the document table. It is characterized in that it is arranged so that the distance from the glass surface is shorter than the distance from the original table glass surface of the image forming system and / or the image reading means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the reader portion has a fixed mirror, and the distance between the fixed mirror and the original table glass surface and the folding mirror section of the original table glass surface. It is characterized in that the distance from is almost equal. The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1 or 2, the folding mirror section has a plurality of folding mirrors. The invention of claim 4 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the folding mirror section has a plurality of folding mirrors. The invention of claim 5 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the scanning mirror portion has three movable mirrors of first, second, and third and a fixed mirror.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a main part of an optical system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a document table glass for supporting a document, on which a document (image) 1 is placed. An illumination system 3 is composed of a fluorescent lamp 3a which is a light source means and a concave mirror 3b. The concave mirror 3b efficiently collects the light beam (light beam) emitted from the fluorescent lamp 3a on the original 1 surface side.
4 is a slit, which is arranged in the vicinity of one surface of the original,
The light flux (light amount) from the one surface of the original is limited. Reference numeral 21 denotes a scanning mirror unit, which has first, second and third moving mirrors 5, 6 and 7 for scanning and a fixed mirror 8. The fixed mirror 8 is arranged in the optical path between the third moving mirror 7 and an image forming system 9 which will be described later, and the light fluxes transmitted through the first, second and third moving mirrors 5, 6, 7 are It is reflected toward the imaging system 9 side. The first, second and third moving mirrors 5, 6, 7 and the fixed mirror 8 guide the reflected light beam from the surface of the original 1 to an image forming system (image forming lens) 9. The image forming system 9 forms (projects) a light beam based on the image information on the surface of the original 1 on a surface of a line sensor (CCD) 10 serving as an image reading unit at a predetermined magnification. In this embodiment, the optical axis L ₁ of the image forming system is tilted with respect to the surface of the original platen glass 2. Note that reference numerals 3 to 10 each constitute an element of the reader section.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a laser beam scanning system, which passes a light beam optically modulated on the basis of image information read by the reader through an unillustrated optical deflector, a scanning lens or the like constituting the laser beam scanning system 11. Is ejecting.
In this embodiment, the optical axis L ₂ of the laser beam scanning system 11 is tilted with respect to the surface of the platen glass 2. Reference numeral 12 denotes a folding mirror portion arranged in the optical path between the laser beam scanning system and a photosensitive drum 13 which will be described later. The folding mirror portion 12 is composed of a single folding mirror 12a. It is reflected on the surface side of the photosensitive drum 13. Reference numeral 13 is a photosensitive drum as a recording medium. Note that reference numerals 11 to 13 each constitute an element of the printer unit.

In the present embodiment, first, with respect to the reader unit, the illumination system 3 illuminates the original document 1 placed on the original platen glass 2, and the light flux reflected from the surface of the original document 1 is slit 4.
Through the first, second and third moving mirrors 5 for scanning.
The light is reflected by the fixed mirror 8 toward the image forming lens 9 via 6 and 7, and the image is formed on the surface of the line sensor 10 by the image forming lens 9. Then, the signals from the line sensor 10 are sequentially digitized as the first, second, and third moving mirrors 5, 6, and 7 scan the document 1 placed on the document table glass 2, The image information of the original 1 is read. The image information (digital signal) of the document 1 read by the reader unit is transmitted to the printer unit via a signal image processing circuit (not shown).

Next, in the printer section, the laser beam scanning system 11 optically modulates the emitted light beam based on the image information of the original document 1 and emits the reflected light beam, which is reflected by the folding mirror 12a and guided to the surface of the photosensitive drum 13 to guide the original document 1. Image information is being recorded.

In the case of the reader unit which scans the surface of the original 1 in the sub-scanning direction using the first, second and third moving mirrors 5, 6 and 7 as in the present embodiment, and reads the image of the original 1. It is only the first moving mirror (first mirror base) 5 that needs to scan (move) in the sub-scanning direction from the leading edge to the trailing edge of one surface of the original, and the other second moving mirrors ( The scanning of the second mirror table 6 and the third moving mirror (third mirror table) 7 need only be half the scanning width of the first moving mirror 5.

This embodiment pays attention to this fact and focuses on the image forming system 9
The optical axis L ₁ of the laser beam scanning system 11 and the optical axis L ₂ of the laser beam scanning system 11 are inclined with respect to the surface of the platen glass 2, and these optical axes L ₁ and L ₂ are substantially parallel to each other. The distance between the folding mirror 12a and the surface of the platen glass 2 is substantially equal to that of the fixed mirror 8 and the distance between the folding mirror 12a and the surface of the platen glass 2 is an imaging system. 9 or / and line sensor 1
The distance is set to be shorter than the distance from the surface 2 of the platen glass of 0. As a result, in the present embodiment, the distance of the folding mirror 12a from the surface of the original platen glass 2 is suppressed to a distance that allows the first moving mirror 5 to scan.

That is, in this embodiment, the conventional method (see FIG. 3),
The limitation of the space (in the height direction of the apparatus) between the document table glass and the recording medium, which is necessary for the third moving mirror, the imaging lens, the line sensor, the driver substrate, and the like, is restricted as described above. The space between the printer and the printer section is shared so that the printer and the printer section can be relaxed, and the overall size of the apparatus can be reduced.

The fact that the distance between the folding mirror 12a and the surface of the platen glass 2 is substantially the same as the distance between the fixed mirror 8 and the surface of the platen glass 2 means that the difference in distance is about 2 cm or less. The optical axes L ₁ and L ₂ are substantially parallel to each other. When the optical axes L ₁ and L ₂ are extended, the optical axes L ₁ and L _{2 are}
It means that the intersecting angle of is less than about 10 °.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a main part of the optical system of FIG. In the figure, the same elements as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

The present embodiment differs from the first embodiment described above in that the folding mirror section of the printer section is composed of a plurality of folding mirrors, and the distance of the folding mirror section from the platen glass surface and the image forming system or / And the distance from the platen glass surface of the line sensor to be substantially equal. Other configurations and optical actions are substantially the same as those in the first embodiment, and the same effect is obtained.

That is, in the figure, reference numeral 22 denotes a folding mirror section of the printer section, which is composed of first and second folding mirrors 22a and 22b. The distance from the surface and the distance from the surface of the platen glass 2 of the image forming system 9 and / or the line sensor 10 are made substantially equal.

It is to be noted that the distance of the folding mirror section 22 from the original table glass 2 surface and the distance of the image forming system 9 and / or the line sensor 10 of the reader section from the original table glass 2 surface are substantially equal to each other. The difference is about 2 cm or less.

As described above, in this embodiment, the reader unit and the printer unit are provided with the original table glass 2 and the recording medium 13 as described above.
By sharing the space between and and appropriately configuring, the overall size of the device is made compact.

In each embodiment, the scanning mirror unit 2
1 is composed of the first, second and third moving mirrors 5, 6, 7 and the fixed mirror 8, but not limited to this, for example, the first,
The present invention can be applied similarly to each of the above-described embodiments even if it is configured only by the second and third moving mirrors 5, 6, and 7.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the reader unit and the printer unit constituting the copying apparatus are configured by sharing the space between the original platen glass and the recording medium (photoconductor). It is possible to achieve a copying apparatus that can be made compact as a whole.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a main part of an optical system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a main part of an optical system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a main part of an optical system of a conventional copying apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 manuscript (image) 2 Platen glass 3 Lighting system 3a light source means 3b concave mirror 4 slits 5 First moving mirror 6 Second moving mirror 7 Third moving mirror 8 fixed mirror 9 Imaging system 10 Image reading means 11 Laser beam scanning system 12,22 Folding mirror part 12a, 22a, 22b folding mirror 13 recording media 21 Scanning mirror unit

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Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document placed on a platen glass surface is illuminated by an illumination system, and a light flux based on image information of the illuminated document is imaged by a focusing system via a scanning mirror section on an image reading means surface. A reader unit that forms an image on the document and reads the image information of the document, and a digital signal based on the image information of the document read by the reader unit is transmitted to a laser beam scanning system through a signal image processing circuit, and the laser beam A copying apparatus comprising: a printer section for recording the image information of the original by imaging a light beam modulated and emitted from a scanning system on a recording medium surface through a folding mirror section, and the reader section. The printer unit is configured by sharing a space between the original platen glass and the recording medium, and the image forming system and the laser beam scanning system are connected to the optical axis of the image forming system and the optical axis.
The optical axes of the laser beam scanning system are substantially parallel to each other,
In addition, both are placed at an angle with respect to the platen glass surface.
The folding mirror section is located at a distance from the platen glass surface.
Is the image forming system and / or the glass platen surface of the image reading means
Be shorter than the distance between them.
Characteristic copying machine. 2. The reader unit has a fixed mirror, and a distance of the fixed mirror from the platen glass surface and a distance of the folding mirror unit from the platen glass surface are substantially equal to each other. The copying apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The copying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the folding mirror section has a plurality of folding mirrors. Wherein said scanning mirror is first, second, copying apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a third three mobile mirrors. 5. The first is the scanning mirror portion, second, third copying apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that three movable mirror and a fixed mirror.