JP3968366B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus that includes an intermediate tray that stores recording paper with an image transferred on one side, and that reverses one or more recording sheets and retransmits them on both sides, the size of the intermediate tray that stores the recording paper Is set to a size that allows the recording paper to be stored in the longitudinal direction.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-069218

  For this reason, since the width of the image forming apparatus main body is set to the size, the machine width is defined, and the image forming apparatus main body becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in the case of copying a document in a long direction on both sides, a direction in which the image is rotated and is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the same size (hereinafter referred to as a short direction). Set the size of the intermediate tray in the image forming apparatus so that it can be stored in the short direction of the recording paper, and the above problems are solved. An object is to reduce the occupation ratio of the machine width of the main body of the image forming apparatus to save space and further improve the productivity of copying.

Or the invention, a certain angle for example 90 ° or 270 ° rotation to the longitudinal direction original images when duplex copying, when the widthwise direction of the recording paper to be fed is not set, By setting the two-sided copy mode so that it cannot be selected, it is possible to prevent paper jams in the intermediate tray of the image forming device, and to prevent document transport by the wasteful automatic document feeder for detecting the document size. Therefore, it is an object to further improve the conveyance quality and the document quality.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus that feeds a document by a document feeding means and reads an image, and forms an image on a recording sheet fed from a sheet feeding tray. A detecting unit for detecting the size and setting direction of the document, a storage unit for storing the read image of the document, an image recording unit for recording the image read from the storage unit on a recording sheet, and the recording unit When the duplex mode is executed by the intermediate tray, an image is transferred to one side, and an intermediate tray on which one or more recording sheets conveyed in the short direction of the recording sheet can be stacked, and the image of the storage unit is rotated. Image rotation means for applying the image data, and a control means for selecting a paper feed tray on which recording paper corresponding to the size of the image to be recorded is set and feeding the recording paper from the selected paper feed tray. Long Direction is placed on the document is the document feeding means such that the conveying direction of the document, and, if the double-sided recording is selected, the paper feed tray widthwise direction of the recording paper in the conveying direction is set select an image forming apparatus, characterized in that to record the image rotation processing has been performed by the image rotating means on a recording sheet fed from the paper feed tray.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the control unit selects a paper feed tray in which recording paper of the same size as the original is stored. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the image rotation unit rotates the image at an arbitrary angle by controlling the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction of the read address for the recording unit. It is possible to make it possible. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the third aspect, the image rotating unit rotates the image by 90 ° or 270 ° when reading the image from the recording unit. .

According to the present invention, the size of the intermediate tray can be set to a size that can accommodate the recording paper in the short direction of the recording paper by rotating the image and copying it on the recording paper in the short direction of the same size. The occupation ratio of the machine width of the main body can be reduced to save space, and the productivity of copying can be improved.

In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the selection of the duplex copying mode is prohibited, so that the recording paper can be prevented from being jammed in the intermediate tray, and automatic document feeding is performed to detect the document size. Since unnecessary document conveyance by the apparatus can be prevented, conveyance quality and document quality can be improved.

  An embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention generally includes a copying machine main body 1, an automatic document feeder (ADF) 100, a paper discharge tray 200, and a paper feed unit (bank) 300. It is configured. The automatic document feeder 100 feeds the documents stacked on the document feeding table 101 one by one onto the contact glass 10 of the copying machine main body 1 and discharges them onto the discharge tray 105 after reading the image. It is configured.

  Documents on the document feeder 101 are aligned in the width direction by, for example, a side fence (not shown), separated and fed in order from the lowest document by a feed roller 102, and contact glass 10 by a conveyor belt 103. Paper is fed up. The feeding unit 107 is provided with a document width detection sensor 108 and a document length detection sensor 109. The size of the document sent from the automatic document feeder 100 is detected by both sensors.

  The original on the contact glass 10 is discharged onto the discharge tray 105 by the conveyance belt 103 and the discharge roller 104 after the reading is completed. When reading a double-sided document, the document on the document feeder 101 is separated and fed from the bottom document in order from the bottom document by the feed roller 102, and the contact glass 10 is fed by the transport belt 103. After passing over, it is reversed by the reversing claw 106, fed again onto the contact glass 10, and the back surface is read. Next, the document on the contact glass 10 is transported by the transport belt 103, reversed by the reversing claw 106, fed again onto the contact glass 10, and the surface is read. Then, the original after the front surface reading is discharged onto the discharge tray 105 by the conveyance belt 103 and the discharge roller 104.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the automatic document feeder 100 is configured to open and close around a hinge 81 and a hinge 82. A claw 83 is provided on the upper surface of the copying machine main body 1 near the hinge 81, and a hole 84 is provided on the lower surface of the automatic document feeder 100 at a position where the claw 83 faces when the automatic document feeder 100 is closed. When the automatic document feeder 100 is closed, the claw 83 is inserted into the hole 84.

  Inside the automatic document feeder 100 adjacent to the hole 84, a lift-up detection sensor 85 and a document detection timing sensor 86 for detecting the presence or absence of the claw 83 inserted through the hole 84 are provided.

  The lift-up detection sensor 85 detects the claw 83 when the automatic document feeder 100 is completely closed (lifted down) and is turned on, and when the automatic document feeder 100 is opened (lifted up). Then, it is turned off. The completely closed state refers to a state in which a part of the lower surface side of the automatic document feeder 100 is in contact with the upper surface of the copying machine main body 1.

  On the other hand, the document detection timing sensor 86 is provided for controlling the timing of detecting the size of the document on the contact glass 10 based on the detection result of the document size detection sensor described later. When the opening angle is within a predetermined angle, the claw 85 is detected and turned on. This predetermined angle is a slight angle, and when the operator manually opens the automatic document feeder 100, both the lift-up detection sensor 85 and the document detection timing sensor 86 are turned off. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2 etc., 87 and 88 are end surface scales.

  Next, the sensor part provided under the contact glass will be briefly described. As shown in FIG. 3, document size detection sensors 91 to 93 are provided below the contact glass 10. The details of this sensor are as shown in FIG. 4. Each of the document size detection sensors 91 to 93 disperses the light emitted from one light emitting diode 91a into three beams, and is on the contact glass. The original is irradiated onto the original, and the reflected light of the irradiated light is received by the three light receiving elements 91b inside the optical system. The sensor used in the present invention is such a reflection type sensor, and passes through the contact glass 10 from the inside of the optical system and receives only the reflected light from the document surface on the contact glass surface, and the presence or absence of the document. Can be detected.

  The document size detection sensors 91 to 93 are always operated when the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is input, and each light receiving element is turned on when a document on the contact glass 10 is detected, and when no document is detected. It is off. The document size detection sensors 91 to 93 are arranged according to the sizes of various documents placed at predetermined positions on the contact glass 10. Thereby, it is determined whether or not there is a document on the contact glass 10, and the size of the document on the contact glass 10 is also detected at the same time.

  The copying machine main body 1 includes a scanner for reading a document, an image processing unit, a plotter, and the like. The scanner has a contact glass 10 for placing a document and an optical scanning system. The optical scanning system includes an exposure lamp 11, a first mirror 12, a second mirror 13, a third mirror 14, a lens 15, a full color CCD 16, and the like. Have.

  Hereinafter, the process up to image formation of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 8, the exposure lamp 11 and the first mirror 12 are mounted on the first carriage, and the first carriage (not shown) is moved at a constant speed by a stepping motor (not shown) during document reading. Move in the sub-scanning direction. The second mirror 13 and the third mirror 14 are mounted on the second carriage (same as above), and the second carriage is moved at a speed of 1/2 of the first carriage, for example, by the stepping motor (same as above) when reading the document. The moving speed ratio between the first carriage and the second carriage is not particularly limited, and may be set freely.

  By the movement of the first carriage and the second carriage as described above, the original 600 on the contact glass 10 is optically scanned, and is imaged and photoelectrically converted by the lens 15 on the light receiving surface of the full-color CCD 16, and the original. Is converted into an electrical signal (hereinafter referred to as an image signal).

  The image signal separated into three colors of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) by the full color CCD 16 is passed through the A / D converter 602 by the signal processing circuit 601 and then processed by the image processing unit 604. The image processing is performed, and at the time of copying, the writing unit copies the image onto the recording paper.

  The writing unit includes a laser output unit 20, an fθ lens 21, and a mirror 22. The laser output unit 20 includes a laser diode (LD) that is a laser light source, a polygon mirror, and a polygon motor (not shown). The laser output unit 20 emits laser light corresponding to the black signal modulated according to the image read by the scanner during copying, and the emitted modulated laser light is irradiated onto the photoconductor 30 to form a latent image. Is formed on the photoreceptor 30. Around the photosensitive member 30, a black developing device 32, an LED writing unit 31 for writing a red signal image, a red second developing device 33, a transfer device and a separator (not shown) are arranged. The upper latent image is made visible by toner and placed on a sheet (recording sheet), and then fixed and recorded on the recording sheet.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet is selected from one of a duplex unit 40 and a first tray 50 in the copying machine main body 1, a sheet feeding unit 300, a second tray 310, a third tray 320, and a fourth tray 330. The paper is fed by a pair of rollers of the feed roller 42 and the separation roller 43, the first paper feeding device 51, the second paper feeding device 311, the third paper feeding device 321 and the fourth paper feeding device 331, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the size of the recording paper set in each paper feed tray and the setting direction of the recording paper are the combination of ON / OFF of the push switch 401 in which the position of the size lever 400 in the tray is plural. Has been detected. As shown in FIG. 1, paper (recording paper) fed from the duplex unit 40 and the first tray 50 is transported upward by the vertical transport unit 60, and the second tray 310, third tray 320, and The paper fed from the fourth tray 330 is transported upward by the bank vertical transport unit 340 and the vertical transport unit 60 (see FIG. 8).

  Then, after a predetermined time after the leading edge is detected by the registration sensor 52, the sheet hits the registration roller 53 and temporarily stops, and is conveyed by the registration roller 53 in synchronization with the sub-scanning effective period signal (FGATE). Then, the toner image on the photoconductor 30 is transferred. Next, the sheet is separated from the photoreceptor 30 and then conveyed by the conveying device 54, and the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 55. The sheet after fixing is discharged to the discharge tray 200 by the switching claw 57 and the discharge roller 56 during single-sided printing and after double-sided printing.

  On the other hand, the paper after surface printing during duplex printing is guided to the duplex conveying path 41 by the switching claw 57, reversed by the feed roller 42 and the separation roller 43, and accumulated on the duplex unit 40. The sheet on the duplex unit 40 comes into contact with the feed roller 42 as the tray rises, and is fed to the vertical conveyance unit 60 when the feed roller 42 rotates to form an image on the back surface.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a control system of the digital copying machine. In the figure, an operation unit controller 500 performs liquid crystal display control of the operation unit, display control of various LEDs, and input control of various keys. A system controller 501 performs paper feed control, transport control, fixing control, duplex printing control, process control, and the like.

  An image processing controller 502 performs image control and scanner reading control, and an ADF controller 503 controls the automatic document feeder 100. The paper feed tray controller 504 controls the paper feed tray, the FAX controller 505 performs management of FAX transmission / reception and file management of FAX transmission / reception, and the printer controller 506 performs management of printer data reception and management of printer data files.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an image processing circuit of this digital copying machine. The document 600 on the contact glass 10 is illuminated by the exposure lamp 11, and the reflected light of the illumination light is read by the color CCD 16. Next, the analog image signal separated into three colors R, G, and B by the color CCD 16 is amplified by the signal processing circuit 601 to correct the amount of light, converted into a digital image signal by the AD converter 602, and a shading correction circuit. The shading correction is performed at 603 and is sent to the image processing unit 604.

  The image signal sent by the image processing unit 604 is subjected to image quality processing such as MTF correction, γ correction, black image generation, color image generation, binary processing, multi-value processing, etc., and a selector 605 as black data and color data. Is output. In the selector 605, the image signal is switched and sent to the scaling unit 606 or the image memory controller 608.

  The image signal input to the scaling unit 606 is appropriately enlarged / reduced in accordance with the scaling factor and sent to the writing unit 607. On the other hand, the image memory controller 608 and the selector 605 are configured to be able to input and output image signals in both directions. Further, a CPU 609, a ROM 610, and a RAM 611 are provided. The ROM 610 and RAM 611 store programs and data. The CPU 609 performs setting to the image memory controller 608 and the like, and controls the reading unit and the writing unit. Further, the CPU 609 writes and reads data in the image memory 612 via the memory controller 608.

  The data-converted image sent to the image memory controller 608 as a document image is sent to the image memory 612 after the image data is compressed by an image compression device in the image memory controller 608. By performing image compression, a large amount of original image data can be stored at a time and the image memory can be used effectively. For example, the stored original image data can be output in page order. When the image is output, the data in the image memory 612 can be output while being sequentially expanded by the expansion device in the memory controller 608.

  The stored document image data is output in page order, the document image is rotated for each number of copies, and output to a recording sheet. The details are performed in the same manner as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-195313.

  On the other hand, during FAX transmission, black data is transferred to the FAX image memory 613 by the selector 605. At the time of FAX reception, the received data is demodulated or expanded from the line and then developed in the FAX image memory 613, and then sent to the writing unit 607 by the selector 605.

  Further, when the printer data is received, the data is expanded in the printer image memory 614 and then sent to the writing unit 607 by the selector 605.

Hereinafter, it will be explained the configuration and operation of the image forming apparatus of the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of control contents of the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment . FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment .

  As shown in FIG. 8, when the input double-sided copying mode is selected via the operation unit controller 500 (step S101), the document 600 set on the document table 801 of the automatic document feeder 800 is detected as document size detecting means. In 803, the size and setting direction are detected by the detection means 803, and the result is transmitted to the system controller 501 (step S102).

  Next, it is confirmed whether or not the document 600 detected by the document size detection means 803 is in the duplex mode (step S103). In the duplex mode, the document shorter direction 810 (longitudinal direction) as shown in FIG. Confirm that the original is set in the direction orthogonal to the original (step S104). If the original is in the longitudinal direction, the original is read from the RAM and copied from the various input keys by the system controller 501. Based on the information such as the magnification, the paper feed tray 701 to 731 selects the paper (recording paper), selects the paper feed port, and feeds the recording paper. (Step S106). The image on the first surface is transferred onto the recording paper fed from the selected paper feed port (step S107).

  The recording paper on which the image on the first side (front side) has been transferred is checked through the system controller 501 whether or not copying of all the originals has been completed (step S108). When copying is completed and both sides are copied, the process returns to step S103, recording paper is stored in the intermediate tray 708 of the double-sided device in the same manner as described above, and the recording paper is fed again from the intermediate tray 708 and then back from the RAM. The information is called, the image on the second side (back side) is transferred to the recording paper, discharged onto the discharge tray 709, and the process ends.

  If the document 702 detected by the document size detection means 703 is set in the longitudinal direction 711 as shown in FIG. 9 (Yes in step S104), an image rotation process described later is performed. Thereafter, a plurality of paper feed units 711 to 731 select a paper feed port that is the same size as the original 702 and is set in the short direction, and feed recording paper from the selected paper feed port (step S105 → step S106).

  At this time, the image on the first surface of the document 702 is rotated by, for example, 90 ° or 270 ° (90 ° + 180 °: 90 ° + reversed) by the image rotation means, read from the RAM, and transferred onto the fed recording paper. One image is transferred. In the same way as described above, the recording paper on which the image on the first side is transferred is checked to see whether or not full screen copying is complete. Proceed to. Here, the image rotating means temporarily stores the read document image in a RAM or the like, and controls the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction of the read address for this RAM by the CPU, and converts the image stored in the RAM to 90 °. It is a means that can be read appropriately at an arbitrary angle such as 270 °. In some cases, rotation such as inversion (180 °) is also possible.

  First, the recording paper on which one side is transferred is stored in the intermediate tray 708 of the double-sided device, and after feeding again from the intermediate tray 708, the image on the second side of the document 702 is rotated by 90 ° or 270 ° by the image rotating means. The image on the second side is read from the RAM, transferred to the retransmitted recording paper, and the recording paper on which both sides are transferred onto the paper discharge tray 709 is discharged, and the process ends.

Next, a description will be given of the configuration AND ITS operation of the image forming apparatus of the second embodiment. The image forming apparatus of this embodiment is the same as that described for the image forming apparatus of the first embodiment , except for the following points. When various keys are inputted for the duplex copying mode and selected via the operation unit controller 500 and a signal is transmitted to the system controller (replacement of step S103 → step S203), the system controller 500 selects the sensor 401 and the like. Then, it is confirmed whether or not there is a recording sheet in the short direction in the trays of the paper feed trays 704, 705, 706, and 707 (step S204). Since this process is performed in the invention of claim 2, in the invention of claim 2, step S <b> 204 is performed instead of step S <b> 104. Only when the recording paper in the long direction is set in any of the plurality of paper feeding units and the recording paper in the short direction is not set, the start of the copying operation (drive) of the machine is prohibited. Step S208 is newly added. As described above, in the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment , the document is not conveyed for checking the size and the setting direction, thereby preventing stress on the document. The prohibition described above is that only the recording paper in the longitudinal direction is stored by the push switch 401 via the paper feed tray controller when the document information from the sensors 91, 92, 93 is input to the system controller 501 or the like. By confirming this, automatic document feeding can be stopped via the ADF controller, or paper feeding can be stopped via the paper feed tray controller.

  The rest is the same as that described for the invention described in claim 1 described above. That is, when the duplex copying mode is selected (step S201), the document size detector 703 detects the size and setting direction of the document 702 set on the document table 701 of the automatic document feeder 700 (step S202).

  It is confirmed whether the original 600 detected by the original size detecting means 703 is in the double-side mode (step S203). In the double-side mode, the short side direction 810 (longitudinal direction) of the original as shown in FIG. Confirm that the paper is set in a direction perpendicular to the sheet (step S204). If it is set, it is set in the same direction as the original 600 by the plurality of paper feeding units 701 to 731. The selected paper is selected to select the paper feed port, and the recording paper is fed by the paper feed means having this paper feed port (step S205). The image on the first side is transferred onto the recording paper fed from the selected paper feed port (step S206).

  The recording paper on which the image on the first side has been transferred confirms the end of copying of all the originals (step S207). If the transfer is on one side, the process ends. If the copy is on both sides, the process proceeds to step S203. In the same manner as described above, the image is stored in the intermediate tray 708 of the double-sided device, fed again from the intermediate tray 708, and then the image on the second surface is transferred to the recording paper and discharged onto the discharge tray 709. To be finished.

1 is an external view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is an external view showing a configuration of an automatic document feeding portion. It is a figure which shows the structure of the sensor of a contact glass part. It is a figure which shows the detail of the sensor used for a contact glass part. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control system of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image processing circuit of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of each paper feed tray. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a document feeding portion of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment . 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment .

Explanation of symbols

40 Double-sided unit 42 Feed roller 43 Separating roller 401 Push switch 400 Size lever 500 Operation unit controller 501 System controller 502 Image processing controller 604 Image processing unit 608 Image memory controller 609 CPU
610 ROM
611 RAM
612 Image memory 701 First paper feeder 711 Second paper feeder 721 Third paper feeder 731 Fourth paper feeder

Claims (4)

In an image forming apparatus that feeds a document by a document feeding means and reads an image, and forms an image on a recording sheet fed from a sheet feeding tray.
Detection means for detecting the size and orientation of the document;
Storage means for storing an image of the read original;
Image recording means for recording an image read from the storage means on a recording paper;
An intermediate tray capable of stacking one or more recording sheets on which an image is transferred to one side when the duplex mode is executed by the recording unit and conveyed in the short direction of the recording sheet;
Image rotation means for performing rotation processing on the image of the storage means;
Control means for selecting a paper feed tray in which recording paper corresponding to the size of the image to be recorded is set and feeding the recording paper from the selected paper feed tray,
When the document is placed on the document feeding means so that the longitudinal direction of the document is the document transport direction, and the duplex recording is selected, the short direction of the recording paper is set in the transport direction. An image forming apparatus, wherein a paper feed tray is selected, and an image subjected to rotation processing by the image rotation means is recorded on a recording paper fed from the paper feed tray.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit selects a paper feed tray in which recording paper of the same size as a document is stored.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image rotation unit is capable of rotating the image at an arbitrary angle by controlling a main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction of a read address for the recording unit.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image rotating unit rotates the image by 90 ° or 270 ° when reading the image from the recording unit.

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