JP4385716B2 - Scanner device and image reading device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a scanner device and an image reading device, and more particularly to a scanner device and an image reading device provided with a flat cable.

  As an apparatus for reading an image, there is an image reading apparatus that reads a document placed on a glass plate while scanning a sensor disposed below the glass plate. Patent Document 1 describes an image reading apparatus employing a flat cable as such an image reading apparatus.

As shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, in the image reading apparatus 101, a sensor housing area 104 for housing the sensor 103 is provided below the glass 109 on which the document is placed. The sensor 103 reads a document placed on the glass plate 109 while scanning along the arrow 120 within the readable range 102 in the sensor accommodation area 104. A flat cable 105 that follows the scanning of the sensor 103 is connected to the sensor 103. A signal read by the sensor 103 is sent to a predetermined image processing unit (not shown) via the flat cable 105. The conventional image reading apparatus 101 is configured as described above.
JP 2001-346006 A

  However, the conventional image reading apparatus has the following problems. As shown in FIG. 15, the flat cable 105 is disposed so as to bend from the bottom surface of the sensor housing region 104 toward the sensor 103. For this reason, the bent portion of the flat cable 105 follows the glass plate 109 while being scanned by the sensor 103.

  When the sensor 103 is scanned while the flat cable 105 is in contact with the glass plate 109, the flat cable may be caught between the glass plate 109 and the sensor 103 due to the frictional force between the flat cable 105 and the glass plate 109. is there. Further, there is a problem that the lower surface of the glass plate 109 is soiled or damaged by the flat cable 105.

  Therefore, in order to solve the problem caused by the contact between the flat cable 105 and the glass plate 109, a method of reducing the friction between the flat cable 105 and the glass plate 109 and improving the slip is adopted.

  However, this requires a special treatment such as applying a lubricant to the flat cable 105 and the glass plate 109, and there is a problem that the cost increases. In addition, there is a problem that it is troublesome to manage the degree of each slip (the degree of lubrication).

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its object is to easily solve the problems caused by the contact between the flat cable and the glass plate without applying a treatment such as applying a lubricant. It is to provide a scanner device, and another object is to provide such an image reading device.

  A scanner device according to the present invention is a scanner device for reading a document placed in a predetermined reading area, and includes a glass plate, a sensor, a sensor housing portion, a circuit board portion, and a flat cable. The glass plate is disposed in a predetermined reading area and a document is placed thereon. The sensor is disposed below the glass plate, and reads a document placed on the glass plate by scanning the reading area. The sensor housing area is provided below the glass plate and allows scanning of the sensor. The circuit board unit processes the signal read by the sensor. The flat cable is disposed in the sensor region, electrically connects the sensor and the circuit board unit, and allows scanning of the sensor. The flat cable includes an insulating material having a predetermined width and extending in one direction and facing each other, and a plurality of conductors arranged along the one direction at intervals between the insulating materials. Yes. The flat cable is then folded in one direction at the portion of the insulating material positioned between the conductive wire and the conductive wire near the center in the width direction at the portion that comes into contact with the glass plate by scanning the sensor. It is arrange | positioned so that the peak part may face a glass plate.

  According to this configuration, the sensor is arranged in the sensor housing region so that the flat cable is folded in one direction (longitudinal direction), and the mountain-folded mountain portion is in contact with the glass plate. It is installed. Thereby, the contact area of a flat cable and a glass plate is reduced significantly compared with the case of the flat cable which is not mountain-folded. Moreover, the mountain portion is curved by folding the mountain along one direction of the flat cable, and the curved smooth portion comes into contact with the glass plate. As a result, even if the flat cable follows the scanning of the sensor in contact with the glass plate, the glass plate may become dirty without applying a separate treatment such as applying a lubricant to the flat cable or the glass plate. It can be easily suppressed from being damaged.

An image reading apparatus according to the present invention is an image reading apparatus for reading a document placed in a predetermined reading area, and includes a document placing plate, a sensor, and a flat cable. The document placing plate is disposed in the reading area, and the document is placed thereon. The sensor is disposed below the document placing plate, and reads the document placed on the document placing plate by scanning the reading area. The flat cable is electrically connected to the sensor so as to allow scanning of the sensor, and sends a signal read by the sensor to a predetermined signal processing circuit unit. Its flat cable includes an insulating material that face each other extend in one direction with a predetermined width, and a plurality of conductors arranged in one direction at a distance from one another between the insulating material The flat cable is folded in a direction along one direction at the portion of the insulating material located between the conductor and the conductor near the center in the width direction at the portion that contacts the document placement plate by scanning the sensor. The mountain-folded mountain portion is disposed so as to face the document placing plate.

According to this configuration, the flat cable has a predetermined width, extends in one direction and faces each other, and a plurality of flat cables arranged along the one direction with a space between the insulating materials. In the portion that comes into contact with the document placement plate by scanning of the sensor, the portion of the insulating material located between the conducting wire and the conducting wire in the vicinity of the center in the width direction is mountain-folded along one direction, by mountain portion of the mountain fold is arranged so as to face the mounting plate original, the contact area between the flat cable and the document bearing plate, as compared with the case of a flat cable not subjected to bending It is greatly reduced. As a result, even when the scanning of the sensor follows the flat cable in contact with the document placement plate, the document placement can be performed without applying a separate process such as applying a lubricant to the flat cable or the document placement plate. It is possible to easily suppress the mounting plate from becoming dirty or damaged.

  A scanner apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, in the scanner device 1, a sensor accommodation area 4 for accommodating the sensor 3 is provided below a glass plate 9 (see FIG. 8) on which an original is placed. The sensor 3 is disposed so as to reciprocate (scan) along the arrow 20 within the readable range 2 by a predetermined driving device (not shown).

  One end of a flat cable 5 that follows the scanning of the sensor 3 is connected to the sensor 3. The other end of the flat cable is connected to an image processing unit (not shown) provided in the scanner device 1. The signal read by the sensor 3 is sent to the image processing unit via the flat cable 5. The flat cable 5 is connected to the sensor 3 so as to be bent from the bottom surface of the sensor housing region 4. In particular, the flat cable 5 is provided with a mountain-folded portion.

  The flat cable 5 will be described in more detail. As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the flat cable 5 has a direction in which the flat cable 5 extends, particularly in the vicinity of the center in the width direction of the portion that contacts the glass plate 9 when following the scanning of the sensor 3. It is a mountain fold along. Since the vicinity of each terminal 5b of the flat cable 5 is not in contact with the glass plate 9, it is not particularly folded in this portion. The flat cable 5 that has been folded in this manner is disposed in the sensor housing region 4 so that the mountain-folded mountain portion 5 a contacts the glass plate 9.

  Next, the operation of the above-described scanner device 1 will be described. As shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 6, first, a document (not shown) is placed on the glass plate 9. On the other hand, below the glass plate 9, the sensor 3 scans between one end side and the other end side of the readable range from a predetermined standby position. While the sensor 3 scans, the document is read by the sensor 3. The read information signal is sent to the image processing unit via the flat cable 5 and predetermined information processing is performed.

  When the sensor 3 scans, the flat cable 5 follows the movement of the sensor 3. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, the mountain portion 5 a of the flat cable 5 that is folded in a mountain comes into contact with the glass plate 9.

  As described above, in the scanner device 1 described above, the flat cable 5 is mountain-folded along the longitudinal direction, and the mountain-folded mountain portion 5 a is arranged in the sensor housing region 4 so as to contact the glass plate 9. It is installed. Thereby, the contact area of the flat cable 5 and the glass plate 9 is significantly reduced compared with the case of the flat cable which is not mountain-folded.

  Moreover, the mountain portion 5 a is curved by folding the mountain along the longitudinal direction of the flat cable, and the curved smooth portion comes into contact with the glass plate 9. As a result, even if the flat cable 5 follows the scanning of the sensor 3 in contact with the glass plate 9, without separately performing a process such as applying a lubricant to the flat cable 5 or the glass plate 9, It is possible to easily suppress the glass plate 9 from being stained or damaged.

  Next, the evaluation performed to confirm this will be described. As the scanning device, as shown in FIG. 7, a scanning device (device A) in which a flat cable is arranged so that a mountain-folded mountain portion 5 a contacts the glass plate 9, a device B for comparison, and A device C was prepared, and the sensors A to C were scanned with the sensor a predetermined number of times.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, the apparatus B is a scan in which the flat cable is arranged so that the end of the flat cable 5 comes into contact with the glass plate 9 with the valley portion facing the glass plate 9 as shown in FIG. Device. As shown in FIG. 9, the device C is a scanning device in which a flat cable which is not conventional mountain fold is brought into contact with a glass plate 9.

  As a result, in the device C, dirt and scratches were first generated on the glass plate, and then, the glass plate of the device B was stained and scratched. At this point, it was experimentally confirmed that the glass plate of the apparatus A was hardly contaminated or scratched. In particular, in the case of the device B, since the cut surface 5c of the flat cable 5 cut along the longitudinal direction contacts the glass plate 9, the mountain portion 5a that is folded in a mountain shape as in the case of the device A is formed. It is considered that the surface of the glass 9 is easily damaged as compared with the case where it contacts the glass plate 9.

  Next, a method for folding the flat cable into a mountain will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 10, a chevron mold 10 corresponding to the longitudinal direction of the flat cable 5 and the flat cable 5 are prepared. In the mold 10, a mountain ridge line 10 a extends along the longitudinal direction. At both ends in the longitudinal direction, smooth skirts 10b are provided so that the flat cable 5 is not excessively bent.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 11, the flat cable 5 is put on the mold 10. As shown in FIG. 12, the flat cable 5 has a predetermined width, extends in one direction (a direction orthogonal to the paper surface), and has a predetermined width between the insulating materials facing each other. A plurality of conducting wires 7 are arranged at intervals. At this time, the ridge line 5a of the mountain of the mold 10 is brought into contact with the portion of the insulating material 6 located between the conducting wire 7 and the conducting wire 7 near the center of the flat cable 5 in the width direction.

  As the insulating material 6 of the flat cable 5, for example, polyethylene film, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate or the like is applied.

  Next, the flat cable 5 is pressed into the mold 10 so that the flat cable 5 is mountain-folded. In this way, as shown in FIG. 13, a flat cable 5 is formed that is mountain-folded at the portion of the insulating material 6a located between the conducting wire 7a and the conducting wire 7b near the center in the width direction.

  In addition, when the flat cable 5 is folded in a mountain, if the mountain is folded at the portion of the conducting wire 7, the conducting wire 7 may be disconnected. Therefore, it is preferable to make a mountain fold at the portion of the insulating material 6 located between the conductive wires 7.

  As described above, in the above-described method, the flat cable can be easily folded into a mountain by pressing the flat cable against the chevron mold, compared to the case where the lubricant is applied to the flat cable or the like to manage this. The increase in production cost can be minimized.

  In the above-described embodiments, the scanning apparatus has been described as an example. However, the present invention can be widely applied to an image reading apparatus including a flat cable that follows a sensor.

1 is a partial perspective view of a scanner device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a flat cable used in the scanner device shown in FIG. 1 in the embodiment. In the Example, it is a fragmentary perspective view of the flat cable shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is another partial perspective view of the flat cable shown in FIG. 2 in the same embodiment. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view for explaining the operation of the scanner device shown in FIG. 1 in the same embodiment. FIG. 2 is a partial enlarged cross-sectional view for explaining the operation of the scanner device shown in FIG. 1 in the same embodiment. FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along a cross-sectional line VII-VII shown in FIG. 5 in the same example. In the Example, it is the 1st sectional view showing the arrangement relation of the flat cable and glass plate for comparison. In the Example, it is the 2nd sectional view showing the arrangement relation of the flat cable and glass plate for comparison. In the Example, it is a perspective view which shows 1 process of the method of making a flat cable into a mountain fold. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a step performed after the step shown in FIG. 10 in the same example. FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along a cross-sectional line XII-XII shown in FIG. 10 in the same example. FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view taken along a cross-sectional line XIII-XIII shown in FIG. 11 in the same example. It is a fragmentary top view which shows the structure of each part of the conventional scanner apparatus. It is a partial side view which shows the structure of each part of the conventional scanner apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Scanner apparatus, 2 Readable range, 3 Sensor, 4 Sensor accommodation area, 5 Flat cable, 5a Mountain part, 5b Terminal, 5c Cut surface, 6 Insulation material, 7, 7a, 7b Conductor, 9 Glass plate, 10 type 10a Ridge line, 10b Bottom.

Claims (2)

A scanner device for reading a document placed in a predetermined reading area,
A glass plate disposed in a predetermined reading area on which a document is placed;
A sensor disposed below the glass plate for reading a document placed on the glass plate by scanning in a reading area;
A sensor receiving area provided below the glass plate and allowing scanning of the sensor;
A circuit board unit for processing a signal read by the sensor;
A flat cable disposed in the sensor region for electrically connecting the sensor and the circuit board unit and allowing scanning of the sensor;
The flat cable is
Insulating materials having a predetermined width and extending in one direction and facing each other;
A plurality of conductive wires arranged in one direction at intervals between the insulating materials;
The flat cable is mountain-folded along one direction at the portion of the insulating material located between the conductive wire and the conductive wire in the vicinity of the center in the width direction in the portion that contacts the glass plate by scanning of the sensor, A scanner device, wherein the mountain-folded mountain portion is disposed so as to face the glass plate. An image reading apparatus for reading a document placed in a predetermined reading area,
A document placing plate disposed in the reading area and placed under the document placing plate on which the document is placed, and placed on the document placing plate by scanning the reading area. A sensor for reading an original,
A flat cable electrically connected to the sensor so as to allow scanning of the sensor, and for sending a signal read by the sensor to a predetermined signal processing circuit unit ;
The flat cable is,
Insulating materials having a predetermined width and extending in one direction and facing each other;
A plurality of conductive wires arranged in one direction at intervals between the insulating materials;
With
The flat cable is mountain-folded along one direction at the portion of the insulating material located between the conducting wire in the vicinity of the center in the width direction at the portion that comes into contact with the document placing plate by scanning of the sensor. And an image reading device arranged such that the mountain-folded mountain portion faces the document placing plate .

Images