JP4500028B2 - Scanner device and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a scanner device and an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a FAX, and a scanner using the scanner device.

  Conventionally, a developed image placed on a contact glass by scanning the contact glass from below with the light source while reciprocating the carriage carrying the light source along the sub-scanning direction with a motor that can rotate forward and backward. There is a scanner device that reads the image using a CCD or the like. The carriage reciprocates, for example, via a timing belt by fastening the carriage to a timing belt that is spanned between a pair of timing pulleys and rotatable along the sub-scanning direction, and rotating the timing pulley by a motor. The carriage is reciprocated.

In such a scanner device, a flexible flat cable is used to supply power to a light source mounted on a carriage that reciprocates, and one end of the scanner device is connected to the light source and the other end is in the sub-scanning direction. It is connected to the power supply circuit so that it can cope with the movement of. Such a flexible cable is disclosed in FIG.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses that a second traveling body is provided with a guide for guiding a flexible cable to a desired route.

JP 2000-134413 A JP 2003-328435 A

  In the scanner device disclosed in Patent Document 1, a guide is not disclosed in the route of the flat cable. Without the flat cable guide, unstable behavior occurs due to the tension of the flat cable, etc., causing a load on the image sensor unit, resulting in poor running stability and distortion of the scanned image. -Problems such as expansion / contraction, bending, and color misalignment occurred.

  Further, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, even when a cable guide is provided on the second traveling body, depending on the guide mounting method, the traveling stability of the carriage may be adversely affected. It was.

  The present invention advantageously solves the above-described problems, and the first carriage and the second carriage have good running stability, no load fluctuation, no carriage vibration, no carriage rolling, and no distortion, expansion, contraction, bending, or color shift. To provide a scanner device that can read a stable image together with an image forming device using the scanner device, and to provide a configuration that can reduce the size of the entire device and improve the reliability of carriage travel. Objective.

The present invention includes a first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating an original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light, and a second carriage having a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of the light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage. , the scanner device comprising a cable for supplying power to the exposure lamp of the first carriage, the cable guide for guiding the cable, so as to surround covers the flat belt pulley which is rotatably supported by the second carriage, the second The scanner device is fixed to a rotation shaft of a flat belt pulley rotatably supported by a carriage.

The present invention includes a first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating an original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light, and a second carriage having a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of the light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage. , the scanner device that immediately Preparations and a cable for supplying power to the exposure lamp of the first carriage, the cable guide for guiding the cable, so as to surround covers the flat belt pulley which is rotatably supported by the second carriage The scanner device is characterized by being configured .

The present invention is an image forming apparatus having a printer apparatus for forming an image based on an image read using the scanner.

In the scanner device of the present invention , a first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating the original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light, and a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of the light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage. In a scanner device comprising two carriages and a cable for supplying power to an exposure lamp of the first carriage, the cable guide for guiding the cables is fixed to a rotating shaft of a flat belt pulley that is rotatably supported by the second carriage. Therefore, there is provided a scanner device that has good running stability of the first carriage and the second carriage, is free of load fluctuation, carriage vibration, carriage rolling, and can read a stable image without distortion, expansion, contraction, or color misregistration. Can be provided.

  That is, in the scanner device of the present invention, since the tension applied to the cable directly acts on the flat belt pulley shaft driving the second carriage and is balanced with the flat belt, the carriage can be driven stably. It becomes possible. In this regard, if the cable guide is fixed to the second carriage other than the rotating shaft, a twisting force due to the rotational moment is applied by the cable tension between the flat belt pulley for driving and the cable guide, As a result of the unstable force acting, load fluctuation, carriage vibration, and carriage rolling may occur during carriage travel, and there may be a problem that the read image may be distorted, stretched, bent, or misaligned.

In the scanner device of the present invention , a first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating the original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light, and a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of the light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage. 2 carriage and a cable for supplying power to the exposure lamp of the first carriage, and moving the first carriage and the second carriage in the sub-scanning direction at a speed ratio of 2: 1. In the scanner apparatus for exposure scanning, the second carriage is driven by a flat belt fixed to the first carriage and the scanner housing, and a cable guide for guiding the cable is rotatably supported on the second carriage. Since it is fixed to the rotating shaft of the flat belt pulley, the same as the scanner device of claim 1 Good running stability of the first carriage and the second carriage can load change carriage vibration carriage rolling without distortion, stretching, without bending, color shift stable image to provide a scanner device which can read.

In the scanner device according to the present invention, the portion of the cable extending from the first carriage in the second carriage direction is configured to be substantially flush with the upper follower portion of the flat belt that drives the second carriage. Therefore, it is possible to provide a scanner device in which the first carriage and the second carriage can be brought close to each other in the home position of the carriage, and the entire apparatus can be made compact. In other words, by constructing the flat belt and the cable in parallel and close to each other on the same plane, the distance from the lower side of the first carriage to the upper side of the second carriage can be reduced, and further, it can overlap vertically at the home position. The above-described effects can be obtained.

In the scanner device according to the present invention, the cable guide is configured to surround the flat belt pulley rotatably supported by the second carriage. Therefore, by covering the flat belt pulley with the cable guide, the flat belt pulley is covered. It is possible to provide a scanner device that prevents the belt from coming off the flat belt pulley and improves the reliability of carriage travel.

Since the image forming apparatus of the present invention includes the scanner device described above, the first carriage and the second carriage have good running stability, no load fluctuation, carriage vibration, and carriage rolling, and distortion, expansion and contraction, bending, and color. An image forming apparatus that can read a stable image without deviation can be provided, and the first carriage and the second carriage can be brought close to each other at the home position of the carriage, and the entire apparatus can be made compact. It is possible to provide a forming apparatus, and it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus that prevents the flat belt from coming off from the flat belt pulley and improves the reliability of carriage travel.

  An embodiment of the scanner device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The present embodiment shows an application example to a flat bed type (original fixed type) scanner apparatus.

  First, the overall configuration of the scanner device will be schematically described. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view schematically showing an embodiment of a scanner device. The scanner device 1 includes a housing-shaped scanner housing 3 having a contact glass 2 for placing a document on the upper surface.

  In the scanner housing 3, a xenon lamp (hereinafter referred to as “Xe lamp”) 4 as an exposure lamp, a first carriage 6 on which a first mirror 5 having an inclination of 45 ° is mounted, and an inclination of 45 ° are provided. None, and the second mirror 7 and the second carriage 9 on which the second mirror 7 and the third mirror 8 are mounted are provided so that the angles formed by the reflecting surfaces are orthogonal to each other and the reading optical axis is inverted by 180 °. The first and second carriages 6 and 9 are arranged with the main scanning direction (perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 1) as the longitudinal direction, and a speed ratio of 2: 1 along the sub-scanning direction (left and right direction in FIG. 1). It can be reciprocated freely. The first and second carriages 6 and 9 when waiting for reading of a document image are positioned at the home position of the left end portion in FIG. The Xe lamp 4, the first mirror 5, the second mirror 7, and the third mirror 8 form an optical system that scans along the document surface.

  The Xe lamp 4 is provided with a reflector 18 that covers the side facing away from the contact glass 2 with the light reflecting surface in the axial direction so that a slit (aperture) is formed at a position facing the contact glass 2. . Thus, the light emitted from the Xe lamp 4 can be effectively used to improve the recycling efficiency of the light irradiated toward the contact glass 2.

  In the scanner housing 3, a sensor board on which a drive motor 10 by a stepping motor for reciprocating the first and second carriages 6 and 9 along the sub-scanning direction and a linear CCD 11 as a reading element are mounted. A lens block stay 14 and the like on which the unit 12 and the lens block 13 are mounted are provided. In addition, a width sensor 15 and a length sensor 16 that detect the size of the document placed on the contact glass 2 are provided on the bottom plate 3 a of the scanner housing 3.

  Next, each part with which the scanner apparatus 1 is provided is demonstrated. 2 is a horizontal sectional view showing the internal structure of the scanner device 1, FIG. 3 is a longitudinal side view thereof, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing each part provided in the scanner housing 3, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a part thereof. FIG. 6 is an explanatory view schematically showing the direction of the force applied by locking and fixing the belt, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view schematically showing the principle of the moving pulley regarding the moving operation of the first and second carriages 6 and 9. FIG.

  Rail members 17 are respectively attached to a pair of left and right side walls 3b (see FIG. 2) raised along the sub-scanning direction of the scanner housing 3. These rail members 17 have, for example, a U-shaped cross section, and by forming such a shape, as shown in FIG. 3, a two-stage rail structure of rails 17a and 17b opposed in the vertical direction is formed. Has been. In the following description, the upper pair of rails is referred to as a first rail 17a for the first carriage 6, and the lower pair of rails is referred to as a second rail 17b for the second carriage 9. Thus, by dividing the traveling sliding surfaces of the first and second carriages 6 and 9 as the rails 17a and 17b, the positions of the first and second carriages 6 and 9 (in the home position state) can be brought close to each other. This is useful for reducing the overall size of the scanner device 1 to a necessary minimum.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the wall 3c on the home position side raised along the main scanning direction of the scanner housing 3 is for restricting the vertical movement of the second carriage 9 positioned at the home position. The stopper 17c is integrally formed of a part of the side wall 3c of the housing. These stoppers 17c are formed at positions corresponding to L-shaped arm portions 9c (see FIG. 5) formed on a mirror stay 9a (described later) of the second carriage 9.

  Sliders (not shown) are provided at the four corners of the lower surface of the first carriage 6, and these four sliders are brought into contact with the upper surface of the first rail 17a so that they can reciprocate along the sub-scanning direction. Has been. In addition, endless type timing belts 21 extending along the sub-scanning direction over almost the entire length of the scanner housing 3 are disposed at both ends of the lower surface of the first carriage 6.

  A part of the timing belt 21 is locked to the lower surface on the end side of the first carriage 6 by a belt clamp 6a (see FIGS. 3, 5 to 7) together with a part of a flat belt 30 described later. At this time, the shape of the belt clamp 6a is determined so that the timing belt 21 and the flat belt 30 are locked at the same height (horizontal state) with respect to the first carriage 6 (see FIG. 5). ). At this time, when the timing belt 21 and the flat belt 30 are simultaneously locked in the same plane per belt clamp 6a, the first carriage 6 is attached to the rail 17a by receiving a predetermined pressing force. The first timing belt 21 and the flat belt 30 are fastened to the first carriage 6 at a slightly lifted position (see FIG. 6 schematically). With this configuration, the sliders attached to the lower four corners of the first carriage 6 can scan while reliably contacting the rails 17a, and thus are effective in preventing jitter in the read image. The first carriage 6 pulls the second carriage 9 in the scanning direction via the flat belt 30, but the timing belt 21 and the flat belt 30 are fixed on the same plane. There is no rotational moment.

  One end side of each timing belt 21 is spanned between drive timing pulleys 23 fixed to both ends of the drive shaft 22 extending along the main scanning direction. The other end side of each timing belt 21 is stretched over a driven timing pulley 24 attached to the scanner housing 3. The driven timing pulley 24 is urged in a direction away from the driving timing pulley 23 by a tension spring (not shown) spanned between the driven timing pulley 24 and the scanner housing 3. As a result, tension is applied to each timing belt 21 in the sub-scanning direction.

  A drive transmission timing pulley 25 a is attached to one end of the drive shaft 22. The drive motor 10 described above is disposed on the side of the drive transmission timing pulley 25a. As shown in FIG. 3, the inclined gear 10b is fixed on the drive shaft 10a of the drive motor 10, and meshes with the reduction gear 25b to rotate. A transmission timing pulley 25c is provided coaxially with the reduction gear 25b, and an endless type drive timing belt 26 is bridged between the transmission timing pulley 25c and the drive transmission timing pulley 25a. . As a result, the driving force of the driving motor 10 is transmitted to the driving timing pulley 23 via the driving shaft 22.

  An iron flywheel is fixed to the drive shaft 10a on the rear side of the drive motor 10 in order to stabilize rotation. An anti-vibration rubber damper is disposed between the drive motor 10 and the motor bracket on the inclined gear 10b side. The motor bracket is slidable to adjust the tension of the drive timing belt 26 described above, and is screwed after a predetermined tension is applied by a spring.

  The second carriage 9 has a pair of mirror stays 9a that support both ends of the second and third mirrors 7 and 8, and an arm 9b that extends from both outer sides of the mirror stay 9a toward the first carriage 6 side. is doing. The extension length of the arm 9b is a length corresponding to the amount of movement of the second carriage 9 in the sub-scanning direction. Therefore, the second carriage 9 of the present embodiment is substantially U-shaped when viewed in plan. In such a second carriage 9, a flat belt pulley 27 that is rotatable along the surface direction of the mirror stay 9a is provided outside the mirror stay 9a, and a pair of the flat belt pulley 27 and the tip of the arm 9b is provided. A bracket 28 for rotatably holding a flat belt pulley 29 is attached, and a flat belt 30 is bridged between the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29. At this time, the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29 are arranged so that the flat belt 30 is slightly parallel to the timing belt 21 in plan view.

  The stud for rotatably holding the flat belt pulley 27 is constituted by a shaft with a seat as will be described later in the present embodiment. The bracket 28 that supports the flat belt pulley 29 is slidable with respect to the arm 9b, and is attached with a predetermined tension from a spring (not shown). That is, the flat belt 30 does not need to transmit a driving force unlike the timing belt 21, and basically, tension is not required if there is no slack between the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29. In this form, a weak tension of about several hundred grams is applied to prevent looseness during assembly. Even when tension is applied in this way, since the tension is weak, the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29 and the shaft that rotatably supports these flat belt pulleys 27 and 29 (drive shaft 22 and the like) without using a main bearing. The rotational load with is very small.

  In addition, sliders (not shown) are provided on the lower surface of the second carriage 9 at four corners that are diagonal positions of the entire second carriage 9, and these four sliders abut against the upper surface of the second rail 17b. By doing so, it can be reciprocated along the sub-scanning direction.

  The second carriage 9 is arranged so that each arm 9 b is positioned on the inner peripheral side of the timing belt 21. At this time, the pair of flat belts 30 is positioned inside the pair of timing belts 21 in the main scanning direction. Further, a part of each flat belt 30 is fixed in position by being engaged with a fixing member 31 fixed to the bottom plate 3 a of the scanner housing 3. The fixing position of the flat belt 30 by the fixing member 31 is set so as to be different from the position where the belt clamp 6a is engaged with the flat belt 30 of the first carriage 6 by substantially a half circumference. Since a part of the flat belt 30 is fixed by the fixing member 31 in this way, the flat belt 30 itself rotates even if the flat belt 30 is moved following the timing belt 21 at the locking position by the belt clamp 6a. Without moving, it moves in the sub-scanning direction together with the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29 according to the principle of the moving pulley. Accordingly, the flat belt pulleys 27 and 29 and the second carriage 9 that supports the flat belt 30 also move in the sub-scanning direction.

  As described above, since the upper side of the flat belt 30 is locked to the first carriage 6 in a slightly lifted state, a force that can be lifted to the first carriage 6 acts on the second carriage 9. Yes. However, the lower side of the flat belt 30 is fixed at a position where the height fixed by the fixing member 31 attached to the bottom plate 3a is slightly lowered, and the fixing member 31 is a force that pulls the second carriage 9 downward. Is acting (see FIG. 6 schematically). In the present embodiment, since the forces acting up and down are substantially equal, the second carriage 9 can scan while reliably contacting the rail 17b. As a result, it is possible to apply a downward urging force to the second carriage 9, and during reciprocation, the lower surface of the second carriage 9 is stably brought into contact with the second carriage 17 without being lifted from the second rail 17b. Can be moved.

  The scanning means 32 that scans the Xe lamp 4, the first mirror 5, the second mirror 7, and the third mirror 8 as an optical system along the document surface is a first unit on which the Xe lamp 4 and the first mirror 5 are mounted. A carriage 6, a second carriage 9 on which a second mirror 7 and a third mirror 8 are mounted, a rail 17 that slidably supports these carriages 6 and 9, a timing belt 21 driven by a drive motor 10, and a flat surface. The belt 30 and the fixing member 31 are used.

  In such a scanner device 1, when reading a document image, the drive motor 10 is driven to reciprocate the first and second carriages 6 and 9 at a speed ratio of 2: 1 and the Xe lamp 4 is turned on. Then, the original image is exposed and scanned. As a result, the light emitted from the Xe lamp 4 is reflected by the original surface via the contact glass 2 and reaches the first mirror 5, and then is sequentially reflected by the second and third mirrors 7 and 8, and the lens. The original image is read by being condensed on the CCD 11 via the block 13.

  In the scanner device having the overall configuration as described above, the present invention is characterized by the configuration of the cable, the cable guide, and the flat belt / flat belt pulley. This will be described with reference to FIGS.

  A high voltage power source (not shown) for lighting the Xe lamp is provided in the first carriage, and a cable 61 for feeding a DC voltage and transmitting a lighting signal is connected to this power source. The other end of the cable 61 is connected to a control board (not shown) on the scanner housing side. The cable 61 is routed from the lower surface of the first carriage toward the second carriage, and as shown in FIG. 8, a cable guide 60 fixed to the seat portion of the flat belt pulley rotating shaft support stud of the second carriage. The wires are routed by changing the direction of 180 °, and after being fixed to the bottom surface of the scanner housing (not shown), they are routed so as to be connected to the control board.

  The stud 62 for rotatably holding the flat belt pulley 27 is composed of a shaft with a seat 63 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the cable guide 60 is fixed so as to engage with the seat 63 portion of the stud 62, and does not rotate even if the cable tension is applied to the cable guide by a non-rotating stopper (not shown). It is like that.

  Further, the engagement portion of the cable guide 60 with the stud 62, that is, the seat 63 is between the mirror stay 9 a and the flat belt pulley 27. For this reason, the external force (mainly cable tension) applied to the cable guide 60 is directly applied to the rotating shaft of the flat belt pulley 27 that drives the second carriage, that is, the stud 62. No moment is applied, and no excessive reaction force is generated in the first carriage 6 through the cable 61, and the running stability of the carriage is improved. Therefore, there is no load fluctuation, carriage vibration, or carriage rolling, and a stable image free from distortion, expansion / contraction, bending, and color misregistration can be read.

  In the cable guide 60, a portion where the cable 61 is guided (portion through which the cable passes) is outside the flat belt 30 and the flat belt pulley 27 from the mirror stay 9a side, and is a checker on the upper side of the flat belt 30. The cable 61 is arranged on substantially the same plane as the portion. In other words, the cable guide 60 and the like are arranged at substantially the same height so that the cable 61 is slightly apart and parallel to the flat belt 30 when viewed in plan. As a result, as shown in FIG. 10, the cable 61 for supplying power to the high-voltage power supply of the exposure lamp 4 provided in the first carriage 6 has a portion extending from the first carriage in the second carriage direction to the upper side of the flat belt. Since the first and second carriages 6 and 9 can be brought close to each other (in the home position state), the overall size of the scanner device 1 can be reduced to the minimum necessary. To help.

  Further, the cable guide 60 is configured so as to cover the flat belt pulley 27 and the flat belt 30 hung on the flat belt pulley 27 (FIGS. 9 and 10), whereby the flat belt 30 is on both sides of the flat belt pulley 27. Since the horizontal direction is restricted by the cable guide 60 and the circumferential direction is restricted by the cable guide 60, it is possible to prevent the above-described flat belt 30 having a weak tension from being detached from the flat belt pulley 27 for some reason.

  Next, as an example of an image forming apparatus using the scanner apparatus of the present invention, an embodiment of a copying machine will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a longitudinal sectional side view schematically showing an embodiment of a copying machine. The copying machine 40 includes a scanner device 1 configured as described in the above-described embodiment, and a printer device 41 that forms an image of a document read by the scanner device 1 on a sheet.

  In the printer device 41, paper from a paper feed tray 42 that stacks and holds sheet-like paper or a manual feed tray 43 that accepts manual paper to a discharged paper stacker unit 46 via a printer engine 44 and a fixing unit 45. A conveyance path 47 is formed.

  In the present embodiment, an electron having a photoconductor (organic photoconductor in the present embodiment) 48 and a charger (not shown), an exposure device 50, a developing device 51, and a transfer device 52 provided around the photoconductor. A photographic printer engine 44 is used. In the printer device 41, a paper reversing mechanism 53 for reversing the paper on which an image is formed on one side is provided.

  In such a configuration, the original image read by the scanner device 1 is imaged and developed on the photoconductor 48 by the printer device 41, transferred to the paper fed from the paper feed tray 42 or the manual feed tray 43, and The toner image transferred to the paper is fixed by the fixing unit 45.

  In these embodiments, application examples to a digital scanner including the CCD 11 as the scanner device 1 have been described. For example, the original image light reflected by the third mirror 8 is passed through an imaging lens, a reflection mirror, and the like. The present invention can also be applied to an analog copying machine that directly exposes a photosensitive member.

1 is a longitudinal side view schematically illustrating a scanner device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a horizontal sectional view which shows the internal structure of a scanner apparatus. It is a vertical side view which shows the internal structure of a scanner apparatus. It is a perspective view which shows each part provided in the scanner housing. It is a perspective view which shows a part of each part provided in the canner housing. It is explanatory drawing which shows roughly the action direction of the force by latching and fixation of a belt. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematically the principle of the moving pulley about the movement operation | movement of a 1st and 2nd carriage. It is a perspective view explaining the cable guide according to this invention. It is sectional drawing explaining the cable guide according to this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the cable guide according to this invention, and a 1st and 2nd carriage. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing a copying machine to which a scanner device of the present invention is applied.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Scanner apparatus 6 1st carriage 9 2nd carriage 27 Flat belt pulley 30 Flat belt 60 Cable guide 60 Cable

Claims (3)

A first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating an original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light; a second carriage having a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage; the scanner apparatus comprising a cable for supplying power to the carriage of the exposure lamp,
A cable guide for guiding the cable is fixed to a rotation shaft of a flat belt pulley rotatably supported on the second carriage so as to cover a flat belt pulley rotatably supported on the second carriage. A scanner device characterized by that. A first carriage having an exposure lamp for irradiating an original and a mirror for receiving the reflected light; a second carriage having a plurality of mirrors for changing the optical path direction of light reflected from the mirror of the first carriage; the scanner device that immediately Preparations and a cable for supplying power to the carriage of the exposure lamp,
A scanner apparatus, wherein a cable guide for guiding the cable is configured to cover a flat belt pulley rotatably supported by a second carriage . An image forming apparatus comprising: a printer device that forms an image based on an image read using the scanner device according to claim 1 .

Images