JPH01133465A - Picture reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stabilize a position relation for the original of a picture reading means by providing a position regulating means to regulate a travelling position to a constant position along the travelling path of the picture reading means. CONSTITUTION:A picture reading means 7 moves at the lower side of an exposing glass 3 in a horizontal direction and the reading scanning for the original on the exposing glass 3 is executed. The picture reading means 7 is travelled along a travelling path 41, the travelling condition is always regulated by a position regulating means 40 and the travelling play in the width direction is prevented. The position regulating means 40 is equipped with fixed rollers 31a and 31b, a variable roller 34 and a coil spring 32.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image reading device, and more particularly to an image reading device suitable as a document reading means in an electronic copying machine or the like.

(Prior Art) Generally, in electronic copying machines, facsimile machines, etc., image information attached to a document is read and scanned by an image reading means, and the image information read from the document is used for image formation.

A conventional example of an image reading device that performs reading and scanning of image information in this manner will be described with reference to FIG.

The image reading device 110 shown in the figure includes an image reading means 111
A guide roller 112 is attached to one end of the rail 113, and the guide roller 112 is brought into sliding contact with the rail 113.
One end of the image reading means 111 is loosely fitted into the ID bar 114, and the image reading means 111 is connected to a wire 115 disposed along the other end. It is.

Then, the wire 115 is driven by a drive means (not shown), and the image reading means 111 is moved along the guide bar 114 in the direction A' or B' in the figure, and is placed on the document table 116 for placing the document. It is designed to perform reading scanning on the placed original.

However, in this image reading device 110, the guidance of the image reading means 111 in the A' direction or the B' direction is limited to one time.
This is done along the guide bar 114 of the book, and prevention of running play and vibration when the image reading means 111 moves in the A' direction or the B' direction depends on the linearity of the guide bar 114 and the alignment of the guide bar 114. It depends on the fitting length and fitting accuracy with the image reading means 111.

As a result, if an attempt is made to eliminate running play, vibration, etc., the length of the image reading means 111 to be fitted to the guide bar 114 becomes large, resulting in a problem that the image reading means 111 becomes larger. Furthermore, in order to improve the linearity of the guide bar 114, it is necessary to use a guide bar 114 with a large diameter, which also poses the problem of increasing the size of the device.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional apparatus, there is a problem that the running state of the image reading means becomes unstable, making it impossible to perform an accurate image reading operation or causing the apparatus to become larger. be.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image reading device that can realize a stable running state of the image reading means without increasing the size of the device.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides an image reading device that scans a document with image information attached thereto by an image reading means and uses the image information read by the image reading means to form an image. The image reading device has a traveling path for causing the image reading device to travel along the document, and a position regulating device that restricts the traveling position of the image reading device along the traveling path to a fixed position.

(for production) The operation of the apparatus having the above configuration will be explained below.

The image reading means of this device scans a document while traveling along a travel path and reads image information attached to the document.

In this running state of the image reading means, the position regulating means regulates the running position of the image reading means with respect to the running path so that it is always at a fixed position.

This stabilizes the positional relationship of the image reading means with respect to the document.

(Example) · The present invention will be explained in detail below.

The image reading apparatus 1 shown in FIG. , a platen cover 5 that covers the original with image information attached thereto, which is placed in a fixed state on the exposure glass 3; Image reading means 7 moves horizontally below the platen roller 6, which constitutes a part of the image reading means 7, and performs reading scanning of the original on the exposure glass 3 and the original conveyed by the platen roller 6; The vehicle has a traveling path 41 on which the vehicle travels, and a traveling drive means 8 including a position regulating means 40 (details will be described later) that always regulates the condition of this traveling path and prevents movement in the width direction thereof.

The platen cover 5 is connected to the main body 2 of the apparatus by a connecting means so as to be openable and closable, but the details thereof will be omitted.

Next, the image reading means 7 and traveling drive means 8 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

The traveling drive means 8 includes a traveling means 8A that causes the image reading means 7 to travel in the A' direction and the By force direction shown in FIG. 2, and a driving means 8B that applies a driving force to the traveling means 8A.

The traveling means 8A connects one wire 9, which is a filament, in an endless manner by a joint member 10 having spring properties, and is arranged in a substantially U-shape inside the device main body 2. The wire section 13 is constructed by passing a wire over a pulley group consisting of a driving pulley 11 and five driven pulleys 12a to 12e arranged in the same direction. Parallel running portions 13A, 13 in this wire portion 13
The image reading means 7 is arranged perpendicular to the wire 9, and the image reading means 7 and the wire 9 are connected by fixing members 14 provided at both ends of the image reading means 7.

Further, a pair of rails 15a, 15b forming a running path 41 along the running direction of the wire 9 is arranged below the parallel running parts 13A, 133 of the wire section 13, and images are read on the rails 15a, 15b. Traveling rollers 23 of the pressing traveling mechanism section 16 provided below both ends of the means 7 are configured to travel.

As shown in FIG. 2, the drive means 8B includes a pulse motor 18, a drive pulley 19 connected to the drive shaft of the pulse motor 18, a driven pulley 11a coaxial with the drive pulley 11, a drive pulley 19, and a driven pulley 11a. It also includes a timing belt 21 stretched between pulleys 11a.

When the pulse motor 18 rotates forward or reverse, this rotation is transmitted to the driven pulley 11a and the drive pulley 11, and these two pulleys 11.11a are rotated in the six directions shown in FIG.
As a result, the image reading means 7 is driven in the A' direction or the B' direction.

The image reading means 7 includes a leaf spring 2 provided on the bottom side thereof.
2 and a running roller 23 that is rotatably supported by the leaf spring 22 and runs on the rails 15a, 15b; Two sets of guide members 24a, 24
b, and the image reading means 7 is
is urged in the direction of arrow Z shown in FIG.
By bringing 4a and 24b into contact with the lower surface of the exposure glass 3, the image reading means 7 can always maintain a constant positional relationship with respect to the exposure glass 3.

Further, at both ends of the platen roller 6 of the document conveying means 4, there are bearing members 25a whose lower surface has the same height as the lower surface of the exposure glass 3, as shown in FIG.

25b is arranged so as to face the travel area of each guide member 24a, 24b, and even when the image reading means 7 moves below the platen roller 6, the press travel mechanism section 16 and the guide member 23a, Due to the action of 23b, the image reading means 7 can always maintain a constant positional relationship with respect to the platen roller 6.

Then, the exposure glass 3 and the bearing material 25a as described above,
25b, even when the image reading means 7 moves from the bottom side of the exposure glass 3 to the bottom side of the platen roller 6 or vice versa, the image reading means 7 does not vibrate up and down. An exposure lamp built into the image reading means 7.

This prevents damage to the CCD sensor, SELFOC lens, etc., and prevents them from being locked during movement.

Next, the position regulating means 40 for regulating the position of the image reading means 7 in the width direction will be explained with reference to FIG.

The position regulating means 40 includes two fixed rollers 31a each having a rotating shaft fixed at one end of the bottom surface of the image reading means 7 at a constant interval.

31b, a variable roller 34 rotatably attached to an L-shaped end rotatably disposed on the other end side of the bottom surface, the other end of the rotary lever 33, and the image reading means 7. The fixed rollers 31a and 31b are connected to the bent portion 15C of the rail 15a.
At the same time, the other variable roller 34 is moved by the elastic force of the coil spring 32 to the bent portion 1 of the other rail 15b.
5d, the position of the image reading means 7 in the width direction is regulated at three points by the fixed rollers 31a, 31b and the variable roller 34.

Next, travel control of the image reading means 7 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

As shown in FIG. 5, a protruding plate 35 is provided outward from the side surface of the image reading means 7, and a position sensor 36 is disposed facing the travel area of the protruding plate 35. In addition, this position sensor 36 is shown in FIG. 6(a), (
As shown in b) and (C), it is arranged at a position corresponding to the platen roller 6.

When the protruding plate 35 reaches the position shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. It is set so that

Here, the document reading position of the image reading means 7 will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 6(b), the image reading means 7 is connected to the device main body 2.
The reading start position in the original fixed mode is when the exposure glass 3 is located below the leftmost side of the exposure glass 3.
As shown in FIG. 6(a), the home position is when the protruding plate 35 of the image reading means 7 is located just in front of the position sensor 36, and roughly speaking, as shown in FIG. 6(C), the image reading means 7 The position where the protruding plate 35 faces the position sensor 36 is the reading position in the document transport mode.

When the power is turned on, if the position sensor 36 is off, the image reading means 7 is moved in the direction of arrow A' shown in FIG. 6(a), and the position where the position sensor 36 is turned on is the home position. When the power is turned on, if the position sensor 36 is on, the image reading means 7 is moved in the direction B', and this position sensor 36 is turned on.
The position where is turned off is the home position.

At the home position described above, shading correction is performed before reading. The moving distance of the image reading means 7 from the home position to the reading start position in the document fixing mode or from the home position to the document transport mode is determined by counting the number of pulses of the pulse motor 18. There is.

Also, switching between document fixing mode and document transport mode is as follows:
It is done as follows.

That is, the platen cover 5 is fixed at a position where its upper surface faces the entrance of the document transport means 4, as shown in FIG. 7(b), and the document is placed on the platen cover 5.

When this original is inserted into the original transport means 4, the original detection switch provided in the original transport means 4 is turned on, and in this state, a start key provided on an operation panel (not shown) of the image forming apparatus 1 is pressed. Then, the image reading device 1
is determined to be the document conveyance mode, and after shading correction, the image reading means 7 moves to the document reading start position and starts reading the document conveyed by the platen roller 6.

In the case described above, if the document detection switch is off, the image reading device 1 determines that it is in the document fixing mode, performs shading correction after manual input of the start key, and then switches to the document fixing mode as shown in FIG. 6(b). The platen cover 5 is moved to the reading start position in the closed state shown in FIG. 7(a).
Starts scanning the document fixed below.

Note that the image reading device 1 shown in FIG.
an image forming apparatus 6 equipped with a, 61b and a paper ejection tray 62;
0 is integrated with the image reading device 1.
The image forming apparatus 60 and the image forming apparatus 60 constitute an electronic copying machine that reads and forms images on both fixedly placed originals and originals that are being transported.

Next, the operation of the apparatus configured as described above will be explained, mainly focusing on the operations of the image reading means 7 and the position regulating means 40.

First, the operation of the image reading means 7 in the document fixing mode will be explained.

After the platen cover 5 is opened wide as shown in FIG. 7(C) and the document with image information attached is fixedly placed on the exposure glass 3, the platen cover 5 is opened as shown in FIG. 7(a). Return to lid state. Then press the start key on the operation panel. At this time, since the document detection switch of the document conveying means 4 remains off, the image reading device 1 determines that it is in the document fixing mode, and as a result, the image reading device 7 is activated by the shading correction travel drive means 8 as shown in FIG. It is moved from the home position shown in (a) to the reading start position in the document fixing mode shown in FIG. 6(b), and starts reading the document.

The image reading means 7 at this time is the striatum 1
Parallel running portions 13A, 13 formed by real wires 9
In the state connected to B, it is driven in the A' force direction by receiving the driving force from the driving means 8B, but the wire 9 is stretched in an endless manner, and the joint member 9 has a spring property. Therefore, even if the wire 9 expands or contracts, the tension in the wire portion 13 remains almost unchanged, and as a result, the impact when the image reading means 7 starts reading is small, and while the wire 9 is moving in the direction A' Also, since the position of the image reading means 7 in the width direction is regulated at three points by the fixed rollers 31a, 31b and the variable roller 34 of the running regulating means 40, there is no running blur as in the conventional example. Extremely stable reading scanning can be performed.

Further, the wire portion 13 constituting the traveling means 8A connects one wire t9 to the driving pulley 11 and the driven pulleys 12a to 1.
Since it can be formed by simply stretching the traveling means 2e and connecting both ends thereof with the joint member 10, the assembly process of the traveling means 8A can be simplified.

Also, when moving the image reading means 7 from the document fixing mode to the document transport mode, the image reading means 7 can be moved smoothly and accurately by the action of the traveling means 8A and the position regulating means 40, as in the case described above. Based on the state, it can be made to travel to the reading start position in the document transport mode shown in FIG. 6(C).

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention described in detail above, the running state of the image reading means running on the running road in the width direction is regulated by the position regulating means, so that the device as in the conventional example is not required. It is possible to provide an image reading device that can obtain a stable running state without running shake without increasing its size.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the image reading means and travel drive means of the device, and Fig. 3 is the arrangement of the exposure glass and bearing material in the device. FIG. 4(a) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing the relationship between the image reading means of the device and the rail, and FIG. 4(b) is a cross-sectional view taken along line I-I of FIG. 4(a>). , FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the relationship between the image reading means and the position sensor of the same device, and FIG. 6(a)
. (b) and (c) respectively show the home position of the image reading means in the same device and the reading position in document fixed mode. Explanatory diagram showing the reading position in document transport mode, FIG. 7(a)
, (b), and (c) are perspective views showing the platen cover in a closed state, a paper feeding state, and an open state, respectively, in an apparatus that combines an image reading device and an image forming device, and FIG. 8 is an example of a conventional device. FIG. 1... Image forming device, 7... Image reading means, 40.
...Position regulating means, 41...Travel road. Figure 4 Figure 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In an image reading device that scans a document with image information attached thereto by an image reading means and uses the image information read by the image reading means to form an image, the image reading means runs along a traveling path along the document. and a position regulating means for regulating the traveling position of the image reading means along a travel path to a fixed position. (2) The running path is constituted by a pair of guide rails arranged in the running direction of the image reading means, and the position regulating means is rotatably arranged at one end of the image reading means and slides into contact with one of the guide rails. It is composed of two fixed rollers and a variable roller disposed in pressure contact with the other guide rail on the other end side of the image reading means, and the traveling state of the image reading means is controlled by both the fixed rollers and the variable roller. The image reading device according to claim 1, which restricts three points.