JPH01133466A - Picture reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always travel a picture reading means in a stable condition by combining a travelling means with the endless filament body to the picture reading means. CONSTITUTION:A travelling driving means 8 is equipped with a travelling means 8A to travel a picture reading means 7 and a driving means 8B to give a driving force to the travelling means 8A. The travelling means 8A is equipped with a wire part 13 composed of stretching one wire 9, which is a filament body, to a pulley group composed of a driving pulley 11 and driven pulleys 12a-12e combined endlessly by a joint member 10 having a spring characteristic and arranged so that the arrangement mode can be approximately U-shaped in the internal part of the device main body. The driving means 8B is equipped with a pulse motor 18, a motive pulley 19, a driven pulley 20 and a timing belt 21.

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 the image information reading operation in this manner will be described with reference to FIG.

An image reading device 100 shown in the figure includes an image reading means 101 that is movably arranged along a document (not shown in the figure).
and a reading means driving section 102 that drives this image reading means 101.

This reading means driving section 102 is configured to drive the image reading means 101.
at intervals approximately equal to the width W1 of the image reading means 10.
A pair of wires 10 arranged in parallel along one moving direction
3a, 103b, and a total of four pulleys 104 around which both ends of the wires 103a, 103b are wound.
a, 104b.

104c, 104d and opposing pulleys 104b, 1
04d, a driven belt pulley 106 fixed to one end of the drive shaft 105, and a drive motor 108 with a driving belt pulley 107 fixed to the driving shaft.
A belt 109 is provided stretched between the driven belt pulley 106 and the driving belt pulley 107.

Then, the rotational force of the drive motor 108 is transferred to the driving belt pulley 107. Belt 109. The pulleys 104b and 10 are transmitted to the drive shaft 105 via the driven belt pulley 106.
4d to rotate, thereby both the wires 103a
, 103b is configured to travel in the A' force direction and in the B' force direction in the figure.

However, in the image reading device 100 having the above configuration, the two wires 103a and 103b are connected to the image reading means 1.
01 along the running direction, and both ends of these wires 103a and 103b are connected to each pulley 10.
4a to 104d, the assembly process becomes complicated and both wires 103a.

Image reading means 1 due to the influence of expansion and contraction occurring individually in 103b.
There is a problem in that when the image reading means 101 is driven, a running blur occurs in the image reading means 101, which prevents accurate scanning of the document.

FIG. 9 shows the other side of the conventional image reading device.

The image reading device @110 shown in the same figure is an image reading means 111.
A guide roller 112 is attached to one end side of the rail 113, and this guide roller 112 is fixedly attached to a rail 113.
The other end of the image reading means 111 is loosely fitted into one guide bar 114, and the image reading means 111 is connected to a wire 115 disposed along the other end. I'll go.

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 A' force direction and the B' force direction in the figure, and is placed on the document table 116 for placing the document. It is designed to scan and read the placed original.

However, in this image reading device 110, 1
Since the other end of the image reading means 111 is driven by a book wire, vibration occurs in the image reading means 111 at the start of driving, and as a result, especially when the image reading means 111 starts reading, the read image information There is a problem in that it leads to a decline in quality.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, in the case of conventional devices, there have been problems such as complication of the assembly process, movement blurring of the image reading means, and deterioration of image quality at the beginning of reading. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading device that can simplify the assembly process, and also allows the image reading means to run in a stable state at all times, contributing to high-quality image formation. It is.

[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. A traveling means using an endless linear body capable of traveling along the scanning direction of the image reading means and having a parallel running portion connected to the image reading means, and a driving means for driving the traveling means. It has the following.

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

When this device performs reading scanning on a document with image information attached, the traveling means driven by the driving means transmits driving force from its parallel traveling portion to the image reading means. Driven in the scanning direction.

In this case, since the traveling means is constructed using an endless filament, the assembly process is simplified, and the effects of expansion and contraction on the filament and vibrations at the start of driving are minimal. The running state of the image reading means is always stable.

(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, and one of the exposure glass 3 and the original transport means 4. an image reading means 7 that moves in the horizontal direction below a conveyor (platen roller) 6 constituting the section, and scans the document on the exposure glass 3 and the document conveyed by the conveyor 6; It has a travel drive means 8 for driving the means 7.

It should be noted that the platen cover 5 is connected to the apparatus main body 2 so as to be openable and closable by a connecting means, but details regarding this 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 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 drive boob 911 and five driven pulleys 12a to 12e, which are arranged in the same direction. And 13 A of parallel running parts in this wire part 13.

The image reading means 7 is arranged perpendicular to 13B, and the fixing members 14 provided at both ends of the image reading means 7 allow
The image reading means 7 and the wire 9 are connected.

Also, the parallel running portion 13 of the wire portion 13. Below A and 13B, a pair of rails 15a are provided along the running direction of the wire 9.
, 15b are arranged, and a pressing traveling mechanism section 16 is provided on the rails 15a and 15b below both ends of the image reading means 7.
The running roller 23 is configured to run.

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 20 coaxial with the drive pulley 11, and a driven pulley 19°. It is equipped with a timing belt 21 stretched between pulleys 20.

Then, when the pulse motor 18 rotates in the forward and reverse directions, this rotation is transmitted to the driven pulley 20 and the driving pulley 11&:, and both pulleys 20, 11 rotate in the six directions shown in FIG. The 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 plate spring 22 and runs on the rails 15a, 15b; A pair 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 side 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, a position regulating means for regulating the position of the image reading means 7 in the width direction will be explained with reference to FIG.

A pair of rollers 31a each having a rotating shaft fixed to one end of the bottom surface of the image reading means 7.

31b, and a variable roller 34 whose position can be changed and which is biased by a coil spring 32 and a rotation lever 33 is provided on the other end side.

Then, the pair of rollers 31a and 31b are moved to the rail 15.
The position of the image reading means 7 in the width direction is adjusted by pressing the other variable roller 34 against the bending part 15d of the other rail 15b, while making contact with the bending part 15C of the other rail 15b.

31b and the variable roller 34 are used for three-point regulation.

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. This position sensor 36 is shown in FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b).
), (C)k: Arranged at a position corresponding to the platen roller 6 as shown.

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 installed.

The reading start position in the document fixing mode is when the exposure glass 3 is positioned below the leftmost side of the exposure glass 3 in the main body 2, and as shown in FIG. 6(C), the position where the projecting plate 35 of the image reading means 7 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 B′ force direction, and this position sensor 36
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 the operation panel (not shown) of the image forming apparatus 1 is pressed. Then, the image, 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, and after manually pressing the start key, performs shading correction, and then reads the document as shown in FIG. 6(b).

The scanner moves to the fixed mode reading start position and starts reading the document fixed under the platen cover 5 in the closed state shown in FIG. 7(a).

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 traveling drive means 8.

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

The platen cover 5 is opened wide as shown in FIG. 7(C), and a document with image information attached is fixedly placed on the exposure glass 3. 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 is operated by the post-shading correction traveling drive means 8 (see FIG. 6). It is moved from the home position shown in a) to the reading start position in the document fixing mode shown in FIG. 6B, 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
B, 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 overall tension of the wire section 13 remains almost unchanged.As a result, the impact when the image reading means 7 starts reading is small, and even when the wire section 13 is moving in the backward direction. Unlike the conventional example, there is no traveling pre-scan, and extremely stable reading scanning can be performed.

Further, the wire section 13 constituting the traveling means 8A connects one wire 9 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 is moved smoothly and accurately by the driving means 8B and the traveling means 8A as in the case described above. It can be moved 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, it is possible to provide an image reading device that can simplify the configuration of the device and can always perform stable document reading scanning.

[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 the line II in 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>, (C) are the home position of the image reading means in the same device, and the reading position in document fixing mode, respectively. 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. 9 is a schematic perspective view showing the other side of the conventional device. 1... Image forming device, 7... Image reading means, 8
A... Traveling means, 8B... Drive means -〇...
- Wires, 13A, 13B...Parallel running part. Figure 4

Claims (3)

[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 device is movable along the scanning direction of the image reading means; An image reading device comprising: a traveling means using an endless linear body having a parallel running portion connected to the image reading means; and a driving means for driving the traveling means. (2) The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the filamentous body is constructed by connecting both ends of a wire with a joint member. (3) The image reading device according to claim 1, wherein the parallel running portions of the filament are respectively connected to both sides of the image reading means.