JPH02181173A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a next document to be set manually during image forming operation and to improve the operability and operation efficiency by providing a means which sends the next manually-inserted document into a document feeder on the side of the image forming device main body. CONSTITUTION:An external roller unit 26 as the sending means which sends the next manually-inserted document into the manual insertion path 24 of the original feeder 4 is arranged between an original discharging means 14 and a manual insertion guide 2. This external roller unit 26 consists of a feed roller couple 27 of a lower roller 27a and an upper roller 27b, a base 28 which constitutes part of the device main body 1, and a cover 29 which covers the top surface side of the roller couple 27. Consequently, the next manually-inserted document can be set during the image forming operation and the operability and operation efficiency are improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine and the like, and in particular, to an image forming apparatus that automatically captures manually fed original documents. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with a document feeder (SDF) that is set on a mounting table and discharged after image formation.

(Prior Art) Normally, in an image forming apparatus equipped with this type of document feeder, the document feeder has a wide endless conveyor belt attached to a portion of the cover that overlaps the document table, and this conveyor belt is rotated. It has a built-in belt drive mechanism, and by running the conveyor belt, the document that has been manually fed to a predetermined position is sent onto the document tray and set there, and the document on the document tray is ejected. There is.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, this type of conveyor belt-type document feeder has the following problems because it has a partially covered or wide conveyor belt and a belt drive machine 11η that runs the conveyor belt. There was. In other words, the cost of the cover is high, and this part accounts for more than half of the total cost of the automatic document feeder. In addition, the weight of a portion of the cover is heavy, making it difficult to open and close it.

Further, since the wide conveyor belt rotates and runs in contact with almost the entire surface of the document table, there is a problem that not only a large amount of power and power is required, but also a source of noise.

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned circumstances, and its object is to automatically take in a manually fed document, place it on a document tray L-L, and discharge the document after image formation. An image forming apparatus equipped with a feeding device has a simple structure, is lightweight and inexpensive, can be handled in the same way as a normal document holding cover, and can be used to set the next manually fed document during image forming operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus equipped with a document feeding device that can improve operability and work efficiency.

"Structure of the Invention" (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides, as a first means, a "manuscript mounting table" that automatically takes in manually fed originals.
Second, the document feeder, which ejects the document after image formation, is attached to a document holding cover equipped with a document presser that overlaps the document set on the document placing table, and the document feeding device can be moved toward and away from the document placing table. and a document feeder that feeds the document manually fed to a predetermined position between the document presser of the document presser cover and the document placement table, and discharges the document after image formation. A feeding means for feeding the next manually fed document to the document feeding device is provided on the apparatus main body side.

Further, as a second means, the feeding means of the first means is configured to be detachable from the main body of the image forming apparatus.

(Function) That is, according to the first means described in item 1, the document feeder, which is provided so as to be able to move toward and away from the document placement table, manually feeds the document to a predetermined position and transfers the document to the document presser of the document presser cover. It can be fed between the document tray and the original table, and ejected after image formation.This eliminates the need for the wide conveyor belt and belt drive mechanism required in the past, making it possible to simplify the configuration, reduce weight, and reduce costs. becomes. In addition, since the document presser cover is lightweight, it not only allows opening and closing operations similar to those of a normal document presser, but also improves operability when handling thick documents such as books. Furthermore, since the original is set between the original sending body and the original placing table, it is possible to improve the reliability when sending out the original.

In addition, since a feeding means for feeding the next manually fed original into the document feeder is provided on the image forming apparatus main body side, the next manually fed original can be set during the image forming operation, improving operability and work efficiency. becomes.

Further, according to the second means, it is possible to easily change the specification to one that does not include a feeding means, and conversely, it is possible to easily add a feeding means to a device that does not have a feeding means.

(Example) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

2 to 4 show the structure of the upper part of the image forming apparatus. 1 in the figure is charging, exposure, development, and transfer.

This is an apparatus main body that incorporates image forming process constituent means (not shown) such as cleaning and fixing.On the second side of the apparatus main body 1, there is a document tray that serves as a document loading table for manually feeding an original through a manual feed guide 2. A document feeder (SDF) 4 is provided that automatically takes in and sets documents on the platen glass 3 and discharges documents on the platen glass 3. Furthermore, a numeric keypad 5. Information display section 6. An operation panel 8 on which a copy key 7 and the like are arranged is arranged.

Further, a paper feed cassette (not shown) containing paper such as plain paper to be supplied to the image forming process configuration means is installed on the right side of the apparatus main body 1, and a paper feed cassette (not shown) is installed on the left side of the apparatus main body 1. is equipped with a paper discharge tray (not shown) for collecting fixed paper.

Moreover, on the platen glass 3, a maximum of A3 size (
For items destined for overseas markets, a (leisure size) manuscript can be set using the left scale 9 as a reference.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the document feeder (SDF) 4 is roughly divided into a document holding cover (hereinafter referred to as a platen cover) 10 that is superimposed on the platen glass 3;
The manual feed guide 2 serves as a guide when manually feeding the document.
Then, the document manually fed through the manual feed guide 2 is automatically taken in and sent between the platen seat 11 and the platen glass 3, which will be described later, on the platen cover 10, and set with the right side part as a reference, and the copying operation is performed. A feed roller 12 serves as a document sending body that ejects the set original document from between the platen sheet 1 of the platen cover 10 and the platen glass 3, and a platen cover that receives the original document ejected by the feed roller 12. Original ejecting means 1 for ejecting documents to an original ejecting section 13 consisting of the upper surface of 10
It consists of 4.

The platen cover 10 has a hinge member 1'5 on the rear end side.
1.5 (see Fig. 3), and is attached to the main body 1 of the apparatus through The top can be left open so that it can be left open. Note that the hinge 15, 1.5 is connected to the support shaft 1.
5a, 15a, these support shafts 15a, 15a
The attachment formed on the top surface of the device body is inserted into the hole 16.16. As shown in FIG. 4, the platen sheet 11, which serves as a document presser for the platen cover 10, can be pulled out upwards from the main body 1 of the apparatus, and the platen sheet 11, which serves as a document presser for the platen cover 10, can be attached to the platen glass 3 even when copying thick objects such as books. It is made parallel to the surface so that it can be pressed evenly.

Further, the document ejecting means 14 includes guide plates 20a and 20.
has a document ejection path 21 formed by mutually opposing surface portions of b;
At the end of the document discharge path 21, a pair of paper discharge rollers 22 consisting of a lower roller 22a and an upper roller 22b, and a paper discharge switch 42 are arranged. In addition, the guide plate 2
A guide plate 23 made of an elastic thin plate is provided on the lower end side of 0b to ensure that the document ejected by the feed roller 2 does not return to the manual feed path 24 and is reliably guided to the document ejection path 21.
It is designed to guide you to enter inside. In addition,
The guide plate 23 is lowered by gravity or a light force, and is easily lifted up when the document enters the manual feed path 24.

Furthermore, an external roller unit 26 is disposed between the document discharging means 14 and the manual feed guide 2 configured as described above, and serves as a feeding means for feeding the next manual feed document into the manual feed path 24 of the document feeder 4. ing. This external roller unit 26 has a feed port pair 27 consisting of a lower roller 27a and an upper roller 27b, and a cover 29 that covers the top side of the roller pair 27 and a base 28 that constitutes a part of the apparatus main body 1. It has a configuration with Further, the feed roller pair 27 also serves as a stopper for waiting with the leading edge of the next manually fed original document abutting against it.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the feeding roller 12 serving as the feeding means is supported by the free ends of a pair of rotating arms 3030. The pair of rotating arms 30.30 are attached to a pickup shaft 31, and a link 33 is attached to one end of the pickup shaft 31 to rotate against the biasing force of a splinter 32 to rotate the feed roller 12.
A solenoid 35 is connected to lift the feed roller shaft 34 which has been removed.

In addition, the pulley 3 mounted on the feed roller shaft 34
A timing belt 38 is stretched between the pulley 37 attached to the pickup shaft 31 and the pulley 38 integrated with the pulley 37 attached to the pickup shaft 31.
A timing belt 41 is stretched between the pulley 40 attached to the timing belt 9 and a pulley 40 attached to the timing belt 9. and the drive shaft 3
9 is selectively rotated in the forward or reverse direction by a drive motor (not shown), thereby causing the feed roller 12 to rotate in the forward or reverse direction.

Further, the lower roller 22a of the paper ejection roller pair 22 is driven by a motor (not shown).

The platen cover 10 is constructed as shown in FIGS. 1 and 6. That is, 11 is a platen sheet formed to approximately the same size as the platen glass 3, and this sheet 1] has an elastic part made of urethane+A'
11a, and a white sheet 11b with a low coefficient of friction attached to the lower surface of the elastic member 11a.

Further, the platen sheet 11 is covered except for the lower surface by a cover body 45 which is attached to the apparatus main body 1 at the rear end side via the hinge member 15.15. The left end side of the platen sheet 11 is directly fixed to the cover body 45 by a fixing means (not shown), and the cover body 4
5 is attached to a movable frame 46 rotatably attached to the frame 46.

47.47 shown in Figure 6 (only the front side is shown) is
This is a support shaft that is a pivot point of the movable frame 46, and is located at the left end of the cover body 45. Further, compression springs 48, 48 as biasing bodies are disposed between the free end side upper surface (right end side upper surface) of the movable frame 46 and the cover body 45, and the movable frame 46 is placed in a horizontal state. As shown in Fig. 7, the free end side is always urged downward.
The entire platen sheet 1 is brought into close contact with the platen glass 3.

The movable frame 46 also includes a gap forming means 49 which will be described later.
It is possible to rotate and displace a predetermined angle against the biasing force of the compression springs 48, 48, and as shown in FIG. 8, a gap G of an angle θ is formed on the lower surface of the platen sheet 11. ing. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the platen cover 10 in an open state.

The four gap forming means are connected to a drive mechanism 5 as shown in FIG.
0, and a power transmission mechanism 51 that transmits the force generated by the drive mechanism 50 to the movable frame 46.

The drive mechanism 50 rotates and displaces a pusher (hereinafter referred to as a pusher) 52 that is rotatable about a shaft as a rotational fulcrum in accordance with the rotation of an eccentric cam roller 54 using a cam motor 53 as a drive source. The end protrusion 52a is designed to protrude and retract toward the platen cover 10 side. Note that the pusher 52 is always urged by an unillustrated urging member so as to be in contact with the circumferential surface of the eccentric cam roller 54.

The power transmission mechanism 51 has the following configuration. That is, the slider 55 is provided with one end surface 55a facing the projection 52a of the pusher 52. The slider 55 is capable of reciprocating in the direction of protrusion and retraction of the protrusion 52a of the pusher 52, and the other end side is connected to the cover body 55 via a link mechanism 56.
5 and the movable frame 46
7. The shaft 57 is equipped with a guide roller that engages with guide grooves 58 and 58 (only the front frame side is shown), which are long holes formed in both the front and rear frame portions on the free end side of the movable frame 46. The moving lever 60.60 is in the attached state. Then, due to the sliding action of the slider 55 or the action of the link mechanism 56, the shaft 57
This rotational movement is converted into a rotational movement, and the rotational levers 60 and 60 attached to this support 57 are rotated by a predetermined angle.

Therefore, in the gap forming means 49 having the configuration described in item 1,
Usually, the smallest eccentric part of the eccentric cam roller 54 or the pusher 5
The end surface 5 of the slider 55 is stopped in contact with the slider 55.
5a is not pressed. Therefore, a force is generated that pushes up the free end of the movable frame 46, which causes the movable frame 46 to be compressed by the compression spring 48. ．． The platen sheet 11 is pushed down to a horizontal state by the force of 48, and the entire surface of the platen sheet 11 is brought into close contact with the platen glass 3.

Then, at the timing for supplying and discharging the document, the cam motor 53 is driven to rotate the eccentric cam roller 54 by 180 degrees in response to a signal from a control section (not shown), and stops with the maximum eccentric part of the eccentric cam roller 54 in contact with the pusher 52. and the pusher 52 is in a rotationally displaced state,
The slider 55 is pushed in by the projection 52a. As described above, this sliding movement of the slider 55 is converted into a rotational displacement movement of the rotating levers 60, 60, and the free end of the movable frame 46 is pushed up against the biasing force of the compression spring 4848. Then, the platen sheet 11 is separated from the platen glass 3, and the platen sheet]1
A gap G having an angle e is formed on the lower surface of the .

Next, referring to FIG. 10, the document feeder (SDF) 4
and platen glass 3 by external roller unit 26
The operation of supplying and discharging document paper to the machine will be explained.

First, place the document against the external roller unit 26 via the manual feed guide 2, and then press the copy key 7. As a result, the roller pair 27 of the external unit 26 rotates, and as shown in FIG.
Sent to 4.

At this time, the feed roller 12 and the platen sheet 11 are in a raised state, and the leading edge of the original document moves forward without pushing up the guide plate 23 and enters under the feed roller 12.

Then, as shown in FIG. 10(b), the feed roller 2 descends and rolls into contact with the document tray, rotates, and is conveyed to the left over the platen glass 3 as it rotates. At this time,
Between platen crow 3 and platen-1.]
A gap G is formed, and since the white sheet of the platen glass 3 and the platen sheet 11 is a low-friction member, the document is fed smoothly and does not bend.

Then, as shown in FIG. 10(C), when the document is conveyed a predetermined distance to the left, the feed roller 12 stops.
Align the rear end (right end) of the document tray to the stop position indicated by arrow A. Then, the platen sheet]] is lowered to bring the document tray into close contact with the platen glass 3, and in this state, the moving optical system of the exposure device (not shown) moves in the direction of arrow B to perform exposure scanning on the image on the document tray. . Meanwhile, preparations for setting the next original document are made during this time.

Then, when this document scanning is completed, the platen sheet 11 is raised to form a gap G, as shown in FIG. 10(d). Then, the feed roller 12 rotates in the opposite direction to transport the original to the right, and the original is moved to the original ejection path 2 by the action of a guide plate 23 made of an elastic thin plate.
guided by.

The document is then discharged to the document discharge portion 13 formed on the upper surface of the platen cover 10 via the pair of discharge rollers 22 . At this time, it enters the leading edge of the next document tray or the position indicated by arrow C and enters a standby state. On the other hand, when the document is conveyed by the paper ejection roller pair 22, the platen sheet ] 1
It will be in a raised state.

When the rear end of the previous document passes the paper ejection switch 42 disposed near the paper ejection roller pair 22, the feed roller 12 is raised, and the next document is then automatically fed. .

After this, the same operation as described above will be performed again.

Note that the process of copying a document set on the platen glass 3 by the document feeder (SDF) 4 is well known and will not be described in detail.

Note that FIG. 11 is an illustration showing a state in which the external roller unit 26 feeds the document with the platen cover 10 opened. FIG. 12 is an illustration showing the state during the ejection operation of the previous document tray and the taking-in operation of the next document tray.

13 to 15 show a state in which the external roller unit 26 is removed and a normal empty vest 28' is attached. In this way, the external roller unit 26 can be attached to and detached from the main body of the apparatus, and can be replaced as appropriate to meet specifications.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without changing the gist.

[Effects of the Invention] Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

That is, in the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, the document feeder, which is provided so as to be able to move toward and away from the document placement table, transfers the document manually fed to a predetermined position between the document presser of the document presser cover and the document. Since it can be fed between a mounting table and discharged after image formation, there is no need for a wide conveyor belt or a belt drive mechanism that was conventionally required, resulting in a simpler configuration, lighter weight, and lower cost. In addition, since the document presser cover is lightweight, it not only allows opening and closing operations similar to a normal document presser, but also improves operability when handling thick documents such as books. Furthermore, since the original is set between the original sending body and the original placing table, reliability during sending out the original can be improved. Furthermore, since a feeding means for feeding the next manually fed original into the document feeding device is provided on the image forming apparatus main body side, the next manually fed original can be set during the image forming operation, improving operability and work efficiency. .

Further, in the image forming apparatus according to claim 2, in addition to the effect described in claim 1, the specification can be easily changed to one without the feeding means; Can be easily added to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view showing the main parts of the document feeder and the structure of its vicinity, and FIG. 2 is a partially closed view of the platen cover of the document feeder. FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing the appearance of the upper part of the image forming apparatus with the platen cover of the document feeder partially open; FIG. The figure is a schematic perspective view showing the appearance of two parts of the image forming apparatus with the platen cover of the document feeder partially pulled out, and FIG. 5 schematically shows the configuration of the document feed mechanism section of the document feeder. 6 is a schematic perspective view schematically showing the platen cover and the gap forming means; FIG. 7 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view with the platen cover closed and the platen sheet in close contact with the platen crow; FIG. 8 The figure is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view showing a state in which the platen cover is closed and a gap is formed between the platen sheet and the platen glass, FIG. 9 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view showing the state in which the platen cover is open, and FIG. An explanatory diagram of the operation of the document feeder. Figure 11 is an illustration showing the document feeding state by the external roller unit with the platen cover open. Figure 12 is an illustration showing the operation of ejecting the previous document tray and the operation of taking in the next document tray. Illustrative views showing the state, FIGS. 13 to 15, are views showing the state in which the external roller unit is removed and a normal blank base is attached. ]...Device body, 3...Document placement table (platen glass) 4...Document feeder (SDF)]0...Document holding cover (platen cover) 11...Document holding body (platen seat 1-) )12・Document feeder (feed roller),]
3... Original discharge section, 14... Original discharge means, 26.
- Feeding means (external roller unit), D... Original. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takeshi Jhiko Suzue

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An image forming apparatus equipped with a document feeder that automatically takes in a manually fed document, sets it on a document placement table, and ejects the document after image formation, wherein the document feeder A document holding cover is provided with a document holding body that overlaps the document set on the document placement table, and the document holding body is provided to be movable toward and away from the document placement table, and the document that is manually fed to a predetermined position is held by the document holding body of the document holding cover. The image forming apparatus includes a document feeder that feeds the document between the body and the document placement table and discharges the document after image formation, and a feeder that feeds the next manually fed document to the document feeder on the image forming apparatus body side. An image forming apparatus characterized by: (2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feeding means is configured to be detachable from the main body of the image forming apparatus.