JPH0464541A - Method for sheet feeding in circulation type document supplying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To feed recording sheets of paper of a format complying with the document size by placing documents of different sizes in the specified one of a plurality of hoppers, sensing the size while documents are preliminarily fed, distributing them to the hoppers for reaccommodation, and feeding appropriate recording sheets in conformity to the information recalled from the memory about the document sizes and the hoppers accommodating them. CONSTITUTION:If documents D of sizes A4 and A3 are loaded in a hopper 3a mixedly, a preliminary information is issued, and they are fed to the transport path 16 one after another by a document feeding means 9a. The size is read by a size sensor 32, and a conversion pawl 40 is operated according to the size read, and A1 documents are put in the hopper 3a while B1 documents in another hopper 3b. When a sensing means 8a judges that the initially loaded documents D have been cleared, the copying process is commenced. The sheet feed information for the hoppers for reaccommodation 3 is stored in a memory, and copying is made on the recording sheets of paper complying with the document size. This avoids improper copying performance such that part of the image is missing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is provided in, for example, an electrostatic copying machine, and feeds stacked originals into a sheet 1 and automatically transports them to a reading position. The present invention relates to a circulation type document feeding device that re-stores and stacks documents after passing through the reading position, and more particularly relates to a method for sequentially feeding documents.

Conventional technology In recent years, electrostatic copying machines and the like have been equipped with automatic copying machines that automatically transport multiple sheets of originals one by one to a reading position, optically scan the originals, and read and expose the image of the original. There is a tendency for a circulating document feeder to be provided.

Documents to be copied are stacked and stored in a hopper of the document supply device. When the copying operation starts, documents are automatically fed one by one from the hopper and conveyed to a conveyance path provided with a reading position.

At the reading position, a reading exposure operation is performed, and the read original image is copied onto recording paper conveyed within the copying machine.

By the way, although the plurality of sheet-like originals may all have the same size, there are times when originals of various sizes coexist.

In other words, for the operator, not only a single type of document such as A4 size (Japanese Industrial Standards A row No. 4) or B5 size, but also the above-mentioned A4 size, B5 size, and even A
There is also a demand for batch copying of originals containing a mixture of originals of multiple sizes, such as three sizes.

However, in conventional circulation-type document feeding devices, there is generally only one hopper for storing the documents to be copied, and even if the document is mixed as described above, only one type of size can be used. The originals are handled in the same way, for example, they are fed to the reading position in sequence starting from the lowest original in the stacking direction.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention As described above, when there is only a single hopper, it is difficult to regulate the width direction of each of the stacked documents of different sizes. Therefore, if the maximum size document is regulated, the document size smaller than the maximum size will not be regulated, resulting in paper feeding errors or paper feeding in an oblique position. In some cases, the posture of the document being conveyed to the position is disturbed, and a portion of the image copied onto the recording paper may be missing.

As another prior art, USP (United States Patent No. 4,508,447) discloses a circulating document feeder having two hoppers. In the above configuration, when performing double-sided copying in which a single-sided original with an original image on one surface is copied onto both the front and back surfaces of recording paper, the original to be copied is first stored in one hopper, and then read to the reading position. The document is conveyed without being exposed to light, so-called preliminary feeding, and the odd-numbered pages and even-numbered pages of the document are respectively sorted into corresponding hoppers and stored again. Thereafter, the documents are alternately fed from each hopper in the order of the originals to be copied, and a reading exposure operation is executed at the reading position, thereby realizing double-sided copying in cooperation with the copying machine.

In this way, in recent years, a control method has also been considered in which a plurality of hoppers are provided, documents are sorted in advance according to purpose, and then the documents are fed.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to utilize a plurality of hoppers to
It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper feeding method in a circulation type document feeding device that can reliably control documents having different sizes and execute appropriate paper feeding.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides a circulation type document feeding device having a plurality of hoppers in which documents are stored, in which documents placed in predetermined hoppers are pre-fed from the hoppers without sequentially reading and exposing the documents. The dimensions of the pre-fed documents are sequentially detected by a dimension detecting means provided in the paper feed path, and in response to the detected dimensions, the pre-fed documents are adjusted to correspond to each dimension. The documents are sorted into hoppers, re-stored, and aligned, and information indicating the detected dimensions and the re-storage destination hopper is stored in a storage means in the order of pre-feeding documents, and after the pre-feeding is completed, the documents are stored in the storage means. This paper feeding method in a circulation type document feeding device is characterized in that the paper is fed from a re-storage destination hopper in which the documents are stored in the order based on information stored in the device.

Function According to the present invention, the circulation type document supply device is provided with a plurality of hoppers in which documents are stored. When originals of different sizes are placed in a predetermined hopper, they are sequentially pre-fed. During the preliminary paper feeding, no reading exposure operation is performed.A size detection means is provided in the paper feeding path to detect the dimensions of the preliminarily fed document. In response to the detected dimensions, the pre-fed originals are sorted into hoppers corresponding to each dimension and re-stored and aligned. In this way, documents of the same size are stored in each hopper, and the edges in the width direction are reliably regulated.

Further, the information indicating the detected dimensions and the information indicating the re-storage destination hopper classified as described above are stored in a predetermined storage means in the order of pre-fed documents. After the above-described preliminary paper feeding is completed, the originals are sequentially fed from the re-storage destination hopper, which is stored in the order of the originals, based on the information stored in the storage means. Therefore, since the sheets are fed in a manner that is reliably regulated for each dimension, it is possible to reliably avoid misfeeding of documents and feeding of documents in oblique orientations.

Further, by conveying the recording paper within the copying machine according to the dimensions stored in the storage means, each document can be copied onto recording paper of the corresponding size.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows a circulating original supply bag T1 which is an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a simplified configuration of an electrostatic copying machine 11!2 equipped with a circulation-type original supply device 1. FIG.

The document supply device 1 is used, for example, as installed in a transfer type electrostatic copying machine 2, and automatically conveys sheet-like document documents stacked in a hopper 3 to a reading position 23. The front surface having the original image is presented to the reading position 23. The presented original image is optically scanned by an optical reading means provided in the copy tR2, and a reading exposure operation of the original image is performed. The document tray from which the document image has been read is stored in the hopper 3 again. The conveyance is carried out sequentially for the documents stacked in the hopper, and circulated among the documents according to the required number of copies.

In this embodiment, the hopper 3 in which the original document is stored is
It consists of a first hopper 3a and a second hopper 3b, which are arranged one above the other. The first hopper 3a has a paper feed direction 4
A pair of side alignment plates 5a are provided facing each other along the direction perpendicular to the document width direction (the width direction of the document). The aligning plates 5a move along mutually opposing directions for a distance of 7M in accordance with the widthwise dimensions of the stacked document trays, thereby aligning both ends of the document trays in the width direction. In other words, the center position in the width direction of the stacked originals remains constant regardless of the size in the width direction. Further, on the upstream side in the paper feeding direction 4 of the stacked M manuscripts with respect to the first hopper 3a, a trailing edge alignment plate 6a is arranged to align the upstream ends of the stacked original manuscripts in the paper feeding direction. The rear end adjustment base plate 6a
is an upstream end in the paper feeding direction of the document tray that moves toward/away from the upstream end in the paper feeding direction of the document tray after the document trays are stacked in the hopper 3a, and the downstream end in the paper feeding direction is regulated by the side wall 7a. Align. In this way, the originals stacked on the first hopper 3a are aligned by the alignment plates 5a, 6a. Further, a one-circulation detector 8a is provided on the side of the first hopper 3a to detect one circulation of the stacked documents.

On the downstream side of the first hopper 3a in the paper feeding direction and below the stacked originals, there is provided a paper feeding means 9a for sequentially feeding the originals one by one. The paper feeding means 9a is, for example, a suction conveying means, and an endless belt 12a having numerous openings is wound between two drive rollers 10a and 11a having axes perpendicular to the paper feeding direction 4. It consists of An intake duct 13a is provided on the inner side of the belt 12a.
is disposed, and by driving an intake fan (not shown), the intake duct 13a is closed (Bell)-12a
A suction force acts through the belt 12a, and the document at the bottom of the stacked document tray is attracted to the belt 12a. Therefore, by driving the belt 12a clockwise (see FIG. 1), the documents at the bottom in the stacking direction are sequentially fed in the paper feeding direction 4.

Further, an exhaust duct 14a is provided on the downstream side of the first hopper 3a in the paper feeding direction 4, and a nozzle of the duct 14a is connected to the downstream end in the paper feeding direction of the original document on the lower side in the stacking direction in the first hopper 3a. Exhaust flow is injected towards l\. As a result, the downstream end is handled one by one, and the paper feeding means 9a reliably feeds one sheet at a time. The document fed by the paper feeding means 9a is transported by the conveyance roller 15.
a and is conveyed to the conveyance path 16 where the reading position is provided.

The reliable feeding of the document one sheet at a time is detected by a conveyance detector 17a comprising an optical detector or the like provided on the downstream side of the first hopper 3a in the sheet feeding direction.

On the other hand, the configuration of the second hopper 3b and the area around the second hopper 3b is the same as the configuration around the first hopper 3a,
Corresponding parts are shown with the same numerical reference numerals and a subscript ``su'' replacing the subscript a.

In the following explanation, the reference numeral Di for the document fed from the hopper 3 is used to distinguish it from the stacked documents. A tube 18 is provided, and on the outer periphery of the support tube 18, conveyance rollers 19 and 20 that can be driven in forward and reverse rotation are provided, forming a conveyance path 21. The document Di fed from the converter 3 is transferred to the upper part of the compound η machine 2 via the transport path 21 by the support cylinder 18 which is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow R18 and the driven transport rollers 1,9,20. It is conveyed to the reading position 23 where it is read. The reading position 23 is made of a transparent plate 22 made of hard glass or the like.

Two rollers 24 and 25 are provided above the transparent plate 22.
Conveying means 2 consisting of an endless bell I-26 wrapped around the
7 is provided, and the reading position 23 is moved by the conveying means 27.
The original Di conveyed to is pressed and conveyed on the transparent plate 22. In this way, the document Di that is pressed and conveyed is conveyed with its downstream end in the conveyance direction to a predetermined position on the transparent plate 22, and one surface of the document Di is presented to the inside of the copying machine through the transparent plate 22. The one surface is the upper surface of the document sheets stacked in the hopper 3 in the stacking direction.

In addition, when presenting the lower surface of the stacked originals in the stacking direction to the reading position l\, the originals Di fed from the hopper 3 and passed through the transport rod 2821 are 18 and the conveyance rollers 19 and 20 are driven in reverse, and the document Di is provided along the outer periphery of the support cylinder 18 by controlling the direction changing die 28 provided on the upstream side in the conveyance direction with respect to the conveyance roller 19. It is conveyed to the conveyance rod i1829, and conveyed to the reading position 23 via the conveyance roller 30. In this way, the reading value ¥12
3 shows the lower surface of the originals stacked in the hopper 3 in the stacking direction.

Further, the conveyance path 21 is provided with a size detector 32 including, for example, a light emitting element 32a and a light receiving element 32b, and detects the size of the document D1 being conveyed through the conveyance path 21/\. As a method for detecting the dimensions, for example, light is constantly irradiated from the light emitting element 32a to the light receiving element 32b, and the light reception of the light receiving element 32b is blocked by the transported document Di. The dimension of the document D1 along the paper feeding direction 4 is calculated based on the time during which the light reception is interrupted and the transport speed determined for each transport roller.

The original Di, on which the reading exposure operation of the original image presented to the reading position 23 has been completed, is transported by the transport means 27 to a transport rod n35 provided with transport rollers 33 and 34. The conveyance path 35 is a conveyance rod in which a conveyance roller 36 is provided on the downstream side in the conveyance direction! @37 and a conveyance path 39 where conveyance rollers 38 are provided. Said conveying rod n37.39
A direction change mold 40 is provided at the branch point of the transport path 35, and the direction change mold 40 is switched and controlled in response to the detection result from the size detector 32, for example.
Hopper 3 where the original Di transported through the hopper 3 is to be stored again.
Select. One conveying rod n via the direction changing mold 40
The original Di that has passed through the transport path 37 is stored again at the top of the original stack stacked on the first hopper 3a, and the original Dj that has passed through the other transport path 39 is stored on the top of the original stack stacked on the second hopper 3b. It will be repacked at the top.

As mentioned above, for the document image presented to the reading position 23,
The copy 8!2 is optically scanned by an optical system 31 provided on the inner side to perform a reading exposure operation of the original image. Optical system 31
, a light source 41 such as a halogen lamp and a reflecting mirror 42
The first movable body 43 reciprocates along the horizontal direction 44 with respect to the reading position 23 and irradiates the presented document with light, and the reflected light is reflected by the reflecting mirrors 46 and 47 of the second movable body 45.
, a zoom lens 48, and an arrow 50 via four reflectors.
Note that the second moving body 45 is also driven to run in the same direction as the first moving body 43 at half the scanning speed, and the reflected light is The optical path length of is kept constant.

The surface of the photoconductor 51 is charged in advance by a charging corona discharger 52, and the photoconductor 51 is charged by the image formation.
An electrostatic latent image corresponding to the original image is formed thereon. The electrostatic latent image is visualized into a toner image by the developing device 53, and transferred onto one surface of the recording paper P by the transfer corona discharger 54.

The recording paper P is stored in a paper feed cassette 55 in advance and is conveyed through a conveyance path 57 provided with a pair of registration rollers 56, and guided to a transfer area 58 where transfer is performed. A clutch CL (not shown) is attached to the rotation shaft of the registration roller 56.
The power transmission means is connected to the clutch CLT via T, and the toner on the photoreceptor 51 is It is possible to match the timing of conveyance of the recording paper P by the registration rollers 56 with respect to the image. The recording paper P onto which the toner image has been transferred by the transfer corona discharger 54 is guided from the five conveying means to the fixing device 60 and is fixed thereon.

After fixing, the conveying direction of the recording paper P is reversed by the reversing means 61, and the recording paper P is temporarily stored in the intermediate l/reiro 3 via the conveyance path 62. The intermediate 1-Reiro 3 recording paper P is again led to the transfer area 58 by the conveying means 64 and the registration rollers 56, and the toner image is transferred to the other surface of the recording paper P. The recording paper P after the transfer is transferred to the conveying means 5.
9, a fixing device 60, and a conveyance path 65, and are then discharged onto a discharge tray 66 outside the machine. In this way, both the front and back sides of the original document are copied onto both the front and back sides of the corresponding recording paper P. In addition, when copying only to one side, J[! The recording paper P is not discharged to the intermediate tray 63, but is discharged to the discharge tray 66. Paper cassette 55
．． From 67, 68, and 69, recording sheets P having mutually different dimensions, for example, are selectively conveyed to the transfer area 58.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the copying machine 42. As shown in FIG. Detection signals from various detectors are inputted to a processing port ff880, which is made up of, for example, a microcomputer, and determines each control to be executed. Size detector 32
is provided on the conveyance path 21 from the hopper 3 to the reading position 231, and detects the dimensions of the fed document Di. The detection signal from the size detector 32 is also applied to a counter 81 to count the number of M documents Di that are fed. That is, the size detector 32 detects the document D passing through as described above.
Since the detection is based on the interruption of the irradiation light by i, the number of passing originals Di can be counted by counting the times at which the irradiation light is interrupted. The count value of the counter 81 is given to the processing circuit 80 and treated as a factor 4e necessary for $ control.

The detection signals from the one-cycle detectors 8a and 8b indicate whether or not the documents stacked on the first hopper 3a and the second hopper 3b have been transported to the reading position 23a one cycle. Further, a document placement detector 82 is provided near the first hopper 3a, and indicates whether or not originals to be copied are stacked on the first hopper 3a.

The processing circuit 80 also includes a read-only memory (ROM).
83 and a random access memory (RAM) 84 are connected, and the processing circuit 80 cooperates with the original supply device 1 and the copying machine 2 to perform a copying operation according to a control program stored in advance in the memory 83, for example. control. The memory 84 is used, for example, as an area for calculations such as timers and flags necessary for controlling the copying operation, and in this embodiment, as an area for storing paper feeding information M necessary for feeding paper. Ru.

In response to the signals from the various detectors, the processing circuit 80
Control each circuit. The first hopper drive circuit 85 drives each alignment plate 5a, 6a of the first hopper 3a, and
Automatically align the edges of the originals stacked in a. Further, the second hopper drive circuit 86 drives each of the alignment plates 5b to 6b provided in the second hopper 3b, and automatically aligns the edges of the document stacks stacked on the second hopper 3b. The paper feeding mechanism switching circuit 87 switches and drives the paper feeding means 9a, 9b provided in each hopper 3a, 3b, and switches the hopper 3a, 3b to which the document should be fed. The direction change type switching circuit 88 switches and drives the direction change claw 40 to guide the N document Di, which has been conveyed through the reading position 23 to the conveyance path 35/\, to the hoppers 3a and 3b where it is to be stored again.

Hereinafter, the operation of the document feeding apparatus 1 of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. When a plurality of documents are stacked on the first hopper 3a, the first hopper drive circuit 85 is driven and aligned. The original documents may have different sizes. After that, without performing the reading exposure operation at the reading position 23,
So-called preliminary paper feeding, which transports the document, starts. That is, the documents stacked in the first hopper 3a are sequentially fed from the bottom, and are conveyed to the reading position 23 without being subjected to a reading exposure operation.

During the preliminary paper feeding, the fed document Di is shown in FIG. 4 (1).
) passes through a size detector 32 as shown in FIG. As a result, the dimensions of the fed document Di are detected. Depending on the detected dimensions, the direction changing die 40 is controlled to select a re-storage destination hopper in which the document Di, which has been conveyed to the conveyance path 35 through preliminary sheet feeding, is to be re-stored.

In this embodiment, the first hopper 3a is of A size type (A
B size (Japanese Industrial Standards A row No. 3, the same applies hereafter) and A
The second hopper 3b is compatible with originals with dimensions of B size series (B4 size, B5 size, etc.). That is, since originals of the same size have the same width dimension in the determined direction, the edges in the width direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction 4 can be aligned using the same alignment plate. Therefore, documents of the same size can be handled as originals of the same size.

In this way, when the document D1 has a size of A size, for example, the document D1 that has passed through the direction changing die 40 is transferred to the first hopper 3.
It is stored again in a. On the other hand, when the original Di has a size of B size, it is stored again in the second ho.7/\3b. By pre-feeding the original original stacked in the first hopper 3a in this way, the original stack is separated and stacked according to each size, as shown in FIG. 4(2). Ru. 1st
In the hopper 3a and the second hopper 3b, the first hopper drive circuit 85 and the second hopper drive circuit 86 are respectively driven with respect to the stacked documents, and each alignment plate 5, 6 is driven.
Align the edges by Each hopper 3a, 3b
Since the originals of the same size and size are stacked on each other in the width direction, the edges in the width direction are surely regulated by alignment by the alignment plates 5a and 5b.6 Therefore,
Thereafter, the originals fed from each hopper 3a, 3b will not cause feeding errors or be fed in an oblique position, and the sheets can be fed reliably.

Further, during the preliminary paper feeding, the paper feeding information M indicating the dimensions of the original D1 detected by the size detector 32 and the re-storage destination hopper in which the original is re-stored corresponds to the feeding order of the originals Di. The information is stored in the memory 84 for each set address. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the stored contents of the paper feeding information M. In FIG. 5, addresses are shown as relative addresses, and are set over 1 to n. Note that it is also possible to detect the number of originals Di by calculation from the address without using the counter 81.

In this way, the preliminary feeding of the documents stacked in the first hopper 3a is completed, and after the documents are sorted and aligned in the corresponding hoppers 3 according to various dimensions, the feeding of the documents accompanying the copying operation begins. When the paper feeding starts, the paper feeding information M is read out from the memory 84 in address order. In other words, the address corresponds to the order in which the originals are fed, as described above.
The sheet feeding mechanism switching circuit 87 is switched and controlled based on the information on the re-storage destination hoppers read out in the order of the addresses. Paper feeding means 9 of the hopper 3 in which documents to be fed in this manner are stored
a and 9b are driven to feed original sheets in the above-mentioned feeding order. Further, within the copying machine 2, recording paper P of a corresponding size is selected and fed from each of the paper feed cassettes 55, 67 to 6, according to the dimensions read out in the order of the addresses. In this way, the original image read at the reading position 23 can be accurately copied onto the recording paper P of the corresponding size. Further, as described above, since the paper is fed with the edges reliably regulated, there is no possibility that a part of the copy image copied onto the recording paper P will be missing.

In this way, appropriate paper feeding from each hopper 3a3b based on the paper feeding information M is carried out in cycles a plurality of times depending on the number of copies to be made. That is, the paper is fed from the hopper 3a13b selected by the paper feeding information M, and the paper is read at the reading position 2.
The document Di read and exposed in step 3 is transferred to the direction changing type 40.
Under this control, the paper is stored again in the hoppers 3a and 3b into which the paper was fed. Conveyance of these documents is repeated based on the paper feeding information M for the number of copies to be made. Thereafter, at the time of the final number of copies, that is, the final circulation, the direction changing die 40 is fixedly controlled, and all the documents D1 for which the final reading and exposure operation at the reading position 23 has been completed are stored again in the first hopper 3a and stacked. be weighed down. When the copying operation is thus completed, the originals are stacked on the first hopper 3a in the same stacking order as when they were stacked on the first hopper 3a at the beginning of the operation. That is, the document sheets can be taken out in the same stacking order as when they were initially stored.

By cooperatively carrying out the conveyance of the document sheet by the document supply device 1 and the conveyance of the recording paper P by the copying machine 2, various copying modes such as single-sided original-to-single-sided copying and double-sided copying of double-sided originals can be realized. .

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the paper feeding operation in this embodiment. The program shown in FIG. 6 is started each time a copying operation is performed. In step 11, the document placement detector 82 determines whether a document to be copied is placed on the first hopper 3a. After placing the document, it is determined in step 12 whether or not a print switch instructing a copying operation has been operated. After the above operation, preliminary sheet feeding without reading exposure operation is started in step i3.

In step i4, the size detector 32 detects the dimensions of the transported document Di, and it is determined to which hopper 3a or 3b the detected dimension corresponds. When the detected dimensions are of the A size series, the direction changing die 40 is switched in step i5 so that the document Di is stored again in the first hopper 3a, and on the other hand, when the detected dimensions are of the B size series When determining the dimensions, in step i6, the document D1
The direction changing mold 40 is re-stored in the second hopper 3b.
Switch and control.

After that, the process proceeds to step 17, in which the paper feeding information M indicating the detected dimensions and the re-storage destination hopper selected according to the dimensions is stored in the memory corresponding to the address corresponding to the feeding order of the originals Di. 84 are sequentially stored. In step 18 - the first hopper 3a is detected by the circulation detector 8a;
Whether or not the manuscripts originally piled up have gone through one cycle.
That is, it is determined whether preliminary paper feeding has been completed for all documents. If the above judgment is negative, the process returns to step i4 again, and preliminary sheet feeding corresponding to the subsequent document feeding is executed.

In this way, when preliminary paper feeding for all documents is completed,
The process proceeds to step 19, and paper feeding for the actual copying operation begins. In step 1, it is determined whether or not the sheet feeding that is about to start is the final circulation. When paper feeding for a plurality of copies starts from now on and it is not the final circulation, the process proceeds to step 110, and the circulation sensors 8a and 8b
One cycle of the manuscript is determined by the following. If the above-mentioned circulation has not been completed, the process proceeds to step ill, where the paper feeding information M is read out from the memory 84 by specifying the address corresponding to the paper feeding order, and in step i12, the re-storage destination of the stored contents is read out. The hopper is determined, and the drive circuit of the hopper is driven to feed documents in the corresponding feeding order. Step i13
Then, the fed document Di is conveyed to the reading position 23, a reading exposure operation is performed by optical scanning by the optical system 31, and a copying operation is executed in the copying machine 2.

In step i14, it is determined whether the last flag F, which indicates that the set state is the final circulation, is in the set state. Currently, the copying process is an intermediate number of copies out of the required number of copies, so it is not the final circulation, and the flag F is in the reset l-state. Therefore, the process proceeds to step i15, and the direction changing die 40 is switched so as to re-store the document Di, which has undergone the reading and exposure operation, into the re-storage destination hopper which is loaded into the memory 84. That is, the first hopper 3
The original Di fed from the reading position 23 and read and exposed at the reading position 23 is stored again in the first hopper 3a.
The original Di fed from the hopper 3b and read and exposed is stored again in the second hopper 3b.

Thereafter, the process returns to step ilO, and it is determined whether or not the document sheet has been circulated once. If the judgment is negative, steps 19 to i15 described above are repeated for the remaining documents. When one sheet feeding is completed for all originals in this way, the judgment of the single circulation detectors 8a and 8b in step 110 becomes affirmative, and the process proceeds to step i16, where the last flag F is set. It is determined whether or not. Since it is not yet the final cycle, a negative determination is made and the process returns to step 19. In this way, the process repeats steps 19 to i16 in sequence until the final cycle is reached to obtain the final number of copies.

After that, when paper feeding for the final circulation for the final number of copies starts, the judgment of final circulation becomes affirmative in step 19, so the process proceeds to step i17, the last flag F is set to the set state, and the The processing after step 110 is performed for the final circulation of the original document. Since the last flag F is set in the final cycle, the judgment in step i14, which is the repeated process, becomes affirmative, and the process proceeds to step i18. In step i18, the direction change type 40 is fixedly controlled. All the documents Di that have been fed in the final circulation and have undergone the reading exposure operation are stored again in the first hopper 3a. In this way, all the documents that have undergone the final circulation are stacked again in the first hopper 3a in the stacking order at the beginning of the copying operation. All manuscripts come first
When it is re-stored in the hopper 3a, the process proceeds from step i16 to step i19, where the last flag F is set to reset bad, and the process proceeds to other processes such as subsequent copying operations.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, even when copying originals containing a mixture of different sizes, the sheets are sorted into hoppers corresponding to each size by preliminary feeding, and then the sheets are reliably aligned. feed the paper along the Therefore, regardless of the mixed originals, the paper can be reliably fed in a straight forward position, and feeding errors or paper feeding in an oblique position can be avoided. Furthermore, since it is possible to copy documents of each size onto recording paper of the corresponding size, it is possible to realize appropriate copying, and the above-mentioned appropriate regulation prevents parts of the copying operation from being omitted. can.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a simplified configuration of a circulation type document feeding device 100 which is another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 7, parts that are the same as or corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are designated with the same reference numerals. Compared to the configuration of the device 1, the structure of the hopper 3 is different. That is, the first hopper 3a and the second hopper 3b are configured such that the downstream end of the stacked documents in the paper feeding direction 4 is located below the upstream end of the paper feeding direction 4. That is, in FIG. 7, the distance al from the end of each hopper 3a3b to the transparent plate 22 (downstream end of the first hopper 3a),
al<a2...(1
)bl<b2...The relationship (2) is satisfied. With said structure, the conveying path 37.3
The original vIDs, which have been re-stored in the hoppers 3a and 3b through the hoppers 9, can easily align their downstream ends in the sheet feeding direction with the side walls 7a and 7b due to the above-mentioned inclination. In other words, it becomes easier to align the document sheets each time they are circulated, and more reliable sheet feeding can be realized.

In the above embodiment, the explanation is based on the assumption that the number of hoppers is two, but if the configuration is such that a hopper is individually assigned to each dimension of the document sheet, it is possible to have a plurality of hoppers. It's okay.

Therefore, for example, in this embodiment, four hoppers may be provided, and documents of each size of A3 size, A4 size, B, 1 size, and B5 size may be sorted into individual hoppers. , more reliable regulations can be achieved. However, as the number of hoppers increases, the space occupied by the hoppers increases and the device itself becomes larger, so the number of hoppers is appropriately selected in consideration of the above points.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, by simple control in a circulation-type document feeding device having multiple hoppers, even documents with different sizes can be regulated for each document, thereby ensuring reliable paper feeding. can be realized. As a result, it is possible to avoid paper feeding mistakes and paper feeding due to oblique orientation.

Furthermore, it is possible to copy originals of different sizes onto recording paper of appropriate dimensions, and with the above-mentioned appropriate regulation, it is also possible to avoid parts of the copied image being missing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a circulation type document feeding device 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a simplified configuration of a copying machine 2 equipped with a Wi-ring type original supply device 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an electrical configuration of the copying machine 2. A block diagram, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the preliminary paper feeding operation in this embodiment, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of paper feeding information M stored in the memory 84, and FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the preliminary paper feeding operation in this embodiment. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a simplified configuration of a circulation type document feeding apparatus 100 according to another embodiment of the present invention. 1.100... Circulating original supply device, 21. , copying machine, 3a...first hopper, 3b...second hopper, 4.
...Paper feeding direction, 8a, 8b...1 circulation sensor, 23...
・Reading position, 31...Optical system, 32...Size sensor, 40...Direction change type, 80...Processing times n, 84...
... Random access memory, 85... First hopper drive circuit, 86... Second hopper drive circuit, 87... Paper feeding means switching circuit, 88... Direction change type switching circuit, D.
... Manuscript, P... Recording paper, M... Paper feeding information agent Patent attorney Kei Saikyo Part 1 diagram ＼ ＼ Small drawing

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a circulation type document feeding device having a plurality of hoppers in which documents are stored, the document placed in a predetermined hopper is sequentially read and exposed, and the documents are pre-fed from the hoppers, and the documents are fed. Size detection means provided in the path sequentially detects the dimensions of the pre-fed originals, and in response to the detected dimensions, the pre-fed originals are sorted into hoppers corresponding to each dimension. information indicating the detected dimensions and the re-storage destination hopper,
The documents are stored in a storage means in the order of preliminary feeding, and after the preliminary feeding is completed, based on the information stored in the storage means,
A paper feeding method in a circulation type document feeding device, characterized in that the paper is fed from a re-storage destination hopper in which the documents are stored in the order described above.