JPH0591264A - Original reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep a clearance between an original and a reading surface at a prescribed value by constituting a regulating member freely vertically movable by means of gravity and bringing the reading surface into contact with the regulating member. CONSTITUTION:When an original 1 is set on an original platen, an original presence/absence sensor 3 detects the original and supplies a signal to a control part 15. By receiving the signal from the control part 15, a driving motor is actuated, a spare carrying roller and a separation roller are rotated and the original at the lowest part is separated. The head of the separated original is detected by a head searching sensor 8 and it is sent to the control part 15 and at the same time, the driving motor is stopped with the signal from the control part 15. By setting the density and resolution of the original and pressing a start key, the original is further carried downward. Then the head of the original reaches a reading surface 56 and the clearance between a regulating member 12 and the reading surface 56 is kept at an optimum value by means of the adsorption between magnets 14. The original is carried in parallel while coming closely into contact with the reading surface and read by a reading part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document reading apparatus applied to a facsimile or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 11 shows a conventional document reading apparatus 100.
Is shown. The document reading apparatus 100 has an apparatus main body 101 as a lower unit, and a cover 102 as an upper unit attached to the upper side of the apparatus main body 101 via a hinge (not shown) so as to be freely opened and closed. The figure shows the cover 102 in a closed state. A sheet feeding tray 103 is attached to the apparatus main body 100, and a feeding roller 104, a conveying roller 105, a reading unit 106, and a sheet ejection roller 107 are provided in the apparatus body 100, and a sheet ejection tray 108 is further attached. I am doing it.

On the other hand, the cover 102 has a conveyance roller 10
9. A paper discharge roller 110 is provided, and a white background plate 112 as a regulating member is provided at a position corresponding to the reading surface 111 of the reading unit 106. Then, when the cover 102 is closed, a predetermined gap is formed between the cover 102 and the reading surface 111. In this way, the white background plate 112 is attached to the cover 102.
When the original is jammed near the reading unit 106, the cover 102
To open and process quickly.

In the above structure, the feeding roller 104 rotates to feed the originals 113 on the feeding tray 103 one by one from the lowermost one, and the conveying rollers 105 and 109 convey the originals 113 to the downstream side. Then, the document 113 has the reading surface 1
The white background plate 112 guides and moves so as not to float from 11, and the reading unit 106 photoelectrically reads an image.

The white background plate 112 also serves as a white reference before reading.

The document 113 from which the image has been read is discharged onto the discharge tray 108 by the discharge rollers 107 and 110.

By the way, the white background plate 112 and the reading surface 11
To manage and set the gap with respect to 1, the white background plate 112 is moved and adjusted by using a jig or the like in the assembly process of the product, or high-precision parts are used in advance so that the product has an optimum value after completion. Method.

[0008]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems.

The use of high-precision parts leads to an increase in cost due to reasons such as a part processing technique and an increase in part failure rate.

Further, if the adjustment process is introduced into the assembly, there is a drawback that the cost is increased due to the labor cost of a person who prepares, the jig cost for preparation, the production time per unit becomes long, and the like.

Further, even if the gap is optimal for adjustment or the like, if the apparatus main body 101 or the cover 102 is deformed due to insufficient strength or the like, the white background plate 112 is also affected, and for example, it becomes impossible to keep parallel to the reading surface 111. There is a defect that the gap is different between the both ends of the white base plate 112 and that the reading of the original document 113 is defective.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, does not require high precision of parts, can automatically set the gap between the guide member and the reading surface to a predetermined value, and can always maintain the set gap. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document reading device that can do the above.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has an upper unit and a lower unit which are vertically arranged, and a reading surface with which a document comes in contact is provided on the upper portion of the lower unit. In a document reading apparatus provided with a regulation member having a gap with respect to the document surface in the lower portion of the upper unit to prevent the document from being separated from the reading surface, the regulation member is moved vertically by its own weight. At least one of the regulation member and the reading surface is provided with a stopper that keeps the gap at a predetermined value by contacting the reading surface or the regulation member.

The stoppers are magnets of opposite polarities arranged at the corresponding positions of the regulating member and the reading surface, respectively.

The stopper is a protrusion. The upper and lower units respectively have reference means for determining their relative positions, and the restriction member is configured such that the reference means side is fixed and the other is movable.

Further, a pressing means for pressing the regulating member toward the reading surface is provided.

[0017]

In the present invention based on the above construction, the regulating member is lowered by its own weight, and the stopper comes into contact with the regulating member or the reading surface to automatically set the gap between the regulating member and the reading surface to a predetermined value.

Even when the upper and lower units are deformed, the restriction member moves by its own weight in response to the deformation and the stopper is kept in contact with the restriction member or the reading surface, so that the gap is always maintained. It can be maintained at a predetermined value.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a facsimile F will be described below. FIG. 1 is a front sectional view of the facsimile F, and FIG. 2A is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. The facsimile F has an apparatus main body 50 as a lower unit, and a cover 51 as an upper unit that is provided above the apparatus main body 50 and can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body 50. The cover 51 and the apparatus body 50 are connected by a hinge member (not shown), and a conveyance path 52 is formed between the cover 51 and the apparatus body 50.

On the right side of the apparatus main body 50, that is, on the upstream side in the conveying direction, a document table 2 for loading the document 1 is horizontally provided. A document presence / absence sensor 3 for detecting whether or not the document 1 is stacked on the document table 2 is provided on the left side of the document table 2, that is, on the downstream side in the transport direction of the apparatus main body 50. Further, in the apparatus main body 50, downstream of the document presence / absence sensor 3, a preliminary transport roller 4 for transporting the document 1 on the document table 2 downstream is provided.

A separating roller 6 is provided downstream of the preliminary conveying roller 4 in the apparatus main body 50. The cover 51
And the original 1 is placed at a position corresponding to the preliminary conveyance roller 4.
Is provided below, that is, a document retainer 5 for pressing the pre-transport roller 4 is provided. A separating friction member 7 is provided at a position corresponding to the separating roller 6 on the cover 51.

A cueing sensor 8 for detecting the leading edge of the separated document 1 is provided downstream of the separation roller 6 in the apparatus main body 50, and a pair of conveyance rollers 9 are vertically arranged further downstream. They are arranged opposite to each other.

On the other hand, on the most downstream side of the transport path 52, a pair of paper discharge rollers 11 are provided facing the cover 51 and the apparatus main body 50. In the apparatus main body 50, a groove 53 is provided between the transport roller 9 and the paper discharge roller 11 orthogonal to the transport direction. The groove 53 is lower than the document table 2. Further, in the apparatus main body 50, the conveying roller 9 and the groove 5
An inclined surface 54 that descends from the upstream side to the downstream side is provided between the inclined surface 54 and the No. 3. Further, between the groove 53 and the discharge roller 11, an inclined surface 55 that rises from the upstream side toward the downstream side.
Is provided.

The reading unit 10 is housed in the groove 53 orthogonally to the carrying direction. The reading unit 10 contains a light source, a photoelectric conversion element, and the like (not shown), and has a flat reading surface 56 made of glass.

At the position corresponding to the inclined surface 54 and the reading surface 56 of the cover 51, a substantially rectangular white base plate 12 as a restricting member for preventing the original 1 conveyed on the reading surface 56 from rising. It is provided. The white background plate 12 is a flexible body such as a thin metal plate, a plastic sheet, or a polyester sheet. Further, a holding plate 57 as shown in FIG. 2B is provided at both ends on the upstream side of the white background plate 12 and orthogonal to the carrying direction.
It passes through 8. The lower surface of the white background plate 12 is white and serves as a reference color before reading.

On the other hand, the shafts 13 are provided on the facing surfaces of the walls 59 at both ends orthogonal to the conveying direction of the cover 51.
Is inserted into the shaft hole 58 to rotatably hold the white background plate 12. Further, the wall 59 is provided with a pin 60,
0 is inserted into the arc-shaped guide hole 61 of the holding plate 57,
The rotation amount of the white base plate 12 is regulated.

In this way, the white background plate 12 is covered with the cover 51.
With the shaft closed, it rotates about the shaft 13 and is practically movable in the vertical direction. Further, the free end of the white background plate 12, that is, the long side on the downstream side is formed with a bent portion 18 orthogonal to the transport direction, and imparts bending rigidity along the transport direction.

Plate magnets 14 having a predetermined thickness are attached to the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56 at positions that do not hinder the conveyance of the original document 1, that is, at both ends orthogonal to the conveyance direction. There is. A gap is formed between the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56 by the upper and lower magnets 14 facing each other coming into contact with each other. The magnets 14 that come into contact with each other have polarities opposite to each other, and when the magnets 14 are in contact with each other, the gap is set to have an optimum value and a parallel thickness.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing the main circuit configuration of the facsimile F. Reference numeral 15 denotes a control unit, which controls the operation of the document presence sensor 3, the cueing sensor 8, the reading unit 10 and the control of a drive motor (not shown) that drives each roller 4, 6, 9, 11. There is.

Next, the operation of the facsimile F will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the user sets the original 1 on the original table 2 (step 1), the original presence sensor 3 detects the original 1 and sends a signal to the controller 15 (step 2). Then, the drive motor operates in response to a signal from the control unit 15 to rotate the pre-conveyance roller 4 and the separation roller 6 to separate the lowermost original 1 (step 3).

Then, the cueing sensor 8 detects the leading edge of the separated document 1 (step 4), sends a signal to the control section 15, and stops the drive motor by a signal from the control section 15 (step 5). .. Next, the user sets the density and resolution of the document and presses the start key (step 6). Then, the drive motor is rotated again (step 7), and power is again transmitted to the conveying system to convey the original 1 further downstream (step 8). The original 1 is conveyed along the inclined surface 54, and its leading end reaches the reading surface 56.

Since the gap between the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56 is maintained at an optimum value by the attraction of the magnets 14 and parallel to each other, the document 1 is conveyed while being in close contact with the reading surface 56, and the reading unit 10 is read. The image information is photoelectrically read by (step 9).

Thereafter, the document 1 is conveyed further downstream,
The document 1 read by the paper discharge roller 11 is discharged (step 10). In this way, when the reading of one sheet is completed and the document presence sensor 3 still detects the document 1, the process returns to step 8 to continue the reading, and when all the documents 1 are read, the drive motor is stopped. (Step 1
2) End all reading operations.

As described above, in the present invention, the gap between the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56 is maintained at a predetermined value by the attraction of the magnets 14 in step 9, and the parallelism is maintained orthogonal to the carrying direction. The original 1 can be accurately read while being in close contact with the reading surface 56. Further, as shown in FIG. 2 (B), it bends in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction as shown by the dotted line, but since the bending portion 18 provides rigidity, it is near the middle along the transport direction as shown by the chain double-dashed line. It does not bend.

By the way, in the present invention, since the magnets 14 are brought into contact with each other to set the gap between the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56, the gap is irrespective of the processing accuracy and the processing technology of the white background plate 12 and the reading unit 10. Can be set to a predetermined value, and the manufacturing cost can be suppressed.

Further, in the present invention, since the white base plate 12 is movable in the vertical direction by its own weight, when the cover 51 is closed, the white base plate 12 rotates by its own weight about the shaft 13 (downward).
Then, the magnets 14 attract each other and the gap is automatically set. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to introduce a gap adjusting step into the assembling step, the manufacturing time and labor cost can be reduced, and the manufacturing cost can be suppressed.

Needless to say, when the cover 51 is opened, the magnets 14 are separated from each other. Even in this case, the white background plate 1
2 descends about the shaft 13, but does not unnecessarily protrude downward because the rotation amount is limited by the pin 60.

In the present invention, the device body 50 is shown in FIG.
Even if the left side of the groove 53 in the drawing is deepened and the reading surface 56 is tilted as shown in (B), the white base plate 12 follows this and the left side is lowered to maintain the attracted state between the magnets 14. Therefore, the gap is maintained at a predetermined value. Therefore, manuscript 1
Stable reading performance can be demonstrated without any conveyance failure or reading failure.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view of the facsimile F according to the second embodiment, and FIGS. 6A and 6B are sectional views taken along the line BB of FIG. The cover 51 is attached to the apparatus body 50 via a hinge 19 so as to be openable and closable. Hinge 1
9 is provided on one end side orthogonal to the transport direction.

Then, on the opposing surfaces of the cover 51 and the walls 59 and 65 on the free end side of the apparatus body 50, the right end portion 20 as a reference means for determining the relative position between the cover 51 and the apparatus body 50, that is, the gap. , 21 are provided.

The white background plate 12 attached to the cover 51
Is the holding plate 6 on one end side thereof, that is, on the right end portions 20 and 21 side.
6 is fixed to the bracket 67 of the cover 51 with screws 68, while the other end is rotatably connected via the shaft 13 as in the first embodiment. Then, on the lower surface of the white base plate 12 on the free end side, a projection 69 as a stopper is provided.
Is provided.

A base portion 70 is provided on the lower surface of the cover 51 near the shaft 13, and a spring 14 is provided between the base portion 70 and the white base plate 12. The spring 14 is for pressing the white base plate 12 toward the reading surface 56 side.

Others are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the main circuit configuration and operation are also the same as those of the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the white background plate 12 pressed by the spring 14 bends downward within the elastic limit, and the projection 69 contacts the reading surface 56, so that the white background plate 12 and the reading surface 56 are separated from each other. Gap is set and maintained. Further, when the cover 51 is closed, the projection 69 comes into contact with the reading surface 56, so that the gap is automatically set. Even if the cover 51 is deformed as shown in FIG. 7, the gap is maintained at a predetermined value by the protrusion 69. Therefore, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

Since the right side of the white base plate 12 in the figure is fixed to the bracket 67, the cover 51 and the apparatus main body 5 are
The protrusions do not need to be present because it is hardly affected by zero vibration, there is almost no change in the gap, and the problem of image shift and noise caused by resonance of the white background plate 12 can be avoided.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show the third embodiment. In this embodiment, the projection 71 as the stopper is provided with the reading surface 5.
It is provided on the 6. The other configurations are similar to those of the second embodiment, and the same operational effects as those of the second embodiment can be obtained.

9 and 10 show a fourth embodiment applied to a reading device capable of reading a book original. Reference numeral 80 denotes a reading device body as a lower unit.
A platen glass 22 is horizontally attached to the upper part of the.
On one side of the original platen glass 22, a strip-shaped vertical abutting plate 23 for vertically positioning a book original (not shown) is provided along the one side, and a reading surface 81 is defined on the original platen glass 22. .. Further, a strip-shaped horizontal abutting plate 24 for laterally positioning the book original is provided on the other side of the original table glass 22.

Further, a fluorescent lamp 25 for illuminating the original surface and a mirror 26 are provided inside the reading apparatus main body 80, and the image light obtained by the fluorescent lamp 25 is passed through the mirror 26 to a photoelectric conversion element (not shown). Is converted into an electric signal.

On the other hand, in the upper part of the reading device body 80,
A feeding unit 82 as an upper unit is attached via a hinge 19 so as to be openable and closable. In the present embodiment, on the side of the feeding unit 82, the above-mentioned document table 2, document presence / absence sensor 3, preliminary conveyance roller 4, document pressing 5, separation roller 6, separation friction member 7, cue sensor 8, conveyance roller 9, Paper ejection roller 11
Are provided to form the transport path 53.

In this embodiment, the sheet fed by the document feeder is read by the reading surface 81, and the book document is placed on the lower surface of the platen glass 22 with the fluorescent lamp 25 and the mirror 26.
Is read by scanning.

Further, reference means 86 and 85 are provided on the free end sides of the feeding section 82 and the reading apparatus main body 80 to determine their relative positions. Further, the feeding portion 82 is provided with the white background plate 12, the spring 14, the shaft 13 and the like which are configured similarly to the third embodiment. Then, the white base plate 12 and the reference means 8
The sides 6 and 85 are also fixed to the bracket 67 as in the third embodiment.

In this embodiment, the end of the horizontal abutting plate 24 (hatched area in the figure) is used as the stopper 85. Therefore, when the feeding unit 82 is closed, the white background plate 12 pressed by the spring 14 comes into contact with the stopper 85, so that the reading surface 8
The gap with 1 is automatically set and maintained. Therefore, the same effect as that of the above embodiment can be obtained.

[0053]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, the regulating member descends by its own weight and the gap is automatically set and maintained at a predetermined value by the stopper.

Therefore, the manufacturing cost can be suppressed without the need for highly accurate parts and processing techniques. In addition, the process of adjusting the gap, jigs, and labor costs are unnecessary, and costs can be suppressed. Further, even if the upper and lower units are deformed, good document reading can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view of a first embodiment applied to a facsimile.

2A is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.
(B) is a perspective view of a white background plate.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing a main circuit configuration of the first embodiment, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus body in the first embodiment in a deformed state.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view of a second embodiment.

6A is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.
(B) is sectional drawing in the state which opened the upper unit of (A).

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a modified state of the second embodiment.

FIG. 8A is a front sectional view of a third embodiment in which a stopper is provided on the reading surface, and FIG. 8B is a sectional view taken along line DD of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the outer appearance of a fourth embodiment.

10A is a front sectional view of the fourth embodiment, and FIG. 10B is a sectional view taken along line EE of FIG.

FIG. 11 is a front sectional view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Original 12 White Background Plate (Regulating Member) 14 Magnet (Stopper) 51 Cover (Upper Unit) 50 Device Main Body (Lower Unit) 56 Reading Surface

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A reading unit having an upper unit and a lower unit arranged in a vertical direction, a reading surface being in contact with a document is provided on an upper part of the lower unit, and a document is separated from the reading face on a lower part of the upper unit. To prevent this, in a document reading apparatus provided with a regulation member having a gap with respect to the document surface, the regulation member is configured to be movable in the vertical direction by its own weight, and at least the regulation member or the reading surface. On the one hand,
An original reading apparatus, comprising a stopper for maintaining the gap at a predetermined value by contacting the reading surface or a regulating member. 2. The document reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stopper is a magnet of opposite polarity arranged at a position corresponding to the regulating member and the reading surface. 3. The document reading device according to claim 1, wherein the stopper is a protrusion. 4. The upper and lower units each have a reference means for determining a relative position to each other, and the restriction member is configured such that the reference means side is fixed and the other is movable.
The document reading device according to claim 1. 5. The document reading apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a pressing unit that presses the regulation member toward a reading surface.