JPH06133106A - Picture reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the picture reader without contamination of a sensor face due to adhesion of dust such as paper powder dropped from an original passing through a read section comprising a contact image sensor and a troublesome job replacing pages of an original before reading of the original and after paper discharge. CONSTITUTION:In the picture reader provided with paper feed means 6, 7 feeding an original from an original bundle, a carrier path A carrying a supplied original D, a carrier roller pair arranged to the carrier path, and an original close contact type image sensor 11 reading a picture on an original face arranged to the carrier path and converting the picture into an electric signal, the close contact image sensor is arranged closely to the carrier path while the sensor face is set downward and a reversing carrier path reversing the original and discharging the original is formed to a down-stream of the close contact image sensor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of an image reading apparatus for reading an original image by a contact type image sensor, and more particularly, the image sensor is arranged above the original conveying path with the sensor surface facing downward and the image sensor is soiled. The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus that prevents the occurrence of the phenomenon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus, such as a facsimile, which uses a contact image sensor for reading a document image, a document to be read is stacked on a document table with the document surface facing downward, and one document is read from the lower document. The sheets are taken out one by one, and are conveyed toward the image sensor arranged with the sensor surface facing downward on the lower side of the document conveying path. In this case, the page order of the originals is arranged so that the upper original is the next page, and the stacking order and stacking method of the discharged originals are the same as before the start of paper feeding so that the originals are discharged as they are. It is generally configured. As described above, in the conventional image sensor, since the document passes above the sensor surface, the paper dust of the document and dust such as dust attached to the document easily adhere to the sensor surface. As a result, reading accuracy is lowered and maintenance frequency is increased.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and contamination of the sensor surface due to adhesion of dust such as paper dust falling from a document passing through a reading section composed of a contact type image sensor and document reading. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus that does not require a complicated work of changing the page order of documents before and after discharging.

[0004]

To achieve the above object, a paper feed means for feeding an original from a bundle of originals, a conveying path for conveying the fed original, and a pair of conveying rollers arranged in the conveying path,
An image reading apparatus provided with a document contact image sensor arranged in the transport path for reading an image on the document surface and converting the image into an electric signal, the contact image sensor is provided in the transport path with its sensor surface facing downward. A reverse conveyance path for inverting and discharging the original is formed downstream of the contact type image sensor, and in addition to the reverse discharge path, non-reverse for discharging without inverting The apparatus is provided with a conveyance path, and a branching unit for selectively switching one of the conveyance paths is provided. Equipped with a control unit that discharges paper with the image side facing down via the reverse transport path.When feeding originals, the document is fed from the bottom of the original stack with the image side facing up, and when discharging. Said non-anti Characterized by comprising a control unit for discharging the paper in a state where the image side up through the transport path.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image reading apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In the reading apparatus 1, for example, an upper unit 3 is connected to a lower unit 2 in an openable and closable manner. A conveyance path A for the document D is formed at the boundary between the upper surface and the lower surface of the upper unit 3. Documents D stacked on the document table 4 with the document surface facing up are
Starting from the top document, feed roller 6, friction pad 7
The sheet is separated one by one by the separating means consisting of
Sent in. In the transport path A, the synchronization sensor 9,
Upstream conveying roller pair 10a, 10b, contact sensor 1
1. A state in which a pair of downstream side transport rollers 12a and 12b and a branch claw (branching means) 13 are sequentially arranged, and the image surface is directed upward on the discharge side (non-reverse transport route C) in which the transport route is linearly extended. A paper discharge tray 14 for receiving the document is arranged. Further, a reversing conveyance path B is formed above the branching claw 13, and a paper discharge roller pair 15 and a document discharged from the paper discharge roller pair 15 are received in the reversal conveyance path B with the image surface facing downward. The reverse paper ejection tray 16 is arranged. The branch claw 13 is rotated between a posture in which the path toward the paper discharge tray 14 is opened as shown in FIG. 2A and a posture in which the path toward the reverse conveyance route B is opened as shown in FIG. 2B. It is configured freely and is operated by a norenoid or the like that operates according to a control signal from a control unit (not shown). The paper feed roller 6 and the friction pad 7 (or reverse roller) form a paper feed means.

The synchronous sensor 9 detects the timing at which the contact type sensor 11 starts to read the original, and based on the passage timing of the leading edge of the original detected by the synchronous sensor 9, the upstream side conveying roller pair 10a, 10b.
Is driven to feed the document onto the sensor 11. The contact sensor 11 is located on the upper side of the document conveyance path A and is arranged with the sensor surface facing downward. For this reason, the paper dust of the original document or the attached dust passing through the conveyance path A located below the sensor surface does not adhere to the sensor surface, and the read image is inaccurate due to the sensor reading the paper dust or the like. Can be prevented. In addition, each conveying roller pair 10a, 10b, 12a,
If the rollers 10b and 12b located on the lower side of 12b are incorporated into the lower unit 2 and these are used as the driving side, and the upper rollers 10a and 12a are incorporated into the upper unit 1 side and are used as the driven side, then the driving side component group Can be integrated on one unit side, so that the mechanism can be simplified. Further, since the drive roller is in contact with the non-image surface of the document, there is no possibility that the image surface is rubbed by the drive roller and is stained.

In the above configuration, when the originals stacked on the original table 4 with the image surface facing upward are fed from the uppermost original, the page order of the discharged originals is the order before the feeding. If it is desired to make the same, the branching claw 13 may be switched to the reverse direction as shown in FIG. In this case, the original on the reverse discharge tray 16 has the image surface facing downward, but the original on the next page is in a stacked state in which it is positioned directly above. When it is desired to discharge the paper in the reverse order of the stacking order before paper feeding, the branching claw 13 is set to the state of FIG. 2A, and the paper is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 14 with the image surface facing upward. In this way, the original on the next page will overlap the original surface of the previous page.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a modified example of the present invention, in which the reverse conveyance path B is formed on the lower unit 2 side, which is different from the above-mentioned embodiment, but there is no change in the operational effect. Further, in order to discharge the paper without changing the page order while the image surface is facing upward, the documents stacked upward on the document table 4 are fed from the lowermost surface, and the documents are discharged upward onto the discharge tray 14. Just eject the paper. FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the principle thereof, in which the lowermost original is taken out by the calling roller 20, separated by the paper feed roller 6 and the pad 7, and then sent to the contact image sensor 11. In this case, since the document surface is not rubbed by the paper feed roller, the image is not damaged and the paper feed roller can be arranged on the same side as the drive rollers of the other conveyance rollers, so that the drive system mechanism is simpler. Becomes Although there is a conventional technique in which a reverse conveyance path and a non-reversal conveyance path are provided similarly to the embodiment of the present invention and both paths are selectively switched, none of the contact type sensors are used, and the contact glass is used. This is a type in which a document is set on the top and exposed, which is different from the present invention.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, the contact-type sensor is arranged on the upper side of the document conveying path and the sensor surface is directed downward, so that the adhesion of paper dust, dust, etc. to the sensor surface is prevented. can do. Further, since the document on the document table is fed with the image surface facing upward, it is possible to see at a glance which page is currently being read. By selectively switching between the normal paper discharge path and the reverse paper discharge path, it is easy to make the page order of the discharged originals the same as that before the paper feed or reverse. Further, since the drive rollers are collectively arranged in the lower unit, the structure of the transport drive system is simplified, which is advantageous in terms of cost. Further, since the document surface is not rubbed by the drive roller, the document surface can be prevented from being damaged.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration explanatory diagram of an example of an image reading apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are diagrams showing the operation of the branch claw.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration explanatory view of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 reader, 2 lower unit, 3 upper unit, 4
Platen, 6 paper feed rollers, 7 friction pads,
9 synchronization sensor, 10a, 10b upstream conveyance roller pair, 11 contact type sensor, 12a, 12b downstream conveyance roller pair, 13 branching claw (branching means), 14 paper ejection tray, 15 paper ejection roller pair, 16 reverse paper ejection tray,

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Gono 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A paper feed unit for feeding originals from a bundle of originals, a conveyance path for conveying the fed originals, a pair of conveyance rollers arranged on the conveyance path, and a document surface arranged on the conveyance path. An image reading apparatus including a document contact type image sensor for reading the image of FIG. 1 and converting the image into an electric signal, the contact type image sensor is disposed so as to face the sensor surface downward, and is in contact with the conveyance path. An image reading device characterized in that a reversing conveyance path for reversing and ejecting a document is formed on the downstream side of the image sensor. 2. In addition to the reversing sheet discharging path, a non-reversing conveying path for discharging a sheet without reversing is provided in a branched manner, and a branching unit for selectively switching one of the conveying paths is provided. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1. 3. A control for feeding a document from the uppermost document of the document bundle with the image surface facing upward when feeding the document, and discharging the document with the image surface facing downward through the reverse transport path when discharging the document. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a section. 4. When feeding a document, the document is fed from the lowermost document of the document stack with the image surface facing upward, and when discharging, the paper is discharged with the image surface facing upward through the non-reverse transport path. The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a control unit.