JPH0714288Y2 - Sheet transport device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to a sheet conveying device such as an automatic document feeder for feeding a document to a platen of an image processing device such as a copying machine or an image reader.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an automatic document feeder mounted on a platen of a sheet conveying device such as a copying machine sends a document set on a feeding stacker by a pickup roller, separates the document into one sheet by a separating means, and The leading edge of the original is corrected by a registration roller and then conveyed to a reference position on the platen by a conveyor belt.

Then, when copying is completed, the conveyance belt is driven to carry out the document from the platen, and the discharge roller discharges the document to the discharge stacker.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

In such an automatic document feeder, it is conventionally known that deceleration of the document immediately before the stop reference position and deceleration immediately before the completion of the document ejection are individually known because of the stop accuracy. If the document is fed and discharged by the same device, the drive control becomes complicated.

[Purpose of device]

This invention is a conveyance means for feeding a sheet such as a document,
By connecting the transporting means for transporting and discharging the sheet to the same driving device, and simultaneously setting the feed deceleration and the discharge deceleration at the same timing, the drive control is simple and the stop position is accurately set. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a sheet conveying device that can be discharged and can be discharged in an orderly manner.

[Example of device]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Structure> (1) Overall Structure As shown in FIG. 1, an image processing apparatus, for example, a platen 2 (original setting section) of a copying machine 1, is provided with a sheet conveying apparatus, for example, an automatic original feeding apparatus 3, which can be opened and closed. There is.

The automatic document feeder 3 separates the originals set on the sheet stacker 4 into a sheet stacker (original tray) 4 on which the originals are set with the first page facing downward and separates the originals placed on the sheet stacker 4 onto the platen 2. A separating section 5 (first conveying means) for sending to
A transport unit 6 (second transport unit) that transports the document sent from the separation unit 5 along the platen 2, and a discharge that reverses the front and back of the document transported by the transport unit 6 on the platen 2 and discharges the document. Part 7 (third conveying means) and this discharge part 7
The stacker 8 includes a discharge stacker 8 (discharge tray) for storing documents discharged from the printer, a drive device shown in FIG. 2, and a control device (not shown).

The feeding stacker 4 is provided with side edge guides which are movable in opposite directions by the same amount so that the original is always held at the center in the width direction.

(2) Configuration of Separating Section 5, Conveying Section 6 and Discharging Section 7 In the separating section 5, feeding guides 9 and 10 forming a feeding path, and feeding means for feeding the original set in the feeding stacker 4 such as a pickup A roller 11, an empty sensor 12 for detecting whether or not a document is set on the feeding stacker 4, a feeding roller 13 rotating in the feeding direction, and a document fed by the feeding roller 13 A separation roller 14 that rotates in the direction in which the original is retracted, a size detection sensor 15 that detects the size of the original in the width direction, a registration sensor 16, and a conveyance unit such as registration rollers 17 and 18.

The feeding roller 13 is attached to the rotary shaft 40 shown in FIG. 2 via a one-way clutch. Further, the feeding roller 13 and the separation roller 14 form a separation means.

Further, the pickup roller 11 has its rotating shaft 42 supported by a pair of arms 44 whose base end is attached to the rotating shaft 40 via a spring clutch 43. The drive of the rotary shaft 40 is transmitted to the rotary shaft 42 via the gears 58, 59, 60.

The spring clutch 43 is designed to idle when a load larger than a predetermined value is applied during normal rotation of the motor 30, which will be described later.

The transport unit 6 includes a pair of belt pulleys 19 and 20, a transport belt 21 (transport means) stretched between the belt pulleys 19 and 20, and a plurality of press rollers that press the transport belt 21 against the platen 2 side. 22 and.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rotary shaft 45 of the belt pulley 19 has a gear.
46 is attached, and a pulley 48 is attached to a rotation shaft 47 of the belt pulley 20.

Both ends of the rotary shaft 47 are tension plates 71 as shown in FIG.
Supported by. Then, a spring 72 is stretched between a protrusion 76 provided on the frame of the transport section 6 and a protrusion 77 of the tension plate 71, and the belt pulley 20 is urged in a direction away from the belt pulley 19.

The discharge unit 7 includes discharge guides 23 and 24 that form a discharge path,
A scooping guide integrally formed at the lower end of the discharge guide 24
25, a rotating body such as a press roller 26 that is pressed against the conveyance belt 21, a discharge sensor 27 that detects a document passing through the discharge path, and a discharge roller 28 that discharges the document to the discharge stacker 8.
And a pressure contact member 29 formed integrally with the discharge guide 24 and pressed against the discharge roller 28.

The discharge guide 24, the scooping guide 25, and the pressure contact member 29 are
It is made of elastic metal plate or synthetic resin.

As shown in FIG. 2, a pulley 50 is attached to the rotary shaft 49 of the discharge roller 28, and the pulley 50 is connected to the pulley 48 by a round belt (O ring) 51.

When the drive is transmitted by the round belt 51, slippage may occur depending on the load. Therefore, a timing belt may be used to surely transmit the driving force from the pulley 48 to the pulley 50.

Since the belt pulley 20 moves horizontally, the distance between the shafts of the pulley 48 and the pulley 50 changes, but by positioning the pulley 50 directly above the pulley 48, the change in the distance between the shafts becomes small and the timing belt Can be used, and reliable transmission is possible.

(3) Configuration of drive device and control device The drive device is, as shown in FIG. 2, a forward / reverse rotatable motor 30, a pulley 32 attached to a rotary shaft 31 of the motor 30, and a pulley attached to the rotary shaft 33. 34 and pulley 32 and pulley
Timing belt 35 connecting with 34 and spring clutch 37
And the gear 38 attached to the rotary shaft 33 via
A gear 39 that meshes with 38, a rotary shaft 40 of the feeding roller 13, and a gear 41 that meshes with the gear 39, a gear 52 that meshes with the gear 41, and a rotary shaft 53 of the separation roller 14,
A gear 54 that meshes with the gear 52, a gear 36 attached to the rotating shaft 33 via a one-way clutch, and a registration roller.
Gear 56 that is attached to rotating shaft 55 of 17 and meshes with gear 36
And a gear 57 that meshes with the gears 46 and 56.

The spring clutch 37 is designed to idle when a load larger than a predetermined value is applied when the motor 30 rotates in the reverse direction.

Further, a member for transmitting the rotational force of the motor 30 to the pickup roller 11, the feeding roller 13, and the separation roller 14 by the normal rotation of the motor 30 is the first transmission means, and the reverse rotation of the motor 30 causes the registration roller 17, Motor 30 for the conveyor belt 21 and the discharge roller 28
The member for transmitting the rotational force of is the second transmission means.

The control device includes, for example, a microcomputer and a sensor
The motor 30, which will be described later, is driven and controlled by the signals 12, 15, 16, 27 and the signal from the copying machine 1.

(4) Constitution of Conveying Path The conveying path formed in the separating section 5, the conveying section 6, and the discharging section 7 is long enough for the next document to reach the reference position of the platen 2 after the document is discharged from the discharging section 7. Is set to

For example, when the reference position is set at the left end of the platen 2 as shown in FIG. 5, when the maximum original is set on the platen 2, the distance A between the registration roller 17 and the rear end of the original is set between the reference position and the discharge roller 28. It is set larger than the distance B in.

<Operation> With the above-mentioned configuration, the automatic document feeder operates as follows.

First, when the original is set on the feeding stacker 4 with the front side facing down, the empty sensor 12 detects the original and the original can be automatically fed.

In such a state, when a feeding button (not shown) of the copying machine 1 or the automatic document feeder 3 is pushed, a start signal is issued in step S1 as shown in FIG. 3 to start the feeding operation.

Then, in step S2, the state of the empty sensor 12 is determined, and if it is ON, the motor 30 rotates normally (in the direction of the solid line arrow) in step S3.

As a result, the pulley 32, the timing belt 35, and the pulley 3
4. The rotating shafts 40, 53 rotate in the forward direction via the gears 38, 39, 41, 52, 54.

The arm 44 is lowered by the forward rotation of the rotary shaft 40, and the pickup roller 11 comes into contact with the document. Therefore, the spring clutch 43
The load is applied to and slips, and the pickup roller 11 keeps in contact with the document.

Further, the feed roller 13 and the pickup roller 11 rotate in the normal direction due to the normal rotation of the rotary shaft 40, and the document is sent out.

On the other hand, the rotation of the rotary shaft 53 causes the separation roller 14 to rotate in a direction to prevent the document from being fed, and the document following the document fed by the feeding roller 13 is retreated to separate the document into one sheet.

By the way, since the one-way clutch is interposed in the gear 36, the gear 36 does not rotate when the motor 30 rotates in the normal direction.

When the document reaches the size detection sensor 15, it is turned on if the document is long in the width direction and remains off if it is long in the length direction.

In step S4, the state of the registration sensor 16 is judged, and if a document is detected, the motor 30 is stopped after a certain time in step S5.

At this time, since the registration rollers 17 and 18 are stopped, the document is bent and the front end of the document is registered and corrected.

By stopping the motor 30, the pickup roller 11, the feeding roller 13, and the separation roller 14 also stop.

When the motor 30 rotates in the reverse direction (in the direction of the broken arrow) in step S6, the rotating shaft 40 also rotates in the reverse direction, the arm 44 moves up, and the pickup roller 11 separates from the document. When the arm 44 hits a stopper (not shown), the spring clutch 37 is loaded and the gear 38 stops rotating. Therefore, when the pickup roller 11 is raised, the pickup roller 11,
The feeding roller 13 and the separation roller 14 are stopped.

On the other hand, due to the reverse rotation of the motor 30, the rotational force of the rotary shaft 33 is
Are transmitted to the gears 56, 57, 46, the conveyor belt 21, and the round belt.
The registration roller 17, the conveyor belt 21, and the discharge roller 28 rotate via 51.

When the trailing edge of the document passes the registration sensor 16, the size of the document is detected in step S8 by the amount of rotation of the motor after the registration sensor 16 is turned on and the size detection sensor 15 being turned on and off. As a result, the size of the copy sheet is selected or the copy magnification is set according to the detected size.

When the registration sensor 16 detects the trailing edge of the document, counting for determining the document stop position is started.

In step S9, just before the leading edge of the document reaches the stop position,
The motor 30 is sped down to prepare for stopping the original.

When the predetermined count that the document has reached the stop position on the platen 2 is finished, the motor 30 is stopped in step S10.

In step 20, the first document advance operation is performed. That is, as in steps S3 to S5, the next document is made to stand by the registration roller 17 in the registration state. If there is no next original, the first-out operation is not performed.

The first-out operation may be performed during the copying operation.

Then, in step S11, the copying operation of the copying machine 1 is performed and copying is performed on the paper.

When copying is completed, the motor 30 is rotated in the reverse direction again in step S12, and the original document on the platen 2 is sent to the discharge unit 7.

At this time, the next original document on standby is sent to the platen 2 by the rotation of the registration roller 17.

In step S13, after the discharge sensor 27 detects the leading edge of the document, the motor 30 is decelerated after a predetermined count and the document is slowly discharged to the discharge stacker 8.

In step S14, the motor 30 is turned off after a predetermined time has elapsed since the ejection sensor 27 detected the trailing edge of the document.

Then, in step S21, the state of the empty sensor 12 is determined, and if it is ON, the process returns to step S3 to send out the document.
If it is OFF, it is determined in step S22 that there is a document in the transport path, and if it remains, the process returns to step S12, and if not, the process ends in step S15.

<Effects of Embodiment> According to the above-described embodiment, the motor 30 capable of rotating in the normal and reverse directions is provided, the separating unit 5 is driven in the normal rotation, the conveying unit 6 and the discharging unit 7 are driven in the reverse rotation, and the original is placed on the platen. After reaching the reference position of No. 2, the motor 30 is normally rotated to send the next original to the standby position (registration correction position), and after the copying of the original set at the reference position is completed, the motor 30 is rotated in the reverse direction to The motor 30 is decelerated before being discharged by the discharge unit 7, and the motor 30 is stopped when the next document reaches the reference position. However, it is possible to continuously feed and discharge, and high-speed processing is possible.

Further, since the transport unit 6 and the discharge unit 7 are driven by one motor 30, the deceleration at the reference position and the deceleration of the discharge are at the same timing, and the drive control is simple and the stop position can be accurately set. It is possible to orderly discharge.

[Modification]

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following modifications can be made.

(1) After the copy of the original on the platen 2 is completed, the motor 30 is rotated in the reverse direction to rotate the conveyor belt 21 to convey the original for a predetermined distance, and then the motor 30 is normally rotated to feed the next original. It is also possible to convey the original fed by the reverse rotation of 30 to the platen 2 and eject the previous original by the ejection roller 28.

(2) In the above embodiment, the spring clutches 37 and 43 that idle when a load larger than a predetermined value is applied are used, but a friction clutch such as a torque limiter may be used.

(3) In the above embodiment, the automatic document feeder is described as an example, but the invention can also be applied to a device that conveys sheet-shaped materials such as copy paper, synthetic resin film, and photographs.

(4) In the above embodiment, the clockwise rotation of the motor 30 is called the forward rotation and the counterclockwise rotation is called the reverse rotation, but either of them may be called the forward rotation or the reverse rotation.

[Effect of device]

In summary, the present invention provides the first transporting means for sending the sheet to the standby position, and the second transporting means for feeding and setting the sheet at the standby position to the reference position on the platen of the image processing apparatus and for sending the sheet from the platen after the image processing. Transporting means of
In a sheet conveying device provided with a third conveying means for discharging a sheet sent from the second conveying means from an outlet, the first conveying means is driven in forward rotation and the second conveying means is rotated in reverse. After the sheet reaches the reference position, the drive unit that drives the third conveying unit and rotates forward and backward to feed the next sheet to the standby position is set to the reference position. After the image processing of the sheet is completed, the driving device is rotated in the reverse direction so that the driving device is decelerated before the sheet is discharged by the third conveying means, and after the sheet is discharged by the second conveying means. Since it has a control device that stops the drive device when the sheet reaches the reference position, the drive control is simple and the stop position can be accurately set,
It is possible to obtain a sheet conveying device that can perform orderly discharge.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 5 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an automatic document feeder, FIG. 2 is a view showing a structure of a driving device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the operation, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transport unit and a discharge unit, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transport path. 1 ... Copier, 2 ... Platen, 3 ... Automatic document feeder, 4
... Feed stacker, 5 ... Separation section, 6 ... Conveyance section, 7 ... Ejection section, 11 ... Pickup roller, 12 ... Empty sensor,
13 ... Feed roller, 14 ... Separation roller, 15 ... Size detection sensor, 16 ... Registration sensor, 17, 18 ... Registration roller, 21
... Conveyor belt, 27 ... Discharge sensor, 28 ... Discharge roller, 30 ...
Motor, 37,43 ... Spring clutch

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A first transporting means for feeding a sheet to a standby position, and a second feeding means for feeding and setting a sheet at the standby position to a reference position on a platen of an image processing apparatus, and for feeding the sheet from the platen after image processing. In a sheet conveying device including a conveying unit and a third conveying unit that discharges a sheet sent from the second conveying unit from an outlet, the first conveying unit is driven in forward rotation and is rotated in reverse. The second,
A forward / reverse free drive device for driving the third conveying means, and after the sheet reaches the reference position, the drive device is normally rotated to send the next sheet to the standby position and set to the reference position. After the image processing of the sheet is completed, the driving device is rotated in the reverse direction so that the driving device is decelerated before the sheet is discharged by the third conveying means, and after the sheet is discharged by the second conveying means. And a control device for stopping the drive device when the sheet reaches the reference position.