JPH0854692A - Automatic original document feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic original document feeder capable of being rapidly and easily attached to/detached from an image reader by an easy operation without necessitating a tool. CONSTITUTION:A lock hinge mechanism 15 is provided in the ADF 1 attached to an image reader main body 100, and the hinge shaft of the mechanism 15 is engaged with a bearing member 12 fixed in the main body 100. When the ADF 1 is set at a specified angle, a shaft end 18a provided on the hinge shaft 18a is detached from the shaft supporting hole 12a of the bearing member 12. Thus, the ADF 1 is detached from the main body 100.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder which is attached to an image reading device such as a copying machine and feeds documents one by one to an image reading section of the image reading device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic document feeder is, for example, an actual flat sheet feeder
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63138/1988, a contact glass of an image reading device is rotatably attached to a surface of the image reading device, and originals stacked and accommodated in the stacker are separated one by one, It is configured to be fed to the image reading unit. A reading head is arranged below the contact glass, and the reading head reads the moving document fed from the automatic document feeder. For this reason,
The reading head is fixed to the moving document when reading the moving document. On the other hand, when reading a fixed original such as a book, since the original is placed on the contact glass, the reading head is moved with respect to the fixed original.

In the automatic document feeder disclosed in the above publication, the moving document reading area of the image reading device is separated from the fixed document reading area, and the automatic document feeding device is rotated to open the contact glass. The fixed original is placed in an area apart from the area where the moving original is read, and the original is read.

[0004]

However, when an attempt is made to reduce the size of the image reading apparatus by using the fixed original reading portion as a part of the moving original reading portion, the automatic original feeding device is rotated to make contact. Even with the glass open, it is difficult to read thick books. This is because the document reading area of the contact glass comes close to the rotating portion of the automatic document feeder, and the automatic document feeder becomes an obstacle.

Therefore, if the automatic document feeder is removed from the image reading device, the automatic document feeder will not be an obstacle. However, a member called a lock hinge is usually used in the hinge portion of the automatic document feeder, and is configured to hold the automatic document feeder in a state of being rotated at an arbitrary angle. This lock hinge requires a shaft support unit that fixes the shaft so as not to rotate at the shaft support, and the shaft support unit is attached to the image reading apparatus body with screws or the like.

Therefore, a tool or the like is required to remove the automatic document feeder from the image reading device, and
Inefficient attachment / detachment work must be performed. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic document feeder which can be quickly and easily attached to and detached from an image reading apparatus by a simple operation without requiring a tool.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an automatic lock hinge mechanism that locks the rotation of a hinge bracket with respect to a hinge shaft and holds the posture at the rotation position. A document feeder, which supports the hinge shaft non-rotatably with respect to a bearing member fixed to the main body of the image reading apparatus, and holds the automatic document feeder at an appropriate angle with respect to the main body of the image reading apparatus. In the automatic document feeder, the hinge shaft is detachable from the bearing member.

[0008]

The automatic document feeder is detachably attached to the main body of the image reading apparatus. When reading a thick fixed document such as a book, the automatic document feeder is removed from the image reading device main body, and the contact glass of the image reading device is opened. The automatic document feeder is rotatable with respect to the image reading device, and is configured to be locked at the turning position. By moving the automatic document feeding device in a specific direction at a predetermined turning position, the automatic document feeding device can be moved from the image reading device. Removed.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a view showing a state in which an automatic document feeder (hereinafter referred to as ADF) 1 is attached to an image reading device 100. The ADF 1 is rotatable in the arrow direction with respect to the image reading apparatus 100 by a lock hinge attachment / detachment mechanism (hereinafter referred to as an attachment / detachment mechanism) 10 provided in the ADF main body 1a, and the rotation state is maintained. It is removable. The ADF 1 is attached to the ADF body 1a and is a hopper 2 on which documents are stacked and placed.
And a stacker 3 for discharging the originals fed from the hopper 2 and read by the image reading apparatus 100. The originals stacked on the hopper 2 are separated into one sheet by a sheet separating mechanism (not shown), and the sheets are separated by about 180 °.
The direction of the image is changed and the image passes through the contact glass 101 of the image reading apparatus 100. At that time, an image is read by a fixed reading head (not shown). When reading documents stacked on the hopper 2, the ADF 1 is in a state where the main body 1a and the stacker 3 are in contact with the contact glass 101, as indicated by the dotted line. In the structure of this embodiment, the stacker 3 functions as a document pressing member when reading a fixed document.

The attachment / detachment mechanism 10 is an image reading apparatus 100.
And a lock hinge mechanism 15 provided on the ADF main body 1a and engaged with the bearing member 12. The bearing member 12 is used as the image reading device 10.
No. 0 may be attached in advance, or may be detachably fixed with a screw or the like. In addition, the bearing member 1
A shaft bearing hole 12a extending in the vertical direction is formed in the shaft 2, and a shaft end 18a of a hinge shaft, which will be described later, is detachably engaged with the shaft bearing hole 12a.

Next, the structure of the attachment / detachment mechanism 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. This attachment / detachment mechanism is
Although a plurality is provided in the main body 1a, only one of them is shown because of the same configuration.

The lock hinge mechanism 1 in the attachment / detachment mechanism 10
5 is a hinge bracket 1 fixed to the ADF main body 1a
7, the hinge bracket 17 has an ADF
The hinge shaft 18 extending in the width direction of the main body 1a is rotatably engaged. The hinge shaft has a hinge bracket 17
A sleeve (not shown) having one end bent and fixed is arranged, and a torsion coil spring 20 is arranged from the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve to the outer peripheral surface of the hinge shaft.
At the other end of the hinge bracket 17, a bent portion 21 that is bent at a right angle and into which the hinge shaft 18 is loosely inserted is formed. The end surface of the hinge shaft 18 has a shaft end 1 with a rectangular cross section.
The shaft end 18a is engageable with the bearing hole 12a of the bearing member 12 as shown by the arrow in FIG. Actually, the shaft end 18a is engaged with the bearing hole 12a of the bearing member 12 in a state where the ADF 1 is horizontal, and the hinge shaft 18 is engaged by the bearing member 12 in this engaged state. It is supported so that it cannot rotate (see FIG. 4).

A guide pin 25 is provided on the bearing member 12 so as to extend toward the bent portion 21. On the other hand, in the bent portion 21, when the ADF 1 is rotated, the arcuate groove 21a that guides the guide pin 25 and that holds the engagement relationship without the shaft end 18a coming off from the bearing hole 12a. Are formed. The guide pin 25 and the arc-shaped groove 21
a is set such that when the shaft end 18a of the hinge shaft 18 is engaged with the bearing hole 12a, the position of the guide pin 25 is located at the entrance of the arcuate groove 21a as shown in FIG. . Then, as shown in FIG. 5, when the ADF 1 is rotated, the arcuate groove 21 a is rotated along the guide pin 25 along with the rotation. When the ADF 1 rotates from the horizontal state and the guide pin 25 is positioned in the arcuate groove 21a, A
Even if the DF 1 is lifted vertically upward, the outer peripheral surface of the guide pin 25 contacts the inner surface of the arcuate groove 21 a, so that the hinge shaft 18 does not come off from the bearing member 12.

The operation of the automatic document feeder configured as described above will be described. First, with the ADF 1 in a horizontal state, as shown in FIG. 3, the shaft end 18a of the hinge shaft provided in the ADF body 1a is attached to the bearing hole 12a of the bearing member 12.
To engage as shown in FIG. At this time, ADF
1 is in contact with the contact glass 101,
The originals stacked on the hopper 2 are conveyed and can be read by the image reading apparatus 100.

When the image of one document or a document of a relatively thin page is read with the ADF 1 attached to the image reading apparatus 100, as shown in FIG.
1 is rotated to place a document on the contact glass 101. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the hinge bracket 17 rotates around the hinge shaft 18, and the rotational position is held by the torsion coil spring 20.
Since the tightening force of the torsion coil spring 20 is set to be slightly larger than the maximum moment in the shaft portion generated by the weight of the ADF 1, it can be easily closed from the rotationally held position. Further, when the ADF 1 is rotated in this manner, the guide pin 25 enters the arc-shaped groove 21a as shown in FIG.
It cannot be removed from 00.

When reading a thick original such as a book, the ADF 1 is closed and brought to the state shown in FIG.
The DF1 is pulled up and removed from the image reading apparatus 100. In this case, the engagement holding state between the guide pin 25 and the arcuate groove 21a is released, so that the ADF can be easily removed. Since the contact glass 101 is widely opened by removing the ADF 1, a thick document such as a book can be placed at the image reading position without being disturbed by the ADF 1. For this reason, the positions of the moving original reading unit and the fixed original reading unit can be shared, and the image reading apparatus can be made smaller and lighter.

Next, referring to FIGS. 6 to 9, the ADF 1
A description will be given of an embodiment in which the means for holding the engagement relationship without the shaft end 18a coming out of the bearing hole 12a is rotated when is rotated.

In this embodiment, the guide pin 25 is provided on the side of the bent portion 21 of the hinge bracket 17 facing the bearing member 12. On the other hand, on the bent portion 21 side of the bearing member 12, a semicircular guide plate 30 in which a long hole corresponding to the bearing hole 12a is formed is attached. The arcuate surface 30a of the guide plate 30 guides the guide pin 25 that rotates with the ADF 1 when the ADF 1 is rotated, and holds the engagement relationship without the shaft end 18a coming off from the bearing hole 12a. Plays.

In this embodiment, the ADF 1 is changed from the horizontal state shown in FIG. 7 to the image reading apparatus 1 as shown in FIG.
00, the bent portion 21 of the hinge bracket 17
The guide pin 25 projecting from is located at the portion of the guide plate 30 attached to the bearing member 12 that transitions to the arc surface 30a. Then, as shown in FIG. 9, when the ADF 1 is rotated, the guide pin 25 moves the arc surface 30 of the guide plate 30.
Move along a. The guide pin 25 has an arc surface 30a.
If the ADF 1 is lifted in the vertical direction, the outer peripheral surface of the guide pin 25 abuts on the circular arc surface 30a, so that the shaft end 18a does not come off from the bearing hole 12a.

In the embodiment described above, the ADF1
Is configured to be attached to and detached from the image reading apparatus 100 when it is in a horizontal state. For example, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, when the ADF 1 is rotated by a predetermined angle, the image reading is performed. It can also be configured to be removable from the device 100. That is, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the bent portion 21 of the hinge bracket is formed with an arc-shaped elongated hole 21b for guiding the guide pin 25 protruding from the bearing member 12, and the elongated hole 21b is formed. The notch 21c is formed in a part of 21b.

As shown in FIG. 11, the notch 21c is provided with a guide pin 2 when the ADF 1 is rotated by a predetermined angle.
Since it is located immediately below 5, the ADF 1 can be removed from the image reading apparatus 100 by lifting the ADF 1 at this time to remove the shaft end 18a from the bearing hole 12a. In this embodiment, the ADF 1 is constructed so that it can be removed when it is rotated 45 ° with respect to the image reading apparatus 100, but of course it can be removed at various rotation angles by changing the position of the notch 21c. Can be configured to.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be variously modified. For example, if the bearing hole 12a for fixing the hinge shaft 18 is extended in the horizontal direction, the ADF 1 can be configured to be attached / detached to / from the image reading apparatus 100 in the horizontal direction.

[0023]

As described above, according to the automatic document feeder of the present invention, it is possible to quickly and easily attach / detach the image reading device with a simple operation without using a tool, and to read a document such as a thick book. It can be done easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a state in which an automatic document feeder according to the present invention is attached to an image reading device.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an attaching / detaching mechanism of the automatic document feeder shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a main part of the attachment / detachment mechanism shown in FIG. 2, showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is attached to an image reading apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is attached to the image reading apparatus from the state shown in FIG.

5 is a view showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is rotated with respect to the image reading device in the state shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view showing another embodiment of the present invention and is a plan view showing an attaching / detaching mechanism.

7 is a side view of the main part of the attaching / detaching mechanism shown in FIG. 6, showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is attached to an image reading apparatus.

8 is a diagram showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is attached to the image reading device from the state shown in FIG.

9 is a diagram showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is rotated with respect to the image reading device in the state shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a view showing still another embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is attached to the image reading apparatus.

11 is a view showing a state in which the automatic document feeder is rotated by a predetermined angle with respect to the image reading device in the state shown in FIG. 10, and the automatic document feeder is removed.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic document feeder (ADF), 2 ... Hopper, 3 ... Stacker, 10 ... Lock hinge attachment / detachment mechanism, 12 ... Bearing member, 12a ... Bearing hole, 15 ... Lock hinge mechanism, 17 ...
Hinge bracket, 18 ... Hinge shaft, 18a ... Shaft end, 2
0 ... torsion coil spring, 21 ... bent portion, 21a ... arc groove, 25 ... guide pin, 30 ... guide plate, 100 ... image reading device, 101 ... contact glass.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An automatic document feeder provided with a lock hinge mechanism for locking the rotation of a hinge bracket with respect to a hinge shaft and holding the posture at the pivot position, and a bearing fixed to an image reading apparatus main body. An automatic document feeder in which the hinge shaft is non-rotatably supported with respect to a member and the automatic document feeder is held at an appropriate angle with respect to the image reading apparatus main body, wherein the hinge is provided with respect to the bearing member. An automatic document feeder having a detachable shaft. 2. The bearing member is formed with bearing means for attaching and detaching the hinge shaft in a specific direction, and the bearing member and the hinge shaft are provided with an automatic document feeder in the specific direction. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1, wherein an engagement holding means for holding the engagement relationship between the two is formed so as not to be removed by other means. 3. The engagement holding means is provided on a guide pin projecting from the bearing member and on the hinge bracket, and guides the guide pin according to the rotation of the automatic document feeder, and also has a predetermined shape. The automatic document feeder according to claim 2, further comprising: a guide member that can be detached from the guide pin at a rotation position. 4. The engagement holding means is provided on the hinge bracket, is provided with a guide pin that rotates with the rotation of the automatic document feeder, and is provided with the bearing member, and with the rotation of the automatic document feeder. The automatic document feeder according to claim 2, further comprising: a guide member that guides the guide pin and disengages the guide pin at a predetermined rotation position.