JPH10279098A - Automatic document feed device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a guide member adjacent to a feed member of an automatic document feed device to function as a stopper of the feed member, to dispense with the screwing of the guide member, and a facilitate the exchanging work of the feed member. SOLUTION: A separation roller 1 to separate document P one by one in an abutted condition on a feed belt to feed the document P on an document loading table to the downstream side while rotated in the reverse direction, and a guide member 15 which is mounted in the space adjacent to the separation roll 1 in the thrust direction and guides the document P to be fed are provided, tip parts 24a, 24b of a snap fit 21 to attach/detach the guide member 15 are fitted in a notch 2a in an end part of a rotary shaft 2 so as to be used also as the stopper, and a snap fit 22 different in distance to the tip parts 24a, 24b is fitted to a columnar member 27 of a support member 26 fixed to a bottom surface of the space.

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, and more particularly, to an automatic document feeder which needs to replace a member which rotates in contact with a document to be fed downstream.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known an automatic document feeder for automatically feeding a document placed on a document table to a downstream side. It is mounted on a facsimile machine or the like, and separates and feeds the originals one by one from an original bundle to an exposure position and discharges them.

In this type of automatic document feeding apparatus, a feeding member rotates in contact with the document and feeds the document to the downstream side by frictional force. The separation roller, which is pressed against the document while being rotated in the opposite direction to the feeding roller, is slidably rotated on the document, and thus needs to be replaced periodically according to the number of sheets to be processed. As such a separation roller, for example, there is one as shown in FIG. 6. The separation roller 1 is attached to the rotary drive shaft 2 and is assembled by the stopper 3 so as not to move in the thrust direction. A space adjacent to the separation roller 1 is provided with a space 4 for allowing movement during the replacement work. A guide member 5 for guiding a fed document is fixed to the space 4 with screws 6.

[0004]

In such a conventional automatic document feeder, the replacement of a feeding member such as the separation roller 1 is performed by opening and closing the apparatus main body H as shown in FIG. After the cover C is rotated to open the document feeding path, the rotary drive shaft 2 is inserted into and removed from the separation roller 1 using the space 4 to be detached, and the stopper 3 is also used together with the rotary drive shaft. This is done by attaching and detaching to the notch at the end of No. 2.

However, since the stopper 3 has a diameter of only about ten and a few millimeters, it is necessary to take great care to prevent the stopper 3 from dropping and being lost at the time of work, and to fix the separation roller 1 if it is lost. And make the device unusable. The same applies to the screw 6. In view of the above, the present invention aims to make the guide member adjacent to the feed member function as a stopper for the feed member and to eliminate the need for screwing the guide member, thereby facilitating the work of replacing the feed member. With the goal.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a feeding section for feeding a document placed on a document placing table to a downstream side is provided with a feeding section. A feed member that rotates in contact with the guide member, and a guide member that is attached at a position adjacent to the feed member in the thrust direction and guides the fed document, and moves the feed member in the thrust direction to insert and remove the rotary shaft. An automatic document feeder for exchanging the feed member, wherein one of the attachment portions for attaching the guide member to the apparatus main body is provided at an end of the guide member adjacent to the feed member in the thrust direction. And a snap fit which is attached to the rotation shaft of the feeding member and serves as a detent in the thrust direction of the feeding member.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a snap fit for attaching the guide member to the apparatus main body is attached to the rotation shaft of the feeding member, and is also used as a detent in the thrust direction. Therefore, the guide member can be easily attached by snap fitting without screwing, and the feeding member is positioned in the thrust direction without using another member such as a stopper.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, the center of the snap fit of the guide member is shifted in a direction orthogonal to the thrust direction of the feeding member. Is what you do. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the guide member is attached to the apparatus main body by a snap fit in addition to the rotation axis of the feeding member, and these snap fits are decentered in a direction orthogonal to the thrust direction of the feeding member. It is attached to the device body in the state.
Therefore, when the rotating shaft of the feeding member is driven to rotate,
Revolving around the axis of rotation is restricted.

Here, the feeding member is not limited to a roller member having its peripheral surface in contact with the document, but includes a roller member around which a belt member to be in contact with the document is wound.
It refers to one that is configured to be driven or driven and that is interchangeably assembled.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 are views showing an embodiment of an automatic document feeder according to the present invention, and are views showing a configuration of a main part thereof. In this embodiment, the same components as those of the above-described related art will be described with the same reference numerals.

Referring to FIG. 1, an automatic document feeder includes a document table 11 on which a document P is placed with an image surface facing upward, and a document P on the document table 11 which is rotated from the top side by rotating. Pickup roller 12 that feeds document P downstream in the feeding direction
Cooperating rollers 13a, 13b, one driven and the other driven
And a separation roller 1 that rotates in the opposite direction while abutting on the feed belt 14 via the document P and includes a pickup roller 12. The original P sent out by the feeding belt
The document P is held between the separation roller 1 and the separation roller 1, and is not in contact with the feeding belt 14 due to a difference in frictional force applied to the document P.
Is returned to the upstream side in the feeding direction to separate and feed the documents P one by one. Thereafter, although not shown, the automatic document feeder feeds the document P to a processing position such as an exposure position of a mounted copying machine or facsimile machine,
The processed document P is discharged onto the document table 11 or the document discharge table.

Since the separation roller 1 is slidably rotated on the original P in contact with the feed belt 14 when the original P is separated, it is necessary to periodically exchange the separation roller 1 according to the number of sheets to be processed.
5 by using the space 4 shown in FIG. 5 to move in the thrust direction so that the rotary drive shaft 2 can be inserted and removed (removed) and replaced. Guide member for guiding the original P to be fed
15 is detachably attached. In FIG. 1, 16
Is an upper guide provided adjacent to the feed belt 14 so as to face the guide member 15, and the upper guide 16 is a guide member.
As in the case of 15, the fed document P is guided on the upper side.

The guide member 15 is made of a plastic material (for example, POM: polyoxymethylene). As shown in FIG. 2, snap fits 21 and 22 are integrally formed on both ends of the separation roller 1 separated in the thrust direction. Is formed. Each of the snap fits 21 and 22 includes a pair of upright portions 23a and 23b provided on the back surface side of the guide surface of the guide member 1, and the tip portions of the upright portions 23a and 23b.
24a and 24b face the thrust direction of the separation roller 1, that is, the axial direction of the rotary drive shaft 2, and form an arc having a notch 25 at a lower portion thereof, so that the cylindrical member is erected when the notch 25 is pressed. The portions 23a and 23b are bent in the expanding direction to hold the columnar members in the distal end portions 24a and 24b, while holding the columnar members in the direction of pulling the columnar members out of the notches 25. 23a, 23b bend in the expanding direction to remove the columnar member.

As shown in FIG. 3, the snap fits 21 and 22 are arranged such that the centers of the arcs of the tips 24a and 24b are spaced from the back surface of the guide member 1 (the distance in the direction orthogonal to the thrust direction of the separation roller 1). ) Are formed differently, and the snap fit 21 is formed such that the base sides of the upright portions 23a and 23b are formed to be short, and the tip portions 24a and 24b are formed by using the rotary drive shaft 2 of the separation roller 1 as a cylindrical member. While the snap fit 22 is formed so that the base side of the upright portions 23a and 23b is formed longer and the tip portions 24a and 24b are fixed to the bottom surface of the space 4 shown in FIG. Drive shaft 2
It can be attached to. For this reason, the guide member 15 has a snap fit 21 without using screws,
The snap fitting 21 can be easily attached to and detached from the apparatus main body H, and the distal ends 24a and 24b of the snap fit 21 can also serve as a stopper for restricting the movement of the separation roller 1 in the thrust direction.

Therefore, when the separation roller 1 is to be removed, the opening / closing cover C of the apparatus main body H is rotated to open the document feeding path, and then the guide member 15 is moved as shown in FIG. By simply pulling it out of the space 4, the snap fits 21 and 22 can be removed from the rotary drive shaft 2 of the separation roller 1 and the cylindrical member 27 of the support member 26, and the guide member 15 can be removed. Since the tips 24a and 24b of the snap fit 21 are removed from the notches 2a at the two ends, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the separation roller 1 is moved in the thrust direction without removing the stopper or the like. And the rotary drive shaft 2 can be removed from the drawing space 4.

Thereafter, when the separation roller 1 is mounted, on the contrary, as shown in FIG. 5A, the separation roller 1 is moved in the thrust direction from the position of the space 4 to rotate the rotation drive shaft 2.
5B, the notch 2a at the end of the rotary drive shaft 2 and the notch 25 of the snap fits 21 and 22 are aligned with the cylindrical member 27 of the support member 26, and the guide member 15 is pressed. Then, the snap fits 21 and 22 can be supported on the rotary drive shaft 2 and the cylindrical member 27 and the guide member 15 can be attached.
24a and 24b restrict the movement of the separation roller 1 in the thrust direction and perform positioning.

When the separation roller 1 is driven, the snap fits 21 and 22 are arranged so that the centers of the tips 24a and 24b are perpendicular to the thrust direction of the separation roller 1 (the axial direction of the rotary drive shaft 2). Since the guide member 15 is displaced, the guide member 15 does not hang around even when the snap fit 21 is attached to the rotary drive shaft 2, and the guide member 15 does not become unable to guide the fed document P.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the guide member 15 can be attached and detached by the snap fits 21 and 22, and the separation roller 1 is attached to the snap fit 21.
, So that the operation of using screws and stoppers can be omitted, and the separation roller 1 can be easily replaced only by easy attachment and detachment of the guide member 15.

Further, the guide member 15 is provided with the tips 24a, 24b of the snap fits 21, 22 without being screwed or the like.
, The guide member 15 does not function, and the feeding of the document P is not hindered.

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the guide member is attached to the apparatus main body by the snap fit which is attached to the end of the rotating shaft and also serves as a detent in the thrust direction of the feeding member. The feed member can be positioned in the thrust direction only by attaching. Therefore, the guide member can be easily attached and detached, and the feeding member can be replaced only by attaching and detaching the guide member. As a result, it is not necessary to fix the positioning by screwing and stoppers, and the work of replacing the feeding member can be facilitated.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the guide member is attached to the apparatus main body by a snap fit whose center is shifted in a direction orthogonal to the thrust direction of the feeding member, so that the rotation shaft of the feeding member is rotationally driven. Even so, it is possible to restrict the guide member from hanging around, and it is not necessary to screw or the like to prevent the guide member from hanging around. Therefore, the guide member can be easily attached to the apparatus main body with a simple configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic document feeder according to the present invention, and is a partial cross-sectional configuration diagram showing a main part thereof.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the feeding member and the guide member.

FIG. 3 is a side view from the thrust direction showing the guide member.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an operation of replacing the feeding member.
(A) is a perspective view showing removal of a guide member, and (b) is a perspective view showing removal of a feeding member.

FIG. 5 is a view following FIG. 4 for explaining the work of replacing the feeding member, and FIG. 5 (a) is a perspective view showing attachment of the feeding member;
(B) is a perspective view showing attachment of a guide member.

FIG. 6 is a view for explaining the replacement operation of the conventional feeding member, and is a perspective view showing removal of the feeding member and the guide member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Separation roller (feeding member) 2 Rotating drive shaft (rotating shaft) 2a Notch (end) 4 Space 11 Document placement table 12 Pickup 14 Feeding belt 15 Guide member 21, 22 Snap fit 21, 22 27 Cylindrical member P Document

Claims (2)

[Claims] A feeder configured to feed a document placed on a document placing table to a downstream side, and a feed member rotating in contact with the document and being adjacent to the feed member in a thrust direction; A guide member mounted at a position for guiding a fed document, wherein the feeding member is moved in the thrust direction and the rotating member is inserted and removed to replace the feeding member. As one of the attachment portions for attaching the member to the apparatus main body, the end of the guide member adjacent to the feed member in the thrust direction is attached to the rotation shaft of the feed member, and the feed member is moved in the thrust direction. An automatic document feeder provided with a snap fit that also serves as a stop. 2. A snap-fit is also provided as a mounting portion at a portion of the guide member which is separated from the feeding member in the thrust direction, and a center of the snap-fit of the guide member is shifted in a direction orthogonal to the thrust direction of the feeding member. 2. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1, wherein: