JPH10279159A - Document discharge mechanism, and image reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document discharge mechanism in which a large quantity of documents can be correctly discharged. SOLUTION: A device is provided with a discharge roller 1 which rotates to discharge documents, a discharged sheet receiving part main body 11 installed to have a fall from a height where the document being discharged gets in contact with the discharge roller 1, a movable receiving part 14 connected to the discharged sheet receiving part main body on which the document is wholly or partly placed, and a spring 16 to support the movable receiving part 14 elastically to the discharged sheet receiving part main body 11. A substantial fall from the discharge roller 1 to the movable receiving part 14 is small, the document can be correctly discharged, and a large quantity of documents can be coped with by displacement of the movable receiving part 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document discharging mechanism for discharging a document and an image reading apparatus provided with the document discharging mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, image reading apparatuses have been widely used for reading an image from a document. Further, some image reading apparatuses mainly for business use attempt to realize a high-speed and large-capacity reading by placing a large number (for example, about several hundreds to thousands) of originals on a paper feeding mechanism at one time. . When such an image reading apparatus is used, a large number of documents are read and then discharged by the document discharge mechanism. That is, the document discharge mechanism provided in such an image reading apparatus needs to be able to handle one to about one thousand documents, and the amount of the document changes greatly.

Next, a conventional document discharge mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional document discharge mechanism. As shown in FIG. 7, the document discharge mechanism discharges the document 3 rightward in FIG. 7 by a discharge roller 1 and a pressing roller 2 which come into contact with each other and rotate in an arrow direction. The discharged original 3 must be placed on the discharge receiver 4 in a flat posture without being turned upside down.

[0004]

However, in order to cope with the discharge of a large amount of the originals 3, even when the maximum amount of the originals 3 has been discharged, the discharge roller 1 and the pressing roller 2 are required.
Must be able to be discharged. Therefore, a large drop H must be set from the height at which the document 3 to be discharged contacts the discharge roller 1 to the height of the discharge tray 4. However, when the head H is large, the document 3 is directed almost vertically to the paper discharge receiver 4 as shown by an arrow N1 when the document 3 is hardly discharged onto the paper discharge receiver 4. For this reason, especially in the case of a thin original 3 having a weak stiffness, the original 3 buckles and curls as shown by an arrow N2 on the paper receiving tray 4 or turns over as shown by an arrow N3. There was a problem that paper could not be ejected correctly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a document discharge mechanism capable of correctly discharging a large number of documents and an image reading apparatus using the same.

[0006]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an original discharge mechanism configured to reduce a drop from a height at which a document to be discharged comes into contact with the discharge roller. A paper discharge receiving body that is installed to have, a movable receiver that is vertically movably connected to the paper receiving receiver body, and in which all or a part of the original is placed, An elastic member for elastically supporting the elastic member.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a document discharge mechanism according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
A discharge roller that rotates and discharges the document, a discharge receiving body that is installed so that the document to be discharged has a drop from the height that contacts the discharge roller, and a discharge receiving body that A movable receiver on which the whole or a part of the original is placed so as to be movable up and down, and an elastic member for elastically supporting the movable receiver with respect to the paper discharge receiving main body.

With this configuration, the original is discharged to the discharge receiving body by the discharge roller and is placed on the movable receiver. Here, when the amount of the document placed on the movable receiver is small, the weight of the document acting on the movable receiver is small, and the movable receiver is located near the height of the paper discharge roller due to the elastic force of the elastic member. For this reason, a substantial drop from the discharge roller to the movable receiver is small, and the document does not curl or turn over. Further, when the amount of the original on the movable receiver increases, the elastic member is deformed in accordance with the increase, and the movable receiver is lowered, so that it is possible to sufficiently cope with a large number of originals.

In the document discharge mechanism according to the second aspect, the edge of the movable receiver is pivotally supported so as to be swingable with respect to the discharge receiver main body. Thus, the movable receiver can be swung to cope with a change in the amount of the document on the movable receiver. In the document discharge mechanism according to the third aspect, the movable receiver is formed so as to cover the entire upper surface of the discharge receiver main body. As a result, even a large document can be entirely supported by the movable receiver and discharged without bending.

In the document discharge mechanism according to the fourth aspect, the movable receiver is formed so as to cover a portion of the entire upper surface of the discharge receiver main body near the discharge roller. As a result, the dynamic range of the load of the elastic member from a small-sized document to a large-sized document only needs to be considered in the width direction of the document, and the elastic member can be configured easily.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a side view of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image reading apparatus includes a main body 5, a conveyance path 7 that conveys a document in the main body 5, a paper feed mechanism 8 that supplies the document to the conveyance path 7, and a paper path that passes through the conveyance path 7. A reading unit 6 that reads an image of a document to be read and a document discharge mechanism 9 that receives and discharges the document from the transport path 7 are provided.

Next, a document discharge mechanism according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the figure, the same components as those in FIG. 7 showing the related art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. By the way, in this embodiment,
In preparation for the discharge of a large amount of originals 3, the output receiving main body 11 is provided with a sufficient drop H below the height at which the originals 3 to be discharged come in contact with the discharge rollers 1. A vertical upright portion 13 and an inclined portion 12 inclined upward from the upright portion 13 in the sheet discharging direction are formed.

A movable receiver 14 that covers the entire upper portion of the inclined portion 12 is provided, and the edge of the movable receiver 14 on the leading end side in the sheet discharging direction is swingable by the shaft 15 to the edge of the inclined portion 12. It is pivoted. A spring 1 as an elastic member is provided on the upper surface of the inclined portion 12 and the lower surface of the movable receiver 14.
6 is mounted. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the elastic coefficient of the spring 16 is selected, and the original 3 is placed on the movable receiver 14.
In a state in which the movable receiver 14 is not placed, the spring 16 lifts the movable receiver 14 so that the movable receiver 14 faces the upper part of the upright portion 13 so that the movable receiver 14 is in a substantially horizontal posture.

When the original 3 is not placed on the movable receiver 14, the upper surface of the movable receiver 14 becomes the original placing surface A on which the discharged original 3 is placed. As is clear from FIG. 2, at this time, the substantial head He from the paper discharge roller 1 to the document placing surface A is much smaller than the head H, and the document 3 discharged by the paper discharge roller 1 The original document 3 is discharged in the correct posture even if the stiffness of the document 3 is weak, by sliding down on the upper surface of the movable receiver 14 by lowering by He.

When the discharge is repeated and the amount of the discharged document 17 on the movable receiver 14 increases, the spring 16 contracts in proportion to the weight of the discharged document 17, as shown in FIG.
The movable receiver 14 swings about the shaft 15 by a small angle downward. At this time, the original placing surface A is
4 is not the upper surface but the uppermost surface of the discharged original 17, even if the amount of the discharged original 17 is increased, the substantial head He is small and smooth discharge can be performed. In addition, since the spring 16 is contracted and the movable receiver 14 swings downward, it is possible to cope with further discharge, and a sufficient capacity of the document 3 that can be discharged can be secured. Moreover, in the present embodiment, since the movable receiver 14 covers the entire surface of the inclined portion 12, even if the original 3 is large, almost all of the original 3 is placed on the uppermost surface of the movable receiver 14 or the discharged original 17. The document 3 can be placed so that the side of the document 3 is not bent.

Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the size of the movable receiver 14 is considerably smaller than that of the inclined portion 12. That is, when L1 × W1 is the maximum size of the document 3 and L2 × W2 is the minimum size of the document 3, the width of the movable receiver 14 is W2 and the length is L0 (= L2 + α).

Here, the weight of the document 3 differs depending on the size of the document 3 even if the number is the same. For example, the weight is four times different between the A6 size and the A4 size. Therefore, in the configuration as in the first embodiment, the substantial head H when the same number of sheets are discharged depends on the size of the document 3 to be discharged.
e will be different. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the movable receiver 1
4 is formed so as to cover a part of the entire upper surface of the paper discharge receiving main body 11 close to the paper discharge roller 1 (an area on which the document 3 of almost the minimum size is placed). As is apparent from FIG. 5, when the discharged document 17 is long, the weight of the portion protruding in the length direction from the movable receiver 14 is statically supported by the inclined portion 12, so that the load Is changed only by the width dimension of the discharged document 17 on the movable receiver 14, and the dynamic range of the load to be supported by the spring 16 can be reduced.
It is convenient. Further, when the above-mentioned length L0 is made to coincide with the length L2 of the minimum size, the efficiency of load bearing is the best.

In this way, the heads H1 and H2 can be determined only by the number of sheets of the discharged original 17 of a large size or the discharged original 17 of a small size as shown in FIG. .

[0019]

According to the present invention, a substantial drop from the discharge roller to the movable receiver is small, the original is correctly discharged, and a large amount of originals can be handled by the displacement of the movable receiver.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a document discharge mechanism according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a document discharge mechanism according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a document discharge mechanism according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a document discharge mechanism according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a document discharge mechanism according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional document discharge mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Discharge roller 11 Discharge receiving body 14 Movable receiver 16 Spring

Claims (5)

[Claims] A discharge roller configured to rotate and discharge a document, a discharge receiving body disposed so that the document to be discharged has a drop from a height at which the document contacts the discharge roller; A movable receiver on which the whole or a part of the original is placed so as to be vertically movable with respect to the paper discharge receiving main body, and an elastic member which elastically supports the movable receiving body with respect to the paper receiving main body. An original discharge mechanism, comprising: 2. An original discharge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein an edge of said movable receiver is pivotably supported on said discharge receiver main body so as to be swingable. 3. The original discharge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said movable receiver is formed so as to cover the entire upper surface of said discharge receiver main body. 4. The original discharge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the movable receiver is formed so as to cover a part of the entire upper surface of the discharge receiver main body near the discharge roller. . 5. A main body, a conveyance path for conveying a document in the main body, a paper feeding mechanism for supplying the document to the conveyance path,
A reading unit that reads an image of a document passing through the conveyance path,
5. An image reading apparatus, comprising: the document discharge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the document is received from the transport path and discharged.