JPS597646A - Transfer material detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the presence of transfer paper and its size detectable with a simple, inexpensive structure so easily, by discriminating the color and intensity of transmitted light of a detected member installed in a transfer material vessel in accordance with the form of a transfer material for a copying machine, etc. CONSTITUTION:An aperture 7 is made up at a convex side of the bottom of a cassette 4 while a color plate 5 as a detected member is fitly installed at the opposite side. In addition, the cassette 4 is housed in a cassette holding part 3 of a picture recorder body and on the inner part of the holding part 3, there is provided with a light source 2 while on the inner part that corresponds to the color plate 5, a color sensor 6 is installed. Next, each output of photodiodes 6A and 6B different in wave characteristics is observed and compared with each other whereby a light wavelength lambda that is emitted out of the light source, reflected by a sheet of transfer paper 1 and further filtered by the color plate 5 is discriminated so that size of the transfer paper 1 housed in the cassette 4 is discriminated as well as setting the casstte 4 itself or the presence of the transfer paper 1 is discriminated by the presence of reflected light.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a transfer material detection device, and more particularly to a transfer material detection device that detects the presence or absence of a transfer material stored in a cassette and detects several different sizes of transfer materials.

Conventionally, this type of detection device has been mainly used in copying machines, laser beam printers, etc. For example, in a conventional copying machine, when a cassette I is installed in the main body of the copying machine,
・It was configured to detect the presence or absence of transfer material (transfer paper) inside and the size of the paper, and notify the operator. However, the conventional transfer paper detection device has separate means for detecting the presence or absence of transfer paper stored in the cassette, including the attachment/detachment state of the cassette, and means for detecting the size of the transfer paper. For example, the transfer paper size detection means is composed of a plurality of cams attached to a cassette and a microswitch or a key switch provided in the cassette insertion slot of the main body of the copying machine. Several types of transfer paper sizes, such as A4 and B4, were detected by operating the switch and combining the open and closed states of the contacts. In addition, the means for detecting the presence or absence of transfer paper consists of a light source such as a lamp and a light receiving element, etc., and the optical path of the light source is blocked by the transfer paper stored in a cassette, or the optical path is reflected by the surface of the transfer paper. A method of detecting the presence or absence of transfer paper was adopted.

Therefore, in a so-called multi-cassette paper feeding type copying machine that can feed transfer paper from multiple locations, adopting the conventional transfer paper detection device not only results in an extremely complicated structure but also reduces manufacturing costs. This was also a contributing factor to the rise.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances.It is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive transfer material and a detection device that integrates means for detecting the presence/absence of transfer paper and the size of the transfer paper in a simple structure. With the goal.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention detects the shape of the transfer material by identifying the color and light intensity of the transmitted light of the detected member provided in the transfer material container in accordance with the shape of the transfer material contained therein. We have adopted a defective structure for the detection of broken bones.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1(A) shows a cross section of a transfer paper container (hereinafter referred to as a blade set) 4 related to the present invention, and there is a transfer paper 1 inside.
A bunch of them are stored. The upper part of the cassette 4 is formed, for example, as a lid that can be opened and closed, so that the transfer paper 1 can be replenished. Further, as shown in the figure, two protrusions are formed on the bottom of the cassette 4, a window 1 is formed on one side of the protrusion, and a color plate as a member to be detected is provided on the opposite side of the protrusion. 5 are fitted and fixed. The color of this color plate 5 is determined in accordance with the size of the transfer paper 1 stored in the cassette 4. In addition, the color plate 5 may be at least a translucent acrylic plate, etc.
Use something that allows some light to pass through.

The above-mentioned cassette 4 is accommodated in a cassette accommodating section 3 of the main body of an image recording apparatus (for example, a laser beam printer, a copying machine, etc.) as shown in FIG. 1(B).

Of course, this cassette accommodating part 3 is provided with a recessed part in which the convex part on the bottom of the cassette 4 fits, and as shown in the figure, a light source such as a lamp is provided inside the cassette 3 corresponding to the window. A color sensor 6 is provided in the interior where 2 corresponds to the color plate 5.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the circuit configuration of the transfer paper detection device of the present invention. The color sensor indicated by the reference numeral 6 in the figure is made up of two photodiodes 6A and 6B connected with their cathodes facing each other, and the bipolar electrodes are grounded to zero potential.

The photodiodes 6A and 6B used have characteristics as shown in the diagram of FIG.

Here, the four diodes 6A are used in the short wavelength (λ) light region, and the four diodes 6B are used that have maximum detection sensitivity in the high wavelength region.

The outputs of the above photodiodes 6A and 6B are input to DC amplifiers Q1 and Q2, respectively, and the output voltage ■1 of DC amplifier Q1 is the + input of comparator Q4,
The output voltage V of Q2 is connected to the positive input of comparator Q4 and the single power of comparator Q3.

Furthermore, the voltages Vl/2 and V2/2, which are divided into v2 by the resistors of both output voltages Vs and V*, are applied to the comparator Q, respectively.
3 and the + input of comparator Q5.

Furthermore, the sum of the output voltages V, , V, of the DC amplifiers is input to an adder Q6, and its output is formed by a comparator. At this time, the reference 'ton field' is set to a value that allows checking the presence or absence of the transfer paper, that is, the presence or absence of reflected light from the transfer paper 1 shown in FIG. 1 (I3), by comparing the value of the sum of (1) and (2).

In other words, in the above configuration, by observing and comparing the outputs of the photodiodes 6A and 6B, which have different characteristics depending on the wavelength, it is possible to determine the color of the color plate 5 in FIG. By identifying the wavelength λ of the light reflected by the transfer paper 1 and further converted into R waves by the color plate 5, the size of the transfer paper 1 stored in the cassette 4 can be determined, and the mounting of the cassette 4 itself can be determined based on the presence or absence of reflected light. , or to identify the presence or absence of the transfer paper 1.

Furthermore, to be more specific about paper size detection, in this embodiment, the wavelength λ of the transmitted light from the color plate 5 is divided into four regions by comparators Q3, Q4, and Q5, and by comparison, four types of color plates, That is, the configuration is such that the size of the transfer paper stored in the cassette 4 can be identified. As shown in FIG. 3, the maximum sensitivity wavelength of the photodiode 6A is λ. , the maximum sensitivity wavelength of the photodiode 613 is A4, and the sensitivity of 6A is 6B.
The wavelength that is exactly twice that of that of the stone (in this case, the sensitivity of photoquote 6A is taken as A), and the wavelength for which the sensitivity of 6A and 6B is equal is A2.The sensitivity of 6B is exactly twice that of that of 6A. Letting the wavelength be A3, λ. The wavelength region of ~λ4 is divided into four.

Therefore, the r-wave characteristics depending on the color of the color plate 5, which does not represent the paper size of A4-B5, for example, can be determined corresponding to the above four regions as shown in Table 1. However, since the wavelength of the light incident on the color sensor 6 depends on the color temperature of the light source 2 or the transfer paper 1, it goes without saying that it should be determined taking these into consideration.

Table 1 In the above configuration, the A4 size cassette 4 is the first
When the cassette storage unit 3 is loaded as shown in FIG. 5 and reaches the color sensor 6. At this time, the wavelength λ of the incident light on the color sensor 6 is λ as shown in Table 1 because it passes through the color plate 5. <? 〈λ, so as can be seen from Fig. 3, the photoquot 6A,
Is the voltage obtained by DC amplifying the output of 6B? is V, /2>V
, and the value of V>Vl and V2/2<Vl.

As a result, Vl/2 Yoshi V, , y, and Vl, ■2/2
Compare Q4 and Q3 to compare and ■1 respectively.
, the output of Q5 is 1.1.0, respectively, as shown in Table 1.
becomes. Also, v added by adder Q6, -1-
The output of comparator Q7, which compares v and the reference voltage, is also 1.

In addition, when an A3 size cassette 4 is installed, the wavelength λ of the incident light to the color sensor 6 is A1<square, so the photodiode 6A is used.

The voltage V, , V, obtained by DC amplifying the output of 6B is V, /2<
V, ,V,>V,,Vl/2<Vl. As a result, the outputs of comparators Q3, Q4, Q5, and Ql become 0, 1.0.1, respectively.

In the case of B4 size, the wavelength λ is A2〈
A〈A3, and the voltage ■1, ■! is Vl/2<Vs
, Vl < Vl and Vl / 2 < Vt, and the outputs of comparators Q3, Q4, Q5, and Ql each become 0.0.0.1.

In the case of B5 size, the wavelength λ is A3 x A4, and the voltages ■0, ■ are '/2<Vt, V, <v,
, V2/2>Vl. As a result, the comparator Q3, (output of 4, Q5, Ql is 0.0.1, ■
becomes.

Next, if there is no transfer paper 1 in the cassette 4 or if the inner body of the cassette 4 is not installed, the comparator Q7
It is sufficient to observe only the output of Ql, and if the reference voltage is set as described above, the output of Ql will be 0.

As described above, by observing the outputs of the comparators Q3, Q4, Q5, and Ql, it is possible to detect the size of the loaded transfer paper and the presence or absence of paper or a cassette.

In the above embodiment, the wavelength is divided into four regions, but by increasing or decreasing the number of comparators, the number of paper sizes that can be identified can be arbitrarily set.

As is clear from the above description, the present invention employs a configuration in which the shape of the transfer material is detected by the storage stage, so that the paper size and paper or cassette axis can be adjusted with a simple and inexpensive structure. It becomes possible to provide a transfer paper detection device that can detect the presence or absence of transfer paper.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1(A) is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the structure of a transfer paper cassette used in the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 1(B) is a diagram illustrating detection of a bright transfer paper. 1... Transfer paper 2... Light source 4... Cassette 5... Color play 1, 6... Color play 6A, 6B... Photo diode 7...
・Window Ql, Q2...DC amplifier Q3, Q
4, Q5, Ql... Comparator Q6... Adder

Claims (1)

[Claims] A transfer material detection device that detects the shape of a transfer material by means of identifying the color and light intensity of transmitted light of a member to be detected provided in a transfer material container in accordance with the shape of the transfer material contained therein.