JPS60128151A - Sheet-material transportation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve working efficiency by detecting the start of the transportation or treatment of the finally set sheet material by a detecting means and further allowing an operator to be informed of the start of the transportation of the final sheet by operating an alarm means on the basis of the detection signal. CONSTITUTION:When the original copy to be transmitted is left in an accommodation position, the output of an original-copy sensor 8 is at high level, and each time no original-copy exists at the position of an original-copy sensor 7, and the detection output of the original-copy sensor 7 reaches a low level, in other words when an original copy passes through the position of the original- copy sensor 7, the next original copy is fed by a transportation roller 12, and reading and transmission are carried-out. When the last original copy is transported, the output of the original-copy sensor 27 reaches the low level, and a CPU20 is informed of the above-described fact through an I/O port 24. Then, a buzzer 10 is rung through an I/O port 25 on the basis of the detection signal, and an operator is informed of the transportation of the last original copy set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a sheet material conveying device, and more particularly to a sheet material conveying device (hereinafter referred to as an auto feeder) that conveys sheet materials to a device that processes sheet materials such as a facsimile machine.

) regarding.

[Prior Art] In recent years, facsimile machines such as It) Ltt copiers and the like with auto feeders that automatically convey sheet-shaped originals one after another have become popular.

In the case of a facsimile machine's auto feeder, the operator loads multiple originals onto the transport device, starts transmission, leaves the facsimile machine, and leaves the facsimile machine at the time when all the originals are thought to have been transmitted. return to the device side,
This usage is common.

However, with conventional auto feeders, due to mechanical reasons, the number of originals that can be loaded at one time is limited to about 5, or at most 20 to 30, and it is difficult to process more than this number of originals. In some cases, the manuscript had to be set in several batches.

Therefore, the operator has to monitor the operation of the autofeeder without leaving the apparatus during this time, and when processing a larger number of documents than the specified number, the amount of effort required is no different from manual feeding.

[Objective] The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional devices, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet material conveying device that can convey a large number of documents to a processing device with easy operation. Embodiments The present invention will be described in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings. However, below, an embodiment for a facsimile machine will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the main parts of a facsimile apparatus with an auto feeder according to the present invention. In the figure, the reference numeral 13 is a document table, and this document table is equipped with a document feeder driven by a motor 5 for conveying documents. Rollers 11.12 are provided.

A document reading section 9 is provided near the conveyance roller 11, and the document reading section 9 includes an optical system and a reading element 9' such as a CCD sensor.

The transmission document is fed one by one by the conveyance roller 12, and is conveyed by the conveyance roller 11 to the document reading section 9.
The image information on the document 6 is read by this operation.

A document sensor 7 such as a reflective optical sensor is provided above the conveyance path at the intermediate portion of the conveyance rollers 11 and 12, and a document sensor 7 is provided at a position where a large number of documents 6 are stored to detect the presence of the document. Document sensors 8 and 27 are provided.

The outputs of the document sensor 7.8 and reading element 9' are input to an input/output port (hereinafter referred to as I10 port) 24. I10 port 24 connects to the CPU via the path line.
(Central Processing Unit) 20, ROM (Read Only Memory) 21, RAM (Random Access Memory) 2
2. Image information connected to the modem 23 and other I10 ports 25 and read by the 1 image reading section 9 is subjected to known sampling performed by the CPU 20;
After processing such as encoding, it is modulated by modem 23 and sent out to line 26. All transmission operations are controlled by the CPU 20 according to a program stored in the ROM 21.

The operation panel 1 and the motor 5 are connected to the I10 port 25, and the motor 5 is connected to the C through the I10 port 25.
Under the control of PU20.

In FIG. 1, only the main parts of the operation panel 1 are shown, and as shown, the operation panel 1 is provided with a buzzer switch 2. As shown in FIG. In the present invention, a buzzer can sound when the last document stored in the auto feeder is fed, but the buzzer switch 2 turns on/off the buzzer sound according to the operator's selection. It is for the purpose of

Furthermore, a start key 4 is provided on the operation panel 1 for starting the transmission of a document.

Furthermore, when the buzzer switch 2 is turned on and transmission of the last document set in the auto feeder is started, a buzzer 10 is used to notify the operator of this fact.

FIG. 2 shows the timing of automatic document conveyance.

The detection outputs of document sensors 7 and 8 are shown in the same figure, and the symbol DES indicates the output of the document sensor 7, and the symbol DS
L and DS2 indicate the outputs of the document sensors 8 and 27, respectively.

As shown in the figure, if the original to be sent remains in the storage position, the output of the original sensor 8 is at a high level.
During this period, each time there is no original at the position of the original sensor 7 and the detection output of the original sensor 7 becomes low level, that is, each time the original passes the position of the original sensor 7, the transport roller 1
2, the next original is fed, read, and transmitted.

When the switch 2 is on, the output of the document sensor 27 becomes low level when the last document is conveyed (timing indicated by arrow Q). This is detected by the CPU 20 via the I10 port 24, and the CPU'U 20 sounds the buzzer IO via the I10 port 25, notifying the operator that the last document set has started to be conveyed.

When the output of the document sensor 8 becomes low level, that is, when there is no document in the storage position, the conveyance of the document to the reading section is stopped.

Next, FIG. 3 shows in detail the processing procedure of the CPU 20 during the original transmission operation in the above configuration as a flowchart.

In step Sl in FIG. 3, the operator operates the buzzer switch 2 to input whether or not the buzzer 10 is to sound. When buzzer switch 2 is turned on, CP
The U20 sets an alarm flag set in a predetermined area of the RAM 22 to 1 in step S2.

Next, following the operation of the start key 4 (not shown), in step S3, the first document is conveyed to the reading position, and a transmission operation is started.

Next, each time one document is conveyed, it is determined via the I'10 port 24 whether the document sensor 8 is turned on, that is, the output becomes low level, in step S4. If this step is affirmed, that is, if the next document exists in the storage position, the process moves to step S5, and if not, the operation ends.

In step S5, the output of the document sensor 27 is similarly changed to I10.
Enter via boat 24 and check if it is turned on. When a document exists at the position of the document sensor 27, the document sensor 27 is turned on, and the process returns to step S3 to transmit this document.

When there is no original at the position of the original sensor 27, that is, when the conveyance of the last set original is started, the original sensor 27 is off, and the process advances to step S6 to check the state of the previous alarm flag.

If the alarm flag is set in step S6, the process returns to step S3 after sounding the buzzer 10 in step S7, and if the alarm flag is not set, the process directly returns to step S3.

In this way, the final document is transported to the reading position,
When reading starts, if the buzzer switch 2 is turned on, the buzzer sounds to notify the operator, so the operator can respond to this and set the next document in the storage position. .

In other words, when sending a large number of originals, simply turn on the buzzer switch 2, and the buzzer will sound when the transmission of the last original of the first set of originals starts. can be doing other work, improving work efficiency. In addition, if the operator is near the device and the buzzer is not needed, this function can be stopped using the buzzer switch 2.
High degree of freedom of use.

In the above embodiment, the alarm sound is generated when the conveyance of the final document set is started, but the timing of the alarm sound can be adjusted according to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 to 6. The information may be set in advance by the person.

The mounting position of the document sensor 27 shown above may be set as appropriate depending on the length of the document to be used.

Since FIGS. 4 to 6 are drawn in the same format as FIGS. 1 to 3, respectively, explanations of the same or corresponding members will be omitted below.

What is different in FIG. 4 from FIG. 1 is that the operation panel 1 is provided with a sheet number setting key 2' consisting of a numeric keypad or the like, and a display 3 consisting of an LCD or L''ED. Also, only a part of the storage position of the original 6 is shown, and the original sensor 2 on the end side of the original is shown.
7 is not provided.

Before starting transmission, the operator previously inputs, using the number of sheets setting key 2', the number of originals for which an alarm sound is to be generated. This set number of sheets shall be displayed on the display 3.

In FIG. 5, the outputs of the document sensor 7 and 8 are indicated by symbols DES and DS, respectively. If the alarm sound is set to sound when the first document is transmitted as described above, for example, Sound the alarm at the timing of arrow Q.

FIG. 6 shows the control procedure of the CPU when performing such an operation.

At step 31 in FIG. 6, a setting is accepted as to which frame the alarm should sound. The set number of sheets is set using the sheet number setting key 2 on the operation panel 1, and the set number of sheets is set in the original set sheet number counter of the RAM 22. At this time, a transmission number counter for counting the number of originals actually transmitted is cleared. This counter is also set in a predetermined area of the RAM 22 in the same way.

In step S2, the contents of the set sheet number counter and the transmitted sheet number counter are compared, and if they are equal, the process moves to step S3, where the buzzer 10 sounds to notify the operator, and then the process moves to step S4. If the counted values of both counters do not match, the process moves directly to step S4.

In step S4, a transmission sheet number counter for counting the number of sheets actually transmitted in the RAM 22 is incremented by 1, and then in step S5, one document is sent in and transmitted according to the timing described above.

Next, in step S6, it is determined whether the output of the document sensor 8 is at a high level, that is, whether there is even one document at the document storage position. If the output of the document sensor 8 is at a high level and the document to be transmitted exists in the storage position, the process returns to step S2.

In step S6, if the output of the document sensor 8 is at a low level, that is, if there is no document to be transmitted, the operation ends.

According to the embodiments described above, the operator can freely set the timing of the alarm sound prompting the setting of the next document according to the distance between the operator's location and the apparatus.

In the above example, you have to input the number of pages you want the alarm to sound on from the beginning, but you can also enter the total number of documents you want to send and then count the number of pages you want the alarm to sound on later. .

Furthermore, when inputting the total number of sheets to be transmitted, it is preferable to check this against the count value of the number of transmitted sheets counter at the end of transmission, and to generate an alarm sound if they do not match. With this configuration, it is possible to notify the operator that a conveyance error such as double feeding has occurred.

All of the various alarm controls described above can be combined into one device. In that case, the buzzer
The tone color and number of rings may be changed for each control.

In the above embodiments, a buzzer is used for error notification, but it goes without saying that the buzzer is not limited to the buzzer, and a lamp or the like may also be used.

Furthermore, although the embodiments related to facsimile machines have been described above, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to other machines such as automatic feeders such as copying machines.

[Effect] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, in a sheet material conveying device that sequentially conveys sheet materials to a sheet material processing device, it is possible to carry out the conveyance or start of processing of the last set sheet material. Providing a detection means for detecting and an alarm means, and providing means and an alarm means for driving the alarm means or inputting the number of sheet materials when the detection means detects the start of conveyance or processing of the final sheet material, Since this input means is configured to drive the alarm means at a timing set in relation to the number of sheets to be processed, a large number of sheets can be processed with easy operation and work efficiency is improved. It is possible to provide an excellent sheet material conveying device that can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing diagram showing the timing of document conveyance in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows the processing procedure of the CPU shown in FIG. FIG. 4 and the following diagrams show different embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the different embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing document conveyance timing in the present invention. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the CPU shown in FIG. 4 of the present invention. 1...Operation panel 2...Buzzer switch 2'...
・Number of sheets specification key 3...Display 6...Original 7.8
...Original sensor 10...Buzzer 11.12...
Conveyance roller 2O...CPU 22...RAM

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] l) A sheet material conveying device that sequentially conveys sheets 1 and materials to a sheet material processing device is provided with a detection means and an alarm means for detecting the conveyance or start of processing of the last set sheet material. . A sheet material conveying device, characterized in that the alarm means is driven when the detection means detects the start of conveyance or processing of the final sheet material. 2) In a sheet material conveying device that sequentially conveys sheet materials to a sheet material processing device, a means for inputting the number of sheet materials and an alarm means are provided, and the input means sets a value related to the number of sheet materials to be processed. A sheet material conveying device characterized in that the warning means is driven at a timing. 3) The sheet according to claim 2, wherein the warning means is activated when the scheduled number of sheets to be processed inputted by the input means does not match the number of sheets actually processed. Material conveyance device.