JPS6180144A - Original conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for the adjustment of the position of a feed port according to original sizes and to permit the continuous delivery of the original by constituting an original conveyor in such a manner that the feed port for delivering the original from an original imposing part and a discharge port for discharging the original to the imposing part are positioned on the same side. CONSTITUTION:The one lowermost sheet of the original 3 of which the developing surface is faced downward and which is imposed on the original imposing part 2 is delivered through the feed port 4 toward the left direction J, is changed in the conveying direction by the 1st changing means 18 and is conveyed toward an arrow L direction in a conveying route 22. The conveying direction is again changed 180 deg. by the 2nd changing means 25 and is fed to contact glass 7. The original of which the image face is faced downward is stopped in the prescribed position of the glass 7. The original is illuminated and scanned during this time. The original is changed in the conveying direction by the 3rd changing means 35 upon ending of the illumination and scanning and is again stacked on an original tray 9 or the original bundle imposed thereon in the direction S through the discharge port 5. Since the port 4 and the port 5 for the original are positioned on the same side in the above- mentioned manner, the need for adjusting the position of the discharge port according to original sizes is eliminated, the continuous delivery of the original is made possible and the time for processing is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a document conveying device that conveys a document placed on a document placement section to a document illumination section, and sends the illuminated document back to the FI placement section.

It has been well known to use the above-mentioned type of document conveying device in various image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and printers. A conventional device of this type has a document illumination section 1a as illustrated in FIG.
Place the original 3 on the original placing part 2a arranged above the
The document is sent out from the paper feed port 4a of the loading section 2a in the direction shown by arrow A, the conveying direction is changed as shown by arrow B, and sent to the document illumination section 1a, and the document after illumination processing is sent in the direction shown by arrow C.
The most common device is one that transports the paper in the same direction and then discharges it again from the paper discharge port 5a to the stacking section 2a. However, in this type of device, the paper feed port 4a and the paper ejection port 5a are located at different ends of the document placement section 2a, so when processing small-sized documents, the As shown with an arrow, the leading edge of the document cannot be aligned when feeding unless the document ejection port is moved toward the paper feed port.For this reason, the corresponding operation must be performed each time the document size differs. The operation is very complicated.

Furthermore, when the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is used, the original returned to the tray 2a after illumination precedes the unprocessed original as shown by arrow E in FIG. There is also a risk that the paper will be re-fed. In order to eliminate the above drawback, as shown in FIG. 4, the document placement section 2a is placed beside the document illumination section 1a instead of above it, and the document 3 is sent out from the placement section 2a in the direction indicated by the arrow F. , a configuration has been proposed in which the original after illumination processing is transported in the direction of arrow G opposite to arrow F and returned to the mounting section 2a. However, in the case of this device, when returning the original to the stacking section 2a, the original is transported in the opposite direction to the paper feeding section, so it is necessary to wait for one original to be transported before sending out the next original. 1
It takes a long time to process a sheet of originals, and it is difficult to process multiple originals at high speed. As shown in FIG. 5, a device is also known in which a document 3 is sent out in the direction of arrow F from a document placement section 2a located above the document illumination section 1a, and the document after illumination is sent back in the opposite direction G. This device also suffers from the same drawbacks as the device shown in FIG.

An object of the present invention is to provide a document conveying device that eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks with a simple configuration.

C. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a document placement section that is located above the 1M document illumination section and is capable of placing a plurality of documents, and a document feeding section that is fed from the paper feed port of the document placement section. a first converting means for changing the conveyance direction of the document so that the document is conveyed from the one end side to the other end side above the document illumination unit; a second converting means for changing the conveyance direction of the document so that it is sent to the document illumination section; and a second converting means for diverting the document after illumination to a paper discharge port located on the same side as the paper feed port and guiding it to the document placement section. The present invention proposes a document conveyance device comprising a third conversion means.

Hereinafter, a specific example in which the present invention is applied to a document conveying device of an electronic copying machine will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a contact glass 7 is fixedly installed on the upper part of the copying machine main body 6, and this glass 7 is placed above the main body 6, which constitutes the original illumination section l in this example. The device 8 has a document illumination section, that is, a document placement section 2 located above the contact glass 7.

The illustrated document placement section 2 has a document tray 9 tilted with its right side down, on which a bundle of documents 3 to be copied is placed. These originals 3 are placed with the image side to be copied facing down, and both sides are supported by a pair of side guides 10 (only one is shown in the figure), and the rear end (right end in the figure) is placed by an end. They are each positioned by a plate 11. The side guide 10 is movably supported in a direction perpendicular to the paper plane of FIG. 1, and the end plate 11 is movably supported in the left and right directions, and is moved according to the size of the document. Therefore, it is possible to position a document of any size that can be copied with its front end (left end) aligned.

When feeding the document, feed it slightly ahead of the front edge of document 3 (
Air is blown from the air blowing unit 12 located on the left side to the front end of the document stack as shown by arrow H, giving a sorting effect to the documents and preventing double feeding of the documents. Further, the paper feed belt 15, which is wound around a pair of pulleys 13 and 14 and arranged so as not to interfere with the tray 9, is driven in the direction of arrow 1, and the lowest document 3 is moved to the left in the figure (in the direction of arrow J). )
sent to. In this case, the lowest document is sucked downward by the air suction section as shown by arrow 16 and is attracted to the belt 15, so that only the lowest document is fed by driving the belt 15.

This operation is performed for each document 3 on the tray 9, and all the documents are sent out one by one from the placement section 1.

As mentioned above, one sheet of original sent out from the paper feed port 4 of the original document placement section 2 in the left direction J passes below the air blowing section 12, and the sensor 17 detects that it has been sent out normally. a first converting means 1 for changing the conveyance direction of the document after the original is transferred;
It reaches 8. The illustrated first converting means 18 has a turn roller 19 that is rotationally driven in a counterclockwise direction, and pinch rollers 20 and 20a that roll into contact with the turn roller 19, and the original is held between these rollers L9i 20 and 20a while turning the first turn roller 19. It is sent in the direction of the arrow along the route 21. As a result, the conveyance direction of the document is changed, and the document is conveyed along the conveyance path 22 from one end (left end) to the other end (right end) of the contact glass 7 as shown by the arrow. 23°24 is this conveyance path 22
This is a roller for conveying the document provided inside.

The document conveyed in the area above the contact glass 7 as described above has its conveyance direction again changed by 180 degrees by the second conversion means 25. This conversion means 25 also has a turn roller 26 that is rotationally driven in a clockwise direction, and a pinch roller 27° 27a that rolls into contact with the turn roller 26, and the document is passed along the second turn path 28 while being pinched by these rollers 26; 27° 27a. During this time, the conveyance direction is changed, and the contact glass 7 is fed from the other end to the one end.

A conveyor belt 31 is provided above the contact glass 7 and is wound around a pair of conveyor belt pulleys 29 and 30 and driven in the direction of arrow M. The conveyor belt 31 conveys the contact glass 7 in the direction of arrow N. In this case, the frictional force acting between the original and the contact glass 7 is
The frictional force acting between the document and the belt 31 is greater;
Therefore, the document is sent to the left N in synchronization with the movement of the conveyor belt 31.

Thereafter, when the trailing edge of the document passes the sensor 32, a pulse generator (not shown) counts the number of pulses corresponding to a predetermined transport distance from that point on, and then a control device (not shown) also controls a pulley. 29,30
rotation is stopped, and the operation of the belt 31 is stopped. As a result, the document is stopped at a predetermined position on the glass 7 with the image side facing the contact glass 7, and
The illumination is scanned by means of a light source (not shown) located below and the imaging process is carried out in a manner known per se.

When the illumination scanning of the original is completed, the control device generates a carry-out start signal, whereby the conveyor belt 31 is again driven in the direction of arrow M and the original is carried out from above the contact glass 7. After passing under the guide plate 33, the unloaded original is scooped up by the pickup guide 34,
The sheet passes through the discharge turn path 39 while being held between the clockwise rotationally driven reversing roller 36 and the pinch roller 38, which constitute the third converting means 35, and the conveyance direction is changed (
Arrow ○). Next, this document is re-stacked from the paper discharge port 5 onto the document tray 9 or on top of the document bundle placed here by the paper discharge roller pair 40 (arrow S). Paper ejection port 5
is located on the same side as the paper feed port 4, and is located above the paper feed port 4 and above the topmost sheet of unprocessed documents placed on the tray 9. The end of the ejected original is placed on the original partitioning member 42 provided on the placement section 2, and is separated from the original 3 that has not yet been copied, thereby preventing the inconvenience of mixing these up.

The original returned to the tray 9 is placed in an inverted state from the state in which it was initially placed on the tray, that is, with the copied image side facing upward. Therefore, when the copying machine is a double-sided copying machine that forms copy images on both sides of copy paper, the documents re-stacked on the tray 9 can be transferred to the contact glass 7 again without readjusting the page order. If the image is sent to the other side of each original 3, the image on the other side of each original 3 can be copied. Also, although the stack state of the originals restacked on tray 9 is different from the alignment state when the originals were first placed on the tray (the order of the pages is the same), the final alignment state of the originals should be in this state. In such cases, the above-described document transport mode is selected.

When it is desired that the re-stacked originals be aligned in the same state as when the originals were first set on the tray 9, the originals are conveyed as follows. That is, until the document after the illumination scan is sent to the reversing turn path 39, the operation is the same as in the mode described above, but the rear end of the document carried into this path 39 passes the sensor 43. At this point, the path switching pawl 44 rotates slightly counterclockwise around its support shaft 45 to occupy the position shown by the broken line, and the reversing roller 3, which had been rotating clockwise until then,
6 begins to rotate counterclockwise. For this reason, the document turns its rear end to the leading edge and follows the reverse turn path 46 as shown by the arrow P.
The paper is conveyed as shown in FIG.
from there to the tray 9. In this case, since the originals are not turned over by the reversing roller 36, the originals stacked on the tray 9 are placed with the copied image side facing down, and are in the same state as when they were initially set on the tray 9. It becomes. Therefore, if the pages of the originals are aligned when they are set on the tray 9, the originals will be in the same order at the end of the copying operation.

In the document transport mode described previously and in the mode described above, if the document re-stacked on the tray 9 is further fed and copied, the document circulates along a predetermined path and the pages are It is possible to obtain a desired number of copies of the same copy paper.

In addition, in the illustrated conveyance device, the document is conveyed with the same end as the leading edge in all modes until it is ejected from the placing section 2 to the illumination section 1 and then from there. Since the M documents are discharged either inverted or not inverted, the documents can be aligned in the desired front and back orientation during the final document processing operation. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the paper feeding operation only for the purpose of adjusting the final alignment state of the documents.

Note that the paper feed port 47 located to the right of the second reversing means 25 in FIG.
This is a paper feed port used to feed the original sheet one by one, and a switching claw 48 provided at the lower left of the reversing roller 36 is used to eject the original document out of the machine as is, as shown by arrow Q, instead of into the tray 9. The switching member used (the state of the switching claw 48 at this time is shown by a broken line), and the switching claw 49 provided at the upper left of the reversing roller 36
When the sensor 50 detects the trailing edge of the original that has been reversed by be. Furthermore, the switching pawl 51 disposed at the lower right of the reversing roller 36 is switched as shown by the broken line, and the reversing roller 36 rotates counterclockwise, so that the original sent to the reversing turn path 39 is moved in the direction of the arrow T. It is reversed, transported again along the transport path 22 in the direction of the arrow, and fed into the contact glass 7. At this time, the surface of the document opposite to the previously illuminated document surface is facing the glass 7 side.

The original after the illumination process passes through any of the routes described above and is ejected to the tray 9 or outside the machine. By processing the original in this manner, the front and back sides of the original can be copied one by one.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to image forming apparatuses other than copying machines, for example, document conveyance devices such as printers. Since the paper ejection slot for ejecting originals to the main unit is located on the same side, there is no need to adjust the position of the paper ejection slot depending on the original size.Also, after the illumination is finished, the originals can be fed in the opposite direction from when they were fed. Since there is no need to return to the original state, each document can be sent out continuously, and the processing time can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a document conveyance device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are explanatory diagrams showing conventional conveyance devices, respectively. ■...Original illumination section 2...Document placement section 3...
・Document 4...Paper feed slot 5...Paper output slot
8... Document conveyance device 18... First conversion means 25... Second conversion means 35... Third conversion means

Claims (1)

[Claims] There is a document placement section located above the document illumination section that can place multiple sheets of originals, and a document fed from the paper feed port of the document placement section is placed above the document illumination section on one end side of the document placement section. a first converting means for changing the conveying direction of the document so that the document is conveyed from the other end toward the other end side; a second converting means for converting the illuminated original; and a third converting means for converting the illuminated original to a paper discharge port located on the same side as the paper feed port and guide it to the document stacking section. Conveyance device.