JPS6233179B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder for a copying machine for feeding sheet documents one by one onto a platen of a copying machine.

As this type of document feeding device, an automatic document feeding device is conventionally known that stacks a stack of documents on a sheet feeding device and sequentially feeds out the documents one after another based on commands from the main body of the copying machine. This device has little tolerance for document size, paper thickness, and paper quality, and especially when different types of documents are mixed, the reliability of document feeding becomes extremely poor. Furthermore, accidents such as overlapping feeding, jamming, and non-feeding are likely to occur with thin paper and thick paper, and jams, wrinkles, etc. are particularly likely to occur with large-sized originals, and there is a risk of damaging expensive large-sized originals.

On the other hand, semi-automatic document feeders are also well known, in which documents are manually fed one by one to the document feed table according to commands from the copier itself, and all subsequent documents are automatically ejected within the device. be. This has a large tolerance for each characteristic of the original, but since the original must be fed one by one by hand,
This has the disadvantage that working efficiency is lower than the above-mentioned automatic document feeder.

Generally, conventional automatic document feeders have only one of the two types of functions described above.
It cannot cope with automatic feeding of all kinds of originals.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional automatic document feeders and to provide an apparatus that can efficiently process many types of documents.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, an automatic document feeder 2 constructed according to the present invention is mounted on a copying machine 1. The automatic document feeder 2 includes an automatic document feeder that automatically feeds stacked sheet documents one by one onto the platen 3 of the copying machine 1, and a manual feeder for manually feeding sheet documents one by one. a paper table 4; a document feed belt 5 that supplies the document from the automatic document feeder onto the platen 3 and serves as a pressure plate during exposure;
and a document reversing device for reversing the document in order to copy both sides of the document.

The automatic document feeding section described above includes an automatic paper feed tray 6 for stacking sheet documents, and a paper feed roller 7 for feeding the sheet documents stacked on this tray one by one from the top side. The automatic paper feed tray 6 and the paper feed roller 7 can be flipped upward around the pivot portion 18 .

The document feed belt 5 is wrapped around a drive roller 11 and a guide roller 12, and rotated along the platen 3 of the copying machine 1 in the direction of the arrow. Stoppa 13
is a plate-shaped member that is pressed by the document feed belt 5, and stops the leading edge of the document fed by the document feed belt 5 at this position, and retreats downward after the exposure operation is completed to allow the document to pass. Has a function.

A pair of manual paper feed rollers 14 and 15 are provided on the inclined manual paper feed table 4, and serve to feed manually inserted documents to an automatic feeding system. The manual paper feed roller 14 further cooperates with the roller 17 to send the original that has been fed along the upper running path of the document feed belt 5 back to the manual paper feed table 4. The manual feed tray 4 also serves as the main part of the document reversing device, and together with the first gate 8, the pair of paper feed rollers 14, 15, and the roller 17 described above, constitutes the document reversing device according to the present invention. When the first gate 8 is in the position shown in FIG.
4, 17, and is discharged onto the manual feed tray 4, and then under the action of gravity, the paper feed roller pair 14, 1
The document reaches the nip portion of document feed roller 5, is sent out by these paper feed roller pairs, and is sent to platen 3 again by document feed belt 5. At this time, the original is inverted. When the first gate 8 is in the position shown in FIG. 2, the document sent along the upper running path of the document feed belt 5 is sent to the platen 3 without being guided to the document reversing device described above.

Above the document feed belt 5, there is a double-sided document tray 2.
0 is arranged, and a second gate 9 is provided at the entrance thereof. When used originals accumulate on this original document holder 20, since the upper part of this original holder 20 is open, the used originals can be taken out freely.

Below the automatic paper feed tray 6, there is a single-sided document holder 1.
6 is arranged, and a third gate 10 is provided at the entrance thereof, so that single-sided copied originals can be stacked on the single-sided original holder 16.

When performing double-sided copying of documents stacked on the automatic paper feed tray 6, the first gate 8 is initially in the position shown in FIG.
is located at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. The document sent out from the automatic paper feed tray 6 passes through the second gate 9, reaches the upper running path of the document feed belt 5, is guided by the first gate 8, passes around the drive roller 11, and reaches the platen 3. There, it is exposed to light, and then passes through the third gate 10 and the guide roller 12 and reaches the upper running path of the document feed belt 5 again. At this time, the first gate 8 has moved to the position shown in FIG. 1, and the document is guided to the manual feed tray 4 as described above, where it is reversed, reaches the platen 3, and is placed on the opposite side. An exposure action takes place. After exposure, the original is placed in the third
After passing around the gate 10 and the guide roller 12, the document is guided to the second gate 9, which is located at the position indicated by the broken line, and is discharged onto the document tray 20.

When performing single-sided copying of originals stacked on the automatic paper feed tray 6, the first gate 8 is located at the position shown in FIG. 2, and the second gate 9 is located at the position shown by the solid line in FIG.
The third gate is located at the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. The document sent from the automatic paper feed tray 6 to the upper running path of the document feed belt 5 via the paper feed roller 7 is guided to the first gate 8, fed around the drive roller 11, reaches the platen 3, and is exposed. be affected. The exposed original is ejected onto the single-sided original holder 16 because the third gate 10 is at the position shown by the broken line.

When manually feeding a single-sided original, if the original is placed on the manual feed tray 4, the original will reach the pair of manual feed rollers 14 and 15 due to the action of gravity, whereupon it will be fed out, and then transferred to the platen by the document feed belt 5. Reach above 3. For single-sided originals after exposure, use the third gate 1.
0 is at the position indicated by the broken line, so the single-sided document holder 1
6 is released above. The originals accumulated on this pedestal 16 can be freely taken out by flipping up the automatic paper feed tray 6 around the pivot portion 18.

When a double-sided document is manually fed, the document reaches the platen 3 from the manual feed table 4 and is exposed to light, as in the case of manual feeding of a single-sided document. Then, at this time, it passes through the third gate 10 and the second gate 9 located at the position shown by the solid line in FIG. It reaches the manual feed tray 4,
Here, it is reversed and reaches the platen 3 again, where the opposite side is exposed. The document then passes around the guide roller 12, is guided to the second gate 9, which is moving to the position indicated by the broken line, and is discharged onto the document tray 20.

When copying originals that cannot be fed automatically or semi-automatically manually, such as thick paper, thin paper, or book boxes, flip up the automatic document feeder itself to release the platen, and then Of course, you can place the original manuscript.

As described above, the automatic document feeder according to the present invention selects the most reliable copying method according to the type, size, thickness, and presence or absence of folds of the document to be copied. You can.
For example, work efficiency can be improved by stacking large originals on the manual feed tray and copying large originals by stacking them on the automatic paper feed tray.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an automatic document feeding apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged explanatory diagram of a part thereof. 1... Copy machine, 2... Automatic document feeder, 3...
...Platen, 4...Manual feed tray, 5...Document feed belt, 6...Automatic paper feed tray, 8, 9, 10
...First, second and third gates, 14, 15...
...Paper feed roller pair, 16...Single-sided document holder, 17...
...Roller, 20...Document holder.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an automatic document feeder for a copying machine, a paper feed tray 6 on which sheet documents are stacked and placed; an automatic paper feed mechanism 7 that feeds out the stacked documents one by one; Document feeding means 5 for transporting onto the platen 3 of the copying machine 1 for exposure; Paper feed table 4 for manually feeding the sheet document; Feeding mechanisms 14 and 15 for feeding the manually fed document to the document feeding device: An automatic document feeder characterized in that it is provided with gate means 8 for selectively guiding the document sent by the document feeder 5 to the paper feed table 4 for reversal.