JP2000327168A - Document carrier device and image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve carrier reliability without damaging a document and improve image quality, even when various kinds of documents to be read are carried, by arranging a sheet pressing roller constituted of a member having elasticity in a position opposite to a reading means. SOLUTION: Images of a document 22 to be carried are read when the document 22 passes a scanner part 16 stopped in a prescribed position in a reading part 23 opposite to the scanner part 16. At this time, a Mylar (R) sheet 21 to be a guide member transmitting light beam is arranged on the scanner part 16 side on a carrier path of the reading part 23. On the side opposite to this sheet 21, a sheet pressing roller 24 constituted of a member having elasticity is arranged. When the document 22 arriving in the reading part 23 is thin, the document 22 is adhered to the Mylar sheet 21 by the sheet pressing roller 24 and the turbulence is suppressed. When the document 22 is thick, the sheet pressing roller 24 is elastically deformed and thickness of the document 22 is absorbed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to a document feeder for automatically feeding a document and reading an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional automatic document feeder (hereinafter ADF1)
01 (abbreviated as Auto Document Feeder) will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, an ADF 101 is installed above an image scanner 111 and continuously transports a document 103. The image scanner 111 has an optical scanner unit 112 as an image reading unit.

A document 103 stacked on a feed tray 102 is conveyed to a conveyance path 109 by rotating a document feed roller 105 by a document conveyance drive motor 104. The transported document 103 is
The image of the document is read by a reading unit 106 surrounded by a dashed circle facing the scanner unit 112, and is discharged to a discharge tray 107.

A mylar sheet 110, which is a light transmitting type guide member, is disposed at a position facing the scanner unit 112 in the reading unit 106,
3 images can be read.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional ADF 101, the conveying path of the reading unit 106 is formed by the mold member 108. For this reason, when copying the original 103 of various paper types, there is a disadvantage that the reading of the image of the original 103 and the conveyance of the original 103 are not performed accurately.

For example, when transporting thin paper or the like, the transport path 109 of the reading unit 106 is wide and the document 103 is violently lifted from the Mylar sheet 110, so that a part of the image of the document 103 may not be read normally. There was sex. To cope with this, it is possible to narrow the transport path 109 of the reading unit 106, but this time, when transporting a thick paper document or the like for copying, it becomes difficult for the document to pass, so that the image of the document may be damaged. Could give.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention provides a document conveying apparatus which improves the reliability of document conveyance without causing damage even when conveying various kinds of read documents and improves image quality, and an image processing apparatus having the same. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a typical configuration of the ADF according to the present invention is to place the original at a position facing image reading means of an image processing apparatus in order to read an image of the original. A sheet conveying means for passing the sheet, a guide portion disposed on the reading means side of the document conveying path and having transparency, and a sheet press roller disposed on the side of the guide section opposite to the document conveying path, the sheet presser comprising: The roller is formed of a member having elasticity.

With the above configuration, it is possible to read the image of the original normally. Further, the original can be transported without damaging the image of the original.

[0010]

[First Embodiment] A first embodiment of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of a transport device and a reading unit according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of an image processing device according to the first embodiment. The image processing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is a so-called electrophotographic copying machine, which includes a printer 2 and an image scanner 3, and further includes an ADF (Auto Document F) serving as a document feeder above the image scanner 3.
eeder) 4.

First, the printer 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The printer 2 performs image processing in an image processing unit built in the controller 15 according to image information read by the image scanner 3 described later, and irradiates light onto the photosensitive drum 8a by the laser scanner unit 12 to form a latent image. Form. By developing this latent image by a developing unit (not shown), a toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 8a of the process cartridge 8.

Next, the sheets 10 stacked on the cassette 5 mounted on the lower part of the printer 2 are separated one by one by the action of a separation claw (not shown) and the feeding roller 6 and are conveyed to the registration rollers 7. The conveyed sheet 10 is transferred with the toner image on the photosensitive drum 8 a by the transfer roller 9, conveyed through the conveyance path 11, applied with heat and pressure by the fixing unit 13 to fix the toner image, and then discharged. It is discharged to the tray 14.

The image scanner 3 has a scanner section 16 as image reading means, and reads an image of a document 22. Reading is performed by the scanner unit 16 when using the ADF4.
Is stopped at a predetermined position, and the document is conveyed. When operating as a flatbed type image scanner, the scanner unit 16 scans horizontally by a drive motor (not shown) and reads the entire image of the original 22 placed on the platen glass 17.

In the scanner section 16, when a document reading instruction is transmitted from the controller 15 of the printer 2 via the cable 20, the light source is illuminated and the light reflected on the document 22 is converted into an electric signal by a light receiving element. Image information can be read.

When the start button (not shown) is depressed, the ADF 4 starts driving the original conveying drive motor 25, and conveys the originals 22 stacked on the feed tray 28 by rotating the original feed rollers 26. I do. Note that the number of copies and the copy method (for example, one-sided copy or two-sided copy)
Are set using a panel (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 1, an image of a document 22 to be conveyed passes through a scanner section 16 stopped at a predetermined position in a reading section 23 (a broken line section in FIG. 1) facing the scanner section 16. Read. A mylar sheet 21 which is a guide member for transmitting light beams is provided on the scanner section 16 side of the transport path of the reading section 23, and is formed of an elastic member on a side of the transport path opposite to the mylar sheet 21. A sheet holding roller 24 is disposed.

When the conveyed document 22 reaches the reading section 23, the mylar sheet 21 is moved by a sheet pressing roller 24.
It is transported while being urged. At this time, the sheet press roller
24 rotates following the conveyance of the document 22. Here, since the sheet pressing roller 24 has elasticity, for example, when the document 22 is a thin sheet, the document 22 can be brought into close contact with the mylar sheet 21 by the sheet pressing roller 24, so that the sheet does not violate. Conversely, when the document 22 is a thick sheet, the sheet pressing roller 24 is elastically deformed to absorb the thickness of the document 22 and can be transported smoothly. Manuscript
After the passage of 22, the sheet pressing roller 24 restores its original shape by its own elastic force.

The document 22 having passed through the reading section 23 is discharged and stacked on a discharge tray 29 by a discharge roller pair 27. When a plurality of originals 22 are set on the feed tray 28 of the ADF 4, the above-described series of transport operations are continuously performed to complete the transport operation of the plurality of sheets.

As described above, by arranging the elastic roller as the sheet pressing roller 24 at the position facing the mylar sheet 21, the original 22 of various kinds of paper can be obtained.
Also, when the document is used, the original 22 can be transported to the reading unit 23 in a stable state (a state in which the original 22 is in close contact with the mylar sheet 21) to reliably read the original 22 without causing any damage.

Although the image processing section of the image scanner 3 is included in the controller 15 in the printer 2 in the present embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. May be provided with a separate image processing unit.

The image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment functions as a printer when an output signal from a computer or the like is supplied to the laser scanner unit 12, and functions as a FAX when a FAX reception signal is input. It can also be.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a transport device and a reading unit according to the second embodiment. The same parts as those in the first embodiment will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In the first embodiment, the ADF 4 has a feed tray 28
A document feed roller 26 that feeds the documents 22 stacked on the feed tray 28; a document feed drive motor 25 that drives the document feed rollers 26 to rotate; In the present embodiment, the sheet pressing roller 24 is configured as described above,
And a sheet pressing roller driving motor 30 which is a driving means of the present invention.

That is, when the ADF 4 is used in the first embodiment, the sheet pressing roller 24 rotates following the conveyance of the original 22, whereas in the present embodiment, the original 22 is
When the sheet holding roller 23 is reached, the sheet holding roller drive motor 30 starts operating and drives and rotates the sheet holding roller 24.
Thus, since there is no rotational load on the sheet pressing roller 24, stable conveyance can be performed, and the reliability of reading the document 22 can be improved.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, by arranging a sheet pressing roller formed of an elastic member at a position facing the reading means, various kinds of originals can be printed. On the other hand, the reliability of conveyance can be improved. That is, even a thin document can be conveyed in a state in which it is in close contact with the Mylar sheet, and the image of the document can be read normally. Even a thick document can be conveyed without damaging it.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the sheet pressing roller is driven and rotated, there is no rotational load on the sheet pressing roller, so that the sheet can be stably conveyed and the reliability of the document conveying can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of a transport device and a reading unit according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a transport device and a reading unit according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining a conventional processing apparatus of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image processing apparatus 2 ... Printer 3 ... Image scanner 4 ... ADF 5 ... Cassette 6 ... Feed roller 7 ... Regist roller 8 ... Process cartridge 8a ... Photoconductor drum 9 ... Transfer roller 10 ... Sheet 11 ... Convey path 12 ... Laser Scanner unit 13 Fixing unit 14 Output tray 15 Controller 16 Scanner unit 17 Platen glass 18 Light source 19 Light receiving element 20 Cable 21 Mylar sheet 22 Document 23 Reading unit 24 Sheet press roller 25 Document Transport drive motor 26… Document feed roller 27… Discharge roller pair 28… Feed tray 29… Discharge tray 30… Sheet press roller drive motor

Claims (4)

[Claims] A document conveying means for passing the document at a position facing an image reading means of an image processing apparatus for reading an image of the document; and a light transmitting member disposed on the reading means side of a document conveying path. A document feeder, comprising: a guide portion; and a sheet pressing roller disposed on a side of the guide portion facing the document feeding path, wherein the sheet pressing roller is formed of an elastic member. 2. The document feeder according to claim 1, wherein the sheet pressing roller abuts on the document fed by the document feeder and follows the document. 3. The document feeder according to claim 1, further comprising a driving unit configured to drive and rotate the sheet pressing roller. 4. An image processing apparatus comprising: the document feeder according to claim 1; and at least the image reading unit.