JP2813271B2 - Automatic document feed mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic document feeder mounted on a facsimile, an image scanner, or the like, for automatically feeding a plurality of documents one by one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Referring to FIG. 6, an automatic document feeder 1000 generally applied to a facsimile or the like includes a pair of upper casing 1001a and lower casing 10 which are vertically divided.
01b. Above the lower casing 1001b, a paper guide plate 1002 formed of a member different from the lower casing 1001b is provided.
A document transport path 1003 for transporting a document, a document insertion port 1004 opened on the upstream side of the document transport path 1003, and a document discharge port on the downstream side between the document feed path 02 and the lower surface of the upper casing 1001a.
1005 are sectioned.

The original transport path 1003 is provided with an original insertion port 1004
Introducing section 1003a for introducing the manuscript inserted from
A bent portion 1003b bent downward from 1003a;
b, a processing unit 1003c extending to the discharge port 1005 side, and the introduction unit 1003a has a width capable of inserting a plurality of originals. In the original transport path 1003, an original feed unit 1006 for feeding the original document downstream is provided at an introduction portion 1003a, and an original feeding device 1006 is provided at a bent portion 1003b. Paper feeding means 1007 for transporting to the side, and a document transport means provided in the processing unit 1003c.
1008, contact type image sensor 1009 and original discharge means 1010
Are sequentially arranged.

The document conveying means 1008 conveys the document to the contact type image sensor 1009 side. The original discharge means 1010
Discharges the paper read by the contact image sensor main body 1009a to the document discharge port 1005. The contact-type image sensor 1009 is for separating and scanning an image, which is two-dimensional information of the conveyed paper, for each pixel,
A contact image sensor main body 1009a is provided. The contact-type image sensor main body 1009a is fixed to the lower casing 1001b by bolts 1009c via a frame 1009b, and includes a contact glass 1009d facing the processing section 1003c. Here, the contact glass in the conventional device
1009d slightly protrudes above the upper surface of the paper guide plate 1002, so that the upstream end face is cut obliquely so that the paper does not get caught on the contact glass 1009d during paper transport. Face 1009e
It has.

[0005]

As described above, in the above-mentioned conventional structure shown in FIG.
Since the upstream end face is cut obliquely on the contact glass 1009d of 1009a, the cut face 1009e is formed.
There has been a problem that the manufacturing cost of the contact glass 1009d increases accordingly. Especially the contact image sensor body 10
In the case of 09a, since the replacement frequency is relatively high, there was a problem that the maintenance cost also became high.

Further, the cut surface 10 of the contact glass 1009d
It is conceivable to abolish 09e and attach a film-shaped lumirror to the contact glass 1009d. In this case,
The contact-type image sensor 1009 must be replaced together with the mirror, which causes a problem of high maintenance cost. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic document feed mechanism with a low maintenance cost for a contact image sensor.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic document transport mechanism for guiding an underside of a document to be transported. An opening through which a long contact type image sensor closely contacted with the lower surface of the image sensor, and an image sensor, on the upstream side in the transport direction of the image sensor, so as to prevent the original from colliding with the upper edge of the image sensor on the upstream side in the transport direction. In an automatic document feeder provided with a thin plate for guiding a document to the upper surface of the image sensor, a housing portion formed integrally with the document guide plate and housing the image sensor through the opening, and the thin plate on the upper surface. A fixing member which is fixed and partially removably accommodated in the accommodation portion from above the document guide plate.

[0008]

According to the automatic document feeder having the above-described structure, only the image sensor can be replaced while the fixing member to which the thin plate is fixed is removed from the housing. Further, a space adjacent to the image sensor is provided in the housing portion with the fixing member removed. Therefore, the image sensor can be easily attached to and detached from the storage section. Replacement work of the image sensor is easy.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 4 is an external view of a facsimile 10 employing the automatic document feed mechanism 100 of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of the facsimile 10. Referring to these drawings, the facsimile 10 includes an upper housing 11a, a lower housing 11b that supports the upper housing 11a via a support shaft P1, and a spring member 11c that urges the upper housing 11a in a direction in which the upper housing 11a is opened. It includes a main body 11, a telephone 12 attached to the main body 11, a modem 13 connected to the telephone 12 to modulate or demodulate a signal, and a transmission / reception control unit connected to the modem 13, and is optically converted. Optical system 14 for transmitting image information, transfer paper cassette 15a, photosensitive drum 15b, developing device 15c, charging charger 1
5d, transfer charger 15e, peeling charger 15f,
A recording unit 15 that includes a cleaning device 15g, a fixing device 15h, a paper discharge tray 15i, and the like, records the image converted into optical information by the optical system 14 on transfer paper, and transmits transmission information to the control unit of the optical system 14. Transmission means 16 for transmission. As in the case of the general facsimile 10, in the receiving process, the original information is received from the facsimile of the transmission destination via the telephone 12, demodulated by the optical system 14, and further decrypted. In the transmission process, the image information of the document is converted into an electric signal by the transmission means 16 and further encoded, then modulated into a transmission signal and transmitted to the receiving facsimile in the transmission process. It is configured as follows. The facsimile 10 according to the present embodiment is set so that a hard copy of a document can be obtained by transmitting a transmission signal from the transmission unit 16 to the recording unit 15.

The automatic document feeder 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention constitutes a main part of the transmission means 16.
The automatic document feeder 100 includes an upper casing 101a and a lower casing 1 mounted on the main body 11.
01b including the casing 101
The document guide plate 102 disposed inside the document guide plate 1 and the document guide plate 1
02, and an original insertion port 1 formed at the upstream end of the original transport path 103.
And a document discharge port 105 formed at the downstream end of the document transport path 103.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a main part of the automatic document feeder mechanism 100. Referring to FIG. 7, an original guide plate 102 for guiding the lower surface of a conveyed original has an opening P9b.
And a housing 10 having a space for housing the close contact type image sensor 109 through the opening P9b.
2c is provided. The storage portion 102c is defined by a U-shaped section formed of a bottom surface portion 102f and a pair of side wall portions 102g formed integrally with the document guide plate 102. In the figure, the arrow K indicates the direction in which the document is transported. The opening P8b is for allowing the peripheral surface of the transport roller for transporting the original to protrude above the original guide plate 102.

The image sensor 109 reads a document in close contact with the lower surface of the document to be conveyed. The image sensor 109 includes an image sensor main body 109a formed of a long rectangular parallelepiped, and a pair of plate-shaped fixing portions 10 sandwiching both longitudinal ends of the image sensor main body 109a.
9b and 109c, and a plate-shaped contact glass 109d fixed to the upper surface of the image sensor main body 109a and in close contact with the lower surface of the document. The fixing portion 109b,
The cross-sectional shape of the image sensor 109c is slightly larger than the cross-sectional shape of the image sensor main body 109a.

At both ends in the longitudinal direction of the opening P9b, a pair of locking means for locking the image sensor 109 accommodated in the accommodating portion 102b through the opening P9b in a state of being positioned in the height direction and the longitudinal direction is provided. of,
The rigid piece 102d and the elastic piece 102e are arranged respectively. The rigid piece 102d is connected to the image sensor 109.
The elastic piece 102e is engaged with the upper edge 109f of the fixing portion 109c.

When the image sensor 109 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 102c through the opening P9b, the image sensor 109 is tilted so that one of the fixing portions 109b is lower, and the fixing portion 109b is positioned below the rigid piece 102d. After being sunk into the elastic piece 10
2e is deformed outward while the fixing portion 109c is
Push down until it touches 2f. Then, the image sensor 109 is locked at a predetermined position by the rigid piece 102d and the elastic piece 102e. Also, when removing the image sensor 109 from the housing 102c, the elastic piece 1
02e is pushed open to release the lock, and the take-out operation is performed in the reverse process to the above-described case of housing.

The feature of this embodiment is that, as described above, the image sensor 109 can be freely attached to and detached from the accommodating portion 102c through the opening P9b, and the conveying direction of the contact glass 109d of the image sensor 9 can be improved. In order to prevent the document from colliding with the upper edge on the upstream side, the mirror 120 is attached to the fixing member 150, and the fixing member 150 can be detachably attached to the document guide plate 102c.

Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG.
Reference numeral 0 denotes an angle member having an inverted L-shaped cross section, and includes an upper surface portion 150a, a vertical portion 150b, and a pair of lock portions 1.
50c. The upper surface part 150a is
The fixing member 150 is accommodated in the concave portion 102 b of the document guide plate 102 in a state where the fixing member 150 is attached to the document guide plate 120 while having a concave portion 150 d to which the “0” is attached.

The vertical portion 150b extends downward from one edge of the upper surface portion 150a and is inserted into the housing portion 102c together with the image sensor 109. In a state where the vertical portion 150b is housed in the housing portion 102c together with the image sensor 109, the lower end 150d of the vertical portion 150b is
c against the bottom surface 102f, and the fixing member 150
Are positioned in the height direction by the bottom surface portion 102f. Thus, the mirror 120 is connected to the image sensor 1.
09 is positioned at a required height along the upper surface of the contact glass 109d (see FIG. 2).

The lock portion 150c is made of an elastic piece extending downward from the other end edge of the upper surface portion 150a.
50f. The lock portion 150c is penetrated through a through hole 102n provided in the concave portion 102b of the document guide plate 102, and connects the arrowhead portion 150f to the rib 1 of the document guide 102.
02p, the fixing member 150
Of the document guide plate 102 is elastically locked.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to replace only the image sensor 109 while leaving the mirror 120 for preventing the original from colliding with the contact glass 109d of the image sensor 109. Therefore, maintenance work of the image sensor 109 is easy. Further, unlike the conventional case where the end face of the contact glass is cut obliquely, the manufacturing cost does not increase. Furthermore, Lumirror is stuck on the image sensor,
The maintenance cost can be reduced as compared with the case where the image sensor and the mirror are simultaneously replaced.

Further, since the image sensor can be attached / detached without removing the document guide plate as in the related art, maintenance work of the image sensor is further facilitated. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, with the fixing member 150 removed from the original guide plate 102,
Since the space 160 adjacent to the image sensor 109 is provided in the housing 102c, the image sensor 1
09 can be freely moved in the accommodating portion 102c, and maintenance work on the image sensor 109 is further facilitated.

In addition, the image sensor 109 accommodated in the accommodating portion 102c is connected to the rigid piece 102d and the elastic piece 10d.
Since it can be locked in a predetermined position by 2e, the attachment accuracy is good despite easy attachment and detachment. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the document guide plate 102 may be formed integrally with the side plate of the lower casing 101a. In this case, since the image sensor 109 is attached to the document guide plate 102, the positioning accuracy of the image sensor 109 with respect to the document guide plate 102 is extremely improved.

In addition, various design changes can be made without changing the gist of the present invention.

[0023]

As described above, according to the automatic document feeder mechanism of the present invention, when attaching and detaching the image sensor, it is not necessary to replace the thin plate as in the prior art, so that the maintenance cost of the image sensor can be reduced. Can be. Also,
Since the space adjacent to the image sensor is provided in the housing portion with the fixing member removed, the image sensor can be easily attached to and detached from the housing portion, and the image sensor can be easily replaced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a main part of an automatic document feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an attached state of an image sensor and a mirror.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a state in which a mirror has been removed.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a facsimile including an automatic document feed mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration of the facsimile.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional automatic document feed mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 102 Document guide plate 102a Upper surface 102b Recess 102c Housing 102d Rigid piece (locking means) 102e Elastic piece (locking means) 109 Image sensor P9b Opening 120 Mirror (thin plate) 150 Fixing member

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kenichi Masata 1-2-2, Tamazo, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-3-167956 (JP, A) JP-A-62 -272655 (JP, A) Fully open 1986-57655 (JP, U) Fully open 1986-33557 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04N 1/028

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A document guide plate for guiding a lower surface of a document to be conveyed; an opening formed in the document guide plate and penetrating a long contact type image sensor closely contacting the lower surface of the document; An automatic document feeder provided with a thin plate that guides the document from the upstream side in the transport direction of the image sensor to the upper surface of the image sensor so as to avoid collision of the original with the upper edge portion on the upstream side in the transport direction. An accommodation portion formed integrally with the document guide plate and accommodating the image sensor through the opening, wherein the thin plate is fixed to the upper surface, and a part is detachably accommodated in the accommodation portion from above the document guide plate. An automatic document feeding mechanism, comprising: