JP2872003B2 - Paper feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus for picking up and feeding sheets stacked on a hopper table, and more particularly, to realize this operation in accordance with a simpler configuration and control process than before. The present invention relates to a paper feeding device capable of being used.

An OCR apparatus, a copying apparatus, and the like are provided with a paper feeder that picks up and feeds the paper stacked on a hopper table. Such a paper feeder needs to be able to operate according to a simple configuration and a simple control process.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows the structure of a conventional paper feeder. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a hopper table on which sheets to be conveyed are stacked, and reference numeral 2 denotes a pick separation / combination roller which is allowed to rotate only in the sheet conveying direction by a one-way clutch 3 and is loaded on the hopper table 1. 4 is a pad that is picked up and sent out in the paper transport direction, and 4 is a pad provided in contact with the pick separation / combination roller 2 by a spring member, when a plurality of sheets are picked by the pick separation / combination roller 2. In addition, conveyance of paper that does not come into close contact with the pick separation / combination roller 2 due to the frictional action is suppressed.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a pre-alignment roller, which rotates in the direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction until the sheet is conveyed, thereby controlling the posture of the sheet conveyed obliquely to be correct. When the paper is transported to the outside, the transport is performed by rotating in the paper transport direction,
Reference numeral 6 denotes a pick sensor which detects a sheet conveyed to the pre-alignment roller 5, reference numeral 7 denotes a hopper table driving motor for driving the hopper table 1 up and down, and reference numeral 8 denotes a roller driving motor. Thus, the pick separation / combination roller 2 and the pre-alignment roller 5 are driven to rotate.

In such a configuration, in the conventional paper feeding apparatus, when the discharge sensor (not shown) detects the discharge of the sheet and starts the conveyance of the next sheet, the hopper table driving motor 7 The hopper table 1 is moved upward so that the paper placed on the uppermost stage of the hopper table 1 comes into contact with the pick separation / combination roller 2, and after receiving this movement processing,
The pick separation / combination roller 2 picks up the paper placed on the uppermost stage of the hopper table 1, and separates the plurality of papers when picked according to the frictional action of the pad 4 to the pre-alignment roller 5. Transport.

At this time, the pre-alignment roller 5 rotates in the direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction to control the posture of the sheet conveyed obliquely to the correct one. When the pick sensor 6 detects this conveyance, the hopper base drive motor 7
Prevents the next sheet from being picked by moving the hopper table 1 in the downward direction. On the other hand, when it is determined that a specified time has elapsed since the detection of the pick sensor 6, the roller drive motor 8 The paper is sent out by rotating the pre-alignment motor 5 in the paper transport direction by performing reverse rotation driving. At this time, the pick separation / combination roller 2
Since the reverse rotation is suppressed by the one-way clutch 3, the control is performed so as not to execute the sheet picking process.

As described above, in the conventional paper feeding apparatus, the paper is picked and sent out one by one by the pick separation / combination roller 2 while controlling the posture of the paper to the correct one by the pre-alignment roller 5. Was being processed.

[0008]

However, such a conventional paper feeder needs to include two motors, a hopper table drive motor 7 and a roller drive motor 8. Thus, there has been a problem that the control process of the sheet feeding device becomes complicated. In addition, there is a problem that the cost is high because it is necessary to provide two motors.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and is intended for picking up and sending out sheets stacked on a hopper table. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a new sheet feeding device capable of realizing the following.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, according to the present invention, there is provided a sheet feeding apparatus for picking up a sheet loaded on a hopper table and processing the picked-up sheet through an aligning roller. A pick roller that is driven to rotate by a motor that rotationally drives the pre-alignment motor, and that is allowed to rotate only in the paper transport direction and picks the paper, and a motor that rotationally drives the pre-alignment motor, is driven to rotate by A separation roller for sending the sheet picked up by the pick roller, which is allowed only to rotate, to the pre-alignment roller, and a pad means for separating the sheet by contacting the separation roller; and the pick roller and the separation roller And the pad means are integrated by a frame means. Further, when the paper is picked, the integrated mechanism is pivoted about a specified rotation axis. With crawler is moved so as to contact the sheet, when the sheet delivery, the pick roller is configured with a driving means for moving the like does not contact the sheet around the rotary shaft.

Then, it operates in conjunction with the integration mechanism,
The hopper base may be provided with stopper means for preventing the stacking of sheets, and the driving means may be provided when the pick roller stops rotating without picking the sheet, and the moving process of the integrated mechanism may be performed. Is repeatedly executed at least once.

[0012]

According to the present invention, according to the present invention, when the sheet is conveyed, the driving means moves the integrated mechanism about a predetermined rotation axis so that the pick roller comes into contact with the sheet. In response, the pick roller picks the paper placed on the top of the hopper table,
When a plurality of sheets are picked according to the frictional action of the pad means, the separating roller separates the picked sheets and conveys them to the pre-aligning roller.

At this time, the pre-alignment roller rotates in the direction opposite to the sheet conveying direction to control the posture of the sheet conveyed obliquely to the correct one. When the conveyance of the sheet is detected by the sensor, the driving unit moves the integrated mechanism about the specified rotation axis so that the pick roller does not come into contact with the sheet, and the next sheet is picked. On the other hand, when it is determined that the specified time has elapsed since the detection of the sensor, the motor that rotationally drives the three rollers rotates in the reverse direction to rotate the pre-alignment motor in the paper transport direction. The paper is sent out to the outside. At this time, reverse rotation of the pick roller and the separation roller is suppressed.

Here, when a paper pick error occurs, the motor stops the rotation operation, and in response to the stop of the rotation operation, the driving means repeats the moving process of the integrated mechanism at least once. Thus, a configuration is adopted in which the pick roller and the separation roller are gradually rotated while changing the attitude relationship between the pad means and the sheet. As a result, there is a possibility that the sheet is picked, and thereafter, the motor performs processing so as to try picking the sheet by rotating the pick roller again.

As described above, the sheet feeding apparatus of the present invention picks up and feeds sheets one by one while controlling the posture of the sheets to the correct one only by having a single motor. Since this is made possible, this operation can be realized according to a simpler configuration and control processing than in the past.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to embodiments. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a sheet feeding device according to the present invention. In the figure, the same components as those described in FIG. 6 are indicated by the same symbols.

Reference numeral 2a denotes a pick roller which is allowed to rotate only in the sheet conveying direction by the one-way clutch 3a, and picks a sheet placed on the hopper table 1.
Reference numeral 2b denotes a separation roller which is allowed to rotate only in the paper conveyance direction by the one-way clutch 3b, and sends out the paper picked by the pick roller 2a in the paper conveyance direction. Reference numeral 4b abuts on the separation roller 2b by a spring member. And a pad provided to prevent conveyance of a sheet that does not adhere to the separation roller 2b due to a frictional action when a plurality of sheets are picked by the separation roller 2b.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a drive motor, which is a pick roller 2
a, which rotationally drives the separation roller 2b and the pre-alignment roller 5, 10 is a frame which integrates the pick roller 2a, the separation roller 2b, and the pad 4b (hereinafter referred to as an integration mechanism). , 11 are rotating arms that rotate around a rotating shaft 12 and
Moving the integration mechanism up and down by connecting
Reference numeral 3 denotes a solenoid for rotating the rotary arm 11 in accordance with ON / OFF operation, and reference numeral 14 denotes a stopper connected to the integrated mechanism via the connecting arm 15 to prevent the paper from being displaced on the hopper base 1. It is to prevent.

FIG. 2 shows an operation transition of the integrated mechanism by ON / OFF operation of the solenoid 13. Here, in the figure, 16 is the gear of the pick roller 2a, 17 is the gear of the separation roller 2b, 18 is the gear of the drive motor 9,
Reference numeral 19 denotes an idle gear that transmits the rotating operation of the drive motor 9 to the pick roller 2a and the separation roller 2b, and reference numeral 20 denotes a connecting gear that is prepared for adjusting the rotation direction of the pick roller 2a and the separation roller 2b.

As shown in FIG. 2A, when the solenoid 13 is turned off, the rotary arm 11 rotates upward, so that the pick roller 2a does not come into contact with the paper on the hopper table 1 because the rotating mechanism 11 rotates upward. Set to the upper position, while
As shown in FIG. 2 (b), when the solenoid 13 is turned on, the rotating arm 11 rotates downward,
The integration mechanism is set at a lower position where the pick roller 2a contacts the paper on the hopper table 1.

This paper feeder is mounted on, for example, an OCR device for reading form data as shown in FIG. 3, and when a discharge sensor 21 shown in FIG. The next sheet placed on the hopper table 1 is picked up and transported to the image reading mechanism.

The sheet feeding device having such a configuration executes a sheet conveying process under the control of the microprocessor. FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a control processing flow executed by the microprocessor. Next, according to this processing flow, the paper transport processing executed by the paper feeding device having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail.

When the discharge sensor 21 detects the discharge of the sheet and starts the conveyance of the next sheet, the microprocessor of the sheet feeding device firstly performs step 1 as shown in the processing flow of FIG. When the solenoid 13 is turned on, the pick roller 2a is set so as to contact the sheet on the hopper table 1. That is, the integration mechanism is shown in FIG.
It is set at the position (b).

Next, at step 2, the drive motor 9 is rotated forward. When the pick roller 2a picks up the sheet placed on the uppermost stage of the hopper table 1 in accordance with the forward rotation of the drive motor 9, and the separation roller 2b picks up a plurality of sheets according to the frictional action of the pad 4b. It is conveyed to the pre-alignment roller 5 while being separated.

Subsequently, in step 3, it is determined whether or not the time during which the paper sensor has not been detected by the pick sensor 6 has timed out. It is determined whether or not is detected, and if not detected, the process returns to step 3. That is, step 3 and step 4
Thus, it is determined whether or not the pick sensor 6 is in a state of detecting a sheet within a specified time from the start of the forward rotation operation of the drive motor 9.

In step 4, when the pick sensor 6 detects a sheet, that is, when it is determined that the sheet is normally conveyed, in step 5, the solenoid 13 is turned off to move the pick roller 2a to the hopper. Stand 1
Set it so that it does not touch the paper. That is, by setting the integration mechanism to the position shown in FIG. 2A, the control is performed so that the pick roller 2a does not pick the next sheet. At this time, the paper picked in step 2 is conveyed to the pre-alignment roller 5, but the pre-alignment roller 5 rotates in the direction opposite to the paper conveyance direction in accordance with the forward rotation operation of the drive motor 9. To control the posture of the sheet conveyed obliquely to the correct one.

Subsequently, in step 6, when it is determined that a prescribed time required for controlling the posture of the sheet has elapsed, the flow proceeds to step 7
Then, the drive motor 9 is rotated in the reverse direction. In accordance with the reverse rotation operation of the drive motor 9, the pre-alignment roller 5 changes the rotation direction to the sheet conveyance direction to convey the sheet to an image reading mechanism (not shown). At this time, the one-way clutches 3a and 3b suppress the reverse rotation of the pick roller 2a and the separation roller 2b.

Subsequently, in step 8, when the discharge sensor 21 detects the end of the sheet feeding process by detecting the discharge of the sheet, in a succeeding step 9, the rotation operation of the drive motor 9 is stopped and the process ends normally. I do.

By executing the processing of steps 1 to 9 in this way, the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention controls the paper posture to be correct by only providing the single drive motor 9. Processing is performed so as to realize picking and sending out sheets one by one.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 3 that the time during which the paper sensor has not been detected by the pick sensor 6 has timed out, that is, if it is determined that the paper picking process has not been performed normally, the process proceeds to step 10. Then, the drive motor 9 is stopped, and in the following step 11, it is determined whether or not the retry processing described below has been performed three times.
When it is determined that the operation has been performed, the process proceeds to step 13,
Outputs an error message and terminates the process abnormally.

If it is determined in step 11 that the operation has not been performed three times, the process proceeds to step 12 in order to start retry processing, and the solenoid 13 is turned on / off. In accordance with the ON / OFF operation of the solenoid 13, as shown in FIG. 5, the pick roller 2a and the separation roller 2b slightly rotate in the paper transport direction, so that the paper may be picked up. The drive motor 9 is rotated forward again.

In this retry processing, the pick roller 2a and the separation roller 2b are slightly rotated while the pad 4b is set horizontally once as shown in FIG. It is.

By executing the processing of steps 10 to 12 in this manner, the paper feeding apparatus of the present invention performs processing so as to realize picking of a sheet when a pick error occurs. Become.

[0034]

As described above, according to the paper feeder of the present invention, picking up and sending out sheets one by one while controlling the posture of the sheets to be correct only by providing a single motor. Therefore, this operation can be realized according to a simpler configuration and control processing than in the past. Further, since the present invention provides a new means for eliminating paper picking mistakes, the paper feeding performance can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation transition diagram of the integration mechanism.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an OCR device on which a sheet feeding device is mounted.

FIG. 4 is an embodiment of a processing flow executed by the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a retry process.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hopper base 2a Pick roller 2b Separation roller 3a One-way clutch 3b One-way clutch 4b Pad 5 Alignment roller 6 Pick sensor 9 Drive motor 10 Frame 11 Rotary arm 12 Rotary shaft 13 Solenoid 14 Stopper 15 Connecting arm

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sheet feeding device for picking up a sheet loaded on a hopper table and processing the picked-up sheet to be sent out via a pre-alignment roller. A pick roller that picks up paper while allowing only rotation to the right, and a motor that rotates the pre-alignment roller to rotate, and allows rotation only in the paper transport direction to advance the paper picked by the pick roller. A separation roller for sending out to the alignment roller, and a pad means for separating the sheet by contacting the separation roller,
The pick roller, the separation roller, and the pad means are integrated by a frame means.Furthermore, when the paper is picked, the pick roller is rotated around a specified rotation axis when picking a sheet. The pick roller moves so as to contact the sheet, and at the time of feeding the sheet, the pick roller moves around the rotation axis so as not to contact the sheet, and the pick roller does not pick the sheet. A sheet feeding device comprising: a driving unit that repeats a moving process of the integration mechanism at least once when the rotation is stopped.