JPH03216437A - Document separating mechanism for automatic document feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a document separation mechanism of an automatic document feeder that separates a document into individual sheets using a separation roller and a separation belt in contact with the separation roller.

[Conventional technology]

An example of a document separation mechanism of a conventional automatic document feeder is shown in FIG.

This document separation mechanism 1 includes a separation roller 3 that rotates in the direction of arrow A, and a separation belt 4 that contacts the separation roller 3, and a separation roller 3 that rotates in the direction of arrow A and a separation belt 4 that contacts the separation roller 3.
The separating belt 4 is fixed at one end to a fixing part 5 of the automatic document feeder, and the other end is tensioned by a spring 6 to separate the documents into one sheet in a predetermined manner. The lower surface is pressed against the separation roller 3 by contact pressure.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the document separation mechanism of such an automatic document feeder uses a separating belt to rub the document surface when separating the documents, so if the document is written with a pencil, images such as characters may become faded. There was a problem that it could be stored away or even disappear in some cases.

In addition, if the original is a pasted original, when it is separated by a separation roller and a separation belt, the pasted part may be rubbed, bent, or peeled off, causing scratches, and in some cases, There was a problem that this could cause a jam.

Therefore, in the past, the automatic document feeder was constructed so that it could be opened from above the contact glass of the copying machine, and when copying such pencil-written or pasted originals, the automatic document feeder was not used. After opening it, the operator places the original directly on the contact glass and copies it.

Therefore, an automatic document feeder with such a structure has a complicated structure due to the opening/closing mechanism, and
As for the installation space, there is a need to leave room at the top in consideration of what happens when the space is opened, and the operator also has to open the automatic document feeder each time he copies a document like the one above. Therefore, there was a problem that the work was troublesome.

This invention was made in view of the above problems,
It is possible to feed pencil-drawn or pasted originals without opening the automatic document feeder, without thinning or scratching the image, or even causing jams. It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to reliably separate and feed multiple sheets of original documents other than originals such as those written in pencil.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a document separation mechanism of an automatic document feeder that separates a document into single sheets by a rotating separation roller and a separation belt in contact with the separation roller. and rotatably supported by a plurality of belt support members, one of the belt support members is connected to a drive motor via a clutch, and a spring is attached to one of the other belt support members. The separation belt is tensioned with a predetermined tension, and when the clutch is turned on, the separation belt is rotated by the drive motor in the opposite direction to the document feeding direction by the separation roller, and when it is turned off, the separation belt is rotated in the opposite direction to the document feeding direction by the separation roller. The separation belt is rotated in the document feeding direction following the separation roller.

[For production]

According to the document separation mechanism of the automatic document feeder configured as described above, when feeding pencil-written or pasted documents, when the clutch is turned off, the separation belt is moved in the direction and the belt supporting member is moved. Since the connection with the drive motor is released, the separation belt is driven by the separation roller and rotates in the document feeding direction.

Therefore, the document is fed without being rubbed by the separation belt.

In addition, in the case of documents other than those mentioned above, when the clutch is turned on, the drive motor and the belt support member are connected via the clutch, the belt support member rotates, and this rotation causes the separation belt to move the document to the separation roller. It is rotated in the opposite direction to the feeding direction.

Therefore, the original is separated into one sheet by the separation roller and the separation belt and fed.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the vicinity of a document separating mechanism of an automatic document feeder according to the present invention and a part of a copying machine.

The document separation mechanism 20 of the automatic document feeder 10 uses a rotating separation roller 11 and a separation belt 12 in contact with the separation roller 11 to separate a plurality of documents D inserted from a document table 13 with the image side facing upward. is separated into one sheet and fed onto the contact glass 31 of the copying machine 30.The separation belt 12 is formed of an endless belt, and it is connected to three pulleys that serve as belt support members. 14, 15 and 16, each of which is rotatably tensioned.

One of them, the drive side pulley IJ14, is integrally fixed to the pulley shaft 26, and the pulley shaft 26 is connected to the clutch 1.
One end of the spring 19 is attached to a shaft 28 which is connected to the drive motor 18 via a pulley 7, and is integral with another pulley 16, and the other end is attached to one end of a wire 21.

Furthermore, the other end of the wire 21 is fixed to the movable shaft of the solenoid 22, and the guide roller 23 is brought into contact with the approximately middle portion of the wire 21 to change the tensioning direction by approximately 90', and the solenoid 22 is turned on. - By turning it off, the separation belt 12 can be tensioned between the three pulleys 14, 15, and 16 with a predetermined tension suitable for separating documents, or the tension can be weakened.

Further, when the clutch 17 installed between the drive-side pulley 14 and the drive motor 18 is turned on, the separation belt 12 is moved by the drive motor 18 in the direction opposite to the document feeding direction by the separation roller 11 as shown in FIG. When the separation belt 12 is turned off, the separation belt 12 is driven by the separation roller 11 and rotated in the document feeding direction opposite to the arrow B.

Furthermore, this document separation mechanism 20 has a cleaning roller 25 that serves as a cleaning member for cleaning the document separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12 that is in contact with the document D.
The outer circumferential portion formed by, for example, a brush is wrapped around the document separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12 by a wrapping amount β1 suitable for cleaning the document separation surface 12a, and then rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. It is arranged like this. Then, an opening 13a is formed in the document table 13, and the opening 13a is formed in the original table 13.
A calling roller 32 whose outer portion is made of sponge, for example, is provided inside the drawing roller 3a so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow E, and the circumferential portion 32a of the calling roller 32 is cut equally at four places to form four flat surfaces 32b, respectively. In addition, the circumferential portion 32a
is arranged so as to protrude from the upper surface of the original table 13 by a slight amount Ω2.

Furthermore, a lower guide mylar 33 is fixed to the diagonally cut opening edge on the feeding upstream side of the opening 15a, and an upper guide mylar 34 is fixed to the cover 108 of the automatic document feeder 10 above the document table 13. It is fixed by being integrally attached to the

The separation roller 11 is integrally fixed to a roller shaft 35, and an intermediate gear 37 engages with a gear 36 integrally attached to the roller shaft 35, and a drive side gear on the side of the calling roller 32 is engaged with the intermediate gear 37. 38 are engaged with each other, and a one-way rotating clutch 2 that allows rotation only in the direction of arrow E is attached to the gear 38.

Below the separation roller 11, a driven-side pull-out roller 27 is provided rotatably in the direction of the arrow, and is connected to a driving-side pull-out roller (in FIG. It is in pressure contact with the separation roller 11 (which is the same size as the separation roller 11 and cannot be seen because it is located at the back).

The separation belt 12 is made of, for example, urethane rubber and has a core material embedded therein so that it hardly stretches even when tension is applied, and each pulley 14,
A stepped portion that engages with 15 and 16 is formed over the entire circumference.

The pulley 15 is a driven pulley, and the shaft 4 integrated with it
7 is rotatably supported by a fixed bearing (not shown), and a gear 43 integral with the cleaning roller 25 is engaged with a gear 39 integrally fixed to the shaft 47 via an intermediate gear 41.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 44 is a document detection sensor for detecting insertion of a document, and 45 is a sensor fixed to a pair of guide plates 46 disposed below the separation roller 11.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained.

First, a case will be described in which a plurality of normal originals, which are not written in pencil and do not include pasted originals, are fed and copied.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of originals D are placed on the original table 13 with their image surfaces facing upward.
When the document D is inserted between the separation roller 11 and the separation belt 12, the document detection sensor 44 detects the insertion of the document D, the clutch 17 is turned on, and the pulley shaft 26 integrated with the pulley ``J14'' It is connected to a drive motor 18 via its clutch 17 .

Further, the solenoid 22 also detects that the document detection sensor 44 detects the document D.
When the insertion of the
The day is stretched through the wire 21, thereby making it possible to
As JI E3 moves downward in FIG.
a contacts the separating roller 11 with a predetermined pressure suitable for separating documents.

In this state, when a print button (not shown) is pressed, the calling roller 32 rotates in the direction of arrow E in FIG. 1 by the amount of rotation required to send out one document D, and then stops once.

Therefore, the document D on the document table 13 is sent out from the bottom to the left, and the gear 38 also rotates in the direction of the arrow E at the same time as the calling roller 32, so that the separation roller 11 also rotates in the direction of the arrow E via the intermediate gear 37. Start rotating in the F direction.

Also, by pressing the print button, the drive motor 1
8 also starts driving, thereby the pulley 14 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1 via the clutch 17 and the pulley shaft 26, and the separation belt 12 starts to rotate in the direction of the arrow B. When two or more documents D are sent out by the calling roller 32 (double feeding), the upper document is transferred to the first document D by the separation belt 12 rotating in the direction of the arrow B.
The original is returned to the right in the figure, and only the lower original is guided by the guide plate 46 and reaches the pull-out roller 27, and is further transported to a predetermined exposure position on the contact glass 31 of the copying machine 30 by a belt conveying device (not shown). transported.

When the sensor 45 detects the leading edge of the document D, the automatic document feeder 10 stops the rotation of the separation roller 11 and also turns off the solenoid 22.

Therefore, by the action of the one-way rotation clutch 29 attached to the gear 38, the separation roller 11 rotates along with the document conveyed by the pull-out roller 27, and the first
Rotate in the direction of arrow F in the figure.

Furthermore, since the tension of the separation belt 12 is also weakened, the contact pressure between it and the separation roller 11 is reduced.

In this way, in this automatic document feeder 10, the time during which the separation belt 12 is strongly pressed against the separation roller 11 (contact pressure that enables document separation) is kept to the minimum necessary time, and the separation belt 12 is rotated. By doing so, the entire belt is in contact with the separation roller 11, and the belt is prevented from being worn locally, thereby increasing durability.

Further, in this embodiment, after the solenoid 22 is turned off, the drive motor 18 is rotated at a higher rotation speed than the rotation speed at the time of document separation, and the cleaning roller 25 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. The document separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12 is rotated at a high rotation speed to quickly remove paper dust and the like adhering to the document separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12.

Therefore, even if paper dust or the like adheres to the document separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12, it will be cleaned immediately. There is no possibility that the separability will deteriorate.

Note that this drive motor 18 and cleaning roller 25
The time for rotating at high speed is within the time that the document fed onto the contact glass 31 is exposed to light, and this cleaning operation is not performed every time a document is fed out, but only after the last page of the document is fed. You may also do so.

In this way, the original D on the original table 13 is separated into individual sheets and sent one by one onto the contact glass 31, and when the predetermined exposure is completed there, it is transferred to the output tray (
(not shown).

On the other hand, if the original is a manuscript with pencil writing or pasted together, a mode (SADF mode) in which the original is set and fed one by one is used.

That is, when the SADF mode is selected on the operation panel of the copying machine 50 and the document detection sensor 44 detects the inserted document D, the solenoid 22 is turned on as in the case described above, and the tension of the separation belt 12 is reduced. Although the clutch 17 remains in the OFF state, the pulley shaft 26, which is integral with the pulley 14, is in a free state.

In this state, when the print button is pressed, the calling roller 32 starts rotating in the direction of arrow E and the separation roller 11 starts rotating in the direction of arrow F, as in the case described above, so that the document D on the document table 13 is separated. Since the document is sent to the roller 11 side and the pulley 14 is in a free state, the separation belt 12 follows the separation roller 11 and rotates in the document feeding direction opposite to arrow B in FIG. .

Therefore, the image surface of the document D is fed without being rubbed by the separation belt 12 during the feeding process, so even if it is a document written in pencil, characters etc. may fade or disappear. I don't have to worry about it.

Furthermore, even if the original is pasted together, it will not be rubbed by the separation belt, so the pasted part will not bend or peel off. Therefore, there will be no jamming caused by pasted originals.

In addition, in this automatic document feeder 10, in consideration of the occurrence of a jam, for example, after a predetermined time after the calling roller 32 sends out the document D on the document table 13 (after the sent document time for the edge to pass the sensor 45)
In each case, jam detection is performed depending on whether the sensor 45 detects passage of the trailing edge of the document D.

When the sensor 45 detects a jam,
All drive systems of the automatic document feeder 10 are stopped, the solenoid 22 is turned off to weaken the tension on the separation belt 12, and the clutch 17 is also turned off.

In the above embodiment, an example was explained in which the separation belt 12 was stretched with three pulleys 14, 15, 18, but it could also be stretched with two or four or more pulleys. Alternatively, the cleaning roller 25 for cleaning the separation belt 12 may be a non-rotating cleaning blade, or other cleaning member such as a sponge may be simply brought into sliding contact with the original separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12. You can.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by turning the clutch on or off, the separation belt can be rotated in the opposite direction to the document feeding direction by the separation roller, or the separation belt can be caused to follow the separation roller to feed the document. Since the automatic document feeder can be rotated in the feeding direction, the separation belt can be rotated by following the separation roller, allowing the separation belt to follow the separation roller and produce images without having to open the automatic document feeder. Since the paper can be fed without rubbing the surface, it can be fed reliably without fading or erasing the image, or causing scratches or jams.

Also, when feeding multiple sheets of other normal originals,
By rotating the separation belt in the opposite direction to the direction in which the document is fed by the separation roller, it is possible to reliably separate and feed the document into one sheet.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the vicinity of the document separation mechanism of the automatic document feeder according to the present invention and a part of the copying machine. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the document separation mechanism of the conventional automatic document feeder. It is. 10...Automatic document feeder 11...Separation roller 12...Separation belt 12a...Document separation surface 13...Document table

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a document separation mechanism of an automatic document feeder that separates a document into one sheet by a rotating separation roller and a separation belt in contact with the separation roller, the separation belt is formed by an endless belt. At the same time, the belt is rotatably supported by a plurality of belt support members, one of the belt support members is connected to a drive motor via a clutch, and a spring is attached to one of the other belt support members to cause the separation. When the belt is tensioned at a predetermined tension and the clutch is turned on, the separation belt is rotated by the drive motor in a direction opposite to the document feeding direction by the separation roller, and when it is turned off. A document separation mechanism for an automatic document feeder, characterized in that the separation belt is rotated in a document feeding direction following the separation roller.