JPH03216438A - 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, in the document separation mechanism of such an automatic document feeder, the contact portion of the separation belt with the separation roller is always at a fixed point, and moreover, the contact portion between the separation roller and the separation belt is maintained at a predetermined contact pressure suitable for separating documents. Since the separation belt is rubbed against the document, only the contact portion of the separation belt tends to be locally worn, and therefore, there is a problem in that the durability life is likely to be shortened.

Also, depending on the original, the contact area of the separation belt may be smudged by the image or paper dust may adhere to it when it comes into contact with the image surface of the original, so the same part of the belt is always If the separation belt is in contact with the paper, a large amount of paper powder etc. tends to adhere locally to the separation belt, and if this happens, the coefficient of friction decreases, and the separation belt's ability to separate paper decreases, causing overlapping feeding. There was also the problem that (double feeding) could occur.

This invention was made in view of the above problems,
The purpose is to make the surface of the separation belt that comes into contact with documents less likely to get dirty, so that even after long-term use, the paper separation performance will not deteriorate significantly due to attached paper dust, etc., and to further increase the durability of the separation belt. shall be.

[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 using a rotating separation roller and a separation belt in contact with the separation roller. and is rotatably supported by a plurality of belt support members, one of the belt support members is connected to a drive motor, and a spring is attached to one of the other belt support members to support the separation belt. It is stretched with a predetermined tension.

Furthermore, in the document separation mechanism of the automatic document feeder,
It is more effective to provide a cleaning member for cleaning the original separation surface of the separation belt that comes into contact with the original.

[For production]

According to the document separation mechanism of the automatic document feeder configured as described above, when separating documents, the endless separation belt stretched between the plurality of belt support members rotates and comes into contact with the separation roller, so that the document separation can be easily performed. Since the part of the belt that comes into contact with the separation roller and the document is all around the belt, there is no chance of the belt becoming locally dirty or having paper dust attached to it.
Furthermore, since the separation belt is not locally worn, durability is improved.

In addition, if the above-mentioned document separation mechanism is equipped with a cleaning member that cleans the document separation surface of the separation belt that comes into contact with the documents, even if the document separation surface is soiled with documents or paper dust adheres to it, it will be cleaned immediately. Since the paper can be cleaned with a cleaning member, stable paper separation can be maintained for a longer period of time.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be specifically described based on 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 a 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, Is and 16 are each rotatably mounted.

One of the drive side pulleys 14 is integrally fixed to a pulley shaft 26, and the pulley shaft 26 is connected to the clutch 17.
One end of the spring 1 is attached to a shaft 28 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 part of the wire 21 to change the tensioning direction by about 90 degrees, and the solenoid 22 is turned on. - By turning off the separation belt 12, the separation belt 12 can be tensioned between the three boots 14, Is, 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 that cleans 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 provided between the original separating surface 12. of the separating belt 12. It is arranged so that it wraps by a wrapping amount I21 suitable for cleaning the document separation surface 12a and rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG.

Then, an opening 13a is formed in the document table 13, and a calling roller 32 whose outer portion is made of sponge, for example, is provided in the opening 13a so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow E. The circumferential portion 32a of the calling roller 32 is Cut into equal parts 4
Two flat surfaces 32b are formed, and the circumferential portions 32a thereof are arranged so as to protrude from the upper surface of the original table 13 by a slight amount J22.

Further, a lower guide mylar 33 is fixed to the diagonally cut opening edge on the feeding upstream side of the opening 13a, 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 meshes with a gear 3B integrally attached to the roller shaft 35, and a gear on the drive side of the calling roller 32 is connected to 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. The separation belt 12 is made of, for example, urethane rubber and has a core material embedded inside it, so that even when tension is applied, it is hardly visible. It is designed so that no elongation occurs, 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 3 integrally fixed to a shaft 47 engages with a gear 43 integral with the cleaning roller 25 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 respective 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, which is integrated with the pulley 14, 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
moves downward in FIG. 1, the tension of the separation belt 12 increases, and the original separation surface 12a of the separation belt 12 contacts the separation roller 11 with a predetermined pressure suitable for separating the originals.

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 to be driven, whereby 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 begins 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.
Returned to the right side in the figure, only the lower original is guided by the guide plate 4 until it reaches the pull-out roller 27, and is then brought to a predetermined exposure position on the contact glass 31 of the copying machine 30 by a belt conveying device (not shown). transported by.

When the sensor 45 detects the leading edge of the document D, the automatic document feeder 1i10 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, this automatic document feeder! 10, the time for which the separation belt 12 is brought into strong pressure contact with the separation roller 11 (contact pressure that enables separation of M documents) is set to the minimum necessary time, and the separation belt 12 is further rotated to bring the separation belt 12 into contact with the separation roller 11. The belt covers the entire belt to prevent local wear, 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 belt 12 is rotated at a high rotation speed to quickly remove paper dust and the like that adhere to the original 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, and the paper dust or the like will adhere to the document separation surface 12a and reduce the friction coefficient, thereby separating the documents. There will be no loss of sexuality.

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) is discharged upward. 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 30 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 separating 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 jams due to pasted originals. Note that this automatic document feeder 1
0, in case a jam occurs, for example, after a predetermined time after the calling roller 32 sends out the document D on the document table 13 (the time during which the trailing edge of the sent document passes the sensor 45). ), jam detection is performed depending on whether the sensor 45 detects passage of the trailing edge of the document D each time.

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 addition, in the above embodiment, an example was explained in which the separation belt 12 is stretched with three pulleys 14, 15, 18, but it may be stretched with two pulleys or four or more pulleys. The cleaning roller 25 for cleaning the separation belt 12 may be a non-rotating cleaning blade or a brush, or a cleaning member such as a sponge may be used to clean the document separation surface 12 of the separation belt 12. It is also possible to simply make sliding contact.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the separation belt is formed of an endless belt, and the documents are separated by rotating the belt and pressing it against the separation roller.
The part of the separation belt that comes in contact with the separation roller and the document is on the entire circumference of the belt and there is no local contact, so the separation belt is less likely to be soiled by the document and paper dust is not locally attached. Since there is no localized wear on the separation belt, it does not stain other clean originals, and stable paper separation can be achieved over a long period of time.The separation belt also has improved durability because no local wear occurs.

Additionally, if a cleaning member is provided to clean the document separation surface of the separation belt that comes into contact with the document, it can quickly remove dirt, paper dust, etc. from the document separation surface, resulting in even better paper separation performance. can be maintained for a long period of time.

[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 14, 15. 16... Pulley (belt support member) 17
...Clutch 18...Drive motor 19
...゜Spring 20...Document separation mechanism 2
1... Wire 22... Solenoid 2
5...Cleaning roller (cleaning member) 30...Copy machine D...Document

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 separation belt is rotatably supported by a plurality of belt support members, one of the belt support members is connected to a drive motor, and a spring is attached to one of the other belt support members to move the separation belt to a predetermined position. A document separation mechanism of an automatic document feeder characterized by being tensioned. 2. The document separation mechanism for an automatic document feeder according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning member for cleaning the document separation surface of the separation belt that contacts the document.