JPH0468367A - Copying machine with original feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a bundle of copying sheets put in page number order even if originals are not put in the page number order by reading and storing the page number of the original, and feeding the originals on the original placing surface of this copying machine in the page number order through the use of this original feeder. CONSTITUTION:When the original is fed from the original feeder 11 to the copying machine 10, a page number reading means 16 existing in the copying machine 10 reads the page number of the original, and it is stored in a storage means in reading order. A control means 15 controls the original feeder 11 based on the memory and the original set on the original feeder 11 is fed to the original placing surface of the copying machine 10 in the page number order. When the page number of a fed original is different, the original is only circulated inside the original feeder 11 and returned to an original platen. Thus, copying by the copying machine 10 is carried out in the page number order of the original.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a copying machine equipped with a circulating document feeder.

Document Feeder = D
F or Document Handler = D
H) is a system that feeds originals one by one from a stack of set originals onto the original placing surface (contact glass) of the copying machine, making it possible to quickly copy a large number of originals. Because of the things that can be done and the amount of effort required by the operator,
Widely used. Among them, the circulation type document feeder called RDH has the function of feeding the document from the document table to the document placement surface and returning it to the original document table after copying. When copying, by circulating the original document as many times as the number of copies, the same effect as a sorter can be obtained in a copying machine that is not equipped with a sorter.

When copying multiple originals using a conventional DF, the originals are fed to the copying machine's original loading surface and copied in the order in which the originals are placed in the DF. , the copied copy paper is placed in the copy paper storage table (
(bins or trays). Therefore, if a document whose pages are not stacked in the correct order is set in the DF, the stack of copy papers on the bin will not be arranged according to the page numbers. That is, if you want to finally obtain a stack of copy paper with the correct page numbers, it is necessary to properly sort the originals in the order of page numbers when setting them on the DF.

An object of the present invention is to improve this point and provide a copying machine with a document feeding device that can obtain a stack of copy sheets arranged in order of page numbers without having to arrange the documents in order of page numbers in advance. .

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a copying machine equipped with a circulating document feeder, which includes a page number reading means for reading page numbers of a document, and a storage means for storing the read page numbers. The present invention is characterized by comprising a control unit that uses a document feeder to feed the documents to the document placement surface of the copying machine in the order of page numbers based on the stored page numbers.

When a sheet of original is fed from the original feeder to the copying machine,
A page number reading means in the copying machine reads the page number of the original. The page numbers are stored in the storage means in the order of reading (that is, in the order in which the documents are placed). The control means controls the document feeding device based on the memory, and feeds the documents set in the document feeding device to the document placement surface of the copying machine in the order of their page numbers. That is, when the order of the documents to be fed is different from the page number of the next document to be fed, the document is simply circulated within the document feeder and returned to the document table. On the other hand, when the order of the originals to be fed and the page numbers match, the originals are fed to the original placing surface of the copying machine, stopped there, and a copying operation is performed. As a result, copies by the copying machine are performed in the order of the page numbers of the original.

Note that RDH is originally a useful device when a sorter is not used, but in the case of the present invention, it is equally applicable to a copying machine equipped with a sorter, as will be clear from the examples described later. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the copying machine with a circulating document feeder (RDH) according to this embodiment. This copying machine 10 includes an RDHII
In addition to this, a sorter 12 is connected.

The RDHII is placed on the document placement surface (contact glass) of the copying machine main body 10, and connected to the copying machine 1 using a special connector.
0 and is controlled by a microcomputer control device 15 provided inside the copying machine 10. Of course, the control device 15 also controls the copying operation using the document reading device 16 of the copying machine main body 10, and performs the page rearrangement copying process described below by comprehensively controlling the RDHII and the copying machine 10.

The inside of RDHII is as shown in Figure 4.

From a stack of originals 30 set on the original platen 20, the lower original is drawn into the apparatus by a half-moon roller 21, and only the lowermost original is sent inside by the feed belt 22 and separation belt 23. . The document entered inside is sent onto the contact glass 31 by the driving roller 24 and the right-side driven roller 25, and is placed at a predetermined position by the conveyor belt 27. The above is from the document table 20 to the contact glass 31.
This is the outbound journey up to.

For the return trip, the conveyor belt 27 is rotated in the opposite direction, and the deflection plate 32 is
is tilted upward to guide the document on the contact glass 31 between the drive roller 24 and the left driven roller 26.

The document is returned to the document table 20 by both rollers 24 and 26, a discharge roller 28, and a discharge roller 29. At this time, the original platen 2
In order to clearly distinguish the final document from the stack of documents 30 on top of the document stack 30, a partition is inserted between the document returning from the discharge roller 29 and the document originally on the document table 20. When all the documents on the document table 20 have been fed, this partition is removed.

The procedure for rearranging and copying pages using the RD H11 by this copying machine will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG. Set multiple originals on the RDHII, select the main processing mode (page sorting copy mode) and the number of copies (
When the copy start button is pressed after inputting the number of sheets to be set, the routine shown in FIG. 1 is executed. At this time, each manuscript is numbered consecutively, but R
In the bundle of originals set in the DHll, the originals are not necessarily arranged in the order of page numbers.

First, in step #10, various variables are initialized. Specifically, the variable I, which represents the number of originals that have not yet been copied, is expressed as O.
, a variable N representing the number of manuscripts whose page numbers have been read is set to O, and a vector variable K (the number of elements of K is the total number of manuscripts) that stores the page numbers read each time is set to (0, 0,
..., 0) is substituted. Next, one original is fed from the RD H 11 onto the contact glass of the copying machine 10, and the variable N is increased by 1 (step #12). In the next step #14, the page number of the manuscript is read and assigned to the Nth element K[N] in the vector variable.

The page number can be read, for example, in the following manner. As shown in FIG. 3, predetermined locations on the surface of the document (for example, the margins between the upper part 32 and the lower part 34, or more specifically, the upper center 38, the left and right 3
6.40), and the document reading device 16 reads only that location. The image data created by the document reading device 16 is sent to the control device 15, where it separates the image of each character from the overall image, and uses a well-known pattern recognition method to match each character with one of the numbers O to 9. Recognize whether or not to do so. When there are two or more numbers, they are interpreted as decimal notation, and the page value is recognized by carry processing. The predetermined position may be input in advance by the operator by looking at the position where the page number of the manuscript is stamped.

When you read the page number of the original on the contact glass,
In step #16, it is checked whether this document is the final one, and if there remains a document whose page number has not yet been read, the process returns to step #10. Note that whether or not this is the final manuscript can be determined by the fact that the manuscript before the partition in RDHll is gone, but it is also possible to determine whether the page number K[N] of the read manuscript is equal to the page number K[1] of the first manuscript. This can also be done by checking. If page numbers of all manuscripts have been read, the process advances to step #18. At this stage, the vector variable K
, the page numbers of each manuscript on the RDHll are stored in the order in which the manuscripts are placed.

In step #18, the number of originals N is substituted into the first loop variable. As mentioned above, K[N]=K[1]? When checking the final manuscript based on the judgment,
(N-1) is substituted into the second loop variable J), and in step #2, 1 is substituted into the second loop variable J to initialize it.

Step #22. #24. In the loop #26, the second loop variable J is increased by 1 until the number of originals N is reached, and it is checked whether the value of each element K[J] in the vector variable is equal to the number N.

In step #22, the element K[J
] is found, proceed to step #3o and identify the document corresponding to that element (i.e., the document that was fifth when the stack of documents was first placed on the RDHll, and whose page number is The originals are circulated within the RDHII without performing a copying operation until the fifth original (original) comes out, and when the fifth original comes out, it is stopped on the contact glass of the copying machine 10. Then, in step #32, the set number of copies of the original are made and discharged to the sorter 12. Note that when the copy mode is sort mode, each copy paper is stored one by one in each bin, and when the copy mode is group mode, all copy papers of this original are stored in the order from the top (N
−I+1)th bin. When the set number of copies have been completed, the variable 1 is decremented by 1 in step #34, and it is checked in step #36 whether or not the number of copies has become O. ■If ≠O, return to step #20, search for the position of the document with the next page number in a loop of steps #22 to #26, and feed that document onto the contact glass in steps #30 to #34. and copy. While repeating the loop of steps #20 to #36 in this way, when I=O in step #36, this means that copying of all originals has been completed, and the processing of this routine is ended.

Steps #22 to # to search the page number of each manuscript
Through 26 loops, all elements K[1] are added to the vector variable.
If it is determined that there is no item in ~K[N] that is equal to the page number I to be copied next, proceed to step #28 and perform error processing. ” and stops the copying operation.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the case where multiple copies of one document are made is explained, but of course step #
32, it is also possible to copy only one copy, and in this case, the sorter 12 is not necessary. Also, sort mode copying without using the sorter 12 is also possible; in this case,
In steps #10 to #16, page number K[
J] and then repeating steps #18 to #36 a predetermined number of times (set number of times) to obtain a plurality of copies of the manuscript sorted in order of page numbers.

In the above embodiment, in steps #10 to #16, all the originals are once circulated in the RDH and the page numbers are read (without copying), but instead, the page numbers of the read originals are copied. If the order matches the required order, the originals may be copied as is, and if not, the originals may be circulated.

As explained above, according to the present invention, even if the originals are not arranged according to the page numbers, the copying machine copies the originals in the order of the page numbers, and the copy paper arranged in the order of the page numbers can be used. (or sheet) is obtained. therefore,
As long as page numbers are stamped on the originals, the operator does not need to rearrange the originals in advance, which relieves the operator of troublesome operations and reduces the time required for rearranging.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of the processing performed in the embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a copying machine equipped with a circulating document feeder according to the embodiment, and Fig. 3 is the position of reading the page number of the original. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the circulating document feeder.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A copying machine equipped with a circulating document feeder includes a page number reading means for reading the page number of the document, a storage means for storing the read page number, and a document feeding system based on the stored page number. 1. A copying machine with a document feeding device, comprising: a control unit that uses a paper device to feed documents to a document placement surface of a copying machine in the order of page numbers.