JPH08317128A - Facsimile machine adjustment method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide a method capable of adjusting an apparatus to start reading an image of an original just when the leading edge of the original reaches a reading position. An image reading unit (line image sensor 42) reads a predetermined image formed on the front edge of the front surface of the adjustment document after the front edge detection unit (front edge sensor 46) detects the passage of the front edge of the adjustment document. The conveyance amount of the adjustment document is detected, and the detected conveyance amount is set as a predetermined conveyance amount.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of adjusting a facsimile machine, and more particularly, to a method of adjusting a facsimile machine for adjusting the timing of starting reading an original image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document conveying means for conveying a document along a predetermined conveying path, an image reading means for reading an image on the surface of the original conveyed to a predetermined reading position on the conveying path, and a document There is known a facsimile apparatus including a reading control unit that starts reading an original image by the image reading unit at a predetermined timing during conveyance.

In this type of facsimile apparatus, the timing for starting the reading of the original image by the image reading means is
It is necessary to set when the leading edge of the document is conveyed to the reading position. Therefore, the following control method has been considered. That is, a leading edge detecting means such as a sensor for optically detecting the passage of the leading edge of the document is provided on the upstream side of the reading position, and a predetermined conveyance amount is set according to the interval between the detecting position of the leading edge detecting means and the reading position. I'll do it. Then, when the front end detecting means detects the passage of the front end of the original and the original is conveyed by the predetermined conveying amount by the original conveying means, the reading of the original image by the image reading means is started. Then, reading can be started from the vicinity of the leading edge of the document.

[0004]

However, the distance between the detection position and the reading position varies somewhat depending on the individual machine due to material size, assembly error, and the like. For this reason, the interval and the above-described predetermined transport amount do not necessarily correspond to each other, and the read image may be slightly shifted up and down with respect to the original image. Therefore, the readable range of the image on the document cannot be sufficiently expanded.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of appropriately adjusting the reading start timing and starting reading of an original image just when the leading edge of the original reaches the reading position. It was

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is to convey an original along a predetermined conveying path, and to a predetermined reading position on the conveying path. The image reading means for reading the image on the surface of the original conveyed to the front side, the leading edge detecting means provided upstream of the reading position on the conveying path for detecting the passage of the leading edge of the original, and the leading edge detecting means for detecting the leading edge of the original. The above-mentioned predetermined facsimile machine including a reading control means for starting the reading of the original image by the image reading means when the original is conveyed by the predetermined conveying amount by the original conveying means after the passage is detected. A method for adjusting a conveyance amount of a facsimile apparatus, wherein an adjustment document having a predetermined image formed on a front end of a surface is conveyed by the document conveying unit, and the front end detecting unit adjusts the adjustment amount. When the passage of the leading edge of the document is detected, the reading of the document image by the image reading means is started, and after the leading edge detection means detects the passage of the leading edge of the adjustment document, the image reading means sets the predetermined value. It is characterized in that the carry amount of the adjustment document until the image is read is detected, and the detected carry amount of the adjustment document is set as the predetermined carry amount.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the facsimile device adjusting method according to the first aspect, wherein the predetermined image is a black square area formed at a front end of the surface of the adjusting document. And According to a third aspect of the present invention, the document conveying means conveys a document by a pulse motor,
3. The method of adjusting a facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined carry amount is represented by the number of pulses input to the pulse motor.

[0008]

According to the present invention having the above-described structure, the adjustment document having the predetermined image formed on the front end of the surface is conveyed by the document conveying means, and the front end detecting means causes the adjustment document to be adjusted. When the passage of the leading edge of the document is detected, the reading of the original image by the image reading means is started.
Since the leading edge detecting unit is provided on the upstream side of the reading position of the image reading unit, this control allows the image reading unit to read the predetermined image at the leading end of the adjustment document.

Therefore, in the present invention, the conveyance amount of the adjustment document is detected after the leading edge detection means detects the passage of the leading edge of the adjustment document until the image reading means reads the predetermined image, and the detection is performed. The carried amount is set as the above-mentioned predetermined carried amount. Therefore, it is possible to set the predetermined transport amount to a value that corresponds favorably to the distance between the detection position of the leading edge detection unit and the reading position of the image reading unit.

Therefore, regardless of the variation in the distance between the detection position and the reading position, it is possible to adjust the reading of the document image to start just when the leading edge of the document reaches the reading position. In addition, it is possible to favorably prevent the read image from shifting up and down with respect to the document image, and it is possible to favorably expand the readable range of the image on the document.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect of the invention, the predetermined image is a black square area formed at the front end of the surface of the adjustment document. . The black rectangular area has a constant width and is very easy to read by the image reading means. Therefore, in the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the predetermined image can be reliably read and the adjustment can be performed more reliably.

The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
In addition to the configuration of the invention described above, the document conveying means conveys a document by a pulse motor, and the predetermined conveyance amount is represented by the number of pulses input to the pulse motor. The amount of document conveyed by the pulse motor has a very good correlation with the number of pulses input to the pulse motor. Therefore, in the present invention, it is possible to more accurately control the document conveyance amount from when the leading edge detection unit detects the passage of the leading edge of the document to when the reading unit starts reading. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 1 or 2, in addition to preventing the read image from vertically shifting relative to the original image, it is possible to further improve the readable range of the image on the original. The effect that it can be expanded to.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of a facsimile apparatus 2 of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing its internal mechanism.

The facsimile apparatus 2 of this embodiment is
An image is read from the original 4 (see FIG. 2), the image data is transmitted to another facsimile device via a telephone line, and the image data transmitted from another facsimile device is received via a telephone line. It has a function as a normal facsimile apparatus for forming the image on the recording paper.

As shown in FIG. 1, a handset 12 is attached to a side portion of a main body 10 of the facsimile apparatus 2, and an operation panel 14 is provided on a front portion of an upper surface thereof. A recording paper cassette 16 (see FIG. 2) is provided at the rear of the upper surface of the main body 10.
A cassette mounting portion 18 for detachably mounting the document is formed, and a document table 20 is formed at the center of the upper surface.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the main body 10 has a scanner section 22 for reading an image from an original 4 placed on an original table 20, and an image on a recording paper 24 contained in a recording paper cassette 16. A recording unit 26 for forming and a control unit 70 that drives and controls each of these units to realize the above functions are built in.

In the scanner section 22, the originals 4 placed on the original table 20 are taken one by one by a paper feed mechanism including a paper feed roller 32 and a separation pad 31. Then, the original 4 is conveyed to the original supporting plate 34 by the conveying roller 33, and the image on the front surface (the lower surface in FIG. 2) is read by the image reading device 35 arranged below the original supporting plate 34. Further, the document 4 after the image is read is conveyed by a discharge roller 36 and discharged to a discharge tray 37 provided on the front surface of the main body 10.

The image reading device 35 irradiates the document 4 on the document support plate 34 with light from the light source 38, reflects the reflected light from the document 4 by the mirrors 39 and 40, and further, the line image by the lens 41. It is a well-known one that reads an original image line by line by condensing it on the light receiving surface of the sensor 42. A document sensor 44 that optically detects whether or not the document 4 is set on the document table 20 is provided in a path from the document table 20 to the sheet feeding roller 32, and the sheet feeding roller 32 to the transport roller 33. A leading edge sensor 46 is provided as a leading edge detecting unit that optically detects the passage of the leading edge of the original 4 when the original 4 starts being conveyed by the paper feed roller 32. Further, the paper feed roller 32, the transport roller 33, and the discharge roller 36
Are driven by a pulse motor 48 (see FIG. 3) via a gear mechanism (not shown).

On the other hand, in the recording section 26, the recording paper cassette 1
The recording papers 24 accommodated in 6 are taken in one by one by a paper feed mechanism including a paper feed roller 51 and a separation pad 52. Then, the recording paper 24 is sent to the image forming unit 55 via the conveying roller 53, and the toner image is formed in the image forming unit 55. Further, the recording paper 24 after the image formation is sent to the fixing device 56, and after the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 56, the recording paper 24 is provided on the front surface of the main body 10 via the paper ejection roller 57. It is discharged to 58. The fixing device 56 includes a heating roller and a pressing roller, and heats and presses the recording paper 24 to fix the toner image on the recording paper 24.

Further, the image forming section 55 includes a photosensitive drum 61.
A laser beam scanning device 62 that irradiates the photosensitive drum 61 with laser light to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface thereof, and a developing device 63 that adheres toner to the photosensitive drum 61 after the electrostatic latent image is formed.
And a transfer device 65 that has a transfer roller 64 and applies an electric charge to the recording paper 24 to transfer the toner adhering to the photosensitive drum 61 to the recording paper 24. Further, the laser beam scanning device 62 includes: It is provided with a laser emitting section 67 for emitting a laser beam in accordance with a command from the control section 70, a lens 68 for condensing the laser beam, a reflecting mirror 69 for guiding the laser beam condensed by the lens 68 to the photosensitive drum 61, and the like. .

That is, the recording unit 26 is configured as a so-called laser printer, and forms an image on the recording paper 24 according to a command from the control unit 70. Next, the control unit 70 that controls each of the above units is configured as shown in FIG. The control unit 70 receives various commands such as a copy command of the original 4 and a fax transmission command input by the user operating the operation panel 14, and controls the scanner unit 22 or the scanner unit 22 or It is for controlling the recording unit 26 based on the data sent from the telephone line, and is configured as a well-known microcomputer mainly including a CPU 80, a ROM 82, and a RAM 84.

A network control unit (NCU) for connecting an external telephone line and the apparatus to the control unit 70 to enable communication and image data transmission / reception with other telephones and facsimile machines. 86, and N
A modem 88 for transmitting / receiving image data to / from another facsimile apparatus via the CU 86 is provided,
The CPU 80 also executes communication control for transmitting image data to another facsimile device via a telephone line and receiving image data transmitted from another facsimile device via a telephone line.

The CPU 80, ROM 82, RAM 8
4, the NCU 86 and the modem 88 are connected to each other via a bus 89, and the bus 89 enables input / output of data to / from the scanner unit 22, the operation panel 14, the recording unit 26 and the like. The input / output port 90 is also connected.
Further, the NCU 86 is connected with the above-mentioned handset 12 and a speaker for making a call, and a call with another telephone can be performed via the handset 12.

Next, the document image reading operation in the scanner section 22 of the facsimile apparatus 2 of this embodiment will be described in detail. When the fax transmission command or the copy command is input through the operation panel 14 after the document 4 is placed on the document table 20, the CPU 80 controls the scanner unit 22 as follows to read the image of the document 4. First, when the above command is input, the CPU 80 drives the pulse motor 48 to rotate the rollers 32 to 36 and convey the document 4. When the leading edge sensor 46 detects the leading edge of the document 4, the CPU 80
Further drives the pulse motor 48 by a predetermined pulse PINT, and then causes the light source 38 to emit light. Then, the document support plate 3
Reflected light from a position (hereinafter, referred to as a reading position) facing the light source 38 of No. 4 is input to the line image sensor 42.
As will be described later, the predetermined pulse PINT is adjusted so that the leading edge of the original 4 reaches the reading position at this time.

After that, the CPU 80 continues to drive the pulse motor 48. Then, the image on the surface of the original 4 is sequentially read by the line image sensor 42. The line image sensor 42 transmits the read image to the control unit 70. As a result, the control unit 70 can obtain the image data of the original 4, transmit the image data through the telephone line, and drive the recording unit 26 based on the image data. Also, the original 4 from which the image is read is
The sheet is discharged onto the discharge tray 37 by the discharge roller 36. Further, when another document 4 remains on the document table 20 and the document sensor 44 detects it, the same process is performed on the document 4.

Next, the main part of the present invention. A method for adjusting the predetermined pulse PINT will be described. It should be noted that this kind of adjustment is mainly performed at the time of shipment of the facsimile apparatus 2. FIG. 4 shows an adjustment document 4 used in the adjustment method of this embodiment.
It is a top view showing the structure of 00. As shown in FIG. 4, a black square region 401 is formed at the front end of the surface of the adjustment document 400. The adjustment document 400 is placed on the document table 20 such that the front surface is on the document table 20 side and the leading edge is on the paper feed roller 32 side, and then the operation panel 1 is placed.
Predetermined operation in 4 (for example, special key combination)
Then, the CPU 80 executes the adjustment process shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the processing is started, C
The PU 80 outputs one drive pulse to the pulse motor 48 in S10. In the subsequent S20, the tip sensor 46
It is determined whether or not the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 has been detected via S, and if not detected (S20: NO), the process returns to S1.
Move to 0. When the adjustment document 400 is conveyed while repeatedly executing the loop of S10 and S20 and the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 is detected by the leading edge sensor 46 (S20: YES), the process proceeds to S30.

At S30, the counter C is reset to 0. In subsequent S40 and S50, one drive pulse is output to the pulse motor 48 and the counter C is incremented by one. That is, as described below, the counter C counts the number of drive pulses after the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 is detected.

Further, in the following S60, it is determined whether or not the black rectangular area 401 is detected via the line image sensor 42. Immediately after the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 is detected, the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 has not reached the reading position. Therefore, the detection image 42a detected by the line image sensor 42 is entirely blank, as illustrated in FIG. In this case, a negative determination is made in S60 and S40 is executed again.
Move to. By repeating the loop of S40 to S60, the counter C is sequentially incremented while the adjustment document 400 is being conveyed.

Next, when the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 reaches the reading position, an image 401a of the rectangular area 401 appears in the image 42a detected by the line image sensor 42, as illustrated in FIG. 6B. . Then, the CPU 80 makes an affirmative decision in S60, and proceeds to S70 that follows. S70
Then, the value of the counter C at that time is set as the predetermined pulse PINT, and the process is ended.

By this processing, the value of the predetermined pulse PINT becomes the value of the adjustment document 4 after the passage of the leading edge of the adjustment document 400 is detected by the leading edge sensor 46 (S20: YES).
The leading edge of 00 reaches the reading position (S60: YES)
It corresponds to the number of drive pulses to the pulse motor 48 output up to. Therefore, the predetermined pulse PINT after this adjustment processing
If the image of the original 4 is read by using, the reading of the original image is performed just when the leading edge of the original 4 reaches the reading position regardless of the variation in the distance between the detection position of the leading edge sensor 46 and the reading position. Can be adjusted so that the read image can be prevented from shifting up and down with respect to the image of the original 4 and the original 4 can be adjusted.
The range in which the above image can be read can be favorably expanded.

In the above embodiment, the rollers 32 ...
36 and the pulse motor 48 correspond to the document conveying means, the line image sensor 42 corresponds to the image reading means, the control unit 70 corresponds to the reading control means, and the black square area 401 corresponds to a predetermined image. Moreover, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the black square area 401 is formed at the tip of the adjustment document 400 as the predetermined image, but various other figures can be used as the predetermined image. . However, the black square area 401 is
The width is constant, and reading by the line image sensor 42 is extremely easy. Therefore, in the above embodiment,
The rectangular area 401 can be read reliably and the above adjustment can be performed more reliably.

In the above embodiment, the pulse motor 48
The number PINT of input pulses to the pulse motor 48 is adjusted for the facsimile apparatus 2 which conveys the original 4 by the method, but the present invention provides a method for adjusting other parameters corresponding to the amount of conveyance of the original 4. It can also be applied.
However, the conveyance amount of the document 4 by the pulse motor 48 has a very good correspondence with the number of input pulses to the pulse motor 48. Therefore, in the above-described embodiment, it is possible to more accurately control the transport amount of the document 4 from when the leading edge sensor 46 detects the passage of the leading edge of the document 4 until the reading by the line image sensor 42 is started. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the read image from shifting up and down with respect to the image of the document 4, and it is possible to further expand the range in which the image on the document 4 is readable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal mechanism of the facsimile apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the facsimile apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating a configuration of an adjustment document according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an adjustment process of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a detection image of a line image sensor in the adjustment processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Facsimile device 4 ... Document
14 ... Operation panel 16 ... Recording paper cassette 20 ... Document table
22 ... Scanner section 24 ... Recording paper 26 ... Recording section
32 ... Paper feeding roller 33 ... Conveying roller 35 ... Image reading device
36 ... Ejection roller 42 ... Line image sensor 44 ... Original document sensor
46 ... Tip sensor 48 ... Pulse motor 55 ... Image forming unit
56 ... Fixing device 61 ... Photosensitive drum 62 ... Laser beam scanning device 63 ... Developing device 65 ... Transfer device 70 ... Control part 400 ... Adjustment document 401 ... Square area

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An original conveying means for conveying an original along a predetermined conveying path, an image reading means for reading an image on the surface of the original conveyed to a predetermined reading position on the conveying path, and on the conveying path. Provided on the upstream side of the reading position,
A leading edge detecting means for detecting the passage of the leading edge of the document, and a document fed by the image reading means when the document is transported by a predetermined transport amount by the document transporting means after the leading edge detecting means detects the passage of the leading edge of the document. A facsimile device adjusting method for adjusting the predetermined carry amount of a facsimile device comprising: a reading control means for starting reading of an image; When the leading edge of the adjustment document is conveyed by the feeding means, and when the leading edge detection means detects the passage of the leading edge of the adjustment document, the reading of the document image by the image reading means is started, and the leading edge detection means passes the leading edge of the adjustment document. From the detection of the adjustment document to the reading of the predetermined image by the image reading means. Facsimile apparatus adjustment method characterized by the conveyance amount. 2. The facsimile apparatus adjusting method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined image is a black square area formed at a front end of the surface of the adjusting document. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the document conveying means conveys a document by a pulse motor, and the predetermined conveyance amount is represented by the number of pulses input to the pulse motor. Adjustment method.