This disclosure is directed to an automatic document feeding device and in particular to an automatic document feeding device capable of correcting a skew of a sheet being fed.
According to a related-art automatic document feeding device, a skew correction mechanism thereof has a correction roller with a clutch for an operation cooperating with a blocking arm. When feeding a sheet, the correction roller is firstly retreated from a sheet conveying path and the sheet is conveyed to pass the correction roller. A stopping arm stops the sheet at a position behind the correction roller so as to align the paper, the correction roller is then restored to clamp the corrected sheet, and the stopping arm is meanwhile retreated from the sheet conveying path to allow correction roller to continually convey the paper. According to the related-art automatic document feeding device, independent motors are required for precisely actuating the stopping arm, a clutching motion of the correction roller, and a rotational feeding of the sheet respectively, and the respective mechanisms are complicated and operations are unstable.
In view of the above drawbacks, the inventor proposes this disclosure based on his expert knowledge and elaborate researches in order to solve the problems of related art.
This disclosure is directed to an automatic document feeding device capable of correcting a skew of a sheet being fed.
This disclosure is directed to an automatic document feeding device having a main body, a sheet feeding roller assembly, a sheet conveying roller assembly, a stopping assembly, an actuating assembly and a controller. The main body has a sheet conveying channel disposed therein, the sheet conveying channel is of a curvature shape, a portion of the sheet conveying channel is expanded to form a buffering channel. The sheet feeding roller assembly and the sheet conveying roller assembly are respectively arranged at two positions of the sheet conveying channel. The stopping assembly is arranged between the sheet feeding roller assembly and the sheet conveying roller assembly and adjacent to the sheet conveying roller assembly. The stopping assembly is movably disposed on the main body and capable of being located in the sheet conveying channel or out of the sheet conveying channel, and the buffering channel is located between the stopping assembly and the sheet feeding roller assembly. The actuating assembly is arranged on the main body corresponding to the stopping assembly and capable of moving, holding or releasing the stopping assembly. The controller is electrically connected with the actuating assembly and the sheet feeding roller assembly. After the controller actuates the sheet feeding roller assembly, the controller controls the actuating assembly to hold the stopping assembly in the sheet conveying channel so as to block the sheet conveying channel in a predetermined period, and then controls the actuating assembly to stop the stopping assembly from blocking the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the actuating assembly further has an elastic restoring member arranged on the stopping assembly, the elastic restoring member presses on the stopping assembly, and the stopping assembly is pushed to restore to the sheet conveying channel by the elastic restoring member after the stopping assembly leaves (or withdraws from) the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the actuating assembly further has a gravity restoring member arranged on the stopping assembly, and the stopping assembly is pushed to restore to the sheet conveying channel by the gravity restoring member after the stopping assembly leaves the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the sheet conveying channel has a sheet entrance disposed at one end thereof, the sheet feeding roller assembly is disposed between the sheet entrance and the buffering channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the main body has a tray connected with the sheet entrance.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the buffering channel is disposed at a convex side of the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the sheet conveying roller assembly is disposed below the sheet feeding roller assembly, and a vertical position of the stopping assembly is between the sheet feeding roller assembly and the sheet conveying roller assembly.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the sheet feeding roller assembly has a feeding driving roller and an idle roller adjacent to each other and respectively disposed at two sides of the sheet conveying channel, and the feeding driving roller is disposed at a concave side of the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the sheet conveying roller assembly has a conveying driving roller and an idle roller adjacent to each other and respectively disposed at two sides of the sheet conveying channel, and the conveying driving roller is disposed at a concave side of the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the stopping assembly has a plurality of the stoppers capable of being inserted into the sheet conveying channel, a calibration reference line is defined by an arrangement of the stoppers in the sheet conveying channel when the stoppers are located in the sheet conveying channel, and the calibration reference line is perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the stopping assembly is predeterminedly located in the sheet conveying channel, the controller controls the actuating assembly to hold and latch the stopping assembly in the sheet conveying channel for a predetermined period, and then controls the actuating assembly to release the stopping assembly.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the stopping assembly is predeterminedly located outside the sheet conveying channel, the controller controls the actuating assembly to move the stopping assembly into the sheet conveying channel and hold the stopping assembly in the sheet conveying channel for a predetermined period, and then controls the actuating assembly to release the stopping assembly.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the controller controls the actuating assembly to hold the stopping assembly in the sheet conveying channel for a predetermined period, and then controls the actuating assembly to move the stopping assembly out of sheet conveying channel.
According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the stopping assembly is disposed at a concave side of the sheet conveying channel.
According to the automatic document feeding device of this disclosure, the stopping assembly is arranged between the sheet feeding roller assembly and the sheet conveying roller assembly and adjacent to the sheet conveying roller assembly. The controller controls the actuating assembly to hold the stopping assembly for a predetermined period after the controller actuates the sheet feeding roller assembly, and the actuating assembly then releases the stopping assembly. Accordingly, a feeding process and a correction action of the mechanism are controlled together, so that a skew of a sheet being fed may be stably corrected via a simple mechanism.
The features of the disclosure believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The disclosure itself, however, may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of the disclosure, which describes a number of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The technical contents of this disclosure will become apparent with the detailed description of embodiments accompanied with the illustration of related drawings as follows. It is intended that the embodiments and drawings disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.
According to
According to
The sheet feeding roller assembly 210 is disposed on the main body 100 and a portion of the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 is located in the sheet conveying channel 101. The sheet feeding roller assembly 210 has a feeding driving roller 211 and an idle roller 212 respectively disposed at two opposite sides of the sheet conveying channel 101, and the feeding driving roller 211 is disposed at a concave side of the sheet conveying channel 101 where the center of curvature of the sheet conveying channel 101 is located. Specifically, the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 is disposed between the sheet entrance 103 and the buffering channel 102 along a longitudinal direction of the sheet conveying channel 101. According to this embodiment, the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 is adjacent to the sheet entrance 103, and the feeding driving roller 211 and the idle roller 212 of the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 contact each other, and a contact point between the feeding driving roller 211 and the contacted idle roller 212 is located in the sheet conveying channel 101 for clamping the document sheet 10. The tray 110 is generally tilted so that the document sheets 10 in the tray 110 are falling into the sheet entrance 103, and the document sheet 10 is clamped between the feeding driving roller 211 and the corresponding idle roller 212. The document sheet 10 is fed into the sheet conveying channel 101 through the sheet entrance 103 when the feeding driving roller 211 rotates.
According to
The stopping assembly 300 is arranged on the main body 100, and the stopping assembly 300 is disposed at a concave side of the sheet conveying channel 101 where the center of curvature of the sheet conveying channel 101 is located. The stopping assembly 300 is connected pivotally to the main body 100 and capable of blocking the sheet conveying channel 101. The stopping assembly 300 may be rotated to retreat from the sheet conveying channel 101. Specifically, along the longitudinal direction of the sheet conveying channel 101, the stopping assembly 300 is disposed between the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 and the sheet conveying roller assembly 220 and adjacent to the sheet conveying roller assembly 220. A vertical position of the stopping assembly 300 is between the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 and the sheet conveying roller assembly 220. Moreover, the buffering channel 102 is located between the stopping assembly 300 and the sheet feeding roller assembly 210.
The stopping assembly 300 has a plurality of stoppers 310, and the stoppers 310 may be inserted into the sheet conveying channel 101 via a motion of the stopping assembly 300 so as to block the sheet conveying channel 101. A calibration reference line 301 is defined by an arrangement of the stoppers 310 when the stoppers 310 are located in the sheet conveying channel 101, and the calibration reference line 301 is perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the sheet conveying channel 101 and extended along a width direction of the sheet conveying channel 101. According to this embodiment shown in
According to
The controller 500 is electrically connected to the actuating assembly 400 and the sheet feeding roller assembly 210, and the type of the controller 500 is not limiting in this disclosure. In general, an embodiment of the controller 500 may be implemented by executing a control program via a customized circuit board. The controller 500 may be disposed on the main body 100, or disposed externally and electrically connected to the actuating assembly 400 and the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 via wires.
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According to
Specifically, a pivotal shaft of the stopping assembly 300 is independent from a pivotal shaft of the sheet conveying roller assembly 220, and motions of the stopping assembly 300 is independent from that of the sheet conveying roller assembly 220 and the sheet feeding roller assembly 210. Accordingly, the conveying motions of the sheet conveying roller assembly 220 and the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 do not influence the calibration motions of the stopping assembly 300, so that the motions of the stopping assembly 300 are stable.
The stopping assembly 300 returns into the sheet conveying channel 101 by the following components after the document sheet 10 passes the sheet conveying channel 101 so as to block the sheet conveying channel 101. In an embodiment, the actuating assembly 400 has an elastic restoring member 431 arranged on the stopping assembly 300, and the elastic restoring member 431 presses on the stopping assembly 300. The elastic restoring member 431 is capable of pushing the stopping assembly 300 back into the sheet conveying channel 101 after the stopping assembly 300 retreats from the sheet conveying channel 101 so as to block the sheet conveying channel 101. According to this embodiment, the elastic restoring member 431 is a spring sheathing the pivotal shaft of the stopping assembly 300, and the elastic restoring member 431 abuts against the main body 100 and the stopping assembly 300.
In another embodiment, the actuating assembly 400 has a gravity restoring member 432 arranged on the stopping assembly 300, the gravity restoring member 432 is capable of pushing the stopping assembly 300 back into the sheet conveying channel 101 after the stopping assembly 300 retreats from the sheet conveying channel 101. The aforementioned component may be used alone or in combination. According to this embodiment, the gravity restoring member 432 is a counterweight structure disposed on a side of the pivotal shaft of the stopping assembly 300 opposite to the stoppers 310.
In another embodiment, the actuating assembly 400 may hold the stopping assembly 300 by the elastic restoring member 431 or the gravity restoring member 432 to make the stoppers 310 of the stopping assembly 300 be predeterminedly located in the sheet conveying channel 101, the actuating pin 420 of the actuating assembly 400 is connected with the stopping assembly 300, the controller 500 is capable of controlling the actuating assembly 400 to move the stoppers 310 of the stopping assembly 300 out of the sheet conveying channel 101 via the actuating pin 420. According to the automatic document feeding device of this disclosure, the stopping assembly 300 is disposed between the sheet feeding roller assembly 210 and the sheet conveying roller assembly 220 and adjacent to the sheet conveying roller assembly 220. The controller 500 controls the actuating assembly 400 to hold the stopping assembly 300 for the predetermined period after actuating the sheet feeding roller assembly 210, and then controls the actuating assembly 400 to release the stopping assembly 300. Therefore, the sheet feeding process and the calibration of the mechanism are controlled together, so the skew of the sheet conveying may be calibrated stably via a simple mechanism.
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According to this embodiment shown in
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While this disclosure has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure set forth in the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202222766338.0 | Oct 2022 | CN | national |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20240132312 A1 | Apr 2024 | US |