Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6717703
-
Patent Number
6,717,703
-
Date Filed
Friday, June 15, 200122 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, April 6, 200420 years ago
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Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 358 497
- 358 474
- 358 483
- 358 471
- 358 400
- 358 500
- 358 506
- 358 487
- 358 509
- 358 514
- 358 512
- 358 513
- 382 312
- 382 318
- 382 319
- 399 211
- 250 2081
- 318 685
- 318 696
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International Classifications
-
Abstract
A scanning device includes a guide screw rod with a motor and a gear device as parts of the scanning module. The guide screw rod is fixed in the scanner along a front-to-back direction. The motor drives the gear device, which engages with the guide screw rod, causing the scanning module to move back and forth to scan a document.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanner, and more particularly, to a scanner with a guide screw rod.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With improvements in both software and hardware, scanners have begun to play an important role in importing images. Amongst the various types of scanners, desktop scanners are the most common. In a desktop scanner, a scanning module is set under a transparent surface, and moves back and forth to scan the document on the transparent surface. The scanning module does not move under its own power. Instead, a driving mechanism, such as belts or steel strings set on a plurality of wheels, is used to maintain the horizontal balance of the scanning module, to fix the direction of scanning, and to drive the scanning module back and forth. The structures of these driving mechanisms are usually complicated, making both manufacturing and maintenance of the scanner inconvenient and time-consuming. Usually, the the driving belts or steel strings can not keep the scanning module steady along a fixed path. Moreover, the driving mechanism must be driven by a motor to drive the scanning module. The power dissipation is thus large.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a scanner that comprises a guide screw rod to simplify the structure of the driving mechanism. The scanning module is driven by a motor to move back and forth along the guide screw rod. The power dissipation is reduced by this arrangement.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a scanner of the present invention.
FIG. 2
is a perspective view of a scanning module of the scanner in
FIG. 1
connected to a guide screw rod.
FIG. 3
is a perspective view of a gear device in the scanner of
FIG. 1
connected to a guide screw rod.
FIG. 4
is an exploded view of the components of the gear device in FIG.
3
.
FIG. 5
is a perspective view of a gear gland in the gear device of FIG.
4
.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
3
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a scanner
10
of the present invention.
FIG. 2
is a perspective view of a scanning module
12
in the scanner
10
connected to a guide screw rod
14
in the scanner
10
.
FIG. 3
is a perspective view of a gear device
16
in the scanner
10
connected to the guide screw rod
14
.
The scanner
10
comprises a housing
18
, a transparent surface
20
onto which is placed a document
22
for scanning, a guide screw rod
14
fixed in the housing
18
along a front-to-back direction, a scanning module
12
set on the guide screw rod
14
to scan the document
22
by moving back and forth along the guide screw rod
14
, a gear device
16
set on the guide screw rod
14
, and a motor
24
on a side of the gear device
16
to drive the gear device
16
and move with the gear device
16
.
Please refer to FIG.
4
and FIG.
5
.
FIG. 4
is an exploded view of the components of the gear device
16
, and
FIG. 5
is a perspective view of a gear gland
28
of the gear device
16
. The gear device
16
comprises a gear element
26
, a gear gland
28
and a gear bushing
30
that connects the gear element
16
and the gear gland
28
to the guide screw rod
14
. A screw thread
34
is on the surface of the guide screw rod
14
. Two teeth
32
on the inner surface of the gear gland
28
engage with the screw thread
34
on the guide screw rod
14
, and the motor
24
engages with the gear element
26
to drive the gear device
16
.
When the motor
24
drives the gear device
16
, the teeth
32
on the inner surface of the gear gland
28
move along the screw thread
34
on the guide screw rod
14
to drive the gear device
16
back and forth. The gear device
16
thus drives the scanning module
12
along the guide screw rod
14
so that the scanning module
12
can move back and forth in the housing
18
to scan the document
22
.
In the preferred embodiment, the two teeth
32
in the gear gland
28
can be replaced by a single tooth, a plurality of teeth, or even a screw thread corresponding to the screw thread
34
on the surface of the guide screw rod
14
. In addition, the guide screw rod
14
, the gear device
16
and the motor
24
can be located not only at one end of the scanning module
12
, as shown in FIG.
2
. The guide screw rod
14
, the gear device
16
and the motor
24
can also be set in the center or other regions of the scanning module
12
, and would conform to the spirit of the present invention so long as they drive the scanning module
12
back and forth.
In comparison with the prior art scanner, the scanning module
12
of the scanner
10
of the present invention moves along the guide screw rod
14
. Therefore the scanning module
12
has a more steady movement in the housing
18
. The motor
24
drives the gear device
16
, and not the guide screw rod
14
, so the power requirements of the motor
24
are reduced.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Claims
- 1. A scanner comprising:a housing with a transparent surface on a top of the housing, a document being placed on the transparent surface for scanning; a guide screw rod set in the housing along a front-to-back direction, the guide screw rod having a screw thread on its surface; a scanning module set on the guide screw rod, the scanning module moving forward and backward along the guide screw rod to scan the document; a gear device set on the guide screw rod, the gear device having at least one tooth to engage with the screw thread on the guide screw rod; a motor on a side of the gear device, the motor moving with the gear device to drive the gear device back and forth; wherein when the motor drives the gear device, the teeth of the gear device move along the screw thread on the guide screw rod so as to drive the gear device back and forth along the guide screw rod, and therefore the scanning module in the housing is driven back and forth by the gear device to scan the document.
- 2. The scanner of claim 1 wherein an inner side of the gear device has a screw thread with a plurality of teeth to engage with the screw thread on the surface of the guide screw rod.
- 3. The scanner of claim 1 wherein the gear device comprises a gear element, a gear gland and a gear bushing to connect the gear element and the gear gland to the guide screw rod.
- 4. The scanner of claim 3 wherein the teeth extend out from an inner surface of the gear gland.
- 5. The scanner of claim 3 wherein the motor is connected to the gear element to drive the gear device.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
89211242 U |
Jun 2000 |
TW |
|
US Referenced Citations (6)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
341418 |
Sep 1998 |
TW |