Patent Application
20070097457
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-317046 filed Oct. 31, 2005. The entire content of priority application is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an image reading device capable of performing a document-feed reading operation for reading an image of a document while feeding the document and a document-fixed reading operation for reading an image of a document fixedly placed on a predetermined region of a flat bed unit and an image forming device having the image reading device.
A conventional image reading device have been provided with a transparent board, an image reading unit, a document conveying unit, and a document pick-up member. The transparent board has a document-feed reading region on which a document is conveyed and a document-fixed reading region on which the document is fixedly placed. The image reading unit is disposed blow the transparent board and selectively performs a document-feed reading operation for reading an image of the document conveyed on the document-feed reading region and a document-fixed reading operation for reading the image of the document placed on the document-fixed reading region. The document conveying unit conveys the document on the document-feed reading region in a document conveying direction from document-feed reading region to the document-fixed reading region. The document pick-up member is provided between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region. The document conveyed on the document-feed reading region contacts the document pick-up member and picked up by the document pick-up member. This type of image reading device can convey the document on the document-feed reading region of the transparent board by the document conveying unit and perform the document-feed reading operation for reading the image of the conveyed document or perform the document-fixed reading operation for reading the image of the document fixedly placed the document on the document-fixed reading region of the transparent board based on the user's request, In performing the document-feed reading operation, this type of image reading device conveys the document on the document-feed reading region in the document conveying direction by the document conveying unit. Then, the document is picked up by the document pick-up member and stacked on a upper side of the document-fixed reading region.
Here, the document pick-up member needs to be provided on the transparent board so as not to interfere conveyance of the document by the document conveying unit. Therefore, it is considered that the transparent board is divided into the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region and a lower end portion, having a wedge-shaped cross section, of the document pick-up member is interposed between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region. Thus, the document conveyed on the transparent board is well picked up by an upper surface of the document pick-up member without being caught on the lower end portion of the document pick-up member.
However, when the transparent board is divided into two parts as described above, the document-feed reading region is supported by only three edges except an edge on which the document pick-up member is provided, thereby reducing strength of the document-feed reading region. That is, since the image reading unit such as a CIS needs to move lower portions of the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading member of the transparent board, the document-fixed reading member, having so large as to place all of predetermined size documents thereon, of the transparent board is supported only by the above-mentioned three edges. Accordingly, when the document such as a book is pressed against the document-fixed reading member, the document-fixed reading region of the transparent board may be bent downward, thereby interfering movement of the image reading unit. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-50025 discloses that the transparent board is formed with a groove between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region, and the lower end of the document pick-up member is disposed in the groove. The groove extends over the transparent board in a widthwise direction perpendicular to the document. conveying direction. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-136437 discloses that the transparent board is formed with a plurality of through-holes or recesses between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region, and a plurality of the pick-up member are provided to the plurality of through-holes or recesses.
Forming the groove between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region, that is better than dividing the transparent board into two parts. However, since strength is reduced, the transparent board may be bent downward. When the plurality of pick-up member is provided on the transparent board, reduction in strength of the transparent board can be suppressed to some extent. However, when the document having a bent corner is conveyed, the bent part of the document comes into contact with a side surface of the document pick-up member and whole of the document cannot be picked up. As a result, the document cannot be conveyed.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading device capable of performing a document-feed reading operation and a document-fixed reading operation by providing a document-feed reading region and a document-fixed reading region on a transparent board, and to provide an image forming device having the image reading device capable of suppressing reduction in strength of a transparent board and picking up a document conveyed on the document-feed reading region in a document conveying direction.
To achieve the above and other objects, one aspect of the present invention provides an image reading device including a transparent board, a document conveying unit, and a document pick-up member.
The transparent board has a document-feed reading region on which a document is conveyed and a document-fixed reading region on which the document is fixedly placed. The transparent board has an upper surface when the transparent board is disposed in an orientation in which the transparent board is intended to be disposed. The document conveying unit conveys the document on the document-feed reading region in a document conveying direction from the document-feed reading region to the document-fixed reading region. A widthwise direction is defined perpendicular to the document conveying direction. The document pick-up member is provided between the document-feed reading region and the document-fixed reading region to pick up the document conveyed on the document-feed reading region upward to the upper surface of the transparent board.
The document pick-up member has an one end portion that is located on a document-feed reading region side thereof. The one end portion has a distal end positioned at a most upstream end of the one end portion in the document conveying direction. The distal end is located below the upper surface of the transparent board. The one end portion is inclined with respect to the widthwise direction from the distal end toward the downstream side in the document conveying direction.
In another aspect of the invention, there is provided an image forming device including a image reading device described above that reads a document and generates image data, and an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium based on the image data.
In the drawings:
Next, an image scanner and an image forming device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described while referring to the accompanying drawings.
The ink jet recorder 1 is a so-called Multi Function Device (MFD) having printing, copying, scanning and faxing functions. Sheet-like materials made of paper, plastic film and the like are used as recording mediums.
As shown in
[Configuration of Recording Unit 7]
A box-like metal frame 5 is disposed above the sheet feeder 30 and in a rear section of the case 1a. The frame 5 is a rectangular parallelepiped shape that is long in the left-to-right direction and that is short in the front-to-rear direction, and fixed in the case 1a.
The recording unit 7 is disposed in an upper section of the frame 5. The recording unit 7 includes a carriage 4a which mounts a recording head 4 that performs printing operation on the recording sheet 20, and another mechanism. The carriage 4a can move reciprocally in the left-to-light direction (a scanning direction). In the recording unit 7, the carriage 4a reciprocates in the left-to-light direction in
A maintenance unit (not shown) is mounted at a position corresponding to a waiting position of the carriage 4a in the recording unit 7. In the maintenance unit, various maintenance operations, such as a wiping operation for wiping a nozzle surface of the recording head 4 by a blade or the like, a purge operation for forcibly removing contaminant, air and solidified ink from the nozzle and a flushing operation, are carried out.
Four ink cartridges (not shown) are disposed in the front section of the case 1a. The four ink cartridges store four colors (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) of ink for forming a full-color image on the recording sheet 20, respectively. These ink cartridges are detachably disposed in the case 1a. When ink in the ink cartridges is empty, the ink cartridges are replaced.
The ink stored in each ink cartridge is supplied to the recording head 4 through four ink supply tubes 11 connecting the ink cartridges to the recording head 4. The ink supply tubes 11 are supported so as to move following the reciprocating movement of the carriage 4a.
A conveying path 5a for guiding the recording sheet 20 from the rear side of the sheet feeder 30 to the recording unit 7 is formed in the rear side of the frame 5. The recording unit 7 has a conveying roller 7a and an ejecting roller 7b. The conveying roller 7a is located at a position adjacent to an exit of the conveying path 5a. The ejecting roller 7b is located at a position where the recording sheet 20 that an image is recorded thereon is emitted from the recording unit 7. The conveying roller 7a is rotated by a rotational driving force of a sheet conveying motor (not shown).
A long arm 10 is disposed rear and bottom section of the case 1a. The arm is pivotably supported about a driving shaft 9. A sheet feed roller 8 is rotatably supported on the rear end of the arm 10. When the driving shaft 9 is rotated by a rotational driving force of a sheet feeding motor (not shown), the rotational driving force is transmitted to the sheet feeding roller 8, thereby rotating the sheet feeding roller 8.
The sheet feeder 30 has a sheet feeding cassette 3 which is inserted from an opening 1b of the case 1a. The sheet feeding cassette 3 is provided with a sheet storage unit 3a for storing stacked recording sheets 20 therein. When the sheet feeding cassette 3 is inserted into the case 1a, the recording sheets 20 in the sheet storage unit 3a are located in the rear section of the case 1a.
The topmost sheet of the recording sheets 20 stacked in the sheet storage unit 3a is sent to the recording unit 7 through the conveying path 5a by rotation of a sheet feeding roller 8.
An operation panel 6 including various operation buttons and a liquid crystal panel is provided on the upper front surface of the ink jet recording device 1. By using the operation panel 6, the user can select any of a printing mode, a copying mode, a scanning mode and a faxing mode in the ink jet recording device 1, set various setting items in the modes, input necessary information such as a facsimile number and the like, and confirm operating state, communications history and the like.
[Configuration of Scanner 2]
The scanner 2 can perform reading according to both the flat bed (FB) method and automatic document feeding (ADF) method. As shown in
The cover unit 2b includes a document pick-up member 52, a guide 53, a document ejecting roller 54, and a document ejecting tray 55. The document pick-up member 52 is disposed the downstream side of the document feeder 47 in the document conveying direction. The guide 53 slants upward from the left side toward the right side. A left end of the guide 53 is located adjacent to the document pick-up member 52. The document ejecting roller 54 is disposed adjacent to a right end of the guide 53. The document ejecting tray 55 is positioned at an upper surface of the cover unit 2b. The document ejecting tray 55 has a document receiver 55a provided at the right end of the document ejecting tray 55. The document receiver 55a prevents the document from falling off the document ejecting tray 55.
The document is conveyed on the document-feed reading region 51a described later of the platen glass 51 by the document feeding roller 47 and further conveyed to the sheet ejecting roller 54 via the document pick-up member 52 and the guide 53. The conveyed document is further conveyed by the sheet ejecting roller 54 and ejected to the document ejecting tray 55.
The platen glass 51 includes the document-feed reading region 51a and a document-fixed reading region 51b. In the document-feed reading region 51a, the document is read by the document feeding unit 41 and a reading head 61 described later according to the automatic document feeding method. In the document-fixed reading region 51b, the document is scanned according to the flat bed method. As shown in
As shown in
[Configuration and Effects of Document Pick-Up Member]
The document pick-up member 52 has a left end portion 52b, and a right end portion 52c. The left end portion 52b has the distal end 52a at a most upstream end of the left end portion 52b. The distal end 52a is located at the center of the document pick-up member 52 in the widthwise direction. As shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
Refer to
In the cover unit 2b of the scanner 2, a document conveyed on the document-feed reading region 51a by the document feeding roller 47 as described above can be well picked up by the document pick-up member 52 as follows. That is, since the left end portion 52b is inclined with respect to the widthwise direction from the distal end 52a toward the right side and is inclined symmetrically about the distal end 52a in the widthwise direction, even when the document conveyed on the document-feed reading region 51a by the document feeding roller 47 is conveyed tilting a little with respect to a direction from the document-feed reading region to the document-fixed reading direction or has a bent corner, the document first comes into contact with the distal end 52a. As described above, since the distal end 52a is located below the upper surface 51d of the platen glass 51 and the left side of the tapered face 52d is located inside the recess 51c, the document can be picked up without being caught on the document pick-up member 52.
Then, whole of the document is picked up along the tapered face 52d and the top surface 52e of the right end portion 52c. Furthermore, since the top surface 52e of the right end portion 52c is parallel to the upper surface 51d of the platen glass 51, the leading edge of the picked up document is also parallel to the upper surface 51d of the platen glass 51. Accordingly, the document can be smoothly guided to the guide 53 and document ejecting roller 54.
In the preferred embodiment, since the platen glass 51 is formed with the recess 51a, the document pick-up member 52 having the distal end 52a can be attached as described above. It is unnecessary to divide the platen glass 51 into two parts or form a groove extending over the platen glass 51 in the widthwise direction. Thus, strength of the platen glass 51 can be ensured and production cost of the platen glass 51 can be reduced. Accordingly, even when a book or the like is pressed against the document-fixed reading region 51b, the reading head 61 can be smoothly moved. The recess 51c is formed in the platen glass 51 in the preferred embodiment described above, but a though hole may be formed in the platen glass 51.
While the invention has been described in detail with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the attached claims.
While the distal end 52a is located at the center of the document pick-up member 52 in the widthwise direction in the preferred embodiment described above, for example, the distal end 52a may be provided on the document pick-up member 52 within a region corresponding to a minimum width of a document which is capable of being guided by the document guides 43 (preferably, any position other than the both ends of the minimum-width document in the widthwise direction). The minimum width of the document is a distance that the pair of document guide 43 move toward most each other. In this configuration, various documents can be well picked up as described above. Since the distal end 52a is located into the recess 51c, a position of the recess Sic is also determined by determining the position of the distal end 52a. Accordingly, it is preferable that the recess 51c is also disposed within a range corresponding to the minimum width of the document which is capable of being guided by the document guides 43 (preferably, any position other than the both ends of the minimum-width document in the widthwise direction).
While the pair of the document guides 43 is provided on the document feeding unit 41 in the preferred embodiment described above, as shown in
While the distal end 52a is provided on the document pick-up member 52 at the center in the widthwise direction in the preferred embodiment described above, as shown in
In this case, as compared with the case where the distal end 152a is located at the rear side of the document pick-up member 152 as described above, a document conveyed on the document-feed reading region 51a can be well picked up by the document pick-up member 252, even when the document conveyed on the document-feed reading region 51a by the document feeding roller 47 is conveyed tilting a little with respect to the direction from the document-feed reading region to the document-fixed reading direction or has a bent corner.
In the above embodiments, the present invention is applied to the multi function device having the copying function of forming an image by the recording unit 7 based on the image of the document read by the scanner 2. However, the present invention can be also applied to a scanner without the image forming unit.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-317046 | Oct 2005 | JP | national |
