Patent Application
20070273717
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and which thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
Referring to
The first printing unit 100 includes a paper feed tray 110, a first paper feeding track 120, a first printing module 130, a first paper pickup assembly 140, and a first paper feeding assembly 150. The paper feed tray 110 is disposed at the bottom of the first printing unit 100 for storing a plurality of pieces of to-be-printed blank paper, a paper-in end 121 of the first paper feeding track 120 is connected to the paper feed tray 110. A paper-out end 122 of the first paper feeding track 120 is connected to the paper exit 700. The first paper pickup assembly 140 is disposed at the paper-in end 121 of the first paper feeding track 120 to pickup a piece of paper 810 in the paper feed tray 110 and feed the piece of paper 810 into the first paper feeding track 120.
The first paper feeding assembly 150 is disposed on two sides of the first paper feeding track 120 for feeding the piece of paper 810 in the first paper feeding track 120 from the paper-in end 121 to the paper-out end 122. As the paper-out end 122 is connected to the paper exit 700, the piece of paper 810 can reach the paper exit 700. The first printing module 130 is disposed in the middle section of the first paper feeding track 120 for performing a printing process on the piece of the paper 810, when the piece of paper 810 passes the first printing module 130 via the first paper feeding track 120, it can be printed by the first printing module 130.
As described above, the second printing unit 300 can be an inkjet printing unit. The second printing unit 300 includes a second paper feeding track 310, a second paper pickup assembly 320, a second paper feeding assembly 330, a paper support 340, and a second printing module 350. The second paper feeding track 310 has a paper-in end 311 and a paper-out end 312, wherein the paper-in end 311 is disposed on one side of the second printing unit 300, corresponding to one side edge of the multi-function peripheral device. The paper support 340 is disposed on a first side of the second printing unit 300 for supporting to-be-printed blank paper 820, and the paper-in end 311 is connected to the paper support 340.
The second pickup assembly 320 is disposed at the paper-in end 311 of the second feeding track 310 to pickup a piece of the blank paper 820 on the paper support 340, such that the piece of blank paper 820 enters the second paper feeding track 310 from one side of the second printing unit 300. The second paper feeding assembly 330 is disposed on two sides of the second paper feeding track 310 for feeding the piece of blank paper 820 from the paper-in end 311 to the paper-out end 312. As the paper-out end 312 is connected to the paper exit 700, the piece of blank paper 820 can reach the paper exit 700. The second printing module 350 is disposed in the middle section of the paper feeding track 310 for performing a printing process on the piece of the blank paper 820, when the piece of paper 820 passes the second printing module 350 via the second paper feeding track 310, it can be printed by the second printing module 350.
The scanning unit 500 is disposed on a second side of the second printing unit 300, such that the scanning unit 500 is juxtaposed above the first printing unit 100 together with the second printing unit 300. As the paper-out ends 122, 312 of the first printing unit 100 and the second printing unit 300 are connected to the paper exit 700, the paper exit 700 is shared by the first printing unit 100 and the second printing unit 300. Therefore, the height of the first printing unit 100 and the second printing unit 300 is reduced after being overlapped. And as the second printing unit 300 and the scanning unit 500 are juxtaposed above the first printing unit 100, the height of the multi-function peripheral device can be further reduced, thus the size of the multi-function peripheral is reduced.
In practice, the first printing module 130 of the first printing unit 100 can be a laser printing module, which meets the requirement of large-quantity black and white printing together with the paper feed tray 110 used for storing papers. The second printing module 350 can be a color inkjet printing module, which meets the requirement of color printing. As the quantity of color printing is relatively small, the paper feed tray can be omitted, and the paper can be picked up from the paper support on the side, which further reduces the space that the paper feed tray occupies.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 095118503 | May 2006 | TW | national |
