Paper separating device of the automatic document feeder

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6471203
  • Patent Number
    6,471,203
  • Date Filed
    Friday, December 22, 2000
    23 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, October 29, 2002
    21 years ago
Abstract
A paper separating device of the automatic document feeder can be assembled with a paper case loaded at least one piece of paper to provide the automatic paper separating and feeding function. The separating device includes: a paper feeding roller, which is located at one side of the paper case to carry its internal paper moving along the rolling tangent direction; a friction slice, which has one side near the paper feeding roller and locates the paper between the friction slice and the paper feeding roller; a first elastic component, which is combined at one bottom of the friction slice to provide the elastic force perpendicular to the tangent direction to force the friction slice approach the paper feeding roller; the characteristic is there is a second elastic component located at the other side of the friction slice to provide an elastic force opposite to the tangent to force the friction slice move toward the opposite tangent direction.
Description




FIELD OF THE INVENTION




The creation is about a separating device of the automatic document feeder, particularly for that kind which can maintain the initial paper separating function at the paper feeding speed higher than 15 ppm.




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




As the time changes, nowadays the electrical products like scanner, fax, photostat, printer and etc. appear to provide the convenience for our life. Due to slow feeding speed and one piece of paper each time, the above products have long waiting time when using. So the development of the automatic paper feeding device can provide the single page separation and paper feeding to largely improve the disadvantage of the above electrical products.




Please refer to FIG.


1


A and

FIG. 1B

, which is the prior art of the automatic document feeder. A paper feeding roller


20


is located at one side of the paper case


12


, combined with a transmission mechanism


11


and connected with a paper carrying roller


10


. So the paper feeding roller


20


rotates toward the same direction with the paper carrying roller


10


. The paper carrying roller


10


can be moved downward to a paper case


12


to contact a piece of paper


13


and upward from the paper case


12


to lose contact with that paper


13


and so the paper carrying roller


10


move downward to carry paper


13


inside paper case


12


moving along the rolling tangent direction


91


to the paper feeding roller


20


to finish the automatic paper feeding.




The prior art paper separation device of automatic document feeder covers the following two mechanism. Please refer to

FIG. 2

, below the paper feeder roller


20


is a down roller


30


; the two rollers have adequate contact. Due to the down roller


30


stopping when feeding paper, the paper feeder roller


20


can only roll one piece of paper


13


to pass through the two rollers. Without paper feeding, the down roller


30


rotates with the paper feeder roller


20


so the friction is less and the life is longer. But the down roller needs the total set of forming rollers to provide the above function so the design cost is higher. While the friction slice has low cost and easy design to control, so it has been widely used in the normal paper separation device.




Please refer to

FIG. 3A

, below the paper feeder roller


20


is a down friction slice mechanism


40


. This down friction slice mechanism


40


has a down friction slice


41


to contact adequately with the paper feeder roller


20


and a elastic mechanism


42


combined on the down friction slice bottom


43


to provide an elastic force perpendicular to the rolling tangent direction


92


. Cause the friction coefficient between the material of the paper feeder roller


20


and the paper


13


is larger than that between the material of the down friction slice


41


and the paper


13


and the friction coefficient between the material of the down friction slice


41


and the paper


13


is larger than that between the paper


13


and the paper


13


, the paper feeder roller


20


can only carry one paper


13


through the paper feeder roller


20


when paper feeder roller


20


carrying more than one piece of paper. The extra pieces of paper


13


are stopped at the down friction slice mechanism


40


due to friction. When paper feeding finishes, due to lager friction, the paper feeder roller


20


rolls the paper


13


stopped at the down friction slice mechanism


40


to feed paper separately.




Please refer to

FIG. 3B

, when the paper feeder roller


20


doesn't carry paper, the paper feeder roller


20


rubs against the down friction slice


41


and thus generates an arc hollow wear


44


at the same position. When the arc hollow wear


44


is too deep, the paper jam will occur and finish the life of down friction slice


41


. High speed paper feeding will accelerate the wear to shorten the life of the down friction slice


41


and thus can't provide the satisfactory life to the consumers. So, usually the speed in this device is lower than 10 ppm to provide the satisfactory life to the consumers.




The above two paper separation devices of automatic document feeder have their disadvantages in design cost and life. So it is necessary to develop a better paper separation device of automatic document feeder.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




The object of this invention is to provide a paper separation device of automatic document feeder that can decrease the design cost and elongate the life.




To reach this object, the paper separation device of automatic document feeder in this invention can be combined with a paper case loaded at least one piece of paper to provide the automatic paper separation and feeding. The paper separation device of automatic document feeder includes: a paper feeder roller, a friction slice, a first elastic component and a second elastic component.




The paper feeder roller is equipped at one side of the paper case and connected with a transmission mechanism and a paper carrying roller. So the paper feeder roller rotates the same direction with the paper carrying roller. And the paper carrying roller can move downward to the paper case to have contact with the paper and move upward to lose contact with paper. So the paper carrying roller moves downward to carry it's internal paper to move to the paper feeder roller along its rolling tangent direction.




This friction slice, with one side near the paper feeder roller and makes the paper locate between the friction slice and the paper feeder roller. Cause the friction coefficient between the material of the paper feeder roller and the paper is larger than that between the material of the friction slice and the paper and the friction coefficient between the material of the friction slice and the paper is larger than that between the paper and the paper, the paper feeder roller and the friction slice can separate the single page of paper.




The first elastic component is combined at the bottom of the friction slice to provide an elastic force perpendicular to the tangent direction and to make the friction slice approach the paper feeder roller.




The second elastic component is combined at the bottom of the friction slice to provide an elastic force contrary to the tangent direction and to make the friction slice move opposite the tangent direction.




These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS





FIG. 1A

is the illustration showing prior art the paper carrying roller moving upward to separate from the paper case and paper when automatic paper feeding.





FIG. 1B

is the illustration showing prior art the paper carrying roller moving downward to the paper case and contacting paper when automatic paper feeding.





FIG. 2

is the example of the prior art paper separation device with down roller.





FIG. 3A

is the example of the prior art paper separation device with down friction slice.





FIG. 3B

is the illustration showing the down friction slice wear of the prior art paper separation device with down friction slice.





FIG. 4A

is an embodiment of this invention showing the structure of the paper separation device of the automatic document feeder.





FIG. 4B

is an embodiment of this invention showing the side view of the paper separation device of the automatic document feeder.





FIG. 4C

is the illustration showing the friction slice wear of the paper separation device of the automatic document feeder.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT




The main characteristics of this invention is: on the one side of the friction slice, there is a second elastic component to provide an elastic force contrary to the rolling tangent direction of the paper feeder roller to make the friction slice move contrary to the tangent direction and to make the arc hollow wear of the friction slice enlarge to an arc flat wear. So the line wear becomes the plane wear and increase the life of the friction slice for N times and can provide the satisfactory life to the consumers in high speed paper feeding.




Please refer to FIG.


4


A and

FIG. 4B

, which shows the best embodiment of the structure of the paper separation device of the automatic document feeder. The paper separation device of the automatic document feeder can be combined with a paper case


12


loaded at least one piece of paper


13


to provide automatic paper separation and feeding. The paper separation device of the automatic document feeder includes: a paper feeder roller


20


, a friction slice


50


, a first elastic component


60


and a second elastic component


70


.




The paper feeder roller


20


equipped at one side of the paper case


12


is connected with a transmission mechanism


11


and a paper carrying roller


10


, so the paper feeder roller


20


rotates the same direction with the paper carrying roller


10


. And the paper carrying roller


10


can move downward to the paper case


12


to contact with paper


13


and move upward from the paper case


12


to lose contact with the paper


13


. So the paper carrying roller


10


moves downward to carry its internal paper


13


moving along its rolling tangent direction


91


to the paper feeder roller


20


.




The friction slice


50


, with one side near the paper feeder roller


20


, makes the paper


13


locate between the friction slice


50


and the paper feeder roller


20


. Cause the friction coefficient between the material of the paper feeder roller


20


and the paper


13


is larger than that between the material of the friction slice


50


and the paper


13


and the friction coefficient between the material of the friction slice


50


and the paper


13


is larger than that between the paper


13


and the paper


13


, the paper feeder roller


20


can only carry one piece of paper


13


through the paper feeder roller


20


when paper feeder roller


20


carrying more than one piece of paper. The extra pieces of paper


13


are stopped at the friction slice mechanism


50


due to friction. When paper feeding finishes, due to lager friction, the paper feeder roller


20


rolls the paper


13


stopped at the friction slice mechanism


50


. So the paper feeder roller


20


and the friction slice


50


can separate the single page of paper.




The first elastic component


60


is combined at the bottom


512


of the friction slice


50


to provide an elastic force perpendicular to the rolling tangent direction


92


and to make the friction slice


50


approach the paper feeder roller.




The second elastic component


70


is combined at the side


521


of the friction slice


50


to provide an elastic force contrary to the tangent direction


93


and to make the friction slice


50


move opposite the tangent direction


93


.




In the embodiment of the paper separation device of the automatic document feeder in this invention, the friction slice


50


is on a friction loading seat


52


. The friction loading seat


52


is an L shape component with on side


521


combined with the second elastic component


70


. The friction loading seat


52


is on a friction loading slide


51


and the friction loading slide is an hollow structure with a hollow tank


511


and its bottom


512


is connected with the first elastic component


60


.




When the paper carrying roller


11


rolls, the friction slice


50


endures an external pulling elastic force and the first elastic component


60


pushes upward to make the friction slice


50


contact with the paper feeder roller


20


, there is a paper separation function due to the friction difference between the paper feeder roller


20


, the friction slice


50


and the paper


13


. When the paper feeder roller


20


doesn't carry paper, the friction slice


50


contacts with the paper feeder roller


20


and the friction loading seat


52


will move along with the hollow tank


511


of the friction loading slide


51


. And the second elastic component


71


provides the elastic force contrary to the tangent direction


93


to get back to the initial position so there will occur an arc flat wear


53


. Please refer to

FIG. 4C

, it can increase the life.




The second elastic component


70


can have pushing and pulling force. The location can be at the other side in this better example so the second elastic component


70


can provide the horizontal paper feeding force. These are improvements toward the disadvantages of the prior art.




It will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the specification is addressed that the embodiment heretofore described may be varied to meet particular specialized requirements without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention disclosed. The foregoing embodiment is therefore not limited but rather exemplary of the structures and manner in which the present invention may be implemented. Instead, the scope of the invention is defined by the spirit and language of the appended claims.



Claims
  • 1. A paper separating device of the automatic document feeder can be assembled with a paper case loaded at least one piece of paper to provide the automatic paper separating and feeding function, said separating device comprising:a paper feeding roller, which is located at one side of the paper case to carry its internal paper moving along the rolling tangent direction; a friction slice, which has one side near the paper feeding roller and locates the paper between the friction slice and the paper feeding roller; a first elastic component, which is combined at one bottom of the friction slice to provide the elastic force perpendicular to the tangent direction to force the friction slice to approach the paper feeding roller; a second elastic component, located at one side of the friction slice to provide an elastic force opposite to the tangent to force the friction slice to move toward the opposite tangent direction.
  • 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the paper feeder roller is combined with a transmission mechanism and connected with a paper carrying roller.
  • 3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the paper carrying roller can move downward to the paper case to contact with the paper and separate from the paper when moving upward.
  • 4. The device according to claim 2, wherein the paper feeder roller rotates the same direction with the paper carrying roller.
  • 5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the friction coefficient between the material of the paper feeder roller and the paper is larger than that between the material of the friction slice and the paper.
  • 6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the friction coefficient between the material of the friction slice and the paper is larger than that between the paper and the paper.
US Referenced Citations (5)
Number Name Date Kind
4572498 Shiozawa Feb 1986 A
4588181 Sakata et al. May 1986 A
4830353 Hendriks et al. May 1989 A
5052677 Shibata Oct 1991 A
5163668 Winship et al. Nov 1992 A
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number Date Country
0282124 Nov 1990 JP