This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. ยง119(a) to Patent Application No(s). 099140954 filed in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Nov. 26, 2010, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a paper-stopping mechanism, and more particularly to a paper-stopping mechanism of an automatic document feeder.
With increasing development of science and technology, a diversity of office machines such as copy machines, printers, scanners and fax machines have experienced great growth and are now rapidly gaining in popularity. The copy machines, the printers, the scanners and the fax machines are usually equipped with automatic document feeders (ADFs). The automatic document feeder utilizes a paper pick-up arm for successively feeding a stack of to-be-processed papers into the inner portion of the main body of the office machine, so that the papers can be further processed. For avoiding an erroneous printing or scanning operation of the office machine, during the process of automatically feeding the papers, every two consecutive papers fed into the automatic document feeder should be spaced from each other by a certain spacing interval. For preventing two or more papers from being simultaneously fed into the automatic document feeder, a paper-stopping slice is usually disposed at the inlet of a paper-feeding channel of the automatic document feeder. If any paper is improperly fed into the paper-feeding channel, the location of the paper will be erroneously judged during the paper-feeding process of the automatic document feeder. Under the circumstance, the subsequent process of scanning or printing the paper is adversely affected.
Moreover, during the process of feeding the paper into the automatic document feeder, the paper may be jammed in the paper-feeding channel. For removing the jammed paper from the paper-feeding channel, the paper pick-up arm for feeding paper is usually installed on a foldable upper cover. By uplifting the upper cover, the jammed paper can be removed from the paper-feeding channel.
The conventional paper-stopping mechanism, however, still has some drawbacks. For example, after a long use time of the automatic document feeder, the position-limiting structure 111 and the stopper 101 of the paper-stopping mechanism 1 are readily suffered from wear and deformation. Moreover, if a large amount of dust is accumulated on the position-limiting structure 111, the position-limiting structure 111 fails to be effectively sustained against the stopper 101. In addition, if the paper-stopping slice 10 fails to be naturally returned to the initial position, the paper-stopping efficacy is impaired.
Therefore, there is a need of providing a paper-stopping mechanism for stopping the paper in response to the action of a paper pick-up arm of the automatic document feeder.
The present invention provides a paper-stopping mechanism of an automatic document feeder with good paper-stopping efficacy.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper-stopping mechanism of an automatic document feeder. The automatic document feeder has a paper pick-up arm for feeding a paper. The paper-stopping mechanism includes an upper cover, an auxiliary gear, a paper-stopping arm and a traction member. The paper pick-up arm is disposed on the upper cover. The auxiliary gear is disposed on the paper pick-up arm. During the paper pick-up arm is moved upwardly to a standby position, the auxiliary gear is rotated in a first direction. During the paper pick-up arm is moved downwardly to a paper pick-up position, the auxiliary gear is rotated in a second direction. The paper-stopping arm is pivotally coupled with the upper cover. The traction member is disposed on the upper cover. The traction member is stayed in a first position when the paper pick-up arm is in the standby position. The traction member includes a rack and a transverse rod. The rack is engaged with the auxiliary gear. Upon rotation of the auxiliary gear in the first direction, the traction member is moved to the first position. Whereas, upon rotation of the auxiliary gear in the second direction, the traction member is moved to a second position. When the traction member is in the first position, the transverse rod is sustained against the paper-stopping arm, so that the paper-stopping arm is stayed in a paper-stopping position. Whereas, when traction member is in the second position, the paper-stopping arm is raised by the transverse rod, so that the paper-stopping arm is detached from the paper-stopping position.
In an embodiment, the paper-stopping arm comprises an elongated slot and a paper-stopping slice. The transverse rod is penetrated through the elongated slot.
In an embodiment, the first direction is an anti-clockwise direction, and the second direction is a clockwise direction.
In an embodiment, the traction member is integrally formed.
In an embodiment, the auxiliary gear is penetrated through a sidewall of the paper pick-up arm, and engaged with a transmission gear of the paper pick-up arm.
In an embodiment, the traction member has a concave structure, and the paper pick-up arm has a convex structure corresponding to the concave structure.
In an embodiment, during the paper pick-up arm is moved upwardly to the standby position, the auxiliary gear is engaged with the rack to move the traction member to the first position, so that the concave structure is engaged with the convex structure and the paper pick-up arm is stayed in the standby position.
In an embodiment, during the paper pick-up arm is moved downwardly to the paper pick-up position, the traction member is driven by the auxiliary gear to be moved to the second position, so that the concave structure is detached from the convex structure and the paper pick-up arm is moved downwardly to the paper pick-up position.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:
The both ends of the paper-stopping arm 33 are inserted into corresponding pivotal holes 311 of the upper cover 31, so that the paper-stopping arm 33 is rotatable with respect to the upper cover 31. In addition, the paper-stopping arm 33 comprises an elongated slot 331 and a paper-stopping slice 332. The paper-stopping slice 332 is used for stopping papers. In this embodiment, the traction member 34 is integrally formed and disposed on the upper cover 31. Through a positioning block 312 of the upper cover 312, the traction member 34 is movable forwardly and backwardly with respect to the upper cover 31. The traction member 34 comprises a rack 341 and a transverse rod 342. The transverse rod 34 is penetrated through the elongated slot 331 of the paper-stopping arm 33. Moreover, a convex structure 213 is formed on the sidewall 211 of the paper pick-up arm 21, and the traction member 34 has a concave structure 343 corresponding to the convex structure 213 (see
Hereinafter, the operations of the paper-stopping mechanism will be illustrated in more details with reference to
The process of moving the paper pick-up arm 21 downwardly to a paper pick-up position will be illustrated with reference to
From the above description, the paper-stopping mechanism of the automatic document feeder of the present invention is capable of stopping the paper in response to the action of the paper pick-up arm. That is, when the paper pick-up arm is in the standby position, the paper-stopping mechanism can hinder the paper from entering the paper-feeding channel.
While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
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99140954 A | Nov 2010 | TW | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20120133095 A1 | May 2012 | US |