Patent Application
20100084810
This application claims priority of No. 097138646 filed in Taiwan R.O.C. on Oct. 8, 2008 under 35 USC 119, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sheet inputting mechanism and an automatic sheet feeder using the same, and more particularly to a sheet inputting mechanism and an automatic sheet feeder with a stopper.
2. Related Art
A supply tray of a conventional automatic sheet feeder may be configured to be inclined or horizontal. While the inclined supply tray may allow the loaded sheets to be fed and to slide into the pickup roller under the force of gravity, eliminating the need of pre-pickup rollers, the inclined supply tray increases the height of the scanner and negatively affects the aesthetics of the scanner. Such a scanner, in result, does not conform to the slim, space-saving design demanded by users. The horizontal or the substantially horizontal supply tray, however, does not occupy too much vertical space, but an additional set of sheet inputting mechanism for feeding in the sheets stacked on the horizontal supply tray has to be provided and used with the horizontal supply tray.
At present, the automatic sheet feeder available in the market picks up the sheet using a pick-up roller, which can swing up and down. In order to prevent multiple sheets from entering the sheet passageway at the same time, a sheet stopping mechanism has to be provided to restrict the position of the sheets on the tray and thus stops the sheets from directly entering the sheet passageway. This sheet stopping mechanism needs to work in conjunction with the operation of the pick-up roller so that the sheet stopping function can be achieved. The conventional sheet stopping mechanisms include a rotatable sheet stopping mechanism, a retractable sheet stopping mechanism and the like.
In each of these sheet stopping mechanisms, stoppers are disposed on two sides of the pick-up roller. The two stoppers also have to be linked together. Thus, a lot of components are used and the linking method is complicated. Meanwhile, the processes of the installation and disassembly of the pick-up roller become complicated, which is disadvantageous to the maintenance and replacement of the pick-up roller.
Thus, it is an important object of the invention to provide a sheet inputting mechanism with a simple structure and an automatic sheet feeder using such sheet inputting mechanism.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a sheet inputting mechanism with a simple structure and an automatic sheet feeder using the same.
To achieve the above-identified object, the invention provides a sheet inputting mechanism including a first body, a first roller, a second body, a second roller and a stopper. The first roller is mounted on the first body. The second body is rotatably connected to the first body. The second roller is mounted on the second body. The stopper is rotatably mounted on the first body and directly driven by the second body. When the second body is rotated to a first state relatively to the first body, the stopper is rotated to a closing state to prevent a sheet from being moved to a sheet input position. When the second body is rotated to a second state relatively to the first body, the stopper is rotated to an open state to allow the sheet to be moved to the sheet input position and to be in contact with the first roller.
The invention also provides an automatic sheet feeder including a supply tray, a sheet passageway, a sheet inputting mechanism and a transporting mechanism. The supply tray stores a sheet. The sheet passageway is connected to the supply tray. The sheet inputting mechanism feeds the sheet into the sheet passageway. The transporting mechanism transports the sheet through and out of the sheet passageway. The sheet inputting mechanism includes a first body, a first roller, a second body, a second roller and a stopper. The first roller is mounted on the first body. The first roller is disposed at an inlet of the sheet passageway. The second body is rotatably connected to the first body. The second roller is mounted on the second body. The stopper is rotatably mounted on the first body, directly driven by the second body, and disposed between the inlet of the sheet passageway and the supply tray. When the second body is rotated to a first state relatively to the first body, the stopper is rotated to a closing state to prevent the sheet from being moved to the inlet of the sheet passageway. When the second body is rotated to a second state relatively to the first body, the stopper is rotated to an open state to allow the sheet to be moved to the inlet of the sheet passageway.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention.
The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.
Referring first to
The supply tray 10, horizontally or substantially horizontally disposed, is for storing one sheet S or a plurality of sheets. The sheet passageway 20 is formed in a housing 70 of the automatic sheet feeder and is connected to the supply tray 10.
The transporting mechanism 40 transports the sheet S through and out of the sheet passageway 20. In this embodiment, the transporting mechanism 40 includes a pair of rollers 41 and 42 and another pair of rollers 43 and 44.
The sheet inputting mechanism 30 for feeding the sheet S into the sheet passageway 20 includes a first body 31, a first roller 32, a second body 33, a second roller 34 and a stopper 35. The first roller 32 is mounted on the first body 31 and disposed at an inlet 21 of the sheet passageway 20. The second body 33 is rotatably connected to first body 31, and the second roller 34 is mounted on the second body 33. The stopper 35 is rotatably mounted on the first body 31 and directly driven by the second body 33. The stopper 35 is disposed between the inlet 21 of the sheet passageway 20 and the supply tray 10. The first roller 32 may be a separation roller, while the second roller 34 may be a pick-up roller. The first roller 32 and the second roller 34 are driven by a rotating shaft of the first roller 32 and thus rotated in a sheet inputting direction. The second body 33 and the second roller 34 are also driven by the rotating shaft of the first roller 32 and thus are driven to swing up and down. When the rotating shaft of the first roller 32 drives the first roller 32 and the second roller 34 to rotate in the sheet inputting direction, the second body 33 falls down toward the supply tray 10 such that the second roller 34 may contact with the sheet S placed on the supply tray 10 and thus transports the sheet S to a sheet input position PI and the sheet S to be in contact with the first roller 32.
In order to achieve the function of properly stopping the sheets, the sheet inputting mechanism 30 is configured to have the following features.
When the second body 33 is rotated to a first state relatively to the first body 31, the stopper 35 is rotated to a closing state relatively to the first body 31 to prevent the sheet S from being moved to the inlet 21 of the sheet passageway 20 (i.e., to stop the sheet S from being moved to the sheet input position PI), as shown in
When the second body 33 is rotated to a second state relatively to the first body 31, the stopper 35 is rotated to an open state relatively to the first body 31 to allow the sheet S to be moved to the inlet 21 of the sheet passageway 20 (i.e., to allow the sheet S to be moved to the sheet input position PI), as shown in
Specifically speaking, as shown in
In addition, the stopper 35 includes a sheet stopping portion 35A and a force receiving portion 35B. As shown in
The transitional condition of the stopper 35 when the second body 33 is in a state between the first state and the second state is shown in
As shown in
The friction pad 50 is disposed at the inlet 21 and may be in frictional contact with the first roller 32 so that the object of separating the sheets may be achieved. The scanning module 60 disposed opposite a scan region 22 of the sheet passageway 20 acquires an image of the sheet S being transported past the scan region 22.
A supporting shaft 331B for abutting one end of the stopper 35 is provided in the second body 33, as shown in
The supporting shaft 331B is mounted on two extending arms 331A of the second body 33. The supporting shaft 331B abuts and drives the force receiving portion 35B of the stopper 35 to move, such that the sheet stopping portion 35A of the stopper 35 is swung between the restricting position and the retracted position.
The first body 31 and the second body 33 respectively have guiding structures 311 and 332 to facilitate the relative rotation between the first body 31 and the second body 33, and thus to maintain the rotation stability.
In addition to the automatic sheet feeder, the invention also provides the sheet inputting mechanism 30 with the above-mentioned features.
According to the embodiments of the invention, it is possible to utilize a mechanism of a simpler structure and fewer components to achieve the purpose of timely stopping the sheet from entering the sheet passageway. Because the components used in the device are fewer and the number of assembly steps is increased, the material and manufacturing costs can be reduced. In addition, the pick-up roller can be conveniently disassembled, replaced and installed. By such configuration, the stopper 35 may be disposed at a position closer to the separation roller so that the gap between two sheets may be reduced, and the scanning speed with respect to pages per minute (PPM), may be effectively increased.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 097138646 | Oct 2008 | TW | national |
