Other

Konica Corporation

Nisca Corporation

Hiroshi Maeshima

Kazuhiro Hirota

Hiroshi Nakagomi

Yasuhito Watanabe

Kazunori Yoshioka

In an automatic document feeder for use in an image forming device such as copy machine and facsimile machine: a document shunting path for temporarily shunting a document is provided at an upstream side of a document reading portion; in a different-size mixed mode where different sizes of documents are placed in a mixed manner, the leading edge and rear edge of the document are detected by a sensor during conveyance of the document in the direction toward the document reading portion, so that the length of the document is detected; thereafter the document is conveyed in the reverse direction so that the rear edge of the document is shunted into the document shunting path; and thereafter the document is again conveyed in the forward direction to conduct reading. Thus, it becomes unnecessary to provide a longer conveyance path for detecting the length of the documents, so that the size of the feeder itself can be reduced.

Automatic document feeder having a document shunting path

In an automatic document feeder for use in an image forming device such as copy machine and facsimile machine: a document shunting path for temporarily shunting a document is provided at an upstream side of a document reading portion; in a different-size mixed mode where different sizes of documents are placed in a mixed manner, the leading edge and rear edge of the document are detected by a sensor during conveyance of the document in the direction toward the document reading portion, so that the length of the document is detected; thereafter the document is conveyed in the reverse direction so that the rear edge of the document is shunted into the document shunting path; and thereafter the document is again conveyed in the forward direction to conduct reading. Thus, it becomes unnecessary to provide, a longer conveyance path for detecting the length of the documents, so that the size of the feeder itself can be reduced.

Growing community of inventors

Yamanashi-ken, Japan

Hiroshi Maeshima