The Mead Corporation

James W Davis

Barry C Kockler

Suresh C Paranjpe

Robert J Scranton

Lonnie K Spears

Roger D Wells

Dale R Duvall

Daniel T Noonan

Theodore F Williams

Bradley W Larson

Thomas J Difloria

Robert A Wiley

Larry D Propst

Frank A Betron

N Flynt Moreland

An automatic document handler for a duplex copier is disclosed in which an inverting drum is employed for inverting documents which are to be copied on both sides (duplex copying). The inverting drum is provided with pressure or transport belts which carry a document over a portion of the surface of said drum, and a diverter gate arrangement is provided at the exit side of the belts, adjacent the drum, for selectively providing for passage of the document to a collection station, or alternatively, for causing the documents to re-enter toward the drum for delivery to a duplex scanning station. The diverter gate arrangement includes a relatively fixed stripper which is positioned adjacent the surface of the drum, which stripper cooperates with a movable gate. In one position of the gate, a nose portion of the gate is nested with the stripper and permits documents to pass thereover to a collection station. In a second position, the gate intercepts documents from the stripper and from the pressure belts and causes the same to be redirected toward the drum for duplex copying.

Duplex document copying machines

Disclosed is a platen cover for a copying machine in which the bound volume copying platen is not used for sheet document copying. The cover includes a sheet document transport and handling mechanism with the cover having an independently liftable lid to provide access to the transport and handling mechanism. Substantially uniform counter-balancing of the cover, containing the transport and handling mechanism, or the lid alone, from the closed hold-down position to the raised stay-open position, is provided by a torsional helix spring positioned about the pivotal axis of the lid counterbalancing the lid, and a gas spring acting on the transport and handling mechanism through a lever arm about the same axis, counterbalancing the mechanism.

Platen cover

Document exposure apparatus for a document copier is disclosed. Selectively, either the front or both sides of a document may be copied. Automatic transport apparatus first passes the document by a first optical scanning station from which signals representative of the front side of the document are obtained by a scanner. The document is then transported so as to engage a rotating drum. When only front side copying is desired, fingers of a solenoid actuated gate remove the document from the drum after a partial revolution is made and the document is passed to a receiving tray. When it is desired to copy both sides of a document, the gate is first lifted from the drum allowing the document to continue rotation with the drum so as to present the back side of the document, with the document traveling in the opposite direction, to a second scanning station to which the scanner has now moved, for copying the back side of the document. The document then travels with the drum to the gate the second time at which instance the gate has been lowered to the drum so that this time the document is removed from the drum and the document is then passed to the receiving tray.

Document exposure apparatus

The utility of a document exposing system for a copying machine that has a separate exposure platen for bulky documents with a cover containing a transport mechanism, is improved by providing for the platen cover to swing up and away from the platen by being pivoted on a horizontal hinge axis that is remote the rear edge of the platen and by providing for the single sheet document feeder to pivot away from the side of the platen by turning about a vertical axis located behind the back edge of the platen. Thus, an open, unobstructed volume over and at the side of the platen is provided whereby pages of extremely large bound volumes may be copied.

Large document access for a scanning system of a copying machine

A document scanning system having a platen for scanning bulky documents and two separate exposing stations for front and reverse side scanning of automatically fed sheet-type original documents. The platen and the two exposing stations are arranged in a common plane for scanning by scanning elements carried on a linearly driven carriage. Image sensing is performed by CCD arrays mounted on the scanner carriage. Scanning at the two exposing stations is conducted with the scanner carriage stationary, while platen scanning proceeds with the scanner carriage moving linearly at a uniform speed.

Document scanning system

An ink jet printer includes a charge decoupling device which permits fluid flow of electrically conductive fluid between a high voltage electrode and a grounded fluid reservoir while presenting a high impedance electrical path therebetween. The charge decoupling arrangement includes a nonconductive casing defining an interior casing cavity which is separated into an upper and a lower portion by means of a perforated plate extending horizontally across the cavity. A plurality of drop stabilizers are mounted adjacent associated ones of the perforations to define downwardly extending capillary fluid paths from the perforations into the lower portion of the cavity to form fluid drops which drip off of the bottoms of the stabilizers. The break up of the fluid into drops provides the high impedance path through the charge decoupling device, thus ensuring that the deflection electrode arrangement and the catchers are substantially electrically isolated.

Ink jet printer and charge decoupling device therefor

An ink jet printer includes a print head means which generates two parallel rows of jet drop streams. Charge electrodes are mounted on a pair of charge electrode plates which are movable into and out of drop charging positions. A pair of catchers each define a drop catching surface and a drop ingesting slot along the lower edge of the drop catching surface. Each of the catchers is generally pivotally mounted for rotation about an axis parallel to the rows of jet drop streams. The catchers may be pivoted from a drop catching position, in which the drop catching surfaces are substantially parallel, to a full catch position in which drop catching surfaces are inclined to face upward and intercept the jet drop streams. In the full catch position, the drop ingesting slots are positioned closely together. A linkage arrangement is provided for pivoting the catchers from the full catch position to the drop catch position after start up of the print head means. The linkage arrangement also moves the charge electrode plates into the drop charging positions after the catchers are pivoted sufficiently to apply a drop deflecting potential to thereto, but while the drop catching surfaces intercept the jet drop streams.

Ink jet printer

A scanner for scanning a document positioned against a backing surface to determine the position of the document includes photoelectric transducers which provide electrical scan signals in dependence upon the light reflected from the document and from the backing surface at a plurality of moving scan positions as the scan positions move across both the document and the backing surface. A recognizable background image is defined on the document backing surface such that the photoelectric transducers provide a recognizable pattern of scan signals as the document backing surface is scanned, thereby indicating the position of the document. The recognizable background pattern may include a plurality of stripes on the document backing surface with the stripes extending substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the scan positions. Alternatively, the recognizable background pattern may include a plurality of stripes which extend substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the scan positions. Alternate ones of the stripes may be black with intermediate ones of the stripes being white. A circuit means may be provided for detecting the recognizable pattern of the scan signals.

Document scanner

An ink jet printer deposits ink drops from a plurality of jet drop streams along a plurality of parallel adjacent print lines on a sheet of paper. The printer includes a sheet supporting drum, means for rotating the drum, and a print head which is slidably mounted adjacent the drum for linear movement in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the drum. A rotatable cam defines a continuous endless camming surface with the cam being driven by a drive arrangement interconnected with the means for rotating the drum. A cam follower means follows the continuous camming surface and moves the print head in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the paper supporting drum such that jet streams are directed to deposit drops along respective ones of the print lines during successive rotations of the drum.

Growing community of inventors

Richardson, TX, United States of America

James W Davis