Xerox Corporation

Microtek Lab, Inc.

Microtek International Inc.

Philip L Chen

James J Appel

Large format scanner

Compact electronic scanner

A plurality of pinch rollers are employed to drive sheets of paper containing material to be scanned past an optical scanner to generate an optical image of the material which is converted into electrical signals. Each pinch roller includes a drive roller which is driven by a synchronized drive mechanism and an idler roller. The support shafts for the idler rollers are supported in elongated bearings which provide limited freedom of motion for the idler rollers in a direction substantially normal to their axes of rotation. A pressure plate has spring fingers which resiliently urge the idler rollers towards the drive rollers to resiliently pinch the paper sheets being driven. In the event that the paper should become jammed and needs to be removed or repositioned, a roller release lever can be actuated to drive the pressure plate so as to permit the idler rollers to move freely in their elongated support bearings. Further, a friction pad is provided which rides on the surface of the paper so that in the event that more that one sheet of paper should pass through the rollers only the lowermost sheet will pass through.

Paper feed system having a pressure plate that resiliently urges a

Material such as a document or picture of which an image is to be reproduced or transmitted, as in a facsimile device, is driven by pinch rollers past a light source in a controlled synchronized manner by means of a stepping motor. As the pinch rollers are driven, successive scan line images of the document are channelled through an elongated slit in a light directing channel and through a lens and a rotatably driven color wheel onto a light sensitive device such a linear array formed by a charge-coupled device (CCD). The color wheel has light filters for the primary colors and is synchronized with the scanning. The images received by the CCD are converted thereby to electrical form and appropriately processed for transmission or local utilization. A mechanism is provided to enable the disengagement of the pinch rollers from the material being scanned to avoid damage to such material should it become jammed in the rollers.

Optical color line scanning and imaging device having a roller drive

The illumination of a document moving through an exposure zone is maximized by placing a pair of reflectors on each side of the exposure zone in close proximity to the object plane and in an optimum reflecting position in relation to the illumination source. In a first embodiment, utilized in a continuous velocity transport (CVT) system, the reflectors comprise an integral member consisting of a plurality of connected facets. In a second embodiment, wherein the document is moved across a fixed platen, the reflectors effectively consist of two elements including a physically separated extended portion which is formed within the cross section of the platen.

Dual reflector illumination system

A raster input scanner (RIS) comprising a platen and light source, doubling mirror, lens and two CCD arrays for producing a bit stream output with twice the resolution produceable with a single CCD is disclosed. The doubling mirror is between the platen and lens, and produces two beams separated by a small angle. The lens focuses these beams as two lines at the image plane, where half of each intersects each CCD array. Glass plates, each intersecting and perpendicular to each beam, and rotatable about orthogonal axes, provide horizontal and vertical fine tuning.

Raster input scanner comprising two CCD arrays

A flying spot scanning system is provided which is capable of scanning an unmodulated beam to a reading station for reading a stationary document and a modulated beam to an imaging station for recording an image thereat. The system utilizes optical elements which are common to both the unmodulated beam and the modulated beam to avoid duplication of elements of each beam. The beams strike the same facets of a rotating polygon scanner at the same location so that precise alignment of the facets will not be required. Relatively movable mirrors are moved across a stationary document at the reading station to provide a scan in such a manner to maintain optical conjugates constant.

Growing community of inventors

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States of America

Philip L Chen