Murata Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha

Murata Machinery, Ltd.

Yoshitaka Nose

Toshihiro Kawamura

Ryuichi Onaka

Satoshi Washida

Daisuke Shige

Koji Yamamoto

Naritoshi Takamatsu

Osamu Otsuki

Kazuyuki Oya

Kenji Koyama

An image reading device includes a reading portion, a document type specifying device, and a feed controller. At the reading portion, one side of a document is read. The document type specifying device is configured to specify whether the document is a first type document or a second type document of which length in a feed direction is longer than the first type document. The feed controller is configured or programmed to perform a U-turn control and a switchback control. In the U-turn control, after reading a first side of the first type document at the reading portion, the first type document is fed in a U-turn manner without switching back, and a second side of the first type document is read at the reading portion. In the switchback control, after reading a first side of the second type document at the reading portion, the second type document is caused to switch back, and then a second side of the second type document is read at the reading portion.

Image reading device and auto document feeder

A document feeding route is provided in an automatic document feeder, and a feeder cover is provided on an upper portion of the automatic feeder and arranged to open and close an upstream half route of the document feeding route by being movable in a pivoting fashion. A plurality of pairs of drive rollers and idler rollers are provided in a downstream half route to feed a document toward a document ejection port. A jam clearance mechanism arranged to move the idler rollers or the drive rollers in a direction toward releasing a nipped state is arranged to face the downstream half route. The jam clearance mechanism includes a pair of cam frames and releasing bodies. The cam frames undergo a sliding displacement in a direction along which the pairs of idler rollers and drive rollers are arranged in coordination with opening and closing of the feeder cover. The releasing bodies move back and forth in coordination with the sliding movement of the cam frames.

Image reading apparatus

An auto document feeder includes a lead path, a first reverse path, a second reverse path, and a both surfaces eject path. The lead path guides a document from a left side to a right side of a read position. The first and second reverse paths are connected to the lead path, and reverse the document to guide the document from the right side to the left side of the read position. A both surfaces eject path is connected to the first and second reverse paths and guides the document whose image information of a second surface has been read to eject further to the right side than the read position. A shared curve path shared by the lead path and the both surfaces eject path includes a portion between the read position and a portion in which a lead curve path protrudes the most.

Auto document feeder and a document reader with the auto document feeder

An ADF includes an ADF main body portion, a scanner frame, a gear portion, a resistance gear, a torque limiter, and an outer cover. The scanner frame is arranged to be supported at the ADF main body portion such that it is rotatable. The gear portion is arranged on a rotation axis line of the scanner frame to integrally rotate with the scanner frame. The torque limiter is arranged to apply a resistance to the resistance gear that meshes with the gear portion when the scanner frame rotates from an exposed position to a usage position. The outer cover is attached to the ADF main body portion to cover one portion of the gear portion. The outer cover includes a contacting portion arranged to regulate the movement of the gear portion.

Automatic document transportation device and document scanning device equipped with the same

An auto document feeder includes a lead path, a first reverse path, a second reverse path, and a both surfaces eject path. The lead path guides a document from a left side to a right side of a read position. The first reverse path and the second reverse path are connected to the lead path, and reverse the document to guide the document from the right side to the left side of the read position. A both surfaces eject path is connected to the first reverse path and the second reverse path and guides the document whose image information of a second surface has been read so as to eject further to the right side than the read position. Further, the lead path includes a lead curve path which protrudes to the left side and is arranged more to the left side than the read position. A shared curve path shared by the lead path and the both surfaces eject path includes a portion between the read position and a portion in which the lead curve path protrudes the most.

An automatic document transportation device includes a document tray, a document discharge tray, a transportation path, a document feed roller, a separating pad, transportation rollers, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) scanning unit, a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanning unit and document discharge rollers. The document tray and the document discharge tray are provided vertically in two stages. The transportation path is formed in the sideways letter-U shape from the document tray to the document discharge tray. The document feed roller and the separating pad are provided in proximity to an inlet of the transportation path, and separate original documents by nipping the original documents in a thickness direction. The transportation rollers nip and transport the original document. The CCD scanning unit is provided directly downstream of a U-turn part of the transportation path and scans a first side of the transported original document. The CIS scanning unit is provided at downstream of the CCD scanning unit and scans a second side of the original document. The document discharge rollers nip and discharged the scanned original document. In a lateral cross-section of the automatic document transportation device, the CIS scanning unit is provided between and below the separating pad and the transportation roller provided directly downstream of the separating pad, and between the CCD scanning unit and the document discharge rollers.

Automatic document transportation device

A document image scanning device includes two scanning units provided along a document transportation path for scanning both sides of an original document. A plurality of transportation systems are classified into a first transportation system upstream of a first scanning unit and a second transportation system located front and back of first and second scanning units. The first and the second transportation systems are driven by first and second drive transmitting units, respectively. The first and the second drive transmitting units are distributed from an output shaft of one motor to transmit a driving force.

Document image scanning device

A paper feeder including a fixed guide disposed at one side of a paper feeding tray. The fixed guide functions as a standard of position adjustment of documents, and faces in an orthogonal direction against a document transporting direction. The documents are fed from the document feeding tray by a pick-up roller, separated into one-by-one and fed to the downstream by a document separator comprised of a separate roller and a retard roller. These pick-up roller, separate roller, retard roller are disposed within the smallest width size of the documents stacked on the document feeding tray. The documents fed to the downstream are fed to a reading unit by the feed roller mounted in the movable guide side located opposite to the standard line. After the image data of the document is read by the reading unit, the document is discharged to the paper discharging tray by an extra roller.

Paper feeding apparatus

An image scanning machine includes a document feeder for feeding sheets into a first paper path from a stack one sheet at a time if a one-side scanning mode is selected. If a both-side scanning mode is selected, a sheet is introduced into a second paper path which is an inverting path that turns a sheet, which is fed from the document feeder, upside down prior to scanning. Rollers located at a downstream end of the inverting path reverse a transportation direction of the sheet and feed the sheet to a scanner through a return path. The transportation direction of the sheet is reversed after the scanner scans one side of the sheet, and the sheet is then fed to the scanner again to scan the other side of the sheet. This transportation direction reversal results in turning the sheet upside down. A guide member is located a bifurcation of the return path and the inverting path for opening one of the return and inverting paths and closing the other of the return and inverting paths. Another guide member is located a bifurcation of the first and second paper paths.

Image scanning apparatus

Image scanning apparatus having a bifurcating guide member

A drive power transmission mechanism situated between a drive motor and a pick-up roller for transmitting a drive power to the pick-up roller from the drive motor to rotate the pick-up roller under a normal condition. The rotating pick-up roller picks up a sheet at a time from a stack of sheets piled up on a paper feed tray. The transmission mechanism includes a torque limiter that interrupts drive power transmission to the pick-up roller from the drive motor when the pick-up roller contacts an empty paper tray. The drive power transmission mechanism also includes a clutch for preventing drive power transmission from the pick-up roller to the drive motor. The drive power transmission from the pick-up roller to the drive motor occurs, for example, when both the pick-up roller and a feed roller contact the same sheet and the pick-up roller rotates faster than a predetermined speed.

Transmission mechanism for pick-up roller

An ordinary facsimile by itself cannot scan a thick material such as books and catalogs. In order to scan the entire book, for example, each page of the book should first be copied by a copy machine and these sheets are then loaded into the facsimile. The improved flat bed scanner is connected to the facsimile to eliminate the copying operation. The flat bed scanner scans any thick material by simply loading it on its scanning glass and the scanned data is transmitted to the facsimile. Since the flat bed scanner is attached to the facsimile, personal computer or the like, it should be compact in size and low in cost. To reduce the cost, an outer cover of the flat bed scanner is produced by simple sheet metal processing, and the rough corner portions resulting from such a simple processing are hidden by corner members attached thereto. Inside the outer cover, located are a power source, a main control board and a stationary optical part. A middle cover extends over these components. First scanning part and second scanning part are positioned above the middle cover inside the outer cover. A wire for connecting the power source with the main control board is inserted in two tubes so that it does interfere with the components in the outer cover and the wire can bend at a point between the two tubes.

Flat bed scanner

A single-pass ink ribbon and a multi-pass ink ribbon are incorporated in a single recording apparatus. An identification mark is attached to one end of the single-pass ribbon (or the multi-pass ink ribbon) so that a ribbon sensor can discriminate two kinds of ribbon from each other to find out which one is used for the printing. With the result of the discrimination, a controller selects an appropriate program to set up a printing condition for the ribbon being used for the printing. A thermal head temperature, a degree of wear of the ribbon and a black ratio of the ribbon may also be taken in account in determining the printing condition. If the thermal head temperature is used, one temperature table is selected from a number of temperature tables which are prepared in advance for respective temperature. The printing condition is determined such that the printing density is maintained as long as the same ink ribbon is used. If the multi-pass ink ribbon is used for the printing, the ink ribbon is pulled back to a position from which the first printing starts, upon the completion of the printing operation.

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Kyoto, Japan

Yoshitaka Nose