Document feeder assisting device and image forming apparatus incorporating automatic document feeder including the document feeder assisting device
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorMakoto Noda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A document feeder assisting device includes a document stacker to stack a document to be conveyed toward a feed port of an automatic document feeder, a pressing device to press the document toward a document placement surface of the document stacker, and a conveyance device to convey the document. The document is stacked on the document placement surface exposed above with the pressing device moved.
Claims21
A document feeder assisting device attachable to an automatic document feeder of an image forming device, comprising:
- a document stacker to stack documents, creating a stack of documents, to be conveyed toward a feed port of the automatic document feeder;
- a pressing device to press the stack of documents toward a document placement surface of the document stacker;
- a conveyance device to convey a document, of the stack of documents, along a linear conveyance path, inclined relative to a conveyance path of the automatic document feeder, through an ejection port to a feed port of the automatic document feeder;
- and
- an opening and closing device including an opening and closing member to open and close an ejection port to eject the document, the opening and closing member being energizable by an elastic force of an elastic member toward the document placement surface.
A document feeder assisting device attachable to an automatic document feeder of an image forming device, comprising:
- an ejection port to eject a target document to be delivered to a feed port in the automatic document feeder;
- a conveyance device to convey the target document toward the feed port of the automatic document feeder, the conveyance device including a document end extruder to extrude and deliver the document to the feed port;
- a document stacker to receive the target document and a plurality of documents;
- and
- an opening and closing member to open and close the ejection port in response to delivery of the target document,
- the opening and closing member contacting the document stacker to close the ejection port,
- the document end extruder being formed with a curved surface to extrude a trailing end of a document in a document conveyance direction and to deliver the document to the feed port.
A document feeder assisting device attachable to an automatic document feeder of an image forming device, comprising:
- a conveyance device to convey a stack of documents stacked on a document placement surface, toward a feed port in the automatic document feeder, the conveyance being configured to feed one document of the plurality of documents and to restrict remaining ones of the plurality of documents stacked on the document placement surface, the feed port being disposed in the vicinity of an intermediate portion of a conveyance passage in the automatic document feeder;
- and
- an opening and closing member, energizable in a direction toward the document placement surface by an energizing member and displaceable in the energizing direction to open and close an ejection port,
- the opening and closing member including a first surface to contact the document placement surface when the opening and closing member closes the ejection port and a second surface to receive force, displacing the opening and closing member in a direction opposite to the energizing direction, when the opening and closing member opens the ejection port during document conveyance toward a feed port in the automatic document feeder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.