Electric paper tray, automatic document feeder with electric paper tray and automatic switching method of automatic document feeder with electric paper tray

An automatic document feeder with an electric paper tray, comprising:

• a base;
• a feeding path disposed in the base, an upstream and a downstream of the feeding path having a paper inlet and a paper outlet, respectively;
• a pickup module mounted to the paper inlet;
• a plurality of transmission roller modules arranged along the feeding path;
• a paper loading tray disposed to one of the paper inlet and the paper outlet;
• and
• an electric paper tray disposed to the other one of the paper inlet and the paper outlet, the electric paper tray including
• a paper holding element pivotally mounted to at least one side of the base, a bottom of the paper holding element having at least one rotation shaft, the at least one rotation shaft being pivotally connected to the base,
• a power unit arranged at the base, and
• a lifting module connected between the paper holding element and the power unit, the lifting module being movably mounted under the paper holding element and including at least one lifting component having a bottom arranged at one end of the base and a top slidably contacted with a bottom surface of the paper holding element, at least one supporting component arranged at the bottom of the at least one lifting component and fastened in the base, and a transmission gear assembly arranged at one side of the base, the power unit being connected with the transmission gear assembly and arranged at the one side of the base,
• wherein when the lifting module is driven by the power unit to move to a first position, with respect to the base, the lifting module drives the paper holding element to make the paper holding element rotate to a closed position via the at least one rotation shaft, an outer surface of the paper holding element and a top surface of the base are connected and are shown as a continuous surface, at the moment, the outer surface of the paper holding element is used as an appearance surface of the automatic document feeder, the paper inlet or the paper outlet is shielded by the paper holding element of the electric paper tray, when the lifting module is driven by the power unit to move to a second position, with respect to the base, the lifting module drives the paper holding element to make the paper holding element rotate to an opened position via the at least one rotation shaft, at the moment, the paper inlet or the paper outlet is exposed out of the paper holding element of the electric paper tray.

An automatic switching method of an automatic document feeder with an electric paper tray, comprising steps of:

• detecting whether paper is loaded in a paper loading tray of the automatic document feeder by a feed-in sensor of the automatic document feeder;
• driving a lifting module of the electric paper tray by a power unit of the electric paper tray to open a paper holding element of the electric paper tray if the feed-in sensor detects the paper is loaded in the paper loading tray, on the contrary, repeating detecting whether the paper is loaded in the paper loading tray;
• detecting whether the paper holding element of the electric paper tray is opened and is switched from a first position to a second position by a lifting sensor of the automatic document feeder;
• feeding the paper into the automatic document feeder by a pickup module of the automatic document feeder, and feeding the paper out to the paper holding element of the electric paper tray by a plurality of the transmission roller modules of the automatic document feeder if the paper holding element of the electric paper tray is opened to the second position;
• judging whether the paper is detected in the paper holding element of the electric paper tray by a feed-out sensor of the automatic document feeder;
• and
• driving the lifting module by the power unit if the feed-out sensor is unable to detect any paper in the paper holding element of the electric paper tray, the lifting module driving the paper holding element of the electric paper tray to move to the first position to close the paper holding element of the electric paper tray, at the moment, an outer surface of the paper holding element of the electric paper tray and a top surface of a base of the electric paper tray being connected and being shown as a continuous surface, and the outer surface of the paper holding element of the electric paper tray being used as an appearance surface of the automatic document feeder;
• wherein when the paper holding element of the electric paper tray is moved to the first position or the second position, a driving force transmitted to the paper holding element of the electric paper tray by the power unit is interrupted by the lifting module.