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US 2017/0289387 A1Published application
Auto document feeder to finisher path
AssigneeTommy Yue
InventorTommy Yue
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A multifunctional printer comprising a printer section, an auto-document feeder, a scanner section, and a finisher, wherein a finisher path leads from the auto-document feeder into the printer section and converges with a print path into a shared finisher path leading to the finisher, such that documents scanned with the auto-document feeder can be conveyed to the finisher such that it can perform a finishing operation on the documents.
Claims19
A multifunctional printer, comprising:
- a printer section comprising one or more printer components and a paper storage area;
- an auto-document feeder comprising an input tray and an input path configured to draw paper from the input tray into the input path;
- a scanner section comprising one or more image sensors configured to scan paper moving through the input path in the auto-document feeder;
- and
- a finisher comprising a finisher output tray,
- wherein the input path in the auto-document feeder branches into an output path that leads to an output tray at the auto-document feeder and a finisher path that leads through the auto-document feeder, the scanner section, and the printer section,
- wherein the auto-document feeder comprises a path guide configured to selectively close off either the output path or the finisher path, and
- wherein the finisher path and a print path converge into a shared finisher path that leads through the printer section to the finisher such that the finisher is configured to perform a finishing operation on a stack of paper received through the shared finisher path and output a finished stack of paper at the finisher output tray.
5 more elements
A method of selectively outputting scanned pages at a finisher, comprising:
- accepting instructions through a user interface at a multifunctional printer to scan pages loaded at an input tray of an auto-document feeder;
- sequentially drawing in pages from the input tray into an input path of the auto-document feeder and scanning the pages with an image sensor in a scanner section of the multifunctional printer;
- selectively moving a path guide in the auto-document feeder to close an output path branching from the input path to an output tray at the auto-document feeder and correspondingly open a finisher path branching from the input path when the instructions indicate that a finisher mode has been selected, wherein the finisher path leads through the scanner section and a printer section of the multifunctional printer and converges with a print path into a shared finisher path terminating at the finisher, such that the pages from the auto-document feeder's input tray are conveyed through the finisher path and the shared finisher path to the finisher;
- performing a finishing operation on a stack of pages received at the finisher through the shared finisher path with the finisher;
- and
- outputting the stack of pages at a finisher output tray.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.