Optical scanning system having a rotatable platen assembly and method for loading same

An optical scanning system comprising:

• a housing having an internal chamber and an opening into said chamber;
• a base mounted on the housing adjacent the opening, the base having at least one support surface;
• a platen mounted on said base and rotatable about an axis between a first position for being scanned and a second position for being loaded;
• a scanner providing a coherent scanning beam tracing scan lines in first direction across an image area of the platen;
• and
• means for transporting the scanner relative to the base to cause the beam to move in a second direction across the image area whereby the scanning beam traces a series of mutually displaced scan lines thereacross.

A method for loading a sheet into a scanning system having a vacuum platen and a scanner, the platen having a first face for holding a sheet to be imaged and being rotatable between a first position for loading the sheet onto the first face and a second position for imaging the sheet, the scanner being movable out of the platen's path of rotation, comprising the steps of:

• moving automatically the scanner out of the platen's path of rotation;
• raising automatically a sheet to the first face of the vacuum platen and holding the sheet to the first face of the platen with a vacuum force while the platen is in the first position;
• and
• rotating automatically the platen to bring the sheet to the second position.