Document feeding apparatus and a document feeding method with upstream pressure release
AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMasayoshi Nakabayashi, Kaoru Suzuki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
When a plurality of document sheets are sequentially transported by a belt to a document scanning area facing an optical scanning means, a clearance is formed between the belt and the document scanning area on the upstream side with respect to the document transporting direction. When a document is positioned in the document scanning area, a succeeding document is preliminarily transported until the leading edge thereof enters the clearance and contacts the belt. As a result, when the belt is driven to discharge the scanned document from the document scanning area, the succeeding document is quickly transported to the document scanning area. The time required for document transportation can thus be reduced.
Claims16
A document feeding apparatus comprising:
- a belt for feeding a document sheet onto a document scanning area of a copying machine;
- and
- a plurality of pressure rollers disposed along the transporting direction of the document for pressing the document being transported against the document scanning area via the belt, wherein:
- when the preceding document is positioned on the document scanning area, a prescribed number of pressure rollers counted from the upstream end in the transporting direction are controlled individually in the sequence in which the are arranged in such a manner as to release their pressures from the belt in accordance with the length of the document measured along the transporting direction.
A document feeding apparatus comprising:
- a belt for feeding a document sheet onto a document scanning area of a copying machine;
- and
- a plurality of pressure rollers disposed along the transporting direction of the document for pressing the document being transported against the document scanning area via the belt, wherein:
- when the preceding document is positioned on the document scanning area, the pressure roller disposed at the upstream end with respect to the transporting direction is controlled in such a manner as to reduce its pressure according to the length of the document measured along the transporting direction.
A document feeding apparatus comprising:
- a belt for feeding a document sheet onto a document scanning area of a copying machine;
- and
- a plurality of pressure rollers disposed along the transporting direction of the document for pressing the document being transported against the document scanning area via the belt, wherein:
- when the preceding document is positioned on the document scanning area, the pressure roller disposed at the upstream end with respect to the transporting direction is controlled in such a manner as to shift its pressing position toward the downstream side in the transporting direction in accordance with the length of the document measured along the transporting direction.
A document feeding apparatus for feeding document sheets stacked on a document loading tray and transporting the document sheets sequentially and successively by a belt to a document scanning area facing optical scanning means, wherein:
- a drum rotatable about its axis having a first branching transport path about a portion of the periphery of said drum in a first direction for reversing the transporting direction of the document for duplex copying and a second branching transport path about a portion of the periphery of said drum in a direction opposite to said first direction for turning over the document for simplex copying is provided between the document loading tray and the document scanning area;
- a clearance is formed between the belt and the document scanning area on the upstream side with respect to the transporting direction, the clearance serving as a third transport path into which the transport paths of the inverting means merger;
- and
- a plurality of pressure rollers disposed along the belt for pressing the document being transported against the document scanning area, a prescribed number of said pressure rollers counted from the upstream end in the transporting direction being controlled individually in the sequence in which they are arranged in such a manner as to release their pressures to adjust said clearance in accordance with the length of the document measured along the transporting direction.
A document feeding method for feeding document sheets stacked on a document loading tray and transporting the document sheets successively by a belt to a document scanning area facing an optical scanning means, comprising:
- releasing pressure applied by a prescribed number of pressure rollers to the belt on the upstream side with respect to the document transporting direction to form a clearance between the belt and the document scanning area on the upstream side with respect to the document transporting direction;
- and
- transporting the succeeding document for standby until the leading edge thereof enters the clearance and contacts the belt, when the document is positioned on the document scanning area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.