Document conveying apparatus and image-forming machine

A document conveying apparatus, comprising a document conveying passage and a pair of document introduction rollers disposed at a document insertion portion on said document conveying passage, wherein:

• said document conveying apparatus further comprises a support frame body disposed on the upper side of said document conveying passage and a cover frame supported pivotably by said support frame body;
• said pair of document introduction rollers are constituted by a driven roller disposed on the lower side of said document conveying passage and a follower roller supported by said cover frame, said cover frame is allowed to turn selectively between a closed position where said follower roller is brought into pressed contact with said driven roller and an open position where said follower roller is located at an upper position away from said driven roller, a shutter member is supported on the downstream side of said pair of document introduction rollers to freely move up and down between a shut-off position where said shutter member shuts off said document conveying passage so that the leading end of a document inserted in said document conveying passage from said document insertion portion comes in contact therewith and is positioned and an open position where said shutter member retracts upward from said document conveying passage to permit the movement of said document, and said cover frame and said shutter member are interlocked to each other so that said shutter member is moved up to said open position when said cover frame is turned to the closed position and so that said shutter member is moved down to said shut-off position when said cover frame is turned to the open position;
• and
• wherein said shutter member is supported by said support frame body so as to be moved down to the shut-off position from the open position due to its own weight and to be moved up to the open position from the shut-off position against its own weight, an acting protuberance is disposed on said cover frame to move said shutter member up and down with the turn of said cover frame, a to-be-acted surface is formed on said shutter member, said to-be-acted surface of said shutter member is disposed on a locus of turn of the acting protuberance of said cover frame and when said cover frame is turned to the closed position, said acting protuberance is brought into contact with said to-be-acted surface of said shutter member from the lower side to move said shutter member up to the open position against its own weight and when said cover frame is turned to the open position, said acting protuberance moves in a direction to separate away downwardly from the to-be-acted surface of said shutter member, permitting said shutter member to move down to the shut-off position due to its own weight.