AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT FEEDER, IMAGE READING DEVICE INCORPORATING THE AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT FEEDER, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING THE IMAGE READING DEVICE

• US 20170142265A1
• Filed: 11/10/2016
• Published: 05/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: YOUDA, Yasunobu, OSANAI, Yohei, NAGANO, Tatsuaki, NARAI, Satoshi, KAWAI, Takuji, IMAKI, Daisuke, ANDOH, Takayuki, MIYAZAKI, Susumu, IKEDA, Hiroaki, FUJII, Yuki, ONO, Koichi, SHIKAMA, Takeshi, SHIRAMURA, Shingo, TANAKA, Hideo, HORIKAWA, Toshiyuki, INUI, Tetsuo
• Granted Patent: US 9,800,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2402/441 movable for facilitating access to area inside the housing, e.g. pivoting or sliding
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2403/541 Trigger mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2403/72 Clutches, brakes, e.g. one-way clutch +F204
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2403/721 Positive-contact clutches, jaw clutches
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2801/06 Office-type machines, e.g. photocopiers
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 3/0669 Driving devices therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 3/5261 Retainers of the roller type, e.g. rollers
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 5/06 by rollers or balls, e.g. between rollers transport by suction rollers B65H5/226
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 7/00 Controlling article feeding, separating, pile-advancing, or associated apparatus, to take account of incorrect feeding, absence of articles, or presence of faulty articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 7/02 by feelers or detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/602 for transporting
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/6529 Transporting G03G15/6555 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0032 with a medium handling apparatus, e.g. a sheet sorter handling thin or filamentary material, e.g. sheets B65H
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0057 Conveying sheets before or after scanning arrangements for conveying sheets as part of the scanning operation H04N1/04 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00602 Feed rollers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00628 Separating, e.g. preventing feeding of two sheets at a time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/121 Feeding arrangements transporting sheets to or from the scanning position H04N1/0057; control or error compensation of sub-scanning velocity H04N1/0473
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

An automatic document feeder that is included in an image reader of an image forming apparatus includes a sheet conveying roller, a document feeder cover, a projection piece, a motor, a driving side gear, and a driving force transmission device including an idler gear, a driving force release gear, a slide body, a first elastic body to bias the idler gear and the driving force release gear to be separated, a second elastic body to bias the driving force release gear and the slide body to be separated, and a drive shaft. The driving force transmission device meshes the driving and driven side meshing portions together with a biasing force applied by the second elastic body when the document feeder cover is closed, and releases the driving and driven side meshing portions with a biasing force applied by the first elastic body when the document feeder cover is opened.

Claims

1. An automatic document feeder comprising:

a sheet conveying roller configured to convey an original document along a document conveying passage;

a document feeder cover openable between a closed state relative to the document conveying passage in which a document feeder of the original document is defined and an open state in which the document feeder is checked;

a projection piece mounted on an inner face side of the document feeder cover corresponding to the document conveying passage;

a motor having an output shaft and configured to drive the sheet conveying roller;

a driving side gear mounted on the output shaft of the motor; and

a driving force transmission device, comprising;

an idler gear having a driving side meshing portion and configured to be meshed with the driving side gear;

a driving force release gear having a driven side meshing portion configured to be meshed with the driving side meshing portion;

a slide body configured to be pressed by the projection piece and slide when the document feeder cover is closed and brought into contact with the projection piece;

a first elastic body being inserted between the idler gear and the driving force release gear and configured to bias the idler gear and the driving force release gear in a direction to separate the idler gear and the driving force release gear from each other;

a second elastic body being inserted between the driving force release gear and the slide body and configured to bias the driving force release gear and the slide body in a direction to separate the driving force release gear and the slide body from each other; and

a drive shaft on which the idler gear, the driving force release gear, the slide body, the first elastic body, and the second elastic body are mounted coaxially,

the driving force transmission device configured to mesh the driving side meshing portion and the driven side meshing portion together by pressing the driving force release gear against the idler gear with a biasing force applied by the second elastic body at a first sliding position of the slide body when the document feeder cover is closed, and

the driving force transmission device configured to release engagement of the driving side meshing portion and the driven side meshing portion by separating the driving force release gear from the idler gear with a biasing force applied by the first elastic body at a second sliding position of the slide body when the document feeder cover is opened.

2. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein the driving side gear mounted on the output shaft of the motor is a worm gear.

3. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein the driving side gear mounted on the output shaft of the motor is a hypoid gear.

4. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1, further comprising:

a cover detector to detect whether the document feeder cover is closed or opened; and

a motor repetition driving controller to drive the motor to be rotated in a forward rotation direction and a reverse rotation direction repetitively at least one time of a predetermined number of times when the cover detector detects that the document feeder cover is opened.

5. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein, when the document feeder cover is closed, in the state that the driving side meshing portion and the driven side meshing portion are stopped at positions where the meshing portions are engaged with each other, the biasing force of the first elastic member and the biasing force of the second elastic member are balanced.

6. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein, when the document feeder cover is opened, in the state that the driving side meshing portion and the driven side meshing portion are stopped at positions where the meshing portions are separated from each other, the biasing force of the first elastic member and the biasing force of the second elastic member are balanced.

7. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein the driving side meshing portion is configured with multiple driving side fitting pawls provided in a circumferential direction of the drive shaft, and the driven side meshing portion is configured with multiple driven side fitting pawls that are provided along the circumferential direction of the drive shaft and are meshed with the driving side fitting pawls.

8. The automatic document feeder according to claim 1,

wherein the driving side meshing portion is configured with an involute-spline-shaped internal gear, and the driven side meshing portion is configured with an involute-spline-shaped external gear.

9. An image reading device comprising the automatic document feeder according to claim 1.

10. An image forming apparatus comprising the image reading device according to claim 9.