Image forming apparatus for copying different groups of document

• US 5,839,019 A
• Filed: 03/28/1996
• Issued: 11/17/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Ito, Hiroyasu
• Primary Examiner(s): ROYER, WILLIAM J
• Application Number:
  US08/624,658
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 355/311, 355/314, 355/313, 355/323, 355/325, 355/208, 399/45, 399/363, 399/370, 399/382
• US Class Current: 399/45
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5095 Matching the image with the size of the copy material, e.g. by calculating the magnification or selecting the adequate copy material size
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00329 Document size detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00578 Composite print mode
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00582 Plural adjacent images on one side
• 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 1/00578 using at least part of a loop, e.g. using a return loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00602 Feed rollers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00623 Selectively inputting media from one of a plurality of input sources, e.g. input trays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00657 Compensating for different handling speeds of different apparatus or arrangements for handling a plurality of sheets simultaneously, e.g. mechanical buffering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3875 combined with enlarging or reducing enlarging or reducing per se H04N1/393

Abstract

An image forming apparatus which includes a document transporting device for sequentially transporting a group of original documents to a predetermined position on a document platen one by one. The group of original documents includes main body pages and partition pages which have a dimension different from the dimension of the main body pages. The image forming apparatus also includes an image forming device for forming an image of each of the original documents on a respective copy sheet in synchronization with an operation of the document transportation device. Sheet supplying means which have a plurality of supply portions and which feed copy sheets one at a time from the supply portions to the image forming device are also included. The image forming apparatus includes a detection device for detecting the dimension of each of the original documents while the original document is being transported to the predetermined position, and a control device for controlling the sheet supplying device in accordance with a detection of the detection device so as to supply a copy sheet for the partition pages from a supply portion different from a supply portion for the main body pages.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

document transporting means for sequentially transporting a group of original documents to a predetermined position on a document platen one by one, said group of original documents including main body pages and partition pages which have a dimension different from a dimension of the main body pages;

image forming means for forming an image of each of the original documents on a respective copy sheet in synchronization with an operation of said document transporting means;

sheet supplying means having a plurality of supply portions, and which feeds copy sheets one sheet at a time from the supply portions to said image forming means;

detection means for detecting the dimension of each of the original documents while said original document is being transported to said predetermined position; and

control means for controlling the sheet supplying means in accordance with a detection of said detection means so as to supply a copy sheet for the partition pages from a supply portion different from a supply portion for the main body pages.

2. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said partition pages are the same size as the main body pages, and have a different orientation than the main body pages with respect to a document transporting direction.

3. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the detection means detects a width of the document in the document transporting direction.

4. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image forming means forms images of two consecutive main body pages on a single copy sheet and forms an image of only a single partition page on one surface of a copy sheet.

5. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image forming means forms images of two consecutive main body pages on a same surface of a single copy sheet and forms an image of only a single partition page on one surface of a copy sheet.

6. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an image rotating means which rotates images of one of said main body pages and said partition pages.

7. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said partition page and the cover page are a same size as the main body pages.

8. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said partition pages separate said main body pages.

9. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a first sheet supply portion which stores a plurality of normal copy sheets;

a second sheet supply portion which stores a plurality of specific copy sheets;

a document feeder which feeds original documents one by one from an original document stack including a partition page and other pages, and sets the fed original documents on a platen, said partition page having a different dimension from a dimension of said other pages;

a detector which detects the dimension of the original documents fed by said document feeder;

a selector which selects the first sheet supply portion when the detector detects the dimension corresponding to the other pages, and selects the second sheet supply portion when the detector detects the dimension of the partition page; and

a printer which forms images of the original documents on the copy sheets fed from the sheet supply portions which are selected by said selector, whereby an image of the partition page is copied on one of the specific copy sheets and the images of the other pages are copied on the normal copy sheets.

10. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said specific copy sheets have a different color than the normal copy sheets.

11. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said partition page is a same size as the main body pages, and has a different orientation than the main body pages with respect to a document transporting direction.

12. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the detection means detects a width of the document in the document transporting direction.

13. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, further comprising an image rotating means which rotates images of one of said main body pages and said partition pages.

14. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said partition page and the cover page are a same size as the main body pages.

15. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said partition page separates said other pages.

16. An image forming apparatus comprising:

document transporting means for sequentially transporting a group of original documents to a predetermined position on a document platen one by one, said group of original documents including a cover page, a partition page, and main body pages, and the cover page and the partition page having a dimension which is different from a dimension of the main body pages;

image forming means for forming an image of each of the original documents in synchronization with an operation of said document transporting means;

sheet supplying means having a plurality of supply portions, and which feeds copy sheets one sheet at a time from the supply portions to said image forming means;

detection means for detecting the dimension of each of the original documents while said original documents are being transported to said predetermined position;

counting means for counting a number of the original documents which are transported from the group of original documents by said document transporting means;

specifying means for specifying whether a document is the cover page or the partition page in accordance with a count value of said counting means when the detection means detects the dimension of the cover page and the partition page; and

control means for controlling the sheet supplying means in accordance with a specification of said specifying means so as to supply the copy sheets for the cover page, partition page and main body pages from different supply portions from each other.

17. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein said partition page and the cover page are a same size as the main body pages, and have a different dimension than the main body pages with respect to a document transporting direction.

18. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the detection means detects a width of the document in the document transporting direction.

19. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein said image forming means forms images of two consecutive main body pages on a single copy sheet, and forms an image of only a single cover page on one surface of a copy sheet, and forms an image of only a single partition page on one surface of a copy sheet.

20. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein said specifying means specifies that an original document is a cover page when the count value of the counting means indicates one of the first page and the last page of the group of the original documents.

21. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein said partition page separates said main body pages.

22. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a first sheet supply portion which stores a plurality of normal copy sheets;

a second sheet supply portion which stores a plurality of cover copy sheets;

a third sheet supply portion which stores a plurality of partition copy sheets;

a document feeder which feeds original documents one by one from an original document stack including a cover page, a partition page, a back cover page, and main body pages, and sets the fed original documents on a platen, said main body pages having a first dimension and said cover page, partition page and back cover page having a second dimension which is different from the first dimension;

a detector which detects the dimension of the original documents fed by said document feeder;

a counter which counts a number of the original documents fed by said document feeder;

a selector which selects the first sheet supply portion when the detector detects the first dimension, and selects the second supply portion when the detector detects the second dimension and the counter indicates the first page or the last page of the original document stack, and selects the third sheet supply portion when the detector detects the second dimension and the counter does not indicate the first and last page; and

a printer which forms images of the original documents;

on the copy sheets fed from the sheet supply portions.

23. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein said partition page and the cover page are a same size as the main body pages, and have a different dimension than the main body pages with respect to a document transporting direction.

24. An image forming apparatus comprising:

document transporting means for sequentially transporting a group of original documents to a predetermined position on a document platen one by one, said group of original documents including first dimension documents and second dimension documents which are different from each other;

detection means for detecting the dimension of each of the original documents while said original documents are being transported to said predetermined position; and

image forming means for forming images of two consecutive first dimension documents on a single copy sheet according to a duplex mode and forming one image of one of said second dimension documents on a single surface of another copy sheet according to a simplex mode.

25. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 24, wherein said second dimension document is a cover page of the group of original documents.

26. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 24, wherein said second dimension document is a partition page of the group of original documents.

27. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 24, wherein said image forming means forms a reduced image of the first dimension document and forms a equal magnification image of the second dimension document.

28. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a document feeder which transports original documents from an original document stack to a document platen one by one, said original document stack including specific pages and other pages;

a plurality of sheet supply portions which feed copy sheets one by one, wherein one of said sheet supply portions stores a plurality of specific copy sheets which are different from standard copy sheets stored in another sheet supply portion;

a printer which forms images of the original documents transported to the document platen on the copy sheets fed by said sheet supply portions;

an operation panel which selects a two-in-one mode in which images of two consecutive original documents are copied on a single surface of the copy sheet side by side and a specific page mode in which one of the specific pages is copied on one of the specific copy sheets and the other pages are copied on the standard copy sheets; and

a controller which controls the document feeder, the sheet supply portions and the printer in accordance with a selection of the operation panel so as to perform a copy operation in either one of said modes for all original documents when the either one of the modes is selected by said operation panel, and to perform a copy operation in the specific page mode for the specific page and perform a copy operation in the two-in-one mode for the other pages when the both of said modes are selected by said operation panel.

29. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein said printer forms a reduced image of the original documents in the two-in-one mode and forms a equal magnification image of the original document in the specific page mode.

30. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein said specific pages are partition pages.

31. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 30, wherein said partition pages separates said other pages.