Photocopying – Contact printing – Light boxes
Patent
1990-09-12
1991-10-01
Pendegrass, Joan H.
Photocopying
Contact printing
Light boxes
355 25, 355 75, 355 82, G03G 2100, G03G 1500
Patent
active
050538195
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to copiers, and concerns in particular a xerographic photocopier adapted to facilitate the copying of books.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
The small to medium size photocopying machine usually has what is called a "straight-through" paper path. Thus, the plain paper onto which the orginal is to be copied is fed in a straight line through the copier from one end (where it is automatically loaded in from a hopper or cassette) to the other (where it is ejected into a collecting tray). As it progresses through the machine the paper is first contacted with a powder-bearing charged photosensitive surface and then delivered to and though a powder fusing section. The difficulty when copying books, is that the book must be opened wide enough to allow it to be placed face down flat on the glass platten, and this usually results in damage to the spine of the book, as the book is flattened out.
Various attempts have been made to deal with this, but none are particularly successful. In one type of copier, for example, the platten is positioned so as to extend right up to the very left-hand edge of the machine. A book may therefore be copied by placing it face down on the platten with only one half (one page) on the platten itself, the other half hanging down the vertical side of the machine, thereby avoiding the need to "flatten" the book. Extending the platten right up to the left-hand edge does create problems since it it difficult to arrange the optics of the imaging system such that the extreme left edge area of the original is properly seen and imaged onto the photosensitive surface, especially where reduction or enlargement is required. Furthermore the weight of the hanging portion of the book can cause the book to fall if the operator lets go without thinking.
Moreover, a trivial but irritating problem arising from the very nature of a straight-through paper system is that necessarily the hanging-down portion of a book may easily block the exit path of the formed copy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention proposes another solution to the problem of copying books, which solution avoids, or at least mitigates, the difficulties. More specifically, in a copier in which the imaging optics and paper feed, require the original to be aligned with (indexed on, or referenced to) the near edge of the platten, the casing of the copier is cut away in the region of upper near edge so as to slope outwardly and downwardly, to provide an inclined surface on which the half of a book which is not being copied can rest whilst the other half is being copied.
The invention thus allows a book to be copied--without being opened out flat--by placing the relevant page on the platten with its spine edge aligned with the near edge of the platten, and supporting the other half of the book on the inclined front surface.
One embodiment of the invention thus comprises a photocopier having a box-like casing including, from the operator's viewpoint, left, right, near and far sides and a top surface in which is mounted a platten, wherein the platten is set well back from the casing's front side, and the near top edge of the casing slopes away from the platten to produce a downwardly inclined book support surface which extends from the platten near edge.
In view of the present casing shape, the imaging system and certain other internal components may require modification and internal re-positioning compared with an otherwise conventional copier employing the same system. For example, where the copier is one using a scanning lamp on a slider rail, with light sensors and a blanking lamp (preventing excess toner usage), it will generally be necessary to move the lamp and its rail towards the far side; to raise the level of the platten, and move it towards the far side; to re-focus the optics; and to reposition the sensors and modify the blanking lamp lighting sequence.
Moreover, where the housing in the region of the top surface area adjacent the near edge of the platten would normally carry th
REFERENCES:
patent: 2878740 (1958-01-01), Hodges
patent: 3609030 (1971-09-01), Sugarman
patent: 4415255 (1983-11-01), Huber et al.
Lugg Simon E.
Malyon Brian R.
Pendegrass Joan H.
Select Information Systems Limited
Stanzione P. J.
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