Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-12
2003-12-30
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
C271S291000, C271S065000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06669190
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a double-side automatic feeding apparatus for document, especially to a double-side automatic feeding apparatus with an E-shaped document traveling path and movable printing/scanning unit.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The computer printer is used to print out document such as text or picture from computer. The computer printer is generally connected to the parallel printer port of the computer and commanded by the computer for printing document.
The printers can be generally classified into dot-matrix printer; inkjet printer and laser printer. Among those, the dot-matrix printer has problem of poor quality and noise and become eclipsing. The inkjet printer prints document on paper by spraying ink thereon through a nozzle and is popular for personal usage. The laser printer has advantages of high quality and high speed. However, the laser printer has higher price and generally used by business.
Moreover, the scanners become popular peripherals for computer users as multimedia and web page design are gradually prevailing. The scanner generally senses a reflected light from a document of interest and converts the sensed light signal to a digital image signal for representing the document. The digital image signal can be processed with optical character recognition software to convert the digital image signal into textual file if the original document contains textual information.
However, the existing printer or scanner can only print/scan one side of a paper at each operation. For double-side printing, the paper should be taken out and turned over; this is inconvenient.
To scan double-sided document, scanner for double-sided image has been developed.
FIG. 1
shows a prior art scanner for double-sided image, which comprises a paper feeder
10
a
, a paper outlet
11
a
at same side as the paper feeder
10
a
, a scanning region
12
a
having a document traveling path
13
a
bridging the paper feeder
10
a
and the paper outlet
11
a
, a transparent window
14
a
and a direction-controlling wheel
15
a
opposite to the transparent window
14
a
, a rotary means
16
a
having an entrance path and an exit path connected to scanning region
12
a
. The entrance path is used to guide a document with one scanned side from the scanning region
12
a
, the exit path flipping the document and sending the flipped document to the scanning region
12
a
such that an unscanned side of the document can be processed in the scanning region
12
a
. A sensor
17
a
is placed at the exit of the rotary means
16
a
and sends a detection signal to the direction-controlling wheel
15
a
when sensing the appearance of the document and the direction-controlling wheel
15
a
will be commanded to rotate at opposite direction. An image sensor
18
a
is arranged at an outer side of the transparent window
14
a
. When the document is fed through the paper feeder
10
a
and passes to the transparent window
14
a
, the image sensor
18
a
senses an image at a first side of the document. When the document is flipped by the rotary means
16
a
and then again passes to the transparent window
14
a
, the image sensor
18
a
senses an image at a second side of the document.
However, in above-mentioned double-sided image scanner, the document should be returned to the paper outlet
11
a
after a long trip with flip operation. Therefore, the propagation distance of the document is long and the scanning time is increased.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a double-side automatic feeding apparatus, wherein the document can be scanned on both sides thereof without cumbersome reverse movement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a double-side automatic feeding apparatus with E-shaped document traveling path and movable printing/scanning unit.
To achieve above object, the present invention provides a double-side automatic feeding apparatus comprising a paper feeder, a first paper holder, a second paper holder, a document traveling path and a paper flipping unit. The paper feeder, the first paper holder and the second paper holder are arranged apart in longitudinal direction. The document traveling path is of E shape and connected to the paper feeder, the first paper holder and the second paper holder. The document traveling path is provided with a plurality of rollers to move a document from the paper feeder to one of the first paper holder and the second paper holder. The paper flipping unit is arranged in the document traveling path and can be trigger to flip the document during the document traveling path. By the double-side automatic feeding apparatus, a document can be selectively printed or scanned on single- or double-side thereof at user's disposal.
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patent: 6328303 (2001-12-01), Maetani
patent: 6398212 (2002-06-01), Miyake
patent: 2002/0081120 (2002-06-01), Oberhoffner
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patent: 05338892 (1993-12-01), None
Kohner Matthew J.
Lite-On Technology Corporation
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
Walsh Donald P.
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