Image reading apparatus

Details Image reading apparatus Image reading apparatus

1998-10-30

2001-10-23

Lee, Cheukfan (Department: 2722)

Facsimile and static presentation processing

Facsimile

Picture signal generator

C358S488000, C358S496000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06307650

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for handling continuous documents.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The prevalence of the electronic filing system has increased the need for image reading apparatuses as input means. The electronic filing system used for office work, among other uses, is demanded to have higher speed processing in order to improve work efficiency. Main stream process methods of electronic filing systems process documents as follows: sheets of a document are sent out sequentially from a document feeding table, and each sheet of the document is transmitted at a high speed to a fixed image reader. The Model No. KX-SS55N, a product manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., is an example embodying this process.
In this image reading apparatus, an upper most document of plural documents stacked on the document feeding table must be sent out sheet by sheet without the sheets being overlapped. For this purpose, a document to be sent out is pressed by a pick-up roller with a given pressure, and the roller spins to send out the document. Further, a mechanism such as a retarding roller is provided in order to avoid feeding plural documents simultaneously in error.
When such a higher speed image reading apparatus is commercialized in the market, an apparatus that can handle various types of documents, such as a compound document (e.g. duplicated document made of impact papers), card, and continuous documents, is required, as well as having the further higher speed which is demanded.
However, when continuous documents are sent out from the document feeding table, the pick-up roller sometimes damages the continuous documents due to excessive pressure applied to seams of the documents.
The present invention addresses this problem and aims to provide an image reading apparatus that can handle continuous documents without damaging them.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An image reading apparatus of the present invention comprises the following elements: (a) a table on which documents are stacked; a pick-up roller that sends out an upper most document of documents stacked on the table; table moving means for raising the table in order to bring contact between the pick-up roller and a document on the table as well as lowering the table in order to release the contact; document transmitting means for transmitting the document sent out by the pick-up roller; and reading means for reading the document sent out by the pick-up roller and outputting resultant data as image data.
The image reading apparatus having the above elements operates as follows. First, the pick-up roller sends out documents sequentially. Secondly, the document transmitting means transmits the documents. Thirdly, the reading means reads the document, and then the document arrives at a given location in the apparatus. Finally, the table is lowered.
This structure allows the continuous documents to be free from being damaged in that an appropriate space between the continuous documents on the table and the pick-up roller is provided since the table is lowered when the document arrives at the given location.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5515150 (1996-05-01), Yoshie et al.
patent: 5583662 (1996-12-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 6151129 (2000-11-01), Takaski et al.
patent: 5-8930 (1993-01-01), None
patent: 9-40305 (1997-02-01), None

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