Patent ID: 6796559
Filing Date: 2004-09-28
Classification: G03G,H04N

Abstract:
An automatic document feeder comprising:a document feeding portion for feeding a document placed thereon; a document reading portion at which an image of said document is read; a document discharging portion for discharging said document of which said image has been read; a document feeding path for guiding said document between said document feeding portion and said document reading portion; a document discharging path arranged with at least a part thereof overlapped with at least a part of said document feeding path in a vertical direction, for guiding said document between said document reading portion and said document discharging portion; a document shunting path arranged with at least a part thereof arranged between at least a part of said document feeding path and at least a part of said document discharging path in a vertical direction such that at least a part of each of said document shunting path, said document feeding path and said document discharging path are overlapped in said vertical direction, and wherein said document shunting path is branched from said document feeding portion; and conveying means for conveying said document in a forward direction along said document feeding path from said document feeding portion to pass a leading edge of said document through said document reading portion, then conveying said document in a reverse direction along said document feeding path toward said document shunting path so that at least another edge of said document is accommodated in said shunting path, and thereafter conveying said document in the forward direction along said document feeding path to be passed through said document reading portion, and further, conveying said document in the forward direction along said document discharging path to be discharged to said document discharging portion.