Patent ID: 6434359
Filing Date: 2002-08-13
Classification: G03G,H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
An image scanning apparatus comprising:a scanner; a document feeder for receiving sheets in a stack and feeding one sheet at a time, each sheet having two sides; an inverting path for turning a sheet, which is fed from the document feeder, upside down before scanning; a transportation means located at a downstream end of the inverting path for reversing a transportation direction of the sheet and feeding the sheet to the scanner so as to scan one side of the sheet, wherein the transportation means includes a return path for guiding the sheet from the downstream end of the inverting path to the scanner, a guide member that bifurcates the return path and the inverting path for opening one of the return and inverting paths and closing the other of the return and inverting paths, whereby it is possible to introduce the sheet into the return path after the sheet is fed towards the scanner from the downstream end of the inverting path; and a reversing means for reversing the transportation direction of the sheet after the scanner scans the one side of the sheet, and feeding the sheet to the scanner again to scan the other side of the sheet.