Multi-functional apparatus having a small size and method for same

Disclosed is a multi-functional apparatus having a small size. The multi-functional apparatus according to the present invention includes a body including a section for transferring a recordable paper and a service station formed at an outside of the recordable paper transferring section; a guide mounted along an entire width of the body in a vertical direction to be normal to a recordable paper transferring direction; and a carriage which has a printhead and a scanner module mounted thereon and moves reciprocally along the guide to be across the recordable paper transferring section, the carriage being positioned in the service station when a scanning or printing operation is normally completed, wherein the scanner module is mounted on the carriage to be adjacent to the recordable paper transferring section with reference to the printhead.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
 1. Field of the Invention
 The present invention relates to a multi-functional apparatus and, more
 particularly, to a multi-functional apparatus having a reduced size due to
 the mounting of both a printhead and a scanner module in a carriage.
 2. Background Art
 Generally, a multi-functional apparatus is referred to a device including a
 scanner, a copier, a printer, a facsimile device and a modem, which is
 connected with a computer to print or store data scanned by the scanner or
 transferred through the modem from the other system in a hard disk of the
 computer. Thus, the multi-functional apparatus can act as the facsimile
 device, the printer, the scanner and the printer.
 The scanner used in the multi-functional apparatus having functions of the
 printer, the scanner, the facsimile device, and the copier is divided in a
 sheet feed type scanner and a flat bed type scanner. The sheet feed type
 scanner is mainly used in a facsimile device, which scans data on a
 document a line by line while feeding the document. On the other hand, the
 flat bed type scanner is mainly used in a copier, which scans data on a
 document disposed on a flat bed while moving in a main scanning direction.
 A multi-functional apparatus having the sheet feed type scanner is
 provided with a facsimile device using ink or toner depending on a
 printing manner and a section for interfacing with a personal computer.
 However, a multi-functional apparatus having the flat bed type scanner is
 provided with a printer and a facsimile device.
 In the multi-functional apparatus having the sheet feed type scanner, there
 is a disadvantage in that since both a scanner module and a printhead are
 separately incorporated into the multi-functional apparatus, the entire
 size of the multi-functional apparatus is increased.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a
 multi-functional apparatus that can be manufactured with a smaller size.
 It is another object to provide a multi-functional apparatus that has a
 reduced manufacturing a cost.
 To achieve these and other objects, according to an embodiment of the
 present invention, there is provided a multi-functional apparatus having a
 small size that may be constructed using a body including a section for
 transferring a recordable paper and a service station formed at an outside
 of the recordable paper transferring section, a guide mounted along an
 entire width of the body in a vertical direction to be normal to a
 recordable paper transferring direction, and a carriage which has a
 printhead and a scanner module mounted thereon and moves reciprocally
 along the guide across the recordable paper.
 The scanner module is mounted on the carriage to be adjacent to the
 recordable paper transferring section with reference to the printhead. The
 service station is selectively positioned at a right side or a left side
 of the recordable paper transferring section. The printhead according to
 the embodiment of the present invention is an inkjet printhead. The
 scanner module is mounted to be adjacent to an outside of a character
 recognizing region of the recordable paper transferring section.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
 Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the
 multi-functional apparatus according to the present invention. A multi
 function peripheral controller 1 (hereinafter, referred to as MFP
 controller) controls an entire system of the multi-functional apparatus.
 The MFP controller 1 controls a memory 4 containing a system driving
 program and an image processor 2 so that a shuttle scanner module 3 scans
 image data or the image processor 2 processes the image data. That is, the
 image processor 2 rasterizes the image data scanned by the scanner module
 3. Further, the MFP controller 1 controls a modem 12 and LIU, line
 interface unit, 13 in order to transfer facsimile image data processed by
 the image processor. In addition, the MFP controller 1 controls an
 interface 11 to transfer the data to the personal computer P.C. as well as
 controls an inkjet head driver 5, a LF, line feed, motor driver 7, and a
 CR, carriage return, motor driver 9 to print data transferred from the
 personal computer and facsimile data received by a facsimile device.
 More particularly, the image processor 2 performs a shading and gamma
 correction, an edge emphasis, and an error diffusion of the image data
 scanned by the shuttle type scanner module 3.
 The memory 4 includes an EPROM containing a system program, a SRAM for
 processing system data, and a DRAM for storing printing data, scanned
 data, and image data received by the facsimile device. The interface II is
 a module for interfacing with the personal computer and transfers the
 scanned data to the personal computer and receives the printing data from
 the personal computer.
 On the other hand, the inkjet printhead driver 5 is operated according to
 the control of the MFP controller 1 and the LF motor driver 7 and the CR
 motor driver 9 receive control signals for a phase and a position of a
 carriage motor from the MFP controller 1 so as to drive the LF motor 8 and
 the CR motor 10. The modem 12 modulates the image data to communicate with
 the other facsimile device and the LIU 13 makes the multi-functional
 apparatus to connect with the PSTN.
 In the multi-functional apparatus having the shuttle type scanning module,
 as shown in FIG. 2, the LF motor 8 makes the document or the recordable
 paper to be moved through the paper transferring section while the
 scanning module and the inkjet printhead module are reciprocally moved
 along the guide shaft and across the width of the document or the
 recordable paper to scar the document or to print the data on the
 recordable paper.
 Referring to FIG. 3, the multi-functional apparatus according to the
 present invention includes the scanning module 3 and the inkjet printhead
 6 mounted on the carriage 20 enclosed in a housing H which is reciprocally
 moved along the guide shaft 18. The scanning module 3 is provided with a
 charge coupled device board, a lens, and a light emitting source and the
 inkjet printhead 6 includes nozzles 6a.
 According to the present invention, the scanning module 3 is mounted on the
 carriage 20 to be near the paper transferring section. That is, the inkjet
 printer is divided into the paper transferring 8 section in which the
 document or the recordable paper is transferred and the service station in
 which the scanning module 3 and the inkjet printhead 6 stay when the
 scanning or printing stop. The scanning module 3 is mounted together with
 the inkjet printhead 6 on the carriage 20 to be positioned near the paper
 transferring section.
 Preferably, the scanning module 3 is mounted to be disposed at an outside
 of the character recognizing region of the paper transferring section.
 According to the embodiment of the present invention, moreover, the service
 station is present at the left side of the paper transferring section. The
 scanning module 3 is disposed at the side of the inkjet printhead 6 on the
 carriage 20. However, the service station is present at the right side of
 the paper transferring section. In the above case, the scanning module 3
 is positioned at the right side of the inkjet printhead 6 on the carriage
 20.
 On the other hand, the carriage 20 is driven by means of a driving force of
 the CR motor 10. That is, the driving force generated by the CR motor 10
 is transferred to the timing belt 15 to drive the carriage 20 connected to
 the timing belt 15. Thus, the scanning module 3 and the inkjet printhead 6
 on the carriage 20 are moved along the guide shaft 18.
 Also, the inkjet printhead 6 is reciprocally moved by the CR motor 10 along
 the guide shaft 18 while the inkjet printhead 6 injects ink through the
 nozzles 6a to print the data on the recordable paper. The LF motor 8 feeds
 the recordable paper.
 When a position detecting sensor 31 detects the inkjet printhead 6 during
 the printing operation, the inkjet printhead 6 is moved by a controller,
 such as MFP controller 1, to a position S in the service station 30. On
 the other hand, the inkjet printhead 6 is moved to an initial position C
 so that the nozzle 6a of the printhead is closed by a cap 32 for the ink
 to be prevented from being dried.
 Hereinafter, an operation of the multi-functional apparatus having the
 scanning module according to the present invention will be described in
 detail.
 When the multi-functional apparatus receives a command for printing or
 scanning operation from a host computer, the carriage 20 is moved along
 the guide shaft 18 to an end of the guide shaft 18 so that the nozzle 6a
 of the inkjet printhead 6 is positioned at the position S. Then, the
 carriage 20 is reciprocally moved along the guide shaft 18 while the
 inkjet printhead 6 performs the printing operation.
 When the printing operation is completed, the carriage 20 enclosed in the
 housing H is moved along the guide shaft 18 to the service station 30. As
 shown in FIG. 4, when the position detecting sensor 31 detects the
 carriage 20, the controller controls the inkjet printhead 6 so that the
 nozzle 6a is engaged with the cap 32 in the service station 30.
 At that time, the scanning module 3 is positioned at a position outside the
 service station 30 near the paper transferring section as illustrated in
 FIG. 4.
 As described above, since it is possible to make the carriage 20 having the
 scanning module 3 and the inkjet printhead 6 mounted thereon move
 reciprocally along a small length of the guide shaft. As a result, there
 is an advantage in that the multi-functional apparatus can be made to be
 small.
 That is, the scanning module 3 is mounted to be adjacent to the character
 recognizing region and the printhead 6 is disposed to be at the side of
 the scanning module 3, thereby making the multifunctional apparatus to
 have a small width.
 According to the present invention, as described above, it is possible to
 make the carriage having the scanning module and the inkjet printhead to
 be moved along the small length of the guide shaft, thereby making the
 multi-functional apparatus to be small. Accordingly, a manufacturing cost
 of the multi-functional apparatus can be reduced.
 Although this preferred embodiment of the present invention has been
 disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will
 appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are
 possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as
 disclosed in the accompanying claims. It is also possible that other
 benefits or uses of the currently disclosed invention will become apparent
 over time.