Image scanning apparatus and multi-function apparatus including the same

An image scanning apparatus includes a document holder and a scanner module movably installed in the document holder, A multi-function apparatus may further include the image scanning apparatus. While the scanner module passes over the lower side of a document guide provided between a first glass and a second glass provided at the document holder, spacers installed at opposite ends of the scanner module are moved downward by guide members provided at the document guide, thereby preventing spacer portions provided at an upper end of the respective spacers from being caught by the document guide.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2013-0021673, filed on Feb. 28, 2013 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an image scanning apparatus to scan image information of a document and a multi-function apparatus including the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a multi-function apparatus includes an image forming apparatus to form an image on a print medium and an image scanning unit to scan image information of a document.

The image scanning unit may include a document holder in which a document is loaded, a scanner module disposed in the document holder to scan the document loaded on the document holder, and an automatic document feeding unit disposed at the upper side of the document holder to automatically feed a document.

The document holder may include a first glass corresponding to a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit and a second glass corresponding to a document manually loaded on the document holder. The scanner module may be movably installed inside the document holder to scan image information of a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit while being stopped at the lower side of the first glass. Or, the scanner module may be movably installed inside the document holder to scan image information of a document loaded at the upper side of the second glass while moving at the lower side of the second glass.

In recent years, a contact image sensor (CIS) type scanner module has been used as the scanner module. A characteristic of the CIS type scanner module is that it is lightweight.

SUMMARY

It is an aspect of the present invention to provide an image scanning apparatus that prevents damage to spacer portions, which may occur during movement of a scanner module, and a multi-function apparatus including the same.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an image scanning apparatus includes a document holder on which a document may be loaded, a scanner module disposed at a lower side of the document holder, the scanner module extending in a first direction, the scanner module being capable of moving in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to scan image information from a document loaded on the document holder, an automatic document feeding unit disposed at an upper side of the document holder to automatically feed a document to be scanned, and a pair of spacers disposed at opposite sides of the scanner module in the first direction. The document holder may include a first glass, over which the document fed by the automatic document feeding unit passes, and a second glass, on which a document may be manually loaded. The second glass may be spaced apart from the first glass in the second direction, and a pair of guide members may be provided between the first glass and the second glass, the guide members protruding toward moving routes of the pair of spacers to guide downward movement of the spacers, and each spacer may include a spacer portion protruding from a top thereof such that the spacer portion is supported by or in contact with a bottom of one of the first and second glasses.

At least one of the spacer portions may have an upper end of a predetermined width in the first direction such that the at least one of the spacer portions comes into surface contact with one of the first and second glasses.

At least one of the spacer portions may be formed in an arc shape in a section in the first direction such that the at least one of the spacer portions comes into linear contact with one of the first and second glasses.

At least one of the spacer portions may include a spacer portion provided at one side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers in the first direction and each guide member may contact the other side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers in the second direction.

At least one of the spacer portions may include a pair of spacer portions provided in the first direction such that the pair of spacer portions is parallel to each other, for example, in the second direction.

The pair of spacer portions may be provided at one side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers in the first direction such that the pair of spacer portions is parallel to each other and each guide member may contact the other side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers in the second direction.

The pair of spacer portions may be provided at opposite sides of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers in the first direction such that the pair of spacer portions is spaced apart from each other and each guide member may contact the top of a corresponding one of the spacers between the pair of spacer portions.

Each guide member may include a roller coming into linear contact with the top of a corresponding one of the spacers.

Each guide member may include a ball coming into point contact with the top of a corresponding one of the spacers.

The image scanning apparatus may further include a document guide disposed between the first glass and the second glass, wherein each guide member may include a guide protrusion integrally protruding from a bottom of the document guide.

The image scanning apparatus may further include a guide rail extending in the first direction, a moving member installed at the guide rail such that the moving member moves in the first direction, and a pair of elastic members installed between the scanner module and the moving member.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a multi-function apparatus includes an image forming apparatus to form an image and an image scanning apparatus disposed on the image forming apparatus to scan image information of a document. The image scanning apparatus may include a document holder on which a document may be loaded, a scanner module disposed at a lower side of the document holder, the scanner module extending in a first direction, the scanner module capable of moving in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to scan image information from a document on the document holder, an automatic document feeding unit disposed at an upper side of the document holder to automatically feed a document to be scanned, and a pair of spacers disposed at opposite sides of the scanner module in the first direction. The document holder may include a first glass, over which the document fed by the automatic document feeding unit passes, and a second glass, on which a document is manually loaded, the second glass being spaced apart from the first glass in the second direction, and a pair of guide members provided between the first glass and the second glass, the guide members protruding toward moving routes of the pair of spacers to guide downward movement of the spacers, and each spacer may include a spacer portion protruding from a top thereof such that the spacer portion is supported by a bottom of one of the first and second glasses.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an image scanning apparatus includes a scanner module disposed beneath a first glass and a second glass disposed adjacent to the first glass, to move between the first glass and second glass in a first direction, a spacer disposed at an end of the scanner module in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, to maintain a predetermined distance between a lower surface of at least one of the first glass and second glass and a top of the scanner module, a spacer portion disposed at an upper portion of the spacer to support at least one of the first glass and second glass, and a guide member disposed between the first glass and second glass to guide downward movement of the spacer.

The image scanning apparatus according may further include a moving member installed on a rail which extends in the first direction, wherein the scanning module may be disposed on the moving member which guides movement of the scanning module in the first direction, and an elastic member disposed between the moving member and the scanner module to elastically support the spacer and the scanner module.

The guide member may move the spacer and scanner module downward when the scanner module moves to a position between the first glass and second glass. The elastic member may be adapted to move the spacer and scanning module upward by an elastic restoring force, after the scanner module moves from a position beneath one of the first glass and the second glass to a position beneath the other one of the first glass and second glass.

The spacer may be formed of lubricating resin.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown inFIG. 1, a multi-function apparatus may include an image forming apparatus10to form an image on a print medium and an image scanning apparatus20. The image scanning apparatus20may be physically connected or attached to the image forming apparatus, for example it may be disposed at the upper side of the image forming apparatus10to scan image information from a document. The image forming apparatus10may include a printer, a copy machine, a fax, or a multifunction device which combines two or more functions of the printer, copy machine, and fax. The image forming apparatus10may also include a 3D printer.

As only one example, the image forming apparatus10may be embodied generally as a printer which may include a body which houses conventional components of a printer, and the image scanning apparatus20may be disposed at an upper portion of the body. For example, the body may include a feeder to store and feed a printing medium, a developer to form an image on the printing medium supplied through the feeder, an optical scanning unit to form an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive body of the developer, a fuser to fuse a toner image transferred to the printing medium to the printing medium, and a discharge unit to discharge, from the body, the printing medium upon which image formation has been completed. Additionally, the image forming apparatus may have the capability for single-sided printing and/or duplex printing. As another example, the image forming apparatus10may be embodied generally as a copier which may include a body which houses conventional components of a copier, or as a facsimile machine, or as a device which performs multiple functions, (for example, of a copier, facsimile machine, and/or printer).

The image scanning apparatus20may include a document holder200on which a document to be scanned is loaded, a scanner module210(seeFIG. 2) movably installed at the lower side of the document holder200to scan image information from the document loaded on the document holder200, and an automatic document feeding unit220disposed at the upper side of the document holder200to cover the document holder200and to automatically feed a document to be scanned. The document may include any printing medium (e.g., glossy paper, plain paper, art paper, overhead projector film, and the like).

For example, the scanner module210may be a contact image sensor (CIS) type scanner module. To guide movement of the scanner module210, as shown inFIGS. 2 and 3, a rail230to guide movement of the scanner module210and a moving member240, movably installed on the rail230, at the upper side of which the scanner module210is installed are disposed inside the document holder200.

The scanner module210and the moving member240may extend in a first direction. For example, with reference toFIG. 2, a front side of the image scanning apparatus20may correspond to a side in which a user typically approaches the device to operate the device, for example, where a user interface or control panel may be disposed. The first direction may correspond to or refer to a direction from front to back or from back to front of the image scanning apparatus20. The rail230may extend in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. For example, the second direction may correspond to or refer to a direction from side to side (e.g., left to right or right to left) of the image scanning apparatus20. As the moving member240moves along the rail230in the second direction, the scanner module210moves together with the moving member240in the second direction to scan a document on the document holder200.

The document holder200may include a rectangular ring-shaped frame201, a first glass202installed at one inner side of the frame201such that a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit220passes over the upper side of the first glass202, and a second glass203installed at the other inner side of the frame201such that a manually supplied document is loaded on the second glass203. The first glass202and the second glass203may be formed of a transparent material such that the document loaded on the upper side of the first glass202or the second glass203is scanned by the scanner module210disposed at the lower side of the first glass202and the second glass203. The first glass202and the second glass203may be spaced apart from each other in the second direction.

Consequently, the scanner module210may scan a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit220at the lower side of the first glass202while being stopped as shown inFIG. 4or scan a document loaded on the second glass203at the lower side of the first glass202while moving in the second direction as shown inFIG. 6. Alternatively, the scanner module210may move from the lower side of one of the first glass202and the second glass203to the lower side of the other as shown inFIG. 5.

Between the first glass202and the second glass203may be disposed a document guide204to guide a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit220as shown inFIG. 2. The document guide204may include a guide portion204aprotruding upward from the top thereof as shown inFIG. 4. One side of the guide portion204amay be inclined to guide a document. For example, the guide portion204amay inclined upward in the second direction.

For example, a CIS type scanner module may be used as the scanner module210as previously described. In this type of the scanner module210, it may be necessary to uniformly maintain the distance between the scanner module210and a document to be scanned such that the document is correctly scanned.

To this end, the scanner module210may be provided at opposite ends thereof in the first direction with spacers250to maintain a predetermined distance between the top of the scanner module210and the bottoms of the first glass202and the second glass203as shown inFIG. 3. An elastic member260may be installed between the moving member240and the scanner module210. Consequently, the scanner module210is elastically supported by the first glass202or second glass203side via the spacers250in an indirect fashion. The elastic member may be a spring, for example, however the disclosure is not so limited.

The spacers250may be formed of lubricating resin. As shown inFIGS. 7 and 11, each spacer250may include a spacer portion251A protruding upward from the top thereof. The spacer portion251A may extend to have a predetermined length in the second direction and a predetermined width in the first direction such that the spacer portion251A comes into surface contact with the first glass202or the second glass203. For example, the spacer may be formed to have substantially upside-down U-shape, including two legs and a bridge portion. Each leg may be separated from one another in the second direction by a predetermined length which may be equal to or greater than the predetermined length of the spacer portion, while the spacer portion may be formed on top of the bridge portion of the spacer. The spacer portion may have a width in the first direction which is equal to or less than the width of the bridge portion of the spacer. There may be one, or more than one spacer portion disposed on the bridge portion of the spacer.

To prevent the spacer portions251A from being caught by the document guide204while the scanner module210passes over the lower side of the document guide204, guide members270A to guide the respective spacers250downward may be disposed between the first glass202and the second glass203as shown inFIGS. 4 and 8.

The guide members270A may protrude toward moving routes of the spacers250such that the guide members270A contact the top of the spacers250to guide the spacers250and the scanner module210downward while the scanner module210passes over the lower side of the document guide204. In this embodiment, each spacer portion251A may be provided at one side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers250in the first direction and each guide member270A contacts the other side of the top of a corresponding one of the spacers250in the first direction. In addition, each guide member270A may correspond to a roller. Two guide members270A may be provided to correspond to the two spacers250and may be rotatably installed at opposite sides of the document guide204.

FIG. 4shows a state in which the scanner module210scans a document fed by the automatic document feeding unit220. As shown inFIG. 4, the scanner module210scans the document moved along the top of the first glass202by the automatic document feeding unit220in a state in which the scanner module210is located at the lower side of the first glass202. In this state, the upper end of the spacer portion251A may be supported by the first glass202such that the scanner module210is spaced apart from the first glass202by a predetermined distance. For example, the scanner module210may be spaced apart from the first glass202by a distance corresponding to a height of the spacer portion251A and a partial or fractional amount of the height of the spacer250.

FIG. 5shows a state in which the scanner module210passes over the lower side of the document guide204. As shown inFIG. 5, the spacer250and the scanner module210are moved downward by the guide member270A such that the spacer portion251A is spaced apart from the document guide204. Since the spacer portion251A passes over the lower side of the document guide204in a state in which the spacer portion251A is spaced apart from the document guide204, damage to the spacer portion251A, which may occur if the spacer portion251A is caught by the document guide204, is prevented. For example, as can be seen fromFIG. 5, the downward movement caused by the guide member270A may cause the elastic member260to be compressed.

FIG. 6shows a state in which the scanner module210is located at the lower side of the second glass203after passing over the document guide204. As shown inFIG. 6, the spacer250and the scanner module210may be moved upward by the elastic restoring force of the elastic member260such that the upper end of the spacer portion251A is supported by or in contact with the bottom of the second glass203. Consequently, the scanner module210may be spaced apart from the second glass by a predetermined distance via the spacer portion251A. For example, the scanner module210may be spaced apart from the second glass203by a distance corresponding to a height of the spacer portion251A and a partial or fractional amount of the height of the spacer250.

For example, each guide member270A may be embodied by or correspond to a roller. However, the example embodiments disclosed herein are not limited thereto. As shown inFIG. 9, a guide member270B may be embodied by or correspond to a ball coming into point contact with the top of a corresponding one of the spacers250. Alternatively, a guide member270C may be embodied by or correspond to a guide protrusion integrally protruding from the bottom of the document guide204, as shown inFIG. 10for example.

FIGS. 12 to 15show various other embodiments of the spacer portion251A.

For example, inFIG. 12, a pair of spacer portions251B may be disposed at one side of the top of the spacer250in the first direction such that the spacer portions251B are parallel to each other in the second direction. The upper end of each spacer portion251B may have a predetermined width in the first direction such that each spacer portion251B comes into surface contact with the first glass202or the second glass203. For example, the guide member270A may contact the other side of the top of the spacer250in the first direction. As shown inFIG. 12, the guide member270A may be disposed on one side of both spacer portions251B in the first direction. The spacer portions251B may have the same width or different widths in the first direction, and may have the same length or different lengths in the second direction.

For example, inFIG. 13, a pair of spacer portions251C may be disposed at one side of the top of the spacer250in the first direction such that the spacer portions251C are parallel to each other in the second direction. The upper end of each spacer portion251C may be formed in an arc shape such that each spacer portion251C comes into linear contact with the first glass202or the second glass203. That is, as compared to the spacers251B ofFIG. 12, the spacer portions251C ofFIG. 13have relatively rounder upper ends, that are substantially semi-circularly shaped. By comparison, the spacer portions251B have a flatter upper end, though the corners of the upper ends may be rounded. For example, inFIG. 13the guide member270A may contact the other side of the top of the spacer250in the first direction. As shown inFIG. 13, the guide member270A may be disposed on one side of both spacer portions251C in the first direction. The spacer portions251C may have the same width or different widths in the first direction, and may have the same length or different lengths in the second direction.

For example, inFIG. 14, a pair of spacer portions251D may be disposed at opposite sides of the top of the spacer250in the first direction such that the spacer portions251D are parallel to each other in the second direction. The guide member270A may contact the top of the spacer250between the spacer portions251D. For example, the upper end of each spacer portion251D may have a predetermined width in the first direction such that each spacer portion251D comes into surface contact with the first glass202or the second glass203. The spacer portions251D may have the same width or different widths in the first direction, and may have the same length or different lengths in the second direction.

For example, inFIG. 15, the guide member270A contacts the top of the spacer250between two spacer portions251E. The upper end of each spacer portion251E may be formed in an arc shape. That is, as compared to the spacers251C ofFIG. 14, the spacer portions251E ofFIG. 15have relatively rounder upper ends, that are substantially semi-circularly shaped. By comparison, the spacer portions251D have a flatter upper end, though the corners of the upper ends may be rounded. The spacer portions251D may have the same width or different widths in the first direction, and may have the same length or different lengths in the second direction.

As is apparent from the above description, the spacers are temporarily moved downward by the respective guide members while the scanner module moves from one of the first and second glasses to the other through the document guide, thereby preventing the spacer portions of the respective spacers from being caught by the document guide and thus preventing damage to the spacer portions.

The image scanning apparatus, multi-function apparatus including the same and operations implemented according to the above-described example embodiments may use one or more processors. For example, a processing device may be implemented using one or more general-purpose or special purpose computers, such as, for example, a processor, a controller and an arithmetic logic unit, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcomputer, a field programmable array, a programmable logic unit, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a microprocessor or any other device capable of responding to and executing instructions in a defined manner.