Patent ID: 7431282

Claim:
A document inverting-and-transporting apparatus which is to be mounted on an image reading apparatus having a reading unit which reads an image of a document at a reading position, the document inverting-and-transporting apparatus comprising: a transport path including: a first route along which the document is transported from a feeding start position to a transport direction changing position; a joining position; and the reading position, wherein the joining position and the reading position are located in the first route in a sequence along a document transport direction; an inversion-and-transport path including a second route along which the document is transported from the transport direction changing position to the reading position via the joining position; a document transporting unit which transports the document; a closed portion which constitutes a part of the inversion-and-transport path; a document length detecting unit which detects a length of the document before the document is transported from the transport direction changing position to the inversion-and-transport path; a first comparing unit which compares the detected length of the document with a predetermined length which is larger than a length of the closed portion; a controlling unit which determines whether the document is to be transported to the inversion-and-transport path or not on the basis of a result of the comparison by the first comparing unit and controls the document transporting unit on the basis of the determination; a document detecting unit which is disposed downstream of the joining position in the document transport direction, and detects whether the document exists or not; a second comparing unit which compares L 3 with L 4 where L 3 denotes a length from the transport direction changing position to the document detecting unit via the joining position and L 4 denotes a transport distance by which the document transporting unit transports the document from the transport direction changing position into the inversion-and-transport path; and a determining unit which, on the basis of a result of the comparison by the second comparing unit, determines whether a jam occurs in the inversion-and-transport path or not.