Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
The presen-t invention concerns copying machines~
especially electrophotographic copying machines ~thich produce
finished copies on sheets of normal typing paper and have infeed
capabilities for at least two different types of sheets. Such
copying machines are providecl with a selector switch for se-
lecting the infeed capability to be utilized and a start switch
which is used to initiate a copying operation per se.
Such machines are able to make copies not only on
white typing paper but also on special papers, e.g., papers of
special grade or color, sheets of differing format or sheets with
a preprinted headin~ or text. With machines of this type it has
always been necessary for the operator to set a selector switch
to select the type of sheet to be printed (e.g., from plural
feeding units each provided with a stack of sheets of a respec-
tive type~ or to set the machine for a different sheet format,
and then after that as a second step to press a start switch to
initiate copying operation.
It is one main object of the present invention to
provide a copying machine with plural selectable infeed capabi-
lities and having a control panel which is more easily monitored
and operated than in comparable prior art, and furthermore of
such a character as to inherently reduce the possibilities for
inadvertent or mistaken actuation of operator controls.
According to the invention this is made possible by
associating with each of the different infeed capabilities of the
copying machine a respective selector switch which doubles as a
start switch serving to initiate copying operation. Thus when
the operator activates this switch, e.g., presse~ it if as
preferred it is a pushbotton switch~ he simultaneously selects
which infeed capability the machine is to utilize and also
commands the initiation of copying.
For example, the machine may have two or more supply
stacks or supply magazines containiny sheets of different respec-
tive types, in which case each supply stack or magazine or infeed
unit can be provided with a respective selector button of its own
which simultaneously serves as a start button.
According to a further concept of the invention, the
control panel is additionally provided with a further dual purpose
select-and-start switch, which the operator activates when individ-
ual-sheet infeed is to be manually performed.
Advantageously, each dual-purpose select and start
button is provided with a signal lamp which is illuminated during
copying operations commanded by depression of that button and
which furthermore commences to blink when the stack of sheets in
the respective supply stack or magazine becomes exhausted.
With this concept of the present invention, the
operator need only activate a single switch or press a single
button in order to both select the infeed capability which is to
be used and also initiate copying operation. With the dual-
purpose pushbutton furthermore lighting up during the course of acopying operation, e.g., to indicate termination of a copying
operation and thus readiness of the machine for renewed activation,
and also commencing to blink when the respective supply of sheets
is becoming exhausted, this informs the operator of those pre-
vailing conditions which are correlated with the type or format
of sheet involved.
Another advantage of the invention resides in the
case where a plurality of different sheet types and~or formats
and also a plurality of differing modes of copying operation are
to be selectable, but with certain modes of copying operation
being naturally or optim~lly associated with certain sheet types
or formats. For example, one of the in~eed capabilities of the
machine may be to feed in extra-long ~heets of paper for continuous
copying. In that event, depression of the pushbutton associated
with strip infeed simultaneously serves to switch the machine
over for continuous copying. Thus, in such situations, the
inventive feature in question inherently minimizes the possibility
that the operator will select a mode of copying operation not
corresponding to the type or size of sheet which he has selected,
or vice versa.
The dual-purpose select-and~start switch or button
can command operation of the machine in the book-copying mode
cooperating with a supply of normal paper or with a supply of
special sheets, e.g., sheets of different color or provided with
preimprinted headings or text, or can command operation in the
book-copying mode with single-sheet manual infeed.
It is furthermore contemplated by the present
invention to provide the control panel with additional switches
or pushbuttons for the control of operating functions which are
independent of the particular type of infeed capability selected,
e.g., exposure-time corrections which depend upon the character
of the original being copied. An auxiliary keyboard can be used
for selecting the number of copies to be made per original, and a
counter can indicate the number of copies selected and/or the
number of copies remaining to be made.
The novel features which are considered as charac-
teristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the
appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its
construction and its method of operation, together with additi-
onal objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from
the following description of specific embodiments when read in
connection with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 depicts an operator control panel on a copying
machine embodyiny the pres~nt invention; and
FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic block diagram
depicting how various machine operations and functions are control-
led in dependence upon activation of the pushbutton switches
shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 depicts a control panel provided with push-
buttons la-4a which activate control switches 1-4 in a copying
machine control system schematically depicted in FIG. 2. The
pushbuttons la-4a are used to close and open the respective
control switches 1-4 and thereby apply signals to and remove them
from respective ones of control lines 5~8. Control lines 5-8,
directly via lines 23-27 or indirectly via connecting lines 9-15,
OR-gates 18, 19 and lines 21 and 22, trigger various functional
units of the electrophotographic copying machine.
In the very schematic depiction of FIG. 2, it is
assumed for simplicity that the switches 1-4 directly switch the
operating current flowing through lines 21-27. In actual practice,
of course, control lines 5-8 will carry control signals which are
applied to the windings of relays or driver stages, i.e., in
order not to overload the switches 1-4 and the OR-gates 18 and
19 .
Furthermore, in FIG. 2 it is assumed for simplicity
that each symbolically represented functional unit of the machine
is coupled via an electromagnetic coupling to a (non-illustrated)
rotating component of the machine, in order to set such functional
unit into operation. It will be understood, however, that the
activating lines 21-27 could instead serve to activate relays,
contactors, electric motors, or the like.
The functional units symbolically or schematically
represented in E~IG. 2 include the main control mechanism of the
machine, represented by means of rotating copying drum 28 to
which such main control mechanism is typically referenced. The
rotating copying drum 28 is provided with a magnetic coupling 28a
controlled via control line 21. The copying drum is to be under-
stood to represent all those machine functions which are always
performed in the same way irrespective of the selection of parti-
cular operating or infeed modes.
Control line 22 activates a magnetic coupling 29a
for the carriage drive of an optical scanning carriage 29, of the
type used in book-copying machines in libraries, wherein a station-
ary original to be copied is scanned by means of a shifted scanning
mirror.
Reference numeral 30 denotes the transport roller
pair used to transport copy paper for continuous-operation copying,
wherein an original to be copied is transported past a non-moving
projecting optics. The magnetic coupling 3Oa, by means of which
this transport roller pair is coupled to the drive unit of the
20 machine, is activated via control line 23.
Control line 24 activates the magnetic coupling 31a
of a stroke-type sheet infeed unit 31 which engages the upper
surface of the topmost sheet in a supply stack 32 containing
normal white typing-paper sheets. Control line 25 activates the
magnetic coupling 33a for a stroke-type sheet infeed unit 33 for
a stack 34 of a special paper, and control line 2 6 activates the
magnetic coupling 35a of a stroke-type infeed unit 35 for a stack
3 6 of extra-long paper.
Numeral 37 finally denotes a transport roller pair
30 serving to feed in single sheets of paper fed to it by hand, and
- 6-
~. 3 :~ ~.5 ~?~ 3
provided with a magnetic coupling 37a activated via control line
~7.
The correla-tion between the dual-purpose select-and-
start switches referred to a~ove and the schematically illustrated
functional units is as follows:
The magnetic coupling 28a, which is to be activated
irrespective of the operator's particular selection, is connected
via the OR-gate 18 and the branch-ofE lines 9-12 to all the
control lines 5-8, and is accordingly activated irrespective of
which one of pushbutton switches 1-4 the operator depresses. In
contrast, the magnetic coupling 3Oa for the continuous-operation
infeed unit 30, the magnetic couplings 31a, 33a and 35a for the
differing supply stacks 32, 34 and 36, and the magnetic coupling
37a for the single-sheet infeed unit are each connected to only
a respective one of the control lines 5-8.
Accordingly, when the COPY NORMAL PAPER pushbutton
la is pressed, switch la~is activated and accordingly control
line 5. As a result, those machine functions which do not depend
upon the particular selection are, as they should be, now com-
manded, and also the optical scanning arxangement 29 is commandedto scan the original, and the infeed unit 31 for normal paper is
activated.
Depression of the COPY SPECIAL PAPER pushbwtton 2a
commands, via switch 2 and control line 6, activation of scanning
unit 29 and of the infeed unit 33 for special paper. According-
ly, when this button is activated, a stationary original can be
copied via a shifting optics onto special paper. I.e., with the
machine operating in the book-copying mode, the machine can print
onto sheets of special format or special grade or onto sheets
which have been preprinted with headings or text.
7i ~
Depression of ~he PLOWCOPY LONG P~PER pushhutton 3a
commands, via switch 3 and control line 7, both the activation of
the continuous-operat~ion copying unit 30 and also activation of
the infeed unit 35 for the special paper stack 3~. This stack
contains extra-long sheets, so ~hat upon activation o~ this
pushbutton especially long originals can be copied in a continuous-
operation mode.
The SEPARATE INPUT COPY pushbutton 4 commands, via
switch 4 and control line 8, activation of the infeed unit 37 for
manual insertion of single sheets of copy paper and, by way of
example, activation of the scanning arrangement 29 for a station-
ary original. The single sheets of copy paper are manually fed
to infeed unit 37 through an infeed slot in the housing of the
copyiny machine, for example. This mode of operation may be
employed, for example, when copy sheets which have been printed
on one side are to be reinserted for printing on their opposite
sides. The copies emerging from the machine, and printed only on
one side, are removed by the operator and manually inserted into
infeed unit 37 for printing upon their other side, e.g., a second
image from a second original.
The control panel shown in FIG. l is provided with
further controls for machine functions whose performance does not
depend upon the type or format of sheets selected or upon the
type of copying operation associated with such selection. These
further controls include pushbuttons 38-41 for selecting exposure
duration, a keyboard 42 and a CLEAR button 43 for preselecting
the number of copies to be made per original. The number of
copies per original selected can be displayed on a counter 44,
whose count decreases one-by-one during the ongoing performance
of the selected number of copying operations, thereby indicating
~ .. il d ~ ,3
at any particular time the number of copies still ko be made from
a particular original.
Flnally, as shown in FIG. 2, each of the three
supply stacks 32, 34 and 36 is provided with a respective sensor
45 which acti~ates an associated microswitch 46 when the respec-
tive stack of sheets is nearing exhaustion. The microswitches 46
activate respective blinkers 47, each of the latter being connected
in the current path of a respective signal lamp 48. The push-
buttons la-3a are made of translucent material, and respective
ones of the three signal lamps 48 are located behind them~ e.g.,
in the manner disclosed in Federal Republic of Germany published
patent application 2,021,408. The signal lamps ~8 are connected
to respective ones of control lines 5-7 via lines 49. Each
signal lamp 48 is illuminated steadily so long as the respective
control line is activated, e.g., during the making of copies on
copy sheets of the selected type, but then starts to blink as the
respective supply stack becomes exhausted.
It will be understood that each of the elements
described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful
application in other types of circuits and constructions differing
from the types described above.
While the invention has been illustrated and described
as embodied in a copying machine having particular infeed capabili-
ties and correlated modes of copying operation, it is not intended
to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications
and structural changes may be made without departing in any way
from the spirit of the present invention.
