| US 7,481,427 B2 | ||
| Automatic document feeder | ||
| Akihito Tokutsu, Kanagawa-ken (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo (Japan); and Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Mar. 09, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/74,749. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0202404 A1, Sep. 14, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. G03G 15/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 271—186 [271/3.19; 271/225; 271/291; 271/65; 271/176; 271/902; 399/367; 399/374] | 9 Claims |

| 1. An automatic document feeder comprising:
paper supply tray means for placing documents with their front sides upward;
document supply means for supplying the documents placed on the paper supply tray means in order from the top to a document
reading unit;
document discharging means for discharging the documents that are read in the document reading unit from the document reading
unit;
first gate means for sorting the documents discharged by the document discharging means in a first direction or a second direction;
discharging tray means for placing the documents sorted in the first direction by the first gate means with the front sides
downward;
reversing means provided above the discharging tray means for conveying the documents sorted in the second direction by the
first gate means reciprocally;
wall-shaped aligning means provided at a side end of the first gate means of the discharging tray means;
document re-conveying means for re-conveying the documents that are reversed and conveyed by the reversing means in a direction
of the first gate means to the document reading unit; and
turning/discharging means for turning the documents sorted in the second direction by the first gate means through the document
re-conveying means in a conveying path of the reversing means to drop them on the discharging tray means from the reversing
means and bumping ends of the documents in the falling direction against the aligning means,
wherein the reversing means has second gate means for sorting the documents on the conveying path of the reversing means in
the direction of the turning/discharging means.
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