JPH08152813A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of simplifying an operation for copying and smoothly performing a copying operation. According to the present invention, an original table 20 for holding an original to be copied, an original table cover 100 for covering the original table, a reading mechanism 30 provided below the original table for reading image information of the original, A document detection sensor 20a provided below the document table for detecting that a document is placed on the document table, and image forming mechanisms 50, 52, 56, 58 for forming image information read by the reading means on a sheet. When the presence of the document is confirmed by the document detecting unit, the control block 20 is controlled by the image forming unit to form an image.
With the image forming apparatus having No. 1 and No. 1, since the document is placed on the table, copying can be automatically started without operating the switch.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for copying image information of a document on a document table onto a sheet and forming it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional image forming apparatus, when an image of a document on a document table is formed, the document is placed on a glass surface, the document cover is closed, and the copy key is pressed for the first time. Copying starts.

[0003]

In the conventional image forming apparatus, copying is started for the first time by closing the original cover and pressing the copy key. For this reason, copying is not performed unless the user performs two operations of "closing the document table cover and pressing the copy key" after placing the document on the glass surface. Therefore, the operation after placing the original on the original table is time-consuming, and there is a possibility that the original may be bent or slanted by closing the original table cover. Two operations after placing the original are performed. However, there is a problem in that the copy start time is delayed.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that simplifies an operation for making a copy and can perform a copying operation smoothly.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made based on the above problems, and includes an original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; and an original table for the original table. A reading unit which is provided below and reads image information of the original;
An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
An image forming unit that forms image information read by the reading unit on a sheet; and the presence of the document is confirmed by the document detecting unit, the image forming unit controls to perform image formation. Control means;
And an image forming apparatus having:

Further, according to the present invention, a document table for holding a document to be copied; a document table cover for covering the document table; and a reading means provided below the document table for reading image information of the document. ;When,
An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table detected by the original detecting means; and an image forming means for forming the image information read by the reading means on a sheet. And a control unit for controlling the image forming unit to form an image in accordance with an output signal from the time measuring unit;

Further, according to the present invention, an original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; and an opening / closing detecting means for outputting a signal according to opening / closing of the original table cover. A reading unit provided below the document table for reading image information of the document; a document detection unit provided below the document table for detecting that the document is placed on the document table; A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table detected by the original detecting means; and an image forming means for forming image information read by the reading means on a sheet. Then, after the document detection unit detects the document and before the predetermined time elapses, the document table cover is output by the output of the opening / closing detection unit. There is provided an image forming apparatus having a,; in response to the over is closed, the image forming means controlling means for controlling to perform image formation.

Further, according to the present invention, an original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; and an opening / closing detecting means for outputting a signal according to opening / closing of the original table cover. A reading unit provided below the document table for reading image information of the document; a document detection unit provided below the document table for detecting that the document is placed on the document table; A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time elapses from the time when the original is placed on the original table by the detection of the original detecting means; and the image information read by the reading means other than the original image information. Erasing means for erasing image information; image forming means for forming image information on a sheet; open / close detection means, document detection means, and timekeeping If the original table cover is not closed before the predetermined time passes after the original is placed on the original table from the step, the original image of the image information read by the reading means by the erasing means After deleting image information other than information,
And a control unit that controls the document image information to form an image on the sheet.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the control means knows the existence of the original on the original table by the original detecting means for detecting that the original is placed on the original table, whereby the copying operation is started and the image forming means is started. The original image is formed on the paper by. Therefore, it is possible to automatically start the copying operation smoothly by simply placing the document without the operator performing a troublesome operation of pressing the start switch after placing the document.

Further, according to the present invention, there is further provided clocking means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time elapses from the time when the document is placed on the document table by the detection of the document detecting means. By doing so, copying is not started immediately when the original is placed on the original table, but is automatically started after an appropriate time has elapsed. By doing this, there is some time before the operator puts the document on the document table and starts copying. Therefore, even if the position of the document is slightly misaligned, there is enough time to correct it. Moreover, even if the copying is desired to be interrupted, a grace period for allowing the copying is given, so that the reliable operation of the image forming apparatus without miscopying is possible.

Further, according to the present invention, the opening / closing detecting means for outputting a signal according to the opening / closing of the original table cover is further provided, so that copying is automatically started without necessarily waiting for a predetermined time. It is what is done. Thus, when a quick copying operation is desired, the original table cover can be closed immediately after the original is placed, which enables the operation according to the situation.

Further, according to the present invention, the document table cover opening / closing detecting means and the erasing means for erasing the image information other than the document image information among the image information read by the reading means are further provided. , It is detected that the document table cover is not closed within the predetermined time. In this case, of the image information read by the reading means, the image information other than the original image information is considered as unnecessary noise at the time of copying and is deleted, and then only the original image information is image-formed on the sheet. It is a thing. This enables noise-free image formation during unnecessary copying.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an image forming apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system showing the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a feature of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the appearance of the document sensor, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the position of the document sensor, which is a feature of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus, that is, a laser beam printer type digital copying apparatus 2, includes an image forming section for copying image information corresponding to an image of an original on a recording sheet, that is, a digital copying apparatus main body 10 and a digital copying apparatus main body. An automatic feeder (hereinafter referred to as an ADF) that feeds documents D to be copied one by one onto a document table, which will be described later, which is arranged on an upper portion of a copying apparatus main body (hereinafter referred to as DPPC) 10.
It consists of 100.

The DPPC 10 includes a document reading section 12 for reading the image information of the document D, an image forming section 14 for forming an image based on image data read by the document reading section 12 or image data supplied from the outside, and image forming. A paper feeding unit 16 for feeding the recording paper holding the image formed by the unit 14, a paper feeding unit 18 for feeding the paper on which the image formed by the image forming unit 14 is transferred in a predetermined direction, and the like. Contains.

The upper part of the DPPC 10 and the ADF 10
A document table (document table) 20 on which a document D to be copied is placed, that is, a document table (document table) 20 for holding the document D is arranged at a position facing the transport belt 0, which will be described later.

Further, a lower surface facing an illumination lamp described later has a white color defined to have a predetermined whiteness (brightness) in order to generate white light for correcting a threshold level of a CCD sensor described later. Has been formed.

Below the document table 20, it is arranged substantially parallel to the document table 20 and movable along the document table 20, and the information written on the document D is read out optically. A second carriage 4 that follows the carriage 30 and the first carriage 30 and transmits the information read by the carriage 30 to an information recording medium described later.
Contains 0.

The first carriage 30 has an illumination lamp 32 for illuminating the original document D, a reflector 34 for converging light from the illumination lamp 32 on the original document D and increasing illumination efficiency, and second reflection light from the original document D. A first mirror 36 that reflects the light toward the carriage 40 is arranged. A document sensor 20a for detecting the presence of a document on the document table 20 is provided adjacent to the reflector 34. The document sensor 20a is directly involved in the automatic copy start function by document recognition, which is a feature of the present invention. Here, in FIG. 3 which is a configuration according to the common reference numeral with FIG. 1, the document sensor 20a is further specifically shown, and when the ADF 100 is opened, the document sensor 20a is placed at a lower portion of the document table 20. It can be seen that two are provided as part of the carriage 30. An open / close detection sensor 21 for detecting the open / close state of the original table cover is also shown. In addition, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the carriage 30 and its periphery, which is also designated by the same reference numeral as FIG. 1, and shows that the document sensor 20 a is provided in a part of the first carriage 30.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, the first carriage 30
And the manuscript sensor 20a are shown in the positional relationship. The first carriage 30 having the manuscript sensor 20a is moved from the manuscript table end 20b to a position of about 30 mm from the manuscript table end 20b in order to confirm the existence of the manuscript. However, the document sensor 20a only needs to be able to detect the presence of the document, and may be provided at a position where the document is supposed to be placed.

The second carriage 40 has a first mirror 36.
A second mirror 42 for returning the reflected light reflected from the mirror 90 by 90 ° and a third mirror 44 for returning the reflected light from the document D reflected by the second mirror 42 by 90 ° are arranged.

Below the first carriage 30, and within the plane including the optical axis of the third mirror 44 of the second carriage 40, an image forming lens 46 for converging the reflected light from the original D is formed. , And a CCD sensor 48 for photoelectrically converting the reflected light from the document D at a predetermined threshold level.

The image forming unit 14 includes a drum-shaped photoconductor, that is, a photoconductor drum 50, which is disposed in the center of the main body 10 as a photoconductor. Around the photosensitive drum 50, a charging device 52 that applies a predetermined surface potential to the photosensitive drum 50, and a latent image corresponding to image data are exposed on the photosensitive drum 50 that is charged to a predetermined potential by the charging device 52. The laser exposure device 54, the developing device 56 that develops the latent image formed by the laser exposure device 54 on the photosensitive drum 50 by supplying toner (not shown), and the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 50 are removed. Excluding,
A cleaning device 58 for removing the electric charge remaining on the photoconductor drum 50 is arranged. In addition, between the developing device 56 and the cleaning device 58, a latent image, that is, a toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 50 via the developing device 56 is supplied with a transfer target material such as a copy sheet P supplied from a cassette described later. A separating device 60 is arranged which separates the paper P from the drum 50 together with the transfer.

On the right side of the image forming unit 14, a sheet cassette 62a for accommodating the sheet P for holding the image formed through the image forming unit 14 and an upper portion of the sheet cassette 62a are integrally formed with the cassette 62a. The bypass tray 62b is arranged. Below the cassette 62a, for example, 2000 sheets of paper P
A large-capacity cassette (hereinafter, referred to as large capacity cassette, LCC) 62c capable of accommodating the above is arranged.

Between the paper cassette 62a and the large-capacity cassette 62c and the photosensitive drum 50, the cassette 62 is provided.
The upper paper feed roller 64a and the upper paper feed guide 66 that guide the paper P supplied from a toward the photoconductor drum 50.
a and a lower paper feed roller 64b and a lower paper feed guide 66b for guiding the paper P supplied from the LCC 62c toward the photoconductor drum 50, respectively.
The bypass tray 62b is provided with a bypass feed roller 68 for guiding the paper P placed on the tray 62b to the upper paper feed roller 64a.

Between the paper feed guides 66a and 66b and the photosensitive drum 50, the paper P fed from the cassette 62a or the bypass tray 62b and the LCC 62c is temporarily stopped to correct the inclination of the paper P and A registration roller 70, which is formed on the surface of the photoconductor drum 50 and aligns the leading end positions of the image, that is, the toner image and the toner image, which are conveyed toward the transfer separation device 60 with the rotation of the photoconductor drum 50, is arranged.

On the left side of the image forming unit 14, a fixing device 72 and a fixing device 72 for fixing the image transferred on the paper P to the paper P on which the toner image is transferred from the photosensitive drum 50 by the transfer separation device 60. And the transfer / separation device 60, and the conveying device 74 and the fixing device 72 that deliver the sheet P on which the toner image is transferred toward the fixing device 72.
The sheet P on which the image is fixed via the DPPC main body 10
Of the DPPC 10 by the branch gate 76 and the branch gate 76 for guiding either the outside of the printer or the sheet reversing unit described later
A discharge roller 78 for sending the paper P guided toward the outside of the DPPC 10 to the outside of the DPPC 10 and a tray 80 for holding the discharged paper P are arranged.

Below the image forming unit 14, a sheet reversing section 90 is provided for reversing the front and back of the sheet P branched by the branch gate 76 and then guiding it to the registration roller 70 again.

The paper reversing unit 90 guides the paper P having an image already copied on one side thereof, and a reversing guide 91 and a reversing guide 9.
1 is a storage space for temporarily accommodating a transport roller 92, a reversing guide 91, and a sheet P guided by the transport roller 92, which are disposed at a predetermined spacing, that is, a spacing defined depending on the size of the reversible sheet P. The sheet P accommodated in the area portion 93 and the storage area portion 93 is guided by the reverse sheet feeding roller 94 for conveying the sheet P toward the registration roller 70, and the sheet P pulled out from the rear end side by the reverse sheet feeding roller 94. The reverse paper feed guide 95 and the intermediate conveyance roller 96 for propelling the paper P passing through the reverse paper feed guide 95 toward the registration rollers 70 and the like.

The ADF 100 includes an original tray 120 on which originals D to be fed are placed, an original take-out section 130 for taking out the originals D placed on the original tray 120 one by one, and
A document transport for feeding the document D taken out through the document taking-out unit 130 to a predetermined position of the document reading unit 12, that is, a position on the document table 20 where one end of the document comes into contact with the document stopper 20a. The document table 20 including the portion 140 is provided above the DPPC 10 by a fixing mechanism (not shown).
It is fixed so that it can be opened and closed freely.

The document tray 120 has a tray body 122 on which, for example, about 50 documents D can be placed, and the pickup roller 132 of the document take-out section 130.
The originals D taken out one by one are held by. The document D taken out via the pickup roller 132 is guided to the document feeding path 134.

An aligning roller 136 for correcting the inclination of the document D and aligning the feeding timing is arranged downstream of the document feeding path 134. The document conveying unit 140 has a conveyance belt 142 that covers the upper surface of the document table of the document reading unit 12 and conveys the document D fed from the document extracting unit 130 along the document table 20 of the document reading unit 12. ing. Conveyor belt 142
Is a wide belt having a white outer surface and formed in a ring shape, which is seamless and has a first belt roller 144 that supports an end portion adjacent to the document conveying portion 140 and a second belt roller that supports the other end portion. And is rotated in both forward and reverse directions via a drive motor (not described in detail).

FIG. 2 is an example of a block diagram of a control system showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, the main control portions of the image forming apparatus of the present invention are a logic board 201, a scanner control board 203 connected to the logic board 201, a paper feed control board 205, and an image processing board 20.
7, a sorter 209, an automatic sheet feeder ADF211, a control panel 213, and the like.

The logic board 201 which mainly controls the operation is further provided with the M-CPU 215 and the ROM.
217, RAM 219, laser drive circuit 221, print drive device 223, high-voltage process device 2
25, interface 227, communication unit 229,
Further, SM-CPU 231, ROM 233, R
It has AM 235, NVRAM 237, and supply memory 239.

Further, the scanner control board 203 is SC
PU243, ROM245, CCD drive circuit 24
7 and a scanner driving device 249. Further, the paper feed control board 205 is a paper feed controller P.
It has an FC 251 and a paper transport device 253.

In the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment, control is performed by three CPUs, the scanner unit control CPU is the S-CPU 243, and the engine unit control CPU.
Is the M-CPU 215, and the operating system control CPU is the SM-CP
I will call it U231.

The above-mentioned document sensor 20a is connected to the S-CPU 243 on the scanner control board 203, and the information is transmitted to the M-CPU 215 by communication between the S-CPU 243 and the M-CPU 215. M-CPU
The 215 and the SM-CPU 231 communicate with each other via the shared memory, and thereby the information regarding the presence / absence of a document is transmitted to the SM-CPU 231. The SM-CPU 231 is connected to the control panel 213 and is a subordinate CPU.
Is instructed to operate.

In addition, a timer for measuring a predetermined time from when an original is placed to when copying is started is SM-CP.
U is built-in. The time measured at this time can be set and rewritten from the control panel 213 within the range of 0 to 5 seconds, and this data can be stored in the RAM 235.

Further, in the image processing board 207, the image processing circuit 241 carries out outside-original erasing in which the image information outside the original is erased from the image information taken in from the scanner.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the operation procedure of the present invention will be described with reference to this flowchart. In the embodiment of the present invention, the control panel 213 sets this valid / invalid for the function of automatically placing a document on the glass surface of the document table 20 (hereinafter referred to as auto copy mode). be able to.

A method of controlling the automatic copy mode will be described with the following configuration. First, the control panel 213
Setting the time until the original is placed and copying is started. The set time is variable, for example, between 0 and 5 seconds.
For example, if the original is placed and immediate copying is desired, the time is set to 0 seconds.

The automatic copy mode is a mode set by operating the control panel 213. If the auto copy mode is set (S1), then the position of the carriage is moved to a position 30 mm from the leading edge of the document (S3) so that the document placed on the glass surface can be detected. Next, the information from the document sensor 20a is monitored (S5).

When the SM-CPU 231 detects that the document is placed on the basis of the information of the sensor 20a, it causes the control panel 213 to display a message of "auto copy mode" (S7). At this time, SM-CPU23
The timer according to 1 is operated to start timing (S11). On the control panel 213, the time measured by the timer is read out from a preset time (S9), and the message is continuously displayed until this time is reached.

If the C / S key is pressed before the time measured by the timer reaches a preset time (S1
3) Then, with respect to the document which is detected to be placed at that time, the automatic copy mode is canceled, the message is canceled (S23), and the ready state is set.

If the document table cover is not closed before the time measured by the timer reaches a preset time (S15), wait until the measured time and the set time match (S17). ), Erasing outside the document is enabled (S19), and copying is started (S21). here,
The message switches from "auto copy mode" to "copy status".

If the document table cover is closed by the time measured by the timer by a preset time (S15), all information is immediately copied regardless of the timer time (S21). . Here, the message is switched from "auto copy mode" to "copy status".

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the operation control is selected depending on the time after the document is placed, the opening / closing of the document table cover, and the presence / absence of the C / S key being pressed.

[0047]

According to the present invention, the presence of the original document on the original table is detected by the original detection sensor, and the copying operation is started accordingly. Therefore, it is troublesome for the operator to press the start switch after placing the original. It enables the smooth start of copying simply by placing the original without any operation.

Further, according to the present invention, by providing a timer function, copying is automatically started after a predetermined time elapses from the time when the original is placed on the original table. By doing this, there is some time before the operator puts the document on the document table and starts copying. Therefore, even if the position of the document is slightly misaligned, there is enough time to correct it. Moreover, even if the copying is desired to be interrupted, a grace period for allowing the copying is given, so that the reliable operation of the image forming apparatus without miscopying is possible.

Further, according to the present invention, the sensor for detecting the opening / closing of the document table cover automatically starts copying without waiting for a predetermined time. Thus, when a quick copying operation is desired, the original table cover can be closed immediately after the original is placed, which enables the operation according to the situation.

Further, according to the present invention, if the document table cover is not closed even after the lapse of a predetermined time, the image information other than the document image information is erased, which is considered as unnecessary noise at the time of copying. After deleting, the original image information is formed on the sheet. This enables noise-free image formation during unnecessary copying.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the appearance of a document sensor that is a feature of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the image forming apparatus for showing the position of a document sensor, which is a feature of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Copier (image forming apparatus), 10 ... Copier main body
(DPPC), 12 ... Original reading section, 1
4 ... Image forming unit, 16 ... Paper supply unit,
18 ... Paper transport unit, 20 ... Original table,
Reference numeral 20a ... Original sensor 21 ... Original table cover open / close sensor, 30 ... First carriage, 32 ... Illumination lamp, 34 ... Reflector, 36 ... First mirror, 40 ...
2nd carriage, 42 ... 2nd mirror,
44 ... Third mirror, 46 ... Imaging lens,
48 ... CCD sensor, 50 ... Photosensitive drum (photosensitive member)
, 52 ... Charging device (charging means), 54 ... Laser exposure device, 56 ... Developing device, 58 ... Cleaning device, 60 ... Transfer roller, 70 ... Registration roller, 72 ... Fixing device, 102 ... CP
U, 104 ... ROM, 104 ... RA
M, 106 ... NVRAM, 110 ...
Motor drive circuit, 112 ... Lamp regulator, 152 ... Charging power supply device, 156 ... Bias power supply device, 160 ... Transfer power supply device, 1
70 ... Mechanical controller. 201 ... Logic board, 203 ... Scanner control board 205 ... Paper feed control board, 207 ... Image processing board

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; a reading unit provided below the original table for reading image information of the original; An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
An image forming unit that forms image information read by the reading unit on a sheet; and the presence of the document is confirmed by the document detecting unit, the image forming unit controls to perform image formation. An image forming apparatus including: a control unit; 2. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; a reading unit provided below the original table for reading image information of the original; An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table detected by the original detecting means; and an image forming means for forming the image information read by the reading means on a sheet. An image forming apparatus including: a control unit that controls the image forming unit to form an image in accordance with an output signal from the time measuring unit; 3. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; a reading unit provided below the original table for reading image information of the original; An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table detected by the original detecting means; a predetermined time setting means for setting the predetermined time of the time measuring means; Image forming means for forming the image information read by the reading means on a sheet; and control means for controlling the image forming means to form an image in accordance with an output signal from the timing means. Image forming apparatus. 4. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; a reading unit provided below the original table for reading image information of the original; An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
A time measuring unit that outputs a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the document was placed on the document table by the detection of the document detecting unit; and a predetermined time until the predetermined time elapses after the time measuring unit starts measuring time. Display means for displaying characters; predetermined time setting means for setting the predetermined time of the time measuring means; image forming means for forming image information read by the reading means on a sheet; and the time measuring means An image forming apparatus including: a control unit that controls the image forming unit to form an image in accordance with the output signal from the image forming unit. 5. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; an open / close detecting means for outputting a signal in response to opening / closing of the original table cover; and the original table. A reading unit provided below the document table for reading image information of the document; a document detection unit provided below the document table for detecting that the document is placed on the document table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table detected by the original detecting means; and an image forming means for forming the image information read by the reading means on a sheet. The image forming unit forms an image in response to the document table cover being closed by the output of the opening / closing detection unit before the predetermined time has elapsed after the document detection unit detects the document. Control means for performing control;
An image forming apparatus having: 6. An original table for holding an original to be copied; an original table cover for covering the original table; an open / close detecting means for outputting a signal in response to opening / closing of the original table cover; and the original table. A reading unit provided below the document table for reading image information of the document; a document detection unit provided below the document table for detecting that the document is placed on the document table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the original is placed on the original table by the detection of the original detecting means; and, in the image information read by the reading means, other than the original image information. The erasing means for erasing the image information, the image forming means for forming the image information on the sheet, the opening / closing detecting means, the document detecting means, and the time measuring means, the document is placed on the document table. After that, if the document table cover is not closed before the elapse of the predetermined time, after the image information other than the document image information among the image information read by the reading unit is erased by the erasing unit, the document image information is deleted. An image forming apparatus having: a control unit that controls the image forming apparatus to form an image on the sheet. 7. A document table for holding a document to be copied; a document table cover for covering the document table; a reading unit provided below the document table for reading image information of the document; An original detection unit provided below the original table for detecting that the original is placed on the original table;
A time measuring means for outputting a signal when a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the document is placed on the document table detected by the document detecting means; a releasing means for canceling the time counting of the time measuring means; Image forming means for forming the read image information on a sheet; and control for controlling the image forming means to form an image in accordance with an output signal from the time measuring means unless the canceling means releases the time. An image forming apparatus comprising: a means;