Abstract: A document is fed from a document tray to a reading station. When the document after being read is discharged by way of a discharge path, the document is halted by a control roller for discharging, instead of being discharged completely. That is, the document is discharged only when the read image is recorded on a sheet and the sheet after recording is discharged completely. When the sheet is not discharged and hence an anomaly is detected, the document set on standby at the discharge position is conveyed along an inverting path and conveyance path to a document registration roller in order to allow the document to be fed to the reading station with its image face presented on the reading position.

Abstract: An automatic document feeder for a copier has the position for reading the image of an original fed by the automatic document feeder disposed near the rear edge of the original table of the copier. In this automatic document feeder, essential parts such as a pickup roller, etc., for feeding originals to the reading position of the original table are arranged concentratedly on the rear side of the copier. Therefore, the center of gravity of the automatic document feeder resides near the rear side of the copier. This automatic document feeder is hinged at the rear side of the copier so as to cover the top surface of the original table in an openable and closable manner. Accordingly, the automatic document feeder is opened and closed with respect to the top of the copier, at a pivot which resides on the rear side near the center of gravity thereof.

Abstract: The control circuit includes: a series circuit of a first triac and a reactor; and a second triac in parallel with this series circuit so as to perform control of activation of a fixing heater. Since the fixing heater has a low resistance when the power switch is first turned on, the first triac is operated to perform phase angle control of current flow, and when the phase angle has become approximately equal to 180.degree., the first triac is stopped, at the same time the second triac starts to be operated. The switching from the first triac to the second triac is made quickly so that it is possible to reduce the power consumption from the reactor.

Abstract: A document feeder includes: a document detecting device arranged on the top of the copier body, for detecting a document inserted from the outside; a feed roller arranged adjacent to the document detecting device, on the top of the copier body, for feeding an inserted document into a space between the original table and the original cover, in response to the detection of a document by the document detecting device; and an original cover lifting device arranged on the top of the copier body, for lifting the original cover to create a gap between the original table and the original cover, in response to the detection of a document by the document detecting device. Alternatively, the feed roller further has a rotary cam on its shaft, so that the cam rotates to lift the original cover up as the feed roller rotates in the document feeding direction.