Photocopier Accepts the Work to be Copied
The photocopier's copy surface is a clear pane of glass on which the original work is placed. In order to locate the original work in the appropriate place, some users simply lift the copier's lid and place the work face-down on the copy surface. For works of multiple pages, though, a tray-loading system is used to systematically load one page of the work at a time. To accomplish this task, the user places a stack of unattached originals in the photocopier's paper handler. When the "start" button is pressed, the copier places a small arm, usually made of plastic or metal, on top of the stack of papers. The original copies are then fed into the machine and onto the copy surface one at a time by a series of rollers and conveyors. As the originals are moved along the conveyor and eventually rolled back onto the paper handler, they are separated from the uncopied originals by the separator arm. This arm also serves to notify the photocopier when the end of the originals has been reached.
Photocopier Takes a Digital Picture of the Original
As each page of the original work passes over the copy surface, the photocopier scans a digital image of the work using a wand-style digital scanner. Depending on the quality of the photocopier, the digital scan may take from about one second to almost half a minute. Although some very high-end photocopiers can copy one or more pages a second, most copiers process about one page every five to ten seconds.
Photocopier Processes the Image
Once the digital image is scanned, it may be manipulated to comply with controls set by the user. Some common controls include adjusting the darkness of the image, scaling the image to different size paper and resizing the image to include multiple originals on one copied page. The digital image may also be sequenced in the copier's memory to produce collated copies.
Image is Printed on a Blank Sheet of Copy Paper
After the image is scanned in to memory and manipulated to the user's preference, it is ready to be printed. To print, the photocopier first loads a blank sheet of paper from either a manual feed or paper tray using a set of rollers and conveyors. The image is burned on to the blank page using technology similar to that found in a common laser printer, burning toner on to paper with electro-charged particles stimulated by a laser. As the copied work exits the printing portion of the copier, it is stored in a secondary paper tray for the user to collect.
