JP4813851B2 - Intermediate buffer device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is provided between a primary processing apparatus and a secondary processing apparatus having different processing speeds, and temporarily stores the paper conveyed from the primary processing apparatus while receiving and stacking the processing timing of the secondary processing apparatus. This is related to an intermediate buffer device that re-feeds in accordance with the above.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses an apparatus that receives a conveyed sheet, temporarily stores it, and re-feeds it. Patent Document 1 shows a configuration in which guide plates on both sides reciprocate in the refeeding direction. On the other hand, Patent Document 2 discloses a paper discharge device including a rear end guide plate that performs a reciprocating operation so as to intermittently tap the trailing edge of a received sheet.
JP-A-60-26544 JP-A-57-151560

  By the way, when the paper that has been continuously conveyed from the primary processing device in the first direction is re-feeded to the secondary processing device in the second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction, In order to prevent the sheet from skewing, it is necessary to prepare the sheet before refeeding.

  However, the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 does not refeed the paper in a direction substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction, and the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a paper discharge device and is a device that performs paper refeed. Therefore, it is difficult to satisfy these needs by adopting the configuration of these devices.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an intermediate buffer device that can stably re-feed paper in a direction substantially orthogonal to the direction in which it has been conveyed without skewing.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the sheets conveyed in the first direction continuously from the primary processing apparatus are temporarily stored while being received and stacked, and are substantially stored in the first direction toward the secondary processing apparatus. An intermediate buffer device that carries out sheets one by one from the lowermost sheet in a second direction orthogonal to each other, and is designed to receive sheets on a stacking surface surrounded by guide plates located in four directions. A first side guide plate that is positioned such that the leading edge of the paper in the first direction contacts, and a second side guide plate that is positioned so that the trailing edge of the first direction of the paper contacts. An abutting guide plate that is positioned so that the leading edge of the second direction of the paper abuts, and a rear end guide plate that is positioned so that the trailing edge of the second direction of the paper abuts, and the rear end guide plate is In the second direction, tap the trailing edge of the paper in the second direction intermittently. It is characterized by being adapted to perform the operation.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the second side guide plate performs a reciprocating operation in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the trailing edge of the paper in the first direction. It is what.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the upper portion of the rear end guide plate is inclined rearward in the second direction, and the upper edge of the rear end guide plate is the rear end guide plate. However, the paper is always located behind the trailing edge in the second direction of the conveyed paper even when the paper is moved forward.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the first side guide plate performs a reciprocating motion in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the leading edge of the paper in the first direction. It is what.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second, or fourth aspect of the invention, the guide plate is made of a leaf spring, and an eccentric roller having a bulging portion and a deviating portion is provided on the back portion. The guide plate moves forward toward the edge of the sheet every time the bulging portion of the eccentric roller comes into contact with the back surface of the guide plate as the eccentric roller rotates, and the bulging portion starts from the back surface of the guide plate. Each time it leaves, it performs a backward operation in a direction away from the edge of the paper.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the primary processing device is a burster and the secondary processing device is a folder or a sealer.

According to invention of Claim 1, the following effects can be exhibited.
(1) The paper conveyed from the primary processing apparatus can be re-feeded to the secondary processing apparatus by changing the direction at a substantially right angle.

(2) By re-feeding at a timing according to the processing speed of the secondary processing apparatus, the processing speed of the primary processing apparatus is maintained between the primary processing apparatus and the secondary processing apparatus having different processing speeds. The processing speed of the secondary processing apparatus can also be maintained. Therefore, even when the processing speed of the primary processing device is considerably faster than that of the secondary processing device, there is no need to reduce the processing efficiency of the primary processing device in accordance with the secondary processing device, and thus the primary processing device is effectively used. Can be used.

(3) Since the rear end guide plate reciprocates in the second direction so as to intermittently strike the rear edge of the paper in the second direction, the front edge of the paper in the second direction is abutted against the abutting guide plate, It is possible to prevent the sheet from being inclined with respect to the second direction by aligning the sheet with the abutting guide plate. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the paper from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper. Therefore, the paper can be stably fed again without causing a jam.

According to invention of Claim 2, the following effects can be exhibited.
(1) The front edge of the paper in the first direction is abutted against the first side guide plate, and the paper is aligned with the first side guide plate to prevent the paper from being inclined with respect to the first direction. it can. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the paper from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper. Therefore, the paper can be stably fed again without causing a jam.

(2) It is possible to prevent the trailing edge falling from being delayed by rubbing the trailing edge of the sheet in the first direction against the second side guide plate. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the paper is not conveyed due to the delay of the paper fall.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, the trailing edge of the sheet in the second direction falling on the stacking surface is not caught by the upper edge of the trailing edge guide plate. Therefore, the paper can be dropped smoothly. Further, the cycle of the reciprocating operation of the rear end guide plate can be arbitrarily set without considering that the rear end of the sheet is caught on the upper edge of the rear end guide plate.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the front edge of the sheet in the first direction is abutted against the second side guide plate, the sheet is aligned with the second side guide plate, and the sheet is inclined with respect to the first direction. Can be prevented. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the paper from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper. Therefore, the paper can be stably fed again without causing a jam.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the first side guide plate, the second side guide plate, or the rear end guide plate can be reciprocated with an extremely simple and inexpensive configuration.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to effectively use a burster whose processing speed is considerably faster than that of a folder or a sealer without reducing processing efficiency.

  FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a state in which the intermediate buffer device of the present invention is provided between a primary processing device and a secondary processing device. The primary processing device 8 is, for example, a burster, and the secondary processing device 9 is, for example, a folder or a sealer. The primary processing device 8 and the secondary processing device 9 have different processing speeds.

  A conveyance path 81 is connected to the primary processing apparatus 8, and the conveyance path 81 continuously conveys the paper processed by the primary processing apparatus 8 in the first direction (arrow X direction). The conveyance path 81 is configured to convey a sheet on a plurality of conveyance belts 811. On each conveyor belt 811, a pressing roller 812 for pressing the paper is placed from above.

  The intermediate buffer device 1 is provided in front of the conveyance path 81 in the first direction. The intermediate buffer device 1 accepts and temporarily stores sheets on the stacking surface 11 surrounded by the guide plates 2, 3, 4, and 5 positioned in the four directions, and temporarily stores the sheets in the second direction one by one from the lowermost sheet. It is carried out in the direction of arrow Y. The second direction is substantially orthogonal to the first direction. Note that “substantially orthogonal” is a concept that includes 90 degrees as well as an oblique angle close to a right angle such as 80 degrees and 70 degrees.

  The guide plates 2, 3, 4, 5 located in four directions are a first side guide plate 2 and a rear edge 102 in the first direction of the paper 10, which are positioned to contact the front edge 101 of the paper 10 in the first direction. The second side guide plate 3 positioned so as to abut against the paper, the abutting guide plate 4 positioned so as to contact the front edge 103 of the paper 10 in the second direction, and the rear edge 104 of the paper 10 in the second direction. And a rear end guide plate 5 positioned so as to abut.

  2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG. The stacking surface 11 of the intermediate buffer device 1 includes an auxiliary roller 111, a bottom guide plate 112, and a plurality of transport belts 113. The conveyor belt 113 is wound around the end rollers 114 and 115 and the intermediate roller 116. The bottom guide plate 112 and the conveyor belt 113 are located at substantially the same height. The auxiliary roller 111 is positioned slightly higher than the bottom guide plate 112 and the conveyor belt 113.

  The abutting guide plate 4 is erected at a position immediately before the paper feed roller 117 facing the end roller 115.

  The rear end guide plate 5 is made of a leaf spring, and is provided in a displaceable state in the front-rear direction of the second direction (as indicated by the arrow Y1) with the lower end 51 as a fulcrum. An eccentric roller 55 is disposed on the back of the rear end guide plate 5. The eccentric roller 55 has the bulging part 551 and the deflection | deviation part 552, as shown to III-III sectional drawing of FIG. As the eccentric roller 55 rotates, the rear end guide plate 5 moves forward in the second direction every time the bulging portion 551 comes into contact with the back surface of the rear end guide plate 5 as shown by a one-dot chain line in FIG. As shown by the solid line in FIG. 3, each time the bulging portion 551 moves away from the back surface of the rear end guide plate 5, the backward movement is performed toward the rear in the second direction. The position of the trailing edge guide plate 5 that has moved forward is set to a position that strongly contacts the trailing edge 104 of the sheet 10 that falls on the stacking surface 11. Therefore, the trailing edge guide plate 5 performs a reciprocating operation in the second direction so as to intermittently strike the trailing edge 104 of the conveyed paper 10.

  And the upper part 52 of the rear-end guide plate 5 inclines back in the 2nd direction. Due to this inclination, the upper edge 521 of the rear end guide plate 5 is always located behind the rear edge 104 of the conveyed paper 10 in a plan view even during the reciprocating operation.

  4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. The first side guide plate 2 and the second side guide plate 3 are erected along the second direction.

  The second side guide plate 3 is composed of a leaf spring, and as shown in FIG. 5 which is a VV sectional view of FIG. 4, the front end 31 is a fulcrum in the front-rear direction of the first direction (as indicated by the arrow X1). B) It is provided in a displaceable state. The second side guide plate 3 has a recess 32, and a fixed side guide plate 33 is disposed in front of the recess 32. The front surface 331 of the fixed side guide plate 33 forms the same surface as the front surface 30 other than the concave portion 32 of the second side guide plate 3 before displacement.

  An eccentric roller 57 is disposed on the back of the second side guide plate 3. As shown in FIG. 5, the eccentric roller 57 has a bulging portion 571 and a deflection portion 572. As the eccentric roller 57 rotates, the second side guide plate 3 moves forward toward the front in the first direction every time the bulging portion 571 comes into contact with the back surface of the second side guide plate 3. Each time 571 moves away from the back surface of the second side guide plate 3, the backward movement is performed backward in the first direction. The position of the second side guide plate 3 that has moved forward is set to a position that strongly contacts the trailing edge 102 of the sheet 10 that falls on the stacking surface 11. Accordingly, the second side guide plate 3 performs a reciprocating operation in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the trailing edge 102 of the conveyed paper 10.

  The eccentric roller 55 at the back of the rear end guide plate 5 and the eccentric roller 57 at the back of the second side guide plate 3 are pulleys 56 and 58 (FIG. 2, FIG. 2) connected to one drive motor (not shown). 4), they are driven simultaneously.

  Further, an upper limit sensor 71 that detects the upper limit of the stacking amount of the sheets 10 is provided above the transport belt 113. A passage sensor 72 that detects passage of the paper 10 is provided between the paper feed roller 117 and the secondary processing device 9. In the secondary processing device 9, a pair of transport rollers 95 and 96 for transporting the paper 10 sent out from the intermediate buffer device 1 and a passage sensor 97 for detecting the passage of the paper 10 are provided. Yes.

  The eccentric roller 55, the rear end guide plate 5, the auxiliary roller 111, and the bottom guide plate 112 are respectively in the vertical direction or the front-rear direction of the second direction according to the thickness, size, etc. of the paper 10. The position can be adjusted.

The intermediate buffer device 1 configured as described above operates as follows.
As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet 10 processed by the primary processing device 8 is placed on the transport path 81 and transported in the first direction (arrow X direction), and passes the front end of the transport path 81 in the first direction. As shown in FIG. 4, the paper 10 falls on the stacking surface 11 of the intermediate buffer device 1. When the sheet 10 is continuously conveyed, the sheet 10 is continuously dropped on the stacking surface 11 and stacked. Then, the paper 10 is temporarily stored on the stacking surface 11 while being stacked, and the lowermost paper 10 is transported in the second direction (arrow Y direction) by the transport belt 113. That is, the paper 10 is re-fed to the secondary processing device 9.

  Therefore, according to the intermediate buffer device 1, the paper 10 conveyed from the primary processing device 8 can be re-feeded to the secondary processing device 9 by changing the direction to a substantially right angle.

  Further, in the intermediate buffer device 1, the transport belt 113 is operated at a timing that matches the processing speed of the secondary processing device 9. Therefore, according to the intermediate buffer device 1, the processing speed of the secondary processing device 9 is maintained between the primary processing device 8 and the secondary processing device 9 having different processing speeds while maintaining the processing speed of the primary processing device 8. Can be maintained.

  In particular, when the primary processing device 8 is a burster, the paper is processed at a high processing speed in the primary processing device 8, and the paper 10 is conveyed one after another in a state of being partially overlapped on the conveyance path 81. To go. On the other hand, when the secondary processing device 9 is a folding machine, the processing speed of the secondary processing device 9 becomes slower as the number of folds increases, and is generally considerably slower than the burster. The same applies when the secondary processing device 9 is a sealer. However, according to the intermediate buffer device 1 configured as described above, the paper 10 can be re-fed at a timing that matches the processing speed of the secondary processing device 9 while maintaining the processing speed of the primary processing device 8. It is not necessary to reduce the processing efficiency of the primary processing device 8 in accordance with the processing device 9. Therefore, an apparatus having high processing efficiency such as a burster can be used effectively.

  In the above operation, when the paper 10 falls on the stacking surface 11, the rear end guide plate 5 is reciprocated by the rotation of the eccentric roller 55 as shown in FIG. 3. For this reason, the trailing edge 104 of the sheet 10 being dropped is hit by the trailing edge guide plate 5. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the leading edge 103 of the sheet 10 is abutted against the abutting guide plate 4. Accordingly, the sheet 10 is aligned with the abutting guide plate 4 and is prevented from being inclined with respect to the second direction. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the paper 10 from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper 10. Therefore, the paper 10 can be stably fed again without causing a jam.

  Moreover, the upper edge 521 of the rear end guide plate 5 is always positioned rearward in the plan view from the rear edge 104 of the conveyed paper 10 even while the rear end guide plate 5 is reciprocating. Therefore, the trailing edge 104 of the sheet 10 falling on the stacking surface 11 is not caught by the upper edge 521 of the trailing edge guide plate 5. Therefore, the paper 10 can be dropped smoothly. Further, the cycle of the reciprocating operation of the trailing edge guide plate 5 can be arbitrarily set without considering that the trailing edge 104 of the sheet 10 is caught on the upper edge 521 of the trailing edge guide plate 5.

  The reciprocating cycle of the rear end guide plate 5 is such that the sheet 10 reciprocates at least once before the paper 10 starts to fall on the stacking surface 11 and is loaded on the stacking surface 11 and carried out. Is set.

  Further, in the above operation, when the paper 10 falls on the stacking surface 11, the front edge 101 side is inclined downward and the front edge 101 is the first side as shown in FIG. The trailing edge 102 comes into contact with the guide plate 2 and falls while rubbing against the second side guide plate 3. At this time, in the intermediate buffer device 1, the second side guide plate 3 reciprocates by the rotation of the eccentric roller 57. For this reason, the trailing edge 102 of the sheet 10 being dropped is hit by the second side guide plate 3.

  Thereby, the front edge 101 of the sheet 10 is abutted against the first side guide plate 2. Therefore, the paper 10 is aligned with the first side guide plate 2 and is prevented from being inclined with respect to the first direction. Thereby, also from this point, it is possible to prevent the paper 10 from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper 10. Therefore, the paper 10 can be stably fed again without causing a jam.

  In addition, since the second side guide plate 3 hits the rear edge 102 of the paper 10 by the reciprocating operation, the trailing edge 102 side of the paper 10 rubs against the second side guide plate 3 to delay the fall on the rear edge 102 side. Can be prevented. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the paper 10 is not conveyed due to the delay of the fall of the paper 10.

  The cycle of the reciprocating operation of the second side guide plate 3 is set so that the sheet 10 reciprocates at least once before the sheet 10 starts dropping on the stacking surface 11 and is stacked on the stacking surface 11. Has been.

  Further, according to the intermediate buffer device 1 configured as described above, the second side guide plate 3 and the rear end guide plate 5 are configured to reciprocate, and the second side guide plate 3 and the rear end guide plate 5 are configured as leaf springs and are eccentric. Since only the rollers 55 and 57 are used, the second side guide plate 3 and the rear end guide plate 5 can be reciprocated with a very simple and inexpensive configuration.

  Further, in the intermediate buffer device 1 configured as described above, since the auxiliary roller 111 is provided at a position slightly higher than the bottom guide plate 112 and the conveyor belt 113, it has dropped onto the stacking surface 11 as shown in FIG. The sheet 10 is inclined so that the rear portion in the second direction is lifted by the auxiliary roller 111 and lowered toward the transport belt 113. For this reason, the paper 10 is firmly placed on the transport belt 113 and is urged forward in the second direction. Therefore, according to the intermediate buffer device 1, the paper 10 can be reliably conveyed by the conveyance belt 113.

  In the above operation, the sheets 10 are successively stacked on the stacking surface 11, and when the stacking amount of the sheets 10 reaches a preset upper limit, the upper limit sensor 71 detects that and the operation of the primary processing device 8 is performed. Is stopped. Further, when the passage sensors 72 and 97 do not detect the passage of the paper 10 for a predetermined time or longer, it is considered that the paper 10 has jammed, and the intermediate buffer device 1 and the secondary processing device 9 are stopped.

The intermediate buffer device 1 having the above configuration can arbitrarily adopt the following modified structure.
(1) The first side guide plate 2 is set so as to reciprocate with the same configuration as that of the second side guide plate 3. That is, the first side guide plate 2 performs a reciprocating operation in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the front edge 101 of the paper 10 in the first direction. According to this, the trailing edge 102 of the sheet 10 is abutted against the second side guide plate 3. Therefore, the sheet 10 is aligned with the second side guide plate 3 and is prevented from being inclined with respect to the first direction. Thereby, also from this point, it is possible to prevent the paper 10 from being fed again in an oblique state, that is, the skew of the paper 10. Therefore, the paper 10 can be stably fed again without causing a jam. In this case, the second side guide plate 3 may not be set to reciprocate.

(2) A suction mechanism for adsorbing the sheet 10 to the surface of the conveyor belt 113 is provided. This also ensures that the paper 10 can be transported by the transport belt 113. In this case, the auxiliary roller 111 may not be provided.

(3) The distance between the first side guide plate 2 and the second side guide plate 3 can be adjusted by making one or both movable relative to each other. According to this, even if the dimension in the first direction of the sheet 10 conveyed from the primary processing device 8 is changed, it is possible to cope with it.

(4) The distance between the abutting guide plate 4 and the rear end guide plate 5 can be adjusted by making one or both movable relative to each other. According to this, even if the dimension in the second direction of the sheet 10 conveyed from the primary processing device 8 is changed, it is possible to cope with it.

(5) If the rear end guide plate 5 reciprocates, the first side guide plate 2 and the second side guide plate 3 may not reciprocate.

(6) Even when the intermediate buffer device 1 is provided between the primary processing device 8 and the secondary processing device 9 arranged in a row so as to be arranged in a row with the intermediate processing device 8, the refeeding direction cannot be changed. Except for the above, the same effects as those of the intermediate buffer device 1 configured as described above can be exhibited.

  The intermediate buffer device according to the present invention can stably re-feed paper in a direction substantially perpendicular to the conveyed direction without skewing, so that it is useful in the printing industry and the like. It ’s big.

It is a top view which shows the state in which the intermediate buffer apparatus of this invention was provided between the primary processing apparatus and the secondary processing apparatus. It is II-II sectional drawing of FIG. FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2. It is IV-IV sectional drawing of FIG. It is VV sectional drawing of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Intermediate buffer device 10 Paper 101, 103 Front edge 102, 104 Rear edge 11 Stacking surface 2 First side guide plate 3 Second side guide plate 4 Abutting guide plate 5 Rear end guide plate 52 (of rear end guide plate) 521 Upper edge 55, 57 Eccentric roller 551, 571 Swelling part 552, 572 Uneven part

Claims (6)

The paper continuously conveyed in the first direction from the primary processing apparatus is temporarily stored while being received and stacked, and is moved toward the secondary processing apparatus in a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction. An intermediate buffer device that unloads one sheet at a time from the underlying paper,
It is designed to receive paper on the stacking surface surrounded by guide plates located on all sides.
Guide plates located on all sides
A first side guide plate that is positioned so that the leading edge of the first direction of the paper abuts;
A second side guide plate that is positioned so that the trailing edge of the first direction of the paper abuts;
An abutting guide plate positioned so that the leading edge of the second direction of the paper contacts,
A rear end guide plate that is positioned such that the rear edge of the paper in the second direction contacts,
An intermediate buffer device, wherein the trailing edge guide plate is configured to reciprocate in the second direction so as to intermittently strike the trailing edge of the paper in the second direction.   The intermediate buffer device according to claim 1, wherein the second side guide plate performs a reciprocating motion in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the trailing edge of the paper in the first direction. The upper part of the trailing edge guide plate is inclined rearward in the second direction, and the upper edge of the trailing edge guide plate is moved in the second direction of the sheet that has been conveyed even when the trailing edge guide plate has moved forward. The intermediate buffer device according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate buffer device is always located rearward in the second direction from the trailing edge.
  2. The intermediate buffer device according to claim 1, wherein the first side guide plate is configured to reciprocate in the first direction so as to intermittently strike the leading edge of the paper in the first direction. The guide plate is made of a leaf spring, and is provided with an eccentric roller having a bulging portion and a deflection portion on the back portion,
The guide plate moves forward toward the edge of the paper whenever the bulging portion of the eccentric roller comes into contact with the back surface of the guide plate as the eccentric roller rotates, and whenever the bulging portion moves away from the back surface of the guide plate. 5. The intermediate buffer device according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate buffer device is configured to perform a backward operation in a direction away from the edge of the sheet. The intermediate buffer device according to claim 1, wherein the primary processing device is a burster and the secondary processing device is a folder or a sealer.

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