JPS6215461B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] In bookbinding work, signatures S as shown in Fig.
(several pages of paper printed and folded to the size of a book) must be stacked in the correct order without falling off, and then bound. A collating machine is used to automatically perform this stacking operation, that is, collating.

In order to visually check whether the collation has been performed correctly, place collation marks such as 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Fig. 2 on spine 1 of signature S in Fig. 1. The imprinting of marks known as ``marks'' has been practiced for a long time for manual collation. Note that 6 in Fig. 2 is the back cover (printing the title of the book, etc.). The spine labels are sequentially shifted from the first fold by a certain pitch, so if there are no collation errors, the spine labels will line up in the correct step-like pattern as shown in Figure 2. Therefore, collation errors can be easily detected by visual inspection.

In order to supply signatures in the collating machine, signatures S of the same type (in the same order) are stacked in what is called a box, as shown in FIG. A large number of boxes are arranged side by side, and each order of signatures is stacked in each box. As shown in FIG. 3 and its cross-sectional view in FIG. 4, the box is surrounded by band-like guides on all four sides, and the guides are positioned according to the size of the signature. From the bottom of the box, fold the signature into the 4th
By the reciprocating movement of the suction port 7 in the direction of the arrow in the figure, it is pulled out one by one and then conveyed onto a conveyor (not shown) below, where the signatures are sequentially placed and advanced.
After all pages have been collated, they are sent to the binding machine.

In order to automatically detect whether collation is correct or not, it is sufficient to photoelectrically detect the collation mark after the signatures are stacked in the box until they are pulled out and placed on the conveyor, but the inside dimensions of the box are larger than the signatures. It is necessary to increase the size by several mm (according to experience to avoid excessive pull-out resistance), so take into account the horizontal deviation of signatures.
The length of the spine must be approximately 15 to 25 mm. Therefore, with only one conventional visual marking,
You can only change about 6 to 10 steps (as an example)
For an A6 size book, the length of the spine is approximately 150 mm, and if you divide the length excluding the spine space by 20 mm, you will get approximately 6 columns.)

The method of this proposal is to print the printing area of the spine mark of one signature in the shape of the dashed line frame 8 in Figure 5.
The stage is set, and each stage is associated with a detection element 9 such as an optical fiber type, so that the presence or absence of a mark is detected for each stage. This is the same theory as reading punch tape. By this method, if the mark area has n stages, information on 2 ⁿ distinctions can be obtained. However, even if it is necessary to exclude ineligible items 1 and 2 from the information, such as those without marks in all columns, if n = 5 to 6, (2 ⁵ =
32, 2 ⁶ = 64), sufficient information can be obtained to detect collation errors.

The above explanation describes the case where the detection mark is printed on the spine of the signature, and Fig. 4 shows the case where the mark is read in the middle of the signature pulling operation. Detection element 9
may be placed opposite the mark in a stationary state with a stack of signatures.

It is clear that the detection mark may be printed on any of the four sides (top, bottom, etc.) other than the back. However, in this case, it is generally required for the appearance of the book that the edge portion on which the mark is printed be removed during the final binding process.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the signature S as an example of eight pages folded. Figure 2 shows how the back signs are properly collated into the correct rows. Figure 3 is a front view of the collating machine box, Figure 4 is a sectional view of AA in Figure 3,
An example of the positions of the mouthpiece 7 and the detection element 9 is shown. FIG. 5 shows the position 8 of the collation mark and the arrangement of the mark detection element 9 corresponding thereto.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a bookbinding collating machine, the collation order pattern of the signatures shown in FIG. A pattern depending on the presence or absence of mark imprinting is printed for each of the n (n is 3 or more) mark printing areas set as in 8 above, and the signatures are transferred from the box loaded with them to the next process (conveyor). Detection elements (sensors), such as photoelectric type, are installed at positions facing each of the n mark areas in between, and the collation machine detects collation errors by distinguishing between the ⁿ types of patterns. Automatic mistake detection method.