JPH0464979B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to detecting the fold direction of perforations in continuous paper used in high-speed printers used as output devices for computers, particularly in electrophotographic systems.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in an electrophotographic apparatus that uses continuous paper such as folding paper, the continuous paper is transported at an extremely high speed in addition to high-speed printing, so a means for quickly and accurately folding the continuous paper after printing is required.
To print characters, figures, etc. in an electrophotographic device, a thermal fixing method (e.g. heat roll) is used, so the folded part of the perforation of continuous paper may be elongated, and sometimes wrinkles may occur. The original folds are significantly weakened and the restoring force is weakened. For this reason, when the continuous paper ejected from the printing device falls into the paper storage section,
Regardless of the folding direction of the perforation, the paper is unrolled, and as a result, it is not folded neatly, and the paper protrudes from the paper storage area, requiring manual labor to organize it, resulting in troublesome work and time. .

To prevent these conditions, a paper folding device is provided after the continuous paper is ejected from the device. This device is a commonly used method in which a pendulum-moving oscillating plate is synchronized with the perforations of continuous paper to distribute the paper.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Generally, in printers that use continuous paper, the paper transport path inside the printer is not necessarily arranged in a straight line. This is partly due to the need to downsize printer devices, etc., and the conveyance path has a partially bent arrangement, so that when the continuous paper passes, the mountain folds and valley folds of the perforations are It is ejected from the printer section after being stretched or bent at the bend.

As mentioned above, in electrophotographic printing devices, since the thermal fixation method is performed using heat and pressure, the folded part of the perforation of the continuous paper may be elongated, and sometimes the continuous paper may be ejected from the printer in a wrinkled form. Because of this, it was unreliable to fold neatly into the paper storage section. In order to solve these problems, the above-mentioned paper folding device has been provided, but it has the drawback of being complicated and expensive.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to detect the fold direction (mountain fold or valley fold) of the perforation in advance while the fold of the perforation of continuous paper is maintained. That is.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the paper is equipped with a feed roller that freely repeats the movement toward and away from the paper, or a stop lever that is operated by a magnet, and which can determine the feed amount of the paper to the perforation position while the continuous paper is being conveyed. It has a photoelectric detection means for detecting the leading edge, a detection means for detecting a mountain fold or a valley fold of the continuous paper generated by the stoppage of the feed roller, etc., and a memory for storing the electric signal obtained from the detection means. It consists of means.

[Effect]

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned means, after continuous paper is set in a printer device, it is automatically transported, transferred through various processes such as transferring characters and figures on the surface of a photosensitive drum, and then thermally fixing (e.g., using a heat roll). Through a series of operations, the folding direction of the perforation can be detected at a position immediately after the continuous sheet is automatically conveyed, and this can be converted into an electrical signal and stored in the storage device.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial side view of one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is continuous paper, 2 is a tractor unit that conveys the continuous paper, 3 is a paper guide, 3a is an opening of the paper guide, and 4 is a pair of feed rollers that rotate and stop by a drive source (not shown). . 5
A is a light-emitting element, and 5b is a light-receiving element (hereinafter referred to as photoelectric detector 5), which detects the leading edge of the continuous paper. 6
Detectors a and 6b detect mountain folds or valley folds at the perforations of continuous paper, and 7 is a storage device that stores an output signal of the mountain fold or valley fold detected by 6a or 6b.

Now, the continuous paper 1 is set in the tractor section 2,
It is transported in the direction of arrow A by a drive source (not shown) of the tractor section 2.

Continuous paper 1 is guided by paper guide 3 and advances.
A photoelectric detector 5 detects the leading edge of the paper.

Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the length L between the perforations of the continuous paper 1 used is determined in advance by paper manufacturing standards. Therefore, a mountain fold or a valley fold at the perforation of the continuous paper 1 is made at a position where the leading edge of the continuous paper 1 is further advanced by a distance from the position detected by the photoelectric detector 5, that is, at a position (L+). Paper fold detectors 6a and 6b are provided to detect paper folds.

In this way, the photoelectric detector 5 detects the bending position of the perforation.
Therefore, it can always be set at the center of the paper opening 3a.

As a subsequent operation, the rotation of the feed roller 4 is stopped by a drive source (not shown), and the conveyance of the continuous paper 1 is temporarily stopped. On the other hand, the sheet feeding operation by the tractor section 2 continues as it is, and after conveying the sheet by a predetermined amount, the sheet feeding operation of the tractor section 2 is stopped. As a result, as described above, the folding position of the perforation of the continuous paper 1 tends to protrude upward or downward at the center of the paper guide opening 3a. At this time, the continuous paper 1 tries to bend at the weak perforations where the folds are formed. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, if it is in a mountain-folded state, it is bent as shown in 1a, and if it is in a valley-folded state, it is bent as shown in 1b. For example, if it is assumed that the paper protrudes in the direction of the mountain fold 1a, the paper fold detector 6a is caused to collide with the paper fold detector 6a at this portion 1a.

Then, by the detection operation of the paper fold detector 6a, it is converted into an electrical signal and stored in the storage device 7 as a "mountain fold". Contrary to the above example, if a valley fold occurs, the paper fold detector 6
b, and its detection signal is stored in the storage device 7 as a "valley bend" in the same way as above. In the subsequent paper processing operation, in order to return the protruding continuous paper to the normal horizontal conveyance state, the feed roller 4 is first driven to convey the protruding paper by a previously known amount of feed to bring it into a horizontal state. It goes without saying that the tractor unit 2 is in a stationary state during this operating time.
Thereafter, the continuous paper 1 rotates in synchronization with the drive of the tractor unit 2 and the drive source of the feed roller 4, and performs a normal paper conveyance operation.

Next, FIG. 2 will be explained.

FIG. 2 is a partial side view showing another embodiment.
The mechanism for stopping the conveyance of continuous paper by the feed roller 4 explained in FIG. 1 is replaced with a plunger magnet drive mechanism. In the figure, 8 is a plunger magnet, 9 is a link, and 10 is a stop lever. Other symbols are the same as in FIG. 1.
Now, due to the suction operation of the plunger magnet 8, the stop lever 10 is rotated counterclockwise through the link 9 about the shaft 11, and its tip is a mechanism that forcibly stops the running of the continuous paper 1. be. The subsequent method for detecting mountain folds or valley folds is the first method.
Since the operation is the same as that explained in the figure, the explanation will be omitted. In the paper processing operation after detecting a mountain fold or a valley fold, in order to return the protruding continuous paper to the normal horizontal transport state, the tractor section 2 is first driven in the direction opposite to the normal transport direction A, and the Convey the amount of feed for the protrusion that has been obtained and return it to a horizontal state. During this operation time, the leading end of the stop lever 10 presses the continuous paper 1. When the predetermined rotational feeding is completed, the suction state of the plunger magnet 8 is released, and the stop lever 10 is rotated clockwise about the shaft 11.
The tip of the stop lever is separated from the pressing surface of the continuous sheet of paper, and is maintained in the separated state by a spring 12.

In the embodiments of the present invention, a detection method using a micro switch is described as the perforation fold direction detector, but a photoelectric detection method such as a reflective optical sensor may be used. In addition, the perforation length L of the continuous paper 1 is determined depending on the paper standard used, and the folding direction is regularly and alternately folded, so when detecting the folding direction, for example, first detect the mountain fold direction. By doing so, the direction of subsequent bending can be easily determined, so it is possible to use only one detector 6a. FIG. 4 shows an operation flow for detecting the perforation fold direction of the continuous paper 1. As shown in FIG.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily determine whether the perforation fold direction of continuous paper is a mountain fold or a valley fold within a printer device and at a position immediately after automatic conveyance of the device. It can be memorized. By notifying the result as a signal to a folding mechanism (not shown) provided at a paper ejection section in the printer, the folding direction of the perforation can be restored. Therefore, the paper discharged from the printer device can be neatly folded into the paper storage section.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partial side view showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial side view showing another embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of continuous paper. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control system of the present invention. 1... Continuous paper, 2... Tractor section with pin, 3
...Paper guide, 4...Feed roller, 5a,
5b...Photoelectric detector, 6a, 6b...Paper fold detector, 7...Storage device, 8...Plunger magnet, 9...Link, 10...Stop lever, 1
1...shaft, 12...spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer using continuous paper having folds at regular intervals, comprising: paper feeding means provided at both ends of the continuous paper;
A means for performing a contacting/separating operation with respect to the paper using an electromagnetic clutch or the like, a photoelectric detection means for detecting the leading edge of the continuous paper, and a means for performing the contacting/separating action with respect to the paper at the central position of the opening of the paper guide. Therefore, when the perforation of the continuous paper is a mountain fold, there is a detection means for detecting the mountain fold, and when the perforation is a valley fold, the detection means for detecting the valley fold;
1. A perforation fold direction detection device for continuous paper, comprising: storage means for storing detection results of mountain folds or valley folds at perforations.