JPH055680B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an inspection method after the collation process of flat binding, perfect binding, etc.

In a normal bookbinding process, a book with a predetermined number of pages is created by collecting each signature in order using a collating machine. The bookbinding process will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically illustrating a perfect binding line with 15 collated pieces in the collating section 1, and each collating device The mechanical structure of the hopper section of one piece is schematically shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. When the signature to be supplied by that piece is placed on the hopper part 27, the timing valve 31 rotates in accordance with the rotation of the machine, and the vacuum pump 33 and the suction mounting rod 30 are connected to the piping hose 32 via the timing valve 31. It is connected accordingly. Suction mouth mounting rod 30
are each provided with a suction port 29 and are each made of a hollow member, so that the signatures 28 can be pulled downward one by one through the suction port 29 by the suction force of the vacuum pump 33. Now timing valve 31
When the timing position is in the open state with respect to the vacuum pump 33, that is, when air is sucked from the suction port 29 to pull the lowest one of the signatures 28 downward, the claw cylinder 34 moves in the direction of the arrow. The tip of the signature 28' is caught in the grip by the claw 35 and the claw base 36 at a good timing. At the same time, the timing valve 31 is closed, and air is no longer sucked from the suction port 29.

When the claw cylinder further rotates in the direction of the arrow while holding the tip of signature 28', signature 28' becomes signature 2.
When the signature 28'' is pulled out from the hopper section 27, which is the loading place for the signature 8', the pawl cylinder 34 rotates further, and the signature 28'' comes onto the gearing plate 37, the pawl 35 separates from the pawl base 36, and the signature 28'' is dropped onto the gear ring plate 37. When the signature 28' falls onto the gearing plate 37, the signature 28 is moved to the claw of the next piece by a transverse feed pin 39 fixed to the gearing chain 38 in order to receive the signature from the next piece. Moved down the cylinder.

In this way, if the signatures are sequentially fed out from the 1st frame to the 15th frame, and the signatures are stacked, and all the signatures are set, the final volume will be one quirebook made up of 15 types of signatures. Become.

Thereafter, the collated sheets are sent to the binder section 9 by the connecting conveyor 2, and while being held by the clamps 3, the roughening station 4 makes a gully on the back of the signatures, and the glue station 5 The cover 7 is glued at the position of the clamp 6. Then, it passes through conveyor 8, and is then cut in three directions to become a single finished book.

The above process is a general perfect binding line,
The same goes for books that are collated one by one.

If the specified signatures are correctly supplied to each piece of collating unit 1, there will be no problem with the collated books, but human error may cause collation failures. be. In other words, since it is humans who place the signatures on the hopper of each piece, it is possible that a different signature than the one that should be fed to that piece may be placed on the hopper, or even if it is the correct signature. Sometimes I put it upside down. When this happens, as a result of collation, the folded sections will have no page connections at all, resulting in what is called a misprinted book and a defective product.

Currently, as a method to prevent such human errors, a solid mark 1 is placed on the back or bag of each signature as shown in Figure 4.
By inserting 0 and changing the position of the solid mark 10, each signature can be distinguished. In other words, by collating everything and looking at the positional relationship of the solid marks as shown in Figure 5, it is possible to determine whether or not pages are missing. However, the currently used inspection method is to install a reflective sensor 40 at the position of the solid mark on the signatures placed on each piece before collation, as shown in Figure 2 or 3. If it is marked by scanning, it means that the correct signature is set.
If there is no mark (there is one in a different location), it is determined that the wrong signature has been set.

However, with this method, if the same signature is mixed in with the correct signature once, but upside down, it is difficult to detect it if the signature has a small number of pages or is not thick. In addition, if a jam occurs in each piece, the machine must be stopped, the operator must correct the jam, and manually add or subtract the necessary signatures from the group of signatures that are being collated. arise.

At this time, the wrong signature may be added or forgotten, resulting in a book with missing pages, but current inspection methods cannot prevent this.

In the present invention, when all collation is completed,
This method attempts to solve the problems of the above-mentioned inspection methods by employing an inspection method that detects missing pages by looking at the solid marks on each spine. Furthermore, the present invention aims to automatically perform such an inspection using an inspection device, and in this case, it is possible to perform the inspection well even if there are variations in the position or thickness of the object to be inspected. It is something to do.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

In the present invention, the image input of the solid mark on the spine of the collated book is performed in the image input section of the inspection device 41. As shown, the collated book 11 is conveyed from the connecting conveyor 2 to the binder section 9 and is held between the clamps 3. That part is shown in FIG.

Various types of inspection equipment can be considered for carrying out the inspection method of the present invention, and some that can be used for missing page inspection are also commercially available. An inspection device 41 consisting of a processing section 43 is shown.

The inspection device 41 inputs an image 12 of a range including the entire solid mark 10 on the spine of the collated book 11 as shown in FIG. 7 through the image input section, and the inspection processing section 43 determines whether the collation is defective.

The image input section 42 may be a television camera, a line sensor camera, or the like, but any device that can input the image 12 including the entire solid mark 10 as shown in FIG. 7 may be used. An image signal 44 sent from the image input section 42 is stored as one image in a storage section such as a frame memory in the inspection processing section 43. The image data for one image stored in the storage unit may be in either analog or digital format. Further, the image signal 44 may be converted into data directly, or may be converted into data after undergoing operations such as differential integration, binarization, and filtering.

The inspection processing unit 43 determines whether the collation is defective or not by detecting whether the solid marks 10 of each signature on the spine of the collated book 11 are in the correct position. If so, it is determined to be defective. The thickness of the folded book is about 40 mm at its thickest, and the solid mark is about 1 mm to 2 mm in the thickness direction (when you look at the back when the fold is opened and the fold is opened, the solid mark is about 1 mm to 2 mm). (or more), and the size is approximately 5 to 10 mm in the vertical direction.

If the solid mark deviates from the spine of the collated book, the inspection device determines that the book is defective. In such collated books, the position of the printed characters and pictures on the pages of the book is 2 mm.
Since the deviation is more than that, it is obviously defective.

In order to detect the presence or absence and position of the solid mark 10, the inspection processing unit 43 sets an inspection area 50 as shown by the dotted line in FIG. It is possible to perform processing such as examining the area of the density portion or the correlation between several inspection areas 50, and comparing this data with a preset reference value to inspect for missing pages. . FIG. 8 shows some examples of setting the inspection area 50, and its shape,
The size and number can be set arbitrarily, and by setting the inspection area 50 according to the type of collected books, the corresponding image data in the storage section is used in the process for detecting the solid mark 10.

By the way, in the apparatus for inspecting defective books such as missing pages by the method described above, the collected books to be inspected must always be at a constant position within the screen. If there is no collated book at a certain position on the screen, even a normally collated book may not be detected by the inspection area 50 where the solid mark 10 on the spine is set, and the accuracy of inspection will be significantly degraded.

As shown in FIG. 6, the inspection device 41 is generally installed in the binder section 9, where the collected books 11 are held between the clamps 3 and transported. The position of the collated book 11 in the conveyance direction can also be detected from the traveling system of the binder section 9, and can also be detected by the inspection device 4.
It can also be detected by examining the image signal 44 from the image input section 42 in step 1. Even in the conventional general inspection apparatus, the input timing of the image signal 44 is determined by the method described above so that image data with a constant position of the object to be inspected in the transport direction within the screen can be obtained. However, the position of the collated books 11 on the screen is not only in the transport direction but also in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction.
Positional fluctuations occur due to rattling in the transport drive system of the binder section 9. Further, the thickness of the collected book 11 also varies due to variations in the pressure applied by the springs of the clamps 3 to clamp the collected book 11, or variations in the thickness of the papers that make up the collected book 11. Therefore, even if only the position of the collected book 11 in the transport direction is fixed within the screen, it is difficult to achieve high inspection accuracy.

Therefore, the present invention adopts an inspection method that corresponds to the positional variation of the collected book 11 in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction and the thickness variation of the collected book 11, and performs a more accurate inspection.

In the present invention, the solid mark 10 on the back of the collated book 11 is inspected by the inspection device shown in FIG.
An inspection area 50 is set within the screen to detect
The position is corrected by moving the entire position according to the positional fluctuation of the collating book 11, and the inspection area 50 is not easily affected by the thickness variation of the collating book 11.
Collation defects are inspected by using the method of setting and the method of detecting the solid marks 10.

To correct the position of the collected books 11 in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction, as shown in FIG. The entire position detection area 51 and inspection area 50 are moved so that the position references match. In FIG. 9, as an example, the positional reference of the collected book 11 is set to one side 53 of the book. Any other object can also be used as the position reference, as long as it is always at a constant position on the back of the collected book 11, moves with the collected book 11 within the screen, and can be detected by the position detection area 51. can. The position detection area 51 can be set at any position within the screen depending on the positional reference of the collected books 11. Collate book 11 within position detection area 51
A fixed position 52 to which the positional reference is to be aligned is determined, and this position is shown by a dashed line in FIG. The position detection area 51 detects the position reference of the collated books 11 based on the density level or the amount of change in density, and moves to match the fixed position 52 within the position detection area 51. At the same time, the inspection area 50 is also moved. Move the same distance in the same direction. Figure 9 shows the position detection area 51.
and movement of the inspection area 50 are represented by arrows. The state after the position correction is as shown in Figure 10.
1, the fixed position 52 and one side 53 of the position reference of the collated book 11 match, and the position of the inspection area 50 is also the solid mark 1.
It is almost above 0.

In the examples of FIGS. 9 and 10, one inspection area 50 is provided for each solid mark 10, but the setting of the inspection area 50 is not limited to this example and can be set freely.

After the correction for the positional variation of the collated book 11 is made, a collation defect is inspected, but in the present invention, an inspection method that can accurately inspect even the thickness variation of the collated book 11 is adopted here. do. As an explanation of the inspection method, a method of setting the inspection area 50 and a method of processing data obtained from the inspection area 50 will be described.

Even if the correction for the positional variation of the collected book 11 has been made, if there is further thickness variation, the solid mark 10 on the spine of the collected book 11, which is the base for inspection, will be The position changes. Therefore, a plurality of inspection areas 50 are provided for one solid mark 10, and these inspection areas 50 are
are arranged so as to line up every 10 solid marks in the thickness direction of the collated book. The number of inspection areas 50 provided for one solid mark 10 depends on how much the position and size of the solid mark 10 change due to variations in the thickness of the collected book 11, but if there are too many, a large amount of data from the inspection area 50 will be collected. Since this causes a burden on subsequent processing, it is usually best to use two or three. Inspection area 50
The shape and size of one mark shall be approximately the same as that of one solid mark. FIGS. 11a and 11b show examples in which two and three inspection areas 50 are provided for each solid mark 10, respectively.

Even if the thickness of the collated book 11 changes by the method of setting the inspection area 50 as described above, the solid mark 10 will be detected by one of the inspection areas 50 corresponding to itself, and this situation is shown in Figs. 12a and 12b. and Figure 13a,
Shown in b. Similar to FIG. 11, the number of inspection areas 50 is two and three, and FIGS. 12a and 12b show cases where the book is thick, and FIGS. 13a and 13b show cases where the book is thin.

Next, the data obtained from the set inspection area 50 and the processing method for detecting collation defects using the data will be described.

In the inspection area 50, in order to detect the solid mark 10, the average density within the inspection area 50 or the solid mark 1 is determined.
Measure the area of the portion that is determined to be 0. 14th
In an example in which two or _three inspection areas 50 are provided for one solid mark 10 as shown in _{FIG .}
I will call it. Inspection area 50 is solid mark 10
When there are two pieces for one piece, A _o and B _o , and when there are three pieces, it is A o and B o.
A _o , B _o , C _o are provided on each solid mark 10
A _o , B _o , and C _o are arranged in the same way. Furthermore, the average density in the inspection area Ao of the n-th signature _or the area of the portion that is determined to be solid mark 10 is calculated as _ao
It is expressed as Similarly, the inspection area B _o of the nth signature is
The average density within C _o or the area of the portion determined as solid mark 10 is expressed as b _oo and C _o . A method for determining whether collation is normal or abnormal from data obtained from each inspection area 50 will be explained using a case where there are 502 inspection areas and 3 inspection areas for 101 solid marks.

If there are 502 inspection areas for 101 solid marks, each data is considered normal if it satisfies the following conditions, and abnormal if it does not.

l ₁ ≦a _o +b _o ≦l ₂ [1-1] (n=1,2,...,k) and |a _o −a _o +1|≦l ₃ |b _o −b _o +1|≦l ₄ [1-2] (n=1, 2, ..., k-1) where k is the number of solid marks 10.

Further, in the case where there are 503 inspection areas for 101 solid marks, it is considered normal only when the following conditions are satisfied.

l ₅ ≦a _o +b _o +c _o ≦l ₆ [2-1] (n=1,2,...,k) and ｜a _o −a _o+1 ｜≦l ₇ ｜b _o −b _o+1 ｜≦l ₈ ｜c _o −c _o+1 ｜≦l ₉ [2-2] (n=1, 2, ..., k-1) Under the conditions of each example, formula [1-1] and formula [ 2-1] is one solid mark 10 within a plurality of inspection areas 50 provided for one solid mark 10.
This is to judge whether there is enough money, solid mark 1
If 0 is not in the predetermined position, a _o + b _{o and} a _o + b _o + c _o will be smaller than the values of l ₁ and l _5, respectively, and if the same signatures are overlapped, they will be smaller than l ₂ and l ₆ . growing. The values of l ₁ , l ₂ , l ₅ , l ₆ are 10 solid marks for each signature.
It can be determined appropriately depending on the size of. Formula [1-2]
and Equation [2-2] are the corresponding inspection areas 50 of adjacent solid marks 10, that is, A _o+1 for A _o and A o+1 for B _o.
The average density of C _o+1 or the area of 10 solid marks is calculated for B _o+1 and C _o . If the signatures are normal, the relative positional relationship between each solid mark 10 and the plurality of inspection areas 50 is almost the same, and even if there is a change in the thickness of the collated book 11, if the signatures are adjacent to each other, there will be almost no change. do not have. However, if there is no solid mark 10 on a certain signature, or if there are extra signatures mixed in,
In addition, if the order of adjacent signatures is reversed, the average density of the inspection area 50 or the solid mark 1
The area of the 0 part changes greatly even if it is one fold next to the other. Therefore, in the case of 502 inspection areas, |a _o −a _o+1 , |b _o
−b _o+1 | becomes larger than the values of l ₃ and l ₄ , respectively,
In the case of 503 inspection areas, |a _o −a _o+1 |, |b _o −
b _o+1 | and |c _o −c _o+1 | become larger than the values of l ₇ , l ₈ , and l _9, respectively.

If the values of l ₃ , l ₄ , l ₇ , l ₈ , and l ₉ are larger than the average density in each inspection area 50 or the change in the area of the solid mark 10 due to the thickness variation of the collated book 11, and it is abnormal. It is best to take a value smaller than the change in . A specific example will be shown to show what kind of numerical values the values l ₁ to _{l 9} will be.

As a prerequisite, after inputting an image of the spine of a book with a camera, it is divided into two colors: white or black, with a certain halftone density as the boundary.
When handling as a value image (no halftones),
Inspection is performed by setting an inspection area (50) on a binary image and measuring the area of the black part within the inspection area.The area is measured in pixels of the image, and the pixel is the number of elements or resolution of the camera and the size of the field of view. For example, when using a video camera, the number of camera elements is approximately 480 elements in the vertical direction x 640 elements in the horizontal direction, and if an image with a field of view of 150 mm x 200 mm in the vertical direction is input, it will be 0.3 mm square. The size of one inspection area (50) is the same size as the solid mark corresponding to each inspection area, and two inspection areas are set for one solid mark.

Here, if the size of the solid mark is 5 x 30 pixels in the input image (150 pixels if the area is expressed in pixels), then as shown in Figure 11a, there will be two inspection areas of 5 x 30 pixels. Detected black area (a _o +
b _o ) is ideally a _o + b _o = 150. but,
The value of a _o + b _o varies depending on uneven lighting, the roughness of the back of the book, and the electrical performance of the camera (S/N ratio, etc.). The variation range of a _o + b _o measured from a normal book is ±
If it is about 8%, the values of l ₁ and l ₂ should be about 150±12%.

That is, l ₁ =150×0.88 l ₂ =150×1.12.

In addition, since the two inspection areas are lined up in the width direction of the book, even if the position of the solid mark changes due to changes in the thickness of the book, the value of a _o + b _o will fluctuate as described above. The area measured by a _o or b _o also varies due to variations in the thickness of the book. For example, thickness about 40
When there are about 30 folds in a mm book, the thickness variation is about ±
1mm (approximately ±2.5%) occurs. After correcting the position of a collated book, the area of the inspection area of the solid mark closest to the position correction reference is hardly affected by thickness variation, but the area of the inspection area of the solid mark farthest from the position correction reference is affected by the thickness variation. It varies by approximately ±2.5% due to fluctuations in temperature. However, the area measured by inspection areas A _o and A _o+1 or B _o and B _{o+1 of} adjacent solid marks in a normal book is ±2.5/(30−1)=0.09%.

Therefore, since A _o or A _o+1 is affected by the thickness variation in addition to the above-mentioned variation, l ₃ and l ₄ are in the inspection area 1.
16.1% of the area measured per piece (8 x 2 +
It is best to set it to about 0.09≒16.1).

l ₃ = l ₄ = (150/2) x 0.161 = 12 Doing similar calculations, l ₁ = l ₅ = 132, l ₂ = l ₆ =
168, l ₃ , l ₄ , l ₇ , l ₈ , l ₉ =12.

In this way, the correlation between the data of the inspection area 50 within one solid mark 10 and the correlation between adjacent solid marks 1
By examining the correlation of the data of the inspection area 50 of 0, it is possible to detect collation defects such as those shown in FIGS. can. The solid mark 10 of the normal collated book 11 is as shown in FIG.
Figure 7 shows a case where a certain signature is missing, Figure 18 shows a case where a certain signature is in the wrong position, Figure 19 shows a case where a certain signature is upside down, and Figure 20 shows a case where a certain signature is upside down. This is a case where the pages overlap excessively.

The present invention corrects the position of the inspection area 50, sets the inspection area 50, and processes the data from the inspection area 50 as described above, thereby eliminating collation defects without being affected by positional fluctuations and thickness fluctuations of the collated books 11. It provides a method for conducting an inspection.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the collation process, Figs. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams of the hopper section of one piece of the collating device, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the signature, and Fig. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the folding unit. Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between the inspection device and the collated book to be inspected, Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the solid mark on the spine of the collated book and the input range, Fig. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the inspection area, FIGS. 9 and 10 are explanatory diagrams of movement of the inspection area, and FIGS. 11 to 13 are explanatory diagrams in which multiple inspection areas are set in one solid mark,
Figures 14 and 15 are illustrations of the principle of inspection for missing pages based on multiple inspection areas, Figure 16 is an illustration of normal collated books, and Figures 17 to 20 are illustrations of examples of missing or disordered pages. Explanatory diagrams are shown respectively. 1... Collation section, 2... Connecting conveyor, 3...
Clamp, 4... Roughening station, 5...
...Glue station, 6...Clamp, 7...
Cover, 8... conveyor, 9... binder section,
10... solid mark, 11... collated book, 27...
Hopper part, 28... signature, 29... mouthpiece, 30
... Suction mouth mounting rod, 31 ... Timing valve, 3
2...Plumbing hose, 33...Vacuum pump,
34... Claw cylinder, 35... Claw, 36... Claw base, 37... Gear ring plate, 38... Gear ring chain, 39... Transverse feed pin, 41
...Inspection device, 42...Image input section, 43...Inspection processing section, 50...Inspection area, 51...Position detection area, 52...Fixed position.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Input an image containing the entire solid mark on the spine of a collated book that has completed the binding process, measure the area or density occupied by each solid mark in a preset inspection area corresponding to each solid mark, and calculate the obtained value. In this method, one or more small inspection areas having approximately the same size as the solid mark are inspected based on the thickness of the collated book. The inspection area is formed by arranging the collected books in the horizontal direction, and position correction is performed by moving the inspection area according to the detection result obtained using means for detecting positional changes of the collated books, and each solid mark is placed in the corresponding inspection area. At the same time as comparing the area or density occupied by the solid mark with the reference value, the area or density occupied by each solid mark in each small inspection area within the inspection area is compared with the area or density occupied by the solid mark in each corresponding small inspection area in the adjacent inspection area. A method for inspecting missing pages, which is characterized by: