JPH0581499B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a recording medium transport and sorting mechanism of a recording medium inspection device, and more specifically, to a flexible disk storage medium (hereinafter simply referred to as a floppy disk medium).
This invention relates to a conveyance and distribution mechanism for flat flexible disks such as.

[Conventional technology]

For example, in a floppy disk medium inspection machine, floppy disk media that have been inspected are generally transported from an inspection section to a stacker position and stacked there.

Conventionally, such a floppy disk medium is generally conveyed by a belt conveying mechanism, and the floppy disk medium is conveyed in a horizontal position.

The floppy disk medium transported to the stacker position by such a belt transport mechanism is
They are moved horizontally by a pusher engaging their ends and stacked horizontally in a stacker.

Alternatively, the floppy disk medium transported to the stacker position by the belt transport mechanism,
A pick-up mechanism picks up or suctions the material and transports it to the stacker.

[Problem to be solved]

In the case of the above-mentioned belt transport mechanism, when transporting a floppy disk medium in a nearly vertical position, it is impossible to use only one transport belt, and there is a It is necessary to transport the floppy disk medium between the belt and the roller, making the structure complicated. Therefore, in a floppy disk medium inspection device, when sorting floppy disk media according to the inspection results, a separate sorting mechanism must be provided independently of the transport path as described above.
The drawback is that the inspection equipment inevitably becomes larger.

In particular, if multiple stackers are installed and floppy disk media are sorted according to inspection results, such as passing, side A passing, side B passing, and both sides failing, and stacking them separately, at least one of the conveyor belts The floppy disk must be separated in the middle and the floppy disk medium must be moved to the stacker at the separated part. Then, it is necessary to devise a way to send the floppy disk medium from the divided portion of the conveyor belt to the next conveyor belt.

Additionally, the transport mechanism must be deployable to facilitate handling of the floppy disk media transport jam.

As described above, the belt conveyance mechanism has a problem in that its structure becomes complicated when attempting to convey the floppy disk medium in an upright position.

Furthermore, in the belt conveyance mechanism, once the floppy disk medium is conveyed to the stacker position, the conveyance belt must be stopped until the stacking operation of the floppy disk medium is completed. Therefore, conveyance and stacking cannot be carried out continuously in parallel. As a result, the floppy disk media cannot be sorted at high speed according to the inspection results, and it takes time from transportation to sorting, making it impossible to respond to high-speed inspection processing.

[Purpose of the invention]

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional belt conveying mechanism and to provide a recording medium conveying and sorting system that can perform high-speed sorting processing in an inspection apparatus for flat recording media such as floppy disk media. The goal is to provide a mechanism.

[Means for solving problems]

The recording medium conveyance and distribution mechanism of the inspection apparatus of the present invention that achieves the above object is characterized by a recording medium conveyance and distribution mechanism that has a flat outer shape, and is inclined at a first predetermined angle from the vertical plane. A guide member having a guide surface, an endless body such as an endless belt that runs on the back side of this guide surface, a conveying claw member that is attached to this endless body and moves along the guide surface together with the endless body, and a conveying claw. a member disposed along the movement path of the member and configured to cause the transport claw member to protrude from or retreat from the guide surface by engaging with or releasing the transport claw member; an extrusion mechanism for pushing the recording medium over the vertical plane to the side opposite to the side tilted at the first predetermined angle; The receiving plate is provided to face the extrusion mechanism in an inclined state and receive the extruded recording medium, and the conveying claw member is moved while protruding from the guide surface and engaging with the recording medium on the guide surface. By this, the recording medium is transported in the moving direction of the transport claw member while being guided by the guide surface, and by retreating the transport claw member from the guide surface at the position of the extrusion mechanism, the predetermined recording medium is stopped and the extrusion mechanism is activated. By doing so, a predetermined recording medium is received by the receiving plate.

[Effect]

As described above, the recording medium transport sorting mechanism of the recording medium inspection apparatus of the present invention is configured to transport the recording medium on the guide surface by hooking it to the transport claw member protruding from the guide surface. Since the surface is inclined at a predetermined angle from the vertical plane and the recording medium is conveyed in this manner, the recording medium can be conveyed in an upright state, and even in that case, one side of the conveyance path for the recording medium can be opened.

As a result, it is possible to place the receiving plate that receives the sorted recording media on the open side, and by arranging the extrusion mechanism for sorting along the guide surface, the transport mechanism and the sorting mechanism It is possible to realize a small-sized conveyance and distribution mechanism as a whole without making these two independent mechanisms. Moreover, since the conveyance claw member is circulated using an endless body such as an endless belt, high-speed conveyance is achieved, and the conveyed recording medium is sorted by extrusion by simply tilting it in the opposite direction in accordance with this high-speed conveyance. High-speed distribution becomes possible. Further, it is possible to easily process the sorting stack and conveyance jam of recording media.

Further, by retracting the conveying claw member from the guide surface, the conveying claw member can be continuously moved while the recording medium is stopped. Therefore, the recording medium is stopped at a certain stacker position,
It is possible to transport the next recording medium in parallel with the stacking operation.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a simplified overall configuration of a floppy disk medium inspection machine to which a recording medium conveying and sorting mechanism of a recording medium (floppy disk medium) inspection apparatus according to the present invention is applied.
Further, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the conveying pawl and related parts of the recording medium conveying and distributing mechanism.

First, the transport mechanism 10 for horizontally transporting a floppy disk medium will be explained. 1
Reference numerals 1 and 12 designate fixed guide plates for guiding the conveyance of the floppy disk medium, and are fixed so as to be tilted rearward at a predetermined angle from a vertical position. The front surfaces of the fixed guide plates 11 and 12 serve as guide surfaces for the floppy disk medium.

An endless belt 14 is hooked around pulleys 16 and 18 behind the fixed guide plates 11 and 12, and runs parallel to the fixed guide plates 11 and 12 in the direction of arrow A. A plurality of transport claws 20 are attached to the endless belt 14 at regular intervals.

As shown in detail in FIG. 2, this conveyor claw 20 is fixed to the tip of an arm member 24 that can rotate back and forth about a pin 22 fixed to the back side of the conveyor belt 14 as a fulcrum. The upper and lower arm members 24 are urged rearward by a spring 26 attached to the pin 22. Therefore, when no force is applied to rotate the arm member 24 forward, the conveyor claw 20 is locked to the conveyor belt 14 as shown in the figure, and the tip of the conveyor claw 20 is attached to the fixed guide plate. 11,12
It's more backwards.

A micro bearing roller 28 is attached to the arm member 24. A movable roller guide 30 is arranged parallel to the endless belt 14 in association with the microbearing roller 28 .
This movable roller guide 30 can be rotated to a position shown by a solid line in FIG. 2 or a position shown by a chain line. The drive is performed using a solenoid or the like, but the means for that purpose is omitted in the figure.

When the movable roller guide 28 is in the position indicated by the solid line, the micro bearing roller 28 engages with the front surface of the movable roller guide 30, so that the arm member 2
4 is rotated forward against the force of the spring 26, and as a result, the tip of the conveyance claw 20 protrudes forward from the fixed guide plates 11 and 12.

However, even if the movable roller guide 30 is in such a position, if the micro bearing roller 28 moves further to the right than the right end and comes off the movable roller guide 30, the conveyance claw 20 will move backward as shown in FIG. do.

Referring again to FIG. 1, 32 is a motor, which is directly connected to the rotating shaft 34 of the pulley 16. As shown in FIG.

33 is a floppy disk drive (inspection department)
It is. The floppy disk medium that has been inspected is ejected from the floppy disk drive 33 in an almost vertical position, and transported by an elevator 36 to the transport mechanism 10 in an upright position tilted backward at a predetermined angle.
and set on the left end of the fixed guide plates 11 and 12.

Although the elevator 36 is illustrated in a simplified manner, it actually consists of a ball screw for moving the illustrated portion in a substantially vertical direction, a motor, and a guide for guiding the movement. There is.

Next, the stacker will be explained. In this embodiment, two stackers 40 and 42 having the same structure are provided at the positions shown. However, one stacker 40 is for stacking floppy disk media that passed the inspection.
The other stacker 42 is for stacking floppy disk media that fail the inspection.

To explain the structure of each stacker 40, 42, reference numeral 44 is a pair of guide shafts fixed at a predetermined angle from a horizontal position so that the front side is lower. 46 is a base slidably supported by the guide shaft 44. This base 46
The transport mechanism 10 is operated by a spring (not shown).
Forced to the side. A plate 48 is fixed to the base 46 and is substantially perpendicular thereto.
In other words, the plate 48 and the fixed guide plates 11 and 12 of the transport mechanism 10 are tilted forward by a predetermined angle.

Each stacker 40, 42 stacks the floppy disk media in an upright position with the floppy disk media tilted at a predetermined angle.As the number of floppy disk media increases, the base 46 gradually resists the spring due to its weight retreat to. That is, the plates 48 of the stackers 40, 42 are always kept at a substantially constant distance from the transport mechanism 10, ready for the next stack of floppy disk media.

Next, a pusher, which is a main part of the distribution mechanism for pushing down the floppy disk medium conveyed by the conveyance mechanism 10 toward the stacker 40 or 48, will be explained.

In this embodiment, two stackers 40,
Two pushers 5, each corresponding to 42.
0,52 are provided. One pusher 5
0 is for stacking floppy disk media that passed the inspection in the stacker 40, and the other pusher 52 is for stacking floppy disk media that failed the inspection in the stacker 42. It is. The structure of each is as follows.

Push arms 54 and 56 are main elements of the pushers 50 and 52, and are supported so as to be rotatable back and forth behind the fixed guide plates 11 and 12 with support shafts 58 and 56 as fulcrums at their lower ends, respectively. There is. When no external force is applied to each push arm 54, 56, the push arm 54, 56 falls backward to an angle at which it locks with a locking member (not shown), and the push arm 54, 56 falls to the rear side to an angle at which it locks with a locking member (not shown), and the pusher arms 54, 56 fall to the rear side to an angle at which they lock with a locking member (not shown).
56d is retracted from the fixed guide plates 11 and 12.

61 is a stopper arm that interlocks with one pusher arm 54, and a support shaft 58 is connected to the lower end of the stopper arm.
It is rotatably supported.

62 is a cam plate for driving one of the pusher arms 54 and the stopper arm 61;
4 is a cam plate for driving the other push arm 56; 66 is a motor for rotationally driving the cam plates 62 and 64, and the rotational force is transmitted through the gear box 68 to the respective cam plates 62 and 6.
4. This motor 6
6. Gear box 68 and cam plates 62, 64
(these are collectively referred to as drive units) are integrally movable left and right.

Reference numeral 70 denotes a solenoid, which is connected to the drive unit via a coupling member (not shown) and moves it left and right.

When actuating one of the pushers 50, the drive unit is moved to the left so that the cam plate 62 is in a position to engage the pusher arm 54 and the stopper arm 61. When the motor 66 is operated to rotate the cam plate 62 in this state, the push arm 54 and the stopper arm 61 rotate forward in accordance with the rotation of the cam plate 62. The push arm 54 protrudes forward.
The push surface portions 54a to 54d move toward the front side of the fixed guide plates 11 and 12.

When actuating the associated pusher 52, the drive unit is moved to the right so that the cam plate 64 is in a position to engage the pusher arm 56. Therefore, when the motor 66 is operated to rotate the cam plate 64, the push arm 56 rotates forward as the cam plate 64 rotates, and the push surface portion 56 of the push arm 56 rotates forward.
a to 55d move forward from the fixed guide plates 11 and 12.

Next, the operation of the transport mechanism 10 will be described in relation to the overall operation of the floppy disk medium inspection machine.

As the endless belt 14 runs, a certain conveyor claw 2
0 passes through the pulley 16, the micro bearing roller 28 associated with the conveyance pawl 20 comes to engage with the front surface of the movable roller guide 30, so that the conveyance pawl 20 is connected to the fixed guide plate 1.
Endless belt 1 in a state protruding forward from 1 and 12
Move to the right side with 4. Note that, at this point, the movable roller guide 30 is in the position shown by the solid line in FIG.

This protruding transport claw 20 engages with the left end of the floppy disk medium (indicated by imaginary line A in FIG. 1) carried into the transport mechanism 10 by the elevator 36, and fixes the floppy disk medium. It is transported to the right side while being guided by guide plates 11 and 12.

Here, since the fixed guide plates 11 and 12 are tilted backward by a predetermined angle as described above, the floppy disk medium is conveyed in an attitude tilted backward by the same angle.

If the floppy disk medium is rejected, the drive unit is moved to the left and the pusher 50 and stopper arm 61 are made operable. Then, when the floppy disk medium approaches the position just in front of the stacker 40, the motor 66 is activated.

First, the stopper arm 61 is rotated forward, and its tip end is attached to the fixed guide plates 11 and 1.
Protrudes in front of 2. Almost at the same time as the tip of the floppy disk medium engages with the tip of the stopper arm 61, the movable roller guide 30 is rotated to the position shown by the chain line in FIG. Run to the side and move to the right.

After that, the push arm 54 rotates forward,
The push surfaces 54a to 54d push the floppy disk media (indicated by imaginary line C in FIG. 1) forward and stack them on the stacker 40 in an attitude tilted forward at a predetermined angle.

When this stacking operation is completed, the push arm 54 and the stopper arm 61 are returned to their standby positions, and the motor 66 is stopped. Note that the movable roller guide 30 is returned to the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 2 after the conveyance claw 20 passes through its right end.

On the other hand, if the floppy disk medium carried into the transport mechanism 10 is a rejected medium, the drive unit is moved to the right and the pusher 52 becomes operational.

The floppy disk medium is indicated by the broken line D in Figure 1.
When conveyed to the position shown in , the micro bearing roller 28 of the conveyance claw 20 moves to the movable roller guide 3.
0 and is disengaged from the front surface of the floppy disk medium, so that the conveyance claw 20 escapes to the rear side of the floppy disk medium and continues to move.

When the floppy disk medium approaches the position just in front of the stacker 42, the motor 66 is activated. Then, the push arm 56 rotates forward, and the push surfaces 56a to 56d push the floppy disk medium D forward, and the floppy disk medium D is stacked in the stacker 42 in an upright position tilted forward at a predetermined angle.

In this way, the floppy disk medium is transported in a substantially vertical position by the transport mechanism 10, pushed down to the opposite side by the pushers 50 and 52, and stacked in the stackers 40 and 42 in a substantially vertical position. . This stacking operation is possible because one side (the front side in this embodiment) of the transport mechanism 10 is open. Similarly, handling of the transport jam is easy.

Further, since the amount of movement of the floppy disk medium for this stacking operation is small, the operation can be performed quickly and in a short period of time. Also, unlike the configuration in which the floppy disk medium on the conveyor belt is horizontally moved and stacked by a pusher that engages the end of the floppy disk medium, no force such as friction is applied to the floppy disk medium, so the floppy disk Not only can damage to the medium be prevented, but even if the floppy disk medium is warped or otherwise deformed, the stacking operation can be performed reliably. Furthermore, after the floppy disk medium is transported to the stacker position, the transport claw 20 can be released and the transport claw 20 can be moved as it is. This allows the next floppy disk medium to be transported.

Although one embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto.

For example, regarding the conveyance mechanism, the same effect can be achieved by directly advancing and retracting the movable roller guide back and forth or up and down.

Regarding other parts, for example, in the pusher of the above embodiment, the pusher arm was rotated to push down the floppy disk medium and stack it, but the same stacking operation could be performed by a member that directly moves back and forth. It is also possible to configure

Further, in the above embodiment, the two pushers are driven by a common drive unit, but an independent drive means may be provided for each pusher.

Furthermore, three or more stackers may be provided, and the floppy disk media may be stacked in even more finely sorted format, such as double-sided pass, A-side pass, B-side fail, and both-side fail. Conversely, only one stacker may be provided and stacking may be performed without sorting.

In addition to this, the present invention can be modified and implemented in various ways without departing from the spirit thereof.

In addition, although the above embodiment deals with a floppy disk medium, the conveyance mechanism for other flat recording media (such as optical disk media) can also be used.
This invention can be similarly applied to achieve similar effects.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As can be understood from the above explanation, in this invention, the guide surface is tilted at a predetermined angle from the vertical plane and the recording medium is conveyed by the claw, so one side can be opened and the sorted recording medium can be transported. The receiving plate for receiving the liquid is placed on this open side, and the extrusion mechanism for distribution is placed on the guide surface, so
It is possible to realize a compact conveyance and distribution mechanism as a whole without making the conveyance mechanism and distribution mechanism independent mechanisms. Moreover, since the conveyance claw member is circulated using an endless body such as an endless belt, high-speed conveyance is achieved, and the conveyed recording medium is sorted by extrusion by simply tilting it in the opposite direction in accordance with this high-speed conveyance. High-speed distribution becomes possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a floppy disk medium inspection machine to which the recording medium conveyance and distribution mechanism of the recording medium inspection apparatus of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a conveyance claw and its related components in the recording medium conveyance and distribution mechanism. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the structure. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Conveyance mechanism, 11, 12... Fixed guide plate, 14... Endless belt, 20... Conveyance claw, 24...
Arm member, 26... Spring, 28... Micro bearing roller, 30... Movable roller guide, 4
0,42...Statska, 50,52...Pushya,
61...Stopper arm.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A conveyance and distribution mechanism for recording media having a flat outer shape, which includes a guide member having a guide surface inclined at a first predetermined angle from a vertical plane, and an endless body such as an endless belt running on the back side of this guide surface. a transport claw member attached to the endless body and moving along the guide surface together with the endless body; and a transport claw member disposed along the movement path of the transport claw member and engaged with the transport claw member. Alternatively, a member for causing the conveying claw member to protrude from the guide surface or retreat from the guide surface by releasing the member is provided along the guide surface and moves the recording medium to the side inclined at the first predetermined angle. an extrusion mechanism that tilts and extrudes beyond the vertical plane to a side opposite to the vertical plane; a receiving plate arranged to receive the extruded recording medium, and the conveying claw member protrudes from the guide surface and moves while engaging with the recording medium on the guide surface, thereby transporting the recording medium. The recording medium is conveyed in the moving direction of the conveyance claw member while being guided by the guide surface, and the predetermined recording medium is stopped by retracting the conveyance claw member from the guide surface at the position of the extrusion mechanism, and the extrusion mechanism is activated. A recording medium conveying and sorting mechanism of a recording medium inspection apparatus that receives the predetermined recording medium on the receiving plate by