Patent Application
20090152802
This application claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. §119, of German Patent Application DE 10 2007 060 734.4, filed Dec. 17, 2007; the prior application is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for pressing flat materials onto a transport module. The invention is used in printing apparatuses which are controlled by a microprocessor and is suitable for franking machines and other mail processing units.
An apparatus which employs a transport principle and has a belt that lies at the top and a sprung back pressure apparatus that lies underneath, between which an item of mail is clamped, is known from East German Patent Application DD 233 101 B5, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,234. However, a thermal transfer ink ribbon which is used is unsuitable as a transport belt. The thermal transfer ink ribbon is disposed above a feed table, over which the items of mail are transported in a lying manner downstream in the direction of the mail flow. The feed table has openings, through which a driven back pressure roller engages on the item of mail.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,994 has disclosed a franking machine having a transport apparatus for items of mail, by way of which transport apparatus the letters are transported through the franking machine through the use of a transport belt which lies at the top and a plurality of sprung levers which are disposed underneath. Similar subject matter is also apparent from U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,326, U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,089 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,433. The transport belt is mounted in the manner of a loop on rollers and the printing region is disposed next to the transport region which lies between the rollers. The width of the transport belt is relatively small and corresponds to approximately 1 inch. The extent of a housing transversely with respect to the transport direction of the items of mail is relatively great in comparison. An additional factor is that a second printing region is provided for printing franking strips which are rolled up on reels and which are unrolled for printing. The second printing path causes higher production costs and requires a correspondingly greater extent of the housing transversely with respect to the transport direction of the items of mail.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,709 has already disclosed a printing apparatus for an inkjet franking machine, in which a franking imprint is printed onto an item of mail through the use of an inkjet print head during approximately horizontal letter transport. The inkjet print head is disposed in a stationary manner behind a guide plate in a recess for printing. A circulating transport belt, which is likewise disposed on the side of the guide plate, serves as a transport apparatus. A supporting and pressing apparatus having a plurality of rollers is disposed on the other side opposite the guide plate, with the result that an item of mail which is fed in is clamped between the rollers of the supporting and pressing apparatus and the circulating transport belt. However, the apparatus cannot avoid oblique running of the printing media. An insufficiently tensioned transport belt or a not exactly parallel alignment of the axles of those rollers, on which the transport belt circulates, is sufficient to involve the above-mentioned risk. The supporting and pressing apparatus is very complicated as a result of the multiplicity of rollers of that apparatus.
German Patent DE 196 05 015 C1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,444, has already proposed an embodiment of a printing apparatus of an inkjet franking machine which is the JetMail® apparatus of the applicant of the instant application, Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co.. That embodiment carries out a franking imprint during non-horizontal, approximately vertical letter transport through the use of an inkjet print head which is disposed in a stationary manner behind a guide plate in a recess. A circulating transport belt having pressing elements for the items of mail (letters up to 20 mm thickness, DIN (German Standard) B4 format) or for franking strips, which are configured in such a way that they can be adhesively bonded to packages of any desired thickness, serves as a transport apparatus. The printing medium (letter, package, franking strip) is clamped between the pressing elements and the guide plate.
Transport and drive apparatuses of relatively simple construction without a back pressure apparatus (see German Patent DE 196 05 014 C1) or with a back pressure apparatus (see International Publication No. WO 99/44174) in the vicinity of the printing region using at least one inkjet print head, have also already been proposed. In International Publication No. WO 99/44174, the latter is disposed downstream of an intake roller pair in the transport direction of the mail flow, with the upper roller being driven and the lower back pressure roller being sprung. A further roller pair downstream of the inkjet print head in the mail flow direction close to an ejection device likewise exerts a force on the printing medium. The printing region is spaced apart from the force transmission region of one of the roller pairs by more than one radius of the respectively driven roller. Although the printing information can in principle be changed in all regions by digital printing, the print quality becomes lower as a higher transport speed is selected. In particular, during the use of two inkjet print heads, an offset in the printed image (butting or connection error) can occur along a printed length in the transport direction. The offset makes evaluation of the printed image by machine difficult. The action of the force of the further roller pair downstream of the inkjet print head in the direction of the mail flow close to the ejection device leads to different distances being covered and therefore to the butting or connection error in the printed image in the case of two inkjet print heads which are offset with respect to one another. The print quality which is required in the context of current programs of mail deliverers (for example, the Information Based Indicia Program of the USPS) would therefore only be possible to achieve at a low printing speed. The low thickness of the printing media which can be printed by a printing apparatus that is constructed simply in that way is also disadvantageous.
European Patent EP 1 079 975 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,778, has disclosed an apparatus for printing characters on a predefined location of one side of a flat recording medium, and has also disclosed a franking machine which is equipped correspondingly. A transport belt is disposed firstly on the inkjet print head side and secondly forms an unsuspended supporting device for that side of a flat recording medium (object, item of mail, envelope) which is to be printed. A back pressure apparatus supports the flat object from below. In that back pressure apparatus, a belt rolls around at least two other rollers, at least one of which is not suspended.
An apparatus which is known from European Patent EP 1 170 141 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,901, for printing a printing medium in the printing region, uses a driven transport drum and nondriven back pressure rollers in the force transmission region or, as an alternative, a nondriven back pressure conveyor belt. In the printing region, a stationary inkjet print head prints the printing medium which is moved downstream, with the inkjet print head being disposed axially with respect to the transport drum. The printing region is preferably approximately 1 inch and is spaced apart from the force transmission region, with the spacing of the most remote pixel from the edge of the transport drum being smaller than the radius of the circumference of the transport drum. However, the slight approximately linear contact of that surface of the item of mail which is to be printed with the transport drum and an intake wheel for items of mail which is disposed at a spacing are disadvantageous. The intake wheel is driven by the transport drum through a toothed belt. This causes a Δx offset of the dots in the printed image. A Δy offset of the dots in the printed image results orthogonally with respect thereto, in particular in the case of items of mail having a very large format. Moreover, the construction causes high production costs.
As is known, a franking machine includes, inter alia, an electronic part (meter) and the transport apparatus for items of mail having an electronic controller. A keyboard and a display unit of the meter are connected to the electronic part. The electronic controller is connected electrically to a drive of the transport apparatus in order to actuate it. An electric motor having a gear mechanism is used for the drive, for example. The transport apparatus has a transport belt which acts with a predefined adhesive friction on a part of the surface of the flat materials or items of mail. That part of the surface is not printed but is close to the printing region.
In the market segment of franking machines having small to medium mail item throughputs, a compact transport apparatus for items of mail is required, in which the items of mail are not to be contaminated, however, by free spraying. In the case of horizontal mail item transport, it is assumed that an ink cartridge is disposed above a printing window in the z-direction of a Cartesian coordinate system counter to the direction of gravity. During printing, at least one inkjet print head ejects ink droplets in the direction of gravity, counter to the z-direction, and those ink droplets fly through the printing window. The printing window is disposed at the edge of a transport belt in the y-direction in a housing part, with the transport belt transporting a flat material which is to be printed at the edge past the at least one print head in the transport direction x during printing.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for pressing flat materials onto a transport module of a printing apparatus which is controlled by a microprocessor, in which friction is high at a transport belt of the transport module and low at the pressing apparatus, and which overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type. Firstly postcards and secondly C4-sized letters having a mail item thickness of up to 10 mm are to be processed by the printing apparatus with a high print quality, low production costs and a medium mail item throughput, with the accessibility to the flat materials being ensured even in the case of a jam.
A transport module is disposed above a feed table in the z-direction and has a transport belt for items of mail or flat printing materials in a manner which is known per se.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, an apparatus for pressing flat materials onto a transport module. The apparatus comprises pressing elements which act on the flat material with a spring force through an opening in a feed table for flat materials. The feed table is mounted above a lower housing shell. The pressing elements are configured as spring elements which can be lowered, and are anchored in the lower housing shell. Suitable pressing from below onto the transport belt of the transport module is realized by spring elements which are known per se and are disposed below the transport belt in the transport direction. An actuating element is disposed in an indentation of the front wall of the lower housing shell in order to actuate a lowering apparatus which is disposed in the lower housing shell. The lowering apparatus has a lever which is connected mechanically to the actuating element and a slide which is coupled to the lever and lowers the spring elements when the actuating element is actuated. The spring elements can compensate for letter thicknesses of up to 10 mm. A mail item jam can be remedied simply by lowering the spring elements.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in an apparatus for pressing flat materials onto a transport module, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly, to
A pressing apparatus 40 is disposed below the feed table 13 and acts on the underside of the fed item of mail or flat material in the z-direction through a large rectangular opening 130 of the feed table 13. Spring elements 41 a to 41j are shown in an operating position and not lowered. Lowering is provided for eliminating a jam of items of mail or flat materials.
On an inlet side in a flow of mail, the feed table 13 has sliding rails 136 in a feed region. The sliding rails 136 are integrally formed on a base plate 135 and reduce sliding friction for fed flat materials. A ramp 137, which raises a front edge of the fed flat materials, is disposed between the feed table and the rectangular opening 130. The ramp 137 forms a lock together with a non-illustrated plate. The plate is disposed parallel to the base plate 135 above the latter and serves as an upper guide for flat materials. Flat materials can therefore be pushed in only up to a defined thickness. A guide wall 139 is integrally formed on the base plate 135 in the feed region. The guide wall 135 extends in the transport direction, extends orthogonally in the upward direction (z-direction) and is widened in an inlet region 138 for flat materials or items of mail. The latter are detected through the use of sensors after passing the ramp 137. Holes 1301, 1302 and 1303, which are provided for transmitting diodes of the sensors, are integrally formed in the base plate 135. The transmitting diodes and phototransistors or photodiodes are a constituent part of transmitted light barriers.
The base plate 135 is disposed after the ramp 137 in a mail item transport direction x and has a first opening 131 of medium size and a second opening 132 of medium size opposite inkjet print heads. The first opening 131 is disposed offset in comparison with the second opening 132 by a first spacing A in the y-direction, that is to say in a direction transverse with respect to the mail item transport direction. The first spacing A is somewhat smaller than an entire print head length of a ½″ HP print head. The second opening 132 is disposed offset in comparison with the first opening 131 by a second spacing B in the x-direction, that is to say in the mail item transport direction. The spacing B is more than an entire print head width. Both the first and second openings 131 and 132 in the feed table 13 are π-shaped (pi-shaped). A respective elongate rectangular opening 133,134 is positioned upstream of each of the two first and second openings 131 and 132 in the mail flow direction.
The surface area of the large rectangular third opening 130 exceeds the surface area of the second opening 132 of medium size by more than one order of magnitude. The second opening 132 is offset in the y-direction with respect to the third opening 130 and the offset is so minimal that both openings adjoin one another directly or are separated only by a very thin connecting web. The third opening 130 permits the spring elements 41a to 41j of the pressing apparatus 40, which presses in a sprung manner against a flat material or item of mail and is disposed below the feed table 13, to pass through it. The feed table 13 is mounted on a lower housing shell 49. The lower housing shell 49 has a right-hand side wall 491, a front wall 492, a left-hand side wall 493 and a base 496. The right-hand side wall 491 has a cutout 4911 at an upper edge for the spring elements 41i and 41j which can be lowered downstream in the mail flow direction. The feed table 13 is stepped downward at a frame 1351 which lies downstream in the mail flow direction, in such a way that the frame 1351 delimits the third opening 130 and fits into the cutout 4911 at the upper edge of the right-hand side wall 491. The right-hand side wall 491 is formed offset in the transport direction with respect to a right-hand base side wall 4961. A base front wall 4962 is formed offset in the y-direction by the same offset with respect to the front wall 492.
The front wall 492 has an indentation 47, in which the wall is set back as far as the base front wall 4962. An actuating element 46, which is disposed in the indentation 47, has a surface that ends with the running face of the feed table 13.
The base plate 135 of the feed table 13 has a fourth opening 1355 on the front wall 492. The fourth opening 1355 permits the actuation of the actuating element 46 having a surface 460 with a structure which is the same as that of the surface of the feed table 13. The actuating element 46 has a power arm 461 which emerges from an opening 470 of the left-hand side wall 471 of the indentation 47. The pressing apparatus 40 will be explained in detail in the following text.
The pressing apparatus 40 can be moved by a slide 42 from the operating position into a second position which is shown. The spring elements 41a to 41j are disposed in two rows on both sides of the slide 42 and are anchored on the lower housing shell 49. For example, the spring element 41 a has a base 415a for anchoring. The base 415a closes a bearing opening 4971 on one side on an angled away upper edge of a first inner wall 497 of the lower housing shell 49. A second inner wall 498, which is constructed symmetrically to the first, lies parallel to the first inner wall 497 in the lower housing shell 49, both having respective angled away upper edges 4972, 4982 which face one another.
The lower housing shell 49 has a base plate 490, on which both the first and second inner walls are formed integrally or in one piece perpendicularly and the base is formed integrally or in one piece. The base 496 has a left-hand base side wall 4963 which merges into the left-hand side wall 493 through a base step 495. The left-hand side wall 493 has a hook 494 on its inner side for fastening a non-illustrated tension spring. Fastening pillars 4931 and 4932, which lean against the left-hand side wall 493, stand on the base step 495. A further fastening pillar 4921 stands on a base step on the inner side of the transition of the front wall 492 to the right-hand side wall 491. The fastening pillars serve to fasten the feed table. The feed table and the tension spring have been omitted from the drawing of
The indentation 47 on the front wall 492 has an indentation wall 472 parallel to the front wall 492, a right-hand indentation side wall 473 and the left-hand indentation side wall 471 with the opening 470, from which the power arm 461 of an angled lever emerges. The power arm 461 is used in this case as an actuating element, in order to displace the slide 42 counter to a spring action. An actuating force, which is transmitted according to the lever principle through the angled away arm element 462 of the angled lever to the angled away power arm 463, is exerted at a key-shaped end of the power arm 461. The angled lever is rotated about an axis which extends through a shaft 464 that is mounted rotatably in the bearing openings 4971, 4981 of the two inner walls of the lower housing shell 49. As is seen with the aid of
As an alternative, the apparatus for pressing flat materials onto a transport module can also include a multiplicity of pressing elements, the number of which is substantially higher than that shown in the described exemplary embodiment. In a simplified manner, each pressing element can also be composed of a spring sheet steel which is bent in an S-shape or of another synthetic material which has spring characteristics. A material of this type should have a sufficiently smooth surface or a structure which reduces the sliding friction in the head region.
The invention is not restricted to the present embodiment per se. Rather, a number of devices are conceivable within the scope of the claims. The devices are used and are encompassed by the present claims in a manner which proceeds from the same basic concept of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2007 060 734.4 | Dec 2007 | DE | national |
