1. Technical Field
The present invention-involving bookbinding units that collate into bundles sheets conveyed out from photocopiers, printers, and the like, and finish the bundles into cover-sheet bound booklets-relates to improvements in cover-sheet feeding mechanisms for the encasing of inner-bound sheet bundles in cover sheets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, this kind of bookbinding unit collates into sheet bundles on a stacking tray sheets conveyed out from an image-forming unit, and applies adhesive to a spine portion of the sheet bundle. Meanwhile, a cover sheet is fed from an inserter (a feeding apparatus) disposed upstream of the image-forming unit or stacking tray to a cover-sheet binding position provided downstream of the adhesive application position. Then the sheet bundle coated with adhesive at the cover-sheet binding position is joined to the central portion of the cover sheet in an upside-down T-configuration, and the cover sheet is folded to form shoulders on the sheet bundle (to form the booklet). These processes are known in the art.
This type of system is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Pat. Pub. App. No. 2005-305822 (cf.
Although it is not disclosed in the publication mentioned above, a system configuration is already known wherein an inserter unit (a feeding apparatus) is disposed between the image-forming unit and the cover-sheet binding position (stage) to selectively convey cover sheets from the inserter unit and the image-forming unit.
When a cover sheet is automatically conveyed to the cover-sheet binding position (the bookbinding stage) as described above, conventionally, the cover sheet is fed either from a stacker in the image-forming unit connected to the bookbinding unit or it is fed from a stacker in the inserter unit connected to the bookbinding unit. In such a case, the cover sheet is either fed from the stacker via the image-forming unit, or from a stacker disposed outside of the bookbinding unit to the bookbinding position via inside the bookbinding unit. Therefore, the bookbinding unit is provided sheet guides and a conveyance roller that convey the cover sheet from the stacking position to a predetermined binding position.
Various types of paper are used as cover sheets in a bookbinding unit. For example, special sheets such as glossy paper, one surface of which is coated with a varnish, cover-sheet paper covered with fabric, or windowed sheets with an opening to expose a title have been used. There is a problem with those kinds of special sheets in that the conveyance mechanisms, such as rollers, belts, and sheet guides, peel away the cover sheet coating layer. Therefore, special sheets cannot be used as cover sheets in a conventional apparatus configuration.
In other words, when using special paper like the ones described above as cover sheets, friction marks, abrasions, and other kinds of defacement caused by the conveyance rollers occur on surfaces of coated sheets or fabric-covered sheets. There is also the problem of an edge of a windowed sheet becoming jammed on the paper guides and the like.
Furthermore, after the cover sheet is conveyed to the cover-sheet binding position, the cover sheet is folded over the spine of the inner-bound leaf bundle by pressing members. The cover sheet at this time is folded by pressing members. When the cover sheet is sandwiched between the pressing members, these members can leave pressing marks on the cover sheet surface, thereby creating the problem of a poor esthetic appearance of the finished book.
Therein, the inventors arrived at the concept of, when conveying special cover sheets from a stacker to a predetermined binding position, preventing friction marks, abrasions and paper jams by overlaying a for-conveyance protective sheet onto the cover sheets and conveying them.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a bookbinding unit that feeds various types of sheets when feeding a cover sheet from a stacker to predetermined cover binding position, and does not deface, cause friction marks or pressing marks on the cover sheet surface when forming the cover.
The present invention employs the following configuration to solve the problems discussed above. A bookbinding unit according to the present invention is equipped with stacking tray means for stacking into bundles, and supporting, sheets on which images have been formed; a bookbinding path for guiding the sheet bundle from the stacking tray means to a predetermined cover-sheet binding position; a cover feed path for feeding a cover sheet to the cover-sheet binding position; and protective-sheet storage tray that supplies a jacketing sheet to the cover feed path. Further, a conveyance means that overlays fed cover sheets with jacketing sheets supplied from the protective-sheet storage tray and that transports these the jacketed cover sheets to the cover-sheet binding position is disposed in the cover feed path.
The protective-sheet storage tray is disposed in a feeder unit that feeds the cover sheet to the cover feed path, and is configured to selectively supply cover sheets to the cover feed path from either the feeder unit or from the image-forming unit.
The protective-sheet storage tray is disposed in the feeder unit that feeds cover sheets to the incoming sheet conveyance path. This feeder unit also has a first tray member that stores the cover sheets, and a second tray member that stores jacketing sheets.
The conveyance means disposed in the incoming sheet conveyance path or the cover feed path has a registration means that momentarily pauses a jacketing sheet from the protective-sheet storage tray and overlays it with a cover sheet conveyed from the incoming sheet conveyance path. The registration means is configured to underlay the jacketing sheet along the spine-cover side of the cover sheet.
Cutting means is disposed downstream of the cover sheet binding means in the bookbinding path. The cutting means is configured to trim true and align the edges of the covered sheet bundle. The cutting means cuts the jacketing sheets at the same time as trimming the edges of the sheet bundle for alignment. Also, stacking means for storing the bound sheets is provided at a downstream side of the cutting means. The stacking means is configured to store sheet bundles and jacketing sheets that have been trimmed true and aligned by the cutting means.
An image forming system according to the present invention is composed of an image-forming unit that sequentially forms predetermined images on sheets, and a bookbinding unit connected to a discharge outlet of the image-forming unit, that collates sheets having printed images into a stack or sheet bundle and binds that sheet bundle to a cover sheet. The bookbinding unit is configured as described above.
The present invention provides a protective-sheet storage tray that stores jacketing sheets in the cover feed path of the bookbinding unit. When conveying a cover sheet to the predetermined binding position, the cover sheet is overlaid with a jacketing sheet during conveyance, which has the following effects.
The cover sheet is covered by a jacketing sheet when being conveyed through the cover feed path so no markings from abrasion or friction caused by conveyance roller and the like remain on the cover sheet. The cover sheet is also not defaced by rollers and the like. Cover sheets with an opening for a title and the like do not get jammed by the roller or paper guides and the like. In such a case, it is possible to solve the problem of degraded appearance of the cover sheet after the bookbinding process by overlaying a jacketing sheet over the cover sheet.
Also, the present invention provides a feeder unit in the bookbinding unit. A cover sheet storage tray and a jacketing sheet storage tray are attached to this unit. Because it is configured to overlay a jacketing sheet over a cover sheet when the cover sheet is being fed to the cover-sheet binding position, the structure is simple and low-cost, and can solve the problems of defacing or damaging sheets, and paper jams.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the drawings provided.
As shown in
First, the feeding method of the present invention will be explained with reference to the schematic drawings of
The present invention equips a protective-sheet storage tray (second feeding tray 26b) in the conveyance path (that configures a portion of the cover feed path) 31 described above. For that reason, the protective-sheet storage tray 26b and a feeding path 27 that conveys a jacketing sheet from that tray to the conveyance path 31 are connected to the conveyance path 31.
It is preferable that the protective-sheet storage tray 26b is installed in an inserter unit (paper feeding device) 26 that feeds cover sheets Sh to the conveyance path 31. In such a case, the inserter unit 26 can be configured to be built-in to the bookbinding unit B or to be a separate unit in a housing separate from the bookbinding unit. The device shown in the drawings is integrated to the inside of the bookbinding unit B, and the first sheet-supplying tray means 26a and second sheet-supplying tray means 26b that store cover sheets Sh are disposed with one above the other. In this way, the present invention selectively feeds a cover sheet Sh from the image-forming unit A or the inserter unit 26 to the cover-sheet binding position F (bookbinding stage) described below.
The present invention also overlayingly feeds the cover sheet Sh fed from the image-forming unit A or the inserter unit 26 and a jacketing sheet Sc from the protective-sheet storage tray 26b to the cover-sheet binding position F, and creates a booklet by overlaying both sheets simultaneously at that position. Overlaying the jacketing sheet Sc and cover sheet Sh will be explained for (1) feeding the cover sheet Sh from the inserter unit 26, and (2) feeding the cover sheet Sh from the image-forming unit A.
Feeding Cover Sheets Sh from Inserter Unit 26
As shown in
Feeding Cover Sheets Sh from Image-Forming Unit A
As shown in
In this state, as shown in
As shown in
A static electric drum 10 is equipped at the printing unit 3. A print head 9, a developer 11 and a transfer charger 12 are disposed around this drum 10. The print head 9 is composed of a laser emitter, for example, to form electrostatic latent images on the electrostatic drum 10. Toner ink adheres to the latent image at the developer 11, and this is transferred and printed on the sheet at the transfer charger 12. The printed sheet is the fixed at the fixer 13 and discharged to the discharge path 17. A discharge outlet 14 formed in the casing 1 and a discharge roller 15 is disposed at the discharge unit 4. The symbol 16 in the drawing denotes a recirculation path. A printed sheet from the discharge path 17 is turned over from front to back at the switchback path and fed to the registration roller 7 to be formed with images on its backside. In this way, a sheet formed with images on one side or both sides is conveyed from the discharge outlet 14 by the discharge roller 15.
The symbol 20 in the drawing denotes a scanner unit. This optically reads original images to print using the print head 9. As is generally known in the art, the scanner is composed of a platen 23 where an original sheet is set; a carriage 21 that scans the original image along the platen 23; and an optical reading means (for example, a CCD device) that photo-electrically converts optical images received from the carriage 21. The drawing shows an original feeding apparatus 25 that automatically feeds the original sheet to the platen, installed over the platen 23.
Next, the bookbinding unit B connected to the image-forming unit A will now be explained with reference to
A conveyance path 31 having a conveyance inlet 31a linked to the discharge outlet 14 of the image-forming unit A is provided in the casing 30, and the inner sheet conveyance path 32 and cover feed path 34 are linked from this conveyance path 31 via the path switching flapper 36. The bookbinding process path 33 is linked to the cover feed path 34 via the stacker 40, and a finishing path 38 is connected to the cover feed path 34. The bookbinding process path 33 is disposed to traverse the apparatus longitudinally in a substantially vertical direction, and the cover feed path 34 is disposed in a direction to traverse the apparatus in a horizontal direction.
The bookbinding process path 33 and the cover feed path 34 mutually intersect (orthogonally); the cover sheet binding means 60, described below, is disposed in the intersection. The conveyance path 31 configured as described above is linked to the discharge outlet 14 of the image-forming unit A to receive printed sheets from the image-forming unit A. Sheets Sn printed with content information (the inner leaves of sheets), and a sheet Sh printed with a title and the like to be used as a cover sheet (a cover sheet) are conveyed out from the image-forming unit A. This conveyance path 31 is branched into the inner sheet conveyance path 32 and the cover feed path 34, and sorts printed sheets to convey them into each path by the use of a path switching flapper 36.
On the other hand, the inserter unit 26 is connected to the conveyance path 31. This is configured to feed a cover sheet Sh not printed at the image-forming unit A one at a time from the first sheet-supplying tray means 26a to the conveyance path 31. The first sheet-supplying tray means 26a and second sheet-supplying tray means 26b are arranged with one above the other in this inserter unit 26 as described above. The first sheet-supplying tray means 26a stores the cover sheets Sh; the second sheet-supplying tray means 26b stores the jacketing sheets Sc. The kick-roller 26k and separating means 26s are provided in each tray; sheets are kicked out of the tray by the kick-roller 26k, and separated into single sheets by the separating roller 26s and conveyed downstream. Also, the feeding path 27 that is connected to the conveyance path 31 is equipped downstream of the separating means 26s. Aligning means 27a that overlays sheets from the first sheet-supplying tray means 26a and second sheet-supplying tray means 26b simultaneously or in tandem is equipped in the feeding path 27.
The conveyance roller 31b is disposed in the conveyance path 31; the conveyance roller 32b is disposed in the inner sheet conveyance path 32; the gripping conveyance means 47, the sheet-bundle attitude biasing means 64 described below, and discharge roller (discharge means) 66 are disposed in the bookbinding process path 33. The conveyance roller 34a is disposed in the cover feed path 34, the conveyance roller 38a is disposed in the finishing path 38, and each of these rollers is connected to a drive motor.
A configuration of the cover feed path 34 will now be explained with reference to
The aligning mechanism 35 is composed of a nipping claw 35a disposed in the cover feed path 34 to engage a trailing end of the cover sheet Sh, an aligning member 35b that offsets the cover sheet Sh gripped by the nipping claw in a direction perpendicular to the direction of conveyance, and the forward and reverse rotating roller 35r that switches back the cover sheet Sh fed to the cover feed path 34 to touch the nipping claw 35a. The forward and reverse rotating roller 35r is configured to rise and lower to and from an idling position retreated above the cover sheet Sh.
The cover sheet Sh conveyed into the cover feed path 34 is switched back and conveyed by the reverse rotation of the forward and reverse rotating roller 35r after its trailing end passes the aligning means 27a. When doing so, the trailing end of the sheet is aligned to remove any skewing (traveling at an angle) of the sheet by abutting the nipping claw 35a. In this state, the nipping claw 35a grips the trailing end of the sheet and the aligning means 35b mounted with the nipping claw 35a moves in a direction perpendicular to the direction of conveyance to align the sides of the sheet. This corrects any skewing in the cover sheet Sh in the front and back directions, and corrects the position of the width direction of the sheet (side position correct). The cover sheet Sh having been aligned in this way is conveyed toward the downstream cover-sheet binding position F by the forward and reverse rotating roller 35r and set at that position. The cover sheet Sh is conveyed and set at the cover-sheet binding position F by being conveyed from the aligning position a predetermined conveying amount. Note that the present invention aligns and corrects skewing while the jacketing sheet Sc is overlaying the aligned cover sheet Sh.
The stacking tray 44 arranged at the discharge outlet 32b of the inner sheet conveyance path 32 stacks and stores sheets from the discharge outlet 32b in a bundle. As shown in
A sheet bundle thickness identifying means, not shown, is installed on the stacking tray 41 to detect the thickness of the sheet bundle stacked in the tray. With this configuration, a paper touching piece is installed to touch the top sheet on the tray. A sensor detects the position of the paper touching piece to identify the thickness of the sheet bundle. As another sheet bundle thickness identifying means, a discharge sensor Se3 detects sheets conveyed out to the stacking tray. A counter is provided to count the signals emitted from the sensor. It is possible to determine the thickness of the sheet bundle by multiplying the total number of sheets counted at the job end signal sent from the image-forming unit A by the average thickness of a single sheet.
Gripping conveyance means 47 is disposed in the bookbinding process path 33 to move the sheets from the stacking tray 41 to the downstream adhesive application position E. This gripping conveyance means 47 changes the orientation of the sheet bundle stacked on the stacking tray 41 as shown in
Adhesive application means 55 is provided in the adhesive application position E of the bookbinding process path 33. As shown in
The adhesive container 56 configured this way is reciprocatingly driven along the spine of the sheet bundle. As shown in the conceptual drawing of
The adhesive container 56 is reciprocated by the drive motor MS between a home position HP and a return position RP where it starts the operation to move along the sheet bundle. Each position is set to relationships shown in
Cover sheet binding means 60 is disposed in the cover-sheet binding position F of the bookbinding process path 33. The cover sheet binding means 60 is composed of a spine pressing plate 61, a spine folding plate 62, and folding roller 63 as shown in
Note that the present invention folds the spine of the cover sheet while the jacketing sheet Sc is overlaying the cover sheet Sh. The jacketing sheet Sc at this time is arranged at a side touching the spine pressing plate 61, the spine folding plate 62 and the folding roller 63. Therefore, in the folding process, the cover sheet Sh is not soiled or damaged by touching these pressing members.
A sheet-bundle attitude biasing means 64 that changes the orientation of the sheet bundle and trimming means 65 that trims edges of the sheet bundle are disposed in the cutting position G downstream of the folding roller 63. The sheet-bundle attitude biasing means 64 turns the sheet bundle covered with sheet from the cover-sheet binding position F to a predetermined direction (orientation) and conveys it to the downstream trimming means 65 or to a storage stacker 67. Also, the trimming means 65 cuts the edges of the sheet bundle to align them. For that reason, the sheet-bundle attitude biasing means 64 is provided rotating tables 64a, 64b that nip the sheet bundle fed from the folding rollers 63 and rotate it. As shown in
Trimming means 65 is disposed downstream of the sheet-bundle attitude biasing means 64. As shown in
Discharge roller (discharge means) 66 and a storage stacker 67 are provided downstream of the cutting position G. As shown in
Note that the present invention trims the sheet bundle when cutting the sheet bundle as described above with the jacketing sheet Sc covering the cover sheet Sh. Therefore, the cover sheet Sh is neither soiled or damaged by directly touching the rotating tables 64a, 64b, and cutting edge pressing means in the cutting process.
A finishing unit C is disposed in the bookbinding unit B; a finishing path 38 connected to the cover feed path 34 is provided in the finishing unit C; a finishing device such as a stapler, punching unit or stamping unit is disposed in the finishing path 38. A printed sheet conveyed out of the image-forming unit A is received via the cover feed path 34, is stapled, punched with a hole or marked, then discharged to the discharge tray 37. Also, sheets conveyed from the image-forming unit without undergoing any finishing process are stored in the discharge tray 37.
The configuration of the control means in the apparatus described above will be now explained with reference to
The control CPU 75 receives from the control CPU 70 in the image-forming unit A a finishing mode instruction signal, job end signal, sheet size information, and other information and command signals required in bookbinding. On the other hand, sheet sensors Se1 to Se6 are disposed in the positions shown in the drawing in the conveyance path 31, bookbinding process path 33 and the cover feed path 34 to detect conveying sheets (sheet bundle). The control CPU 75 is transmitted the detection signals from the sheet sensors Se1 to Se6. The control CPU 75 is provided a stacker control unit 75a, an adhesive application means control unit 75b, a cover sheet binding control unit 75c, a trimming means control unit 75d, a stacker control unit 75e, and an adhesive temperature control unit 79.
It is to be noted that the present application claims priority rights from Japanese Pat. App. No. 2007-182603, which is herein incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-182603 | Jul 2007 | JP | national |