Patent Application
20080310935
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus and a cutting method for cutting, for example, a book bundle in a state where one side of a sheet bundle has been bound and, more particularly, to a cutting apparatus and a cutting method for executing a cutting a predetermined portion of a book bundle set onto a predetermined table.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in such a kind of cutting apparatus, in order to realize a miniaturization and a low price, an apparatus main body comprises one cutting unit and a rotating unit for holding a book bundle in association with the cutting unit and rotating the book bundle so as to face the cutting unit.
In a cutting apparatus, when three surfaces (surfaces other than a glue-coated adhesive surface) are cut, the book bundle is rotated and the three surfaces cut by the one cutting unit. A maximum cutting amount has been predetermined because there is a limit in a space adapted to process cut wastepaper in order to miniaturize the apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-161448, for example, discloses a technique for enabling the cutting of the predetermined cutting amount or more even in the cutting apparatus whose maximum cutting amount has been predetermined as mentioned above. The cutting apparatus disclosed in such a Patent Document is constructed in such a manner that in the case of cutting the surfaces by an amount over the maximum cutting amount, the same surface is divided and cut.
However, in the foregoing cutting apparatus in the related art, in the case of cutting the three surfaces by an amount over the maximum cutting amount, for example, the cutting surface on the top side (top portion) is separately cut twice and, subsequently, the cutting surface on the foot side (foot portion) is separately cut twice. Finally, the cutting apparatus separately cuts the cutting surface on the fore-edge side (fore-edge surface) twice.
Therefore, when the same surface is continuously cut, a rotational center of a table which holds the book bundle is deviated from a position of the center of gravity of the held book bundle. Thus, if the book bundle is rotated so as to subsequently cut another surface, an angular moment is liable to act at the time of the rotation and rotation precision of the book bundle deteriorates. There is, consequently, a problem that precision of the cutting position deteriorates.
The invention is made by considering the foregoing problem and it is an object of the invention to provide a cutting apparatus and a cutting method which can improve precision of a cutting position for a book bundle.
To solve the above problem, according to the invention, there is provided a cutting apparatus comprising: a book bundle rotating mechanism which rotates the book bundle and changes a cutting surface; a book bundle moving mechanism which moves the book bundle in a direction of a cutting mechanism; and the cutting mechanism which separately cuts the cutting surface of the book bundle a plurality of times and does not continuously cut a same surface excluding the cutting surface to be finally cut for the book bundle to be cut.
In the cutting apparatus having the construction as mentioned above, for example, when executing the cutting by an amount over a predetermined cutting amount to the book bundle held by the book bundle rotating mechanism, the same cutting surface excluding the cutting surface to be finally cut is not continuously cut. Therefore, a rotational center of the book bundle held by the book bundle rotating mechanism is not extremely deviated from a position of the center of gravity of the book bundle and rotation precision of the book bundle is assured. Thus, precision of the cutting position can be held. In this case, as for the cutting surface which is finally cut, since it is unnecessary to rotate the book bundle after the cutting, the cutting process can be continuously executed two or more times or may be executed once.
Particularly, in the case of cutting the cutting surface by an amount over a maximum cutting amount for the book bundle of the cutting apparatus, it is desirable to separately cut the same cutting surface a plurality of times without continuously cutting the same cutting surface among a plurality of cutting surfaces. In the case of cutting the top portion and the foot portion of the book bundle, for example, it is desirable to alternately cut the top portion and the foot portion.
The foregoing cutting apparatus may be assembled into a bookbinding apparatus for aligning printed sheets into a bundle form, binding a front cover, and coating one side surface (rear portion) with glue or the bookbinding apparatus may be juxtaposed with an image forming apparatus for printing images onto sheets.
According to the invention, in order to solve the foregoing problems, there is provided a cutting method of a book bundle, whereby when a top portion and a foot portion of the book bundle whose front cover has been bound on one side are respectively cut a plurality of times, each of the top portion and the foot portion is not continuously cut.
According to such a cutting method, the same cutting surface is not continuously cut. Therefore, a rotational center of the book bundle held by the book bundle rotating mechanism is not extremely deviated from a position of the center of gravity of the book bundle and rotation precision of the book bundle is assured. Thus, precision of the cutting position can be held.
According to the invention, when a plurality of surfaces is cut for the book bundle, the same surface is not continuously cut. Therefore, the rotational center of the book bundle is not extremely deviated from the position of the center of gravity of the book bundle and the rotation precision of the book bundle is assured. Thus, precision of the cutting position can be held.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
An embodiment of a cutting apparatus and a cutting method according to the invention will be specifically described hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.
The image forming system illustrated in FIG. 1 has: an image forming apparatus (a copying apparatus is illustrated in the diagram) A; a bookbinding apparatus (bookbinding unit) B juxtaposed with the image forming apparatus; and a post-processing apparatus (post-processing unit) C arranged on a downstream side of the bookbinding apparatus B. A cutting apparatus according to the invention has been built as a unit in the bookbinding apparatus B. The bookbinding apparatus B receives sheets from a sheet discharge port 19 of the image forming apparatus A, stacks a series of documents into a bundle form, coats one side surface (rear portion) of the bundle-shaped sheets with glue, and binds with a front cover sheet. Subsequently, a peripheral edge of the sheets which have been bound in a pamphlet form is cut by a predetermined amount and the resultant sheets are stacked onto an enclosing stacker. The post-processing apparatus C is juxtaposed with the bookbinding apparatus and is constructed in such a manner that, the sheets which are not bookbinding-processed are received and post-processes such staple binding, punch (punching process), and stamp (stamping process) are executed. The post-processing apparatus (not shown) has a sheet discharge stacker for enclosing the sheets on which images have been formed by the image forming apparatus A.
The image forming apparatus A is constructed as a copying apparatus having: an image forming unit 3 provided in a main body apparatus 2; an image reading apparatus (scanner unit) 7 arranged in an upper portion of the main body apparatus 2; and an automatic document feeder (ADF unit) 5. The image forming unit 3 is provided for the main body apparatus 2 and forms an image onto a sheet such as plain paper, or OHP sheet which is supplied from a sheet feeding unit 9. For example, the image forming unit 3 forms an electrostatic latent image onto a photosensitive drum 8 by a light irradiating mechanism 13. Toner is deposited onto the sheet and transferred onto the sheet by a developing apparatus. The sheet is fixed by a fixing unit 6 and ejected from the sheet discharge port 19. In a duplex printing mode, obverse/reverse sides of the sheet in which the image has been printed on one surface are reversed by a switchback path 17. The reversed sheet is sent again from a circulating path 18 to the photosensitive drum 8, an image is printed onto the reverse side, and the sheet is ejected from the sheet discharge port 19. In the diagram, for example, thick paper such as a front cover sheet or a special sheet such as a coating sheet is supplied from a manual feeding port 12.
The image reading apparatus (scanner unit) 7 is arranged over the main body apparatus 2 constructed as mentioned above. In the image reading apparatus 7, an original document set on a platen is scanned by a photoelectric converting element and obtained image data is transferred to a data storing unit 14 of the main body apparatus 2. Further, the automatic document feeder (ADF unit) 5 for automatically feeding the original onto the platen is provided for the image reading apparatus 7. The ADF 5 separates the originals set on a sheet feeding tray one by one and automatically feeds the separated original to the platen. Such an image forming apparatus is widely used and the image forming apparatuses having various structures have been known. The invention is not limited to the electrostatic printing system illustrated in the diagrams but another system such as screen printing system, or ink-jet printing system can be used.
The bookbinding apparatus B is juxtaposed at the sheet discharge port of the foregoing image forming apparatus A. The bookbinding apparatus B has: a stacking unit 42 for stacking and enclosing sheets S in a bundle form; an adhesive coating unit 22; a front cover adhering unit 60; a cutting unit 23; and an enclosing stacking unit 34. The bookbinding apparatus B receives the image-formed sheets from a sheet feed-in path T1 communicated with the sheet discharge port 19 of the image forming apparatus A. In the bookbinding apparatus B, a series of sheets is stacked in a bundle form and aligned by the stacking unit 42, thereafter, one side edge of the bundle-shaped sheets is coated with glue in the adhesive coating unit 22, and the sheets are bound integratedly with the front cover sheet by the front cover adhering unit 60. A sheet binding mechanism is constructed by the adhesive coating unit 22 and the front cover adhering unit 60. After that, a series of bookbinding processes for cutting a peripheral edge of the pamphlet-shaped sheets and finishing is executed in the cutting unit 23. Particularly, according to the apparatus illustrated in the diagram, in the stacking unit 42, the stacking and alignment of the sheets are executed in an almost horizontal posture and the sheet bundle is rotated by 90° and coated with glue in an almost vertical posture. The present apparatus is characterized in that the process for binding with the front cover sheet and the process for cutting and aligning the sheet peripheral edges are sequentially executed in an almost vertical posture. Since the sheets are transported from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction as mentioned above, the apparatus is constructed in a compact size.
A conveying path T2 for guiding the sheets to the stacking unit and a conveying path T3 for guiding the sheets to the post-processing apparatus C are communicated with the foregoing sheet feed-in path T1 through a path change-over flapper 27 as illustrated in the diagram. The bookbinding apparatus having a construction in which the front cover sheet is supplied from the image forming apparatus (copying apparatus) A is illustrated in
The apparatus constructed as mentioned above can execute the processes in an ejecting mode, a bookbinding mode, and a bookbinding/cutting mode. The ejecting mode is such an ordinary process that the sheets from the image forming apparatus A are directly ejected onto a sheet discharge tray 35 of the post-processing apparatus C by the change-over flapper 27. The bookbinding mode is such a process that the sheets from the image forming apparatus A are fed from the sheet feed-in path T1 to the conveying path T2, coated with glue in the adhesive coating unit 22, book-bound, and finished in a non-cutting state. The bookbinding/cutting mode is such a process that the edge portion of the sheets after the bookbinding process is cut and aligned.
A stacking tray 42a for sequentially piling and stacking the sheets S is provided at a sheet discharge port 40 of the conveying path T2 of the bookbinding apparatus B and a series of sheets ejected from the image forming apparatus is formed in a bundle form. The stacking unit 42 is constructed by the stacking tray 42a. The stacking tray 42a illustrated in the diagram descends in the stacking direction of the sheets (direction shown by an arrow a in
When the series of sheets is stacked onto the stacking tray 42a in an almost horizontal posture, the whole tray is moved to a first position P1 which has descended by a predetermined distance in the direction of the arrow a from the stacking position where the sheets are stacked. Subsequently, the sheet bundle is moved from the position P1 in the direction shown by an arrow b which perpendicularly crosses the direction of the arrow a and fed out to a second position P2. Grippers 55a and 55b for holding the edge portion of a sheet bundle S1 fed out of the stacking tray 42a are arranged at the second position P2. The grippers 55a and 55b deflect the sheet bundle from the horizontal posture to the almost vertical posture and convey to the adhesive coating unit 22 arranged on the downstream side. At the same time, a thickness position detecting sensor (not shown) for detecting a thickness of the grasped sheet bundle is provided.
The adhesive coating unit 22 has an adhering mechanism 66 constructed by: a glue container 66a for enclosing an adhesive (for example, glue); and a coating roller 66b for coating a side edge of the sheet bundle S1 with the adhesive contained in the glue container. The adhering mechanism 66 coats a lower edge of the sheet bundle in the almost vertical posture held by the grippers 55a and 55b with the adhesive such as a glue. The glue container 66a illustrated in the diagram is supported by a guide rail (not shown) by a path longer than a length size of the sheets so as to be movable in the obverse/reverse direction of the paper surface in
The coating roller 66b for impregnating the glue such as heat resistant rubber is provided for the glue container 66a. The coating roller is rotated by a driving motor (not shown) and forms a small gap between the roller and the sheets when the glue container moves along the edge surface of the sheet bundle. By changing this gap according to the thickness of sheet bundle, a glue coating amount is adjusted.
When the adhering mechanism 66 is located at the standby position, a conveying path T4 of the sheet bundle S1 is assured and the glue-coated sheet bundle S1 is sent to the front cover adhering unit 60 by the grippers 55a and 55b.
The front cover adhering unit (front cover sheet binding unit) 60 is provided in a crossing portion of the conveying paths T3 and T4. The front cover adhering unit 60 is prepared so that the front cover sheet is conveyed to the conveying path T3 and the sheet center is located in the crossing portion. The front cover sheet and the sheet bundle are aligned and joined so that the sheet bundle coincides with the center of the front cover sheet (sheet center) in a reverse T-character shape. Upon joining, a backup plate 59 is prepared for the conveying path T3. As a case of feeding the front cover sheet, there are a case where, for example, a title is printed onto the front cover sheet and the sheet is supplied from the image forming apparatus and a case where the front cover sheet is supplied from an inserter apparatus provided for the sheet feed-in path T1. To the front cover sheet which has been positioned as mentioned above and supported by the backup plate 59, the edge of the sheet bundle S1 coated with the adhesive is pressed in the vertical direction from the upper side by the grippers 55a and 55b. After that, the front cover sheet and the sheet bundle S1 are pressed from both sides by a slidable back folding plate in a state where they have abutted on the backup plate 59. Thus, a crease (rear portion) according to the thickness of sheet bundle S1 is formed in the front cover.
Subsequently, when the backup plate 59 moves from the conveying path T4 to the outside and refuges, the sheet bundle grippers 55a and 55b hand the front cover adhered sheet bundle S1 to the lower cutting unit 23 in a state where the sheet bundle S1 is sandwiched. A pair of feed-in rollers 113 (refer to
The cutting unit 23 for cutting a predetermined position of the sheet bundle S1 supplied from the front cover adhering unit 60 and the conveying path T4 for conveying the sheet bundle S1 to the enclosing stacking unit 34 are provided on the downstream of the feed-in rollers 113. While the conveying path T3 is arranged in an almost horizontal direction, the conveying path T4 is arranged in an almost vertical direction by a pair of conveying guides 119.
Subsequently, a construction of the cutting unit 23 will be described with reference to
The cutting unit 23 has: a book bundle rotating mechanism for rotating the book bundle and changing a cutting surface; a book bundle moving mechanism for moving the book bundle in the direction of a cutting mechanism; and the cutting mechanism for cutting the edge portion of the book bundle.
The book bundle rotating mechanism is disposed on the conveying path T4 and has a cutting stage 120 constructed by, for example: a rotary table 121; and a gripper 122 for pressing the sheet onto the table 121 so as to sandwich it. The book bundle rotating mechanism operates so as to rotate the book bundle and change the cutting surface.
The rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 are arranged at positions where they face each other through the conveying guides 119. The rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 are constructed so as to be rotatable in a state where the sheet bundle has been grasped and are assembled in a unit frame 122c supported to an apparatus frame so as to freely ascend and descend. The rotary table 121 is constructed so that a disk-shaped member for supporting a sheet center portion can be rotated by a rotating motor 121b. The gripper 122 is arranged at a position where it faces the rotary table 121. The gripper 122 is supported by a gripper moving mechanism 122a having a gripper driving motor so that it can freely approach and be away from the rotary table 121 and is constructed so as to rotate in association with a rotation of the rotary table.
The book bundle moving mechanism moves the book bundle in the direction of the cutting mechanism. The book bundle moving mechanism has, for example: the unit frame 122c for supporting the rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 mentioned above; and an elevating mechanism 121a. The rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 are constructed so as to be movable in the vertical direction in
Therefore, the pamphlet-shaped sheets (book bundle) are sent from the feed-in rollers 113 to the conveying guides 119 and grasped by the rotary table 121 and the gripper 122. The pamphlet-shaped sheets are rotated in the vertical posture in
The cutting mechanism is disposed on the downstream side of the rotary table 121. The cutting mechanism has, for example, a cutting edge pressing mechanism (120b and 120c) and a cutting blade 120a and has a function for sandwiching and holding a cutting edge at the cutting position of the sheet and executing the cutting.
A blade receiving member 150 is provided at the cutting position (X-X shown in
The cutting edge pressing mechanism (120b and 120c) for supporting the cutting edge of the sheet bundle illustrated in
The movable pressing plate 120b is coupled with the movable pulley 158 through a pressing rod 160. The movable pulley 158 is supported to the apparatus frame so as to be movable in the direction of the arrow in
The cutting blade 120a is made by a flat-blade cutter. As illustrated in
The cam pins 171a and 171b are planted onto the cutting blade 120a, form one pair of the right and left cam pins, are come into engagement with the cam grooves 173a and 173b, and are moved in the vertical direction illustrated in the diagram. Particularly, the cam groove 173a illustrated in the diagram has a right cam C1a and a left cam C2a arranged so that their inclination directions are made different. Similarly, the cam groove 173b illustrated in the diagram has a right cam C1b and a left cam C2b arranged so that their inclination directions are made different. When the cutting blade moves to the right, the right cams C1a and C1b guide the cam pins 171a and 171b, respectively. When the cutting blade moves to the left, the left cams C2a and C2b guide the cam pins 171a and 171b, respectively. Therefore, when the cutting blade moves to the right from the position illustrated in the diagram (the home position in
That is, when the cutting blade 120a moves to the right, it is inclined from the horizontal posture so that its right edge is gradually lowered, and the cutting blade descends gradually and reaches the cutting position in the horizontal posture. When the cutting blade 120a moves to the left, it also similarly operates. The reason why the cutting blade is inclined is that it can gradually cut the sheet bundle from one end to the other end of the sheet bundle. The reason why the right inclination and the left inclination are provided is that the cutting blade can cut from the rear portion of the glue-bound edge to the fore-edge portion. For example, it is because the top portion is cut by the right inclination and the foot portion is cut by the left inclination. Since the sheet bundle is cut from the glue-bound rear portion toward the fore-edge portion on the opposite side as mentioned above, the rear portion (glue binding portion) in which a load is the largest is cut first and a frictional load of the cut sheet edge surface which is applied to a side portion of the blade can be received in the fore-edge portion in which a load is relatively small. That is, since the cutting blade is inclined toward the cutting direction and gradually cuts the sheet bundle, the cutting load is minimized and the miniaturization and light weight of the apparatus are accomplished.
The right cams C1a and C1b and the left cams C2a and C2b incline the cutting blade 120a in the opposite directions, respectively. The inclination angles on the right and left sides to the sheets are equal and are set to a proper angle such as 30° or the like based on experiments.
As illustrated in
(1) Cutting of Top Portion
First, when the apparatus is activated, the cutting blade 120a is located at the home position Hp away from the sheet surface (in
Subsequently, the rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 rotate the sheet bundle by 90°, thereby setting a top portion S1b of the sheet bundle to the cutting position. The cutter driving motor 176 is again rotated in response to a signal indicative of the completion of the setting. The screw 175 is moved to the right in
(2) Cutting of Foot Portion
In parallel with the return to the home position, the rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 rotate the sheet bundle by 180°, thereby setting a foot portion S1d into a state of
(3) Cutting of Fore-Edge Portion
The rotary table 121 and the gripper 122 rotate the sheet bundle by 90°, thereby setting the fore-edge portion S1c into a state of
The cutting procedure has been described above with respect to the case where after the front cover was adhered to the sheet bundle, each of the top portion, foot portion, and fore-edge portion is cut once. A cutting procedure for cutting the same surface a plurality of times according to a feature of the invention will be described hereinbelow with reference to
First, as illustrated in
Since the cutting amount of the sheet bundle is large as mentioned above, the cutting mechanism separately cuts the top portion as a same surface a plurality of times. At this time, the cutting mechanism does not continuously cut the same surface. The foregoing book bundle rotating mechanism and book bundle moving mechanism are subsequently driven and controlled so as to cut the foot portion of the sheet bundle. Also with respect to the foot portion as a same surface, since the cutting amount of the sheet bundle is large, the cutting mechanism separately cuts the foot portion as a same surface a plurality of times. At this time, the cutting mechanism does not continuously cut the same surface. The foregoing book bundle rotating mechanism and book bundle moving mechanism are subsequently driven and controlled so as to cut the top portion of the sheet bundle. That is, in the case of cutting the top portion and the foot portion a plurality of times, respectively, the book bundle rotating mechanism and the book bundle moving mechanism are driven and controlled so as to alternately cut the top portion and the foot portion.
By using the method whereby the same surface is not continuously cut twice like a foregoing cutting method, the rotational center of the sheet bundle is not deviated from the position of the center of gravity. Thus, the rotation precision becomes stable and the precision of the cutting position is improved. When the cutting amount over the maximum cutting amount of the cutting apparatus is designated, by cutting the sheet bundle by the operating procedure in
The procedure for cutting each of the top portion and the foot portion twice has been described in the embodiment illustrated in
The cutting apparatus equipped with the image forming apparatus and the glue coating bookbinding apparatus has been introduced in the foregoing embodiment. The cutting apparatus and cutting method according to the invention may be applied to other apparatuses such as saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus and staple bookbinding apparatus. Further, even if the invention is applied to an off-line cutting apparatus, a similar effect can be obtained.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-155168, filed Jun. 12, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-155168 | Jun 2007 | JP | national |
