Patent Grant
8469201
The present application claims priority to and incorporates by reference the entire contents of Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-058519 filed in Japan on Mar. 15, 2010.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system that includes an image forming device and a post-processing device having an enclosing device, and more particularly, to an image forming system that is connected with an image forming device that may form an image on sheets including envelopes and a post-processing device including an enclosing device that encloses, in the envelopes, contents such as the sheets on which the image is formed by the image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, there is already known a paper processing device that is configured to automatically perform the work for enclosing, in an envelope, paper (sheet) loaded on a paper loading unit such as a bin (for example, Japanese Patent Nos. 3110806 and 3110804).
Japanese Patent No. 3110806 discloses the paper processing device that performs image forming and printing on the content and the envelope through an in-line process, and then encloses the content in the envelope. Further, in order to avoid the failure of enclosing process, there is also disclosed the configuration of a system that determines whether the paper can be enclosed in the envelope on the basis of information on paper size and envelope size.
However, in the in-line enclosing device (image forming system) disclosed so far, which includes an image forming device and a post-processing device, as well as in the technologies disclosed in Japanese Patent Nos. 3110806 and 3110804, an inspection mechanism is not generally included which inspects whether there is an excess or deficiency in enclosing of the contents. Therefore, when the inspection is necessary, an inspection device needs to be connected to the rear side of the system, in which the inspection device measures and determines the weight or thickness of the enclosed/sealed envelope.
In this case, a failure determination is performed after the envelope has been sealed, so it is difficult to confirm determination of a failure or correct the envelope determined as the failure in manual. In the case of using the configuration where the envelope is sealed after the inspection, the sealing device needs to be connected to the rear side of the inspection device, and thus the size of system increases and various setting operations are troublesome. For this reason, it is very difficult to use the system.
It is an object of the present invention to at least partially solve the problems in the conventional technology.
In order to solve above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, there is provided an image forming system according to an aspect of the present invention, the image forming system includes an image forming unit that forms an image on sheets including envelopes, an enclosing unit that encloses, in the envelopes, the sheets on which the image is formed by the image forming unit, a weight measuring unit that measures the weight of the sheet-enclosed envelopes, and a sorting unit that sorts the sheet-enclosed envelopes, on the basis of weight data of each of the sheet-enclosed envelopes of which the weight is measured by the weight measuring unit.
The above and other objects, features, advantages and technical and industrial significance of this invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the embodiment, components (members or parts) having the same function and shape are denoted by the same reference numerals, as long as there is no fear of the confusion, and the description thereof is not repeated. In order to simplify the drawings and the description, the components that do not need to be specially described in a drawing among the components to be shown in the drawing may be omitted in the drawing.
Referring to
The image forming system shown in
The copy machine 1 functions as an image forming unit (in a broad sense) that can form an image on paper corresponding to a sheet including an envelope and carry the image formed envelope or paper.
The SSP device 3 includes paper loading bins (hereinafter, simply referred to as “bins”) 35 that function as plural paper loading units (sheet loading units) to load the image formed envelope or paper P carried from the device body 1A, a sort guide section 44 becoming a sorting/discharging unit that sorts the image formed paper P fed from a feed portion 11 functioning as a paper (sheet) storage portion of the device body 1A to the individual bins 35 and discharges the paper, and a pack unit 46 becoming a unit that carries the paper P on the bins 35 into an envelope Pf.
In the feed portion 11, feed cassettes 15A to 15D and a tray 24 are disposed. The feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the tray 24 are configured such that the fed paper P and the envelope Pf can be stored and set.
In addition to the paper, the sheets include all sheet-like recording media such as a mail (envelope or postcard), thick paper, and an OHP film where an image can be formed by the image forming unit. Therefore, the image forming unit is not limited to the electrophotographic copy machine 1 according to this embodiment. For example, the image forming unit may be an image forming device, such as a single-color and full-color copy machine of an electrophotographic/magnetic recording system, an inkjet recording device, printers including a stencil printer, and an MFP having two or more functions.
The copy machine 1 has size detecting sensors 32 and a size detecting device 30 that perform both functions of a paper (sheet) size detecting unit and an envelope size detecting unit to detect sizes of the paper P and the envelope Pf fed from the feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the tray 24 of the feed portion 11, a display unit 104 (envelope size display unit) that functions as a size notifying unit and a size display unit to display the size of the envelope detected by a size detecting system, and a control device 120 that has the same function as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Nos. 3110804 and 3110806 for recognizing and determining the size of the envelope capable of storing the paper P having the size detected by each size detecting sensor 32 and the size detecting device 30 and collating the determined size of the envelope and the size of the envelope detected by the size detecting sensors 32 and the size detecting device 30 and various functions disclosed in this embodiment.
The copy machine 1 that is described in detail below includes an operation panel 100 (refer to
In this case, each size detecting sensor 32 and the size detecting device 30 function as a size detecting unit to detect the size of the envelope or the paper and a size measuring unit to measure the size of the envelope or the paper. The size recognizing unit that recognizes the size of the envelope or the paper includes a size setting unit that manually sets the size of the envelope, in addition to the size detecting unit and the size measuring unit. Specifically, the size setting unit manually sets the size of the envelope using the ten key 105, an enter key 107, and the display unit 104 that are disposed in the operation panel 100 shown in
The control device 120 that is described in detail below has a function as a sorting control unit that controls a sorting unit (to be described below) to sort the paper-enclosed envelopes, on the basis of weight data of each of the paper-enclosed envelopes output from the weight measuring unit (refer to
In this embodiment, there will be described the envelope where at least one paper (sheet) on which an image is formed is enclosed as a content of the envelope to be mailed. An enclosing unit, an enclosing mechanism, or an enclosing device that enclose at least one paper in the envelope mainly include an envelope chuck section 45 of the SSP device 3 shown in
Referring to
In the copy machine 1 shown in
A surface of the photosensitive drum 7 is uniformly negatively charged by an electric charger 8 of a corotron system. When the laser beam illuminates the negatively charged photosensitive drum 7 and the potential of an image portion thus illuminated decreases, an electrostatic latent image where the potential of a background portion is −750 to −800 V and the potential of an image portion is about −50 V is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 7.
The electrostatic latent image is developed by a toner negatively charged by applying a bias voltage of −500 to −600 V by a developing roller of a developer 9. The developed image is transferred to the surface of the paper (transfer paper) P that is fed from the feed section 11 and is timed with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 7, by applying charges of the positive potential from the back side of the paper by a transfer charger 12.
The paper on which the image is transferred is neutralized by alternating current with a separation charger 13 held integrally with the transfer charger 12 and thus the paper is separated from the surface of the photosensitive drum 7. At this time, the toner that remains on the photosensitive drum 7 is scraped from the surface of the photosensitive drum 7 by a cleaning blade (not shown in the drawings) of a cleaning device 14 and is stored in a collection tank (not shown in the drawings). The potential that remains on the surface of the photosensitive drum 7 is removed by illumination of light using a neutralization lamp (not shown in the drawings).
Meanwhile, the paper P on which the image is transferred is selectively fed from one of four steps of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D provided in the feed section 11, according to the size of the paper. That is, if the feed cassette at one of the feed steps is selected by an operator and a start key 108 (refer to
The resist roller 16 feeds the paper to the photosensitive drum 7 at such timing that the position of the image formed on the photosensitive drum 7 and the position of the paper are matched with each other.
In this way, the paper P is fed, the image is transferred to the paper by the abovementioned method, and the image (toner image) is fixed by a fixing roller. The paper P on which the image is fixed is fed to the SSP device 3. In normal printing, the paper P is guided by a switching claw that is switched to a position of a straight advancement state and thus is discharged to a discharge tray 22.
Referring to
To each of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D of the feed portion 11, a size instruction plate 31 that is formed to correspond to the size of each paper or the size of each envelope to be stored is attached. If the feed cassettes are set to the device body, the size detecting sensor 32 that is provided to correspond to the size instruction plate 31 at the side of the device body detects the size instruction plate 31 and detects the sizes of the paper and the envelope entered in the feed cassettes (in
A size seal 33 where the size of the paper or the envelope corresponding to a material stored in the feed cassettes 15A to 15D is displayed is bonded to a side 15a of each of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D, such that a user can know the size of the material stored in the feed cassettes at one view.
The feed of the paper in the copy machine 1 can also be made from a manual tray 23 that is disposed on the right side of the device body 1A in
As shown in
Below the bottom plate 25, the size detecting device 30 (for example, composed of a known variable resistance type position sensor) that detects the position of the side guide 28 to detect the size of the paper or the envelope loaded on the bottom plate 25 is disposed. The size of the paper or the envelope Pf shown in the drawing set on the bottom plate 25 can be detected and recognized by comparing a value detected by the size detecting device 30 with size data previously stored in a ROM 132 of a main control board 130 described later constituting the control device 120.
Referring to
The SSP device 3 that functions as the post-processing device and is shown in
The SSP device 3 includes plural paper loading bins 35 to load the paper, a horizontal conveying path 41 to discharge the paper discharged from the device body 1A to the discharge tray 22, a vertical conveyance path 42 to carry the paper or the envelope guided to the lower side by a switching claw 21 provided on the horizontal conveying path 41 to the lower side, and the SSP unit 40 to selectively discharge the paper fed to the vertical conveyance path 42 to the bins 35.
The SSP unit 40 is elevated between the bins, by an elevating device 43 (refer to
In this case, the SSP unit 40 functions as an enclosing unit, an enclosing mechanism or an enclosing device that encloses the contents such as the paper to be mailed in the envelope (broadly defined enclosing unit). As described above, the narrowly defined enclosing unit or enclosing mechanism mainly includes the envelope chuck section 45 that is shown in
The vertical conveyance path 42 is configured using an endless conveyance belt 48 that is rotatably stretched between the upper and lower pulleys 49 (the lower side is not viewed in
The winding roller 52 is always biased by a spring (not shown in the drawings) in the direction of the arrow B in which the extension belt 50 is wound, the extension belt 50 is delivered or wound according to the vertical movement of the SSP unit 40, the predetermined tension is always applied to the extension belt 50 so that the extension belt 50 is not loosened, and the vertical conveyance path 42 is formed between the conveyance belt 48 and the extension belt 50.
Referring to
Respective ends of the pair of the sort guides 53 and 54 that are located under the swing support portions 53a and 54a are fixed to the frame 51 and a discharge roller pair 56 is inserted in a cut groove formed at the ends sort guides 53 and 54 without interference therewith.
As shown in
In the sort guide section 44, when the paper P is sorted to each bin 35, the solenoid 55 is in the off state. Therefore, as shown in
Meanwhile, when the paper that is conveyed to the vertical conveyance path 42 is the envelope Pf and the envelope is conveyed to the envelope chuck section 45, the solenoid 55 becomes an on state. Therefore, as shown in
Referring to
The part of the opening mylar 61 is inserted into an opening of the envelope Pf held by the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 and the opening mylar 61 is disposed at the position where the envelope Pf can be opened.
The pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 is disposed in an approximately vertical direction. When the envelope Pf or the paper is carried, the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 contacts in pressure and rotates. The pair of envelope guides 57 and 58 guides the envelope Pf to the position where the paper is fed from the vertical conveyance path 42 and guides the envelope to the nip portion of the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60. The pair of envelope guides 57 and 58 further guides the envelope Pf arrived at the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 to the lower side. At this time, the pair of envelope guides 57 and 58 guides the envelope Pf along the lower chuck roller 60.
In this case, the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 according to this embodiment functions as a carriage unit that nips and carries the envelope Pf. As compared with the configurations that are disclosed in Japanese Patent Nos. 3110806 and 3110804, the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 that functions as the carriage unit according to this embodiment adopts the specific configuration where the nip pressure can be released by a nip pressure releasing mechanism (not shown in the drawings) that functions as a pressure-contact releasing unit to release the pressure-contact with respect to the envelope Pf. The detailed description is given below.
The envelope opening mylar 61 is formed of, e.g., a thin film-like resin material, is disposed to be adjacent to the chuck roller 60, an upper end thereof is fixed, and a portion thereof slightly above the lower end is usually brought into a contact with the lower chuck roller 60 by virtue of the elastic force of the material of the envelope opening mylar 61. However, when the paper is guided into the envelope, as shown in
As shown in
When the portion of the flap Pfc of the envelope Pf is nipped between the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 as shown in
Next, the chuck roller pair 59 and 60 starts to reversely rotate in a direction of an arrow E, and the envelope Pf is switched back to go up the vertical conveyance path 42. At this time, because a portion of the envelope opening mylar 61 near the lower end 61a contacts the portion of the flap Pfc of the envelope by the self elastic force of the envelope opening mylar 61, the lower end 61a of the envelope opening mylar is inserted into the opening Pon of the envelope Pf, as shown in
Referring to
A pair of upper and lower insertion guides 67 and 68 are swingably attached to the right ends, in the drawings, of the upper and lower pack sections 63 and 64, are biased by a weak spring such that the front ends thereof approach each other, and are pushed and opened when a bundle of paper P pass between the upper and lower insertion guides 67 and 68. As a result, the paper P is conveyed without receiving large resistance.
A pair of pack units 46 is provided in anteroposterior direction such that the bin 35 is located between the pack units, as shown by a virtual line in
Each pack unit 46 is attached to a pack bracket 69 shown in
When the paper. P is discharged to the bin 35, the pack units 46 function as a side jogger, which positions the paper on the basis of the center, by approaching each other to sandwich the paper therebetween from both sides. The pack units 46 make the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66 approach each other and nip the paper between the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66, rotate the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66 in a direction to move the paper toward the bin fence 35a, move the paper until the end of the paper bumps into the bin fence 35a, and align the end of the paper, i.e., also function as an end jogger.
A worm wheel 73 is fixed to a lower end of the vertical feed screw 72, and a worm 77 that is fixed to a rotation shaft of a forward/backward rotatable motor 74 is engaged with the worm wheel 73 as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Meanwhile, the gear 78 of the lower roller 66 is engaged with an intermediate gear 82 and the intermediate gear 82 is engaged with an intermediate gear 83 and the intermediate gear 83 is engaged with the driving gear 81. The driving gear 81 is fixed to an output shaft of a chuck motor 84. Since the numbers of teeth are the same between the gear 76 and the gear 78, the gear 76 and the gear 78 always rotate at the same rotation number in directions reverse to each other by rotation of the chuck motor 84.
As simply shown in
The staple 20 is moved to the staple exit 38 by rotation of a feed belt 37. The feed belt 37 is stretched between a feed pulley 34, to which the rotation force of the staple motor 10 is transmitted through the deceleration gear (not shown in drawings), and a pulley 39.
The intermediate gears 82 and 83 and the driving gear 81 that are engaged with the gear 78 fixed to one end of the lower rotating shaft 75B and the gear 78 are rotatably supported to a lower gear support plate 86, similar to the above case, and the rotating force from the driving gear 81 is smoothly transmitted to the gear 78.
The driving gear 81 rotates in forward and backward directions by the forward/backward motor 84 shown in
Therefore, in the pack unit 46, if the motor 74 (refer to
At this time, when the gear 76 ascends, the gear 76 and the driving gear 81 are connected by the upper gear support plate 85. Therefore, the driving gear 81 moves in a direction of an arrow G in the horizontal guide groove 69b. As a result, the lower gear 78 that is connected to the driving gear 81 by the lower gear support plate 86 moves downward in the vertical guide groove 69a, and the rotating shaft 75B and the lower roller 66 descend.
When the motor 74 rotates in a direction in which the upper pack unit 63 descends, the upper and lower gears 76 and 78 come close to each other and the driving gear 81 moves in a direction opposite to the direction of the arrow G, different from the above case.
The pack unit 46 fits the shaft 71 into the lower portion of the pack bracket 69 in a horizontal direction and is configured to move in a direction of an arrow K along the shaft 71, and the other pack unit 46 (refer to
Both ends (only the single side is shown in
Therefore, the pack unit 46 moves vertically integrally with the moving frame 91 by rotating the driving belt 93 in forward and backward directions, the sort guide section 44 and the envelope chuck section 45 shown in
In the pack unit 46, the pack bracket 69 can rotate, i.e., swing by a predetermined angle in a direction of an arrow F of
A mechanism that swings the pack bracket 69 can be easily configured by those who are skilled in the art, for example, as a mechanism in which one end of a link rod connected to a rotation plate fixed to a rotation shaft of a motor and linearly moving is connected to the pack bracket 69 by a ball joint, moves the link rod, and the pack bracket 69 is rotated about the shaft 71 by moving the link rod, or a mechanism in which a spline is formed in the shaft 71 across all of a range where the pack bracket 69 moves, a sparring gear is fixed to an end of the shaft, and the pack bracket 69 is rotated by transmitting driving force to the gear and rotating the shaft 71.
The movement of the pack unit 46 in a direction of an arrow K in
A configuration where a predetermined pressure is applied to the paper according to the shapes and the materials of the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66 and the outer diameters of the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66, and the paper is conveyed to be positioned at the “feed mode position”, is the same as the technical content shown in FIGS. 21 to 24 of Japanese Patent Nos. 3110804 and 3110806 and described in the paragraphs [0068] to [0070] of Japanese Patent No. 3110804. Therefore, the detailed description is omitted.
Meanwhile, the positions of the upper roller 65 and the lower roller 66 include the “jog mode position” in addition to the above-described “feed mode position”. Each position is determined by the positions of the upper pack section 63 and the lower pack section 64 of
The “jog mode position” and the “feed mode position” change depending on the number of paper on the bin 35. The optimal position is always obtained by reading out data indicating a relationship between the corresponding rotation amounts of the motor 74 and the various numbers of paper stored in a ROM 132 (refer to
Referring to
When a pack mode (also called envelope enclosing mode) where the paper is included or enclosed in the envelope is selected, the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66 of respective pack units 46 are moved toward each other to nip the paper P (paper bundle when the paper is stapled and bound) therebetween by rotating the motor 74 (refer to
Next, the driving belt 93 shown in
Then, as shown in
In this state, the upper and lower rollers 65 and 66 of the pack unit 46 are rotated in a direction (feed direction) of an arrow in
As such, in this embodiment, the envelope Pf is guided by the envelope guides 57 and 58 to the position where the paper P is fed, and the guided envelope Pf is held by the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60. After the side of the lower end 61a of the opening mylar 61 is inserted into the opening Pon of the envelope Pf in the holding state and the opening Pon is opened, the paper P that is fed by the pack unit 46 is inserted into the opening Pon of the envelope Pf.
Next, the characteristic technical contents of this embodiment will be described in detail.
According to the characteristic of this embodiment, the image forming system includes the weight measuring unit (refer to a weight measuring device 220 of
First, referring to
The weight measuring device 220 has the configuration that is called a weight measuring mechanism, as shown in
The weight measuring device 220 may have the narrowly defined configuration where an envelope arrival sensor 228 and a pair of side plates 229a and 229b to be described below are added to the broadly defined configuration.
The load cell 222 is a sensor that converts the force (mass or torque) into an electric signal and outputs the electric signal. As the load cell 222, plural distortion gauges may be bonded or a semiconductor may be configured as a converting element. As the load cell 222, a load cell that has sensitivity and a measurement range allowing the total weight of the “paper enclosed envelope” to be measured is selected in this embodiment.
The vertical moving mechanism 223 mainly includes a driven pulley 224 and a driving pulley 225 of a pair that are rotatably supported to the frame 51 (refer to
In this embodiment, as shown in
In
As shown in
Thereby, as shown in
The driving motor 227 is adhered to the frame 51 (refer to
The pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 is configured to release the nip pressure by the nip pressure releasing/applying mechanism (not shown in the drawings) including a pressure-contact releasing unit to release the pressure-contact with respect to the envelope. In a state where the nip pressure of the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 is released by the nip pressure releasing/applying mechanism (in this case, the nip pressure is released in a state where the chuck roller 59 is apart from the chuck roller 60), the paper-enclosed envelope is carried on the envelope fence 221 mounted to the load cell 222. In a state where frictional resistance externally applied to the paper-enclosed envelope from the outside is maximally excluded, only the weight (mass) of the paper-enclosed envelope is measured.
As the nip pressure releasing/applying mechanism (not shown in the drawings), a “pressure applying/releasing mechanism of a first sheet feeder” that is shown in FIG. 6 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-58763 suggested by the inventors is preferable.
On the lower side between the lower chuck roller 60 and the lower end 61a of the opening mylar 61, a pair of side plates 229a and 229b that functions as a mail (envelope) guiding member to surely guide the lower end of the envelope of the side opposite to the flap Pfc of the envelope Pf to the envelope fence 221 is disposed. The pair of side plates 229a and 229b is adhered to the frame 51 (refer to
The envelope arrival sensor 228 detects the arrival of the envelope Pf passed through the pair of side plates 229a and 229b at the envelope fence 221, and the arrival is used as the trigger of the weight measurement start based on the load cell 222. For example, there is used a reflective photo sensor or a transmissive photo sensor to which a light shielding piece (filler) is attached.
The operation of the weight measuring device 220 in the enclosing portion where the enclosing device exists will be described with reference to a flowchart of
First, a user presses a package key 101 of a touch panel display unit 104 shown in
In step S3, the envelope Pf is fed from the envelope tray (for example, refer to feed cassette 15A or tray 24 of
Next, the process proceeds to step S5 and it is checked whether the envelope detecting sensor 62 is turned on. At this time, as described with reference to
After step S6 where the envelope Pf is carried by the defined amount and the envelope detecting sensor 62 stops its operation, the envelope Pf is carried in a reverse direction by the defined amount (step S7). That is, as shown in
Next, the process proceeds to step S8, the vertical moving mechanism 223 is operated, the envelope fence 221 and the load cell 222 that are the measuring mechanism portion moves from the previously set initial position to the setting position ascended by the defined amount according to the size of each envelope, and the envelope fence 221 is stopped in a portion that does not contact the lower end of the envelope Pf and enters in a standby state. The setting position is set such that the distance of the conveying path between the top surface (envelope contact surface) of the envelope fence 221 and the center of the nip portion of the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 becomes equal to or more than the vertical length of the used envelope Pf, to measure only the weight of the paper-enclosed envelope Pf (refer to
Then, after 0-setting of the load cell 222 in step S9, the process proceeds to step S10, and the paper P (or paper bundle) that is the content is inserted into the envelope Pf from the pack unit 46 shown in
Next, after the paper is enclosed in the envelope Pf (refer to
In step S12, the paper-enclosed envelope Pf gets on the envelope fence 221 and the weight (mass) of the envelope Pf after enclosing the paper is measured by the load cell 222. Data of the weight that is measured by the load cell 222 is transmitted to the control device 120 of the device body 1A through the SSP control board 140 of
The control device 120 of the device body 1A transmits a signal related to setting of the discharge destination (designation tray) set to be described below in the operation panel 100 of
In
Next, the process proceeds to step S15, and it is checked whether the final envelope of the designated job is output and discharged. In this case, if the final envelope of the designated job is output and discharged, the series of operations that is related to the enclosing mode ends. If the final envelope is not output and discharged, the process returns to step S3 and the series of operations from step S3 is repeated.
Therefore, according to this embodiment, a switching member to switch a discharge/carriage direction of the paper-enclosed envelope Pf, a carriage guiding member to form a conveying path switched by the switching member or a special discharging/carrying member to discharge the envelope is not newly disposed, and the configuration can be simplified and the number of components can be decreased. Therefore, a manufacturing cost can be decreased.
Referring to
As shown in
VL={(V1+V2+ . . . Vn)−(Vmax+Vmin)}/(n−2) (1)
In this case, a processing example of the weight measurement data of the paper-enclosed envelope will be described. For example, when plural paper-enclosed envelopes are manufactured as the mails of the same contents, in order to prevent generation of defects or overlapping of the contents in advance, the weight of the paper-enclosed envelope is measured, OK determination is performed when the weight is in a predetermined range, NG determination is performed when the weight is out of the predetermined range, and inspection can be performed. The image forming system that has the weight measuring function according to the present invention has an inspection function, as described above.
The weight data of the paper-enclosed envelope is transmitted from the post-processing device having the enclosing/sealing function to the image forming device body. The image forming device body receives the weight data and transmits the determination result of OK or NG to the post-processing device having the enclosing/sealing function. In the post-processing device having the enclosing/sealing device, for example, the envelope that is determined as OK and the envelope that is determined as NG are sorted into the different trays or the envelope that is determined as NG is discharged without being sealed to manually change the contents.
However, the weight of the paper is changed by absorption of the moisture by the environmental humidity. The weight of the same content in the same envelope is slightly changed according to the date of manufacture or the difference of the production lot of the used paper.
In the image forming system according to the present invention, for example, when the work starts, an envelope making job of the predetermined amount is executed, the weight data thereof is statistically handled, validity of the OK and NG ranges is determined, and a determination reference value is automatically set. An example is shown in Table 1.
In Table 1, on the basis of ten weight data samples of the paper-enclosed envelopes, (1) an average (Ave.) is calculated, (2) a 2σ value is calculated, and (3) and (4) Ave.±2σ is set as OK and NG determination references (OKmin and OKmax).
The user can set the number of weight data samples that are used in the calculation, determine whether the width of the determination reference is 2σ or 3σ, and determine whether a reference is set by a different numerical expression. This operation or setting is given by setting and inputting from the operation panel 100 of the device body 1A.
Referring to
Meanwhile, a feed port 233 that faces and communicates with the insertion port 201 is formed on the side of the device body 3A.
An upper extraction port 208 is formed in the top surface of the case 200 and a front extraction port 204 is formed in a front surface of the case 200, such that the paper-enclosed envelope is easily extracted from each of the extraction ports 204 and 208. As shown in
As shown in
The sorting device 190 mainly includes a first tray 210, a second tray 211, a third tray 212, and an NG tray 213 that include plural sorting trays 191 functioning as loading units and loading stands to load the paper-enclosed envelopes Pf discharged by the pair of chuck rollers 59 and 60 of the envelope chuck section 45 and the vertical moving mechanism 223 functioning as the discharging unit, and a moving unit that selectively moves the sorting tray 191 of any one of the first tray 210, the second tray 211, the third tray 212, and the NG tray 213 to the position below the insertion port 201, on the basis of the weight data of each of the paper-enclosed envelopes Pf of which the weight is measured by the load cell 222.
In the storage carrier 4, plural vertical plates 214 that are erected in a vertical direction and move in a direction of an arrow N are provided on a tray bottom plate 209. The envelopes Pf that are discharged from the insertion port 201 are received and stored on the sorting tray 191 defined and formed between the vertical plates 214 moved to the position below the insertion port 201 and the tray bottom plate 209. A lower portion of the tray bottom plate 209 is mounted and fixed to the top surface of a belt 218 as described below.
The moving unit that selectively moves any one of the plural sorting trays 191 mainly includes an endless belt 218 that is suspended between a driving pulley 216 and a driven pulley 217, a stepping motor 219 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “motor 219”) that is driven with a pulse input to rotate and drive the driving pulley 216, and a home position sensor 215 that detects the home position (initial position) of the sorting tray 191.
The toothed belts 218 that are provided in the front side and the inner side (not shown) of a plane of paper are suspended between the driving pulley 216 and the driven pulley 217 of the pair that are provided in each of the front side and the inner side (not shown in the drawings) of the plane of paper. The driving pulley 216 is connected to a motor 219 through a driving force transmitting unit (not shown in the drawings) made of a gear or a belt.
On each of the belts 218 that are provided on the front side and the inner side (not shown in the drawings) of the plane of paper, a lower portion of the tray bottom plate 209 is mounted and fixed. Thereby, each of the belts 218 of the front side and the inner side (not shown in the drawings) of the plane of paper is connected firmly by the tray bottom plate 209.
The home position sensor 215 is composed of a light shielding photo sensor. In an example shown in the drawings, the home position sensor 215 is disposed to detect the central position of the sorting tray 191 that is positioned at the leftmost side in the first tray 210.
The plural sorting trays 191 are partitioned by partition members 210a, 211a, 212a, 213a, and 214a at the predetermined interval, such that the plural trays 210 to 213 functioning as the plural loading stands are formed. That is, the first tray 210 is formed between the plural vertical plates 214 and the tray bottom plate 209 partitioned by the partition member 210a and the partition member 211a, the second tray 211 is formed between the plural vertical plates 214 and the tray bottom plate 209 partitioned by the partition member 211a and the partition member 212a, the third tray 212 is formed between the plural vertical plates 214 and the tray bottom plate 209 partitioned by the partition member 212a and the partition member 213a, and the NG tray 213 is formed between the plural vertical plates 214 and the tray bottom plate 209 partitioned by the partition member 213a and the partition member 214a.
The first tray 210 includes four sorting trays 191, the second tray 211 includes four sorting trays 191, the third tray 212 includes two sorting trays 191, and the NG tray 213 includes two sorting trays 191. The first tray 210, the second tray 211, and the third tray 212 function as the OK trays 210 to 212.
The distance d between the partition member 210a and the vertical plate 214 in the first tray 210 and the distance d between the vertical plates 214 in the first tray 210 become equal to each other. Likewise, the distances d are equal to each other the in the second tray 211, the third tray 212, and the NG tray 213.
The distance d1 between the center of the first sorting tray 191 from the left side of the drawing in the first tray 210 and the center of the second sorting tray 191, the distance d2 between the center of the first sorting tray 191 from the left side of the drawing in the first tray 210 and the center of the third sorting tray 191, the distance d3 between the center of the first sorting tray 191 from the left side of the drawing in the first tray 210 and the center of the fourth sorting tray 191 in the first tray 210, and the distance d4 between the center of the first sorting tray 191 from the left side of the drawing in the first tray 210 and the center of the first sorting tray 191 in the second tray 211, and the following distances d5, . . . are set to the predetermined distances. Relation data of the distance between the sorting trays 191 and a driving pulse number to move the tray by the distance is stored in a ROM 142 that is provided in an SSP control board 140 shown in
By the above configuration, the motor 219 rotates by the predetermined step number by the signal according to the driving pulse number set according to the sorting to be transmitted from the CPU 141 of the SSP control board 140 shown in
Next, the operation panel 100 that functions as the operation portion will be described with reference to
As shown in
As shown in detail in
On the left side of the display unit 104, paper/envelope selection keys 109a to 109e and a paper/envelope display portion 110 which is disposed on the upper side and in which illustrations (not shown in the drawings) drawing the individual trays to correspond to the five selection keys are displayed and two left and right lamps (not shown in the drawings) are disposed below each illustration are provided. When the envelope is selected, the right lamp is turned on with a green color and an envelope size is displayed below the lamp. When the paper (copying paper) is selected, the left lamp is turned on with an orange color and a paper size is displayed below the lamp.
The key that is provided on the lower side of the paper/envelope selection key 109d is an envelope selection mode switching key 111. The envelope selection mode switching key 111 is pressed when the envelope having the optimal size to enclose the paper on the bin in the envelope is automatically selected or when a mode to allow the operator to freely select the envelope size is selected.
For example, the user may desire to sort the envelopes according to the postage, on the basis of the weight data of the enclosed envelopes. In this case, the main control board 130 of the control device 120 shown in
In this case, a weight range according to the postage is set by the operation panel 100 and the envelopes are sorted according to the weight range.
If the pack mode (envelope enclosing mode) is selected by pressing the package key 101 shown in
On the sorting condition setting screen, selection keys of the lower limit (g) of the weight, the upper limit (g) of the weight, and the sorting trays of the discharge destination are displayed. In this case, each tray of the discharge destination can be selected according to the weight range of the enclosed envelopes. At the time of setting, the lower limit of the weight is set by pressing one key of a weight lower limit key group 115 (including keys to set four ranges, as shown in
As described above, the sorting tray selection keys 117a, 117b, 117c, and 117d function as the setting unit that sets the paper-enclosed envelopes sorted by the sorting device 190 to be loaded on any one of the first to third trays 210, 211, and 212 according to each weight.
In this embodiment, similar to Japanese Patent Nos. 3110806 and 3110804, when the plural envelopes having the sizes capable of storing paper exist as the result of the collation of the sizes of the envelopes that can store the paper fed from the feed portion 11 and the sizes of the envelopes set to the device body 1A, a “first mode” and an “automatic envelope selection mode” to automatically select the envelope having the minimum size, a “second mode” and an “operator envelope selection mode” to display all of the envelopes having the sizes capable of storing the paper on the display unit 104, and an “operator envelope supporting mode” to notify the envelopes having the sizes capable of storing the paper by flickering the illustrations of the paper/envelope display unit 110 can be selected by pressing the envelope selection mode switching key 111 (refer to
Next, the entire control configuration of the image forming system according to this embodiment will be described with reference to
The main control board 130 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 131 that has various determining and processing functions, a read only memory (ROM) 132 that stores processing programs including a program (For example, operation programs related to flowcharts as shown in
The CPU 131 of the main control board 130 inputs sensor signals output to correspond to a paper size or an envelope size from each size detecting sensor 32 provided in each of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D (refer to
The main control board 130 is connected to the various keys provided in the operation panel 100 of
Similar to the main control board 130, the SSP control board 140 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 141 that has various determining and processing functions, a read only memory (ROM) 142 that stores processing programs including a program needed to control various driving systems in the SSP device 3 (refer to
The SSP control board 140 is connected to the main control board 130, serial communication is enabled between the SSP control board 140 and the main control board 130, and the SSP control board 140 is operated according to a command transmitted from the main control board 130. The CPU 141 of the SSP control board 140 receives various detection signals from the various sensors, such as the envelope arrival sensor 228 (refer to
The CPU 141 of the SSP control board 140 receives a signal related to the weight data from the load cell 222 of the weight measuring device 220 shown in
The CPU 141 of the SSP control board 140 outputs driving signals to a motor driver to drive a motor 151 rotating the pulley 49 (refer to
The CPU 141 of the SSP control board 140 outputs driving signals to a motor driver to rotate a motor 157 to ascend and descend the SSP unit 40 (refer to
This embodiment has the above configuration and the control configuration of
Referring to a flowchart of
In this case, the “inspection mode” is a mode in which an average±2σ is acquired by statistical calculation from n samples, the weight of enclosing products to be made thereafter is compared, and it is determined whether the enclosing products are defective or overlapped, when the plural paper-enclosed envelopes (enclosing products) equal to each other are made. The “weight sorting mode” is a mode in which the weight range sorted to each tray is set in advance and the envelopes are sorted for each weight range, when various enclosing products are made. For example, the weight sorting mode includes a sorting mode according to the postage.
In step S22, after the pack mode (envelope enclosing mode) is selected by the package key 101 shown in
Meanwhile, in step S23, in the case of NO where the weight of the paper-enclosed envelopes is not in the setting range, the sorting device 190 is operated, the NG tray 213 is selected, and each sorting tray 191 is selectively moved such that each sorting tray 191 of the NG tray 213 occupies the position below the insertion port 201. Then, by the above operation, the paper-enclosed envelopes of the inspection NG are discharged from the side of the SSP unit 40 to each sorting tray 191 of the NG trays 213 (step S26).
Meanwhile, in step S22, after the sorting mode key 112 shown in
If the user presses the second tray key 117b to execute the weight sorting mode in the case where the user sets R2 through the same operation as the above case (in the case where the lower limit and the upper limit of the weight exemplified in
In this embodiment, the “automatic paper selection” mode that functions as the automatic sheet selection mode can be executed. For example, in the case of the copy machine 1 that functions as the image forming device of
When the “automatic paper selection” mode is not selected as the setting of the feed destination, as described above, switching with respect to any one of the plural feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the trays 24 is not generated. However, the user forgets the setting and any one of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the trays 24 may be switched into the tray that is not intended. Even though the paper sizes are the same, when setting of the paper type becomes different and the paper having the different type and basis weight is stored in any one of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the trays 24, the weight of the paper that is enclosed in the envelopes becomes different, and this causes difficulty in the sorting or the inspection based on the weight.
Therefore, in order to prevent the difficulty in the sorting or the inspection based on the weight in advance, in the case of the job of enclosing, when setting of the paper type is different in the trays having the same size, even in the “automatic paper selection” mode, the feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the trays 24 are not switched, and the paper is fed from only any one of the feed cassettes 15A to 15D and the trays 24 of the designated destination.
As described above, the present invention is described using the embodiment and the modifications. However, the technical range that is disclosed in the present invention is not limited to the technical range exemplified in the embodiment or the modifications, and various configurations may be appropriately combined. It can be apparent to those skilled in the art that various embodiments or modifications can be configured according to necessity and purpose, in the technical range of the present invention.
For example, in the sorting device 190 shown in
The sorting unit is not limited to the sorting device 190 of
According to the invention, by the above-configuration, the above-problems can be resolved and a novel image forming system can be realized and provided. That is, according to the invention, the image forming system includes the weight measuring unit that measures the weight of the sheet-enclosed envelopes and the sorting unit that sorts the sheet-enclosed envelopes, on the basis of the weight data of each of the sheet-enclosed envelopes of which the weight is measured by the weight measuring unit. Therefore, the function of the image forming system including the enclosing unit (enclosing device) and the image forming unit (image forming device) may be improved, and also the convenience of using the system may be improved.
Although the invention has been described with respect to specific embodiments for a complete and clear disclosure, the appended claims are not to be thus limited but are to be construed as embodying all modifications and alternative constructions that may occur to one skilled in the art that fairly fall within the basic teaching herein set forth.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-058519 | Mar 2010 | JP | national |
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| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
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| Entry |
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| Abstract of Japanese Patent Publication No. JP05-035030, published Feb. 12, 1993. |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20110220557 A1 | Sep 2011 | US |
