This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-088005, filed on Mar. 31, 2009, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a page turning apparatus, a booklet page turning method, and an ID printer in which the page turning apparatus is mounted.
A recent booklet has a page with high bending rigidity as part of tendency to heighten the added value. For example, there is a booklet having an ID page given a security protective layer to prevent forgery countermeasures of personal information, or a plastic sheet page having a buried IC chip for high-density recording. Another booklet has a radio IC chip readable and writable without contact. A front or back cover of such a booklet is given a radio shielding function to protect recorded information from unauthorized reading or writing. Such a booklet accepts reading or writing only when a front cover is opened.
An ordinary booklet page turning apparatus causes buckling distortion in a booklet, assuming the low bending rigidity of a booklet, turns up a page with a page turning roller, and flips up the page on the page turning roller.
However, when an ordinary page turning apparatus attempts to turn a rigid page of a booklet, the difference between the frictional force between the page turning roller and the uppermost page and the friction force between the uppermost page and the page under the uppermost page does not meet the condition to cause buckling distortion in the rigid page.
If the page turning roller is changed to the one with higher frictional coefficient, it can cause buckling distortion in a booklet. However, in this case, a rigid page may suffer plastic deformation exceeding over its plastic deformation range, or a buried IC chip may suffer stress destruction. Therefore, in the prior art, a page turning roller contacts the end of a booklet, and is raised while rotating, thereby a rigid page is turned without buckling distortion (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-144756).
However, in this method, the end of a rigid page must be accurately detected and made to contact the page turning roller, otherwise the page cannot be turned up.
Besides, pages of a booklet are fixed at the bound edge of a booklet like a cantilever structure, and tend to bend and become uneven at the ends after being repeatedly turned up and down, increasing the unstable elements of the page turning operation.
In a booklet having a rigid page mixed with ordinary body pages, after the rigid page and body pages are repeatedly turned up and down, the bending and unevenness of the ends of the pages are accelerated, and the unstable elements of the page turning operation are increased.
As described above, a booklet having two or more rigid pages is difficult to stably turn the pages by using page turning rollers.
As a method of separating a sheet one by one from a stack and conveying each sheet, a negative suction method using a vacuum pad is well known.
This method does not depend on the rigidity of a medium, and is advantageous to a booklet including two or more rigid pages.
A vacuum pad is available in various types according to the properties of a medium. One type of vacuum pad has an axle of rotation for oscillation. Another type of vacuum pad is deformable (made of rubber material or shaped like bellows).
However, if such a negative suction method is simply applied to a booklet page turning apparatus, the pages of a booklet cannot be turned unless each page of a booklet is raised by turning up over 90 degree with respect to the bound edge of a booklet, and a travel of a vacuum pad is increased. This makes it difficult to house the vacuum pad structure in the same conveying layout as in the conventional page turning apparatus using buckling distortion.
An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a page turning apparatus, containing: a conveying mechanism to convey a booklet to a page turning position; a page pickup mechanism to pick up a page of the booklet conveyed to the page turning position by the conveying mechanism; a drive mechanism to move the page pickup mechanism to pick up the page of the booklet at a predetermined angle in an opening direction around a bound edge; a shaft provided to come into contact with the page of the booklet picked up at the predetermined angle to bend the page; a contact roller portion to move and go under the page picked up at the predetermined angle; and a controller to make such a control as to convey the booklet after the contact roller portion moves and goes under the page, and to thereby open the page by bringing the page into contact with the contract roller portion.
Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a booklet page turning method, containing: conveying a booklet to a page turning position; causing a page pickup mechanism to pick up a page of the booklet conveyed to the page turning position; moving the page pickup mechanism to pick up the page of the booklet at a predetermined angle in an opening direction around a bound edge; bending the page of the booklet picked up at the predetermined angle by bringing the page into contact with a shaft; causing a contact roller portion to move and go under the page picked up at the predetermined angle; and conveying the booklet after the contact roller portion goes under the page and opening the page by bringing the page into contact with the contact roller portion.
A still another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an ID printer, containing: a booklet take in portion to be stacked with multiple closed booklets; a conveying path along which the booklets taken in one by one from the booklet take in portion are conveyed; a page turning apparatus provided in a portion of the conveying path to turn and open the page of each of the booklets thus taken in, the page turning apparatus comprising: a conveying mechanism to convey the booklet to a page turning position; a page pickup mechanism to pick up a page of the booklet conveyed to the page turning position by the conveying mechanism; a drive mechanism to move the page pickup mechanism to pick up the page of the booklet at a predetermined angle in an opening direction around a bound edge; a shaft provided to come into contact with the page of the booklet picked up at the predetermined angle to bend the page; a contact roller portion to move and go under the page picked up at the predetermined angle; and a controller to make such a control as to convey the booklet after the contact roller portion moves and goes under the page, and to thereby open the page by bringing the page into contact with the contract roller portion; a first printing portion provided in a portion of the conveying path to print first information having a first security level on a first page surface of the booklet opened by the page turning apparatus; a second printing portion provided in a portion of the conveying path to print second information having a security level higher than the first security level on a second page surface, different from the first page surface, of the booklet opened by the page turning apparatus; a folding portion provided in a portion of the conveying path to fold the booklet printed with information by at least one of the first and second printing portions; and a stacker provided to stack the folded booklets discharged from the conveying path.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the drawing, a reference number 1 denotes a conveying path to convey a booklet T. The conveying path 1 has conveying rollers 2a to 2d as a conveying device, and detection sensors 4a to 4d to optically detect a booklet T, which are arranged at predetermined intervals along a booklet T conveying direction. Pinch-rollers 2a′ and 2d′ are provided on the conveying rollers 2a and 2d in a contacting fashion. The conveying rollers 2b and 2c are placed at a page turning position 5. The conveying rollers 2a to 2d are rotationally driven with a conveying roller drive motor 26 shown in
Contact feed mechanisms 20A and 20B are provided above the conveying rollers 2b and 2c. A page pickup detection sensor 19, which optically detects a page sucked and picked up by a vacuum pad 10a described later, is provided above the page turning position 5. A page number detection sensor 24 as a detection device to detect the page number of a turned page is provided close to the contact feed mechanism 20B. The detection sensors 4a to 4d, page pickup detection sensor 19, and page number detection sensor 24 are connected to a control unit 40 through a signal circuit as a control device as shown in
The contact feed mechanism 20A is provided with a pinch-roller 21a as a second contact roller. The pinch-roller 21a is fixed to a shaft 6 as shown in
The support bracket 7 is provided with a guide body 20a as a unit to guide conveyance of the booklet T. The support bracket 7 is supported by a parallel link mechanism 23a. The parallel link mechanism 23a is rotated forward and rearward by a parallel link drive motor 25 (shown in
The contact feed mechanism 20B is configured similar to the contact feed mechanism 20A. Namely, the contact feed mechanism 20B is provided with a guide body 20b, a pinch-roller (a first contact roller) 21b, a bladed wheel 22b, and a parallel link mechanism 23b, so that the guide body 20b, pinch-roller 21b and bladed wheel 22b are moved between a conveying position close to the conveying roller 2c and a standby position upper right of the conveying position.
A page turning-sucking mechanism 10 is provided at the page turning position 5.
Hereinafter, the turning-sucking mechanism 10 will be explained with reference to
The turning-sucking mechanism 10 has vacuum pads 10a and 10b on the upper side and lower side of the conveying path 1. The lower-side vacuum pad 10b is provided with a suction port faced up, and opposes the lower side of the booklet T conveyed right above. The upper-side vacuum pad 10a is fixed to a support rack 15.
The vacuum pads 10a and 10b are connected to a pump 12 through a negative pressure supply circuit 11. The negative pressure supply circuit 11 includes a filter 14 to separate dust in the air sucked in by the negative pressure, an operation value 13 to switch the negative pressure, and branch tubes 31a to 31c.
When the operation valve 13 is opened, negative pressure is generated in the vacuum pads 10a and 10b, and the booklet T is opposed to and sucked by the vacuum pads 10a and 10b. The sucking force W of the vacuum pads 10a and 10b is obtained by the following equation.
W=0.1×P×A/S
P: Vacuum pressure (gauge pressure) [-kpa]
A: Vacuum pad area [cm2]
S: Safety ratio
Guide rings 15a and 15b are provided in the upper and lower parts of the side of the support rack. Guide plates 16 are provided along the longitudinal direction of the support track 15. The guide rings 15a and 15b of the support track 15 are fit in cam grooves 16a and 16b of the guide plates 16.
The lower guide ring 15a is also fit in a groove 17a of a drive link plate 17 as a drive device. The drive link plate 17 is connected to a drive shaft 17c. The drive shaft 17c is extended and held between the guide plates 16. A hand knob 26a is fixed to one end of the drive shaft 17c, and a drive link plate drive motor 29 is connected to the other end through a drive pulley 27 and a drive belt 28.
The axis of the upper guide ring 15b is connected to a hook 18a through a spring 18, and the support rack is elastically energized in the upper direction. When the drive link plate drive motor 29 is driven, the drive shaft 17c is rotated through the drive belt 28 and drive pulley 27, and the drive link plate 17 is rotationally moved forward and rearward (to the right and left). By this rotational movement, the guide rings 15a and 15b are guided along the cam grooves 16a and 16b of the guide plate 16, and moves the support rack 15.
The drive link plate 17 points in the direction of twelve o'clock direction in the initial sate before the support rack is moved, and the vacuum pad 10a supported by the support rack 15 waits ready at the upper standby position.
The position and direction of the support rack 15 are determined at the center positions Pn and Qn of the guide rings 15a and 15b. The vacuum pad 10a is moved together with the support rack 15. Namely, P1 to P2 and Q1 to Q2 in the cam grooves 16a and 16b of the guide plate 16 are arc-shaped around M1. During the arc-shaped movement, the vacuum pad 10a is moved around M1 in synchronization with the pickup motion around the bound edge of the uppermost page of the booklet T.
In the reverse page turning, the motion of the vacuum pad 10a and the shape of the cam grooves 16a and 16b of the guide plate 16 are symmetrical around M2.
P0 to P2 is shaped like an arc smoothly connecting the curves of the symmetrical development of P1 to P2, and Q0 to Q2 is shaped like linearly moving back in the object axis direction of the cam groove 16b of the guide plate 16.
Therefore, the inclination of the support track 15 is decreased, and returned to vertical, at the standby position (initial position) above the vacuum pad 10a.
The drive link plate 17 to move the guide ring 15a around the drive shaft (rotation center) 17c points the twelve o'clock direction at this time, and can move the support rack 15 symmetrically in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Thereby, the maximum retreat position of the vacuum pad 10a in the page turning operation coincides with the rearward page turning start position, and forward and rearward page turning are possible in a compact range.
The positions of M1 and M2 may be displaced from the actual booklet T bound edge, depending on the thickness and binding method of the booklet T, the positions of rigid pages, or variations in the page turning start position caused by the manner of conveying. In the operation of picking up the uppermost page of the booklet T, the vacuum pad 10a may not move in an ideal path and may be displaced. However, if the pickup angle is smaller than 45 degree, there is a play for balancing between the booklet T and the vacuum pads 10a and 10b, and the displacement is not a problem. The play is caused by the elastic deformation of the vacuum pad 10 and elastic deformation in the vicinity of the bound edge of the booklet T.
As described above, the detection sensors 4a to 4d, page pickup detection sensor 19, and page number detection sensor 24 are connected to the control unit 40 as a control device through a signal circuit. The control unit 40 is connected to the operation valve 13, and the drive motors 9, 25, 26 and 29 for the pinch-roller, parallel link, conveying roller, and drive link plate, respectively, so that the driving of the pinch-rollers 21a and 21b, bladed wheels 22a and 22b, parallel link mechanisms 23a and 23b, conveying rollers 2a to 2d, drive link plate 17, and vacuum pads 10a and 10b is controlled based on a detection signal.
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of turning the pages of the booklet T with reference to
At this time, the operation value 13 is operated, negative pressure is generated in the vacuum pads 10a and 10b, and the lower side of the booklet T is sucked and held by the lower vacuum pad 10b. Further, the drive link plate drive motor 29 is operated, and as shown in
When the uppermost page Ta of the booklet T is picked up to the predetermined position, it is detected by the page pickup detection sensor 19. Based on the detection, the control unit 40 is operated, and the movable guide 20b is moved from the standby position to the conveying position together with the rotating pinch-roller 21b and bladed wheel 22b, as shown in
Thereafter, the operation valve 13 is closed by the control unit 40, and suction of the vacuum pad 10a is stopped. Then, as shown in
At this time, the drive link plate 17 rotates counterclockwise from the initial state, and moves the vacuum pad 10a so as to retreat from a turning-down range of the turned-up uppermost page Ta of the booklet T as shown in
In the conveyance, the page number detection sensor 24 scans the page number recorded on an opened page Ta of the booklet T. The scanned information is sent to the control unit 40. Based on the scanned information, the control unit 40 determines whether the page turning operation is executed faithfully to a program. If the page turning operation is found not faithful to a program, the page turning operation is retried.
When the page turning operation is found faithful to a program, the booklet T is sent to and processed in a post-step. The processed booklet T is sent back to the page turning position 5 as shown in
As described above, according to this embodiment, as the page Ta is picked up and turned over by the sucking force of the vacuum pad 10a, the page Ta is exposed to no deforming load, and the page can be turned forward and rearward irrespective of the rigidity, friction coefficient and other properties of the page.
Further, as the pinch-roller 21a (or 21b) goes into the lower part of the page Ta pickup up by the vacuum pad 10a, and contacts the page Ta, the page can be opened by small amount of pickup, or movement by the vacuum pad 10a, and can be laid out equivalent to a conventional page turning apparatus using buckling distortion.
Further, the maximum retreat position of the vacuum pad 10a in the page turning operation coincides with the rearward page turning start position, and forward and rearward page turning are possible in a compact range.
Further, the opened page number is detected by the detection sensor 24, and if the detection result is different from a predetermined page number, the turning operation is retried. Therefore, exact page turning is possible.
The same parts as those of the first embodiment are given the same numbers, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
In the second embodiment, a pickup hold guide 35 is provided in the contact feed mechanisms 20A and 20B. When the page sucked and pickup up by the upper-side vacuum pad 10a accidentally falls, the pickup hold guide 35 holds the fallen page.
Further, the page number detection sensor 24 is provided in the contact feed mechanism 20B as a unit, and is moved together with the contact feed mechanism 20B. The page number detection sensor 24 needs to move toward the booklet T when reading the number of the booklet T. As the page number detection sensor 24 moves together with the contact feed mechanism 20B, no additional device is required to move the page number detection sensor 24. This contributes to make the apparatus compact.
Further, the upper-side and lower-side vacuum pads 10a and 10b are connected to a negative pressure generation mechanism 36 as shown in
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of turning the front cover Ta of the booklet T with reference to
As shown in
The upper-side vacuum pad 10a is returned to the upper standby position after the suction is released, as shown in
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of turning a body page Tb of the booklet T with reference to
As shown in
The upper-side vacuum pad 10a is returned to the upper standby position after the suction is released, as shown in
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of turning back a body page Tc of the booklet T with reference to
As shown in
The upper-side vacuum pad 10a is returned to the upper standby position after the suction is released, as shown in
The same parts as those of the embodiments described above are given the same numbers, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
In a booklet publishing machine provided with a page turning apparatus, a booklet whose pages are turned to a predetermined page by the page turning apparatus is conveyed to a printing unit, and the opened predetermined page is printed or subjected to other processing.
Namely, in a booklet publishing machine, it is necessary to convey (transfer) a booklet with a predetermined page opened or closed to pre and post processing units along a conveying path in the page turning apparatus.
In a prior art, an upper conveying guide plate is provided above a position of turning pages. When a page is turned, the upper guide plate is retreated not to interrupt the page turning operation. When a booklet is transferred and conveyed, the upper guide is returns to its normal position to satisfactorily convey a booklet even if a page edge of a booklet is turned up or a booklet itself is accustomed to close.
However, use of the upper guide increases the number of parts and costs.
In the third embodiment, a booklet can be satisfactorily transferred and conveyed without using the upper guide.
Namely, in the third embodiment, as shown in
The same parts as those of the embodiments described above are given the same numbers, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
The booklet T may need to be processed on a page close to the back cover to be found by turning pages from the back cover, in addition to a page close to the front cover to be found by turning pages from the front cover. To perform the processing continuously, the following methods are required in a conventional method.
(1) Convey a booklet once back to a booklet input part, and asks the operator to input a booklet by turning the back cover up.
(2) Repeat turning body pages up to a predetermined page close to the back cover.
However, the method (1) is troublesome for the operator, and the processing time increase as the number of pages of a booklet increases in the method (2).
To resolve these problems, after the page close to the front cover is processed, a booklet is once folded and closed, and turned over (with the rear cover up) by a booklet turn-over apparatus connected to a page turning apparatus, and then the pages are turned from the back cover in the page turning apparatus.
A booklet turn-over apparatus has a booklet holder plate to hold a booklet conveyed to the apparatus, and a booklet is turned up by turning the booklet holder plate 1800 by a turning mechanism. An opened booklet folding apparatus may be connected to the page turning apparatus on the conveying path, like the booklet turn-over apparatus.
However, if the page turning apparatus can fold a booklet, it is convenient to use, and may not increase the size of a booklet publishing machine.
In the fourth embodiment, the page turning apparatus can fold a booklet.
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of folding the front cover Ta of the booklet T with reference to
As shown in
The same parts as those of the embodiments described above are given the same numbers, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
In the fourth embodiment, a booklet turn-over apparatus is provided separately from the page turning apparatus. In the fifth embodiment, a page turning apparatus is partially modified to be able to turn-over a booklet.
Namely, in the fifth embodiment, a conveying belt 46 is provided under the page turning position 5. The conveying belt 46 is extended over the drive transmission parts 46a and 46b such as a pulley. The surface of the conveying belt 46 is continuously corrugated in the running direction to convey the booklet T by stopping the end of the booklet T at the corrugation. Therefore, the booklet T can be conveyed without providing pinch-rollers above the conveying path.
The conveying belt 46 may be driven from the driving source of the conveying rollers 2a and 2d, or driven from a separate exclusive driving source. In the fifth embodiment, the lower vacuum pad 10b is not used to turn over the booklet T.
Next, an explanation will be given of the operation of turning over the booklet T.
As shown in
As the paging apparatus can turn over the booklet T as described above, a separate turn-over apparatus is unnecessary, and a booklet publishing machine can be made compact.
A vacuum pad 50 is made like a bellows.
The vacuum pad 50 sucks the front cover Ta of the booklet T, and moves up to pick up the front cover Ta as shown in
In
The vacuum pad 10a sucks the front cover Ta of the booklet T, and moves up to pick up the front cover Ta. At this time, the vacuum pad 10a rotates about the rotary fulcrum 51a to absorb the inclination incident to the pickup of the front cover Ta.
A member to pick up the booklet T is not limited to a vacuum pad. An adhesive board or adhesive roller may be used. It is also permitted to use a toothbrush-like member to catch and pick up a page by inserting a hook-shaped tip into the end of the booklet T.
As a member to turn down a picked-up page, any thing can be used as long as its material, shape and surface roughness do not damage the page surface. However, the insertion position (height) H of a turn-down member 52 is less than L, assuming that the distance from the bound edge to the end of the booklet T.
The turn-down member 52 may go under a picked-up page as shown in
The conveying mechanism shown in
The conveying mechanism shown in
In the conveying mechanism shown in
In the conveying mechanism shown in
The functions of picking up a page, opening a page, putting down pages under a picked-up page, and conveying a booklet described above may not be individually prepared, and may be combined.
For example,
A suction drum 65 is connected to a vacuum pump 42, keeps the inside at negative pressure, and has many small holes on the drum surface 65a. The drum surface 65a is housed in a case body 65b that is coaxial and rotatable with the drum 65. The lower part of the drum surface is exposed to the outside through an opening 65d of the case body 65b. The case body 65b is provided with small rollers 65c at both ends of the opening 65d.
When the booklet T opposes the lower part of the suction drum 65 as shown in
If a vacuum regulator 69 is inserted into a tube, which connects the vacuum pump 42 and vacuum pad 10a shown in
For example, information about a current page obtained by the page number detection sensor 24 is collated with information about optimum degree of vacuum, and the vacuum pad 10a can be given a suction force at the degree of vacuum optimum to that page.
For example, if the paper fibers of the body pages of the booklet T are coarse and air is likely to flow into the pages, a defect of sucking two or more pages at a time may occur. However, such a defect can be prevented by giving an appropriate suction force to the vacuum pad by the above-mentioned method.
Concretely, if the diameter of the vacuum pad 10a is 10 mm and the degree of vacuum is 60 kPa, a defect of concurrently sucking two or more pages is likely to occur in the body pages equivalent to Japanese writing paper due to the above-mentioned reason. However, such a defect can be practically prevented by controlling the degree of vacuum to ½ by the vacuum regulator 69.
A vacuum generating source is not limited to the vacuum pump 42. A vacuum generator (ejector) using negative pressure generated near a positive pressure blowout port of a compressor, or a device capable of changing the degree of vacuum may be used.
There are various structures and number of pages of a booklet. Normal handling means turning the front cover Ta of the booklet T bound at the left-side edge as shown in
On each page of the opened booklet T, signs meaning a page number is given at vertically symmetric positions and shape, which are detected by the page number detection sensor 24.
When the booklet T is input as shown in
When the booklet T is input as shown in
Here, the vacuum pads 10 and 10b are in the following relationship.
Σspfp<ΣSqFq
s and S: Distance between the axle of rotation in the pickup operation and each vacuum pad
f and F: Suction force of the vacuum pad
A lowercase character indicates the upper suction vacuum pad, and an uppercase character indicates the lower suction vacuum pad. The upper suction vacuum pad exists from 1 to p, and the lower suction vacuum pad exists from 1 to q. In this relationship, as a result of the pulling by the upper-side and lower-side vacuum pads 10a and 10b, the upper-side vacuum pad 10a certainly releases the booklet T.
In this case, the control unit 40 determines that the input booklet T is bound at the right edge, turns the pages counterclockwise as shown in
If the page number can be read, the reading position of the page number detection sensor 24 coincides with the actual page number reading position, and the control unit 40 determines that the booklet T is not upside down.
Thereafter, the booklet is handled in two manners.
In a first manner, the opened page of the booklet T is turned down as shown in
In a second manner, the body paper Tc is turned back as shown in
When the booklet T is input as shown in
The booklet T can be reversed to the normal side in two manners. In a first manner, the booklet is reversed by turning about a vertical axis as shown in
When the booklet T is input as shown in
The booklet T can be reversed to the normal side in two manners. In a first manner, the booklet is reversed by turning about a vertical axis as shown in
According to the above two manners, the booklet T can be automatically handled to the normal page turning operation, even if the booklet T is input in any conditions.
In addition to the above two manners, separate exclusive sensors may be used to detect upside-down and topside-down of the booklet T. For example, an image of a whole front cover of a booklet is captured to detect upside-down and topside-down of the booklet, and reverse the booklet to normal conditions.
Next, an explanation will be given of an ID printer including the above-described page turning apparatus with reference to
The ID printer 70 includes a booklet take in portion 73. Multiple closed booklets T are stacked and set in the booklet take in portion 73. The booklets T are taken in one by one. The booklet T that is taken in is conveyed along a conveying path 72 by multiple conveying roller pairs 71. In the conveying path 72, a first wireless IC read/write portion 74 as a reader, a page turning apparatus 75, a direct printing portion 76, an intermediate transfer printing portion 77 as a printer, an OCR reading portion 78, a booklet folding portion 83, and a second wireless IC read/write portion 79 are arranged along a conveying direction of the booklet T.
On a discharge end side of the conveying path 72, a discharge switching gate 80 is provided, which switches a discharge direction of the booklet T between a first direction and a second direction. In the first direction, a normal booklet stacker 81 for stacking normal booklets T is disposed. In the second direction, a defect booklet stacker 82 for stacking defect booklets is disposed.
Multiple booklets T can be placed in a stacked state into the booklet take in portion 73. In response to an instruction from a controller, only a lowermost booklet is taken out by a picker (not shown) that is a take out portion. The booklet that is taken out is further taken in toward the first wireless IC read/write portion 55.
The first wireless IC read/write portion 74 reads, by wireless communication, booklet-specific information and control information recorded in a wireless IC embedded in the booklet T.
The page turning apparatus 75 has a function to turn a front cover of the booklet T taken in from the booklet take in portion 73 and to turn body pages thereof. The turned page is recognized in a way that an unillustrated bar code reader reads a bar code preprinted on the booklet T.
The direct printing portion 76 presses an ink ribbon 76b and then a thermal head 76a against a print page surface of the booklet T to be printed, and causes the thermal head 76a to generate heat to print an image or a character. In this embodiment, information with a lower security level than that of information to be printed by the intermediate transfer printing portion 77 is printed by the direct printing portion 76.
Not all of the booklets T are printed by the direct printing portion 76 and the pages to be printed by the direct printing portion 76 are different from pages to be printed by the intermediate transfer printing portion 77. When printing is to be performed by the direct printing portion 76, a page to be printed is first turned up by the page turning apparatus 75 and then the direct printing portion 76 performs direct printing. Thereafter, the booklet T is conveyed again to the page turning apparatus 75 so that a page to be subjected to intermediate transfer printing is turned up. On the other hand, when there is no information to be printed by the direct printing portion 76, the booklet T passes the direct printing portion 76.
The configuration of the intermediate transfer printing portion 77 is disclosed in detail in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-349700, for example.
The ID printer 70 is connected to a data input controller 90. The data input controller 90 includes a main controller 91. A memory 92, an interface portion 93, an operation panel 94, and an image input portion 95 are connected to the main controller 91 through a control circuit.
The ID printer 70 includes a device controller 96. A direct printing image processor 103, an intermediate transfer image processor 104, a heater temperature controller 97, a booklet conveying controller 98, an image forming controller 99, and wireless IC controllers 105 and 106 are connected to the device controller 96 through a control circuit.
A head controller 100 configured to control a printing operation of the thermal head 76a is connected to the direct printing image processor 103. A head controller 101 configured to control a printing operation of a thermal head 84 is connected to the intermediate transfer image processor 104.
A heater 102 of a heat roller 87 is connected to the heater temperature controller 97 through a control circuit. A booklet conveying mechanism 71a, a booklet take in mechanism 73a, a page detecting portion 75b, a page turning mechanism 75a, and a discharge switching gate controller 80a are connected to the booklet conveying controller 98 through a control circuit.
A transfer ribbon conveying mechanism 86a, a backup roller move up and down mechanism 84a, and a heat roller rotating mechanism 87a are connected to the image forming controller 99 through a control circuit. The backup roller move up and down mechanism 84a moves a backup roller 88 up and down, and the heat roller rotating mechanism 87a rotates the heat roller 87.
The first wireless IC read/write (reader/writer) portion 74 is connected to the wireless IC controller 105. The second wireless IC read/write (reader/writer) portion 79 is connected to the wireless IC controller 106.
Next, an explanation will be given of a printing operation of the ID printer 70 configured as described above.
The booklets T are taken one by one out of the booklet take in portion 73 shown in
Color face image data on a holder, which is acquired by the image input portion 95 and security character information on the holder, which is inputted by the operation panel 94, are transmitted to the device controller 96.
Print data is generated based on the color face image data on the holder, the security character information on the holder, the booklet-specific information data, and the control information data, which are transmitted to the device controller 96.
The intermediate transfer image processor 104 operates the thermal head 84 based on the print data, to color-print a face image of the holder on a surface of an intermediate transfer film 85 by overlaying four colors of ink including black ink in addition to three primary colors of ink, namely Y (yellow), M (magenta) and C (cyan). This printing by overlaying multiple colors of ink is performed in such a way that the intermediate transfer film 85 moves back and forth on the thermal head 84 by the same number of times as the number of colors of ink. The information to be printed is characterized by being a reverse image. Functional ink such as ink containing fluorescent pigments may be used as the print colors, in addition to the above four colors of ink.
After the color-printing of the face image of the holder, security information with the booklet-specific information added thereto is printed on the surface of the intermediate transfer film 85 by the thermal head 84.
The intermediate transfer film 85, on which the security information with the color face image and booklet-specific information added thereto is printed, is taken up in a forward direction (toward a position where the heat roller 87 is present). The position of the intermediate transfer film 85 is detected by a transfer portion detecting sensor 89 in a portion of the path. Based on this detection result, the intermediate transfer film 85 is conveyed to a transfer start position.
The booklet T is taken into the intermediate transfer printing portion 77 with a page to be subjected to transfer opened, and then conveyed to a predetermined position with respect to the heat roller 87. The page to be subjected to the transfer may be a front facing page or another body page.
The intermediate transfer film 85 and the page of the booklet T, which are positioned relative to each other, are brought into contact with each other along with rotation of the heat roller 87 made of metal having a shape whose circumference is partially cut out. Thereafter, the film and page are pressurized and heated while being conveyed. By this heating, the color face image of the holder and the security information including numbers, characters, symbols, bar codes and the like are transferred onto the page of the booklet T from the transfer film 85. After the transfer is completed, the booklet T is conveyed to the OCR reading portion 78 with the page opened.
The OCR reading portion 78 reads the booklet-specific information and the security information. The read booklet-specific information and security information are recognized, and then a result of the recognition is transmitted to the device controller 96. The device controller 96 collates the data and then transmits the collation result to the booklet conveying controller 105.
When the data collation result determines that the booklet is defective, the device controller 96 notifies the data input controller 90 and the wireless IC controller 106 that the created booklet is defective.
Upon receipt of the notification that the created booklet is defective, the data input controller 90 retransmits the same print process command to the device controller 96 to automatically re-create a booklet.
The booklet T that has passed the OCR reading portion 78 is conveyed to the booklet folding portion 83, folded by the booklet folding portion 83, and then conveyed to the second wireless IC read/write portion 79. When the booklet is defective, data to the effect that the booklet is defective is recorded in the wireless IC embedded in the booklet T by the second wireless IC read/write portion 79.
When the collation result of the data read by the OCR reading portion 78 is correct, data to be recorded in the wireless IC is generated based on the print data generated by the device controller 96, and then transmitted to the wireless IC controller 106. In response to this transmission, the security information with the booklet-specific information added thereto is recorded (written) in the wireless IC embedded in the booklet T by the second wireless IC read/write portion 79.
The second wireless IC read/write portion 79 checks if the booklet T having the information recorded in the wireless IC is normal or defective. As a result of the checking by the second wireless IC read/write portion 79, normal booklets T are discharged into the normal booklet stacker 81 by an operation of the discharge switching gate 80 and stacked therein. On the other hand, defect booklets are discharged into the defect booklet stacker 82 and stacked therein.
The information prerecorded as print control information in the wireless IC embedded in the booklet T includes, for example, positional information on characters and images, layout information, booklet size information, thickness information, hardness information, material information on the booklet and the intermediate transfer film 85, and the like. The print control information is read by the first wireless IC read/write portion 74 and a printing operation is controlled based on the read information.
Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2009-088005 | Mar 2009 | JP | national |