Patent Application
20140284867
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-58580, filed Mar. 21, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a paper sheet pickup device and paper sheet processing apparatus.
A paper sheet processing apparatus such as a postal matter processing apparatus which handles postcards, letters, and the like includes, e.g., a pickup device, a determination device (OCR), a stacking device, a reject (RJ) stacking device, a switchback device, a conveyance path which connects the respective devices, and a gate which distributes conveyed paper sheets (postal matters) to the respective devices. A plurality of paper sheets set at the supply portion of the pickup device are separated and picked up one by one by the pickup device, and fed to the determination device. The determination device determines the paper sheet, and decides the destination of the paper sheet, e.g., the RJ stacking device or the stacking device. After that, the paper sheet is conveyed to the decided device via the conveyance path and gate mechanism, and undergoes various processes inside the device.
As the pickup device of the paper sheet processing apparatus, there has been provided a suction pickup device which sucks a paper sheet by a negative pressure and picks it up. This pickup device sucks a paper sheet present at a pickup position to a perforated belt by using the perforated belt and an air chamber, and picks up paper sheets one by one by the perforated belt. In the pickup device, a suction roller is arranged upstream of the perforated belt. When there is an unaligned paper sheet, the suction roller feeds the paper sheet to the pickup position.
In the above-mentioned pickup device, the suction roller is connected to a vacuum pump and set to a low pressure. However, the surface of the suction roller is made of a metal and has a small friction coefficient. In addition, a surface of the suction roller that sucks a paper sheet is curved. For this reason, the suction roller cannot tightly suck a paper sheet, and it is difficult to exert a satisfactory feeding force.
The present invention has as its object to provide a paper sheet pickup device capable of stably picking up a paper sheet at a high speed, and a paper sheet processing apparatus.
According to one embodiment, a paper sheet pickup device includes an input portion, pickup mechanism, and pickup assist mechanism. In the input portion, a plurality of paper sheets are placed while overlapping each other. The pickup mechanism picks up, one by one, the paper sheets supplied to the pickup position of the input portion. The pickup assist mechanism is arranged upstream of the pickup mechanism in the pickup direction of the paper sheet. The pickup assist mechanism includes a suction belt configured to be arranged to be able to travel in the pickup direction, an air drawing portion configured to suck a paper sheet to the suction belt through the suction belt, and a driving motor configured to drive the suction belt. The pickup assist mechanism sucks a paper sheet to the suction belt to feed it to the pickup position, and while the pickup mechanism picks up the paper sheet, sucks and holds the next paper sheet.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A stack of postal matters such as postcards or letters is set in the pickup device 10. The pickup device operates in a manner to be described later, picking up the postal matters one by one onto a conveyance path 101. A plurality of pairs of endless conveyance belts (not shown) extend on the conveyance path 101 to sandwich it. The picked-up postal matter is nipped and conveyed by the conveyance belts.
The postal matter picked up on the conveyance path 101 is fed to the determination unit 102, and the determination unit 102 reads various kinds of information from the postal matter. Based on the read various kinds of information, the determination unit 102 determines the conveyance posture, sorting destination, and the like of the postal matter. In particular, the determination unit 102 determines a sorting destination by reading address information such as a postal code and address written on the postal matter.
After passing through the determination unit 102, the conveyance direction of the postal matter is distributed via a gate G1. More specifically, a postal matter determined by the determination unit 102 to be a postal matter to be rejected is conveyed to the rejection unit 104 via the gate G1, and stacked on the rejection unit. Other postal matters are conveyed to the stacking unit 108 via the gate G1 and stacked inside the stacking unit 108.
At this time, when the determination unit 102 determines that the conveyance direction of a postal matter needs to be reversed, the postal matter is fed to the switchback unit 106 via the gate G1 and a gate G2 to reverse the conveyance direction. A postal matter for which the conveyance direction need not be reversed detours the switchback unit 106 via the gate G2 and is conveyed to the stacking unit 108.
A postal matter fed to the stacking unit 108 via the conveyance path 101 is sorted and stacked in a sorting stacking pocket (not shown) in accordance with the result of determination by the determination unit 102. Postal matters are sorted and stacked in each sorting stacking pocket with their tops and bottoms being aligned.
Next, the paper sheet pickup device 10 will be explained in detail.
As shown in
A backup plate 9 is arranged at a position where it contacts the surface of the postal matter P at the back end in the moving direction among a plurality of postal matters P. The backup plate 9 is simply connected to, e.g., the main belt 126. The backup plate 9 moves in the moving direction F in synchronism with the main belt 126 to push the postal matters P toward the pickup position, thereby supplying the postal matter P at the leading end in the moving direction to the pickup position S. The main belt 126, the sub-belts 125, the backup plate 9, and driving motors (not shown) for driving the main belt and sub-belts function as the supply mechanism 20.
A plurality of paper sheets P are supported by the backup plate 9 and aligned along the side wall 24b on the main belt 126. A sensor (not shown) detects the presence/absence of the paper sheet P near the pickup position S. When the paper sheet P does not exist near the pickup position S, the backup plate 9 and main belt 126 move toward the pickup position to supply the paper sheet P at the leading end to the pickup position S.
As shown in
The air chamber 52 is positioned on the rear surface side of the pickup belt 79, i.e., on a side opposite to the postal matter P so that the air chamber 52 is adjacent to and faces the postal matter P. The vacuum pump 61 sets a negative or positive pressure in the air chamber 52. When a negative pressure is set, the air chamber 52 operates to suck and feed the postal matter P by the pickup belt 79. When a positive pressure is set, the air chamber 52 operates to separate the postal matter from the pickup belt without sucking the postal matter P. The vacuum pump 61 and air chamber 52 constitute an air drawing portion.
As shown in
The sub-air chamber 60 has a front end opening which is open to the input portion 24, and a guide plate 40 which covers the front end opening. The guide plate 40 is formed into a rectangular shape, and is arranged to be almost flush with the front wall 24c of the input portion 24. A plurality of drawing holes 42 are formed in the entire surface of the guide plate 40. The drawing holes 42 communicate with the inside of the sub-air chamber. The suction belt 64 is wound and stretched around a plurality of pulleys 44 and a driving pulley 45 so that at least a partial region of the suction belt 64 is positioned to overlap part of the front surface of the guide plate 40, faces the postal matter P in the input portion 24, and travels in the pickup direction D (pickup direction of the postal matter P) beside the pickup belt 79. The suction belt 64 is formed to have about ⅓ of the width of the pickup belt 79. The suction belt 64 travels at a speed equal to or lower than 1/100 of the feed speed of the pickup belt 79, e.g., at 40 mm/s in the pickup direction D by the driving motor 66.
The pickup assist mechanism 30 operates to draw the postal matter P at a position spaced apart from the sub-air chamber 60 and move it to the pickup position S. In addition, the pickup assist mechanism 30 sucks and stops the second postal matter P after the trailing end of the first postal matter P passes through the sub-air chamber. As a result, the pickup assist mechanism 30 operates to prevent pickup of two postal matters P.
More specifically, as shown in
Accordingly, the pickup mechanism 56 can continuously perform the pickup operation of the postal matter P1. At this time, the traveling speed of the suction belt 64 is equal to or lower than 1/100 of the feed speed of the pickup belt 79. After the postal matter P1 is fed from the suction belt 64 onto the pickup belt 79, it is drawn by the pickup belt 79 and easily separated from the suction belt 64.
As shown in
The suction belt 64 projects toward the input portion 24 from the surface of the guide plate 40 by the thickness of the suction belt 64. Part of the postal matter P2 is sucked to the suction belt 64, and a portion off the suction belt 64 is sucked to the guide plate 40, deforming the postal matter P2. As a result, a gap is generated between the postal matter P2 and a next postal matter (third postal matter) not sucked, making it easy to separate the postal matter P2.
As shown in
The gap correction portion 55 includes a sponge roller 68 and drive roller 70 which are arranged to face each other via the conveyance path. The sponge roller 68 is an elastic flexible roller, and can deform by a change of the thickness of the postal matter P. The drive roller 70 is directly driven by an AC servo motor (not shown). The postal matter P picked up by the pickup mechanism 56 is nipped between the sponge roller 68 and the drive roller 70. Rotation of the drive roller 70 is accelerated/decelerated in accordance with an instruction from a controller (not shown) to change the conveyance speed of the postal matter P and adjust the interval (gap) from a preceding postal matter P. More specifically, when the interval (gap) from a preceding postal matter P is smaller than a predetermined value, the gap correction portion 55 decreases the conveyance speed of the postal matter P to widen the interval (gap) from the preceding postal matter. When the interval (gap) is larger than the predetermined value, the gap correction portion 55 increases the conveyance speed of the postal matter P to narrow the interval.
As shown in
Note that a plurality of sensors 82 are arranged on the conveyance path 101 to detect the passing postal matter P.
In the pickup device 10 having the above-described arrangement, as shown in
The pickup mechanism 56 feeds the postal matters P at the pickup position S one by one onto the conveyance path 101. When a plurality of postal matters P are fed onto the conveyance path 101 while overlapping each other, the separation portion 53 separates them one by one.
In the pickup device 10 of the postal matter processing apparatus having the above-described arrangement, the pickup assist mechanism 30 including the suction belt 64 and sub-air chamber 60 is arranged upstream of the pickup mechanism 56. Even when unaligned postal matters are supplied, they can be successively picked up. Also, pickup of two postal matters can be prevented by the frictional force of the suction belt. Accordingly, a paper sheet pickup device capable of stably picking up paper sheets at a high speed is obtained.
In the embodiment, for example, a paper sheet to be processed is not limited to a postal matter, and the present invention is applicable to various paper sheets. The width and feed speed of the suction belt are not limited to those in the above-described embodiment, and various widths and feed speeds can be selected.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-058580 | Mar 2013 | JP | national |
