EP0786359A1 - Documents guiding device for folding and/or inserting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The document guide has a set of deflectors (12,14,16) placed ahead of the document capture roller (110), which co-operates with a tilting plate (113) at the bottom of the document (151). The plate presses each against the roller. The deflector has a paper positioning deflector (14) guiding the paper near the edge of the roller. This deflector is fixed beneath the outer deflector (12) which gives initial loose guidance to the paper. The front face (12A) of the outer deflector is inclined toward the plate (111) that presses the papers against the deflector. The face of the outer deflector is at a set acute angle sufficient to ensure the document slides toward the feeder inlet.

Description

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the specific field of mail processing. It relates in particular to a device for guiding various documents, such as mail folds, intended to improve the automatic document feeder with multiple trays for folding and / or insertion machine described in European patent n ° 0 661,175 filed by the plaintiff.

Prior art

These office machines usually have, mounted on their chassis, a document feeder, an empty envelope store and a loaded envelope exit device. At least one folded or unfolded document has been inserted into each loaded envelope.

The feeder previously developed by the applicant provides this type of machine with great flexibility of use obtained with a large choice of operating modes for various categories of documents (dimensions, grammage, quality, type, etc.). In addition, the use of several loading bins in an automatic operating mode makes it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of this machine.

However, it appeared that certain documents having significant cutting and / or permanent curvature defects caused a malfunction of the machine, in particular during the introduction and the taking of these documents, and this whatever the grammage and the type of paper used, this defect being particularly marked during the automatic introduction of documents from a laser printer.

Definition and object of the invention

The invention therefore proposes to solve this problem posed by the introduction of documents with increased curvature in a feeder with multiple trays, or possibly single, operating in automatic mode as in manual mode.

To this end, it relates to a document guiding device for an automatic document feeder of a folding and / or insertion machine, a feeder of the type comprising above a fold entry chute extending a plate. supporting a feeder body, at least two loading bins capable of cooperating with this inlet chute according to different operating modes, at least one comprising a tilting bottom surmounted by a die, consisting of a shoe covered with a rough coating and capable of occupying , either a closed position for automatic introduction of documents, or an open position for manual introduction, this device comprising first deflector means disposed upstream of a document pick-up roller cooperating selectively with the tilting base, so as to orient each document introduced directly to the inlet chute so that any attachment points of the lower edge of this document on the roller or on the feeder body are eliminated.

This configuration, which is advantageous in a manual loading mode as well as in an automatic loading mode, provides effective straightening of the documents with accentuated permanent curvature by directing them directly towards the fold entry. In addition, the device does not exert its effects to the detriment of the operation and the capacities of the folding and insertion machine.

The first deflector means comprise a positioning deflector fixed under a priming deflector secured to the support plate and one front face of which is inclined towards a pressure plate of a determined acute angle, sufficient to allow the documents to slide towards the chute. fold entry. The deflector before priming preferably has a length equal to about two-thirds of the width of the documents and the positioning deflector is formed by at least one flexible blade, of reduced width and of small thickness, and having a longitudinal section in " Z "giving it great flexibility. Advantageously, this blade is made of a spring material, which ensures perfect plating of the document or documents against the pressure plate.

In a second preferred embodiment facilitating the taking of documents in an automatic loading mode, the document guiding device further comprises second deflector means fixed on an upper part of the tilting bottom facing the document picking roller, so as to eliminate possible attachment points of the lower edge of the document with this background and to orient the document introduced directly towards the inlet chute.

By this additional means, documents with an accentuated permanent curvature, the lower or upstream edge of which may have, for example, cut burrs, are correctly directed towards the document selection mechanism by limiting contact of the document on the bottom of the feeder.

These second deflector means comprise ribs before sliding between which are fixed insertion tongues, each of these tongues being extended by a front face which descends to the level of the rough coating covering the shoe of the tilting bottom. The front face of the insertion tongue, which preferably has a low coefficient of friction, is inclined relative to the pressure plate by a determined angle less than the angle of inclination of the ribs relative to this same plate.

The present invention also relates to any automatic document feeder of a folding and / or insertion machine comprising a document guiding device as described above.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 représente une vue schématique d'une plieuse/inséreuse équipée d'un alimenteur automatique de documents,
• la figure 2 représente une vue en coupe schématique de l'alimenteur de l'art antérieur tel que le montre la figure 1,
• la figure 3 est une vue en coupe schématique d'un alimenteur muni d'un dispositif de guidage de documents selon l'invention dans un mode de chargement manuel,
• la figure 4 est une vue en coupe partielle schématique d'un alimenteur muni d'un dispositif de guidage de documents selon l'invention dans un mode de chargement automatique,
• la figure 5 est une vue en coupe schématique agrandie limitée au fond de l'alimenteur,
• la figure 6 est une vue de dessus correspondant à celle de la figure 5, et
• les figures 7 et 8 sont deux vues en perpective des différents éléments constituant le dispositif de guidage selon l'invention.

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the following description, given by way of non-limiting illustration, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a schematic view of a folder / inserter equipped with an automatic document feeder,
• FIG. 2 represents a schematic sectional view of the feeder of the prior art as shown in FIG. 1,
• FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a feeder provided with a document guiding device according to the invention in a manual loading mode,
• FIG. 4 is a schematic partial section view of a feeder provided with a document guiding device according to the invention in an automatic loading mode,
• FIG. 5 is an enlarged schematic sectional view limited to the bottom of the feeder,
• FIG. 6 is a top view corresponding to that of FIG. 5, and
• Figures 7 and 8 are two perspective views of the various elements constituting the guide device according to the invention.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment

In accordance with FIG. 1, the folding and insertion machine according to the invention serves to ensure the enveloping of documents such as mail folds, preferably as and when these folds are made. It is part of the equipment of a secretarial workstation where it constitutes one of the machines available to the person working at this workstation. The machine according to the invention is simply placed on the work plan of the station and its access is made easy for the person at this station, in particular for the presentation of the folds of which it ensures the envelope.

The machine has an inlet 1 for the folds situated at the base of a feeder 100, a magazine 2 for empty envelopes and an outlet 3 for loaded and closed envelopes, which are formed on a machine chassis 5. The chassis 5 is formed in two parts called the upper chassis 5A and the lower chassis 5B. The upper chassis has its open lower face and is mounted articulated on the lower chassis with open upper face, around an axis 5C. This 5C axis is carried by the lower chassis and is close to its rear wall, considering the machine installed in a secretarial position. The upper chassis 5A is also locked on the lower chassis 5B which it then closes, by known unlockable means, not shown.

The entry 1 of the folds and the store 2 of empty envelopes are defined on the upper wall of the upper frame 5A, with the entry 1 more at the front than the store 2 of empty envelopes. The outlet 3 of the loaded and closed envelopes is defined at the bottom and at the front of the lower chassis 5B. The mail folds made up are thus easily introduced on entry 1, while the closed envelopes are all easily taken on exit 3; the empty envelopes are in turn loaded by pack into the magazine 2 which constitutes the entry of empty envelopes and avoids manual insertion of each empty envelope on this entry.

At the entrance 1 of the folds corresponds a path 10 of the folds into the machine, which feeds a functional folding module 11. The folding module 11 is preferably with two folding pockets associated with a set of folding rollers. This path 10 defines the trajectory of the folds transferred from the entry 1 to the folding module 11. It forms a bend guiding the folds from the entry 1 towards the rear part of the upper chassis 5A, to supply the folding module, mounted in part in the back part of the chassis 5A and for the other part in that of chassis 5B. This folding module itself ensures at the end of the path 10, a folding of the path of the folds during the folding that it performs.

The store 2 of empty envelopes, constituting the entry of empty envelopes, corresponds to a path 20 of the empty envelopes in the machine. This path 20 intersects the path 10 of the folds to reach the substantially middle part of the machine. It is equipped with a means of opening the flap of empty envelopes.

At the outlet 3 of closed envelopes, there is a path 30 of loaded envelopes. This path 30 is substantially linear; it extends above the outlet 3, between the upper 5A and lower 5B chassis, from the front of the machine to the path 20 of empty envelopes and is substantially aligned with the outlet of the folds of the folding module 11 This path 30 is equipped with a functional module for loading the folds into the empty envelopes, a functional module for wetting the flaps 32 and a folding and closing module for the flaps 33.

The folding 11, loading 31 and wetting 32 modules are said to be functional because they become disorganized with the opening of the upper chassis 5A on the lower chassis 5B.

A control circuit 6 defines the commands of the machine during a control cycle, in connection with an interface circuit 62 specific to the feeder 100.

The folding module 11, the path 10 of the folds, the inlet 2 of the empty envelopes and their path 20, the path 30 of envelopes loaded with the wetting modules 32 and closure 33 as well as the control circuit 6 are described. in detail in patent EP 0 352 692 which relates to a folding and / or insertion machine on which the feeder can now be mounted, described now with reference to FIG. 2.

This document feeder comprises loading trays 101, 102 formed inside a feeder body 103. This feeder body comprises a support plate 104 flanked by two lateral flanges 106 covered by two hubcaps 108. It adjusts and snaps onto the upper wall of the upper chassis 5A by means of two front fixing lugs and two lateral locking lugs with flexible blade, not shown.

• un fond basculant 113 surmonté d'une filière 114, constitué d'un patin 116 lui même recouvert d'un revêtement rugueux 118 de séparation et articulé autour d'un axe 119 de pivotement fixé aux flasques 106 (figure 5) ;
• un plateau presseur 111 ajouré et articulé sur les flasques 106 par deux pions de pivotement 130, à l'encontre d'un ressort de rappel non représenté;
• deux margeurs 136 coulissant en synchronisme au moyen d'une crémaillère non représentée, sur le plateau presseur 111;
• un arceau d'appui 139 pour le maintien en position inclinée des documents dans le prolongement immédiat des margeurs;
• au moins un galet 110 de prise de documents 151 (ces documents 151 comprenant pour l'illustration de la figure 2 trois plis 7,8,9), le galet 110 étant entraîné par un moteur de commande 10A de la machine, par l'intermédiaire d'un embrayage non représenté.

The first loading bin 101 which is a transformable bin capable of occupying either a closed position for automatic introduction of documents, or an open position for manual introduction, consists essentially of:

• a tilting bottom 113 surmounted by a die 114, consisting of a shoe 116 itself covered with a rough covering 118 of separation and articulated around a pivot axis 119 fixed to the flanges 106 (FIG. 5);
• a perforated pressure plate 111 articulated on the flanges 106 by two pivot pins 130, against a return spring not shown;
• two feeders 136 sliding in synchronism by means of a rack, not shown, on the pressure plate 111;
• a support arch 139 for maintaining the inclined position of the documents in the immediate extension of the feeders;
• at least one roller 110 for taking documents 151 (these documents 151 comprising for the illustration of FIG. 2 three folds 7,8,9), the roller 110 being driven by a control motor 10A of the machine, by the intermediate of a clutch not shown.

• un fond fixe 123 faisant partie intégrante de la plaque de support 104, doté d'une filière et constitué également d'un patin lui même recouvert d'un revêtement rugueux de séparation;
• un plateau presseur 121 ajouré et articulé sur les flasques 106 par deux pions de pivotement 140, à l'encontre d'un ressort de rappel non représenté;
• deux margeurs 146 coulissant en synchronisme au moyen d'une crémaillère non représentée, sur le plateau presseur 121;
• un arceau d'appui 149 pour le maintien en position inclinée des documents dans le prolongement immédiat des margeurs;
• au moins un galet 120 de prise de documents 152, entraîné par le moteur de commande 10A de la machine, par l'intermédiaire d'un embrayage non représenté.

Likewise, the second loading tank 102 which is, on the contrary, a non-convertible tank, consists essentially of the following elements:

• a fixed bottom 123 forming an integral part of the support plate 104, provided with a die and also consisting of a shoe itself covered with a rough separation coating;
• a perforated pressure plate 121 articulated on the flanges 106 by two pivot pins 140, against a return spring not shown;
• two feeders 146 sliding in synchronism by means of a rack, not shown, on the pressure plate 121;
• a support arch 149 for maintaining the inclined position of the documents in the immediate extension of the feeders;
• at least one roller 120 for taking documents 152, driven by the control motor 10A of the machine, by means of a clutch, not shown.

The support plate 104 of the feeder body 103 is extended in its lower part by the inlet chute 1 of the documents coming from the loading bins 101, 102. This inlet chute contains upstream of a drive roller 15A and a 15 B countergalet (see Figure 1), two deflectors 114, 124 and a separator 115. Of course, and if necessary, the feeder is also provided with document presence detectors, passage detectors, as well as multiple document detectors. The tilting of the bottom 113 of the first loading tank 101 and the release of the pressure plate 111 are controlled simultaneously by a cam mechanism not shown.

The first loading tank 101 further comprises a first front deflector 12 said to be priming, which is fixed to the support plate 104 of the body of the feeder 103. This front deflector has a length equal to about two thirds of the width documents and it has an active face 12A inclined towards the pressure plate 111 at a determined acute angle sufficient to allow the documents to slide towards the ply inlet 1 located at the base of the feeder 100.

• un premier mode de chargement automatique avec une prise automatique, un par un, des documents déposés dans le bac 101 ou dans le bac 102;
• un second mode de chargement automatique avec une prise automatique de documents composés de deux feuilles provenant respectivement des bacs 101, 102;
• un mode de chargement mixte avec une prise manuelle d'un document provenant du premier bac 101, accompagnée d'une prise automatique d'un document provenant du second bac 102;
• un mode de chargement entièrement manuel avec une prise manuelle d'un document provenant du premier bac 101.

The feeder 100 previously described provides the following different operating modes:

• a first automatic loading mode with an automatic pick-up, one by one, of the documents deposited in the tray 101 or in the tray 102;
• a second automatic loading mode with automatic picking up of documents composed of two sheets respectively from trays 101, 102;
• a mixed loading mode with a manual take of a document from the first tray 101, accompanied by an automatic take of a document from the second tray 102;
• a fully manual loading mode with manual picking up of a document from the first tray 101.

The operating mode is selected from a control panel 200 with simple management by display and keys.

FIG. 3 shows this feeder provided with a document guiding device according to the invention. Indeed, as can be observed in FIG. 2, the mail folds which have a relatively accentuated permanent curvature can come into abutment with the roller 110 for taking documents (case of fold 7), with internal parts of the plate support 104 (case of fold 8), or with the deflector 114 of the inlet chute (case of fold 9) before being able to reach the entry of folds 1 proper at the base of the feeder 100.

This is why, the present invention proposes to produce a first deflector means upstream of the document pick-up rollers 110 by adding to this feeder structure a second positioning deflector fixed under the first deflector 12 and formed by two flexible blades 14 , 16, advantageously made of a spring material, of reduced width and of small thickness, and having a longitudinal section in "Z" (a perspective view of such a blade is shown in FIG. 7). This specific section allows great flexibility of the deflector which can thus be adapted both to manual loading mode and to automatic loading mode in which the tilting bottom 113 is in the closed position and the pressure plate 111 receives a stack of documents 151 (representation of FIG. 4) and for which this deflector then has a more folded position.

In this latter mode of operation, as shown in FIG. 5, the mail folds having a relatively accentuated curvature can nevertheless remain in abutment against the tilting bottom 113, in particular against its die 114 or its shoe 116, as the two show mixed dotted lines supposed to represent two of these folds. Also, provision is made for second deflector means by extending an upper part 18 of this rocking bottom 113 by sliding ribs 21, 22, 23; 24 extending forward towards the document take-up roller 110, substantially on either side of this roller, and by adding to this rocking bottom 113 an insertion tongue 34, 36 fixed at this upper part 18 between two sliding ribs surrounding a determined roller (and therefore in line with this roller). Each of these tongues is extended by a front face 33, 35 which descends to the level of the rough covering 118 covering the shoe 118 of the tilting bottom 113. These front faces which preferably have a low coefficient of friction are inclined relative to the pressure plate 111 with a determined angle less than the angle of inclination of the ribs relative to this same plate (a perspective view of such a tongue is shown in Figure 8).

The advantage of such a configuration will now be demonstrated mainly with regard to FIG. 6. As can be seen, the document which has an accentuated permanent curvature (shown in solid lines in this figure) tends under the action of the rollers 110 to take the form of a wavelet which impairs the proper functioning of the feeder. On the other hand, due to the structure of the invention, the document will slide on the front faces 33, 35 of the tongues and drive the documents directly onto the rough coating 118, upstream of the zone of engagement by the roller, where the document selection can then be performed without any difficulty. The document in direct contact with the rough coating is indeed braked; which allows the one immediately above to be selected.

The guide device according to the invention with the different deflector members defined above which compose it tends to reduce the space that documents can occupy in the loading bins of a folding and insertion machine. The volume in which these documents can evolve thus approaches the ideal funnel shape which leads as directly as possible to the entry of folds.

Claims (9)

Document guiding device for an automatic document feeder of a folding and / or inserting machine, feeder (100) of the type comprising above a fold inlet chute (1) extending a support plate ( 104) of a feeder body (103), at least two loading bins capable of cooperating with this inlet chute according to different operating modes, at least one comprising a tilting bottom (113) surmounted by a die (114), consisting of a shoe (116) covered with a rough coating (118) and capable of occupying either a closed position for automatic introduction of documents, or an open position for manual introduction, characterized in what it comprises first deflector means (12, 14, 16) disposed upstream of a document pickup roller (110) cooperating selectively with the tilting bottom (113), so as to direct each document introduced towards the inlet chute (1) d e so that possible attachment points of the lower edge of this document on the roller (110) or on the body of the feeder (103) are eliminated. Document guiding device according to claim 1, characterized in that the first deflector means comprise a positioning deflector (14) fixed under a priming deflector (12) integral with the support plate (104) and one front face of which (12A) is inclined towards a pressure plate (111) at a determined acute angle, sufficient to allow the documents to slide towards the fold entry chute (1). Document guiding device according to claim 2, characterized in that the front priming deflector (12) has a length equal to approximately two thirds of the width of the documents. Document guiding device according to claim 2, characterized in that the positioning deflector is formed by at least one flexible blade (14, 16), of reduced width and thin, and having a longitudinal section in "Z" itself ensuring great flexibility. Document guiding device according to claim 4, characterized in that said blade is made of a spring material. Document guiding device according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises second deflector means (21-24; 31-35) fixed on an upper part (18) of the tilting bottom (113), facing the document pickup roller (110), so as to eliminate any points of attachment of the lower edge of the document with this background and to orient the document introduced directly towards the inlet chute (1). Document guiding device according to claim 6, characterized in that the second deflector means comprise ribs before sliding (21, 22, 23; 24) between which are fixed insertion tongues (34, 36), each of these tabs being extended by a front face (33, 35) which descends to the level of the rough coating (118) covering the shoe (116) of the tilting bottom (113). Document guiding device according to claim 7, characterized in that the front face (33, 35) of the insertion tongue, which preferably has a low coefficient of friction, is inclined relative to the pressure plate (111) d 'a determined angle less than the inclination angle of the ribs (21, 22, 23, 24) relative to the same plate. Automatic document feeder of a folding and / or inserting machine comprising a document guiding device according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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