EP1832422A2 - Installation for treating sheets of printed paper - Google Patents

Abstract

The plant, comprising feed (1), transfer (3) and stacking (21, 22, 23) sections, incorporates an optoelectronic print quality control section with a camera (5) inside a perforated transfer drum (4), a section (12, 13, 14) for printing serial numbers and/or supplementary data, and a system (19) for marking those sheets which are found to be sub-standard by the quality control section. The sheets then go into three stacks for those of acceptable quality, those which are faulty, and those that need to be re-checked.

Description

The present invention relates to a plant for processing two-sided printed sheets of paper, especially value-documents comprising a sheet-fed feed device, transfer means, means for treating said sheets and separating means in accordance with the present invention. minus two separate batteries and uses of this facility, see for example EP-A-0985548 .

Document printing facilities, such as checks, fiduciary papers, banknotes, are becoming more and more sophisticated to prevent counterfeits that have become easier with today's advanced means of reproduction.

The main steps for printing paper-value are as follows: double-sided printing on sheets of paper or in the reel according to different printing techniques, control of the print quality of the sheets thus obtained, numbering and affixing other additional elements such as for example a signature on papers considered to meet the quality criteria, formation of the stacks with sheets containing the value papers corresponding to the quality criteria and the formation of a pile with sheets considered as unacceptable and possibly forming a stack with leaves that have not undergone the desired treatment following stops or errors in the treatment. Subsequently, sheets with value papers considered acceptable are cut into individual value papers and sorted into bundles with subsequent numbering. There is also the possibility that the numbering of the paper-value is done after cutting and not before.

The present invention relates to a particular field of this production line, namely the processing of sheets leaving an impression and intended to be controlled and numbered.

Usually, the printed sheet processing facilities are facilities comprising devices that perform only a part of this processing namely, one facility performs print quality control and separates acceptable and unacceptable sheets, another performs the numbering and another the printing of additional elements such as a signature, date, etc., and another control the numbered sheets before or after cutting (usually on a sheet on an lines and n columns of distinct elements) And so on.

The present invention aims to provide an installation for performing several of these operations or part for a single installation.

The installation according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises means for controlling the print quality, means for printing a sequential numbering and / or elements additional means for controlling the numbering and / or printing of additional elements, means for marking sheets found unacceptable by one of the quality control means.

This installation has the advantage of allowing in a single pass to perform the quality control operations, printing a sequential numbering and / or additional elements, to control the quality of this printing, to mark the sheets found unacceptable and guide them to a proper battery.

According to one variant, an unacceptable sheet marking verification device may be provided to improve the efficiency of the installation.

According to another variant and in the case where each sheet consists of n columns and m lines of distinct printed elements, the sequential numbering is done only on the sheets of which all the elements have been found acceptable.

According to another embodiment, the sequential numbering is done on all elements considered acceptable, the numbering devices printing a special mark on the elements considered unacceptable during the quality control.

According to another variant, the print quality control means comprise a device to control the presence and quality of elements invisible to the naked eye.

The quality control of the printed sheets is done by devices that can be of different types depending on the accuracy of the desired inspection and also the type of image to control. Thus, for example a quality control of a black and white print can be done by machines inspecting both the entire sheet or a paper-value, while a careful inspection of an image in color inspects a sheet of paper or paper value line by line. It is obvious that the devices used are of different design, construction and cost. Users of such machines up to now buy a facility by type of inspection which of course poses a problem of purchase cost but also a problem of the place occupied by such machines. On the other hand, some ticket quality control machines use linear transfer means on which the sheets of paper lie flat, said sheets passing in front of quality control devices by face reflection and also a quality control device by transparency. This type of installation, such as that described for example in the EP-A-0 668 577 of the same depositor, occupies a relatively large horizontal position since the leaves pass in front of three cameras on a flat transfer device.

The other object of the present invention is to provide in the installation a device for controlling the print quality of both sides of a sheet and transparency occupying a relatively small horizontal position. Another goal is to be able to modify the type of control, that is to say to replace the optoelectronic devices used for the quality control quickly so as not to stop the production line for a long time to make the changes that would be necessary for the replacement of different optoelectronic devices.

This quality control device included in the installation according to the invention is characterized in that said device comprises a first group of rotary members for gripping the sheets rotating around a first axis, a second group of rotary bodies for gripping the sheets rotating about a second axis parallel to the first, the rotation of the two groups being in opposite directions and in synchronism, the passage of a sheet of the first group to the second being along a generator of contacting the circular paths described by said members so that each sheet approximately describes an S-shaped path, thus making it possible to successively present each of its faces to two optoelectronic means of reflection control, which one of the optoelectronic means of reflection control is located between the circular path traversed by a sheet around one of the axes of rotation and said axis, that the other optoelectronic means of reflection control is located between the circular path traversed by a sheet around the other axis of rotation and said axis, the optoelectronic transparency control device being also located inside one of said circular paths and the corresponding axis of rotation.

The advantages of this device according to the invention are that the sheets to be controlled instead of moving on flat transfer means, move in a S-shaped path formed in fact by two circular arcs which allows occupy a relatively short horizontal position and use a space in the direction of the height to perform the control.

On the other hand, the fact of housing the optoelectronic control devices inside each of the arcs traversed by the leaves also makes it possible to gain in the global space since the devices are inside a space that anyway would remain unoccupied. The gripping members of each group can either be located on the lateral surface of a perforated drum or be fixed on arms driven by a shaft coaxial with the axis of rotation. Such devices are described in detail in a parallel patent application filed the same day by the applicant.

According to a preferred variant of this quality control device, the sheet gripping members are supported by a wall of a frame located perpendicular to said axes of rotation, while the optoelectronic control means are supported by a movable parallel wall element and opposed to the first provided with means to be movable parallel to the axis of rotation and give access to said optoelectronic means either for maintenance or for replacement by other optoelectronic means.

According to another variant embodiment, the quality control device may comprise two moving wall elements, which makes it possible, after removing the first wall element, to replace it with the second, and in this way being able to change the type of control of the wall. ticket quality without stopping the device for a relatively long time.

Finally, this installation can be used according to different embodiments, that is to say that one can perfectly use the installation to perform only a print quality control of images and in this case just disable the means for printing the additional elements or numbering while leaving the sheets follow the same path or perform only a numbering by deactivating the optoelectronic control means, the sheets always following the same path but without undergoing quality control of impression. In this way we have a versatile installation allowing the choice to perform either a complete treatment, that is to say quality control, printing a numbering and possibly an additional element, controlling the print quality of the numbering, separating into separate piles with acceptable and unacceptable sheets, or carrying out only a print quality check of the image without numbering, either perform a simple numbering without quality control but always using the same installation.

In addition, there is the possibility to change the type of print quality control, for example one can use line-by-line quality control or control of the entire sheet.

The invention will be described in more detail with the aid of the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a side view schematically of a paper-value processing facility.

Fig. 2 is a view of an alternative embodiment of the bill check device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view of the bill check device with a removable wall element.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an installation including the device of FIG.

Figure 5 schematically shows another processing facility.

The installation shown in FIG. 1 comprises, first of all, a feed device 1 for printed paper sheets S, for example value documents such as banknotes. These sheets S arrive through a feed cylinder 2 on a transfer drum 3 and are supported by a first drum 4 driven in rotation in the direction of the arrow F1. Said drum is provided with grippers for gripping the front end of a sheet. The drum 4 is perforated so that one can perform the various quality controls. It is indeed necessary that one can see from the inside of the drum 4 the face of the seized sheet. In the first position, inside the drum 4 we have a camera 5 which allows to perform the control by transparency, facing this camera outside the drum is located a device 6 for illuminating the sheet on its face opposite. Subsequently, the sheet continues its course in the direction of arrow F1 and arrives opposite an optoelectronic device for reflection control 7 illuminated by devices 8 the sheet being held in a regular configuration by a suction device 9. In in this case, the quality control is done line by line as the drum 4 rotates in front of the quality control device 7. Thereafter, when the sheet reaches the point of contact of the drum 4 with a drum 10, the sheet is taken by a pick-up device of the drum 10 and it arrives in front of another optoelectronic device of reflection control 7 'and is illuminated by a lighting device 8' and also carries out a line-by-line quality control as before, the sheet being held in a regular manner by a suction device 9 '. The drum 10 rotates naturally in the direction of the arrow F2 which is the opposite direction to the arrow F1 which has allowed the passage of the sheet S of the drum 4 to the drum 10 to change the face of the sheet which is turned towards the inside of the drum 10. The drum 10 is of construction quite similar to that of the drum 4. Thereafter, the sheet passes through a series of transfer rollers 11, a printing cylinder 12 on which act two elements 13 and 14 of numbering or affixing alphabetic elements. Each of the printing elements 13 and 14 is inked by a set of inkwells which are not the object of the present invention. The cylinders 13 and 14 are also provided with a cleaning device as usually in this type of installation.

Incidentally, an additional unit 15 may be provided for printing an additional element such as, for example, signature printing and / or date on value papers before going to the numbering station.

The use of so-called "intelligent" dialers, thus electronic dialers, makes it possible to have a sequential numbering on all the elements or paper-value of an acceptable sheet or on the elements or acceptable paper-value of all sheets. Thus, if we can number all the elements considered acceptable after the control, we limit the waste. In addition, it is possible to print on the non-acceptable elements a special mark for the dialer which may, for example, be a series of lines. When numbering sheets that are considered acceptable, dialers are deactivated during the passage of an unacceptable sheet, for example by depressurizing the numbering cylinders which keeps the sequence just even with non-electronic dialers.

After their numbering, the sheets pass an optoelectronic device 17 for controlling the print quality of the numbering. Then the sheet S is taken over by a chain transfer device 18 and the sheet passes in front of a marking device 19. This device 19 applies a mark on the upper part of the sheets which have been found to have a defect, either during quality control of the reflection or transparency print or the dial print quality control device. A device 20 controls whether the sheets judged to be unacceptable have been marked by the device 19 and subsequently the sheets are directed to a stacking device. It has a first stack 21 for the leaves considered good, a stack 22 for the leaves considered rejected and finally we can have a third pile 23 which, or it also contains leaves considered good, or they can contain leaves that have not been checked or numbered due to unintentional shutdowns of the installation or errors during processing and that these sheets have to go back into the installation again.

It should be emphasized that an important point of this installation is the fact that all the elements are in perfect register, that is to say that the various elements are driven in synchronism by means of, for example, an engine central 24 which by means of a toothed wheel and for example toothed belts, allows to drive the entire installation in perfect synchronism, undeniable requirement for the proper operation of such a facility.

In Figure 2 we have shown the dashed portion of the installation of Figure 1 for another type of print quality control. In the present case, the paper introduction elements 2 and 3 are identical, the drums 4 and 10 also, the only differences concern the control system of paper sheets by reflection. Indeed, a first optoelectronic device 25 can scan the entire sheet at once, that is to say a less accurate quality control especially used for printing in black and white. Another similar device 25 'controls the other side of a sheet. The transparent quality control device 26 is this time inside the upper drum. It is evident that the sheets are held in a regular position in front of the quality control device 25 and 25 'by suction devices 27 and 27'. A device 28 makes it possible to illuminate the sheet on the other side to carry out quality control by transparency.

Details concerning the construction of the drums 4, 10 and also the elements making it possible to drive the whole installation synchronously in motion are found in the applicant's parallel patent application filed on the same day with the Federal Institute of Technology. Intellectual Property in Switzerland.

Drums 4 and 10 may also be replaced by devices for grasping the end of a sheet and rotating them about an axis A or B as described in the above-mentioned patent application.

The installation described in Figure 1 is in its most complete form and it allows from a set of sheets S to first perform a print quality control by reflection and transparency, followed by impressions complementary, for example by means of the assembly 15, affixing a signature or a date or both, followed by a numbering, subsequently a print quality control, transfer to a device affixing a mark on leaves with a defect followed by a device verifying that a mark has been affixed to the leaves considered as unacceptable during a quality control and then a stacking device to separate the acceptable sheets from those that are not and possibly those that have not been processed at the level of control or numbering.

It has been mentioned previously that a control with lower requirements can be realized, for example for black and white images in connection with the device described in FIG. 2.

It is also possible to use this installation to perform a part of the operations, for example it can very well perform that quality control and not to move to the numbering of the paper-value, in this case it is sufficient, without touching the provisions of the different elements of the machine disable only the elements applying printing on the sheets, that is to say a sheet S will follow the same path through all the elements but it will undergo a quality control by reflection on both sides and transparency and then it will pass through the other devices to be conducted either in a stack containing the sheets considered acceptable, or in the piles containing the sheets considered unacceptable.

In the same way we can use this installation only to number and affix a complementary element without performing the quality control beforehand, and in this case we disable the operation of the optoelectronic control devices, that is to say the elements 5, 7, 8, 7 ', 8' and in the other case 25, 25 'and 26 which allows the sheets to pass on the drums 4 and 10 but without undergoing quality control and subsequently come into the complementary printing device for numbering or affixing another element to finally be guided to one of the stacks 21, 22, 23.

In Figure 3, we have shown a frame 100 having a first wall 101 inside which are housed the various elements shown inside the dashed frame of Figure 1 or 2, namely the transfer cylinder 3 , one of the output rollers 11 and the drums 4 and 10 or equivalent elements as described in the aforementioned parallel patent application.

The axes of the drums or rotating members are fixed on the wall 101 of the frame and the various quality control devices, which are not shown in this figure are arranged on a movable wall member moving perpendicularly to the wall 101. wall element is provided with different supports 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 integral elements 109 and 110 which are arranged on a structure 111 mounted on a carriage 112 moving on a path 113, 114 to remove the together optoelectronic quality control means of a sheet outside the frame 100 for either maintenance or repair, or to change said optoelectronic control means for example switch from those of Figure 1 to those of Figure 2 or vice versa.

Thus, by removing the frame 111 which constitutes a part of the wall parallel to and opposite the 101, it is easy to make the necessary modifications to transform the installation of the quality control device by changing the different elements.

According to an alternative embodiment two frames 111 can be provided with the various elements described, on one can have the optoelectronic means as those described in Figure 1 and in the other as those of Figure 2 which allows to perform a control type change quickly by replacing one of the chassis 111 by the other without causing a prolonged shutdown of the installation. The frame 100 is provided with various opening hatches 115 allowing access to various elements inside the frame 100 to perform either checks or maintenance.

In Figure 4 we have shown in perspective and schematically, a complete installation corresponding to that of Figure 1 except that there are provided at the end four piles for storing sheets. In this figure 4 we have of course represented the quality control device sheets with its removable wall.

We will now briefly describe an installation according to the invention having a configuration different from that described above, in particular as regards the device for controlling the print quality of the notes. This installation comprises a supply device for the printed sheets 131, two transfer cylinders 132 feeding a quality control device bills by reflection on each side and by transparency.

Said device is formed of two drums 134 and 140. On one side of the cylinder 134 is an optoelectronic quality control device 108 by reflection. This device controls the face of the sheet lying towards the outside of the cylinder 134. A similar device 137 also outside the cylinder 140 controls the other side of the sheet which also in this case moves in an S-shaped path. Thereafter, through a transfer cylinder 199 the sheet passes over a transfer device formed of two cylinders 198 and 197 resulting in a transfer device 196 of the treadmill or chain type for passing the sheet in front of a transparency control device 135. In this case the print quality control device of a sheet on both sides and by transparency is achieved by a device that occupies a place in the horizontal direction larger than that used for r the previous installation. Subsequently, the sheet passes through a transfer cylinder 141 into a printing device which is composed as before by a device 145. printing of items such as a signature, date, etc. thereafter the sheet passes over a printing cylinder 142 to receive a numbering by the devices 143 and 144. This printing facility is quite similar to that of the installation described above. A device for quality control of the prints made in this device is also provided but is not shown in this figure. Subsequently a chain transfer device 118 leads the sheets to a device 119, 120 for marking unacceptable sheets and checking the marking of these sheets. Subsequently the sheets are stored on piles 122, 123 if they have been considered acceptable or they go out to a device 121 when the sheets have been considered unacceptable.

In the case of this installation, it is also possible to provide an optoelectronic device for checking the elements that can not be read by the naked eye.

The activation of this installation can also be carried out according to the modes described above, that is to say for a control of print quality of additional elements and numbering or only for the quality control without numbering or only the numbering without quality control by reflection and transparency. In these cases too, it is sufficient to disable the elements that perform these functions, which also allows this installation to be used according to different modes without making essential modifications.

In the present case, if the quality control performed by the devices 137, 108 and 135 must meet certain criteria, these devices must be replaced by suitable devices as for the previous installation except that no provision has been made. a mobile wall supporting these devices.

Claims (10)

Apparatus for processing two-sided printed sheets of paper (S), in particular value papers comprising a sheet-fed feeding device (131), transfer means (132), means for processing said sheets (108, 118-120, 134, 135, 137, 140-145, 196-199) and separation means in at least two separate cells (121-123), characterized in that it comprises means for controlling the print quality (108, 135, 137), means for printing sequential numbering and / or additional elements (143, 144, 145), numbering and / or printing control means of additional elements, marking means (119) of the sheets (S) found unacceptable by one of the quality control means
and in that said print quality control means (108, 135, 137) comprises at least one optoelectronic reflective quality control device (108, 137) for controlling a face of a sheet (S ) located on the outside of a cylinder (134, 140) placed in the transport path of said sheets (S). Installation according to Claim 1, characterized in that the said means for the control of the quality of reflection printing (108, 135, 137) comprise first and second optoelectronic quality control devices (108, 137) for controlling successively the first face then the second face of said sheets (S), which sheets are successively transported on a first cylinder (134) cooperating with the first optoelectronic quality control device (108), then on a second cylinder (140) cooperating with the second optoelectronic control device quality (137). Installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the installation also comprises a device for checking the marking of unacceptable sheets. Installation according to one of claims 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that it is suitable for processing sheets comprising distinct printed elements arranged in n columns and m rows. Installation according to Claim 4, characterized in that the numbering is carried out in sequence on the elements of a sheet, all elements of which have been considered acceptable during the print quality check, the numbering devices being deactivated during the passage of a leaf considered unacceptable. Installation according to claim 4, characterized in that the numbering is done in sequence by electronic numbering devices on the elements considered acceptable during the quality control, the elements considered unacceptable being marked by numbering devices with a special mark. Installation according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the print quality control means further comprises an optoelectronic quality control device transparency (135). Installation according to one of claims 1 to 7 characterized in that the print quality control means further comprises optoelectronic means for controlling the presence and quality of elements invisible to the naked eye. Use of the installation according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the printing elements of the printing device situated downstream of the quality control device are deactivated so as to use the installation only for quality control. Use of the installation according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the optoelectronic quality control means of the sheets are deactivated, so that the installation can be used only for the printing of additional elements. .

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