JP2000228036A - Processing system for plate-like recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small and compact processing system for automatically writing information in a recording medium such as a CD, and performing printing on its surface. SOLUTION: A CD processing system 1 transfers a CD2 from a feeding hopper 3 to the medium tray 41 of a drive 4 by an absorbing type medium carrier 7, and writes specified information by the drive 4. A CD2A ejected after the writing and placed in the medium tray 41 is dropped along a medium guide 10 while the vertical moving type medium guide 10 is inserted in its through-hole 2a, and then surely carried in the recess 53 of the medium carrier tray 52 of an ink jet printer 5 located in a lower side. Since the CD2 is transferred up and down by using the vertical moving type guide 10, the drive 4 and the ink jet printer 5 are disposed in upper and lower sides, and thus since dead space inside a system case 9 is effectively used, the device is miniaturized and made compact.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plate-shaped recording medium processing system capable of automatically writing information on a plate-shaped recording medium such as a CD or a DVD and printing the information on the surface of the recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to a processing system for a small and compact plate-shaped recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present invention first transports a plate-shaped recording medium such as a CD or DVD onto a transport tray via a printing position of an ink-jet printer, thereby forming a desired surface on the recording medium. A system capable of printing is proposed. In addition, a system has been proposed in which a drive such as a CD writer is arranged while printing is performed, and a master CD can be copied at the same time (WO).
97/11850).

[0003]

It is an object of the present invention to make such a system smaller and more compact.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a plate-shaped recording medium supply unit having a through hole formed in the center thereof, and an information recording unit for writing predetermined information on the recording medium supplied from the supply unit. A printing unit that prints on the surface of a recorded recording medium after information is written, a collection unit that collects the printed recording medium, and a recording medium that is conveyed from the supply unit to the information recording unit. A plate-shaped recording medium processing system having a suction-type medium carrier: the printing unit includes a medium transport tray that transports a recording medium received at a medium receiving position through a printing position; The unit includes a medium tray movable to an ejection position at which a recording medium can be transferred and an insertion position at which information can be written to the recording medium; and the ejection tray directly above the medium transport tray at the medium receiving position. And a liftable guide, which can be lifted and lowered through the medium transport tray at the medium receiving position, is provided, and the liftable medium guide is provided for the recording medium. It is characterized by being able to penetrate through holes.

[0005] In the processing system having this configuration, the recording medium is conveyed as follows. A recording medium such as a CD conveyed from the supply unit to the information recording unit by the suction-type conveyance carrier is placed on a medium tray of the information recording unit and inserted into the information recording unit to write predetermined information. It is. The recording medium on which the information has been written is discharged from the information recording unit by the medium tray. Immediately below the discharge position of the medium tray, a medium transport tray of the printing unit is on standby. A suction-type medium carrier stands by immediately above the discharge position of the medium tray, and the recording medium that has been recorded is suction-held by the medium carrier. Thereafter, the medium tray returns to the inside of the information recording unit.

[0006] Thereafter, the elevating guide rises through the medium transport tray of the printing unit, and its leading end reaches just below the recording medium sucked and held by the medium carrier. When the recording medium is dropped from the medium carrier after this state is formed, the recording medium is in a state in which the liftable medium guide penetrates the through hole, and the recording medium is positioned directly below while being guided by the medium guide. Falling into the empty media transport tray. Therefore, even if the drop between the information recording section and the printing section is large, the recording medium can be reliably dropped to a predetermined position on the medium transport tray.

As described above, in the plate-shaped recording medium processing system according to the present invention, the recording medium recorded by the up-and-down type medium guide is placed on the medium of the printing unit located below the information recording unit located above. The transfer tray can be reliably dropped to a fixed position. Therefore, a layout in which the information recording unit and the printing unit are arranged vertically can be adopted, and the device can be made smaller and more compact than when the information recording unit and the printing unit are arranged in the plane direction.

That is, the portions having the highest dimensions in the processing system are a supply section for holding a large number of plate-shaped recording media such as CDs and a recovery section for recovering the recording media. The dimensions generally determine the height of the device. However, since the height dimensions of the information recording section and the printing section are smaller than those of the supply section and the recovery section, by arranging these information recording sections and the printing section vertically, the dead space inside the apparatus can be effectively used, As a result, the device can be made small and compact.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an example of a CD processing system to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a CD processing system according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of a vertically movable medium guide. With reference to these drawings, the processing system 1 of the present embodiment includes a supply hopper 3 in which a CD 2 having a through hole 2a formed in the center is stored, and a CD 2 supplied from the supply unit 3. A drive 4 of a CD writer for writing the above information, an inkjet printer 5 for printing on the surface of the CD 2A after the information is written, and a collection hopper 6 for collecting the printed CD 2B.

The CD 2 is supplied from the supply hopper 3 to the drive 4,
It is transported to the collection hopper 6 via the inkjet printer 5. The mechanism for transporting CD2 is C
A suction-type medium carrier 7, 8 having a D suction port is provided. The medium carrier 7 linearly reciprocates horizontally between the supply hopper 3 and the drive 4 along a guide (not shown) formed in the system case 9. The other medium carrier 8 linearly reciprocates horizontally between the ejection side of the printed CD in the ink jet printer 5 and the collection hopper 6 along a guide (not shown) similarly formed in the system case 9.

Here, the ink jet printer 5 is a line printer, and conveys a plate-shaped medium conveyance tray 52 via a printing position of the ink jet head 51, thereby forming a CD 2 carried on the medium conveyance tray 52.
This is a type that prints on the surface of a. The medium transport tray 52 has a rectangular shape, and a circular concave portion 53 is formed at the center of the medium transport tray 52, and the medium transport tray 52 carries the CD2. A through hole 54 is formed at the center of the circular recess 53. The medium transport tray 52 reciprocates between a medium receiving position shown by a solid line in FIG. 1 and a medium discharge position shown by an imaginary line on the opposite side of the inkjet head 51.

Above the ink jet printer 5, C
The drive 4 of the D writer is arranged. When the medium tray 41 of the drive 4 is at the discharge position shown in FIG. 1, the medium transport tray 52 at the medium receiving position is located below the medium tray 41. That is,
The center of the medium tray 41 is the concave portion 53 of the medium transport tray 52.
To match the center.

Here, a vertically movable medium guide 10 is disposed immediately below the concave portion 53 of the medium transport tray 52 at the medium receiving position. The medium guide 10 is, for example, an elongate shaft configured to move up and down by a rack and pinion type driving mechanism. Normally, the elevating type medium guide 10 is at a standby position where the tip is located immediately below the medium transport tray 52, and from this position, the ascending position where the tip is located immediately below the media tray 41 of the drive 4 above. It is possible to move up to.

Next, in the supply hopper 3 in which the blank CDs 2 are stored, a large number of CDs 2 are stacked in the vertical direction, and the height position of the uppermost CD 2 is almost equal to the drive 4. At the height of the medium tray 41. The suction type media carrier 7 holds the CD 2 located at the uppermost position of the supply hopper 3 by suction, and then moves horizontally to reach just above the medium tray 41 at the discharge position of the drive 4. The CD 2 is dropped on the medium tray 41 at the position.

On the other hand, when the medium transport tray 52 of the ink jet printer 5 reaches the discharge position, the medium carrier 8 can be moved directly above it. Therefore, the moving path of the medium carrier 8 is set at a position one step lower than the moving path of the other medium carrier 7. Medium transport tray 52
The medium carrier 8 holding the printed CD 2B carried by the hopper 6 moves horizontally and reaches a position immediately above the collection hopper 6. The collection hopper 6 also stores printed CDs 2B in a vertically stacked state.

Referring mainly to FIG. 2 and FIG.
D: medium tray 4 of drive 4 in processing system 1
The operation of transferring the recorded CD2A from 1 to the medium transport tray 52 of the ink jet printer 5 located below will be described.

First, the CD 2 located at the uppermost position of the supply hopper 3 is sucked and held by the medium carrier 7 and delivered to the medium tray 41 of the drive 4. After this,
The medium tray 41 is inserted into the drive 4 to write predetermined information. The medium carrier 7 is waiting at the position where the CD 2 has been delivered to the medium tray 41. The elevating medium guide 10 is at a standby position in which the tip is located below the medium transport tray 52.

When the medium tray 41 is ejected after writing the information, the recorded CD 2 is sucked and held by the medium carrier 7 which has been waiting. In addition, an elevating medium guide 1
0 rises through the through hole 54 of the medium transport tray 52 of the ink jet printer 5,
Directly below. This state is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 (a).

Thereafter, the medium tray 41 is pulled into the drive 4, and thereafter, the medium carrier 7 drops the CD2A. When the CD 2A falls, an elevating medium guide 10 whose leading end is located immediately below the through hole 2a at the center thereof is inserted. Therefore, the CD 2A falls while being guided by the medium guide 10. The medium guide 10 extends through the concave through hole 54 of the medium transport tray 52 of the inkjet printer 5 disposed below the drive 4. Therefore, the medium guide 1
The CD 2 </ b> A that falls along 0 is automatically and reliably dropped into the concave portion 53 of the medium transport tray 52. FIG.
(B) shows this operation.

After the CD 2A is thus carried in the concave portion 53 of the medium transport tray 52, as shown in FIG. 2C, the liftable medium guide 10 descends and returns to the initial position. Thereafter, conveyance of the medium conveyance tray 52 is started, and desired printing is performed on the surface of the CD 2A by the inkjet printer 5. The printed CD2B is the medium carrier 8
And is stored in the collection hopper 6.

[0022]

As described above, in the plate recording medium processing system according to the present invention, the information recording section and the ink jet printer are arranged vertically in the system case, and the elevation type medium guide is used. The recording medium on which recording has been performed by the information recording section located on the upper side is surely dropped to a predetermined position of a medium transport guide of the ink jet printer.

Therefore, according to the processing system of the present invention,
By effectively utilizing the dead space in the system case as compared with the case where the ink jet printer and the information recording unit are arranged in the plane direction, the device can be made small and compact.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a CD processing system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of transferring a recorded recording medium from a medium tray of a drive to a medium transport tray of an ink jet printer located below using a vertically movable medium guide in the processing system of FIG. 1; .

FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c) show a recording medium recorded by using a vertically movable medium guide in the processing system of FIG. 1 to a medium transport tray of an ink jet printer located below a medium tray of a drive. It is explanatory drawing which shows the operation | movement of delivery.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 CD processing system 2 CD 2a Through hole opened in center of CD 2A Recorded CD 2B Printed CD 3 Supply hopper 4 CD writer drive 41 Media tray 5 Inkjet printer 51 Inkjet head 52 Media transport tray 53 Media A concave portion for carrying the CD of the transport tray 54 A through hole opened in the center of the concave portion 6 A collection hopper 7, 8 A suction type media carrier 9 A system case 10 A lifting type media guide

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A supply unit for a plate-shaped recording medium having a through hole formed at the center, an information recording unit for writing predetermined information on the recording medium supplied from the supply unit, and after the information is written. A printing unit that prints on the surface of the recorded recording medium, a collection unit that collects the printed recording medium, and a suction-type medium carrier that conveys the recording medium from the supply unit to the information recording unit. In the plate-shaped recording medium processing system, the printing unit includes a medium transport tray that transports the recording medium received at the medium receiving position via the printing position, and the information recording unit can transfer the recording medium. A medium tray movable to an ejection position and an insertion position at which information can be written to a recording medium, wherein the medium tray is at the ejection position immediately above the medium transport tray at the medium receiving position. Is arranged, and an elevating guide that can move up and down through the medium transport tray at the medium receiving position is disposed, and the elevating guide can penetrate through a through hole of the recording medium. Characteristic plate-shaped recording medium processing system.