JP2000242147A - Sheet cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sheet cleaning device capable of efficiently cleaning a large number of sheets. SOLUTION: In this sheet cleaning device 1, a printed sheet 2 is immersed in water 3 reservoired in a water tank 4 and then washed with the water 3 after printing material is scraped from the surface of the sheet 2. The tank 4 has such size that plural sheets 2 can be piled up and housed. The device 1 is equipped with a sucking mechanism 22 taking out plural sheets 2 piled up and immersed in the tank 4 one by one from the tank 4. By using this device, the time required for cleaning a large number of sheets is drastically shortened, so that the cleaning of the sheet is efficiently performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet cleaning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of removing a printing material such as a toner from a sheet as a recording material on which characters and images are printed by an electrophotographic apparatus or the like, the material is swollen by water. By swelling the swelling layer by immersing the sheet with the swelling layer formed on the surface in the cleaning liquid, and weakening the adhesive force of the printing material to the sheet,
A method for removing the printing material has been proposed. Also, various sheet cleaning apparatuses that clean sheets by adopting the method have been proposed. For example, JP-A-7
According to JP-A-140554, after swelling the surface layer while immersing the sheet in the cleaning liquid stored in the tank and conveying the sheet,
There is disclosed an apparatus in which a printing material attached to the surface of the sheet is scraped off with a brush, and then a cleaning liquid for finishing is sprayed.

[0003] Not only the sheet cleaning device described above, sheets to be cleaned by this type of cleaning device are immersed in a water tank one by one, and are taken out one by one when the surface layer of the sheet swells. Thus, in the conventional sheet cleaning apparatus, when immersing a sheet in a water tank, the next sheet cannot be immersed until the surface layer of the previously immersed sheet swells. There is a problem that it takes a long time.

[0004] For example, it takes about 10 minutes to swell a sheet on which multi-color printing (color solid image) is performed over the entire surface, and if swelling 1000 sheets, it takes about 167 hours. It takes.

[0005] As a method for solving the above problems, a large-sized water tank is used so that a plurality of sheets are immersed at a time, the sheets are swollen in advance, and the printing material can be continuously scraped off from the sheets. There is a sheet cleaning device provided with a sheet cleaning device.

In the above sheet cleaning apparatus, the sheets are immersed one by one in a water tank in a line, and are taken out one by one. Thus, the sheet cleaning device needs to include a water tank having a length corresponding to the number of sheets to be immersed. For example, in a case where three sheets are immersed at one time, the water tank has a size in which three sheets are arranged.

However, when the number of immersions is small as described above, a water tank corresponding to the number of immersions can be manufactured and maintained. However, since maintenance is difficult, this type of sheet cleaning apparatus has a problem that a large number of sheets cannot be efficiently processed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and efficiently cleans a large number of printed sheets in a recyclable sheet having at least a surface layer formed of a water-absorbing substance over the entire surface. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet cleaning device that can perform the cleaning.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, in a sheet cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, after a printed sheet is immersed in a cleaning liquid stored in a water tank, a printing material is scraped off from the surface of the sheet. In the sheet cleaning apparatus for cleaning with a cleaning liquid, the water tank has a size capable of accommodating a plurality of sheets in a stacked manner, and a takeout means for taking out a plurality of sheets immersed and superimposed on the water tank one by one from the water tank. It is characterized by having.

When a plurality of sheets having a water-absorbing swelling layer formed on the surface layer are mounted on the sheet cleaning apparatus having the above structure, the sheets are exposed on the end surfaces of the respective sheets even when they are superposed. Since the washing liquid is gradually absorbed from the substrate, the entire sheet can be swollen. Further, the plurality of stacked sheets can be taken out one by one by a take-out means.

Further, the take-out means may be constituted by a suction mechanism for sucking the sheets immersed in the water tank one by one.

[0012] Further, the water tank has an opening formed at an upper portion thereof, a plurality of stacked sheets can be placed on the water tank, and an elevating plate provided so as to be able to move up and down toward the upper opening of the water tank. It may be provided.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a sheet cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present invention. The sheet cleaning apparatus 1 includes a sheet swelling system 5 that swells the printed sheet 2 by immersing it in a water tank 4 in which water 3 as a cleaning liquid is stored.
A sheet take-out system (take-out means) 6 for taking out the swelled sheet 2 from the water tank 4 and a printing material removing system 7 for removing printing material from the swelling sheet 2 taken out from the water tank 4
And a sheet cleaning / drying system 8 for cleaning and drying the sheet 2 from which the printing material has been removed, and a cleaning liquid circulation system 9 for circulating the water 3. Hereinafter, the sheet swelling system 5,
The sheet take-out system 6, printing material removing system 7, sheet washing / drying system 8, and washing liquid circulation system 9 will be described in detail.

The sheet swelling system 5 has a water tank 4 in which water 3 is stored. The water tank 4 has an inner wall 11 and an outer wall 12, and the water 3 overflowing from the inner wall 11 flows into a gap between the inner wall 11 and the outer wall 12. In this manner, by causing the water 3 to overflow from the inner wall 11, the liquid level on the inner wall 11 can be constantly maintained. The water 3 flowing into the gap is discharged to a water storage tank 62 described later via a drain pipe 13 connected to a lower end of the outer wall 12. The water tank 10 is formed in a size that can accommodate a large number of sheets 2 of the maximum size that can be cleaned in a stacked manner.

An elevating mechanism 15 is provided inside the water tank 4. The elevating mechanism 15 includes a rectangular tray 16 on which a plurality of sheets 2 are placed, four springs 17 supporting four corners of the tray 16, a support plate 18 supporting the springs 17, and a support plate 18. It consists of four eccentric cams 19 supporting the four corners 18. The spring 17 contracts in proportion to the number of sheets 2 placed on the tray 16, and its length and spring multiplier are set so that the topmost sheet 2 is positioned below the water surface. .

The four eccentric cams 19 are provided so as to be simultaneously rotated by a motor (not shown) so that the support plate 18 and the tray 16 can be moved up and down. Further, these eccentric cams 19 are provided on the top of the plurality of sheets 2 placed on the tray 16.
Is set so that it protrudes from the upper end of the inner wall 11 by 1 to 2 mm. Further, a photoelectric sensor 20 for detecting whether or not the sheet 2 protrudes from the height of the inner wall 11.
Are arranged above the water tank 4.

The sheet take-out system 6 includes a suction mechanism 22 and a sheet peeling mechanism 40. Suction mechanism 22
Has a box-shaped suction chamber 23 as shown in FIG. A suction fan housing chamber 24 communicating with the suction chamber 23 is connected to a top plate 23 a of the suction chamber 23. A suction fan 25 is provided inside the suction fan storage chamber 24 so that a negative pressure can be generated in the suction chamber 23.

Inside the suction chamber 23, a filter support chamber 26 facing the suction fan housing chamber 24 is mounted. A plurality of holes are formed in the wall surface of the filter support chamber 26, and the filter support chamber 26 has a bag-like filter 27.
Is covered.

A suction pipe 28 is provided on one side wall 23b of the suction chamber 23 (side wall facing the roller 45 of the printing material removing system 7).
Is connected. An end located inside the suction chamber 23 of the suction tube 28 is bent downward, and a flexible resin pipe 30 having a suction pad 29 at the end is connected to the other end located outside the suction chamber 23. It is. As described above,
When the suction fan 25 is driven to generate a negative pressure in the suction chamber 23, a suction force is generated in the opening 29 a of the suction pad 29, so that the sheet 2 can be sucked.

The suction pad 29 is provided movably from the upper surface of the water tank 4 to a position facing the roller 45 of the printing material removing system 7 while the sheet 2 is sucked by the moving mechanism 31. The moving mechanism 31 includes a cylinder 32 for moving the suction pad 29 in the vertical direction (X direction), and a rail 33 and a cylinder 34 laid to move the suction pad 29 in the horizontal direction (Y direction). Note that the moving mechanism 31 is not limited to the above configuration, and may be any mechanism that can move the suction pad 29 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. Further, the moving mechanism 31 may use the swinging means disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-26712.

The suction chamber 23 has a bottom surface 23c.
A drain pipe 35 for discharging the water 3 collected at the bottom of is connected. The discharge pipe 35 is connected to a cleaning liquid recovery pipe 37 of the cleaning liquid circulation system 9 via a pump 36.

The peeling mechanism 40 is provided for sucking the sheets 2 one by one with the suction pad 29. The peeling mechanism 40 includes a compressor 41 and a nozzle 42 for injecting air compressed by the compressor 41. The nozzle 42 is connected to the printing material removing system 7.
And is provided below the roller 45 so that air can be jetted to the front end of the sheet 2 sucked by the suction pad 29. By injecting air into the front end of the sheet 2 in this manner, the sheet 2 stuck to the sheet 2 sucked by the suction pad 29 is separated from the sheet 2 sucked by the suction pad 29, and the water tank 4 To fall.

The printing material removing system 7 includes a pair of conveying rollers 4.
5 and a pair of brush rollers 46. Roller 4
Reference numeral 5 denotes a roller for transporting the sheet 2 carried out of the water tank 4 by the suction mechanism 22 to the brush roller 46.
Guides 47 for supporting the sheet 2 are provided before and after 5. The brush roller 46 scrapes the printing material (ink) attached to the sheet 2, and its periphery is covered by a casing 48 for preventing the printing material scraped from the sheet 2 from scattering.

At the lower part of the casing 48, a funnel for collecting the printing material scraped off by the brush roller 46 and the water 3 flowing down from a sheet washing and drying system 8 to be described later and guiding it to the drain pipe 13 is provided. 49 are formed. Further, a guide 50 for guiding the sheet 2 from which the printing material has been removed to the sheet washing / drying system 8 which is the next step is formed on the downstream side of the casing 48 in the conveying direction of the sheet 2.

Next, the sheet cleaning / drying system 8 will be described. The sheet washing / drying system 8 includes a washing pipe 51 for washing the sheet 2 from which the printing material has been removed, a pair of squeezing rollers 52 for squeezing out the moisture absorbed in the sheet 2, and a pair of drying rollers for drying the sheet. 53, and a tray 54 on which the cleaned sheets 2 are stacked.

The washing tube 51 is provided at the end of the guide 50. The cleaning pipe 51 is composed of a pair of pipes, each of which is disposed so as to face both sides of the sheet 2. A plurality of holes are formed in the surface of the cleaning pipe 51 so that water 3 can be sprayed on the surface of the sheet 2 passing through the guide 50 to wash away the printing material attached to the surface of the sheet 2. It is.

The washing pipe 51 has a washing liquid circulating system 9 to be described later.
The cleaning liquid second supply pipe 57 is connected so that the water 3 is supplied.

The squeezing roller 52 has a pair of rollers disposed adjacent to the upstream side of the washing pipe 51 and passes the sheet 2 between the pair of rollers to apply pressure to remove moisture contained in the sheet 2. Can be squeezed. Drying roller 53
Has a heater inside the body consisting of a cylindrical body,
The sheet 2 passing between the drying rollers 53 can be dried by heating.

Guides 55 are provided on the upstream and downstream sides of the drying roller 53 in the conveying direction of the sheet 2, and the sheet 2 that has passed through the squeezing roller 51 and the drying roller 52 and has been cleaned is placed on a tray 54. Be guided.

The washing liquid circulating system 9 supplies the water 3 to the water tank 4 and the washing pipe 51, as well as the water 3 overflowing from the water tank 4, the water 3 sucked by the suction mechanism 22,
The water 3 from which the surface of the sheet 2 has been washed off by the drying system 8 is collected and supplied to the water tank 4 and the washing pipe 51 again.
Tank 62 for storing water, a first cleaning liquid supply pipe 56 connected to the water storage tank 62, and a second cleaning liquid supply pipe 5
7 and the above-mentioned cleaning liquid recovery pipe 37.

A pump 58 and a filter 59 are connected to the first cleaning liquid supply pipe 56. The pump 58
A filter 60 is also connected to a cleaning liquid second supply pipe 57 branched from the cleaning liquid first supply pipe 56 on the downstream side of the filter 60. Aquarium 4
A cleaning liquid supply pipe 61 having a length substantially equal to the width of the water tank 4 is connected to an end of the first cleaning liquid supply pipe 56 disposed above the cleaning liquid supply pipe 61. The cleaning liquid supply pipe 61 is formed with holes for discharging the cleaning liquid at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the water tank 4.

After the ends of the cleaning liquid recovery pipe 37 and the drain pipe 13 are connected, they are disposed above the recovery port 63 of the water storage tank 62. The collecting port 63 is provided with a collapsible filter 64 for filtering the water 3.

Next, the operation of cleaning the sheet 2 to which the printing material has adhered by using the sheet cleaning apparatus 1 having the above configuration will be described.

For example, a large number of sheets 2 of about 1000, which are multicolor printed (color solid images) on the entire surface, are placed on a tray 16 provided in the water tank 4 in a superimposed manner. The sheet 2 has a swelling layer formed by swelling with water on its surface. Even when the sheets 2 are stacked and placed in the water tank 4, water 3 is absorbed by the swelling layer from the end face of the sheet. You. The time required for the entire surface layer of all sheets to swell is determined by various conditions, but usually about 8 to 10 hours is required, and after the lapse of the time, the entire surface layer of all sheets swells and desorbs. It is in a state where it can be inked. When the sheet 2 is placed on the tray 16, the water 3 overflowing beyond the inner wall 11 is collected in the water storage tank 62 via the drain pipe 13.

After the sheet 2 is immersed in the water tank 4 and 10 hours have elapsed, the eccentric cam 19 of the lifting mechanism 15 is rotated so that the uppermost sheet 2 placed on the tray 16 is about 1 mm from the upper end of the inner wall 11. The tray 16 is raised to the protruding position.

Subsequently, the suction pad 29 is lowered by the cylinder 32 of the moving mechanism 31 to come into contact with the sheet 2, and the suction fan 25 is driven to suck the sheet 2 with the suction pad 29 (see FIG. 3). At this time, the water 3 overflowing on the upper surface of the sheet 2 is also sucked by the suction pad 29, and the sucked water 3 is discharged by the discharge pipe 35 connected to the bottom surface 23 c of the suction chamber 23.
From the washing liquid recovery pipe 37 by the pump 36,
After the mixed printing material is removed by the filter 64, the printing material is collected in the water storage tank 62.

With the sheet 2 being sucked by the suction pad 29, the suction pad 29 is raised by the cylinder 32 (see FIG. 4). At this time, the peeling mechanism 40 is driven to eject air 42 a from the nozzle 42, and the sheet 2 a stuck to the sheet 2 sucked by the suction pad 29 is peeled from the sheet 2.

Subsequently, the suction pad 2 is moved by the cylinder 34.
9 is moved in the direction of the roller 45 so that the leading end of the sheet 2 enters between the pair of rollers 45, and the suction fan 25 is stopped.

The sheet 2, the leading end of which is held by the roller 45, is conveyed to the brush roller 46 while being supported by the guide 47 as the roller 45 rotates. Brush roller 4
6, the swelling layer formed on the surface of the sheet 2 is swollen by the water 3, and the adhesive force between the printing material and the sheet 2 is weakened.
When the sheet 6 rotates while contacting the surface of the sheet 2, the printing material attached to the surface is scraped off. Water 3 is sprayed on the surface of the sheet 2 from which the printing material has been scraped off at the opposite portion of the washing pipe 51, and the printing material attached to the surface is washed away.

In this way, the sheet 2 from which the printing material has been scraped is squeezed by the squeezing roller 52,
The sheet is discharged to the tray 54 while being dried by being heated by the drying roller 53. Hereinafter, similarly, the sheets 2 are taken out one by one from the water tank 4 and cleaning is performed.

In the cleaning device 1 according to the present embodiment, the sheet take-out system 6 is constituted by the suction mechanism 22 and the peeling mechanism 40, but the mechanism for taking out the sheets 2 one by one from the water tank 4 is not provided. The discharge mechanism 66 and the guide 67 for conveying the sheet 2 to the roller 45 are provided at the upper end portion of the inner wall 11 of the water tank 4 as shown in FIG. The sheet 2 stacked on the top of the tray 16 at the position where the sheet 16 is raised may be conveyed to the roller 45 by the discharge roller 66.

[0043]

As described above, the time required for the swelling layer of the superimposed sheets to absorb water (cleaning liquid) from the end surface and swell the entire surface layer of the sheet is 8 to 1 times.
It is about 0 hours, and after the elapse of the time, the entire surface layer of all the sheets swells and the printing material can be removed. Sheet 1 in printing material removal step after swelling
Assuming that the processing time required per sheet is 10 seconds, for example, the time required for cleaning processing of 1000 sheets is about 13 hours including the processing time 2.7 hours required after swelling. I'm done. On the other hand, in the conventional sheet cleaning device that swells the entire surface layer of the sheets one by one, it takes as long as 167 hours to clean 1000 sheets. As described above, by using the sheet cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, the time required for cleaning a large number of sheets can be significantly reduced, and thus the sheets can be efficiently cleaned.

Further, since a large number of sheets are immersed in a water tank in a superposed state, the water tank provided in the sheet cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is the same as the water tank of the conventional sheet cleaning apparatus in which the sheets are immersed in a line. Since the size can be reduced as compared with the above, the manufacture and maintenance thereof can be easily performed, so that the cost for cleaning the sheet can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a sheet cleaning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a suction mechanism.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of taking out a sheet from a water tank.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of taking out a sheet from a water tank.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of taking out a sheet from a water tank.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a sheet take-out system according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sheet cleaning apparatus, 2 ... Sheet 3, 3 ... Water (cleaning liquid), 4 ... Water tank, 5 ... Swelling system, 6 ... Sheet removal system, 7 ... Print material removal system, 8 ... Sheet cleaning and drying system
9: cleaning liquid circulation system, 15: elevating mechanism, 22: suction mechanism.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sheet cleaning apparatus for immersing a printed sheet in a cleaning liquid stored in a water tank, scraping a printing material from the surface of the sheet, and cleaning the sheet with the cleaning liquid, wherein the water tank stores a plurality of sheets in a stacked state. A sheet cleaning device having a size that allows the sheet to be taken out of the water tank, the sheet cleaning device having a size that allows the sheet to be immersed in the water tank. 2. The sheet cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said take-out means comprises a suction mechanism for sucking the sheets immersed in said water tank one by one. 3. The water tank has an opening formed in an upper portion thereof, a plurality of stacked sheets placed thereon, and an elevating plate provided so as to be able to move up and down toward the upper opening of the water tank. The sheet cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the sheet cleaning device is provided.