JP2001122496A - Method and device for transport and stacking of sheet material - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and device for transporting and stacking a sheet material capable of certainly preventing enlargement of any trouble in stacking and lessening the burden imposed on the operator. SOLUTION: A sheet material stacking device 34 is equipped with a sensor 44 to sense a PS plate 30 in the case of trouble in stacking. A changeover gate 52 and a conveyor 48 are installed between two conveyors 32A and 32B. When the sensor 44 senses PS plate 30, the gate 52 rotates so that the PS plate 30 is transported by the conveyor 48 to reach an accommodation box 50. Because there is no risk that any additional PS plate 30 is fed to the stacking device 34 or the sheet is pinched by a hold-down belt 58 and a conveyor 32, eventual trouble in stacking can be prevented from enlarging. Because there is no need for the operator to monitor the stacking device 34 as conventional, the operator can have a lessened burden.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet transporting / accumulating apparatus and a sheet transporting / accumulating method. Applied.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows, as an example of a conventional sheet material transporting / accumulating device, a PS plate transporting / accumulating device 110 for transporting a sheet-like lithographic printing plate (PS plate) and accumulating it in a thickness direction. ing.

[0003] The PS plate transport / accumulation device 110 includes a plurality of conveyors 112 and an accumulator 114 provided downstream of the conveyors 112. A predetermined number of PS plates 116 conveyed by the conveyor 112 are stacked by a stacking device 114 in the thickness direction.

[0004] The PS plate transport / stacking device 11 having such a configuration.
0, the operator monitors the accumulator 114 directly or through an imaging device, and if an accumulative trouble occurs in the accumulator 114, the conveyor is manually operated to prevent the PS plate 116 from being further conveyed to the accumulator 114. The switch 112 is turned off to stop the operation.

[0005] However, even if the switch of the conveyor 112 is turned off, the conveyor 112 cannot be stopped instantaneously due to its inertia and moves until it is completely stopped. For this reason, the PS plate 116 on the conveyor 112 is conveyed to the stacking device 114, and the stacking trouble may be increased. In addition, a large amount of time and labor is required to recover the PS plate transport / stacking device 114 from the accumulation trouble due to the increase of the accumulation trouble.

Moreover, in the PS plate transport / stacking device 110, the operator has to monitor the stacking device 114, so that the work load on the operator is large.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and has as its object to obtain a sheet material transporting / stacking method and a sheet material transporting / stacking method which can surely prevent an increase in the number of stacking troubles and reduce the work load on an operator. As an issue.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first conveying device for conveying a sheet material, an accumulating device for sequentially accumulating the sheet materials conveyed by the first conveying device, and It has a detecting means for detecting a stacking trouble occurring in the stacking device, and a retreating device for retreating the sheet material from the first transporting device when the stacking trouble is detected by the detecting means.

In this sheet conveying and accumulating apparatus, when the detecting means does not detect an accumulating trouble in the first accumulating apparatus, the sheet is conveyed from the first conveying apparatus to the first accumulating apparatus. , Sheet materials are sequentially accumulated.

When the stacking trouble occurring in the first stacking device is detected by the detecting means, the retracting device retracts the sheet material from the first transporting device. For this reason, the sheet material is not further conveyed to the first stacking device in which the stacking trouble has occurred, and the spread of the stacking trouble is reliably prevented.

Further, since the occurrence of the accumulation trouble in the first accumulation device is detected by the detecting means and it is not necessary for the operator to monitor the trouble, the work load is reduced as compared with the conventional case where the operator monitors the accumulation device. It is reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the retracting device is configured to be integrated by a second transporting device branched from the first transporting device and the detecting means. A switching device for switching the sheet material conveyance path from the first conveyance device to the second conveyance device when a trouble is detected.

Therefore, when the detecting means detects the accumulation trouble, the switching device switches the sheet material conveyance path from the first conveyance device to the second conveyance device. As a result, the sheet material is conveyed by the second conveying device and is not conveyed to the stacking device, so that the spread of the stacking trouble is prevented.

Note that an accumulating device may be provided downstream of the second conveying device, and the sheet materials conveyed by the second conveying device may be accumulated by this accumulating device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the switching device includes a switching gate provided at a branch of the second transporting device from the first transporting device, And a drive device for switching the transfer path from the first transfer device to the second transfer device by moving the switching gate when the integration trouble is detected by the detection means.

That is, when an accumulation trouble is detected by the detecting means, the driving device moves the switching gate, and switches the sheet material conveying path from the first conveying device to the second conveying device.

In this manner, the sheet material can be retracted from the first transporting device with a simple configuration in which the switching gate provided at the branch from the first transporting device of the second transporting device is moved by the driving device. It becomes possible.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects of the present invention, a plurality of the detecting means are provided.

By providing a plurality of detecting means in this way,
As compared with the case where only one detecting means is provided, it is possible to more reliably detect the occurrence of the accumulation trouble.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the detecting means is provided in a region of the stacking device on the side of the first transfer device. It is characterized by the following.

In general, when a stacking trouble occurs in the first stacking device, a part of the sheet material often stays in the region of the stacking device on the first transport device side for a long time. Therefore, by providing the detection means in opposition to this region, the accumulation trouble can be reliably detected.

In the case where a plurality of detecting means are provided, at least one of these detecting means may be provided in a region of the stacking apparatus on the side of the first transport device. .

In the invention according to claim 6, a conveying step of conveying the sheet material, an accumulating step of sequentially accumulating the sheet material conveyed in the conveying step in an accumulation area, and an accumulating trouble occurring in the accumulation area And a retreating step for retreating the sheet material from the sheet material conveyance path in the conveyance process when the accumulation trouble is detected by the detection process.

In this sheet material transport / accumulation method, when no accumulation trouble is detected in the accumulation area in the detection step, the sheet material is conveyed to the accumulation area in the conveyance step, and the sheet materials are sequentially accumulated in the accumulation step. .

When the stacking trouble occurring in the stacking area is detected by the detecting step, the sheet material is evacuated from the conveying path of the sheet material by the conveying device in the retreating step. For this reason, the sheet material is not further conveyed to the accumulation area where the accumulation trouble has occurred, and the spread of the accumulation trouble is reliably prevented.

Although the occurrence of an accumulation trouble in the accumulation area is performed in the detection step, this detection step can be performed by detection means such as a sensor, and there is no need for the operator to monitor. Work load is reduced as compared with the related art.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a PS plate processing line 90 provided with a PS plate carrying / accumulating device (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "conveying / accumulating device") 36 according to one embodiment of the present invention. .

On the upstream side (upper right side in FIG. 1) of the processing line 90, there is provided a feeder 14 for sequentially unwinding a web wound in a roll shape in advance. When the elongate web 12 sent from the feeder 14 is curled by the leveler 15 and reaches the feed roller 16, the interleaf paper 18 is stuck and adhered by charging to reach the notcher 20.

The notcher 20 is provided with a punching portion on the web 12 so that the upper blade of the cutting roller 10 can move in the width direction of the web 12 at the punching position. This makes it possible to change the cutting width of the web 12 while continuously cutting the web 12 and the interleaf 18 together.

The cutting waste 86 generated by the cutting is sent to a chopper (not shown) and cut into small pieces.
2, the paper is collected in the collection box 84, and the slip sheet 18 is suction-processed by the suction pipe 23.

In the processing line 90 of this embodiment,
A cutting unit 21 is composed of the cutting roller 10 and peripheral members (not shown), and the cutting unit 21
A pair is prepared. Thus, a setup operation such as blade replacement can be performed by the unused cutting unit 21 outside the line, and the line stop time of the processing line 90 can be minimized.

In this manner, the web 12 cut to a predetermined cutting width has its feed length detected by the length measuring device 26 and cut by the running cutter 28 at the designated timing. Thus, the PS plate 30 having the set size is manufactured.

Next, the PS plate 30 is conveyed to the stacking device 34 by the conveyor 32, and is stacked in a predetermined number.
An accumulation bundle 31 is configured. In the stacking device 34, it is also possible to arrange a protection sheet (generally referred to as a "contact ball") made of cardboard on the upper and lower sides or one side of the stack 31.

Then, the stack 31 is stacked on the pallet 33 via the transport section 35. After that, it is sent to a storage such as a rack warehouse or a packaging process, and is packaged by a packaging material (tape, interior material, exterior material, etc.). It is also possible to stack on a skid for an automatic plate making machine (flat skid, vertical skid, etc.). In addition, when stacking and packaging these skids, the processing line 90
In addition, a stacking device for further stacking the stack 31 on the skid may be provided so that the stack 31 is directly stacked on the skid in the processing line 90.

As described above, the PS plate 30 is packaged and shipped, but depending on the form of packaging, the slip sheet 18 and other packaging materials may be omitted.

As shown in detail in FIG.
6 includes a plurality of conveyors 32 for transporting the PS plate 30 and an accumulator 34 provided on the downstream side in the transport direction of the conveyor 32. These conveyors 32 constitute a transport path for the PS plate 30, and perform the transport process of the PS plate 30. Hereinafter, the term “transport direction” simply refers to the transport direction of the PS plate 30 (the direction of arrow F), and the terms “upstream” and “downstream” refer to the upstream and downstream of the transport direction, respectively.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show the basic structure of the transporting and accumulating device 36 of the present invention. The number, size and posture of the conveyors 32 are different from those shown in the processing line 90 of FIG. Etc. are slightly different.

The stacking device 34 has a stacking table 38 on which the PS plates 30 are stacked, and performs a stacking step of stacking the PS plates 30 transported by the conveyor 32 on the stacking table 38.

As shown in FIG. 3, the stacking table 38 has a rectangular shape in a plan view, and a stacking frame plate 40 is arranged around the stacking table 38 so as to correspond to each side. The inside of the accumulation frame plate 40 is an accumulation area 42 where the PS plates 30 are accumulated. PS plate 3 transported on stacking platform 38
0 is positioned at a predetermined stacking position by the stacking frame plate 40.

A sensor 44 is provided above the stacking frame plate 40 at a substantially central position of each of the stacking frame plates 40. When the PS plate 30 is present between the sensor 44 and the stacking frame plate 40, The PS plate 30 can be detected.
That is, when an accumulation trouble of the PS plate 30 occurs in the accumulation device 34, a part of the PS plate 30 protrudes from the accumulation region 42 as shown in FIG.
Located above. The sensor 44 detects the PS plate 30 located above the accumulation frame plate 40 in this manner.

As shown in FIG. 2, the most downstream conveyor 32 (32A) and the upstream conveyor 32 (32A).
Between (32B) is a branch portion 46, and a conveyor 48 is provided which is gradually inclined downward from the branch portion 46 toward the downstream. The conveyor 48 is driven by a motor (not shown). On the downstream side of the conveyor 48, a storage box 50 for storing the PS plate 30 transported by the conveyor 48 is provided.

The branching section 46 is provided with a switching gate 52. The switching gate 52 is rotated about its downstream end by a motor 54. The motor 54 is connected to the sensor 44 via the control device 56. Sensor 44 is PS version 30
Is not detected, the control device 56 determines that no accumulation trouble has occurred, and controls the motor 54 so that the switching gate 52 is maintained in a substantially horizontal posture as shown in FIG. The switching gate 52 guides the PS plate 30 to the conveyor 32 (32A) in this substantially horizontal posture.

When the sensor 44 detects the PS plate 30, the control device 56 determines that an integration trouble has occurred, and drives the motor 54 to move the switching gate 52 upward as shown in FIG. Rotate to an inclined position. In this inclined position, the switching gate 52 is in the position of PS
The plate 30 is guided to a conveyor 48.

The controller 56 is also connected to a drive motor for driving the conveyor 32 and a drive motor for driving the conveyor 48 (both not shown). The energization is stopped and the energization of the drive motor for driving the conveyor 48 is started.

The sensor 44A closest to the conveyor 36 among the four sensors 44 shown in FIGS.
Is below the sensor 44A even in the normal state.
The S version 30 passes. In consideration of this, regarding the sensor 44A, the length of the PS plate 30 and the transport speed are longer than the PS plate transit time calculated in advance from the PS plate 30.
The control device 56 determines that an accumulation trouble has occurred only when detecting the presence of.

Above the conveyor 32 between the switching gate 52 and the stacking device 34, a holding belt 58 is disposed in parallel with the conveyor 32, and the PS plate 30 to be conveyed.
Is guided so as not to be inadvertently moved upward.

Next, the PS plate transport / stacking device 3 of the present embodiment
The operation of No. 6 will be described.

In a state where the sensor 44 does not detect the PS plate 30, the control device 56 determines that no accumulation trouble has occurred in the accumulation device 34, and controls the motor 54 to switch the switching gate 52 as shown in FIG. Posture, that is,
The PS plate 30 is guided to the conveyor 32A. Therefore, the PS plate 30 is sent to the conveyor 32 and is sequentially accumulated in the accumulation device 34.

When the sensor 44 detects the PS plate 30,
The controller 56 determines that an integration trouble has occurred (detection step), and drives the motor 54 to rotate the switching gate 52 to the posture shown in FIG. As a result, PS version 30
Is transported by the conveyor 48 and reaches the storage box 50 (evacuation step).

When the control device 56 detects the occurrence of the accumulation trouble, the control device 56 stops the conveyance of the web 12 by the processing line 90 and stops the power supply to the drive motor (not shown) driving the conveyor 32. At this time, the conveyor 32 may move even after the energization is stopped due to its inertia.
Is transported to the conveyor 48 and is retracted from the conveyor 32, so that the PS plate 30 is further transported to the stacking device 34 where the stacking trouble has occurred,
The S-plate 30 is not pinched between the holding belt 58 and the conveyor 32, and the accumulation trouble is reliably prevented from expanding. In addition, by preventing the accumulation trouble from spreading in this way, the trouble recovery load of the accumulation device 34 is reduced, and the trouble can be easily restored in a short time and with a small amount of labor.

Further, in the transport accumulator 36 of this embodiment, occurrence of accumulation trouble in the accumulator 34 is detected by the sensor 4
4 and the controller 56 so that the operator does not need to monitor the accumulator 34 as in the prior art. For this reason, the work load of the operator is reduced.

The type of the sensor 44 is not particularly limited as long as the PS plate 30 existing above the accumulation frame plate 40 can be detected. For example, an optical sensor that detects the presence or absence of the PS plate 30 by irradiating light toward the accumulation frame plate 40 may be used. In this case, PS version 3
By using light having a wavelength other than the wavelength at which 0 is exposed, careless exposure of the PS plate 30 can be prevented.

The number and position of the sensors 44 are not limited to those described above, and may be any number and position that can reliably detect the accumulation trouble. For example, it is preferable to provide the sensor 44 corresponding to each side (accumulation frame plate 40) of the accumulation area 42 as described above, since the accumulation trouble can be reliably detected. Although the distance between the accumulation region 42 and the sensor 44 is not particularly limited, when the accumulation device 34 is viewed in a plan view as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the distance L from the side of the accumulation region 42 (the inner surface of the accumulation frame plate 40) is 50 cm. It is preferable to be within. If an accumulation trouble occurs, the PS
The plate 30 often stays between the accumulator 34 and the most downstream conveyor 32. With this in mind, at least one sensor 44 is replaced by the sensor 44A of FIGS.
Is preferably provided between the accumulating device 34 and the most downstream conveyor 32 from the viewpoint of more reliable detection of the accumulating trouble. Even when only one sensor 44 is provided, it is preferable to provide the sensor 44 between the accumulating device 34 and the downstreammost conveyor 32 for the same reason.

Also, in the above description, P
The state in which the S plate 30 protrudes and is present above the accumulation frame plate 40 is determined to be an accumulation trouble. And the type of the PS plate 30 is determined as appropriate. Therefore, depending on the type of accumulation trouble,
What is necessary is just to select and provide the detection means suitable for detection.

The retraction device of the present invention is not limited to the conveyor 48 and the switching gate 52 described above, but may be any configuration in which the PS plate 30 is retreated from the conveyor 32 so as not to be transported to the accumulation device 34 when an accumulation trouble occurs. Good. For example, the PS plate 30 being transported by the conveyor 32
May be moved upward by a support device, a suction cup or the like, and may be retracted from the conveyor 32. The position where the PS plate 30 is retracted is not limited to the position of the branch portion 46 described above. That is, any position may be used as long as the accumulation trouble is not enlarged by further transporting the PS plate 30 when the accumulation trouble occurs. For example, in the present embodiment, if it is on the upstream side of the conveyor 32A, not only the accumulator 34 but also the conveyor 32A
It is possible to prevent the accumulation trouble from expanding between the pressing belt and the pressing belt 58. When the holding belt 58 is not provided, the position may be between the conveyor 32A and the stacking device 34.

Further, instead of the collection box 50, the collecting device 34
A second integrated device having substantially the same configuration as that described above may be provided. Thereby, even when an accumulation trouble occurs, the PS plate 30 can be continuously accumulated by the second accumulation device, and the accumulation of the PS plate 30 becomes more efficient. Further, regardless of whether or not an accumulation trouble has occurred, the switching gate 52 may be switched to integrate the PS plate 30 in one of the two accumulation devices.

The sheet material to be conveyed and accumulated according to the present invention is not limited to the PS plate 30 described above, but can be applied to the conveyance and accumulation of any sheet-like (for example, plate-like or film-like) material. .

[0058]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a first conveying device for conveying a sheet material, an accumulating device for sequentially accumulating the sheet materials conveyed by the first conveying device, and an accumulating device for the accumulating device. Detecting means for detecting the accumulated trouble, and a retreating device for retreating the sheet material from the first transport device when the detecting means detects the cumulated trouble. At the same time, the workload of the operator is reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the retracting device is configured to be integrated by a second transporting device branched from the first transporting device and the detecting means. A switching device for switching the transport path of the sheet material from the first transport device to the second transport device when a trouble is detected;

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the switching device includes a switching gate provided at a branch of the second transport device from the first transport device; A driving device that moves the switching gate to switch the transport path from the first transport device to the second transport device when the accumulation trouble is detected by the detection unit. The material can be retracted from the first transport device.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, since a plurality of the detecting means are provided, it is possible to more reliably detect the occurrence of the accumulation trouble. Can be.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the detecting means is provided in an area of the stacking device on the first transport device side. Therefore, the accumulation trouble can be reliably detected.

In the invention according to claim 6, a conveying step of conveying the sheet material, an accumulating step of sequentially accumulating the sheet material conveyed in the conveying step in an accumulation area, and an accumulation trouble occurring in the accumulation area. And a retreating step of retreating the sheet material from the conveying path of the sheet material in the conveying step when the collecting trouble is detected by the detecting step. This is prevented, and the workload of the operator is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a PS plate processing line provided with a PS plate carrying / accumulating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view illustrating a schematic configuration of a PS plate transport / stacking device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an accumulating device of the PS plate transport accumulating device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state where a stacking trouble has occurred in the PS plate conveying and stacking apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a conventional PS plate transport / stacking device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 32 Conveyor (first transporting device) 34 Stacking device 36 PS plate transporting and stacking device (sheet material transporting and stacking device) 44 Sensor (detection means) 48 Conveyor (second transporting device, retracting device) 52 Switching gate (switching device, retracting device) ) 54 Motor (driving device, switching device, retraction device) 56 Control device (detection means)

Claims (6)

[Claims] A first conveying device for conveying the sheet material; an accumulating device for sequentially accumulating the sheet materials conveyed by the first conveying device; and a detecting means for detecting an accumulating trouble occurring in the accumulating device. A retraction device for retreating the sheet material from the first conveyance device when the stacking trouble is detected by the detection means. 2. The retreating device includes: a second transporting device branched from the first transporting device; and a transport path for the sheet material when the detecting unit detects the accumulation trouble. From the transfer device to the second
The sheet material conveying / accumulating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a switching device that switches to a conveying device. 3. The switching device, comprising: a switching gate provided at a branch of the second transporting device from the first transporting device; and the switching gate moving when the detection unit detects the accumulation trouble. Then, the transport path is moved to the first
The driving apparatus for switching from a conveying device to the second conveying device, comprising: a driving device for switching from the conveying device to the second conveying device. 4. The sheet conveying and accumulating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said detecting means are provided. 5. The sheet conveying and accumulating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said detecting means is provided in an area of said accumulating apparatus on a side of said first conveying apparatus. . 6. A conveyance step of conveying a sheet material, an accumulation step of sequentially accumulating the sheet material conveyed in the conveyance step in an accumulation area, a detection step of detecting an accumulation trouble occurring in the accumulation area, A retreating step of retreating the sheet material from the conveying path of the sheet material in the conveying step when the stacking trouble is detected in the detecting step.