JP2001341934A - Collation inspection device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a collation inspection device capable of feeding only paper of which collation is securely inspected to outside one by one. SOLUTION: This collation inspection device is provided with a stocker 3 stacking plenty of paper 2 in a state of piled of which collation should be inspected, a feeding part 4 feeding plenty of the paper 2 one by one from a top side or a bottom side in order, a mark detecting part 5 detecting a mark for collation formed on each of the paper 2 to be fed in order, and an inspection part 6 inspecting the collation of the paper 2 based on the detected result of the mark detecting part 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a collation inspection apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a collation (sorting, collation) inspection of sheets to be sequentially supplied to a post-processing apparatus such as a folding apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the case of contents to be sealed in an envelope, for example, the paper to form the cover is preprinted for the cover, and the detailed data is printed on the paper to form the detailed data. Pre-printing is performed, and the cover sheet and the detailed data sheet are separately handled in the printing process. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, there is known a collating apparatus for collating a large number of cover sheets 20 and a large number of detailed data sheets 21 which are separately stacked.

In the conventional collating apparatus shown in FIG. 2, a large number of cover sheets 2 are stacked on a first stocker 20a.
A barcode reader 24 reads a barcode formed on each of the sheets 23 sequentially fed (supplied) to the bucket 22 from a number of detailed data sheets 21 stacked on the zero and second stockers 21a. Then, based on the barcode information read by the barcode reader 24, for example, it is determined whether or not the contents to be sent to the same customer are fed in order, and thus whether or not the contents are stacked in the bucket 22 in order. Inspect

[0004]

However, in the conventional collating apparatus shown in FIG. 2, the paper 23 is stored in the stocker 20a.
Alternatively, the barcode is read after being fed from 21a toward the bucket 22. For this reason, when a misfeed (delivery error) from each stocker 20a or 21a occurs, the sheet related to the misfeed is returned from the bucket 22 to each stocker 20a or 2a.
It was necessary to reload on 1a. Further, in the case where a folding device is connected to the conventional collating device shown in FIG. 2, the sheet that is mis-fed is folded by the folding device before reloading, so that productivity is significantly reduced. It is expected that.

By the way, recently, by increasing the number of colors of the printer, the cover sheet and the detail data sheet are not separately pre-printed and printed, but all the cover sheets are converted to blank sheets in a collating sequence. A technique of sequentially printing or printing all information for information and detailed data is used. In this case, for example, the paper to be sent to each customer is printed or printed in a random number in order, but in the form of manual sorting, the reliability and workability are disadvantageously extremely low. Here, the sorting means, for example, sorting the sheets to be sent to the same customer in a state of being arranged in order, in other words, performing name identification or inspection, or collating or inspecting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a collation inspection apparatus and method capable of reliably feeding only collated inspection sheets one by one to the outside. With the goal.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a stocker for stacking a large number of sheets to be checked for collation in a stacked state, A sending section for sending sheets one by one in order from the upper side or the lower side of a large number of sheets placed thereon, and a detecting section for detecting a collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially sent by the sending section. A collation inspection device, comprising: a mark detection unit; and an inspection unit for inspecting the collation of the sheets sequentially transmitted by the transmission unit based on a detection result of the mark detection unit. provide.

According to a preferred aspect of the first invention, the apparatus further comprises a sensor for detecting the thickness of the sheet sequentially sent by the sending unit. In this case, it is preferable that the inspection unit stops driving the transmission unit based on a detection result of the mark detection unit or a detection result of the sensor.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a placing step in which a large number of sheets to be checked for collation are placed in a stacked state, and an upper side or a large number of sheets placed through the placing step described above. A sending step of sending sheets one by one in order from the bottom, a mark detecting step of detecting a collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially sent by the sending step, and a detection obtained in the mark detecting step. A collation inspection method for inspecting collation of sheets sequentially transmitted in the transmission step based on a result.

[0010] According to a preferred aspect of the second invention, in the sending step, the sheets are sent one by one sequentially from the lower side of a large number of the stacked sheets. In this case, sheets to be checked for collation are sequentially supplied above a large number of placed sheets.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the collation inspection apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention, and a post-processing apparatus for processing sheets sequentially sent from the collation inspection apparatus. Provide a paper processing system.

According to a preferred aspect of the third invention, the post-processing device has a folding device for folding sheets sequentially sent from the collation inspection device. The sending unit is configured to send out the sheets one by one sequentially from the lower side of the large number of sheets placed on the stocker, and collects the sheets on the upper side of the large number of sheets placed on the stocker. It is preferable to further include a printer device for sequentially supplying sheets to be inspected.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, for example, sheets to be sent to each customer from a printer are printed or printed in a random number in order, and a large number of sheets to be checked for collation are stacked. Place on stocker. Then, the sheets are sequentially sent out one by one from the upper side or the lower side of the large number of sheets placed on the stocker. At this time, a collation mark formed on each of the sequentially sent sheets is detected, and the collation of the sequentially sent sheets is inspected based on the detection result.

As described above, according to the present invention, the collation mark is detected before the paper is fed to the outside (for example, to a post-processing device), and the collation of the paper to be fed is inspected based on the detection result. . Therefore, according to the collation inspection apparatus and method of the present invention, only the collated paper is reliably checked by one.
It can be fed to the outside one by one. As a result, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience of re-stacking the erroneously processed paper without the mis-fed paper being processed by the post-processing device.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a sheet processing system including a collation inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in the present embodiment, for example, the printer 1 prints or prints a random number of sheets to be sent to each customer in order. A large number of sheets 2 output from the printer 1 are placed on a stocker 3 in a state of being stacked vertically.

Here, a large number of sheets 2 placed on the stocker 3 are stacked in the order of output from the printer 1, an output command to the printer 1, a printing operation of the printer 1, and a printing operation to the stocker 3. If there is no error in the placing operation, a number of sheets 2
Are stacked. Actually, since there is a possibility that the above-mentioned commands and operations are erroneous, the large number of papers 2 placed on the stocker 3 are a large number of papers to be checked for collation, and one paper is sequentially counted from the lower side. It is sent out one by one.

Therefore, in order to sequentially send a large number of sheets 2 placed on the stocker 3 one by one from the bottom, a sending unit 4 of a bottom feed type by the action of, for example, friction or air vacuum is provided. . Further, a mark detection unit 5 for detecting a collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially transmitted by the operation of the transmission unit 4.
Is provided. When a barcode is used as a collation mark, the mark detection unit 5 is configured by a barcode reader. When a number, a character, a symbol, or the like is used as a collation mark, the mark detection unit 5 uses an OCR or OM
R.

The output of the mark detection section 5 is supplied to an inspection section 6. The inspection unit 6 is composed of an information processing device such as a personal computer. Further, a sensor 7 for detecting the thickness of the sheet sequentially sent out by the operation of the sending unit 4 is provided. The output of the sensor 7 is also supplied to the inspection unit 6. The inspection unit 6 outputs a signal to the sending unit 4 based on the output of the mark detection unit 5 and the output of the sensor 7.
Control (driving and stopping). As mentioned above,
The stocker 3, the sending section 4, the mark detecting section 5, the inspection section 6, and the sensor 7 constitute a collation inspection apparatus of the present embodiment.

The sheet fed from the collation inspection device (3 to 7) of the present embodiment to the outside is guided to a folding device 8 as a post-treatment device. The folding device 8 has a function of folding the supplied single piece of paper into a Z shape. This type of Z-shaped folding mechanism is already known, and is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-16693. Therefore, a detailed description of the internal mechanism of the folding device 8 and its operation is omitted. Z via the folding device 8
The paper 9 folded in a shape is sequentially conveyed along a direction indicated by an arrow F by a conveyance unit 10 such as a transfer belt.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the sending unit 4
The collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially sent from the stocker 3 is detected by the action of. That is, before the mark detection unit 5 sequentially sends out from the stocker 3,
A collation mark formed on each sheet is detected. In this way, based on the detection result of the mark detection unit 5, the inspection unit 6 checks the collation of the papers sequentially sent out, and confirms that the papers are going to be sent out in the order to be collated. If it is found that the sheets are not going to be sent out in the order in which they should be collated, the inspection unit 6 sends the output unit 4 according to the inspection result based on the output of the mark detection unit 5.
Stop operation of.

Further, in the present embodiment, the sensor 7 detects the thickness of the sheet sequentially sent from the stocker 3 by the sending unit 4.
To detect. In this way, the inspection unit 6 includes
, It is confirmed that the sheets are about to be fed one by one to the outside. If the inspection unit 6 discovers that the paper to be sent out from the stocker 3 is going to pass the sensor 7 in a state where another sheet is overlapped with the sheet to be sent out, the inspection unit 6 sends the sheet to the sending unit in accordance with the inspection result based on the output of the sensor 7. 4 is stopped. Therefore, in the collation inspection apparatus (3 to 7) of the present embodiment, based on the detection result of the mark detection unit 5 and the detection result of the sensor 7, only the sheets which are surely inspected for collation are folded one by one. 8 can be fed.

In the above embodiment, the stocker 3
Are sent out one by one in order from the lower side of the large number of sheets 2 placed on the sheet. Therefore, even during the delivery of the sheet, the printer 1
Can be sequentially supplied. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a so-called top feed method in which the sheets are sequentially sent one by one from the upper side of the large number of sheets 2 placed thereon is also possible. However, in this case, additional paper supply cannot be performed during paper transmission.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example is shown in which a folding device is provided as a post-processing device. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and another post-processing device may be provided instead of the folding device, or a folding device may be provided. In addition to the device, another post-processing device (for example, a sealing device) can be provided, or the installation of the post-processing device can be omitted.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to the collation of sheets to be sent to each customer.
Without being limited to this, the present invention can be generally applied to a large number of sheets to be checked for collation.

[0025]

As described above, according to the collation inspection apparatus and method of the present invention, only the collated inspection sheets can be fed to the outside one by one. as a result,
Misfeeded sheets are not processed by the post-processing device, and the inconvenience of re-stacking erroneously processed sheets can be avoided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a sheet processing system including a collation inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view schematically showing a configuration of a conventional collating apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer apparatus 2 Many sheets 3 Stocker 4 Sending part 5 Mark detection part 6 Inspection part 7 Sensor 8 Folding device 10 Transport part

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A stocker for stacking a large number of sheets to be checked for collation, and sending out the sheets one by one in order from an upper side or a lower side of the many sheets placed on the stocker. And a mark detection unit for detecting a collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially transmitted by the transmission unit; anda transmission unit based on a detection result of the mark detection unit. An inspection unit for inspecting the collation of sheets sequentially sent out. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sensor for detecting a thickness of a sheet sequentially sent by the sending unit. 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the inspection unit stops driving the transmission unit based on a detection result of the mark detection unit or a detection result of the sensor. 4. A placing step in which a large number of sheets to be checked for collation are placed in a stacked state, and sheets are placed in order from the upper side or the lower side of the large number of sheets placed through the placing step. A sending step of sending one sheet at a time, a mark detecting step of detecting a collation mark formed on each sheet sequentially sent out by the sending step, and a mark detecting step based on the detection result obtained in the mark detecting step. An inspection step of inspecting the collation of sheets sequentially sent out in the sending step. 5. In the sending step, sheets are sent one by one sequentially from the lower side of a large number of placed sheets, and in the placing step, even during execution of the sending step,
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein sheets to be checked for collation are sequentially supplied above the plurality of sheets placed. 6. A collation inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising a post-processing device for processing sheets sequentially sent from the collation inspection device. Characteristic paper processing system. 7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the post-processing device has a folding device for folding sheets sequentially sent from the collation inspection device. 8. The sending unit is configured to send out sheets one by one in order from the lower side of the large number of sheets placed on the stocker, and the sending unit is arranged above the large number of sheets placed on the stocker. 8. The system according to claim 6, further comprising a printer device for sequentially supplying sheets to be checked for collation.