JP2002326762A - Rearranging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rearranging device capable of automatically conducting rearranging work to printed output paper which conventionally has been conducted by man's hand. SOLUTION: This rearranging device 1 is composed of a paper feeding means 3 to set and feed plural documents before rearrangement, a reading means 4 to read information printed on the documents, a rearranging means 7 to rearrange the documents based on the read information, and a discharge means 8 to discharge the documents after rearrangement.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a sorting device for sorting printing output sheets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a color printing machine requires a higher cost for printing one page than a black-and-white printing machine, and requires extra processing time. Therefore, for example, when printing a multi-page document in which color pages and black-and-white pages are mixed, color pages are output by a color printer in consideration of the time and cost required for the printing process, and black-and-white pages are printed in black and white. Printing on a printing press has been performed. In this case, two piles of color paper and black-and-white paper are formed after printing, and it is necessary to sort the piles and rearrange the pages. FIG. 4 shows this operation as an image.

Conventionally, the work of taking out papers from a pile of color paper and a pile of black-and-white paper and rearranging them in the correct order has conventionally relied on manual labor.

[0004]

However, the work of taking out the paper from the pile of color paper and the pile of black and white paper and rearranging the paper in the correct order is a very time-consuming operation, and in particular, the page of the pile after printing due to some mistake. If the order, the front and back are reversed, or if the number of pages is large, the work becomes more complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sorting apparatus capable of automatically performing a printing output sheet sorting operation that has been manually performed. It is in.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a paper feeding means for setting and feeding a plurality of originals before sorting, and a reading means for reading information printed on the originals. Means, a rearranging means for rearranging the originals based on the read information, and an ejection means for discharging the rearranged originals, to constitute a rearranging apparatus.

[0007]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a rearranging apparatus according to the present invention.

In the rearranging apparatus 1 according to the present invention,
When an original to be rearranged is set on the paper feed tray 2, the original is pulled into the rearranging apparatus 1 by the paper feeding unit 3. Then, the reading means 4 reads the page number and the information indicating the top / bottom / front / back written on the document, and performs rotation or inversion of the document as necessary.

When the original is facing the back, the original is reversed by the reversing means 5 and aligned so as to face the front.
If the original is upside down or the original is horizontal, the rotating means 6 rotates the original 90 ° / 180 °.
/ 270 ° to make the direction uniform. After that, the originals are rearranged in the order of pages by the rearranging unit 7, and the rearranged originals are discharged onto the discharge tray 9 by the discharging unit 8.

Next, the procedure of the rearrangement process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The original before sorting is divided into a plurality of piles, and these are piled up on one pile and set on the paper feed tray 2 of the sorting apparatus. At this time, a plurality of mountains may be stacked in any manner.

The documents set on the paper feed tray 2 are fed one by one into the sorting apparatus 1, and the reading means 4 reads the page number and the top / bottom / front / back information (step 3-1). In the case of the original of pattern 1 shown in FIG. 3, only the page number is described, and only the rearrangement processing is performed as the subsequent processing.

The document of pattern 2 shown in FIG. 3 has a page number and top / bottom / front / back information. In the upper right corner of the manuscript
The marks represent the top / bottom / front and back, and in the present invention, the direction in which the ● mark comes to the upper right corner is the correct orientation of the original. Also, the surface marked with ● is the surface.

In pattern 3 shown in FIG. 3, page numbers and top / bottom / front / back information are described as bar codes. In this case, after reading the barcode by the reading means 4, the content is analyzed, and the page number and the top / bottom / front / back information are extracted. When a document on which the top / bottom / front / back information is described is read, the front / back is first determined (step 3-2). If the document is the back side, the document is reversed by the reversing means 5 (step 3-3), and the finally discharged document is aligned so that the front side faces downward.

Subsequently, the top and bottom are determined (step 3-
4) The original is rotated by the rotating means 6 so that the top of the original always faces one direction, and the orientations thereof are aligned (step 3).
-5). Finally, the originals are rearranged so that the originals are arranged in the page order on the discharge tray 9 (step 3-6).

As a sorting method in this sorting method, many methods have been proposed.
It is determined whether or not the page is one by one. This is repeated until there are no more originals.

Alternatively, as a method that takes less time, first, the number of originals is counted and this is set to N.
It is determined whether the page number is equal to or less than / 2 and divided into two peaks. Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the peak of the small page number is a page number equal to or smaller than N / 4 and divided into two peaks. Further, it is determined whether or not the peak of the small page number is a page number equal to or less than N / 8 and divided into two peaks. This is repeated to find the first page of paper. Then, by dividing the remaining mountain by half in the same manner with respect to the next largest mountain, the second and third pages of paper can be sequentially found.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a paper feeding means for setting and feeding a plurality of originals before reordering, and a reading device for reading information printed on the originals Means, a sorting means for sorting the originals based on the read information, and a sorting apparatus including a discharge means for discharging the sorted originals, so that the printing output paper sorting work that relied on manual labor Can be automatically performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a rearrangement device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a rearrangement processing procedure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of description of a page number / top / bottom / front / back on a document;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation of rearranging printed matters in a correct order.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 sorting device 2 paper feeding tray 3 paper feeding device 4 reading device 5 reversing device 6 rotating device 7 sorting device 8 discharging device 9 paper discharging tray

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Nao Nagashima 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H076 AA58 BA83 BA87 BB07 BB08 3F050 BD02 BE11 LA11 LB02 5C062 AC10 AC65 AC71

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sheet feeding means for setting and feeding a plurality of documents before sorting, a reading means for reading information printed on the documents, and a sorting for sorting the documents based on the read information. And a discharging means for discharging the rearranged originals. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for aligning the orientation of the document based on the read information.
A sorting device as described. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for aligning the front and back of the document based on the read information.
Or the sorting device according to 2. 4. The reordering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information read by said reading means is a page number. 5. The reordering device according to claim 1, wherein the information read by the reading means is a character or a symbol or a bar code representing the front and back of the document, the top and bottom, and the bar code.