JP2005165425A - Label pasting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a label pasting device which enables efficient pasting operation without halting of operation even if a defective IC label in which writing of information by an IC reader/writer is failed is detected. <P>SOLUTION: The label pasting device is composed of; the IC reader/writer which performs writing or reading of information without contacting a card label having an IC chip and antenna coil; a print section performing printing on a surface of the IC label or causing heat which destroys an IC chip of a defect IC label; a decision means to decide whether the IC label is good or defective; a cutting means to cut an antenna coil of the defect IC label which is decided to be the defect IC label by the decision means; and a pasting means to paste the IC label of fair quality or the defect IC label to an object to be pasted. The IC label of fair quality is pasted overlapping the defect IC label pasted to the object to be pasted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a label affixing device that affixes a label to an article, and more particularly to a label affixing device that affixes an IC label provided with an IC circuit including an IC chip and an antenna coil.

In recent years, as shown in FIG. 7, there is known an IC label 50 in which an IC chip 51 storing various information and an IC circuit 53 including an antenna coil 52 connected to the IC chip 51 is attached to a label 54. . The IC label 50 is supplied with power from an IC reader / writer (not shown) as an external device in a non-contact manner, can write or read arbitrary information on the IC chip 51, and can transmit and receive data without contact. There is an advantage. The IC label 50 is temporarily attached to the mount 55 with an adhesive (not shown) and is formed as an IC label continuous body 56. The IC label 50 is peeled off from the mount 55 and attached to an article or the like.
By the way, the IC circuit 53 is vulnerable to static electricity and the like, and the IC chip 51 is damaged due to static electricity at the manufacturing stage of the IC label 50 or when the label is transported in the label printer, and information communication with the IC reader / writer cannot be performed. Defective IC labels (hereinafter referred to as defective IC labels) are mixed. There is known a printer in which a defective IC label can be recognized by detecting the defective IC label with an IC reader / writer and performing error printing on the surface of the defective IC label (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-96814 A

In order to affix such an IC label to an article efficiently, it is conceivable to use a label affixing device (not shown) having an IC reader / writer and printing means and having a suction disk. That is, predetermined information is written by the IC reader / writer, and the IC label printed by the printing means is adsorbed to the air by the suction disk and is affixed to the article by jetting air. However, when the IC chip of the IC label is damaged in the process of transporting the IC label in the label sticking device and a defective IC label is generated, an error is printed, an error is notified, and the operation of the label sticking device is temporarily stopped. It is necessary to remove the defective IC label.
In addition, as a method of performing label affixing work without stopping the operation of the label affixing device even if a defective IC label occurs, a defective IC label is affixed to an object to be pasted, and a good IC label is placed on the defective IC label. However, in this case, the IC circuits of the defective IC label and the non-defective IC label interfere with each other, and the information stored in the non-defective IC label cannot be read by the scanner. there were. In addition, there is a possibility that unnecessary information may remain on the IC chip of the defective IC label, and there is a possibility that information stored on the non-defective IC label and unnecessary information remaining on the defective IC label may be read twice. It was.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and even when a defective IC label occurs, the label affixing operation can be efficiently performed without stopping the operation of the label affixing device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a label sticking device that can read information stored in a good IC chip even if a good IC label is overlaid thereon.

The label sticking device according to the first aspect of the invention is a label sticking device for sticking an IC label provided with an IC circuit having an IC chip and an antenna coil to an object to be stuck, and any information on the IC chip. IC reader / writer that performs writing or reading of information, and a determination unit that determines whether the IC reader / writer is a good IC label in which information is normally written to the IC chip or a defective IC label in which writing to the IC chip has failed And cutting means for cutting the antenna coil of the defective IC label, and sticking means for sticking the IC label to the object to be stuck, and if the judgment means determines that the antenna IC is a defective IC label, the cutting The antenna coil of the defective IC label is cut by the means, and is stuck to the object to be stuck by the sticking means.
Further, it has a printing means that consists of a thermal head and a platen roller and prints predetermined information on the IC label, and applies heat due to the heating action of the thermal head to the IC chip of the defective IC label judged by the judgment means. The IC chip can also be destroyed.
Also, a non-defective IC label can be overlaid on the defective IC label affixed to the adherend.

When the IC reader / writer determines that the defective IC label has failed to be written to the IC chip, the antenna coil of the defective IC label is cut off to disable communication, and is then affixed to the object. Even if a defective IC label occurs, the operation of the label sticking device is stopped, and the operator does not need to remove the defective IC label, and an efficient label sticking operation can be performed.
In addition, the IC chip of the defective IC label may be destroyed by applying heat due to the heat generated by the thermal head, and the antenna coil may be cut to reliably read unnecessary information stored in the IC chip of the defective IC label. Therefore, a non-defective IC label storing arbitrary information on the defective IC label can be overlaid.
In addition, even if a non-defective IC label that stores arbitrary information is overlaid on a defective IC label that has broken the IC chip and the antenna coil is cut, the IC circuits do not interfere with each other and are stored in the non-defective IC label. Only read information can be read.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1: shows the schematic side view of the label sticking apparatus based on the best form for implementing this invention. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the component same as the background art mentioned above, and the description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The label sticking device 1 mainly includes a label holding unit 2, a label detection sensor 3, an IC reader / writer 4, a printing unit 5, a peeling unit 6, a cutting unit 7, a mount winding unit 8, and a discharge roller 9. And an attaching portion 10.

  The label holding unit 2 rotatably holds the IC label continuous body 56 wound in a roll shape, and can feed the IC label continuous body 56 toward the sticking unit 10.

  The label detection sensor 3 includes a light emitting unit 3a and a light receiving unit 3b. The light detecting unit 3b emits light toward the IC label continuous body 56 drawn from the label holding unit 2 and the light receiving unit 3b emits light. The position of the IC label 50 on the mount 55 is detected by the intensity of the received light.

  The IC reader / writer 4 includes the communication antenna 11, communicates with the IC chip 51 through the antenna coil 52 of the IC label 50 in a non-contact manner, and writes or reads information on the IC chip 51.

  The printing unit 5 includes a thermal head 12 and a platen roller 13 connected to a motor (not shown). The printing unit 5 conveys the IC label continuous body 56 by the rotational drive of the platen roller 13 and the IC label 50 by the heat generation action of the thermal head 12. Predetermined information is printed on the surface.

  The peeling portion 6 is formed with an acute angle at the tip, and only the mount 55 of the IC label continuous body 56 is turned to an acute angle by a driving operation of the mount take-up portion 8 described later, and the rigidity of the IC label 50 is changed. Peeled from the mount 55.

  The cutting part 7 is comprised from the fixed blade 7a and the movable blade 7b. FIG. 5 shows a plan view of the cutting portion 7. The fixed blade 7a has a straight blade edge parallel to the width direction of a defective IC label 50b, which will be described later, and the movable blade 7b has both ends in the width direction of the defective IC label 50b. A substantially V-shaped cutting edge that is inclined from the center toward the center is formed. The movable blade 7b is moved in the direction of the fixed blade 7a by a motor (not shown), and the antenna coil 52 of the defective IC label 50b is cut.

  The mount winding unit 8 is connected to a motor (not shown), and rotates the mount 55 in a roll shape by being driven to rotate.

  The discharge roller 9 includes a driving roller 9a and a driven roller 9b. The IC label 50 peeled off by the peeling portion 6 is sandwiched between the driving roller 9a and the driven roller 9b, and the IC label 50 is discharged toward the sticking portion 10. . The drive roller 9a that contacts the adhesive side of the IC label 50 is subjected to non-adhesive processing.

The affixing unit 10 includes a suction plate 14, a rod 15 that supports the suction plate 14, and a cylinder 16 that moves the suction plate 14 up and down. The suction plate 14 is communicated with a vacuum device (not shown), and is caused by the suction action of the vacuum device. The IC label 50 conveyed to a position below the sticking unit 10 is sucked and held.
When an object to be adhered 36 conveyed from a conveyor 35 positioned below the label sticking apparatus 1 is detected by an object to be adhered detection sensor (not shown), the rod 15 is moved toward the object to be adhered 36 to move the suction plate 14 to the object to be adhered. The IC label 50 is affixed to the object to be adhered 36 by being air-jetted by a vacuum device after being positioned in the vicinity of 36.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the control unit 20 of the label sticking device 1. As shown in the figure, the control unit 20 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) 21 that stores a predetermined control program, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that operates according to the control program stored in the ROM 21 and controls each unit. 22, a random access memory (RAM) 23 for storing various data necessary for the operation of the CPU 22, and a platen roller 13 including a motor (not shown) are supplied with pulse signals to control the conveyance of the IC label continuous body 56. A transport control circuit 24 for generating a control signal corresponding to print data such as characters and figures to be printed supplied from the CPU 22, and supplying the thermal head 12 to perform a printing operation; Under the control of the CPU 22, the label detection center From the IC reader / writer 4, a label detection circuit 26 that controls the light emitting unit 3 a of the sensor 3 to emit light, receives an electric signal output from the light receiving unit 3 b, converts it into digital data, and supplies it to the CPU 22. The IC read / write control circuit 27 that controls writing or reading of information to the IC chip 51 and the movable blade 7b of the cutting unit 7 are moved by the motor toward the fixed blade 7a to cut the antenna coil 52 of the defective IC label 50b. The IC label 50 is sucked and held by the suction operation of the cutting control circuit 28 that controls the suction device 14 and the vacuum device connected to the suction disk 14, and the IC label 50 is stuck to the object 36 by spraying air by the vacuum device. A pasting control circuit 29 for controlling the pasting unit 10 to be performed. These units are connected to the CPU 22 via the data bus 30, receive print data and commands from the host computer 32 connected via the interface 31 under the control of the CPU 22, and the IC reader / writer 4 according to the received print data and commands. Then, information is written on the IC chip 51 or printing is performed on the surface of the IC label 50 by the thermal head 12.

The operation of the label sticking apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. When the labeling device 1 is powered on, first, as an initial process, a hardware check of the memory, CPU 22, etc., various operation conditions, communication condition settings, etc. are performed (step S1).
Predetermined print data and commands transmitted from the host computer 32 are received via the interface 31 and are sequentially written in the RAM 23 (step 2).

  The platen roller 13 is driven to transport the IC label continuous body 56 from the label holding unit 2 side upstream in the transport direction toward the sticking unit 10 side downstream in the transport direction, and the position of the IC label 50 is detected by the label detection sensor 3. Then, the communication antenna 11 of the IC reader / writer 4 performs non-contact communication via the antenna coil 52 of the IC label 50, and the information stored in the RAM 23 is written to the IC chip 51 (step S3). When the writing of information to the IC chip 51 is completed, the written information is read, and whether or not the information writing to the IC chip 51 is successful is determined (step S4).

If it is determined that information is normally written on the IC chip 51, that is, if it is determined that the IC label 50a is a non-defective IC label 50a (see FIG. 4), the RAM 23 is formed on the surface of the non-defective IC label 50a by the heat generation action of the thermal head 12. The printing information stored in is printed (step S5). After printing, only the mount 55 of the IC label continuous body 56 is turned in the transport direction by the peeling unit 6, and the non-defective IC label 50 a is peeled from the mount 55, and the peeled non-defective IC label 50 a is applied to the discharge roller 9. It is held (step S6). The mount 55 is wound around the mount winder 8 in a roll shape.
Then, the non-defective IC label 50a held on the discharge roller 9 is sucked and held by the suction action of the vacuum device communicated with the suction disk 14 (step S7), and the suction disk 14 is positioned in the vicinity of the object 36 by the rod 15. Then, a non-defective IC label 50a is stuck on the sticking object 36 conveyed by the conveyor 35 by the air jet of the vacuum device (step S8).

  On the other hand, when the writing of information to the IC chip 51 fails in step S4, that is, when it is determined that the defective IC label 50b is detected, the process proceeds to step S9, and the destruction operation of the defective IC label 50b is performed. FIG. 4 shows the destructive operation of the defective IC label 50b in the label sticking apparatus 1, and will be described based on the same drawing. As shown in FIG. 4A, the IC reader / writer 4 transports the defective IC label 50b in which information writing has failed to the IC chip 51 to the printing unit 5, and heat is applied to the IC chip 51 by the heating action of the thermal head 12. Then, the IC chip 51 is destroyed (step S9). That is, if writing fails while writing information to the IC chip 51 in step S3, unnecessary information remains in the IC chip 51, and the IC chip is made incapable of reading this unnecessary information. 51 is destroyed.

  As shown in FIG. 4B, the defective IC label 50b is peeled off from the mount 55 by the peeling unit 6, and the leading end of the defective IC label 50b is held by the discharge roller 9 (step S10). The antenna coil 52 is cut (step S11). FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the operation of the movable blade 7b of the cutting portion 7, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the cut defective IC label 50b. As shown in FIG. 5, the movable blade 7b having a substantially V-shaped cutting edge is moved toward the fixed blade 7b having a linear cutting edge, and the antenna coils 52 located at both ends of the defective IC label 50b shown in FIG. Disconnect. That is, as will be described later, when a non-defective IC label 50a is overlaid on the defective IC label 50b, the defective IC label 50b and the non-defective IC label 50a are prevented from interfering with each other. The antenna coil 52 is cut.

  The defective IC label 50b held by the discharge roller 9 is sucked and held by the suction action of the vacuum device communicated with the suction disk 14 (step S12), and the suction disk 14 is held by the rod 15 in the vicinity of the object 36. The defective IC label 50b is stuck to the sticking object 36 by air jetting from a vacuum device (step S13).

  The operation of the conveyor 35 is stopped, the movement of the object 36 to which the defective IC label 50b is affixed is stopped (step S14), the process proceeds to step S3, and the RAM 23 that is scheduled to be written to the defective IC label 50b in step S4 is stored. The stored information is written and printed on another IC label 50 to be transported next, and a pasting operation is performed (steps S3 to S8).

  That is, the information stored in the RAM 23 is written to the IC chip 51 of the other IC label 50 (step S3), the written information is read, and the success or failure of the information writing to the IC chip 51 is determined (step S4). If it is determined that the information has been normally written on the IC chip 51, that is, if it is determined that the IC label 50a is a non-defective product, the print stored in the RAM 23 on the surface of the non-defective IC label 50a by the heat generation action of the thermal head 12 Information is printed (step S5). After printing, only the mount 55 of the IC label continuous body 56 is turned in the transport direction by the peeling unit 6, the IC label 50 is peeled from the mount 55, and the peeled IC label 50 is held by the discharge roller 9 ( Step S6). The mount 55 is wound around the mount winder 8 in a roll shape.

  Then, the non-defective IC label 50a is sucked and held by the suction action of the vacuum device connected to the suction disk 14 (step S7), and the suction disk 14 is attached to the object to be pasted by the rod 15. The non-defective IC label 50a is pasted on the defective IC label 50b that is positioned in the vicinity of 36 and is pasted on the pasting object 36 by the air jet of the vacuum device (step S8). Note that the conveyor 35 is restarted when the overlapping is finished.

  On the other hand, if a write error occurs again in step S4 and it is determined that the defective IC label 50b is detected, steps S9 to S14 described above are repeated.

  In the best mode for carrying out the present invention, a continuous IC label 56 in which a plurality of IC labels 50 are temporarily attached to a mount 55 is used as a recording medium, and the IC 55 is removed from the mount 55 by the peeling portion 6 of the label sticking apparatus 1. The label 50 is peeled off. However, if an IC label continuous body having no mount 55 is used as a recording medium, the peeling portion 6 may not be provided. In addition, when using the IC label continuous body which does not have the mount 55, the platen roller 13 is subjected to non-adhesive processing, and the IC label having a predetermined length is cut by the cutting unit 7.

  As described above, in the best mode for carrying out the present invention, the IC reader / writer 4 determines whether or not information writing to the IC chip 51 is successful, and the defective IC label 50b has failed to write information to the IC chip 51. When the determination is made, the thermal head 12 applies heat to the IC chip 51 to destroy the IC chip 51, making unnecessary information stored in the IC chip 51 of the defective IC label 50b unreadable and the antenna coil 52 to be removed. Since the cutting unit 7 cuts the information, the IC circuit 53 does not interfere with each other even if the non-defective IC label 50a is overlaid on the defective IC label 50b in the communication disabled state. Can be read.

  Further, it is not necessary to manually select the non-defective IC label 50a and the defective IC label 50b, and even when the defective IC label 50b is generated, the pasting operation can be performed efficiently without stopping the operation each time. .

The schematic side view of the label sticking apparatus which concerns on this invention. The control block diagram of a label sticking apparatus. The flowchart figure which shows operation | movement of a label sticking apparatus. Explanatory drawing which shows destruction operation | movement of a defective IC label. The schematic plan view of a cutting part. The top view which shows the defective IC label which cut | disconnected the antenna coil. The top view which shows IC label.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Label sticking apparatus 2 Label holding part 3 Label detection sensor 3a Issuing part 3b Light receiving part 4 IC reader / writer 5 Printing part 6 Peeling part 7 Cutting part 7a Fixed blade 7b Movable blade 8 Mount winding part 9 Discharge roller 9a Drive roller 9b Follower Roller 10 Affixing part 11 Communication antenna 12 Thermal head 13 Platen roller 14 Suction board 15 Rod 16 Cylinder 20 Control part 21 ROM
22 CPU
23 RAM
24 transport control circuit 25 thermal head control circuit 26 label detection circuit 27 IC read / write control circuit 28 cutting control circuit 29 pasting control circuit 30 data bus 31 interface 32 host computer 35 conveyor 36 object to be pasted 50 IC label 50a good IC label 50b Defective IC label 51 IC chip 52 Antenna coil 53 IC circuit 54 Label 55 IC label continuum

Claims (3)

A label affixing device for affixing an IC label provided with an IC circuit having an IC chip and an antenna coil to an object to be adhered,
An IC reader / writer for writing or reading arbitrary information on the IC chip;
A determination means for determining whether the IC reader is a good IC label in which information is normally written to the IC chip or a defective IC label in which writing to the IC chip has failed;
Cutting means for cutting the antenna coil of the defective IC label;
Affixing means for affixing an IC label to the object to be adhered,
A label affixing device, wherein when the affirmative IC label is determined by the determination unit, the cutting unit cuts the antenna coil of the defective IC label and affixes the object to the object to be adhered by the affixing unit.   Further, it has a printing means that consists of a thermal head and a platen roller and prints predetermined information on the IC label, and applies heat due to the heating action of the thermal head to the IC chip of the defective IC label judged by the judgment means. The label sticking device according to claim 1, wherein the IC chip is broken. The label sticking device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a non-defective IC label is stuck on a defective IC label stuck on the adherend.

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