JP2006127018A - Design support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a design support system in which, when a paper conveyance simulator evaluates models whose physical properties are different on both sides of paper such as single-sided coated paper, prevents model input mistake and increases the efficiency of conveyance performance by displaying both sides of the paper in preparation of a paper model and in display of result. <P>SOLUTION: The design support system is provided with a flexible medium both side display means for discriminating both sides of a flexible medium model, and displays a marker in one direction of the flexible medium model. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a design support system for optimally designing a conveyance path by analyzing the behavior of paper conveyed in a paper conveyance path by a copying machine, an LBP, or the like by computer simulation.

  In designing the transport path, it is preferable to examine the function of the design under various conditions before actually making the product, because the man-hours required for manufacturing and testing the prototype can be reduced, and the development period and cost can be reduced. As a technology for simulating the behavior of paper in the transport path for this purpose, flexible media is expressed by finite elements using the finite element method, contact with guides and rollers in the transport path is determined, and the equation of motion is numerical. A design support system for evaluating the conveyance resistance and contact angle with the guide of the flexible medium by solving the above is proposed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

  In addition, a technique for improving the calculation speed by expressing the flexible medium more simply by a mass and a spring is disclosed (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1).

In solving the motion of the flexible medium, as described above, the motion equation of the flexible medium expressed discretely by a finite element or mass-spring system is established, and the analysis target time is divided into time steps having a finite width, It is achieved by numerical time integration that sequentially obtains unknown acceleration, velocity, and displacement every time step from time 0. Newmark's β method, Wilson's θ method, Euler method, Kutta-merson method, etc. are widely known. .
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-195052 JP-A-11-116133 Kazuyoshi Yoshida, Theory, 96-1530, C (1997), pages 230-236

  In recent years, various types of evaluation paper have been used as flexible media in examining the function of a design.

  For example, a coated paper in which a coating layer is formed on the surface of the paper is an example. Among the coated papers, there are double-sided coated papers having a coating layer on both sides of the paper, and single-sided coated papers having a coating layer only on one side of the paper.

  When evaluating such flexible media, for single-sided coated paper, the flexural deformation stiffness of the flexible media has different physical properties in the bending direction, so it is necessary to determine which side is the coated surface on the model. It is necessary to keep.

  Alternatively, when evaluating a flexible medium after a toner layer is formed and fixed on one side of the paper by the image forming process, the bending deformation rigidity differs with respect to the bending direction as in the case of single-side coated paper. Need to know.

  However, in the design support system of the prior art, the flexible medium is only displayed as a line segment at the time of model creation and result display, and it cannot be determined which side is the coated surface or the image forming surface.

  Furthermore, when the flexible medium is reversed in the conveyance path and the coat layer rotates 180 degrees or more on the screen with respect to the initial state, there is a problem that the understanding of conveyance evaluation at the time of displaying the result is impaired.

  The design support system of the present invention that solves the above problems simulates a behavior in which a sheet-like flexible medium including paper and film is transported in a transport path constituted by a transport guide and a transport roller. In the design support system for supporting the design, the design support system includes a transport path defining means for defining mechanism parts in the transport path, such as a transport guide and a transport roller, and coordinate values between two end points of the flexible medium, and between them. By inputting the number of divisions, flexible media model creation means that expresses elastic bodies by dividing the model definition of flexible media into multiple rigid elements with equally spaced masses and connecting each rigid element with a spring A conveying condition setting means for setting a roller driving method as a conveying condition, a friction coefficient between the roller and / or the conveying guide and the flexible medium, and the conveying condition setting means. In the design support system, comprising: a motion calculation means for obtaining the behavior of the flexible medium in time series by numerical simulation; and a result display means for displaying the behavior of the flexible medium obtained by the motion calculation means. The medium model creation means and the result display means include flexible medium front / back display means that makes it possible to distinguish the front and back of the flexible medium model.

  In addition, the flexible medium front / back display means of the design support system of the present invention that solves the above-described problems displays the marker in one direction of the flexible medium model.

  According to the present invention, by specifying the back and front of the flexible media model in the process of the flexible media model creation means, which side is the coat layer or the toner layer when creating the flexible media model or displaying the calculation result Discrimination can be made visually, and it has the effect of preventing mistakes during model creation and facilitating evaluation of calculation results. As a result, it is possible to evaluate the function of the transport path under various conditions before actually making a product, and even a designer who does not have detailed simulation knowledge about the flexible media modeling policy can achieve accuracy. There is an effect that a high calculation result can be derived.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the execution order of each means in the process of the design support system according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the design support system of the present invention sequentially executes five units: a conveyance path definition unit 101, a flexible medium model creation unit 102, a conveyance condition setting unit 103, a motion calculation unit 104, and a result display unit 105. The process is performed. Details of the processing flow will be described below.

  Next, FIG. 2 shows an example of a screen configuration diagram of the present system. The screen is mainly a menu bar 1 for switching means, a sub-configuration menu 2 for each means, a graphic screen 3 for displaying defined transport routes and results, a command field for outputting system messages and inputting numerical values as necessary. It is composed of four.

  First, the transport route defining means will be described. When the “transport route” button in the menu bar 1 is pressed to define the transport route, the sub-configuration menu 2 of the transport route definition means has a desired range area on the left side of the screen as shown in FIG. Displayed. The sub-configuration menu 2 includes a roller pair definition button 2A for defining a pair of transport rollers with two rollers, a roller definition button 2B for defining one roller independently, and a straight guide definition button 2C for defining a straight transport guide. An arc guide definition button 2D for defining an arc conveyance guide, a spline guide definition button 2E for defining a conveyance guide with a spline curve, and a flapper definition button 2F for defining a flapper (point) for branching a path along which the flexible medium is conveyed A sensor definition button 2G for defining a sensor for detecting whether or not the flexible medium is at a predetermined position in the transport path can be displayed. Each of these buttons 2A to 2G is a part that constitutes a conveyance path of an actual copying machine or printer. Therefore, it is desirable that all of the parts necessary for configuring the conveyance path of the print medium such as paper are prepared. When each component is defined by the sub-configuration menu 2 and the command column 4, the position shape is reflected on the graphic screen 3.

  After the transport path definition by the transport path defining unit 101 is completed, the process moves to the flexible medium model creating unit.

  In the present embodiment, it is possible to shift to flexible media model creation by selecting a “medium definition” button provided in the menu bar 1 of FIG. FIG. 3 shows an example of a screen display when transitioning to flexible medium model creation. A medium type selection screen 2H is displayed in the sub-configuration menu 2 on the flexible media model creation screen implemented by pressing the “medium definition” button in the menu bar 1.

  Here, in order to determine the position of the flexible medium in the transport path, a message prompting the user to input coordinate values of both ends of the flexible medium is displayed from the command column 4. The coordinate value can be input by inputting a numerical value in the command field 4 or by directly instructing the graphic screen 3 with a pointing device attached to a computer such as a mouse. When the coordinates of the end portions are defined, a straight line (broken line) 32 connecting both end portions 31 is drawn on the graphic screen 3, and it can be confirmed how the flexible medium is installed in the transport path.

When the flexible medium is arranged, a message prompting the input of the division number n when the flexible medium represented by the straight line (broken line) 32 is discretized into a plurality of spring-mass systems is displayed in the command column 4. Therefore, the desired division number n is entered in the command field 4. In this embodiment, an example in which the number of divisions is 10 is shown. (Fig. 5)
A representative paper type name is registered in advance in the medium type selection screen 2H, and the type of flexible medium to be calculated is selected by clicking.

  The calculation parameters necessary for calculating the motion of the flexible medium in the transport path are information such as the Young's modulus, density, and thickness of the flexible medium, and the paper type displayed on the medium type selection screen 2H includes The parameters are assigned as a database.

  When “single-sided coating” is selected as the medium type as shown in FIG. 3, the above parameters of the single-sided coated paper are automatically fetched from the database. Here, the Young's modulus of the medium type will be described below.

  It is apparent from the viewpoint of material mechanics that the bending stiffness of plain paper having a uniform material in the thickness direction can be calculated from the Young's modulus and the second moment of section obtained by a tensile test.

  However, when a toner layer is formed only on one side of a single-side coated paper or plain paper on which only one side is coated, the flexible medium 61 has a laminated structure as shown in FIG. The coat layer 62 applied to the surface layer of the flexible medium 61 has physical properties different from those of the flexible medium 61. As a result, the bending rigidity 63 differs between the bending deformation 63 that is convex toward the coat layer 62 and the bending deformation 64 that is concave toward the coat layer 62.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the Young's modulus for calculating the bending stress of a laminated material such as a coated paper is set as J.P. By the Gurley stiffness test which is TAPPI paper pulp test method No. 40-83, the bending equivalent Young's modulus (Equation 1) is obtained from the measured Gurley stiffness and assigned as a database.

本実施例では、図３のサブ構成メニュー２の媒体種選択画面２Ｈより「片面コート」ボタンを選択しているが、同操作により片面コート紙のヤング率は、
Ｅ_ｒ＝５２０４Ｍｐａ、Ｅ_Ｌ＝６３２１Ｍｐａ、密度７．６×１０^-7ｋｇ／ｍｍ³、厚さ０．１２９ｍｍという値がデータベースから選択される。ここで、Ｅ_ｒはコート層側が凹、Ｅ_Ｌはコート層側が凸となる曲げ変形に相当するヤング率である。

In this embodiment, the “single-sided coating” button is selected from the medium type selection screen 2H of the sub-configuration menu 2 in FIG.
The values E _r = 5204 Mpa, E _L = 6321 Mpa, density 7.6 × 10 ⁻⁷ kg / mm ³ , thickness 0.129 mm are selected from the database. Here, E _r coat layer side concave, the E _L is a Young's modulus corresponding to the bending deformation coat layer side has a convex.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of creating a flexible medium model by equal division.

  When the division number 10 is entered in the command field 4, the mass point 33 is arranged on the graphic screen 3 at a position where the straight line (broken line) 32 in FIG. 3 is divided into 10 and at the same time, the mass points are connected by the rotary spring 34 and the translation spring 35. A model is created and displayed on the graphic screen 3.

The rotation spring 34 connecting the mass points expresses the bending rigidity when the flexible medium is regarded as an elastic body, and the translation spring 35 expresses the tensile rigidity. Both spring constants can be derived from elasticity theory. The rotational spring constants k _r and k _L and the translational spring constant ks are given by (Equation 2) using Young's modulus E, width w, paper thickness t, and distance ΔL between mass points.

質点の質量ｍは柔軟媒体の長さＬ、幅ｗ、紙厚ｔ、密度ρ、分割数ｎとすると、以下に示される（数３）により計算される。

The mass m of the mass point is calculated by the following (Equation 3) where the length L, the width w, the paper thickness t, the density ρ, and the division number n of the flexible medium.

m = Lwtρ / (n−1) (Equation 3)
Next, an embodiment of flexible medium front and back display, which is a feature of this embodiment, will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the flexible medium model creation, when the “single side coating” button is selected from the medium type selection screen 2H of the sub configuration menu 2 in FIG. 5, the medium front / back setting screen 2I of the sub configuration menu 2 in FIG. 5 is displayed. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to single-sided coated paper, and even when different database values are defined for Young's modulus equivalent to right tilt (E _r ) and Young's modulus equivalent to left tilt (E _L ), FIG. A medium front / back setting screen 2I is displayed in the sub-configuration menu 2.

Next, “Up” or “Down” is selected from the medium front / back setting screen 2I. When selection of the front / back direction setting is completed, the rotation spring constants k _r and k _L are allocated in the calculation in accordance with the front / back direction of the flexible medium model.

  With the above operations, the flexible medium is model-defined as an elastic body that reacts to bending and pulling forces on the system.

  At the same time, a vector marker is displayed on the flexible medium coat layer side on the graphic screen. Here, the algorithm of the flexible medium front / back display means will be described in order with reference to FIG.

  Step 1: Enter the front and back.

  Step 2: The marker drawing start points P1 and P2 are obtained.

  For the mass points 1 to n of the flexible medium model, the midpoint P1 of the mass point 1 → 2 and the midpoint P2 of the mass point n−1 → n are calculated as the marker drawing start points.

  In this embodiment, the flexible medium is represented by 11 mass point models.

  Step 3: Determine flexible media element vectors Vp1-2, Vp2-3,... Vpn-1-n.

  Step 4: The sum L of the size of each element vector is calculated and set as the flexible medium length.

  In this embodiment, the size of each element vector is 10 mm, and L = 100 mm is obtained.

  Step 5: Determine the rotation direction from Step 1, rotate Vp1-2 and Vpn-1-n by 90 degrees, and calculate vectors Vp1-2 ′ and Vpn-1-n ′ starting from P1 and P2, respectively. .

  In this embodiment, since n = 11, Vp1-2 ′ and Vp10-11 ′ are obtained. Also, the front / back direction “up” is selected, and the rotation direction rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise.

  Step 6: Vp1-2 'and Vpn-1-n' are further converted into vectors V1 and Vn-1 having a constant ratio with respect to the flexible medium length L obtained in Step 4.

  In this embodiment, since n = 11, V1 and V10 are obtained. Further, the ratio to the flexible medium length L is 1/20, and the sizes of V1 and V10 of 5 mm are calculated and displayed as vectors.

  Step 7: The vectors V1 and Vn-1 in Step 6 are used as markers representing the coat surface, and these markers are drawn when creating a model and / or displaying an animation.

  Through the above operations, the medium front / back discrimination marker 36 is displayed on the graphic screen 3 in FIG. 7, and it is possible to confirm in which direction of the flexible medium the coating layer or the toner forming layer is set in the transport path. It is said.

  Further, by setting the marker size to a constant ratio with respect to the paper length L, the screen can be displayed in a well-balanced manner without depending on the number of divisions of the flexible medium model.

  After the discretization into spring-mass elements is performed by creating a flexible medium model, the process proceeds to the transport condition setting means. The conveying condition setting means defines the driving conditions of the conveying roller, the control of the flapper that branches the conveying path, and the friction coefficient when the conveying guide and the roller are in contact with the flexible medium.

  FIG. 8 shows an implementation explanatory diagram of the conveyance condition setting means. When the “Conveyance condition” button in the menu bar 1 is pressed, a screen for defining the drive condition and the friction coefficient appears in the sub-configuration menu 2. The figure shows an input example of roller drive control, and when the drive condition “roller” in the sub-configuration menu 2 is selected (in FIG. 8, the roller portion of the sub-configuration menu 2 is highlighted). is there. With the roller in the sub-configuration menu 2 selected, a roller that defines a driving condition is selected from the transport rollers displayed on the graphic screen 3. When the selection of the necessary rollers is completed, if the time and the number of rotations of the roller are input to the command field 4 as the input of the feature points, a graph showing the number of rotations of the roller with respect to time is displayed on the graphic screen 3 as shown in FIG. Is displayed.

  For example, if a feature point consisting of a set of (time, number of revolutions) is input from the command field 4 as needed, a graph can be created and displayed on the graphic screen.

  In this embodiment, the rotational speed of the roller is linearly increased from 0 to 120 rpm from 0 to 1 second, maintained at 120 rpm from 1 to 3 seconds, and decelerated from 120 rpm to 0 during 3 to 4 seconds. Input feature points. As a result, a graph with time on the horizontal axis and the number of roller rotations on the vertical axis is displayed on the graphic screen 3 in FIG.

  The control definition of the flapper used for the branch path is basically the same as that of the roller, except that the vertical axis is an angle from the rotational speed. In the case of a flapper, the angle may be input with an initial angle of 0 degree and a displacement angle therefrom, or may be input with an angle with respect to an absolute reference line. From the viewpoint that it is easy to understand visually and intuitively and the amount of movement is easy to understand, it is preferable to use the normal angle of the flapper as a reference.

  For the definition of the friction coefficient, the roller or guide displayed on the graphic screen 3 is individually selected while “friction coefficient” in the driving conditions of the sub-configuration menu 2 is selected, and each selected roller or guide is selected. Input the friction coefficient μ with the paper from the command column 4. Assuming that the normal force obtained by the contact calculation between the mass point of the flexible medium and the roller or the guide is N, the frictional force μN acts in the direction opposite to the paper conveyance direction as shown in FIG. Set to

  Next, an example of performing motion calculation will be described using the flowchart of FIG. First, in block 41, the real time T for calculating the motion of the flexible medium and the time step Δt of the numerical time integration used when the solution of the motion equation is obtained numerically are set.

  Thereafter, blocks 42 to 47 are numerical time integration loops, and the motion of the flexible medium is calculated every Δt from the initial time, and the result is stored in the storage device.

  A block 42 sets an initial acceleration, an initial speed, and an initial displacement which are necessary when performing calculation after Δt seconds. As for these values, the calculation result (that is, the initial value is the calculated value of the complete cycle) is input every time one cycle ends.

  Block 43 defines the forces acting on each mass point forming the flexible medium. Forces include rotational moment, tensile force, contact force, friction force, gravity, air resistance force, and Coulomb force. After calculating the force acting on each mass point, the resultant force is finally defined as the force applied to the flexible medium. To do.

  The block 44 calculates the acceleration after Δt seconds by dividing the force acting on the mass obtained in the block 43 by the mass of the mass and further adding the initial acceleration.

  Similarly, block 45 calculates velocity and block 46 calculates displacement.

  In the present embodiment, Euler's time integration method is used for calculating a physical quantity after a series of Δt seconds in block 43 to block 46, but other time integration such as Kuta-merson, Newmark-β method, Willson-θ method, etc. A technique may be adopted. In block 47, it is determined whether or not the calculation time has reached the real time T set in block 41. If so, the motion calculation means is terminated. If not, the process returns to block 42 and the time integration is repeated.

  When the result display means presses a “result display” button in the menu bar 1, a moving image menu and a plot menu are displayed in the sub-configuration menu 2. FIG. 12 shows an example of the moving picture menu screen in the present embodiment. The sub-configuration menu 2 can be used to select a movie and plot, and the movie menu has a play button, a stop button, a fast-forward button, etc., and the behavior of flexible media can be visualized on the graphic screen 3 by using these buttons. it can.

  Further, the medium front / back discrimination marker 36 is displayed on the graphic screen 3, and the direction in which the coat layer or the toner layer of the flexible medium is formed can be visualized even when the result display means displays a moving image.

  FIG. 13 shows an example of the plot screen. When a calculation result to be graphed is selected from the plot menu, a time series graph is displayed on the graphic screen 3. In this embodiment, the reaction force applied to a desired guide is plotted and displayed. In the plot menu, in order to grasp the behavior of the flexible medium more quantitatively, the conveyance load of the guide and the roller, the acceleration, speed, displacement, etc. of the flexible medium are displayed in a graph with respect to time. As described above, the result display means enables evaluation in various transport paths.

  As described above, the flow in the design support system of this embodiment is completed in the order of the transport path defining means, the flexible medium model creating means, the transport condition setting means, the motion calculation means, and the result display means.

It is a flowchart of the design support system of this invention. It is screen explanatory drawing of a conveyance mechanism definition means. It is explanatory drawing of a flexible medium definition means. It is explanatory drawing of the bending deformation effect by a coating layer. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a flexible medium dividing operation. It is explanatory drawing of the flexible media front and back display of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of a flexible medium definition means. It is explanatory drawing of a conveyance condition definition means. It is explanatory drawing of control operation of a conveyance condition definition means. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of friction coefficient (micro | micron | mu). It is a flowchart of a motion calculation means. It is explanatory drawing of the moving image menu in a result display means. It is explanatory drawing of the plot menu in a result display means.

Explanation of symbols

1 Menu bar 2 Sub-configuration menu 2A Roller pair definition button 2B Roller definition button 2C Straight guide definition button 2D Arc guide definition button 2E Spline guide definition button 2F Flapper definition button 2G Sensor definition button 2H Media type selection screen 2I Media front / back setting screen 3 Graphic screen 31 End coordinates of flexible medium 32 Representation line of flexible medium 33 Mass point 34 Rotating spring 35 Translation spring 36 Medium front / back discrimination marker 4 Command field 41 Block 41 of motion calculation means
42 Block 42 of motion calculation means
43 Block 43 of motion calculation means
44 Block 44 of motion calculation means
45 Block 45 of motion calculation means
46 Block 46 of motion calculation means
47 Block 47 of motion calculation means

Claims (2)

In the design support system that supports the design of the transport path by simulating the behavior that the sheet-like flexible medium including paper and film is transported in the transport path composed of the transport guide and transport rollers,
The design support system defines a transport path defining means for defining mechanical parts in the transport path such as a transport guide and a transport roller;
By inputting the coordinate values of the two end points of the flexible medium and the number of divisions between them, the model definition of the flexible medium is divided into a plurality of rigid elements with equally spaced masses, and each rigid element is connected by a spring. A flexible medium model creating means for expressing an elastic body,
A conveying condition setting means for setting a roller driving method as a conveying condition, a friction coefficient between the roller and / or the conveying guide and the flexible medium,
Based on the transport condition setting means, a motion calculation means for determining the behavior of the flexible medium in time series by numerical simulation;
In a design support system comprising a result display means for displaying the behavior of the flexible medium obtained by the motion calculation means,
The design support system, characterized in that the flexible medium model creating means and the result display means include flexible medium front / back display means for enabling the front and back of the flexible medium model to be distinguished.   The design support system according to claim 1, wherein the flexible medium front / back display means displays a marker in one direction of the flexible medium model.

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