JP2006193233A - Paper sheet handling device and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate deviation of punching position between paper sheets even if uneven carrying occurs in a paper sheet carrying means. <P>SOLUTION: When the tip of a paper sheet reaches a carrying roller re-driving position (S1), drive of the carrying roller is started (S2). Counting the number of pulse of a stepping motor for driving the carrying roller is started at the same time with starting driving the carrying roller. After a rear end of the paper sheet passes through an inlet sensor (S3) and the paper sheet is carried by the regulated distance, the carrying roller is stopped (S4), and punching is performed (step S5). After punching, the carrying roller is driven again (S6), and the rear end of the paper sheet passes through the carrying roller (S7), and the carrying roller is stopped at a position, in which the carrying roller is rotated N times after starting driving the carrying roller (step S8). This operation is repeated every time when the paper sheet is carried (from S9 to S1), and handling is concluded when all the paper sheets are handled. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a paper processing apparatus that performs a predetermined process on a sheet-like recording medium (paper) that is carried in, and in particular, a paper processing apparatus that includes a punching unit and the paper processing apparatus are integrated or separated. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, and a facsimile provided.

  If there is uneven feeding in the paper transport means for transporting the paper, the transport direction position of the paper perforation varies. For example, when the paper conveying means is a roller, feeding unevenness occurs due to the eccentricity of the roller and the paper perforation conveying position varies. When the paper is punched, the deviation of the punching position between the papers becomes a problem, and even if the punching position itself is slightly deviated from the target, there is no problem. That is, if the respective sheets are shifted in the same way, the deviation of the punching position does not become a problem.

On the other hand, the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as this kind of invention. The present invention includes a punching means that can move along a direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction, and a paper side edge detection means that detects a side edge position parallel to the paper transport direction, In the punching processing apparatus configured to perform punching processing by moving the punching means to the center of the paper based on the positional information of the paper detected by the paper-side edge detection means, the paper-side edge detection means is the punching It is characterized by being provided so as to be movable together with the means. The present invention further includes a sheet trailing edge detecting means for detecting the trailing edge of the conveyed sheet, and after the sheet has moved a predetermined distance after the sheet trailing edge is detected, the rotation of the registration roller pair is stopped. The conveyance of the paper is temporarily stopped and the paper is punched at a predetermined position at a predetermined timing.
JP 2002-2000593 A

  In the invention described in Patent Document 1, after the paper has moved a predetermined distance after the detection of the trailing edge of the paper, the rotation of the registration roller pair is stopped, and the conveyance of the paper is temporarily stopped to punch the paper. However, the amount of rotation of the roller is not controlled. Therefore, the stop position in the rotation direction of the roller is different for each sheet, and if the roller is eccentric, feed unevenness occurs. For this reason, in the invention described in Patent Document 1, if the roller is eccentric, the conveyance amount of the paper varies depending on the position in the rotational direction at the start of driving of the roller. If the transport amount is different, the stop position in the paper transport direction differs for each paper when the roller driving for punching is stopped, and the punching position is also shifted.

  The present invention has been made in view of the actual situation of the prior art, and an object thereof is to eliminate as much as possible the deviation of the punching position between sheets even when there is unevenness in feeding of the sheet conveying means.

  In order to achieve the above object, the first means includes a paper transporting means for transporting paper and a punching means for punching a paper transported by the paper transporting means. And a control means for controlling the rotation stop position of the paper transport means to always be the same when the punched paper is stopped at the punching position and punched by the punching means.

  According to a second means, in the first means, the control means temporarily stops the paper conveying means between the papers of each paper, re-drives the paper conveying means based on position information of the next paper, and punches For this reason, the sheet conveying means is controlled so as to be in the same position as the sheet conveying means when it is stopped.

  The third means is characterized in that, in the second means, the position information of the next sheet is information indicating that the leading edge position of the next sheet has passed a preset position.

  According to a fourth means, in any one of the first to third means, the control means is configured such that the paper is at a position where the rotational speed from the start of driving of the paper transport means is N (N: a positive integer). The driving of the conveying means is stopped.

  A fifth means comprises a roller in which the paper conveying means is driven by a stepping motor in the fourth means, and the control means associates the N rotation of the roller with the number of driving steps of the stepping motor, The drive roller drive and stop control is executed based on the number of motor drive steps.

  According to a sixth means, in the fifth means, the control means performs deceleration control of the stepping motor when a preset number of steps less than the number of driving steps to be stopped when the driving roller is stopped has elapsed. It is characterized by starting.

  The seventh means is characterized in that the image forming apparatus is provided with the sheet processing apparatus according to any one of the first to sixth means as one body or separately.

  In the embodiment described later, the paper conveying means corresponds to the conveying roller 6, the punching means corresponds to the punching unit 4, and the control means corresponds to the CPU 51. The control in the second means corresponds to the processing from step S1 to S8 in FIG. 12, and information indicating that the tip position in the third means has passed a preset position is detected by the inlet sensor 2. The

  According to the present invention, the paper transported by the paper transporting means is stopped at the punching position, and when the punching is performed by the punching means, the rotation stop position of the paper transporting means is always controlled to be the same position. Even when there is uneven feeding in the means, it is possible to minimize the deviation of the punching position between the sheets.

"overall structure"
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus as a sheet processing apparatus including a punching device for receiving and punching a sheet conveyed from an image forming apparatus. FIG. 1 shows an example in which a punching device is incorporated in the sheet post-processing apparatus.

  In FIG. 1, the paper post-processing apparatus FR is basically composed of a punching unit 4, a horizontal transport path H1, an upper transport path H2, a lower transport path H3, a staple processing tray 12, and upper and lower two discharge trays 9a and 9b. ing. The horizontal transport path H1 includes transport rollers 6 and 7, a first branch claw H2t for switching the transport path to the upper transport path H2, and a second branch claw H3t for switching the transport path to the lower transport path H3. Is provided. The lower conveyance path H2 is provided with a staple processing tray 12, and a stapler 13 is provided at the lower end portion of the staple processing tray 12. Processing can be performed. The lower transport path H2 is also provided with a paper standby path, which temporarily waits for the paper previously sent from the image forming apparatus PR, and superimposes it on the next paper sent to the staple processing tray 12 side. Can be done. The bundle of sheets subjected to the staple processing is discharged from the staple processing tray 12 to the lower discharge tray 9b by the discharge belt and the discharge roller 8 through the discharge claw.

  The upper paper discharge tray 9a is also called a proof tray, and is used when paper that is not subjected to any processing is discharged. The upper paper discharge tray 9a is conveyed by rotating the first branch claw H2t provided in the horizontal conveyance path H1 downward (clockwise in the drawing) and opening the upper conveyance path H2 side. The

  The lower paper discharge tray 9b also functions as a shift tray, and can be divided into units when sorting or stacking. This sorting is performed by moving the lower discharge tray 9b by a predetermined amount in a direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction for each unit, and reciprocating so that the front portion and the rear portion are shifted by the predetermined amount. In this case, the first and second branch claws H3t are rotated to open the horizontal conveyance path H1 to the discharge port to the lower discharge tray 9b. The lower sheet discharge tray 9b moves downward as the sheet or sheet bundle is discharged and the stack amount increases. This movement is performed based on the detection output of the paper detection sensor that detects the surface position of the uppermost paper loaded on the lower paper discharge tray 9b.

  On the most upstream side of the horizontal conveyance path H1, as shown in FIG. 3, a skew correction roller pair 1, an inlet sensor 2, a lateral registration detection unit 3, a punching unit 4, which function as an entrance roller pair of the sheet post-processing apparatus FR, and A hopper 5 is provided. Reference numeral 10 denotes a conveyance roller, H3 denotes a lower conveyance path, and 11 denotes a discharge roller that discharges the sheet to the staple processing tray 12. The lateral registration detection unit 3 is provided on the upstream side of the punching unit 4 in the sheet conveyance direction, and the punch lower guide 20 and the punch upper guide 21 are provided further on the upstream side of the lateral registration detection unit 3 in the sheet conveyance direction. The detection unit 3 is provided with a sheet edge detection sensor group 14 that detects an edge position parallel to the sheet conveyance direction. FIG. 3 is a front view showing details of the lateral registration detection unit 3 and the punching unit 4.

  In the example of FIG. 1, the punching device including the punching unit 4 is provided in the paper post-processing device FR. However, the punching device is unitized so that the image forming apparatus PR and the paper post-processing device are shown in FIG. It can also be provided between FR.

《Perforation unit》
As shown in FIG. 3, the punching unit 4 includes a punch blade 15, a holder 37 provided integrally with the upper end of the punch blade 15, a cam 38 inserted into the holder 37 and eccentrically engaged with the shaft 16, A motor 18 that drives the punch blade 15 via a clutch 17, a second stepping motor 23 that moves the punch blade 15 in a direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction, a timing belt 24, a gear / pulley 36, a rack 19, and a fixed It consists of a lower guide 35.

  In the paper post-processing apparatus FR configured generally as described above, first, the leading edge of the paper conveyed from the image forming apparatus PR is abutted against the nip of the skew correction roller pair 1 that is stopped. After the sheet is abutted for a certain time and the sheet is bent by an appropriate amount, the skew correction roller pair 1 is rotated to resume the sheet conveyance. The stop time and the rotation start timing of the skew correction roller pair 1 are determined by using the leading edge detection performed by the entrance sensor 2 as a trigger. The paper whose skew has been corrected by the skew correction roller 1 then passes through the lateral registration detection unit 3 and then passes through the punching unit 4.

  First, the leading edge of the sheet conveyed from the image forming apparatus PR is abutted against the stopped skew correction roller pair 1. After the sheet is abutted for a certain time and the sheet is bent by an appropriate amount, the skew correction roller pair 1 is rotated to resume the sheet conveyance. The stop time and the rotation start timing of the skew correction roller pair 1 are determined by using the leading edge detection performed by the entrance sensor 2 as a trigger. The sheet whose skew has been corrected by the skew correction roller then passes through the lateral registration detection unit 3 and then passes through the punching unit 4.

  FIG. 4 is a side view of the lateral registration detection unit 3, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the punching unit 4. In these drawings, sensors 14a, 14b, 14c, and 14d that detect end positions parallel to the transport direction of the paper transported to the lateral registration detection unit 3 (hereinafter, collectively represented by reference numeral 14). , Also referred to as a sensor group.) Is configured to be movable in a direction (arrow direction in FIG. 4) perpendicular to the transport direction. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the sheet end position detection sensor group 14 is attached to the upper guide 26, and the upper guide 26 is attached to the holder 28. The holder 28 moves in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction while sliding along the shaft 27. A timing belt 32 is engaged with the holder 28. The timing belt 32 is stretched between the driving pulley 30a and the driven pulley 34 of the first stepping motor 30, and the timing belt 32 rotates and moves between the pulleys 30a and 34 by the rotation of the first stepping motor 30. Thus, the holder 28, the upper guide 26, and the sheet edge detection sensor group 14 can be reciprocated in a direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction. The home position (standby position) HP of the sheet end detection sensor group 14 is determined by detecting a part of the holder 28 (detection piece extending from the holder) by the home position sensor 29. The sheet end detection sensor group 14 stands by at this waiting position, slides along the shaft 27 according to the rotation of the timing belt 32 using the first stepping motor 30 as a driving source, and is parallel to the sheet conveying direction. In order to detect the end S1, it moves in the left direction in the figure.

  A plurality of the sheet end detection sensor groups 14 (four in this embodiment, 14a, 14b, 14c, and 14d) for detecting the end parallel to the sheet conveyance direction are arranged, and FIG. And the sensor to be used is changed according to the paper width size as shown in FIG.

"Control device"
As shown in FIG. 7, the control device 50 is composed of a microcomputer having a CPU 51, an I / O interface 52, etc., and each switch of the control panel of the image forming apparatus PR main body, an inlet sensor, an upper paper discharge sensor, a shift. Signals from various sensors such as a paper discharge sensor, paper presence sensor, discharge belt home position sensor, bundle arrival sensor, movable rear end fence HP sensor, folding section passage sensor, lower paper discharge sensor, and paper surface detection sensor are I / O interfaces. The data is input to the CPU 51 via 52.

  The CPU 51 performs drilling by controlling the first and second stepping motors 30 and 23 and the motor 18 that drive the drilling unit based on the input signal. The CPU 51 also includes a tray raising / lowering motor for the shift tray, a discharge guide plate opening / closing motor for opening / closing the opening / closing guide plate, a shift motor for moving the shift tray, a tapping roller motor for driving the tapping roller, each solenoid such as a tapping SOL, each conveyance Conveyance motor for driving the rollers, paper discharge motor for driving each paper discharge roller, discharge motor for driving the discharge belt, stipler moving motor for moving the end-face stitching stapler 13, oblique motor for rotating the end-face stitching stapler 13 diagonally, jogger Controls the driving of a jogger motor or the like that moves the fence. A pulse signal of a not-shown staple conveyance motor that drives the motor staple discharge roller is input to the CPU 360 and counted, and the hitting SOL and the jogger motor are controlled according to this count.

  Note that the control of the sheet post-processing apparatus FR is performed by the CPU 51 executing a program written in a ROM (not shown) while using a RAM (not shown) as a work area. In addition, the program data is downloaded from a server via a network or from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or SD card to a storage medium such as a hard disk device (not shown) via a recording medium driving device instead of or in addition to the ROM. It can also be used after being rolled or upgraded.

<Amount of deviation in the paper transport direction>
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a state when the amount of deviation in the paper transport direction is detected. In the same figure, when there is no lateral registration deviation of the conveyed sheet and the sheet is conveyed to an ideal position (ideal sheet passing position—two-dot chain line in the drawing), one sensor SN of the sheet end detection sensor group 14. Is the amount of movement w1 from the standby position HP until the end parallel to the paper conveyance direction is detected, and the amount of movement of the sensor SN until the edge parallel to the paper conveyance direction actually detected is detected. Difference δ from w2,
δ = w2−w1 (1)
That is, only the lateral registration deviation occurs. Therefore, in order to correct the lateral registration deviation amount δ corresponding to δ shown in the equation (1), it is necessary to move the punching unit 4 in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction as shown in FIG. The sheet end detection sensor group 14 including the sensor SN returns to the standby position HP after detecting the sheet end face position. The punching unit 4 punches the punch blades 15 symmetrically with respect to the sheet passing center. At that time, it is necessary to punch based on the actual notification center instead of punching based on the ideal sheet passing center IPC of the paper.

  On the other hand, when punching by the punching unit 4 constituted by each part as described above, the punching operation is performed as follows.

  First, the vertical movement of the punch blade 15 of the punching unit 4, that is, the operation for punching the paper S is performed by driving from the motor 18 (see FIG. 5). At that time, the shaft 16 is rotated once by the motor 18 via the one-rotation clutch 17. The one-rotation clutch 17 is turned on after a certain period of time has passed after the rear end of the conveyed paper passes through the inlet sensor 2. When the shaft 16 rotates, the cam 38 that is eccentrically engaged with the shaft 16 rotates to move the holder 37 up and down (in the downward arrow direction in FIG. 5). The punch blade 15 is moved up and down by the vertical movement of the holder 37, and punch holes are punched on the paper during the downward movement.

  The punching unit 4 in this embodiment has been described with respect to a press punching method in which the conveyance of the paper is temporarily stopped to punch punch holes. However, the present invention provides a punch blade and a die on a rotating body, The present invention can also be applied to a rotary punch that punches punch holes while conveying a sheet by rotating the punch blade and the die together.

  When punching in this way, it is necessary to position the punching unit 4 by moving it in a direction (left-right direction in FIG. 5) perpendicular to the paper transport direction according to the above-described deviation. The movement is performed using the above-described second stepping motor 23 as a driving source, and is transmitted from the driving pulley 23a of the second stepping motor 23 to the gear / pulley 36 via the timing belt 24 and rotated. The rack 19 is engaged with the gear of the gear / pulley 36, and the rack 19 moves in the left-right arrow direction of FIG. 5 by the rotation of the gear / pulley 36. The rack 19 is mounted on the lower punch guide plate 20 and includes the punch blade 15 for punching, the punch upper guide 21, the shaft 16, the cam 38, the holder 37, the clutch 17, the motor 18, etc. Since all the elements) are coupled to the lower punch guide plate 20, all of the punching components are moved in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction by the movement of the rack 19.

  Further, the home position (standby position) of the punching unit 4 is such that the home position sensor 29 detects the detection piece integrally extending from the holder 28, and the detection position becomes the home position, which is the ideal sheet passing center position (IPC). It is. This IPC is the center position of the sheet passing range.

  Subsequently, the lateral registration deviation amount of the paper obtained from the above equation (1) from the number of pulses applied to the first stepping motor 30 until the paper edge detection sensor group 14 detects the paper edge SE and the paper width size. δ is calculated, and a pulse corresponding to the distance of the lateral registration deviation amount δ (= w2−w1) of the sheet is given to the second stepping motor 23, and punching is performed so as to correspond to the center position in the width direction of the conveyed sheet. The unit 4 is moved to punch the paper. After drilling, the drilling unit 4 returns to the standby position.

<Control of rotation stop of transport roller>
FIG. 10 is an explanatory view showing the state of the rotation position of the transport roller 6 at the punching position. The sheet punching position is set at a predetermined distance from the rear end of the sheet, and the sheet 40 is controlled to stop at that position. At that time, since only the stop position is a problem, when the paper stops at the punching position, the rotation position of the transport roller 6 is different as shown in FIGS. Therefore, if the transport roller 6 is eccentric, the stop position is also shifted due to the difference in the rotational position at which the transport roller 6 is stopped even if the stop position is accurately set on the control device side. This is the matter described in the previous issue.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the stop position (stop angle) of the transport roller 6 is always constant. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 11, the conveyance roller is temporarily stopped between the sheets of paper, and the position of the conveyance roller 6 at the time of stopping is controlled so as to always be the same position. When the roller passes a preset position such as a roller re-driving position, the rotation of the conveying roller 6 is resumed. By controlling in this way, if the paper size is the same, the rotation position of the transport roller 6 is always the same when the paper is stopped at the paper punching position. Thereby, even if the conveyance roller 6 is eccentric, the deviation of the punching position for each sheet does not occur.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the conveyance roller 6 is stopped at the time when the predetermined integer number N has been rotated, and the rotation of the conveyance roller 6 is always started from the same rotation position. Specifically, the rotation amount of the conveyance roller 6 is monitored based on the pulse amount of the stepping motor as the conveyance source of the conveyance roller, and the measurement of the pulse amount is started from the start of the driving of the conveyance roller 6, and corresponds to N rotations from the start time. When the amount of pulses to be reached is reached, the conveying roller 6 is stopped.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a control procedure at this time. Here, the N rotation is set to 1000 pulses as the number of pulses of the stepping motor. In this process, when the leading edge of the sheet reaches the re-driving position of the conveying roller 6 (step S1), driving of the conveying roller 6 is started (step S2). Also, counting of the number of pulses of the stepping motor that drives the transport roller 6 is started simultaneously with the start of driving of the transport roller 6. Then, the trailing edge of the sheet passes through the entrance sensor 2 (step S3), and after conveying the specified distance, the conveying roller 6 is stopped (step S4) and punching is performed (step S5). At that time, in step S4, the sheet is transported for a specified distance, in this embodiment, 200 pulses and stopped.

  After punching, the transport roller 6 is re-driven (step S6), the trailing edge of the sheet passes through the transport roller 6 (step S7), and the transport roller 6 is stopped at a position where the rotation of the transport roller 6 is N rotations (step S7). Step S8). As for the control of the stepping motor, considering that the trailing edge of the sheet passes through the conveying roller 6 when the rotation of 800 pulses from the start of driving after punching and re-driving, 50 pulses are required for deceleration and driving stop, In order to stop at the point of just 1000 pulses, the drive is continued as it is until 950 pulses, and deceleration stop control is performed when the pulse reaches 950 pulses. As a result, the transport roller 6 can be stopped just after the rotation of 1000 pulses. This operation is repeated each time a sheet is conveyed (step S9 → step S1), and the process is terminated when the next sheet is exhausted.

  Thus, according to the present embodiment, when the paper conveyed by the conveyance roller 6 is punched by the punching unit 4, the rotation stop position of the conveyance roller 6 (the position of the outer peripheral portion of the conveyance roller 6 when stopped) and Since the contact positions of the sheets are substantially the same, even when the conveyance roller 6 has a paper feed unevenness, the deviation of the punching positions between the sheets can be almost eliminated.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the conveyance roller 6 is temporarily stopped between the sheets of each sheet, and the conveyance roller 6 is re-driven according to the position information of the next sheet. The deviation of the drilling position can be almost eliminated.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus as a sheet processing apparatus including a punching device for receiving and punching a sheet conveyed from an image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a modification of FIG. 1 in which a punching device is provided in a path from the image forming apparatus to the paper post-processing apparatus. It is a front view which shows the detail of the horizontal registration detection unit and perforation unit which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is a side view of the horizontal registration detection unit concerning the embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view of a perforation unit concerning an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the state of selection of the sensor in the horizontal registration detection unit which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the control apparatus of the paper post-processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state when detecting a deviation amount in a sheet conveyance direction. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the shift | offset | difference of the paper passing center of a paper, and the movement amount of a punching unit. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state of the rotation position of the conveyance roller in a punching position. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state controlled so that the stop position (stop angle) of a conveyance roller became always constant. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure which controls so that the stop position (stop angle) of a conveyance roller becomes always constant.

Explanation of symbols

1 Skew correction roller pair (entrance roller pair)
2 Entrance sensor 4 Drilling unit 6 Transport roller 50 Control device 51 CPU
52 I / O
FR paper post-processing device PR image forming device

Claims (7)

In a paper processing apparatus comprising paper transport means for transporting paper and punching means for punching paper transported by the paper transport means,
Control means for controlling the paper transporting means to always be at the same position when the paper transported by the paper transporting means is stopped at the punching position and punching is performed by the punching means; A paper processing apparatus.   The control unit temporarily stops the sheet conveying unit between sheets of each sheet, re-drives the sheet conveying unit based on position information of the next sheet, and when the sheet conveying unit stops for punching, the sheet conveying unit The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet processing apparatus is controlled so that the position in contact with the sheet is the same position.   3. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the position information of the next sheet is information indicating that a leading end position of the next sheet has passed a preset position.   4. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit stops driving the sheet conveyance unit at a position where the rotation speed from the start of driving of the sheet conveyance unit becomes N rotations (N: a positive integer). The sheet processing apparatus according to any one of the above. The paper conveying means comprises a stepping motor and a roller driven by the stepping motor,
5. The control means associates the N rotation of the roller with the number of driving steps of the stepping motor, and executes driving roller stop / control based on the number of driving steps of the stepping motor. 6. Paper processing equipment.   The said control means starts the deceleration control of the said stepping motor, when the preset step number smaller than the drive step number stopped when stopping the said driving roller passes. Paper processing device.   An image forming apparatus comprising the sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, either integrally or separately.

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