JP2014065563A - Paper sheet carrying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct an inclination of a document stably irrespective of the size and the thickness of the document.SOLUTION: A paper sheet carrying device, having a function of adjusting inclination of the paper sheet, comprises: a carrying guide plate 51 used for carrying the paper sheet; carrying belts 52 provided on the carrying guide plate 51 with an inclination relative to a carrying direction of the paper sheet, and having holes thereon for absorbing the paper sheet; an absorbing unit for absorbing the paper sheet toward the carrying belt side through the holes on the carrying belts 52; a driving motor 55 for driving the carrying belts 52; and a reference guide 53 provided on the carrying guide plate 51 for correcting the inclination of the paper sheet with one side end of the paper sheet contacted thereto. Moreover, the absorbing unit has absorption power such that the power of the downstream side is weaker than that of the upstream side in the carrying direction, and that the power of the downstream side is variably controlled according to the kinds of the paper sheet.

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to a paper sheet conveying apparatus.

  In the form movement type optical character reading device (OCR device) that reads information from a form while conveying paper such as a form at a high speed, the form size to be processed is widened to provide versatility. Yes. For this reason, as long as the surface is read regardless of the size of the form, the read image data can be deskewed (tilt correction) in the subsequent image processing. However, when the form exceeds the reading range of the CCD sensor, the surface of the form cannot be read correctly.

  In view of this, the inclination of the form is corrected by a paper sheet conveying device provided in the OCR apparatus. Specifically, a certain suction force is applied to the transport belt, the form is sucked and transported by the transport belt, one side of the form is brought into contact with the reference guide surface, and the sucked and transported form is used as the reference guide. Thus, the tilt is corrected by rotating in the manner described above.

  However, in a paper sheet transport device for an OCR apparatus that reads and processes forms of various sizes and paper thicknesses, depending on the type of form, there is a case where the suction force is not suitable for the form. When one side of the form hits the standard guide, if the suction force is strong against the form, it will not rotate and tilt correction will not be possible. If the suction force is weak, skew (tilt) or jam (paper jam) will occur. It will cause problems.

JP 2010-143760 A JP 2011-123115 A

  The problem to be solved by the invention is to provide a paper sheet transport apparatus capable of stably correcting the inclination of a form regardless of the size and thickness of the form.

  The paper sheet transport device of the embodiment is provided with a transport guide plate for transporting paper sheets, and provided on the transport guide plate so as to be inclined with respect to the transport direction of the paper sheets, and adsorbs the paper sheets. A transport belt having holes for the suction, a suction unit for sucking the paper sheet to the transport belt side through the hole of the transport belt, and a transport guide plate, and is in contact with one side surface of the paper sheet And a reference guide for correcting the inclination of the paper sheet. The suction unit has a lower suction force on the downstream side than the upstream side in the transport direction, and variably controls the downstream suction force according to the type of the paper sheet.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a form movement type OCR apparatus according to an embodiment. The block diagram which shows the control system of the form movement type OCR apparatus of FIG. The perspective view which shows the structure of the upper part of the paper sheet conveyance mechanism used for the form movement type OCR apparatus of FIG. The perspective view which shows the structure of the conveyance part used for the paper sheet conveyance mechanism of FIG. 3, and various sensors. The perspective view which shows the whole structure of the paper sheet conveyance mechanism used for the form movement type OCR apparatus of FIG. The characteristic view which shows the relationship between the size and paper thickness of a form, and the optimal air volume. The schematic diagram at the time of changing air volume in the upstream and downstream of a paper sheet conveyance mechanism.

  Hereinafter, the form movement type OCR apparatus of the embodiment and the paper sheet transport mechanism used therefor will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a form mobile OCR apparatus 100 according to the embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the OCR apparatus 100 includes a sorter 10, an OCR main body 20, and a control host 30 as a host computer.

  The sorter 10 includes a horizontal conveyance path 11, a conveyance belt 12, a vertical conveyance path 13, a conveyance roller 14, a flapper 15 as a branch gate, a stacker unit 16, and driving units (not shown) for each unit.

  The horizontal transport path 11 includes a transport belt 12 for transporting paper sheets processed on the OCR main body 20 side, such as rectangular forms P of various sizes from postcard size to A4 size, and the like. These are constituted by guide plates, rollers and the like. The vertical transport path 13 is a guide for transporting the form P transported on the horizontal transport path 11 to a preset discharge target stacker unit 16.

  A plurality of conveying rollers 14 are arranged on the vertical conveying path 13 and rotate clockwise by, for example, a one-way clutch. The transport roller 14 sequentially transports the supplied form P to the target stacker unit 16.

  The flapper 15 is provided at a branch position between the horizontal transport path 11 and the vertical transport path 13 and at a branch position between the vertical transport path 13 and the stacker unit 16. The flapper 15 switches the conveyance direction of the form P so that the supplied form P is distributed to the target stacker unit 16. Note that a plurality of sorters 10 may be used in combination.

  The OCR main body 20 includes an operation unit 21 provided on the front surface, an optical reading unit 23 that reads information on the form P, a paper sheet conveyance mechanism 50 that conveys the form P and corrects the inclination, a controller 40, and the like. ing. Further, a form adding mechanism 22 is provided at the form taking-in port of the OCR main body 20. The form adding mechanism 22 is loaded with the forms P taken into the apparatus stacked in an obliquely addable state.

  The optical reading unit 23 is provided in the transport path 24 downstream of the paper sheet transport mechanism 50. The optical reading unit 23 is an image reading unit that reads an image from a form P conveyed on the conveyance path 24, and is, for example, a contact type CCD line sensor (contact sensor).

  The operation unit 21 is provided with buttons for instructing to start and stop the processing of the form P and for canceling the error. Each button is connected to the controller 40, and by operating each button, the controller 40 receives an instruction from the user and controls each unit according to the received instruction.

  The paper sheet transport mechanism 50 is provided with a transport belt 52, a suction unit 57, a sensor 60, and the like as described later.

  In the OCR main body 20, the controller 40 controls each drive unit, each mechanism, a relay, and the like based on an instruction from the control host 30 to process the form P. It is also possible for the controller 40 to mount the OCR application software program and perform the above-described image recognition processing without connecting the control host 30.

  The control host 30 is a computer on which an OCR application software program is installed. That is, the control host 30 activates the OCR application software program, instructs to start conveyance of the form P, reads, stops conveyance, and the like, and stores the recognition result of the image of the form P read by the OCR apparatus body 20. It has become.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system of the form movement type OCR apparatus of FIG. A controller 40 that is a control system of the form movement type OCR apparatus 100 includes a CPU 41, a memory 42, and an interface 43.

  In the memory 42, the relationship between the size and thickness of the form P and the optimum suction force (fan output) is stored in a table. The CPU 41 controls the driving units 45 and 46 to drive the conveyor belts 12 and 52 and the like, and the suction force by the suction unit 57 is determined according to information such as the size and paper thickness of the form P obtained from the sensor 60. It comes to control.

  An internal bus from each part in the apparatus is connected to the interface 43. Each unit includes the optical reading unit 23, the operation unit 21, driving units 45 and 46 including a motor, a belt, and a gear, a form sensor 60, and the like. The form sensor 60 is a form size sensor and a form paper thickness sensor provided on the upstream side of the transport path 24 of the transport mechanism 50.

  The drive unit 45 is controlled by the controller 40 to drive the transport belt 52. The drive unit 46 is controlled by the controller 40 to drive the transport belt 12.

  Next, the paper sheet transport mechanism used in this embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the upper part of the paper sheet transport mechanism 50. 4A and 4B are diagrams for explaining a part of the paper sheet transport mechanism 50 in more detail. FIG. 4A is an exploded perspective view, and FIG. 4B is an enlarged perspective view showing the main configuration of FIG. is there. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the overall configuration of the paper sheet transport mechanism 50.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the paper sheet transport mechanism 50 includes a transport guide plate 51, a transport belt 52, a transport roller 53, a reference guide 54, a motor 55 for driving the transport belt 52, and a suction unit (not shown). ) Etc. The conveyor belt 52, the conveyor roller 53, the motor 55, the suction unit, and the like are controlled by the controller 40.

  The conveyance guide plate 51 is a flat plate formed in order to load and convey the form P, and is provided with a belt hole for installing the conveyance belt 52 along the conveyance direction of the form P. The reference guide 54 is provided on one side of the conveyance path through which the form P is conveyed, and guides one side of the form P (the left side in the conveyance direction in FIG. 3).

  The transport belt 52 is a transport unit that applies a transport force to the form P, and is provided in a plurality of rows (for example, three rows) along the transport direction of the form P. Further, the conveyor belt 52 is installed slightly inclined with respect to the conveyance direction. That is, the belt hole of the transport guide plate 51 is formed so that the downstream side in the transport direction is closer to the reference guide 54 than the upstream side in the transport direction, so that the transport belt 52 is further downstream in the transport direction than the upstream side in the transport direction. Is closer to the reference guide 54.

  The conveyance guide plate 51 and the conveyance belt 52 are provided with air holes for adsorbing paper sheets, and the form P is sucked downward through the air holes by driving the adsorption unit. ing. The form P taken in from the form addition mechanism 22 is placed on the conveyance guide plate 51 and the conveyance belt 52 and sucked. The form P is moved by driving the conveyor belt 52.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a size sensor 61 for detecting the size of the form P and a paper thickness sensor 62 for detecting the paper thickness of the form P are provided on the upstream side of the conveyance guide plate 51. . The size sensor 61 is, for example, an optical sensor such as an infrared sensor in which a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit are arranged across the conveyance path in the vertical direction, and can detect the size of the form P from information from a plurality of sensors. The paper thickness sensor 62 is a displacement sensor that detects the vertical movement of the transport roller 53, and can detect the paper thickness of the form P from the amount of displacement. The detection outputs of these sensors 61 and 62 are input to the controller 40.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the conveyance guide plate 51 is provided with a linear belt hole for installing the conveyance belt 52, and the conveyance belt 52 is installed in the belt hole. The conveying belt 52 is provided with air holes for adsorption at regular intervals along the longitudinal direction of the belt. Further, air holes are provided in the conveyance guide plate 51 in the vicinity of the conveyance belt 52.

  Below the conveyance guide plate 51, there is provided a suction unit 57 composed of a plurality of fans arranged two-dimensionally in the conveyance direction and in a direction orthogonal thereto. Each fan of the suction unit 57 can variably control the fan output (air volume) by the controller 40, and can be controlled independently so as to change the air volume between the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction. Yes.

  An air volume adjusting plate 58 having a plurality of air holes for stabilizing the suction force by the suction unit 57 is installed between the transport guide plate 51 and the suction unit 57. And these are mounted on the conveyance stand 59 to which the motor and other various parts are attached.

  Here, as described in (Background Art), if the suction force is too strong for the form P, the form P does not rotate even if it contacts the reference guide 54, and skew correction cannot be performed. On the other hand, if the attracting force is too weak, problems such as inducing skew and jam during conveyance are caused. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the fan air volume in the suction unit 57 is varied according to the type of the form P (air volume parameter).

  In other words, the form size / paper thickness detection sensor recognizes the form P to be conveyed, and the air volume of the fan is varied as follows according to the air volume parameter.

Paper thickness: thin ... low air volume Form size: small ... air volume small Paper thickness: standard ... medium air volume Form size: medium ... air volume medium Paper thickness: thick ... large air volume Form size: large ... air volume large It is a characteristic view which shows the relationship between size and paper thickness, and the optimal air volume (optimal adsorption power). Note that the form size data is a case where the paper thickness of the form P is constant (for example, 70 kg), and the paper thickness data is a case where the size is constant (for example, A4).

  As shown in FIG. 6, as the size of the form P increases, the optimum air volume increases in proportion to the size. Further, as the paper thickness of the form P increases, the optimum air volume increases in terms of secondary number. Since there are optimum airflows for the two airflow parameters in this way, actually, the optimum airflows for each parameter paired with the form size and the paper thickness are obtained in advance, and these are tabulated. Then, what corresponds to the form size and paper thickness detected by the sensor is read from the table, and the air volume corresponding to the read size is set.

  Further, in the present embodiment, not only the fan air volume is varied in accordance with the type of the form P, but also the air volume is changed between the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction. Specifically, the air volume is increased on the upstream side, the air volume is decreased on the downstream side, the air volume is constant on the upstream side, and the air volume is adjusted on the downstream side according to the type of the form P. For this purpose, the output of each fan of the suction unit 57 is increased on the upstream side and decreased on the downstream side, and the downstream fan output is controlled according to the size and paper thickness of the form P.

  Instead of changing the outputs of the upstream and downstream fans, the number of holes per unit area provided in the air volume adjusting plate 58 may be increased on the upstream side and decreased on the downstream side. Furthermore, the total area of the holes provided in the air volume adjusting plate 58 may be increased on the upstream side and decreased on the downstream side. In this case, the outputs of all fans may be controlled in the same way without changing the fan outputs on the upstream side and the downstream side. In this case, since it is not necessary to partially change the output of the suction unit 57, the output control is simplified.

  Since the form P is not in contact with the reference guide 54 on the upstream side in the conveyance direction, the form P can be reliably conveyed by increasing the air volume. On the upstream side, since the form P is not in contact with the reference guide 54, there is no problem even if the suction force is increased. On the downstream side, by reducing the air volume, the form P is prevented from being excessively pressed against the reference guide 54 for skew correction, and the form P is easily rotated by contact with the reference guide 54.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

  In the case of the form mobile OCR apparatus of the present embodiment, the controller 40 accepts this instruction and starts the paper feeding operation when the user operates the button of the operation unit 21 to start the form processing. That is, the form P stacked obliquely on the form addition mechanism 22 is taken into the OCR main body 20.

  The form P taken in from the paper supply unit is taken into the form transport mechanism 50 by the transport roller 53. Then, the form P is delivered to the conveyance guide plate 51 and the conveyance belt 52. At this time, the size P and the paper thickness of the form P are detected by the size sensor 61 and the paper thickness sensor 62.

  Since the suction unit 57 is provided below the transport guide plate 51, the form P delivered to the transport guide plate 51 and the transport belt 52 is sucked to the transport guide plate 51 and the transport belt 52. Then, the form P is transported to the optical reading unit 23 side by driving the transport belt 52 by the drive motor 55.

  In the form transport mechanism 50, as the form P is transported by the transport belt 52, one side surface of the form P is brought into contact with the reference guide 54. Even in this state, by conveying the form P from the conveyance belt 52, one side of the form P becomes parallel to the reference guide 54, and the inclination of the form P is corrected.

  At this time, on the upstream side in the transport direction, the form P can be reliably sucked and transported to the transport belt 52 by sufficiently increasing the suction force.

  On the downstream side in the transport direction, the suction force suitable for the form P to be processed is controlled (variable) by the suction unit 57. Specifically, based on the size and paper thickness of the form P detected by the size sensor 61 and the paper thickness sensor 62, the suction force suitable for the size and the paper thickness is calculated with reference to the table stored in the memory 42. . Then, the fan output of the suction unit 57 is controlled so that the calculated suction force is obtained.

  By controlling the suction force as described above, the suction force with respect to the form P is optimized on the downstream side of the transport mechanism 50, and it is possible to prevent the form P from being pressed too much against the reference guide 54. As a result, the form P is rotated so that the side faces thereof coincide with the reference guide 54 without causing skew or jamming, and the inclination is corrected.

  The forms P are not necessarily limited to the same size and paper thickness, but different sizes or paper thicknesses are continuously supplied. By controlling the suction force by detecting the size and paper thickness for each form. Regardless of the size of the form P and the paper thickness, it is possible to always give the optimum suction force. Therefore, in any form P, the inclination of the form P can be corrected satisfactorily without inducing skew or jam.

  The form P whose inclination is corrected by the form conveyance mechanism 50 is designated by the horizontal conveyance path 11, the conveyance belt 12, the vertical conveyance path 13, the conveyance roller 14, and the flapper 15 after the information is read by the optical reading unit 23. Is accommodated in the stacker unit 16.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the form transport mechanism 50 transports the form P, and one side of the form P is brought into contact with the reference guide 53, whereby the inclination of the form P can be corrected. In addition, by controlling the suction force in the form transport mechanism 50, the following effects can be obtained.

  That is, by increasing the suction force on the upstream side of the transport mechanism 50, the form P can be reliably transported on the upstream side. Furthermore, by reducing the suction force on the downstream side, it is possible to prevent the form P from being excessively pressed against the reference guide 54 for skew correction on the downstream side, thereby preventing jamming, and to reliably correct the inclination of the form P. Can do.

  Further, by optimally controlling the suction force on the downstream side according to the size and thickness of the form P, the rotational force of the form P can be controlled (variable) for each form, and the conveyance reference guide for tilt correction. Inclination correction can be surely performed so that the left side of the form P is stable. That is, it is possible to stably correct the inclination of the form P regardless of the size or thickness of the form P.

(Modification)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments.

  In the embodiment, the suction force is adjusted according to the size and paper thickness of the form, but in addition to these, the paper quality of the form is detected, and the suction force (air volume) is set in consideration of the paper quality together with the size and paper thickness. Anyway. The paper quality is carbonless paper, OCR paper / recycled paper, dry seal, etc., and a sensor capable of detecting such paper quality may be provided. Control may be performed so that the air volume is small for carbonless paper, the air volume is large for OCR paper / recycled paper, and the air volume is large for dry seal.

  Further, the suction unit is not necessarily limited to a fan, and may be a vacuum mechanism that can suck paper sheets through the hole of the conveyance belt.

  Various sensors for detecting the type of form (size, paper thickness, paper quality, etc.) are not limited to those shown in FIG. 4 and can be changed as appropriate according to the specifications. Furthermore, if the type of the form taken in on the conveyance guide plate is known in advance, the detection signals of various sensors are not necessarily required by inputting the information to the control system of the suction unit. In this case, various sensors can be omitted.

  In the embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a form mobile OCR apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to forms, and can be applied to postcards, questionnaire sheets, and other various paper sheets. Further, the present invention is not limited to the OCR apparatus, and can be applied to various apparatuses that need to correct the inclination of the paper sheet and input the paper sheet without skew.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are also included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Sorter 11 ... Horizontal conveyance path 12 ... Conveyance belt 13 ... Vertical conveyance path 14 ... Conveyance roller 15 ... Flapper 16 ... Stacker part 20 ... OCR apparatus main body 21 ... Operation part 22 ... Form addition mechanism 23 ... Optical reading part 24 ... Conveyance Road 40 ... Controller 41 ... CPU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 42 ... Memory 43 ... Interface 50 ... Paper sheet conveyance mechanism 51 ... Conveyance guide plate 52 ... Conveyance belt 53 ... Conveyance roller 54 ... Reference guide 55 ... Motor 57 ... Adsorption unit 58 ... Air volume adjustment plate 59 ... Conveyance stand 60 ... Sensor 61 ... Size sensor 62 ... Paper thickness sensor

Claims (6)

A transport guide plate for transporting paper sheets,
A transport belt provided on the transport guide plate at an angle with respect to the transport direction of the paper sheet and having a hole for adsorbing the paper sheet;
An adsorbing unit for adsorbing the paper sheets to the conveying belt side through the holes of the conveying belt;
A reference guide that is provided on the conveyance guide plate and abuts against one side surface of the paper sheet to correct the inclination of the paper sheet;
Comprising
The suction unit has a weaker suction force on the downstream side than the upstream side in the transport direction, and variably controls the downstream suction force according to the type of the paper sheet.   The paper sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sensor for detecting a type of the paper sheet on the conveying guide plate, wherein the suction force is variably controlled based on a detection output of the sensor.   3. The sensor according to claim 2, wherein the sensor is a size sensor that detects the size of the paper sheet and a paper thickness sensor that detects the thickness of the paper sheet, which are provided upstream of the transport guide plate in the transport direction. Paper sheet transport device.   The paper sheet conveyance according to claim 3, wherein the suction force is variably controlled with reference to a table in which the suction force suitable for the size and thickness of the paper sheet is stored based on the detection output of each sensor. apparatus.   The paper sheet conveyance according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the suction unit includes a plurality of fans provided below the conveyance guide plate, and sucks the paper sheets through holes in the conveyance belt. apparatus.   The paper sheet transport apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a hole for adsorbing the paper sheet is provided in the transport guide plate.

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