JP2020083527A - Collating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a collating apparatus capable of quickly collating a large number of sheets.SOLUTION: A collating apparatus 1 includes: a holding device 10 comprising a plurality of sheet holding units 12 that hold sheets S to be collated; a transport device 20 for transporting the sheets to a collating unit 28 and stacking them at the collating unit 28 to form a collating bundle; and a moving device 30 for moving a plurality of sheets S from the holding device 10 to the transport device 20. The sheet holding units 12 of the holding device 10 are arranged in a plurality of columns. The moving device 30 includes: a suction unit 34 in which a plurality of suction portions 32 capable of sucking a sheet S are arranged in a plurality of columns according to the sheet holding units 12; and a drive device 36 for moving the suction unit 34. The transport device 20 includes: a first transport unit 32 that transports a plurality of columns of sheets supplied by the moving device 30 along the direction of columns; and a second transport unit 34 that stacks the sheets supplied from the first transport unit 32 column by column and transports the sheets in a direction intersecting the direction of columns.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a collating device.

As a device for stacking and collating a plurality of printed matter, in Patent Document 1, a belt conveyor is arranged along a plurality of paper supply units, and the timing of supplying the printed matter from each paper supply unit onto the belt conveyor is described. A collating apparatus is disclosed that can control the order of combination of printed materials to collate them.

JP 2001-270653 A

The conventional collating device described above, the printed matter supplied from each paper supply unit is conveyed in a line by the belt conveyor and collated, so when a large number of paper supply units are provided, it takes a lot of time to collate. There was a problem that required.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a collating device capable of swiftly collating a large number of sheets.

The object of the present invention is to provide a holding device that includes a plurality of sheet holding units that hold sheets to be collated, and a conveyance device that conveys sheets to the collation section and stacks the sheets at the collation section to form a collation bundle. A collating device comprising a device and a moving device that moves a plurality of sheets from the holding device to the conveying device, wherein the holding device has the sheet holding units arranged in a plurality of rows. Includes a suction unit in which a plurality of suction units capable of suctioning a sheet are arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding to the sheet holding unit, and a drive device that moves the suction unit, and the transport device is the A first transport unit that transports a plurality of rows of sheets supplied by a moving device along the column direction, and a sheet that is supplied from the first transport unit is stacked for each column and transported in a direction intersecting the column direction. This is achieved by a collating device including a second transport unit.

In this collating apparatus, it is preferable that the first transport unit includes a plurality of single-row transport units capable of transporting a plurality of rows of sheets for each single row.

Further, it is preferable that the first transport unit and the second transport unit are belt conveyors that horizontally transport sheets, and the transport directions are orthogonal to each other in a plan view.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a collating device that can collate a large number of sheets quickly.

It is a schematic front view which shows the whole structure of the collation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a bottom view of a main part of the collating device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a plan view of relevant parts for explaining the operation of the paper feeding device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 7 is a plan view of a main part for explaining another operation of the paper feeding device shown in FIG. 1. It is a principal part bottom view of the collation device concerning other embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a plan view of relevant parts for explaining the operation of the paper feeding device shown in FIG. 5.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view showing the overall configuration of a collating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the collating device 1 includes a holding device 10 that holds a sheet S, a conveying device 20 that conveys the sheet S to a collating unit 28, and a collating bundle, and a conveying device that conveys the sheet S from the holding device 10. The device 20 includes a moving device 30 that moves the sheet S.

The holding device 10 includes a plurality of paper holding units 12 that hold the sheets S to be collated in a stacked state. Each sheet holding unit 12 is individually provided with an elevating plate (not shown) and detects the height of the sheets S stacked on the elevating plate so that the height of the uppermost layer is always constant. Height control is performed. Further, each sheet holding unit 12 includes a regulation plate (not shown) that positions the stacked sheets S.

The transport device 20 includes a first transport unit 22 and a second transport unit 24 that are belt conveyors. The first transport unit 22 includes two single-row transport units 22a and 22b that are parallel to each other and can be individually driven and controlled. The single-row transport units 22a and 22b transport the sheets S placed on the transport surface in single rows from the back side to the front side of the drawing, and supply the sheets S to the transport surface of the second transport unit 24. The second transport unit 24 is arranged so that the transport direction intersects the transport direction of the first transport unit 22 at a right angle, and transports the paper S in the arrow direction to the collating unit 28. The collating unit 28 includes a regulation plate (not shown) that regulates the edge of the sheet, and the sheets S supplied to the collating unit 28 are sequentially stacked to form a collating bundle.

The moving device 30 includes a suction unit 34 having a plurality of suction units 32 capable of sucking the paper S, and a drive device 36 that moves the suction unit 34. The drive device 36 is a multi-joint robot having a multi-axis (for example, 4 to 7 axes) structure in which a plurality of arms 36a are rotatably connected via joints, and the suction unit 34 functions as an end effector. The operations of the suction unit 34 and the drive device 36 are controlled by a controller (not shown), and the paper S held by the plurality of paper holding units 12 of the holding device 10 is supplied to the transport device 20. The driving device 36 is not necessarily limited to the articulated robot, and, for example, the suction unit 34 is horizontally driven and vertically driven along the guide member to suck and convey the sheet S from the holding device 10 to the conveying device 20. It may be configured to.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the suction unit 34. The suction unit 34 includes two support members 341 and 342 extending in parallel with each other, and connecting members 343 and 344 connecting the support members 341 and 342 at a predetermined interval, and between the connecting members 343 and 344. The tip of the arm of the drive device 36 shown in FIG. 1 is attached to the attachment portion 345 provided.

Each of the support members 341 and 342 supports a plurality of suction portions 32. In the present embodiment, five suction parts 32 are arranged on each of the support members 341 and 342 (ten in total). The suction and the suction release of each suction unit 32 are performed by controlling the opening/closing valve 346a of the pipe 346 connected to the vacuum pump (not shown), and the suction and the release of the sheet are simultaneously performed.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the collating device 1, showing the moving device 30 in a removed state. As shown in FIG. 3, in the holding device 10, five paper holding units 12 are arranged in a row along the vertical direction of the drawing, and four rows of the paper holding units 12 are formed. , 20 sheet holding units 12 are provided. The size of the paper S held in the paper holding unit 12, the number of paper holding units 12 and the number of rows are not particularly limited, and can be appropriately changed according to the application, installation space, and the like.

The single-row transport units 22a and 22b included in the first transport unit 22 are arranged such that the transport direction is parallel to the column direction of the sheet holding unit 12, and are arranged on the pair of support members 341 and 342 shown in FIG. The adsorbed sheets are placed on the transport surfaces of the single-row transport units 22a and 22b, respectively. The first transport unit 22 of the present embodiment is configured so that each single-row transport unit 22a, 22b can be individually driven and controlled, but a single conveyor or the like having a width capable of transporting paper in two rows May be

Next, the operation of the collating device 1 having the above configuration will be described. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the 20 sheets S held by the holding device 10 are overlapped in the order of page numbers of the sheets S, first, the suction unit 34 causes the 10 sheets from the 11th page to the 20th sheet. S is adsorbed and placed on the transport surface of the first transport unit 22. Then, the first transport unit 22 is operated to transport each sheet S toward the second transport unit 24. Then, the transport surface of the second transport unit 24 is configured to transfer the paper S from the 11th page to the 15th page. , And sheets S of 16 to 20 pages are stacked. Then, when the second transport unit 24 is operated to transport the sheets S toward the collating unit 28, the sheets S from page 11 to page 20 are stacked in the collating unit 28, and the collating bundle B Is created.

Thereafter, the ten sheets S from page 1 to page 10 held by the holding device 10 are moved to the transport device 20 by the suction unit 34, and the transport device 20 is operated in the same manner as described above. S is stacked on the collating bundle B of the collating unit 28. In this way, the collated bundle B in which the sheets S of 1 to 20 pages are stacked in the order of page numbers is created.

As described above, the sheet holding unit 12 of the holding device 10 and the suction unit 32 included in the suction unit 34 of the moving device 30 are configured to have a plurality of rows, and the first transport unit 22 of the transport device 20 is configured. However, by collapsing the sheets S toward the second conveying section 24 in a plurality of rows, collation is performed in a short time as compared with the conventional case where the sheets are conveyed in a single row and collation is performed. be able to.

In the adsorption unit 34 of the present embodiment, adsorption and desorption of all the adsorption portions 32 are performed at the same time, but a plurality of on-off valves are provided so that the adsorption portions 32 can be adsorbed individually or in groups, and the adsorption unit 34 is retained. It is also possible to move only the desired sheet S held by the device 10 to the transport device 20.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, after the suction unit 34 is arranged to adsorb the 10 sheets S held by the holding device 10, only the 11th to 15th pages are adsorbed to the respective suction units 32 and conveyed. They can be moved to the device 20 and stacked in page order on the collator 28. When the first transport unit 22 includes a plurality of single-row transport units 22a and 22b, the timings at which the sheets S are supplied from the single-row transport units 22a and 22b to the second transport unit 24 are shifted from each other. It is also possible to change the order of supply to the collating unit 28.

The number and the number of rows of the suction units 32 included in the suction unit 34 are not particularly limited, but if the number is reduced, the collating apparatus 1 can be configured compactly and inexpensively, and space-saving work is facilitated. On the other hand, if the number is large, the collation work can be performed quickly, so it is desirable to appropriately design in consideration of the installation space, required processing capacity and the like.

For example, the suction unit 34 shown in FIG. 5 has a configuration in which two support members 347 and 348 are added to the suction unit 34 shown in FIG. 2 and the suction units 32 are arranged in four rows. Each row is composed of five suction units 32. According to the suction unit 34, as shown in FIG. 6, the first transport unit 22 having a width capable of simultaneously suctioning the 20 sheets S held by the holding device 10 and transporting the sheets S in four rows. Since the second conveying unit 24 can move the sheets to the collating unit 28, the collation of a large number of sheets S can be performed quickly.

1 Collating Device 10 Holding Device 12 Paper Holding Unit 20 Conveying Device 22 First Conveying Unit 24 Second Conveying Unit 28 Collating Unit 30 Moving Device 32 Adsorbing Unit 34 Adsorption Unit 36 Driving Device S Paper

Claims (3)

A holding device having a plurality of paper holding portions for holding the sheets to be collated;
A transport device that transports sheets to the collating unit and creates a collating bundle by stacking the sheets at the collating unit,
A collating device including a moving device that moves a plurality of sheets from the holding device to the transport device,
In the holding device, the paper holding units are arranged in a plurality of rows,
The moving device includes a suction unit in which a plurality of suction units capable of suctioning a sheet are arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding to the sheet holding unit, and a drive unit that moves the suction unit,
The transport device includes a first transport unit that transports a plurality of rows of sheets supplied by the moving device along a column direction, and a sheet direction that is obtained by superposing the sheets supplied from the first transport unit on a column-by-column basis. A collation device that includes a second transport unit that transports in the intersecting direction. The collating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first transport unit includes a plurality of single-row transport units capable of transporting a plurality of rows of paper for each single row. The said 1st conveyance part and the 2nd conveyance part consist of a belt conveyor which conveys a sheet|seat horizontally, The collation apparatus of Claim 1 or 2 which a conveyance direction mutually orthogonally crosses in planar view.

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