JP2539639Y2 - Origin setting device for plate making scanner - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an origin setting device for a plate making scanner, and more particularly to an origin setting device for a plate making scanner to which a document cylinder having a reference portion indicating an origin position is mounted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a plate-making scanner, it takes a lot of time to mount an original on a cylinder and optimally set conditions for reading an image according to the original (hereinafter referred to as "setup"). On the other hand, it takes a considerable amount of time to actually read the image of the document after the setup operation and print the image on a photosensitive film to obtain a plate making film. Therefore, if the setup operation and the actual document scanning process are sequentially performed, the operation efficiency is very poor.
For this reason, conventionally, a method is used in which a setup device is separately provided and setup is performed in advance by the setup device instead of using only the scanner.

In order to realize a complete setup including position data, it is necessary to completely match a coordinate system at the time of setup with a coordinate system at the time of scanning processing by a scanner. There is.

In order to match two coordinate systems, the origins of the coordinates must be matched. Therefore, conventionally, the following two methods have been adopted.

(1) If the origin is a registration mark formed on a document at the time of setup, when the document is mounted on the scanner body, the registration mark is viewed with a viewer for reading coordinate positions. The cross line formed in the viewer is aligned with the registration mark. Then, the position at that time is set as the origin of the document cylinder, and the origins of the two coordinate systems coincide with each other.

(2) At the time of setup, if the intersection of the marking line formed on the original cylinder is used as the origin, the intersection of the marking line is viewed with a viewer, and the cross line is aligned with the intersection. Then, the position at that time is set as the origin of the document cylinder, and the two coordinate systems are matched.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above conventional configuration,
After the original cylinder around which the original has been wound is attached to the scanner, the origin must be manually set to match the two coordinate systems. This manual operation is a bottleneck in automating a series of operations from attachment of a document cylinder to a plate-making scanner to reading, recording, and developing of an image.

An object of the present invention is to provide an origin setting device for a plate making scanner which can automatically set an origin in a scanning coordinate system of a scanner body.

[0009]

An origin setting device for a plate making scanner according to the present invention is provided with an original cylinder having first and second reference portions indicating respective origin positions in orthogonal first and second directions. An origin setting device for a plate making scanner, comprising: a first reference portion position detecting means; a second reference portion position detecting means; and an origin setting means. First
The reference portion position detecting means detects a position of the first reference portion.
The second reference portion position detecting means detects a position of the second reference portion. The origin setting means sets the origin in the first direction when the first reference portion position detecting means detects the position of the first reference portion, and sets the origin in the first direction when the second reference portion position detecting means detects the position of the second reference portion. Set the origin in the second direction.

[0010]

In the origin setting device according to the present invention, when a document cylinder having first and second reference portions indicating respective origin positions in the first and second directions orthogonal to each other is mounted, the first reference portion position detection is performed. The position of the first reference portion is detected by the means.
Further, the position of the second reference portion is detected by the second reference portion position detecting means. The origin setting means sets the position of the first reference part detected by the first reference part position detection means as the origin in the first direction, and the second reference part position detection means sets the position of the second reference part in the second direction. Set as origin.

As a result, the origins of the scanner in the first and second directions are automatically set.

[0012]

FIG. 1 shows a plate-making color scanner employing an origin setting device as one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the plate-making color scanner mainly includes a pickup unit 110 and a recording unit 120. The pickup unit 110 has a substantially box-shaped housing 103, scans the original 10 attached to the detachable original cylinder 111, and separates the color of the original.

The document cylinder 111 has a mounting portion 30 at one end thereof, and the mounting portion 30 is engaged with a chuck portion 40 provided on the pickup unit 110. The original cylinder 111 can be rotated at a constant speed in the direction a by the spindle motor 112 (see FIG. 4).

A pickup head 114 is provided to face the original cylinder 111. The pickup head 114 includes a counter shaft motor 116 (see FIG. 4),
The image of the document 10 is read while being translated in the X direction by the screw shaft 115 provided along the longitudinal direction of the pickup unit 110. Therefore, the Y direction opposite to the a direction is the main scanning direction, and the X direction is the sub scanning direction.

FIG. 2 shows the pickup head 114. The pickup head 114 includes a box frame 125, a light receiving unit 123 provided at a lower front part of the box frame 125, a viewer 122 provided at an upper front part of the box frame 125, and one side of a lower front part of the box frame 125. It mainly includes an L-shaped bracket 124 attached thereto, and a ray pipe 121 extending in one end of the bracket 124 in the X direction. From the irradiation port 126 provided at the tip of the ray pipe 121,
White light is emitted in a direction orthogonal to the X direction. Note that a light receiving unit 123 is provided to face the white light irradiation port 126.

A document cylinder 111 is inserted between the ray pipe 121 and the light receiving section 123. The mounting portion 30 of the document cylinder 111 is held by the scanner main body by a taper shaft (not shown) provided at the end thereof being in close contact with the chuck portion 40. Two mating marks 62 and 63 are formed on the outer periphery of the chuck section 40. A mating mark 61 is formed on the outer periphery of the tapered shaft mounting portion of the mounting portion 30. When the document cylinder 119 is mounted, the alignment marks 61 to 63 are mounted so as to be aligned in the X direction. Also, below the chuck portion 40,
A sensor unit 50 for detecting the positional relationship between these matching marks and thereby detecting the mounting state is provided.

A marking line 31 is formed on the surface of the document cylinder 111 over the entire length in the X direction (sub-scanning direction). The marking line 31 is a groove inscribed on the original cylinder 111, and the groove is further coated with white paint. The mounting unit 3 of the document cylinder 111
In the circumferential direction (Y direction) at a position away from 0 by a predetermined distance
In addition, a marking line 32 is formed. This marking line 3
Reference numerals 1 and 32 denote lines indicating origin coordinates in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, and also serve as a reference at the time of image processing performed outside the scanner such as a setup. When the original 10 is to be attached to the original cylinder 111, the original 10 is to be attached to the right of the marking line 32 and below the marking line 31.

As shown in FIG. 3, a light source cover 51 made of a transparent resin is provided at one end of the bottom surface of the box frame 125. The light source cover 51 has a rectangular flat plate shape, is bent slightly downward at an intermediate portion thereof, and its tip extends to a position near the lower portion of the rotation axis of the document cylinder 111. A light source 52 is arranged below the light source cover 51. In addition, on the upper surface of the light source cover 51,
Narrow-view photoelectric switch 5 for detecting 1, 32
6,57 are provided. Photoelectric switches 56 and 57
Has a structure in which a light projecting unit and a light receiving unit are juxtaposed. The photoelectric switch 56 is attached so that the juxtaposition direction is the Y direction, and the photoelectric switch 57 is attached so that the juxtaposition direction is the X direction. Further, at one end of the box frame 125, a zero point limiter 55 for detecting a movement limit position of the pickup head 114 in the sub-scanning direction is provided, as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, a flexible disk (FD) drive section 132 is provided on the upper portion of the housing 103. On the front surface of the housing 103, an operation unit 134 including a keyboard panel is arranged.

The recording unit 120 is a halftone dot for yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) obtained by performing image processing on the image signal obtained by the pickup unit 110. A halftone image is recorded on a photosensitive film by exposure according to a signal. The recording unit 120 has a recording drum (not shown) around which a photosensitive film is wound.

Next, the configuration of the control system will be described. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a drive control unit of the pickup unit 110. 4, a memory 73, an operation unit 134, a mounting determination circuit 72, and an origin setting unit 71 are connected to the microcomputer 70, respectively.
The microcomputer 70 has an image processing / calculating unit 75, an X coordinate counter 76, and a Y
Coordinate counter 77, alarm unit drive unit 78, sub-axis motor drive unit 79, main shaft motor drive unit 80, and FD drive unit 1
32 are also connected.

The spindle motor driving section 80 is provided with the spindle motor 11
2 for controlling the on / off of the spindle motor 112 and the rotation speed thereof. The sub shaft motor control unit 79 is connected to the sub shaft motor 116, and controls on / off of the sub shaft motor 116 and the rotation speed thereof. Spindle motor 11
2 is connected to the encoder 113, and the encoder 1
13 outputs an encoder signal to the attachment determination circuit 72 and the origin setting unit 71. This encoder signal is output, for example, 1000 pulses per rotation. An encoder 117 is connected to the sub shaft motor 116, and the encoder 117 outputs an encoder signal to the origin setting unit 71. This encoder signal is also, for example, 1000 for one rotation.
Pulse output.

The output of the sensor section 50 is provided to the mounting determination circuit 72, and the outputs of the zero point limiter 55 and the photoelectric switches 56 and 57 are provided to the origin setting section 71. The mounting determination circuit 72 determines the mounting state of the document cylinder 111, and outputs a determination signal “H” when the mounting state of the document cylinder 111 is abnormal. The origin setting unit 71 is a photoelectric switch 5
When the markings 6 and 57 detect the marking lines 31 and 32, they output a clear signal for clearing the contents of the X coordinate counter 76 and the Y coordinate counter 77.

The Y coordinate counter 77 includes an encoder 113
Are counted to detect the rotation position of the document cylinder 111. This Y coordinate counter 77
Is cleared every 1000 pulses by counting the encoder signal by 1000 pulses, and is cleared by receiving a clear signal when the origin is set by the origin setting unit 71. The X coordinate counter 76 is used for the encoder 11
7 is a counter for counting the number of pulses of the encoder signal. The X coordinate counter 76 counts pulses output in the effective scanning area. This X coordinate counter 76 also
As with the Y coordinate counter 77, it is cleared by a clear signal from the origin setting unit 71.

The image processing operation section 75 performs image processing specified by the setup data described later on the image signal obtained by the pickup unit 110. FD drive unit 132
Is for writing and reading setup data created by the scanner body, or for reading setup data created by a separate setup device.

Next, the control operation of the microcomputer 70 will be described. 5 to 7 are flowcharts showing the control operation of the microcomputer 70. First, the operator mounts the document cylinder 111. The details of this mounting procedure are omitted, but the matching mark 6 described above is used.
By opposing 1 to 63 in a straight line in the X direction,
Complete the installation.

In the control operation, an initial setting is first performed in step S1. Subsequently, in step S2, it is determined whether to read the setup data based on the presence or absence of the read instruction. In step S3, it is determined whether a scan switch provided on operation unit 134 has been turned on. The scan switch is operated by an operator when starting scanning after the original cylinder 111 is mounted on the chuck section 40. In step S4, it is determined whether the control operation of the microcomputer 70 should be ended based on the operation of the end switch by the operator. If it is determined that the control operation end command has been received, the process ends.

If it is determined in step S2 that the setup data is to be read, the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, the setup data in the flexible disk mounted on the FD drive unit 132 is read, and is provided to the image processing calculation unit 75. Upon completion of the process in the step S5, the process returns to the step S2.

If it is determined in step S3 that the scan switch has been turned on, the process proceeds to step S6. Step S
At 6, the scan routine shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is executed, and when the scan routine ends, the process returns to step S2. Step S
If it is determined in step 4 that the process is not to be terminated, the process returns to step S2.

When the scan routine is entered in step S6, the spindle motor 112 is started to rotate at a low speed in step S10 in FIG. Subsequently, in step S11, the process waits for the main shaft motor 112 to make one rotation. When the spindle motor 112 makes one rotation in step S11, the process proceeds to step S12. In step S12, the rotation of the spindle motor 112 is stopped.

Subsequently, in step S13, a determination signal from the mounting determination circuit 72 is read. The mounting determination circuit 72
As described above, according to the detection signal from the sensor unit 50, when the matching marks 61 to 63 are arranged to face each other on a straight line, the determination signal “L” is output, and the matching marks 61 to 63 are aligned on a straight line. If not, the judgment signal “H” is output.
In step S14, the state of the determination signal is determined. When the determination signal is "H", the process proceeds to step S19, and the alarm unit driving unit 78 operates an alarm unit (not shown). After activating the alarm unit in step S19, the process proceeds to step S31 (described later).

On the other hand, when the judgment signal is "L", the process proceeds from step S14 to step S15. In step S15, the sub shaft motor 116 is started to rotate at high speed in order to move the pickup head 114 to the left in FIG. 1 at high speed. Subsequently, in step S16, it is determined whether or not the pickup head 114 has reached the zero-point millimeter based on the ON / OFF of the zero-point limiter 55. Until the zero point limiter 55 is turned on in step S16, the high speed rotation of the sub shaft motor 116 is continued. In step S16, the zero limiter 5
When the switch 5 is turned on and it is determined that the pickup head 114 has reached the zero point limit, the process proceeds to step S17. In step S17, the rotation of the sub shaft motor 116 is stopped.

In step S18, the low speed rotation of the sub shaft motor 116 in the right direction is started, and the pickup head 114 is moved in the right direction at a low speed. . Next, in step S20 of FIG. 7, it is determined whether or not the marking line 32, which is the X-direction reference point, is detected by the photoelectric switch 57. If the marking line 32 is detected, the process proceeds to step S21. In step S21, the content of the X coordinate counter 76 is cleared at the timing when the photoelectric switch 57 detects the marking line 32. Thus, the origin in the X direction is set.
In step S22, the rotation of the sub shaft motor 116 is stopped.

In step S23, the spindle motor 112 is rotated at a low speed in the direction a. In step S24, it is determined whether or not the photoelectric switch 56 has detected the marking line 31 that is the Y-direction reference line.
The main shaft motor 112 is rotated at a low speed until 1 is detected. When the photoelectric switch 56 detects the marking line 31, the process proceeds to step S25. In step S25, the content of the Y coordinate counter 77 is cleared at the timing when the photoelectric switch 56 detects the marking line 31. Thus, the origin in the Y direction is set.

As described above, by clearing the contents of the X coordinate counter 76 and the Y coordinate counter 77 to 0 at the detection timing of the photoelectric switches 56 and 57, the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of the pickup unit 110 in the scanning coordinate system are cleared.
The origin of the coordinates can be matched with the positions of the marking lines 31 and 32, and the coordinates obtained by a device outside the scanner such as the setup device can be matched with the coordinates of the scanner.

In step S26, the spindle motor 112 is accelerated to a predetermined rotation speed (for example, 1200 rpm). In step S27, the control waits for the spindle motor 112 to rotate to a steady state. If it is determined in step S27 that the spindle motor 112 has reached a steady rotation, the process proceeds to step S28. In step S28, the high speed rotation of the sub shaft motor 116 is started, the pickup head 114 is moved rightward in FIG. 1, and the image processing by the image processing calculation unit 75 is started.

In step S29, the process waits for the end of the image reading range. If it is determined in step S29 that the image reading range has ended, the process proceeds to step S30. In step S30, the image processing by the image processing calculation unit 75 is terminated, and the sub shaft motor 116 is stopped. Subsequently, in step S31, the spindle motor 112 is stopped.

The data obtained by the above-described image processing is output to the recording unit 120. The recording unit 120 exposes the photosensitive film based on the input data.

[Other Embodiments] (a) In the above embodiment, the photoelectric switch is used as the position detecting means, but other detecting means may be used. In the above-described embodiment, two photoelectric switches 56 and 57 are used as the position detecting means. However, the present invention can be implemented with only one photoelectric switch. For example, when only the photoelectric switch 57 is used, the operation of immediately stopping the sub shaft motor in step S22 in FIG. 7 is changed so as to stop the sub shaft motor after a predetermined time has elapsed. Due to this change, the detection position of the photoelectric switch 57 is shifted from the marking line 32 in the X direction, so that the marking line 31 can also be detected. In step S24, the marking line 31 is detected by the photoelectric switch 57, and the content of the Y coordinate counter 77 may be cleared at the timing when the photoelectric switch 57 detects the marking line 31 in step S25.

(B) In the above embodiment, the marking lines formed in the X direction and the Y direction of the original cylinder are used as the reference portions in two directions, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the position is designated by the register mark of the document, the origin may be set by detecting the register mark.

(C) In the above embodiment, the original cylinder is manually mounted. However, the present invention can be applied to a plate-making scanner capable of automatically mounting the original cylinder. As a result, the scanner can be operated unattended.

[0042]

According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for setting the origin of a plate making scanner according to the present invention, comprising detecting means for detecting the positions of the first and second reference portions of the original cylinder, and origin setting means for setting the origin based on the detection. , The origin setting in the scanning coordinate system of the scanner is automated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a color scanner for plate making adopting an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pickup head.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing an attached state of a photoelectric switch.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation of the microcomputer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating control contents of a scan routine.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing control contents of a scan routine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 31, 32 marking line 56, 57 photoelectric switch 70 microcomputer 71 origin setting unit 76 X coordinate counter 77 Y coordinate counter

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. An origin setting device for a plate making scanner to which a document cylinder having first and second reference portions indicating respective origin positions in first and second directions orthogonal to each other is provided. First reference portion position detection means for detecting the position of the portion; second reference portion position detection means for detecting the position of the second reference portion; and the first reference portion position detection means for determining the position of the first reference portion. Origin making means for setting the origin in the first direction upon detection, and origin setting means for setting the origin in the second direction when the second reference portion position detecting means detects the position of the second reference portion. Origin setting device for scanners.