JP2609097B2 - Sheet-like feed mechanism - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet feeding mechanism for conveying a sheet made of paper or plastic in a predetermined feeding direction in an office machine, a vending machine, and the like. About.

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic machine such as an office machine or a vending machine, a feeding mechanism of various sheet materials is used in order to convey a sheet material such as a paper or plastic card in a predetermined feeding direction. ing.

Conventionally, the most widely used feed mechanism is to rotate a set of a feed roller and a pressing roller that comes into contact with the feed roller in the feed direction, and to convey a sheet-like material to be fed by being sandwiched between these rollers. Things.

Separately from this, feed holes called perforations are provided in rows at both ends or the center of the sheet material, and a sprocket with a claw that engages with the perforation is provided. Is also well known.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention According to such a conventional technique, since the sheet-like material is conveyed through rotating objects including rollers and sprockets, in addition to a drive source for driving those rotating objects,
A drive mechanism that connects the drive source and the rotating object is required,
The problem that the whole structure became complicated and miniaturization was limited was inevitable. In addition, in the former of the prior art, the sheet to be fed is sandwiched and conveyed between the rollers, so if the thickness of the sheet changes, the center distance of the rollers must be changed. Is very narrow. On the other hand, in the latter case of the prior art, since the sheet-like material must be subjected to perforation processing in advance, an extra preparation cost is required, and it is not rare that the perforation is a trigger for breaking the sheet-like material.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to use a movable member that repeatedly vibrates between a holding state and a released state with respect to a fixed member, thereby achieving a significant reduction in size and simplification as compared with the related art, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet-like object feeding mechanism which can widely cope with a variation in the thickness of a sheet-like material and has no possibility of damaging the sheet-like material.

Means for Solving the Problems The configuration of the present invention for achieving the object includes a fixed member forming a conveying surface of the sheet-like material, a movable member having a pressing surface with a cushioning material parallel to the fixed member. The movable member vibrates and repeats a gripping state in which the sheet-like material is held between the movable member and the fixed member by a linear reciprocating motion, and a release state in which the sheet-like material is released. The gist of the present invention is to convey a sheet in a predetermined feeding direction by at least one of component force.

According to the structure of the present invention, the movable member has a pressing surface with a cushioning material parallel to the fixed member, and repeats the gripping state and the released state in an oscillating manner, thereby causing gravity and feeding by the movable member. The sheet can be conveyed in the feed direction by at least one of the component force in the direction. Therefore, the movable member can appropriately select the vibration period and the length of time in the released state, and can arbitrarily adjust the feed amount per one time of the vibration period and the feed frequency per unit time. It is possible to optimally set the average feed speed and feed accuracy of the object.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.

The sheet-like material feeding mechanism includes a fixed member 11 and a movable member 12 (FIG. 1).

The fixing member 11 is a plate-like body having a substantially U-shaped cross section. The fixing member 11 has an upper surface 11a that is sufficiently larger than the width of the sheet S to be fed, and is fixed vertically via a frame (not shown) (FIG. 2).

The movable member 12 is fixed to the tip of the plunger 13a of the solenoid 13, and has a base 12a formed in a mountain-shaped cross section,
And a cushioning material 12b attached to the back side of the base 12a (FIG. 1). Note that the rear surface of the base 12a is a pressing surface parallel to the fixing member 11. A compression spring 13c is interposed between the movable member 12 and the coil 13b of the solenoid 13. Therefore, the movable member 12 energizes the coil 13b to cause the coil 13b to attract the plunge 13a,
By taking a release state in which the sheet-like material S on the fixing member 11 is released (solid line in the figure), and by stopping the energization of the coil 13b,
The sheet S is pressed against the upper surface 11a of the fixing member 11 via the cushioning material 12b, so that the sheet S can be held between the fixing member 11 and the holding member 11 (a two-dot chain line in the figure).

Two sets of solenoids 13 are provided in the width direction of the sheet-like material S at substantially the same height via a support member (not shown) so that the movable member 12 can move vertically with respect to the fixed member 11. (FIG. 2).

Now, when the sheet-like material S is supplied along the upper surface 11a of the fixed member 11 and the solenoids 13 and 13 are simultaneously energized by the rectangular wave power supply having the energizing period t and the period T (FIG. 3A), each movable member Reference numeral 12 indicates a release state in the energization period t and a grip state in the non-energization period (Tt). That is, the movable members 12, 12 can vibrately repeat the released state and the gripped state with respect to the fixed member 11 in accordance with the cycle T. Then, the sheet-like material S at this time is the movable member 1
When the grippers 2 and 12 are in the gripping state, they are gripped between the upper surface 11a of the fixed member 11 and the cushioning members 12b and 12b of the movable members 12 and 12, and can maintain the position. Is in the released state, it can be conveyed downward by gravity (the direction of arrow K in FIGS. 1 and 2). At this time,
The upper surface 11a of the fixing member 11 is a conveying surface of the sheet S.

On the other hand, the moving speed of the sheet-like material S has a saw-tooth waveform determined by the energization period t and the cycle T (solid line in FIG. 3B). Here, the maximum speed V of the sheet S is determined by the energization period t, and the feed amount of the sheet S during that period is also determined by the energization period t. On the other hand, the sheet material S
Is equal to the cycle T, the average feed speed v of the sheet-like material S is determined by the energization period t and the cycle T (the dashed line in FIG. 2B).

Therefore, the average feed speed v of the sheet material S can be arbitrarily set by adjusting the energization period t and the cycle T. Further, by changing the ratio of the energization period t to the cycle T and changing the excitation duty of the solenoids 13, the feed amount of the sheet-like material S for each cycle T can be adjusted, and the feeding accuracy of the sheet-like material S can be adjusted. Can be set arbitrarily.

Other Embodiments Instead of arranging two sets of solenoids 13 and movable members 12 corresponding to both end portions of the sheet S, only one set corresponding to a substantially central portion of the sheet S is provided. It may be provided. However,
At this time, it is preferable to provide appropriate guides on both sides of the sheet-like material S so that the traveling direction does not tilt when the sheet-like material S advances.

The movable member 12 is provided with a cushioning material 12b at the tip of the swing lever 12c.
(FIG. 4). However,
The swing lever 12c is attracted by the coil 13b of the solenoid 13 against the tension spring 13d, and can repeatedly switch between the gripping state and the released state. Since the solenoid 13 can use a standard form and easily obtain a large suction force, the quick response of the movable member 12 can be improved. Note that the swing lever 12c only needs to be substantially parallel to the fixed member 11, and the tip of the swing lever 12c is a pressing surface with a cushioning material 12b parallel to the fixed member 11. Further, another cushioning material 12d can be interposed between the suction surface of the swing lever 12c on the coil 13b side and the iron core 13e of the coil 13b (FIG. 3). The cushioning member 12d can suppress the noise level when the solenoid 13 operates.

The fixing member 11 is disposed at an angle θ from the vertical direction, and can convey the sheet-like material S diagonally downward (the same figure). At this time, the sheet material S is conveyed by only the component of the gravity acting on the sheet material S in the feeding direction along the upper surface 11a of the fixing member 11.

The movable member 12 can also convey the sheet-like material S in the horizontal direction by driving the movable member 12 in each of the inclined directions with respect to the upper surface 11a of the fixed member 11 (FIG. 5). At this time,
As a driving force for feeding the sheet-like material S, gravity is not effective at all, and of the pressing force of the movable member 12 against the fixed member 11,
Only the component force in the direction along the upper surface 11a of the fixing member 11 is effectively acting. That is, the sheet S is not expected to be fed in the released state of the movable member 12, and is driven in the feed direction only at the moment when the movable member 12 is pressed against the fixed member 11. Therefore, the feed rate at this time is
It can be adjusted by changing the cycle T of the excitation waveform of 13, and it is sufficient that the energization period t is longer than the operation time of the solenoid 13.

In the above description, the excitation power supply for the solenoid 13 is not limited to the rectangular wave power supply, but
As long as the movable member 12 can vibrately drive the movable member 12, a trapezoidal waveform, a triangular waveform, or the like may be used in addition to a general sine waveform.

Further, in FIG. 5, if the fixing member 11 is tilted so that the feeding direction of the sheet-like material S is obliquely downward, the sheet-like material S is moved by the component force in the feeding direction by the movable member 12 and the sheet-like material. It can be driven by both the gravity acting on S and the component in that direction.

The movable member 12 may be driven via an eccentric cam mechanism including an eccentric cam 14a and a rod 15 (FIG. 6). The eccentric cam 14a is attached to the rotating shaft 14, and the rod 15
Slidably penetrates the support plate 16 and has a compression spring
15a urges in the direction of the eccentric cam 14a. Although the rotating shaft 14 and the eccentric cam 14a are rotating members, they do not directly drive the sheet-like material S, and therefore need only be extremely small, and the overall size can be reduced to a size almost equal to that of each of the above embodiments. it can. The eccentric cam mechanism is a solenoid 13
Unlike this, there is no possibility of generating excessive noise during operation.

Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, by providing the movable member with the fixed member vibrating between the gripping state and the released state in a vibrating manner, the movable member is reciprocally oscillated relative to the fixed member. Although it is not necessary to use a rotating member as a source of driving force for the sheet-like material, there is an excellent effect that the overall configuration is extremely simple and the size and size can be significantly reduced.

In addition, since the sheet is conveyed while being sandwiched between the fixed member and the movable member that reciprocates with respect to the fixed member, the sheet can be widely used even when the thickness of the sheet changes. Therefore, it is extremely easy to simultaneously mix paper and plastic cards and the like having different thicknesses, and it is not necessary to provide perforations in the sheet material, and there is no risk of damaging the sheet material. There is also a practical effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 to 3 show an embodiment, FIG. 1 is an overall side view, FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view, and FIGS. 3 (A) and 3 (B).
5A and 5B are a waveform diagram of an excitation power supply of a solenoid and a waveform diagram of a change in the feed speed of a sheet-like material, respectively. FIGS. 4 to 6 show a first embodiment showing another embodiment.
FIG. S: sheet-like material 11: fixed member 12: movable member 12b: cushioning material 13: solenoid

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-48-76255 (JP, A) JP-A-50-132658 (JP, A) JP-A-60-257275 (JP, A)

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A fixed member forming a conveying surface of a sheet-like material, and a movable member having a pressing surface with a cushioning material parallel to the fixed member, wherein the movable member is moved by a linear reciprocating motion. Between the gripping state of gripping the sheet-like material and the release state of releasing the sheet-like material in a vibrating manner, and the sheet-like material is moved by at least one of gravity and a component force in the feed direction by the movable member. A sheet feeding mechanism for feeding a sheet in a predetermined feeding direction. 2. The sheet feeding mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said movable member is driven via a solenoid which is excited by a variable frequency power supply. 3. The sheet feeding mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said movable member is driven via an eccentric cam mechanism.