JP2642550B2 - Medium alignment method and alignment mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an aligning method and an aligning mechanism for correcting the alignment of a medium in a printer, an optical reader or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When recording information on a medium or reading information on the medium, it is necessary to perform a so-called aligning operation for aligning the medium with a reference position. Conventionally, such an aligning technique is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 61-8074.
No. 6 discloses a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. In this method, the alignment is performed by positioning the end of the medium at a fixed reference end.

[0003]

However, in the mechanism disclosed in the above document, the medium is drawn to a side guide which is a reference end, and the medium is aligned based on the end of the medium. Therefore, in the apparatus for performing the medium processing (for example, printing) with reference to the center line 1 of the medium 1 shown in FIG. 5, the aligning mechanism based on the medium end cannot be adopted. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing printing based on the center.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method and a mechanism for realizing alignment based on the center of a medium, thereby realizing highly accurate printing or reading. It is to be.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is an alignment method for moving a medium in a width direction and correcting the alignment of the medium with respect to a predetermined reference with a center reference. , The skew of the medium is removed by rotating the front end of the medium against the medium abutting surface of the shutter protruding into the transport path, and after removing the skew,
This method detects the position of one side end and the other side end of the medium in the width direction, calculates the shift amount of the medium with respect to the center reference, and shifts the medium along the medium abutting surface of the shutter.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an aligning mechanism for moving a medium in a width direction and correcting an alignment with respect to a predetermined reference with respect to a center reference, wherein the medium abuts a shutter provided to be freely protrudable in a transport path. Media sensor from the surface to the upstream side, a pair of skew removing rollers for nipping the medium surface and transporting it to the shutter, side end position detecting means for detecting the side end position of the medium in the width direction, and the medium surface Are arranged in the order of a shift roller that moves the medium in the width direction while nipping the side end of the medium, and the medium is nipped by the skew removing roller and transported toward the shutter, and the medium is detected by the medium sensor. A skew removing means for removing the skew of the medium by driving the medium further by a predetermined amount from the point of time and rotating the tip of the medium against the shutter, and removing the skew after removing the skew - to release the media pinching by La,
The side end position detecting means detects the position of one side end and the other side end in the width direction of the medium, calculates the shift amount of the medium with respect to the center reference, and sets a shift roller having the side end of the medium surface held therebetween. Medium shift means for driving the shift amount to move the medium in the width direction along the medium abutting surface of the shutter.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the skew of the medium is removed by rotating the front end of the medium against the medium abutting surface of the shutter protruding into the conveyance path, and after removing the skew, the width of the medium is reduced. The shift amount of the medium with respect to the center reference is calculated by detecting the positions of one side end and the other side end in the direction, and the medium is shifted along the medium abutting surface of the shutter.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the medium surface is pinched by the pair of skew removing rollers and transported toward the shutter, and is further determined by a predetermined amount from the time when the medium is detected by the medium sensor. The skew of the medium is removed by driving and rotating the tip of the medium against the shutter. After the skew is removed, the medium is released from being held by the skew removal roller, and the width of the medium is detected by the side end position detecting means. The shift amount of the medium with respect to the center reference is calculated by detecting the position of one side end and the other side end in the direction, the side end of the medium surface is sandwiched, the shift roller is driven by the shift amount, and the medium is moved to the shutter medium. Move in the width direction along the abutment surface.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Elements common to the drawings are assigned the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the aligning mechanism of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing the aligning mechanism of the embodiment. First, the structure of the aligning mechanism of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

2 and 3, transport rollers 12a and 12b for transporting the medium 1 and a skew for removing the skew of the medium 1 are provided along the upper surface of the top plate 11 for transporting and guiding the medium 1. Removal rollers 13a, 13b and medium 1
The shift rollers 14a and 14b for shifting in the width direction are provided rotatably. Transport rollers 12a,
The roller 12b and the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b are driven by a motor (not shown), and the upper rollers 12a and 13a are separated from the lower rollers 12b and 13b by solenoids 15 and 16, respectively. Has become.
The shift rollers 14a and 14b are rotationally driven by a motor 17 shown in FIG. 3, and the upper shift roller 14a is also separated from the lower roller 14b by a solenoid 18.

A sensor carriage 19 is provided between the transport roller 12a and the shift roller 14a by shafts 20a and 20b.
Is slidably mounted on. Sensor carriage 19
Is fixed to the belt 21 and moves in the width direction of the medium 1 by the rotation of the motor 22. As shown in FIG. 2, a shield plate 23 is attached to an end of the sensor carriage 19 so as to block an optical path of a home position sensor 24 provided on the top plate 11. A black reflection plate 25 is provided below the sensor carriage 19, and a reflection sensor is built in the sensor carriage 19.

On the right side of the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b, transmission sensors 26a and 26b are provided as medium sensors, and detect the presence or absence of the medium 1. Further on the right side thereof, a shutter 27 is provided as shown in FIG.
1 is attached to the upper surface so as to be freely protruded. Shutter 2
Numeral 7 is moved up and down by being guided by a guide 29 by a solenoid 28, and projects upward on the upper surface of the top plate 11 when it moves upward to close the transport path of the medium 1.

Next, the electrical structure of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a control section 31 controls the operation of the entire medium aligning mechanism according to the present embodiment. The control unit 31 is connected to two transmission sensors 26, the home position sensor 24, and the reflection sensor 32 built in the sensor carriage 19, and receives a detection signal of each sensor. Control unit 3
1 is connected to motor drive circuits 33, 34, 35, 36, and the motor drive circuit 33 is connected to the transport rollers 12a,
The motor 37 drives the motor 37 that rotates the 12b, and the motor drive circuit 34 drives the motor 38 that rotates the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b. The motor drive circuit 35 is shown in FIG.
The motor 17 shown in FIG.
Is driven. The control unit 31 controls the driving of each of the solenoids 15, 16, 18, and 28 shown in FIG.

The control section 31 has a memory 39 and a counter 4
0 and an operation unit 41 are provided.

The operation of the embodiment having the above structure is mainly shown in FIG.
This will be described according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The medium 1 is transported by the transport rollers 12a and 12b in the direction of arrow A shown in FIG. At this time, FIG.
The upper shift roller 14a and the upper skew removing roller 13a are separated from the lower rollers 14b and 13b by solenoids 18 and 16, respectively.
The medium 1 can be transported. When the leading end of the medium 1 has passed the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b, the transport rollers 12a and 12b are stopped. Here solenoid 2
8, the shutter 27 is raised (step 1).

Next, the solenoid 16 is turned on, and the upper skew removing roller 13a is pressed against the medium 1, and
The solenoid 15 is turned off and the upper conveying roller 12a is separated from the medium 1. Next, the controller 31 drives the motor 38 via the motor drive circuit 34 to rotate the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 3 (step 2). Accordingly, the medium 1 advances in the direction of arrow A and passes between the transmission sensors 26a and 26b. When it is confirmed that the medium 1 has passed between the two sensors 26a and 26b shown in FIG. 2 (step 3), the control unit 31 rotates the skew removing rollers 13a and 13b by a predetermined amount (step 4). . In this case, the rotation amount is a rotation amount sufficient for the leading end of the medium 1 to hit the shutter 27.
The skew is removed by abutting the leading end of the medium 1 on the two shutters 27.

Next, the controller 31 sets the solenoid 16 to the OF position.
F, the upper skew removing roller 13a is separated from the medium 1, and then the motor 22 is rotated via the motor driving circuit 36 (step 5), and the sensor is rotated until the shielding plate 23 shown in FIG. Carriage 19
Is moved in the width direction of the medium 1. When the home position sensor 24 detects the shield plate 23 (step 6), the sensor carriage 19 is moved in the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. At this time, the counter 40 in the control unit 31 counts the number of pulses of the motor 22 (Step 7). When the reflection sensor 32 in the sensor carriage 19 detects the side end 1a of the medium 1 (step 8), the number of pulses counted so far is stored in the memory 39 in the control unit 31 (step 9).

The sensor carriage 19 is continuously moving, and the number of pulses of the motor 22 is also continuously counted (step 10). Then, the reflection sensor 32
When the other side end 1b (shown in FIG. 2) is detected (step 11), the number of pulses counted up to that point is
1 is stored in the memory 39 (step 12).

Thereafter, the movement of the sensor carriage 19 is stopped, the control section 31 reads out the respective count numbers stored in step 9 and step 12, and the arithmetic section 41 calculates the position in the width direction of the medium 1 and the medium 1 based on both count numbers.
Is calculated. Then, the amount of deviation between the center position of the range in the medium width direction of printing or reading as a medium processing operation performed after the aligning operation and the center position in the width direction of the medium 1 is calculated, and the amount of deviation is calculated by shifting the medium 1 The amount is output to the motor drive circuit 35 (step 13). The shift motor 17 shifts the shift rollers 14a,
14b (at this time, the upper shift roller 14a
Is in contact with the medium 1) (step 14), and moves the medium 1 in the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. 2 or in the opposite direction (step 15). As a result, the center position in the width direction of the medium 1 matches the center position in the medium width direction of printing or reading. Thereafter, the control unit 31 turns off the solenoid 28, opens the shutter 27, and enables the conveyance of the medium 1.

[0023]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, skew removal of a medium, detection of a medium width and a position in a width direction,
In addition, by combining the three operations of the width direction position correction, aligning based on the medium center can be performed. Thus, the printing position or the reading position can be made highly accurate in the center-based medium processing device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the aligning mechanism of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the aligning mechanism of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing printing based on a center;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Medium 12a, 12b Transport roller 13a, 13b Skew removal roller 14a, 14b Shift roller 19 Sensor carriage 26a, 26b Transmission sensor 27 Shutter 31 Control unit 32 Reflection sensor

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An aligning method for moving a medium in a width direction and correcting an alignment of the medium with respect to a predetermined reference with a center reference, wherein the medium is positioned on a medium abutting surface of a shutter protruding into a transport path. The skew of the medium is removed by abutting and rotating the tip, and after the skew is removed, the position of one side end and the other side end in the width direction of the medium is detected to calculate the shift amount of the medium with respect to the center reference. And aligning the medium along the medium abutting surface of the shutter. 2. An aligning mechanism for moving a medium in a width direction and correcting an alignment with respect to a predetermined reference with respect to a center reference, wherein the shutter is provided on a conveyance path and is upstream from a medium abutting surface of a shutter. A medium sensor, a pair of skew removing rollers for nipping the medium surface and transporting the medium toward the shutter, a side end position detecting means for detecting a side end position in the width direction of the medium, and a side end of the medium surface. Shift row for pinching and moving the medium in the width direction
The medium is pinched by the skew removing roller and transported toward the shutter. The medium is further driven by a predetermined amount from the time when the medium is detected by the medium sensor. A skew removing means for removing skew of the medium by abutting rotation of the medium; and, after removing the skew, releasing the medium by the skew removing roller. The shift amount of the medium with respect to the above-mentioned center reference is calculated by detecting the position of the side end and the other end, and the shift roller that holds the side end of the medium surface is driven by the shift amount, and the medium is ejected by the shutter. An aligning mechanism comprising: a medium shift unit configured to move in a width direction along a contact surface.