JP2705902B2 - Thickness inspection device for inclusions - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an enclosure thickness inspection apparatus, and more particularly to an enclosure thickness inspection apparatus suitable for inspection of the thickness of an envelope in which contents are enclosed by an enclosure machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to save labor and streamline the work of sending postal matter and the like, a predetermined number of documents to be sent are put together in an envelope and then sealed. Machine (mail processing system) has been developed.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of such an automatic enclosing and sealing machine, and FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view showing a part of a continuous form used in the automatic enclosing and sealing machine. This enclosing and sealing machine includes a sheet cutting device 101, a pool device 102, an enclosed material supply device 103, a sheet enclosing device 1
04, a thickness inspection device 105 is provided, and operations in these devices 101 to 105 are controlled by a control device (not shown) and are automatically performed.

In the cutting apparatus 101, a continuous form LS shown in FIG. 6 is operated by a cutter (not shown).
Are cut separately for each form L having a length L on which an address is printed, and the form S is sequentially conveyed to the next pool apparatus 102 by conveyance rollers (not shown). In this pooling apparatus 102, the forms S are stacked on a belt conveyor by conveying rollers (not shown) and pooled, and when it reaches a predetermined amount (number of copies), the belt conveyor is driven and the next enclosed It is transported to the article supply device 103.

[0005] In the enclosed material supply device 103, the form S is sent by the transport roller, and (1) to
From the cassette of (3), a common enclosure (here, D ₁ , D
₂ ) are sequentially stacked, and the next encapsulating device 104
Transported to

In this enclosing device 104, the form S and the enclosed objects D ₁ and D ₂ are inserted into the envelope E sent from the upper cassette, and the next thickness inspection device 105 is inserted as an enclosed object.
And the whole thickness is measured. Thereafter, the envelope E is sealed by a gluing device (not shown).

[0007] The conventional thickness inspection apparatus 105 applied to the above-mentioned enclosing and sealing machine is, as shown in FIG.
04 to determine whether or not the contents are correctly enclosed by measuring the thickness of the entire enclosure in which the contents such as the form S are placed in an envelope by the enclosing device 104. It is used for

As shown in FIG. 7, a schematic configuration of a specific example of the above thickness inspection apparatus is shown in FIG. 7, in which the inclusion E 'conveyed from the encapsulation apparatus 104 is carried into the inspection position and transported therefrom. Device 10, a thickness sensor 12 for measuring the thickness of the enclosure E 'at the inspection position, and a thickness inspection device 10
5 is provided with a control circuit 14 centered on a microcomputer for controlling the whole, and an operation panel 16 in which functions for operating the thickness inspection device 105 are integrated.

The operation panel 16 is used by an operator to input data and information necessary for operating the thickness inspection device 105 to the control circuit 14 and to execute teaching described in detail below. The operation panel 16 has a display function, and can display a teaching state described later on the display.

In the thickness inspection device 105, when the teaching input of the reference data described below is performed on the operation panel 16 and the thickness of the enclosure is detected from the input reference data, the thickness is determined based on the thickness of the enclosure. It is possible to instruct calculation and setting of a normal thickness range used for determining whether the number of target objects is correct or not.

First, for the sake of convenience, a case where only one form (object) having the same thickness is enclosed in all envelopes is described as an example. The calculation for obtaining the range will be described. However, D shown in FIG.
_1, common enclosures such as D ₂ is not included in the number.

The reference data to be taught in this case is a reference thickness A and an upper limit thickness B.

In the teaching of the reference thickness A, an envelope (enclosure) E 'in which correct contents (one sheet S and the same enclosure) are enclosed is placed under the thickness sensor 12 as shown in FIG. Then, the thickness of the enclosure E 'is actually measured, and the result is input to the control circuit 14 and stored in the memory.

Next, one sheet S is added to the correctly enclosed envelope used for the measurement of the reference thickness A, and a teaching sheet having an upper limit thickness P is placed under the thickness sensor 12 in the same manner. Is measured, and the result is similarly stored in the memory.

Next, the reference thickness A input by teaching,
The normal thickness range is calculated using the upper limit thickness B. FIG. 8 shows (1) and (2) the relative relationship between the reference thickness A and the upper limit thickness B that have been taught. Also, in this figure, (3) means the lower limit thickness, which is calculated by the following equation.

Lower limit thickness = reference thickness A− (upper limit thickness B−reference thickness A)

After the value of the lower limit thickness C is determined as described above, a margin is set on each of the upper limit side and the lower limit side in order to determine the normal thickness range. Here, 45% when (upper limit thickness B-reference thickness A) is set to 100% is set as the upper limit margin amount of the normal thickness range, and when (lower limit thickness C-reference thickness A) is set to 100%. 50% is set as the lower limit margin amount of the normal thickness range, and each is set as the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the normal thickness range.

In the thickness inspecting apparatus 105, when the enclosing object in which one sheet S is enclosed is actually measured by the thickness sensor 12, the thickness measurement data is sent to the control circuit 14,
If the measured data (detected value) is within the normal thickness range shown by (7) in FIG. 8, it is determined to be normal by the determination function programmed in the control circuit 14, and normal as shown in (6). If the upper limit of the thickness range is exceeded,
If the lower limit is exceeded, as in (8), the operation is stopped as an error and appropriate measures are taken.

As described in detail above, in the conventional thickness inspection apparatus, teaching for measuring the reference thickness A and the upper limit thickness B is performed, and the upper and lower margins are set to set a normal thickness range. Thus, during operation, the thickness of the sequentially inserted enclosure is measured, and the thickness is compared with the normal thickness range to discriminate between the normal enclosure and the other enclosures.

In the above-mentioned enclosing and sealing machine, a plurality of forms S are enclosed in the same envelope (hereinafter also referred to as "name merging").
In some cases, the number of sheets to be enclosed differs for each envelope.

When a plurality of forms S are automatically enclosed in the same envelope as described above, the OM
Continuous form L with R (Optical Mark Reader) sensor
It is read from the OMR mark printed on each form S of S whether or not to perform name identification. In the case of name identification, the number of sheets is cut, the stacking is performed by the pool device 102, and then the paper is similarly conveyed to the downstream side.

As described above, the normal thickness range when the form S is merged is set with margins on the upper and lower sides from the normal thickness, as in the case shown in FIG. However, the normal thickness at that time is a series of enclosing work (1 job)
Create an enclosure enclosing the form with the maximum number of merged sheets known in the above, measure its thickness (maximum merged thickness C), and when merging from 2 to (maximum merged number -1), The thickness C is set at a value obtained by linear interpolation.

Therefore, the conventional thickness inspection apparatus uses, for example, the aforementioned reference thickness A, the upper limit thickness B, and the name identification process as reference data necessary for setting a normal thickness range to be used as a criterion in the thickness inspection. If you want to do, the maximum thickness C
It is necessary to perform teaching such as (the thickness of the enclosure of the maximum number of merged sheets).

[0024]

However, the conventional thickness inspection apparatus has a problem in inputting the teaching data of the reference data.
Since the teaching situation at that time is not known, for example, at least one of the reference data such as (1) the reference thickness A, (2) the upper limit thickness B, and the maximum identification thickness C has not been taught, or Are input, but the contents of the input data are inconsistent, such as (4) the reference thickness A is larger than the upper limit thickness B, and (5) the reference thickness A is larger than the maximum identification thickness C, that is, teaching. However, there is a problem that the execution of the enclosing work is started before the completion of the work, and as a result, an error of the thickness inspection occurs, and the work has to be stopped halfway.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and is based on the thickness of the detected enclosure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thickness inspection apparatus capable of reliably inputting reference data necessary for calculating a reference range for determining whether a sealing object is right or wrong.

[0026]

According to the present invention, there is provided a thickness sensor for detecting the thickness of an enclosing object created by an automatic enclosing apparatus which is sequentially conveyed, and the thickness detected by the thickness sensor is set. In a thickness inspection apparatus for an enclosure, comprising: a determination unit for determining whether the thickness is within a normal thickness range; and a teaching unit for inputting a plurality of reference data required for calculating the normal thickness range. Has a function of determining whether or not all the reference data has been input, a function of determining the magnitude of a numerical value between the input reference data, and a function of displaying a teaching situation from both the determination results. Thereby, the above-mentioned problem has been solved.

According to the present invention, in the above-described thickness inspection apparatus, the reference data is obtained by measuring a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosed object in which one object is enclosed by a thickness sensor, and by actually adding one object to the reference thickness. This is the upper limit thickness.

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned thickness inspection apparatus, the reference data is obtained by measuring a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosed object in which one object is enclosed by a thickness sensor and by adding one object to the reference thickness. The upper limit thickness and the maximum measured thickness of an enclosure in which the maximum number of objects in a series of enclosure operations are enclosed.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the teaching means provided in the thickness inspection apparatus has a function of determining whether all the reference data have been input and a function of determining the magnitude of the numerical value between the input reference data. And the function of displaying the teaching means status from the above both determination results, so that the operator can easily determine whether or not the teaching of the reference data has not been completed by looking at the display before starting the work. If there is reference data for which teaching has not been completed, the reference data can be taught while looking at the screen. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the operation from being started without the teaching being completed, so that the automatic enclosing operation can be started smoothly and the operation can be performed accurately.

In the present invention, when the reference data is a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosing object in which one object is enclosed by a thickness sensor and an upper limit thickness obtained by actually adding one object to this, It is possible to accurately cope with the case where the number of objects to be enclosed is one.

Further, in the present invention, the reference data is a series of a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosure containing one object by a thickness sensor, an upper limit thickness obtained by actually adding one object to the enclosure, and If the maximum thickness is the actual measured thickness of the enclosed object that encapsulates the maximum number of objects in the enclosing operation, the reference thickness used to calculate the normal thickness range at the time of name identification can be obtained from the maximum thickness by linear interpolation. Therefore, it is possible to accurately cope with the case where the inclusion target is identified.

[0032]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are flowcharts showing a processing procedure of a teaching check executed by the thickness inspection apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of transition of a screen displayed on a display included in the thickness inspection device.

The thickness inspection apparatus of this embodiment is applied to the enclosing and sealing machine shown in FIG. 5 and is provided to the CPU of the control circuit 14 shown in FIG. Except that a teaching check function executed in accordance with the above-described procedure is input as a program.
5 and substantially the same.

In this thickness detecting device, as operation keys,
Arrow keys in up, down, left, and right directions, an F1 key for selecting an operation mode such as switching between continuous, one cycle, and work completion; an F2 key for selecting execution of thickness measurement (transition to a thickness measurement execution screen); An F3 key for selecting a transition to a user setting screen, a start key for selecting an execution operation start (transition to an execution screen, a task end selection screen), and a stop key for selecting invalidity are provided.

The reference data to be taught by the thickness inspection apparatus of this embodiment is a reference thickness A, an upper limit thickness B, and a maximum alignment thickness C.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes an execution standby screen indicating that the apparatus is in a standby state. In the state of the standby screen, the following operations are possible. Each operation is executed by selecting continuous, one cycle, and end of business with the F1 key and pressing the start key. However, when the execution of the work end is selected, the screen shifts to a work end selection screen (not shown) by pressing the start key, and further, “cancel” (F1), “normal end” (F2), “system reset” ( By selecting any one of F3) and pressing the start key, each work end operation is executed.

When the F2 key is pressed, the thickness at the measuring section is measured and the measurement result is displayed. The measurement result indicates the deviation from the last measured value and the reference value.

When the F3 key is pressed, a transition can be made to "set unit position", which is the first screen of the user settings, and a transition can be made to the "setup menu" with the stop key + F3 key. In addition, the screen can be changed to this screen by stopping the execution operation during the execution, and when an error occurs during the execution, the screen is changed to the main screen by recovery.

From the standby screen, as indicated by the finger mark, the user can transit to any of the teaching preparation screens indicated by 2.1 to 2.6 with the left arrow key. You can also return to the screen.

At the stage of the standby screen, if teaching of the reference thickness, the upper limit thickness, and the maximum identification thickness (only in the case of performing identification) has already been performed without contradiction, the display transits to the execution preparation screen 2.6 indicating completion of teaching. Then, an allowable thickness range (corresponding to a normal thickness range when one enclosed form is used) is displayed on the screen.

However, if any of the teachings has not been completed, according to the flowcharts of FIGS.
Incomplete information as shown in the execution preparation screens of 2.1 to 2.5 is displayed. In this case, the display form of the incomplete information is as follows.
As shown in the preparation screen 1, the “reference”, “upper thickness”, and “maximum identification thickness” are respectively referred to as “reference” from the left,
Items such as “upper limit” and “nayoro” are displayed, and items for which teaching has been completed are indicated by. In addition, 2.1-
2.3 is an example of a display screen on which teaching has not been completed.
4 and 2.5 are examples of a warning display screen.

Next, a description will be given of a teaching check procedure executed in this embodiment with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In this flowchart, A, B, C
Means the reference thickness, the upper limit thickness, and the maximum identification thickness as described above. Here, defining the meaning of the symbols used in the flowchart, A> 0 means that teaching of the reference thickness has been completed, A = 0 means that the teaching has not been completed, and the same applies to B and C. Is the meaning of C1 is 1
The maximum number of merges in the job is indicated, and C1 = 1 indicates that no merge is performed.

First, in S1, it is determined whether or not to perform name identification. If there is no name identification, it is determined whether or not the reference thickness has been taught in S2, and teaching has not been completed (A =
In the case of (0), it is further determined in S3 whether or not the upper limit thickness has been taught, and if teaching has not been completed (B = 0), it is determined that all teaching has not been completed and the screen of 2.1 is displayed ( If the teaching is completed (Y) in S3 and the teaching is completed (Y) in S3, the screen of 2.3 is displayed as teaching not completed by the reference thickness (however, the display of the name identification is ignored).

If the teaching of the reference thickness has been completed in S2, it is determined in S4 that teaching of the upper limit thickness has been completed. If not completed (B = 0), the teaching of the upper limit thickness has not been completed and 2.2 The screen is displayed (however,
Ignore name identification). If the teaching is completed (Y) in S4, it is determined whether or not the upper limit thickness is larger than the reference thickness in S5. If not (B ≦ A), the screen of 2.4 is displayed, and the reference is set based on the upper limit thickness. A warning is issued that the teaching content is inconsistent because the thickness is larger, and if it is appropriate (Y) in S5, it is determined that all teaching has been completed.
The screen of No. 6 is displayed, and the check is completed.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S1 that there is a name identification, as shown in FIG. 2, it is determined in S6 that the teaching of the reference thickness has been completed, and if not, in S7 it is determined that the teaching of the upper limit thickness has been completed. If it is not completed here, S8
It is determined that the teaching of the name identification is completed. If the teaching is not completed, the screen of 2.1 is displayed (circled number 0). If the teaching is completed (Y) in S8, the teaching of the reference thickness and the upper limit thickness is not completed. A screen (not shown) indicating the presence is displayed.

If the result is appropriate (Y) in S7, it is determined in S9 that the teaching of the maximum matching thickness C is completed, and if not (C
= 0), a screen (not shown) is displayed indicating that the teaching thickness has not been completed for the reference thickness, and the appropriate thickness (T) indicates that teaching has not been completed for the reference thickness. .3 screen is displayed.

If the teaching of the reference thickness has been completed in S6, it is determined that the teaching of the upper limit thickness has been completed in S10, and if the teaching has not been completed, the teaching of the maximum matching thickness is determined in S11. This has not been completed (C =
In the case of 0), it is determined that teaching has not been completed for the upper limit thickness and the maximum identification thickness, and the screen of 2.2 is displayed, and S11 is displayed.
When the teaching is completed (Y), a screen (not shown) in which the teaching is not completed by the upper limit thickness is displayed.

If the teaching of the upper limit thickness has been completed in S10, it is determined in S12 that the teaching of the maximum identification thickness has been completed, and if not completed (C = 0), the upper limit thickness input in S13 is equal to the reference thickness. Is greater than or equal to
If not (B ≦ A), the screen display of 2.4 is performed,
A warning is issued that the contents are inconsistent, and if it is appropriate (Y), the display screen (not shown) is displayed in which the teaching of the maximum matching thickness has not been completed.

If the teaching of the maximum thickness is completed in S12, it is determined in S14 whether the upper limit thickness is larger than the reference thickness. If B ≦ A, the reference thickness is larger than the upper limit thickness. The displayed screen is displayed. If the upper limit thickness is larger than the reference thickness in S14,
In S15, it is determined whether or not the maximum merged thickness is larger than the reference thickness. If not (C ≦ A), a screen of 2.5 indicating that the standard is larger than the merged name is displayed, and the appropriate (Y) is displayed. If the teaching is completed.

The teaching criteria for the teaching situation in the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 and 2 described above are summarized as follows from 0 to 9. This number corresponds to (circle number 0) to shown in the flowchart.

0: Teaching not completed in all A = 0, B = 0, C = 0 1: Teaching not completed in upper limit thickness and maximum unified thickness A> 0, B = 0, C = 0, C1> 1 2: Reference B> 0, A = 0, C = 0, C1> 13 3: Teaching not complete B> A, A> 0, C = 0, C1> 14 Teaching not completed for reference thickness and upper limit thickness A = 0, B = 0, C> 0 or (C = 0, C1 = 1) 5: Teaching not completed for upper limit thickness B = 0, A> 0, C> 0 or (C = 0, C1 = 1) 6: Teaching not completed for the reference thickness A = 0, B> 0, C> 0 or (C = 0, C1 = 1) 7: The reference thickness is larger than the maximum unified thickness C1 > 1, A> C, C> 08 8: The reference thickness is larger than the upper limit thickness A> B, A> 0 C1 = 1 or (C1> 1, C> A) 9: still teaching incomplete Other

The incomplete teaching in the above 9 indicates that the corresponding data has been input, but the teaching is not completed due to inconsistency in the contents.

As described in detail above, according to the present embodiment, the user has to remember only the unfinished items among the reference thickness, the upper limit thickness, and the maximum identification thickness, without having to remember the items that have not been taught yet. Teaching can be performed, and the reliability of the work can be greatly improved.

Further, even when teaching is performed with the items of the reference thickness, the upper limit thickness, and the maximum identification thickness wrong, the magnitude relation of each is checked and a warning is displayed, so that a highly safe inspection can be performed.

In the thickness inspection apparatus of this embodiment, the necessary processing must be performed before starting a teaching job for inspecting the thickness of the enclosure. In this case, the teaching value is cleared when the job ends. By doing so, when a new job is started while the standby screen is displayed on the thickness inspection apparatus, the warning lamp is turned on by utilizing the fact that the teaching value is 0, and In the screen of 3-1, "Measurement result 0.00
(Mm) + 0 (%) "is displayed instead of" Please perform teaching. "This also makes it possible to confirm that teaching has not been completed.

Although the present invention has been specifically described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

For example, although the case where the thickness inspection device is installed behind the sealing device has been shown, it may be provided after the sealing machine, and the thickness of the sealed inclusion may be inspected.

The reference data for teaching is not limited to the data shown in the above embodiment. For example, in the case of name identification, an enclosure may be prepared for each number of sheets and the thickness thereof may be taught.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to input teaching data necessary for calculating a reference range for judging the correctness of the object to be sealed from the detected thickness of the sealed object. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the operation from being started without the teaching being completed, so that the automatic enclosing operation can be started smoothly and the operation can be performed accurately.

Further, according to the present invention, the reference data is a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosed object in which one object is enclosed by a thickness sensor and an upper limit thickness actually measured by adding one object to the enclosed object. In this case, it is possible to accurately cope with the teaching check when the number of the objects to be enclosed is one.

Further, according to the present invention, the reference data includes: a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosed object in which one object is enclosed by a thickness sensor; an upper limit thickness obtained by adding one object to the enclosed object; In the case of the maximum measured thickness of the inclusion that encapsulates the maximum number of objects in a series of sealing operations, the reference thickness used to calculate the normal thickness range at the time of the name identification is obtained from the maximum comparison thickness by linear interpolation. Therefore, it is possible to accurately cope with a teaching check when a name of an enclosing object is identified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a teaching check executed in an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is another flowchart showing a processing procedure of a teaching check executed in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a transition relationship of a teaching screen.

FIG. 4 is another explanatory diagram showing a transition relationship of the teaching screen.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional enclosing and sealing machine and a processing flow.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a continuous form.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a thickness inspection device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between a teaching thickness, a normal thickness range, and a detected value.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Conveying apparatus 12 ... Thickness sensor 14 ... Control circuit 16 ... Operation panel A ... Reference thickness B ... Upper limit thickness C ... Maximum merged thickness C1 ... Maximum merged number

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A thickness sensor for detecting the thickness of an enclosing object created by an automatic enclosing device sequentially conveyed, and whether or not the thickness detected by the thickness sensor falls within a set normal thickness range. In a thickness inspection apparatus for an enclosure, comprising: a determination unit for determining whether or not a plurality of reference data required for calculating the normal thickness range are provided, the teaching unit receives all reference data. It is characterized by having a function of determining whether or not the input has been performed, a function of determining the magnitude of a numerical value between the input reference data, and a function of displaying a teaching situation from the above determination results. Thickness inspection device for inclusions. 2. The reference data according to claim 1, wherein the reference data is a reference thickness actually measured by a thickness sensor of an enclosure in which one object is enclosed, and an upper limit thickness measured by adding one object to the enclosure. A thickness inspection device for inclusions. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reference data includes: a reference thickness obtained by actually measuring an enclosed object enclosing one object by a thickness sensor; and an upper limit thickness obtained by actually adding one object to the enclosed object. A thickness inspection device for an enclosed material, wherein the thickness of the enclosed material is the maximum thickness obtained by actually measuring the enclosed material in which the maximum number of objects are enclosed in the enclosing operation.