JP3166968B2 - Optical reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical reading apparatus for handling paper sheets having different thicknesses or folded or bent paper sheets, and more particularly, to a broken tip of paper sheets or jams or paper sheets. The present invention relates to an optical reading device that does not change the transport speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an apparatus such as an automatic teller machine used in a financial institution or the like has an optical reading section for reading printed characters or marks of an inserted passbook or the like, and a constant paper distance from the passbook. An optical reading device including a passbook pressing roller that holds and conveys the document is incorporated. The pressing roller protrudes by a predetermined amount into a conveyance path and presses the paper sheet such as a passbook to a paper sheet abutting surface of the optical reading unit and conveys the paper sheet, and rotates following the paper feed. At this time, if the leading end of the paper sheet to be conveyed protrudes into the outer peripheral part of the pressing roller toward or near the center of the pressing roller, the leading end of the paper sheet may be damaged or good conveyance may be performed. May not be possible. For this reason, with respect to the conventional conveyance of this type of paper sheet, for example, when the conveyance direction of the paper sheet is one direction, a conveyance guide or a projection is provided, and the pressing roller is close to the pressing roller with respect to the conveyance direction. Sheets are fed into the nip portion from the front, or the height of the conveyance path immediately before the roller is set to be gradually lower, and is fed into the nip portion of the roller as described above. Documents describing a technique for transporting paper sheets by the pressing roller include, for example, JP-A-6-247581,
JP-A 64-18663 or JP-A 2-2
No. 29063.

[0003]

The transfer of paper sheets according to the prior art is effective only when the transfer direction of the paper sheets is one direction, and is not suitable for the reciprocal transfer of the paper sheets in both directions, that is, the transfer of the paper sheets. Was inviting. Further, in consideration of the reciprocation of the paper sheet, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-24
A mechanism similar to that described in U.S. Patent No. 7581 can be provided by adding the same mechanism to the opposite side of the roller.
This leads to inconveniences that the configuration of the entire device becomes complicated, that the mounting space increases, and that the cost increases. Further, according to JP-A-2-229063, since the height of the conveyance path is fixed by the entry guide, there is a problem that paper sheets having different thicknesses cannot be handled. An object of the present invention is to eliminate the problems caused by the above-mentioned conventional technology, to prevent the mechanism from becoming complicated, to save space, and to achieve good conveyance and reading of printed characters and marks without increasing costs. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical reading device that can perform the reading.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an optical reading apparatus according to the present invention comprises: Inside or a part of the pressing roller that holds and conveys paper sheets, a "part of a circle or an arc" or a "substantially arc formed by a plurality of straight lines" having a diameter much larger than the roller diameter
And a slope cam (4 in FIG. 1) capable of keeping the protrusion height before and after the pressing roller in the conveyance direction. 2. The front and rear ends of the slope cam have a substantially convex shape (4a, 4b in FIG. 1) in which the front and rear ends of the slope cam can be controlled in the amount of protrusion or rotation of the slope cam in the sheet conveyance direction. By being supported only by the roller shaft, it can easily follow the vertical movement of the pressing roller. 3. Stopper for the slope cam (4c, 4d in FIG. 1)
In order to secure the height of the transport path always greater than the maximum thickness of the paper sheets and to control the amount of protrusion of the slope cam to eliminate the transport resistance of the paper sheets, the paper before and after being introduced into the pressing roller Leaves are configured without being pinched between the upper and lower surfaces of the transport path and the slope cam. It is characterized by.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings and embodiments. 1 and 2
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating details of an optical reading unit of the optical reading device according to the embodiment. In FIG. 1, paper sheets 6 are driven by drive rollers 20, 22 and pressure rollers 21, 23.
The paper is transported between the upper surface 8 and the lower surface 5 of the transport path, and is sent to the image scanner 1. At this time, the paper sheet 6 is conveyed while pressing the paper sheet 6 against the glass surface 24 of the image scanner 1 using the pressing roller 2 in order to keep the paper surface distance to the CCD 9 in the image scanner 1 constant. I do.
The pressing roller 2 can rotate around the shaft 10 and move up and down. The pressing force of the pressing roller 2 is
Is applied to the shaft 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the slope cam 4 in this embodiment is mounted between rollers 2a and 2b obtained by dividing the pressing roller 2 and is held by the shaft 10 together with the pressing rollers 2a and 2b. It can move up and down with the lifting force. Since the front and rear ends 4a and 4b of the slope cam are substantially convex, the protrusion amount of the slope cam 4 can be controlled.
Or rotation control is very easy. The maximum amount of protrusion of the pressing rollers 2a and 2b is maintained by maintaining the gap E (= minimum paper thickness) with the glass surface 24 of the image scanner 1 shown in FIG. In addition, jam can be prevented. On the other hand, the maximum protrusion amount of the slope cam 4 maintains the gap F (= maximum paper thickness) with the glass surface 24 by providing the convex stoppers 4c and 4d at the front and rear ends of the slope cam 4. are doing. Thus, when the sheet 6 having the maximum thickness is conveyed, the sheet 6 can be fed to the pressing rollers 2a and 2b without being pinched between the conveying path upper surface 8 and the slope cam 4.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams showing the effect of the slope cam in this embodiment. FIG. 3A shows a configuration using only the pressing roller without using the slope cam of this embodiment, and FIG.
Is a configuration using the slope cam of this embodiment. FIG.
As shown in (a), when the slope cam of the present embodiment is not provided and the paper sheet 6 having a kinks or the pressing roller 2 having a small diameter due to mounting restrictions is used, the tip of the paper sheet 6 is pressed. It may collide with a wedge formed by the outer periphery of the roller 2 and the lower surface 5 of the transport path, and may cause a jam or a skew. In contrast,
By providing the slope cam 4 as shown in FIG. 3B, the leading end of the paper sheet 6 can be guided between the image scanner 1 and the pressing roller 2 to improve the transport performance. Since the slope cam 4 has a substantially symmetrical shape with the shaft 10 as a center, the slope cam 4 is also effective for conveyance in the opposite direction to that described above.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the effect of the slope cam and the space saving in this embodiment. FIG. 4A shows a state in which two slope cams 11 and 12 are mounted near both sides of a pressing roller 13 as in the prior art.
(B) shows a configuration in which one slope cam 4 is mounted between the pressing rollers 2a and 2b of this embodiment. Pressing roller 2
The width W of a and 2b is determined by the visual field range of the image scanner 1. When the width W is relatively small, FIG.
4B, the effect of the slope cam is obtained, but when the width W increases, the sheet 6 immediately before entering the pressing roller 13 in FIG. This causes the paper sheet 6 to curl with a radius R. The curl once generated is held by the left and right slope cams 11 and 12, and in this state, the sheet 6
The buckling resistance in the paper sheet transport direction is increased at the central portion of the pressing roller 13 which hangs down most. FIG. 4 (b)
In this case, even when a curl having a radius R equivalent to that described above occurs, the curl generating portions are located on both sides of the conveyance path, and before and after the paper sheet 6 is introduced into the pressing rollers 2a and 2b, the upper and lower surfaces of the conveyance path and Since it is not pinched by the slope cam 4, the buckling resistance is smaller than that in FIG. That is, the mounting width w of the slope cam 4 of this embodiment is smaller than the pressing roller width W, and is set to a size that does not affect the pressing of the paper sheet 6 in consideration of the rigidity of the paper.

According to this embodiment, the slope cam capable of reciprocating conveyance is provided so as to be driven by the pressing roller, so that the paper sheet conveying performance is improved, and a semi-circular (or By arranging only one (semi-circular) slope cam, it is possible to reduce the spose of the mechanism and suppress an increase in cost. Further, the shape of the slope cam 4 is as shown in FIG.
Considering the shape and cost of the pressing roller, FIG.
The shape is not limited to the substantially arc shape, but may be a set shape of a plurality of straight lines as shown in FIG. The present invention is also applicable to other types of paper jams and rollers used for conveying and separating sheets.
The present invention can be appropriately applied to a device that needs to prevent skew.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, the transporting performance is improved, the mechanism is prevented from being complicated, space is saved, and the thickness and folding of the paper sheet are reduced without increasing the cost. Regardless of the habit and the direction of conveyance, the paper sheets can be smoothly conveyed and sent to the optical reading section, and good conveyance and good reading of characters and marks can be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an optical reading unit of an optical reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a pressing roller mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a first diagram illustrating a paper sheet transport operation and an effect thereof according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a second diagram illustrating a paper sheet transport operation and its effect in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a shape of a slope cam in one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: image scanner, 2: pressing roller, 4: slope cam, 4a, 4b: end of slope cam, 4c, 4
d: Slope cam stopper, 6: paper sheets, 9: CC
D.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── (5) References JP-A-7-29126 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06K 13/063 B65H 5/36 G06T 1 / 00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical reading device comprising: a pressing roller for conveying a paper sheet while keeping a constant distance between the paper sheet and an optical reading unit, wherein the optical reading unit reads characters and marks printed on the paper sheet. Inside or a part of the pressing roller, a slope cam is provided which is disposed lower than the height of the pressing roller in the conveyance path, and the slope cam projects forward and backward of the pressing roller, and has a diameter larger than the diameter of the pressing roller. An optical reader having a substantially arc shape formed by a part of a circle or a plurality of straight lines. 2. A front and rear end portion of the slope cam has a substantially convex shape, and the slope cam is supported by a shaft of the pressing roller and is configured to be able to follow vertical movement of the pressing roller. The optical reading device according to claim 1. 3. The slope cam is provided with a stopper for limiting a protruding height in a conveyance path, and configured to secure a conveyance width equal to or greater than a maximum thickness of the conveyed paper sheets. The optical reader according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: