JP3475902B2 - Paper transport device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper sheet conveying apparatus, and more particularly to a paper sheet conveying apparatus suitable for carrying a letter, a postcard or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A paper sheet conveying device is, for example, as a part of sorting work of mail, and sequentially takes out a number of paper sheets such as postcards and sealed letters arranged in a state in which paper surfaces are overlapped and a predetermined destination. It is used when transporting to.

The conventional paper sheet conveying apparatus is the actual flat sheet 1-11.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 1858, a plurality of fork members that circulate and drive a drive path that partially overlaps a paper sheet conveyance path, a motor and a chain drive unit that urges the circulation operation, and a drive unit are provided. It is mainly composed of a supporting frame.

In addition, along with the horizontally set conveying path, innumerable paper sheets are arranged so that the paper surfaces overlap with each other, and a fork member that is circulated drives the paper sheets. It is pressed and conveyed from the back to the take-out means side. The take-out means takes out innumerable paper sheets that have been conveyed in sequence from the conveyance path and sends them out to the downstream side.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the fork member is circulated along the annular drive path, when the fork member comes close to the end after moving along the transport path, the fork member will be removed. The detachment from the transport path is started to avoid contact with the takeout means. For this reason,
For the paper sheets interposed between the fork member and the take-out means, the pressing force of the fork member toward the take-out means decreases as the remaining number of sheets decreases, and the last take-out of the paper sheets by the take-out means is performed. There was a possibility that it will not be done reliably.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper sheet transporting apparatus which can improve the disadvantages of the conventional example and can accurately perform the take-out operation up to the last sheet of paper sheet. .

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a plurality of paper sheets are provided toward a take-out means for taking out the paper sheets, which are conveyed at the end of the paper sheet conveyance path, one by one from the conveyance path. A paper sheet transporting device for transporting paper sheets, comprising: a fork member that moves along a transport path and collectively presses and transports a plurality of paper sheets from behind toward a take-out means; A drive unit that circulates along an annular drive path, a portion of which is along the transport path, and a frame body that supports the drive unit are provided.

Further, the fork member has a protruding portion that is in a cantilever state and is in contact with the paper surface of the paper sheet. Further, in addition to the above-described respective configurations, a configuration is provided in which a tilting biasing unit that biases a tilting operation in which the tip of the protrusion is tilted toward the fetching unit side is provided at least in the vicinity of the fetching unit and before this. I am collecting.

According to the above construction, innumerable paper sheets are all arranged on the conveying path with the paper surfaces of the paper sheets in the conveying direction being substantially vertical and the paper surfaces of the sheets overlapping each other. The fork member pushes the article from the rear side toward the take-out means side through the protrusion, so that the article is conveyed along the conveying path.

As a result, the take-out means takes out the sheets at the beginning one by one from the conveying path and sends the taken-out sheets to the next destination. As this progresses in sequence, the number of paper sheets between the protrusion of the fork member and the take-out means gradually decreases. Further, since the fork member is circulatively driven along the annular drive path, the fork member gradually starts to separate from the transport path as it approaches the take-out means.

However, as the fork member approaches the take-out means, the tilting biasing means tilts the tip of the projection of the fork member toward the take-out means. The paper sheets are continuously pressed against the take-out means. Therefore, all the paper sheets between the fork member and the take-out means are taken out from the conveying path by the take-out means.

Here, the above-mentioned fork member may be structured such that the entire fork member is rotatably supported by the drive means in a direction in which the tip of the projection is inclined toward the take-out means.

Further, the above-mentioned tilt urging means meshes with a rack gear mounted on the frame along the drive path of the fork member at a position near the end of the conveying path, and a rack gear rotatably mounted on the fork member. The pinion gear and a resistor that gives a resistance to the rotational movement of the pinion gear with respect to the fork member are provided, and the pinion gear has a direction of a moment received from the rack gear and a direction in which the tip of the protrusion is inclined toward the take-out means. You may equip a fork member so that it may correspond.

According to this structure, when the fork member approaches the end of the paper sheet conveyance path, the pinion gear mounted on the fork member meshes with the rack gear mounted on the frame body to urge the rotational movement. To be done. At this time, since the resistance force of the resistor is applied to the rotation operation of the pinion gear, the moment in the same direction as the rotation of the pinion gear is applied to the fork member as a reaction force thereof. Therefore, due to the engagement of the pinion gear, the tip of the projection of the fork member is urged to rotate toward the take-out member, and the pressing operation of the paper sheet can be performed.

A rotary damper may be used as the resistor of the above-mentioned tilt urging means.

Further, the above-mentioned drive means may be configured to include an endless belt or chain to which a fork member is connected, a pulley, and a drive source for the pulley.

Further, a plurality of fork members may be provided at a uniform interval along the annular drive path.

The present invention is intended to achieve the above-mentioned object by each of the above-mentioned configurations.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a paper sheet transporting device 10 according to the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a main part, and FIG. 3 is a front view of the main part. This paper sheet conveying device 10
Conveys a plurality of paper sheets S toward a take-out means T that takes out the paper sheets S that are conveyed at the end of the straight conveyance path H of the paper sheets S one by one from the conveyance path. .

Further, the paper sheet transporting device 10 moves along the transporting path H and presses the plurality of paper sheets S together from the back toward the take-out means T and transports them. The fork member 20 is provided with a drive unit 30 that circulates along an annular drive path, a portion of which is along the transport path H, and a frame body 40 that supports the drive unit 30.

Each section will be described in detail below. First, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the fork member 20 includes a fork main body 21 supported by the driving means 30, and a connecting body 22, which connects the fork main body 21 to chains 31 and 32 of the driving means 30, which will be described later. 23, and a projection 24 that comes into contact with the paper surface of the paper sheet S that is projectingly mounted on the fork body 21 in a cantilevered state.

The fork body 21 is an inverted J-shaped structure, and has two protrusions 24 at the front portion in the transport direction E.
Are installed upright along the vertical direction (vertical direction in FIG. 3). On both sides of the fork member 20 (both sides in the horizontal direction and in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction E; both sides in the vertical direction in FIG. 2), the chains 31 and 32 of the driving means 30 sandwich the fork member 30. It is arranged on the frame body 40. The fork body 21 is
These chains 31 and 32 are connected to each other via connecting members 22 and 23. Each of the connecting bodies 22 and 23 is horizontally mounted and rotatably mounted on the fork main body 21 about a direction (vertical direction in FIG. 2) which is perpendicular to the transport direction E, and each chain 31 , 32 are also connected. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the connecting body 22 is reciprocally supported by the fork main body 21 along an elongated hole extending in a substantially vertical direction. With such a structure, the connecting body 22 is supported by the driving means 30. Nevertheless, the entire fork member 20 is rotatable about the connecting body 23 as a central axis in the direction C in which the tip of the projection 24 is inclined toward the take-out means T side.

Next, the drive means 30 includes endless chains 31 and 32 for carrying the fork member 20, and pulleys 33 for the chains 31 and 32 rotatably supported by the side plates 41 and 42 of the frame 40, respectively. , 34 and a drive motor 35 for urging the conveying operation of the chain 31 via the pulley 34.
It has a configuration that includes and.

The chain 31 (32) has four pulleys 33.
The configuration of (34) determines the shape of the transport path. In the paper sheet transporting device 10, the transporting paths of the chains 31 and 32 are set to be substantially rectangular according to the shape of the frame body 40. Therefore, the annular drive path of the fork member 20 is also set to have the same shape. Further, the pulleys 33, 34 are arranged and set so that one side of the rectangular shape of the drive path is close to and parallel to the above-described transport path H of the paper sheet S. That is, the frame body 4
Since the paper sheets S are conveyed along the upper part of 0, the frame 40
Pulleys 33 and 34 are arranged at both upper ends of the sheet and along the transport direction S, respectively. Therefore, the fork member 20 moves along the transport path H in a part of its drive path and then separates downward.

Further, although they are conveyed along the drive paths having the same shape and in the same direction, the drive paths of the chain 31 and the chain 32 are arranged offset.
Therefore, each chain 31, 32 is connected to the connecting body 22,
The fork member 20 connected via the
4 will always be conveyed in the same direction.

The fork member 20 is for each chain 3
A plurality of pieces are provided at even intervals along 1, 32.

The frame 40 is a lattice-shaped structure, and the entire shape is set to a rectangular parallelepiped. Then, innumerable paper sheets S are placed side by side along the transport path H in a state in which both paper surfaces are superposed on the top thereof.

Further, in addition to the above-described structure, the paper sheet transporting device 10 is provided with a tilting operation in which the tip of the projection 23 is tilted toward the take-out means T side in the vicinity of and before the take-out means T. It has a tilt biasing means 50 for biasing.

The inclination urging means 50 includes a rack gear 51 mounted on the frame 40 along the drive path of the fork member 20 at a position near the end of the transport path H, and the fork member 20.
The pinion gear 52 is rotatably mounted on the pinion gear 52 and meshes with the rack gear 51, and the rotary damper 53 is provided as a resistor for applying a resistance force to the rotational movement of the pinion gear 52 with respect to the fork member 20.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rack gear 51 described above has tooth surfaces formed along the shape of the chain 32 in the vicinity of the take-out means T. More specifically, the tooth surface shape of the rack gear 51 is formed along the movement locus drawn by the pinion gear 52 between the time before the fork member 20 passes the take-out means T and the time when the fork member 20 passes. The rack gear 51 is mounted on the frame body 40 via a support member 54 so that the pinion gear 52 can be meshed with the rack gear 51 when the fork member 20 moves.

On the other hand, the pinion gear 52 is rotatably mounted on the fork main body 21 coaxially with the above-mentioned connecting body 23, and when the pinion gear 52 rotates with respect to the fork main body 21, a rotary force for generating a resistance force to the rotational operation thereof. The damper 53 is inserted. Therefore, when the pinion gear 53 meshes with the rack gear 51 and is urged to rotate as the fork member 20 is conveyed, the reaction force of the resistance acts on the fork member 20, and the fork member 20 is connected. A moment about 23 is applied. Therefore, the operation of tilting the tip of the protrusion 24 toward the take-out means T side is urged.

The take-out means T is arranged at the end of the conveying path H and is composed of two drive rollers which are constantly driven to rotate and a belt wound around these drive rollers. The conveying direction of the belt is set to the up-down direction in FIG. 3, and the belt is a sheet S to be conveyed.
The surface that comes into contact with is formed of a material that produces some frictional force. Therefore, the most advanced paper sheet S is pulled up when coming into contact with this belt and taken out from the transport path H. After being taken out, it will be sent to a predetermined destination by another carrying means (not shown).

The operation of the paper sheet transporting device 10 having the above-mentioned configurations will be described below.

First, innumerable paper sheets S are all conveyed in the transport path H.
Is placed on the upper part of the frame body 40 with the paper surface thereof oriented substantially vertically and the two paper surfaces thereof are superposed on each other.
The sheet is conveyed along the conveying path H by being pressed to the take-out means T side via.

As a result, the take-out means T takes out one sheet at a time from the leading paper sheet S, one by one, upward from the transport path H,
The taken out paper sheet S is sent to the next destination. As this progresses in sequence, the paper sheets S between the protrusion 24 of the fork member 20 and the take-out means T gradually decrease. Further, since the fork member 20 is circularly driven along the annular drive path, as the fork member 20 approaches the take-out means T, the fork member 20 gradually separates from the transport path H and starts moving downward.

However, as the fork member 20 approaches the take-out means T, the pinion gear 52 mounted on the fork member 20 meshes with the rack gear 51 mounted on the frame body 40 to urge the rotational movement. . At this time, the rotational force of the pinion gear 52 is urged by the resistance force of the rotary damper 53, and as a reaction force, the fork member 20 is urged by the moment in the same direction as the rotation of the pinion gear 52. . Therefore, when the pinion gear 52 meshes with the rack gear 51, the tip of the protrusion 24 is rotationally biased toward the take-out member T side.

As a result, even if the amount of paper sheets S between the protrusion 24 and the take-out means T becomes small, the tip of the protrusion 24 continues to press the paper sheet S toward the take-out means T side. Therefore, all the paper sheets S existing between the protrusion 24 and the take-out means T are favorably conveyed by the take-out means T.
Taken out from above.

As described above, in the paper sheet conveying apparatus 10,
The fork member 20 starts to separate from the conveyance path and the projection 2
Even when the amount of paper sheets S remaining between the sheet 4 and the take-out means T becomes small, the protrusion 24 is inclined by the inclination urging means 50 and the paper sheets S are continuously pressed toward the take-out means T side, so that the sheet is conveyed to the end. It is possible to effectively take out the paper sheets S from the path H.

In the paper sheet transporting device 10, belts may be used instead of the chains 31 and 32 of the driving means 30. Further, the above-mentioned protrusion 24 is the fork main body 21.
The tilting biasing means 50 may be structured so as to bias the tilting motion not only the fork member 20 as a whole but only the protrusions.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the forcible member gradually starts to separate from the conveying path as the fork member approaches the take-out means, the tip of the protrusion is taken out. Since the sheet is inclined toward the means side, even if the number of remaining paper sheets is small, the tip of the protrusion continues to press the paper sheet toward the takeout means side, and it is possible to effectively take out the paper sheet from the conveyance path. .

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, it is possible to provide an excellent paper sheet conveying device which has not been heretofore available.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an essential part of one embodiment of the present invention with a front side plate omitted.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Paper transporting device 20 Fork member 24 Projection 30 Driving means 31,32 chains 33,34 pulley 35 Drive motor (drive source) 40 frame 50 Tilt biasing means 51 rack gear 52 pinion gear 53 Rotary damper (resistor) S paper sheets H transport path T take-out means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-8-127434 (JP, A) JP-A-2000-7164 (JP, A) Actually open Sho-56-51728 (JP, U) Actual-open Sho-63-104340 (JP, U) Jitsu 50-25200 (JP, Y1) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 1/14 320

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A paper sheet transporting method for transporting a plurality of paper sheets toward a take-out means for taking out the paper sheets transported at the end of the paper sheet transporting path one by one from the transporting path. A fork member that moves along the conveying path and collectively conveys the plurality of paper sheets by pressing them from behind toward the take-out means, and a part of the fork member that conveys the fork member. The driving means for circulating the driving along an annular driving path along the path, and a frame body supporting the driving means, the fork member protruding in a cantilever state in contact with the paper surface of the paper sheet. and having a protruding portion, from the front and in the vicinity of at least the retrieval means, Bei give a tilt biasing means for biasing the tilting tip of the protrusion is inclined toward the take-out means side, the The fork member is the protrusion Take out the tip of the
The entire fork member rotates in the direction inclined to the means side.
Is supported by the drive means, and the tilt urging means moves forward at a position near the end of the transport path.
The frame is installed along the drive path of the fork member.
The rack gear and the fork member are rotatably equipped.
And a pinion gear that meshes with the rack gear,
Resistance to the rotational movement of the pinion gear with respect to the
And a resistor for providing the pinion gear from the rack gear.
And the tip of the protrusion is on the side of the take-out means.
Mount it on the fork member so that the direction of inclination matches.
Bei the paper sheet conveying apparatus characterized by. Wherein said resistor is a sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the rotary damper. Wherein said driving means comprises sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein further comprising a driving source of the belt or chain and the pulley and the pulley of the endless said fork member is connected. Wherein said fork member, said annular sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the being more equipped with uniform intervals along the drive path.