JP4581657B2 - Banding device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a so-called “banding” banding device that winds a product with a band sheet.

In general, a product with a tray with a lid, such as a lunch box, wraps a belt sheet around the product (tray with a lid), and welds the overlapping portion of the belt sheet to fix the lid of the product (tray with a lid). In other words, so-called “banding” is performed.
Banding with this band sheet is to supply the band sheet along the inner side of the annular guide, make a loop with the band sheet, fix the tip of the band sheet to the product placed in the guide, The opposite side is pulled back to narrow the initial loop to a loop along the outer periphery of the product, and the band sheet is banded on the product by adhering and cutting the portion that overlaps with the tip of the belt sheet.

  And when supplying a belt sheet to a guide, the predetermined matter is printed by the printing part arrange | positioned upstream from the feed part which feeds and feeds a belt sheet toward a guide (for example, refer patent document 1).

However, when the printing unit has a thermal head, printing must be performed on a belt sheet sandwiched between the thermal head and the platen roller while the platen roller is pressed against the thermal head. There is no problem if the rotation of the platen roller for printing on the belt sheet and the rotation of the feed unit for feeding and feeding the printed belt sheet toward the guide are synchronized. It is difficult to synchronize the rotation.
As a result, there is a problem in that the feeding of the belt sheet during printing is adversely affected by the feed unit and printing cannot be performed.

JP-A-6-312713

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and the problem is that the rotation of the feed unit does not adversely affect the printing unit during printing on the belt sheet, and the quality is stable. An object of the present invention is to provide a banding device that can perform banding with good printing.

  The technical means taken by the present invention in order to solve the above problems is to print on a belt sheet, feed the belt sheet in a loop so as to surround the product placing portion by a feed roller, and to remove the leading end of the belt sheet. In the banding device for fixing and pulling back the opposite side, the initial loop is narrowed down to a loop along the outer periphery of the product, and the portion that overlaps with the leading end of the belt sheet is bonded and cut to band the belt sheet on the product. A feed comprising a thermal head and a platen roller for printing on a sheet, a printing unit provided with a printing unit pressing means for approaching and separating the thermal head and the platen roller, and a pair of upper and lower rollers, and for bringing the two rollers closer to and away from each other A control unit that separates the pair of upper and lower rollers of the feed unit during printing on the belt sheet by the feed unit provided with the section pressing means and the printing unit. When, characterized by comprising a (claim 1).

As the band sheet used for the above-mentioned banding, it is provided with a rigidity (strength of stiffness) that advances straight along the inner side of the annular guide by feeding by a feed roller, and a band-shaped sheet made of synthetic resin or a paper sheet. use. And the adhesion | attachment of the part which superpose | polymerizes a belt sheet | seat may be what kind of adhesion | attachment methods, such as heat welding and an adhesive agent.
Print portion pressing means provided on the printing unit, a platen roller that constitutes the indicia shaped portion, in which switch and away with respect to the thermal head, when is moved away in a state apart from the platen roller Gasa Maruheddo.

Or, the feed portion pressing means in the feed unit, a pair of upper and lower feed rollers, and the crimping state is possible feeding of the strip sheet, in which switching to release anti (released) state.
Further, the printing by the printing unit may be directly printed on the belt sheet, or a label paper may be separately attached to the belt sheet and printed on the label paper depending on the print contents.
The product referred to in the present invention means both a product and a tray with a lid (container) containing the product.

According to the above means, in printing on strip sheet, since the pair of upper and lower feed rollers of the feed unit arranged downstream of the printing unit is between away, the driving of the feed section to affect the printing operation of the printing unit Don't give. Therefore, stable and high-quality printing can be performed on the belt sheet.

  In addition, during the feeding of the belt sheet by the feed unit, the thermal head of the printing unit and the platen roller may be separated from each other.

  According to the above means, during the feeding of the belt sheet by the pair of upper and lower feed rollers, the thermal head and the platen roller of the printing unit arranged on the upstream side from the feed unit are separated from each other, and are fed by the pair of upper and lower feed rollers. The belt sheet is not affected by the platen roller in the printing section. Therefore, the feeding speed by the feed unit is not reduced.

The printing unit may be of a thermal transfer type that uses an ink ribbon.
According to the above-described means, when the thermal head of the printing unit and the platen roller are separated from each other during feeding, the pressing force by the platen roller acts on the ink ribbon only when printing is performed, and when not printing, the platen roller is applied to the ink ribbon. Since the pressing force does not act on the ink ribbon, consumption of the ink ribbon can be saved.

According to the banding device of the present invention, since the driving of the feed unit is not affected during printing on the band sheet, it is possible to perform printing with stable quality. Therefore, it can be banded with a belt sheet on which a beautiful print is applied.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the belt sheet fed by the pair of upper and lower feed rollers is not affected by the platen roller of the printing unit. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the feeding speed by the feed part from being reduced by the printing part.

  Further, according to the configuration of the third aspect, consumption of the ink ribbon can be saved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 show an outline of a banding device A, which is arranged on the side of the guide 1 and an annular guide 1 that forms an initial loop around the product W to circulate the belt sheet a. Product information on the loading section 2 of the belt sheet roll a ′, the label pasting section 3 for pasting the label b for barcode printing on the belt sheet a, the label b and the belt sheet a stuck on the belt sheet a A feed section 5 for printing the product sheet information, a feed section 5 for feeding and pulling back the belt sheet along the inner surface of the annular guide 1, and a rear end side of the belt sheet from the initial loop state to pull back the product sheet W. A heat welding part 6 for reducing the diameter into a loop shape along the outer periphery and heat-welding the leading end of the belt sheet and the overlapping part, a cutter 7 for cutting the belt sheet, and a drive part for driving the heat welding part 6 and the cutter 7 up and down 8 and more product information The display unit 9 and the operation unit 10 are shown.

The annular guide 1 has a pair of front and rear side plates 1a and 1b provided with a front substantially rectangular window hole 11 for loading and unloading the product W, and the front and rear side plates 1a and 1b are slightly wider than the tape width of the belt sheet a. The bottom plate 1c is opposed to each other at an interval and rotated in the circumferential direction along a position that is outside the opening edge of the window hole by a predetermined dimension, and the surface of the bottom plate 1c acts as a guide surface for the belt sheet a. To do. The bottom plate 1c is formed in an approximately elliptical shape along the edge of the window hole so that the fed belt sheet a can be smoothly guided and the initial loop can be reliably formed. The bottom plate 1c is attached so that the leading end and the end sandwiching the opening 12 formed in the bottom plate 1c are shifted in the vertical direction so that a loop can be formed by overlapping the leading end of the fed belt sheet a and the roll a ′. Furthermore, a stopper 13 is attached to the inner surfaces of the side plates 1a and 1b above the starting end side of the bottom plate 1c, and the leading end of the belt sheet a is positioned.
The lower hole edge of the window hole of the guide 1 functions as a placement portion for the product W. In addition, the shape of the window hole established in the front and rear side plates is not limited to a rectangular shape, and the shape is arbitrary as long as it does not interfere with the taking in and out of the product.

  The loading section 2 of the band sheet roll a ′ arranged on the side of the guide 1 is a place where a roll a ′ in which a tape-shaped band sheet as a banding material is wound in a roll shape is loaded, A rotating shaft 14 with a built-in one-way clutch that rotates and rotates freely in the direction of feeding the belt sheet toward the guide and in the opposite direction is integrated with the belt sheet roll, and the rotating shaft 14 is a motor. 15 to drive. The belt sheet roll a 'is reversely rotated by the motor 15 so that the belt sheet retracted by the reverse rotation of the feed unit 5 described later is wound around the belt sheet roll a'. In addition, a door (not shown) that can be freely opened and closed is attached to the front surface of the loading unit 2 so that dust, dust, and the like do not adhere to the belt sheet. The rotating shaft 14 is equipped with a friction plate brake structure 16 that prevents excessive rotation with respect to rotation in the direction in which the belt sheet is pulled out.

  The leading end of the belt sheet a of the belt sheet roll a ′ loaded in the loading unit 2 is supplied to the feed unit 5 via a guide roller 17 and a guide plate 17 ′ attached to the main body case. In operation, the belt sheet a is fed out to the inside of the guide 1. A label affixing unit 3 is arranged in the middle of the guide plate 17 ', and a printing unit for printing on a belt sheet having a label sheet affixed downstream of the label affixing unit 3 and upstream of the feed unit 5. 4 is arranged.

  The label sticking unit 3 is a dispenser that peels off the label paper b from the label roll b ″ on which the label paper b is detachably attached to the outside of the base paper b ′ wound in a roll, the mount take-up reel 18, and the base paper b ′. 19 and a pressing member 20 for pressing the label sheet b peeled from the mount b ′ on the downstream side of the dispenser 19 so as to adhere to the belt sheet a. The mount take-up reel 18 is a motor. By being driven and rotated at 21, the mount b 'to which the label paper b is stuck is pulled out from the label roll b ".

  The printing unit 4 that prints product information on a belt sheet to which a label sheet is attached includes an ink ribbon 22, a thermal head 23, a platen roller 24, a stepping motor 25 that drives and rotates the platen roller 24, and the platen roller. The thermal head 23 and the platen roller 24 are arranged to face each other. As a result, a predetermined item related to the product is printed on the belt sheet a, and a JAN code (bar code) is printed on the label paper b. The printing on the belt sheet and the label paper is managed and controlled by the length from the leading edge of the belt sheet. This will be described later.

The platen roller 24 in the printing unit 4 is horizontally supported on one side of a platen roller support frame 27 having a substantially U-shaped cross section, and the other end of the platen roller support frame 27 is a frame 28. Further, the platen roller 24 supported in the platen roller support frame 27 is inserted into an arc guide hole 30 formed in the frame so that the shaft 29 is centered on the shaft 29. The vertical movement of the platen roller 24 is guided by the arc guide hole 30.
The moving mechanism 26 for moving the platen roller 24 toward and away from the thermal head 23 fixes a pressing piece 32 that pushes down the platen roller support frame 27 downward to the shaft 31 horizontally mounted on the frame 28. The platen roller support frame 27 is pushed downward about the shaft 29 by the downward rotation of the pressing piece 32 by the rotation, whereby the platen roller 24 is pressed against the thermal head 23. The rotation of the shaft 31 with the pressing piece 32 attached thereto is configured such that the rotation shaft of the motor 33 and the shaft 31 are connected by a plurality of link pieces 34, and the rotation of the motor 33 is transmitted to the shaft 31. Has been.

A flag 35 is attached to the end of the shaft 31 to which the pressing piece 32 is fixed, and the platen roller 24 detects contact / separation (open / close) with respect to the thermal head 23. 36, 36 'are arranged. Further, the operation of bringing the platen roller 24 into contact with the thermal head 23 is performed by the rotation of the motor 33. The operation of moving the platen roller 24 away from the thermal head 23 is performed by the platen roller support frame 27 and the frame 28. The platen roller support frame 27 is pulled upward by the tension of the tension spring 37, and the platen roller 24 is separated from the thermal head 23. The separation of the platen roller 24 is performed by the tension spring 37 functioning when the pressing piece 32 is rotated in the upward direction away from the platen roller support frame 27 by the rotation of the motor 33.
An operation lever 38 is attached to the front side end of the shaft 31 to which the pressing piece 32 is fixed, so that the pressing of the platen roller support frame 27 by the pressing piece 32 can be released by manual operation.

The feed unit 5 for feeding the belt sheet a on which the predetermined matter (product name, price, etc.) is printed P to the guide 1 side is constituted by a pair of upper and lower feed rollers 5a and 5b. The feed roller 5b is supported at a fixed position, and the upper feed roller 5a is supported so as to be rotatable up and down so as to be in contact with and away from the lower feed roller 5b.
The lower feed roller 5b is configured to be driven and rotated by a motor 5c, and the upper feed roller 5a is linked to the vertical movement (contact / separation movement) of the platen roller 24 in the printing unit 4 to feed the lower feed roller 5b. The approach / separation with respect to the roller 5b is switched. That is, when the platen roller 24 of the printing unit 4 approaches the thermal head 23, the upper feed roller 5a is separated from the lower feed roller 5b, and the platen roller 24 of the printing unit 4 is separated from the thermal head 23. In some cases, the upper feed roller 5a is configured to contact the lower feed roller 5b.
The upper feed roller 5a comes into contact with the lower feed roller 5b, the belt sheet a is attached by the upper and lower feed rollers 5a and 5b, and the lower feed roller 5b is driven in the forward rotation direction (clockwise direction). The belt sheet a is sent out toward the guide 1 by rotating, and the belt sheet 1 is pulled back by driving and rotating in the reverse direction (counterclockwise direction).

The upper feed roller 5 a is horizontally supported by a rectangular frame 39, and the frame 39 is pivotally supported by a shaft 40 so as to be rotatable up and down with a shaft 40. The position of the shaft 40, which is the pivot point of the frame 39, is on the vertical line where the contact point where the upper feed roller 5a rotates downward and contacts the lower feed roller 5b passes through the axis of the lower feed roller. It becomes a position to become.
The frame 39 is configured to be rotated downward by a pressing cam 41 pivotally supported by the frame 28 in the vicinity of the frame 39.
The rotation of the pressing cam 41 connects the shaft 31 to which the pressing piece 32 in the printing unit 4 is fixed and the pressing cam 41 by a link 42, and the pressing cam 41 is rocked through the link 42 by the rotation of the shaft 31. It is comprised so that it may be moved (refer Fig.3 (a) and FIG.4 (a)). The upward rotation of the frame 39 holding the upper feed roller 5a (separation of the feed roller) is performed by the urging means 58 when the pressing of the frame 39 by the pressing cam 41 is released. It is separated by turning upwards around the center.

  The belt sheet a fed into the guide 1 is guided along the inner surface of the guide 1 at the downstream side of the feed portion 5 and below the guide to form an initial loop, and then placed in the guide. The initial loop is squeezed to reduce the diameter along the outer peripheral surface of the placed product W, the portion overlapping the leading end portion of the band sheet a is thermally welded, and the thermal welding for cutting the band sheet a connected to the band sheet roll a ′ is performed. A part 6, a cutter 7, and a drive part 8 that drives the heat welding part 6 and the cutter 7 up and down are arranged.

The heat welding part 6 includes a first presser plate 43 and a first presser plate 43 vertically arranged at predetermined intervals in the opening 12 of the lower bottom plate 1c in the window hole 11 of the guide 1 in the feeding direction of the belt sheet. 2 presser plates 44, a heat welding plate 45 disposed between the first presser plate 43 and the second presser plate 44, and the first presser plate 43, the second presser plate 44, and the thermal weld plate 45 directly above. It is comprised with the receiving plate 46 arrange | positioned so that it can protrude and retract from the side of the guide 1 in the position.
The first pressing plate 43 disposed near the feed portion 5 is provided with a through hole 47 into which the belt sheet a is inserted and placed slightly below the upper end surface, and is fed out by the operation of the feed portion 5. The tip of a is supplied to the guide 1 through the through hole 47. Therefore, the upper end of the second presser plate 44 arranged on the downstream side of the first presser plate 43 is flush with the lower hole edge of the through hole 47 of the first presser plate 43 or below the lower hole edge. It is arranged to become.
In addition, the heat welding plate 45 disposed between the first presser plate 43 and the second presser plate 44 is heat-welded after the belt sheet a is pressed by the first presser plate 43 and the second presser plate 44. The upper end of the heat welding plate 45 is positioned below the upper end of the second presser plate 44.

  A receiving plate 46 for receiving the upper end surfaces of the first pressing plate 43 and the heat welding plate 45 is disposed on the side (back side) of the guide 1 and orthogonal to the guide, and the upper surface of the receiving plate 46 is the guide 1. Is held flush with the lower hole edge of the window hole 11 and protrudes into the guide 1 to form a product placement surface. And the front-end | tip part of the strip sheet a fits into the channel | path (space) divided by this receiving plate 46 and the baseplate 1c of the guide 1, The front-end | tip part of the strip sheet | seat a is the side plate 1a in the downstream from the said opening 12, Positioning of the tip is performed by abutting against a stopper 13 projectingly formed on the inner surface of 1b.

  The cutter 7 heat-bonds the overlap portion of the belt sheet a to complete the loop, and then cuts the belt sheet continuous with the loop in the vicinity of the weld portion. The first presser plate 43 and the heat welding plate 45, and passes through the through hole 47 by moving up and down to a position exceeding the through hole 47 of the first presser plate 43 along the side surface of the first presser plate 43. The belt sheet a is configured to be cut by the shearing action of the hole edge of the through hole 47 of the first pressing plate 43 and the cutter 7.

  The drive unit 8 that drives the heat welding unit 6 and the cutter 7 up and down includes a motor 48 and a cam mechanism 49. The cam mechanism 49 includes the first press plate 43 and the second press plate 44 as cams and link mechanisms. The first presser plate 43, the second presser plate 44, the heat weld plate 45 and the cutter 7 are configured to move up and down sequentially with a time difference. Then, in order to control the operation of the cam mechanism 49, the rotating plate 51 is fixed to the shaft that rotates the cam, the origin provided at a predetermined position on the outer periphery of the rotating plate 51 is detected by the cam origin sensor 52, and the drive unit 8 To be controlled.

In addition, the leading end of the belt sheet a supplied for banding reaches a predetermined position at a predetermined position on the near side (upstream side) from the position where the leading edge of the belt sheet a of the guide 1 is stopped. A belt sheet leading end detection sensor (stop sensor) 53 for detecting this is disposed. The driving of the feed unit 5 that feeds out the belt sheet a is stopped by the detection signal of the belt sheet leading edge detection sensor 53, and the feeding until the belt sheet a comes into contact with the stopper is controlled again.
Further, a product detection sensor 54 is installed on the outer side of the position where the product W is placed in the guide 1 so that it is detected whether or not the product W is placed at a predetermined position in the guide 1. When the product W is detected, the feed unit 5 is activated and starts to pull back the belt sheet a.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment, in which a band sheet used for banding is composed of a thermal printing adhesive sheet (a sheet whose adhesiveness is activated by heating), and the band sheet 55 pulled out from the band sheet roll 55 ′. Is configured to be supplied to the guide 1 through the printing unit 4 and the feed unit 5. A slack allowance portion 56 for the belt sheet 54 is provided between the printing portion 4 and the feed portion 5. Further, an adhesive portion 6 ′ for adhering the overlapping portions of the belt sheets is provided.
The platen roller 24 in the printing unit 4 is pressed against the thermal head by a pressing unit, and the upper feed roller 5a in the feed unit 5 is pressed against the lower feed roller 5b by the pressing unit.
The slack allowance portion 56 is formed between the pair of upper and lower feed rollers 5a and 5b of the feed portion 5 in which the printed belt sheet fed from between the thermal head 23 and the platen roller 24 of the printing portion 4 is disposed on the downstream side. In this case, the belt sheet is detoured into a substantially V shape, and is slackened by urging the belt sheet downward with a tension roller 57 from above.
Due to the presence of the slack allowance 56, even if there is a speed difference between the feed roller 5 b of the feed unit 5 and the platen roller 24 of the print unit 4, the slack allowance 56 absorbs the speed difference and the print unit 4. Will not affect the printing (quality).
The configuration of the slack allowance portion 56 may be provided between the printing portion and the feed portion in the previous embodiment. In FIG. 6, the same members as those described in the previous embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be changed without changing the gist of the present invention.
(1) As a configuration of the slack allowance portion 56, the belt sheet 55 is forcibly slackened downward using the tension roller 57, but may be slackened downward by the weight of the belt sheet without using the tension roller. Good. In short, it is sufficient if there is enough space for the belt sheet fed from the printing unit to sag upstream from the feed unit.
In addition, a sensor for detecting the amount of slack in the belt sheet is provided in the slack allowance portion, and when it is detected that the slack in the belt sheet has decreased, the feeding speed of the feed portion is slowed to ensure a predetermined amount of slack. It may be. On the contrary, when the amount of slack increases, the feeding speed of the feed unit may be increased to ensure a predetermined amount of slack. Thereby, it is possible to use continuous operation.
(2) The vertical movement of the platen roller of the printing unit and the vertical movement of the upper feed roller of the feed unit are not limited to the mechanically exclusive operations shown in the figure, and may be performed by independent mechanisms.
(3) In the above embodiment, the printing method is shown as a type using an ink ribbon and a type not using an ink ribbon. However, the printing method is not limited to this, and the printing method may be reversed.

The schematic front view which shows an example of implementation of the banding apparatus which concerns on this invention. The top view which shows the outline of the mechanism part. (A) is an enlarged view showing the state of the printing part and feed part (feed roller) during printing, (b) is an explanatory view showing the positional relationship of the drive mechanism that moves up and down the platen roller. (A) is the same enlarged view when the belt sheet is being fed out, (b) is an explanatory view showing the positional relationship of the drive mechanism that moves up and down the platen roller in that state. (A) is a perspective view of the product which completed the banding, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the (X)-(X) line of (a) figure. The schematic front view which shows another Example.

Explanation of symbols

A ... Banding device a ... Band sheet
b ... Label paper 1 ... Guide
3 ... Label paper sticking part 4 ... Printing part
5 ... Drive section (feed roller) 6 ... Heat weld section
7 ... Cutter 8 ... Heat welded part / Cutter vertical drive part
9 ... Display unit 10 ... Operation unit

Claims (3)

Print on the belt sheet, feed the belt sheet in a loop so as to surround the product placement section with the feed roller, fix the tip of the belt sheet, pull back the opposite side, and make the initial loop into a loop along the outer periphery of the product In the banding device for banding the band sheet on the product by bonding and cutting the squeezing and the overlapping part with the tip of the band sheet,
A printing unit provided with a thermal head and a platen roller for printing on the belt sheet, and a printing unit pressing means for approaching and separating the thermal head and the platen roller;
A feed part comprising a pair of upper and lower rollers, provided with a feed part pressing means for approaching and separating the two rollers; and
During printing on the belt sheet by the printing unit, control means for separating the pair of upper and lower rollers of the feed unit;
A banding device characterized by comprising:   The banding device according to claim 1, wherein a thermal head and a platen roller of the printing unit are separated during feeding of the belt sheet by the feed unit.   The banding device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the printing unit is of a thermal transfer type using an ink ribbon.

Images