JP5934268B2 - Complex processing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a combined processing system that includes an inspection device that performs an inspection on an object to be conveyed and a printing device that performs a printing process on the surface of the object, and in particular, consumables such as ink used during the printing process. The present invention relates to a combined processing system that can reduce the consumption of printing and simplify inspection after printing.

  When shipping tablets such as pharmaceutical products as products, it is necessary to prevent misuse on the surface of the tablets and to improve the discrimination when a pharmacist prescribes drugs. Also, the amount of medicinal ingredients per tablet It needs to be uniform.

  Therefore, conventionally, using a combined processing system consisting of an inspection device and a printing device, identification information such as the product name and product number is printed on the surface of the tablet, and whether the presence or absence of a chip and the size are within specified dimensions. It checks whether or not to collect defective products.

  As a method for displaying identification information on the surface of the tablet, there are a method of marking when forming a tablet, a method of printing on the surface of the tablet by offset printing, a method of performing non-contact printing using an ink jet printer, and the like. As a known method for performing non-contact printing on a tablet, for example, a printing method using an automatic printing apparatus disclosed in JP-A-7-81050 has been proposed.

  The automatic printing apparatus is provided with an alignment device that aligns objects such as tablets and capsules in a straight line, a supply conveyor that conveys the aligned objects, and a position of the object on the supply conveyor. A detection device for detecting the ink, and a control unit that controls the operation of a jet nozzle, a jet nozzle, and the like that are provided on the downstream side in the transport direction from the detection device and discharge ink from the tip portion, At the same time as receiving a signal that the tablet has reached the lower side of the detection device, a signal for ejecting ink after a predetermined time has elapsed since the tablet has reached the lower side of the detection device is transmitted to the inkjet printer.

  According to this automatic printing apparatus, first, the object is conveyed by the supply conveyor in a state where the object is aligned in a straight line by the alignment device. Then, when the object on the supply conveyor reaches below the detection device, a signal indicating that the tablet has reached below the detection device is input to the control unit, and at the same time the control unit receives the signal, A signal for ejecting ink is transmitted to the inkjet printer. And after predetermined time progress, an ink is discharged toward a tablet and identification information is printed on a tablet.

  As described above, in the printing method using the automatic printing apparatus, the position of the tablet is detected by the detection apparatus, and based on this, the ink can be ejected at a predetermined timing. The identification information can be printed on.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-81050

  The tablets on which the identification information is printed are usually inspected at a time in the next process for the presence of chipping and ink stains, and the good products and defective products are collected separately. Here, when there is a chip in the tablet, the amount of medicinal ingredients varies, which may affect the efficacy, which is a big problem related to quality, but when ink stains adhere to the tablet, Only edible ink is attached, and this is not a major product problem. Accordingly, if all tablets with chips and tablets with ink stains are uniformly collected as defective products, there arises a problem that the yield deteriorates.

  In addition, since printing is performed even on tablets with a chip, ink is used for these even though they finally become defective products, causing a problem of increasing costs.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a composite processing system that can inspect whether or not an object has a quality-related problem in advance and can perform printing on an object that has no problem. The purpose is to provide.

The present invention for solving the above problems is as follows.
A transport mechanism for transporting an object along the transport surface;
An imaging mechanism for imaging the surface of the object conveyed by the conveyance mechanism;
An inspection mechanism for inspecting at least a defect on the shape of the object based on an image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
A printing mechanism for printing on the surface of the object based on the image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
The printing mechanism is disposed downstream of the imaging mechanism in the transport direction, and relates to a combined processing system configured to print on an object that has been inspected by the inspection mechanism and determined to be non-defective.

  According to this composite processing system, the surface of the object conveyed by the conveying mechanism is imaged by the imaging mechanism, and then at least a defect in the shape of the object is detected based on the image of the imaged object surface. Inspected. Thereafter, printing is performed on the surface of the object determined to be non-defective by the inspection by the printing mechanism.

  As described above, in the combined processing system according to the present invention, before printing on the surface of the object, it is inspected in advance whether or not the object is a non-defective product, and printing is performed on the object determined to be a non-defective product. As a result, printing is not performed on defective products, ink consumption can be reduced, cost can be reduced, and objects with ink stains attached can be uniformly treated as defective products. Since it is not collected, the yield can be prevented from deteriorating.

  In the composite processing system, the transport mechanism includes a linear transport mechanism that transports the object in a straight line and a rotary transport mechanism that rotates and transports the object transferred from the linear transport mechanism. In this way, it is possible to print on the front and back surfaces of the object, and to reduce the installation space as compared with the case where two linear transport mechanisms are used.

In addition, the composite processing system is
A position detecting mechanism for detecting the position of the object;
The inspection mechanism is
Based on the image picked up by the image pickup mechanism, configured to detect an angle in the transfer surface of the object transferred by the transfer mechanism,
The printing mechanism is
A printer head comprising a plurality of ink ejection nozzles arranged in a direction intersecting the conveyance direction of the object on the downstream side in the conveyance direction with respect to the imaging mechanism, and an ink tank connected to the ink ejection nozzle;
It consists of a print section for executing print processing,
The printing unit
A print pattern storage unit in which a print pattern composed of double row and double column data is stored in advance;
A rotary print pattern generation unit that reads a print pattern from the print pattern storage unit, generates a rotary print pattern obtained by rotating the read print pattern by the angle based on the angle detected by the inspection mechanism, and outputs the rotated print pattern When,
The print control unit is configured to control the operation of the printer head based on the rotation print pattern generated by the rotation print pattern generation unit and the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism.

  In this configuration, the surface of the object conveyed by the conveyance mechanism is imaged by the imaging mechanism, and image data of the captured image is transmitted to the inspection mechanism, and the angle within the conveyance surface of the object is detected by the inspection mechanism. The Next, the rotation print pattern generation unit reads the print pattern from the print pattern storage unit, and generates a rotation print pattern obtained by rotating the read print pattern by the angle based on the angle detected by the inspection mechanism. And output from the rotational print pattern generation unit.

  The operation of the printer head is controlled by the print control unit based on the rotation print pattern generated by the rotation print pattern generation unit and the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism. Ink is ejected from a predetermined ink ejection nozzle toward the end, and printing is performed.

  In this way, a rotation printing pattern corresponding to the angle of the object is generated, and the object is printed based on the generated rotation printing pattern data, thereby conveying the object to be conveyed. Even if the angles in the plane are different, printing can be appropriately performed according to the angle of each object.

  Note that, as a specific method for generating the rotational print pattern in the rotational print pattern generation unit, a method of generating a rotational print pattern by converting the print pattern data according to a conversion data table, or the print pattern It is possible to adopt a method of generating a rotational print pattern by converting the polar coordinates of.

  By the way, in the above-described combined processing system, there is a possibility that a slight difference occurs in the reading time of the data related to the rotation printing pattern in the printing control unit, and there is a difference in the timing at which ink is discharged from each ink discharge nozzle. When printing is performed on the surface of the object to be transported, the printed display may be shifted although it is small.

Therefore, in the combined processing system of the present invention, the printing unit stores the rotational printing pattern output from the rotational printing pattern generation unit, and based on the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism, the printing unit It has a configuration which includes a buffer section for outputting data of the rotary printing pattern sequentially for each line in the printing control unit in timing.

  In this way, if the rotation print pattern data is output to the print control unit for each line, the data read time between the same lines is made the same, and the timing at which ink is ejected from each ink ejection nozzle is constant. The deviation that can occur in the printed display can be reduced as much as possible.

  As described above, according to the composite processing system of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the defective product from being printed, to reduce the cost, and further, there is no major problem related to the quality. It is possible to prevent the object from being collected as a defective product and improve the yield.

  Moreover, even if the angle in the conveyance surface of the conveyed target object differs, it can print appropriately according to the angle of each target object.

1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a combined processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a control apparatus. It is a front view which shows a conveyance mechanism. It is a top view which shows the conveyance mechanism seen from the arrow A direction in FIG. It is a side view which shows the conveyance mechanism seen from the arrow B direction in FIG. It is a rear view which shows the conveyance mechanism seen from the arrow C direction in FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows a rotation conveyance mechanism. It is a front view which shows a suction box. It is a figure which shows the state which the opening part of the suction box and the opening part of the disk shaped member connected. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the method to detect the angle of a target object. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the procedure which produces | generates a rotation printing pattern. It is the figure which showed the pattern before rotation. It is the figure which showed the pattern rotated 45 degrees. It is the figure which showed the pattern rotated 90 degrees.

  Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a combined processing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a supply mechanism 3 that supplies an object T in an aligned manner, and a first linear conveyance mechanism that linearly conveys the supplied object T. 10a, a second linear conveyance mechanism 10b on which the object T is transferred from the first linear conveyance mechanism 10a, and a third linear conveyance mechanism 10c on which the object T is transferred from the second linear conveyance mechanism 10b. Position detection for detecting the position of the rotary transport mechanism 60 to which the object is transferred from the third linear transport mechanism 10c and the target T transported by the linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, 10c and the rotary transport mechanism 60. Based on the mechanism 75, the imaging mechanism 80 that images the surface of the target T being transported by the first and second linear transport mechanisms 10 a and 10 b, and the image captured by the imaging mechanism 80, Pass / fail inspection And an inspection mechanism 85 that detects the angle of the object T within the conveyance surface, a first recovery mechanism 89 that recovers the object T determined to be defective by the inspection mechanism 85, a third linear conveyance mechanism 10c, and a rotation A printing mechanism 96 that performs a printing process on the surface of the object T conveyed by the conveying mechanism 60, a second collection mechanism 110 that collects the object T on which printing has been performed, and a control device that controls the operation of each mechanism. 111. It is assumed that the object T in this example has an elliptical shape in plan view.

  Details of each mechanism will be described below.

[Supply mechanism]
The supply mechanism 3 includes a hopper 4 into which a large number of objects T are charged, a vibration feeder 5 that imparts vibration to the object T discharged from the lower end portion of the hopper 4 and moves forward, and a conveyance end of the vibration feeder 5. A chute 6 that slides down the object T discharged from the chute, a horizontal rotation, an alignment table 7 that discharges the object T supplied from the chute 6 in a line, and a disk-like member that rotates in a vertical plane A rotating carrier 8 that attracts and conveys the object T discharged from the alignment table 7 to the outer peripheral surface of the disk-shaped member, and aligns a large number of objects T in a row, and sequentially Delivered to the linear transport mechanism 10a.

[Linear transport mechanism]
Since the first, second and third linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b and 10c are composed of the same components, the first linear transport mechanism 10a will be described as an example.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the first linear transport mechanism 10 a includes a pair of transport belts 11 and 12 that transport the object T, and four transports around which the transport belts 11 and 12 are wound. Belt pulleys 15, 16, 17, 18, a negative pressure mechanism 20 that applies a suction force due to negative pressure on the conveyor belts 11, 12, and two of the conveyor belt pulleys 15, 16, 17, 18. A driving mechanism 30 that rotates the pulleys 15 and 16 to rotate the conveyor belts 11 and 12 and a nip mechanism 40 that nips a predetermined position of the conveyor belts 11 and 12 are opposed to each other with a gap therebetween. The two support plates 55 and 56 are the support members arranged in this manner, and a fixing member 57 that is fixed to the support plate 56 and fixes the linear transport mechanism 10 to a base (not shown). Yes.

  The conveyor belts 11 and 12 are endless circular belts arranged side by side in the width direction, and as shown in FIG. 3, the conveyor belts 11 and 12 have a substantially trapezoidal shape when viewed from the front. The upper part forming the forward path, that is, the part located between the two pulleys 15 and 16 is the transport unit 13, and the object T is placed on the transported object 13. It is like that. In FIGS. 4 and 5, the conveyance belts 11 and 12 are not shown.

  The negative pressure mechanism 20 includes a rectangular parallelepiped negative pressure box 21, a suction pump (not shown) that is connected to the negative pressure box 21 via pipes 22 and 23 and sucks air in the negative pressure box 21. The negative pressure box 21 has a slit 24 for sucking air from the outside in the upper surface member, and two guide grooves 25 and 26 for guiding the conveyor belts 11 and 12 on both sides of the slit 24. Is formed. The negative pressure box 21 is fixed to a surface (one surface) of the support plate 55 that does not face the support plate 56.

  Of the pulleys 15, 16, 17, 18 for the transport belt, the two pulleys 15, 16 have the same diameter (pulley diameter) and are spaced apart from each other on the upper edges of the support plates 55, 56. Are attached to one end portions of the connecting shafts 19 and 20 that are rotatably supported by the support shafts (end portions protruding to one surface side of the support plate 55). Further, the other two pulleys 17 and 18 are respectively disposed in the negative pressure box 21. The connecting shafts 19 and 20 have other end portions protruding from the surface of the support plate 56 not facing the support plate 55.

  The drive mechanism 30 includes an endless annular timing belt 31, three timing belt pulleys 32, 33, 34 around which the timing belt 31 is wound, and these three timing belt pulleys 32, 33, And a drive motor 35 that rotates one of the pulleys 34. The three timing belt pulleys 32, 33, and 34 have the same diameter (pulley diameter), and are provided with tooth surfaces that mesh with the inner peripheral surface of the timing belt 31 on the outer peripheral surface. 31 is wound around in a state in which a part of its inner peripheral surface meshes with a tooth surface formed on the outer peripheral surface of the timing belt pulleys 32, 33, 34. The tooth surfaces of the timing belt pulleys 32, 33 and 34 are not shown, and the timing belt 31 is not shown in FIGS.

  The drive motor 35 is disposed at a substantially central position in front view between the support plates 55 and 56. The timing belt pulley 34 is connected to the rotation shaft of the drive motor 35 for the other two timing belts. The pulleys 32 and 33 are attached to the other end portions of the connecting shafts 19 and 20, respectively, and are disposed on the upper edge portion of the support plate 56. The drive motor 35 is supported by a slide member 36 movably arranged in the vertical direction with respect to the support plate 56. By moving the slide member 36 in the vertical direction, the drive motor 35 and The position of the timing belt pulley 34 connected thereto can be adjusted.

  The nip mechanism 40 includes two nip rollers 41, 42 disposed at positions facing the respective conveyor belt pulleys 15, 16 across the conveyor belts 11, 12, and a connecting shaft connected to each of the nip rollers 41, 42. Two transmission rotors 45 and 46, which are connected by 43 and 44, respectively, and are disposed adjacent to the timing belt pulleys 32 and 33 in a state where the outer peripheral surface is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the timing belt 31. The slide plate 47 is arranged on the surface of the support plate 56 so as to be movable in the vertical direction and rotatably supports the connecting shafts 43 and 44. The nip rollers 41 and 42 have the same diameter (roller diameter) as that of the conveyor belt pulleys 15 and 16, and the transmission rollers 45 and 46 have the same diameter (roller diameter) as the timing. It is the same diameter as the pulley diameter of the belt pulleys 32 and 33.

  According to the nip mechanism 40, the slide members 47 and 48 supporting the rotary shafts 43 and 44 are moved upward, and the nip rollers 41 and 42 and the transmission rollers 45 and 46 are conveyed upward, that is, respectively. The belt pulleys 15 and 16 and the timing belt pulleys 32 and 33 are moved closer to each other. Thus, the conveyor belts 11 and 12 are nipped with a predetermined clamping force by the cooperation of the nip rollers 41 and 42 and the pulleys 15 and 16 for the conveyor belts.

  Between the transmission roller 45 and the timing belt pulley 34 connected to the drive motor 35, two adjusting pulleys 49 and 50 for eliminating the looseness of the timing belt 31 are disposed. Also, one adjusting pulley 51 is disposed between the transmission roller 46 and the pulley 34, and these three adjusting pulleys 49, 50, 51 are moved in the vertical direction by the slide members 52, 53, 54, respectively. It is free.

  The second linear transport mechanism 10b is attached in a posture in which the mounting postures of the first and third linear transport mechanisms 10a and 10c are inverted.

[Rotary transfer mechanism]
As shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the rotary transport mechanism 60 includes a rotary transport body 61 in which two transport belts 64 and 65 are wound on the outer peripheral surface, and the rotary transport body 61 is rotated in a vertical plane. A driving mechanism 66 that causes the suction to be applied to the conveyor belts 64 and 65 wound around the rotary conveyance body 61, and a negative pressure mechanism 70 that applies a suction force due to negative pressure. It is comprised from the fixing member 72 for fixing the rotation conveyance mechanism 60. FIG.

  The rotary transport body 61 includes two disk-like members 62 and 63 which are arranged to face each other with a space therebetween, and a space 61a is formed inside. The conveyor belts 64 and 65 are wound. A plurality of openings 62a are formed in one of the two disk-like members 62, 63 so as to communicate the internal space 61a with the outside.

  The drive mechanism 66 is supported by a bearing member 69 fixed to the fixing member 72, and is connected to a connecting shaft 67 having the one end side connected to the rotary conveyance body 61 and the other end side of the connecting shaft 67. And a drive motor 68 disposed in the internal space of the fixed member 72, and the rotary motor 61 is rotated in the vertical plane via the connecting shaft 67 by operating the drive motor 68. .

  The negative pressure mechanism 70 is disposed around the bearing member 69, and a pipe (not shown) is connected to a suction box 71 in which a space 71 a is formed and a connection portion 72 provided in the suction box 71. And a suction pump (not shown) for sucking the air in the suction box 71, and as shown in FIG. An arcuate opening 71b is formed. The opening 71 b of the suction box 71 and the opening 62 a formed in the disk-shaped member 62 are interposed via the opening 73 a of the plate 73 interposed between the suction box 71 and the disk-shaped member 62. As a result, the internal space 71a of the suction box 71 and the internal space 61a of the rotary conveyance body 61 are in communication with each other (see FIG. 9).

[Position detection mechanism]
The position detection mechanism 75 includes first, second, and third rotary encoders 76 attached to any one of the pulleys 15, 16, 17, and 18 of the linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c, and the rotary transport mechanism. First, second, and second objects that are detected by a fourth rotary encoder 77 attached to 60 drive motors 68 and the conveyor belts 11 and 12 of the linear conveyor mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c, respectively. Third object sensors 79a, 79b, 79c, a fourth object sensor 79d for detecting the object T conveyed by the conveyor belts 64, 65 of the rotary conveyance mechanism 60, and a timing generator in the control device 111 78.

  The timing generation unit 78 is based on the pulse signals output from the first, second, and third rotary encoders 76 and the detection signals of the target T output from the target sensors 79a, 79b, and 79c. While detecting the position of the object T, the position of the object T is detected from the pulse signal output from the fourth rotary encoder 77 and the detection signal of the object T output from the fourth object sensor 79d, A signal related to the position of the object T is output to a pattern conversion unit 103, a pattern arrangement unit 104, and a buffer unit 107 of the printing unit 96 described later.

[Imaging mechanism]
The imaging mechanism 80 images the surface of the object T conveyed by the second linear conveyance mechanism 10b and the first imaging camera 81 that images the surface of the object T conveyed by the first linear conveyance mechanism 10a. The first imaging camera 81 is downstream in the transport direction with respect to the first object sensor 79a, and the second imaging camera 82 is downstream in the transport direction with respect to the second object sensor 79b. It is arranged on the side.

[Inspection mechanism]
The inspection mechanism 85 is a mechanism for inspecting the quality of the object T and detecting the angle of the object T in the transport plane based on the image data output from the two imaging cameras 81 and 82 of the imaging mechanism 80. The inspection unit 86 in the control device 111 inspects the object T, and the angle detection unit 91 detects the angle.

  The quality of the object T can be determined by, for example, whether or not the object T is missing and whether or not the shape of the object T is within a predetermined size range. The presence or absence of T and the shape of the target T can be detected by various methods based on the image data.

  The angle detector 91 receives image data from the first and second imaging cameras 81 and 82, and calculates an angle in the transport plane of the object T based on the received image data. And an angle storage unit 93 that stores the angle calculated by the angle calculation unit 92.

  Next, a specific method for calculating the angle by the angle calculation unit 92 will be described. In this example, the transport posture serving as a reference for the object T is shown in FIG. First, the image processing using the received image data is performed to extract the target T, and it is detected whether the long axis of the extracted target T is tilted with respect to the direction along the transport direction. If so, it detects whether it is tilted to the left or right. Next, a minimum circumscribed rectangle (dotted line in FIG. 10) of the object T is generated by image processing, the length (H, W) of two orthogonal sides of the generated minimum circumscribed rectangle is calculated, and the ratio of the two sides is calculated. (H / W) is calculated.

  Then, assuming that the angle of the object T is 0 ° as the H / W value in the case of the reference transport posture in advance, the H / W value corresponding to 0 to 90 ° with a predetermined resolution is set. The angle at which the calculated H / W value is the closest value is determined as the angle of the object T. FIG. 10B illustrates the case where the angle of the object T is 45 °, and FIG. 10C illustrates the case where the angle is 90 °.

  As described above, the angle of the object T in the transport plane is calculated, and the calculated angle is stored in the angle storage unit 93.

[Printing mechanism]
The printing mechanism 96 is opposed to the first printer head 97 disposed at a position facing the object T conveyed by the third linear conveyance mechanism 10c, and the object T conveyed by the rotary conveyance mechanism 60. The second printer head 98 is disposed at a position where the printing is performed, and a printing unit 100 that executes a printing process on the object T.

  The printer heads 97 and 98 include an ink tank (not shown) in which ink is stored, a plurality of ink discharge nozzles 99 connected to the ink tank, and an actuator for discharging ink from the ink discharge nozzle 99 (see FIG. Ink is ejected from a predetermined ink ejection nozzle 99 by operating an actuator. The plurality of ink discharge nozzles 99 are arranged along a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the target T, and printing is performed by dropping ink onto the surface of the target T passing below. The

  The printing unit 100 includes a print pattern storage unit 101, a rotary print pattern generation unit 102 including a pattern conversion unit 103 and a pattern arrangement unit 104, a conversion data table 105, an arrangement position storage unit 106, and a buffer unit. 107 and a print control unit 108.

  The print pattern storage unit 101 stores in advance a print pattern composed of double row and double column data. In this example, three patterns (three regions surrounded by broken lines in FIG. 11) each consisting of 7 rows and 7 columns are arranged in a horizontal row as a print pattern (FIG. 11A). reference).

  The pattern conversion unit 103 refers to the angle of the object T output from the angle storage unit 93 and the data stored in the conversion data table 105 described later, and reads the print pattern read from the print pattern storage unit 101. The three patterns to be configured are converted into rotation patterns that are rotated by the angle, and the three rotation patterns are output to the pattern placement unit 104.

  The pattern placement unit 104 refers to the data regarding the angle of the object T output from the angle storage unit 93 and the placement position of each pattern stored in the placement position storage unit 106 described later, and the pattern conversion unit 103. Rotation patterns output from are respectively arranged at positions corresponding to the angles, a rotation print pattern is generated, and the rotation print pattern is output to the buffer unit 107.

  In the conversion data table 105, conversion data used when the pattern conversion unit 103 converts each pattern into a rotation pattern corresponding to the angle is stored in advance.

  In the arrangement position storage unit 106, data related to the position where each pattern is arranged is stored in advance according to the angle of the object T.

  The buffer unit 107 stores the rotational print pattern generated by the pattern placement unit 104, and the rotation in accordance with a signal related to the position of the target T transmitted from the timing generation unit 78. The print pattern data is sequentially output to the print control unit 108 line by line.

  The print control unit 108 uses the first and second printer heads 97 so that ink is ejected from a predetermined ink ejection nozzle 99 based on the data for each line of the rotational print pattern received from the buffer unit 107. , 98 actuators are driven.

  According to the printing mechanism 96, first, the pattern conversion unit 103 reads a print pattern to be printed on the object T from the print pattern storage unit 91 (see FIG. 11A). Next, the pattern conversion unit 103 converts the three patterns constituting the print pattern into rotation patterns corresponding to the angles read from the angle storage unit 93 (see FIG. 11B), and converts the three rotation patterns. The data is output to the pattern placement unit 104.

  A specific method for converting the pattern into the rotation pattern as described above will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 12 to 14 illustrate “A” which is one of the three patterns constituting the print pattern. FIG. 12 shows a pattern before rotation, and FIG. 13 shows a 45 ° rotation. FIG. 14 shows a pattern rotated by 90 °.

  That is, when the angle read from the angle storage unit 93 is 45 °, the pattern conversion unit 103 refers to the conversion data in the conversion data table 105 and the position before rotation is (0, 3). A certain data a is converted into the position (0, 6), and similarly, the positions of the data b to p are converted, respectively, and when the angle read from the angle storage unit 93 is 90 °, the data The position of a is converted from (0, 3) to (3, 6), the positions of data b to p are similarly converted, and the three patterns constituting the print pattern are respectively converted into rotation patterns.

  Next, the pattern placement unit 104 places the three input rotation patterns at predetermined positions based on the data regarding the placement position of each pattern stored in the placement position storage unit 106 (FIG. 11 ( c)). In this way, a rotated print pattern is generated by rotating the print pattern by the angle of the object T.

  The generated rotation print pattern is stored in the buffer unit 107. Thereafter, the buffer unit 107 receives a signal indicating that the target T has reached a predetermined position, that is, below the printer heads 97 and 98, from the timing generation unit 78, and outputs the data of the rotational print pattern for each line. The print control unit 108 drives the first and second printer heads 97 and 98 based on the input signal. In this way, the object T is printed.

[Recovery mechanism]
The first collection mechanism 89 is disposed downstream of the second imaging camera 82 in the transport direction, and is a mechanism for selecting and collecting defective products based on the inspection result in the inspection mechanism 85. The second recovery mechanism 110 is disposed downstream of the second printer head 98 in the transport direction, and is a mechanism for recovering the target T printed on the front and back surfaces.

  Next, a process of inspecting the object T by the combined processing system 1 having the above configuration and printing only non-defective products will be described.

  In the composite processing system 1 of this example, when printing on the object T, first, the three linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c are adjusted.

  The linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c are adjusted by first moving the slide member 36 that moves the position of the drive motor 35 up and down, and the slide member 52 that moves the positions of the adjustment pulleys 49, 50, and 51 up and down. The positions of 53 and 54 are adjusted so that the timing belt 31 is not loosened excessively.

  Next, the connecting shafts 19 and 20 are moved upward by the slide members 47 and 48 to move the nip rollers 41 and 42 and the transmission rollers 45 and 46 in the same direction, so that the nip rollers 41 and 42 and the conveyor belt pulley 15, 16, the conveyance belts 11 and 12 on both sides of the conveyance unit 13 are nipped. As a result, a predetermined magnitude of tension is applied to the transport portions 13 of the two transport belts 11 and 12 in a state where slippage of the transport belts 11 and 12 in the transport portion 13 is prevented.

  Thereafter, the drive motor 35 is operated to rotate the timing belt pulley 34. As a result, the timing belt 31 rotates, and the three timing belt pulleys 32, 33, and 34 rotate in a synchronized state.

  When the timing belt pulleys 32 and 33 rotate in a synchronized state, the conveyor belt pulleys 15 and 16 connected to the pulleys 32 and 33 by the connecting shafts 19 and 20 respectively rotate in a synchronized state. Thereby, the conveyor belts 11 and 12 rotate in a predetermined direction.

  In each of these linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c, the transport belt pulleys 15 and 16 are rotated in synchronization with each other, so that a difference in rotational speed between the transport belts 11 and 12 is unlikely to occur. .

  Further, in these three linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c, the conveyor belts 11 and 12 are nipped on both sides of the transport unit 13 to prevent the transport belts 11 and 12 from slipping in the transport unit 13 and the pulley 15 The amount of the conveyor belts 11 and 12 sent out from the side is made equal to the amount of the conveyor belts 11 and 12 wound up on the pulley 16 side, and the conveyor unit 13 of the conveyor belts 11 and 12 has a predetermined size. The tension is applied. Accordingly, the rotational speeds of the two conveyor belts 11 and 12 can be made substantially the same in the conveyor unit 13 without being affected by the difference in elongation between the two conveyor belts 11 and 12. It has become.

  After adjusting the linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, and 10c, the target T is put into the hopper 4, and the target T is supplied onto the transport unit 13 of the first linear transport mechanism 10a by the supply mechanism 3. The supplied object T is transported by the first linear transport mechanism 10a, and one surface thereof is imaged by the first imaging camera 81, and the inspection mechanism 85 is based on the image data of the captured image. The inspection unit 86 inspects whether the target T is missing or foreign matter is mixed, and the angle detection unit 91 detects the angle of the target T in the transport plane.

  Next, the object T is transferred from the first linear conveyance mechanism 10a to the second linear conveyance mechanism 10b, the other surface of the object T is imaged by the second imaging camera 82, and the data of the captured image is used as a basis. Thus, the inspection unit 86 inspects the object T, detects the angle of the object T, and determines the quality of the object T based on the inspection result.

  The target T determined to be defective is recovered by the first recovery mechanism 89, and the target T determined to be not defective is transferred from the second linear transport mechanism 10b to the third linear transport mechanism 10c. Then, printing is performed by the printing mechanism while being conveyed by the third linear conveyance mechanism 10c.

  That is, the rotational print pattern corresponding to the detected angle is generated in the rotational print pattern generation unit 102 based on the angle detected by the angle detection unit 91 for the object T being transported by the third linear transport mechanism 10c. Is done. Then, in accordance with a signal input from the timing generator 78 from the buffer 107, the rotational print pattern data is sequentially output to the print controller 108 line by line, and the operation of the first printer head 97 is controlled by the print controller 108. Then, printing is performed on one surface of the object T.

  Next, the object T is delivered from the third linear conveyance mechanism 10c to the rotary conveyance mechanism 60, and the delivered object T corresponds to the angle detected by the angle detection unit 91 in the rotary print pattern generation unit 102. A rotating print pattern is generated. Thereafter, based on the signal input from the timing generator 78, the data of the rotational print pattern is output from the buffer 107 to the print controller 108 for each line, and the print controller 108 operates the second printer head 98. Is controlled to print on the other surface of the object T.

  Then, the printed object T is collected by the second collection mechanism 110.

  Thus, according to the composite processing system 1 of this example, before printing on the object T, the presence or absence of a chip is inspected, and a defective product having a quality-related problem based on the inspection result is detected. Since the collection is performed in advance, printing is not performed on the target T, which finally becomes a defective product, and the consumption of ink can be suppressed and the cost can be reduced. In addition, since a target object having no problem is not collected as a defective product, the yield is improved.

  Furthermore, according to the combined processing system 1 of the present example, a rotational printing pattern corresponding to the angle of the target T is generated, and printing is performed on the target T based on the generated rotational printing pattern. Therefore, even if each object T is conveyed in a state where the posture is different, it is possible to perform appropriate printing on the object T.

  Further, as described above, in the combined processing system 1 of this example, there is almost no difference in rotational speed between the transport belts 11 and 12 in the transport unit 13 on which the object T is placed. The object T placed thereon is prevented from rotating during conveyance and is conveyed in a stable posture. Therefore, when the inspection by the inspection mechanism 85 or the printing by the printing mechanism 96 is performed, it is possible to prevent the problem that the target T rotates and the printed identification information becomes unclear.

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, the specific aspect which this invention can take is not limited to these at all.

  In the above example, the rotation print pattern is stored in the buffer unit 107, and the data of the rotation print pattern is output from the buffer unit 107 to the first and second printer heads 97 and 98 for each line. The rotational print pattern may be output to the print control unit 108 without using the buffer unit.

  For example, in the above example, the three linear transport mechanisms 10a, 10b, 10c and the rotary transport mechanism 60 are combined to reduce the size of the apparatus and reduce the space required for installation. The configuration is not limited, and the rotary conveyance mechanism 60 may be replaced with a linear conveyance mechanism. In this case, although the space required for installation becomes large, the conveyance posture of the target T can be stabilized as compared with the case where the rotary conveyance mechanism is used.

  In the above example, the rotation print pattern generation unit 102 generates the rotation print pattern by referring to the data stored in the conversion data table 105 and the arrangement position storage unit 106. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Instead, the rotation print pattern may be generated by performing polar coordinate conversion on each pattern data constituting the print pattern with the center position of the print pattern as the center.

  Furthermore, in the above example, the target object T has an elliptical shape in plan view. For example, even if the target object is circular in plan view and has a secant on the surface, the target object can be appropriately printed. it can. In other words, the angle formed between the conveying direction and the secant line is detected, and based on the detected angle, a rotational printing pattern is generated, and printing is performed on the object based on the rotation pattern, thereby printing according to the angle of the object. Can be applied.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Composite processing system 3 Supply mechanism 10a, 10b, 10c Linear conveyance mechanism 11, 12 Conveyance belt 60 Rotation conveyance mechanism 64, 65 Conveyance belt 75 Speed detection mechanism 76 1st rotary encoder 77 2nd rotary encoder 78 Timing generation part 80 Imaging mechanism 81 First imaging camera 82 Second imaging camera 85 Inspection mechanism 86 Inspection unit 89 First recovery mechanism 91 Angle detection unit 92 Angle calculation unit 93 Angle storage unit 96 Printing mechanism 97 First printer head 98 Second printer head 99 Ink ejection nozzle DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Print part 101 Print pattern memory | storage part 102 Rotation print pattern production | generation part 103 Pattern conversion part 104 Pattern arrangement | positioning part 105 Conversion data table 106 Arrangement position memory | storage part 107 Buffer part 108 Print control part T Target object

Claims (2)

A transport mechanism for transporting an object along the transport surface;
An imaging mechanism for imaging the surface of the object conveyed by the conveyance mechanism;
An inspection mechanism for inspecting at least a defect on the shape of the object based on an image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
A printing mechanism for printing on the surface of the object based on the image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
A position detection mechanism for detecting the position of the object,
The printing mechanism is arranged on the downstream side in the transport direction with respect to the imaging mechanism, and is configured to perform printing on an object that is inspected by the inspection mechanism and determined to be non-defective,
The inspection mechanism is
Based on the image picked up by the image pickup mechanism, configured to detect an angle in the transfer surface of the object transferred by the transfer mechanism,
The printing mechanism is
A printer head comprising a plurality of ink ejection nozzles arranged in a direction intersecting the conveyance direction of the object on the downstream side in the conveyance direction with respect to the imaging mechanism, and an ink tank connected to the ink ejection nozzle;
And a printing unit for executing the printing process,
The printing unit
A print pattern storage unit in which a print pattern composed of double row and double column data is stored in advance;
A print pattern is read from the print pattern storage unit, and based on the angle detected by the inspection mechanism, the read print pattern data is converted according to a conversion data table, and a rotated print pattern rotated by the angle is obtained. A rotary print pattern generation unit for generating and outputting;
A print control unit that controls the operation of the printer head based on the rotation print pattern generated by the rotation print pattern generation unit and the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism ;
The rotational printing pattern output from the rotational printing pattern generation unit is stored, and the rotational printing pattern data is sequentially transmitted to the printing control unit at a predetermined timing based on the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism. A composite processing system comprising a buffer unit that outputs line by line . A transport mechanism for transporting an object along the transport surface;
An imaging mechanism for imaging the surface of the object conveyed by the conveyance mechanism;
An inspection mechanism for inspecting at least a defect on the shape of the object based on an image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
A printing mechanism for printing on the surface of the object based on the image of the surface of the object imaged by the imaging mechanism;
A position detection mechanism for detecting the position of the object,
The printing mechanism is arranged on the downstream side in the transport direction with respect to the imaging mechanism, and is configured to perform printing on an object that is inspected by the inspection mechanism and determined to be non-defective,
The inspection mechanism is
Based on the image picked up by the image pickup mechanism, configured to detect an angle in the transfer surface of the object transferred by the transfer mechanism,
The printing mechanism is
A printer head comprising a plurality of ink ejection nozzles arranged in a direction intersecting the conveyance direction of the object on the downstream side in the conveyance direction with respect to the imaging mechanism, and an ink tank connected to the ink ejection nozzle;
And a printing unit for executing the printing process,
The printing unit
A print pattern storage unit in which a print pattern composed of double row and double column data is stored in advance;
A print pattern is read out from the print pattern storage unit, and based on the angle detected by the inspection mechanism, the read print pattern data is subjected to polar coordinate conversion to generate a rotated print pattern rotated by the angle. Rotating print pattern generation unit for outputting
A print control unit that controls the operation of the printer head based on the rotation print pattern generated by the rotation print pattern generation unit and the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism;
The rotational printing pattern output from the rotational printing pattern generation unit is stored, and the rotational printing pattern data is sequentially transmitted to the printing control unit at a predetermined timing based on the position of the object detected by the position detection mechanism. A composite processing system comprising a buffer unit that outputs line by line .

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