JPH0154265B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sorter, and particularly to a sorter suitable for jam detection.

Generally, in a sorter, in order to stably place the copy sheets ejected from the copier into a predetermined bin, while the copy sheets are passing from the copier to the sorter, the conveyance speed on the sorter side is set to be the same as that on the copier side. When the copy sheet passes through the copier, the speed is increased. Conventionally, a timer has been used to detect a jam in such a sorter, and it has been difficult to set a time limit on the timer, making it difficult to quickly detect a jam in the sorter. As a result, once a jam occurs, the copying machine's response is delayed and jams occur one after another, resulting in the inconvenience of wasting paper and the like. In addition, sorters are often attached to various types of copying machines as general-purpose machines, but different copying machines have different transfer speeds, so the timer time limit must be reset for each model, which makes the work easier. It was troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a sorter that can quickly detect a sorter jam by detecting a jam regardless of the conveyance speed of copy sheets, and that can be easily attached to various copying machines.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to the embodiments shown in the figures.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a mechanical part of a sorter according to an embodiment of the present invention, where 1 indicates a sorter;
2 is a copying machine.

This copying machine 2 discharges a copy sheet 4 fixed by a fixing roller 3 from a paper discharge roller 5, and
The paper discharge state at this time is monitored by a paper discharge sensor 6, and this is a very common copying machine.

On the other hand, the sorter 1 attached to the copying machine 2 is equipped with a plurality of bins 7 and emergent trays 8, and is configured to input copy sheets 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 into these bins 7 or trays 8. It is configured. That is, 9 is a guide plate, and the copy sheet 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 is
The guide plate 9 guides the paper to the conveying section. The conveying section consists of a conveying belt 10, a conveying roller 11 for driving the conveying belt 10, and the like, and the conveying roller 11 is configured to be driven by a motor 13 via a speed increasing clutch 12. A first deflection cam 14 is arranged near the conveyance roller 11, and in an emergency, the copy sheet 4 is discharged onto the tray 8 by this deflection cam 14. Further, although only one deflection cam 16 is shown in the figure, a second deflection cam 16 operated by a solenoid 15 is arranged in the copy conveyance path on the conveyance belt 10, corresponding to each bin 7. 4 is discharged into the bin 7 by these deflection cams 16.

Furthermore, an entrance sensor 17 is installed on the guide plate 9 to monitor the state of the copy sheets 4 entering the sorter 1. Further, a common bin sensor 18 is provided at the entrance of each bin 7 to monitor the state of the copy sheets 4 entering the bins 7. Further, the roller of the conveyor belt 10 is provided with a pulse generator 19 that generates a pulse p for each unit distance in synchronization with the movement of the conveyor belt 10.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the control section of the sorter 1, in which 20 is an I/O expander that serves as an interface with the control section of the copying machine 2;
2 is a control circuit composed of a microcomputer, and 22 is an I/O expander that serves as an interface with the mechanical section of the sorter 1.

The control circuit 21 includes a CPU, ROM, RAM, etc., and the ROM contains programs necessary to control the sorter 1, as shown in FIG.
The number of pulses P ₀ required to convey the copy sheet 4 from the entrance sensor 17 to the deflection cam of the uppermost bin 7-1, the number of pulses P ₁ from each deflection cam to the bin sensor 18, and the number of pulses between each deflection cam P ₂ , the number of pulses from the paper ejection sensor 6 to the entrance sensor 17
P ₃ and the number of pulses P ₄ from the inlet sensor 17 to the deflection cam of the lowest bin are stored.

During operation, the control circuit 21 receives a sort mode signal a, a collate mode signal b, an interrupt mode signal c, a copy end signal d, and a copy eject signal from the control unit of the copying machine 2 via the I/O expander 20. A paper signal e, etc. is input. On the other hand, the control circuit 21
from the copying machine 2 via the I/O expander 20.
A jam signal f, a bin number signal g, etc. are output to the control section. Further, the control circuit 21 is connected to a motor 13 and a speed increasing clutch 1 via an I/O expander 22.
2. At the same time as each drive signal is outputted to each solenoid 15 etc., sensor signals are inputted from the inlet sensor 17, bin sensor 18, pulse generator 19 etc.

Next, the operation of the sorter 1 of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 to 8.

The power of the sorter 1 is automatically turned on by turning on the power of the copying machine 2, and the control circuit 21
starts its control based on a command from the copying machine 2.

That is, the control circuit 21 first resets internal counters, registers, and flags to their initial states, and also sets n=1 in a register A (not shown). Next, the signals a~ input from the copying machine 2
The mode is selected as shown in FIG. 4 based on c, and when the mode is sort mode or collate mode, the process shifts to the sort routine shown in FIG. 5 and processes corresponding to each mode are executed. In addition, in the interrupt mode, the routine shifts to the interrupt routine shown in FIG. On the other hand, if none of the above is true, the seventh
Shifts to the normal routine shown in the figure. Further, FIG. 8 shows a processing routine when a jam occurs.

Now, suppose that the sort mode signal a or the collate mode signal b is input to the control circuit 21 via the I/O expander 20. As shown in FIG. The number N of pulses from to the deflection cam of the n-th bin 7-n into which the copy sheet 4 is placed is calculated.
As _explained above in FIG. Since the number of pulses required up to this point is _P1 , and the number of pulses between each deflection cam is _P1 , it can be expressed as N= _P0 + _P1- (n-1) _P2 . In this case, in both sort mode and collate mode, copies will be stored starting from the topmost bin 7-1, so at first n=1 is set in register A in the procedure shown in Figure 4. Based on this, the number of pulses at this time is N=P ₀ +P ₁ .

Next, the copy sheet 4 ejected from the copying machine 2
When the tip of the inlet sensor 17 passes through the inlet sensor 17 and the inlet sensor 17 turns on, the control circuit 2
1 outputs a drive signal via the I/O expander 22 to drive the motor 13. At the same time, a program-configured counter A is activated to count the pulses P output from the pulse generator 19. Furthermore, the solenoid 15 for the deflection cam 16 corresponding to the bin into which the paper is input is turned on.

As a result, when the leading edge of the copy sheet 4 reaches the entrance sensor 17, the motor 13 rotates and the conveyor belt 10 starts moving at the same speed as the copy conveyance speed of the copying machine 2.

In this embodiment, in order to make the sorter 1 compact, the conveyance path from the paper output port of the copying machine 2 to the bin 7 is made extremely short. sheet 4
Before the rear end of the bottle comes out of the copying machine 2, its leading end reaches the bin entrance. Therefore, in this embodiment, before the paper ejection sensor 6 is turned off, that is,
Before the paper discharge signal inputted to the control circuit 21 via the I/O expander 20 turns ON, it is determined whether the counter A has reached the calculated number of pulses N or not.

Based on this judgment result, if the counter A reaches the specified number of pulses N, it naturally means that the leading edge of the copy sheet 4 has reached the bin sensor 18, so it is determined whether the bin sensor 18 is turned on in step ST1. I checked and if it wasn't turned on, I assumed it jammed during the process. If the bin sensor 18 is ON, check whether the next paper discharge sensor 6 is OFF.

On the other hand, if the copy sheet 4 is to be placed in the upper bin, the determination result in step ST1 is NO, and it is first checked to see if the paper discharge sensor 6 is OFF. At this time, if the paper ejection sensor 6 is off, the clutch 12 is turned on and the conveyor belt 10 is turned on.
Increase speed by ~5 times. At the same time, counter B is activated to count pulses P from pulse generator 19. This counter B counts the number of pulses _P3 until the trailing edge of the copy sheet 4 reaches from the paper ejection sensor 6 to the entrance sensor 17, and the result is judged in step ST2. If NO, the process returns to step ST1 again. Repeat the above process.

If the judgment result in step ST2 is YES,
Next, moving to FIG. 5b, the state of the entrance sensor 17 is checked, and if the entrance sensor 17 is not OFF, it is determined that a jam has occurred. On the other hand, if the entrance sensor 17 is turned off, then the counter C is activated to count the pulses P from the pulse generator 19.

Thereafter, it is determined again whether the counter A has reached the specified number of pulses N, and if it has reached the specified pulse number N, the state of the bin sensor 18 is checked. Thereby, it is determined whether or not the leading edge of the copy sheet 4 has reached the bin entrance, and if it has not, it is determined that it is jammed. Next, it is determined whether the counter C has reached the specified number of pulses N, and if it has reached the specified pulse number N, the bin sensor 18 is checked to determine whether the rear end of the copy sheet 4 has reached the bin entrance. judge,
If it has not reached the limit, the bin sensor 18 will not turn off and therefore it will be determined that there is a jam. Thereby, a jam is detected from when the copy sheet 4 reaches the bin entrance until it enters the bin.

If the copy sheet 4 enters the bin 7 selected at that time without jamming on the way, the process moves to FIG. 5c, where the solenoid 15 is turned OFF and the clutch 12 is also turned OFF. At this time, it is checked whether or not the copy end signal d is input from the copying machine 2 to the control device 21 via the I/O expander 20. If copying is in progress, that is, the judgment result at step ST3 is NO, then this Depending on whether the mode at the time is sort mode or not, if it is in sort mode, the contents of register A are incremented by one, while if it is in collate mode, it remains the same and returns to the procedure shown in Figure 4. Then, go back to the procedure shown in Figure 5.
Repeat this. On the other hand, if the judgment result in step ST3 is YES, the motor 13 is turned off.
do. Thereafter, the content n of register A is set to 1 if the mode is sort, and the content n of register A is incremented by 1 if the mode is collate, and the process returns to the procedure shown in FIG.

In this way, in the sort mode, one copy sheet 4 is sequentially stocked one by one from the top of the bin, and is controlled to be returned to the top bin 7-1 by the copy end signal d. do.

In addition, in the collate mode, copy sheets 4 are sequentially stored from the top of the bin to the input of the copy end signal d, and when the copy end signal d is input, the copy sheet 4 is moved to the next pin, and when the collate mode is no longer in effect, the copy sheet 4 is stored in sequence until the copy end signal d is input. Control so that it returns to the upper stage.

On the other hand, jam detection during this period is performed by counter A,
B and C are provided to measure the state of the copy sheet from the entrance sensor 17 to the bin sensor 18, from the bin sensor 18 to the time when it is stored in the bin 7, and from the paper discharge sensor 6 to the entrance sensor 17, respectively. This is done by monitoring, so
If copy sheet 4 jams in sorter 1,
The control circuit 21 can quickly detect this.

As a result, if the control circuit 21 detects a jam, it moves to the procedure shown in FIG.
Output to. Thereafter, if the jam is removed and a reset button (not shown) is pressed, the process returns to the procedure shown in FIG. 4.

Next, when the interrupt mode signal c is input from the copying machine 2 to the control circuit 21 via the I/O expander 20, the procedure shown in FIG. 6 is executed.
That is, in the interrupt mode, the copy sheet 4 ejected from the copying machine 2 is placed in the bottom bin 7-n.
Since the number of pulses N=
Take out P ₁ + P ₄ from ROM and set it in RAM. Next, when the leading edge of the copy sheet 4 passes the entrance sensor 17, the entrance sensor 17
When turned on, the motor 13 is turned on, the solenoid corresponding to the lowermost bin 7-n is turned on, and then the counter A is operated.

Next, by checking the ON state of the bin sensor 18 when the counter A reaches N, it is determined whether the leading edge of the copy sheet 4 has safely reached the bin sensor 18 from the entrance sensor 17, and a jam is detected during that time. I do.

After that, the paper ejection sensor 6 is turned OFF, that is, the paper ejection signal e input via the I/O expander 20 is turned off.
ON is checked, and if the copy sheet 4 passes through the copying machine 2, the clutch 12 is turned ON, the speed of the conveyor belt 10 is increased, and then the counter B is operated.

Next, by checking whether the entrance sensor 17 is OFF when the value of the counter B reaches _P3 , a jam in which the rear end of the copy sheet 4 reaches the entrance sensor 17 from the tomoe paper sensor 6 is detected.

If a jam is not detected, the trailing edge of the copy sheet 4 is transferred from the entrance sensor 17 to the bin sensor 18 by activating the counter C and checking whether the bin sensor 18 is OFF when the value of the counter C reaches N. It is checked whether or not the copy sheet 4 has reached the bottom bin 7-n, and a jam is detected until the copy sheet 4 reaches the bottom bin 7-n from the bin sensor 18.

In this way, in the process of putting the copy sheet 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 into the lowermost bin 7-n,
If a jam is detected, the jam processing shown in FIG. 8 is performed as described above. On the other hand, if jam is not detected,
Returning to the procedure shown in Figure 4 again, interrupt mode signal c
As long as is input, the process moves from the procedure in FIG. 4 to the procedure in FIG. 6, performs the same process as described above, and stores the copy sheets 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 one after another in the bottom bin 7-n. go.

On the other hand, if there is no mode designation from the copying machine 2 to the sorter 1, the normal mode is set, and the control circuit 21 executes the procedure shown in FIG. In this case, all the copy sheets 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 are placed in the topmost bin 7-1, so the CPU takes out the number of pulses N=P ₀ +P ₁ from the ROM and sets it in the RAM. In addition, the selection operation of the solenoid 15 is not performed, and the inlet sensor 17 is
If it is turned on, the motor 13 is turned on and the counter A is activated, and then the paper discharge sensor 6 is turned off, that is, I/
Paper discharge signal e input via the O expander 20
Check if it is ON. As a result, when the paper discharge signal e turns ON, the clutch 12 is turned ON, the speed of the conveyor belt 10 is increased, and then the counter B is operated.

Next, in the same manner as in the interrupt mode described above, jam detection is performed by checking whether the entrance sensor 17 is OFF when the value of the counter B reaches _P3 .

If a jam is not detected, a jam from the entrance sensor 17 to the bin sensor 18 is detected by activating the counter C and checking whether the bin sensor 18 is ON when the value of the counter A reaches N. Next, by checking whether the bin sensor 18 is turned off when the value of the counter C reaches N, jam detection is performed until the copy sheet 4 enters the top bin 7-1 from the bin sensor 18.

Furthermore, if a jam is detected during such jam detection, the jam processing shown in FIG. 8 is performed, and if no jam is detected, the steps from FIG.
The process shown in the figure is repeated until all copy sheets 4 discharged from the copying machine 2 are stored in the uppermost bin 7-1.

The sorter 1 of this embodiment is provided with the entrance sensor 17 and the pin sensor 18 for detecting the presence or absence of the copy sheet 4 in the copy conveyance path as described above.
Pulse generator 1 that generates a copy transport synchronization pulse
9 is provided, and this pulse is applied at the timing when the leading edge or the trailing edge of the copy sheet 4 passes the entrance sensor 17.
The bin sensor starts counting at the timing of each discharge, and when the counted values reach the predetermined number of pulses between the entrance sensor 17 and the pin sensor 18 or the number of pulses between the copying machine 2 and the entrance sensor 17. Jam detection is performed without using a timer by checking the ON/OFF state of the sensor 18 or the ON/OFF state of the entrance sensor 17.

Therefore, jams can be detected reliably and quickly without being affected by the conveyance speed of the attached copying machine as in the past. At the same time, by simply adjusting the transport speed when receiving copies to that of the copying machine, it can be easily installed on different types of copying machines.

In addition, as explained in FIG. 3, only the number of pulses P ₀ to _{P 4} during the basic distance during the copy transport path is memorized, and the number of pulses from the entrance sensor 17 to the predetermined pin entrance is calculated. This allows the storage capacity to be reduced.

As described above, according to the present invention, jam detection can be performed reliably and quickly, and even if the conveyance speed of the copying machine differs, no complicated adjustment is required, and it can be easily installed in various copying machines. A highly versatile sorter can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the mechanical part of a sorter showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the control part of the sorter, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the copy transport path necessary for explaining the operation of the sorter. Required pulse number explanatory diagram, 4th
The figure is a flowchart for explaining the mode selection operation of the sorter, Figures 5 a to c are flowcharts for explaining the sort mode and collate mode operation of the sorter, and Figure 6 is the interrupt mode of the sorter 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sorter in normal mode, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sorter during jam processing. be. 1... Sorter, 2... Copying machine, 3... Fixing roller, 4... Copy sheet, 5... Paper ejection roller,
6... Paper discharge sensor, 7... Bin, 8... Emergence tray, 9... Guide plate, 10... Conveyance belt, 11... Drive roller, 12... Speed increasing clutch, 13... Motor, 14, 16...Deflection cam, 15...Solenoid, 17...Inlet sensor, 18...Bin sensor, 19...Pulse generator, 20, 22...I/O expander, 21...
...control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a sorter that increases the speed of copy sheets discharged from a copying machine when they pass through the copying machine and sequentially stores them in predetermined bins of a plurality of bins arranged in parallel,
A paper ejection sensor, an entrance sensor, and a bin sensor are placed on the copy conveyance path from the copying machine to the above-mentioned bins, and a pulse generator that generates pulses synchronized with the conveyance of copy sheets in the sorter is installed to detect the leading and trailing edges of copies. starts counting the pulses at the timing when the pulse passes through the sensor, and when the counted value reaches the number of pulses corresponding to the distance between the sensors, the jam can be detected by checking the sensor output. Features a sorter.