JPH02206891A - Optical reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain prescribed distance between a bar code sensor and a bar code, and to improve assembling workability by setting the distance between the shaft center of a guide shaft and the tip of a contact piece longer than the distance between the shaft centers of the guide shaft and a screw shaft. CONSTITUTION:The contact piece 20a is in contact elastically with the back of a name card 30, and slides on the back of the name card 30 accompanied with the movement of a sensor driving body 10. Namely, even if the fitting position of the screw shaft 6 or the guide shaft 8 is a little erroneous, since a spring 21 energizes always a holding case 20, the bar code sensor 9 and the reading area of the back of the name card 30 are kept always in constant relation. Besides, because the spring 21 energizes always a base 19 around the shaft 8 so as to bring the shafts 6 and 8 close to each other, a tooth part 19a meshes firmly and elastically with the thread groove 6a of the shaft 6. Accordingly, even if the distance between the shaft centers of the shafts 6, 8 is a little erroneous, the driving body 10 can be moved smoothly back and forth along the shafts 6, 8.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is characterized in that when a medium such as a business card on which a barcode is written is inserted, a built-in barcode sensor moves back and forth to read the barcode of this medium. This invention relates to an optical reading device that can perform

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, for example, in European Patent No. 70, a code such as a bar code is written on a medium on which characters are printed, and automatic dialing can be performed by reading this code.
The code reading device disclosed in Patent No. 697 and the like has attracted attention as office automation progresses.

As a medium for performing such an automatic dialing operation, for example, FIG. 1 of British Patent No. 2063010,
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 10, there are cards such as business cards that have a barcode displayed outside the text printing area that corresponds to the above printed text of the telephone number.
Using such a card, for example, JP-A-60-163
As disclosed in connection with FIGS. 3 and 4 of the No. 154 publication, automatic dialing can be performed by reading this barcode.

Also, the address printed on cards such as the above business cards.

By adding barcodes corresponding to other information, it is also possible to manage business cards, etc.

At present, barcode display systems for business cards are not standardized, but if this is unified and standardized, it is fully predicted that business cards displaying barcodes will become widespread. Accordingly, the demand for code reading devices for reading barcodes on business cards is expected to increase exponentially.

A barcode reader, which is an example of this type of code reading device, has a built-in barcode sensor that combines a light emitting element, a light receiving element, a lens, an optical fiber, etc.
This barcode sensor (scanner) is generally guided by a screw shaft or a guide shaft, and the barcode is read by moving it back and forth in a direction that intersects (orthogonal to) the direction in which the business card is inserted.

Examples of structures for reading barcodes by reciprocating a scanner include those disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 13858/1983, British Patent No. 1324448, and the like.

On the other hand, a barcode is printed and displayed on the outside surface of the face plate on which characters are printed on the business card, which is a medium, along the direction perpendicular to the direction of insertion into the code reading device, and British Patent No. 2063
As disclosed in FIG. 5 of the specification of No. 010, the business card inserted into the code reader with the short side as the tip is inserted into the code reader using the driving force of the built-in stepping motor while preventing incorrect insertion in the vertical and horizontal directions. Take in and send 1m.

The imported business card is stopped at a predetermined position, and its barcode is read by a scanner. When a barcode spans multiple lines, the paper feed structure of a well-known facsimile machine moves to the first barcode position, stops, and
The scanner scans, and the same operation is repeated one after another, and the business card that has been read is ejected from the code reading device.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Incidentally, the lens of the barcode sensor has a shallow depth of focus, and in order to ensure good reading accuracy, it is necessary to stabilize the distance between the reading area of the business card as a medium and the barcode sensor. However, in the conventional optical reading device described above, a slight error in the mounting position of the screw shaft or guide shaft causes variations in the height of the barcode sensor that is moved back and forth, and this variation causes the difference between the reading area and the barcode sensor. This makes the distance unstable, so high assembly precision was required to prevent reading errors.

Furthermore, in the conventional optical reading device described above, if there is an error in the distance between the axes of the screw shaft passing through the sensor drive body and the guide shaft, the sensor drive body cannot be smoothly guided. In this sense, high assembly precision is required, which inevitably leads to deterioration in assembly performance and increased costs.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical reading device that can solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, can maintain a stable distance between the reading area of a medium and a barcode sensor, and is easy to assemble. It is in.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a sensor drive body that holds a barcode sensor and is driven by a screw shaft and reciprocates in the axial direction of the screw shaft, and a sensor drive body for rotationally driving the screw shaft. In the optical reading device, the optical reading device includes a first driving means and a second driving means for transporting a medium inserted from the outside, and reads a barcode written on the medium with the barcode sensor. a base in which the drive body has teeth that engage in elastic contact with the spiral groove of the screw shaft, and is slidably inserted into a guide shaft installed parallel to the screw shaft; a holding case that holds the barcode sensor with a protruding contact piece for bringing it into elastic contact with the medium and is rotatably connected to the base via the guide shaft; an elastic member that is interposed between the holding case and urges both, and the distance between the axis of the guide shaft and the tip of the contact piece is greater than the distance between the axes of the guide shaft and the screw shaft. It is characterized by having a long length.

[Effect]

When the contact piece protruding from the holding case is brought into elastic contact with the barcode writing surface of the medium by the elastic force of the elastic member, the barcode sensor held by the holding case can be kept at a predetermined distance from the reading area of the medium. In addition, when the teeth of the base are brought into elastic contact with the helical groove of the screw shaft by the elastic force of the elastic member, even if there is some error in the distance between the axes of the screw shaft and the guide shaft, the above-mentioned The interdental engagement between the teeth and the spiral groove is maintained.

Furthermore, since the screw shaft is brought close to the guide shaft, which is the center of rotation, and the contact pieces are separated by a large distance, the pressing force of the teeth against the screw shaft is large, and the pressing force of the contact pieces against the medium is large. It is set small, so that the driving force of the screw shaft can be reliably transmitted to the sensor drive body through the teeth, and the frictional force during sliding between the medium and the contact piece can be suppressed. be able to.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An optical reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. Here, Figure 1 is a sectional view showing the sensor driver during reading, Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of each part of the sensor driver, and Figure 3 is a bottom view of the entire device with the board removed. be.

As shown in FIG. 3, this optical reading device includes a stepping motor 4 that rotationally drives a drive roller 3 through a gear group 2 and a screw shaft 6 that rotationally drives a screw shaft 6 through a gear group 5, as shown in FIG. A sensor drive body that holds the DC motor 7, a guide shaft 8 installed parallel to the screw shaft 6, and a barcode sensor 9 and reciprocates in the vertical direction in FIG. 3 while being guided by the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8. 10, and an opening 11a in the reciprocating range of a contact piece 21a provided on the sensor drive body 10, which will be described later.
The lower business card guide board 11 where is opened and this frontage 11
It is generally configured to house an upper business card guide plate 12 exposed in the interior a, photointerrupters 13 to 17 for detection, and the like.

A driving roller 3 driven by a stepping motor 4 moves a business card 30 (see FIG. 1) in the left-right direction in FIG. 3 inside the frame 1.
It is for transporting the material, and is opposed to a driven roller (not shown). That is, the business card 30 inserted from the business card insertion slot on the first day is first transferred to the left in FIG. 3 by the drive roller 3, and then intermittently transferred to the right in FIG. 3 by rotating the drive roller 3 in the opposite direction. After the reading is completed, the business card is ejected from the business card insertion slot 18. By controlling the stepping motor 4, the business card 30, which is intermittently fed to the drive roller 3, is stopped every time the multi-line barcode printed on the back surface appears in the opening 11a. ing.

The screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8 are installed in a direction perpendicular to the direction of transport of the inserted business card 30, and a single spiral groove 6a is carved on the outer peripheral surface of the screw shaft 6. .

As is clear from FIG. 1.2, the sensor driver 10 has a toothed portion 19 that meshes with the helical groove 6a of the screw shaft 6.
a base 19 which is slidably inserted into the guide shaft 8 and which holds the barcode sensor 9 and which is inserted into the guide shaft 8.
Holding case 2 rotatably connected to base 19 via
0, and a coil spring 21 interposed between the base 19 and the holding case 20, and the holding case 2
A pair of contact pieces 20a are provided protruding from the tip of the 0.

The coil spring 21 constantly biases the base 19 in the clockwise direction in FIG. 1 with the guide shaft 8 as the center of rotation, and the holding case 20 in the counterclockwise direction in the same figure. is constantly energized. In addition, the holding case 20
A light-shielding plate 22 for blocking the optical path of photo-interrupters 15 to 17, which will be described later, is vertically provided at the bottom.

The photo interrupters 13 to 17 are all optical sensors that output a signal when the optical path between the light receiving and emitting elements is interrupted, and the photo interrupter 13 is a sensor that detects that the business card 30 is inserted from the outside. The interrupter 14 is a sensor that detects that the business card 30 has reached the innermost part of the frame 1, the photointerrupter 15 is a sensor that detects that the sensor driver 10 is at the initial position, and the photointerrupter 16 is a sensor that detects the sensor driver 10. The photointerrupter 17 is a sensor that detects that the sensor driver 10 is exposed at the other longitudinal end of the opening 11a. The stepping motor 4 and the DC motor 7 are controlled by signals output from these photointerrupters 13 to 17.

That is, when a business card 30 is inserted from the business card insertion slot 18, the photointerrupter 13 detects this, the stepping motor 4 is driven, and the business card 30 is transported toward the innermost part of the frame 1 by the drive roller 3. When it reaches the innermost part, the photointerrupter 14 detects this and the drive roller 3 is rotated in the reverse direction, and when the barcode of the first line of the business card 30 appears in the opening 11a, the stepping motor 4 starts. Stop. During this time, the sensor driver 10 is kept waiting at the initial position at the bottom end in FIG. Ru.

Then, when the business card 30 stops with the first line barcode exposed in the opening 11a, the sensor driver 10 leaves the initial position and then moves along the longitudinal direction of the opening 11a to read the barcode. . At this time, the fact that the sensor driver 10 has moved from one end of the opening 11a to the other means that the light shielding plate 22
can be detected by blocking the optical path of the photointerrupters 16 and 17. When the reading of one line is completed, a stop signal is output to the DC motor 7, and the stepping motor 4 is driven again to read the second line of the business card 30. The barcode of the eye is made to appear in the opening 11. Thereafter, by repeating the same operation, multiple lines of barcodes printed on the back side of the business card 30 can be sequentially read by the barcode sensor 9 held in the sensor driver 10.

Next, the operation of the sensor driver 10 will be described in detail.

When the business card 30 is inserted and stopped with the barcode printed on the back side exposed in the opening 11a, the screw shaft 6 is rotationally driven and the sensor driver 10 is screwed from one end of the opening 11a to the other. It moves linearly while being guided by the shaft 6 and guide shaft 8.

At this time, since the coil spring 21 always biases the holding case 20 around the axis of the guide shaft 8, the contact piece 20a is in elastic contact with the back surface of the business card 30, and the sensor driver 10 As the IO moves, the contact piece 20
a slides on the back side of the business card 30. In other words, even if there is some error in the mounting position of the screw shaft 6 or guide shaft 8, the coil spring 2 is always attached to the holding case 20.
Since the spring force of 1 is applied, there is no risk that the contact piece 20a will separate from the business card 30. Therefore, the distance between the reading area of the business card 30 illuminated with the light beam 9a of the barcode sensor 9 and the lens 9b of the barcode sensor 9 is always kept constant by the contact piece 20a.

For the same reason, even when a thicker business card than usual is inserted, the holding case 20 is only set in a slightly tilted position clockwise in FIG.
a is always in elastic contact with the thick business card, and the distance between the reading area of the business card and the barcode sensor 9 is kept constant.

Further, the coil spring 21 of the sensor driver 10 constantly biases the base 19 around the axis of the guide shaft 8, and since the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8 are placed close to each other, the tooth portion 19a is attached to the screw. - It meshes with the spiral groove 6a of the shaft 6 in a state of strong elastic contact. For this reason,
Even if there is some error in the distance between the axes of the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8, the teeth 19 of the base work 9
a reliably meshes with the spiral groove 6a of the screw shaft 6, allowing the sensor drive body 10 to reciprocate smoothly along the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8.

In this way, in the above embodiment, the business card 30 can be accessed from the outside.
is inserted, the contact piece 20 protruding from the holding case 20
a comes into elastic contact with the back surface of the business card 30 by the spring force of the coil spring 21, and the sensor driver 10 moves while keeping this contact piece 20a in contact with the business card 30 to read the barcode, so that the reading area of the business card 30 is The distance between the barcode sensor and barcode sensor is always kept constant, allowing highly reliable reading.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, since the guide shaft 8 is used as the center of rotation of the base 19 and the holding case 20, the number of parts can be reduced, and the contact piece Since the contact pieces 20a are set to be separated from each other by a large distance, the frictional force generated between the business card 30 and the contact piece 20a is small, and care is taken to prevent the business card 30 from being scratched or stained during reading.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the teeth 19a of the base 19
The screw shaft 6 is brought into elastic contact with the spiral groove 6a of the screw shaft 6 by the spring force of the coil spring 21, and the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8 are brought close to each other to reduce the spring force applied to the tooth portion 19a. Since it is set large, even if there is some error in the distance between the axes of the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8 during assembly, the meshing relationship between the teeth 19a and the helical groove 6a is ensured, and the screw The driving force of the shaft 6 can be reliably transmitted to the sensor driver 10. In other words, the sensor drive body IO can be smoothly reciprocated without having to specify the distance between the axes of the screw shaft 6 and the guide shaft 8 with high precision. If the movement of the sensor drive body 10 is blocked, the screw shaft 6 can be allowed to rotate idly, so that overloading the DC motor 7 can be prevented.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention brings the contact piece protruding from the holding case of the sensor driver into elastic contact with the barcode writing surface of the medium, so that the barcode sensor held by the holding case can be moved into the reading area of the medium. The screw shaft can be maintained at a predetermined distance from
Since the guide shaft, which is the center of rotation, and the screw shaft are placed close to each other so that the pressing force against the spiral groove of this tooth part is large, even if there is some error in the distance between the axes of these two shafts, the above-mentioned tooth The part can be reliably engaged with the spiral groove, and the guide shaft is also used as the center of rotation of the holding case, which reduces the number of parts, resulting in consistently high reliability. It is possible to provide an optical reading device that can perform reading and is easy to assemble.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] FIGS. 1 to 3 are for explaining an optical reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a sensor driver during reading, and FIG. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of each part of this sensor driver, and FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the entire device with the board removed. 3... Drive roller, 4... Stepping motor, 6... Screw shaft, 6a.
...Spiral groove, 7...DC motor, 8.
...Guide shaft, 9...Barcode sensor, 10...Sensor driver, 19...
... Base, 19a ... Teeth, 20 ... Holding case, 20a ... Contact piece, 21 ...
・Coil spring (elastic member), 30...Business card (medium). 6th; Screacy 7th 6σ: 4 circles on the forehead 4 B near) 'AV 7th 9: Bar two μ゛ Zen length / 9a: ) Jzru 20; 20σ: Rod melting piece 3rd

Claims (1)

[Claims] a sensor drive body that holds a barcode sensor and is driven by a screw shaft and reciprocates in the axial direction of the screw shaft; a first drive means for rotationally driving the screw shaft; and a medium inserted from the outside. and a second driving means for transporting the medium, the optical reading device reads a barcode written on the medium with the barcode sensor, the sensor driver comprising:
a base having teeth that engage in elastic contact with the helical groove of the screw shaft and slidably inserted into a guide shaft installed parallel to the screw shaft; A holding case that holds the barcode sensor by protruding a contact piece for elastic contact and is rotatably connected to the base via the guide shaft, and between the base and the holding case. an elastic member disposed between the guide shaft and the tip of the contact piece, and the distance between the axis of the guide shaft and the tip of the contact piece is set to be longer than the distance between the axes of the guide shaft and the screw shaft. An optical reading device characterized in that: