JPH05303189A - Plane scanner provided with cassette interrupting function for original film - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable continuous scanning to be executed by housing the large quantity of original films in a stacker and to efficiently execute interruption processing by temporarily changing a mode when there is urgent interruption. CONSTITUTION:The original film is housed in a cassette 10 and held. Besides, many cassettes 10 are housed in the stacker 100 and set to a scanner 1. Then, the scanning for making a printing plate is automatically and continuously executed by sending the cassettes 10 to an original placing plate one by one. At an urgent interruption time, the mode is changed and the scanning of the interrupted cassette can be temporarily executed. Then, the mode is returned to the continuous mode after the scanning is finished.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing plate-making scanner, and more particularly to a scanner for scanning another original film in the middle of a steady continuous processing of a plurality of original films to the scanner. Regarding means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, each plate-making data for printing plate making, especially for multi-color plate making, has been prepared by using a scanner for color-separating an original film and reading an image. The manuscript film that is the basis of the plate making was mainly wrapped around a transparent drum and held and scanned and read, but this damages the important manuscripts entrusted to the customer and the drums. Since the work of holding and winding the original film on the paper is troublesome, the efficiency is poor and the productivity is not preferable. for that reason,
A method has been adopted in which the original film is held in a cassette to prevent the original from being damaged, and the cassette is stacked and stored in a stacker and sequentially fed to the scanner from the lowermost layer of the stacker. This original film is carefully held in a flat state by being sandwiched between an acrylic plate or a glass plate in a cassette, and the scanner corresponding to this is changed from a cylindrical original scanning method to a flat original scanning method. Appeared, and the manuscript table only needed to move the manuscript length on a plane, which gave rise to the advantage of being able to have a considerably compact structure.

Regarding this, the applicant has already published the following application.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-20170 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-188446 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-95036

[0005]

As described above, by stacking a plurality of original film cassettes in a stacked state in a stacker, for example, the lowest layer or the uppermost layer can be taken out in order and supplied to the scanner. A series of processing operations such as color separation reading and correction of images can be continuously and automatically processed, and the manual labor of selecting and processing cassettes can be greatly saved. It was And 60 cassettes are stored in one stacker, and the cassettes are automatically supplied to the scanner from the lower or upper part, and each cassette is returned to the upper part of the stacker as soon as the scanning with the scanner is completed. There is.

However, when such a large number of cassettes are stacked in order from the bottom or the top in the order of treatment plan and the supply and recovery are continuously carried out and continuously earned, it is a very efficient and desirable state. However, when a color separation original plate is created by such image processing for printing and plate making, problems that always occur are requests for re-correction from customers and shortening of delivery time. In a fast-moving world of advertising, this is something that often happens and platemakers must take appropriate action in such situations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a flat scanner having a cassette interruption function of a document film which can promptly meet such a demand.

[0008]

This object is solved by the following technical means.

In a printing plate making scanner having a stacker in which a plurality of cassettes, each of which holds an original film in a plane shape with an image frame mask, are aligned and accommodated, in the stacker during continuous disassembly processing of the original film. When performing an interrupt scanning process for a cassette containing another original film that has not been installed, the continuous disassembly process is interrupted to lower the stacker lifting case, and the cassette containing the interrupt original film is externally loaded. It is loaded in the upper part of the stacker lifting case and automatically supplied from the uppermost cassette to the document loading table supply port of the scanner, the interrupted original film is scanned, and after the interrupting work is completed, the stacker is normally loaded. The original film cassette is characterized in that a mode changing means is provided for returning to the continuous disassembly process of the original film cassette. Plane scanner with a set interrupt function.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of a flat scanner 1 of the present invention.
Will be described with reference to the schematic diagram

The cassette 10 for the required original film 50 loaded on the elevating case 102 of the stacker 100 is a sub-scanning unit 20.
It is supplied onto the original placing table 210 of 0. That is, the required cassette 10 is moved to the vicinity of the supply port of the stacker 100 on the left side of the drawing by the lead screw 221 rotated by the driving device 222, and the stacker 1 provided for the document placing table 210 waiting.
The rear portion of the cassette 10 is pressed from a supply port of 00 by a pressing member (not shown), is sandwiched between the guide rollers 231 and 232, and is further set to a predetermined position on the document table 210 by the receiving and conveying rollers 233 and 234. Carried.

When the document table 210 is moved to the right by the reverse drive of the drive unit 222, the screen of the document film 50 of the cassette 10 on the table is sub-scanned.

On the other hand, scanning in the main scanning direction is performed by the light source 301 and 45 °
The original film 50 is transmitted by the reflection mirror 302 inclined to the projection lens 303, the optical path direction V mirror 304,
An image is formed on a CCD 308 as a plurality of line sensors for image reading by 305. In front of the CCD 308, a filter for color separation or a dichroic mirror is provided.

That is, the image of, for example, the color original film 50 which is imaged and read by the CCD 308 is a color-separated image, which is sequentially digitized by the A / D converter 410, the signal correction means 420, and the color correction. The necessary corrections are made via means 430 and input to memory 440 for storage.

Furthermore, a color CRT monitor 470 for increasing / decreasing and adjusting the image density and for inputting characters by looking at the image displayed on the CRT is connected through an interface 460 for a personal computer terminal as a control device. Has been done.

Then, the cassette 10 for the original film 50.
Stacker 10 for transporting paper and storing the cassette 10
0 lift the case 102 up and down,
A control device 45 for machine control for moving 0 to receive the cassette 10, moving in the sub-scanning direction, and turning on and off the illumination light source 301.
0 is provided.

Next, the cassette 10 for the original film 50 used in the present invention will be described with reference to the perspective view of FIG.

The cassette 10 includes an original pressing sheet 13 for pressing an original film 50 between a lower cassette frame 11 and an upper cassette frame 12.
Are provided with windows for the original image area, and transparent holding plates 14 and 15 made of acrylic or glass are fitted therein, so that the flatness of the original film 50 is maintained and the original film 50 is Strongly protected from trauma.

Then, the cassette 10 in which the original film 50 is stored, the upper and lower cassette frames 11 and 12 are closed, and the cassette lock 17 is applied, is the lifting case 1 of the stacker 100.
Document stacking table 210 of scanner 1 accumulated and stored in 02
The image data is read and various intended corrections are performed by being supplied to and scanned with, and necessary data for printing plate making desired by the customer is created.

In addition, an independent identification mark 16 corresponding to each original film 50 is attached to a part of the side surface of the cassette 10 in which the original films 50 are stored.

The identification mark 16 is conveniently used by printing a bar code and arithmetic numerals in parallel as shown in the plan view of FIG.

The identification signal mark 16 can be used in various ways.

In order to identify the screen of the original film 50 during the work, it is troublesome and erroneous to pick up the necessary original film with a feeling that it is unpleasant to look at the screen each time. In order to eliminate such inconvenience and inconvenience, it is desirable to identify the original film 50 by a number or a symbol attached to the cassette 10 for accommodating the original film 50. This is the simplest and most accurate identifying means. Also, the identification mark
The numeral 16 is a mathematical expression that can be intuitively understood by a person, and a machine code representing it, such as a bar code, is also shown. The scanner 1 and the stacker 100 fixed frame 101
It is convenient because it can be read by the barcode reader 21 or the like attached to and stored in memory. Information such as screen size can be included therein, and the scanner can be used as a means for storing the cassette 10 together with various data.

Next, the scanner having the cassette interruption function of the present invention will be described more specifically.

The lifting case 102 of the stacker 100 is the lifting table 10
It is driven to move up and down by a drive motor 105 mounted on the fixed frame 101 and mounted on the fixed frame 101. For example, a guide block 103A which is screwed into a lead screw 104 directly connected to the motor 105 and moved in the vertical direction is integrally attached to the elevating table 103.

Now, the present applicant puts 60 cassettes in one elevating case 102 as shown in the perspective view of FIG.
I loaded the stacker 100 with a total of 120 cases,
Separately, the scanned elevating / lowering case 102 was loaded in advance so that the scanning of the cassette 10 of 120 original films could be continuously and automatically processed in the continuous mode.

Four elevating cases 102 can be provided. That is, two cassettes each containing 60 cassettes and two empty cassettes.

What is shown in the schematic plan views of FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) is that state.
2A, the next waiting lift case is 102B, the next empty case is 102C, and the last empty lift case is 102D.

In FIG. 5A, first, the elevating case 102A starts scanning sequentially from the uppermost cassette, and the cassette 1 which has already been scanned in the empty case of the elevating case 102C.
5 shows that 0 is being collected, and the one shown in FIG. 5 (b) shows that the 60 cassettes 10 of the first-row elevating case 102A have been scanned and the second-row elevating case 102B is All lifting cases 102A, 102 so that they are located at the supply port
B, 102C and 102D are shown moving one row at a time.

With such a scanner, both prescan and main scan are possible.

The prescan is an operation including various corrections when the image of the original film is disassembled, the layout of the image position, and the writing of characters, and requires a considerably skilled operation. Since it is a scan that executes such pre-scan data, it can be performed almost entirely by automatic operation.

In any case, when the interrupt mode is entered when such a continuous scan mode is entered,
When the scanning of a specific cassette 10 in the continuous mode is completely finished and the cassette 10 is completely discharged into the collection lifting case (eg 102C), the lifting case (eg 102A) which is supplying the cassette 10 is placed at the bottom. When the cassette 10 to be lowered by one cassette is placed and loaded on the elevating case 102 and activated, the series of interrupt processes can be completed. The cassette that has been subjected to the interrupt process can be received in the collecting elevating case 102C, can be converted into the continuous scan mode again, and normal operation can be restarted.

Such a mode is named a step interrupt mode.

It is possible to switch to the continuous interrupt mode by inserting a plurality of other cassettes in the interrupt mode. In that case, cassettes are inserted one by one in the same operation as in the step interrupt mode, and a plurality of cassettes are repeated. In the meantime, all the interrupted cassettes are continuously scanned, and when the scanning is completed and the scanned interrupt cassette is ejected to the elevating case 102C for collection and taken out, the normal continuous scan is performed again. It tries to operate by switching to the mode.

When returning to the normal continuous mode, the elevating case 102A rises to the original supply port, but since the identification mark of the cassette is confirmed by the bar code reader 21, the unscanned cassette may be pulled out. There is no such thing.

Of the interrupt functions described above, the interrupt operation in the step interrupt mode is shown in the flow chart of FIG.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently automate the scanning of cassettes by the continuous mode and to provide a highly efficient printing plate making scanner which can cope with an emergency interruption without impairing the work efficiency. It was realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a flat scanner showing the overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a document film cassette used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a flat scanner of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an identification code.

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of a stacker for supply and recovery.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an interrupt operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Flatbed scanner 10 Cassette 16 Identification symbol mark 21 Bar code reader 50 Original film 100 Stacker 101 Fixed frame 102,102A, 102B, 102C, 102D Lifting case 103 Lifting stand 103A Guide block 104 Lead screw 105 Motor 200 Sub-scanning section 210 Document loading stand 231,232 Guide roller 233,234 Receiving / conveying roller 300 Optical system 301 Light source 303 Projection lens 308 Line sensor (CCD) 410 A / D converter 420 Signal correction means 430 Color correction means 440 Memory 450 Machine control controller 460 Interface 470 CRT monitor

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display area H04N 1/10 7205-5C // G06K 13/103 H 9190-5L

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing plate-making scanner having a stacker in which a plurality of cassettes, each of which holds a manuscript film in a plane shape with an image frame mask, are aligned and housed, and a continuous stacking process of the manuscript film is performed during a disassembly process of the manuscript film. When performing an interrupt scanning process for a cassette containing another original film not yet mounted on the stacker, the continuous disassembling process is interrupted to lower the stacker elevating case to remove the cassette containing the interrupt original film from the outside. The stacker is loaded in the upper part of the elevating case and automatically supplied from the uppermost cassette to the document mounting table supply port of the scanner, the interrupted original film is scanned, and after the interrupting work, the steady stacker A manuscript film provided with mode changing means for returning to the continuous disassembly process of the manuscript film cassette being loaded. Flatbed scanner with a cassette interrupt function.