JPH0632507A - Device of detecting end approach of roll sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To satisfactorily detect end approach of a flexible rolled sheet made of a thin polyethylene film so as to have an extremely flexible sheet. CONSTITUTION:A spool core guide 15 supports a rolled sheet 20 by means of spool cores 15 so that the rolled sheet 20 is rotatable and vertically movable, and a roll guide 16 makes contact with the outer peripheral surface of the rolled sheet on the spool core guide 15. Further, a sensor means 17 detects, at a predetermined position, the spool core 22 which descends along the spool core guide 15 under its dead weight due to a decrease in the diameter of the rolled sheet or consumption of the sheet body 21.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a roll sheet near-end detecting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, a roll sheet formed by winding a long and narrow sheet body such as continuous paper in a cylindrical shape is rotatably supported so that it can be fed, and a sheet body fed from the roll sheet is used. A device that prints by using a printer has been put into practical use. Then, in such a device, for example, since the preparation of the roll sheet is delayed if the replenishment is started after the roll sheet is finished, the near end of the roll sheet is detected to notify the user. There is. Therefore,
As a conventional example of a near-end detecting device for notifying such a near-end of a roll sheet, a near-end detecting device of Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-166664 proposed by the present applicant will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the near-end detecting device exemplified here is formed as a part of a paper feeding portion of a printer device, and two supporting rollers 3, which support an outer peripheral surface of a roll paper 2 which is a roll sheet, in a hopper 1. 4 are rotatably supported and arranged at predetermined intervals. Therefore, a space 5 whose upper part is opened is formed below the support rollers 3 and 4, and in a part of the space 5, a widening recess longer than the facing interval between the support rollers 3 and 4 is formed. 6 is formed. One of the support rollers 3 is pivotally supported by the hopper 1, while the other support roller 4 is supported by the hopper 1.
Is rotatably supported by a holder 7 attached to the bottom of the.

The roll paper 2 is placed in the space 5.
The detection means 8 that interferes with the detection lever 8 is provided. The detection means 8 is fixed to the detection lever 10 rotatably held by the holder 7 around the support shaft 9 and the end portion of the detection lever 10. The reed switch 12 is fixed to the holder 7 while facing the permanent magnet 11. Also,
The detection lever 10 is biased by a spring 13 so that one end thereof contacts the roll paper 2.

In such a configuration, the state shown in the drawing is a state in which the remaining amount of the roll paper 2 is large, and the roll paper 2 is fed to the printing section of the printer device by a transport mechanism (not shown). Since the paper 2 is rotatably supported by the rotatable support rollers 3 and 4, the resistance during feeding is reduced. Then, since the roll paper 2 is sequentially fed, the winding diameter gradually becomes smaller. When the winding diameter becomes smaller than the distance between the support rollers 3 and 4, the roll paper 2 falls into the space portion 5 by its own weight. Become. Then, since the detection lever 10 pressed by the roll paper 2 rotates downward, the notification information indicating the near end of the roll paper 2 is output by the switching operation of the reed switch 12 in which the permanent magnet 11 separates. It Since such notification information is output by the light emission of the lamp of the main body, the sound of the buzzer, or the like, the user who recognizes this notification information can roll the next roll before the roll paper 2 in use is completely finished. The paper 2 can be prepared.

[0006]

In the near-end detection device described above, the roll paper 2 whose winding diameter decreases with use is dropped onto the detection lever 10 by its own weight, so that the near-end can be detected well. ing. Here, this near-end detection device is adapted to detect the near-end of the roll paper 2 around which the continuous paper is wound, and as the sheet body of the roll sheet for which such near-end detection is required, for example, polyethylene is used. A bag sheet with a series of simple bags can be considered.

When the near end of the roll sheet wound with such a bag sheet is detected by the above-mentioned near end detecting device, this is because the surface of the roll sheet is extremely flexible and the detection lever is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface. Actuating 10 is likely to cause a malfunction. In addition, the bag sheet as described above is generally formed with perforations for dividing a simple bag, but the near-end detection device described above is a space for a roll sheet with a reduced winding diameter to detect the near-end. Since the structure is made to drop into the portion 5, there is a concern that the perforation of the bag sheet may be cut due to the impact at the time of this drop.

Further, a near-end detecting device for optically detecting the near-end of the roll sheet as described above has been implemented, but since the bag sheet made of polyethylene has high transparency, it is difficult to optically detect the near-end and malfunctions. Is easy to occur.

[0009]

A core guide is provided for supporting a roll sheet formed by winding an elongated sheet body around a substantially central portion of a core so as to be rotatable and vertically movable by the core projecting to both sides. A roll guide that holds the roll sheet, which is supported by the core guide and descends by its own weight by contact with the outer peripheral surface, is provided by the roll core guide. A sensor means is provided for detecting the winding core which descends on the core guide by its own weight at a predetermined position.

[0010]

Since the near end of the roll sheet is detected at the position of the winding core moving on the winding core guide, the near end of the rolled sheet formed of a thin film of polyethylene or the like and having an extremely flexible surface can also be satisfactorily detected. .

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the near-end detection device 14 of this embodiment
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the core guides 15 each having a shape inclined in the direction in which the rear descends are provided on both sides, and are rotatable above the lower ends of the core guides 15. A roll guide 16 composed of rollers is rotatably supported. Further, in this near-end detection device 14, a detection switch 17 which is a sensor means is built in near the lower end of the core guide 15, and a swingable detection terminal 18 of the detection switch 17 is rotated at the tip. A roller 19 is mounted and protrudes above the core guide 15.

Then, the roll sheet 20 for detecting the near end by the near end detecting device 14 having the above-mentioned structure.
Has a shape in which an elongated bag sheet 21 is wound around a substantially central portion of a winding core 22, and the bag sheet 21 has a structure in which a large number of simple bags 23 are connected in series. More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the simple bag 23 has a shape in which a handle 25 is provided on both sides of an upper edge of a substantially rectangular main body 24. A perforation 26 is continuously formed at a connecting position between the lower edge portion of the main body 24 and the main body 24.

Therefore, the near-end detection device 1 of this embodiment
In FIG. 4, as illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, the roll sheet 20 in which the winding core 22 is placed on the winding core guide 15 and the outer peripheral surface of the winding roller guide 16 contacts the roll guide 16 is the bag sheet 21. Is held in a freely fed state, and when the winding diameter of the roll sheet 20 is reduced by using the bag sheet 21, the winding core 22 slides on the winding core guide 15 by its own weight. It is designed to descend.

Therefore, the structure of the checkout counter 27, which is part of the near-end detection device 14 described above, will be described below. First, in the illustrated checkout counter 27, as illustrated in FIG. 5, one store clerk is in charge of two units arranged so as to face each other, and the cart scale 28 and the bar are arranged according to the moving direction of the customer. A code scanner 29 and an automatic bagging device 30 are installed side by side,
A soccer table 31 and an electronic cash register 32 are sequentially arranged behind the automatic bagging device 30.

Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the automatic bagging device 30 has a product loading hole 34 and a bag unloading hole 35 formed at the tip and the end of the upper surface of the main body housing 33, respectively. In addition, a pair of flaps 36, which are opening / closing covers, are attached so as to be openable / closable and an optical sensor 37 is provided in the product insertion hole 34 adjacent to the barcode scanner 29. Furthermore, this automatic bagging device 30 is shown in FIG.
And the like, a pair of clamp arms 38 and a large number of conveyor belts 39a to 39 are provided below the product insertion hole 34.
c and the like are provided, and the transport belts 39a to 39c are provided.
And the clamp arm 38 form a bag holding mechanism 40.

In the automatic bagging device 30, the near-end detecting device 14 is formed as a part of the sheet supply section 41 that holds the bag sheet 21 so that it can be fed freely. The bag sheet 2
1 is the conveyance belt 39a through the guide roller 42.
It is configured to be fed to the bag unloading hole 35 at 39c. In this automatic bagging device 30, a drive switch 44 for forcibly starting the operation of the belt conveyor 43, the bag holding mechanism 40, and the flap 36 is provided near the product insertion hole 34.

Further, in this automatic bagging device 30, a transmissive optical sensor 4 for detecting the position of the bag sheet 21.
5 is arranged between the conveyor belts 39b and 39c, and reflection type optical sensors 46 for detecting the presence or absence of the clamp arm 38 at the initial position are arranged on both sides of the conveyor belt 39a.

Further, in the soccer table 31, as shown in FIG. 5, a belt conveyor 47 has a main body housing 4.
A foot switch 49 for controlling the drive of the belt conveyor 47 is provided on the rear side of the main body housing 48 at the end of the upper surface of the body 8.

In such a structure, in the checkout counter 27 exemplified in the present embodiment, the customer performs the registration processing in the bar code scanner 29 and the accounting staff in the electronic cash register 32 as described above. It is designed as a self-scanning system.

First, in the checkout counter 27, as shown in FIG. 5, the customer places the cart 50 on which the goods are loaded on the cart scale 28. The electronic cash register 32, which reads the weight of the product in the cart 50 from the output value of the scale 28, transmits an enable signal to the barcode scanner 29.

Therefore, the bar code scanner 29 can read the bar code when receiving the enable signal, so that the customer takes out the products in the cart 50 individually and performs the registration process with the bar code scanner 29. At this time,
Cart scale 28 by removing products from cart 50
Since the actually measured weight is reduced, this reduced value is transmitted to the electronic cash register 32 as the actually measured weight of the product.

The electronic cash register 32
When the barcode scanner 29 receives the scanner data read from the barcode and scanned, the operation of the barcode scanner 29 is temporarily stopped by the transmission of the disable signal, and the PLU is searched by the product code in the scanner data.
(Price Look Up) Product information is selected from a memory (not shown), and the coincidence between the weight contained therein and the weight actually measured by the cart scale 28 is confirmed. Then, the electronic cash register 32, which has confirmed the coincidence of these weights, executes the registration process and then transmits the open command to the automatic bagging device 30.

When the automatic bagging device 30 receives the open command, the flap 36 is opened to put the product in the product insertion hole 34, and if the optical sensor 37 is sequentially turned on and off in this state, the electronic bagging device 30 is electronically operated. The flap 36 is closed under the control of the cash register 32. Therefore, the automatic bagging device 30 with the flap 36 closed sends a completion command indicating the completion of registration of one product to the electronic cash register 32 to return to the initial state, and the electronic cash register which has received the completion command. 32 also returns to the state of transmitting the enable signal to the barcode scanner 29.

Therefore, this checkout counter 27
Then, various products in the cart 50 are registered by the barcode scanner 29 as described above, and the automatic bagging device 3
The products will be sequentially loaded into the simple bag 23 below the 0 product loading hole 34. Then, in the check-out counter 27, if the simple bag 23 is filled with products to be inserted, the customer operates the drive switch 44 on the side of the product insertion hole 34. Then, the automatic bagging device 30 that has detected the operation of the drive switch 44 confirms that the flap 36 is closed. If this is not confirmed, the automatic bagging device 30 confirms that the optical sensor 37 is not turned on and then closes the flap 36. If the optical sensor 37 is turned on when the flap 36 is closed, this means that the simple bag 23
It is determined that a large number of products that have been inserted therein protrude to the position of the product insertion hole 34 and the flap 36 cannot be closed. When it is confirmed that the flaps 36 have been closed, the simple bag 23 held under the product input hole 34 by the bag holding mechanism 40 is carried out to the bag carry-out hole 35 by the belt conveyor 43, and the next simple bag 23 is held by the bag. The mechanism 40 is set under the product input hole 34.

The checkout counter 27
Then, when the registration process is performed by the barcode scanner 29 as described above, and the product is loaded into the simple bag 23 under the product loading hole 34 of the automatic bagging device 30, the electronic cash register 32 automatically sends an end command. Bagging device 30
And the disable signal to the bar code scanner 29.

Then, the automatic bagging device 30 which has received the end command will deliver the simple bag 23 to the bag carry-out hole 35 after confirming the closure of the flap 36 as described above, and receives the disable signal. Since the barcode scanner 29 is temporarily stopped, the clerk who confirms the completion of the registration process will perform the closing operation with the electronic cash register 32.

Here, the operation of the automatic bagging device 30 when the bag sheet 21 of this embodiment is divided into the simple bags 23 and set under the product insertion hole 34 will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. I will describe. First, in the automatic bagging device 30, the flat bag sheet 21 wound in a sheet shape is delivered to the position below the product insertion hole 34 by the conveyor belts 39a to 39c, and the optical sensor 45 moves the bag sheet 21 to a fixed position. When it is detected, the conveyor belt 39a holding the _first simple bag 23 ₁ is stopped and the second simple bag 23 ₁ is stopped.
_The conveyor belt 39b holding ₂ etc. is reversed. By doing so, the first simple bag 23 ₁ held by the conveyor belt 39a is cut from the _second and subsequent simple bags 23 ₂ at the perforations 26, so that as illustrated in FIG. Thus, only the _first simple bag 23 ₁ is held between the clamp arms 38. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, a pair of clamp arms 38 that are close to each other hold the upper edge of the simple bag 23 whose lower half is held by the transport belt 39a in this state. As illustrated in (c), the clamp arm 3 is in this state.
By moving 8 to both sides, the simple bag 23 is held below the product insertion hole 34 in an opened state.

Next, the near-end detection device 1 of this embodiment
The operation of detecting the near end of the roll sheet 20 in 4 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the near-end detection device 14 uses the roll sheet 20 in which the winding core 22 is placed on the winding core guide 15 and the outer peripheral surface of the roll guide 16 contacts the bag sheet, as illustrated in FIG. When the bag sheet 21 is used and the winding diameter of the roll sheet 20 is reduced, the core 22 slides on the core guide 15 by its own weight and descends. . Therefore, when the remaining amount of the bag sheet 21 of the roll sheet 20 becomes very small, the core 2 that has descended to below the core guide 15 as illustrated in FIG.
Since the detection switch 17 is turned on by pressing the detection terminal 18 with 2, the notification information indicating the near end of the bag sheet 21 is output in accordance with the detection switch 17 being turned on. Here, since such notification information is output by, for example, the light emission of a lamp of the electronic cash register 32 or the sound of a buzzer, the clerk who recognizes this notification information completely ends the roll sheet 20 in use. The next roll sheet 20 can be prepared previously.

By doing so, since the bag sheet 21 of the roll sheet 20 exemplified in this embodiment is formed of a polyethylene thin film or the like, the surface is extremely flexible and has high permeability, but this near-end detecting device 14 Then, the reduction of the bag sheet 21 of the roll sheet 20 is performed by the core guide 1
Since the detection is performed at the position of the winding core 22 on the position 5, the detection is extremely good and the occurrence of malfunction is prevented. Further, the bag sheet 21 of the roll sheet 20 is the simple bag 2
The perforation 26 is formed to divide 3
The near-end detecting device 14 is adapted to detect the near-end of the bag sheet 21 based on the position where the winding core 22 slides on the winding core guide 15, and the winding diameter is reduced to detect the near-end. Since it is not necessary to drop the rolled sheet 20, the bag sheet 21 is prevented from being cut unnecessarily.

In this near-end detecting device 14,
As described above, since the rotary roller 19 is attached to the tip of the detection terminal 18 of the detection switch 17 with which the core 22 contacts, the frictional resistance when the core 22 contacts the detection terminal 18 is reduced. There is. Furthermore, in this near-end detection device 14, as illustrated in FIG. 7C, the winding core 22 presses the detection terminal 18 of the detection switch 17 even when the bag sheet 21 of the roll sheet 20 is completely finished. It is supposed to stop at. Therefore, by providing such detection switches 17 at two positions, it is possible to easily detect the near end and the end of the roll sheet 20 in two stages.

Further, the near-end detection device 1 of this embodiment
4, the core 22 of the roll sheet 20 is connected to the core guide 15
However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned structure. For example, a core guide (not shown) for slidably supporting the core 22 in a vertical long groove. ) Etc. are also possible. Further, in the near-end detection device 14 of the present embodiment, the near-end of the roll sheet 20 is detected at the position of the winding core 22 on the winding core guide 15, so that the transparency is high as described above, for example. It is also possible to optically detect the near end of the roll sheet 20 with high precision, and a mechanical detection switch 1
Instead of 7, a photo sensor (not shown) or the like can be used.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, a roll sheet in which an elongated sheet member is wound around a substantially central portion of a winding core is rotatably and vertically movably supported by the winding core protruding to both sides. A core guide is provided, and a roll guide that holds the roll sheet that is supported by the core guide and descends by its own weight by contact with the outer peripheral surface is provided, and the sheet body held by the roll guide is provided. By providing the sensor means for detecting at a predetermined position the core that descends on the core guide by its weight due to the decrease, this sensor means detects the near end of the roll sheet at the position of the core moving on the core guide. Since it is detected, it has an effect of being able to satisfactorily detect a near end such as a roll sheet formed of a polyethylene thin film and having an extremely flexible surface.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view showing an automatic bagging device using a near-end detection device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an enlarged main part.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an overall appearance.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a checkout counter using an automatic bagging device.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a bag sheet which is a sheet body.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an operation of a main part of the automatic bagging device.

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional side view.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional side view showing a prior art proposed by the applicant.

[Explanation of symbols]

 14 near-end detection device 15 core guide 16 roll guide 17 sensor means 20 roll sheet 21 sheet body 22 core

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A core guide is provided for supporting a roll sheet formed by winding an elongated sheet body around a substantially central portion of a core so as to be rotatable and vertically movable by the core projecting to both sides,
A roll guide that holds the roll sheet supported by the core guide and lowered by its own weight by contact with the outer peripheral surface is provided, and the core is reduced by reducing the sheet body held by the roll guide. A near-end detection device for a roll sheet, comprising a sensor means for detecting at a predetermined position the core that descends on the guide by its own weight.