JPH08231062A - Auto-loader for paper sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve the efficiency of a bookbinding operation by enabling one or a few operators to take charge of many auto-loaders and many gathering machines by an auto-loader for sheet capable of unmanned operation for a long time. CONSTITUTION: An auto-loader for sheet can supply a hopper with sheets in order while separating sheets one by one from bundles of plural sheets. The auto-loader is provided with sheet bundle placing stage 5 for holding a plurality of sheet bundles 2 in a laterally loaded state a sheet extract and discharge stage 6 arranged between the sheet bundle placing stage 5 and the hopper 8 for extracting one sheet and discharging toward the hopper 8 from one sheet bundle 2 and a sheet bundle transfer mechanism for transferring the bundle and all into the sheet extract and discharge stage 6 after extracting one sheet bundle 2 from plural sheet bundles 2 held in the sheet bundle placing stage 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sheet autoloader attached to a collator or the like for a bookbinding machine, and more particularly, to separate sheets from a plurality of sheets in a bundle. The present invention relates to a sheet autoloader that sequentially supplies sheets to a hopper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a bookbinding machine collects so-called signatures, that is, sheets in a page order, and binds the group of folded signatures together by a stapler or the like to produce a book. The collating machine used for collating the signatures generally has a plurality of signatures held in the hopper.
It takes out the sheets one by one and stacks the multiple signatures taken out in page order.

FIG. 8 shows a general example of a folded bundle, that is, a sheet bundle provided for a collating machine. As shown in the figure, the signature bundle 2 is formed by stacking a plurality of signatures 1 and then
It is formed by sandwiching both ends with the contact plates 3a and 3b and bundling the whole with a band member 4.
The backing plates 3a and 3b are formed of, for example, cardboard, a veneer plate, or the like. The band member 4 is made of, for example, a flat and relatively hard material such as synthetic resin.

In the conventional bookbinding work, an operator manually cuts the band member 4, removes the backing plates 3a and 3b, and loads a plurality of signatures 1 in the hopper of the collator. Was there. However, in this method, an operator must manually handle the plurality of signatures 1 before putting them in the hopper. The term "sorting" as used herein means the work of introducing air between the signatures to prevent the signatures from interacting with each other in order to prevent the signatures from being attracted to each other due to static electricity or the like. . Usually, the folded bundle is gripped by hand, the folded bundle is repeatedly raised and lowered on the table, and the side edges are applied to the table a number of times to perform the sorting process.

However, in the above-described conventional method in which the signature supply operation to the hopper and the signature separation operation are performed manually, the worker must always be waiting by the collator. Therefore, the work efficiency was very poor.

[0006] Further, the main purpose is to separate the signatures to be fed into the hopper of the collator, and a plurality of signatures stacked at a predetermined stacking position are taken out one by one and automatically fed into the hopper. Auto loaders are also known. However, with respect to this autoloader as well, the working efficiency was poor because the worker had to be standing by the autoloader at all times during the operation of the autoloader.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a sheet autoloader which can be operated unattended for a long time, thereby providing a large number of sheets. The purpose of the present invention is to improve the efficiency of bookbinding work by allowing one or a small number of workers to handle one autoloader and many collating machines.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a first sheet autoloader according to the present invention separates each sheet from a plurality of sheets in a bundle. In the sheet autoloader that sequentially supplies to the hopper,
(1) A sheet bundle placing stage for holding a plurality of sheet bundles formed by stacking a plurality of sheets in a horizontally stacked state,
(2) A sheet bundle transfer means for extracting one sheet bundle from the plurality of sheet bundles held in the sheet bundle mounting stage and transferring the sheet bundle toward the hopper. It is characterized by having.

A second sheet autoloader according to the present invention is a sheet autoloader that feeds sheets one by one from a plurality of sheets in a bundle and sequentially supplies the sheets to a hopper. (1) a sheet bundle placing stage for holding a plurality of sheet bundles formed by stacking a plurality of sheets in a horizontally stacked state, and (2) the sheet bundle placing stage and a hopper (3) a sheet stacking / discharging stage, which is disposed between the sheet stack and the sheet stack, and which extracts one sheet from one sheet bundle and discharges it toward the hopper. A sheet bundle transfer means for extracting one sheet bundle from the plurality of sheet bundles held in the setting stage and transferring the sheet bundle into the sheet extraction and discharge stage. To do.

The difference between the first autoloader and the second autoloader is that the second autoloader has a sheet extraction / delivery stage, whereas the first autoloader does not have the constituent requirements. That is. That is, the first autoloader directly supplies the sheet bundle on the sheet bundle placing stage into the hopper by the sheet bundle transfer means without passing through the sheet extraction / delivery stage. It also includes an autoloader of the form.

A transport system for transporting one sheet discharged from the sheet extraction / delivery stage toward the hopper is installed between the sheet extraction / delivery stage and the hopper. . Desirably, the sheet is conveyed while being curved by the conveying system. By conveying in this curved state, the sheets can be reliably separated.

A plurality of sheet bundles are horizontally stacked in the sheet bundle mounting stage. The sheet bundle is usually shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the contact plates 3 a and 3 b are applied to both ends, and are further bound by the band member 4. First, the first
The method conceivable is a method in which the worker manually cuts the band member 4, further removes the contact plates 3a and 3b, and loads only the sheet bundle into the sheet bundle mounting stage. However, separately from this method, a band cutting means may be provided at the end of the sheet bundle mounting stage on the sheet transfer side, and the band member 4 may be automatically cut by this band cutting means. . By doing so, it is not necessary to remove the band member by hand, which makes the work by the operator easy.

The band cutting means is not limited to a special structure, but a practical structure is one in which the knife is moved by using a drive source such as an air cylinder.

Only by providing the band cutting means as described above, the operator has to perform post-processing on the band member after band cutting. Therefore, desirably, in addition to providing the band cutting means, further, a band extracting means for extracting the cut band member from the sheet bundle,
It is preferable to provide band cutting means for finely cutting the band extracted by the band extracting member.

The band withdrawing means is not limited to a specific structure, but as a practical structure, the band member is sandwiched by a pair of rollers which are in contact with each other under pressure, and the band extracting means are further arranged. A structure is conceivable in which the band member is forcibly pulled out from the sheet bundle by rotation. Further, the band cutting means is not limited to a specific structure, but in practice, a structure in which the band member is finely cut by opening and closing a pair of cutting blades can be considered.

The sheet extraction / delivery stage is a stage for extracting the sheets one by one from the sheet bundle and feeding the extracted sheets further forward. The structure inside this stage is not limited to a specific structure either, but practically, it is provided in the vicinity of the elevator that can move up and down with the sheet bundle placed, and the uppermost position of the elevator. A sheet pickup / delivery stage can be configured by a sheet pickup unit that extracts and discharges the uppermost one sheet of the sheet bundle.

When a folded sheet bundle 2 as shown in FIG. 8 is considered as a sheet bundle, a plurality of folded sheets 1 have a pair of contact plates 3a,
It is sandwiched by 3b. When removing a sheet from a bundle of sheets, the backing plate must be removed prior to the removal operation. Although it is possible to manually remove the caul plates as described above, it is preferable to provide a means for automatically removing one caul plate or both caul plates. In this case, the upper backing plate removing means for removing the upper backing plate placed on the upper end of the sheet bundle from the sheet stack is preferably provided above the sheet stack mounting stage, while It is desirable to provide the lower backing plate removing means for removing the backing plate on the side on the sheet extraction / delivery stage.

At least the following two types of hoppers for feeding sheets by an autoloader are conceivable.
One is a so-called horizontal hopper of a type in which sheets are stacked vertically and held in a horizontal state. Also other 1
One is a so-called vertical hopper in which sheets are vertically stacked and held side by side in a standing state.

When a horizontal hopper is used, it is desirable to provide a shutter mechanism that can be opened and closed at the upper position of the hopper. By closing this shutter mechanism, several sheets of paper that have been sequentially fed into the hopper are once stacked by the shutter mechanism, and then the shutter mechanism is opened so that the several sheets of paper are loaded into the hopper. Deposit inside. Thereby, a plurality of sheets can be stably and neatly stored in the hopper.

On the other hand, in the case of using the vertical hopper, a sheet supporting member which comes into contact with the side surface of the sheet and prevents the sheet from collapsing inside the hopper, and the sheet supporting member. Support member moving means for reciprocating between a position for entering the sheet row and a position for separating from the sheet row, and a support for elastically pressing the sheet support member toward the sheet inlet of the hopper. It is desirable to provide a member urging means. If a sheet supporting member is brought into contact with one side surface of the leading edge of the sheets that are sequentially fed into the hopper, the sheets can be prevented from falling down and the sheets can be stably aligned. it can.

[0021]

In the sheet autoloader according to the present invention, the leading one of the plurality of sheet bundles placed on the sheet bundle mounting stage is bundled by the sheet bundle transfer means. Transferred to the hopper. For example, in the case of an autoloader of the type in which a hopper is installed immediately after the sheet bundle mounting stage, one sheet bundle is fed into the hopper by the sheet bundle transfer means. With respect to the sheet bundle supplied into the hopper, the sheet is extracted from the bundle one by one and supplied to, for example, a collator.

On the other hand, as described in claim 2, when the sheet extracting / discharging stage is interposed between the sheet bundle placing stage and the hopper, the sheet bundle transfer means 1
The individual sheet bundles are supplied together into the sheet extraction / delivery stage. Regarding the sheet bundle fed into the sheet extraction / delivery stage, the sheets are taken out one by one from the bundle and fed into the hopper, and are stacked in the hopper in the vertical direction in order. Or, they are placed side by side in a standing state in the lateral direction.

In any of the above-mentioned configurations, the plurality of sheets placed on the sheet bundle placing stage are automatically conveyed in order toward the hopper, so that the operator simply leaves the sheets. It suffices to place as many sheets of paper as possible on the sheet-sheet stacking stage, and thereafter, it is possible to stay in another place away from the autoloader for a long time.

[0024]

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a sheet autoloader according to the present invention. This autoloader includes a sheet stack placement stage 5 and a sheet extraction / delivery stage 6
It has a belt transport stage 7, and a hopper 8. A collator 9, for example, is installed at a position subsequent to the hopper 8. That is, the sheet suction cup 10 of the collator 9 and the extraction gripper 1 corresponding to the lowermost end of the hopper 8.
1 etc. are arranged.

In the sheet bundle mounting stage 5, a fixed side plate 12 which is fixed to the machine frame and whose position is immovable, and a movable side plate 13 which moves relative to the fixed side plate 12 are arranged. There is. As shown in FIG. 3, each of the side plates 12 and 13 is composed of two side plates facing each other. The movable side plate 13 is fixed to the fixed side plate 12.
Placed outside of. The upper end of each side plate is provided with a plurality of triangular cutouts 14, three in the embodiment. The signature bundle 2 as a sheet bundle (see FIG. 8) is
It is placed on the fixed side plate 12 while being locked in these notches 14.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plate-shaped bracket 15 is fixed to the outer side surface of the movable side plate 13, and a support rod 17 is supported by a bearing 16 fixed to the bracket 15.
Is rotatably supported and is not vertically movable. A gear 18 is fixed to the lower portion of the support rod 17, and a rack 19 provided on the upper portion of the bracket 15 meshes with the gear 18. In FIG. 2, the rack 19 is driven by an air cylinder or other drive source (not shown) to move back and forth in a straight line in the front-rear direction (the left-right direction in the figure). When the rack 19 moves straight back and forth in such a manner, the gear 18 meshing with the rack 19 rotates, and thus the support rod 17 rotates axially. A bracket 20 is fixed to the upper part of the support rod 17, and an L-shaped guide plate 21 when viewed from the arrow B direction is supported at the tip of the bracket 20. Rack 1
When 9 reciprocates and moves straight, the support rod 17 rotates axially, and at this time, the guide plate 21 rotates, that is, opens and closes, as shown by a chain line and a solid line in FIG.

In FIG. 4, an elevating air cylinder 23 is arranged on the floor frame 22, and an elevating plate 2 having rollers 24 is provided.
5 is fixed to the upper end of the output rod of the air cylinder 23. In FIG. 2, the rear (right side of the figure) lifting plate 2
5 is provided with a bracket 26, and the bracket 26
The rear end of the air cylinder 27 is rotatably supported by. The tip of the output rod 27a of the air cylinder 27 is connected to the inner side surface of the movable side plate 13.

Returning to FIG. 1, a pressing device 28 is arranged above the sheet bundle mounting stage 5 so as to correspond to each guide plate 21. These pressing devices 28 prevent the air cylinder 29, the elastic pressing piece 30 fixed to the tip of the output rod of the air cylinder 29, and the folding of the folded bundle in the front direction (left direction in the drawing). And a guide piece 31 for

Inside the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6, two guide rods 32 (see FIG. 6) extending vertically in an inclined state are arranged, and the elevators 33 are supported by these guide rods 32. There is. This elevator 33
Is formed by two plate members arranged in parallel as shown in FIG. The elevator 33 is connected to an endless drive wire 37 that is stretched between a drive roller 35 and a driven roller 36 in FIG. 1. Further, in FIG. 6, a guide plate 34 is fixedly installed at an intermediate position of the elevator 33 to prevent the signature bundle placed on the elevator 33 from falling forward.

In FIG. 1, an elevator plate 54 which is driven by an air cylinder 53 to move up and down is disposed near the lowermost position of the elevator 33. A box 55 for collecting the contact plate is installed on the inner side of the elevating plate 54, as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, a sheet pickup device 38 is arranged above the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6. As shown in FIG. 7, the sheet pickup device 38 includes an endless belt 41 wound around a driving roller 39 and a driven roller 40, a vacuum tank 42 arranged inside the endless belt 41, A suction cup 44 driven by the air cylinder 43 to move up and down as shown by arrow C
And an air nozzle 45 arranged at a position corresponding to the uppermost end of the folded bundle 2.

Returning to FIG. 1, a pair of endless belts 46a and 46b is provided in the belt transport stage 7.
The one endless belt 46a includes rollers a, b, c, d,
e, f, and the other endless belt 46b is wound on each roller g, c, d, h, i, j.

The hopper 8 is, as shown in FIG.
7 and a pair of upper plates 49a.
And a pair of lower side plates 49b, and a pair of left and right L-shaped shutters 50 arranged between the upper side plate 49a and the lower side plate 49b. The shutter 50 is connected to the air cylinder 52 via a link mechanism 51. When the air cylinder 52 operates, the shutter 50 opens and closes between a closed position shown by a solid line and an open position shown by a chain line.

The operation of the sheet autoloader having the above structure will be described below.

First, the band member 4 of the folded bundle 2 shown in FIG. 8 is cut and removed by the operator's manual work, and the upper backing plate 3a is also removed. And in FIG.
Also by hand, the first fixed plate 12 (rightmost)
Place the signature bundle 2 on the notch 14 of the. At this time, the lower pad 3b is placed on the notch 14.

After that, the elevating air cylinder 23 is raised to lift the movable side plate 13 to a position above the fixed side plate 12. Then, the signature bundle 2 that has been placed on the fixed side plate 12 is placed on the movable side plate 13 until then. After that, the side plate driving air cylinder 27 (see FIG. 2) expands, the movable side plate 13 moves by one stroke corresponding to the interval between the notches 14 adjacent to each other, and stops, and the lifting air cylinder 23 descends. Let Then, the movable side plate 13 descends to the position below the fixed side plate 12 again, and the signature bundle 2 is carried to the second cutout 14 from the right side of the fixed side plate 12.

Then, the air cylinder 29 of the pressing device 28 is pressed.
And then push the elastic pressing piece 30 against the upper end of the folded bundle 2 to prevent the folded bundle 2 from collapsing,
The rack 19 is operated to open the guide plate 21 to open the guide plate 2
Make sure that 1 does not hit the signature bundle 2. After that, the side plate driving air cylinder 27 contracts to move the movable side plate 13.
Is returned to the right toward the initial position.

Next, the operator places another folded bundle 2 again on the first cutout 14 which has become empty. Then, the movable side plate 13 is again raised and moved forward to move the folded bundle 2 forward to the notch 14 one step before. By repeating this operation, the folded bundle 2 is placed on all the notches 14 of the fixed side plate 12.

Thereafter, with the elevator 33 set to the lowest position shown by the chain line in FIG. 1, if the movable side plate 13 is again moved up and moved forward, the fixed side plate 12 is turned off at the frontmost stage (third from the right). Bundle of signatures 2 that was on the notch 14
However, the whole bundle is carried into the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6. Next, the movable side plate 13 descends, the folded bundle 2 on the movable side plate 13 is placed on the elevator 33, the guide plate 21 opens, and the movable side plate 13 returns to the rear position to return to the initial position. Through the series of operations described above, one of the three folded bundles 2 at the front end of the three folded bundles in the sheet bundle placing stage 5 is transferred to the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6 for each bundle. Be transported.

When one signature bundle 2 is carried on the elevator 33, the elevator 33 gradually rises. Then, the suction cup 44 of the sheet pickup device 38 sucks up the uppermost one of the signatures 1, and the suctioned one of the signatures 1 is sucked by the vacuum tank 42, and the lower traveling portion of the belt 41 is sucked. The signature 1 attracted to the belt conveyor stage 7 is sent to the belt transport stage 7 as the belt 41 moves around. During such a work of extracting one signature 1, air is blown to the upper end portion of the signature 2 by the air jetted from the air nozzle 45, so that one signature 1 is easily separated.

The single signature 1 sent to the belt transport stage 7 is sandwiched by a pair of endless belts 46a and 46b, and is transported in a curved state along the peripheral surfaces of the rollers c and d, and finally, It is sent to the hopper 8. By being transported in a curved state, the signature of the signature 1 is forced,
Further, when they are accumulated in the hopper 8, they are in a cleanly separated state.

When the signature 1 is discharged into the hopper 8,
In FIG. 5, the shutter 50 is initially set to the closed state shown by the solid line. Therefore, the discharged signature 1 is
It is received by the shutter 50 in the closed state and does not drop to the lowermost end of the hopper 8, that is, the floor machine frame 47. When a predetermined number of signatures 1 are stacked on the shutter 50, the shutter 50 is opened and the signatures 1 drop to the lower part of the hopper 8 and are accumulated at a predetermined position where the collator 9 can extract them. . In this way, by opening and closing the shutter 50 to drop the signatures 1 at a predetermined position of the hopper 8 for each predetermined number of sheets, the signatures 1 are successively dropped from the belt transport stage 7 into the hopper 8. Compared to the case, a plurality of signatures 1 can be stably and reliably accumulated in the hopper 8.

When the elevator 33 ascends to the uppermost position and the last signature 1 is ejected at the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6, the elevator 33 is at the highest speed and at the lowest position with the lower backing plate 3b placed. Descend to. At this time, the air cylinder 53 for collecting the backing plate extends so that the lifting plate 5
4 is lifted to the upper position shown in phantom in FIG. One side of the contact plate 3b that descends together with the elevator 33 is lifted and tilted by the ascending / descending elevator plate 54, and as a result, it slides down from the elevator 33 and is automatically collected in the collection box 55 on the back side.

After that, by the action of the movable side plate 13, the frontmost folded signature bundle 2 in the sheet bundle placing stage 5 is fed again onto the elevator 33, and then folded into the hopper 8 one by one. The supply of Ding 1 is continued. Thus, the operator simply places the signature bundle 2 on the fixed side plate 12 in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5, and the supply and sorting of the signatures 1 to the hopper 8 are automatically and accurately executed. . Since the signature 1 is automatically supplied to the hopper 8 as long as the signature bundle 2 is in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5, the operator does not have to stand by the autoloader during that time. In a normal bookbinding operation, a large number of collating machines 9 and autoloaders are arranged side by side. Therefore, if the autoloader of this embodiment is used, a large number of these autoloaders can be operated by only one person or a small number of workers, and work efficiency is significantly improved.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment of the sheet autoloader according to the present invention. In the following description, the same members and devices as those in FIGS. 1 to 9 will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the automatic loader of this embodiment, a rail is formed in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5 by a plurality of rollers 63 fixedly supported by the floor machine frame 22, and the carrier 60 is mounted on the rail. There is. The carrier 60 supports a driving roller 57 and a driven roller 58,
An endless transport belt 59 is stretched around these rollers. As shown in FIG. 11, the conveyor belts 59 are provided at two positions on the left and right (upper and lower in the figure) with respect to the conveying direction of the folded bundle (left in the figure), and at the center of the carrier 60, the band member is discharged. A notch 61 for use is formed. As shown in FIG. 10, the carrier 60 is inclined so that its front end is lowered at a slight angle of about 5 °.

The lower position of the carrier 60, especially the notch 6
As shown in FIG. 10, a band extracting device 97 composed of a concave-convex roller 95 and a knurled roller 96 which are in contact with or in close proximity to each other is disposed below the position 1.
An uneven shape is formed on the circumferential surface of the uneven roller 95 as shown in FIG. 16, while a knurled pattern is engraved on the circumferential surface of the knurled roller 96. At least one of these rollers 95 and 96 is driven by a drive source (not shown) to rotate in the direction of the partner roller as indicated by arrow k. Returning to FIG. 10, a band cutting device 101 including a fixed blade 99 and a movable blade 100 facing each other is provided at the lower end of an inclined plate 98 extending obliquely downward from the band extracting device 97. And the cutting device 10
A collection box 102 for accommodating the cut band member is disposed below the unit 1.

In FIG. 10, the output rod of the air cylinder 27 is rotatably connected to a bracket provided on the lower portion of the carrier 60, and the rear end of the air cylinder 27 is rotatably attached to the bracket 64 provided on the floor frame 22. Supported by. On both sides of the carrier 60, as shown in FIG.
A casing 62 containing a rotary air cylinder and other rotary drive sources is fixed, and the casing 62
The support rod 17 is supported by. These support rods 17 are driven by a rotary drive source in the casing 62 to rotate about their axes. A bracket 20 is provided on the upper end of the support rod 17.
Is fixed, and the guide plate 21 is attached to the tip of the bracket 20.
Is fixed. Unlike the previous embodiment shown in FIG. 1, only one guide plate 21 is provided at the foremost end (left end in the figure) of the carrier 60. When the support rod 17 rotates,
The guide plate 21 opens and closes between a closed position shown by a solid line and an open position shown by a chain line in FIG.

In FIG. 10, the sheet bundle mounting stage 5
A pressing and abutting plate collecting device 78 is disposed on the upper part of the. As shown in FIG. 17, the pressing and contact plate recovery device 78 is capable of moving a carriage 75 along a guide rod 74 extending in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the folded bundle.
And the lifting air cylinder 7 fixed to the carriage
6, an elastic pressing piece 77 fixed to the output rod of the lifting air cylinder, and two recovery air cylinders 79 also fixed to the output rod of the lifting air cylinder 76.
And a suction plate 80 driven by those air cylinders 79 to move up and down, and a guide plate 81 integrated with the elastic pressing piece 77. A box 82 for collecting the backing plate is provided on the back side (left side in FIG. 17) of the guide plate 21 for preventing the folded bundle 2 from falling. In FIG. 10, the entire pressing and contact plate recovery device 78 is connected to and integrated with the carrier 60 by a connecting member (not shown). Therefore, the carrier 60
When moving in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in the drawing) on the roller 63, it moves integrally with the carrier 60 in the front-rear direction as indicated by arrow H.

In FIG. 10, the sheet bundle mounting stage 5
A band cutting device 65 for cutting the band member is disposed between the sheet withdrawal / delivery stage 6 and the sheet withdrawal / delivery stage 6. The band cutting device 65 includes a rotary and linear motion air cylinder 66.
It has a cutting air cylinder 67 supported by, a guide plate 68, and a cutter support plate 69. As shown in FIG. 12, a linear groove 70 and a bent groove 71 are formed in the guide plate 68. Further, as shown in FIG. 13, the guide plate 68 is provided integrally with the cutting air cylinder 67. Further, the cutter support plate 69 is the air cylinder 67.
Connected to the tip of the output rod 67a of the
It is supported by a pin 72 passing through 0 and 71. A cutter 73 is fixed to the lower surface of the cutter support plate 69, and the cutting blade 7 is attached to the cutter 73 as shown in FIG.
3a is formed.

The rotary and linear motion air cylinder 66 includes an air cylinder 67, a guide plate 68 and a cutter support plate 69 as one unit (hereinafter referred to as a cutter unit).
As shown by an arrow E in FIG. 12, the cutter unit is moved back and forth in a straight line in the front-rear direction (vertical direction in the figure), and as shown by an arrow F in FIG. It can be rotated between and. The horizontal position is a position where the band member 4 of the folded bundle is cut by the cutter 73, and the vertical position is a retreat position where the conveyance of the folded bundle is not disturbed.

Returning to FIG. 10, the guide rod 32, the elevator 33, the drive wire 37, the guide plate 34, the air cylinder are provided in the sheet withdrawing and delivering stage 6 in the same manner as the embodiment shown in FIG. An elevating plate 54 for collecting the contact plate driven by 53 is provided. The sheet pickup device 88 of this embodiment has a drive roller 39, a driven roller 40, an endless conveyor belt 41, a vacuum tank 42, and a suction cup 44, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. However, in the present embodiment, each of these members is attached to the side plate 83 and constitutes one unit. An arm member 84 is fixed to the side plate 83, and an output rod of an air cylinder 85 is connected to the tip of the arm member 84. A guide plate 87 supported by a screw shaft 86 is provided at the right end of the side plate 83. By turning the knob 89 to move the screw shaft 86 forward and backward,
The position of the guide plate 87 with respect to the folded bundle 2 can be adjusted as shown by an arrow I.

When the air cylinder 85 is contracted, the arm member 84 rotates, and at the same time, the side plate 83 rotationally moves upward as shown in FIG. 15, so that the upper part of the signature bundle 2 is largely opened. The opening operation of the sheet pickup device 88 is performed by the pressing and abutting plate collecting device 78 in the sheet placing stage 5 as shown by an arrow H.
Performed to allow inward movement.

Returning to FIG. 10, a pair of endless belts 46a and 46b is provided in the belt transport stage 7. One of the endless belts 46a includes rollers a, c, d,
The other endless belt 46b is stretched over the rollers e, f and the rollers g, c, d, h, i, j, k, l, m.

As shown in FIG. 14, the hopper 8 includes a back plate 48 provided on the floor frame 22 and a pair of upper plates 49a.
And a pair of lower side plates 49b, and a pair of left and right L-shaped shutters 50 arranged between the upper side plate 49a and the lower side plate 49b. The shutter 50 is fixed to the lower ends of rotary links 91 rotatable about the fixed pin 90, and rollers 92 are rotatably attached to the upper ends of the rotary links 91. These rollers 92 are fitted in a linear cam groove 94a of a linear cam 94 which is driven by an air cylinder 93 to move up and down. When the air cylinder 93 operates, the linear cam 94 moves up and down, and accordingly, the shutter 50 opens and closes between a closed position shown by a solid line and an open position shown by a chain line.

The operation of the sheet autoloader having the above construction will be described below.

First, the operator manually places the folded bundle 2 shown in FIG. 8 on the conveyor belt 59 of the carrier 60 as much as possible. In the embodiment, three signature bundles 2 are placed. The folded bundle 2 placed at this time remains in the initial state shown in FIG. 8, the band member 4 is not cut, and it is not necessary to remove the contact plates 3a and 3b.

When a predetermined number of signature bundles 2 are placed on the conveyor belt 59, the elastic pressing piece 77 of the pressing and abutting plate collecting device 78 is driven by the air cylinder 76 and descends to the front (the leftmost end). Press the signature bundle 2 from above.
After that, the rotation of the belt cutting device 65 and the rotation driving portion of the linear motion air cylinder 66 are activated, and the cutter unit portion is rotationally moved from the retracted position shown by the chain line in FIG. Then, in FIG. 12, the linear drive portion of the rotary and linear motion air cylinder 66 is operated to move the entire cutter unit portion backward in the direction of the signature bundle 2 by an appropriate stroke, and the cutting air cylinder 67 is moved to the position shown in the figure. Contract to the right. Since the guide plate 68 that supports the cutter 73 is formed with the bending groove 71, the cutter 73 that moves along the bending groove 71 and the linear groove 70 according to the contraction operation of the air cylinder 67 is indicated by an arrow J. As described above, the pin 72 on the side of the linear groove 70 is rotated as a center. By the backward movement and the rotational movement of the cutter 73 as described above,
The band member 4 of the folded bundle 2 is cut by the cutting blade 73a of the cutter 73.

The tip of the cut band member 4 passes through the notch 61 provided in the carrier 60 and drops to a position below the carrier 60, and the tip thereof rotates as shown in FIG. Knurled roller 96
To contact. The band member 4 has these rollers 95 and 9
It is sandwiched by 6, and is forcibly pulled out from the folded bundle 2 and sent out onto the inclined plate 98. The band member 4 sent out is finely cut by the band cutting device 101 in FIG. 10 and then collected in the collection box 102. In this way, the band member 4 of the signature bundle 2 is automatically cut, and further extracted from the signature bundle 2.

Thereafter, the upper pressing plate 3a is sucked by the pressing and pressing plate 80 of the pressing plate collecting device 78 that presses the upper end of the folded bundle 2, and the carriage 75 moves toward the pressing plate collecting box 82 in FIG. Move
The upper pad 3a is transported to a position above the collection box 82 and is further discharged into the box 82. Thus,
The band member 4 and the upper backing plate 3a of the frontmost folded bundle 2 of the plurality of folded bundles 2 on the conveyor belt 59 of FIG.
Are removed.

After that, the pressing and abutting plate collecting device 78 is set so as to return to the position above the signature bundle 2 again and press the signature bundle 2 again from the upper end, and the cutter unit is set to the retracted position (vertical position). To stand). Then, after that, the carrier transport air cylinder 2
7 extends, and the carrier 60 and the conveyor belt 59 move forward (leftward in the drawing) while the folded bundle 2 is placed. At this time, the sheet pickup device 88 is shown in FIG.
The carrier 6 has been lifted upwards as shown in FIG.
It does not interfere with the movement of the pressing and contact plate recovery device 78 that moves forward with zero.

When the front end of the carrier 60 is moved to a position near the guide plate 34 of the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6 and stopped, the conveyor belt 59 is rotated counterclockwise in the figure to rotate the folded bundle 2 at the foremost end. Is accurately pressed against the guide plate 34. After that, the guide plate 21 is opened, and the pressing and contact plate collecting device 7
The pressing operation by 8 is released, and the pressing and contact plate recovery device 78 returns to the initial position in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5. Next, the elevator 33 moves up slightly, and the frontmost one bundle of the signature bundle 2 on the belt 59 is transferred onto the elevator 33. After that, the carrier-conveying air cylinder 27 contracts to cause the carrier 60 and the belt 5 to move.
9 returns to the initial position in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5 with the second and third folded bundles 2 placed thereon. After this return movement, the belt 59 rotates in the counterclockwise direction in the drawing and is conveyed forward until the second and third folded bundles 2 come into contact with the guide plate 21. By this conveyance, a space is left at the rear end of the belt 59, and the worker supplies another folded bundle to this space.

As described above, one signature bundle 2 is supplied to the sheet extracting / discharging stage 6 together with the bundle, and the pressing and contact plate collecting device 78 is moved backward to return the signature bundle 2.
When the upper position of the sheet is widely opened, the sheet pickup device 88 descends from the standby position shown in FIG. 15 to the pickup position shown in FIG. Then, similarly to the case of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the suction tray 44 lifts the uppermost signature, the vacuum tank 42 sucks the signature onto the belt 41, and the belt 41 is folded by the orbital movement. One signature is discharged to the belt transport stage 7 by each operation of feeding the signature.

One signature 1 sent to the belt carrying stage 7 is carried in a curved state by a pair of endless belts 46a and 46b and sent to the hopper 8.
The opening / closing operation of the shutter 50 causes a predetermined number of signatures 1 to be temporarily stopped at an intermediate position and then dropped to a predetermined position below the hopper 8 to be deposited, as in the case of the embodiment of FIG. It is the same. In addition, an elevating plate 54 which is driven by the contact plate collecting air cylinder 53 to move up and down.
The lower backing plate is automatically recovered by the action of the same as in the case of the first embodiment.

Also with the sheet autoloader of this embodiment, the operator can move the conveyor belt 5 in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5
By simply placing the bundle of signatures 2 on the sheet 9, the supply and sorting of the signatures 1 to the hopper 8 can be performed automatically and accurately. Since the signature 1 is automatically supplied to the hopper 8 as long as the signature bundle 2 is in the sheet bundle mounting stage 5, the operator does not have to stand by the autoloader during that time. In particular, in the case of this embodiment, the operator does not need to cut the band member 4 of the folded bundle 2 (FIG. 8) and also does not have to remove the upper contact plate 3a. Therefore, the working efficiency of the worker is further improved.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 18 shows a third embodiment of the sheet autoloader according to the present invention. Each of the sheet autoloaders shown in FIGS. 1 and 10 is a so-called horizontal type autoloader in which the signatures 1 are vertically stacked and held in the hopper 8 in a horizontal state. On the other hand, the present autoloader shown in FIG. 18 is a so-called vertical type autoloader in which a plurality of signatures 1 are set up in the hopper 8 and are stacked side by side in the lateral direction and held side by side.

Regarding the sheet autoloader according to the present embodiment, the structure inside the sheet bundle mounting stage 5, the structure of the band cutting device 65 and the accompanying band extracting device 97, band cutting device 101, etc. The respective structures of the sheet extracting / discharging stage 6 are the same as those of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 10, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

In the belt transfer stage 7 of this embodiment,
An endless conveyor belt 103 that horizontally conveys one signature discharged from the sheet extracting and discharging stage 6, and an endless conveyor belt 46 that is wound around rollers n, o, p, q, and r.
c, a bridge plate 104 arranged between the endless belt 103 and the roller o, and an air nozzle 105 also arranged between the endless belt 103 and the roller o.

Further, the hopper 8 is provided with the endless conveyor belt 1 stretched between the driving roller 106 and the driven roller 107.
08, a front end guide plate 109, a bar-shaped sheet supporting member 111 that can freely move back and forth (moving in the left-right direction in the drawing) along a guide rail 110, and vertically moves the sheet supporting member 111. It has an air cylinder 112. The endless conveyor belt 108 is driven by the drive roller 106 and moves in the counterclockwise direction in the drawing. A spring 114 that bypasses the roller 113 is connected to the sheet supporting member 111 and the air cylinder 112 integrated with the sheet supporting member 111. The spring 14 pulls the sheet supporting member 111 with a relatively weak force in the direction of the signature inlet of the hopper 8, that is, in the right direction of the drawing.

Since the sheet autoloader of this embodiment is constructed as described above, one sheet of signature discharged from the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6 is an endless conveyor belt 10.
It is sent by 3 to the upper end of the roller o. This signature has a belt 46, as indicated by reference numeral 1a in FIG.
While being caught in c, the rear end portion is lifted up by the force of the air jetted from the air nozzle 105. Then, the leading end of the next signature 1b is continuously fed to the position below the lifted portion,
As a result, the rear end of the front signature 1a and the rear signature 1a
The front end portions of b are fed to the conveyor belt 46c in a state where they overlap each other (that is, a semi-overlapped state). The signatures that overlap each other in this way are shown in FIG.
6c continuously conveys downward toward the carry-in entrance of the hopper 8.

The plurality of signatures 1 continuously fed into the hopper 8 in the half-overlapped state are conveyed until they are pressed against the front end guide plate 109 in accordance with the counterclockwise movement of the conveyor belt 108, and stand up. They can be arranged horizontally in the same state. The plurality of signatures 1 thus arranged are extracted one by one by, for example, a suction cup 115 and supplied to a collator or the like.

While the signatures are continuously sent out from the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6, the top of the conveyor belt 108 in the hopper 8 is filled with the signatures 1, and there is a risk that the signatures 1 may fall over. However, if the delivery of the signature from the sheet extraction / delivery stage 6 is temporarily stopped for some reason, and then the delivery is restarted, the signature 1 is first loaded into the hopper 8 after the delivery is restarted. May fall forward on the belt 108. To prevent this,
When a space is created in the signature row above the conveyor belt 108, the air cylinder 112 waiting at the signature entrance of the hopper 8 is extended to project the sheet support member 111 into the signature row. insert. As a result, the signature 1 carried into the hopper 8 after the resumption of the feeding is supported by the sheet supporting member 111 and its forward tilt is prevented. In order to surely prevent the signature 1 from tilting forward, not only one sheet supporting member 111 but also two sheets in the width direction of the signature 1 (the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of the figure), and in some cases, more than one sheet It is desirable to arrange them in parallel.

If the signatures 1 are successively conveyed into the hopper 8 with the sheet support members 111 projecting into the signature row, the sheet support members 111 resist the force of the spring 114. It gradually moves toward the front guide plate 109, and finally contacts the rear end of the front signature group supported by the front guide plate 109. In this case, the signature 1 does not have to fall down even without the sheet supporting member 111. Therefore, the air cylinder 112 contracts and the sheet supporting member 111 is lifted to the upper position where it is removed from the signature row. Then, the air cylinder 112 is pulled back by the spring force of the spring 114 to the signature entrance of the hopper 8 and stands by there. Sheet supporting member 111 as described above
By this operation, a plurality of signatures 1 can be stably and reliably accumulated in the hopper 8.

The present invention has been described above with reference to some preferred examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples, and various modifications can be made within the technical scope described in the claims. it can.

For example, in each of the above embodiments, an autoloader of the type in which the sheet withdrawing and discharging stage 6 and the belt conveying stage 7 are interposed between the sheet bundle placing stage 5 and the hopper 8 has been considered. , If you are targeting a sheet that does not require so much sorting, for example, a signature of a book,
Sheet extraction / delivery stage 6 and belt transport stage 7
Without installing the hopper 8, the hopper 8 is directly installed at the rear stage position of the sheet bundle placing stage 5, and the sheet bundle placing stage 5 supplies the folded bundle together into the hopper 8. It can also be configured to.

[0076]

According to the sheet autoloader of the present invention, if a plurality of sheet bundles are placed on the sheet bundle mounting stage, the sheet is automatically fed by the autoloader thereafter. Since the paper is supplied to the hopper, the sheet supply system using the autoloader can be operated unattended for a long time. As a result, a large number of autoloaders and a large number of collating machines associated therewith can be handled by one or a small number of workers, and the production efficiency such as bookbinding work is improved.

According to the sheet autoloader of the second aspect, a sheet extraction / delivery stage for extracting and conveying one sheet is provided between the sheet bundle mounting stage and the hopper. Therefore, the weak sheet requiring the sorting process can be stably supplied into the hopper and can be neatly deposited in the hopper.

According to the sheet autoloader of the third aspect, the sheet is conveyed in a curved state by the belt conveying device, so that the sheet can be reliably processed.

According to the sheet autoloader of the fourth to sixth aspects, it is not necessary to manually cut the band member for binding the sheet bundle, so that the processing efficiency is further improved. To do. Particularly, according to the sheet autoloader of claims 5 and 6, the post-treatment of the band member becomes very easy.

According to the sheet autoloader of the seventh aspect, the sheet extracting / discharging stage can be simply constructed and stable operation can be obtained. In addition, one of the sheet bundles between the sheet bundle placement stage and the sheet extraction / delivery stage
It is possible to stably and reliably deliver each bundle.

According to the sheet autoloader of claims 8 and 9, the manual work by the operator is further reduced, and the processing efficiency is further improved.

According to the sheet autoloader of the tenth aspect, with respect to the so-called horizontal type autoloader, the sheets can be stably accumulated and held in the hopper.

According to the sheet autoloader of the eleventh aspect of the present invention, with respect to the so-called vertical type autoloader, the sheets can be stably accumulated and held in the hopper.

According to the sheet autoloader of the twelfth and thirteenth aspects, the structure in the vicinity of the sheet bundle mounting stage can be simply constructed, and a stable sheet bundle conveying operation can be obtained. be able to.

[0085]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a first embodiment of a sheet autoloader according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a main part of the autoloader of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a main part of a structural portion of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the sheet bundle placing stage as viewed from the rear according to the arrow IV in FIG.

5 is a side view when the hopper is viewed according to the arrow V in FIG. 1. FIG.

6 is a plan view of the autoloader of FIG. 1. FIG.

7 is a front view showing a main part of the autoloader shown in FIG. 1, particularly a configuration for picking up individual sheets one by one. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a folded bundle which is an example of a sheet bundle.

9 is a front view showing a main part of the autoloader of FIG. 1, in particular, a structure for collecting a lower backing plate of the folded bundle.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing a second embodiment of the sheet autoloader according to the present invention.

11 is a plan view of the autoloader shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged plan view showing a main part of FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is a side view according to arrow XIII in FIG.

14 is a side view when the hopper is viewed according to the arrow XIV in FIG.

15 is a front view showing a main part of the autoloader of FIG. 10, in particular, a configuration for picking up individual sheets one by one.

16 is a perspective view showing an example of a configuration for extracting a main part of the autoloader of FIG. 10, particularly a band member of a signature bundle.

17 is a side view showing a configuration for pressing the sheet bundle from above according to the arrow XVII in FIG.

FIG. 18 is a front view showing a third embodiment of the sheet autoloader according to the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a front view showing a main part of the autoloader of FIG. 18.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 signature 2 bundle of signatures 3a, 3b patch plate 4 band member 5 sheet stack placement stage 6 sheet extraction and discharge stage 7 belt transport stage 8 hopper 9 collator 12 fixed side plate 13 movable side plate 14 signature Notch for stacking 16 Bearing 17 Rotation support bar 18 Gear 19 Rack 21 Guide plate for folding bundle 22 Floor machine frame 23 Air cylinder for lifting (for movable side plate) 24 Roller 27 Air cylinder for forward and backward movement (for movable side plate) 28 folded bundle pressing device 29 air cylinder 30 elastic pressing piece 31 guide piece 33 elevator (for raising and lowering the folded bundle) 38 sheet pickup device 41 endless conveyor belt 42 vacuum tank 44 suction cup 45 air nozzle 50 shutter 59 endless conveyor belt ( (For stacking signatures) 60 Carrier 65 Band cutting device 73 Cutter 73a Cutting blade 78 Pressing and abutting plate collecting device 88 Sheet pickup device 97 Band extracting device 101 Band cutting device 111 Sheet supporting member 112 Air cylinder 114 Spring

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. An autoloader for sheets, which feeds the sheets one by one from a bundle of a plurality of sheets and sequentially supplies the sheets to a hopper, wherein sheets formed by stacking a plurality of sheets are stacked. A sheet bundle placing stage that holds a plurality of sheet bundles in a side-by-side stacked state, and one sheet bundle is extracted from the plurality of sheet bundles held in the sheet bundle placing stage. And a sheet bundle transfer means for transferring the entire bundle toward the hopper. 2. An autoloader for a sheet, which feeds the sheets one by one from a bundle of a plurality of sheets while sequentially feeding the sheets to a hopper, and a sheet formed by stacking a plurality of sheets. A sheet bundle placing stage that holds a plurality of sheet bundles in a horizontally stacked state and a sheet bundle placing stage that is arranged between the sheet bundle placing stage and the hopper. The sheet extraction / delivery stage that pulls out the sheets and discharges them toward the hopper, and one sheet bundle from the multiple sheet bundles held in the sheet bundle placement stage. An automatic sheet-loader for sheets, comprising: a sheet-bundle transfer means for extracting and transferring the whole bundle to the inside of the above-mentioned sheet extracting and discharging stage. 3. The sheet autoloader according to claim 2, wherein between the sheet extraction / delivery stage and the hopper,
An autoloader for sheets, which is provided with a belt conveying device that conveys sheets while curving them. 4. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sheet is provided at an end of the sheet bundle mounting stage on the sheet transfer side. An autoloader for sheets, comprising band cutting means for cutting a band member that binds the bundle. 5. The sheet autoloader according to claim 4, further comprising band extracting means for extracting the cut band member from the sheet bundle. 6. The sheet autoloader according to claim 5, further comprising band cutting means for finely cutting the band extracted by the band extracting means. 7. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the sheet extraction / delivery stage is an elevator capable of moving up and down with a sheet bundle placed thereon, and an uppermost position of the elevator. A sheet autoloader, which is provided in the vicinity of the sheet stack and has a sheet pickup means for extracting and discharging the uppermost one sheet of the sheet bundle. 8. The sheet autoloader according to claim 7, wherein the lower backing plate removing means for removing the lower backing plate, which is disposed near the lowest position of the elevator and is left on the elevator, from the elevator. An autoloader for sheets, which is provided with. 9. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the sheet autoloader is placed at a position above a sheet bundle placement stage and at an upper end of the sheet bundle. An autoloader for sheets, characterized in that upper sheet removal means for removing the upper sheet from the sheet bundle is provided. 10. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the hopper is adapted to vertically stack and hold the sheets in a horizontal state. An autoloader for sheets, characterized in that a shutter mechanism that can be opened and closed is provided at an upper position of the hopper. 11. The sheet autoloader according to claim 1, wherein the hopper holds the sheets stacked side by side in a standing state. Inside the hopper, there is a sheet support member that abuts against the side of the sheet and prevents it from falling, and a position where the sheet support member enters the sheet row. And a supporting member urging means for elastically pressing the sheet supporting member toward the sheet inlet of the hopper. A sheet autoloader characterized by. 12. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the sheet bundle placing stage places the sheet bundle in a state of being inclined forward. It is composed of a fixed side plate with a plurality of cutouts that can be placed, and the sheet bundle transfer means is provided with a plurality of cutouts that can be placed with the sheet tilted forward and is relative to the fixed side plate. A movable side plate that can be vertically moved and moved back and forth, and a guide plate that is provided integrally with the movable side plate and that supports a sheet bundle placed on the fixed side plate or the movable side plate so as not to fall down. A sheet autoloader characterized by the following. 13. The sheet autoloader according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the sheet bundle loading stage is tilted so that a side facing a hopper is downward. The sheet bundle transfer means is constituted by the arranged belt conveyors, and the sheet bundle transfer means is provided integrally with the conveyor moving means for moving the belt conveyor back and forth, and is placed on the belt conveyor. An autoloader for sheets, which has a guide plate for supporting the bundle of sheets so as not to fall down.