JPH0843317A - Method and device for turning over page of saddle stitched printed material for inspecting paper surface quality - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To mechanize an inspecting process by automating page turning or the like, processing images of a television camera with a personal computer so as to obtain the data to be inspected, comparing the obtained data to be inspected with the reference data in the storage for judgment. CONSTITUTION:An article to be inspected is fed onto an inspecting stage 5 by a paper feeding belt conveyor 2 and a carrying belt conveyor 4, and the stage 5 is elevated so as to separate the article to be inspected from the conveyor 4, and the article to be inspected is positioned by a front registration pusher 7, a top and bottom registration pusher 8 and a top and bottom registration pusher 9 with a spring. The article to be inspected is fixed onto the stage 5 by vacuuming through a vacuum suction narrow hole 10, and a front registration plate 6 and the pushers 7-9 are released, and an expansion presser plate 11 is lowerd onto the stitched part of the article to be inspected, and the stitched part of the article to be inspected is made to pressure contact with the stage 5 so as to flatten the paper surface. In this condition, image of the surface is inputted by a television camera 14, and the image signal is fed to a personal computer so as to judge quality of good or no-good.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for inspecting the quality of a saddle-stitched printed matter such as instruction manuals for various products while turning the pages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the inspection of a saddle-stitched printed material, conventionally, it is necessary to visually determine whether each printed sheet is good or defective with respect to a reference by manually turning each page.

[0003]

Conventionally, since the visual inspection is performed as described above, it is a monotonous and painstaking work for the operator, using his nerves and eyes. In addition, for that reason, there is a possibility that an inspection error may occur.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides a page-turning paper surface inspection method and an apparatus thereof capable of mechanizing the step of inspecting while turning pages instead of manually. To aim.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention adsorbs and lifts the saddle-stitched printed materials one by one, and inserts a turning bar under the pages to move the pages. A standard that is stored in the storage device by inputting an image with a TV camera while pressing the fold-out and saddle-stitched parts while pressing the swelling part and processing the image with a personal computer to generate the inspection data. It is characterized by judging whether the quality is good or bad by comparing with the data.

[0006]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the image is inputted by the television camera while pressing the swelling portion with the swelling portion, it is possible to obtain an accurate image with the saddle stitched printed material as a flat paper surface over all pages. It is possible to process the image with a personal computer, generate inspection data, and compare it with the reference data stored in the storage device in advance by the same method. It is possible to mechanize the paper surface inspection of the saddle-stitched printed matter.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing an example of implementation of a paper surface quality inspection apparatus to which the method of the present invention is applied.

The paper surface quality inspection apparatus of the present invention comprises a paper feed belt conveyor 2 for feeding the saddle-stitched printed matter (hereinafter referred to as "inspection object") A to the inspection section one by one, and the even pages of the supplied inspection object. And an inspection part having two television cameras 14 and 15 with polarization filters for inputting odd-numbered pages, and a program for processing the image signals input from the two television cameras 14 and 15 to determine pass / fail. It is composed of a personal computer (not shown in FIG. 1) on which it is mounted, and a sheet discharging part including a sorting plate 23 that can sort and discharge a good product and a defective product according to the inspection determination result, and a good product discharging belt conveyor 24. There is.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the above-mentioned inspection portion has a positioning means for positioning the inspection object A supplied with the saddle-stitched portion at the beginning at a predetermined position, and the positioned inspection object. An inspection stage 5 having means for fixing the product by vacuum suction, an inspection part outer box 1 covering the inspection stage and having an entrance shutter 3 and an exit shutter 22, and a saddle-stitched part of the positioned inspected product. The inspection stage 5 includes a swelling presser plate 11 for pressing and a page-turning means for picking up the positioned inspected products one by one and turning the page. It is arranged so that it can move up and down inside the conveyor belt conveyor 4 arranged between the front end of the paper belt conveyor 24.

The specific configuration of each of the above parts will be described with reference to the operation description of FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 2, with the side where the product A to be inspected is bound as the leading end, the paper feed belt conveyor 2 and the conveyor belt conveyor 4 feed it onto the inspection stage 5 as shown in FIG. 3 (a). After the object A to be inspected is applied to the front alignment plate 6 protruding from the central portion of the inspection stage 5, the inspection stage 5 is raised as shown in FIG. The inspection item is released, and then, as shown in (c) and (d) of the figure, the front aligning pusher 7 is moved forward to hit the inspection item A, and the binding portion of the inspection item A is vertically aligned from the top and bottom. The inspected product A is positioned by pushing with the pusher 8 and the upside down pusher 9 with spring.

Next, in this state, as shown in FIG. 3 (e), the inspection stage 5 is evacuated in the order from the vacuum suction fine holes 10 to place the inspection object A on the inspection stage 5. Then, as shown in (f) of the figure, the front aligning pad plate 6, the front aligning pusher 7, the vertical aligning pusher 8, and the vertical aligning pusher 9 with a spring are released, and then,
As shown in FIG. 4, the swelling holding plate 11 is lowered onto the binding portion of the inspection target A, the binding portion of the inspection target A is pressed against the inspection stage 5 to flatten the paper surface, and in this state the television camera 1
The image of the cover sheet is input by 4, and the image signal is sent to a personal computer to determine whether the quality is good or bad as described later.

Since the center part of the spread of the product to be inspected is different between the even-numbered page and the odd-numbered page, the bulge holding plate 11 can be independently pressed against the spring so that it can be pressed separately. Two pressing surfaces 11a, 11 that move up and down
It has a divided structure having b.

After sending the image signal to the personal computer, FIG.
As shown in (a) of FIG. 3, the adsorbent 16 is lowered onto the two corners on the fore edge side of the inspected product, and as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3C, the swelling pressing plate 11 is raised to further raise the suction member 16, and the page turning servomotor 19 (see FIG. 1) is driven to drive the pair of turning operation chains 17. Then, by this, the stacking bar 18 passed to the pair of chains 17 is put under the sucked page and moved from right to left to turn up the cover surface ((c) (d) (e in FIG. 5).
(See (f)).

The above-described page turning is carried out by lifting only the corners first to separate them from other pages, and then lifting the whole as described later.

After turning the pages of the cover as described above,
Since the bulge holding plate 11 is lowered and the even pages are vacuum-fixed this time so that the vicinity of the binding part does not bulge this time, the vacuum suction fine hole 10 near the center of the spread spreads to the vacuum suction fine hole 1 on the outside.
Vacuuming is performed in order of (g) of FIG. 5 to 0, the paper surface is flattened, and the two TV cameras 1 as shown in FIG.
Images are simultaneously input to the left and right pages at 4 and 15, and the image signals are sent to the personal computer in the same manner as described above to judge pass / fail. When shooting with a TV camera, the light source 12
It goes without saying that the paper surface is illuminated with a constant brightness.

After the above-mentioned page turning, the process of inputting into the television camera and inspecting is repeated until one page before the final page, and after inputting the final odd page image, (a) of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6B, the suction member 16 is lowered, and after the fixation to the inspection stage 5 by vacuum suction on the odd page is released,
As shown in (c), as the adsorber 16 is raised and the turning chain 17 is driven, the turning bar 18 is moved to turn the pages, and as shown in FIG. When the image is input by the camera 15 and the final inspection determination result is determined to be a non-defective product, the vacuum suction on the even page side is released as shown in FIG. 6E, and the inspection stage 5 is moved as shown in FIG. Lower and convey conveyor belt 4
The product A to be inspected is placed on the top, the conveyor belt conveyor 4 and the non-defective product discharge belt conveyor 24 are driven, and the outlet shutter 22 is opened to accommodate the product A to be inspected in the non-defective product box 25.

The above is the case where it is judged as a non-defective product, but when it is judged as a defective product, as shown in FIG. 8C, the fixing to the inspection stage 5 by vacuum suction on the even page side is released. The inspection stage 5 is lowered, the inspection target A is placed on the conveyor belt conveyor 4, the conveyor belt conveyor 4 is driven, the outlet shutter 22 is opened, and the distribution plate 23 is rotated to remove the inspection object box 26 from the defective product box 26. Put in.

When it is determined that the product is defective on the intermediate page, the inspection is stopped at that time, and as shown in FIG. 8A, the bulge holding plate 11 is raised and the inspection stage by vacuum suction on the odd page side. 5 is released, and as shown in (b) of the figure, the 1-page turning plate 21 is operated to turn up the remaining pages collectively, and then, as shown in (c) of the figure. The fixation to the inspection stage 5 by vacuum suction on the even side is released, and the inspection stage 5 is lowered and the inspection object A is placed on the conveyor belt conveyor 4 as shown in FIG. While driving, the outlet shutter 22 is opened and the distribution plate 23 is rotated to remove the inspected product from the defective product box 26.
Put in.

The details of the adsorption state at the time of page turning are shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 9A, the adsorbent 16
The support 16 is positioned so as to be positioned diagonally with respect to the two corners on the edge side opposite to the binding portion A'of the inspection object A.
It is suspended by a and (c) and (d) in the same figure.
As shown in FIG. 5, the support 16a is mounted so as to be tiltable, and is attached by a tension spring 16b so that the tip thereof is directed obliquely downward in the normal state. Only when it is crimped onto the inspected product A, the adsorbent 16 becomes horizontal and adsorbs the inspected product A as shown in FIG. 2B, and even if the support 16a is raised thereafter, the inspected product is adsorbed. The page is configured to be able to maintain its adsorption state. 16c is an intake port,
16d is a negative pressure hose.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9B, when the suction body 16 is lowered and pressure-bonded onto the product A to be inspected, the suction body 16 becomes horizontal, and in this state, suction is performed and the upper page is When the adsorbent is adsorbed and the adsorbent is slightly lifted as shown in FIG. 6C, the adsorbent 16 is inclined with respect to the support 16a, and only the corners of the adsorbed page are separated from the page underneath and adsorbed in this state. An air nozzle 16e for page separation between the corner of the page and the lower page
When the whole page is lifted and separated by supplying air from the sheet, air is hard to enter between the remaining pages, so that the paper surface is stable even after turning the page and the stable image input can be performed immediately after turning the page.

In the inspection by a personal computer, an image is divided into several blocks in advance and stored as digital image data in which shades are represented by 256 gradations, and digital image data read in each inspection. Is compared for each divided block, and the quality is determined by whether the difference between the two is within a preset allowable value.

As the reference image, (512.times.480 Pix) image data taken by the television cameras 14 and 15 is input to the personal computer, and the following processing is performed as shown in FIG.

.. As data to be used for calculating the amount of displacement of the inspected product or the like, a value obtained by projecting and integrating the grayscale value of each pixel of the image on each of the X and Y axes is generated.
Store on a disk (HD).

[0027] In order to calculate the variation amount of the illumination illuminance on the inspection stage surface, the value obtained by integrating all the values on the X and Y axes calculated in step 3 is stored in the hard disk (HD).

[0028] In order to obtain the averaged grayscale data for each block, the image data is 256 × 480 Pix.
It is divided into × 240, 12Pix around each block is added, the first stage is averaged, and the result is stored in HD. This is done in order to allow the density distribution to have a permissible width because the print position of the inspected product is slightly different from the paper surface.

When performing the inspection, the averaged grayscale data for each block is called from the HD to the memory. If it is desired to have a larger allowable amount of density distribution, 8 Pixes in the upper, lower, left, and right directions are supplementarily added to each block and the second stage averaging is performed to generate grayscale data.

Since the data to be inspected is obtained by averaging the grayscale data for each block by the same method, the image data is 512 ×
The 480Pix is divided into 256 × 240, 12Pix around each block is added, and the first-stage averaging is performed.
To be stored. Next, the grayscale value for each pixel of the image is projected and integrated on each of the X and Y axes, and the grayscale value for each pixel of the image of the reference data is projected on each of the X and Y axes and is integrated (value generated by ) Are overlaid to calculate the amount of positional deviation. Based on this data, shift the grayscale data averaged for each block,
If you want to have more tolerance of concentration distribution,
As in the case of the reference data, 8 Pixes on the upper, lower, left and right sides are supplementarily added to average the second stage. The gray value of each pixel of the image is XY
All the values projected and integrated on each axis and the same data calculated during the creation of the reference data (value calculated by)
Is calculated and added as an illumination correction amount to the averaged grayscale data in the second stage. After that, the first-stage averaged grayscale data for each block of the reference address is compared with the illumination-corrected density data for each block of the same address, and the difference is taken, and the difference is within the preset allowable value. If it is good, it is determined to be defective.

When it is judged as a defective product, the scanning operation is again carried out to determine whether or not the reference grayscale data of the block of the address of the defective judgment portion is in the 24 blocks around the same address of the inspected product. If it is inside, it is determined to be a good product, and if it is not inside, it is determined to be a defective product.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to mechanize the quality inspection of a saddle-stitched booklet having a plurality of pages.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of a paper surface quality inspection apparatus to which a method of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the same as seen from the side.

3A to 3F are explanatory views of a first positioning and fixing step.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a cover image input process.

5A to 5G are explanatory views showing a page turning process and a fixing process on the even page side.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a simultaneous image input process for odd pages and even pages.

7 (a) to 7 (f) are explanatory diagrams of a final page inspection process.

FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D are explanatory diagrams when a defect is determined.

FIG. 9A to FIG. 9D are diagrams showing details of the page turning process.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of quality judgment by a personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

A ... Inspected product, 1 ... Inspecting outer box, 2 ... Paper feeding belt conveyor, 3 ... Inspecting section entrance shutter, 4 ... Conveying belt conveyor, 5 ... Inspection stage, 6 ... Pre-alignment patch plate, 7 ... Pre-alignment pusher , 8 ... Vertical alignment pusher, 9 ... Vertical alignment pusher with spring, 10 ... Small hole for vacuum suction, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Bulging plate, 12 ... Illumination, 13 ... Shading plate, 14 ...
TV camera for odd pages, 15 ... TV camera for even pages, 16
... Adsorbent, 17 ... Turning chain, 18 ... Turning bar, 19 ... Page turning servo motor, 20 ... Small-edge stopper, 21 ... Batch turning plate, 22 ... Inspection section exit shutter, 23 ... Sorting plate, 24 ... Non-defective product Paper belt conveyor, 25 ... Good box, 26 ... Defective box.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. Saddle-stitched printed matter is picked up one by one and lifted up, and a page is turned by inserting and turning a flipping bar underneath it, and an image is input by a TV camera while pressing the swelling section with the swelling section. , The image is processed by a personal computer to generate data to be inspected, and the quality is judged to be good or bad by comparing with the reference data that was previously generated by the same method and stored in the storage device. A page-turning quality inspection method for saddle-stitched printed matter. 2. The saddle-stitched printed material is fed onto the inspection stage with the saddle-stitched portion as the head, positioned at a predetermined position, and then the printed material is fixed on the inspection stage by a vacuum suction method, and in that state. While holding the bulge and pressing, input the image of the cover page with the TV camera, then suck and lift the page, turn the page by moving the turning bar underneath, and vacuum suck the even-numbered page side. By fixing the image on the inspection stage by the method, while pressing the saddle stitch part with the presser foot while pressing the saddle stitch part, images of even pages and odd pages are simultaneously input by the TV camera, and thereafter, the pages are turned one by one in the same manner as described above. By repeating the simultaneous image input of even and odd pages, the image input by the TV camera up to the final page is performed, and each image is processed by the personal computer to generate the inspection data. A method for inspecting the page-turning surface of a saddle-stitched printed material, characterized by judging whether the quality is good or bad by comparing it with reference data generated in advance by a similar method and stored in a storage device. 3. A page-turning paper surface quality inspection method for saddle-stitched printed matter according to claim 1, wherein only a pair of corners on the side opposite to the binding section is adsorbed and lifted, and then,
A method of lifting and separating a page, characterized in that air for separation is blown below the lifted corner and the entire page is lifted. 4. When the final page is judged to be of good quality, the printed matter is conveyed to a non-defective box, and when it is judged to be of poor quality, the inspection is interrupted at the time when it is judged to be defective, and after turning all at once, The page-turning quality inspection method for the saddle-stitched printed matter according to claim 1, wherein the printed matter is conveyed to a defective box. 5. A paper feed conveyor for feeding the saddle-stitched inspected product into the inspection part, and two television cameras with a polarizing filter for inputting even-numbered pages and odd-numbered pages of the supplied inspected image. From the inspection part that it has, a personal computer on which a program that processes the image signals input from the two TV cameras and makes a pass / fail judgment is installed, and a paper discharge part that can be discharged according to the inspection judgment result Becomes
The inspection portion includes an inspection stage including a positioning unit that positions the inspected product, which is supplied with the saddle stitching portion at the head, at a predetermined position, and a unit that fixes the positioned inspected product by vacuum suction, and the inspection stage. An inspection unit outer box which covers the stage and has an entrance shutter and an outlet shutter, a bulge holding means for pressing the positioned saddle stitch portion of the inspected product, and a page in which the positioned inspected product is adsorbed page by page. A page-turning quality inspection device for a saddle-stitched printed matter, comprising: a page-turning unit for turning over. 6. The bulge pressing means has two pressing surfaces that move up and down independently of each other in correspondence with the step difference between the odd-numbered page side and the even-numbered page side. Page quality inspection device for page turning of bound printed materials. 7. The page-turning means adsorbs the page when it is pressure-bonded onto the inspected product, and an adsorbent body that lifts the page when it is raised, and is inserted under the lifted page, and when the page is moved, the page is moved. The adsorbent is tiltably attached to a vertically moving column and is attached by a tension spring so that the tip thereof is directed obliquely downward in a normal state. 6. The page-turning of the saddle-stitched printed matter according to claim 5, characterized in that the adsorbent becomes horizontal and adheres to the inspected product only when the adsorbent is pressure-bonded onto the inspected product. Paper quality inspection device. 8. The suction member of the page-turning means is arranged diagonally with respect to a pair of corner portions on the opposite side of the positioned binding portion of the inspection object, and the adsorption member is provided on the page with the inspection object. When the page is adsorbed when it is pressure-bonded to, and when the adsorbent is raised slightly in that state, only the corners are lifted and separated from the next page, and air is jetted to the separated portion and the adsorbent is raised to adsorb the page. 8. The page-turning quality inspection device for saddle-stitched printed matter according to claim 7, wherein the whole is lifted and separated.