JPH11255381A - Method and mechanism of positioning paper sheet in optical reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make positioning without occurrence of misconveyance of a sheet of paper using a simple configuration. SOLUTION: The leading edge of a sheet of paper 3 fed by a feed roller 5 follows a sheet feeding path between paper guides 8 and 9 and runs against a nipping part between a drive roller 6 and a pressure roller 7. The feed roller 5 is driven farther even after this collision with the nipping part, and thus the middle part of the sheet 3 is deflected along an approximately L-form groove furnished in the paper guide 9. Thus the warp or curl at the leading edge of the paper 3 is corrected, and the paper 3 is given a higher stiffness to ensure better biting-in, thus leading to the prevention of a misconveyance, and also a skew is corrected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical reader such as an OCR or a barcode reader for separating characters loaded on a hopper one by one and reading characters and barcodes from the fed-out paper. The present invention relates to a mechanism for positioning a sheet before reading.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various paper positioning methods for aligning the position of a paper before reading characters, bar codes, etc., written on the surface of the paper. For example, FIG.
There is a roller intermittent rotation method or a combination method of a stop claw and a roller as shown in FIG. In the roller intermittent rotation method, the paper 3 stacked on the hopper 71 is conveyed by the paper feed roller 5, and is brought into contact with a nip portion between the stopped upper and lower positioning rollers 72, 73 so that the position thereof is adjusted. The upper and lower rollers 72 and 73 rotate to feed the paper 3. In FIG. 7B, the sheet 3 is positioned by hitting the stopper claw 78 protruding on the sheet feed path. After the stopper claw 78 is retracted downward by the solenoid 77, the solenoid 76 is operated to lower the roller 74. The paper 3 is conveyed between the rollers 74 and 75.

[0003]

Among such paper positioning mechanisms, the intermittent rotation type shown in FIG. 7 (a) is used when the upper and lower rollers 72 and 73 are made of rubber or the like. If the leading edge of the coming paper 3 is curled, it may hit the surface of one of the rollers, causing a skew or a shortage of the gap between the upper and lower rollers 72, 73, making it impossible to proceed. In addition, thin paper (4
5 kg, 46-size or smaller paper) with upper and lower rollers 72, 73
The paper may buckle after jamming, causing paper jam. In the case of thick paper (135 kg, 46-size paper, etc.), the upper and lower rollers 72, 7 are skewed.
In some cases, positioning could not be performed for 3 minutes.
On the other hand, in the apparatus using the stop pawl 78 shown in FIG. 7B, the stop pawl 78 and the rollers 74 are raised and lowered by actuators such as solenoids 76 and 77 or a motor, so that the transport speed of the paper 3 becomes slow, and the parts are also reduced. Many structures were complicated and expensive.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method in which a sheet fed one by one is placed in front of a sensor such as a lead sensor or a bar code reader without causing a skew, a jam or a transport error. It is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive mechanism capable of reliably aligning and positioning a sheet.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a sheet loaded on a hopper is separated one by one, and a fed-out sheet is driven by a feed roller. In the paper positioning mechanism of the intermittent rotation type optical reading device that performs positioning by abutting a nip portion between the upper and lower rollers to form a lower side of a paper feed path between the paper supply roller and the upper and lower rollers. A groove is formed in the lower paper guide so that an intermediate portion of the paper can be bent downward when the leading end of the paper hits the nip portion, thereby forming a paper positioning mechanism of the optical reader.

In the paper positioning mechanism of the optical reader according to the first aspect of the present invention, the paper feed roller is driven to form the lower paper guide when the leading edge of the paper hits the nip portion. The middle portion of the sheet is bent into the groove. As a result, the stiffness of the paper is increased, and even if the leading edge of the paper is warped or curled, it is corrected according to the shape of the lower paper guide, and the leading edge of the paper is securely inserted into the nip portion, and the paper buckles The paper can be conveyed without stagnation, and at the same time, the skew of the paper can be corrected and the paper can be positioned.

Although the shape of the groove of the lower paper guide is not specified, for example, a horizontal plane along the paper feed path at a position near the paper feed roller, a vertical plane bent 90 degrees downward from the horizontal plane, and a nip from the bottom of the vertical plane It is substantially L-shaped when viewed from the side, in which an inclined surface extending obliquely upward toward the portion is continuous.

The upper roller of the upper and lower rollers is a driving roller intermittently driven by a driving motor, the lower roller is a pressing roller urged toward the driving roller, and the driving roller is a pressing roller. The diameter is larger than the pressure roller,
If the pressure roller is configured so that the surface has a lower coefficient of friction than the drive roller, the paper slips on the surface even if it hits the pressure roller and is guided to the nip without fail. Is large, so the hit angle is shallow, and it is also guided to the nip.

Further, a driving motor for driving one of the upper and lower rollers can rotate in both directions. When the driving motor rotates in one direction, the driving roller rotates, and in the other direction, the sheet feeding roller rotates. If you try to
The number of drive motors can be saved, and the drive mechanism can be configured inexpensively and compactly. This focuses on the point that the drive roller and the paper feed roller are not operated simultaneously.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the sheets stacked on the hopper are separated one by one, and the fed-out sheet is driven by driving a sheet feeding roller to abut a nip portion between upper and lower rollers to position the sheet. In the method for positioning a sheet of a roller intermittent rotation type optical reading apparatus, a step of driving the sheet feeding roller to strike the leading end of the sheet against the nip portion, and driving the sheet feeding roller to A bending process of bending an intermediate portion of a sheet into a groove provided in a lower paper guide that constitutes a lower side of a sheet feeding path between the sheet feeding roller and the upper and lower rollers; and one of the upper and lower rollers. A sheet confirming step for driving the drive roller to convey the sheet and confirming the presence or absence of the sheet between the upper and lower rollers and the reading unit; and a retry card when the sheet is not present in the sheet confirming step. The retry counter if the retry counter is equal to or less than a predetermined number, returning to the bending process, and determining that an error has occurred when the retry counter reaches a predetermined number. A paper positioning method was configured.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the paper positioning method of the optical reader, after the leading end of the paper abuts the nip portion in the abutting process, the groove formed in the lower paper guide in the bending process. The middle part of the sheet is bent inside. As a result, the stiffness of the paper is increased, and even if the leading edge of the paper is warped or curled, it is corrected according to the shape of the lower paper guide, and the leading edge of the paper is securely inserted into the nip portion, and the paper buckles The paper can be conveyed without stagnation, and at the same time, the skew of the paper can be corrected and the paper can be positioned.
Subsequently, in the paper confirmation process, the paper is conveyed by the driving roller, and the presence or absence of the paper between the upper and lower rollers and the reading unit is confirmed. When it is confirmed that there is a sheet, the sheet is conveyed as it is and read by the reading unit. If there is no paper, 1 is added to the retry counter in the retry process, and the bending process is repeated until the retry counter reaches a predetermined number. When the retry counter reaches a predetermined number and a predetermined number of retries are performed, it is determined that an error has occurred. The error processing is, for example, an alarm that notifies the user of the occurrence of an error.

The abutting process detects that the leading edge of the paper has reached a predetermined position between the paper feeding roller and the upper and lower rollers, and moves the paper feeding roller until the leading edge of the paper hits the nip from the predetermined position. The driving and bending process can be configured such that the paper feed roller is driven so as to convey the paper by a predetermined conveyance amount after the leading edge of the paper hits the nip portion, and the conveyance amount for bending the paper in this manner. , The desired amount of deflection can be obtained. Further, the predetermined transport amount may be variable according to the thickness of the sheet, the height of the humidity, and the like.

[0013]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an entire sheet feeding system including one embodiment of a sheet positioning mechanism of an optical reading apparatus according to the present invention, with some members omitted. The optical reader shown is an OCR.

In FIG. 1, a paper positioning mechanism is a paper 3
Is disposed between the hopper 1 on which the information is loaded and the read sensor 14 for reading characters written on the paper 3. The paper 3 loaded on the hopper 1 is fed out one by one by a pick roller 4, a separation device 12, and a paper feed roller 5, and the characters are read by a character reading unit of a read sensor 14 via a paper positioning mechanism unit. The sheet is further conveyed to a stacker 19 by a feed roller 17.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view showing the configuration of the paper positioning mechanism shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the same parts. In each of the drawings, a paper guide 8 is fixed to an upper chassis (not shown), and a paper guide 9 is fixed to a lower chassis (not shown) with a paper feed path interposed therebetween. The paper guides 8 and 9 are formed to be wider than the maximum paper width that can be handled by OCR in order to guide the entire width of the paper. Paper Guide 9
Has a substantially L-shaped groove when viewed from the side between the sheet feeding roller 5 and the driving roller 6 and the pressure roller 7. That is, the paper guide 9 includes a horizontal surface along the paper feed path at a position close to the paper feed roller 5, a vertical surface bent downward by 90 degrees from the horizontal surface, and a driving roller 6 from the bottom of the vertical surface.
An inclined surface extending obliquely upward toward the nip between the pressure roller 7 and the pressure roller 7 is formed in a continuous L-shape. This groove is perpendicular to the paper feed path and is formed uniformly along the paper width direction. As shown in FIG. 3, the pick roller 4 and the paper feed roller 5 arranged in a line in the paper feed direction are provided at the center of the paper width. It is formed smaller than the width. Accordingly, the paper 3 can be rotated about the pick roller 4 and the paper feed roller 5 as shown in FIG. 3, and the skew of the paper 3 can be corrected.

The sensor A10 is disposed at a predetermined position between the paper feed roller 5 and the drive roller 6, and is a reflection type sensor for detecting a sheet by emitting an optical axis toward the center of the width of the sheet 3. is there. The sensor A10 detects the leading edge of the sheet separated for each sheet. After the leading edge of the sheet is detected by the sensor A10, the transport amount of the sheet 3 is controlled by a microcomputer (not shown) for controlling the operation of the OCR.
And the driving of the paper feed roller 5 is controlled. At this time, in addition to the distance until the leading end of the paper 3 reaches the nip portion, a predetermined transport amount for bending the paper 3 by a desired amount along the L-shaped groove of the paper guide 9 is transported. Is adjusted so that the tip of the nip part fits into the nip part moderately. In this state, it waits for a read command.

As shown in FIG. 3, the driving roller 6
The length of the pressure roller 7 is larger than the maximum width of the paper, and the diameter of the drive roller 6 is about twice as large as the pressure roller 7 so that the paper can be easily inserted into the nip portion. The surface of the pressure roller 7 is made of a mirror-like material having a low coefficient of friction. Specifically, the surface of the drive roller 6 is made of ester urethane (hardness 70 ° ± 5 ° (JI
SA)), and the surface of the pressure roller 7 is made of iron (SUM) that has been subjected to Kanigen treatment 5 μm. Pressure roller 7
May be made of stainless steel (for example, SUS303). As a result, even if the paper 3 collides with the pressure roller 7 first, it slides on its surface and is surely guided to the nip portion. On the contrary, even if the paper 3 collides with the driving roller 6 first, the angle of the paper 3 is large. Is shallow, and is also led to the nip. The pressure roller 7 is lightly urged by a spring (not shown) in a direction toward the drive roller 6, closes the nip portion where the paper 3 abuts without any gap, and is closely contacted with the drive roller 6 to be driven to move the paper 3. It can be sent securely.

At a predetermined position between the drive roller 6 and the lead sensor 14, a transmission type sensor B11 is disposed with a sheet feed path interposed therebetween, and feeds two or more sheets of paper (double feed).
Then, the presence or absence of the sheet after the reading instruction is detected. The double feed detection is performed according to the conventional method, that is, first, based on the light transmission amount of the sheet that has passed first and the sheet length (that is, the length of detection time), the transmission amount and the sheet length of the second and subsequent sheets. Is compared with the reference, and if they are the same, it is determined that there is no double feed. Further, when it is determined that double feeding has occurred first, the transmission amount and the sheet length at that time are used as references, and when one sheet passes thereafter, the presence or absence of an abnormality is determined based on the reference, and error processing is performed. Do. The transmission amount of light detected by the sensor B11 is
The output of the sensor B11 is digitally converted by an A / D converter (not shown), and the digitally converted signal is detected by processing by a microcomputer (not shown).

The feed roller 5 and the drive roller 6 are driven by one drive motor 18. 1 and 6 show the configuration of the drive mechanism. In each figure, the upper chassis 3
7, a drive motor 18 which is a pulse motor
The motor pulley 20 is fixed to the drive shaft of the drive motor 18. The drive belt 16 is stretched over the motor pulley 20, and is further stretched over idler pulleys 23, 24 and pulleys 21, 22. The power of the drive motor 18 is transmitted to the pulleys 21, 22 via the drive belt 16. . A one-way clutch is incorporated in the pulley 21 attached to one end of the shaft of the driving roller 6, which locks when the driving roller 6 rotates clockwise, transmits power to the shaft of the driving roller 6, and The roller 6 is rotated clockwise. A pulley 25 is fixed to the other end of the shaft of the driving roller 6. A drive belt 26 is stretched over the pulley 25, and the drive belt 26 is further attached to the idler pulley 2.
3, 24, 24 and the pulleys 35, 35, and transmit power to the pulleys 35, 35. The shafts of the feed rollers 17 are fixed to the pulleys 35, 35, respectively.

The pulley 22 is fixed to one end of a shaft 27, and a gear 28 is fixed to the other end of the shaft 27. A one-way clutch is incorporated in the gear 28, and the drive motor 18 rotates counterclockwise,
Locked when the shaft 27 rotates counterclockwise via the drive belt 16 and the pulley 22. The gear 28 meshes with a gear 29, and the gear 29 is fixed to one end of a shaft 30. The paper feed roller 5 is provided at the center of the shaft 30, and the gear 29 is provided between the gear 29 and the paper feed roller 5. The gear 31 is fixed. Gear 31 is idler gear 3
2 and the idler gear 32 meshes with the gear 34. The gear 34 is fixed to the shaft 33,
The pick roller 4 is fixed to the shaft 33.

In such a drive mechanism, when the drive motor 18 rotates counterclockwise, the one-way clutch of the pulley 21 is in a free state and the drive roller 6 is stopped. On the other hand, since the one-way clutch of the gear 28 is in the locking direction, the feed roller 5 and the pick roller 4 rotate clockwise through the gear train including the gear 29 and the gear 31, the idler gear 32, and the gear 34, and the hopper The sheets 3 stacked on the sheet 1 are fed out one by one via the separation mechanism 12.

Conversely, when the drive motor 18 rotates clockwise, the one-way clutch of the gear 28 is in a free state, and the pick roller 4 and the paper feed roller 5 are stopped (however, the paper 3 being fed is When the paper 3 is below the pick roller 4 or the paper feed roller 5, the paper 3 can be rotated by feeding the paper 3). On the other hand, the one-way clutch of the pulley 21 is locked, the driving roller 6 rotates clockwise, and the feed roller 17 also rotates clockwise to feed the sheet 3 to the stacker 19.

As described above, the drive motor 18 is rotatable in both directions. When the drive motor 18 is rotated clockwise, the drive roller 6 rotates clockwise and the paper feed roller 5 stops. . Conversely, when the paper feed roller 5 is rotated counterclockwise, the paper feed roller 5 rotates clockwise and the drive roller 6 is stopped. This focuses on the point that the drive roller 6 and the paper feed roller 5 are not operated at the same time, whereby the number of drive motors can be saved and the paper feed mechanism can be configured inexpensively and compactly. There is no need for an electromagnetic clutch or the like.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A to 4D are diagrams for explaining the operation of the present embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process of the operation of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4A shows the butting process. In response to a start command from the microcomputer, the drive motor 1
8 rotates counterclockwise, the pick roller 4 and paper feed roller 5 rotate clockwise, and the sheets 3 stacked on the hopper 1 are fed out one by one via the separation mechanism 12 (step S1). ). When the leading end of the sheet 3 is detected by the sensor A10, Mmm, which is the distance until the sheet 3 hits the nip between the stopped driving roller 6 and the pressing roller 7, is further conveyed (Step S2). As a result, the leading end of the sheet 3 hits the nip.

FIG. 4B shows steps S3 and S4 in FIG.
(Steps S3 and S4 will be described later), the drive motor 18 further rotates counterclockwise to complete the bending process in which the Xmm sheet 3 is further conveyed. The state is shown (steps S5 and S6). In this state,
The middle portion of the paper 3 is bent over the entire width of the paper along an L-shaped groove formed uniformly at right angles to the paper feed path of the paper guide 9, and the leading end of the paper 3 bites into the nip portion. When the paper 3 bends along the L-shaped groove of the paper guide 9, the stiffness of the paper 3 is increased, and the warpage and curl of the leading end of the paper 3 are corrected according to the shape of the paper guide 9, and the nip portion is corrected. It is easy to dig into
At the same time, the skew of the paper 3 is also corrected as shown in FIG.
The positioning of the paper 3 can be performed reliably.

Next, a paper confirmation process is executed. FIG.
As shown in (c), the drive motor 18 rotates clockwise in response to a command from the microcomputer, rotates the drive roller 6 clockwise, and conveys the paper 3 by Y mm (steps S7 and S8). The sensor B11 detects the presence or absence of the sheet 3 after Y mm conveyance. When the paper 3 is transported by Y mm, the leading end of the paper 3 blocks the optical axis of the sensor B11 if the transport is performed normally. When the paper 3 is detected as “present”, the microcomputer continues to rotate the drive roller 6 to cause the lead sensor 14 to rotate as shown in FIG.
The paper 3 is conveyed to the reading unit by the.

If the conveyance was not performed normally due to paper jam or insufficient jamming, the paper 3
Is detected. In this case, steps S3 and S3 in FIG.
The process returns to the retry counter process during 4. That is, after setting the retry counter +1, the steps from step S5 are repeated again. If the retry counter exceeds a predetermined number of times α in the retry counter check, error processing is performed, for example, an alarm is issued to inform the user that an error has occurred.

When the paper 3 is a thin paper (for example, 45 kg, 46 mm or less) or when used in a high humidity environment such as during the rainy season, the paper stiffness is weaker. If there is a lot of (M + X), buckling is likely to occur on the paper,
May cause jams. In such a case, the microcomputer can change the amount of conveyance (X) in the bending process by a user's manual input through the panel or automatically and reduce the amount. Conversely, if the paper 3 is thick or the humidity is low, it is possible to increase the abutting conveyance amount.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be appropriately modified and implemented within the scope of the present invention. For example, the illustrated embodiment is applied to an OCR device, but it is apparent that the embodiment can also be applied to a barcode reader and the like.

[0032]

As described above, according to the positioning mechanism and the paper positioning method of the optical reader according to the present invention, a groove is formed in the lower paper guide, and the intermediate portion of the paper is bent along the groove. It is possible to correct the skew and position the sheet while correcting the warpage and the curl of the leading end of the sheet, facilitating biting into the nip portion, and reliably feeding the sheet.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an entire OCR apparatus to which an embodiment of a sheet positioning mechanism of an optical reading apparatus according to the present invention is applied, with some members omitted. .

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view illustrating a configuration of a sheet positioning mechanism in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the configuration of the paper positioning mechanism of FIG. 1, with some members omitted.

FIGS. 4A to 4D are side views for explaining the operation of the paper positioning mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process of an operation of the paper positioning mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view including a drive system of the paper positioning mechanism of FIG. 1 and omits some members such as a lead sensor.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams showing a conventional intermittent rotation type paper positioning mechanism and a conventional stop claw and roller combination type paper positioning mechanism, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hopper 3 Paper 4 Pick roller 5 Paper feed roller 6 Drive roller 7 Pressure roller 8, 9 Paper guide 10 Sensor A 11 Sensor B

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A roller intermittent rotation type in which sheets stacked on a hopper are separated one by one, and the fed-out sheet is driven to drive a sheet feeding roller to abut a nip portion between upper and lower rollers to perform positioning. In the paper positioning mechanism of the optical reading device, a lower paper guide that constitutes a lower side of a paper feed path between the paper feed roller and the upper and lower rollers has a configuration in which the leading end of the paper strikes the nip portion. A sheet positioning mechanism for an optical reading device, wherein a groove is formed so that an intermediate portion can be bent downward. 2. The groove of the lower paper guide includes a horizontal surface along the paper feed path at a position near the paper feed roller, a vertical surface bent 90 degrees downward from the horizontal surface, and a lowermost portion of the vertical surface. And a sloping surface extending obliquely upward from the nip portion toward the nip portion.
2. The sheet positioning mechanism of the optical reader according to claim 1, wherein the sheet positioning mechanism has a character shape. 3. An upper roller of the upper and lower rollers is a driving roller intermittently driven by a driving motor, and a lower roller is a pressing roller biased in a direction toward the driving roller. The paper positioning mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the roller has a larger diameter than the pressure roller, and the pressure roller has a lower surface friction coefficient than the drive roller. 4. A driving motor for driving one of the upper and lower rollers is rotatable in both directions. When the driving motor rotates in one direction, the driving roller rotates. The roller is rotated.
Paper positioning mechanism of the optical reader according to 1. 5. A roller intermittent rotation type in which sheets stacked on a hopper are separated one by one, and the fed-out sheet is driven by a feed roller to abut a nip portion between upper and lower rollers to perform positioning. In the sheet positioning method of the optical reading device, a step of driving the sheet feed roller to hit the front end of the sheet against the nip portion; and driving the sheet feed roller to feed the intermediate portion of the sheet to the intermediate portion of the sheet. A bending process of bending into a groove provided in a lower paper guide that constitutes a lower side of a paper feed path between a paper roller and the upper and lower rollers, and driving one of the upper and lower rollers to drive the driving roller. A paper confirmation step of conveying the paper and confirming the presence or absence of the paper between the upper and lower rollers and the reading unit; and adding 1 to a retry counter when the paper is not present in the paper confirmation step. If the retry counter is equal to or less than a predetermined number, the process returns to the bending process, and if the retry counter reaches a predetermined number, it is determined that an error has occurred. . 6. The abutting step detects that the leading end of the sheet has reached a fixed position between the sheet feeding roller and the upper and lower rollers, and moves the leading end of the sheet from the fixed position to the nip. And driving the paper feed roller until the paper feed roller contacts the nip portion, and wherein the bending process drives the paper feed roller so as to convey the paper by a predetermined conveyance amount after the leading end of the paper collides with the nip portion. 6. The sheet positioning method of the optical reader according to 5. 7. The predetermined transport amount is variable.
3. The sheet positioning method for an optical reader according to claim 1.