JPS6057616B2 - automatic inserter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a close contact device for a mark detection part in an automatic inserter, and in particular, by improving the shape of an elastic member such as a spring that is a pressurizing body, the insertion operation is easy and the reading is reliable. We propose an automatic inserter with improved performance.

Conventionally, in inserters for magnetic or optical reading devices and printing devices for information marks recorded on recording media such as cards and ledgers, mark detectors and recording media have been used to improve the reliability of reading. It is necessary to maintain a constant distance from the ground, and an elastic member such as a spring or other pressurizing body is used.

However, if such a pressure body is used, the reliability of reading can be improved, but when inserting the recording medium, the recording medium must be inserted against this pressure force, and the thickness When using various types of recording media with different values, there is a problem that the insertion operation cannot be performed smoothly.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a conventional pressurizing automatic inserter using a spring member. In the drawings, 1 indicates a recording medium such as a card or ledger, 2 indicates a mark detector, 3 indicates a leaf spring as an elastic member, 41 and 42 indicate feed rollers, 51 to 53 indicate guides, and arrow A indicates insertion of a card, etc. Show direction. Further, FIG. 2 is a front view of the recording medium 1 showing the positions of stop marks and the like.

In the drawing, 11 is a group of stop marks, 111 to 118 are each stop mark, 119 is a stop mark that is to be printed after being set with reference to 118, and 12 is a print position of other than the stop mark, such as numbers, text, etc. show. First, when the operator inserts the recording medium 1 in the direction of the arrow A, the leading edge of the recording medium 1 reaches the joint between the feed rollers 41 and 42, and is then further fed in the direction of the arrow A by the feed rollers 41 and 42. and reaches the printing section of the printer (not shown). In this case, when the mark detector 2 detects the lowest stop mark 118 among the stop marks 11, the position of the line on the recording medium 1 to be set next based on this detection output is determined by the printer. The recording medium 1 continues to be fed until it reaches the printing position, and is stopped at that position.

Then, when the recording medium 1 is stopped, a new stop mark 119 is printed by the printing mechanism of the printer, and necessary information is printed in a portion of the position 12 other than 119 on this line.

Note that in each line of the stop marks 111 to 118, when the stop mark is printed in this way, necessary items are printed on each line. In the automatic inserter, when the recording medium 1 is inserted in this manner, it is operated so as to automatically stop at the position where printing is to be performed.

By the way, when detecting a stop mark, in the case of optical reading, the mark detector 2 is composed of a light source, a light receiver, a reading slit, etc., and the reading is performed using reflected light from the recording medium 1.

Reading in this case is performed while the recording medium 1 is being fed. Therefore, if the distance between the recording medium 1 and the mark detector 2 changes and the recording medium 1 rises from or comes into close contact with the mark detector 2, even when reading parts other than the stop mark, The amount of light received by the mark detector 2 changes, causing the mark to be misread as a stop mark. The leaf spring 3 detects marks on the recording medium 1 in order to prevent the recording medium 1 from lifting up, which causes reading errors, and to maintain a constant distance between the recording medium 1 and the mark detector 2. It is pressed against the container 2 side.

However, if the pressing force of the leaf spring 3 is weak, there is an increased possibility that the recording medium 1 will be lifted off the mark detector 2. Conversely, if the pressing force is strong, the leading end of the recording medium 1 may be attached to the leaf spring 3 when inserted. This increases the risk that the paper may get stuck and cannot be fed any further, or may be inserted diagonally and may not be fed correctly.

In this way, the pressing force of the leaf spring 3 is delicate, and this point is also the same in the case of magnetic reading. and,
This problem becomes even more important in so-called automatic inserters, which are designed to reduce the burden of the operator's insertion operation and to facilitate correct insertion.

That is, in the automatic inserter, the operator operates manually until the leading end of the recording medium 1 is inserted between the guides 51 and 52, and when the leading end enters between the guides 51 and 52, the recording medium 1 is inserted. When the recording medium 1 is released from the recording medium 1, it is bitten by the feed rollers 41 and 42 due to its natural fall, and is then automatically stopped by reading the stop mark. In this case, in order to overcome the pressurizing force of the leaf spring 3 with only the force of natural fall and insert the leaf spring 3 correctly, the strength of the leaf spring 3 cannot be increased too much, and the thickness of the recording medium 1 used must be There are also restrictions on size, size, weight, etc.

Furthermore, the recording medium 1 is not only a single card-like object, but also something on a mount as shown in Figure 3, so that a copy can be made at the same time when printing with a printer. There are so-called pressure-sensitive ledgers that are stacked with several sheets of pressure-sensitive paper, and those that are bound in several sheets, such as bank passbooks, and the thickness varies depending on the page on which entries are made.

Note that 1A in FIG. 3) indicates the glued portion. In this way, in order to correctly insert various recording media using only the force of natural falling, it is very difficult to design, manufacture, assemble, etc. the leaf spring 3.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of a conventional automatic inserter using free fall that eliminates such difficulties.

Reference numerals in the drawings are the same as in FIG. 1, and the feed rollers are omitted. In the case of this Fig. 4, the guide 5
The gap between 1 and 52,5'' 3 is made slightly larger than the thickness of the recording medium 1, and this gap suppresses the lifting of the recording medium 1 relative to the mark detector 2 to a certain amount or less.

However, there is inevitably a possibility of lifting within the gap, and there are significant restrictions on the thickness of the recording medium 1 used.

Furthermore, in order to accurately realize the size of the gap, constraints on the design, parts manufacturing, assembly, etc. increase. Therefore, the automatic inserter of the present invention is suitable for use with various recording media of different thicknesses, allows easy free fall, and maintains a constant distance between the recording medium and the mark detector, thereby improving operability. The purpose is to improve the reading reliability.

5A to 5C show an embodiment of the automatic inserter of the present invention, in which FIG. A is a schematic side view, FIG. B is a perspective view of the spring member, and FIG. C is a top view of the feed roller. Reference numerals in the drawings are the same as those in FIG.
The first contact portion 62 that presses the feed rollers 41 and 4
2, a second contact portion that contacts the recording medium 1 and pressurizes the recording medium 1; 63, a fulcrum portion for enabling rotation in the direction of a bidirectional arrow D; 64, a spring member; 6
71 and 72 are stoppers for restricting the rotation range of the spring member 6, and 8 is the feed roller 41 and 42.
The recess for arranging the contact portion 62 of the spring member 6 provided in the figure is shown. Next, the operation of the automatic inserter of the present invention will be explained.

When the recording medium 1 is inserted, the locking portion 64 of the spring member 6 is pulled toward the guide 51 with a weak tension by a spring body (not particularly shown), so that the spring member 6 is in the state shown in FIG. 5A. When the operator releases the hand while inserting the leading end of the recording medium 1 between the guides 51 and 52, the recording medium 1 naturally falls in the direction of arrow A.

In this case, since the contact portion 61 of the spring member 6 is located on the guide 51 side, even if the leading end of the recording medium 1 passes the position of the mark detector 2, the recording medium 1 will not be visible as indicated by the arrow B. Such pressing force does not work, and the recording medium will not get stuck or be inserted at an angle.

When the recording medium 1 falls further and its leading edge comes close to the feed rollers 41 and 42, the leading edge hits the contact part 62 of the spring member 6, pushes it away, and is bitten into the rollers 41 and 42. .

Since the spring member 6 is movable around the fulcrum part 63,
Even if the leading end of the recording medium 1 hits the contact portion 62,
The recording medium 1 does not prevent the recording medium 1 from falling, and the contact part 62 is moved a little in the direction of arrow C by the recording medium 1, and as a result, the other contact part 61 is also moved a little in the direction of arrow B. . When the recording medium 1 is bitten by the feed rollers 41 and 42, the contact portion 62 is further pushed in the direction of arrow C by the recording medium. In this state, the recording medium 1 has already been completely bitten into the feed rollers 41 and 42 near the contact portion 62, so the contact portion 62 is moved in the opposite direction of arrow C.
It cannot be pushed back by. And the contact part 62
As it is pressed and moved in the direction of arrow C, the other contact portion 61 is moved in the direction of arrow B and presses the recording medium 1 toward the mark detector 2 . In this way, the recording medium 1 is subjected to pressing force due to contact with the contact portions 61 and 62 of the spring member 6, but in this state it is already completely bitten by the feed rollers 41 and 42. It is fed by the feeding force of the feed roller, not by the force of natural falling.

Therefore, the recording medium 1 is not stopped by the pressing force caused by the contact between the contact parts 61 and 62. and,
If the recording medium 1 is fed in this state, the contact portion 61 of the spring member 6 pressurizes the recording medium 1 so as not to lift it off the mark detector 2, thereby preventing reading errors when reading marks. This makes it possible to improve its reliability.

In order to position the spring member 6 on the guide 51 side at the beginning of the insertion operation, in addition to applying tension to the locking portion 64 as described above, the spring member 6 which is an elastic member can be used.
The shape, center of gravity, etc. may be determined appropriately, and tension may be applied at the same time.

As described above, the automatic inserter of the present invention can operate extremely well even with various recording media having different thicknesses.

The spring member 6 is attached to a reading device or the like by its fulcrum portion 63, but if this attachment position and the position of the stopper 71 or 72 can be finely adjusted, it can be used in many more types of feeding devices for recording media. It can also be carried out.

As described in detail above, the automatic inserter of the present invention utilizes the natural fall of the recording medium to insert the recording medium, and the insertion operation is simple and the reading reliability is high.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to a device that feeds the recording medium in the direction of gravity, but can also be implemented in a device that inserts the recording medium at an angle that allows it to fall naturally. Furthermore, it is also possible to implement the present invention in an apparatus having a feeding mechanism in which the feeding force varies depending on the position to which the recording medium is fed, such as an apparatus including a main feed roller and a sub-feed roller. Of course, the present invention can be implemented not only in optical reading devices but also in magnetic reading devices. Therefore, the reading method is not limited to the embodiments described above, but it is necessary to ensure that the recording medium that is sent to the mark or other detector and is to be read does not float away from the mark or other detector. All are possible for the device.

The structure is extremely simple, and excellent effects such as insertion operability and reading reliability are extremely high are achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a conventional pressurizing automatic inserter using a spring member, Figure 2 is a front view of a recording medium showing the positions of stop marks, etc., Figure 3 is a perspective view of a pressure-sensitive ledger, and Figure 4. is a schematic side view of another conventional automatic inserter, FIG. 5A is a schematic side view of an embodiment of the automatic inserter of the present invention, FIG. 5B is a perspective view of the spring member, and FIG. 5C is a feed roller. FIG. In the drawings, 1 is a recording medium, 2 is a mark detector, and 41
and 42 are feed rollers, 51 to 53 are guides, 6 is a spring member, 61 is a first contact portion thereof, 62 is a second contact portion,
63 is a fulcrum part, 64 is a locking part of another spring body, 71 and 72
8 indicates a stopper, and 8 indicates a recess for arranging the contact portion 62 of the spring member 6 provided on the feed rollers 41 and 42.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Equipped with a detector provided on one side of an insertion path for a recording medium such as paper, and an elastic member rotatably disposed on the other side,
The elastic member has a plurality of contact parts capable of contacting the recording medium, the first contact part is positioned to face the detector, and the second contact part is a feed roller provided at the end of the insertion path. An automatic inserter characterized in that the automatic inserter is positioned in the vicinity of the insertion passage.