JPS6121840B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an envelope sealing machine, and more specifically to a sealing machine that is compact and can perform reliable operations due to a novel configuration.

In order to save labor in office processing, various envelope sealing machines are currently being commercialized and put into practical use. However, in the case of conventional envelope sealing machines, the following common or It had its own problems. The configurations and problems of these devices are listed as follows.

(a) Conventionally known configuration No. 1 The folding mechanism includes an upper and lower creasing roller, a reversing spiral guide plate, and an upper and lower pressing roller along the linear transport path of the envelope. One of the creasing rollers has a narrow groove along the direction of rotation, and the other roller has an abacus bead shape with a ridgeline corresponding to the groove. The flap of the envelope is folded by the cooperation of the groove and ridgeline of the creasing roller, and then folded back until it comes into contact with the envelope body by the reversing spiral guide plate, and then crimped with the envelope body by the pressure roller. be done.

(b) Conventionally known configuration No. 2 As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-38197, the folding mechanism includes a creasing device, a reversing spiral guide plate, and a heating and pressing roller along the linear transport path of the envelope. The above-mentioned creasing device consists of a blade plate disposed at an upper part that is moved up and down by a solenoid, and a lower slit corresponding to the blade plate. The flap of the envelope is folded by the cooperation of the blade plate and the slit, and is then folded back by the reversing spiral guide plate until it comes into contact with the envelope body, and then is pressed to the envelope body by a heating and pressing roller. Ru.

Problems with the above-mentioned conventionally known configurations 1 and 2 In the case of the above-mentioned configuration 1, the folds made with the abacus ball are surprisingly poor in linearity, and looking at the sealed state, the flaps are often not folded along the fold lines. .

Common to configurations 1 and 2 above, since the sealing work is performed by a series of members arranged linearly along the conveyance path, the envelopes have to be conveyed over a long distance, which inevitably increases the size of the machine.

Common to configurations 1 and 2 above, the method of sequentially crimping the flap of the envelope from one end often results in the flap being bent and sealed, especially when the contents of the envelope are thick. This is because when the flap starts to be crimped from the front end, the rear end is not yet in close contact with the envelope body, so the flap gradually shifts toward the rear end due to the load applied from one side and is crimped in a twisted state. Because I'm going.

(c) Conventionally known configuration 3 As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-26198, the folding mechanism includes a blade plate that moves up and down by a solenoid located at the top, a corresponding lower slit, and a lower slit located below the slit. and a heating and pressing roller. The flap of the envelope is folded by the cooperation of the blade plate and the slit, and is folded back by being pushed into the slit until it reaches the roller below, and is crimped with the envelope body by the roller. The roller rotates in the reverse direction and the sealed envelope is returned to the mounting plate.

Problem with conventionally known configuration No. 3 This configuration can only be applied when the envelope is pre-applied with heat-adhesive adhesive, and when sealing the envelope using general glue, The glue will stick to the blade plate, causing inconvenience. Furthermore, applying heat-fusible adhesive to the envelope in advance means that the unit price of the envelope increases. Furthermore, the folding mechanism has a complicated structure because it requires a vertical movement mechanism for the blade plate and a forward/reverse mechanism for the pressure roller.

(d) Conventionally known configuration No. 4 As described in JP-A-52-20097, the folding mechanism is an operating plate (blade plate) placed at the top that moves up and down.
and a corresponding lower slit, and a gluing device is provided adjacent and operatively synchronously with the actuating plate. The envelope is stopped below the operating plate by pressing the limit switch at the tip of the flap. The flap of the envelope is pushed shallowly into the slit by the actuation plate to form a fold, and at the same time is coated with glue, after which it is folded and pressed against the envelope body using a separate coating member.

Problems with Conventionally Known Configuration No. 4 The method of stopping the envelope by pressing the limit switch at the tip of the flap becomes impractical in the case of thin and weak envelopes such as envelopes made of Hatron paper. On the other hand, it is impossible to accurately stop the envelope at a predetermined position aligned with the blade plate using a member other than the limit switch.
Taking into account that there are various envelope standards, this becomes very expensive and complex.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art as described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel envelope sealing machine that can solve these problems. In order to achieve this, in the present invention, a rotor is provided at a position in the envelope conveying path where the flap of the envelope is conveyed, and which has a rotation axis parallel to the fold line of the flap and faces each other with the flap in between. In addition to disposing an elastic roller, the rotor is provided with a blade-shaped protrusion extending along the axial direction of the rotor, and rotation of the rotor performed in time with the conveyance of the envelope causes the blade-shaped protrusion to be attached to the flap of the envelope. The envelope is bitten along the fold line, and the envelope is moved in the rotational direction of the rotor in cooperation with the elastic roller to form a fold in the flap and to stand up in the folding direction.

The present invention will be described in detail below according to preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing an embodiment of the sealing machine of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A--A in FIG. 1. In the figure, 10 is a housing, 20 is a gluing mechanism, 30 is a transport mechanism, and 40 is a folding mechanism.
The housing 10 has an envelope insertion indicator 12 on the envelope insertion side.
The present invention is provided with a supply table 11 marked with , and a receiving table 13 on the discharge side, between which an envelope conveying path is formed within the housing 10 that is bent at right angles on substantially the same plane. The gluing mechanism 20 is disposed near the envelope insertion opening (on the left side in FIG. 1) corresponding to the flap passage position, and consists of a gluing container 21 and a gluing roller 22 that is pivoted around the container 21. Both the glue container 21 and the glue application roller 22 are located below the plane of passage of the flap, and the roller 22, which is constantly driven, comes into contact with the flap when it passes the flap and supplies glue thereto. Further, the gluing mechanism 20 can be fixed by adjusting the movement of the flap integrally from side to side in the figure according to the size of the flap.

The transport mechanism 30 has a support plate 1 attached to the wall of the housing 10 above the envelope passing plane of the envelope insertion opening.
A pair of biting rollers 3 mounted on a shaft between 4 and 14
1,31. Belt drive rollers 32 and 3 are located below both rollers 31, sandwiching the plane through which the envelope passes.
2 is mounted on a shaft between the walls of the casing 10, and both drive rollers 32, and a driven roller 3 is mounted on a shaft parallel to both drive rollers 32 on the back side of the casing 10 (upper side in FIG. 1).
A pair of conveyor belts 34, 34 are stretched between the conveyor belts 3, 33. This conveyor belt 34 is constantly rotationally driven by the drive roller 32, and the biting roller 31 rotates following this conveyor belt 34. Further, a pair of spheres 35, 35 housed in a support frame 15 fixed to the housing 10 is disposed above the intermediate portion of both belts 34, and these are perforated in the lower surface of the support frame 15. It sits freely on the hole 16. On the other hand, on the side of the envelope conveyance path opposite to the gluing mechanism 20 and in contact with the bottom of the envelope (the right side in FIG. 1), there is a guide plate 36 having a guide wall 36a extending into the housing 10 along the conveyance path. The guide plate 36 extends so as to be adjustable in its movement left and right in the figure, and an upright wall 37 is disposed at the end of the guide plate 36 perpendicular to the guide wall 36a to temporarily prevent the conveyance of the envelope.

The conveyor belt 34 is not parallel to the guide wall 36a but is positioned slightly inclined toward the guide wall 36a in the conveyance direction. The angle between the guide wall 36a and the guide wall 36a is slightly deviated from a right angle. On the other hand, the axis of the biting roller 31 is perpendicular to the guide wall 36a. Therefore, during conveyance, due to the skew movement of the conveyor belt 34 described above, the envelope is conveyed while being constantly applied with a force that presses the bottom of the envelope against the guide wall 36a. At this time, after the envelope passes through the biting roller 31, the envelope is pressed against each belt 34 only by the two spheres 35, but the two spheres 35 have a small contact area with the envelope. Since the sphere itself is rotatable in all directions, even if its weight is relatively large, the force regulating the direction of travel of the envelope within the transport plane is small. Therefore, even if the envelope is conveyed crooked, the sphere 35 can be rotated in all directions due to the diagonal conveyance force of the belt 34 and the reaction force received from the guide wall 36a and the upright wall 37 located at its tip. With the aid of the movement, the direction and position are automatically corrected, and eventually they are reliably aligned at the corner of the guide wall 36a and the upright wall 37.

A folding mechanism 40 is disposed on the back side of the gluing mechanism 20 and on the side of the upright wall 37. The folding mechanism 40 includes a rotor 41 and an elastic roller 44, which are mounted on the wall of the housing 10 and are opposed to each other and have rotational axes parallel to the fold line of the flap of the envelope. As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the rotor 41 is located below the plane through which the envelope passes, and has a cylindrical cross-section with a portion cut out in a fan shape. A blade-shaped protrusion 42 is attached to one edge of the notch along the axial direction,
Further, the circumference of the rotor 41 is covered with a friction member 43. On the other hand, the upper elastic roller 44 is made of an elastic material such as flexible rubber having appropriate elasticity, and is slightly more flexible than the rotor 41.
The rotor 4 has a shaft that is closer to the side (i.e., closer to the envelope when the envelope is transported) and
It is biased toward the rotor 41 by a spring 45 that is strong enough not to retreat due to the biting force of the first blade-shaped protrusion 42.

As described above, the rotor 41 has envelopes aligned at the corners of the guide wall 36a and the upright wall 37, and the impact sensors 38 disposed at two locations on the upright wall 37,
38 engages with the edge of the envelope and turns on, a signal is emitted, and this signal causes a clutch (not shown) to rotate once from the position shown in FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. and stop at the same position again. Due to the rotation of this rotor 41, the rotor 41
The blade-shaped protrusion 42 bites into the fold line of the flap of the envelope conveyed to the predetermined position in such a manner that it is pushed against the elastic roller 44 from the position where it collides with the elastic roller 44, and the envelope is The elastic roller 4
4 to move in the direction of rotation of the rotor 41 as the rotor 41 rotates, that is, in a direction perpendicular to the above-mentioned initial conveyance direction. As the envelope moves, the blade-shaped protrusion 42 bites deeper into the fold line portion as the rotor 41 rotates, forming a fold there and causing the flap to stand up in the folding direction. (See FIG. 3) Further, upper and lower folded guide plates 46 and 47 are provided on the discharge side of the rotor 41 and the elastic roller 44, and the upper guide plate 47 extends to a position close to the elastic roller 44. , to securely capture the flap after standing up. The distance between the folding guide plates 46 and 47 narrows toward the discharge side, and the flap after being raised is gradually folded back toward the envelope body. Also, adjacent to the discharge side ends of both guide plates 46, 47,
Upper and lower pressure bonding rollers 4 are mounted on the wall of the casing 10 and have rotating shafts parallel to the rotor 41 and the rollers 44.
8,49 are arranged. Both pressure rollers 48, 49
are separately and constantly rotated at the same speed in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and the upper pressure roller 49 is urged toward the lower pressure roller 48 by a spring 50.

When using the sealing machine configured as described above, first, the envelope E is placed on the supply table 11 with the glued side of the flap facing downward and its fold line aligned with the index 12. Next, after adjusting the positions of the gluing mechanism 20 and the guide plate 36 according to the size of the envelope E and the desired gluing position of the flap (the state at position X in FIG. 1), the envelope E is inserted into the insertion slot of the housing 10. Draw-in roller 31
Insert until it reaches . The envelope E is held by the gluing roller 31 and the conveyor belt 34 and drawn into the housing 10, and the flap is first coated with glue by the gluing mechanism 20. The glued envelope E is further attached to the housing 1.
Even if the guide wall 36a and the upright wall 37 of the guide plate 36, the conveyor belt 34 that is inclined with respect to these, the sphere 35, etc. cooperate with each other. As a result, the position is corrected in the manner described above, and the position is aligned with the corner of the guide wall 36a and the upright wall 37 (position Y in FIG. 1).
When the envelope E reaches the position Y accurately, both the sensors 38 on the upright wall 37 turn on and a signal is emitted, and this signal causes the creasing and flap raising rotor 41 to rotate by actuation of the clutch. Start. Due to the rotation of the rotor 41, the envelope E is moved in the above-described manner in the direction of rotation of the rotor 41, ie, in a direction perpendicular to the initial transport direction on substantially the same plane, and during this movement, the flap fold is formed, and at the same time the flap is raised in the turning direction. The envelope E with the flap erected is further held by the rotor 41 and roller 44 and conveyed from the machine main body side toward the discharge side, passes through both guide plates 46, 46, folds back the flap, and finally passes through both pressure rollers 48, 49, and after being completely sealed, it is discharged onto the receiving table 13.

In the sealing machine with the above configuration, the envelopes are inserted manually, but it is also possible to equip the supply table with an automatic envelope supply mechanism to perform the same operation automatically. It is possible.
Furthermore, if the envelope insertion slot of the main sealing machine is linked with a device that previously stores the contents in the envelope,
It is also possible to automatically perform a series of operations from inserting the contents to sealing.

According to the sealing machine having the above configuration, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Before inserting the envelope, align the folding position of the flap with the index 12 and place the envelope on the supply table 12. At the same time, set the guide plate 36 in advance to match the bottom of the envelope, so that the folding position can be adjusted. This prevents variations and makes it possible to always fold at a fixed position.

Moreover, since the conveyor belt 34 is arranged at an angle with respect to the guide wall 36a, even if the envelope is inserted in a crooked state as described above, the position of the envelope can be corrected during conveyance.

(2) Since the rotor 41 equipped with the blade-shaped protrusion 42 and the elastic roller 44 work together to create a crease over the entire width of the flap at once, the creases obtained are straight and accurate. Therefore, it does not bend like the folds of conventional abacus balls.

In addition, since the crimping is performed simultaneously over the entire width of the flap, conventional (conventionally known configurations 1 and 2)
There is no possibility that the seal will be bent and sealed like in the case of

(3) Since the initial conveyance direction including the gluing process and the movement (conveyance) direction during the folding process are almost on the same plane and at right angles, the entire machine can be compactly packed, and at the same time the envelopes can be conveyed easily. Since the passage becomes significantly shorter, it is possible to increase the work processing speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing an embodiment of the sealing machine of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view showing details of the folding mechanism. It is a diagram. 10... Housing, 11... Supply stand, 13... Receiver, 20... Gluing mechanism, 30... Transport mechanism, 3
1... Biting roller, 34... Conveyor belt, 35
... Sphere, 36 ... Information board, 36a ... Information wall,
37... Standing wall, 40... Folding mechanism, 41...
Rotor, 42... Blade-shaped protrusion, 44... Elastic roller, 46, 47... Folded guide plate, 48, 49...
...Crimping roller.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A rotor 41 and an elastic roller having rotational axes parallel to the fold line of the flap and facing each other across the flap are located at a position in the envelope conveying path where the flap of the envelope is conveyed. 44, and a blade-shaped protrusion 42 extending along the axial direction of the rotor is attached, and rotation of the rotor in time with the conveyance of the envelope causes the blade-shaped protrusion to be attached to the flap of the envelope. An envelope sealing machine characterized in that the envelope is bitten along the fold line, and while moving the envelope in the rotational direction of a rotor in cooperation with the elastic roller, a fold is formed in the flap and the fold is made to stand up in the folding direction. . 2. The rotor 41 has a fan-shaped notch in cross section, and the blade-shaped protrusion 42 is attached to one edge of the notch.
An envelope sealing machine according to claim 1. 3. On the side where the envelope moves due to the rotation of the rotor 41, there are folding guide plates 46, 47 and a pressure roller 4.
8, 49 are arranged.