JPS62259963A - Document vessel for copier, access of which is limited - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to copying machines, and more particularly to apparatus having multiple containers for receiving copy sheets.

PRIOR ART Generally, in an electrophotographic printer or copier, a subsequent copying operation of an original document records an electrostatic latent image of the original document on a photoconductive surface, and this electrostatic latent image is transferred to a toner powder. The resulting powder image is transferred to a copy sheet,
The powder image is formed by permanently fusing the powder image to the copy sheet. In some electrophotographic printing machines, only one copying operation is performed automatically, ie, only the original containing one image is placed on the document support glass. Upon actuation of an activation button or actuation of a suitable document sensing device, the electrophotographic printing machine will make a given number of copies according to the number selected by the operator on its control panel. Once the copying is complete, the printing press will automatically stop. However, in some cases, half-white! An IJ-like document feeder allows an operator to sequentially present successive original documents onto the document glass in a semi-automatic manner. In such instances, the printing press senses the presence of the additional original document and automatically activates the second operation. In contrast, some electrophotographic printing machines have a rotary recirculation rA processing device, which allows the machine to automatically produce aligned sets without having to sequentially align the copies made. It processes the original document.

A sheet aligner or collector is often attached to the printing press for producing aligned copies. Such a collector may be a sorter having a plurality of containers or trays, each container receiving a successive copy or set of copies. After the desired number of copies have been made and stored in their respective bins of the sorter, an operator removes the aligned set of copies from the bins. When approaching a copier from a remotely located work station, there is some delay between the time the copies are made and the time the operator collects the aligned set of copies. Additionally, when some people use centrally controlled copiers, more than one person may be waiting at the press to make copies. In the situation described above, it is difficult to prevent people who do not need to know from viewing confidential documents. Therefore, it is highly desirable to place the copy sheet in a lockable container.

In such a situation, only those who need to know the information contained in the document will have access to the lockable container. This prevents others from inadvertently or intentionally obtaining information about confidential documents. Various techniques have been devised to accomplish the foregoing. The following documents are considered relevant.

U.S. Patent No. 4,166,030 Patentee: Lewis et al. Date of grant: August 28, 1979 U.S. Patent No. 4,437,660 Patentee: Lewis et al. Date of grant: March 1984 20 U.S. Patent No. 4,470.356 Patentee: Davis et al. Grant date: September 11, 1984 U.S. Defense Publication TlO2,102 Applicant: Schurwaldstel et al. Publication date: 198
The disclosure of the above-mentioned technology is briefly summarized below.

Lewis et al. describe devices for handling documents such as banknotes. The documents are read by the detector to determine whether these documents are eligible or not. If ineligible, these documents will be shredded. Eligible documents are advanced to a stacker. Documents cannot be illegally removed from the device.

Tombkin et al. describe a scanning mechanism for the output of a word processor printer that scans multiple output receptacles to obtain a receptacle that accepts the document.
It also determines whether the lock box is inside. If one of the containers contains a lockbox, the operator will be able to detect which container contains the lockbox and know which lockbox to accept the document into.

Davies et al. describe a word processor controlled printer output container lock box. A computer controls a sheet feeding device that selectively deposits sheets from the printer into predetermined output containers. A lock box can be inserted into and removed from the output receptacle of the printer.

The lock box can only be opened by a person who has the key or the appropriate access code.

Survalstel et al. describe containers located at the exit of the copier, which are locked by the user by means of a badge reader or the like.

The user can input verification data into the copier and operate the copier. The document platen cover is latched and user verification data is recorded on the first copy delivered to the locked container. The number of copies selected by the user is then processed and delivered to a container accessible to the user. After a while, the platen cover is unlatched, and
The original document can then be retrieved by the user.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a novel copying machine that is provided with a device that prevents unauthorized persons from accessing copy sheets in a container selected to receive the copy sheets. The purpose is to

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for selecting one of the containers for receiving a copy sheet in a copying machine of the type having a plurality of containers for receiving copy sheets; This is accomplished by providing a device for locking the selected container to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the copy sheets received in the selected container.

According to a feature of the invention, a plurality of receptacles are provided for receiving sheets, the selection device is adapted to select one receptacle for receiving sheets, and an unauthorized person is not admitted to this selected receptacle. An apparatus is provided which is provided with means for locking the container selected to receive the sheets to prevent access to the stored copy sheets.

Other features of the invention will become apparent with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Although the present invention will be described below with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it is not intended that such embodiments be construed as limiting the invention, and that it may cover all variations, modifications, and It must be understood that it includes anything such as

For a general understanding of the features of the invention, reference is made to the drawings, in which like numerals indicate like elements. FIG. 1 schematically shows the sheet alignment of the present invention/
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It will be clear from the following description that the apparatus of the invention is equally suitable for use in a wide variety of printing presses or other types of equipment in which it is desired to sort and align sheets. The features of the invention are not intended to limit its application to the particular embodiments described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the general operation of the copier and the general features of the sheet alignment/sorting system associated with the copier will now be described. Since electrophotographic printing technology is well known, the operation of the copier will only be briefly described below.

An electrophotographic copying machine, indicated generally by the numeral 10, is capable of producing a series of copy sheets having information reproduced on simplex sheets with copies on only one side or duplex sheets with copies on both sides.

A document recirculation feeder 12 is shown positioned on a platen at the imaging station of the copier 10. This document feeding device 12 is adapted to feed a plurality of original documents to a platen for sequential copying. Typically, this document feeder@12 operates in sheet alignment mode, in which original documents are fed from a stack in a tray at the top of the feeder to the platen one after the other in one cycle. one is copied and placed back into the stack. The original document is placed in the feeding device in a predetermined page order.

For example, the first page is at the top of the stack and the last page is at the bottom of the stack. The final original document is first fed to the platen and then returned to the top of the stack. The operator of the reproduction machine may control the operation of the electrophotographic reproduction machine and related equipment by an operator control panel, generally indicated at 14. To this end, the copier operator may store a set of copies entirely in either a lockable container or a non-lockable container within the sheet aligning/sorting device designated by the numeral 16. You can decide what to do.

Generally, electrophotographic reproduction machines include a belt having a photoconductive surface deposited on a conductive substrate.

The belt sequentially advances successive portions of the photoconductive surface to various processing stations located about the belt's working path. , first a section of the belt is passed through a charging station. At this charging station, a corona generating device charges the photoconductive surface of the belt to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is then passed through an imaging station. At this imaging station, the original document is advanced to a platen by document recirculation feeder 12. A lamp illuminates the original document with a beam of light.

The light rays reflected from the original document pass through the lens to form a light image of the original document. A lens focuses this light image onto the charged portion of the photoconductive surface to selectively dissipate the charge. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface that corresponds to the informational portions contained in the original document engraved on the platen. Thereafter, the belt advances the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface to a development station.

At this development station, a magnetic brush development device moves a developer mixture containing carrier particles and toner particles into contact with the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface. Toner particles are separated from carrier particles by static ffi? ia image to form a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface of the belt. After development, the belt advances the toner powder image to a transfer station. At this transfer station, the copy sheet is moved into contact with the toner powder image.

A corona generator bombards the back side of the copy sheet with ions. This attracts the toner powder image from the photoconductive surface to the copy sheet. After transfer, the copy sheet is advanced to a fusing station. The fuser station includes a fuser assembly that permanently secures the transferred toner powder image to the copy sheet. In one example, the fuser assembly includes a heated fuser roll and an opposing support roll. The copy sheet passes between a fuser roll and a support roll such that the toner powder image contacts the fuser roll. In this manner, the toner powder image is permanently affixed to the copy sheet. After the appetizer, a conveyor belt guides the advancing sheets to a sheet aligning/sorting device 16.

The advanced sheets are guided to selected containers within the sheet aligner/sorter 16. The container thus selected may be a lockable or non-lockable container. The position at which the copy sheet is oriented can be determined by the operator using a number ' on the control panel 14.
Determined by the code punched in the value display. This numeric display sends a signal to the appropriate control logic which also controls the sheet aligner/sorter 16 to direct advancing copy sheets to the appropriate receptacles. If a lockable container is selected, the operator will bunch the desired number of combinations necessary to unlock the selected container. In such situations, the container is locked and can only be unlocked by a selected number of combination codes. In addition, if the operator selects a lockable container, the control logic of the copier may not allow access when the access door to the interior of the press is locked and the machine is running or when the sheet is occluded. This is done to prevent unauthorized persons from approaching. The foregoing generally describes the operation of a copier with a combined sheet aligning/sorting system. The foregoing description is believed to be sufficient to explain the overall operation of the apparatus of the present invention. The detailed structure of the sheet 1 to the sorting/sorting device 16 and the control device associated therewith will be explained in detail below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

Referring now to FIG. 2, sheet aligning/sorting device 16 is located proximate the exit of copying machine 10. As shown in FIG. Once the copy sheet is discharged from the @pipe device, the copy sheet is transported to the exit of the copying machine 10 by the conveyor belt 2o. The sheet continues to move on conveyor belt 20 in the direction of arrow 18.

A deflection gate or chute 22 is arranged to transfer the sheets from the horizontal conveyor belt 20 to the vertical conveyor belt 2.
4 Move it up. The conveyor belt 24 sweeps the sheet vertically downwardly so that it engages a moving gate 26 which deflects the sheet into a container 28. The front/sorting device 16 comprises a plurality of sorting containers, generally designated 28, arranged parallel to each other, one above the other, to form vertical rows of containers. Each container is formed by a sheet receiving tray 30. In one example, containers 32, 34 and 36
shall be lockable and the remaining containers shall be non-lockable. Lockable containers 32, 34 and 36 include hinged doors 38. The door 38 is a lockable container 32.
34 and 36 are pivoted downwardly to open them, allowing access to the interior of the container. The door 38 is hinged at its lowest point, and the door 38
is pivoted downwardly to provide additional surface area for copy sheets to slide out of the interior of lockable containers 32, 34 and 36. The door 38 is biased upwardly by a spring so that it returns to a closed, locked position when not held open. An interlock switch is associated with the door 38 to detect when the door is in the open position. At this time, the copying machine is deactivated. In this manner, the copier is prevented from making copies until the interlock switch indicates that all lockable doors are in the locked position.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are many ways to lock a container in response to an electrical signal corresponding to a desired combination code or key punched into a numerical display. As one example, an electromagnet can be used that locks the container when energized and unlocks the container when de-energized. Alternatively, if a positive positive engagement is required, a solenoid may be used that when energized causes its plunger to engage the opening in the door 38 and move the door into the locking position. It can be fixed securely. When the solenoid is deenergized, the plunger is pulled back from the opening of the door 38, allowing the door 38 to pivot to the open position. In either type of lock described above, the combination of numbers necessary to lock the container can be punched by the key operator into the numerical display panel of the copier. The remaining containers 28 are non-lockable and therefore do not require hinged or pivotably mounted doors and associated locks.

Gate 26 is mounted on a drive for vertical movement. A suitable drive for this purpose is a rack and binion arrangement. When the binion is rotated, the rack moves the gate 26 vertically.

Therefore, the operator selects the desired container by punching the numerical value of the container into the numerical display section of the control panel.

This activates the index motor of the drive, which rotates the binion so that the rack advances the gate to the selected container. Therefore, the gate 26 is vertically aligned with the arrow 4
Move in the direction of 0. When gate 26 is aligned with a selected container, copy sheets traveling downwardly on conveyor belt 24 are guided into the container. In this manner, the key operator can select a lockable or non-lockable container for receiving copy sheets.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown the detailed structure of the control III device for selecting the container into which the copy sheet is to be guided. As shown in this drawing, the control panel 14 includes a numerical display section 42. The operator first determines the container into which the copy sheet is to be guided.

The numerical value of the selected container is punched on the numerical display section 42. Output signal is tIIlal from 1II11 control panel 14
l logic unit 44. Control logic @ 44 includes an open loop servo device that controls index motor 48 . Index motor 48 rotates the binion, which moves the rack to move gate 26 vertically. Index motor 48 is energized until the error signal from the servo unit of Control I logic 44 is zero. When the error signal from the servo device becomes zero, motor 4
8 is deenergized. At this time, the gate 26 no longer moves vertically, but is positioned at the selected container location.

Container or container 32.34 or 36 that can be locked by the operator
If , after the gate 26 is positioned on the selected container, the key operator punches on the numerical display 42 the desired combination of numerical values necessary to unlock the selected container. The lock 46 associated with the lockable container is controlled by the control logic Sti\44. II
It11 logic 44 transmits a signal to de-energize the electromagnet or de-energize the solenoid when the appropriate signal corresponding to the correct numerical combination is received from numerical display 42. In this manner, copy sheets are received in the selected lockable container or tray, which is locked in an inoperative state. The key operator punches the selected combination of numbers necessary to unlock the lockable container. When the appropriate combination is punched into numeric display 42, control logic 44 transmits a signal to lock 46 to
De-energize the lava stone or de-energize the solenoid. At this time, the container is unlocked, ie, the door 38 pivots downwardly, allowing access to the interior of the container.

Those skilled in the art are aware that lockable containers can be provided with a permanent combination code. Thus, each lockable container may have a permanent numerical combination that cannot be set by the operator. The operator need only punch a preset combination to unlock the designated container containing the set of copy sheets therein.

Therefore, there is no need to re-set the combination required to unlock the container door.

Although the explanation in the previous section (e) explained that it should be used with a copying machine that has a control panel and an integrated numerical display, it is understood by those skilled in the art that a split (5hared) copying machine can also be used to perform the above operations. I see that it can be done. For example, if the Xerox Model 9700 or the Xerox Model 570
If a laser printing device such as the No. 0 is used in conjunction with a computer, such as a Xerox Model No. 8010 or a Xerox Model No. 6085, the numeric display can be placed on the computer. In this embodiment, a laser printer is substantially similar to a copier, except that the optical system is no longer an optical lens system, but a laser, which is modulated or modulated by electrical signals received from a computer. Module-1・
is used to record the desired electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface. This electrostatic latent image is developed and transferred to a copy sheet, such that the electrostatic latent image is permanently affixed to the copy sheet, and the copy sheet is advanced into a selected container. In the latter embodiment, the selected container is determined by a computer operator at the computer console. In this way, a computer operator can print desired information on a computer screen or laser printer at a remote location. The resulting copy sheet is advanced to the selected container. The computer operator selects whether the container is a lockable container or a non-lockable container. If the selected container is a lockable container, this container can only be opened by an operator with the selected numerical combination. Therefore, only those with a need to know have access to the lockable container that receives copy sheets containing confidential information. Lockable containers can be used by reprographic operators such that each operator selects his or her own numerical combination to unlock the container. In such a situation, each operator has his or her own combination of values unknown to the other operators, and the lockable container can only be accessed by that operator. In this type of device, a secure container is provided for receiving confidential information.

In summary of the foregoing, it will be apparent that the sheet aligning/sorting apparatus of the present invention includes lockable and non-lockable containers for receiving copy sheets from a copying machine. The key operator can select where the copy sheet should be directed and determine the numerical combination code necessary to unlock the lockable container. This ensures that the secret information being copied is accessible only to those who need to know it.

It is therefore clear that the present invention has provided a sheet aligning and sorting apparatus which fully satisfies the objects and advantages set forth above. Although the invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that many variations, modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention cover all alterations, modifications, and alterations falling broadly within the scope of the appended claims.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As noted above, the present invention provides an apparatus for selecting one of the containers for receiving a copy sheet and for locking the container selected to receive a copy sheet so that unauthorized persons cannot a device for preventing unauthorized persons from accessing copy sheets in the selected receptacle so as to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the copy sheets in the selected receptacle; This has the excellent effect of completely preventing anyone from approaching you.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a copying machine incorporating an apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an elevational view showing details of the sheet aligning device for copying shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a device used to control the sheet aligning device of FIG. 2; 10...Electrophotographic copying machine 12...Document recirculation feeding device 14...Control panel 16...Sheet alignment/sorting device 20.24...
... Conveyor belt 22 ... Deflection gate or chute 26 ... Moving gate 28 ... Sorting bin 30 ... Sheet receiving tray 32.34 .36... Lockable container 38.
...Hinged door 42...Numeric display section 44...Control-control device 46...Lock

Claims (1)

Claims: In a type of copying machine having a plurality of containers for receiving copy sheets, a device for selecting one of the containers to receive a copy sheet; a device for locking a selected container to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing copy sheets received in the selected container.