JPS63109053A - Automatic plate making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To contrive a simpler mechanism and a smaller device, by feeding a manuscript and a thermal stencile paper in a superimposed condition, and providing a one-dimensional thermal head making contact with the thermal stencile paper thus fed, and sequentially perforating the stencile paper according to the content of the manuscript read by a one-dimensional image pick-up device. CONSTITUTION:At the time of inserting a manuscript-stencil paper assembly 1 into an automatic plate-making machine, the face side of a manuscript is directed upward, while a thermal stencil paper is directed downward. The surface of the manuscript is illuminated by an illuminating means 7 such as a fluorescent lamp provided at an intermediate part of a feeding passage. The image on the illuminated area of the surface of the manuscript is formed on a CCD device or one-dimensional image pick-up device 11 through changing an optical path by a reflector 9 and reducing the image through a lens system 10, thereby reading the image. Information read by the device 11 is inputted to an image-processing part 12 comprising an image-processing circuit or a thermal head driving circuit, whereby the information is converted into a signal suitable for plate making, and the signal is applied to a thermal head 2 to make a plate from the thermal stencil paper. With this arrangement, mechanisms can be simplified, a reduction in size can be contrived, and an operation performed by a user can be simplified.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an automatic plate making machine for thermal base paper, and in particular, a one-dimensional imaging device such as a CCD is used as a document reading device, and a one-dimensional thermal head is used for perforating the thermal base paper. Regarding improvements in automatic plate making machines using

<Conventional technology> Conventionally, the plate-making mechanisms of automatic plate-making machines include a flash method in which the original paper is made in close contact with the original using the flash of a xenon lamp, and a flash method in which the original and the original paper are wrapped around a single drum in parallel. At the same time as the document is rotated, the surface of the document is mechanically scanned in the length direction of the drum by an optical reading means, and at the same time, almost simultaneously, a discharge recording needle is similarly mechanically scanned in accordance with the pixel information sequentially read in this way. There was an electrical discharge recording method that perforated the base paper.

However, the former has the disadvantage that it cannot be used to make plates for color-printed manuscripts, and the latter produces a bad odor during discharge recording, takes a considerable amount of time to make plates, and requires that the manuscript and base paper be set side by side. Therefore, there was a drawback that the lateral dimension of the device inevitably became large.

In response to this, recently, an automatic plate making machine has been developed which reads a document using a one-dimensional imaging device such as a COD and makes a plate from a thermal base paper using a one-dimensional thermal head.

This is due to the fact that facsimile machines and other equipment were introduced to the West, and the parts used in these machines were now available at lower prices.
In particular, this is in response to the fact that one-dimensional imaging devices such as CCDs, thermal heads, etc. have become relatively cheap to produce manually, but in any case, the plate-making process that was introduced earlier Compared to the method, it has many excellent aspects.

In particular, it is most advantageous that no mechanical scanning means is required for reading the manuscript or making a plate for the original paper.

In principle, mechanically moving parts only need to be provided for the original and original paper transport systems.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, all of the automatic plate making machines of this type that have been provided until now handle the manuscript and the base paper separately.

In other words, the conveyance mechanism for the n-series and the conveyance mechanism for the original paper are each provided independently, and the content of the original is read and the original paper is made into a plate in each conveyance path.

It is true that arranging the manuscript and base paper separately means adding an automatic feeding mechanism to the plate-making machine for each,
Although it is desirable in that it allows special plate making such as enlarging or reducing Ify 81 relatively easily, on the other hand, the fact that two systems of transport mechanisms are required complicates the device configuration and reduces the device size. This creates a fundamental drawback in that it hinders miniaturization.

Furthermore, when manually setting the manuscript and base paper, they must be set separately at predetermined positions on the plate-making machine, which can be troublesome for the user.

The present invention basically takes these points into consideration, and provides an automatic plate-making machine that uses a one-dimensional imaging device and a one-dimensional thermal head, and has a very simple mechanism and can easily set a manuscript and thermal paper. That is.

<Means for solving the problem> A conveyance mechanism that conveys a document and a thermal paper in a superimposed state; and a device that faces the surface of the document while being conveyed by the conveyance mechanism and sequentially reads the contents of the document. a one-dimensional imaging device; a one-dimensional thermal head that is also in contact with the thermal base paper during the conveyance and sequentially perforates the thermal base paper according to the V read by the one-dimensional imaging device and the document content; An automatic plate making machine characterized by comprising:

<Operations and Effects> In the automatic plate making machine of the present invention, the original and the thermal base paper are conveyed in a superimposed state.

Hereinafter, the document in which the original and the thermal paper are superimposed in advance will be referred to as a "manuscript base paper assembly".The original base paper assembly being conveyed will have a one-dimensional imaging device on its original surface, and a one-dimensional imaging device on its thermal paper surface. She is faced with a former heat-sensitive head.

A known one-dimensional imaging device is the so-called C
CD devices are the least expensive, most common, and compact, and these image sensors read one line of dots from a document per one reading process.

This reading process itself can be carried out according to the way the user commutes to school, as in the case of conventional automatic plate making machines of this type. Of course, the reading resolution depends on the transport speed and the one-dimensional I! ! It depends on the number of integrated elements of the image device, the reading dot size, etc.

The document content read by the one-dimensional imaging device, or the one-dimensional 4fW image for each time, is sequentially recorded by the one-dimensional thermal head in the form of perforations in the thermal base paper in the original base paper assembly as it is conveyed. go.

This recording mechanism itself may follow the same method as in existing automatic plate making machines of this type.

However, in the present invention, the original and the thermal base paper are overlapped in advance and inserted into the machine as a single set of original base paper assemblies, so that the user can obtain extremely good workability.

Furthermore, since the conveyance mechanism can be made into one system common to both the original document and the thermal paper, not only the mechanism can be extremely simplified, but also the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

<Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic plate making machine as a first embodiment constructed according to the present invention.

As will be explained in detail later, there is a document base paper assembly 1 in which a document and thermal base paper are set in an overlapping relationship in advance.
is inserted between the thermal head 2 and the platen roller 3, which are initially separated by a slight gap, through a suitable insertion hole (not shown) provided in the automatic plate making machine.

When the leading edge of the original paper assembly 1 reaches the feed roller 4 due to the insertion, a first sensor (not shown) detects this, and once drives the motor 6 to move the original paper by several millimeters, for example. Move the assembly 1 forward and make sure that the original paper assembly 1 is placed between the pinch roller 5 and the
Let them chew.

When this state is detected by, for example, a second sensor (not shown), the platen roller 3 descends while the motor 6 remains stopped, and presses the original paper assembly 1 with a predetermined pressure between it and the thermal head 2. Sandwich.

When these conditions are satisfied, the motor 6 starts to drive again, and the conveyance of the original paper assembly l starts.
The manuscript reading and thermal paper plate making operations described below occur.

However, in this embodiment, when inserting the document base paper assembly l into the machine, the document surface should face upward and the thermal base paper should face downward.

In the figure, the document surface facing upward has a section (
In this case, illumination light is applied from a suitable illumination means 7 such as a fluorescent lamp provided at a position downstream of the heat-sensitive heater 2. At this time, in order to increase the efficiency of light utilization, a reflector plate 8 and the like are appropriately provided. This reflecting plate 8 may also have a light shielding function, and such a light shielding plate may be provided separately depending on the case.

After the illuminated portion of the document surface is changed in its optical path by a reflecting mirror 9, it is reduced in size through a lens system 1o, and the CCD
The image is formed on a device or one-dimensional imaging device 11 and read.

The information read by the one-dimensional imaging device 11 is input to an image processing section I2 including an image processing circuit and a thermal head drive circuit, and after being made into a signal suitable for plate making, it is applied to the thermal head 2, thereby making a plate for thermal base paper. will be carried out.

However, in reality, the transport mechanism of the original paper assembly 1, the one-dimensional imaging device 11, the control system of the thermal head 2, etc.
Any object can be constructed using known techniques. The one-dimensional imaging device 11 does not require reduction as shown in the figure, but there is also one that is the same size as the document width, so when this is used, it is natural that the first
In the figure, as indicated by the symbol I+', reflection m9 and lens system 1
This one-dimensional life-size imaging device 11 directly without using 0 etc.
' can also be made to face the manuscript surface.

The feature of the present invention is not in the specific structure of each of these parts, but in that the original and the thermal paper are integrated into the original paper assembly 1, and reading and recording operations are performed while simultaneously conveying the paper. In this way, compared to the conventional case where a dedicated conveyance mechanism was required for each document and thermal paper, the mechanical system could be made into a cylinder type, and it could also be made smaller. This also makes it easier for users to operate.

Most basically, a manuscript base paper assembly 1 suitable for use in the automatic plate making machine of the present invention may be one in which a heat-sensitive base paper and a manuscript are superimposed on m immediately before insertion into the machine.

However, it would be a bit wasteful to require the user to perform such an operation each time the device is inserted into the machine, considering that there is room for improvement in work efficiency with the present invention.

Therefore, as a manuscript base paper assembly 1 that can set a thermal base paper and a manuscript in a superimposed manner in a space that is easy to work in advance and is completely independent of an automatic plate-making machine, for example, but not limited to, the one shown in FIG. Something like this is possible.

The heat-sensitive base paper 2I may be a known type of heat-shrinkable film 2 to 41a attached to a support such as thin paper, similar to those commercially available for existing flash methods, and one end of which is attached to the mount 22. It is being

At the end of this fastener, there is a selvedge part 23 that is used when hanging the base paper that has been made into a plate in this automatic plate making machine on the printing press.
The selvage paper section has a
Hole 26 for setting according to the specifications of the printing machine used. ．． ．． ．．
etc. are also provided.

In fact, if this is the only configuration, this is almost the same as the thermal base paper structure used in the known flash type automatic plate making machine as described above. In this conventional flash type automatic plate making machine, thermal base paper 2
The document is used by sandwiching the original between the paper 1 and the mount 22.

However, for the automatic plate making machine according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the thermal head 2 and the one-dimensional imaging device 11 face the upper and lower opposing surfaces of the original paper assembly 1.

In other words, when used in the automatic plate making machine of this embodiment, the original must be placed on the side opposite to the thermal base paper 21 with the mount 22 in between, facing the opposite direction.

However, Figure 4 shows an extremely reasonable answer to this request. In other words, in this original document assembly 1, the mount 22, which was used only for mechanical strength and ease of handling in the existing ones for the flash method, can be used as is for originals. It is also used as paper.

That is, the surface 24 of the mount 22 on the side opposite to the thermal base paper 21 is used as the original surface 24, and the contents of the original to be made into a plate are directly written thereon.

Therefore, in order to facilitate the preparation of such a manuscript, an appropriate auxiliary line pattern 25 for manuscript preparation, such as appropriate ruled lines or grids, is printed in advance on the document surface 24 of the mount 22, as shown in the figure. Just leave it there.

In that case, in order to prevent the auxiliary line pattern 25 from being printed, the pattern 25 may be printed in such a density or color that the one-dimensional imaging device 11 cannot read it. Of course, for this purpose, a known threshold (6) process for the read signal of the one-dimensional imaging device can also be used.Concentrations below a certain level are not read as significant signals.

In this way, using the other side of the mount 22 that has the thermal base paper 21 on the negative side as the original surface is more convenient for plate making than this type of 1R combination structure used in the conventional flash method. It turns out that the mounts, which were destined to be thrown away after the process, can be put to good use.

However, on the other hand, it is thought that there are still requests from users who wish to produce manuscripts uniquely and separately from thermal base paper. In particular, the original paper assembly 1 shown in FIG. 4 is not suitable for making plates of originals such as photographs or printed materials that cannot be handwritten by the user.

In this case, one possible structure example is as shown in FIG.

That is, the mount is made of a transparent plastic sheet 27.

In this way, the plate-making original 2B, which is separately prepared or cut out by the user, can be sandwiched between the transparent mount 27 and the thermal base paper 21, with the original surface 24 facing away from the thermal base paper 21. Therefore, even in the apparatus configuration shown in FIG. 1, the one-dimensional plum image device 11 can be used to read the document contents written on the document surface 24 through the transparent mount 27.

Therefore, in the case of such a structure, it can be seen that the mount 27 not only functions as a support for the thermal paper, but also functions as a document carrier.

However, of course, it is also conceivable to prepare a separate carrier to sandwich and support the manuscript.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, a transparent carrier 29 made of a plastic sheet or the like with one end folded back
Prepare a thermosensitive base paper 21 and a mount 2 between the folded parts.
While inserting the [1 paper section 23 provided at one end of the 2, the paper 1g and the document z7 are sandwiched between the mount 22 and the carrier 29. FIG. 6(b) particularly shows the situation after setting.

In such a structure, at least the transparent carrier 29
can be used repeatedly.

To further develop this concept of a carrier, as shown in FIG. A conceivable structure is that a transparent carrier sheet 30 such as a suitable plastic sheet is fixed at the same end.

In this structure, it is sufficient to simply lift the carrier sheet 30 and sandwich the original 27 between it and the mount 22 with the original surface 24 facing upward, making the task of assembling the original original paper assembly 1 extremely simple. Of course, for this structure,
After the plate making is completed, only the thermal base paper 21 is placed on the printing machine, so
Although the transparent carrier sheet 30 does not need to have any through holes 2σ for printing press setting as shown in the figure, in actual production, the thermal base paper 21, the mount 22, and the transparent carrier sheet are superimposed on each other. After making the three layer structure of 30, attach the selvedge paper part 2.
It is more convenient to drill the through holes 26 all at once in the portion No. 3.

Furthermore, as a modification of the structure shown in FIG. 7, the transparent carrier sheet 30 is formed separately from the integral parts of the heat-sensitive base paper 21, the mount 22, and the selvage paper portion 23, and in FIG. If a removable and reusable adhesive tape or the like is affixed to the back side of one edge portion shown to be fixed to the holder, it can be used repeatedly.

The first embodiment of the present invention and the suitable original paper assembly used in the present invention have been described above. The relative positional relationship between the thermal head 2 and the document reading section can also be changed as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

In the case shown in FIG. 1, as mentioned above, the thermal head 2 was located upstream of the document reading section along the conveyance direction of the document base paper assembly 1, but the main part is shown in FIG. As shown, it is also possible to conversely arrange the document reading section upstream and the thermal head 2 downstream. Note that in the figure, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate corresponding components.

However, in any case, strictly speaking, with respect to one original paper assembly 1, the position where the original is read and the position where the thermal head perforates and records on the thermal paper are in the transport direction of the original original paper assembly 1. It will shift slightly along the line. But there is no problem with this. It is sufficient that the original content and the plate-making result correspond in relative position, and there is no need for a pairwise correspondence in absolute position on the original base paper assembly 1.

Of course, in principle it is possible to match these, but generally the thermal head 2 and the thermal base paper must be placed under a certain pressure, so there is a platen in the part facing the thermal head 2. Since the roller 3 is normally required, it is better to intentionally shift the position of the thermal head and the document reading section slightly in the conveying direction of the document base paper assembly, as shown in FIG. 1.2. When looking at the automatic plate making machine as a whole, its design and production are handled by a team.

Next, in the above-described embodiment, the thermal head and the document reading section were provided vertically facing each other with the document base paper assembly 1 in between.

However, it can also be provided in the same direction, as shown in FIG. In such a case, for example, the original base sheet assembly to be used may have the structure shown in FIG. 5, but the mount 27 is not transparent, but a normal mount.

In other words, the relationship between the thermal head 2 and the original paper assembly 1 is as explained above, but the original reading section is arranged between the thin, transparent or translucent thermal paper 21 and the mount. It reads the manuscript. Of course, in this case, the document surface is also oriented downward, unlike in the past.

In reality, even with this method, 1-
The present invention can be fully implemented if sufficient transparency is provided.

In such a case, for example, in comparison with FIG.
You can also print out 5 and keep it there.

Of course, as shown in the relationship between FIGS. 1 and 2, also in the embodiment shown in FIG. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic plate making machine as a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are schematic diagrams of main parts of an automatic plate making machine as further embodiments of the present invention, respectively. , and FIG. 4 to FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams of various configuration examples of a document base paper assembly suitable for use in the automatic plate making machine of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a document base paper assembly, 2 is a thermal head, 11
is a one-dimensional image sensor, 21 is a thermal paper, 22 is a mount, 24
27 is a transparent mount, 28 is an original, 29 is a transparent carrier, and 30 is a transparent carrier sheet. Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A conveyance mechanism that conveys a document and a thermal base paper in a superimposed state; and a one-dimensional imaging device that faces the surface of the document while being conveyed by the conveyance mechanism and sequentially reads the contents of the document. and; a one-dimensional thermal head that is also in contact with the thermal base paper during the conveyance and sequentially perforates the thermal base paper in accordance with the content of the document read by the one-dimensional imaging device; Automatic plate making machine.