JPS63247229A - Feeding part of mail coding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the dimension of the device, secure the quiet operation and prevent double feed by using a reverse roller which can be independently swung in accordance with the thickness of a mail. CONSTITUTION:When no mail exists in the optical path of a photoelectric switch 22, the electromagnetic clutch of a driving roller 9 for driving a feeding belt 8 is in conduction state, and an electromagnetic brake is input in cut-off state. In this state, only one mail is sent, and the photoelectric switch 22 is set into ON-state. Therefore, the electromagnetic clutch is turned-OFF, and the electromagnetic brake is turned-ON. In other words, only the movement of the feeding belt 8 is suspended. Even if the second mail is transported together, only the first mail held by a pick-up roller 18 is applied with a transport power, and the transport motion for the second mail is suppressed by the feeding belt 8 and a reverse roller 14.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention sends out mail pieces one by one in front of an operator,
A postal coding device that allows an operator to read the postal code written on the address side of the mail piece and enter it manually, then use a printer to print and accumulate a barcode corresponding to the postal code at a predetermined position on the mail piece. This invention relates to a supply section of a mail coating device used for.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional feeding units of this type use a suction belt system using negative pressure air, or a system using friction rollers or belts to convey mail.

[The problem that the invention attempts to solve]

Among the supply sections of the conventional postal coding equipment mentioned above, those using the suction belt system require a floor and piping as a negative pressure air source, which is an obstacle to downsizing the machine's mechanical system. There is also the problem that intermittent noise is likely to occur due to the air.

On the other hand, methods using friction rollers or belts have the disadvantage that it is difficult to completely prevent multiple feedings since they are used to transport mail items of various widths, lengths, thicknesses, paper qualities, etc. ing.

The object 1-1 of the present invention is to improve the conventional 11(1)
To provide a supply section of a postal coding device which can eliminate the drawbacks of the supply section of a coding device, make the device compact, perform fair copying, and prevent multiple feeding.

[Means for solving problems]

The feeding section of the postal coding device of the present invention uses a friction belt feeding system, and is arranged in multiple stages to prevent multiple feeding, so that each section can swing independently according to the thickness of the mail. The above object is achieved by using a reverse roller and allowing the operations of the feed belt, reverse roller, and pickup roller to be appropriately controlled depending on the conveyance state of the mail.

That is, the supply unit of the postal coding device of the present invention includes a supply table on which a plurality of mail items are placed, which has an address surface and an up-down direction, and a feed unit that presses the tail end of the mail items to move in parallel from side to side. a slide rail that guides the parallel movement of the guide plate and serves as an axis for the rotational movement of the guide plate; and two parallel slide rails that are attached to the supply stand and engage with the guide plate. a bottom belt, a drive means for driving the movement of the bottom belt, and a drive means arranged in a position where it contacts the foremost piece of mail pressed by the guide plate, and the drive means is arranged to contact the frontmost piece of mail pressed by the guide plate, and the drive means is arranged to contact the frontmost piece of mail that is pressed by the guide plate. a feed belt that moves in the direction of conveying the mail, a first driving roller and a first driven roller that wind the feed belt and drive its movement, and a force that presses the feed belt toward the mail. a first spring that applies a rotational motion of the first drive roller, a first clutch and a first brake that control the rotational operation of the first drive roller, and a pressing force of the feed belt by the first spring that exceeds a certain value. a first photoelectric switch for detecting whether or not the mail is present in front of the feed belt; and a first photoelectric switch corresponding to a position of the feed belt near the first drive roller. a plurality of reverse rollers that are stacked in multiple stages and are rotatable independently, and are rotatable in a direction opposite to the operating direction of the feed roller; an adjuster capable of adjusting the pressing force of the rollers against the feed belt and their initial positions; a second drive roller disposed in front of the feed roller in the direction of motion; a pickup roller 61 having a second driven roller pressed by a spring; a second clutch and a second brake for controlling the movement of the second driving roller; and a pickup roller disposed in front of the pickup roller. and two sets of second and third photoelectric switches for detecting the presence or absence of mail conveyed by the pickup roller.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the main parts of an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, place the mail items 1- to be processed on the feed table 2 with their address sides and vertical directions aligned, and place the guide plate 3 on the last post of the mail items 1. touch the sides. The guide plate 3 is attached so as to be slidable in the left-right direction along the slide rail 4, and is also rotatable about the slide rail 4 as a rotation axis.

The guide plate 3 is also adapted to mesh with a bottom heald 5 mounted parallel to the feed table 2, and holds the mailpieces 1 in parallel with the movement of the bottom belt 5 (moves to the left in the figure). Move from the beginning.

The engagement of the guide plate 3 with the bottom heald 5 can be easily achieved by, for example, using the bottom belt 5 as a toothed bell 1 and placing the guide plate 3 between the teeth. The bottom belt 5 is moved towards the footheld 8 (
(left side of the figure). The feed belt 8 is made of a high friction material such as natural rubber, and has a width of approximately 10 mm.
It is an endless heald of books, which is wound around a driving roller 9 and a driven roller 10. The driving roller 9 and the driven roller 0 rotate so that the footheld 8 moves to the part where it comes into contact with the mail piece 1 or to the side in the conveying direction (upward in the figure), and the driving roller 9 is controlled to rotate. Therefore, electromagnetic clutches and brakes are recommended.

The driven roller 10 is capable of rotational movement about the rotational axis of the drive roller 9, and is constantly pressed against the mail piece 1 by a spring 1. The spring 11 is provided on the bottom side of the supply table 2. The feed table 2 also has a mail piece 1 sent by the bottom belt 5 and the guide plate 3 that presses the driven roller 10 and the feed belt 8 twisted around the feed belt 8 until the pressure exceeds a certain value. A microswitch 12 is provided which is arranged to operate when the condition occurs. This micro switch 1
2 is also related to the drive of the bottom belt 5.

A reflective photoelectric switch 1 is installed inside the feed belt 8.
3 are provided, which detect whether or not there is mail in front of the feed belt 8.

The reverse roller 14 is disposed at a position slightly closer to the driven roller 1-0 than the drive roller 9, corresponding to the foot bells 1 to 8, and is made of a material having a lower coefficient of friction than the feed belt 8. The rollers are stacked in three tiers. The height of each of the three stages of reverse rollers is located at a position corresponding to the entire top, center, and bottom of the two foothelds 8, and comes into contact with the surface of the feed belt 8. The reverse roller 14 is also capable of rotational movement about the drive shaft 15, and the rotational movement of the reverse rollers at each stage can be performed independently of each other. The reverse roller 14 is driven by a motor 16 attached to the lower surface of the substrate, and rotates in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the footheld 8. The force with which the reverse roller 14 is pressed against the footheld 8 and the initial position are adjusted by the adjuster 17. The pickup roller 18 is lined with a comb and includes one driving roller and a driven roller 20 pressed against the driving roller by a spring (not shown).

The drive roller 19 has an electromagnetic clutch and a brake to control its movement, and is driven by a motor 21 via a belt together with a drive roller 9 that drives the footheld 8. The motor 21 is constantly driven when the device is in operation.

Two sets of photoelectric switches 22 are located above the pickup roller 9 and approximately several tens of cm away from the pick-up roller 9.
and 23 are provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control system of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the output signals of the microswitch 12 and the photoelectric switches 13, 22, and 23
The control signal from the control unit 31 is input to the motors 6 and 16, the electromagnetic clutch (C1) 34 and the electromagnetic clutch (C2) 36 via the power control unit 32.
and electromagnetic brake (Bl) 3B and electromagnetic brake (
B2) are input to 35 to control their operations.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the operating state of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 3, and 4, the mail piece 1 placed on the feed table 2 presses the feed belt 8 by the movement of the bottom belt 5 and the guide plate 3. As shown in FIGS. The driven roller 10 around which the feed belt 8 is wound is
This pressing force causes the microswitch 12 to move against the tension of the spring 11 and operate the microswitch 12. When the microswitch 12 operates, the motor 6 drives the bottom belt 5.
When the motor 6 is stopped and the microswitch becomes inoperable, the motor 6 is driven. Therefore, the mail piece 1 is always pressed onto the feed belt 8 within a constant pressure range.

When the optical path of the photoelectric switch 22 is not blocked by mail (off state), that is, when the optical path of the photoelectric switch 22 is
2, the electromagnetic clutch (C1) 34 of the drive roller 9 that drives the feed belt 8 is in the energized state (
The electromagnetic brake (Bl) 33 is in a cutoff state (off state). In addition, the pickup roller 18
The electromagnetic clutch (C2) 36 of the drive roller 19 is on, the electromagnetic brake (B2>35 is off), and the motor 16 for driving the reverse roller 14 is on (reference numeral 52 in FIG. 3). The state at this time is shown in Figure 4 (a
).

In this state, only one piece of mail is sent, and soon the photoelectric switch 22 is turned on (reference numeral 53). As a result, the electromagnetic clutch (C1) 34 is turned off and the electromagnetic brake (Bl) 33 is turned on (reference numeral 54).
). In other words, only the movement of the feed belt 8 stops (
FIG. 4(b) shows the state at this time). At this time, even if the second piece of mail is conveyed all the way, only the preceding first piece of mail gripped by the pickup roller 18 receives the conveying force, and the second piece of mail receives the conveying force from the stopped feed belt 8. The conveyance movement is prevented by the reverse roller 14. This provides the effect of preventing multiple feeds.

When the first piece of mail is continuously conveyed from the state shown in FIG. 4(b) and reaches the position of the photoelectric switch 23, the photoelectric switch 23 is turned on (reference numeral 55). At this time, the electromagnetic clutch (C2>36 is off) and the electromagnetic brake (
B2) 35 is in the ON state and the motor 16 is in the OFF state (reference numeral 56), so that the feed belt 8, reverse roller 14, and pickup roller 18 are all stopped (the state shown in FIG. 4(C)). ). i.e. 1
Only the beginning of the mail is searched and the mail is placed on standby. This is a state in which mail that has already been sent and is being processed by an operator is waiting for its postal code to be read and the key manual work for barcode printing to be completed.

When the key force for the previous mail item is completed (reference number 5
7), the electromagnetic clutch (C2>36 is in the on state, the electromagnetic brake (B2) 35 is in the off state, and the motor 16 is in the on state (reference numeral 58). That is, the mail 1 is transported by the pickup roller 18 in front of the operator. (state B in Fig. 4(d)).Subsequently, when the mail is conveyed and its end passes in front of the photoelectric switch 22, the photoelectric switch 22 is turned off (reference number 5). , electromagnetic clutch (CI>34 is off, electromagnetic brake (Bl)
3B is turned on. This allows the feed belt 8
The reverse roller 14 and pickup roller 18 are all driven (in the state shown in FIG. 4(e)). Thereafter, the above-mentioned operation is repeated, and the mail pieces 1 loaded on the supply stand 2 are conveyed one after another.

When the photoelectric switch 13 for detecting whether there is mail in front of the feed belt 8 detects that there is no mail (reference numeral 51), the feed belt 8, the reverse roller 14, and the pickup roller]8 and everything is stopped.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above in detail, the supply unit of the mail coach ink apparatus of the present invention is equipped with a reverse roller in order to reliably feed mail pieces having various external dimensions and materials one by one to the barcode printing process. In addition, the movement of the feed belt, reverse roller, pickup roller, and bottom heald of the feed table is controlled by using a photoelectric switch to determine the presence or absence of mail, making it possible to reliably transport one mail piece at a time. Moreover, since the structure is simple, it is possible to reduce the size of the supply section of the mail coating apparatus.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the main parts of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram of the control system of the embodiment of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is the conveyance of mail in the embodiment of Fig. 1. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing operating states of a drive roller, a pickup roller, and a reverse roller of the feed belt corresponding to the state. 1... Mail, 2... Feeding table, 3... Guide plate, 4... Sake 1 to rail, 5... Bottom belt,
8...Feel-held, 12...Micro switch, 13, 22, 23...Photoelectric switch, 14...Reverse roller, 16...Motor, 18...Pickup roller.
,, T agent patent attorney Uchihara (-~1.23 Photodens Azu4 Kaya l Zukan 2 14 Kaisho 63-247229 (6) I 4 times

Claims (1)

[Claims] A supply stand on which a plurality of mail items are placed, which has an address surface and an up-down direction, a guide plate that can move in parallel to the left and right by pressing the tail end of the mail items, and a guide for the parallel movement of the guide plate. and a slide rail serving as an axis of rotational movement of the guide plate, two bottom belts arranged in parallel that are attached to the supply stand and engage with the guide plate, and driving the movement of the bottom belt. a feed belt disposed at a position in contact with the foremost piece of mail pressed by the guide plate and moving in a direction to convey the mail piece toward the coding device; a first drive roller and a first driven roller that wind the belt and drive its movement; a first spring that applies a force that presses the feed belt toward the mail; and the first drive roller. a first clutch and a first brake that control the rotational operation of the roller; a microswitch that operates when the pressing force of the feed belt by the first spring exceeds a certain value; and a microswitch in front of the feed belt. a first photoelectric switch for detecting whether or not the postal item is present in the feed belt; a plurality of reverse rollers that are rotatable and are given a rotational motion in a direction opposite to the operating direction of the feed roller; the pressing forces of the plurality of reverse rollers against the feed belt; and their initial positions; A pickup having an adjustable adjuster, a second drive roller disposed in front of the feed roller in the direction of movement, and a second driven roller pressed against the second drive roller by a second spring. a second clutch and a second brake for controlling the movement of the roller, the second driving roller, and a second brake disposed in front of the pickup roller to detect the presence or absence of mail conveyed by the pickup roller. and two sets of second and third photoelectric switches.