JPS6334106B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a collator for collating or sorting sheets sequentially and continuously fed from a copying machine or a printing machine.

Collators typically include a sheet transport path, multiple sheet storage bins, and a movable guide for distributing sheets to these bins, and can be used in either collation mode or sorting mode. It has a unique structure. That is, even in the collation mode, in which sheets of the same page are stored one by one in separate bins, or in the collation mode, sheets are stored in one bin consecutively and when a predetermined number of sheets are stored, the sheets are stored in the next bin. It can also be operated in sorting mode. When used in either mode, the guide device must be moved sequentially for each sheet storage bin, and when the final bin position is reached, it must be returned to the initial bin position (home position). I need to do it. In other words, the position of the guide device with respect to the bin changes during the operation of the machine, and the position of the guide device is not uniquely determined.

For this reason, for example, if a sheet is jammed in the collator, the guide device immediately stops its movement, but it is not easy for the operator to find the stopped guide device and find the location where the jam occurred. Some of the collators have a large total number of bottles, so the movement range of the guide device is often about 2 meters. Therefore, with such a collator having a large processing capacity, it takes a particularly long time to discover the location where the guide device is present.

Furthermore, the guide device itself is usually protected by a suitable member, and the presence of such a protective member makes it difficult to judge at what bin level the guide device is stopped. .

The present invention is aimed at eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks, and includes installing a light emitting element, such as a light bulb or a light emitting diode, in the guide device, so that the light is turned on continuously during normal collator operation, and blinks when a jam occurs. It is intended to do so.

The invention will now be described with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

In FIG. 1, a conveyor belt 1 is wrapped around a driving roller 2 and a driven roller 3, and the driving roller 2 is driven via a belt 5 in mode 4 as shown in FIG. The driven roller 3 forms a sheet receiving roller pair together with the receiving roller 6, and forms a guide roller pair together with the guide roller 7. 8 is a sheet acceptance detector, and 9 is an acceptance guide plate. A large number of trays 10 forming a seat storage bin
are arranged vertically in parallel, and the sheet insertion opening of each tray is located at a position facing the conveyor belt. Between the trays 10 and the conveyor belt 1, a guide plate 11 is attached to each tray and arranged along the conveyor belt. Reference numeral 12 denotes a guide device, which is mounted so as to be movable up and down along a guide rail 14 by means of rollers 13. Each guide plate 11, 11' is pivotably mounted about a pivot 15, 15', and the guide plates 11', which are located at approximately constant intervals, have a transport roller 16 mounted on their pivot 15'. is provided.
The distance between the conveying rollers 16 provided on each deflecting plate 11' is smaller than the minimum size of the sheet to be used, and the conveying rollers 16 are configured to convey the sheet in cooperation with the conveying belt 11. It is something that is joined.

In FIG. 2, the guide device 12 has a pair of discharge rollers located between the deflecting plate 11 and the tray 10.
7. Light emitting diode 18 and discharge guide plate 19
and a guide bin 20 in the guide plate area. 21 is a guide sheet detection sensor. The guide plates 11, 11' have guide cams 22 fixed thereto.
The guide plate and guide cam are normally located at the positions indicated by broken lines. That is, the guide plates 11, 11'
is in a position that does not interfere with the conveyance of the copy by the conveyor belt 1, and the guide cam 22 is in a position in contact with the guide pin 20 of the guide device 12 outside the range of the copy conveyance path. In FIG. 2, the guide device 12 is
It is shown in a position cooperating with a guide plate 11' having a guide plate 11'. The guide device 12 descends and its guide pin 2
0 contacts the guide cam 22, the guide cam 22 pivots together with the guide plate 11' around the pivot 15' in a counterclockwise direction to the operating position shown in solid lines. In this operating position, the guide plate 11' protrudes into the sheet conveyance path by the conveyor belt 1, deflects the conveyed sheet away from the conveyor belt 1, and causes the discharge roller pair to
Leads to 7. For this purpose, each guide plate 11, 11' is provided with a curved guide surface 11a, 11'a. The sheet is then fed into the tray 10, at which time the feeding into the tray is monitored by the guide sheet detection sensor 21. When the feeding of the sheet to the tray 10 is completed and the guide device 12 descends to the next tray position, the guide pin 20 and the guide cam 22
The guide plate and guide cam return to their original positions indicated by broken lines.

In FIG. 3, a sprocket 23 is fixedly attached to the shaft of the drive roller 2.
3 and sprocket 2 attached to the shaft of driven roller 3
A discharge roller drive chain 25 is connected between the rollers 4 and 4. The chain 25 passes through sprockets 26, 26 attached to the shafts of both rollers 13 of the guide device 12, and then connects to the sprocket 2 fixed to the discharge roller 17.
7, thereby causing the ejection roller 1
7, the discharge roller 17 is the upper driven roller.
is constantly rotated while the conveyor belt 1 is rotating. The guide device 12 is connected to a belt device 28 provided in parallel with the conveyor belt 1, and is reliably moved to the position of each bin via the belt device by a pulse motor 29.

The switch 30 provided at the top of the guide rail 14 shown in FIG. 1 is a home position detector for detecting whether the guide device 12 is at the home position (in this example, the highest position). can be,
A switch 31 provided at the bottom of the guide rail 14
is an end detector for detecting whether or not the guide device 12 is at the end position (in this example, the lowest position). The guide device 12 sequentially moves to the lower bins unless the sheet jams on the way, and then returns to the first bin position when the end detector 31 is activated after distributing the sheets to the final bin. , home position detector 3
Activate 0. During normal operation without such jams, the light emitting diode 1
8 continues to be lit. Although only nine trays or bins are depicted in FIG. 1, this is merely for convenience of explanation.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the appearance of a collator 61 having the above-mentioned mechanism, and the copying machine 60 is shown on the left side.
One side of the collator 61 is covered with a transparent cover 62 made of an acrylic plate or the like and a cover 63 having a translucent edge 64, and both covers 62 and 63 can be opened both ways. Both covers 62,6
The boundary line 3 is located near the pair of discharge rollers 17 of the guide device 12, and the tray 10 inside the machine is visible through the transparent cover 62. On the other cover 63, a numerical value representing a "bin number" according to the position of each tray 10 is attached to a translucent edge 64 adjacent to the boundary line. Inside or near this bin numbered edge 64 is located the light emitting diode 18 of the guide device described above. Therefore, as the guide device 12 moves, the light emitted from the light emitting diode 18 moves along the numerical sequence of the bin numbers, and illuminates or indicates the respective bin number.

FIG. 5a is a block diagram of the guide device control section and jam detection section of the collator. However, here, the type of collator used is one in which the guide device collates while descending from top to bottom (first type).
It is considered that there are two types: one that collates while rising from the bottom to the top. In other words, what is written as "descending (ascending)" means "descending" in the former format, but changing to "rising" in the latter format. In FIG. 5a, 32 is a guide sheet detection counter circuit, which counts +1 when the guide sheet detection sensor 21 detects a sheet. This counter circuit 32 responds to an external control signal A, for example, a signal from a control circuit of the main body of the copying machine.
It has a circuit configuration that performs the following operations. In other words, if a collation mode command is received in which the number of sheets stored in the same bin is N = 1, the above +
Immediately after counting 1, a descending (rising) preparation signal 32' is output. Further, if a sorting mode command is received in which the number of sheets stored in the same bin is N≧2, a descending (ascending) preparation signal 32' is output when a signal of N sheets from the sensor 21 is counted. Reference numeral 33 denotes a sheet end detection circuit for determining and outputting a sheet discharge signal 33' indicating that the sheet has been safely discharged into the bin based on the signal 21' from the guide sheet detection sensor 21. Reference numeral 34 denotes a guide device lowering (raising) signal generation circuit, and when a lowering (raising) preparation signal is output from the guiding section sheet detection counter circuit 32, the sheet end detection circuit 33
At the time when the sheet discharge signal 33' is generated from
The guiding device 12 generates a descending (rising) signal 34' indicating that one bin should be descended (rising), and also generates a rising (descending) signal 34'' when the end detection switch 31 is activated. 35 is a sheet detecting signal. The time generating circuit is triggered when the guide sheet detection sensor 21 detects a sheet, that is, at the leading edge of the sheet detection signal 21', and the sheet end detection circuit 3 is triggered.
The timer is configured as a timer that is reset by a sheet discharge signal 33' from 3. The timer time of the sheet detection time generation circuit 35 is equal to the normal sheet detection time, that is, the time T required for the sheet to pass through the sensor 21, plus +δ margin time. If it is not set even after the time T+δ has elapsed since the tip was detected, the jam detection signal 3 is output due to time-up.
5' is generated. This timer time of T+δ is
When the size of the sheet to be conveyed changes, the length is changed to the corresponding length by an external control signal B that commands the size of the sheet.

36 is a pulse generation circuit that generates pulses with a relatively low repetition frequency, and its output is OR
It is input to one input terminal of the gate 37.
The other input terminal of the OR gate 37 is the inverter 3
It is connected to the output terminal of the sheet detection time generation circuit 35 via 8. The output terminal of this OR gate is connected to the base of a switching transistor Q that turns on and off a light emitting diode 18 attached to the guide device 12 mentioned above. Therefore, during normal operation when the jam detection signal 35' is not generated, the OR gate 37 is output by the output of the inverter 38.
Through this, the transistor Q is conductive, and the light emitting diode 18 is lit continuously.

The operation of the circuit shown in FIG. 5a will now be explained with respect to the descending type shown in FIG. It is assumed that the guide device 12 is initially at the home position. Therefore, the light emitted from the light emitting diode 18 of the guide device displays the bin number "1" in FIG.

As the conveyor belt 1 moves, the sheets move all at once,
The sheet first comes into contact with the uppermost guide cam 11 in FIG. 1, is separated from the conveyor belt surface by its curved guide surface 11a, and is guided to a pair of discharge rollers 17 and 18.
When the sheet is gripped by the discharge rollers 17 and 18, the sheet is detected by the guide sheet detection sensor 21. When a sheet is detected, a sheet detection time generation circuit 35 for detecting a jam in the guide section is triggered, and a sheet detection counter circuit 32 in the guide section counts +1. When the sheet is normally fed and safely discharged onto the tray 10 by the pair of discharge rollers 17, a sheet discharge signal 33' is generated in the sheet end detection circuit 33, and the sheet detection time generation circuit 35 is reset by this signal. A jam detection signal 35' is not generated. In the collation mode, the guide section sheet detection counter circuit 32 generates a descent preparation signal 32' when it counts +1. Therefore, the guide device lowering (raising) signal generating circuit 34 waits for the sheet discharge signal 33' to be generated, and then generates the lowering signal 34', thereby lowering the guide device 12 by one bin. In the sorting mode, the counter circuit 32 does not generate the descending preparation signal 32' until it counts N, and therefore the guide device 12 is moved to the next bin only after N sheets have been stored in the same bin. Ru. The guide section sheet detection counter circuit 32 is reset and returns to the initial state when the lowering preparation signal 32' is output and the guiding device 12 is lowered by one bin.
The light emitted from the light emitting diode 18 will display the next bin number.

On the other hand, if the sheet jams in the guide device 12, the sheet detection time generation circuit 35 is triggered by a signal from the sheet detection sensor 21, but the end of the sheet is not detected even after the predetermined timer time T+δ has elapsed. Therefore, since the reset operation is not performed by the sheet ejection signal 33', the predetermined time T
After +δ, a jam detection signal 35' is output. In this case, the lowering operation of the guide device is prohibited. Furthermore, when the jam detection signal 35' is output, the output of the inverter 38 disappears, so only the repetitive pulses from the pulse generation circuit 36 are transmitted to the OR gate 3.
7 to the base of transistor Q.
Therefore, the transistor Q turns on and off according to the repetition period of its input pulse, and the light emitting diode 18 also blinks accordingly.

This blinking informs the operator in which bin the jam has occurred, by means of the bin number attached to the cover 63. Operator covers 6
2, 63 is opened, the location of the guide device 12 that is in an emergency stop can be easily found by the blinking of the light emitting diode 18. Therefore, the location where the jam occurs can be discovered and the jam can be disposed of quickly. It should be noted that in the sorting mode, the number of sheets jammed can be determined based on the count of the counter circuit 32.

The guiding device 12 will not jam unless the seat jams.
Through the above normal operation, collation or sorting is performed while descending successively. When the total number of bottles has been collated and the guide station 12 reaches the lowest position, it contacts the end detection switch 31 and turns the switch ON.
Then, a rise signal 34'' is outputted from the guide device lowering and rising signal generating circuit 34. Therefore, the guide device 12 rises.The guide device rises and activates the home position detection switch 30.
0, the generation of the ascending signal 34'' in the descending ascending signal generating circuit 34 is stopped, and the guide device 12 comes to rest at the initial first bin position.This guide device 12 moves from the final bin to the first bin position. The return to normal position can also be easily observed from the outside by the movement of the light emitted from the light emitting diode 18.In addition, in consideration of the case where the number of bins is smaller than the total number of bins, etc., the rise signal 34 of the guide device descend/rise signal generation circuit 34 '' can be generated by an external control signal c.

FIG. 5b shows an example of a subroutine when a microprocessor or the like is used.

Next, the present invention will be explained regarding the collator shown in FIGS. 6 to 10.

In FIG. 6, the conveyor belt 1 is connected to the drive roller 2.
A first chain 25 is connected to a sprocket 23 fixed to the shaft of the drive roller 2 and a sprocket 24 loosely attached to the shaft of the driven roller 3. In this case, since the diameter of the sprocket 23 is smaller than the diameter of the drive roller 2, the speed of the chain 25 is slower than that of the conveyor belt. Furthermore, the chain 25 has sprockets 39a, 39b, 39 provided in the conveying section.
c, 39d and sprockets 40, 41, 42, 43 provided on the guide device 12.

As in the case of FIG. 1, the guide device 12 has a light emitting diode 18 (FIG. 10) that is lit continuously during normal operation, and as shown in FIG. It is designed to give you a number. Further, the guide device 12 is configured to rise when the ascending chain 25 and the sprocket of the guide device are fixed, and to descend when the descending chain and the guide device are fixed. For this purpose, a spring clutch 44 is attached to a sprocket 40 mounted on the fixed shaft of the guide device. This clutch 44 is connected to the lever 4 by a lifting solenoid 45.
By energizing the solenoid 45, the clutch 44 is released and the sprocket 40 becomes free, so that only the chain 25 rotates and the guide device 12 does not move. When the lifting solenoid 45 is deenergized, the lever 46 is spring-backed and the sprocket 40 is locked to its fixed shaft via the clutch 44, so that the sprocket 40 and therefore the guide device 12 can be lifted up by the chain 2.
5 will be taken away. When the guide device 12 rises to the highest position where it should be stopped, it operates the home position switch 30 (FIG. 9), which energizes the solenoid 45, and when the clutch 44 is released, the guide device 12 moves to the chain 25. The connection is severed and the ascent stops. The manner in which the guide device 12 rises can be observed from the outside by the movement of the light emitted from the light emitting diode 18.

The downward movement of the guide device 12 is basically the same as the upward movement described above, but it is important that it must be lowered by a precisely defined amount. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 7, a sprocket 43 that meshes with the chain 25, a spring clutch 47 attached to this sprocket, an electromagnetic clutch 49 provided between this spring clutch 47 and a shaft 48, and a A cam sleeve that controls the connection and disconnection of the spring clutch 47, which includes a lowering solenoid 50 for connecting and disconnecting, a lever 51 connected to the plunger of this solenoid, and a notch 52a for engaging and disengaging from one end of this lever. 52 are provided. A further sprocket 53 is fixed to the shaft 48, as shown in FIG. 8, and this sprocket 53 meshes with a second chain 54 which is fixed to the conveyor and therefore stationary.

When the lowering solenoid 50 is deenergized, the engaging end of the lever 51 engages with the notch 52a of the cam sleeve 52 and disconnects the spring clutch 47, so that even if the sprocket 43 is rotated by the chain 25, the shaft remains unchanged. 48 does not rotate, and the guide device 12 is stopped. When the lowering solenoid 50 is energized, the engaging end of the lever 51 engages with the notch 52a of the cam sleeve.
When the spring clutch 47 is disengaged, the rotation of the sprocket 43 by the chain 25 is transmitted to the shaft 48 via the electromagnetic clutch 49, which is normally on, so that another sprocket 53 rotates together with the shaft 48. This is sprocket 53
will roll along the stationary second chain 54, and the guide device 12 will eventually descend. The lowering solenoid 50 is deenergized again immediately after the engaging end of the lever 51 is disengaged from the notch 52a of the cam sleeve, so the engaging end of the lever 51 moves around the cam sleeve 52 while maintaining the engaged state. sliding along the surface,
After half a turn, the cam sleeve 52 is stopped by engaging with another notch 52a. Therefore, the spring clutch 47 is again in the disengaged state, and the guide device 1 is moved in accordance with the shaft 48 and the sprocket 53 fixed thereto.
2 stops. In this way, the guide device 12 is lowered by a distance corresponding to half the circumference of the cam sleeve 52 when lowered, and the light emitting position of the light emitting diode 18 is shifted to the next bin at the edge 64 of the cover 63 in FIG. Move to number.

In FIG. 9, driving roller 2 and driven roller 3
A vacuum chamber 58 is arranged between both running sides of the conveyor belt 1, which is hung on the conveyor belt 1, and is constantly maintained at a negative pressure by a blower 59. A large number of suction holes are provided in a row in the wall portion of the vacuum chamber 58 facing the row of bottles and at a contact position with the conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt 1 is also provided with suction holes. The drive roller 2 is rotationally driven by a motor 4. 31 is an end detection switch for lowering the guide device. When the copy comes to the point where the suction hole of the vacuum chamber and the suction hole of the conveyor belt match, the copy is attracted by the conveyor belt and is carried along with its movement until it reaches the guide device 12, where it is guided by the guide shown in FIG. It is deflected by the cam 11 and fed into a predetermined bin.

In FIG. 10, copies sent to the guide device 12 by the conveyor belt 1 are transferred to the guide cam 11 attached to each bin, the guide cam corresponding to the bin to which the guide device is stopped to feed the copies. Since it is located at a position protruding from the conveyor belt 1, the curved surface of this guide cam is separated from the surface of the conveyor belt 1, and the guide plate 5 supported by the guide device 12
5, 56, is gripped by a pair of discharge rollers 17, and discharged into a bin. The guide cam 11 is held at a position protruding from the surface of the conveyor belt 1 by locking a guide cam drive lever 57 provided on the guide device 12 at the solid line position. When the guide device is lowered, this guide waste drive lever 57 is at the position shown by the solid line, causing the required guide cam to protrude from the surface of the conveyor belt, but when the guide device is raised, it moves to the position shown by the broken line, and comes into contact with each guide cam. be prevented from doing so. This lever 57 is controlled by the lifting solenoid 4 mentioned above.
5. That is, the rising solenoid 4
5 is OFF, the guide device 12 is raised with the lever 57 in the position shown by the broken line in FIG. 10, and conversely, when the solenoid 45 is ON, the lever 57 is in the position shown in the solid line in FIG. The device 12 is in a state in which it expects the lowering solenoid 50 to be turned on. 21 is a guide sheet detection sensor.

In FIG. 11, this guide sheet detection sensor 21 is composed of a light emitting diode 21a and a phototransistor 21b. When a sheet is present, light from the light emitting diode 21a is reflected on the sheet surface, and the reflected light is transmitted to the phototransistor 21b.
1b. When the reflective optical sensor 21 detects a sheet passing through the guide device 12 and sent to the bin, the phototransistor 21b becomes conductive, and the operational amplifier 2
As a result, the inverted input signal of 10 becomes larger than the non-inverted input signal, and as a result, an L level signal is output to the operational amplifier 210.
It is outputted from the inverter 211, inverted, and taken out as a signal 211' as shown in FIG.
2 is input. A CR delay circuit 331 follows the buffer 330. This delay circuit 331
By passing through the inverter 211, the output signal of the inverter 211 becomes a slightly delayed signal, which is inverted by the inverter 332 and becomes a signal 33 as shown in FIG.
2′, NOR gate 333 and
These become input signals for the other side of the NAND gate 212, respectively. Therefore, the sheet leading edge detection signal 212' is also sent from the NAND gate 212 to the NOR gate 3.
A sheet end detection signal 333' is taken out from 33 in the form of a pulse.

Tip detection signal 21 from NAND gate 212
2', the timer circuit 35 as a sheet detection time generating circuit is triggered and starts measuring the time T+δ. Then, when the sheet is safely ejected into the bin, the circuit logic of NOR gate 333 is established,
A sheet end detection signal 333' is output and applied to the reset input terminal of the timer circuit 35. The timer circuit 35 is reset before the predetermined timer time elapses, so the jam detection signal 35' is not output in this case. However, if the predetermined timer time T
If the end of the sheet is not detected by +δ, the timer circuit 35 is not reset, so the circuit 35 outputs a jam detection signal 35'. If this jam detection signal 35' is output, this output, that is, a logic "1". ” signal is inverted by the inverter 38 and a logic “0” signal is input to the OR gate 37. Therefore, the signal input to the transistor Q is only the repetitive pulse from the pulse generating circuit 36, and the transistor Q turns on and off according to the repetition period of the input pulse. Therefore,
Light emitting diode 1, which had been lit continuously until then
8 starts blinking immediately after the occurrence of a jam, and notifies the occurrence of a jam and the number of the bottle in which the jam occurred, and also reveals the location of the guide device when the covers 62 and 63 are opened during jam processing.

On the other hand, the trailing edge detection signal 333' from the NOR gate 333 is input to the guide section sheet detection counter circuit 32. The counter circuit 32 counts +1, and at this time, if the command by the external control signal A is a collation mode in which the number of sheets stored in the same bin is N = 1, it triggers the monostable multi-circuit 340 as a guide device lowering signal generation circuit. Outputs pulses.
The monostable multi-circuit 340 generates a pulse with a time width determined by the CR circuit 341, and the subsequent oven collector buffer 342 and transistor 34
3, the solenoid 50 (FIG. 7) for lowering one bottle is activated. As a result, the cam sleeve 52 makes a half turn, and the guide device 12 descends by one bin, and is fixed at the position of the next bin. light emitting diode 18
The light will display this bin number.

In the same manner as described above, the next sheet is discharged to the next bin after being checked by the sheet detection sensor 21 of the sheet guide section. In the same manner, they are sequentially transferred to the next bin. However, if the command by external control signal A is the sorting mode where the number of sheets stored in the same bin is N≧2,
The counter circuit 32 generates a trigger pulse to the monostable multi-circuit 340 for the first time when the number of discharged sheets has been counted N, thereby allowing movement to the next bin.

The guide device 12 gradually descends while the light emitting diode 18 emits light, completes the collation of the total number of bins, and turns on the end switch 31 (Fig. 9).
When this happens, the input of the inverter 310 becomes L level and is inverted by the inverter 310.
This becomes the J input terminal of the flip-flop 345 and the input signal of the inverter 344. At this time, the direct reset input _D of the JK flip-flop 345 goes high.
The clock input is also at H level due to the voltage of capacitor c charged by the output of inverter 344. Therefore, flip-flop 345, which was initially in the reset state due to the K input connected to ground potential, becomes T when the J input is applied.
Set when the input changes to L level, Q
The output becomes H level. The output signal of this JK flip-flop 345 is input to open collector inverters 346 and 348. Transistors 3 are each followed by these inverters.
47,349 turns OFF, raising solenoid 45
(FIG. 6) and the electromagnetic clutch 49 (FIG. 7) are both turned off. The electromagnetic clutch 49
By turning OFF, the sprocket 43 moves to the shaft 48.
When the lifting solenoid 45 is turned off, the sprocket 40 is locked to its rotating shaft, and the guide device 12 starts to rise.

The light emission of the light emitting diode 18 of the guide device 12 increases along the numerical sequence of the bin number, and when the guide device reaches the position of the home position detection switch 30 (FIG. 9) and turns on the switch 30, the inverter is turned on. The input of 300 becomes L level. The output signal inverted by the inverter 300 is sent to the NAND gate 301 and the open collector buffer 30.
2. Becomes the input signal of the NOR gate 305. NOR
The output signal of gate 305 becomes the reset input _D of JK flip-flop 345, causing it to be reset. As a result, the transistors 347 and 349 are turned on, and the lifting solenoid 45 and the electromagnetic clutch 49 are activated. The spring clutch 44 is activated by the lifting solenoid 45.
is released and the guide device 12 is fixed to the top first bin. On the other hand, the signal output from the buffer 302 passes through the RC delay circuit 303, is delayed a little, and is inverted by the inverter 304.
It becomes the other input signal of the NAND gate 301,
The gate 301 is prohibited. Therefore, the NAND gate 301 is the home position detection switch 30
When turned on, outputs a pulse for a certain period of time. This pulse causes the guide section sheet detection counter circuit 32 to
is reset.

The light emitting diode 18 thus returns to its initial state at the position where it displayed the initial bin number.

Incidentally, when the size of the sheet to be collated changes, an external control signal B to that effect is input to the timer circuit 35, and the timer time is changed to correspond to the size of the sheet. Also, the inverter 3 to which the end detection switch 31 is connected
An external control signal c is input to 10 when the number of sheets to be collated does not require the total number of bins or when it is desired to set the guide device to the home position. External control signal D is an external control signal for a reset signal when the power is turned on.

As described above, in the present invention, a light emitting element is attached to a moving guide device to always clarify the position of the guide device at each time. It is extremely economical as only one piece is required. Moreover, since the light-emitting element flashes when a jam occurs, the guide device can be easily found when the machine exterior cover is opened to dispose of the jam, and the guide device will not be lost even when the total number of collator bins is large. Never.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the mechanical part of the collator to which the present invention can be applied, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the guide device portion, Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the drive mechanism, and Fig. 4 is a light emitting element of the guide device. FIG. 5a is a block diagram of the seat monitoring control circuit, FIG. 5b is a flowchart showing an example of its operation, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the clutch control mechanism for lowering the guide device, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the stepwise feeding of the guide device, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the mechanism of the conveyor. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the cooperative operation of the guide device and the guide cam, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the monitoring and control circuit of the collator shown in FIG. 6. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Conveyance belt, 10... Tray, 12... Guide device, 17... Ejection roller pair, 18... Light emitting element, 21
...Guiding section sheet detection sensor, 30...Home position detection switch, 31...End detection switch,
32...Guide section sheet detection counter circuit, 33...Sheet end detection circuit, 34...Guiding device lowering and rising signal generation circuit, 35...Sheet detection time generation circuit, 36
...Pulse generation circuit, 45...Ascent solenoid, 4
9... Electromagnetic clutch, 50... Lowering solenoid, 6
2, 63...Cover, 64...Edge of cover.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A collator that includes a sheet conveyance path 1, sheet storage bins 10 provided in multiple stages with sheet receiving ports aligned in one plane, and a guide device 12 that moves along the plane to distribute sheets to these bins. A collator according to the invention, wherein a light emitting element 18 is attached to the guide device, and a control circuit is provided to cause the light emitting element to continuously light up during normal collation operation and blink when a jam occurs.