JPS6356139B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to document handling devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to an envelope handling device adapted for high speed printing for removing and feeding envelopes from and into a segmented hopper.

[Prior art]

U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,557 shows a platen-driven document handling device for a printer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,923 shows a pick roller on the edge of a single document. The periphery of the picker roller is shaped like a knife edge and is adjacent to the stack in such a way that it projects above the flat by an amount less than the thickness of the thinnest document to be transferred. be placed. The picker edge engages and bends the bottom card as it is rotated counterclockwise, and further rotation of the picker roller disengages the card and transports it between the picker roller and the feed roller. into the nip formed by the The feed roller has a high coefficient of friction compared to the document. At this point, the direction of rotation of the picker roller is reversed and, depending on the coefficient of friction, the document is fed by sliding over the surface of the picker roller.

IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 11
No. 10, March 1969, page 1301, shows the installation of a belt at the base of the hopper to push the book up to the hopper area.

The present invention provides a simple device for a printer that retrieves and feeds envelopes placed at the edge from and into a single segmented hopper. An endless belt that passes partially through the floor of the hopper helps remove printed envelopes from the narrow output nip area and feed them into the output area of the hopper. spring·
The biased hopper separator propels new envelopes toward a pick-up station adjacent to the hopper.

[Explanation of Examples]

Referring to FIG. 1, a combination hopper 10 of the present invention
However, the sheet feeding device 1 for the high-speed printer 14
2 is shown connected. The high speed printer may be part of a word processor or other office automation system. In systems of this type, the need often arises to prepare letters and envelopes for them. The illustrated device contemplates producing a certain number of letters at once and then producing envelopes for these at once. That is, after the desired number of documents have been printed, the combination envelope hopper 10 of the present invention is mounted so as to be operatively coupled to and driven by the platen 16 of the printer 14.

To connect the hopper 10 to the sheet feeding device 12,
On one side, this is done by a spring bias plunger 22. This plunger 2
2 fits into an opening (not shown) in the side wall 20 of the sheet feeding device. An extension 18 of plunger 22 extends across the width of hopper 10 and terminates in connection to a series of gears that are drivingly coupled to platen 16. This coupling will be explained with respect to FIG.

As shown, the hopper 10 has a delivery or input area 30 and a receiving or output area 32 separated by a bail 34. Bail 34 is biased toward the rear of hopper 10 by spring 36. The output area 32 has a transport guide member 38 . Hopper side walls 40 and 42 are connected by a rear wall 44 to form the outline of hopper 10. Mounted approximately centrally on the top edge of the rear wall 44 is an envelope top restraint member 46.

The floor 50 of the hopper has two openings 52 spaced apart from each other, into which the endless belt 5 is stretched so as to form part of the floor 50. The guide member 3 is adjacent to the endless belt 56.
Attached to each inner surface of the hopper 8 are two leaf springs 58 which assist in feeding the envelope back into the hopper 10.

The leaf spring 58 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

Referring to FIG. 2, the hopper 10 is shown cut away from the rear side, and its drive mechanism is also shown.

Shaft 18 is shown with its spring biased plunger 22 resiliently holding hopper 10 on one side of sheet feeding or handling apparatus 12 of FIG. The other end of the shaft 18 terminates in a coupling member 21, which is engaged with and rotates with a conical drive roller 60.

Conical drive roller 60 is driven by platen 16 through a series of gears 61 consisting of gears 62, 64 and 66. Drive power from platen 16 (which is driven by a suitable printer controller) is transmitted to shaft 18 via a series of gears 61 and coupling member 24. Conical drive roller 6
0 drives shaft 18 in the clockwise direction indicated by arrow 71. A gear 7 is mounted on the shaft 18 and rotates therewith.
0 is attached. Gear 70 is in driving engagement with gear 72 mounted on shaft 73. Gear 72 is thus driven counterclockwise. Gear 72 is in driving engagement with gear 74 mounted on shaft 75 . The shaft 75 is thus rotationally driven in the same direction as the shaft 18. Two pulleys 76 are attached to the shaft 75. Endless belts 56 are stretched around these pulleys 76, respectively. The endless belt 56 is tensioned by pulleys 80 and 82 located within the aperture 52 in the floor 50 of the hopper 10. Opening 5 in the floor 50 of the hopper 10
Since these endless belts passing through 2 are arranged and driven in the same way, they are represented by the same reference numerals in the figures and only one of them will be described.

Also fixed to the shaft 75 is a pulley 84, around which is wrapped another endless belt 86. This endless belt 86 has a shaft 89
It is hung on a pulley 88 attached to the. axis 8
9 is a groove 100 formed in the floor 50 of the hopper 10.
is held in Shaft 89 is held in groove 100 by downward tension from belt 86 . Pitzka wheel 9 coaxially with pulley 88 on shaft 89
0 is attached. The back up roller 92 is mounted on an axis parallel to the axis of the pulley 88.

The drive engagement from drive gear 70 to the gear on shaft 89 will now be described. Gear 77 is the drive means for shaft 89 and picker wheel 90. Gear 72 rotating counterclockwise drives gear 78 clockwise. Gear 78 is connected to gears 79 and 9
5 clockwise. Gear 95 drives gear 96 counterclockwise, and gear 96 drives gear 97.
and drives it clockwise. gear 97
engages gear 77 and drives it clockwise. This is the direction of rotation of the first driven gear 70 on shaft 18. The gear combinations shown and described are exemplary and other gear reduction mechanisms may be used to drive the picker wheel 90 from the printer platen 16 without departing from the scope of the invention. .

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the hopper 10. The same parts as in FIGS. 1 and 2 are given the same reference numerals. FIG. 3 schematically shows the transport path of an envelope 104 from the input area 30 of the hopper 10 to the output area 32 thereof.

Upper restraint member 46 serves to align the envelopes for envelope removal and feeding. Envelope 104
is taken out, it is moved by the coaxial feed roller 8
8 and Pitzka wheel 90 and back up
It passes through the narrow gap between rollers 92 and is transported in the direction of arrow 120. Envelope 104 is then fed into a path formed by continuously rotating belt 86 and rear guide member 122. Rear guide member 122
is a portion of the sheet handling apparatus 12 and is not shown in FIG. The envelope 104 is placed on the platen 16
and bottom guide member 126 in the direction of arrow 124. A printing station is not shown.

This is the output narrow gap area 13 of the envelope 104 after printing.
4, it is fed in the direction of arrow 130 between the continuous moving belt 56 and the back and forth transfer guide member 38. Output nip region 134 includes a leaf spring 58 for forcing envelopes 104 into output region 32 of hopper 10 in order of printing. Output narrow gap area 13
4 will be explained in connection with FIGS. 7 and 8.

The bottom end of this envelope 104 contacts the endless belt 56. This endless belt 56 is connected to the floor 5 of the hopper.
0 and moves this envelope 104 in the direction of arrow 140, thereby making room for the next envelope.

The removal operation of the picker wheel 90 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. A pick-up lip 91 is formed on the picker wheel 90 and engages the lower end of the rearmost envelope in the input area 30 of the hopper 10. Pitsuka・
As wheel 90 rotates clockwise, the bottom of envelope 104 is engaged by lip 91 and deflected as shown in FIG. As the picker wheel 90 rotates further clockwise, the bent envelope 104 attempts to return to its original shape and now jumps over the picker wheel 90 and ends up in the nip between the pulley 88 and back up roller 92. to go into.

Pitzka wheel 90 and pulley 88 are connected to shaft 89
Recall that they are mounted coaxially at intervals above. As the envelope 104 passes over the picker wheel 90 and enters the feed nip, it bends to a certain extent. Because Pitsuka Wheel 90
This is because the diameter of the pulley 88 is larger than that of the pulley 88.

Figures 7 and 8 show the output narrow gap region 1 shown in Figure 3.
It is an enlarged view of No. 34. A weak leaf spring 58 is attached to the transfer guide member 38. In its rest position, leaf spring 58 is bent until it substantially coincides with the periphery of pulley 80. An endless belt 56 is placed around the pulley. Front guide member 3
Envelope 1 moving between 8 and endless belt 56
04 enters the narrow gap region 134, the envelope is gently pushed along the periphery of the pulley 80 by the leaf spring 58. As the envelope 104 continues to move upwardly, the leaf spring 58 assumes the position of FIG. A flat spring 58 is used. This leaves the output narrow area 134 empty for receiving the next envelope.

The operation of the envelope handling device of the present invention is controlled by the printer to which it is attached. The envelope handling device of the present invention is suitable for batch printing. The gear ratio or reduction ratio of the drive coupling between platen 16 and picker wheel 90 is
The envelopes removed during each revolution of 0 are arranged to enter the transport path in time with the preceding ones. In other words, the spacing between successive envelopes is selected to be optimal in relation to the printing speed.

A printer in which the envelope handling device of the present invention is installed is provided with a sensing device adjacent to the platen for ascertaining the position of the envelope and indicating when the first write line has been reached.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the transfer path of the envelope handling device of the present invention. Identical components are designated using the same reference numerals as before. This embodiment has two endless belts (56 and 86 in Figure 2) instead of three.
Use. Opening 252 in the floor 250 of the hopper 200
is similar to the opening 52 in FIG. A single belt 286 is placed over pulleys 290, 292, and 84. Pulley 84 is driven as described above.

Operation of this embodiment is simplified because this single belt performs two functions. That is, this belt performs the dual functions of belts 56 and 86 in pushing the printed envelope toward the picker wheel 90 and simultaneously advancing the envelope into the output area of the hopper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an envelope processing device according to the present invention attached to a sheet feeding device attached to a printer, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the connection between a hopper and a printer, and FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-section of the hopper. Figures 4, 5 and 6 are diagrams showing the movement of envelopes, Figures 7 and 8 are diagrams showing the output narrow area of the transfer passage, and Figure 9 is a diagram showing the envelope transfer passage. 10...hopper, 14...printer, 30...
Sending area, 32...Receiving area, 88...
Feeding roller, 90... Pitzka wheel, 56,
86... Endless belt, 38, 122, 126...
Guide member, 16... platen, 58... leaf spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A document for transporting documents from an area for holding a plurality of documents maintained in an upright state through a transfer path around a print area in the printer and the area to the document holding area. A handling device comprising: a storage means having an input and an output hopper disposed above a puteran for separately holding a document before printing and a document after printing; a picker roller, rotating coaxially with the picker roller; a retrieval area adjacent to said storage means having a feed roller and a back up roller forming a feed nip with said feed roller; said picker roller being located on one side of said storage means and rotating said picker roller; The shaft is provided parallel to the rotational axis of the platen and is driven integrally with the platen, and the picker roller engages with the lower end of the document to be printed to be supplied and picks one out of the plurality of documents. an endless belt having a protrusion for separating sheets of documents and feeding the lower end into the transfer path and having a diameter larger than the feed roller for feeding the documents into the feed nip; an output narrow area including a fixed guide member and an elastic member; and the elastic member moves the printed document so as to send the printed document from the output narrow gap area into the output hopper. at least one endless belt configured to press against said endless belt in said at least one endless belt; an overall triangular shape defined by the endless belt; and the endless belt pushes the stack of unprinted documents toward the pick roller and passes the retrieved documents around the platen. and is configured to move the printed document to the output narrow portion and push the printed document from the output narrow portion toward the printed document storage area of the storage means. document handling equipment.