RU2632174C2 - Method for forming aligned bundle of sheet material and used kit - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: technological processes.

SUBSTANCE: when carrying out the method for forming an aligned bundle of sheet material, a bundle of sheet material is gripped by the gripper of manipulator. Placing the gripped bundle in the alignment device in the width and depth into the gap between its opposing teeth. Capturing the aligned bundle. Aligning the transverse axis of the bundle with grip longitudinal axis. To align with the grip longitudinal axis, placing the bundle received from the alignment device in the centering device. Releasing the bundle and shifting the grip relative to the stack horizontally to align the axes. When the gripper is open, pushing the bundle against the back side of centering device until it stops. Closing the grip. Moving the bundle up and further to the place of processing or storage.

EFFECT: speed of obtaining an aligned bundle of sheet material is increased for subsequent processing and storage.

5 cl, 3 dwg

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The invention relates to methods and means for forming bundles of sheet material, mainly banknotes. The invention will find application in the automated processing of banknotes and other sheet printed products: checks, stocks, bonds, certificates, coupons, tickets. The invention can be used wherever it is necessary to form a aligned bundle of products from sheet material - metal sheets, wood boards, panels of artificial and composite materials.

The task of forming an aligned bundle of sheet material arises in the course of production and further use of printed and other sheet products. In particular, a bundle of banknotes must be formed before entering into the device for counting money, banding, for storage in cells of a given size, etc.

BACKGROUND

There are many technical solutions in which the formation of the bundle is carried out in the process of purchase of banknotes from the client. So, for example, in patent US 6712352 described cassette for aligning and storing a bundle of banknotes. In this device, a bundle of banknotes is pressed by a spring against a block of guides installed near the working surface of the bundle. The working surface is formed by an extreme banknote in a bundle, to which a newly stacked banknote will subsequently be pressed. The guide block consists of two spaces about half the width of a banknote. At the same time, slit-like channels are made in the guides, along which the banknote to be stacked can move. The transport mechanism moves the banknote into these channels so that it stops opposite the working surface of the stack, pressed against the guide block. The lateral edges of the banknote are in the channels, while its central part is in the empty space between the guides and is not limited by anything. The banknote is removed from the working surface of the bundle by a distance approximately equal to half the thickness of the guide. For stacking banknotes from the guides in the stack, a pusher platform is used that moves in the space between the guides towards the working surface of the bundle. She presses on the central part of the banknote, bends it and leads the edges out of the channels. With further movement, the platform presses the banknote to the working surface of the bundle. Moving against the force of the clamping spring, the platform squeezes the pack from the block of guides. At this point, the stacked banknote straightens under the action of its own elasticity and takes place on the working surface of the bundle. Then the platform begins to move in the opposite direction, due to which the pack is pressed with its working surface to the block of guides. In this condition, the device is ready to receive the next banknote.

The patent RU 2297668 describes equipment for the inertial alignment of banknotes during their processing and to ensure a smooth surface of the processed banknotes during transportation in a high-speed banknote processing device. The banknote fed to the processing device is transported by a series of conveyor belts. The banknote moves past the line scan camera, which records the banknote during its passage through the gap when moving from the first conveyor belt to the second conveyor belt, which is approximately perpendicular to the first conveyor belt. The curved guide of the banknotes defines the path of the banknote, helping it to rotate 90 ° during its passage through the gap between the conveyor belts. The inertia of the banknote makes it stay flush with the surface of the curved guide, allowing the line scanning camera to record each line of the banknote surface with the same resolution.

RU 2562791 discloses a paper sheet processing apparatus. It includes a feed unit, a sheet separating unit, a test unit, a laying unit, a support drive unit, a tape wrapping unit, at least one power source, a mode setting unit and a fixing unit. Many sheets of paper are placed on the feed unit. The sheet separating unit pulls sheets of paper from the feed unit. The test unit checks the selected sheets of paper. The stacking unit stacks each specified number of checked sheets of paper on a support. The support drive assembly adjusts the position of the support according to the number of sheets of paper stacked. The tape wrapping assembly winds the laid sheets of paper with tape by wrapping the tape around the laid sheets of paper.

It is obvious that the known equipment for forming bundles of sheet material is complex and expensive, it allows only sheet processing, i.e. does not have speed.

In the prior art there is no information about the methods and means of forming a pack of unaligned mass of the same or different in size sheet material. All known devices form packs in a sheet mode. However, in real conditions, situations are possible when a bundle that is not aligned at the edges or a bundle of sheet material of different sizes, for example, containing banknotes of different denominations, must be ordered, aligned and centered.

Thus, there is currently a need to create cheap, reliable, high-speed and versatile equipment for forming aligned packs of sheet material. In particular, there is a need for aligning bundles of banknotes for subsequent processing, counting, wrapping and transferring them to storage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is aimed at solving the problem of forming an aligned bundle of sheet material.

The technical result achieved by using the claimed group of inventions is to increase the speed and reduce the cost of obtaining an aligned pack of sheet material for subsequent processing on standard equipment and storage in cells of a given size.

Such alignment is carried out without the use of expensive electromechanical and electronic equipment for sheet processing, there is no need to use an expensive and complex vision system.

The technical result is achieved due to the fact that the method of forming an aligned bundle of sheet material includes the following operations: grab a pack of sheet material by grabbing a manipulator having a lower fixed sponge and an upper sponge movable relative to the lower one for gripping and releasing a pack of sheet material, both sponges being identical teeth compatible with each other when closing the gripper, and the lower jaw is equipped with stops protruding between the teeth of the upper jaw, place the said pack of sheet the material into the device for aligning vertically between its opposing teeth for alignment in width and depth, capture the aligned bundle, while the lower edge of the bundle is aligned with the tongs of the tongs on their lateral and front sides, align the transverse axis of the bundle with the longitudinal axis of the tongs, for this stack the bundle received from the alignment device into the centering device, release it, shift the tong relative to the bundle horizontally to align the mentioned axes, with an open grip the push they pack the pack all the way into the back wall of the centering device, close the gripper and move the pack up and down to the place of processing or storage, while N is an integer greater than one.

The technical result is also achieved through the use of a kit for forming an aligned bundle of sheets of material, including a grip of the manipulator having a fixed lower sponge and an upper sponge movable relative to the lower one for gripping and releasing a bundle of sheet material, while both sponges are identical that are compatible with each other when closed the gripper teeth, and the lower jaw is equipped with stops protruding between the teeth of the upper jaw during gripping to prevent displacement of the sheet material along the axis of the gripper thy for alignment, which is a vertically mounted front-open housing with internal opposing horizontal teeth and gaps between them, while the vertical clearance between the opposing teeth is sized to accommodate the stack of sheet material being formed, and a centering device, which is a horizontally mounted front-open housing , the lower inner side of which is equipped with vertical teeth to limit the movement of the pack of sheet material and burn with teeth for alignment with gaps between the teeth of the tong, the width of the body is greater than the width of the tong, the number of vertical teeth corresponds to the number of gaps between the teeth of the tong, and the number of horizontal teeth is greater than the number of teeth of the tong.

The technical result is enhanced due to the fact that the width of the jaw jaws is selected based on the maximum size of the processed sheet material. The number of gripping teeth is selected to prevent sagging of the processed sheet material. The width of the teeth of the tong is equal to the width of the gaps between adjacent teeth, and the width of the teeth of the alignment device and the centering device is less than the width of said gap.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further, the essence of the invention and the possibility of achieving a technical result will be described in detail with specific examples of the invention with reference to the drawings, where FIG. 1 shows a side view and a top view of a manipulator grip, in FIG. 2 is a front view and a top view of a device for forming, and in FIG. 3 is a front view and a top view of the centering device.

In the drawings, the following notation:

1 - tong

2 - lower jaw sponge

3 - upper jaw sponge

4 - gripping teeth

5 - stops of the lower jaw tong

6 - longitudinal axis of the tong

7 - gaps between the teeth of the tong

8 - leveling device

9 - the body of the device for alignment

10 - horizontal teeth leveling device

11 - horizontal gaps of the device for alignment

12 - vertical clearance

13 - mounting holes of the alignment device

14 - ears of the body of the device for alignment

15 - corner stops

16 - device for centering

17 - centering device body

18 - bottom inner side of the centering device

19 - vertical teeth of the centering device

20 - horizontal teeth of the centering device

21 - slide grip.

MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1-3 depict equipment used in the process of forming a bundle of sheet material, in particular a bundle of banknotes. In FIG. 1 shows in two projections a gripper 1 of a manipulator used to form a pack. The gripper is designed to capture, transfer and release the pack when transferring it to equipment for processing and storage. The grip 1 has a flat horizontal fixed lower jaw 2 and an upper jaw 3, the front side of the jaws facing outward from the manipulator.

It should be noted that the use of the terms horizontal, vertical in the context of this application is conditional and generally characterizes the location of the elements of the set in the idle position. Vertical orientation can be replaced by horizontal orientation without affecting the functions of the equipment. So, for example, in the process of moving the tong, the horizontal arrangement of the jaws changes in space depending on the trajectory of movement and the orientation of the elements of the set with which the tong interacts. The vertical layout of the leveling device is replaced by a horizontal one when it is mounted on the table plane.

The upper jaw 3 has the ability to move vertically relative to the lower 2 to capture and release a pack of sheet material. For this, the upper jaw 3 is mounted on a slide 21, moved by a pneumatic cylinder or an electric motor, controlled automatically by a control unit (not shown) or from the operator’s control panel. The control unit is programmed for specific tasks. However, its algorithm is not the subject of the present invention. Both jaws 2, 3 have identical horizontal teeth 4 that are aligned with each other when closing the gripper. The lower jaw 2 is equipped with vertical stops 5, protruding between the teeth 4 of the upper jaw 3 and extending into the gaps 7 between them when gripping a bundle of banknotes. The stops 5 exclude the displacement of banknotes along the longitudinal axis 6 of the tong 1, which runs parallel to its teeth through the center of the sponge. The width of the jaws 2, 3 grip 1 is selected based on the maximum size of the processed sheet material, in this case, the length of the bill. In particular, the width of the jaw jaws is equal to or greater than the length of the largest bill of the processed bundle. The number of teeth 4 of the jaw jaws 1 is selected to prevent sagging of the processed sheet material. In the above example, the tongs have 6 teeth. The width of the teeth 4 of the grip 1 is equal to the width of the gaps 7 between adjacent teeth 4.

The second component of the kit — the alignment device 8 — is shown in FIG. 2. It is a vertically mounted open front housing 9 with internal directed counter-horizontal teeth 10 extending from the side walls of the housing 9 and the gaps 11 between them. The horizontal teeth 10 of the housing 9 in shape and size almost correspond to the gaps 7 between the teeth 4 of the tong 1, but have a smaller width so as to interact with the tongs of the tong that hold the pack. In the above example, the number of horizontal teeth is five. The vertical gap 12 between the opposing horizontal 10 teeth has a size to accommodate the formed bundle of notes. In particular, the gap between the opposing teeth is not less than the thickness of the pack, the depth of the body and the depth of the gap between the teeth is not less than the width of the pack. The device 8 is attached to the wall of the bank premises with screws passing through the mounting holes 13 made in the ears 14 of the housing 9. In the interior of the housing 9 there are angular upper and lower stops 15 located at the corners of the housing 9 and designed to align the edges of the pack of sheet material in thickness . The device 8 can be fixed both vertically to the wall of the room, and horizontally - on the horizontal surface of the table.

In FIG. 3 shows another set component - a centering device 16, which is a horizontally mounted front-open housing 17, the lower inner side of which 18 is provided with vertical teeth 19 to limit the movement of the stack of sheets outward and horizontal teeth 20 to align with the gaps 7 between the teeth 4 of the tongs 1. The width of the housing 17 is greater than the width of the grip 1 by an amount multiple of the sum of the width of the horizontal tooth and the width of the gap. The number of vertical teeth 19 in the example is three. The number of horizontal teeth 20 is equal to or greater than the number of teeth 4 of the grip 1. In the above example, there are six of them. The width of the teeth 10, 19 of the alignment device 8 and the centering device 16 is less than the width of the gap 7 between the teeth 4 of the grip 1. The device 16 can be attached to the wall while maintaining a horizontal orientation, and to the countertop.

The formation of an aligned pack of sheet material is as follows.

Using the gripper 1 of the manipulator, which is programmed and controlled by signals from the control device or operator commands specified on the control panel, they capture a pack of notes between the lower fixed sponge 2 and the upper sponge 3. The upper sponge 3 for this is moved along the slide 21 vertically relative to the lower sponge 2, is brought under an unaligned bundle, which moves to the lower jaw against the vertical stops 5. The upper jaw 3 moves down and clamps the bundle from above. Both jaws 2, 3 have identical horizontal teeth 4. When the jaws are aligned, the vertical stops 5 extend between the teeth 4 of the upper jaw 3 and protrude between them.

Next, the gripper 1 together with the captured bundle moves to the device 8 and enters the vertical gap 12 until it is aligned with the rear vertical wall of the housing 9. The bundle is further released, and the jaws 2, 3 of the gripper 1 are moved back from the device 8. When the device 8 is vertically fixed, all the bills the packs move down and thus are aligned on the bottom edge. In the case of horizontal placement of the device 8, the packet is stacked so that one of its edges abuts against the short wall of the housing 9. When the packet is captured from the device 8, it is aligned on two adjacent sides of the gripper - one side and front.

After alignment, the gripper 1 transfers the packet to the centering device 16. In the device 16, the transverse axis of the packet is aligned (passes through the center of the bills parallel to the short side of the bill) with the longitudinal axis 6 of the grip 1. For this, the packet obtained from the device 8 is placed between the vertical protrusions and the back wall of the centering device 16. In this case, one side of the tongs of the tongs slides along the lateral inner wall of the device 16. Then the pack is released from the tong, the tong 1 is displaced horizontally relative to the stack by N intervals (one interval is approximately equal to the sum of the tooth width and the gap between adjacent teeth) to align the mentioned axes. The number N of intervals depends on the length of the sheets in the stack. With an open tong 1, push the pack all the way into the back wall of the centering device 16, close the tong 1 and move the pack from the device 16 up and down to the place of processing or storage. At the same time, a pack of sheets is perfectly aligned and compatible with any standard banking equipment or can be stacked in a cell of a given size for storage.

Thus, it is possible to form an unaligned freely stacked bundle, which in this form cannot be processed in standard banking equipment, into a perfectly aligned and centered bundle.

For the formation of the bundle does not require expensive electromechanical and electronic sheet processing equipment.

The time for the formation of the bundle is reduced to a minimum and is determined only by the speed of the grip.

Processed banknotes can have any size, i.e. there is no need to rearrange or re-equip equipment for processing banknotes of different denominations or for different currencies.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The constituent elements of the presented set for the formation of bundles of sheet material can be made in small batches on known technological equipment and using materials widely used in industry. To control the movement of the grip, control devices for industrial robotic manipulators, widely programmed to perform specific tasks, are widely used by robot specialists. Received during the formation of a bundle of notes are compatible with standard banking equipment for counting, processing and storage. Thus, the invention is industrially applicable.

Claims (11)

1. The method of forming an aligned bundle of sheet material, comprising the following operations:  they grab a pack of sheet material by a gripper of a manipulator having a lower fixed sponge and an upper sponge movable relative to the lower one for gripping and releasing a pack of sheet material, both jaws having identical horizontal teeth compatible with each other when closing the gripper, and the lower sponge is provided with stops protruding between teeth of the upper sponge  the said pack of sheet material is placed in the alignment device in the gap between its opposing teeth for alignment in width and depth, the aligned pack is captured, while the lower edge of the pack is aligned with the tongs on one side and front of them,  carry out alignment of the transverse axis of the bundle with the longitudinal axis of the tong; to do this, stack the bundle received from the alignment device into the centering device, release it, move the tong horizontally relative to the bundle to align the axes, push the bundle against the back into the rear wall of the device for open centering, close the tong and move the pack up and down to the place of processing or storage. 2. A set for forming an aligned bundle of sheet material, including  the manipulator grip having a fixed lower jaw and an upper jaw moved relative to the lower one for gripping and releasing a pack of sheet material, both jaws having identical teeth that are compatible with each other when closing the jaw, and the lower jaw is provided with stops protruding between the teeth of the upper jaw when gripping to exclude the displacement of the sheet material along the axis of the tong,  a leveling device, which is an open front housing with internal opposing teeth and the spaces between them, while the gap between the opposing teeth is sized to accommodate the formed stack of sheet material, and  a centering device, which is a horizontally mounted front-open housing, the lower inner side of which is equipped with vertical teeth to limit the movement of a pack of sheet material and horizontal teeth to align with the gaps between the teeth of the tongue, while the width of the shell is greater than the width of the tongue, the number of vertical teeth corresponds to the number of gaps between the teeth of the tong, and the number of horizontal teeth is greater than the number of teeth of the tong. 3. The set according to claim 2, characterized in that the width of the jaw jaws is selected based on the maximum size of the processed sheet material. 4. The set according to claim 2, characterized in that the number of gripping teeth is selected to prevent sagging of the processed sheet material. 5. The kit according to claim 2, characterized in that the width of the gripping teeth is equal to the width of the gaps between adjacent teeth, and the width of the teeth of the alignment device and the centering device is less than the width of said gap.

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