Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J13/00—Devices or arrangements of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in short lengths, e.g. sheets
  • B41J13/26—Registering devices
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
  • B65H5/00—Feeding articles separated from piles; Feeding articles to machines
  • B65H5/06—Feeding articles separated from piles; Feeding articles to machines by rollers or balls, e.g. between rollers
  • B65H5/062—Feeding articles separated from piles; Feeding articles to machines by rollers or balls, e.g. between rollers between rollers or balls
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
  • B65H9/00—Registering, e.g. orientating, articles; Devices therefor
  • B65H9/06—Movable stops or gauges, e.g. rising and falling front stops
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
  • B65H2511/00—Dimensions; Position; Numbers; Identification; Occurrences
  • B65H2511/10—Size; Dimensions
  • B65H2511/13—Thickness
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
  • B65H2515/00—Physical entities not provided for in groups B65H2511/00 or B65H2513/00
  • B65H2515/30—Forces; Stresses
  • B65H2515/34—Pressure, e.g. fluid pressure

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method for handling documents in a printer, in which the document is fed along a feed path from a feed location to a printing station.
• a document feed device comprising at the feed location at least two cooperating pairs of drive rollers and counterrollers, being arranged below re ⁇ spectively above the feed path, the engagement pressure against the document being adjusted dependent on informa- tion on the thickness of the document, and in which one edge of the document is fed into contact with a stop means which is insertable into the feed path during the alignment action.
• the invention also relates to a printer which is adapted to operate according to the method and which com ⁇ prises a printing station and a document feed device for aligning and feeding an inserted document along a feed path between a feed location and the printing station.
• the type of printer here concerned is usually known as a terminal printer and is used in terminal worksta ⁇ tions, for instance in banking and postal services.
• Such printers are commercially available in many designs, such as the terminal printers manufactured by the applicant and having type designations APP 6390/-92, -93,-95,-96.
• a general demand placed on such terminal printers is that they should be able to handle documents of many dif ⁇ ferent types, of different thicknesses and different sizes, for instance bankbooks as well as thin vouchers. Moreover, the printer should be able to automatically grip the document and feed it to the printing station, whence the document is to be discharged after printing.
• the printer should be able to position an inserted document in a correct manner in the feed path, which is profes ⁇ sionally referred to as "alignment" of the document. In practice, this means that it should be possible for the operator to insert e.g.
• a known terminal printer manufactured by Unisys, relies on a solution for document alignment which involves the use of existing drive rollers for document alignment, these rollers being substantially equidistant- ly arranged on a common drive shaft.
• the document is pressed against the drive rollers by means of a lowerable ruler device which extends along the drive shaft and is provided with tongues which are facing in the direction of feed and the positions of which correspond to the spaces between the drive rollers.
• the engagement pressure is produced by lowering the ruler device so that the tongues are brought to a level slightly below the fric- tion surfaces of the drive rollers, which means that an intermediate document will be slightly depressed into the spaces between the drive rollers and thus is given an undulated shape along the drive shaft.
• the inherent stiffness of the document thus gives rise to an engage- ment pressure against the drive rollers.
• the drive shaft is rotated and feeds the document to a mechanical stop means in the feed path, which in the printer concerned is a platen that can be raised and lowered.
• the document is fed up to the stop means by the drive rollers, whereupon a torque is produced which aligns the document edge with respect to the stop means by allowing the drive rollers to slip on the document.
• One object of the invention is to provide a method and a printer which do not suffer from the above-men ⁇ tioned drawbacks inherent in the known terminal printers, and allowing for a solution of the problem to obtain alignment of very thin documents, for example vouchers having a grammage of 40 g/m 2 , requiring a highly balanced engagement pressure of the counterrollers.
• Another object of the invention is to provide a method and a printer making it possible to align a docu ⁇ ment while saving space in the printer by using existing feed means.
• the construction is based on the fact that a driving feed roller is connected to a drive shaft via a friction clutch.
• the friction clutch is so adjust ⁇ ed that the clutch will start slipping when the stop means is reached by the document. The slipping takes place in said clutch and not against the document and only one drive roller is used, which will not safely generate the torque on the document which is necessary for the alignment.
• the friction clutch is a compartively expensive component requiring adjustment during manufacture as well as service.
• a light transmittance sensor is used for deriving information about the thickness of the document, by illuminating the document from one side by means of a light source, by determining the light transmittance of the document by sensing the light that has passed the document by means of a light detector, and by establish ⁇ ing the thickness of the document on the basis of the light transmittance.
• JP 58-131.086 discloses a feed device which is spefically intended for handling of bankbooks, passports and similar items having a back or a corresponding thickness discontinuity.
• the pressure force of the drive rollers may be adjusted and information about the change of thickness of a defined part of the document, that is in this case the back of the passport, is derived by means of light sensors arranged at the upper side of the document. The sensor action is based on reflected light and not on the light transmittance of the document.
• a printer which operates according to the method and comprises a printing station and a document feed device for feeding an inserted document along a feed path between a feed location and the printing station, and where the feed device comprises at least two cooperating pairs of drive rollers and counterrollers at the feed location, said rollers being arranged below respectively above the feed path, means for setting the engagement pressure of the rollers against the document on the basis of information about the thickenss of the document, and a stop means insertable in the feed path towards which a front edge of the document is fed into engagement during an alignment procedure, is characterized in that the mounting of said counterrollers is arranged for allowing a limited, substantially vertical movement of the counterrollers, in that the weight of the counter rollers is adapted for a desirable minimum engagement pressure for thin documents causing the drive rollers to slip on the document when the same comes into contact with the stop means, and in that said adjustment means is arranged for bringing the counterrollers tangential with corre ⁇ sponding drive rollers, said engagement pressure on a thin document being thereby generated
• the printer according to the invention entails a technically advantageous solution, in that the align ⁇ ment function is integrated in an existing document feed device.
• a further advantage is that the setting of the engagement pressure of the counterrollers can be carried out by a minor modification of an existing mechanism for raising and lowering the counterrollers.
• this stop means can be used as it is, or modified as the stop means according to the invention. If the feed of the document continues for a predetermined time during the alignment operation, the above-mentioned feed-position sensors can be dispensed with.
• each rol ⁇ ler arm comprises a leaf spring cooperating with upper and lower spring supports.
• the leaf spring is brought into contact with one or more of the supports and thus gives rise to well-defined stepwise changes of the engagement pressure produced by the leaf spring.
• the invention is based on the insight that automatic alignment of a document is advantageously performed by using a feed device of the same type as is already used for gripping, feeding and discharging documents, provided it is possible to accurately adjust the engagement pres ⁇ sure to the thickness of the document. Moreover, it has been found that it is sufficient in many applications to divide the documents into thin, or very thin documents and others, and that this categorisation of the documents can be performed by means of a transillumination sensor of a simple type, which senses the amount of light passing through the document.
• Fig. 1 is partial section from above of a printer according to the invention, illustrating the parts of the printer involved in the invention
• Fig. 2 is a detailed perspective view of a roller arm in Fig. 1
• Fig. 3 is a schematic side view of the arrangement of a roller arm, the associated counterrollers and drive rollers, as well as the means used for setting the coun ⁇ terrollers.
• Figs 4A, B, C, D, E illustrate the method of opera ⁇ tion of a document feed device according to the invention when aligning, feeding and discharging a document.
• the sectional top view of Fig. 1 of a printer ac ⁇ cording to the invention shows two sets of roller arms, one outer set which is arranged at the document feed location of the printer and comprising the roller arms 1, 2, 3, and one inner set 1', 2', 3'.
• the roller arms 1, 2, 3 are fixedly mounted on a common, rotary roller-arm shaft 4, while the roller arms 1', 2', 3' are similarly arranged on a common, rotary roller-arm shaft 4'.
• the inner set of roller arms is only illustrated for clarifying purposes when describing the document feed in the printer, and is not part of the invention.
• roller arms may be of substantially the same design as the outer roller arms, but need not be designed to produce the varying engagement pressures used in the contemplated "alignment” or positioning of the document.
• the printers having the type numbers indicated by way of introduction.
• a stop means in the form of a ruler 7 which is vertically mov ⁇ able in a gap, as shown in more detail in Fig. 3.
• each roller arm carries two counterrollers 8, which are mounted idling on a common shaft 9 suspended from the roller arm. Underlying drive rollers 10, cooperating with the counterrollers, are indicated by dashed lines.
• each roller arm com ⁇ prises a rear mounting member 11 for fixing the roller arms on the roller-arm shaft 4, two arm members 12, a leaf spring 13, an upper bridge 14 between the arm mem ⁇ bers, and a lower bridge 15 between the arm members.
• the rear end of the leaf spring 13 is fixedly mounted in the mounting member 11, and its front end extends over the shaft 9 so to be able to cooperate therewith to produce the different engagement pressures.
• a document 16 is inserted on the feed path 5 in the feed direction, indicated by arrow 17.
• the inserted docu ⁇ ment is sensed by sensors 18, see also Fig. 3.
• the sen ⁇ sors are so-called light-transmission sensors, comprising a light source on one side of the document path and a light detector on the other side of the document path.
• the sensors 18 sense the presence of the document 16 in the printer, as well as the thickness of the document on the basis of its light transmitting capacity.
• Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing one of the identical roller arms 1, 2, 3 in more detail.
• the roller arm is U-shaped having a base member 11 for fixing the arm on the roller-arm shaft 4. To this end, there is an internal groove 19 in the base member 11 and an opposed hole 20.
• a cotter pin 21 Through the hole 20 is inserted a cotter pin 21 through a hole provided in the roller-arm shaft 4 and conformed to the cotter pin, and into the groove 19.
• the hole 20 is arranged, together with the cotter pin 21, to position the roller arm in the longitudinal direction of the shaft 4, the hole 20 having certain tolerances in the direction of rotation of the shaft.
• the positioning of the roller arm in the direction of rotation is brought about by means of the cotter pin 21 and the groove 19 which, to this end, is slightly conical.
• the fixing of the roller arm with the aid of the hole 20, the cotter pin 21 and the groove 19, as well as the through hole in the shaft 4 is also shown in Fig. 3.
• the leaf spring 13 is retained by fixing means 22 and is inserted between the upper bridge 14 and the lower bridge 15 (see Fig. 1).
• the leaf spring 13 also provides locking of the cotter pin 21.
• the arm members 12 carry the two counterrollers 8 which are separately mounted on the common shaft 9.
• the shaft 9 is suspended in elongate holes 23 allowing the shaft 9 to move substantially ver ⁇ tically in the holes 23 and, among other things, to occupy a "rocking position" in the event the document has different thicknesses at the respective counterrollers, for example in the case of a bankbook.
• Fig. 3 shows e.g. the roller arm in a part-sectional view taken along line I-I in Fig. 2. It is here shown that the upper bridge 14 has a rear support 24 and a front support 25, while the bridge 15 has a front support 26.
• the leaf spring 13 is contacted with one or more of these supports, thus setting the force by which the leaf spring acts on the roller shaft 9, which is not intended to rotate in the holes 23. This is described in more detail below with reference to Fig. 4.
• Fig. 3 also shows the feed path 5, the vertically movable ruler 7 and the platen 6. Below the feed path 5 is provided the drive roller 10 cooperating with the counterroller 8.
• the drive rollers 10 are mounted on a common drive-roller shaft 10' .
• the drive rollers have an outer friction layer 10".
• the drive roller 10 makes contact with the document 16 on the feed path 5 through a pertaining opening provided therein.
• This Figure shows the arrangement of the light source and light detector of the light-transmission sensor, the beam path between these components being indicated by a dashed line.
• Fig. 3 also schematically shows a cam gear wheel 28 which is rotatable about a shaft 29 and provided with a cam curve 30.
• An arm 31 for setting the rotational posi- tion of the roller-arm shaft 4 is mounted at one end on the roller-arm shaft, while its other end follows the cam curve 30.
• the cam gear wheel 28 can be set in five different positions, which correspond to five defined positions of the arm 31 along the cam curve 30. These positions on the cam curve 30 are indicated "+". The five positions correspond to five dif ⁇ ferent positions of the roller-arm shaft 4 and the roller arm.
• the use of cam gear wheels for setting counterrol- lers and other means in a printer is prior art and described, for example, in SE Patent 7809892-8.
• the ascending and descending motion of the ruler 7 can be controlled in any convenient manner by means of a cam gear wheel.
• This gear wheel is turned by means of a drive motor included in the printer and in turn controlled by control signals from an integrated control unit. Since such a control function is prior art, it will not be described in more detail here.
• a document guide means 27 is arranged to facilitate the insertion of the document in the feed path 5.
• the guide means 27 is mounted on the roller-arm shaft 4 and can be raised by it (see Fig. 4E) .
• Fig. 3 shows a setting position of the roller arm, in which the leaf spring 13 engages the support 24 of the bridge 14 and the support 26 of the bridge 15, while the counterroller 8 is tangent to the drive roller 10.
• Figs 4A, B, C, D, E illustrate the different posi ⁇ tions of the cooperating means during a process when the document 16 is inserted, aligned, fed to the printing station and discharged after printing.
• These Figures show by way of example the roller arm 1 and, for the sake of completeness, also the corresponding inner roller arm l 1 with its counterroller and drive roller cooperating therewith.
• the document is illus ⁇ trated only in Fig. 4A.
• reference numerals appear in this Figure only.
• Fig. 4A shows a starting position, in which there is a gap of about 1 mm between the counterroller and the drive roller, which permits inserting the document 16.
• the ruler 7 is in its raised position.
• the sensor 18 senses the presence of the document 16 and its thickness by categorising the document as highly light-transmitting and, hence, thin or as less light-transmitting and, hence, thick.
• the information on the presence of a document is supplied to the control unit (not shown) of the printer, which initiates rotation of the cam gear wheel 28 to a second position according to Fig. 4B in the case of a thin document, and to a third position according to Fig. 4C in the case of a thick document.
• the drive-roller shaft 10' carrying the drive rollers 10 is started in the feed direction.
• the document 16 Since the sensor 18 is arranged after the counter- rollers and the drive rollers in the feed direction, the document 16 will be gripped by the document feed device essentially at the same time as this starts. This is an advantage to the operator who sees that the document is immediately taken care of by the printer.
• Fig. 4B the leaf spring 13 engages the supports 24 and 26 (see Fig. 3), which means that the engagement pressure on the document is determined only by the weight of the counterrollers.
• the document is fed towards to the ruler 7 and as the leading edge of the document comes into engagement with the ruler, the drive rollers 10 pass into slipping on the document, which is thus turned to the feed position against the ruler. Feeding proceeds for a time determined empirically, which is sufficient for correctly aligning the document.
• the procedure for handling a thick document accord ⁇ ing to Fig. 4C is the same, however with the difference that the cam gear wheel 28 here occupies a third posi ⁇ tion, bringing the leaf spring 13 into engagement with the roller shaft 9. In this position, the engagement pressure on the document is determined by the weight of the counterrollers and the force exerted by the leaf spring 13 on the support 24.
• the docu- ment 16 is aligned in its feed position or starting posi ⁇ tion with the leading edge positioned along the ruler 7.
• the feed of the document is interrupted temporarily, the cam gear wheel 28 is rotated such that the cam curve occupies a fourth position according to Fig. 4D, and the ruler 7 is moved to its lower position below the feed path 5.
• the roller arm is turned downwards so that the leaf spring 13 engages the supports 24 and 25 and is pressed against the counterroller shaft 4.
• the engagement pressure of the counterroller 8 on the document is determined substan ⁇ tially by the leaf spring 13 by its engagement with the support 25.
• the inner roller arm 1' which during the alignment procedure according to Figs 4A, B, C has occu ⁇ linen a raised position, is moved to a lowered position with its counterroller pressed against the associated drive roller when the document edge has passed the rol ⁇ lers.
• the control unit of the printer now initiates con ⁇ tinued feed of the document to the printing position above the platen 6, while the document is retained by both the outer and the inner counterrollers and drive rollers.
• the lateral position of the document in the feed path is sensed in known manner by a sensor arranged on the printing head.
• the document feed is interrupted temporarily, and the control unit initiates rotation of the cam gear wheel 28 to a fifth position, in which the roller arm is turned upwards so as to raise the counterroller 8 from the document.
• the document guide means 27 is lifted so as to be given a suitable inclination to facilitate discharge of the docu ⁇ ment.
• the document is thereafter fed out through the inner drive rollers and counterrollers.
• each roller arm may have only one counter- roller or more than two such rollers.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Delivering By Means Of Belts And Rollers (AREA)
• Sheets, Magazines, And Separation Thereof (AREA)
• Handling Of Cut Paper (AREA)
• Registering Or Overturning Sheets (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=20394665

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (5)

Citations (2)

• 1994
  • 1994-07-07 SE SE9402408A patent/SE503228C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1995
  • 1995-06-27 WO PCT/SE1995/000793 patent/WO1996001742A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (2)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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