WO2005068333A2

WO2005068333A2 - Method and device for processing sheet-type products, particularly for slowing down conveyed sheet-type products

Info

Publication number: WO2005068333A2
Application number: PCT/EP2005/000334
Authority: WO
Inventors: Karl-Heinz Leuthold
Original assignee: Giesecke & Devrient Gmbh
Priority date: 2004-01-20
Filing date: 2005-01-14
Publication date: 2005-07-28
Also published as: DE112005000194D2; WO2005068333A3; DE102004002904A1

Abstract

In a device for processing sheet-type products, particularly a device for stacking sheet-type products, such as banknotes (100), the conveyed sheet-type products are decelerated by, at a point in time at which the sheet-type products are not completely stopped, effecting a slowing down only on a portion of the sheet-type products located at the rear with regard to the direction of conveyance. The forces of inertia exerted in the sheet-type products during the slowing down process leads to an automatic stretching of the sheet-like products whereby a folding and creasing are compensated for or completely prevented during slowing down.

Description

Method and device for processing sheet material

The invention relates to a method and a device for processing and in particular for stacking sheet material, such as bank notes, as well as an air guide plate for use with the device.

When processing sheet material, the individual sheets are sometimes transported at very high speed. For example, in the case of banknote processing using high-speed machines, up to 1,000 banknotes per minute are processed. As a result, tremendous inertial forces act on the sheet material, if it is z. B. is braked for the purpose of destacking. These forces cause when entering the braking device damming of the sheet material, with the result that wrinkles and folds formed transversely to the transport direction.

US Pat. No. 5,836,577 describes a banknote processing machine with a stacking tray, to which the banknotes are successively fed via a linear transport path in such a way that they stack one above the other on the stacking tray. A pivotable clamping element brakes the incoming banknotes by placing the respective banknote in the opposite direction

Banknotes stack presses. The clamping element acts on a front part of the incoming banknote in the direction of transport, but is only moved to this position when the banknote has reached a position in which the rear end of the banknote has also arrived in the stacking area. This is to prevent wrinkling, which would otherwise occur [if the rear end would be promoted by a subsequent conveying process by means of a transport roller in the stack area.

In this device, however, there may be kinking and wrinkling due to the braking process, especially when the sheet material is fed to the stack tray at high speed. In DE 101 10 103 Al it is proposed to decelerate the sheets entering the spiral compartments of a spiral stacker at high speed in such a way that they impinge on the end area of the compartments near the axis only at low speed or are already stopped beforehand. This is intended to avoid wrinkling of the sheet material when hitting the end region of the compartments near the axis. For this purpose, the leaf pitches are variable and preferably automatically to the z. B. sensory physical properties of the enrolling in the subjects leaves adapted. According to a variant, the width of the compartment is readjusted only at the time when the sheet just enters the compartment. The variation of the leaf compartment width takes place, for example, by changing the distance of the outer tips of the stapler wheel fingers forming the compartments by being rotatably mounted on the stapler wheel hub in such a way that their inclination can be selectively adjusted.

Although this avoids a significant influence factor leading to buckling and wrinkling, wrinkling may nevertheless occur in the case of high-speed transported sheet material due to the inertial forces acting in the sheet material itself.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose an apparatus and a method for processing sheet material, in which sheet material transported at high speed can be decelerated, without causing buckling or wrinkling of the sheet material.

This object is achieved by a device and a method having the features of the independent claims. In dependent on it Claims are advantageous developments and refinements of the invention.

Accordingly, the sheet material is braked by means of a selectively controllable braking device which, at least at a point in time when the sheet material has not yet been completely decelerated, only acts in a braking manner on a part of the sheet material which is in the direction of transport. That is, either the braking device is controlled so that it acts on the sheet material only in the rear portion of the sheet material from the first moment, or it acts (at least) initially on a front in the transport direction region of the sheet material on the sheet material , but then this area of influence in the course of the braking process shifts so that even before the complete braking of the sheet material, the braking device acts only on the rear part of the sheet material.

Thereby, the moving sheet is packed at its rear end and stretched by its own inertia. As far as a rearmost portion of the sheet material does not participate in this stretching, because in between the braking device acts on the sheet material, so this area is so short that the inertial forces acting there are too low to bend the sheet material in this area appreciably. Therefore, the braking device is preferably controlled so that the rear part of the sheet material, which acts brakingly on the brake device at least at the last moment, lies in the region of the last quarter of the sheet material length relative to the transport direction.

A further advantage of this method and a device adapted for the method is that the sheet material can be braked in a very short path to a low speed, without the risk of buckling or folding of the sheet material. This is particular advantage for Banknotenensieriervorrichtungen in which the banknotes must be processed at speeds of up to more than 1000 banknotes per minute, isolated, transported, checked and stored. In connection with spiral forklift trucks, this also offers the advantage that very small forklift pulleys can be used with short stacker wheel compartments. The size of Blattgutbearbeitungsvorrichtungen can thereby significantly reduce, especially if it is integrated in a plurality of spiral tray stacker, as z. In banknote processing devices for processing and sorting banknotes is usually the case.

The braking elements of the braking device are preferably moved by means of electrically controllable piezoactuators. Due to their fast reactivity, piezoactuators enable high-speed processing of up to 1000 sheets per minute.

The invention will be explained with reference to several embodiments, in which, inter alia, an air guide plate is described, which can be advantageously used in connection with the invention, but taken in itself for guiding, deflecting and especially turning of sheet material in a transport path is versatile ,

In the accompanying drawings show:

1 shows a spiral slot stacker with a braking device according to the invention according to a first embodiment,

2 shows the spiral slot stacker 1 with activated braking device, FIG. 3 shows a section of the spiral slot stacker from FIG. 1 with a braking device according to a second embodiment,

FIG. 4 shows a sheet material stacking device according to a further embodiment of the invention, from the side in cross section,

FIG. 5 shows the sheet material stacking device from FIG. 4 in a cross section orthogonal thereto along the section line V-V in FIG. 4, and FIG

FIG. 6 shows the sheet material stacking device from FIGS. 4 and 5 in plan view with an air guiding plate.

Figure 1 shows schematically in side view a spiral slot stacker as typically used in banknote processing apparatus. The bank note processing device not shown here in detail is constructed, for example, as described in DE 4437722 A1, including transport systems, points, sensors and the like. Of course, the spiral tray stacker described below is also suitable in other types of device for stacking sheet material.

The spiral slot stacker has a stacker wheel 1 with stacker wheel compartments 2, arranged spirally one behind the other around a rotation axis 3, for receiving banknotes 100. The direction of rotation of the stacker wheel 1 about the axis of rotation 3 is indicated by an arrow. The stacker wheel 1 successively banknotes 100 are fed in the tangential direction R.

The stacker wheel 1 consists of a plurality of identical disk-shaped elements arranged side by side on the axis of rotation 3, which are also referred to as spiral disk disks and between which a conventional Chen trained scraper 4 with suitably adapted, juxtaposed Ausstreifzinken engages. In the schematic representation of Figure 1, only one Ausstreifzinke and a spiral shed are shown. In principle, the stacker wheel can also have a single spiral sheaf, the stripper 4 in this case acting on the banknotes projecting laterally out of the spiral sheave and stripping it out of the spiral sheave.

Due to the rotation of the stacker wheel 1 about the axis of rotation 3, the banknotes located in the stacker wheel 1 are transported against the stripper wheel 1 engaging in the stripper 4 and stripped by this gradually from the Staplerradfächern 2 on an underlying stack tray 5. As a result, a banknote stack 6 forms on the stacking tray 5, to which two banknotes 100 are currently being fed in the time shown in FIG.

In continuation of the transport direction R, brake elements 7 of a braking device not shown in detail in FIG. 1 lie in a plane between and / or next to the spiral compartment disks and can be moved toward one another in the direction of the arrow via a control device 8. The control device 8 is coupled to a sensor 9, which detects at least the end edge of the passing banknote 100. The sensor 9 may be, for example, a simple photoelectric sensor or another suitable detector.

While FIG. 1 shows a banknote 100 entering the stacker wheel compartment 2, which is still in the detection area of the sensor 9, FIG. 2 shows the spiral compartment stacker at a slightly later point in time when the banknote 100 has already largely run into the stacker wheel compartment 2. When entering the stacker wheel compartment 2, the banknote 100 is decelerated automatically due to friction. In addition, the banknote 100 is also braked by the braking elements 7, which are driven by control by means of the control device 8 against each other and pinch the banknote 100 when the sensor 9 detects the trailing edge of the incoming banknote. By the banknote 100 is packed by the braking elements 7 at its rear end, it is braked in a very short path to a low speed. Due to the inertia of the banknote, the banknote stretches. Once the bill has reached a non-critical low speed, the braking elements 7 are deactivated, so that the bill continues to slip into the Stapelradfach 2 at low speed until it comes to a standstill. Due to the low speed and thereby also very low inertial forces no appreciable deformation of the banknote is more to be feared.

FIG. 3 shows the spiral slot stacker from FIG. 1 in an alternative embodiment, which is characterized by a different type of braking device. While in the embodiment according to Figures 1 and 2, the brake elements 7 of the braking device are arranged stationarily in the inlet region of the stacker ^' , in the embodiment according to Figure 3, the brake elements are part of the spiral shed. That is, each Staplerradfach has at least one brake element 10 which rotates with the stacker.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the spirally running ones become

Stacker wheel trays 2 are formed by correspondingly shaped "stacker wheel fingers" which are closely adjacent to one another. The brake elements identified here by the reference numeral 10 are formed in a surface of these stacker wheel fingers or possibly also along a surface of the stacker wheel fingers. det. The brake elements 10 can be deflected from their inactive position, which is shown in dashed lines in Figure 3, in an active position so that they protrude into the Staplerradfach 2. FIG. 3 shows by way of example for each stacker wheel compartment 2 three such brake elements 10, by means of which a braking maneuver will be explained below.

First, a banknote 100 in the transport direction R is fed to the stacker wheel compartment 2. The stacker wheel 1 is rotated intermittently or preferably continuously while the banknote 100 enters the stacker wheel compartment. The reference numeral 100 'denotes the same banknote at a somewhat later time, in which the banknote has already run into the stacker wheel compartment with a substantial part. The brake element 10 is not activated at this moment and accordingly runs along the surface of the associated Staplerradfingers. The braking force acting on the banknote 100 'thus initially results only from frictional forces between the banknote 100' and the stacker wheel fingers delimiting the stacker wheel compartment. Under certain circumstances, this can lead to the incoming banknote initially curling due to the inertial forces mentioned. The reference numeral 100 "shows the same banknote at an even later point in time, in which the braking element 10 is swung out of its inactive, dashed position into its active position shown as a solid line, whereby the banknote becomes over a very short distance strongly, preferably completely, decelerated, as a result of which the banknote stretches due to the inherently acting inertia forces and compensates for any deformations.

The activation of the braking element 10 can also take place at an earlier time, so that it already acts, for example, on the banknote designated by the reference numeral 100 '. It is essential that the braking selement at a time when the bill still has a sufficiently high speed, only attacks in a rear region of the bill, so that the front part of the bill stretches independently due to the braking effect. The braking operation by means of the brake elements 10 can therefore already begin at an early stage and ends at a time at which the brake element 10 engages in a rear region, preferably in the last quarter with respect to the banknote length.

The control of the brake elements 10 via a provided in the region of the hub of the spiral sheave electrical contact pad 11, which supplies the brake elements 10 with electricity as soon as the contact pad 11 comes into contact with a suitably adapted electrically conductive region of the stripper 4 or another contact element. The supply voltage of the brake elements 10 is provided here centrally via the stripper 4. The arrangement of the contact fields 11 about the central hub of the spiral shed is accordingly selected so that the respective contact field 11 associated brake element 10 pivots at a predetermined time from its rest position shown in dashed lines in the active position.

The brake elements 7 and 9 in the exemplary embodiments according to FIGS. 1 to 3 are actuated by means of piezoactuators in order to be activated and / or deactivated even in the case of high-speed machining with the necessary reaction speed.

FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of a braking device for a sheet material processing device. In this case, the sheet material 100 is braked on a braking plane 20 by means of a brake device comprising two brake elements 7 before the sheet material 100 reaches a stop 21. The braking elements in turn act as a brake on a part of the sheet material in the direction of transport (arrow). If appropriate, the braking process can already begin at an earlier point in time at which the sheet material is still located with a front part between the brake elements 7. However, it is essential that the sheet material 100 is not yet completely decelerated at the time at which the brake elements 7 act on the rear part of the sheet material, as shown in FIG. 4, so that the sheet material 100 autonomously stretches due to the inherent inertial forces, before it comes to a standstill. Preferably, however, the braking operation begins only at a time in which the majority of the sheet material, preferably 2/3 or even 3/4 of the Blattgutlänge, the brake elements have passed 7, since then the stretching of the sheet material 100 due to the short braking distance and thereby achieved intensive braking effect is particularly effective.

Also in this embodiment, the brake elements 7 are displaced by piezo actuators between their active and inactive position.

The braking force is adjusted so that the sheet material 100 does not run on the stop 21 or only at low speed. The thus braked sheet material 100 is then conveyed transversely to the transport direction of the braking plane 20 on a stack tray 5, which is located on the right and left of the braking plane. This is illustrated in FIG. 5, which shows a cross section through the braking plane 20 orthogonal to FIG. 4 along the line V-V in FIG. In this embodiment, the sheet material 100 is stacked on the stack tray to a stack 6 standing on the sheet material edges.

For transporting the braked banknotes 100 onto the stacking tray 5, different conveying elements can be inserted individually or in combination. are set, such as one or more pivotable or rotatable elastic fingers, one or more emerging from the brake plane 20 round belt and / or an air baffle.

Figures 4 and 5 show a variant in which the transport device is formed by two rotatable elastic fingers 22 which can rotate about a common axis of rotation 23 clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on which side of the braking plane 20, the sheet material 100 to be unstacked , The elastic fingers 22 extend in their rotational movement through a recess in the braking plane 20 and thereby capture the banknote 100 braked on the braking plane 20 from the side or from below such that the banknote 100 is taken along in the course of the rotational movement and laterally against the braking plane 20 is filed. However, the fingers 22 need not necessarily be elastic.

A sheet material stacking device according to FIGS. 4 and 5 can only sort two sheet material layers and easily bring them together in the correct position. However, a sheet material transported in sheet longitudinal extension can occupy four different layers. In order to merge the sheet material in this case in the correct position, two braking devices according to Figures 4 and 5 can be arranged in sheet transport direction one behind the other, wherein the sheet material is decelerated depending on the previously detected position in the first or second braking device and stacked there either to the left or to the right , It is also possible to arrange more than two braking devices in succession, depending on the number of criteria by which the sheet material is to be sorted. Active transporting elements can be provided between the individual braking devices.

FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment in which the conveying element of the transport device is designed as an air guiding plate 25. air guide plates for transporting sheet material are well known. In this case, compressed air is flowed through the plate from below against the sheet material. The compressed air openings are oriented obliquely to the air guide plate surface so that the air flow has a flow direction component parallel to the air plate surface. This flow direction component defines the direction in which the sheet material is moved by the air flow.

In FIG. 6, the air guiding plate 25 is shown only schematically in plan view as an element integrated in the braking plane 20, the braking element 7 and the stop 21 being shown for reference purposes. The compressed air openings running obliquely to the air guide plate surface are only indicated by arrows which represent the compressed air flow component running parallel to the air guide plate surface of the compressed air emerging from the compressed air openings.

By means of the integrated in Brembene 20 air baffle 25 braked on the brake plane 20 sheet material can be promoted according to the wider arrows to the right or left to Blattguttransportrichtung. The responsible group of compressed air openings can each be controlled separately, depending on whether the sheet material is to be conveyed to the right or left.

The baffle plate 25 according to FIG. 6 is characterized in particular in that it also enables the rotation of the sheet material about a pivot point 26. For this purpose, at least one, in the illustrated embodiment, however, two further groups of obliquely to Luftleitplattenoberfläche 25 and concentric with the pivot point 26 extending compressed air openings are provided. They allow the banknote to be rotated one way or the other, depending on which of the two groups of compressed air openings is activated. The two groups of compressed air openings are represented by oppositely directed arrows. In order to achieve a uniform rotation of the sheet material about the pivot point 26, it is important that in each case two compressed-air openings with respect to the pivot point 26 are opposite each other punktsymme- fresh and therefore extend in the opposite direction obliquely to the baffle plate surface.

Due to the possibility of turning the sheet material on the braking plane 20, the sheet material can be stacked in the correct position in the two compartments of the stacking tray 5 located laterally of the braking plane 20, irrespective of which of the four possible layers the sheet material is to be transported.

Claims

Patent claims

1. A device for processing sheet material (100), in particular banknotes, comprising a braking device (7, 10) for braking transported sheet material and a control device (8, 9) for controlling the braking device, characterized in that the braking device arranged in such a way and controllable by means of the control device, that at a time when the transported sheet material is not yet completely decelerated, it only acts in a braking manner on a part of the sheet material which is in the rear in the transport direction.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the braking device (7, 10) acts at all times on a braking effect on the transported sheet material (100) only on a part of the sheet material which is in the transport direction.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the rearward in the transport direction of the sheet material (100) on which the braking device (7; 10) acts braking, based on the transport direction in the last quarter of the Blattgutlänge.

4. Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the braking device (7; 10) comprises brake elements with electrically controllable piezoactuators.

5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is a device for stacking sheet material, comprising a Stapelablage (5) for unstacking the braked sheet material (100).

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, characterized by a transport device (4; 22, 23; 25) for further transporting the braked sheet material (100).

7. The device according to claim 6, characterized in that it is a Spiralfachstapler with a stacker wheel (1), which spirally about an axis of rotation (3) arranged Staplerradfächer (2) for receiving the transported sheet material (100), wherein the transport device for further transporting the braked sheet material as a stripper (4) for stripping the sheet material from the Staplerradfächern (2) is formed.

8. The device according to claim 7, characterized in that the Staplerradfächer by one or more adjacent to each other on the axis of rotation (3) arranged spiral shed are formed and acting on the sheet material (100) braking elements (7) of the braking device between and / or next to Spiral sheds are stationary in the inlet region of the stacker wheel (1) are arranged.

9. Apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that for each Staplerradfach (2) in each case at least one acting on the sheet material

Braking element (10) of the braking device is provided which rotate with the stacker wheel (1) about the axis of rotation (3).

10. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the transport device comprises at least one conveying element acting transversely to the transport direction (22, 23, 25) in order to deflect the decelerated sheet material (100) out of the transport direction.

11. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that a plurality of the braking devices (7) and the transport means (22, 23, 25) are arranged one behind the other in the transport direction.

12. Device according to one of claims 10 or 11, characterized in that the at least one conveying element comprises an air guide plate (25).

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the air guide plate (25) has a Luftleitplattenoberfläche with obliquely to Luftleitplattenoberfläche extending compressed air holes, which are arranged parallel and aligned transversely to the transport direction of the sheet material to on the Luftleitplattenoberfläche befindlichem sheet material (100) to deflect out the transport direction.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the air guide plate (2) has selectively controllable and oriented in opposite directions groups of inclined, parallel compressed air holes to deflect located on the Luftleitplattenoberfläche sheet good in opposite directions out of the transport direction out.

15. Device according to one of claims 12 to 14, characterized in that the air guide plate has obliquely to Luftleitplattenoberfläche extending compressed air holes which are arranged concentrically to a pivot point (26) to rotate on the Luftleitplattenoberfläche befindlichem sheet material (100) can.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that the air guide plate has two selectively controllable and acting in opposite direction of rotation groups of inclined, concentrically arranged compressed air holes to rotate on the air guide plate befindliches sheet material in opposite directions can.

17. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that the at least one conveying element comprises a round belt.

18. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that the at least one conveying element comprises a pivotable or rotatable finger (22, 23).

19. A method for processing sheet material (100), in particular banknotes, comprising the steps:

- Transporting sheet material in a transport direction (R) and

Braking of the transported sheet material by braking action on a part of the sheet material by means of a braking device (7, 10),

characterized in that in the step of braking at a time at which the sheet material (100) is not completely decelerated, the braking device only acts braking on a part of the sheet material (100) in the direction of transport (R).

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that at any time, in which by means of the braking device braking on the sheet material (100) is acted upon, the braking device acting only on a rear in the transport direction (R) part of the sheet material braking.

21. The method according to claim 19 or 20, characterized in that in the transport direction (R) rearward part of the sheet material (100), to which the

Braking device acts braking, based on the transport direction (R) in the last quarter of the Blattgutlänge.

22 Luftleitplatte (25) for rotating befindlichem on a surface of the air guide sheet material, characterized by obliquely to the Luftleitplattenoberfläche extending, concentrically about a pivot point (26) arranged compressed air holes.

23. Air baffle plate according to claim 22, characterized by two groups of oblique, concentrically arranged compressed-air bores, wherein the two groups exert an opposite direction of rotation effect on the sheet material located on the baffle plate surface.

24. Air baffle plate according to claim 22 or 23, characterized by a separately controllable group of obliquely to the baffle plate surface extending, parallel compressed air holes.

25. Air baffle plate according to claim 24, characterized by at least two groups of inclined, parallel Druckluftbohrun- gene, which differ from each other by a different orientation of the oblique compressed air holes.