Bookbinding: process and apparatus – Apparatus – With measuring – testing – or inspection means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-08
2002-09-10
Wellington, A. L. (Department: 3722)
Bookbinding: process and apparatus
Apparatus
With measuring, testing, or inspection means
C270S052080, C412S009000, C412S019000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06447230
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to improvements of a book binding system performing book binding process for binding book blocks together with book covers so as to make books or booklets. The book binding system comprises a carriage passage, a carrier mechanism for carrying the book block along the carriage passage, and a series of processing units which are sequentially provided along a carriage line, to perform the book binding process. The carrier mechanism has a clamp-adjustment mechanism for adjusting a gap for clamping the book blocks and the processing units each have at least one of an acting-portion adjustment mechanism and an alignment mechanism. The clamp-adjustment mechanism and the acting-portion adjustment mechanism and the alignment mechanism are adjusted to accommodate the book blocks and the book covers of various sizes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, such book binding system has been developed that can receive one volume of book blocks consecutively from a printer or a copy machine to book-bind each of the book blocks one after another.
FIG. 8
is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of such a prior-art book binding system. The book binding system shown in
FIG. 8
is of a wireless stitch-binding type and comprises: a carriage passage F; a carrier mechanism (clamper having a pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac) for clamping a book block P to carry it along the carriage passage F; and a series of processing units (processing starting unit A, milling unit B, pasting unit C, and book-covering unit D) sequentially provided along the carriage passage F for performing book binding processes.
At the processing starting unit A, the book block P is position with its back side put on a level plate Aa and, with this, one of the clamp plates, Ab, is moved in an arrow Ra direction corresponding to a thickness of the book block P, thus appropriately adjusting the gap between the pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac. Then, the book block P is sandwiched between the pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac and sent along the carriage passage to the milling unit B for the next process.
The milling unit B comprises a milling cutter Ba and a pair of width adjusting plates Bb and Bc. At the milling unit B, one of the width adjusting plates, Bb, is moved in an arrow Rb direction, to adjust the gap between the pair of the width adjusting plates Bb and Bc. As the book block P sandwiched between the pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac passes over the milling cutter Ba, the back side of the book block P is cut to the same level, thus being pre-processed for applying paste uniformly to the whole back side. A certain type of the milling unit B may have a blade for forming a small groove in the back side of the book block P to pate it better.
Next, the book block P sandwiched between the pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac is sent to the pasting unit C. The pasting unit C comprises a paste tank Ca for containing paste, a paste roller Cb, and a roller Cc for wiping extra paste, so as to apply paste on the back side of the book block P to an appropriate thickness. When pasting is completed, the book block P is sent to the book-covering unit D.
At the book-covering unit D, a printed book cover Q is carried by a conveyor or any other appropriate carriage means from a book-cover accumulating portion (not shown) in an arrow S direction onto a bottom plate Da and nip plates Db and Dc. One of the nip plates, Db, is moved in an arrow Rc direction corresponding to the thickness of the book block P, to adjust the gap between the pair of nip plates Db and Dc. Then, the back side of the book cover is adhered to the back side of the book block P thus carried over as sandwiched between the pair of clamp plates from the pasting unit C.
In this case, however, to adhere the book cover Q to the book block P, proper alignment is necessary so that the centerline of the back side of the book cover Q may agree with that of the back side of the book block P.
FIG. 9
is a plan view explaining one exemplified method of aligning the book cover Q and
FIG. 10
, a plan view as viewed in an arrow X direction of FIG.
9
.
As shown in
FIGS. 9 and 10
, the plurality of book covers Q are stored between a right-side guide plate
51
and a left-side guide plate
54
. When a right-side guide-plate moving motor
52
is driven, a linkage portion
51
a
moves along a right-side guide-moving screw
53
in an arrow direction Tc, to thus moving also the right-side guide plate
51
linked to the linkage portion
51
a
in the arrow direction Tc.
When a left-side guide-plate moving motor
55
is driven, a linkage portion
54
a
moves along a left-side guide-moving screw
56
in an arrow direction Td, thus moving also the left-side guide plate
54
linked to the linkage portion
54
a
in the arrow Td direction. Thus, when the right-side guide-plate moving motor
52
or the left-side guide-plate moving motor
55
is driven, the book cover Q moves in the arrow Ta direction, to align the centerline of the back side Qa with that of the back side of the book block P sandwiched between the clamp plates A and Ac.
A reference number
57
represents a vertical guide plate for setting a top-and-bottom (vertical) reference position of the book cover, a reference numeral
58
represents a vertical guide-plate moving motor, and a reference numeral
59
represents a vertical guide-moving screw. When the vertical guide-plate moving
58
is driven, the vertical guide plate
57
moves from its home position in an arrow Tb direction. The vertical guide plate
57
, when the vertical guide-moving motor
59
is rotated in a reverse direction, returns to the home position. A reference numeral
60
represents a frame body for fixing the motors
52
,
55
, and
58
and a reference numeral
60
a
, a support portion for supporting a left-side moving screw
53
and a left-side guide-moving screw
56
.
The right-side guide-plate moving motor
52
, the left-side guide-plate moving motor
55
, and the vertical guide-plate moving motor
58
consist of, for example, a stepping motor. With this, a move is determined on the basis of measurement values of a width-wise size, a length-wise size, and a back-side centerline position of the book cover.
Also, as mentioned above, it is necessary to, corresponding to the thickness of the book block P, adjust the gap between the pair of clamp plates Ab and Ac of the processing starting unit A, the gap between the width adjusting plates Bb and Bc of the milling unit B, and the gap between the pair of the nip plates Db and Dc of the book-covering unit D, that is, it is necessary to adjust the respective width-adjusting portions of these units. The gaps of these members are adjusted either by the operator manually or by the motor, which is used to move these members over an appropriate distance.
Thus, the prior-art book binding system measures the thickness of the book block P and the size of the book cover Q at their respective predetermined portions, based on measurement values obtained by which are adjusted the respective width-adjusting portions of the processing units either by the manual operations or by the motor-driven operations. Also, by the motor-driven operations, the book-cover alignment mechanism is adjusted. In this case, in motor-driven adjustment, the operator would enter measurement values at the key-in portion of the controller device, thus setting a move.
Therefore, it is necessary to measure the size and adjust the respective width-adjusting mechanisms of the processing units or to enter necessary values for motor-driven operations, to increase working loads, thus problematically prolonging the time required in book binding.
Also, there may be some cases where a book is bound with the centerline of the book block back side as mis-aligned with that of the book-cover back side. In such a case of a failure in book binding, book covering must performed again in order that the centerline of the book-cover back side may agree with that of the book-block back side, which furt
Fukuda Shigenobu
Horii Yoshiyuki
Itadori Shozo
Takai Shinichi
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Carter Monica
HOrizon International Inc.
Wellington A. L.
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