Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into – within,... – Stack forming apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-24
2002-10-15
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into, within,...
Stack forming apparatus
C271S009110, C271S218000, C399S404000, C270S058030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464449
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper collating apparatus for stacking a plurality of types (contents) of paper in a predetermined order and for discharging them as a collated matter.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
is an overall perspective view of a collating apparatus.
FIG. 2
is a perspective view of the neighborhood of a stacker section of the collating apparatus.
In
FIGS. 1 and 2
, the collating apparatus is provided with a paper feed section
71
having a plurality of paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
arranged vertically and conveying many sheets
72
stacked on the respective paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
one by one at predetermined timing, a collating and conveying section (not shown) collating the plural sheets
72
conveyed from the respective paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
of the paper feed section
71
to provide collated matters
73
(shown in
FIG. 3B
) and conveying the collated matters
73
to a discharge section
74
, the discharge section
74
discharging the collated matters
73
conveyed from the collating and conveying section (not shown) to a stacker section
75
, and the stacker section
75
stacking the collated matters
73
discharged from the discharge section
74
.
The stacker section
75
has a paper discharge tray
76
provided at the falling position of the collated matters
73
discharged from the discharge section
74
, and a pair of side fences
77
and
78
positioned on both outer sides of the collated matters
73
discharged onto the paper discharge tray
76
and restricting an orthogonal direction to the discharge direction of the collated matters
73
. The widths of paired side fences
77
and
78
are variable according to the widths of the sheets
72
to be collated.
Also, the stacker section
75
is provided with sorting means
79
. This sorting means
79
consists of a fixed base tray
76
a
, a movable paper discharge tray
76
b
horizontally movable on the fixed base tray
76
a
, and a driving mechanism (not shown) applying a driving force to horizontally move the movable paper discharge tray
76
b.
With the above configuration, many sheets
72
sorted according to paper types are stacked on, for example, the uppermost paper feed table
70
a
to the lowermost paper feed table
70
j
, respectively. One unit of a collated matter
73
obtained by stacking sheets in the vertical order of these paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
will be described.
When a start mode is selected, respective sheets
72
from the uppermost paper feed tray
70
a
to the lowermost paper feed tray
70
j
are sequentially conveyed with predetermined timing delays. The conveyed sheets
72
are collated by the collating and conveying section (not shown) to thereby provide collated matters
73
. The resultant collated matters
73
are discharged to the stacker section
75
through the discharge section
74
. By executing the series of operations continuously, many collated matters of paper sheets
72
are stacked on the stacker section
75
.
In a normal mode, the movable paper discharge tray
76
b
is not moved and, as shown in
FIG. 3A
, the units of collated matters
73
are stacked without being horizontally offset with respect to one another. In a sort mode, on the other hand, the movable paper discharge tray
76
b
is moved horizontally in synchronization with the discharge timing of the sheets from the discharge section
74
and, as shown in FIG.
3
(B), collated matters
73
are horizontally offset and stacked according to units.
In the meantime, in the collation operation process stated above, there are cases where collation errors that the sheets
72
are not conveyed from one or more of the paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
(which state will be referred to as “empty feed” hereinafter) or where a plurality of sheets
72
are simultaneously conveyed from one or more of the paper feed trays
70
a
to
70
j
(which state will be referred to as “stack paper feed” hereinafter), may occur. Conventionally, if such a collation error is detected, the collation operation is automatically stopped at the detection point. This is designed to allow an operator to instantly recognize the fact of a collation error and recognize that an erroneously collated matter is sorted.
Nevertheless, according to the conventional collating apparatus, if a collation error occurs, the operator is required to remove an erroneously collated matter from the paper discharge tray
76
and to restart a collation operation. This follows that the operator is obliged to always monitor the collating apparatus and to be responsible for the removal of such an erroneously collated matter, if any, and for a restart processing of restarting the collating operation whenever a collation error occurs. This is disadvantageously inconvenient for the operator and working efficiency becomes disadvantageously lower.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to overcome the above-stated disadvantages. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a collating apparatus which does not require an operator to monitor a collation error and to conduct an error processing whenever a collation error occurs.
A collating apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a paper feed section, having a plurality of paper feed trays, for conveying a plurality of sheets stacked on the plurality of paper feed trays one by one at predetermined timing; a collating and conveying section for collating the plurality of sheets conveyed from the respective paper feed trays of the paper feed section to provide collated matters, and for conveying the collated matters to a discharge section; the discharge section for discharging the collated matters conveyed from the collating and conveying section to a stacker section; and the stacker section having a paper discharge tray for stacking the collated matters discharged from the discharge section, and is characterized by comprising erroneously collated matter selection and discharge means for discharging an erroneously collated matter so as to be distinguishable from other correctly collated matters when a collation error is detected during a collation operation.
According to this collating apparatus, if a collation error is detected, the erroneously collated matter selection and discharge means discharges the erroneously collated matter so as to be distinguishable from the correctly collated matters. Besides, the collation error can be recognized and the erroneously collated matter can be removed after the collation operation is completed for all collated matters. It is, therefore, possible to continue the collation operation without stopping the collation operation when a collation error occurs.
Here, it is possible to constitute the collating apparatus so that the collation operation is continued even after the erroneously collated matter selection and discharge means completes discharging the erroneously collated matter.
By doing so, the fact of the collation error can be recognized and the erroneously collated matter can be removed after the collation operation is completed for all of the collated matters without the need for an operator to conduct a restart processing of the collation operation when a collation error occurs.
Further, the erroneously collated matter selection and discharge means may be a pair of paper discharge wings each displaced between a wait position at which each of the paper discharge wings does not interfere with the collated matters discharged from the discharge section and an interference position at which each of the paper discharge wings interferes with the collated matters discharged from the discharge section and offsets a collated matter discharge direction almost in an orthogonal direction to the discharge direction, the paper discharge wings having opposite offsetting directions to each other, and the pair of paper discharge wings may stack the erroneously collated. matter while offsetting the erroneously collated matter with
Ellis Christopher P.
Heiman Lee C.
Mackey Patrick
Nath Gary M.
Nath & Associates PLLC
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