Printing machine for booklet-like medium

Details Printing machine for booklet-like medium Printing machine for booklet-like medium

2002-02-28

2003-10-14

Colilla, Daniel J. (Department: 2854)

Typewriting machines

For typing on flat record-medium or against flat platen

For typing on a book

C400S027000, C400S024000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06632034

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing machine for booklet-like medium, such as a pocketbook, a diary and a book, which has a plurality of sheets (paper sheets, etc) that are bound at a bound portion.
A prior art printing machine for booklet-like medium is shown in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 9-300773, which is shown in FIG.
1
. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the printing machine
100
for booklet-like medium is shown as including a booklet rest table
102
on which a booklet
101
, which is centrally unfolded at a bound portion
101
b,
is placed to allow both sheets
101
a,
101
a
of pages to be printed to serves as respective upper surfaces, four sets of upper and lower roller pairs
103
a,
103
b
which move the booklet
101
, which is placed on the booklet rest table
102
, in an auxiliary scanning direction A
2
, and a print head
105
which is located above the booklet rest table
102
and is guided with guide shafts
104
to be movable in a main scanning direction A
1
. And, the print head
105
is positioned at a print start-up position and is moved in the main scanning direction A
1
to implement printing at a first line. Upon completion of the printing at the first line, the print head
105
is moved in the auxiliary scanning line by a given amount to perform printing at a second line, with such printing operations being repeatedly carried out in a sequence for thereby performing printing operation on the both sheets
101
a,
101
a
of the pages to be printed.
By the way, with such a booklet
101
having the plurality of sheets bound at the bound portion
101
b,
when the bound portion
101
b
is centrally unfolded in both sides at a boundary between the both sheet of the pages to be printed, right and left volumes in thickness differ from one another depending on the number of sheets which are divided in right and left areas, with a resultant variation in height position of the pages to be printed.
On one hand, the print head
105
encounters a difficulty in implementing favorable printing unless the print head
105
is located in a given positional relationship with respect to the sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed regardless of the print head
105
being composed of the contact type or non-contact type. For this reason, the prior art printing machine includes a thickness detection means
106
for detecting the thickness of the booklet
101
, whose sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed is opened, to produce a detected result based on which the height of the print head
105
is adjusted for thereby maintaining the print head
105
and the sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed in a given positional relationship, and a height adjusting means for maintaining the height of the booklet
101
, whose sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed is opened, at a given fixed level by adjusting the height of the booklet for thereby maintaining the print head
105
and the sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed in a given positional relationship.
Also, similar technologies related to the above prior art practice are disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-25093, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-25747 and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-156352.
However, such a prior art printing machine
100
for the booklet-like medium encounters an issue wherein there is a need for providing various detection means and adjusting means responsive to these detection means for maintaining the print head
105
and the sheet
101
a
of the page to be printed.
Another issue is encountered in such a prior art practice in that when the booklet
101
is centrally unfolded in both sides at the bound portion
101
b
with respect to a boundary between the both sheets
101
a,
101
a
of the pages to be printed, both sheets
101
a,
101
a
of the pages to be printed normally tend to have respective curved regions in the vicinity of the bound portion
101
b
where deformations in printing are induced. Particularly, in an event that the booklet has a large number of sheets
101
a
that are bound and the sheets
101
a
lack firmness, large curved areas are formed over extended regions when the bound portion
101
b
is centrally unfolded in both sides, resulting in an extremely deteriorated repeatability in printing and, in some cases, resulting printed result which is of no value as a printed product.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to address the above issues and has an object of the present invention to provide a printing machine for a booklet-like medium which is able to perform printing operation in an appropriate printing condition regardless of a difference in right and left volumes of thickness occurring when a bound portion of the booklet-like medium is centrally unfolded without causing a sheet of a page to be printed from being formed with a curved surface.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing machine, for booklet-like medium, which has a booklet resting surface to which a sheet insertion passage is opened, which comprises a booklet pressing unit for pressing the booklet-like medium, which is centrally unfolded on the booklet resting surface at a bound portion with a sheet, of a page to be printed, that is inserted to the sheet insertion passage, against the booklet resting surface; a print page positioning unit for positioning the sheet, of the page to be printed and inserted through the sheet insertion passage, at a given print position; and a print head section for printing on at least one surface of the sheet, of the page to be printed, which is positioned with the print page positioning unit.
With such a printing machine for the booklet-like medium, although there is a condition where different volumes of thickness are obtained in dependence on the number of sheets divided into right and left sides when the bound portion of the booklet-like medium is centrally unfolded at a boundary of a sheet of a page to be printed, the booklet-like medium, which is unfolded in both sides, is pressed against the booklet resting surface with the booklet pressing unit and, also, only the sheet of the page to be printed is inserted through the sheet insertion passage to allow the inserted sheet to be positioned with the print page positioning unit whereby, when the bound portion is centrally unfolded at the boundary of the sheet of the page to be printed, the printing operation is performed under a condition wherein the sheet is positioned in a fixed place with the print page positioning unit without being adversely affected with the volumes of the thickness of the sheets or the curved surfaces thereof.
A second aspect of the present invention relates to the printing machine for booklet-like medium according to the first aspect of the present invention and features that the booklet pressing unit serves to press a backbone of the booklet-like medium against the booklet resting surface.
Such a printing machine for booklet-like medium has, in addition to the function of the first aspect of the present invention, the bound portion of the booklet-like medium is directly exerted with the press force of the booklet pressing unit in a direction toward the booklet resting surface, enabling the bound portion to be pressed against the booklet resting surface to be closer thereto in an effective manner with a weak magnitude of press force.
A third aspect of the present invention relates to a printing machine for booklet-like medium and characterize that the print head section includes a pair of print heads located at both sides of the sheet, of the page to be printed and inserted through the sheet insertion passage, respectively, for performing a double-sided printing operation; and the print page positioning unit includes a pair of sheet pressing members which are movable in an interlocking relationship with the pair of print heads movable in an auxiliary scanning direction, and which serve to pinch the sheet at areas upstream of the auxiliary scanning dire

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