JPS595078A - Paper feed control method of paper post-processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable to feed a paper by an appropriate quantity, by a method wherein pulses fed from a printer and an after-treating device are added to or subtracted from a stored value corresponding to the paper length from a printing position to a paper- cutting position, in an after-treating device for paper interlocked with a printer. CONSTITUTION:The leading end of a continuous paper 3 is matched to a blade 12 of the after-treating device 2, the paper 3 is set by suspending a predetermined length thereof at a paper buffer 9 so that a perforated line constituting a boundary between adjacent pages is located at a transferring point of the printer 1, and a value M0 corresponding to that length of paper is stored in a memory device provided in a controller consisting of a microcomputer. When the printer 1 and the after-treating device 2 are driven, a pulse H is generated by the printer 1 while a pulse B is generated by the device 2 for each predetermined paper length, MX=M0+H-B is calculated, and the device 2 is so controlled as to feed the paper 3 at a higher velocity when MX is larger than Mmax and at a lower velocity when MX is smaller than Mmin. Accordingly, the paper can be fed so as to provide an appropriate paper buffer amount, without lowering printing efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a paper feed control method for a paper post-processing device, and more particularly to a paper post-processing device (hereinafter referred to as The present invention relates to a paper feed control method for the BT8 (referred to as BT8).

Conventionally, there has been no system in which a printer that prints at a constant speed is linked with a BTS that cuts continuous paper at a specific location using a cut signal. In such a system, especially when the print operation is performed in negative units, the BTS also cuts the paper in page units.
Generally, when the cutting point is in a fixed position, a paper length adjustment section, a so-called paper buffer, must be provided in order to accommodate multiple paper lengths. A paper buffer is also required to allow the printer to continue printing as much as possible even if the BTS is temporarily stopped. However, if too much paper accumulates in the paper buffer, a paper jam will occur, and if there is insufficient paper, the paper will tear, so the paper buffer amount must always be controlled to stay within a certain range. In this case, in order to adjust the amount of paper buffer, it is possible to control the printer by starting and stopping the paper feed.
This causes a problem in that the printing efficiency of the printer decreases. On the other hand, the amount of paper buffer can be adjusted by stopping or moving the paper using the BTS, but such violent movements may damage the paper and cause problems such as increased power.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to reduce the printing efficiency of a printer.
And, to provide a paper feed control method for a paper post-processing device that can transport paper so that the paper buffer amount becomes an appropriate amount with little energy without giving a large impact to the paper on the BTS side.

In the present invention, the printer emits 1 pulse every time the paper is fed by a unit length, the BTS emits 1 pulse every time the paper is fed by the unit length, and when the paper is first set in the system, A numerical value MO corresponding to the paper length up to the paper cutting point of the BTS is stored in a storage element, 1 is added to the MO for each pulse emitted by the printer, and 1 is subtracted for each l pulse emitted by the BTS; As a result, when the value after the above processing becomes equal to or larger than the predetermined value hz, the BTS feeds the paper at a speed greater than the printing speed of the printer, and Mx reaches the predetermined value hn, which is smaller than MmnZ. The feature is that the paper is controlled to be fed at a speed smaller than VO when the speed is equal to or smaller than VO.

An embodiment of the method of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of a printer and a BTS, and the printer is an electrophotographic printer.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a printer that prints at a constant speed Vo, and 2 is a BTS that operates in conjunction with the printer 1. Continuous paper 3 passes through a tractor 4 of the printer 1, passes through a break heater 5, and is guided from a heat roll 6. The paper 3 passes through the roller 7, the drive roller 8, and reaches the paper buffer 9, and the paper 3 is slackened in the paper buffer 9 as shown in the figure.Then, the BTS 2
The paper 3 is initially set so that the leading edge of the paper 3 passes through the tractor lO, passes between the input rollers U, and comes to the blade rim. The printer 1 is shown as a laser printer, and is adjusted by turning the tractor 4 so that the perforation of the paper 3 is exactly at the transfer point 14 where the photosensitive drum B and the paper 3 contact. Therefore, when paper 3 is set, transfer point 1
4 and blade 2 (blade [is the tip of paper 3), the length of the paper in between is the same length as the perforations are evenly spaced (from the perforation to the next perforation). It is an integer multiple of the length (to the eye).

The tractor 4, the feeder bottle, and the feed hole of the paper 3 are engaged with each other, and the tractor 4 feeds the paper 3 at a constant speed during printing. The heat roll 6 and backup roll 6' are
The average value is controlled to accurately feed the paper 3 at the same speed as the feed speed (''/B) of the tractor 4.The guide roller 7 and drive roller 8 are rotated at a speed slightly faster than the normal paper speed. The tractor l must be operated so that the slack amount of the paper 3 in the paper buffer 9 is approximately constant as it is rotated with a slight slip between the paper 3 and the paper 3. This is an important point of the invention.

The input roller 11 is rotated so that its circumferential speed is completely the same as the paper feeding speed by the tractor 10. A gap is usually provided between the output roller 15 and its opposing roller δ', and the output roller 15 is rotated so that its circumferential speed is slightly faster than that of the input roller H. Therefore, if the rollers 15 and 15' are brought into contact with τ, the paper 3 will be pulled between it and the input roller 11, and the paper 3 will be cut at the perforation. This is done by the cut command in step 3. Since this control method is not the subject of the present invention, its explanation will be omitted.

Like the drive roller 8, the puller roller 16 is rotated at a peripheral speed slightly faster than the paper feeding speed. swing fin 17
is a moving paper guide for folding paper r.

Then, the folded sheets 3 are stacked on the stack table. p is the paper guide.

Now, the BTS tractor p and the input roller 11 must completely feed the three sheets of paper at the same speed, including the start and stop timings τ of the sheets of paper 3. Otherwise, paper 3 may be torn,
It gets wrinkled. In addition, the output roller b is also rotated in the same mode via the input rollers 1 and 1, but the speed increasing ratio τ is set so that the peripheral speed is 1.4 times faster than that of the input roller 11, for example. . Therefore, the input roller (1) and the output roller 15 may be driven by the same motor. Therefore, the load inertia of the motor is usually large (the inertia of the rollers is usually very large).

In order to reduce energy loss due to starting and stopping, it is better to accelerate and decelerate as little as possible, and to avoid stopping unless necessary. On the other hand, in printer 1,
For printing reasons, the tractor 4 is started and stopped suddenly. In this case, the load inertia is small, so it is quite possible.

If too many sheets of paper 3 accumulate in the paper buffer 9, so-called jams are likely to occur. There is still paper 3 in paper buffer 9.
If the slack disappears, the paper 3 will be torn. If the paper 3 is torn or jammed at a place other than the required location, this will be a serious problem for computer operations. In a normal laser printer, the paper speed during printing is a constant speed Vo (for example, 35
7B) prevents too much paper 3 from accumulating in the paper buffer 9 on the τ printer 1 side. K is the only way to stop the printing tray. However, this reduces printing efficiency. Therefore, in order to maintain an appropriate paper buffer amount without sacrificing printing efficiency, B
The paper speed can only be controlled on the TEI2 side. However, B
Control by start and stop on the TS2 side results in large energy consumption as described above.

Therefore, in the present invention, when a certain amount of paper 3 is accumulated in the paper buffer 9, the BTS (BTS) is moved at a speed slightly higher than the paper feeding speed o in the printer 1.
Gradually decrease the paper buffer amount, and when the paper buffer amount becomes smaller than a certain amount, the BTS (BTS) Completely synchronized operation with BTS2 is theoretically not impossible, but since the load on the drive motor of BTS 1O is large, perfect tracking is difficult and the control method becomes complicated).

As a method for monitoring the amount of paper buffer in the paper buffer 9, there is a method of determining whether or not the paper 3 blocks the light beam when the paper 3 slackens in the buffer 9. However, if the length is different, Since the length of the slack varies, it becomes uncertain. Therefore, the paper length at the time of initial setting is converted to the number of bits and preset in the counter, and each time printer 1 advances paper 3 by unit length, l is added, BTS tractor lO subtracts 1 each time paper 3 is transported by unit length, and the result is I was always monitoring whether the value of was larger or smaller than a certain value.

Hereinafter, the method of the present invention will be described in the case where it is controlled using a microconbeater. First, the continuous paper 3 is hooked onto the tractor 4 of the printer 1, and the paper 3 is sufficiently fed out, passes through the preheater 5, heat roll 6, roller group, paper buffer 9, passes through the BTS tractor, passes through the input roller 11, and is sent to the blade. Seratose the paper so that the leading edge of the paper is aligned.

Note that the transfer point 14 is arranged so that a perforation line serving as a boundary between pages of the paper 3 is located. In this way, the length of the paper 3 from the transfer point (printing position) 14 to the blade 12 becomes an integral multiple of the length. For example, the length is ll'' and the negative number is 8.
If it is a page, the paper length to be set will be . The amount of slack in the paper 3 in the paper buffer 9 can be measured on a page-by-page basis, but since there is a simple scale near the paper buffer 9, it is possible to know the amount of slack. ,
It is easy to always set the paper length to 8 bis, including the amount of slack. At this time, press the presell aJb'%4wJ button on the operation panel (not shown) to store 88 x2 = 176 in the memory. Here, this value is assumed to be M (MO does not necessarily have to be 176, but may be a certain constant value for each paper used). Then, the control circuit is kept in a standby state so that the BTS 2 can move at any time as long as the conditions for moving the BTS 2 (such as rotating the necessary rollers) are met.

In this state, if the start button on the operation panel of printer l is pressed, printer l will start printing. A circuit is provided that emits 1 pulse every time the paper 3 is advanced by 0.5 inch after printing is started, and this 1 pulse signal is named HLp.

There is also a BTS on the BTS2 side) Rakuta 10 receives paper 3 by 0.5
``A circuit that generates 1 pulse every time it is sent is provided, and this 1 pulse signal is named BHLp.

The control circuit includes Mz = Mo -1-HL, p -B
HLp (add 1 each time HLp comes, BHLP is 1
1 each time) is calculated. For example, an up-down counter is provided.

It is assumed that the paper feeding speed V of the printer 1 when printing is -3. Since BTS2 stops after the initial set, the job value increases little by little until it reaches a value larger than 176.
For example, MmtL reaches 198 (with this as the upper limit)
(expressed as χ). At this time, the control circuit instructs the paper feed motor of the BTS 2 to feed the paper 3 at a duck speed. Therefore, the pudding month is 3 yen and the paper is 3
, the M2O value decreases little by little until it reaches a value smaller than 176, for example, 154 (this is expressed as Mman as the lower limit). At this time, the control circuit again instructs the paper feed motor of the BTS 2 to feed the paper 3 at a speed of 3% of the paper 3. By controlling in this manner, the paper length from the printing position 14 to the blade 12 can be controlled to always be in the range of 154 to 198 pulses, that is, 7 to 9 pages.

Further, the printer l may stop printing due to a pause in information input or other reasons. At this time, the value of the job may be smaller than MmirtL. To prevent this, M
A value ML of L (Mm#z) is set, and when the group becomes smaller than Mj, a stop request signal is issued to the BTS tractor X.

Conversely, for cutting paper 3, or using the scatter table 1
When the BTS 2 is stopped due to the paper 3 being jammed at the paper buffer 9, if the printer 1 continues printing, the paper buffer 9
There is a possibility that the paper 3 overflows and the next time the BTS tractor 10 is started, the paper 3 interferes page by page, causing a jam. For this reason, we set a value Mu (Mu) Mm+zz,
When MZ becomes larger than Mu, a stop request signal is issued to the printer l.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the above control.

This control can be easily realized using a microcomputer. The process will be explained in more detail below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, as described above, with the perforation of the paper 3 located at the transfer point 14 and the paper 3 slackened by a reference length in the paper buffer 9, the paper 3 is moved so that the leading edge of the paper 3 is located at the blade n. The length of the paper 3 to be used is determined by a code generated from an encoder attached to a knob (not shown) that sets the width of the paper guide P, and the length of the paper 3 at the transfer point 14 is determined from the blade. The number of bits corresponding to (including the amount of slack of the paper 3 within the paper loose edge 9) is set in the memory by pressing the preset button on the operation panel. For example, if you use paper with a length of 8 and the paper length is 8
If it is a page, Aya=11×8×2=176 is stored, assuming that it is expressed by 1 bit per 0.5” length.

Next, first, start printing on printer 1, and
Then, every time 0.5 sheets are sent, 1 pulse (HLμ signal) is sent to the control circuit.

The control circuit monitors the HLp signal (step S 1 in Figure 2), and if there is an HLp signal, it moves to step S2, adds 1 to the memory bit number 4, and stores it in the original memory (this operation is (expressed as Mx = M +1).

Note that the BTU) controller 10 emits an l pulse (BHL, *signal) every time the paper 3 is fed by 0.5'', but at this time, the BTS) controller 10 is not moving, so there is no BHLp signal. .

Next, a value larger than 176 bits M−χ=176
14 = 198 (22 is 1IX2 when using 11" paper
= 22) and an even larger value Mu = 198 +
11 = 209 (value of 11 pages) x 2 = 1
1) (These values are stored in read, on-saw, and memory ROM). Also, a value smaller than 176 bits, MmL7L=: 176-22=154, is determined, and an even smaller value Mt,=154-11=14
3.

From the initial paper set state, the printer 1 sends paper 3, and the paper buffer amount gradually increases until the condition ≧Mrmz is satisfied.Every step after step S3 passes through the N (No) side of the decision symbol, and the control circuit It only increases the MoO value. Eventually, when the condition of 'Mix) M is satisfied, it passes through step 8130Y (YK8) and the BT day tractor loss is greater than the paper feed speed of printer 1.
Start feeding paper 3 at a slow speed, set flag F to IK, and send out the BHLp signal this time. Then, in step 84, the calculation =Mo-1 is performed. BTB The phantom speed of the tractor is greater than the paper feed speed of the printer, so
The paper buffer amount begins to decrease little by little. Therefore, MxO
Even if printer 1 continues to send paper 3, the number of pulses of the BHLp signal will be greater than the number of pulses of the HLp signal.
The value of k becomes gradually smaller.

Eventually 'us (MyyuyL&C, step S8
Set MZ<M to 1 and set it to F1120. Then, the paper buffer amount begins to gradually increase, and the MzO value also gradually increases. In this way, printer l prints paper 3
While continuing to feed paper 3 at a speed of 3%, the BT8 tractor group feeds paper 3 alternately at a speed of 34''/B and 3 widths, and the value of k changes between MrrLL?L and )Jmaχ. I will come.

Incidentally, the printer 1 may need to be stopped when there is no more print information.

In this case, the number of jobs may become even smaller than M-1. In this state, Mz (find ML, BTS) is stopped in step S5 (step 86).
. Then, printer 1 starts feeding paper again, and Mz (M
BTS) Rakta shouting will remain stopped until the maz condition is met.

Conversely, there are cases where it is desired to stop the feeding of paper 3 using BTB2. For example, when the paper 3 becomes a blade on the side of the stacker table, or when it is desired to cut the paper 3, the feeding of the paper 3 is stopped. In this case, Ma>Mu, which is found in step SIQ and a request to stop paper feeding is issued to printer 1 (Sterab sn).

According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the printer I can be operated without stopping as much as possible, so printing efficiency can be improved. Further, since the paper 3 does not suddenly start or stop at the BTB 2, it can be operated with minimum energy, and control can be performed using relatively simple logic.

Further, even if there are various paper lengths in use, the reference value can be set according to the paper length, so it is possible to control the paper buffer amount optimally for each paper.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the initial set value M,
For, Mmnx = Mo-1-22, MmQyh
== M, -22, MM == Mrna z +1
1, MI, = M-yh-11, but this value can of course be changed depending on the length of the paper used. is for M, 〉M,, MmLn':>k, Mll) M
nmz, ML (It goes without saying that any value may be used as long as Mmi=x is satisfied.

Also, set the paper feed speed of printer l to vo=35;/B1
BTS) Rakuta phantom fast forward speed 7LI = 36Q, slow forward speed vL = 3 Kita Toshitaka, vu) Vo, Wb
(It goes without saying that any value may be used as long as Vo is satisfied.

In addition, the number of memory bits when setting paper is set to 14 at the transfer point.
Although the paper length from the blade edge to the blade edge is twice that expressed in inches, the control is the same regardless of the number of bits representing the paper length, as long as it is greater than or equal to the amount of change in the minimum paper buffer amount.

In addition, although the pulse generation is performed such that one pulse is generated every 0.5'', the unit length of 0.5 is not limited to this.

Furthermore, although the explanation has been given on the assumption that the printer 1 is moved first at the start after the initial setting, the same control can be performed even if the BTS2 is moved first, or even if the printer 1 and the BTs2 are moved simultaneously.

Further, the paper feeding mechanism may be a roller or sprocket equipped with an encoder (including a drive motor).

In addition, the request to stop paper feeding to printer 1 and BTS 2 is made by looking at the value of k, but it is sent as soon as the conditions for starting the stop operation are met, regardless of the paper buffer size. It's okay.

As explained above, according to the present invention, the paper is transported so that the paper buffer amount is appropriate with less energy without reducing the printing efficiency of the printer and without giving a large impact to the paper on the BTS side. The effect of being able to do it is bad.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the printer and BT8, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of control processing of the portion related to the present invention in the microcomputer of the control circuit. 10. Printer, 20. BT8 3. , paper, 40.
Tractor, 90. Paper variation, loss 1. BTB) Rakta, Ni 0. Blade, side 0. stack table

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a system in which a printer that prints at a constant speed V and a paper post-processing device connected to the printer via a paper buffer work together, when paper is set in the initial position, Presetting a numerical value Mo corresponding to a paper length from a printing position to a paper cutting point of the paper post-processing device in a memory element, and adding 1 to the memory value of the memory element each time the paper is fed by a unit length in the printer; Each time the paper is fed by a unit length in the paper post-processing device, 1 is subtracted from the memory value of the memory element, and the memory value MZ of the memory element after each of the processes is equal to or less than a predetermined value Mmnz. When the size of M is larger than M, the paper post-processing device feeds the paper at a speed greater than the speed of M o.
, is equal to or still smaller than a predetermined value MmLn smaller than the hχ, the paper is fed at a speed smaller than the speed ■o, . λ The system issues a stop request signal to the printer when the value of the above becomes larger than a value Mu that is larger than Mmnz, and the system issues a stop request signal to the printer when the value of the above M becomes a value ML that is smaller than h 几. A paper feed control method for a paper post-processing device according to claim 1, wherein a paper feed stop request signal is issued at