DEVICE AND METHOD FOR BUFFERING A PLURALITY OF GOODS OR GROUPS OF GOODS AND PAPER HANDLING SYSTEM COMPRISING SAME
A device for buffering a plurality of goods or groups of goods includes a buffer section configured to receive a plurality of goods or groups of goods. In addition, a buffer transport is provided, configured to move a good or group of goods at a buffer transport speed. A runout is configured to move out a good or group of goods from the device at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed. The runout is additionally configured to take over transport of a good or group of goods before the good or group of goods has reached an end of the buffer section.
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This application is a continuation of copending International Application No. PCT/EP2011/068354, filed Oct. 20, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and additionally claims priority from German Application No. 10 2010 043 063.3, filed Oct. 28, 2010, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONEmbodiments of the invention relate to processing goods or groups of goods, in particular to processing sheets which are processed within a paper handling system as individual sheets or groups of sheets.
Paper handling systems exemplarily serve for producing letters being sent to a plurality of recipients, using which telephone bills, bank statements or similar things are, for example, sent. Cover notes of this kind either include an individual sheet or a plurality of sheets which are then processed within the system as a group. The sheets processed by the system are then exemplarily introduced into an envelope by means of an inserter and sent to a recipient. In such paper handling systems, the sheets forming the plurality of cover letters are fed via one or several input channels, collecting the sheets of a group of sheets being necessitated before processing same together. The sheets may exemplarily be provided by a paper roll onto which the plurality of sheets have been printed before, exemplarily in a multi-up manner. The roll is then fed via the input channel and at first cut in a longitudinal and a transverse direction so as to generate individual sheets which are subsequently collected in a collection stage as individual sheets or groups of sheets. The speed at which the sheets of a collecting stage can be provided may differ depending on the speed at which same are moved out of the collection stage for being provided to subsequent processing, such as, for example, a folding mechanism.
Providing the buffer section 114 allows decoupling the processing speeds of the components arranged in front of the collection stage 104 from the processing speed of the components arranged after the collecting stage 104. This means that the input channel formed by the cutter and the merger 102 may operate at a basically constant speed, since the speed excess relative to the processing speed of the folding mechanism 106 is compensated by the buffer section 114. Conventional buffer sections 114 operate such that an individual sheet or group of sheets is deposited at the first buffer stage 116a and passes each individual buffer stage 116a-116I in correspondence with the speed of a buffer transport provided, irrespective of the filling state of the buffer section 114. When the group reaches the output of the buffer section 114, it is withdrawn.
The arrangement of a buffer is not limited to the configuration of a paper handling system as shown in
Different approaches for realizing a buffer within a paper handling system are known from conventional technology. EP 1 206 402 A and EP 1 206 407 A describe buffers which receive a plurality of sheets or groups of sheets in a shingled manner, and, in particular, approaches for accepting sheets or groups of sheets into such a buffer stage in a shingled manner, or withdrawing sheets of a group from such a buffer stage. EP 1 433 733 A describes a buffer transport system for an inserting system in which each buffer stage is formed by several pairs of rolls including associated sensorics so as to optionally provide a four-stage or six-stage buffer, depending on the format to be processed. EP 1 108 668 A describes a temporary storage for documents wherein continuous transport is provided for by belts by means of which documents taken over from a preceding component are moved through the buffer. A movable slide is provided for establishing a buffer section within the system. WO 2004/063071 A describes a buffer for receiving a stack of sheets wherein the sheets are deposited in a shingled manner and the entire stack is moved to the output for withdrawing a sheet so as to be able to withdraw a lower sheet from the stack.
EP 1 433 733 A relates to a flexible buffer transport system for buffering collected documents, the buffer being formed by a plurality of rolls and sensors which may each be controlled individually by special motors. Depending on the format to be processed, buffer positions are established using the controller and corresponding rolls are associated to the individual buffer positions and driven together. In a case in which there are no downstream documents within the buffer transport for a collected group, transfer of the collected documents to the transport of the following inserter takes place synchronously and depending on the availability of the transport of the following envelope. When there are one or several empty buffer positions in the direction towards the output, the buffer section in accordance with EP 1 433 733 A avoids passing all the buffer stages in correspondence with the buffer transport speed by moving on at the speed of the following component, however, the setup and control in accordance with EP 1 433 733 A are complicated with regard to both mechanics and controlling. In addition, this known buffer section does not allow a shingled arrangement of goods or groups of goods.
SUMMARYDeparting from this known technology, it is the object of the present invention to develop a buffer such that moving the group of goods or good out quickly is made possible such that unnecessary queue times, as may be found in the known technology in accordance with
According to an embodiment, a device for buffering a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets may have: a buffer section configured to receive a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets; a buffer transport configured to move an individual sheet or group of sheets at a buffer transport speed; and a runout configured to move out an individual sheet or group of sheets from the device at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed; characterized in that the runout is configured to act on an individual sheet or group of sheets at a last occupied position along the buffer section so as to take over transport of the individual sheet or the group of sheets before the individual sheet or group of sheets has reached an end of the buffer section.
According to another embodiment, a paper handling system may have: one or several handling stages; and at least one device as mentioned above for collecting individual sheets or groups of sheets.
According to still another embodiment, a method for buffering a plurality of individual sheet or groups of sheets in a buffer section for receiving a plurality of individual sheet or groups of sheets, a buffer transport moving an individual sheet or group of sheets at a buffer transport speed, and a runout moving out an individual sheet or group of sheets at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed, may be characterized by the following step: acting, by the runout for moving out, on an individual sheet or group of sheets at a last occupied position along the buffer section so as to take over transport of the individual sheet or the group of sheets before the individual sheet or group of sheets has reached an end of the buffer section.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the buffer section includes a plurality of successive buffer positions, each buffer position being configured to receive a good or group of goods. The buffer positions along the buffer section are set fixedly or are settable variably in dependence on a dimension (such as, for example, length) of the good to be buffered or group of goods to be buffered.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, a novel buffer device is suggested, in which, unlike in conventional buffers, a good or group of goods does no longer have to pass all the buffer positions in a buffer in correspondence with a buffer transport speed until finally withdrawal for further transport to a following component is achieved. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, this is achieved by the fact that each buffer position within the buffer device may still be occupied by a good or group of goods, however, in case that buffer positions remain unoccupied before the runout, a kind of “moveable” runout is provided which allows withdrawal of a good or group of goods from the last occupied buffer position without the good or group of goods having to pass each individual following empty buffer stage in correspondence with the clocked driving of the buffer transport. Exemplarily, when forming groups, the runout is moved to the last occupied buffer position to cause direct withdrawal for subsequent processing there, wherein this last buffer position is closer to the output of the buffer device with several successive small groups and closer to the input of the buffer device with several successive larger groups. However, a situation in which every subsequent buffer position is passed using the buffer transport is avoided, rather a finished collected group is withdrawn directly from the last occupied buffer position for subsequent processing. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, this is realized by a movable runout which is moved to the last occupied buffer position so as to accept a good or group of goods there. Alternatively, providing selectively connectable runout elements of the runout at predetermined discrete points may be provided, exemplarily a runout element may be provided at each buffer position such that, in case a central buffer position is the last occupied buffer position, the runout element associated to this buffer position and also all other runout elements associated to the subsequent empty buffer positions are lowered so as to allow contact to the good to be moved out so as to allow accelerated move out, irrespective of the buffer transport of the buffer device.
The known technology mentioned above in accordance with EP 1 433 733 A is based on an approach in which the concept of separating buffer transport and runout transport is abandoned and instead a plurality of individually driven pairs of rolls are used which allow the functionality of the buffer transport on the one hand and the functionality of the runout transport on the other hand by corresponding controlling. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, in contrast, the basic concept of a buffer as has been described referring to
In contrast to conventional approaches, the device in accordance with embodiments of the invention is of advantage finished collected goods/groups of goods may now be moved out rapidly since it is no longer necessary to pass the entire buffer section from one buffer position to the next in accordance with the buffer transport speed. In contrast to known technology, as is known from EP 1 433 733 A, the approach in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is of advantage since the functionality of the buffer device and corresponding elements, i.e. in-feed, buffer section and runout, is maintained in principle, whereas in accordance with the document cited a complete modification of the conventional buffer device is necessitated. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the control complexity is smaller since the basic controlling of the buffer section essentially remains unchanged and only corresponding control of the moveable runout is necessitated in order to cause early withdrawal of a group or individual good from a last occupied buffer position along the buffer section. In contrast to known technology, as is known from EP 1 433 733 A, the approach in accordance with embodiments of the invention is of further advantage since the goods or groups of goods may be accepted in the buffer section in a shingled or non-shingled manner.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the buffer may be part of a collection stage which will then be able to collect and buffer at the same time a plurality of goods or groups of goods.
In accordance with further embodiments of the invention, the buffer transport includes a first vacuum transport comprising a plurality of vacuum chambers which may be activated selectively, and the runout includes a second vacuum transport comprising a plurality of vacuum chambers which may be activated selectively, wherein one or several of the activated vacuum chambers of the first vacuum transport may be provided so as to define a position for receiving the good or group of goods. The first and second vacuum transports may be arranged next to each other or above each other.
Embodiments of the invention will be detailed subsequently referring to the appended drawings, in which:
Same elements or elements having the same effect are provided with the same reference numerals in the following description of embodiments of the invention.
An embodiment of the invention will be discussed below referring to
Additionally, the buffer stage 200 includes a runout 212 which in the embodiment shown is formed by a plurality of runout modules 212a-e. Each of the runout modules 212a-212e includes a carrier 214a-214e provided so as to carry a conveyer element 216a-216e. The conveyer element 216a-216e may be formed by a roll, two or several rolls arranged one after the other in the direction of transport of the good or group of goods, a belt or a roll of a D-shaped cross-section. In the embodiment shown in
The runout modules 212a-212e may be controlled individually so as to be moved vertically between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the runout module 212 is arranged such that the associated conveyer element 216a does not engage the individual sheet or group of sheets arranged within the buffer, as is exemplarily shown in
As has been mentioned, in the embodiment illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
It is to be pointed out here that, using
The buffer transport 209 may be the pliers transport shown in
As can be seen from
Another embodiment of the invention wherein the runout 212 includes a plurality of runout modules, similarly to
In the example shown in
Another embodiment of the invention will be described below referred to
An embodiment of the invention for realizing the moveable runout 212 in accordance with
The runout 212 includes a top belt transport 236 and a bottom belt transport 238. The top belt transport 236 includes a first return roll 240 and a second return roll 242 for guiding a top transport belt 244. The top belt transport additionally includes the moveable runout module 230 which is arranged to be moveable along the direction of transport of the goods 210, as is illustrated by the arrow 231. The sled 230 includes a carrier structure 232 where the conveyer element 234 is arranged so as to allow rotational movement. In addition, the carrier structure 232 carries two return rolls 246 and 248 which are arranged one behind the other in a spaced-apart manner in the direction of transport. The transport belt of the top belt transport 236 is received by the return rolls such that the first return roll 246 receives the belt 244 at a position spaced apart from the buffer transport 204. The belt 244 extends between the two return rolls 246 and 248 such that the second return roll 248 guides the belt at a lower portion neighboring to the buffer section 204. The first roll 240 of the top belt transport 236 has greater a diameter than the second roll 242 such that the belt is guided between the second return roll 248 and the first roll 240 of the belt transport 236 neighboring to the buffer transport 240 such that the belt engages a good or group of goods as is shown in
The conveyer element 234 is a roll element having a D-shaped cross-section (D roll) which is actuated when reaching a desired withdrawal position of the sled so as to catch a sheet at the position, exemplarily sheet 210 at the position 206j, or the, in the direction of transport, front edge thereof and introduce same by a rotation between the belt 240 of the top belt transport and a belt 252 of the bottom belt transport 238 so as to allow removal at the withdrawal speed. The bottom belt transport also includes two rolls 254 and 256 over which the bottom belt 252 is guided. By the cooperation of the two belts 252 and 244 in the portion behind the sled 230 in the direction of transport, withdrawal of the sheets or groups of sheets introduced in this region is allowed at the desired removal speed.
Depending on which of the positions 207 shown in
An embodiment in which the runout transport includes the withdrawal roll and the belt transport has been described in
The buffers described using
In the embodiments described before, it has been explained that the goods or groups of goods are arranged in a shingled manner, however, the invention is not limited to such a kind of buffering. Rather, compartments for taking up goods or groups of goods in a non-shingled manner may also be provided in the buffer.
An embodiment of an in-feed mechanism in accordance with embodiments of the invention will be described below making reference to
The mode of functioning of the in-feed described using
With small groups, the buffer is filled quicker than emptied. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the runout travels in the direction of the folding mechanism, together with the buffer. With larger groups, the runout proceeds in the direction of the collecting stage and empties the buffer continuously. An intelligent controller provides for the buffer to be filled in correspondence with the collecting amount. When the buffer reaches its filling limit, the speed of the previous component has, of course, to be reduced.
The runout may pass on groups with a small distance between goods, thereby allowing a folding mechanism, for example, to be used optimally, wherein at the same time the transport speed of the folding mechanism may be reduced.
With unpaired goods, i.e. when receiving two sheets 296 and 298 which belong to different groups to be collected, the lateral guidings are rotated only by 90°. The bottom sheet is placed with its group on the buffer, the top sheet is given from the top to the bottom guiding rail. A maximum of two sheets are collected in the bottom guiding rail. When being transported to the buffer, the sheets are deposited by the lateral guidings such that no additional vibration is necessary. Thus, rotation of the guidings by an angle of, for example, 90° causes the good 296 contained in the first pair of chambers 302a, 302b to be deposited at the first buffer position and the first pair of chambers 302a, 302b to be moved from the bottom position (exemplarily to the top position). At the same time, the second pair of chambers 300a, 300b with the good (298) contained therein is moved to the bottom position.
It is pointed out here that more than two pairs of chambers which may be moved through different positions by a suitable mechanism may also be provided such that one or several of the chambers are discharged at the first buffer position, depending on the movement.
Instead of the in-feed described using
The buffer section 400 shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The functionality of the buffer section 400 described using
The bottom transport 408 is responsible for the good or group of goods to be output. In order to cause moving out of a group of goods or a good, the vacuum chambers 414d of the bottom transport necessitated for this, in this case the five vacuum chambers to the right, are activated.
The top and bottom vacuum chambers 412d and 414d are controlled synchronously in correspondence with the position and length of the good running out. The arrow 418 in
An embodiment in which the transports 412 and 414 are arranged one above the other is shown in
Although some aspects have been described in connection with a device, it is to be understood that these aspects also represent a description of a corresponding method such that a block or element of a device is also to be interpreted to be a corresponding method step or characteristic of a method step. In analogy, aspects having been described in connection with a method step or as a method step, also represent a description of a corresponding block or detail or characteristic of a corresponding device.
While this invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which will be apparent to others skilled in the art and which fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A device for buffering a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets, comprising:
- a buffer section configured to receive a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets;
- a buffer transport configured to move an individual sheet or group of sheets at a buffer transport speed; and
- a runout configured to move out an individual sheet or group of sheets from the device at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed;
- wherein
- the runout is configured to act on an individual sheet or group of sheets at a last occupied position along the buffer section so as to take over transport of the individual sheet or the group of sheets before the individual sheet or group of sheets has reached an end of the buffer section.
2. The device in accordance with claim 1, comprising a sensor circuit configured to detect a position of an individual sheet or group of sheets along the buffer section.
3. The device in accordance with claim 2, wherein the buffer section comprises a plurality of successive buffer positions, each buffer position being configured to receive an individual sheet or group of sheets, and wherein the sensor circuit comprises a plurality of sensors, at least one sensor each being associated to a buffer position so as to determine whether the buffer position is occupied or unoccupied,
- wherein the runout is configured to determine, based on the sensor signals, the buffer position along the buffer section where the runout takes over transport of an individual sheet or group of sheets.
4. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the buffer transport comprises pliers transport or stud transport, wherein the pliers or studs of the buffer transport comprise fixed distances to one another in correspondence with the distance of buffer positions along the buffer section.
5. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the buffer transport and the runout each comprise different transport elements.
6. The device in accordance with claim 5, wherein the buffer transport comprises a pliers transport or stud transport, and wherein the runout comprises a roll or belt transport.
7. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the buffer section comprises a plurality of successive buffer positions, each buffer position being configured to receive an individual sheet or group of sheets, and wherein the runout comprises a plurality of runout modules, a runout module each being associated to a plurality of buffer positions starting from a last buffer position along the buffer section, each module being actuatable selectively for engaging a buffered individual sheet/buffered group of sheets at a buffer position, and the runout modules between an output of the device and the last occupied buffer position along the buffer section being actuated so as to move out an individual sheet or group of sheets from this device.
8. The device in accordance with claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of runout modules comprises a conveyer element, the conveyer element being arranged to be displaced between a first position and a second position, the conveyer element in the first position not engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets, and the conveyer element in the second position engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets.
9. The device in accordance with claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of runout modules comprises a conveyer element arranged at a fixed position, the conveyer element being implemented to be rotated between a first position and a second position when being actuated, the conveyer element in the first position not engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets, and the conveyer element in the second position engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets.
10. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the buffer section comprises a plurality of successive buffer positions, each buffer position being configured to receive an individual sheet or group of sheets, and wherein the runout comprises a moveable runout module configured to be moved to the last occupied buffer position along the buffer section for taking over transport of the sheet or group of sheets comprised therein.
11. The device in accordance with claim 10, comprising:
- a belt transport comprising a belt extending from an inlet of the buffer section to an outlet of the buffer section,
- wherein the moveable runout module comprises: a conveyer element moveable between a first position and a second position, the conveyer element in the first position not engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets, and the conveyer element in the second position engaging an individual sheet or group of sheets; and a pair of rolls receiving the belt of the belt transport such that the belt does not engage the individual sheet or group of sheets in front of the moveable runout module in the direction of transport of the individual sheet or group of sheets and engages an individual sheet or group of sheets after the moveable runout module in the direction of transport, wherein the conveyer element is operative to engage an individual sheet or group of sheets using the belt of the belt transport.
12. The device in accordance with claim 11, wherein the conveyer element is arranged for being shifted or rotated between the first position and the second position.
13. The device in accordance with claim 8, wherein the conveyer element comprises a roll, two or more rolls arranged one behind the other in the direction of transport of the individual sheet or group of sheets, a belt or a roll comprising a D-shaped cross-section.
14. The device in accordance with claim 1, comprising:
- an in-feed configured to feed an individual sheet or group of sheets to the buffer section,
- wherein the in-feed comprises a drive for transporting an individual sheet or group of sheets, and a pair of lateral guidings,
- wherein each of the lateral guidings comprises at least two chambers which define pairs of chambers for receiving each at least one sheet, a first pair of chambers being arranged at a bottom position neighboring to the buffer section, and a second pair of chambers being arranged at a top position spaced apart from the buffer section,
- wherein the guidings are arranged rotatably and are controllable so as to cause rotation by a first angle or by a second angle,
- wherein the rotation by the first angle causes both goods from both pairs of chambers to be fed to the buffer section, and
- wherein a rotation by the second angle causes the sheet comprised in the first pair of chambers to be fed to the buffer section and the first pair of chambers to be moved from the bottom position, and the second pair of chambers, with the sheet comprised therein, to be moved to the bottom position.
15. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein:
- the buffer transport comprises a first vacuum transport comprising a plurality of selectively activatable vacuum chambers, and
- the runout comprises a second vacuum transport comprising a plurality of selectively activatable vacuum chambers.
16. The device in accordance with claim 15, wherein receiving of the individual sheet or group of sheets is caused by one or several of the activated vacuum chambers of the first vacuum transport.
17. The device in accordance with claim 15, wherein the first and second vacuum transports are arranged next to each other or above each other.
18. The device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the buffer section is configured to receive the sheets or group of sheets in a shingled or non-shingled manner.
19. A paper handling system comprising:
- one or several handling stages; and
- at least one device for buffering a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets, comprising: a buffer section configured to receive a plurality of individual sheets or groups of sheets; a buffer transport configured to move an individual sheet or group of sheets at a buffer transport speed; and a runout configured to move out an individual sheet or group of sheets from the device at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed; wherein the runout is configured to act on an individual sheet or group of sheets at a last occupied position along the buffer section so as to take over transport of the individual sheet or the group of sheets before the individual sheet or group of sheets has reached an end of the buffer section for collecting individual sheets or groups of sheets.
20. The paper handling system in accordance with claim 19, wherein the handling stages comprise a cutter, a merger and a folding mechanism,
- wherein the device for collecting the individual sheets or groups of sheets is arranged between the merger and the folding mechanism.
21. A method for buffering a plurality of individual sheet or groups of sheets in a buffer section for receiving a plurality of individual sheet or groups of sheets, a buffer transport moving an individual sheet or group of sheets at a buffer transport speed, and a runout moving out an individual sheet or group of sheets at a runout speed which is higher than the buffer transport speed;
- comprising:
- acting, by the runout for moving out, on an individual sheet or group of sheets at a last occupied position along the buffer section so as to take over transport of the individual sheet or the group of sheets before the individual sheet or group of sheets has reached an end of the buffer section.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 29, 2013
Publication Date: Sep 12, 2013
Applicant: BOEWE SYSTEC GmbH (Augsburg)
Inventor: Reinhard SEILER (Aindling)
Application Number: 13/872,749
International Classification: B65H 5/00 (20060101);