Sealed letter forming apparatus

A sealed letter forming apparatus has a sheet feed unit containing an envelope sheet to be an envelope and a content sheet to be a content; a printer for printing on the respective sheets supplied from the paper feed unit; an enclosing and sealing unit for folding the respective sheets printed by the printer, and enclosing and sealing the respective sheets; and a controller to control the enclosing and sealing unit to stop the sealed letter forming processing when an error related to the envelope sheet or the content sheet in an n-th article occurs, and to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing a sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked by a user when the error is canceled. A sealed letter forming processing is performed on each article which is a combination of the envelope sheet and the content sheet.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Japanese Application No. 2011-091269 filed Apr. 15, 2011.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a sealed letter forming apparatus capable of automatically performing printing on an envelope sheet to be an envelope and a content sheet to be a content, folding the envelope sheet to form an envelope, and performing enclosing and sealing operation on the content sheet, folded in accordance with necessity, as a content, in the envelope, and more particularly, to a sealed letter forming apparatus capable of, in formation of a sealed letter, with a combination of an envelope sheet and a content sheet as an article (of mail), processing the envelope sheet and the content sheet in the same order by article and continuously processing a predetermined number of articles.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, as disclosed in the Patent Literature 1, an enclosing and sealing machine to take in a printed document from a tray type supply unit, fold the document, and perform enclosing and sealing is known. Since this enclosing and sealing machine directly encloses a document from a printer into an envelope and seals the envelope, it is appropriate to formation of a sealed letter requiring confidentiality of content such as contents-certified mail.

However, since the above-described enclosing and sealing machine lacks a mechanism used in combination with a printer, the confidentiality of an enclosed document is not complete. Then, an enclosing and sealing machine available in combination with a printer or a multi-function peripheral to attain high confidentiality is proposed as disclosed in the following Patent Literature 2. This enclosing and sealing machine has taking-in means for taking in a printed sheet discharged from print means, folding means for folding the sheet taken in by the taking-in means, enclosing means for enclosing the sheet folded by the folding means, by one to plural sheets as a unit, into an envelope, sealing means for sealing the paper-enclosed envelope, and conveying means for conveying the sheet among the respective means. Further, the taking-in means is attachable/removable to/from a paper discharge opening of the print means. Since this enclosing and sealing apparatus is used in combination with a printer or a multi-function peripheral, the process from printing on a sheet to enclosing and sealing can be performed at once.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

In sealed letter formation, when printing to enclosing and sealing are automatically performed, with the combination of an envelope sheet and single or plural sheet-type content sheets as a content as an “article (of mail)”, the envelope sheet and the content sheet are processed in the same order by article, and a predetermined number of articles are continuously processed (this will be referred to as a “Job”). That is, the “article” is a combination of envelope and content sheet, and the “Job” is a set of articles as a unit at execution of continuous sealed letter forming processing.

In the enclosing and sealing machine connected to a printer as disclosed in the above-described Patent Literature 2, the printer sends an envelope sheet and a content sheet into the enclosing and sealing machine in the order of articles. For example, when one article has an envelope and two content sheets, as the order of sheets sent from the printer, the first content sheet of the first article, then the second content sheet of the first article, then the envelope of the first article, the first content sheet of the second article, then the second content sheet of the second article, and the envelope of the second article (by the predetermined number set as a Job) are sent. In this order, there is no shift in the combinations between the envelopes and the content sheets.

However, upon occurrence of error such as paper jam, it is necessary to again perform printing on the article including the error-occurred sheet (envelope sheet or content sheet). This increases the possibility of shift in the combinations of envelope sheets and content sheets. Particularly, in an envelope without a window, it is difficult to check whether or not the combination is correct without opening the envelope to see the content. For example, in a sealed letter of an article, when there is a shift in the combination between an addressee and the content printed on the content sheet, shifts occur in the subsequent combinations between the envelope sheets and the content sheets. Accordingly, to prevent erroneous dispatch of erroneously-combined sealed letters, it is important to check the content of a sealed letter in an error-occurred article.

Note that when a print sheet sequentially supplied from the printer has not been detected with a sensor within a predetermined period calculated from the length of conveyance passage and conveyance speed, it is determined that a paper-jam error has occurred. The sheet detection sensor is provided in plural positions on the conveyance passage. Further, since the conveyance passage is sufficiently longer than the sheet length (the length in the conveyance direction), during printing, plural sheets exist in the machine. Accordingly, all the sheets upstream of a paper-jam error detection position are disposed, while at least one article having a correct set of sheets downstream of the paper-jam error detection position is subjected to normal printing, enclosing and sealing, and discharged as a sealed letter. An article in which sheets are not correctly set is disposed.

Further, the enclosing and sealing machine as disclosed in the above-described Patent Literature 2 lacks means for checking the combination of envelope sheet and content sheet(s) in an article following the error. It is troublesome to open an envelope to check the content upon each occurrence of error, accordingly, printing is often restarted, not from the error-occurred article, but from the beginning of the Job. However, this print restart increases the costs of the sheets. Especially the envelope sheet is expensive. It is desirable to avoid such wasteful disposal.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has an object to provide a sealed letter forming apparatus in which, when an error occurs in an article and the error is canceled, the sealed letter of the error-occurred article is made easily recognizable as a “sealed letter to be checked”, and the content of the sealed letter to be checked is made easily checkable, so as to prevent erroneous dispatch and reduce the costs of the sheets.

Solution to Problem

Next, means to solve the above-described problem will be described with reference to the drawings.

A sealed letter forming apparatus in a first aspect of the present invention is a sealed letter forming apparatus1comprising:

a sheet feed unit P (P1to P4) that contains an envelope sheet100to be an envelope and a content sheet50to be a content;

a printer2that performs printing on the respective sheets100and50supplied from the paper feed unit P1to P4; and

an enclosing and sealing unit3that folds the respective sheets100and50printed by the printer2and performs enclosing and sealing on the respective sheets,

wherein, with a combination of the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50as an article, sealed letter forming processing is performed by article,

the apparatus further comprising a controller that, when an error related to the envelope sheet or the content sheet in an n-th article (n is a positive integer) occurs, controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to stop the sealed letter forming processing, and thereafter, when the error is canceled, to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing a sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked by a user.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a second aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention,

wherein the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform sealing with a part of the content sheet50sticking out of the envelope sheet100.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a third aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect of the present invention,

wherein the controller90has checking mode selection means for selecting a checking method after cancel of the error, and

wherein in the checking mode selection means, when a first disposal mode is selected by the user, the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the sealed letter in the n-th article, and restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n-th article after checking the sealed letter in the n-th article by the user.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a fourth aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect of the present invention,

wherein the controller90has checking mode selection means for selecting a checking method after the cancel of an error, and

wherein in the checking mode selection means, when the user selects a reuse mode, the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing a sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, and restart the sealed letter forming processing from an n+1-th article.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a fifth aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention,

wherein, at execution of the sealed letter forming processing without sealing a sealed letter of the n-th article, the controller90controls the printer2to print disposal information on the envelope sheet100for the user to recognize that it is a sealed letter to be disposed.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a sixth aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect of the present invention,

wherein the paper feed unit P (P1) contains a sheet100acheaper than the envelope sheet100,

wherein the controller90has checking mode selection means for selecting a checking method after cancel of the error, and

wherein, in the checking mode selection means, when the user has selected the second disposal mode, the controller90controls the paper feed unit P1to use the cheap sheet100aas the envelope sheet of the n-th article at execution of the sealed letter forming processing without sealing a sealed letter of the n-th article, and after the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n-th article.

The sealed letter forming apparatus in a seventh aspect of the present invention is the sealed letter forming apparatus1according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, wherein the controller90controls the printer2to print a fold register line120on the cheap sheet100a.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, upon occurrence of a predetermined error such as paper jam in sealed letter formation, the sealed letter forming processing is performed without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th (n is a positive integer) article including the error-occurred sheet (envelope sheet or content sheet) as a sealed letter to be checked. With this arrangement, the sealed letter to be checked can be easily recognized. Next, the content of the sealed letter to be checked can be easily checked. More specifically, it is easily checked whether or not the envelope sheet and the content sheet correspond to each other, or whether or not printing on the content sheet has been correctly performed. Especially, since it is possible to check whether or not the envelope sheet and the content sheet correspond to each other, it is determined that the subsequent articles have no shift. This avoids a mistake of continuing the sealed letter formation without noticing a shift to end up in wasting sheets. Further, a user can continue his/her work in good conscience. Further, it is unnecessary to perform the sealed letter formation from the beginning of the Job again.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the second aspect of the present invention, since the content sheet sticks out of the envelope sheet in the sealed letter of the n-th article, this sealed letter to be checked is easily recognizable.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the third aspect of the present invention, a first disposal mode is selected to perform the sealed letter forming processing without processing the sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, then restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n-th sealed letter. Thus, even when the sealed letter of the n-th article is disposed, there is no shift in the Job.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the sealed letter forming processing is performed without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th as a sealed letter to be checked, then a reuse mode is selected to restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n+1-th article. This enables reuse of the sealed letter of the n-th article and reduces a waste of sheets. Thus the costs of the sheet can be reduced.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first disposal mode, disposal information is printed on the envelope sheet. Thus the user can easily recognize that the envelope (sealed letter) is a sealed letter to be checked.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the sixth aspect of the present invention, a second disposal mode is selected to perform the sealed letter forming processing, with the sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, then restart the sealed letter forming processing from the sealed letter of the n-th article, using a sheet cheaper than the envelope sheet as an envelope sheet of the sealed letter n-th article. Since the expensive envelope sheet is not used in the sealed letter of the n-th article to be disposed, the envelope sheets can be saved. Thus the costs of the sheets can be reduced.

According to the sealed letter forming apparatus in the seventh aspect of the present invention, in the second disposal mode, a fold register line for envelope formation is printed. With this arrangement, it is possible to check whether or not the envelope has been correctly formed. This avoids a folding error to waste expensive envelope sheets and reduces the costs of the sheets. Note that the folding error is caused by a shift of the folding position due to a change of a sheet conveyance amount by abrasion or swelling because rubber conveyance rollers are often used.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

Hereinbelow, an embodiment of the present invention will be particularly described with reference to the drawings.

The embodiment (sealed letter forming apparatus1) performs necessary printing on an envelope sheet100to be folded into an envelope by sealed letter to be formed and a single or plural sheets of content sheet50to be folded in accordance with necessity to be a content, folds them in accordance with necessity while conveying them in respectively different conveyance passages, finally to the same position, encloses the content sheet50into the envelope sheet100, then finally closes the envelope, and discharges it as a sealed letter to an upper part of the apparatus.

First, the shape and structure of the envelope sheet100used in the present embodiment, and an operation to fold the envelope sheet100into an envelope, enclose the content sheet50in the envelope and seals the envelope, thus forms a sealed letter, will be described. Note that the printing on the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50and the operation to enclose the content sheet50with the envelope sheet100are actually automatically performed by the sealed letter forming apparatus1to be described later.

FIG. 1Ashows a front surface (the side where an addressee is printed) of the envelope sheet100.FIG. 1Bshows a rear surface of the envelope sheet100. The envelope sheet100is a rectangular sheet including approximately the same shape of first sheet piece101, second sheet piece102and third sheet piece103partitioned with respective fold lines120.

As shown inFIG. 1, the front surface of the first sheet piece101corresponds to the rear side of an envelope on which a sender's name, address and the like are printed. The front surface of the second sheet piece102corresponds to the front side of the envelope on which an addressee is printed. Further, on the front surface of the third sheet piece103, remoistening adhesive110such as a gum Arabic adhesive in a band-shape pattern along a widthwise direction is provided in two positions inside the both ends in the widthwise direction and adjacent to the fold line120between the third sheet piece103and the second sheet piece102. The remoistening adhesive110provides attachment parts for envelope formation.

As shown inFIG. 1, on the respective rear surfaces of the first to third sheet pieces101to103, a pressure-sensitive adhesive111as another attachment part for envelope formation is provided in a band shape in a predetermined pattern along both ends in the widthwise direction. The arrangement pattern of the pressure-sensitive adhesive111is set such that when the respective sheet pieces are folded to form the shape of an envelope, the heat-sensitive adhesives111on corresponding sheet pieces are brought into contact in the same position.

In the envelope sheet100, i.e., the first sheet piece101, the second sheet piece102and a third sheet piece103, two perforated lines104, extending in a direction orthogonal to the fold line120, are provided at both ends in the widthwise direction, as an unsealing member. The completed envelope can be unsealed along any one of the perforated lines104. Further, in the envelope sheet100, in a region surrounded by the pressure-sensitive adhesive111and the remoistening adhesive110, the content sheet50is accommodated. The perforated line104is provided not to include the pressure-sensitive adhesive111and the remoistening adhesive110in the accommodation region.

After the printing of the addressee, the content and the like, the envelope sheet100is folded so as to enclose the content sheet50, thus an envelope is formed.

First, as shown inFIG. 2A, the third sheet piece103is overlaid on the rear surface side of the second sheet piece102, and the pressure-sensitive adhesives111on both the sheet pieces102and103are brought into contact.

Next, as shown inFIG. 2B, the content sheet50is placed on the front surface of the third sheet piece103. At this time, the content sheet50has a size to be accommodated in the accommodation region of the envelope. That is, the width of the content sheet50is smaller than the interval between the pressure-sensitive adhesives111printed at the both ends of the respective sheet pieces of the envelope sheet100. Further, the length in the longitudinal direction of the content sheet50may be any length as long as it is, as a maximum length, smaller than a size obtained by subtracting an about half length of the remoistening adhesive110in the same direction from the longitudinal length of the respective sheet pieces of the envelope sheet100.

In this manner, the folding of the content sheet50to a size storable in the envelope is attained by performing control by the folding means of the sealed letter forming apparatus1to be described later to fold the content sheet50in an appropriate position (preferably, a position appropriate to the size of an envelope150).

InFIG. 2C, water is applied to the remoistening adhesive110by water application means to be described later, then the rear surface of the first sheet piece101and the front surface of the third sheet piece103are brought into contact so as to attach the remoistening adhesive110to the rear surface of the first sheet piece101, and the respective pressure-sensitive adhesives111on the sheet pieces101and103are brought into contact. In this status, the envelope sheet100has a form of an envelope folded in three. The remoistening adhesive110and the pressure-sensitive adhesive111are not attached yet.

Then, through a process to pass the envelope through pressure rollers80to be described later so as to hold the pressure-sensitive adhesives111at the both ends of the envelope in the widthwise direction, the both ends of the respective sheet pieces are attached with the pressure-sensitive adhesive111. Further, through the process to hold and convey the envelope, the first sheet piece101and the third sheet piece103are folded in the longitudinal direction, thus a non-closed end is attached with the remoistening adhesive110. Thus a sealed letter in which the content is enclosed in the envelope is formed.

Next, the entire configuration and primary functions of the present embodiment (sealed letter forming apparatus1) will be described with reference toFIG. 3.

In the sealed letter forming apparatus1shown inFIG. 3, processing is performed by sealed letter to be formed. That is, necessary printing is performed on the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50as a paper sheet using a common printer2in an appropriate order. Then, after the printing, the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50are sent to an enclosing and sealing unit3, then conveyed on respectively different conveyance passages while the envelope sheet100is folded to the form of an envelope and the content sheet50is folded in accordance with necessity to have a size as a content of the envelope. Then finally, the both sheets are brought to the same position by the enclosing and sealing means, the content sheet50is enclosed in the envelope sheet100and the envelope is sealed, and the envelope is discharged as a completed sealed letter to the upper part of the apparatus.

As shown inFIG. 4, the sealed letter forming apparatus1has the printer2to perform printing on the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50and discharge them. The printer2has plural sheet feed trays P (P1to P4) as sheet feed units which can contain plural types of printing materials (the envelope sheets100and the content sheets50) inside or on the side surface of the case4accommodating the respective elements of the apparatus. In this embodiment, the envelope sheets100are contained in the sheet feed tray P1attached to the side surface of the case4, and the content sheets50, in respective sizes, are contained in the sheet feed trays P2to P4provided inside the case4.

The sheet supplied from these sheet feed trays P is sent from an introduction passage to a looped conveyance passage5and conveyed there, and an image is formed by print means arranged faced down at predetermined intervals along a lower half part of the conveyance passage5. In the present embodiment, as a print means, four ink-jet heads C, K, M and Y to discharge cyan, black, magenta and yellow color ink are arranged.

The looped conveyance passage5is branched to a first discharge passage6at a downstream adjacent part of the above-described print means to discharge the sheet to the outside the loop in an approximately horizontal direction. Further, the looped conveyance passage5is branched to a second discharge passage7at an upper half part to discharge the sheet to the outside the loop, and branched to a switch back passage8between the sheet feed tray P and the introduction passage. The switch back passage8receives the sheet conveyed on the conveyance passage5, then returns the sheet to the conveyance passage5, thus the switch back passage8reverses the sheet in the conveyance passage5. As the sheet surface is reversed and passed through the conveyance passage5twice, color image printing is performed to form color images on both surfaces of the sheet with the ink-jet heads C, K, M and Y.

The enclosing and sealing unit3, to receive and process the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50sent from the first discharge passage6of the printer2, and enclose the content sheet50in the envelope sheet100and seal the envelope, is provided at an adjacent position to the printer2.

The first discharge passage6of the printer2is projected to a horizontally extended outer part and introduced in a case9of the adjacent enclosing and sealing unit3. In the case9, a second conveyance passage20is branched from the discharge passage6diagonally downward, and its further downstream part is a passage11extended diagonally downward as one passage of a first conveyance passage10.

The one passage11of the first conveyance passage10is provided approximately in parallel to one passage21of a second conveyance passage20. The one passage11of the first conveyance passage10is a guide passage to convey the envelope sheet100to the folding means. The one passage21of the second conveyance passage20is a guide passage to convey the content sheet50to the folding means. The switching between the first conveyance passage10and the second conveyance passage20is performed with a switching flap15provided at a branch point between the first discharge passage6and the second conveyance passage20.

First folding means for folding the envelope sheet100and forming an envelope is provided at a terminal end of the one passage11of the first conveyance passage10. The first folding means is provided with a rotatable main folding roller A′, a sheet conveyance roller D′ and a first folding roller B′ to rotate in contact with the main folding roller A′. These rollers are rubber members, and the length in their widthwise direction is greater than the width of the envelope sheet100.

A conveyance passage13as the other passage of the first conveyance passage10is extended in an approximately horizontal direction while being curved upwardly, from a position between the main folding roller A′ of the first folding means and the first folding roller B′ in the first conveyance passage10. The terminal end of the other passage13of the first conveyance passage10to convey the envelope sheet100is introduced to the enclosing and sealing means to be described later.

The second conveyance passage20to convey the content sheet50printed with the printer2is provided inside the case9of the enclosing and sealing unit3. The second conveyance passage20is positioned lower than the first conveyance passage10, and is provided with one passage21to send diagonally downward the sheet sent in the approximately horizontal direction from the first discharge passage6of the printer2.

A sheet conveyance roller22and a matching unit23as an openable/closable gate are provided in the middle of the passage21. The conveyed sheet is held with the matching unit23closing the passage21, thus the sheets are stacked in the passage21. Further, the folding means for folding the sheet is provided at the terminal end of the passage21. The folding means is provided with a rotatable central main folding roller A, further, a first folding roller B, a second folding roller C and one sheet conveyance roller D are rotatably in contact with the main folding roller A. These rollers are rubber members, and the length in their axial direction is greater than the width of the envelope sheet100.

In the case9of the enclosing and sealing unit3, the second conveyance passage20has another passage26to convey the content sheet50folded by the folding means. The other passage26is merged with the other passage13of the first conveyance passage10in the enclosing and sealing means.

Further, a sheet passage detection sensor27is provided in plural positions of the first discharge passage6, the branch points of the first and second conveyance passages10and20, and the respective passages11,13,21and26.

Next, the enclosing and sealing means at the meeting point of the first conveyance passage10and the second conveyance passage20will be described.

The enclosing and sealing means has a function as second folding means for further folding the envelope sheet100in accordance with necessity. The enclosing and sealing means is enclosing means for enclosing the content sheet50in the envelope sheet100by matching the content sheet50to the folded envelope sheet100then further folding, and further has sealing means for sealing the envelope sheet100.

The enclosing and sealing means is provided with a rotatable main folding roller A″ as the second folding means, a sheet conveyance roller D″ and first and second folding rollers B″ and C″ rotated in contact with the main folding roller A″. These rollers are rubber members, and the length in their axial direction is greater than the width of the envelope sheet100. The envelope sheet100is folded by the above-described main folding roller A′ as the first folding means, the first folding roller B′ and the like in accordance with necessity, and further, sent to the main folding roller A″ as the second folding means or the like, and further folded before/after enclosing in accordance with necessity.

A passage46faced downward is provided between the main folding roller A″ and the sheet conveyance roller D″ of the enclosing and sealing means. In the vicinity of the passage46, water application means60is provided as attaching means to apply water to the remoistening adhesive110of the envelope sheet100to cause an adhesive force, and attach the envelope sheet100to form it in an envelope.

A passage47sloped diagonally front-upward is provided between the main folding roller A″ and the second folding roller C″ of the enclosing and sealing means. The passage47is provided with the conveyance rollers and pressure rollers80as the sealing means which is a part of the enclosing and sealing means along the conveyance direction of the envelope sheet100. The upper and lower pressure rollers80are provided as a pair, and hold and apply pressure to the both ends in the width direction of the envelope sheet100in which the content sheet50is enclosed from the upper and lower directions, to perform sealing with the pressure-sensitive adhesive111. The sealed letter formed by completion of sealing is discharged through the passage47onto a discharge tray48provided on an upper surface of the case9.

Further, as shown inFIG. 4, the sealed letter forming apparatus1has a controller90to control the entire apparatus including the first and second conveyance passages10and20in addition to the above-described printer2and the enclosing and sealing unit3. The controller90controls the folding positions of the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50, and the position of the content sheet50when enclosed in the envelope sheet100.

Further, as shown inFIG. 5, in the present embodiment, in sealed letter formation, when printing to enclosing and sealing are automatically performed, as described above, with the combination of the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50as an “article”, sealed letter forming processing is performed for each article. In the sealed letter forming processing, the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50are processed in the same order, and a predetermined number of articles are continuously processed. This is referred to as a “Job”. That is, the “article” means the combination of the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50, and the “Job” means a set of articles as a unit when the sealed letter forming processing is continuously performed at once.

As shown inFIG. 6, when one article has the envelope sheet100and two content sheets50, the order of the sheets sent from the printer2to be described later becomes as follows: the first content sheet50of the first article, the second content sheet50of the first article, the envelope sheet100of the first article, the second content sheet50of the second article, the second content sheet50of the second article, and the envelope sheet100of the second article . . . (hereinbelow, by the predetermined number of articles set as the Job). Generally, the combinations between the envelope sheets100and the content sheets50are not shifted.

However, as shown inFIG. 6, when an error such as paper jam occurs in the second content sheet50of the n-th article (the second article inFIG. 6), it is necessary to temporarily stop the apparatus to stop the sealed letter forming processing, then, when the error has been canceled, it is necessary to perform the sealed letter forming processing from the error-occurred article. Note that the alphabet “n” is a positive integer. In the present embodiment, in sealed letter formation, when a predetermined error such as paper jam occurs, the control means (controller90) controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th article to be checked by the user.

The controller90has checking mode selection means for selecting a checking method (checking mode) for the user to check whether the envelope sheet100and the content sheet50are correctly combined after cancel of the error. Note that the setting of the checking mode and the like are performed from a setting panel28as shown inFIG. 4. The setting panel28is provided on the printer2.

When the sheet passage detection sensor27has not detected passage of a sheet conveyed on the respective passages in the enclosing and sealing unit3, the sensor27outputs a signal to the controller90. The controller90receives the output signal from the sensor27, then performs the above-described checking mode. Note that as the paper jam error, it is determined that an error has occurred when the sensor27has not detected a sheet sequentially supplied from the printer2within a predetermined period calculated from the length of the conveyance passage and the conveyance speed.

Hereinbelow, a processing procedure to the checking mode by the controller90and a processing procedure of a checking mode selected by the checking mode selection means will be particularly described with reference toFIGS. 7 and 8.

As shown inFIG. 7, the controller90counts the sealed letter formation, i.e., the print, enclosing and sealing processing until the number of articles becomes a predetermined number set as the Job upon sealed letter formation (S1and S2). At this time, when a sealed letter is normally discharged (S3), the sealed letter is counted (S4). When the count value corresponds to the predetermined number of articles set as the Job (S5), the process ends. Note that at step S5, when the number of articles is not the predetermined number, the above-described processing is repeated until the count value reaches the predetermined number.

Further, at step S3, when a sealed letter is not normally discharged, the sealed letter forming processing operation including the printing is stopped (S6), and an error display is produced (S7). Thereafter, all the sheets remaining in the printer2and the enclosing and sealing unit3are discharged. When some sheets remain (S8), the error display is continued. When there is no remaining sheet (S8), whether to perform check printing not is selected (S9). At step S9, when it is determined not to perform the check printing, the processing is performed again from step S2.

At step S9, when the check printing is performed, the checking mode (S10) is performed. As shown inFIG. 8, it is possible to select processing from disposal processing (first disposal mode and second disposal mode) and reuse processing (reuse mode) by use of the checking mode selection means. The first disposal mode is to dispose the sealed letter of the error-occurred article. The second disposal mode is to change the envelope sheet of the error-occurred article to a sheet100acheaper than the envelope sheet such as a plain sheet and form an envelope. The reuse mode is to reuse the sealed letter of the error-occurred article.

When the checking mode selection means has selected the first disposal mode, the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the error-occurred sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, and to restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n-th article. The controller90controls the printer2so as to print disposal information, recognizable for the user as a sealed letter to be disposed, on the envelope sheet100.

In the first disposal mode, the disposal information, e.g., erroneous dispatch prevention printing is additionally performed, then the enclosing processing is performed (S11). Note that as the erroneous dispatch prevention printing, examples shown inFIGS. 9A to 9Cmay be used.FIG. 9Ashows an example of printing to fill a part to which a postage stamp is attached;FIG. 9Bshows an example of printing to add a cross-off line to an address and an addressee; andFIG. 9Cshows an example of printing to add a designed letter “SAMPLE”. When the above-described processing at step S11has been completed, the sealed letter forming processing is temporarily stopped (S12). At this time, when printing is correctly performed on the sealed letter to be checked, the sealed letter forming processing is restarted (S14) from the error-occurred sealed letter of the n-th article. Then the processing is performed from the above-described step S2. Further, if the printing has not been correctly performed on the sealed letter to be checked (S12), the printing is cancelled. In this case, there is a possibility of occurrence of a problem in e.g. the printer2.

In the checking mode selection means, when the second disposal mode has been selected, the controller90controls the sheet feed unit P to use the sheet100asuch as a plain sheet cheaper than the envelope sheet100at execution of the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th article. Further, the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to, after the execution of the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the error-occurred sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n-th article. In this case, the above arrangement is realized by previously setting one of the sheet feed trays P2to P4as a sheet feed unit to contain the sheets100a. Further, the controller90controls the printer2to print a fold register line120on the plain sheet100ato be used as an envelope sheet.

In the second disposal mode, printing is performed on the plain sheet100ain place of the envelope sheet100. At the same time, in printing, as shown inFIG. 10B, the fold register line120for formation of an envelope is added to the plain sheet100aused as the envelope sheet100(S21). Note thatFIG. 10Ashows a normally formed sealed letter (envelope150) as a comparative example. Then, when the processing at step S21has been completed, the sealed letter forming processing is temporarily stopped (S22). At this time, when the sealed letter to be checked is correctly printed, the sealed letter forming processing is restarted from the error-occurred n-th article (S24), to perform the processing from step S2. If the sealed letter to be checked is not correctly printed (S23), the printing is cancelled. In this case, there is a possibility of occurrence of another problem in the printer2or the like.

In the checking mode selection means, when the reuse mode has been selected, the controller90controls the enclosing and sealing unit3to perform the sealed letter forming processing without sealing the sealed letter of the n-th article as a sealed letter to be checked, and to restart the sealed letter forming processing from the n+1-th article.

In the reuse mode, the printer2performs printing, then the enclosing and sealing unit3performs enclosing of the content sheet50(S31). At this time, since the sealed letter is not sealed, a warning display indicating that the sealed letter is unsealed is produced (S32). This prevents erroneous dispatch of an unsealed letter. Thereafter, the sealed letter forming processing is temporarily stopped (S33). At this time, when the sealed letter to be checked is correctly printed (S34), the sealed letter is counted as a normal sealed letter (S35), then the sealed letter forming processing is restarted from the n+1-th article following the error-occurred n-th article (S36). Further, if the sealed letter to be checked is not correctly printed (S34), the printing is cancelled. In this case, there is a possibility of occurrence of another problem in the printer2or the like.

Further, in the present embodiment, in the respective checking modes, the envelop sheet100is ejected with a part of the content sheet50sticking out so as to easily recognize a sealed letter to be checked. As shown inFIG. 11B, in the sealed letter with a part of the content sheet50sticking out of the envelope sheet100, the attachment with the pressure-sensitive adhesive111applied in the widthwise direction of the envelope is not performed. Note thatFIG. 11Ashows, as a comparative example, a normally formed sealed letter in which the content sheet50is completely enclosed in the envelope sheet100. As shown inFIG. 12, with the content sheet50sticking out of the envelope sheet100, the sealed letter to be checked can be easily recognized even when it is mixed in normal sealed letters. This further infallibly prevents erroneous dispatch of a sealed letter to be checked (unsealed mater).

Next, a structure and a process for enclosing the content sheet50in the envelope sheet100with a part of the content sheet50sticking out of the envelope sheet100in sealed letter formation will be described with reference toFIGS. 13 to 14.

FIG. 13shows the enclosing and sealing process of the content sheet50in normal sealed letter formation. In normal sealed letter formation, first, the second folding means performs necessary folding on the content sheet50conveyed on the second conveyance passage. Note that in this example, the content sheet50is folded in three. Next, the content sheet50folded in three is held with holding rollers30, and subjected to positioning by moving the content sheet50in the widthwise direction to align a conveyance center line L to a proper position. The positioning is performed by detecting any one end of the content sheet50in the widthwise direction with a sensor31. Next, in the enclosing and sealing unit3, the positioning-processed content sheet50and the envelope sheet100conveyed on the first conveyance passage are brought to the same position, in which the envelope sheet100is folded so as to enclose the content sheet50, thus an envelope is formed. Further, at this time, the remoistening adhesive110applied with water by the water application means60is attached, and the envelope sheet100, with its both ends in the widthwise direction are opened, encloses the content sheet50. Finally, the envelope sheet100is held and conveyed with the pressure rollers80, thus the pressure-sensitive adhesives111applied at the both ends in the widthwise direction are attached, and an envelope is completed.

FIG. 14shows the enclosing process of the content sheet50in formation of a sealed letter to be checked in the checking mode (the first and second disposal modes and the reuse mode). In formation of a sealed letter to be checked, first, the second folding means performs necessary folding on the content sheet50as a paper sheet conveyed on the second conveyance passage. In this example, the content sheet50is folded in three. Next, the content sheet50folded in three is held with the holding rollers30, and the content sheet50is moved to shift the conveyance center line L in the widthwise direction by a predetermined amount as a line L′. Note that the movement at this time is not necessarily precisely performed. Next, in the enclosing and sealing unit3, the position-shifted content sheet50and the envelope sheet100conveyed on the first conveyance passage are brought to the same position, in which the envelope sheet100is folded so as to enclose the content sheet50, thus an envelope is formed. Further, at this time, the remoistening adhesive110applied with water by the water application means60is attached, and the envelope sheet100, with its both ends in the widthwise direction are opened, and with a part of the content sheet50sticking out of one end, encloses the content sheet50. Finally, the envelope sheet100is held and conveyed with the pressure rollers80moved in the widthwise direction, the pressure-sensitive adhesive111applied to both ends in the widthwise direction is not attached, thus a sealed letter to be checked with a part of the content sheet50sticking out is completed.

FIG. 15shows a process to reseal the sealed letter to be checked shown inFIG. 14after the content of the sealed letter is checked. In the sealed letter formation by the resealing, the content50, which partially sticks out, is pulled out of the sealed letter to be checked, then the content is checked. When the content is correct, the content sheet50is manually returned to the central portion of the envelope sheet100with both ends opened in the widthwise direction. Then the sealed letter is put into a resealing port32as shown inFIG. 3. Then the envelope sheet100is held and conveyed with the pressure rollers80, the pressure-sensitive adhesive111applied to both ends in the widthwise direction is attached, thus an envelope is completed.

Note that in the above-described embodiment, paper sheets are used as the content sheet50and the envelope sheet100. However, for example, a sheet roll may be used. In this case, upon each use, the roll sheet is cut in a necessary length and supplied.

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