Continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus

Abstract: A continuous paper sheet having a plurality of trans­ versal perforation lines and a plurality of holes formed in the longitudinal margines of the paper sheet. The paper sheet is torn by means of two pairs of nipping rollers in­ cluding a pair of the upper and the lower feed-in rollers (26a,26b) and another pair of the upper and the lower pulling rollers (27a,27b). The pulling rollers of the latter pair rotate higher than that of the feed-in rollers of the former pair so that the part of the sheet placed between the former pair of rollers and the latter pair of rollers are pulled or given tension, being torn and separated. After the continuous paper sheet is con­ firmed that it is placed on a stand at the predetermined position, the width or distance of the continuous paper sheet folded is measured. The resultant of measurement is compared to the standard sizes previously inputted in a CPU in order to correct it to the approximate standard size. According to the corrected standard size and the sheet thickness separately measure, the tearing-up operation of the pairs of the feed-in rollers and of the high speed or pulling rollers is controlled in order to give the continuous paper sheet a difference in transferring speed and to tear-up the sheet at the predetermined position of the sheet.

Description: The present invention relates to a continuous paper sheet tearing-up or cutting apparatus provided with a pair of feed rollers constituted by an upper feed roller and a lower feed roller, and another pair of high-speed rollers, comprising a upper roller and a lower roller, which rotates at a rotary speed higher than that of the feed rollers, so that the difference between the speeds of continuous paper sheet as between the feed pair and the high-speed pair tears the paper sheet. According to one type of conventional paper tearing-up apparatus, the continuous paper sheet is always held or nipped by the feed rollers and the high speed rollers. Another type of conventional apparatus holds or nips the continuous paper sheet only at the instant of tearing-up. Typically, the pair of feed roller always holds the continuous paper sheet and the pair of high speed rollers nips the sheet only at the instant of tearing-up. The present invention is concerned with improvement in the conventional continuous paper tearing-up apparatus of the latter type and with the modification of the apparatus necessary therefore. In such conventional apparatus a paper sheet transfer means such as a tractor or the like is installed. The distance between the feed-rollers and the high speed rollers, in the sheet transfer or feeding direction, is not changed. The vertical approaching function of the feed rollers and the high speed rollers, to tear-up the continuous paper sheet, operates at the instant that the size of the sheet to be torn corresponds to the length of the paper sheet fed through the transfer device. However, it is necessary precisely to control the separating operating of the pairs of rollers in accordance with the length or volume of the paper sheet fed by the transfer mechanism, and to measure precisely the cutting or tearing-up size of the continuous paper sheet in order to fix the timing of a separation function. It is difficult to control precisely the parting operation of the pairs of rollers in accordance with the particular tearing-up size of the paper sheet. EP-A-134714 describes such an apparatus in which the length of the paper sheet fed through the transfer means is input manually by the operator. This is inconvenient, and it is desired to alternate the length measurement step. In addition, when the thickness of the continuous paper sheet changes, the gaps between the upper rollers and the lower rollers correspondingly increases or decreases so that it has been difficult to tear-up the continuous paper sheet at the precise position of the sheet, even when the separation of both pairs of rollers is correctly carried out. When the tearing-up size of the continuous paper sheet is measured and the sheet is set incorrectly on the sheet measurement mechanism, it is impossible precisely to measure the tearing-up size. If the tearing-up position of the paper sheet is determined according to the wrong measurement even precise control of the parting function of each pair of rollers does not enable an operative to tear up the paper sheet at its correct position. Summary of the Invention The present invention sets out to solve the shortcomings in such conventional continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus. It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus permitting accurate measurement of the tearing-up size of the continuous paper sheet and controlling the parting operation of the respective pairs of rollers. A second objective is to provide a continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus in which the respective gaps between the upper and the lower feed rollers, at the instant of tearing-up, can be pre-set. A third objective is to provide a continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus permitting correction of any error in the tearing-up size of the sheet paper. A fourth objective is to provide a continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus which permits measurement of the tearing-up size only when the paper sheet is correctly set at its predetermined position. A fifth objective to provide a compact continuous sheet tearing-up apparatus enabling a correct tearing-up operation. In one aspect the invention consists in apparatus for tearing off unit sheets from a continuous sheet having unit sheets separated by perforation lines transversely on the continuous sheet and in which the continuous sheet is in a zig-zag form constituting a stack of unit sheets, said apparatus comprising: a pair of feeding rollers constituted by an upper rotatable feeding roller, and a lower rotatable feeding roller. a pair of high speed rollers constituted by an upper high speed roller and a lower high speed roller, said pair of high speed rollers being spaced in a paper feed direction from said pair of feeding rollers, the rollers in said pairs being relatively movable toward and away from each other in mutual separating and approaching directions transversely of said paper feed direction; drive means for driving said feeding rollers and said high speed rollers and driving said high speed rollers at a speed greater than said feeding rollers; a blade positioned between said pairs of feeding rollers and high speed rollers; roller gap adjusting means connected to said pairs of rollers for moving the rollers of the respective pairs of rollers relatively toward each other to nip the sheet or away from each other to release the sheet; control means connected to said roller gap adjusting means and to said blade for controlling the timing of the operation of said roller gap adjusting means and said blade in response to the length of the unit sheet as measured by a measuring means for causing said pair of rollers and said blade to engage the continuous sheet being fed therethrough to apply a tension to the continuous sheet between said pairs of rollers at the instant said blade is engaged with the continuous sheet at a perforation line between unit sheets; characterised in that the measuring means comprises; a stand for supporting the stack of unit sheets in the continuous sheet and including means for measuring at least the length of the unit sheets in said continuous sheet and a position detecting means for detecting when said stack is properly positioned on said stand in a predetermined position, said position detecting means being connected to said measuring means for causing said measuring means to measure the length of the unit sheets only after it has been determined that the stack is properly positioned on said stand. A high tearing-up precision of the paper sheet can be obtained by automatically measuring the length of the folded paper sheet and controlling the nipping timing of the pair of upper and lower feeding rollers and upper and lower high speed rollers. The control means may further include means for comparing the measured length of the unit sheet to a standard size memorized in the control means to thereby correct the measured length to the nearest standard size, to control the roller adjustment to nip the paper. Some error results from the measurement of the length of the unit sheet, but the error can be corrected on the basis of a standard size memorized in the control means and the tearing-up position of the continuous paper sheet can always be set to occur at an exact position. Apparatus as defined above may further comprise sheet thickness detection means positioned along the paper feed direction for detecting the thickness of the continuous sheet and providing an output corresponding thereto, said control means further providing for relative pre-setting movement of the said pair of rollers to adjust the gap therebetween in correspondence to the detected thickness. It is possible to maintain a suitable gap between the upper roller and lower roller in correspondence to the detected thickness by adjusting the distance between the respective upper and lower rollers of each set of rollers on the basis of the detected thickness. Moreover, there may also be provided continuous sheet feed means on one of the rollers of said pair of feed rollers and including a plurality of transfer rollers, a pair of mounting means on which said transfer rollers are mounted and supporting said transfer rollers between said pair of feeding rollers and including springs for biassing said transfer rollers toward one of said feeding rollers for nipping the continuous sheet between said transfer rollers and said one feeding roller when said feeding rollers are spaced apart, whereby the continous sheet can be fed by rotation of the other feeding roller, said mounting means being movable against the action of said springs, for being moved to permit said feeding rollers to engage each other when said continous sheet is torn. Brief Description of the drawings Figs 1 - 9 depict a first embodiment of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 1 is an outline view of the whole construction of a continuous paper sheet tearing- up apparatus; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the feed rollers and the high speed rollers together with a moving mechanism for moving the respective rollers vertically; Fig. 3 is a plan view of a stand including the paper sheet size measurement device; Figs. 4 and 5 are sectional views of the stand of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a plan view of the continuous paper sheet; Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a sheet size measurement and a correction operation to the standard size; Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the control operation of a CPU relative to the moving mechanism for driving the feed-in rollers and the high speed rollers along the vertical approaching and separating direction; and Fig. 9 is a time chart depicting the output condition of control signals corresponding to the sheet thickness. Figs. 10-12 depict a second embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 10 is an outline of the whole structure of the continuous paper sheet treatment apparatus; Fig. 11 depicts the feeding portion provided with a pair of feed rollers, a pair of high speed rollers and a moving mechanism for driving respective rollers along their approach and separate vertical direction; and Fig. 12 is a perspective view showing the feeding portion. Detailed Description of the Invention As described in detail in Fig. 1, the continuous paper sheet 1 to be torn to the unit sheet 1a is placed on the placing stand 3 at its predetermined position. The paper sheet 1 is folded through the perforations for bending and tearing-up the sheet in a shape of zig-zag and placed on the stand 3. The stand has a sheet size measurement device therein for measuring the width and the length of the folded sheet. As seen in Fig. 6, the continuous paper sheet 1 has marginal portions 5 defined, at both sides along the sheet by tearing-up perforations 4 and 4. In the marginal portions, there are a plurality of marginal holes 6 separated uniformly along the sheet. As shown in Fig. 3, the stand 3 has a ceiling plate 3a on which the continuous paper sheet 1 is placed. There are, on the ceiling plate 3a, a light-transparent plate 7 extending across the continuous sheet and measuring the width of the unit paper sheet 1a, and another light-transparent plate 8 extending along the unit paper sheet 1a. As shown in Fig. 4, a rotary shaft 11 extends along beneath the light transparent plate 7 formed in the ceiling plate 3a, being rotatably supported on the support plates 9 and 10, themselves respectively fixed in the stand 3. A phototube 12 having a rotation preventor (not shown) is fixed to this rotary shaft 11. There is also a driving motor 13 fixed at one end of the rotary shaft 11. At the other end of this shaft 11, there is fixed a slit at the lower edge of the slit plate 14, there is a slit direction device 15 fixed to a supporting plate 10. On the supporting plates 9 and 10 respective limit switches 16 and 17 are installed so as to be matched with travel of the phototube 12. The mechanism or construction mentioned above measures the width of the unit sheet 1. In fig 5 a mechanism for measuring length i.e. depth of the unit sheet 1a is shown, having a phototube 18, located beneath plate 8, and being similar to that measuring the width of the unit sheet 1a as described above. The same reference numerals as before with affixes 'a' are applied to the respective construction parts corresponding to the parts of the width measurement mechanism. In operation of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus according to the present invention, the width and the depth of the unit sheet 1a are measured by rotation of the rotary shafts 11 and 11a carrying phototubes 12 and 18. The rotation is measured by the number of slits passing as detected by the slit detection mechanisms 15 and 15a. The sheet size signal detected is sent to the size controlling portion of a CPU 19 through a measurement control portion C shown in Fig. 1. A sensor S₁ for detecting the continuous paper sheet 1 correctly placed on the predetermined position of the ceiling plate 3a is installed along a wall plate (not shown) of the apparatus. Sensors S₂ for detecting a continuous paper sheet 1 wrongly placed on the ceiling plate 3a are installed at the ends of the light transmitting plate 7. A detection apparatus S consisting of the central sensor S₁ and two side sensors S₂ and S₂ is adapted to dispatch a placement signal when the continuous paper sheet 1 is placed at the predetermined position, i.e. when the sensor S₁ is ON and the sensors S₂ are OFF. When a placement signal is issued from the detection apparatus S, a size measurement order signal is issued from the measurement control portion C to the sheet measurement size apparatus. A sheet size signal from the slit detection devices 15 and 15a of the sheet measurement size apparatus is sent to the size control portion through the measurement control portion C. The size control portion compares the inputted measurement value to the standard size set and sustained in the standard size setting portion in the CPU 19 in order to correct it to the nearest standard size. When the measured value at the center of two standard sizes, it is raised to the larger standard size. The standard size setting portion has the width standard sizes of the unit sheet 1a in the unit of 2.5 mm (1/10 inch) and the depth standard sizes of the unit sheet 1a in the unit of 12.5 mm (1/2 inch). The number of the width and the depth standard sizes are suitably determined and set in the setting portion. As shown in Fig. 1, the continuous paper sheet 1 placed on the stand 3 is pulled upwardly and guided over a guide plate 49. The marginal holes 6 formed at both margins of the paper sheet 1 are engaged with pins of the tractor 20 driven by a main motor 21. Thus, the paper sheet 1 is fed to the right in Fig. 1. The transfer or feeding speed of the paper sheet 1 is detected through a detector 23 installed in a tractor encoder 22, for detecting the number of rotations of the tractor 20, and the detected speed signal is sent to the CPU 19. A slitter 24 installed near the rearward end of the tractor 20 cuts off the margins 5 from the sheet 1 through perforations 4. The sheet 1 is further sent along the same direction, and is then supplied to a tearing-up apparatus. The two wheels of the tractor 20 are controlled or moved by the gear 41 to which a driving force of the sub motor 40 is transferred and the distance between these wheels are determined. The slitter 24 is moved together with the tractor 20. The motor 40 is driven and controlled by a control signal (from the CPU 19) obtained by correcting the resultant width distance of the unit sheet 1a as measured by the sheet size measurement apparatus (see above). The opposing distance between the wheels of the tractor 20 is set at a value narrower less the width of the continuous paper sheet 1 measured by the phototube 12 by 12.5 mm (0.5 inch) so that the marginal holes 6 placed inside from the longitudinal edges of the paper sheet by 6.25 mm (0.25 inch) are matched to the tractor pins. A set of sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b for detecting the sheet thickness by the light transmitting volume, at the three steps of "thin", "middle" and "thick", are placed in opposition along a vertical line traversing the travelling route of the continuous paper sheet 1 and dispatching a detection signal to be sent to the CPU 19. These sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b are therefore an input means for inputting information of the paper sheet thickness of the continuous paper sheet 1. After the paper sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b, there are a pair of feed rollers 26a and 26b able to part and approach in the vertical direction, and another pair of high speed rollers 27a and 27b situated after the former pair of rollers. The gaps between the upper rollers and the lower rollers of these pairs are about 1.0 to 1.5 mm. Between these pairs of rollers is a blade 28 to be applied to the perforations 2 extending along the depth direction (see Fig 6) so as to bend and tear-up the continuous paper sheet 1, and a sheet edge detector 29 of a high reflection type for detecting the front edges of the sheet, and outputting detection signals to the CPU 19. Fig. 2 shows a moving mechanism for moving or driving the respective pairs of feed rollers and high speed rollers toward each other, or toward another pair of rollers. Respective rotary shafts 30 and 31 of the lower feed roller 26b and the upper high speed roller 27a are supported eccentrically by bearings 32 and 33. Rotary shafts (not shown), respectively installed at the centre of the bearings 32 and 33 are carried rotatably in the machine frame (not shown). An endless belt 36 is wound around a driving plate 35 fixed to an output shaft of a pulse motor 34 and these bearings 32 and 33 (see Fig. 1). The motor 34 is connected to the CPU 19 and operates in pulses for functioning or controlling the approach timing. Its output shaft rotates to a predetermined extent in the predetermined direction by a driving control signal according to the depth standard size corrected in the size control portion of the CPU 19. Accordingly, also the driving disc 35 rotates in the same direction and to the same extent as the output shaft. The rotation is transferred to respective bearings 32 and 33 over the endless belt 36. Owing to the rotation of the bearings 32 and 33 around shafts (not shown), the rotary shafts 30 and 31 rotate in an arc shape along the same direction. In consequence, when the driving disc 35 rotates by the pulse motor 34 clockwise in Fig.2, the roller 26b is raised and the roller 27a comes down, approaching to each other. On the contrary, when the driving disc 35 returns counterclockwise, the roller 26b goes down and 27a rises and returns to its original position. As a result, when the rotary extent of the output shaft of the pulse motor 34 is controlled by the CPU 19, the gaps or vertical distances between the feed rollers 26a and 26b, and the high speed rollers 27a and 27b are controlled and then the tearing-up position of the continuous paper sheet 1 is set with the controlled least distance of the rollers. The travelling mechanism and the CPU 19 jointly comprise a distance control means. As shown in Fig. 1, after the tearing-up mechanism, there is a stacker device for sequentially stacking the cut unit sheets 1a. This stacker device has an elevatable table 36 on which the unit paper sheets 1a are placed. In order to firmly stack the unit sheets 1a one by one the elevatable table 36, a conveying guide belt 37 is placed at a suitable position. This belt has two thin belts (one belt is shown) running in parallel and around circular route in order to pull-in the unit sheets 1a. The sheet pull-in speed of these thin belts is higher than the sheet push-out speed fo the tearing-up apparatus. Further, a stopper 39 adjustable in the advancing direction of the unit sheets, against which the front edges of the unit sheets 1a hit, and a stacked sheet volume-detection device 38 for detecting the position or level of the uppermost unit sheet 1a of the heap of unit sheets on the elevatable table 36 and for issuing to the CPU 19 a detection signal for lowering the table 36 when the detected level becomes higher than a predetermined level are all installed on the tearing-up apparatus, as shown in Fig. 1. The conveying guide belt 37 has a pair of driving rolls 50 which have projections on their peripheries, so that a part of the thin belt is intermittently pushed down by the projections. As a result, even if some error is present in the descent of the elevatable table 36 and the table descends a little lower than the correct height, the conveying guide belt 37 can still firmly engage with unit sheets (4) to convey them to strike against the stopper, so that the unit sheets 1a are always lightly and smoothly stacked on the elevatable table 36. The operation of the preferred embodiments of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus according to the present invention constructed as described above is as follows. First, as shown in Fig. 1, the continuous sheet 1 is placed on the placement table 3 in predetermined folded condition at a predetermined position of the table 3 and a measurement operation is explained below with reference to Fig. 7, together with the control operation of the CPU 19. When the continuous paper sheet 1 is so stacked on the table 3 the sensors S₁ and S₂, sense or detect the heap of continuous sheets 1 and determine that the position is correct (Step 101). When the placement signal is issued and so that it is judged (Step 102), that the continuous paper sheet 1 is so placed a size measurement order signal is issued from the measurement control portion C and the driving motors 13 and 13a are driven. In consequence, the rotary shafts 11 an 11a are driven in order to move phototubes 12 and 18 along respective rotary shafts 11 and 11a (Step 103). The travelling distance measured from the instant that light of the phototube 12 is interrupted by the continuous paper sheet 1 to the instant that light of the phototube again passes corresponds to the width of the continuous paper sheet 1, and is measured as the number of slits counted in the slit detection apparatus 15 from the instant of interrupting the light to other instant of re-transmitting the light. The counted number of slits is conversed to a moving distance of the phototube 12 and used as a width detection signal which is outputted to the size control portion of the CPU 19 (Step 104). The size measurement portion of the CPU 19 compares the width detection signal to the width standard size previously set in the standard size setting portion in order to correct it to a similar width standard size (Step 105). When a width detection signal corresponding to, for example, 81 mm (3.24 inch) is issued, a width standard size with a unit of 2.5 mm (1/10 inch) is set in the standard size setting portion. Since the size of 81 mm (3.24 inch) is between (80 mm) (3.2 inch) and 82.5 mm (3.3 inch) it is corrected to 3.2 inch. After that, the CPU 19 sends a drive control signal based on this corrected value to the motor 40 (Step 106) and the distance between the wheels of the tractor 20 is controlled through the gear 41 so as to be matched to the width of the continuous paper sheet 1 (Step 107). In operation of the the depth measurement process, the phototube 18 is initially in an interrupted condition due to the continuous paper sheet 1 being placed in a predetermined placement condition at its movement starting position. The slit number corresponding to the moving distance from the movement starting instant to the light transmitting instant is counted. Then, the counted number is added to the distance from the position of the phototube 18 to the position of the edge of the continuous paper sheet 1 at its initial position. The resultant sum is outputted to the size control portion of the CPU 19 as a depth detection signal of the continuous sheet 1 (Step 104). The size control portion compares the depth detection signal to the depth standard size previously set in the standard size setting portion in order to correct it to the similar or nearest depth standard size (Step 105). For example, if a depth detection signal corresponding to 106 mm (4.25 inch) is outputted, then because the depth standard size is set by units of 12.7 mm (1/2 inch) in the standard size setting portion, the 106.25 mm (4.25 inch) being at the exact mid point between 100 mm (4.0 inch) and 112.5 mm (4.5 inch) is corrected to 112.5 mm (4.5 inch). Next, the CPU 19 sends a drive control signal according to the corrected number of 112.5 mm (4.5 inch) to a driving motor (not shown) for adjusting the position of the stopper 39 of the stacker device (Step 108) and the position of the stopper 39 is adjusted so as to fit to the depth of the unit sheet 1a (Step 109). The depth detection signal previously corrected is stored in a memory of the CPU 19. Then, the continuous paper sheet 1 heaped on the stand 3 is pulled up and reaches the tractor 20 having two opposing wheels of a controlled separation distance through the guide plate 49. The marginal holes 6 of the continuous paper sheet 1 are engaged with the tractor pins planted on the tractor 20 and the main motor 21 is operated. In consequence, the continuous paper sheet 1 is transferred to the right on the sheet of Fig.1 and the margins 5 are cut off by the slitter 24 at the transit of the moving sheet. The transfer speed of the sheet 1 is detected by the detector 23 and the result is sent to the CPU 19. Next, the thickness of the continuous paper sheet 1 detected when it passes through the sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b and the result of the detection signal is sent to the CPU 19. The vertical gaps of the upper and lower feed rollers 26a and 26b and of the upper and lower high speed rollers 27a and 27b are adjusted by the CPU 19 treating the detection signal. The gap controlling the process of the CPU 19 will be described with reference to Fig 8 and Fig 9. The abscissa of the graph in Fig 9 shows the time starting from the instant of the continuous sheet edge detection. As shown in the drawings, the sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b detect the thickness (Step 201). When it is judged "thin" (Step 202), an on-off timing of the pulse motor 34 is set to a 12-pulse timing (Step 203). According to the 12-pulse timing shown in Fig 9, a drive signal is outputted to the pulse motor 34 at the instant earlier than the standard timing (in case of "middle" thickness) by a time of 2 pulses, which standard timing starts at the timing the sheet edge detection signal from the detector 29 inputs to the CPU 19. The standard timing in case of "middle" thickness corresponds to the sheet travelling or transfer speed and the depth of the unit sheet 1a. Another drive signal for returning the pulse motor stops at the instant later than the standard timing above by a time of 2 pulses. Consequently, the gap between the rollers at the instant the continuous sheet 1 reaches the upper and the lower rollers 26a, 26b and 27a, 27b is set to be narrower than the standard timing of the "middle" thickness. When it is judged that the sheet thickness is not "thin" in Step 202, it will be judged whether it is "middle" or not in Step 204. It if is "middle" the on-off timing of the pulse motor 34 is set of a 10-pulse timing (Step 205) of the standard one. At the standard timing of the pulse motor 34, starting from the instant at which a sheet front edge detection signal from the sheet edge detector 29 inputs to the CPU 19, the CPU outputs a drive signal to the pulse motor 34 at the timing according to the depth of the unit sheet 1a and the sheet travelling speed. The standard gap of these upper and lower rollers equals to that obtained when the continuous paper sheet 1 reaches respective rollers 26a, 26b and 27a, 27b. When the thickness of the sheet is not judged as "middle" in Step 204, the sheet is treated as "thick" in Step 206 and the on-off timing of the pulse motor 34 is set at a 8-pulse timing (Step 207). According to the 8-pulse timing, it is apparent from Fig. 9 that, starting at the instant the sheet edge detection signal from the sheet edge detector 29 inputs to the CPU 19, a drive signal is outputted from the CPU 19 to the pulse motor at an instant later than the standard timing (in case of "middle") according to the depth of the unit sheet 1a and the sheet travelling speed. The returning drive signal is stopped at the instant earlier than the standard timing by a time of 2 pulses. In consequence, the gap attained at the time the continuous sheet 1 reaches respective rollers 26a, 26b and 27a, 27b is set wider than that of the standard timing (in case of "middle"). In this manner, the thickness of the continuous paper sheet 1 is detected, then the front edge of the sheet is detected by the sheet edge detector 29, and information of the front edge detection signal inputs to the CPU 19. Receiving the front edge detection signal, the CPU 19 outputs a drive signal to the pulse motor 34 at a suitable timing determined according to the travelling speed, the corrected depth detection signal, and the thickness detection signal, all respectively inputted to the CPU. Consequently, when the paper sheet reaches the tearing-up position suitable to the depth corrected, both gaps between respective pairs of feed rollers 26a, 26b and high speed rollers 27a, 27b are made suitable to the actual thickness of the travelling sheet. The perforations 2 by means of which the continuous sheet is bent and torn are pulled for tearing by the respective pairs of rollers and have a blade 28 applied thereto whereby the continuous sheet 1 is cut into the unit sheets 1a. The unit paper sheets 1a are heaped one by one on the elevatable table 36 by means of the conveying guide belt 37. The position of the stopper 39 is already adjusted to the depth of the unit sheets 1a, so that the sheet conveying motion to the table proceeds smoothly. When the level of the top unit sheet 1a of the heap becomes higher than that of the predetermined position, it is detected by sheet stack volume detector 38, and the resultant detection signal is sent to the CPU 19, to move the elevatable table 36 down accordingly, in order to carry out reliable smooth stacking. Fig. 10 shows another embodiment of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus of the present invention, in which there is no tractor 20, and the transfer of the continuous paper sheet 1 is done by a feeding portion which includes a pair of (Figs 11,12) upper and lower feed rollers, which are movable towards and away from each other in the vertical direction. Usually these opposed rollers 56a, 56b are arranged with a gap of about 1 to 1.5mm and have respectively three spaced circumferential recesses 42a, 42b, 42c, 43a, 43b and 43c formed thereon as shown in Fig. 12, at different separations along the longitudinal direction of each respective rollers 56a and 56b. A pair of curved or inverted J-shaped oscillating arms 45a and 45b are located in the recesses 42a an 42b are located in the recesses 42a and 42b of the upper feed-in roller 56a. Each oscillating arms 45a and 45b of the upper feed-in roller 56a. Each oscillating arm 45a and 45b has a rotatable termination roll 44a and 44b at the the inner end. The other ends of the curved oscillating arms 45a and 45b are jointly pivotably held by a rod 46 fixed to the machine frame (not shown). The oscillating arms 45a and 45b are biassed to pivot clockwise (on the sheet of Fig. 11) by springs 48a and 48b arranged between a fixing plate 47 attached to the machine frame and a portion adjacent to said other ends of the oscillating arms. In consequence, the rolls 44ra and 44b (at the ends of the oscillating arms) rotatably contact the unrecessed periphery of the lower feed roller 56b. When the continous paper sheet 1 is not being cut, it is moved along by the co-operation of the lower feed roller 56b and these transfer rolls 44a and 44b. When respective feed-in rollers 56a, 56b approach each other, respective transfer rolls 44a and 44b enter into their corresponding recesses 42a and 42b in the upper feed-in roller 56a, acting against the compression forces of the springs 48a and 48b. As shown in Fig. 10, a transferred amount of the continuous paper sheet 1 or transfer speed of the sheets through the feeding portion is detected by the detector 52 installed in a feeding roller encoder 51 for detecting the rotation of the feed-in roller 56a. The resultant speed detection signal is sent to the CPU 19. The feed rollers 56a, 56b and the high speed rollers 27a, 27b are driven by the main motor 21 through a driving force transmitting mechanism (not shown. Because the embodiment of Figs 10 -12 of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus have the constructions similar to the first embodiment, the corresponding structural parts are otherwise shown where not explained in detail by attaching the same numerals thereto. In the preferred embodiments of the present invention, any types of the continuous paper sheets 1 have margins 5 as described in the first embodiment, and/or not having them (as these margins are cut off from the sheet) may be used. If the continuous paper sheet 1 has margins portions 5 they are transferred without using these margins. In a preferred embodiment, the continuous sheet 1 is pulled up in zig-zag or gradually, led to the feed rollers 56a and 56b over the guide plate 49, and nipped between the rolls 44a, 44b and the lower feed in roller 26a. Then, the main motor 21 is driven to transfer the continous paper sheet 1. The ensuing operation of the apparatus is the same as that of the first embodiment. In the second embodiment of the present invention, there is no need to install any particular transfer mechanism for the continuous sheet 1 so that it is possible to simplify the construction of the continuous paper sheet tearing-up apparatus and to make it compact. Also, it is possible to construct the feed-in rollers 56a and 56b so as to always hold or nip the continuous paper sheet 1. In the case above embodiment of Fig.10, there is no need to install the transfer rolls 49a and 49b of Fig.1. It is also possible to input a tearing-up size of the sheet by manual operations, such as button pressing and the like. It is moreover possible to employ in a third embodiment a feeding portion provided with feed-in roller 56a and 56b described in the preferred second embodiment above in place of the feed-in rollers 26a and 26b used in the first embodiment of the present invention. According to this third embodiment, the sheet transferred extent through the feeding portion (or the sheet travelling speed through the feeding portion) is not detected through the rotation of the feed-in rollers 56a and 56b but is detected by using the detector 23 on the tractor encoder 22 so as to detect the rotation of the tractor 20. The continuous paper sheet 1 usable in the third embodiment of the present invention includes both sheet having marginal portions 5 and sheet not having such marginal portions. It is possible to transfer continuous paper sheet 1 by using marginal portions 5 engaged with the tractor 20. It is also possible not to use them except at the feeding portion. When the sheet 1 is transferred without using these marginal portions 5 two opposing parts of the tractor 20 are set to be separated by a rotation of the gear 41 to which a driving force of the motor 40 is given, together with the slitter 24 for cutting-off the marginal portions 5 and 5, so that the continuous sheet 1 can pass on the tractor 20 freely. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. It is not necessary always to link operatively the control of the vertical gaps between the feed rollers and between the high speed rollers to the detection of the sheet thickness. The pulse motor 34 of the driving source is not the only expedient for reducing these vertical gaps of the rollers. Further, it is possible to transfer continuous paper sheet 1 by rollers and the like in place of the tractor 20. It is not always necessary to carry out the measurement of the width of the continuous paper sheet 1. The measurement of the width can be done by using some elements other than the phototubes 12 and 18, and various constructions of the sheet size measurement device can be used. It is also possible to use some manual inputting means, such as input buttons, or inputting the thickness information of the continuous sheet 1 instead of the sheet thickness detectors 25a and 25b. The vertical gaps between the rollers 26a, 26b, 56a, 56b, 27a, 27b can be made unchangeable when the sheet is torn, after the gaps are adjusted according to the sheet thickness. Furthermore, it is possible to set the tearing position of the continuous paper sheet 1 by controlling not only the vertical gap sizes between the feed rollers 26a, 26b, 56a, 56b and between the high speed rollers 27a, 27b, but also the distance in the sheet transfer direction between the positions of the feed-in rollers 26a, 26b, (or 56a, 56b) and of the high speed rollers 27a, 27b. The following effects are attained according to the present invention. First, the continuous paper sheet can be torn correctly at the desired position of the sheet, because the thickness of the folded sheet is measured and respective pairs of the feed rollers and of high speed rollers approach or move vertically on the basis of the measurement result. Second, the continuous paper sheet can be accurately torn in the desired position, because the vertical clearance in the feed-in rollers and in high speed rollers are controlled according to the sheet thickness. Third, the continuous paper sheet can be accurately torn at the desired position even in the face of an error is generated in the sheet measurement, because the sheet tearing-up position is determined and set by measuring the depth of the continuous paper sheet and correcting the measured depth to a standard size. Fourth, the size of the continuous paper sheet can be measured accurately and the paper sheet can be torn correctly, because a detecting mechanism confirms that the continuous sheet is initially placed on the placement stand at the predetermined position when the size of the continuous paper sheet is measured. Fifth, when a feeding portion having a sheet transfer function is used, the sheet tearing-up position is set by causing the upper and the lower high speed rollers mutually to approach according to the transfer extent and the torn size of the continuous paper sheet and sheet edge detection signal, so that the continuous paper sheet is correctly torn from the desired position. Also, any error due to the differences between the transfer characteristics of the feeding portion and of other transfer devices is not generated. Moreover, because a separate transfer device is not needed the construction of the continuous paper sheet treating apparatus is simplified and made compact.

Claims: Apparatus for tearing off unit sheets from a continuous sheet having unit sheets separated by perforation lines transversely on the continuous sheet and in which the continuous sheet is in a zig-zag form constituting a stack of unit sheets, said apparatus comprising: a pair of feeding rollers constituted by an upper rotatable feeding roller (26a, 56a), and a lower rotatable feeding roller (26b, 56b). a pair of high speed rollers constituted by an upper high speed roller (27a) and a lower high speed roller (27b), said pair of high speed rollers being spaced in a paper feed direction from said pair of feeding rollers, the rollers in said pairs being relatively movable toward and away from each other in mutual separating and approaching directions transversely of said paper feed direction; drive means (34) for driving said feeding rollers and said high speed rollers and driving said high speed rollers at a speed greater than said feeding rollers; a blade (28) positioned between said pairs of feeding rollers and high speed rollers; roller gap adjusting means connected to said pairs of rollers (26a, 26b or 56a, 56b with 27a, 27b) for moving the rollers of the respective pairs of rollers relatively toward each other to nip the sheet or away from each other to release the sheet; control means (19) connected to said roller gap adjusting means and to said blade (28) for controlling the timing of the operation of said roller gap adjusting means and said blade in response to the length of the unit sheet as measured by a measuring means for causing said pair of rollers and said blade to engage the continuous sheet being fed therethrough to apply a tension to the continuous sheet between said pairs of rollers at the instant said blade (28) is engaged with the continuous sheet at a perforation line between unit sheets; characterised in that the measuring means comprises; a stand (3) for supporting the stack of unit sheets (1a) in the continuous sheet (1) and including means (8) for measuring at least the length of the unit sheets in said continuous sheet and a position detecting means (S1,S2) for detecting when said stack is properly positioned on said stand (3) in a predetermined position, said position detecting means being connected to said measuring means for causing said measuring means to measure the length of the unit sheets only after it has been determined that the stack is properly positioned on said stand. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the control means (19) further includes means for comparing the measured length of the unit sheet to a standard size memorized in the control means to thereby correct the measured length to the nearest standard size, to control the roller adjustment to nip the paper. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 further comprising sheet thickness detection means (25a, 25b) positioned along the paper feed direction for detecting the thickness of the continuous sheet (1) and providing an output corresponding thereto, said control means (19) further providing for relative pre-setting movement of the said pair of rollers (26a, 26b; 56a, 56b with 27a, 27b) to adjust the gap therebetween in correspondence to the detected thickness. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 further comprising continuous sheet feed means on one of the rollers (56a) of said pair of feed rollers and including a plurality of transfer rollers (44a, 44b), a pair of mounting means (45a, 45b) on which said transfer rollers are mounted and supporting said transfer rollers between said pair of feeding rollers (56a, 56b) and including springs (48a, 48b) for biassing said transfer rollers toward one of said feeding rollers (56a) for nipping the continuous sheet between said transfer rollers (44a, 44b) and said one feeding roller (56a) when said feeding rollers are spaced apart, whereby the continous sheet can be fed by rotation of the other feeding roller (56b) said mounting means being movable against the action of said springs (48a, 48b) for being moved to permit said feeding rollers (56a, 56b) to engage each other when said continous sheet is torn.

Inventors: FUMIHIKO NAKAMURA, RYOHEI HIGASHI, FUMIHIKO, NAKAMURA, RYOHEI, HIGASHI
Applicants: TOPPAN MOORE KK, TOPPAN MOORE COMPANY, LTD.
Application year: 1989
Main classification: B65H35
IPC codes: B65H35