Patent ID: 7360348

Claim:
A method for controlling manufacture of a sheet material cut into a plurality of sheets of predetermined size, in which the sheets or processed products of the sheets are manufactured by processing the sheets or performing predetermined operations on the processed products of the sheets at each of processing operations or processing sections provided at the processing operations while conveying the sheets along a predetermined line, the method comprising: cutting the sheet material into the plurality of sheets of predetermined size; detecting passage of the sheets or the processed products of the sheets by sheet detectors disposed at entrance and exit sides of each of the processing operations or the processing sections where the sheets or the processed products of the sheets enter and exit the processing operations or the processing sections; and controlling conveyance or manufacture of the sheets or the processed products of the sheets based on results of detection by the sheet detectors, wherein each of the processing operations or the processing sections comprises a branch path for sorting the sheets or the processed products of the sheets being conveyed, and the sheet detectors are disposed at an entrance side and exit sides of the branch path, and wherein the controlling further comprises stopping conveyance or manufacture of the sheets or the processed products of the sheets if passage of the sheets or the processed products of the sheets is not detected by a sheet detector at one of the exit sides of the branch path toward which the sheets or the processed products of the sheets are conveyed, after a predetermined time after another sheet detector at the entrance side of the branch path detects the passage of the sheets or the processed products of the sheets.