Flatbed cutter assembly and a method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10152990-B2
Application number	US-201715824779-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2017
Priority date	Dec 8, 2016
Publication date	Dec 11, 2018
Grant date	Dec 11, 2018

Abstract

A flatbed cutter assembly includes a medium support table for supporting a recording medium, the table extending in a first direction and a second direction, the first direction being perpendicular to the second direction, a gantry arranged to be moveable over the medium support table in the first direction, a carriage support movably arranged on the gantry to move over the medium support table in the second direction, a cutter configured to be coupled to the carriage support and a controller for controlling the movements of the gantry, the carriage support and the cutter while moving over the medium support table. The controller is configured to cut through the recording medium from the front side to the back side along a cut path except for a plurality of bridges along the cut path, the recording medium intended to be printed on both front and back side of the recording medium, wherein parts of each bridge which are intended to be adjacent to printed images on the front and back side of the recording medium, are removed by the cutter.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A flatbed cutter assembly, the flatbed cutter assembly comprising:
a medium support table for supporting a recording medium, the table extending in a first direction and a second direction, the first direction being perpendicular to the second direction;
a gantry arranged to be moveable over the medium support table in the first direction;
a carriage support movably arranged on the gantry to move over the medium support table in the second direction;
a cutter configured to be coupled to the carriage support and comprising an actuator to control a cutting depth; and
a controller for controlling the movements of the gantry, the carriage support and the cutter while moving over the medium support table,
wherein the controller is configured to:
a) instruct the cutter to cut through the recording medium from a front side to a back side along a cut path except for a plurality of locations of bridges along the cut path;
b) instruct the cutter to cut the recording medium for less than half the thickness of the recording medium from the front side towards the back side at the locations of the bridges along the cut path;
c) receive a trigger that the recording medium is removed from the medium support table as to be turned upside down;
d) receive a trigger that the recording medium is aligned again on the medium support table; and
e) instruct the cutter to cut the recording medium for less than half the thickness of the recording medium from the back side towards the front side at the locations of the bridges along the cut path.

2. The flatbed cutter assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:
i) receive a print job including a cut path intended to circumvent a piece of the recording medium;
ii) determine whether or not the print job specifies that images are intended to be printed on a front side and on a back side of the recording medium;
iii) determine whether or not the print job specifies that the images are intended to be printed at least partially full bleed with respect to the cut path;
iv) determine whether or not the circumvented piece of recording medium has at least two axes of symmetry; and
v) upon a positive determination of ii), iii) and iv), applying the steps a)-e).

3. The flatbed cutter assembly according to claim 2 , further comprising a user interface, and
wherein the controller is configured to request permission to execute step v) by means of user interaction via the user interface.

4. A method for cutting a recording medium by a flatbed cutter assembly, the flatbed cutter assembly comprising a medium support table for supporting a recording medium, the table extending in a first direction and a second direction, the first direction being perpendicular to the second direction, a gantry arranged to be moveable over the medium support table in the first direction, a carriage support movably arranged on the gantry to move over the medium support table in the second direction, a cutter configured to be coupled to the carriage support and comprising an actuator to control a cutting depth, and a controller for controlling the movements of the gantry, the carriage support and the cutter while moving over the medium support table,
wherein the method comprises the steps of:
a) instructing the cutter to cut through the recording medium from a front side to a back side along the cut path except for a plurality of locations of bridges along the cut path;
b) instructing the cutter to cut the recording medium for less than half the thickness of the recording medium from the front side towards the back side at the locations of the bridges along the cut path;
c) receiving a trigger that the recording medium is removed from the medium support table as to be turned upside down;
d) receiving a trigger that the recording medium is aligned again on the medium support table; and
e) instructing the cutter to cut the recording medium for less than half the thickness of the recording medium from the back side towards the front side at the locations of the bridges along the cut path.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the method comprises the steps of:
i) receiving a print job including a cut path intended to circumvent a piece of the recording medium;
ii) determining whether or not the print job specifies that images are intended to be printed on a front side and on a back side of the recording medium;
iii) determining whether or not the print job specifies that the images are intended to be printed at least partially full bleed with respect to the cut path;
iv) determining whether or not the circumvented piece of recording medium has at least two axes of symmetry; and
v) upon a positive determination of ii), iii) and iv), applying the steps a)-e).

6. Computer-program A computer-program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to execute the method according to claim 4 when executed on a processor.

Assignees

• Oce Holding Bv

Inventors

• Iacob Violeta
• Vulpe Radu

Classifications

• B41J13/0063

  Handling thick cut sheets, e.g. greeting cards or postcards, larger than credit cards, e.g. using means for enabling or facilitating the conveyance of thick sheets (B41J11/20, B41J13/12 take precedence) · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• B26D7/27

  Means for performing other operations combined with cutting (B26D9/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B26D5/00

  Arrangements for operating and controlling machines or devices for cutting, cutting-out, stamping-out, punching, perforating, or severing by means other than cutting · CPC title

• B41J11/663

  Controlling cutting, cutting resulting in special shapes of the cutting line, e.g. controlling cutting positions, e.g. for cutting in the immediate vicinity of a printed image · CPC title