Book block forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10434810-B2
Application number	US-201515736116-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2015
Priority date	Jun 23, 2015
Publication date	Oct 8, 2019
Grant date	Oct 8, 2019

Abstract

A first press unit 2 presses each of a plurality of signatures S along a fold f, the signatures being supplied one at a time with the fold facing forward. The unit is arranged a signature conveyance unit 3 that conveys each signature received from the first press unit while controlling the attitude to make the fold orthogonal to the conveyance direction. The unit is arranged a gluing unit 4 that applies glue to both lateral edges of a top surface of each signature received from the signature conveyance unit. The unit is arranged an accumulation unit 5 that sequentially stacks the signatures received from the gluing unit on one another while jogging the stacked signatures to form a book block B. The unit is arranged a second press unit 6 that discharges the book block received from the accumulation unit after pressing the same along the folds.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A book block forming apparatus comprising:
a frame having an entrance and an exit;
a first press unit attached to the entrance of the frame to press each of signatures along a fold line thereof, the signatures being supplied one by one into the first press unit from the fold line as a leading edge of the signature;
a signature conveyance unit attached to the frame and arranged downstream of the first press unit to convey the signatures received from the first press unit while controlling attitudes of the signatures in a manner such that the fold lines are perpendicular to the conveying direction;
a glue application unit attached to the frame and arranged downstream of the signature conveyance unit to apply glue to both sides of the top face of each of the signatures received by the signature conveyance unit;
an accumulation unit attached to the frame and arranged downstream of the glue application unit to form a book block by stacking the signatures received from the glue application unit while jogging the stack of signatures; and
a second press unit attached to the frame and arranged downstream of the accumulation unit to receive and vertically press the book block fed from the accumulation unit and discharge the pressed book block from the exit of the frame.

2. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the glue application unit comprises:
a first conveyer belt attached to the frame to convey the signatures received from the signature conveyance unit;
one or more slide guides attached to the frame and arranged above the first conveyer belt so as to be extended perpendicularly across the first conveyer belt;
a pair of glue injection heads slidably mounted on the slide guides and having one or more glue injection nozzles to spray glue in both sides of upper surfaces of the signatures being conveyed by the first conveyer belt;
a first drive mechanism attached to the frame to slide the pair of glue injection heads; and
one or more first sensors arranged upstream of the pair of glue injection heads to detect passage of front ends of the signatures, wherein
the pair of glue injection heads is activated by detection signals outputted from the first sensors.

3. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the first drive mechanism of the glue application unit comprises:
a pair of ball screws arranged above both sides of the first conveyer belt, each of the ball screws extending parallel with the slide guides and supported by the frame so as to be rotatable about an axis thereof;
a pair of motors attached to the frame and arranged at both sides of the first conveyer belt to rotate the associated ball screws; and
a nut member engaged with each of the ball screws, the glue injection heads being attached to the associated nut members.

4. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the accumulation unit comprises:
a vertically movable shelf arranged downstream of a downstream end of the first conveyer belt of the glue application unit, the signatures discharged from the first conveyer belt being stacked on the shelf;
a second drive mechanism attached to the frame to move the shelf up and down;
a height detection sensor attached to the frame to detect a height of the stack of signatures on the shelf, the shelf being lowered by a predetermined distance based on detection signals of the height detection sensor every time the height of the stack of signatures is increased to the predetermined distance;
a first jogging mechanism jogging front and back surfaces of the stack of signatures on the shelf; and
a second jogging mechanism jogging side surfaces of the stack of signatures on the shelf, wherein
the first jogging mechanism comprises:
a back alignment plate attached to the frame and arranged at an upstream end of the shelf so as to be extended vertically to the shelf and perpendicularly to the conveying direction;
a front alignment plate arranged at downstream of and parallel with the back alignment plate to jog the front and back surfaces of an upper portion of the stack of signatures in cooperation with the back alignment plate; and
a third drive mechanism attached to the frame to reciprocate the front alignment plate in the conveying direction, wherein
the second jogging mechanism comprises:
a pair of side alignment plates arranged at both sides of the shelf so as to be extended vertically to the shelf and in the conveying direction to jog the side surfaces of the upper portion of the stack of signatures; and
a fourth drive mechanism attached to the frame to reciprocate one of the side alignment plates perpendicular to the conveying direction while maintaining a predetermined distance between the side alignment plates, wherein
the accumulation unit further comprises
a pushing mechanism pushing the book block from the shelf lowered at the lowest position to the second press unit.

5. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the first press unit comprises:
a pair of horizontal press rollers arranged one above the other so as to be extended perpendicular across the conveying direction and supported by the frame to be rotatable about axes thereof; and
a fifth drive mechanism attached to the frame to rotate the horizontal press rollers.

6. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the second press unit comprises:
a second horizontal conveyer belt conveying the book block discharged from the accumulation unit by the pushing mechanism to the exit of the frame, a press station being provided on a medium portion of a conveyance surface of the second conveyer belt;
a pair of vertically movable press plates arranged above the press station and parallel with each other in a width direction of the second conveyer belt, each of the press plates extending in the conveying direction;
a sixth drive mechanism arranged for concurrently moving the press plates up and down in a manner such that the press plates can be moved between a standby position in which the press plates separate upwardly from the book block on the second conveyer belt and a press position in which the press plates press both sides of a upper surface of the book block downwardly; and
a second sensor for detecting when the book block arrives at the press station, wherein
the second conveyer belt is temporally stopped when a detection signal is outputted from the second sensor, and during the temporal stopping of the second conveyer belt, the pair of press plates is moved down from the standby position to the press position and moved up from the press position to the standby position.

7. The book block forming apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the signature conveyance unit comprises:
a third horizontal conveyer belt attached to the frame and arranged at an angle with respect to the conveying direction to convey the signatures from the first press unit to the first conveyer belt;
an alignment ruler extending in the conveying direction on the conveyance surface of the third conveyer belt; and
a seventh drive mechanism attached to the frame to support the alignment ruler and move the alignment ruler in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction.

Assignees

• Horizon Int Inc

Inventors

• Nakamura Yoshikazu
• Yamamoto Hiroki
• Nishimura Osamu
• Umemoto Manami

Classifications

• B42C9/0081

  applying adhesive to individual sheets for binding them together (by fusing, welding B42C9/0093) · CPC title

• B42C19/04 Primary

  starting with signatures · CPC title

• B42C1/12 Primary

  Machines for both collating or gathering and permanently attaching together the sheets or signatures · CPC title