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JP-2026075329-A - Sheet processing device and image forming system

JP2026075329AJP 2026075329 AJP2026075329 AJP 2026075329AJP-2026075329-A

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a booklet manufacturing apparatus that can produce booklets without soiling stacked booklets. [Solution] If the image determination means determines that there is an image in the area where the adhesive means on the cover of the (k+1)th booklet or the back cover of the kth booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet, the sheet bundle is transported from the bundle forming means to the loading means by the transport means, without including the sheet contained in the (k+1)th booklet. [Selection Diagram] Figure 15

Inventors

  • 横山 誠二

Assignees

  • キヤノン株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260508
Application Date
20241022

Claims (20)

  1. A bundle forming means that accepts sheets one by one and forms a sheet bundle consisting of a maximum of N sheets, Once the formation of the sheet bundle is complete, a conveying means for transporting the sheet bundle is provided. A loading means for loading the sheet bundles that are transported by the aforementioned transport means, An adhesive means that heats and pressurizes the adhesive portion each time the sheet bundle is loaded onto the loading means to create a booklet consisting of M sheets, When the creation of L booklets is completed in the loading means, a discharge means is provided to discharge the L booklets from the loading means. Control means for controlling the bundle forming means, the conveying means, the loading means, the bonding means, and the discharge means, An image determination means for determining whether or not there is an image in the area where the adhesive means on the front cover or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet, It has, The bundle forming means creates a sheet bundle consisting of N sheets, including the Mth sheet that will be included in the kth booklet and the 1st sheet that will be included in the (k+1)th booklet. The adhesive means adheres the preceding sheet and the succeeding sheet, which are loaded on the loading means, excluding the M-th sheet which will be included in the k-th booklet and the first sheet which will be included in the k+1-th booklet. The control means is The number of sheets i stacked in the bundle forming means is counted. If the image determination means determines that there is no image in the area where the adhesive means heats and pressurizes the sheet on the cover of the (k+1)th booklet or the back cover of the kth booklet, then when i becomes N, the conveying means conveys the sheet bundle from the bundle forming means to the loading means. If the image determination means determines that there is an image in the area where the adhesive means heats and pressurizes the sheet on the cover of the (k+1)th booklet or the back cover of the kth booklet, even if i is less than N, the sheet bundle is transported by the transport means from the bundle forming means to the loading means without including the sheet contained in the (k+1)th booklet. Sheet processing device.
  2. Even if i is less than N, if the i-th sheet arriving at the bundle forming means is the M-th sheet in the L-th booklet, the sheet bundle is transported from the bundle forming means to the loading means by the transport means, as described in claim 1.
  3. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the L-th booklet is the last booklet in a single job, and the M-th sheet in the L-th booklet is the sheet corresponding to the last page in the single job.
  4. The L-th booklet is created in a single job that creates Y booklets (where Y is an integer greater than L), according to claim 1, in the sheet processing device.
  5. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the control means causes the bundle forming means to wait for the receipt of the first sheet from the (L+1)th booklet to the bundle forming means until the bundle forming means has completed discharging the sheet bundle containing the Mth sheet from the Lth booklet.
  6. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the control means waits for the sheet bundle that will form the L+1th booklet to be transported from the bundle forming means to the loading means until the discharge of the Lth booklet from the first booklet by the discharge means is completed.
  7. The control means is When the number i reaches N sheets, the conveying means transports the sheet bundle from the bundle forming means to the loading means. (1) If the number i is less than the N sheets, and the i-th sheet that arrives at the bundle forming means is the M-th sheet in the booklet, and the booklet being created at the loading means is the L-th booklet, the conveying means will transport the sheet bundle from the bundle forming means to the loading means. (2) If the number i is less than the N sheets, and the i-th sheet that arrives at the bundle forming means is the M-th sheet in the booklet, and the booklet being formed at the stacking means is not the L-th booklet, then the bundle forming means is made to accept the i+1th sheet. (3) The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the number i is less than the N sheets, and the i-th sheet that arrives at the bundle forming means is not the M-th sheet in the booklet, the bundle forming means is made to accept the i+1-th sheet.
  8. The image forming means further comprises an image forming means for forming an image on the aforementioned sheet and for forming an adhesive pattern using a heat-melt type adhesive on the remaining sheets that do not form the cover of the booklet. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bonding means applies heat to the sheet bundle loaded on the loading means, thereby melting the bonding pattern formed on the subsequent sheet and bonding the preceding sheet to the subsequent sheet.
  9. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the adhesive pattern is formed by toner.
  10. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image determination means determines whether or not an image exists based on the ratio of the area of the image to the region where the adhesive means on the front or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet.
  11. A stacking means for forming a sheet bundle by stacking multiple sheets and for temporarily holding the sheet bundle, A conveying means for conveying the sheet bundle held by the stacking means, A loading means for loading one or more sheet bundles that have been transported by the aforementioned transport means, An adhesive means for bonding one or more sheet bundles loaded on the aforementioned loading means to create a booklet, Discharge means for discharging the booklet from the loading means, A control means for controlling the number of sheets included in each sheet bundle formed by the stacking means and the discharge of the booklet by the discharge means, An image determination means for determining whether or not there is an image in the area where the adhesive means on the front cover or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet, It has, The control means is If the number of sheets stacked by the stacking means is less than a predetermined number, the stacking process of the sheets by the stacking means is continued. If the image determination means determines that there is an image in the area where the adhesive means on the front or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet, the conveying means will transport the bundle of sheets from the stacking means to the loading means, even if it is less than the predetermined number of sheets, so that the sheet with the image does not overlap with a sheet from another booklet. Sheet processing device.
  12. When the number of sheets stacked by the stacking means reaches the predetermined number, or when the number of sheets stacked by the stacking means is less than the predetermined number but the sheet at the top of the stacking means corresponds to the last page of the job, the conveying means conveys the sheet bundle from the stacking means to the loading means. If the sheet at the top of the sheet bundle, which has been transported from the stacking means to the loading means by the transport means, is the sheet corresponding to the last page of the job, then all the booklets loaded on the loading means are discharged by the discharge means. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11.
  13. The control means is The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein if the sheet at the top of the sheet bundle that has been transported from the stacking means to the loading means by the transport means is the sheet corresponding to the last page of the booklet, all the booklets loaded on the loading means are discharged by the discharge means.
  14. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control means causes the adhesive means to perform the adhesive process each time a sheet bundle is loaded onto the loading means.
  15. The image forming means further comprises an image forming means for forming an image on the aforementioned sheet and for forming an adhesive pattern using a heat-melt type adhesive on the remaining sheets that do not form the cover of the booklet. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the bonding means applies heat to the sheet bundle loaded on the loading means, thereby melting the bonding pattern formed on the subsequent sheet and bonding the preceding sheet to the subsequent sheet.
  16. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the stacking means stacks a sheet corresponding to the first page of a subsequent booklet on top of a sheet corresponding to the last page of a preceding booklet, so that one or more sheets from the preceding booklet and one or more sheets from the subsequent booklet are mixed together in the sheet bundle.
  17. The sheet processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the image determination means determines whether or not an image exists based on the ratio of the area of the image to the region where the adhesive means on the front cover or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet.
  18. An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet, The image forming apparatus has a sheet processing device connected to it, The aforementioned sheet processing device is A bundle forming means that accepts sheets one by one and forms a sheet bundle consisting of a maximum of N sheets, Once the formation of the sheet bundle is complete, a conveying means for transporting the sheet bundle is provided. A loading means for loading the sheet bundles that are transported by the aforementioned transport means, An adhesive means that heats and pressurizes the adhesive portion each time the sheet bundle is loaded onto the loading means to create a booklet consisting of M sheets, When the creation of L booklets is completed in the loading means, a discharge means is provided to discharge the L booklets from the loading means. Control means for controlling the bundle forming means, the conveying means, the loading means, the bonding means, and the discharge means, An image determination means for determining whether or not there is an image in the area where the adhesive means on the front cover or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet, It has, The bundle forming means creates a sheet bundle consisting of N sheets, including the Mth sheet that will be included in the kth booklet and the 1st sheet that will be included in the (k+1)th booklet. The adhesive means adheres the preceding sheet and the succeeding sheet, which are loaded on the loading means, excluding the M-th sheet which will be included in the k-th booklet and the first sheet which will be included in the k+1-th booklet. The control means is The number of sheets i stacked in the bundle forming means is counted. If the image determination means determines that there is no image in the area where the adhesive means heats and pressurizes the sheet on the cover of the (k+1)th booklet or the back cover of the kth booklet, then when i becomes N, the conveying means conveys the sheet bundle from the bundle forming means to the loading means. If the image determination means determines that there is an image in the area where the adhesive means heats and pressurizes the sheet on the cover of the (k+1)th booklet or the back cover of the kth booklet, even if i is less than N, the sheet bundle is transported by the transport means from the bundle forming means to the loading means without including the sheet contained in the (k+1)th booklet. Image forming system.
  19. The image forming system according to claim 18, wherein even if i is less than N, if the i-th sheet arriving at the bundle forming means is the M-th sheet in the L-th booklet, the conveying means conveys the sheet bundle from the bundle forming means to the loading means.
  20. The image forming system according to claim 18, wherein the image determination means determines whether or not an image exists based on the proportion of the image area that occupies the region where the adhesive means on the front cover or back cover of the booklet heats and pressurizes the sheet.

Description

This invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming system. A method is known for producing a booklet by bonding multiple sheets, each having undergone image forming processing by an image forming apparatus such as a printer or copier, to each other using a booklet production apparatus that remelts adhesive toner. A heating and pressurizing unit is also known, as described in Patent Document 1, which heats and pressurizes the sheets using a pressurizing section in contact with a heating element. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2021-095291 Diagram illustrating the image formation system.Diagram illustrating the printing area of the adhesive.Diagram explaining buffer operationDiagram illustrating alignment and adhesion processes.Diagram illustrating the bonding process.Diagram explaining the controllerDiagram illustrating the CPU function for booklet production in Example 1.Timing chart for Example 1Diagram illustrating the bonding operation in Example 1Flowchart for creating the booklet in Example 1Examples of booklets with user images on the front or back coverDiagram showing how to attach a booklet with a user image on the front or back cover.Diagram illustrating the function of the CPU in the image determination unit of Example 1.Diagram showing the function of the image determination unit in Example 1.Flowchart of image determination in Example 1Timing chart for Example 2Timing chart for Example 2A flowchart showing a method for determining discharge from the buffer section in Example 2.A flowchart showing a method for determining discharge from the intermediate loading section in Example 2. The embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention as defined in the claims. While multiple features are described in the embodiments, not all of these features are essential to the invention, and the features may be combined in any way. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, identical or similar configurations are given the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions are omitted. <Example 1> (1) Image Forming System As shown in Figure 1, the image forming system 1 includes an image forming apparatus 100 and a post-processing device 300. The post-processing device 300 is a sheet processing device connected to the image forming apparatus 100. The image forming apparatus 100 forms an image on a sheet S, which is a recording material. The intermediate transport unit 200 transports the sheet S with the image formed on it to the post-processing device 300. The post-processing device 300 performs post-processing on the sheet S as needed and outputs it. The image forming apparatus 100 comprises a sheet cassette 8, an image forming unit 10, a fuser 6, and a housing 19 that houses these components. The image forming unit 10 forms a toner image on the sheet S fed from the sheet cassette 8. The fuser 6 performs a fixing process to fix the toner image to the sheet S. The sheet cassette 8 is located at the bottom of the image forming apparatus 100. The sheet cassette 8 is retractably inserted into the housing 9 and can store a large number of sheets S. The feed roller 81 feeds the sheets S from the sheet cassette 8 and transfers them to the transport roller pair 82. The multi-tray 20 can also feed the sheets S one at a time. The image forming unit 10 is a tandem-type electrophotographic unit comprising four process cartridges 7n, 7y, 7m, and 7c, a scanner unit 2, and a transfer unit 3. The reference numeral 'n' indicates adhesive, and 'ymc' indicates yellow, magenta, and cyan, respectively. The process cartridges 7n, 7y, 7m, and 7c are designed to allow for the integrated replacement of multiple components responsible for the image forming process. In other words, multiple components are integrated to form the process cartridges 7n, 7y, 7m, and 7c. Process cartridges 7n, 7y, 7m, and 7c each contain corresponding toner storage units Kn, Ky, Km, and Kc, photosensitive drums Dn, Dy, Dm, and Dc, and charging rollers Cn, Cy, Cm, and Cc. The structure of process cartridges 7n, 7y, 7m, and 7c is substantially the same, except for the type of toner used. The toner storage sections Ky, Km, and Kc contain yellow, magenta, and cyan toners for forming a visible image on the sheet S. The toner storage section Kn contains the adhesive toner Tn. The adhesive toner Tn is a powder adhesive used in the post-processing device 300 to heat-press multiple sheets S together. The powder adhesive may have heat-melt properties or may exhibit adhesive properties solely through pressure. The adhesive toner Tn develops on the photosensitive drum Dn, forming an adhesive toner image. The adhesive toner image is not intended to transmit visual information. Therefore, the adhesive toner image differs from the toner image (a normal toner image) formed by printing toner for recording images such as figures and text on the sheet S.