EP0642099A1 - Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Zählen von auf einem Förderer vorbeilaufenden Gegenständen - Google Patents

Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Zählen von auf einem Förderer vorbeilaufenden Gegenständen Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0642099A1
EP0642099A1 EP94401794A EP94401794A EP0642099A1 EP 0642099 A1 EP0642099 A1 EP 0642099A1 EP 94401794 A EP94401794 A EP 94401794A EP 94401794 A EP94401794 A EP 94401794A EP 0642099 A1 EP0642099 A1 EP 0642099A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
articles
conveyor belt
counting
running
value
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Ceased
Application number
EP94401794A
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English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Pascal Maurice
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
HELIO CORBEIL SNC
Original Assignee
HELIO CORBEIL SNC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by HELIO CORBEIL SNC filed Critical HELIO CORBEIL SNC
Publication of EP0642099A1 publication Critical patent/EP0642099A1/de
Ceased legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06M—COUNTING MECHANISMS; COUNTING OF OBJECTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06M7/00—Counting of objects carried by a conveyor
    • G06M7/08—Counting of objects carried by a conveyor wherein the direction of movement of the objects is changed at the station where they are sensed
    • G06M7/10—Counting of flat overlapped articles, e.g. of cards
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06M—COUNTING MECHANISMS; COUNTING OF OBJECTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06M1/00—Design features of general application
    • G06M1/08—Design features of general application for actuating the drive
    • G06M1/10—Design features of general application for actuating the drive by electric or magnetic means
    • G06M1/101—Design features of general application for actuating the drive by electric or magnetic means by electro-optical means

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a device for counting articles traveling on a conveyor belt, in particular for counting notebooks conveyed by a conveyor belt between the output of a rotary press and a stacker.
  • the speed of scrolling of the articles, in this case of the notebooks can reach 100,000 to 150,000 copies per hour.
  • the articles form a web which can be discontinuous, having irregularities in height and pitch due to different factors.
  • the thickness of the sheet depends in particular on the pagination of the notebooks and the grammage of the paper.
  • the distance between two consecutive notebooks also varies significantly, from cases of complete overlap of two consecutive notebooks, to situations of significant vacuum between two consecutive notebooks, in particular due to samples from the conveyor belt for control purposes. quality.
  • Counting the number of notebooks at the press exit is critical. Indeed, if the number of printed notebooks is generally known with precision at the exit of the folder, it does not however make it possible to know with satisfactory precision the number of final copies. Indeed, various samples resulting, in addition to quality control, from the withdrawal of defective notebooks, introduce variations requiring a recount to guarantee the delivery of a number of copies at least equal to the number ordered. Since the recounting means before stacking do not present sufficient precision in the prior art, it is usual to print and to deliver an excess number of copies. This results in a significant additional cost, which can amount to several hundred thousand Francs for a high-performance printing press.
  • the first embodiment described for example in the American patent N ° US4979670, the Swiss patent N ° CH607157 or in the German patent N ° DE2742244, implements a mechanical sensor, comprising feelers. This type of counter is not entirely satisfactory for high rates, since the natural frequency of the probe device limits the counting frequency.
  • a second embodiment is described in European patent N ° EP361071 or the American patent N ° US5031156 implements ultrasonic detection means. This embodiment does not however make it possible to eliminate certain counting errors, due for example to the overlapping of two notebooks.
  • a third embodiment described in patent N ° EP370881, American patent N ° US4972071, Swedish patent N ° SE8600407, European patent N ° EP182802, British patent N ° GB2104263 or European patent N ° EP41489, using one or more light sources.
  • the counters according to this embodiment are however sensitive to various disturbances, in particular to the differences in color of the upper sheet of the notebooks.
  • the object of the present invention is to remedy these various drawbacks, by proposing a counting device having high precision, of about two notebooks per thousand, at a high speed, up to 150,000 notebooks per hour.
  • the invention makes it possible to carry out a count independent of the color of the notebooks, and not very sensitive to external disturbances.
  • the invention relates more particularly to a device for counting articles scrolling on a conveyor belt, in particular device for counting notebooks on a conveyor, of the type comprising a collimated light source and a photodetector, as well as an electronic circuit.
  • the light source comprises means for generating a two-dimensional light beam, the plane of said beam being substantially perpendicular to the axis scrolling items to be counted
  • the photovoltaic cell is constituted by a linear sensor, the light source and the photovoltaic cell being arranged on either side of the conveyor belt.
  • This embodiment makes it possible to generate a current signal proportional to the illumination received, constituting a good image of the sheet.
  • the electrical signal delivered by the photodetector can be used by an electronic signal processing circuit capable of delivering pulses representative of the passage of notebooks in front of the light barrier.
  • the light source is constituted by a laser diode and by an optical assembly for widening and collimating the beam comprising a diverging cylindrical lens and a converging cylindrical lens.
  • the photodetector includes a narrow band bandpass filter, eliminating wavelengths different from the emission wavelength of the laser source.
  • the width of the planar beam is greater than the height of the articles to be counted.
  • the optical axis forms with the plane of the conveyor belt an angle between 10 and 30 degrees.
  • the reference value Vépais is reset if the time between two detections of articles is greater than a predetermined value.
  • Figure 1 shows a sectional view of the counting device according to the invention.
  • the notebooks (1) scroll on a conveyor belt (2).
  • the notebooks (1) constituting the catalog or review elements are produced by slitting and folding a strip of paper or wide width, printed by cylinders.
  • the rotogravure printing press is fed with paper by spools. Each time the reel is changed, the paper is glued on.
  • the width once printed on its entire recto / verso surface, is transformed into notebooks. To do this; four operations are implemented, namely the longitudinal slitting of the width into strips, the superposition of these strips, the cutting of the notebooks and finally their folding.
  • the notebooks (1) After each folding, the notebooks (1) have a certain thickness and an opening due to the electrostatic repulsion of the facing pages. This electrostatic charge is voluntarily generated in the printing process, in order to promote the holding of the notebook, especially in stackers.
  • the notebooks obtained after cutting and folding are placed on a conveyor belt and form a superimposed continuous sheet, except accidental breakage of the width.
  • the counting device comprises a light source (3) and a photodetector (4).
  • the light source (3) is constituted by a laser diode (5) and by an optical system constituted by a diverging cylindrical lens (6) and a converging cylindrical lens (7), generating a planar beam (10), having a height h at least equal to the thickness e of the sheet of notebooks (1).
  • the photodetector (4) consists of a linear photovoltaic sensor (8), having a height at least equal to the width of the beam (10).
  • a bandpass filter (9) disposed at the input of the photodetector eliminates the wavelengths different from the emission wavelength of the laser diode (5). This filter makes it possible to guarantee the independence of the signal delivered by the photodetector (8) with respect to the external illumination and to the light disturbances occurring in the environment of the counting device.
  • the photodetector (8) is for example constituted by a silicon strip of 50.8 millimeters, marketed by the company QUANTRAD under the reference LL2E.
  • the filter (9) is for example constituted by an interference filter centered on a wavelength of 650 manometers, having a pass band of 80 manometers.
  • the optical axis (11) forms an angle of about 20 degrees with the plane of the conveyor.
  • the photodetector (4) detects a light signal whose amplitude is a function of the thickness of the sheet interposed between the light source (3) and the photodetector (4).
  • the photodetector (4) ensures integration of the light amplitude relative to the surface, and delivers an analog signal in the form of a current proportional to the illumination received.
  • FIG. 2 represents the block diagram of the circuit for processing the signal delivered by the photodetector.
  • It includes a current / voltage converter (12) delivering a variable signal with a continuous component.
  • This continuous component is eliminated by an adjustable offset circuit (13) constituted by a summator-inverter.
  • the signal delivered by the offset circuit (13) is representative of the sheet.
  • the signal is then amplified by an amplifier circuit (14) and then filtered by a low-pass circuit (15).
  • This filter (15) has the effect of reducing the noise brought by the industrial environment, and amplified by the previous circuit.
  • the low-pass filter has a cutoff frequency of 2 kHz. Eliminating noise is important to avoid counting high frequency edges as being edges from one notebook to the next.
  • the analog signal thus processed is then sampled by an acquisition card (16).
  • the acquisition card is made up of two 12-bit analog / digital converters, five 16-bit counters / timers, 24 digital I / O and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter installed in a microcomputer (18).
  • the sampling speed is 167 Khz.
  • Such an acquisition card is for example marketed by the company SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS under the reference LAB MASTER DMA.
  • the digital signal is then exploited by a microcomputer (17) which delivers a signal to a peripheral (18) enabling the counting result to be viewed.
  • the digital signal has a general shape shown in FIG. 3. It has a succession of falling edges (20) and rising edges (21). The height of the curve arcs (22 to 24), and their interval are variable.
  • the sampling frequency is for example fixed at 500 Hz, so as to have in all cases at least 4 points per rising edge or falling edge.
  • the computer (17) is controlled by a program the purpose of which is to eliminate transient disturbances, and to identify the peaks actually corresponding to the passage of a notebook, and to eliminate localized defects in the signal due to a tear or an anomaly in a notebook.
  • the counting method thus proposed is independent of the sampling frequency and follows the fluctuations in thickness of the sheet. It also makes it possible to satisfactorily overcome very localized disturbances.
  • the admissible E-e error values are of the order of 75%.
  • a digital filtering of the minimum and maximum acquisition values is carried out, by memorizing a value resulting from the weighting of the last acquired value and the previously memorized value.
  • FIG. 4 represents an example of a flow diagram of the counting program according to the invention.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Controlling Sheets Or Webs (AREA)
  • Control Of Conveyors (AREA)
EP94401794A 1993-09-07 1994-08-03 Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Zählen von auf einem Förderer vorbeilaufenden Gegenständen Ceased EP0642099A1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR9310626 1993-09-07
FR9310626A FR2709702B1 (fr) 1993-09-07 1993-09-07 Dispositif de comptage d'articles défilant sur une bande transporteuse et procédé comportant un tel dispositif.

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0642099A1 true EP0642099A1 (de) 1995-03-08

Family

ID=9450618

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP94401794A Ceased EP0642099A1 (de) 1993-09-07 1994-08-03 Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Zählen von auf einem Förderer vorbeilaufenden Gegenständen

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0642099A1 (de)
FR (1) FR2709702B1 (de)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2807187A1 (fr) * 2000-03-28 2001-10-05 Schlumberger Systems & Service Procede de comptage d'elements plats agences selon un empilement

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR1547603A (fr) * 1966-09-30 1968-11-29 Ferag Ag Installation pour compter des produits échelonnés qui avancent
FR2256481A1 (de) * 1973-12-26 1975-07-25 Ibm
EP0383415A2 (de) * 1989-02-13 1990-08-22 Comar, Inc. Bildanalyse-Zählsystem
EP0439023A2 (de) * 1990-01-23 1991-07-31 Comar, Inc. Bildanalyse-Zählsystem

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR1547603A (fr) * 1966-09-30 1968-11-29 Ferag Ag Installation pour compter des produits échelonnés qui avancent
FR2256481A1 (de) * 1973-12-26 1975-07-25 Ibm
EP0383415A2 (de) * 1989-02-13 1990-08-22 Comar, Inc. Bildanalyse-Zählsystem
EP0439023A2 (de) * 1990-01-23 1991-07-31 Comar, Inc. Bildanalyse-Zählsystem

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2807187A1 (fr) * 2000-03-28 2001-10-05 Schlumberger Systems & Service Procede de comptage d'elements plats agences selon un empilement

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
FR2709702B1 (fr) 1995-12-08
FR2709702A1 (fr) 1995-03-17

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