EP0926631A2 - Mesurage de la vitesse du papier utilisant la détection de la granulation produite par laser - Google Patents

Mesurage de la vitesse du papier utilisant la détection de la granulation produite par laser Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0926631A2
EP0926631A2 EP98123824A EP98123824A EP0926631A2 EP 0926631 A2 EP0926631 A2 EP 0926631A2 EP 98123824 A EP98123824 A EP 98123824A EP 98123824 A EP98123824 A EP 98123824A EP 0926631 A2 EP0926631 A2 EP 0926631A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
printer
mail piece
detector
laser
printing
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.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP98123824A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0926631A3 (fr
Inventor
Manfred Lüdi
Christian Moy
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.)
Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG
Original Assignee
Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG
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
Priority claimed from US09/023,457 external-priority patent/US6220686B1/en
Application filed by Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG filed Critical Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG
Publication of EP0926631A2 publication Critical patent/EP0926631A2/fr
Publication of EP0926631A3 publication Critical patent/EP0926631A3/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
    • G07B17/00661—Sensing or measuring mailpieces
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/008—Controlling printhead for accurately positioning print image on printing material, e.g. with the intention to control the width of margins
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/36—Blanking or long feeds; Feeding to a particular line, e.g. by rotation of platen or feed roller
    • B41J11/42—Controlling printing material conveyance for accurate alignment of the printing material with the printhead; Print registering
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J13/00—Devices or arrangements of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in short lengths, e.g. sheets
    • B41J13/10—Sheet holders, retainers, movable guides, or stationary guides
    • B41J13/12—Sheet holders, retainers, movable guides, or stationary guides specially adapted for small cards, envelopes, or the like, e.g. credit cards, cut visiting cards
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
    • G07B17/00508—Printing or attaching on mailpieces
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
    • G07B17/00508—Printing or attaching on mailpieces
    • G07B2017/00516—Details of printing apparatus
    • G07B2017/00524—Printheads
    • G07B2017/00532—Inkjet
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
    • G07B17/00661—Sensing or measuring mailpieces
    • G07B2017/00669—Sensing the position of mailpieces
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
    • G07B17/00661—Sensing or measuring mailpieces
    • G07B2017/00693—Measuring the speed of mailpieces inside apparatus

Definitions

  • the invention relates generally to printing on mail pieces, and relates more particularly to noncontact printing on moving mail pieces, in which the motion is detected in a noncontact fashion, preferably by detecting the speckle pattern on a mail piece when illuminated by a coherent, monochromatic beam of light such as a laser.
  • a critical service decision of the postal authority is what to do about mail pieces that have postal indicia for which the bar code cannot be read completely enough to permit its authentication.
  • One choice is to mark all such mail "return to sender", a choice which would be extremely undesirable if the result were the return of an appreciable number of mail pieces which were, in fact, authentic despite having bar codes that, for some reason, cannot be read in sufficient detail to permit authentication.
  • a typical prior art way of measuring movement and position of a mail piece is by means of opposing resilient rollers in gripping contact with the mail piece; a resolver or other position transducer generates a signal indicative of movement ofthe mail piece.
  • a measurement method has numerous drawbacks.
  • the pressured contact ofthe rollers with the mail piece can cause the mail piece to flex or otherwise move relative to the paper path, thus disturbing its position relative to the print head which is typically an ink-jet print head.
  • an ink-jet print head requires precise positioning relative to its target (here, a mail piece), then the flexing and other movement caused by opposed rollers may disturb the printing.
  • a printer is employed to print postage indicia on mail pieces.
  • the printer is preferably a noncontact printer such as an ink-jet printer.
  • Printing occurs as the mail piece moves relative to the print head of the printer, which requires that reliable motion information (e.g. a print clock signal) be made available to the electronics driving the print head.
  • reliable motion is provided in a noncontact way, preferably by directing a laser beam toward the mail piece and detecting a moving speckle pattern in the light scattered from the mail piece. In this way, a precise measurement of mail piece movement is made which permits printing an accurate printed indicium on the mail piece.
  • Fig. 1 shows a side view of a generalized paper path.
  • a mail piece 30 moves laterally (to the right in Fig. 1) past a print head 31, typically an ink-jet print head.
  • Resilient rollers 35, 36 are positioned opposite each other relative to the paper path ofthe mail piece 30, and are biased toward each other.
  • a resolver or other position transducer, omitted for clarity from Fig. 1, may be mechanically coupled with one of the rollers so as to provide an electrical signal indicative of the lateral movement of the mail piece 30.
  • the print head 31 moves perpendicularly to- the movement of the target 30, that is, in and out of the page in Fig. 1.
  • the usual design decision is to hold the target 30 motionless when printing is happening, and then to refrain from printing during times when the target 30 is moving laterally, for example to the right in Fig. 1.
  • Such a system leads to jerky movement of the target 30, rather than continuous movement thereof. For lightweight individual sheets of paper this is not unacceptable and indeed many commercially successful ink-jet printers employ just such a jerky motion of paper through the printer.
  • a plastic tape may be held along the path of the print head, with an optosensor detecting stripes in the tape. The detected stripes are used to clock data to the firing actuators of the print head.
  • the print head 31 is motionless and the target 30 moves relative to the print head 31 at the time that the print head 31 is printing.
  • a resolver or encoder is used to pick up and measure rotation of one of the rollers 35, 36, and a signal derived from the resolver or encoder is used to clock data to the firing actuators of the print head.
  • Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a generalized paper path of a prior-art printing system of the type in which the print head moves perpendicularly to the movement ofthe target.
  • the target 30 moves along its paper path as shown by arrow 33.
  • the print head moves along a guide rail 32, for example in the direction indicated by arrow 34.
  • the movement of the target 30 stops and starts repeatedly, to permit printing by the print head 31 during the stopped intervals.
  • Fig. 3 shows a side view of a paper path according to one embodiment of the invention.
  • an ink-jet print head 31 is positioned relative to the paper path ofthe mail piece 30.
  • Laser 37 is positioned relative to the paper path and directs a monochromatic, coherent beam of light 39 toward the mail piece 30. Scattered light goes in many directions and gives rise to constructive and destructive interference, sensed in direction 40 by sensor 41.
  • the monochromatic laser light is diffusely reflected in all directions in a random way. This diffuse reflection causes phase shifts in the reflected light that are highly dependent on the surface structure; the result is a surface phenomenon.
  • Fig. 4 shows a typical speckle pattern as seen at a detector.
  • the speckle detection may be in a single photodetector, such as a photodiode or a phototransistor, or in any arbitrary array thereof.
  • the photodetector used is not limited to a specific shape or size.
  • CCD-type sensors of any shape may also be employed. With any of these detectors, a signal may be derived that is indicative of motion of the mail piece, and may be used to clock data to the firing actuators of the print head 31.
  • Another detection approach is simply to sense the light intensity at a detection point. As regions of constructive and destructive interference pass by the point, and the detected signal is a fast sequence of bright and dark events. This sequence may be evaluated as a frequency. A calibration may be performed that is a function of the geometrical setup of the apparatus and of the wavelength of light employed.
  • the laser 37 is preferably a laser diode.
  • the laser diode may emit visible or infrared light, as desired.
  • the light source is shown as a laser but the benefits of the invention present themselves with any source of a monochromatic, coherent light beam. Those skilled in the art will have no difficulty appreciating that there are numerous obvious variations which nonetheless fall within the scope of the invention, as defined by the claims that follow.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
  • Accessory Devices And Overall Control Thereof (AREA)
  • Ink Jet (AREA)
EP98123824A 1997-12-21 1998-12-15 Mesurage de la vitesse du papier utilisant la détection de la granulation produite par laser Withdrawn EP0926631A3 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US6843497P 1997-12-21 1997-12-21
US68434P 1997-12-21
US23457 1998-02-13
US09/023,457 US6220686B1 (en) 1998-02-13 1998-02-13 Measurement of paper speed using laser speckle detection

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0926631A2 true EP0926631A2 (fr) 1999-06-30
EP0926631A3 EP0926631A3 (fr) 2000-09-06

Family

ID=26697182

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP98123824A Withdrawn EP0926631A3 (fr) 1997-12-21 1998-12-15 Mesurage de la vitesse du papier utilisant la détection de la granulation produite par laser

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0926631A3 (fr)
CA (1) CA2256237C (fr)

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1156456A1 (fr) * 2000-05-18 2001-11-21 Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG Affranchissement digital des empreintes postales avec vélocimétrie à la lumière cohérente
DE10060454A1 (de) * 2000-11-28 2002-05-29 Francotyp Postalia Gmbh Anordnung für eine Druckvorrichtung
US7062183B2 (en) * 2003-03-13 2006-06-13 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Recording media identifier and recording device
GB2441632A (en) * 2006-09-01 2008-03-12 Goodrich Corp Air cargo power drive unit for detecting motion of an overlying cargo container
FR2922480A1 (fr) * 2007-10-23 2009-04-24 Secap Groupe Pitney Bowes Soc Procede d'impression d'un signe sur un document et machine d'impression mettant en oeuvre ce procede
US20170266965A1 (en) * 2016-03-17 2017-09-21 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Liquid ejection apparatus, liquid ejection system, and liquid ejection method
CN112339446A (zh) * 2019-08-09 2021-02-09 富士施乐株式会社 检测传感器、检测装置、传送装置及图像形成装置

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB8511866D0 (en) * 1985-05-10 1985-06-19 Pa Consulting Services Measuring instruments
US4875769A (en) * 1988-01-22 1989-10-24 Rockwell International Corporation Velocimeter for a printing press web
EP0461437B1 (fr) * 1990-05-22 1998-07-29 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Dispositif d'enregistrement de données
US5813326A (en) * 1994-12-22 1998-09-29 Pitney Bowes Inc. Mailing machine utilizing ink jet printer

Cited By (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1156456A1 (fr) * 2000-05-18 2001-11-21 Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems AG Affranchissement digital des empreintes postales avec vélocimétrie à la lumière cohérente
DE10060454A1 (de) * 2000-11-28 2002-05-29 Francotyp Postalia Gmbh Anordnung für eine Druckvorrichtung
US7062183B2 (en) * 2003-03-13 2006-06-13 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Recording media identifier and recording device
US7643133B2 (en) 2006-09-01 2010-01-05 Goodrich Corporation Air cargo power drive unit for detecting motion of an overlying cargo container
GB2441632B (en) * 2006-09-01 2008-10-22 Goodrich Corp Air cargo power drive unit for detecting motion of an overlying cargo container
GB2441632A (en) * 2006-09-01 2008-03-12 Goodrich Corp Air cargo power drive unit for detecting motion of an overlying cargo container
FR2922480A1 (fr) * 2007-10-23 2009-04-24 Secap Groupe Pitney Bowes Soc Procede d'impression d'un signe sur un document et machine d'impression mettant en oeuvre ce procede
US20170266965A1 (en) * 2016-03-17 2017-09-21 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Liquid ejection apparatus, liquid ejection system, and liquid ejection method
EP3219497B1 (fr) * 2016-03-17 2020-06-17 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Appareil et procédé d'éjection de liquide
US10814622B2 (en) * 2016-03-17 2020-10-27 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Liquid ejection apparatus, liquid ejection system, and liquid ejection method
US11535031B2 (en) 2016-03-17 2022-12-27 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Liquid ejection apparatus, liquid ejection system, and liquid ejection method
US12269264B2 (en) 2016-03-17 2025-04-08 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Liquid ejection apparatus, liquid ejection system, and liquid ejection method
CN112339446A (zh) * 2019-08-09 2021-02-09 富士施乐株式会社 检测传感器、检测装置、传送装置及图像形成装置

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0926631A3 (fr) 2000-09-06
CA2256237A1 (fr) 1999-06-21
CA2256237C (fr) 2008-02-12

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
EP1037020B1 (fr) Détection optique de déplacements
US6220686B1 (en) Measurement of paper speed using laser speckle detection
US6572213B2 (en) System and method for detecting invisible ink drops
JP3484245B2 (ja) シャトル型プリンタの印刷システムおよびシャトル型プリンタの動作方法
EP1156456B1 (fr) Affranchissement digital des empreintes postales avec vélocimétrie à la lumière cohérente
EP1063097B1 (fr) Mecanisme de detection, dispositif de controle de chariot et imprimante comprenant ces elements
US6631971B2 (en) Inkjet printer and method for use thereof
US5285056A (en) Bar code reflectance measurement apparatus
EP0718108B1 (fr) Imprimante d'étiquettes à détecteur de position
US8687060B1 (en) System and method for providing distance-based pulses relative to motion of a surface scanned by a vision system
US5448079A (en) Reflective pattern with coded beginning and end formed on the surface of a sheet handling cylinder for detecting the presence and position of the sheet
CA2256237C (fr) Mesure de vitesse de la piece de papier au moyen de la detection granularite laser
EP0659572B1 (fr) Imprimante et sa méthode de commande
JPH06171068A (ja) 多色輪転印刷機において見当誤差を検出する装置
GB2195179A (en) Registration system for a moving substrate
WO1998053327A1 (fr) Procede et dispositif de mesure de deplacement sans contact
US7102122B2 (en) Methods and means for using a photosensor as an encoder and a trigger
CA1295711C (fr) Capteur de vitesse de document balaye
EP1718472B1 (fr) Appareil d'impression
US4533268A (en) Position indicator for high speed printers
KR20070042487A (ko) 가동 기계 장치의 위치를 표시하기 위한 시스템 및 방법
US20230415493A1 (en) Printing apparatus and method of measurement
JPH03173667A (ja) 印字ヘッドの送り位置検出装置
CA1218263A (fr) Temoin de position sur imprimante haute vitesse
JP2002321384A (ja) インク残量検知装置

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A2

Designated state(s): CH DE FR GB LI

AX Request for extension of the european patent

Free format text: AL;LT;LV;MK;RO;SI

PUAL Search report despatched

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009013

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A3

Designated state(s): AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE

AX Request for extension of the european patent

Free format text: AL;LT;LV;MK;RO;SI

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 20010306

AKX Designation fees paid

Free format text: CH DE FR GB LI

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 20080703

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: THE APPLICATION HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN

18W Application withdrawn

Effective date: 20120726