JP2002211800A - Device and method for conveying lithographic plate bundle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent lithographic plates forming lithographic plate bundle from being displaced from each other during conveying without applying a fixing tape to the lithographic plate bundle. SOLUTION: In the roller conveyor 16 of conveying equipment, the lithographic plate 12 stacked on the upper layer part of the lithographic plate bundle 14 is charged by a charger 74 after air forcibly discharged from a clearance between the lithographic plates 12 by pressurizing the lithographic plate bundle 14 by a pressurizing roller 52 from the upper side. By this, an adhesiveness between the lithographic plates 12 is increased to increase a frictional resistance, and an electrostatic attraction force interacts between several to several ten sheets of lithographic plates 12 stacked on the upper layer part of the lithographic plate bundle 14. The lithographic plate bundle 14 is conveyed to an automatic packaging device by the conveying equipment comprising a roller conveyor 16 and a belt conveyor on the downstream side of the roller conveyor 16. The conveying equipment conveys the lithographic plate bundle 14 so that the accelerations at the acceleration and deceleration is 2.0 m/sec2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lithographic printing plate bundle conveying device for conveying a lithographic printing plate bundle formed by stacking lithographic printing plates to an arbitrary position, and a lithographic printing plate using the conveying device. The present invention relates to a method of transporting a bundle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A lithographic printing plate such as a photosensitive printing plate is subjected to surface treatment such as graining, anodic oxidation, chemical conversion treatment alone or in an appropriate combination on a support such as an aluminum plate or a steel plate. It is manufactured through a step of applying a photosensitive composition (including a heat-sensitive composition in the photosensitive composition). In such a lithographic printing plate, a strip-shaped web as a product material is cut along a longitudinal direction by a slitter and cut along a short direction by a cutter, and cut into a predetermined product size. The lithographic printing plates are stacked by a predetermined number of sheets, for example, by a known sheet material stacking device (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-51469), and a bundle of lithographic printing plates (hereinafter, simply referred to as a “bundle”). It is said. This bundle is transported to the next step by transport means such as a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor. Immediately after the lithographic printing plates are stacked to form a bundle, air usually remains between the lithographic printing plates constituting the bundle to form an air layer. It is easy to slip. In order to prevent the occurrence of a shift between the planographic printing plates constituting the bundle during transport by this, for example, immediately after the bundle is formed, an adhesive tape is applied to an area across the upper surface end, both side end surfaces and the lower surface end of the bundle. The bundle of lithographic printing plates is conveyed by a conveyor or the like while the relative movement between the lithographic printing plates is restricted by the adhesive tape.

[0003]

However, when an adhesive tape is adhered to the side end surface of the bundle, the adhesive of the adhesive tape penetrates between the lithographic printing plates from the side end surface of the bundle, and this adhesive is applied to the lithographic printing plate. May adhere to the exposed surface. If the adhesive, which is a foreign substance, adheres to the exposed surface of the lithographic printing plate, image defects such as white spots may occur on the exposed portion after exposure and development of the lithographic printing plate, which may cause quality problems. If the user uses an automatic lithographic printing plate feeder such as an autosetter, the adhesive tape must be completely peeled off from the bundle before loading into such an automatic feeder. Therefore, if the adhesive tape is stuck to the bundle which becomes quite heavy as a whole, the handling of the bundle by the user becomes complicated.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of displacement during transport between planographic printing plates constituting a planographic printing plate bundle without attaching a fixing tape to the planographic printing plate bundle. An object of the present invention is to provide a transport device and a transport method for a lithographic printing plate bundle that can be transported.

[0005]

According to the lithographic printing plate bundle conveying apparatus of the present invention, the air release means presses the lithographic printing plate bundle conveyed by the conveying means from above to form the lithographic printing plate bundle. By forcibly discharging air from between the lithographic printing plates, the air layer generated between the lithographic printing plates can be eliminated or sufficiently reduced, so that the adhesion between the lithographic printing plates can be increased and the frictional resistance can be increased. At this time, the maximum acceleration at the time of acceleration and deceleration of the lithographic printing plate bundle is 2.0
By conveying the planographic printing plate bundle such that the m / sec ² or less, the frictional resistance between the maximum inertial force acting on the lithographic printing plate during transport, the lithographic printing plate air is forced out by the air bleed means Can be maintained at a sufficiently small value, so that the occurrence of a shift between planographic printing plates constituting the bundle of planographic printing plates during transportation can be prevented.

A lithographic printing plate has a surface (exposed surface) to which an interleaf such as kraft paper is adhered. Such an interleaf has a particularly low coefficient of friction with the back surface of the lithographic printing plate. In the case where the lithographic printing plate bundle is discharged from the lithographic printing plate bundle by the charging means and the air is discharged from between the lithographic printing plates by the charging means, the lithographic printing plate bundle is configured to be charged from the upper surface side. the electrostatic adsorption force between the planographic printing plate is produced, without greatly lower than the maximum acceleration of the lithographic printing plate 2.0 m / sec ² or less at the time of acceleration and deceleration, the lithographic printing during the transport It is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of misalignment between the lithographic printing plates constituting the plate bundle.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a planographic printing plate transport device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a lithographic printing plate processing line 110 to which a transfer device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. On the upstream side of this processing line 110 (upper right side in FIG. 1), a feeder 114 for sequentially unwinding a web 112 wound in a roll shape in advance is provided. When the long web 112 sent out from the feeder 114 is straightened by the leveler 115 and reaches the feed roller 116, the interleaf paper 118 is bonded, and the web 112 on which the interleaf paper 118 adheres by charging is transferred to the notcher 120. Reach.

The notcher 120 is provided with a punching portion on the web 112 so that the upper blade and the lower blade of the cutting roller 122 can move in the width direction of the web 112 at the punching position. This makes it possible to change the cutting width of the web 112 while continuously cutting the web 112 and the interleaf 118 together. The cutting waste generated by the cutting is sent to a chopper (not shown) to be finely cut, and then collected in a collection box 126 by a collection conveyor 124.

In the processing line 110 of this embodiment, a cutting unit 128 is constituted by the cutting roller 122 and peripheral members (not shown), and two sets of the cutting unit 128 are prepared. Thus, a setup operation such as blade replacement can be performed by the unused cutting unit 128 outside the line, and the line stop time of the processing line 110 can be minimized.

In this manner, the web 112 cut to a predetermined cutting width has its feed length detected by the length measuring device 130 and is cut by the running cutter 132 at the designated timing. Thereby, the planographic printing plate 12 of the set size is manufactured. The planographic printing plates 12 are conveyed to a stacking device 140 by belt conveyors 134, 136, and 138, and a predetermined number of planographic printing plates 12 are stacked by the stacking device 140 to form a planographic printing plate bundle 14.

The belt conveyor 138 is connected to a belt conveyor 146 of a protection sheet supply device 144 for supplying a protection sheet 142 made of cardboard or corrugated paper onto the belt conveyor 138. The protection sheet 1 is transported between the lithographic printing plates 12 conveyed on the belt conveyor 140 at a predetermined timing by the protection sheet supply device 144.
By supplying the sheet 42, one or more protective sheets 142 are inserted into at least the lowermost part and the uppermost part of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 1, a transfer device 10 according to the present embodiment is provided downstream of the accumulating device 140. The conveying device 10 conveys the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 accumulated by the accumulating device 140 to the automatic packaging device 88, and performs air release and charging of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the roller pressing mechanism 50 and the charging device 74 described later. .

A roller conveyor 16 is disposed upstream of the transport device 10. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of free rollers 20 and both ends of the free rollers 20 arranged along the transport direction of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 (direction of arrow C) as shown in FIG. A pair of rotatably supported roller frames 22 are provided. The free roller 20 is supported by a roller frame 22 via a bearing member (not shown). Each free roller 20 is arranged such that the roller axis is orthogonal to the transport direction, and the positions of the roller axes coincide with each other in the height direction. Thereby, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 placed on the roller conveyor 16 can smoothly move in the transport direction.

Above the roller conveyor 16, a chucking mechanism 18 for the planographic printing plate 12 is arranged as shown in FIG. The chucking mechanism 18 is provided with a guide rail 24 (see FIG. 1) whose longitudinal direction is the transport direction.
Are movably supported in the transport direction. As shown in FIG. 3, the carrier 26 is provided with a pair of chucking portions 28 at both ends along the transport direction. As shown in FIG. 4, the chucking portion 28 is formed in a substantially U-shape that opens toward the roller conveyor 16 when viewed from the downstream side in the transport direction, and is connected to the guide rail 24 via the connection rod 30. Have been.

As shown in FIG. 4, a movable plate 32 and a fixed plate 34 extending horizontally from the base end to the roller conveyor 16 are provided at the upper end and the lower end of the pair of chucking portions 28, respectively. The chucking unit 28 presses and holds the side end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the movable plate 32 and the fixed plate 34 when the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is transported. here,
The movable plate 32 is movably supported in the thickness direction of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, and is moved along the thickness direction by a driving force from an actuator (not shown) such as an electromagnetic solenoid or an air cylinder built in the chucking portion 28. Descend or rise.
The position of the upper surface of the fixing plate 34 is adjusted in the height direction so as to substantially coincide with the apex of the free roller 20 of the roller conveyor 16.

As shown in FIG. 2, the carrier 26 of the chucking mechanism 18 is provided with a base portion 36 for connecting a pair of chucking portions 28. On both sides of the base 36 opposite to the roller conveyor 16, connecting portions 38 are provided at both ends in the transport direction, and both ends of the chain 40 are connected to the pair of connecting portions 38, respectively. Chain 40 has a pair of sprockets 42,
44, and these sprockets 42, 44
Are stretched along the transport direction.

The pair of sprockets 42 and 44 are arranged on the downstream side and the upstream side of the roller conveyor 16 along the conveying direction, respectively. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the downstream sprocket 42 is rotatably supported by a bearing member 46, and the upstream sprocket 44 is connected to a drive motor 48. By rotating the drive motor 48 forward or backward, the carrier 26 moves forward or backward in the transport direction by the driving force from the drive motor 48.

A roller pressing mechanism 50 is arranged above the roller conveyor 16 as shown in FIGS. The roller pressing mechanism 50 is provided with a pressing roller 52 supported in parallel with the free roller 20. The pressing roller 52 is formed in a substantially U-shape via a bearing member 54 (see FIG. 3). And is rotatably supported by a plate-shaped roller frame 56.

As shown in FIG. 2, a motor unit 58 in which a motor and a speed reducer are integrated is disposed outside the roller frame 56. The output shaft of the motor unit 58 is pressurized via an electromagnetic clutch 60. It is connected to a roller 52. Here, when a drive voltage is applied by a controller (not shown) that controls the entire processing line 110 and the electromagnetic clutch 60 is turned on, the motor unit 5
When the transmission of torque from the motor 8 to the pressure roller 52 becomes possible and the application of the drive voltage is interrupted and the electromagnetic clutch 60 is turned off, the motor unit 58 is disconnected from the pressure roller 52. Thus, the pressure roller 52 can rotate without receiving the rotation resistance from the motor unit 58.

The motor unit 58 controls the moving speed of the carrier 26 which advances the pressure roller 52 by the driving force from the driving motor 48 during normal rotation, that is, the roller conveyor 1.
6 rotates at a rotation speed corresponding to the transport speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 on 6. Specifically, the motor unit 58
Rotates the pressure roller 52 at a rotational speed such that the linear velocity of the roller surface of the pressure roller 52 during normal rotation matches the transport speed of the planographic printing plate bundle 14.

As shown in FIG. 3, a sensor support member 6 extending to the downstream side and the upstream side in the transport direction with respect to the roller frame 22 is provided on the upper surface of the roller frame 22.
2 is fixed. Edge sensors 64 and 66 including a photoelectric switch, an ultrasonic sensor, and the like are arranged at both ends of the sensor support member 62 in the transport direction. The edge sensors 64 and 66 detect the leading end and the trailing end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed by the roller conveyor 16, respectively, and output a leading end detection signal and a trailing end detection signal to the controller.

In the roller pressing mechanism 50, an air cylinder 68 is disposed above the pressing roller 52 as shown in FIG. The air cylinder 68 has a supply / exhaust port 7
0 and 72 are provided respectively, and the air cylinder 68
Opens the air supply / exhaust port 70 and raises the rod 69 when high-pressure air is supplied through the air supply / exhaust port 72. Is slowly controlled when is supplied while being controlled. Here, the intake port 70 is piped to a high-pressure air supply source such as an air tank, and an intake solenoid valve (not shown) is arranged in the pipe. The exhaust port 72
Is opened to the outside (atmosphere) through an exhaust solenoid valve (not shown). The opening and closing states of these intake and exhaust solenoid valves are controlled by signals from the controller.

The tip of the air cylinder 68 is connected and fixed to the center of the upper surface of the roller frame 56. Accordingly, when the rod 69 of the air cylinder 68 is at the upper limit position, the lower end of the pressure roller 52 is held at a standby position (see FIG. 5) slightly higher than the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 on the roller conveyor 16. You. Here, the upper limit position of the rod 69 can be adjusted according to the thickness of the planographic printing plate bundle 14. When the exhaust port 72 is opened at a predetermined timing and the pressure roller 52 is lowered on the planographic printing plate bundle 14 by the air cylinder 68, the pressure roller 52 corresponds to the weight of the pressure roller 52 and the rod 69. It presses against the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by pressing force.

As shown in FIG. 7, a plasma type charging device 74 is disposed above the roller conveyor 16 downstream of the roller pressing mechanism 50 as shown in FIG. The charging device 74 is provided with a substantially cylindrical electrode portion 76, and the electrode portion 76 is supported such that its axis is substantially parallel to the roller axis of the free roller 20. At the lower end of the electrode section 76,
A plurality of discharge needles 78 are erected at a constant pitch along the axial direction.

The charging device 74 is provided with a power supply 77 connected to the electrode 76 by a cable or the like. When the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 separates from the pressure roller 52, the controller turns on the power supply 77 in synchronization with the release. As a result, the power supply unit 77 operates the electrode unit 7 at the timing when the leading end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is conveyed directly below the electrode unit 76.
The application of the charging voltage to 6 starts. At this time, plasma is generated between the electrode portion 76 and the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, and the upper layer portion of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed to the downstream side is charged by the plasma, and the upper layer portion of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is charged. The electrostatic attraction force acts on several to ten and several lithographic printing plates 12 stacked in the section. The controller is a lithographic printing plate bundle 1
When the rear end of 4 passes below the electrode section 76, the power supply section 77 is turned off in synchronization with this, and the application of voltage to the electrode section 76 is stopped.

Downstream of the roller conveyor 16, belt conveyors 80, 82 and 84 are arranged as shown in FIG. The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 charged by the charging device 74 is transported from the roller conveyor 16 to above the belt conveyor 80 by the chucking mechanism 18, and is further transported downstream by the belt conveyors 80, 82, 84.

A roller conveyor 86 with a branching device (not shown) is disposed downstream of the belt conveyor 84. The roller conveyor 86 is provided with the belt conveyor 8.
The transport direction is substantially orthogonal to the transport direction of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by 0, 82, and 84. The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 transported onto the roller conveyor 86 by the belt conveyor 84 is stretched by sprockets or the like. The roller is conveyed to a center position along the axial direction of the roller conveyer 86 by a branching device composed of the lifted chain and a lifter that lifts and lowers the chain. The roller conveyor 86 conveys the planographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed to the center position by the branching device to the automatic packaging device 88.

(Operation of the Embodiment) Next, the operation and operation of the transport device 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. When the controller determines that the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is formed by the stacking device 140, the controller controls the drive motor 48 of the chucking mechanism 18 to move the carrier 26 to the stacking device 14.
The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is moved to the stacking position. At this time, the movable plate 32 of the chucking section 28 is
In the release position furthest away from the carrier 2
When the plate 6 moves to the stacking position, the side end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is inserted between the movable plate 32 and the fixed plate 34.

When the carrier 26 moves to the accumulation position, the controller moves the movable plate 32 of the chucking section 28 to the fixed plate 34 side, and the lithographic printing plate is moved by the movable plate 32 and the fixed plate 34 as shown in FIG. The bundle 14 is pressed and held. As a result, the carrier 26 is mounted on the roller conveyor 1
6 can be moved integrally with the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. When the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is nipped by the chucking unit 28 under pressure, the controller rotates the drive motor 48 in the normal direction to move the carrier 26 and the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 from the accumulation position onto the roller conveyor 16 in the transport device 10. Move.

The controller is a chucking mechanism 1
The electromagnetic clutch 60 of the roller pressing mechanism 50 is turned on and the motor unit 58 is driven in synchronization with the drive of the drive motor 48 of FIG. Thereby, the pressure roller 52
Rotates at a rotational speed such that the linear speed of the roller surface becomes equal to the transport speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. At this time,
The air cylinder 68 holds the rod 69 at the upper limit position as shown in FIG.

The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 on the roller conveyor 16
Is detected by the edge sensor 64, the controller exhausts the air in the air cylinder 68 through the exhaust port 72, turns off the electromagnetic clutch 60, and disconnects the motor unit 58 from the pressure roller 52. As a result, the pressure roller 52 descends from the standby position and comes into contact with the top end of the planographic printing plate bundle 14. At this time, even if the pressure roller 52 is separated from the motor unit 58, the rotational speed is maintained at substantially the same rotational speed immediately before the electromagnetic clutch 60 is turned off due to the inertial force due to the inertial force. That is,
When contacting the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, the pressure roller 52 is rotated by inertia at a rotational speed such that the linear velocity of the roller surface is substantially equal to the moving speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14.

Pressure roller 52 in contact with lithographic printing plate bundle 14
Applies a pressing force corresponding to its own weight and the weight of the rod 69 to the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, and rotates following the force from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 moving in the transport direction. Thereby, air (air layer) remaining between the planographic printing plates 12 constituting the planographic printing plate bundle 14 moves from the front end to the rear end side of the planographic printing plate bundle 14, and the planographic printing plate bundle 14 is pressurized. After separating from the rollers 52, the air that has moved to the rear end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is discharged from the rear end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14.

When the rear end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is detected by the edge sensor 66, the controller supplies high-pressure air into the air cylinder 68 through the intake port 70. Thereby, the air cylinder 68 raises the rod 69 and holds it at the upper limit position.

Here, the pressure roller 52 is used for the lithographic printing plate bundle 1.
4, only the portion facing the roller conveyor 16 is pressed, and the side end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 protruding from the roller conveyor 16 toward the chucking mechanism 18 is not directly pressed. The end is pressed and held by the chucking portion 28 of the chucking mechanism 18. Thus, air is discharged from the side end of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 without being pressed by the pressing roller 52.

Thereafter, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is moved to the belt conveyors 80, 8 arranged downstream of the roller conveyor 16.
2, 84 and roller conveyor 86, automatic packaging device 8
8. The automatic packaging device 88 wraps the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 with light-shielding and moisture-proof interior paper 90 so that the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is covered with no gap as shown in FIG. As interior paper 9
A plurality of locations at 0 are pasted together with glue or adhesive tape. As the interior paper 90 having the light-shielding property and the moisture-proof property, for example, aluminum kraft paper in which 6 μm aluminum foil is laminated with 13 μm low-density polyethylene to kraft paper having a basis weight of 85 g / m ² can be applied.

On the other hand, the graph of FIG. 8 shows the transition of the conveying speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the belt conveyors 80, 82, 84 and the roller conveyor 86 in the conveying device 10. Here, the solid line shown in FIG. 8 is the planographic printing plate bundle 14 by the belt conveyor 80 located at the most upstream side.
3 shows the transition of the transfer speed. However, the other belt conveyors 82 and 84 and the roller conveyor 86 are also in the acceleration section A.
ＢB and the deceleration sections C〜E, the transport speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is changed in the same acceleration / deceleration pattern as the belt conveyor 80. The belt conveyors 82 and 84 and the roller conveyor 86 differ from the belt conveyor 80 in the transition of the transport speed only in that the length of the constant speed sections B to C changes according to the transport distance of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. is there.

The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 at the stacking position is nipped by the chucking mechanism 18 and is started to be conveyed, and is conveyed to the conveyance start point on the belt conveyor 80 (point A in FIG. 8). When the chucking mechanism 18 separates from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 at the conveyance start point A, the belt conveyor 80 starts conveying the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 and accelerates to the speed VH at the acceleration α. The belt conveyor 80 stops accelerating when the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 reaches the speed VH, and the lithographic printing plate bundle 1
4 is transported at a constant speed VH to a deceleration start point (point C in FIG. 8). This deceleration start point C is located a predetermined distance upstream from the end of the belt conveyor 80.

When the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 reaches the deceleration starting point C, the belt conveyor 80 moves the lithographic printing plate bundle 1 at an acceleration α.
4, the planographic printing plate bundle 14 is reduced to the speed VL,
The transport speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is set to a speed VL over a certain period of time.
, The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is again started to decelerate at the acceleration α, and the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is conveyed to the transport end point (E in FIG. 8) at the boundary between the belt conveyor 80 and the belt conveyor 82.
Stop at point).

The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed to the conveyance end point E by the belt conveyor 80 continues to have the same speed change pattern as the belt conveyor 80, and
2, the conveyor is continued by the belt conveyor 84, and is conveyed to the boundary between the belt conveyor 84 and the roller conveyor 86 and temporarily stopped. After this, the roller conveyor 86
The diverting device attached to the roller conveyor 86 transports the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 reaching the boundary with the roller conveyor 86 onto the roller conveyor 86 and stops at the axial center of the roller conveyor 86. The roller conveyor 86 continuously transports the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 onto a belt conveyor 92 (see FIG. 1) installed at the entrance of the automatic packaging device 88 and stops at the same acceleration / deceleration pattern as the belt conveyor 80.

Here, the roller conveyor 1 described above is used.
6. The acceleration α during acceleration and deceleration of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the belt conveyors 80, 82 and the roller conveyor 86 is set to 2.0 m / sec ² .

The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed to the belt conveyor 92 is automatically wrapped by the automatic wrapping device 88. In the wrapped state, the interior paper 90 exerts a sufficient restraining force on the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, so that a deviation may occur between the lithographic printing plates 12 constituting the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. Is prevented.

Although the chucking mechanism 18, the belt conveyors 80, 82 and 84, and the roller conveyor 86 can be accelerated and decelerated in the transfer device of the present embodiment,
Such acceleration and deceleration of the transport speed can be performed, for example, by transmitting torque from a drive motor to a belt or the like via a stepless speed change mechanism, and controlling a speed reduction ratio of the stepless speed change mechanism by a controller. This is made possible by using a stepping motor as a control unit and controlling the period of a drive pulse output to the stepping motor by a controller.

The transfer apparatus 1 according to the embodiment described above.
According to 0, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 conveyed by the pressure roller 52 of the roller pressing mechanism 50 is pressed from above to forcibly discharge air from between the lithographic printing plates 12 constituting the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. Thereby, the air layer generated between the lithographic printing plates 12 can be eliminated or sufficiently reduced, so that the adhesion between the lithographic printing plates 12 can be increased and the frictional resistance can be increased.
At this time, the chucking mechanism 18, the belt conveyor 8
0, 82, 84 and the roller conveyor 86 accelerate the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 during acceleration and deceleration, respectively.
By transporting the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 so as to be 0 m / sec ² or less, the inertial force acting on the lithographic printing plate 12 during transportation is reduced by the pressure roller 52 between the lithographic printing plates 12 from which air is forcibly discharged. Can be maintained at a sufficiently small value with respect to the frictional resistance of the lithographic printing plates 12. Can be prevented.

However, when the coefficient of friction of the slip sheet 118 bonded to the surface (exposed surface) of the lithographic printing plate 12 is particularly low, or when the weight per area of the lithographic printing plate 12 is smaller than usual. Since the sliding resistance (frictional resistance) between the lithographic printing plates 12 is suppressed, even if the acceleration by the conveying device 10 is set to 2.0 m / sec < ² >, the lithographic printing plates 12 stacked on the upper layer of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 are prevented from slipping. May cause a slight shift. In order to adapt to such special conditions, in the transport device 10 of the present embodiment, immediately after air is forcibly discharged from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the pressing roller 52, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is charged by the charging device 74. The lithographic printing plate 12 stacked on the upper layer portion of the lithographic printing plate 12 is charged, and thereby, the electrostatic attraction force is applied between several to a dozen or more lithographic printing plates 12 stacked on the upper layer portion of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14. Are acting on each other.

As a result, the lithographic printing plate 12 in the upper layer of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is not charged because the electrostatic attraction force acts as a # perpendicular force in addition to the weight of the lithographic printing plate 12. In comparison with the planographic printing plate bundle 14, the frictional resistance between the upper planographic printing plates 12 in the planographic printing plate bundle 14 can be made sufficiently large, so that the transport device 10 can be operated under the special conditions as described above.
Of the planographic printing plates forming the planographic printing plate bundle 14 during conveyance by the lithographic printing plate bundle can be prevented. Note that the lower lithographic printing plate 12 in the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 has a larger vertical drag due to the weight of the lithographic printing plate 12 than the upper lithographic printing plate 12. Even if it is not performed, no deviation occurs between planographic printing plates.

(Modification of Embodiment) FIG. 9 shows a modification of the roller pressing mechanism in the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the roller pressing mechanism 94, the pressing roller 96 supported above the roller conveyor 16 is configured such that an exhaust direction (direction of an arrow E) orthogonal to a conveying direction of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is set as a tangential direction of the roller surface. Are located. The pressure roller 52 can be moved up and down by an air cylinder (not shown), similarly to the roller pressing mechanism 50 shown in FIGS. 2 to 6, and further integrated with the air cylinder by a linear drive mechanism (not shown). And can be moved along the exhaust direction.

When air is discharged from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the roller pressing mechanism 94 shown in FIG.
The lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is stopped on the roller conveyor 16 by the chucking mechanism 18. Next, the roller pressing mechanism 94 presses the pressing roller 96 against the end of the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 on the chucking portion 28 side,
While the pressure roller 52 is pressed against the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, the chucking unit 28 is moved in the exhaust direction by the linear drive mechanism.
Away from At this time, while the pressure roller 96 is driven and rotated by the frictional force with the planographic printing plate bundle 14, air (air layer) flows from between the planographic printing plates 12 constituting the planographic printing plate bundle 14.
Is moved to the end side opposite to the chucking section 28.
Accordingly, when the pressure roller 96 moves along the exhaust direction to a position where it separates from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, air is discharged from the lithographic printing plate 12, and the air layer between the lithographic printing plates 12 disappears or is sufficiently reduced. I do.

The chucking mechanism 18 includes a pressure roller 96
Is released from the lithographic printing plate bundle 14, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14
Of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 and the belt conveyor 8
Transport to 0. At this time, the belt conveyor 80 conveys the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 while changing the speed in the acceleration / deceleration pattern shown in FIG.

Here, the roller pressing mechanism 94 basically has the same function and effect as the roller pressing mechanism 50. However, the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is
In the case of a rectangular shape that is long along the transport direction of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 compared to the roller pressing mechanism 50,
Air can be exhausted from On the other hand, the roller pressing mechanism 50
Since it is not necessary to stop the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 on the roller conveyor 16 as compared with the roller pressing mechanism 50, there is an advantage that a time loss for exhausting the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 can be reduced.

[0051]

FIG. 10 shows a lithographic printing plate in which the acceleration of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 at the time of acceleration and deceleration is changed stepwise in the same pattern as the transition of the transport speed shown in FIG. The maximum deviation amount between 12 is shown.

In FIG. 10, the data S1 plotted by the symbol を indicates the case where neither the air discharge nor the charging to the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 is performed, and the data S2 plotted by the symbol × indicates the data obtained by the roller pressing mechanism 50. The data S3 plotted by the symbol ● indicates the case where only the air was discharged, and the data S3 plotted with the symbol Δ indicates the case where the air was discharged by the roller pressing mechanism 50 and the charging device 74 was charged. The cases where air discharge by the mechanism 94 and charging by the charging device 74 are performed are shown.

As is clear from FIG. 10, the lithographic printing plate bundle 1
When neither air discharge nor electrification was performed for 4
(In the case of data S1), the acceleration during transport is 1.5 m
Per second ^TwoWhen the lithographic printing plate 12 is misaligned,
When only air is discharged by the roller pressurizing mechanism 50 (data
Data S2), the acceleration during transport is 2.1 m / sec.
^TwoThe lithographic printing plate 12 is not displaced even when the pressure reaches
And charging (when data S3 and S4
), The acceleration during transport is 2.7 m / sec.^TwoEven if
No deviation occurs in the lithographic printing plate 12.

[0054]

As described above, according to the lithographic printing plate bundle conveying apparatus and method of the present invention, the lithographic printing plate bundle constituting the lithographic printing plate bundle can be formed without attaching a fixing tape to the lithographic printing plate bundle. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of displacement during transport between printing plates.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a lithographic printing plate manufacturing line to which a transport device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a roller conveyor and a roller pressing mechanism in the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a roller pressing mechanism in the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the chucking mechanism and the roller conveyor in the roller pressing mechanism according to the embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the downstream side in the transport direction.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing the roller pressing mechanism shown in FIG. 3, showing a state immediately before the pressing roller starts to descend.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing the roller pressing mechanism shown in FIG. 3, showing a state immediately after the pressing roller comes into contact with the lithographic printing plate bundle.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating a roller conveyor, a roller pressing mechanism, and a charging device in the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing a transition of the transport speed of the lithographic printing plate bundle 14 by the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a modified example of the roller pressing mechanism in the transport device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the maximum deviation between planographic printing plates when the acceleration of the planographic printing plate bundle conveyed by the conveying device and the acceleration at the time of deceleration are changed stepwise.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 transport device (lithographic printing plate bundle transport device) 12 lithographic printing plate 14 lithographic printing plate bundle 16 roller conveyor (transport device) 18 chucking mechanism (transport device) 50 roller pressing mechanism (air venting device) 74 charging device ( Charging unit) 80 Belt conveyor (conveying unit) 82 Belt conveyor (conveying unit) 84 Belt conveyor (conveying unit) 86 Roller conveyor (conveying unit) 94 Roller pressing mechanism (air releasing unit)

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A transporting means for transporting a lithographic printing plate bundle formed by stacking a predetermined number of lithographic printing plates, and a lithographic printing plate which is pressed from above by pressing the lithographic printing plate bundle transported by the transporting device. Air releasing means for forcibly discharging air from between the lithographic printing plates constituting the bundle, wherein the air releasing means accelerates and decelerates the lithographic printing plate bundle from which air has been forcibly discharged from between the lithographic printing plates. A lithographic printing plate bundle conveying device, wherein the lithographic printing plate bundle is conveyed by the conveying means so that the maximum acceleration at the time is 2.0 m / sec ² or less. 2. A charging means for charging a lithographic printing plate bundle from which air has been discharged from between the lithographic printing plates by the air releasing means to generate an electrostatic attraction force between the lithographic printing plates from an upper surface side. The transport device for a lithographic printing plate bundle according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. A pressure roller, which is rotatably supported above the transport means, and is arranged so that an exhaust direction along the transport direction is tangential to a roller surface. 3. A lithographic printing plate bundle according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising elevating means for pressing the pressure roller against the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle conveyed to just below the pressure roller by means. Transport device. 4. A pressurizing roller rotatably supported above the transporting means and arranged so that an exhaust direction perpendicular to the transporting direction is a tangential direction of a roller surface. Elevating means for pressing the pressure roller against the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle conveyed to just below the pressure roller by means, and the pressing roller pressed against the upper surface of the lithographic printing plate bundle by the elevating means. The lithographic printing plate bundle conveying device according to claim 1, further comprising: a roller moving unit configured to move the lithographic printing plate bundle along an exhaust direction. 5. A method for transporting a lithographic printing plate bundle using the lithographic printing plate bundle transport device according to claim 1, wherein the bleeding means applies the lithographic printing plate bundle from above. After pressurizing and forcibly discharging air from between the planographic printing plates constituting the planographic printing plate bundle, the maximum acceleration when the planographic printing plate bundle is conveyed to a predetermined packaging start position by the conveying means is 2.0 m. A method for transporting a lithographic printing plate bundle, wherein the speed is set to ² / sec or less.