JP2013002907A - Press-sealed postcard checking apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a press-sealed postcard checking apparatus which is capable of detecting even a corner fold of a press-sealed postcard which has a small floating amount or is folded inward.SOLUTION: A press-sealed postcard checking apparatus 30 comprises a code reader 31 which reads an identification code 14 recorded on a press-sealed postcard 10 to be checked, an image capturing camera 32 which images a predetermined check area in the corner of the press-sealed postcard 10, and a check control section 33 which controls the overall apparatus and determines the quality of the press-sealed postcard 10. The check control section 33 discriminates the presence/absence of a corner fold by reading a check pattern printed in the corner from a check image captured from the image capturing camera 32.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for discriminating a shape defect of a product in a manufacturing process of a crimping postcard, and more particularly to an inspection apparatus for extracting an abnormality in the shape of a bonded portion.

  Postcards called crimped postcards are frequently used for direct mail. Crimping postcards are folded into two (V-shaped) or three-folded (Z-shaped) on the sheet-like material (for example, continuous paper) with the surface on which the confidential matters are written inside, and the opposing surfaces are pressure-bonded together. The feature is that the secret matter is not exposed even though the form is a postcard. In particular, recently, by describing variable information using printer technology, the information concealment feature of the crimping postcard has been utilized and has been used more frequently.

  The manufacture of crimped postcards is done in a well-equipped factory because printing, bending, and bonding of various items are performed consistently. However, defects that occur during processing are a major obstacle. In particular, in the “personal printing” application in which the items to be described differ depending on the destination, it is necessary to identify the destination of the defect and reissue it in order to reliably extract the defect and replenish it.

  A typical defect in the manufacturing process of the pressure-bonded postcard is so-called “corner breakage” generated at the postcard corner. Corner folding is a shape defect that occurs in the process of folding a sheet-like material and in the process of crimping, but the corner folding is not only unsightly in appearance, but peeling occurs from the corner folding part during the delivery of the crimping postcard, This may cause serious accidents such as the disclosure of confidential information. In addition, the corner portion is processed to weaken the adhesive force so as to be a starting point for peeling at the time of opening, but there is a problem that corner breakage is likely to occur from this portion in the process of manufacturing and delivery.

Patent Document 1 is an invention related to an apparatus for detecting a shape defect of a crimped postcard, and discloses a technique for detecting “corner breakage” of the crimped postcard with a laser beam. However, the method for detecting corner breaks of Patent Document 1 has a problem in that it cannot detect a lift that has a small lift or a corner break that has been folded inward because it detects the lift of the corner due to the corner break.
Further, Patent Document 2 is an invention relating to detection of corner breakage of a recording body being conveyed, and the angle breakage is detected by an optical sensor. However, the recording body is a single layer and from the position of the end in the width direction. A corner break is determined. Therefore, it is not possible to detect a corner fold such as a crimped postcard in which one of the layers formed in a multilayer shape is folded.

JP 2010-127730 A JP 2008-133123 A

  Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to detect a corner fold of a crimped postcard that has a small amount of lift at the corner, a layer that has a multi-layered surface, and a fold that is folded inward. It is an object to provide a crimped postcard inspection apparatus.

The crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention that solves the above problems is
Inspect the postcard shape defect by reading the inspection pattern placed on the corner, using the crimped postcard formed by superimposing the corners of the sheet-like material on top of each other. A crimping postcard inspection device, wherein the crimping postcard inspection device uses a code reading unit that reads an identification code recorded on the postcard to individually identify the postcard, and a vicinity including the corner portion as an inspection region. An image capturing unit that captures an image; and a defect determination unit that extracts the pattern from an inspection image obtained by capturing the inspection region by the capturing unit and determines the presence or absence of the shape defect based on the shape of the pattern; A determination information recording unit for recording the determination result of each postcard as determination information from the determination result output by the determination unit and the postcard identification result output by the code reading unit; Characterized in that it.

The pattern is a character symbol that can be read by a machine.
The pattern may be a peel mark indicating a peel position provided at the corner.

  The crimping postcard inspection apparatus according to the present invention prevents a defective product from being mixed by detecting a corner break that occurs during the process of manufacturing the crimping postcard. Thereby, not only the shape defect of the crimping postcard but also the erroneous opening during delivery can be prevented.

Diagram showing the structure of a crimped postcard The figure which shows the mode of the corner folding of the crimped postcard Configuration diagram of the crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention Functional block diagram of an inspection control unit in the crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention The figure which shows the aspect of a corner break detection by the pattern for an inspection Diagram showing the flow of corner break detection using a peel mark

<Composition of crimped postcard>
1A and 1B are diagrams showing the configuration of a crimping postcard, in which FIG. 1A shows an example of a three-fold configuration, and FIG. 1B shows an embodiment of a two-fold configuration. As shown in FIG. 1, the crimped postcards (11, 12) are formed by folding a single sheet-like material 15, but the faces that are folded and faced are pressure-bonded to each other. It is molded into a sheet shape. The adhesive surface is configured so that re-adhesion is difficult once the recipient opens it, preventing unauthorized opening during delivery. In addition, there is a peel mark 13 indicating the position of opening at the corner so that it can be used as a mark when the recipient opens it. Have been devised.

  Further, an identification code 14 is recorded on the surface of the crimping postcard (11, 12), and the individual crimping postcard can be identified by reading the code. The identification code 14 is preferably formed of ultraviolet light emitting ink or the like so as to be invisible under normal observation conditions.

<Corner break>
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a manner in which the crimped postcard is bent, and FIG. 2 (B) shows a state where the corner is bent with respect to the normal product of FIG. 2 (A). 2B illustrates a mode in which the corner fold 25 is on the surface side of the crimping postcard 22, the corner fold 25 may be folded inward (not shown).

<Crimp postcard inspection device>
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention.
The crimping postcard inspection apparatus 30 includes a code reader 31 that reads the identification code 14 recorded on the crimping postcard 10 to be inspected, an image capturing camera 32 that captures a predetermined area of the corner of the crimping postcard 10, and the entire apparatus. It is comprised by the test | inspection control part 33 etc. which control this and determine the quality of the crimping postcard 10. In the example shown in the drawing, a transport unit 34 that aligns inspection targets and transports them in order is provided, and the transport unit 34 has a discharge mechanism 35 that removes defective products.

  FIG. 3 shows a mode including the processing device 37 and the processing control unit 38 related to the processing of the crimping postcard 10, and represents a series of processes of processing and inspection from the unprocessed product 100 to the product 101 of the crimping postcard. ing. Here, the processing device 37 performs processing such as printing of variable data, folding, bonding, and separation on the unprocessed product 100 that is a semi-finished product that has been subjected to fixed data printing, adhesive application, and perforation processing. The pressure-bonding postcard 10 that is in charge of the process and separated individually is supplied to the transport unit 34.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the inspection control unit of the crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention.
The inspection control unit 33 includes a code reading unit 61, an image capturing unit 62, a defect determination unit 63, a determination output unit 64, and a determination information recording unit 68.

  The code reading unit 61 controls the code reader 31 and converts the identification code read by the code reader 31 into identification data. The identification data is recorded in the determination information recording unit 68 as a postcard identification result.

The image capturing unit 62 captures an inspection image from the image capturing camera 32 and transmits it to the defect determining unit 63.
The defect determination unit 63 determines the presence or absence of corner breakage from the inspection image, associates the determination result with the postcard identification result, and transmits the determination result to the determination information recording unit 68 as determination information.

The determination output unit 64 operates the discharge mechanism 35 attached to the transport unit 34 according to the determination result, and prepares for the reissuance of defective products by transmitting the determination result to the processing control unit 38.
The determination information recording unit 68 can record not only the determination information as described above but also data and work history generated in the course of the inspection.
Further, the management unit 60 executes the progress of the entire process related to these inspections and the interface with the operator.

<Detection of corner breaks>
A method for detecting corner breakage will be described below.
5 and 6 are diagrams showing a process of corner break detection according to the present invention. The defect determination unit 63 represents a procedure for determining the presence or absence of corner break from an inspection image.
In FIGS. 5 and 6, (a) shows a state without corner breakage (normal time), and (b) shows a state with corner breakage occurring.

In the method shown in FIG. 5, an inspection pattern 16 is applied to the inspection region 17, and the presence or absence of the corner break 25 is detected by detecting the pattern 16. In the example of FIG. 5, the character “A” of the OCR-B font is arranged as the machine-readable character as the test pattern 16, and here, the corner breaks depending on whether the character “A” can be read or not. The presence or absence is determined. That is, if the inspection pattern 16 can be read as “A” from the inspection image, the defect determination unit 63 prunes the corner, and if it cannot be read as “A”, part or all of the inspection pattern 16 is hidden. It can be determined that the ant is broken.
The OCR of the OCR-B font represents an optical character reader, and the OCR font is a character symbol that can be read by a machine with an OCR device.

FIG. 6 shows a procedure for corner breakage detection when the peeling mark is an inspection pattern. Since corner breakage often occurs from a pseudo-adhesive part provided for opening, the necessity of inspecting this part is high.
Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 6, the processing procedure of the corner break inspection in the defect determination unit 63 will be described.

The images 51a and 51b are inspection images captured by the image capture camera 32 and sent from the image capture unit 62 to the defect determination unit 63 (inspection image capture: S51).
In the images 51a and 51b, unnecessary density information is removed by binarization processing (binarization: S52). Thereby, the peel mark 13 and the image of the boundary line remain (images 52a and 52b).
Subsequently, the linear image is removed (line component removal: S53).
By removing the line components, the image of the peel mark 13 having an area remains in the normal inspection image (image 51a) (the image 53a), and the black area of the inspection image (51b) without the peel mark is reduced. (Image 53b).
The presence or absence of the inspection pattern 16 is determined by comparing the black amounts of the image 53a and the image 53b (comparison determination: S54). For example, if the difference between the black amounts of the images 53a and 53b is larger than a predetermined amount, it is determined that corner breakage has occurred.

Furthermore, if the peeling mark 13 is extracted by using a mask that specifies the position of the peeling mark 13, other foreign matters are not mistaken for the peeling mark 13, and a more reliable inspection can be performed. .
As a method for removing line components (S53), there is an image processing method called “morphology” in which “expansion” and “contraction” of an image are repeated as appropriate. The morphology is described in, for example, JP-A-2004-318893.

  As described above, according to the crimping postcard inspection apparatus of the present invention, it becomes possible to detect a corner fold that has been folded inward, which has been difficult in the past, with respect to a corner fold occurring in the process of manufacturing a crimping postcard. A more advanced defect prevention effect can be obtained.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10, 11, 12 Crimping postcard 14 Identification code 13 Peeling mark 15 Sheet-like material 25 Corner bending 30 Crimping postcard inspection device 31 Code reader 32 Image capture camera 33 Inspection control part 34 Conveying part 35 Ejecting mechanism

Claims (3)

Inspect the postcard shape defect by reading the inspection pattern placed on the corner, using the crimped postcard formed by superimposing the corners of the sheet-like material on top of each other. A crimping postcard inspection device that performs
The crimping postcard inspection device is:
A code reading unit that reads an identification code recorded on the postcard to individually identify the postcard;
An image capturing unit that images the vicinity including the corner as an inspection region;
A defect determination unit that extracts the pattern from an inspection image obtained by imaging the inspection region by the capture unit and determines the presence or absence of the shape defect based on the shape of the pattern, and a determination result output by the determination unit A determination information recording unit that records the determination result of each postcard as determination information from the postcard identification result output by the code reading unit;
A crimping postcard inspection apparatus characterized by comprising: The crimping postcard inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pattern is a machine-readable character symbol. The crimping postcard inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pattern is a peeling mark provided at the corner portion and indicating a peeling position.

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