阅读说明：本技术 纸张束供给装置 (Paper bundle feeding device ) 是由 神原完太 福田繁伸 冈本光平 大谷宽知 横木健人 胁本茂 于 2020-10-30 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种能够将纸张束总是在对齐的状态下供给至装订机的纸张束供给装置。包括沿着纸张束(S)的输送路径(2)从输送路径的入口(2c)至出口(2d)依次相邻地配置的对齐单元(3)及加压单元(4)。对齐单元(3)具有对纸张束施加振动的振动器。加压单元包括形成输送路径的输送面的一部分的加压面和与加压面之间夹着纸张束并对该纸张束进行按压的加压板。(The invention provides a paper bundle feeding device which can feed paper bundles to a binding machine in an aligned state all the time. The paper bundle conveying device comprises an aligning unit (3) and a pressing unit (4) which are adjacently arranged in sequence from an inlet (2c) to an outlet (2d) of a conveying path (S) along the conveying path (2) of the paper bundle (S). The aligning unit (3) has a vibrator that applies vibration to the sheet bundle. The pressing unit includes a pressing surface forming a part of a conveying surface of the conveying path, and a pressing plate that presses the sheet bundle with the pressing surface interposed therebetween.)

1. A sheet bundle feeding device that feeds a sheet bundle to a binding machine, characterized in that:

has an aligning unit and a pressing unit which are arranged adjacently in order from an entrance to an exit of the conveying path along the conveying path of the sheet bundle,

the aligning unit has at least 1 vibrator applying vibration to the sheet bundle,

the pressurizing unit includes: a pressing surface forming a part of a conveying surface of the conveying path; and a pressing plate that presses the sheet bundle with the pressing surface therebetween.

2. The sheet bundle feeding apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

comprising a frame having said transport path,

the conveying path includes: an inclined first conveying surface 1 for supporting one surface of the paper sheet bundle; and an inclined second conveying surface which extends perpendicularly to the first conveying surface from a lower end edge of the first conveying surface 1 and supports one side surface of the sheet bundle,

the sheet bundle feeding device includes the aligning unit and the pressing unit provided to the frame,

the transport path includes a portion within the range of the aligning unit and a portion within the range of the pressing unit independently of each other,

the aligning unit has at least 1 vibrator coupled to the 1 st conveying surface or the 2 nd conveying surface of the conveying path or both,

the pressurizing unit includes:

the pressing surface forming a part of the 1 st conveying surface of the conveying path;

the pressing plate is disposed opposite to the pressing surface and is movable in a direction toward and away from the pressing surface; and

a pressing plate driving mechanism that moves the pressing plate in a direction perpendicular to the pressing surface between a standby position, which is a position away from the sheet bundle arranged on the pressing surface, and a pressing position, which is a position where the sheet bundle is pressed toward the pressing surface,

the sheet bundle feeding device includes:

a conveying mechanism that intermittently conveys the sheet bundle along the conveying path;

a paper feeding unit which is provided in the frame, is disposed at an entrance of the conveyance path, receives the supply of the sheet bundle, and feeds out the received sheet bundle to the aligning unit in accordance with the timing of the intermittent conveyance; and

a delivery mechanism provided at the frame and disposed at an outlet of the conveying path, the delivery mechanism supplying the sheet bundle pressurized by the pressurizing unit to the stapler,

the sheet bundle fed out from the sheet feeding unit is transported to each unit between the aligning unit and the pressing unit by the transport mechanism, and the sheet bundle is processed by the aligning unit and the pressing unit, respectively.

3. The sheet bundle feeding apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that:

the 2 nd conveying surface of the conveying path in the alignment unit is provided with at least 1 air jet, and the alignment unit is also provided with a blower connected with the at least 1 air jet.

4. The sheet bundle feeding apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that:

the handover mechanism includes:

a receiving unit attached to the frame, receiving the sheet bundle discharged from the pressing unit, and supporting the sheet bundle in a vertically standing state;

a hand-held unit capable of gripping the sheet bundle supported by the receiving unit; and

a hand-held moving mechanism mounted to the frame for moving the hand-held unit between the receiving unit and the stapler.

5. The sheet bundle feeding apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that:

the paper feeding unit, the aligning unit and the pressing unit are arranged in parallel on a straight line,

the receiving unit includes:

a carriage having a flat upper surface that supports the one side surface of the sheet bundle;

a fixing plate attached to the carriage, extending perpendicularly to the upper surface, and supporting the one surface of the sheet bundle;

a movable plate disposed to face the fixed plate and movable in a direction toward and away from the fixed plate;

a plate drive mechanism that is attached to the carriage and moves the movable plate in a direction perpendicular to the fixed plate between a gripping position for gripping the sheet bundle between the movable plate and the fixed plate and a release position away from the sheet bundle on the fixed plate; and

and a carriage drive mechanism that is attached to the frame, rotates the carriage around a plumb axis between an arrangement position where the upper surface and the fixed plate are aligned on a straight line with the transport path and a rotation position where the carriage is rotated by 90 ° from the arrangement position, and rotates the carriage around an axis parallel to an intersection line of the upper surface and the fixed plate between a standing position where the upper surface is disposed horizontally and the fixed plate is disposed vertically and a tilted position where the upper surface is aligned with the 2 nd transport surface and the fixed plate is aligned with the 1 st transport surface at the arrangement position.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a sheet bundle feeding device that feeds a temporarily unbound sheet bundle to a binding device.

Background

In the binding process, sheets are accumulated to form a sheet bundle, and after the sheet bundle is aligned, binding, cutting, or other processing may be performed.

In perfect binding, for example, sheets sequentially discharged from a printer or a copying machine are accumulated by an accumulation device or the like to form a sheet bundle, and the sheet bundle is fed to a gripper of a binding machine in an aligned state. Then, the sheet bundle held by the gripper is conveyed by the gripper between the binding processing units of the binding machine, and the sheet bundle is bound during the conveyance (see, for example, patent document 1).

In this case, a sheet bundle feeding device is used for feeding a sheet bundle to a gripper of a stapler.

As such a paper bundle feeding device, for example, there is a device described in patent document 2.

The sheet bundle feeding device described in patent document 2 is disposed between a printer and a stapler, and feeds a sheet bundle composed of sheets discharged from the printer to a gripper of the stapler in an aligned state.

The sheet bundle conveying device includes: a support table; a multi-joint manipulator provided on the support table; and a storage and alignment unit provided on the support base, for storing and aligning the sheet bundle.

The articulated manipulator includes: a rotating part mounted on the support table; and a hand-held unit supported by the rotating unit via a multi-joint arm and capable of gripping the sheet bundle.

The accommodating and arranging part comprises: a storage box for storing the paper bundle; a vibration unit that vibrates the storage box; and a rotating shaft coupled to the support base and rotatably supporting the vibrating portion. The rotation shaft tilts the housing case integrally with the vibrating portion.

According to this paper bundle conveying device, a predetermined number of sheets of paper are printed in the printer to form a paper bundle, and the paper bundle is gripped by the multi-joint robot by the hand-held unit and stored in the storage box of the storage array unit.

Next, after the rotational axis of the storage aligning section is tilted by a predetermined angle, the storage box is vibrated by the vibrating section and then aligned. After the alignment process is completed, the rotating shaft is rotated in the reverse direction, and the storage box is returned to the original position.

Then, the hand-held unit of the articulated robot grips the aligned sheet bundle, takes it out of the storage box, and supplies it to the gripper of the stapler.

However, in this paper bundle feeding device, since the paper bundles aligned by the storage aligning unit contain air between the sheets and are likely to be displaced between the sheets, there are cases where: when the aligned sheet bundle is handed over from the hand-held unit to the gripper, the arrangement of the sheet bundle is disordered.

Then, if the sheet bundle is fed to the gripper in a misaligned state, the completion of stapling becomes poor or a defective product is generated.

Therefore, the gripper has a mechanism for aligning the sheet bundle, and when the gripper receives the supply of the sheet bundle from the sheet bundle supply device, the misalignment of the sheet bundle is corrected on the gripper side.

That is, in the case where the sheet bundle feeding device is not provided with a mechanism for correcting the disorder of the sheet bundle when the gripper of the stapler receives the feeding of the sheet bundle, the sheet bundle may be fed to the gripper in a misaligned state.

Therefore, the sheet bundle feeding device has the following disadvantages: it cannot be used for a gripper which is not provided with a mechanism for correcting the disorder of the sheet bundle when the sheet bundle is fed.

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2010-274501

Patent document 2: japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2018-199222

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet bundle feeding device capable of feeding a sheet bundle to a stapler always in an aligned state.

In order to solve the above problem, according to the present invention, there is provided a sheet bundle feeding device that feeds a sheet bundle to a binding machine, the sheet bundle feeding device characterized in that: the sheet bundle conveying apparatus includes an aligning unit and a pressing unit, which are arranged adjacent to each other in this order from an entrance to an exit of a conveying path of the sheet bundle, the aligning unit including at least 1 vibrator for applying vibration to the sheet bundle, the pressing unit including: a pressing surface forming a part of a conveying surface of the conveying path; and a pressing plate that presses the sheet bundle with the pressing surface interposed therebetween.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sheet bundle feeding device includes a frame having the conveying path, the conveying path including: an inclined first conveying surface 1 for supporting one surface of the paper sheet bundle; and a 2 nd inclined conveying surface extending perpendicularly to the 1 st conveying surface from a lower edge side of the 1 st conveying surface and supporting one side surface of the sheet bundle, the sheet bundle feeding device including the aligning unit and the pressing unit provided to the frame, the conveying path including a portion within a range of the aligning unit and a portion within a range of the pressing unit which are independent of each other, the aligning unit having at least 1 of the vibrators coupled to the 1 st conveying surface or the 2 nd conveying surface of the conveying path or both, the pressing unit including: the pressing surface forming a part of the 1 st conveying surface of the conveying path; the pressing plate is disposed opposite to the pressing surface and is movable in a direction toward and away from the pressing surface; a pressing plate driving mechanism that moves the pressing plate in a direction perpendicular to the pressing surface between a standby position that is a position away from the sheet bundle arranged on the pressing surface and a pressing position that presses the sheet bundle toward the pressing surface, the sheet bundle feeding device including: a conveying mechanism that intermittently conveys the sheet bundle along the conveying path; a paper feeding unit which is provided in the frame, is disposed at an entrance of the conveyance path, receives the supply of the sheet bundle, and feeds out the received sheet bundle to the aligning unit in accordance with the timing of the intermittent conveyance; and a delivery mechanism which is provided in the frame and is disposed at an outlet of the transport path, and which supplies the sheet bundle pressed by the pressing unit to the stapler, wherein the sheet bundle fed out from the sheet feeding unit is transported to each unit between the aligning unit and the pressing unit by the transport mechanism, and the sheet bundle is processed by the aligning unit and the pressing unit, respectively.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, at least 1 air jet opening is provided on the 2 nd conveying surface of the conveying path in the aligning unit, and the aligning unit further has a blower connected to at least 1 air jet opening.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the interface mechanism comprises: a receiving unit attached to the frame, receiving the sheet bundle discharged from the pressing unit, and supporting the sheet bundle in a vertically standing state; a hand-held unit capable of gripping the sheet bundle supported by the receiving unit; and a hand-held moving mechanism mounted to the frame to move the hand-held unit between the receiving unit and the stapler.

According to still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the paper feeding unit, the aligning unit, and the pressing unit are arranged in parallel on a straight line, and the receiving unit includes: a carriage having a flat upper surface that supports the one side surface of the sheet bundle; a fixing plate attached to the carriage, extending perpendicularly to the upper surface, and supporting the one surface of the sheet bundle; a movable plate disposed to face the fixed plate and movable in a direction toward and away from the fixed plate; a plate drive mechanism that is attached to the carriage and moves the movable plate in a direction perpendicular to the fixed plate between a gripping position for gripping the sheet bundle between the movable plate and the fixed plate and a release position away from the sheet bundle on the fixed plate; and a carriage drive mechanism that is attached to the frame, rotates the carriage around a plumb axis between an arrangement position where the upper surface and the fixed plate are aligned on a straight line with the transport path and a rotation position where the carriage is rotated by 90 ° from the arrangement position, and rotates the carriage around an axis parallel to an intersection line of the upper surface and the fixed plate between a standing position where the upper surface is horizontally disposed and the fixed plate is vertically disposed and a tilted position where the upper surface is aligned with the 2 nd transport surface and the fixed plate is aligned with the 1 st transport surface at the arrangement position.

Effects of the invention

According to the present invention, the sheet bundle aligned by the aligning unit is pressurized by the pressurizing unit, and after the air suction within the sheet bundle is performed, the sheet bundle is supplied to the binding machine (gripper) by the delivery mechanism.

By performing this air suction, the aligned state of the sheet bundle is not easily broken, and therefore, the occurrence of disorder in the arrangement of the sheet bundle when the sheet bundle is delivered to the binding machine (gripper) by the delivery mechanism is reliably prevented.

Thus, even in a binding machine (gripper) not provided with a mechanism for correcting the misalignment of the sheet bundle, the sheet bundle can be always fed in an aligned state.

Further, according to the present invention, since the aligning unit and the pressing unit are disposed adjacent to each other, the sheet bundle is intermittently fed between the aligning unit and the pressing unit to each unit, and the sheet bundle is processed by the aligning unit and the pressing unit, the sheet bundle can be aligned and then air-sucked at high speed.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention, where (a) is a plan view and (B) is a front view.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, the structure of the present invention will be described based on preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention, fig. 1(a) is a plan view, and fig. 1(B) is a front view. Fig. 2 to 6 are views similar to fig. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the sheet bundle feeding device according to embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1 to 6, the sheet bundle feeding apparatus of the present invention includes a frame 1 having a conveying path 2 for a sheet bundle S.

The conveyance path 2 includes: an inclined 1 st conveyance surface 2a that supports one surface of the sheet bundle S; and an inclined 2 nd conveyance surface 2b extending perpendicularly to the 1 st conveyance surface 2a from a lower end edge of the 1 st conveyance surface 2a and supporting one side surface of the sheet bundle S.

Note that fig. 1(a), 2(a), 3(a), 4(a), 5(a), and 6(a) are each drawn as a plan view when the sheet bundle feeding device is viewed along the inclined 1 st conveying surface 2a of the conveying path 2, and fig. 1(B), 2(B), 3(B), 4(B), 5(B), and 6(B) are each drawn as a front view when the sheet bundle feeding device is viewed in a direction perpendicular to the 1 st conveying surface 2 a.

The sheet bundle feeding device of the present invention includes an aligning unit 3 and a pressing unit 4, and the aligning unit 3 and the pressing unit 4 are provided in the frame 1 and are arranged adjacent to each other in order along the conveying path 2 from the entrance 2c to the exit 2d of the conveying path 2.

The conveying path 2 is constituted by a portion within the range of the aligning unit 3 and a portion within the range of the pressing unit 4 which are independent of each other.

The alignment unit 3 includes: a vibrator 3a coupled to the 1 st conveying surface 2a of the conveying path 2; and a stacking guide 3b that stacks the sheet bundle S in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction.

Further, the aligning guide 3b is provided as needed. There are also the following cases: another aligning guide for aligning the sheet bundle S in the conveying direction is provided together with the aligning guide 3b, or another aligning guide for aligning the sheet bundle S in the conveying direction is provided instead of the aligning guide 3 b.

In addition, at least 1 air ejection port (not shown) is opened in the 2 nd conveying surface 2b of the conveying path 2 in the aligning unit 3, and the aligning unit 3 further includes a blower 3c connected to the air ejection port.

The pressurizing unit 4 includes: a pressing surface 4a forming a part of the 1 st conveying surface 2a of the conveying path 2; a pressing plate 4b disposed opposite to the pressing surface 4a and movable in a direction of moving closer to and away from the pressing surface 4 a; and a pressing plate driving mechanism (not shown) that moves the pressing plate 4b in a direction perpendicular to the pressing surface 4a between a standby position, which is a position away from the sheet bundle S disposed on the pressing surface 4a, and a pressing position, which is a position where the sheet bundle S is pressed toward the pressing surface 4 a.

The sheet bundle feeding device also has a conveying mechanism 5 that intermittently conveys the sheet bundle S along the conveying path 2.

The conveying mechanism 5 includes: a pair of rotating shafts (not shown) extending in the width direction of the 2 nd conveying surface 2b at both ends of the conveying path 2; sprockets (not shown) attached to the respective rotating shafts; an endless chain (5 a) which is bridged between a pair of sprockets; conveying pins 5b attached to the endless chain 5a and arranged at equal intervals in the longitudinal direction of the endless chain 5 a; and a drive mechanism (not shown) that drives one of the pair of rotary shafts.

A slit 6 extending in the conveying direction is formed in the 1 st conveying surface 2a, and a conveying pin 5b of the conveying mechanism 5 protrudes onto the 1 st conveying surface 2a through the slit 6.

Then, the endless chain 5a is intermittently rotationally driven every time by a distance corresponding to the interval between the adjacent conveying pins 5b, and the conveying pins 5b intermittently press the sheet bundle S, whereby the sheet bundle S is intermittently conveyed to each unit between the aligning unit 3 and the pressing unit 4.

The sheet bundle feeding device further includes: a paper feed unit 7 which is provided in the frame 1 and disposed at the entrance 2c of the conveyance path 2, receives the supply of the sheet bundle S, and feeds out the received sheet bundle S to the alignment unit 3 in accordance with timing of the intermittent conveyance; and a delivery mechanism 8 which is provided in the frame 1 and disposed at the exit 2d of the conveying path 2, and which supplies the sheet bundle S pressurized by the pressurizing unit 4 to the gripper 9 of the stapler.

The sheet feeding unit 7 includes a support plate 10, and the support plate 10 is attached to the frame and has an L-shaped cross section corresponding to the conveyance path.

The support plate 10 is adjacent to the conveyance path 2 and is arranged such that the inner side surface of the vertical portion 10a of the support plate 10 is aligned with the 1 st conveyance face 2a of the conveyance path 2 and the inner side surface of the horizontal portion 10b of the support plate 10 is aligned with the 2 nd conveyance face 2b of the conveyance path 2.

Further, the paper feed unit 7 includes: a slide guide 11 extending in parallel with the vertical portion 10a in the longitudinal direction of the support plate 10 obliquely above the horizontal portion 10b of the support plate 10; a conveyance pin 12 slidably attached to the slide guide 11, extending from the slide guide 11 toward the vertical portion in the width direction of the horizontal portion 10b of the support plate 10; and a pin driving mechanism (not shown) that reciprocates the transport pin 12 between a 1 st position where the transport pin 12 is disposed at the entrance 2c of the transport path 2 and a 2 nd position where the transport pin 12 is separated from the 1 st position by a distance corresponding to the length of the sheet bundle (the length in the transport direction).

Then, when the transport pin 12 is positioned at the 2 nd position, the sheet bundle S is supplied from the outside onto the support plate 10 (see fig. 1), and then, at the timing of the intermittent transport by the transport mechanism 5, the transport pin 12 moves to the 1 st position while pressing the sheet bundle S, thereby supplying the sheet bundle S to the aligning unit 3 (see fig. 2).

The delivery mechanism 8 includes: a receiving unit 13 attached to the frame 1, receiving the sheet bundle S discharged from the pressing unit 4, and supporting the sheet bundle S in a vertically standing state; a hand-held unit 14 capable of gripping the sheet bundle S supported by the receiving unit 13; and a hand-held moving mechanism (not shown) attached to the frame 1 for moving the hand-held unit 14 between the receiving unit 13 and the gripper 9 of the stapler.

The receiving unit 13 includes: a carriage 15 having a flat upper surface 15a for supporting the one side surface of the sheet bundle S; a fixed plate 16 attached to the carriage 15, extending perpendicularly to the upper surface 15a, and supporting the one surface of the sheet bundle S; a movable plate 17 disposed so as to face the fixed plate 16 and movable in a direction toward and away from the fixed plate 16; and a plate driving mechanism (not shown) attached to the carriage 15 for moving the movable plate 17 in a direction perpendicular to the fixed plate 16 between a gripping position for gripping the sheet bundle S between the movable plate 17 and the fixed plate 16 and a release position away from the sheet bundle S on the fixed plate 16.

The receiving unit 13 further includes a carriage driving mechanism (not shown) that is attached to the frame 1, rotates the carriage 15 around the plumb axis Z between an arrangement position where the upper surface 15a and the fixed plate 16 are aligned in a straight line with the conveying path 2 and a rotation position where the carriage 15 is rotated by 90 ° from the arrangement position, and rotates the carriage 15 around an axis X parallel to an intersection line of the upper surface 15a and the fixed plate 16 between a standing position where the upper surface 15a is horizontally arranged and the fixed plate 16 is vertically arranged and a tilting position where the upper surface 15a is aligned with the 2 nd conveying surface 2b and the fixed plate 16 is aligned with the 1 st conveying surface 2 a.

In this embodiment, when the carriage 15 reaches the turning position, the front side of the gripper 9 stopped at the sheet bundle feeding position P of the stapler is arranged parallel to the gripper 9.

Although not shown, the hand-held moving mechanism includes: a slide guide extending in a direction orthogonal to the gripper 9 stopped at the sheet bundle supply position P above the carriage 15 located at the turning position; a slider slidably attached to the slide guide; a slider driving mechanism that slides the slider; and an elevating mechanism attached to the slider and supporting the hand unit 14 so as to be able to ascend and descend.

Further, below the gripper 9 stopped at the sheet bundle feeding position P of the stapler, a horizontal plate 18 is arranged to support the lower surface of the sheet bundle S fed to the gripper 9.

Next, the operation of the paper bundle feeding device of the present invention will be described.

As shown in fig. 1, when the transport pin 12 of the paper feed unit 7 is located at the 2 nd position, the sheet bundle S is fed from the outside onto the support plate 10, and then, as shown in fig. 2, the transport pin 12 moves to the 1 st position while pressing the sheet bundle S in accordance with the timing of the intermittent transport by the transport mechanism 5, thereby feeding the sheet bundle S to the aligning unit 3.

In the aligning unit 3, the gas (i.e., Ba きエア) starts to be blown out from the gas ejection opening at a timing when the sheet bundle S enters the aligning unit 3 in a state where the vibrator 3a continues the vibration of the 1 st conveyance surface 2a and the stacking guide 3 b. The blowing of the gas is continued even after the end of the conveyance operation of the sheet bundle S by the conveyance mechanism 5, and is stopped before the start of the next conveyance operation by the conveyance mechanism 5 (see fig. 2). Thereby, the sheet bundle S is aligned.

Then, the conveying mechanism 5 starts conveying, and as shown in fig. 3, the aligned sheet bundle S is pressed by the conveying pin 5b of the conveying mechanism 5 toward the pressing unit 4 on the conveying path 2.

When the sheet bundle S is conveyed to the pressing unit 4 by the conveying mechanism 5, the pressing plate 4b located at the standby position is returned to the standby position again after becoming the pressing position, whereby air is drawn into the sheet bundle S.

When the process by the pressurizing unit 4 is completed, the carriage 15 of the receiving unit 13 is at the tilted position at the arrangement position, and the movable plate 17 is at the holding release position.

Then, as shown in fig. 4, the pressed sheet bundle S is pressed by the transport pins 5b of the transport mechanism 5 and inserted between the fixed plate 16 and the movable plate 17 along the upper surface 15a of the receiving unit 13. Then, the movable plate 17 is set to the gripping position, and the sheet bundle S is supported in a vertically standing state.

Next, as shown in fig. 5, the carriage 15 rotates from the inclined position to the standing position, and rotates from the alignment position to the rotation position. When the carriage 15 is disposed at the vertical position at the turning position, the hand-held unit 14 is lowered to grip the sheet bundle S.

Then, the movable plate 17 of the receiving unit 13 is set to the grip release position, and the gripping unit 14 gripping the sheet bundle S moves up and then moves to a position directly above the gripper 9 stopped at the sheet bundle supply position P.

Further, as shown in fig. 6, the hand-held unit 14 is lowered until the lower surface of the sheet bundle S abuts against the horizontal plate 18, and the sheet bundle S is inserted into the opened gripper 9.

Then, after the gripper 9 is closed and the sheet bundle S is gripped, the hand-held unit 14 releases the grip of the sheet bundle S and then ascends, and the supply of the sheet bundle S to the gripper 9 is completed.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the aligning unit 3, the sheet bundle S is aligned by vibration and alignment while blowing the gas to the sheet bundle S, and therefore, the process of aligning the sheet bundle S can be performed at high speed.

Further, according to the present invention, the sheet bundle S aligned by the aligning unit 3 is pressurized by the pressurizing unit 4 to perform air suction inside the sheet bundle S, and then is supplied to the gripper 9 (stapler) by the delivery mechanism 8.

Since the aligned state of the sheet bundle S is not easily broken by performing this air suction, the arrangement of the sheet bundle S is reliably prevented from being disturbed when the sheet bundle S is delivered to the gripper 9 (stapler) by the delivery mechanism 8.

Thus, even in a gripper 9 (stapler) not provided with a mechanism for correcting the misalignment of the sheet bundle S, the sheet bundle S can be always fed in an aligned state.

Further, according to the present invention, since the paper feed unit 7, the aligning unit 3, and the pressing unit 4 are arranged adjacent to each other in a straight line, the sheet bundle S is intermittently transported between the aligning unit 3 and the pressing unit 4 to each unit, and the sheet bundle S is fed from the paper feed unit 7 in accordance with the timing of the intermittent transport, the aligning unit 3 and the pressing unit 4 perform the processing operation for the sheet bundle S, respectively, it is possible to perform the alignment of the sheet bundle S and the subsequent air suction at high speed.

Further, the sheet bundle S sucked by the pressurizing unit 4 in a tilted state is received in the original posture by the receiving unit 13 of the delivery mechanism 8, and the sheet bundle S is arranged parallel to the gripper 9 of the stapler by changing its direction while standing up, and is conveyed to the gripper 9 by the hand-held unit 14, so that the sheet bundle S can be delivered at high speed between the pressurizing unit 4 and the gripper 9 without being disordered in the arrangement thereof.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the structure described in the claims.