Recognition and processing line for publishing products or printed matter.

p0001The present invention relates to an optical reading by online recognition and treatment, intended for editing or printed products such as newspapers, magazines, books and other publications. The invention is particularly press distribution companies, publishing companies and / or distributors of books and publishers of publications, and the depositaries and broadcasters groups in the area of ​​the press.

p0002One particular problem encountered in the field of publishing and the press, is to collect, sort and count the unsold products, whether journals, magazines, newspapers, books ... Most often, the sorting of unsold still done the traditional way, entirely manual, the products being visually recognized by their coverage or according to their code.

p0003As is easily understood, these manual methods are slow and may include identification errors, counting and destination.

p0004It has already made attempts to automate, for the recognition and treatment of editing or printing products. In this regard, it may be referred to the EP-A-0300545, corresponding to the preamble of claim 1. This document describes a system of recognition and sorting to publishing products, using means of identification associated optics to a computer. At a loading station, publications to be treated are placed, one by one, on a conveyor path on which is placed the recognition device. Prints are thus selectively oriented by pivoting flaps, to three other conveyors perpendicular to the first, which receive unidentified objects, publications return to the publisher and the products to be destroyed, the conveyor receiving the unidentified objects past a recognition station "manual".

p0005In this known installation, recognition of magazines or other printed is performed by means of "video", involving the scanning and analysis of extensive and complex image, formed by the front cover of each edition product. Such a system is complex, costly and restrictive in its operations:<ul><li>On the one hand, the publishing products to identify must be positioned and guided precisely on the conveyor to pass through the line of sight of the cameras.</li><li>On the other hand, it is essential to make preliminary adjustments and adaptations of the system for each type of publication to be identified, so for each journal title, so to update the OCR algorithm, whenever more or less light areas to recognize change of location, which is very common practice on regular cover pages. Furthermore, products to identify forward here on a single conveyor at constant speed, it should be individually put these products on the conveyor respecting sufficient spacing between consecutive products, which is for operators an additional constraint. Overall, the known system therefore has a limited yield, related to high stresses. The present invention aims to avoid these drawbacks, thus providing for the recognition and treatment of editing or printing products, an installation provided with simple technical means, fast, reliable and responsive to the products concerned, so as to increase the rate while reducing operating constraints. To this end, the invention relates to a line of recognition and treatment for editing or printing products, of the kind comprising from upstream to downstream:</li><li>a receiving station and loading of products to identify and treat,</li><li>at least one conveyor,</li><li>on the route of the conveyor, an optical reading device,</li><li>selective orientation means of these products towards at least two distinct output channels, and</li><li>a control assembly which compares the data supplied by the optical reading device with stored data, to identify and account for the products, and for controlling the orientation means of these products based on their identification and the destination that is their affected</li></ul> this installation being characterized in that there is provided a set of conveyors arranged in series to each other, having different and increasing speeds, the slowest conveyer being upstream and the fastest conveyer being on downstream, and in that the optical reading device, positioned above the set of conveyers, is an optical device for reading bar codes carried by the products deposited and moving forward on these conveyers.

p0006Thus, the position of receiving and loading, publications are manually deposited on the first conveyor, their bar codes being on their visible upper side. The progressive growth of conveyor speeds causes the spacing publications, required for efficient reading their barcodes and their orientation two or more separate output channels. The optical reading identifies each publication by bar codes in combination with the achievable control means advantageously takes the form of a microcomputer. Downstream end of the line, publications and can be selectively directed on three separate channels, respectively receiving such publications for sorting, destroying publications and publications which the bar code is unreadable or unrecognized.

p0007therefore obtained thanks to the invention, a system that can handle many different publications by their nature, size and weight, at a very high speed, for example, about 4000 copies per hour, identifying each publication or eventually showing that a publication is not identifiable by performing a physical count of publishing products, and performing pre-sorting based on stored information defining the status (eg sorting or destruction) of each publication. The progressively increasing speed of the conveyors helps increase speeds, allowing operators to deposit publications on the first conveyor very close to each other, possibly in contact with each other, and in any orientation, so randomly, the only obligation being to leave visible barcodes. In this regard, it is noted that the invention uses a single element of standardized and universal recognition, namely the barcode, which is clearly defined in advance for a given publication, according to a correspondence table for which a simple setting update is needed in the operation over time. Overall, therefore obtained a facility whose performance and ergonomics are improved, while simplifying and streamlining the task of the operators responsible for supplying the installation, the only constraint imposed on these operators is to ensure the visibility of the bar code by the optical reading device.

p0008In addition to the physical pre-sorting of print products, the proposed system allows for statistics, by custodian and general, regarding these products, enabling tighter controls and a more rational management. The reliability of this accounting (only way to know exactly sales for each issue) should allow the system operator to get more publishers unsold destruction permits and therefore reduce costs sorting and storage thereof. The identification of lots unsold from each depositary, identifiable by separating plates encoded allows for more effective control of the statements provided by the depositary, on the number of unsold, this control can be followed by action from defaulting custodians.

p0009Towards the downstream end of the line, the means for orienting the products towards at least two distinct output pathways include, in a particular embodiment of the invention, at least one conveyer pivotally mounted and able to tilt, under the control of the above control means, for providing a product in a receptacle situated at a lower level. The receptacle associated with an inclinable conveyer is a transporter for example, oriented perpendicularly to the conveyor line and for the discharge of products such as unsold to destroy. It can be also a tray, receiving such products could not be identified automatically, this tray being at a workstation where an operator stands fighters optical reading "Manual" barcodes of these products, by means of a reading gun.

p0010Anyway, the invention will be better understood and other features will become apparent with the aid of the description which follows, with reference to the appended diagrammatic drawing representing, by way of nonlimiting example, a form execution of this line of recognition and treatment for editing or printing products:<ul><li>Figure 1 is a plan view from above of a line according to the present invention;</li><li>Figure 2 is a side view of the Figure 1 line;</li><li>Figures 3 and 4 are partial side views on an enlarged scale, showing some details of that line.</li></ul>

p0011Figures 1 and 2 show, in general, a line of recognition and treatment for editing or printing products. The line includes a set of conveyors 1-7, all kind of carpet without end, which are arranged after each other, in a horizontal direction or slightly inclined.

p0012Upstream of the first conveyor 1 is arranged a table 8, constituting a receiving station and loading of products 9 to identify and treat. In this position, one or more operators manually and unitary products pose 9 on the first conveyor 1, ensuring their identification bar codes are apparent and avoiding duplication of such products 9.

p0013Successive conveyors 1,2,3 etc ... have different velocities from each other, which are increasing from upstream to downstream so in the direction of advance F of the products 9. Referring also to the 3, these conveyors 1-7 can be driven from a common motor reducer 10, via transmission means 11 such as endless chains or toothed belts endless, whose arrangement allows obtain the desired increasing speeds. These increasing speeds have the effect of separating and removal of each other products 9, in a manner sufficient to allow their detection and individual identification, and their selective orientation to several output channels.

p0014Above an intermediate conveyor 4 is arranged a bar code reader unit 12 to several cells, in particular an optical drive "laser", carried by a support frame 13. Upstream of the barcode reader 12 is still arranged above the same conveyor means 4, a sensor photocell 14, which is carried by the side uprights 15 and is adapted to detect the leading edge or backside of a product 9 arriving under the bar code reader 12 .

p0015In cooperation with a microcomputer 16 suitably programmed, the bar code reader 12 reads and analyzes the barcode of each product 9, and the sort direction of this 9 is determined based on the identification (or non-identification) and data stored in computer files. In the particular application considered here, three sorting directions are provided, namely: products identified for sorting, destroying products identified and non-identified products is to say that the bar code is unreadable or unknown.

p0016To this end, the penultimate conveyer and the antepenultimate 6 5 are one and the other, pivotally mounted by their upstream ends and are thus susceptible of tilting, lowering their downstream end. According to one particular embodiment and as shown in Figure 4, each of the conveyors 5 and 6 has a tilt control, consisting of a motor 17 associated with a gear and a link device 18 and crank 19, the assembly being actuated by a static electric switch not shown, itself controlled from the data processing in the microcomputer 16 and the passage detection products 9 (sensor 14), with appropriate delays.

p0017In the case of a product 9 and identified for sorting, the two conveyors 5 and 6 are held horizontal. The product 9 and reaches the last conveyor 7 which finally delivers it to a receiving table 20 of the products to be sorted. From there, the sorting of products is carried out manually or automatically, according to a number of more or less directions.

p0018In the case of a product identified 9 but to destroy, the penultimate conveyor 6 is inclined and the product 9 is thus directed onto a conveyor 21, perpendicular to the conveyor 1 to 7 and located at a lower level. The carrier 21 is used to evacuate the products to be destroyed.

p0019In the case of a product 9 unidentified, is the penultimate conveyor 5 that tilts, and the product 9 is thus directed to an output tray 22. At this point, an operator can perform a reading "Manual "barcodes unidentified products, by means of a reading gun 23.

p0020In the example implementation illustrated in Figure 1, a manual sorting line is still provided for publishing products packetized. This line includes a roller conveyor 24, horizontal or slightly inclined, parallel to the conveyors 1 to 7. The bundles of newspapers or magazines are manually deposited at the upstream end of the roller conveyor 24, and at the downstream end, packets are hand picked and distributed to the direction "sort" materialized by a receiving table 25, or towards the direction "destroy" materialized by the carrier 21 supra. This sorting is performed using the reading gun 23 already mentioned, which is thus common to both functions, a display indicating the sorting direction from the password input is a packet bars.

p0021Of course, it can not be moving away from the scope of the invention by changing the number of conveyors, or their drive means and tilt control that are replaceable by any equivalent, or the number of channels output towards which are oriented editing or printing products, these products may of course be of any kind: books, magazines, newspapers and other publications of all kinds, to daily and periodical publication, or single edition, of any size and any thickness. Finally, the scope of the invention is not limited to the sort of "unsold" which only represents a particular use case.