Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02304247 2000-03-14
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VENDING MACHINE FOR MAKING AND SUPPLYING BOOKS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vending machines in particular to
vending machines for making and supplying books.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is particularly useful when embodied in the form of a
vending machine for making "books on demand", and is therefore described
below with respect to such apparatus, but it will be appreciated that the
invention,
or various aspects thereof, can also advantageously be used in other forms of
~o book printing apparatus.
At the present time, the majority of book printing industry is based upon
traditional printing technologies of pre-press, press and finishing tools.
Thus, the
conventional book printing requires the preparing of printing plates, printing
and
finishing a determinate number of copies for each book edition, and
distributing
15 the printed books to stores and other retailers. Printing books in this
traditional
manner encounters problems of distributing the books, storing them, and
particularly the uncertainty of the number of book tities to be printed in the
respective edition. The returns of books to the publisher is approximately
40%,
thus there is generally an overprint of 80-100%.
2o A number of machines have been designed for printing books in a digital
manner "on demand", such as "Docutech 6180" manufactured by Xerox,
"Demand Stream" manufactured by OCE and the "Infoprint" manufactured by
IBM, . However, the known machines of this type are not efficient for printing
pocket and paperback books of small format or in individual copies. In
addition,
z5 they are generally very expensive and not practical for implementation as
vending
machines which print and bind books in-situ and immediately following the
user's
request. .
Existing, so called on demand, machines usually carry out only part of
the functions needed to produce a complete finished book. Some of the
functions
so such as cover printing, binding and trimming are carried out off line and
by
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separate devices. Also a specialist is required to operate and supervise these
operations.
The use of separate devices for different functions does not allow them
to be incorporated within a vending machine.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine for
printing and supplying books having advantages in one or more of the above
respects. A particular object of the present invention is to provide book
making
s apparatus which can be practically implemented as a vending machine for
printing
and binding books on demand and supplying them in real time. According to a
preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a vending
machine for making books which includes a computer data storage device for
storing a plurality of book titles, each including the text and image
information, the
~o cover information which may be in color, title and other identification of
a plurality
of books, an operating panel including a display for displaying the
identification
information of the books stored in the storage device and the user's interface
enabling an user to select one of the stored book titles for printing, and
book
making apparatus for printing and binding the selected book.
15 Furthermore, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the
book printing apparatus includes a black and white or color text and image
engine
for printing the text information of the selected book title on a plurality of
pages in
duplex mode, a covers print engine for printing the color cover information of
the
selected book title on front and back covers, a collator to collate the
printed pages
Zo and the front and back covers of the book selected by the user, a binder
for
binding the printed pages and the covers collated by the collator and a
controller
for extracting from the source device a book title selected by the user. The
controller also controls the pages printing engine, the cover printing engine
, the
collator, and the binder, for printing and binding the book selected by the
user.
25 Furthermore, according to further features in the described preferred
embodiment, the operating panel includes a payment device to be used by the
user for paying for the selected book title, and a discharge device for
discharging
the selected book after having being printed by the text and color printing
engines
and bound by the binder. Preferably, the payment device in the operating panel
so includes a credit card reader.
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According to further features in the described preferred embodiment, the
operating panel further includes a diskettes reader for the insertion by the
user of
a diskette containing book information, to be printed and bound .
For example, the book file information in the data storage device could
s be in the form of a plurality of CD-ROMs. A CD-ROM or diskette can also be
used by the user who inserts the information media carrier (such as a CD-ROM
or
diskette) in the slot reader driver for automatic reading, printing and
binding, of the
book title. Alternatively, a remote device can be used to download book file
information to the data storage device.
~o Preferably, paper storage and feeding, the operating panel, text and
image printing engine, cover printing engine, collator and binder and all
other
components are all housed and operates in a fully automatic, on line process,
under a common housing. The storage device for storing the plurality of book
titles is also preferably housed within the common housing, but could be
located
~s at a remote location and are connected by communication lines to the
apparatus
in Common housing.
As will be more particularly described below, book making apparatus
constructed in accordance with the foregoing features may be practically
- implemented in the form of a vending machine located at publicly-accessible
20 locations for printing books "by request". The book title information can
be stored
in digital form in a highly efficient and compact manner such as CD-ROMs or
Hard
Disk permitting quick and efficient retrieval for printing and landing a book
as or
when requested a user. New book titles can be added in a simple manner, and
old book titles that cease to be saleable can be removed from the storage
device.
25 The foregoing features enable such a book printing apparatus to be
constructed in the form of vending machines, providing many of the advantages
that such vending machines offer, including elimination of book inventories
reduced distribution costs, minimal space requirements, automatic
record-keeping, simplified inventory control, minimize the enormous percentage
of
3o returns, common in the book trade.
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Since the book title information, are stored in a compact digital way,
such as a CD-ROM or hard disk, title information can be kept in several
different
languages for printing a language to the customer's requirements.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from
s the description below.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with
reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 is an isometric illustration of a book vending machine constructed
s in accordance with the present invention;
Figs. 2A and 2B are a block diagram and a schematic illustration,
respectively, of the main components of a book printing apparatus of the
vending
machine of Fig. 1;
Figs. 2C illustrates the main components of the end product of the new
~o vending machine.
Fig. 3 schematically illustrates the various parts of the printing control
unit including the electronic storing device in the apparatus of Fig. 1;
Fig. 4 schematically illustrates the various parts of the system control
unit, including the electronic, drivers, etc., in the apparatus of Fig. 1;
15 Fig. 5 schematically illustrates the paper feeder and supply on which the
text and image information of a selected book title is printed;
Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of a portion of Fig. 5;
Fig. 7 schematically illustrates the print engine of Fig. 2A for printing the
text and image of the book pages in a duplex mode on a web;
2o Fig. 7A schematically illustrates the print engine of Fig. 2A for printing
the text and image of the book in a duplex mode onto cut sheet pages;
Fig: 8 schematically illustrates the cutting mechanism downstream of the
text and image engine assembly of Fig. 7;
Fig. 9 schematically illustrates the cover feeder for feeding the material
2s from a storage in to the cover print engine assembly;
Figs. 10 and 10A schematically illustrate the color cover print engine
assembly for printing in a plurality of colors on both the front cover and
back cover
of the book;
Figs. 11A-11 D illustrate various stages in the feeding of the front and
so back covers to the collator in the apparatus of Fig. 2A;
Figs. 12A-12C illustrate various stages in the collation of the pages of
text and the two covers in the collator of Fig. 2A;
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Figs. 13A-13C illustrate binding of the collated pages and covers in book
form;
Fig. 14 is a block diagram illustrating one form of data and control
management system in the controller of Fig. 2A; and
s Fig. 15 schematically illustrates the flow diagram of the main operations
repuired for delivery of a book by the machine.
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DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Reference is made to Fig. 1, which is an isometric illustration of a
vending machine, generally designated 1, constructed and operative in
accordance with the present invention. The vending machine contains book
s making apparatus, schematically illustrated in Figs. 2A and 2B, which prints
and
binds books according to a selection or request made by a customer, for
"immediate" delivery to the customer.
A sample of a typical book prepared by the book making apparatus is
illustrated in Fig. 2C. The book includes printed front and back covers 90F
and
~0 90B, respectively, enclosing a plurality of duplex printed pages, generally
referenced 81, each side of a printed page referenced 51 A and 51 B. The
printed
pages 81 and front and back covers 90F and 90B, respectively, are collated and
bound together and then glued together (glue shown by reference numeral 149).
Finally, the book back up spine tape 143 is applied to produce the finished
book.
The vending machine further comprises an operating and display panel,
generally referenced 2, which includes a display screen 21 for displaying
information related to the books and their printing, a credit card slot 22 for
insertion of the customer's credit card, a slot 23 enabling the customer to
insert a
CD ROM or similar containing book title digital information which can be
printed in
2o the same manner as a selected one of the book titles stored within the
machine
itself and an outlet 13 for receiving the bound finished book 15.
Vending machine 1 (Fig. 1.) also includes a second display screen 24
which may be used for simultaneously displaying sample pages and other
information related to a book, for example, and a hard copy sample display
panel
25 25 for visual display of the book titles available from the machine,
Figs. 2A and 2B diagramatically illustrates the main components of a
book printing apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention,.
Briefly, the book printing apparatus, illustrated in Figs. ZA and 2B, includes
an
operating panel 2, a printing control unit (PCU) 3, more particularly
illustrated in
so Fig. 3; a systems control unit (SCU) 4, more particularly illustrated in
Fig. 4; a
paper web feeding unit 5, more particularly iilustrated in Figs. 5 and 6; a
text and
image printing unit 6 for printing the pages of the book, more particularly
illustrated
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in Fig. 7 and 7A; and a collation of printing pages and related functions unit
7, 11
and 12 (Fig. 2A) more particularly illustrated in Figs. 8, 11A - 11 D and 12A -
12C.
The apparatus illustrated in Figs. ZA and 2B further includes a cover material
feeder 9 upstream of a cover color print engine assembly 10, and another cover
feeder 11 downstream of assembly 10, as more particularly illustrated in Figs.
9,
10, 10A and 11 a-11 d, respectively. The printed sheets of text, and the
printed
covers, are fed to a collator and binder unit 12, more particularly
illustrated in Figs.
12a-12d and 13-13a, respectively, for collating and binding the printed sheets
of
text and the front and back covers, to produce the complete bound book 15
which
~o is fed to a delivery chute 13 of the vending machine.
As will be described more particularly below, the printing control unit 3
includes a storage device for storing a plurality of book titles information,
in the
form of CD-ROMs or hard disk, for example, each file including the text and
graphic information, cover information, and identification information of the
~s respective books. The operating panel 2 enables the user {a purchaser) to
display the identification information of the stored book titles, and to
select one of
them for printing out in the form of a complete book 15 constituted of a
plurality of
pages having the text and images thereon, bound between front and back covers
having cover information printed thereon. The payment may be by the insertion
of
zo a credit card. When the credit has been approved and the selection made,
the
machine then automatically prints the text and image on a plurality of pages,
and
simultaneously also prints the information in color to appear on the front and
back
covers, and feeds both the printed textlimage pages and printed covers to the
collator 12 for collation and binding. The completely bound book 15 is then
25 delivered through the delivery chute 13.
Operating panel 2 includes monitors or displays 21 and 24 for displaying
the identification information of the book title stored in the printing
control unit 3.
Operating panel 2 further includes an users' interface enabling the user to
select
one of the stored book titles for printing. in the example illustrated in Fig.
1, the
so interface includes a touch-screen over display panels 21 and 24. Other
interfaces
may be provided, for example a keyboard having depressible keys.
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The operating panel 2 further includes a credit card slot 22 for insertion
of the users credit card to enable operation of the machine for ordering one
or
more of the books included in the book data storage of the print engine
control
unit. Operating panel 2 includes a further slot 23 enabling the user to insert
an
s information media carrier, such as a CD-ROM containing personal book title
data
carrier containing book file information, which can be ordered and printed in
the
same manner as a selected one of the book titles stored within the machine
itself.
The print engine control unit 3, as illustrated in Fig. 3, includes a data
storage device 31 for storing the plurality of book title information, e.g. in
the form
~o of CD-ROMs or other digital media as indicated earlier, each book title
includes
the text and image, cover and identification information of the respective
book
selectable by the user for printing. ~ The text and image digital data
information is
fed to the text and image engine, as shown schematically by line 32 in Fig. 3;
whereas the cover digital data information is fed to the printing system for
printing
~s the covers, as shown schematically by line 33 in Fig. 3.
Printing control unit 3 illustrated in Fig. 3 further includes a mother board
34 and a plurality of printer control boards 35 mounted thereon, for
controlling the
data flow operations of the two print engine assemblies.
The systems control unit (SCU) 4, as more particularly illustrated in Fig.
20 4, includes the electronic control for the various drives, as will be
described more
particularly below. It also includes a mother board 41, the system electronics
42,
and a plurality of system driver and control cards 43.
In the machine illustrated in the drawings, the text and image is printed
on a plurality of pages supplied from a paper web and cut into sheet form;
2s whereas the covers information is printed on pre-cut covers fed from a
supply bin.
Figs. 7-7A illustrate the manner in which the text/image is printed on the
pages;
whereas Figs. 10 and 10A illustrate the manner in which the cover information
is
printed on a front and back covers.
Thus, as shown in Fig. 5, the paper supply includes four rolls 50a-50d,
ao each capable of holding a considerable length of a paper web 51. Only one
paper
roll 50a-50d is active at any one time, and as soon as its paper web
approaches
depletion, another paper web is actuated in order to maintain a continuous
supply
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of paper until all the web rolls are exhausted. The paper roll is loaded and
moved
by any suitable movement means, such as motors, conveyors, rollers and
servo-mechanisms, known in the art.
The supply of paper on the respective roll is sensed by a feeler arm 52
s pivotally mounted at one end 53 and including a roller 54 engageable with
the
outer surface of the paper web on the respective roll. The pivotal mounted end
53
of the feeler arm 52 is coupled to a rotary encoder 55 which senses the
angular
position of the respective feeler arm 52 and thereby the supply of paper on
the
respective roll.
~o The paper web 51 payed out of its respective roll is past over a
deflection roller 56 (Fig. 6) to a guide assembly for the respective roll.
Thus, in the
illustrated apparatus including four supply rolls, there would be four such
deflection rollers 56 and four of such guide assemblies.
The deflection rollers 56 and the guide assemblies for the four rolls are
~s more particularly illustrated in Fig. 6. Thus, each guide assembly includes
a fixed
guide element 57 and a pivotal guide element 58 pivotal towards the fixed
guide
element by a leaf spring 59. The fixed guide element 57 carries a driven pinch
roller 60 aligned with another pinch roller 61 carried by the pivotal guide
element
58, so as to drive the paper web 51 between the two. As indicated earlier a
2o separate deflection roller 56 and guide device 57-61 is provided for each
of the
four supply rolls 50.
The paper feeder further includes an exit guide device constituted of
four guide elements 62A-62D spaced below the guide elements for the four paper
rolls. The guide elements 62A-62D serve as an exit guiding device for driving
and
2s guiding the paper web of the active roll 50 to the text and image engine
assembly
7 illustrated in Fig. 7.
An indexing guiding device is interposed between the four guiding
devices, for the four rolls 50, and the common exit guiding device of guiding
element 62A-62D. The indexing guiding device also includes a fxed guiding
3o element 64, and a pivotal guiding element 65 pivotal towards the fixed
guiding
element by a panel spring 66. In this case, however, the two guiding elements
64,
65 are carried by an indexing plate 67 which is pivotally mounted to index its
two
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WO 00103876 PCTIIL99/00390 .
guiding elements 64, 65 in alignment with the guiding elements 57 and 58 of
the
active paper roll 50, and the exit guiding device of elements 62A-62D.
Indexing
plate 67 is pivotal to a selected position by a pulley assembly 68 driven by a
motor
69 under the control of the systems controller to align the two inflexible
guiding
s plates 64, 65 with the guiding device 57-58 of the roll which is active at
any
particular time to pay out the paper web.
As seen particularly in Figs. 5 and 6, the four paper supply rolls 50, and
their deflection rollers 56, are arrayed in the form of a arc over the indexer
guide
64, 65, such that the indexer guide may be pivotally mounted to align any one
of
~o the roller guiding devices with the exit guiding device, elements 62A-62D,
according to the roll which is active. As seen particularly in Fig. 6, the two
guiding
elements 57, 58 alternate in length with respect to the four rolls 50. Thus,
the
guiding elements for rolls 50c are long, those for the next roll 50a are
short, those
for the next roll 50b are long, and those for the next roll 50d are short.
Such an
1s arrangement minimizes the space occupied by the rolls and their respective
guiding elements, thereby providing a compact structure for holding a large
supply
of paper to be used for printing a large amount of pages.
Fig. 7 more particularly illustrates the print engine 6 of Fig. 2A for
printing
the textlimage of the book. This print engine is an ink jet printer of the
duplex
2o type, i.e. printing on both sides of the paper web 51. In Fig. 7, the paper
web 51
enters the print engine assembly from the right side via a guide plate 70 and
71
and is driven by rollers 72 onto the upper surface of a horizontal, closed-
loop
conveyor belt 73a driven by a pair of pulleys 74a in the direction of the
arrow
shown in Fig. 7. A print engine unit 75a is located above the upper surface of
2s conveyor belt 73a so as to print the text/image information on the upper
face of
the paper web 51 as it is driven under the print engine unit. Print engine
unit 75a
may be a seven ink-jet module, each with its own drivers, as described for
example in Patent No. EP 0640481 B1 assigned to the same assignee as the
present application. For clarity, the ink-jet modules control and ink
reservoirs are
so not shown in the figures. If desired, a dryer unit 76a such as an IR (infra
red) or
UV (ultra-violet) radiation unit may be used at the outlet end of the print
engine
unit 75a.
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A second print engine head 75b is located to print on the opposite side
of the paper web as it leaves the closed-loop conveyor belt 73a and is
received on
the close-loop conveyor belt 73b underlying conveyor belt 73a. Thus, after one
side of the paper web has been printed while being conveyed by conveyor belt
s 73a under print engine head 75a, the paper web is inverted as it is fed to
the
underlying conveyor belt 73b so that it can be printed upon. A separate dryer
76b
may also be provided for drying the ink applied by print engine unit 75b.
The print head 75B (75A is similar) is illustrated in-blown up detail in Fig.
7. Briefly, the print heads 162 eject droplets 164 of ink on to web 51 being
carried
~o by loop conveyor belt 73B forming the printed web 51 B.
Similarly printed web 51A is printed using print head 75A and carried by
conveyer 73A.
The paper web may be secured and moved with the conveyor belt in
any suitable manner, such as by vacuum (not shown) or other similar techniques
15 known in the art.
The conveyor belt system and its utilization in printing technology is well
known in the art and is thus not described in further detail.
Fig. 8, which is a continuation upstream of the text and image engine
assembly, illustrates the manner of handling the paper web 51 after it has
been
2o printed on both sides (referenced 51A and 51B) with the text and image
information. Thus, the paper web 51 passes via guide 89 through a pair pinch
rolls 79 and continuous via pinch rollers, 82, over a cutter table generally
referenced 83 on which is mounted a cylinder 84 having a cutter blade 85
extending longitudinally of the cylinder, so as to be transverse of the paper
web
2s 51. The circumference of the cylinder 84 and the synchronization between
the
web speed and cylinder 84 to define the cut sheet size. Thus, the cylinder 84
is
located at the appropriate speed with respect to the feed of the paper web 51
so
that the cutter blade 85 slits the paper at the proper locations to produce
the
separate printed sheets 81. These sheets are removed via an inclined chute 86,
so to a collecting bin 7 and fed to the collating and binding unit 12 of Fig.
2A as
described more particularly below with respect to Figs. 12 and 13.
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Fig. 7A illustrates a variation wherein the cutter is located upstream of
the print engine heads, rather than downstream as illustrated in Fig. 7. Thus,
in
the variation illustrated in Fig. 7A, the guiding plate 91 for guiding the
paper web
51 into the first print engine head 75a includes a cylinder 92 formed with a
cutter
s blade 93 extending longitudinally of its cylinder 92, and therefore
transversely of
the paper web, similar to cylinder 84 and cutter blade 85 in Fig. 8, so that
the
cutter blade slits the paper web into the appropriate size sheets 81 a before
the
paper sheets are fed by the conveyor belt under the first print engine head
75a.
In addition, at the end of the print engine head 75a the conveyor belt is
provided
~o with a plurality of guide rollers 47 to guide the individual sheets via
guiding plate
77A to the underlying conveyor belt for printing on the opposite side by the
second printing head 75b. In all other respects, the construction illustrated
in Fig.
7A is the same as described above with respect to Fig. 7.
Figs. 9-11 illustrate the covers print engine system for printing the cover
~s information of the selected book on the front and back covers.
The pre-printed covers, referenced as 90 in Fig. 9, are pre-cut and
supplied from a bin 91. The bin includes a lift plate 92 on which the covers
90 are
stacked and are fed from the top by a motorized drive roller 93 carried by a
pivotal
arm 94 so as to be in engagement with the top cover of the stack. The lifting
2o mechanism includes a motor 95 driving a screw 96 via a gear train 97, which
screw is steadily received within a nut 98 fixed to bin 91, so that rotation
of Motor
95 in one direction raises lifting plate 92, and rotating it in the opposite
direction
lowers the lifting plate. Motor 95 is controlled in synchronism with drive
rotor 93 to
raise the lifting plate 92 one increment as the drive roller drives the top
most cover
2s via guide 99 to the covers printing unit 10 of Fig. 2A, more particularly
illustrated in
Figs. 10A.
The printing of the covers information is preferably by the "thermal
transfer" technique, in which a transfer is effected of the color from a color
transfer
ribbon. The thermal transfer" technique is known in the art and described for
so example, in "Hard Copy and Printina Technology" by Ken-Chi Shimmed,
published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1252 1996.
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WO 00/03876 PCT/IL99100390
Thus, as shown in Fig. 10, the pre-printed covers 90 are individually fed
via guide 99 onto a closed-loop conveyor belt 100 driven by a pair of pulleys
101
so as to be transported under four thermal transfer print heads 102a-1024, in
succession. Each print head includes a color pigment-carrying ribbon 103 fed
s from a supply reel 104 and then pass print heads 102A-12D to a surplus reel
106.
The print heads 102a-102d are digitally controlled to produce hot points which
cause a minute point of the color pigment from the respective color pigment
carrying ribbon 103 to transfer to the cover 90. The four print heads 102a-
102d
print, in this manner, four process colors C, M, Y, K (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
and
~o Black), although additional printing heads and special colors, such as
metallic
colors, are possible.
Both the front cover 90F and back cover 90B are printed on one face of
the cover material by the print heads 102A-102D. As best seen in the detail of
Fig.
10A, the covers, both front 90B and back 90F, are carried along the conveyor
100
~s to feeder unit 11.
Since both the front cover 90F and back cover 90B for the book are
printed on but one face, namely that facing the print heads 102a-102d in Fig.
10,
the feeder unit 11 in Fig. 10A includes an inverter device 111 which inverts
one of
the covers, namely the front cover, so that its printed surface faces
downwardly at
2o the time the cover is fed to the collator and binder (7 and 12).
The cover feeder unit 11 of Fig. 10A, and the various stages in its
operation, are illustrated in Figs. 11a-11d. Thus, the conveyor belt 109
conveys
the covers 90 from the printing heads 102a-102d (Fig. 10) to another conveyor
belt 110 leading to the collator and binder unit 12 (Fig. 12). An inverter
zs mechanism 111 is provided at the transfer point between the conveyor belts
109,
110.
Inverter mechanism 111 is of a box-like construction rotatable
180°
about its axis 112 by means of a motor 113. When a front cover 99F is to be
transferred from conveyer belt 100 to conveyer belt 110, the latter being
located
3o slightly below conveyer belt 100, the front cover 90Fis received by the
inverter
mechanism 111 and actuates a sensor (not shown) which energizes its motor 113
to rotate the inverter 180°, as shown in Figs. 11 b and 11 c, to
thereby invert the
CA 02304247 2000-03-14
WO 00/03876 PCT/IL99I00390
front cover 90F so that its printed side faces downwardly as it is received on
conveyor belt 110. In this position, the inverter mechanism 111 serves as a
guide
for directing the succeeding back cover 90B onto the conveyer belt 110 with
its
printed side facing upwardly, as shown in Fig. 11d.
s The collator and binder unit 12 (in Fig. 11 D) receives both the printed
pages from the ink jet duplex print engine 6 and also the printed covers as
printed by the color printing unit 10 and fed by the feeding unit 11. Figs.
12A-12C
illustrate the manner in which the printed pages and the two covers are
collated in
unit 12; and Figs. 13A-13C illustrate the grinding gluing, and insertion of
the book
~o spine backing tape 143 and gluing of the spine to bind the pages and covers
into
a complete book. The glue referenced 149 is best seen in Fig. 2C.
Referring now to Figs. 12A-12C, the collator includes a collator frame
130 pivotal about an axis 131. During the collation process, frame 130 is
inclined
at an angle optimal to receive the printed pages 81 at approximately
30° angle as
~s shown in Fig. 12A. The two sided printed pages 81 moved via chute 86 of the
printing unit 6 are sequentially received on the fork 132 to form a stack,
with the
first page of the book being received first and facing downwardly.
The front cover 90F is fed from conveyer belt 110 under the fork 132
carrying the stack of sheets 81 or 81 a (Fig. 12B), , the front cover 90F,
which has
2o been inverted so that its printed side faces downwardly as described above
with
respect to Figs. 11a-11d, can be inserted at any time during the printing of
the
sheets 81 or 81 a and does not have to wait until all sheets are printed. The
fork
132 is then removed, to permit the front cover 90F and the stack of printed
sheets
thereon to rest against the bottom plate of the collator frame 130, and then
the
25 back cover 90B is fed to the upper side of the stack of sheets 81 its
printed side
facing upwardly, as shown in Fig. 12C.
After the back cover 90B has been thus inserted, a clamping plate 133
is driven into firm contact with the back cover 90b by means of a clamp screw
134
driven by an electric motor 135 via a gear and pulley 136. Clamping plate 133
so thus firmly presses the printed pages 81 or 81 a of the book and the two
covers
90F, 90B firmly against the bottom plate of the collator frame 130.
16
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WO 00103876 PCTIIL99100390 _
Referring now to Figs. 13A-13C, the collator frame is rotated about its
axis 131 to the position illustrated in Fig. 13A, to enable the stack of
sheets and
covers to be bound together in book form. In this position, the spine 148 of
the
book faces downwardly. The printed pages and the two covers may be bound
s together to form the finished book 15 by the technique illustrated in
Figs.13B-13C,
wherein glue 149 is applied to the spine of the book to glue the sheets 81 or
81a
and cover 90B-90F together after which a back-up spine tape 143 is applied to
the spine side of the book. Thus, as shown in Fig. 13B, a glue applicator 140
transfers glue 149 from a container 141 to the spine of the book. The glue 949
~o may be of the cold type, or hot-melt type. In the latter case, container
141 would
be provided with a heater 142 for heating the glue.
As shown in Fig. 13C, the binding is effective by a back-up tape 143
which is applied by rollers 144, and two side rollers 145.
Before the book spine is coated with an adhesive, the spine of the book
15 may be roughened by a rotating cutter, as shown at 146 in Fig. 13A. This
roughening may generate dust, and therefore a dust collecting system 147 may
be provided for this purpose.
If a hot glue system is used for binding the book, as shown in Fig. 13B,
such a system should be equipped with a fumes exhauster (not shown). If the
2o binding is by adhesive tape, as shown in Fig. 13C, the adhesive tape is
preferably
heat-activated, and the back and side rollers 144, 145 are preferably
spring-loaded and heated..
After the book has been printed and the binding applied as described
above, the book is released onto the delivery chute 13 illustrated in Fig. 1.
25 Reference is now made to Fig. 14, which is a block diagram illustrating
the data and management system controller units 4, shown in Figs. 3 and 4
which
control the overall operation of the machine. Thus, the storage device therein
designated 31, stores a plurality of book title information in the form of CD-
ROMs,
with each book title including the textrmage, cover information, and
identification
3o information of the respective books. The controller 35 includes a program
manager 202 and an operation user interface 205. Upon the selection of a book
title, the program manager 202 identifies the data location and directs the
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WO 00/03876 PCTIIL99/00390 _
text/irnage information of the respective book title to a page printing raster
image
processor (RIP) 204, and the covers information to a cover RIP 206 which
converts the information to a bit map format. Generally, the text information
is
black-and-white, whereas the covers information is multi-colored. The
textlimage
s and covers may, however, be printed in any combination of color and black
and
white. The textfimage information is printed on the paper web (or sheets) by
the
duplex print engine 6, as more particularly illustrated in Fig. 7: whereas the
cover
information is printed on the front and back covers by the color print engine
unit
10, as more particularly illustrated in Fig. 10. After all the pages have been
~o printed with the textlimage of the selected book, and the two covers have
been
printed and collated with the printed pages of the book title, the printed
pages and
covers are collated and bound together into the final book form 15 by the
collating
and binding unit 12 as described above with respect to Figs. 12 and 13.
As also described above, system controller 42 includes the electronics
~s and print engine drivers 43, shown by box 4 in Fig. 4 for controlling the
textlimage
pages print engine unit 6, the cover print engine unit 10, and the collator
and
binder units 7, 11 and 12, and to print and bind the book selected by the
user, as
well as other motors or actuators.
Reference is now made to Fig. 15, which is a flow chart illustration of the
20 operation of the book making and supply vending machine 1. A customer,
wishing to order a particular book title, orders the book title from the fist
of title
available (step 302). The available book titles are shown on a display panel
25
(Fig. 1 ).
The ordered book title is then located in the data storage device 31 and
2s the respective data file containing all the book title infom~ation is
extracted (step
304). The print cycle then commences (step 306). The pages of the book are
printed on both sides of the page, as described hereinabove with reference to
Figs. 7-7A (step 308) and the printed pages are stored in the page collect bin
of
the collating unit 7, 11 and 12 (step 310).
so Simultaneously with page printing, the printing of the covers takes place
(step 312), as follows: Firstly, the front cover 90F is printed (step 314).
The front
cover 90F is then rotated (step 316) and inserted below the printed pages
being
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WO 00/03876 PCT/IL99/00390 _
collected by the collating unit 12. When printing of the pages has been
finished,
the back cover 90B is then printed and inserted on top of the printed pages in
the
collating unit 12 (step 318).
Once the printing is completed and all the pages and covers have been
s collected, the book making process of collation (step 320) and binding (step
322)
take place.
Finally, the complete book is ejected for receipt by the waiting customer
(step 324). The total time required to make the book on being ordered depends
on the total number of pages within the book, but the process is relatively
quick,
~o taking for example two minutes to finish a book of 200 duplex pages and
thus
conforms with generally accepted user expectations for "immediate" delivery
from
vending machines.
Thus, all the components of the book printing apparatus illustrated in
Fig. 2A can be implemented in a vending machine having a common housing for
~s all the components. In some cases, however, it may be desirable to locate
the
storage device for the plurality of book titles at a remote location,
connected to the
vending machine by suitable communication line, to provide a centralized
storage
for a plurality of such vending machines.
While the invention has been described with respect to one preferred
Zo embodiment, it will be appreciated that this was set forth merely for
purposes of
example, and that many other variations, mod~cations and applications of the
invention may be made. For example, the book vending machine can be utilized
for printing other material such as text books, scientific publications,
articles and
catalogues. It will also be appreciated that pre-cut sheets can be utilized
for the
is supply of paper as well as web rolls hereinbefore described.
19
