Paper sheet bundling apparatus

A paper sheet bundling apparatus comprising:

• a tape bundling unit having a holding unit, and configured to bundle stacked paper sheets with a tape held by the holding unit;
• a reel unit in which a tape roll is set, the reel unit configured to be arranged above the tape bundling unit with respect to a vertical direction and configured to allow a motor to rotate the tape roll in a feeding direction in which the tape is fed and in a winding direction in which the tape is wound;
• a tape transport unit having a pair of rollers sandwiching the tape and a transport path provided between the reel unit and the tape bundling unit with respect to the vertical direction, the tape transport unit configured to allow the pair of rollers to transport the tape drawn from the tape roll to the tape bundling unit when the tape bundling unit performs bundling, the tape transport unit configured to cause the tape to be in a stand-by state in which the tape is arranged along the transport path when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling;
• and
• a paper sheets transport unit having an arm for transporting the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit, wherein
• the reel unit is disposed in an upper portion of a housing of the paper sheet bundling apparatus, and the tape transport unit transports the tape downward from the reel unit with respect to the vertical direction,
• when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling, the tape transport unit performs, at a predetermined timing, a specific operation of transporting the tape in a direction in which the tape is wound back to the reel unit to reduce tensile force in the tape with respect to the vertical direction,
• the tape bundling unit forms a small tape loop by using the tape fed from the reel unit, and the small tape loop is thereafter enlarged in the vertical direction by the tape being fed from the reel unit to form a large tape loop, before the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit,
• the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets into the large tape loop by the arm, and
• the tape bundling unit bundles the stacked paper sheets by reducing the size of the large tape loop.

A paper sheet bundling apparatus comprising:

• a tape bundling unit having a holding unit, and configured to bundle stacked paper sheets with a tape by the holding unit;
• a reel unit in which a tape roll is set, the reel unit configured to be arranged above the tape bundling unit with respect to a vertical direction and configured to allow a motor to rotate the tape roll in a feeding direction in which the tape is fed and in a winding direction in which the tape is wound;
• a tape transport unit having a pair of rollers sandwiching the tape and a transport path provided between the reel unit and the tape bundling unit with respect to the vertical direction, the tape transport unit configured to allow the pair of rollers to transport the tape drawn from the tape roll to the tape bundling unit when the tape bundling unit performs bundling, the tape transport unit configured to cause the tape to be in a stand-by state in which the tape is arranged along the transport path when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling;
• and
• a paper sheets transport unit having an arm for transporting the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit, wherein
• when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling, the reel unit performs, at a predetermined timing, a specific operation of transporting the tape in the feeding direction to the tape bundling unit or in a direction in which the tape is wound back to the reel unit to perform a specific operation of changing a stand-by position of the tape with respect to the vertical direction,
• the tape bundling unit forms a small tape loop by using the tape fed from the reel unit, and the small tape loop is thereafter enlarged in the vertical direction by the tape being fed from the reel unit to form a large tape loop, before the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit,
• the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets into the large tape loop by the arm, and
• the tape bundling unit bundles the stacked paper sheets by reducing the size of the large tape loop.

A paper sheet bundling apparatus comprising:

• a tape bundling unit having a holding unit, and configured to bundle stacked paper sheets with a tape held by the holding unit;
• a reel unit in which a tape roll is set, the reel unit configured to be arranged above the tape bundling unit with respect to a vertical direction and configured to allow a motor to rotate the tape roll in a feeding direction in which the tape is fed and in a winding direction in which the tape is wound;
• a tape transport unit having a pair of rollers sandwiching the tape and a transport path provided between the reel unit and the tape bundling unit with respect to the vertical direction, the tape transport unit configured to allow the pair of rollers to transport the tape drawn from the tape roll to the tape bundling unit when the tape bundling unit performs bundling, the tape transport unit configured to cause the tape to be in a stand-by state in which the tape is arranged along the transport path when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling;
• and
• a paper sheets transport unit having an arm for transporting the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit, wherein
• before the tape is supplied to the tape bundling unit, the tape transport unit performs at least one reciprocate movement to reciprocate the tape, thereby correcting deformation included in the tape while no bundling is performed,
• the tape bundling unit forms a small tape loop by using the tape fed from the reel unit, and the small tape loop is thereafter enlarged in the vertical direction by the tape being fed from the reel unit to form a large tape loop, before the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets to the tape bundling unit,
• the paper sheets transport unit transports the stacked paper sheets into the large tape loop by the arm, and
• the tape bundling unit bundles the stacked paper sheets by reducing the size of the large tape loop.

A paper sheet bundling apparatus comprising:

• a tape bundling unit configured to bundle stacked paper sheets with a tape;
• a reel unit in which a tape roll is set, the reel unit configured to rotate the tape roll in a feeding direction in which the tape is fed, and a winding direction in which the tape is wound;
• and
• a tape transport unit having a transport path provided between the reel unit and the tape bundling unit, the tape transport unit configured to transport the tape drawn from the tape roll, along the transport path, to supply the tape to the tape bundling unit when the tape bundling unit performs bundling, the tape transport unit configured to cause the tape to be in a stand-by state in which the tape is arranged continuously along the transport path when the tape bundling unit does not perform bundling, wherein
• the tape bundling unit forms, the tape supplied by the tape transport unit into a tape loop, and bundles the paper sheets by inserting the stacked paper sheets into the tape loop, characterised in that
• the tape bundling unit further includes a sensor that detects whether or not the tape loop having a predetermined shape has been formed, and the tape bundling unit forms the tape loop again when the tape loop having the predetermined shape is not formed, based on a result of detection by the sensor, and
• the tape bundling unit further performs forming of the tape loop for a predetermined number of times regardless of a result of detection by the sensor, when starting bundling of the paper sheets after a state where bundling is not performed has continued for a predetermined time period or longer period.