Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

Medium discharging mechanism and image forming apparatus that employs the medium discharging mechanism

a technology of discharging mechanism and medium, which is applied in the direction of thin material handling, web handling, article delivery, etc., can solve the problems of paper jam, annoying noise, and decrease and achieve the effect of improving the durability of the medium-discharging mechanism and reducing the manufacturing cos

Inactive Publication Date: 2009-12-03
OKI DATA CORP
View PDF13 Cites 2 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention aims to solve issues with existing medium-discharging mechanisms by providing a new mechanism that does not emit annoying noise, is more durable, and can be made smaller and less expensive to manufacture. The new mechanism includes a resilient member that deforms at a nip formed between two rollers, one of which is in pressure contact with the other. The resilient member is made of a high friction material and includes projections and recesses on its surface. The mechanism also includes a weight that presses on the medium to ensure it is pulled tightly through the nip. The new mechanism is suitable for miniaturizing the device and reducing manufacturing costs."

Problems solved by technology

When the rear end of the medium blocks the discharging path, the preceding page of the medium is pushed by the following page to drop from the stacker or resulting in a paper jam.
This gives rise to not only annoying noise but also wear-out of and damage to the vane-like member, thereby decreasing durability of the medium-discharging mechanism.
This requires gears to have special shapes, increasing the number of components and complexity of the medium-discharging mechanism.
The resulting image-forming apparatus is of large overall size and highly costly.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • Medium discharging mechanism and image forming apparatus that employs the medium discharging mechanism
  • Medium discharging mechanism and image forming apparatus that employs the medium discharging mechanism
  • Medium discharging mechanism and image forming apparatus that employs the medium discharging mechanism

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

first embodiment

[0045]FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a printer according to a first embodiment.

[0046]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a medium-discharging mechanism according to the first embodiment.

[0047]Referring to FIG. 1, a printer 11 includes image forming sections 12BK, 12Y, 12M, and 12C for black, yellow, magenta, and cyan images, respectively. Each of the image-forming sections includes a photoconductive drum 13 that bears an image on it. The image-forming section further includes a charging roller 14 that charges the surface of the photoconductive drum 13, a developing unit 16, and a cleaning unit 18, which are disposed to surround the photoconductive drum 13.

[0048]An LED head 15 is disposed over the photoconductive drum 13. A transfer unit is disposed under the photoconductive drum 13. The transfer unit includes a transport belt 19 that runs in a direction in which the image-forming sections are aligned, a drive roller 21 that drives the transport belt 19 to run, a driven roller 22 that is ...

second embodiment

[0076]FIG. 7 illustrates the operation of a medium-discharging mechanism according to a second embodiment.

[0077]FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of a pressure roller of the medium-discharging mechanism.

[0078]A resilient ring 36B according to the second embodiment has projections and recesses on its circumferential outer surface such that the projections and recesses form a wavy surface. The elements similar to those of the first embodiment have been given the same reference numerals and their description is omitted.

[0079]Referring to FIG. 7, the resilient ring 36B is formed of a resiliently deformable material such as urethane foam and has projections alternating with recesses to form a wave-shaped outer surface in a circumferential direction of the resilient ring 36B. When the outer surface of the resilient ring 36B enters the nip between the discharge roller 31 and the resilient ring 36B, the resilient ring 36B is resiliently pushed back or collapsed, and then regains its or...

third embodiment

[0081]In the first and second embodiments, the pressure roller 32 is formed with a groove 32a (FIG. 5) therein to which the resilient ring 36A or 36B is fitted. A third embodiment differs from the first and second embodiments in that the pressure roller 32 is divided into two roller segments and a resilient disc 36C is assembled between the roller segments. Elements similar to those in the first and second embodiments have been given the same reference numerals and the description is omitted.

[0082]FIG. 9 is a front view illustrating a medium-discharging mechanism according to the third embodiment.

[0083]Referring to FIG. 9, a pressure roller 32 includes a roller segment 32a and a roller segment 32b. The resilient disc 36C is resiliently deformable and is sandwiched between the roller segments 32a and 32b. A shaft 33 extends through the roller segments 32a and 32b. The third embodiment eliminates the need for making a groove in the shaft 33, and thus provides an easy-to-make mechanism...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

No PUM Login to View More

Abstract

A medium discharging mechanism includes a first roller, a second roller, and a resiliently deformable member. The second roller is in pressure contact with the first roller to form a nip between the first roller and the second roller. The resiliently deformable member is formed of a resiliently deformable material and is rotatable about a rotating shaft of one of the second roller. The resilient member has a larger diameter than the second roller. The resilient member deforms at the nip such that a surface of the resilient ring is flush with the nip.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 302,691, filed Dec. 14, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a medium-discharging mechanism and an image-forming apparatus that employs the medium-discharging mechanism.[0003]A conventional image-forming apparatus such as a printer, copying machine, facsimile machine, and plotter is provided with a medium-discharging mechanism for discharging a printed medium. The medium-discharging mechanism includes a discharge roller and a pressure roller in pressure contact with the discharge roller. When the discharge roller is rotated in one direction, the pressure roller is driven to rotate in an opposite direction to the discharge roller such that the printed medium is pulled in therebetween. The printed medium is held between the discharge roller and pressure roller in a san...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): B65H29/20
CPCB65H27/00B65H29/22B65H2404/185B65H2404/1316B65H2404/1431B65H2404/1122
Inventor NUMAO, HIROYUKI
Owner OKI DATA CORP
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products

Browse by: Latest US Patents, China's latest patents, Technical Efficacy Thesaurus, Application Domain, Technology Topic, Popular Technical Reports.

© 2024 PatSnap. All rights reserved.Legal|Privacy policy|Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement|Sitemap|About US| Contact US: help@patsnap.com