Adjustable Regulating Guides for Compact Sheet Conveyance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sheet conveying apparatuses face challenges in handling sheets of various lengths without increasing apparatus size, as they require longer designs to accommodate longer sheets, leading to inefficiencies and size increments.
Innovation Solution
A sheet conveying apparatus with an endless conveying belt, rotatable balls, and adjustable regulating guides that move between guide positions to support and guide sheets of different lengths, ensuring proper alignment and conveyance without enlarging the apparatus.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the apparatus is designed with a fixed reference guide and inclined conveying belt to correct sheet displacement, then sheet alignment is improved, but apparatus size increases due to the need for longer conveyance path
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the regulating guides movable rather than fixed. The guides can move in the width direction to adapt to different sheet positions and lengths, allowing the apparatus to maintain compact size while still achieving precise sheet alignment through dynamic adjustment during conveyance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the guidance function into multiple independent regulating guides that can be positioned at different locations. This allows the guidance mechanism to work with shorter sheets without requiring a long fixed conveyance path, as each guide segment can independently adjust to the sheet's position.
2Manufacturing precision
If the apparatus uses a fixed guide structure to ensure proper sheet positioning, then guidance accuracy is improved, but adaptability to sheets of various lengths deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The regulating guides are designed to be movable in the width direction, allowing them to dynamically adjust their positions to accommodate sheets of various lengths. This dynamic capability maintains guidance accuracy for each specific sheet while providing overall adaptability across different sheet sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable regulating guides serve multiple functions: they guide sheets of different lengths, accommodate varying sheet positions, and maintain alignment accuracy. This multi-functionality allows a single guide structure to handle diverse sheet dimensions without sacrificing precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the handling of sheets of various lengths while maintaining a compact apparatus size by dynamically adjusting guide positions to support and align sheets effectively, reducing conveyance resistance and preventing conveyance failures.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of balls that are arranged in the predetermined conveying direction so as to face the conveying surface and configured to be rotatable in any direction while nipping the sheet with the conveying surface
Data Source
AI summary
The apparatus is capable of handling sheets of various lengths while suppressing an increase in apparatus size, wherein each of a pair of regulating guides is movable to a guide position at which an end edge of a sheet in a sheet width direction can be guided by a guide surface and to a retracting position retracting further away from the sheet width direction end edge than the guide position. For sheets S1 and S2 each having a first sheet length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position in a state where the front end of the sheet is located between upstream and downstream ends of the guide surface. For a sheet S3 having a second sheet length that is longer than the first length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position.