Carriage Stabilization via Driving Member Deformation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image reading apparatuses face challenges in preventing carriage swinging movements due to vibration and sliding resistance, leading to image distortion, and conventional solutions complicate the structure, increasing product costs.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus incorporates a carriage with a driving member mounted on pulleys, a guide rail, a guide-rail engaging portion, a holding portion, and a claw portion that deforms to produce a tensile force and rotation moment, stabilizing the carriage's movement in the sub scanning direction without additional complex components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional techniques are used to prevent carriage swinging movement, then image reading stability is improved, but device complexity increases leading to product cost escalation
Solution Approach 1:
The driving member is designed to automatically press the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail through its own deformation, eliminating the need for separate stabilizing components. The system serves itself by using the driving member's inherent properties to achieve both driving and stabilizing functions simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The driving member performs multiple functions: it drives the carriage along the guide rail and simultaneously stabilizes the carriage by pressing the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail. This multi-functionality reduces the overall number of components and simplifies the structure while maintaining image reading stability.
2Device complexity
If the carriage is allowed to swing within fitting clearance, then device complexity is reduced, but image reading accuracy deteriorates due to distortion
Solution Approach 1:
The driving member is designed to be deformable, allowing it to dynamically adjust its shape to produce the necessary tensile force. This dynamic property enables the system to maintain stable carriage positioning without requiring rigid, complex constraint structures, thus preserving image reading accuracy while keeping the overall structure simple.
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
This configuration ensures stable and accurate image reading by preventing swinging movements of the carriage, maintaining image quality without escalating product costs through simplified structure.
Implementation Method 1
a claw portion for pressing the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail by partially deforming the driving member to produce a tensile force in the driving member
Implementation Method 2
a driving member mounted on a plurality of pulleys for moving the carriage in a sub scanning direction
Implementation Method 3
a guide plate for supporting the carriage by being held in sliding contact with the lower surface of the second end portion of the carriage and guiding a movement of the carriage in the sub scanning direction
Data Source
AI summary
An image reading apparatus is provided with a carriage accommodating an optical unit for image reading, a driving member for moving the carriage, a guide rail, a guide-rail engaging portion engaged with the guide rail, a holding portion for holding the driving member, a guide plate and a claw portion. The claw portion presses the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail by partially deforming the driving member to produce a tensile force in the driving member and causing the tensile force to act on the first end portion of the carriage, and produces such a rotation moment for biasing the first end portion of the carriage in a first direction parallel with a sub scanning direction and, on the other hand, biasing the second end portion of the carriage in a second direction opposite to the first direction and parallel with the sub scanning direction.