Color Sensor Guide Rail for Tilt-Resistant Spectral Reflectance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image forming apparatuses with moving color sensors experience reduced measurement accuracy due to tilting, which affects the relationship between the sensor and the sheet of recording medium, leading to inaccuracies in spectral reflectance measurements.
Innovation Solution
The image forming apparatus is designed with a color sensor that can tilt within specific tolerances in the primary and secondary scanning directions, allowing for higher measurement accuracy by maintaining the optical axis parallel to the sheet's surface, and using a diffraction grating to separate light into monochromatic wavelengths, while the sensor moves in the primary scan direction to detect patches on the sheet.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the color sensor moves relative to the sheet during measurement, then the sensor can scan the entire sheet to improve measurement coverage, but the sensor may tilt during movement which reduces measurement accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
A guide rail system is introduced as an intermediary mechanism between the color sensor and the sheet. The guide rail constrains the sensor's movement path, ensuring it remains parallel to the sheet surface throughout the scanning process. This mediator structure enables large-area coverage while preventing tilting that would compromise measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail system creates an equipotential movement path where the color sensor maintains a constant distance and orientation relationship with the sheet surface throughout the scanning process. By ensuring the sensor moves along a path where its optical axis remains parallel to the sheet, the system eliminates positional variations that would otherwise cause measurement errors.
2Measurement precision
If the optical system has a narrow depth of field to improve spectral resolution, then measurement precision is enhanced, but the sensor becomes more sensitive to position changes and requires stricter positioning control
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail system creates an equipotential movement path where the color sensor maintains a constant distance and orientation relationship with the sheet surface throughout the scanning process. By ensuring the sensor moves along a path where its optical axis remains parallel to the sheet, the system eliminates positional variations that would otherwise cause measurement errors.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail structure is designed to automatically maintain the correct sensor orientation through its mechanical geometry. The rail's physical constraints inherently keep the sensor parallel to the sheet during movement, eliminating the need for complex active position control systems or feedback mechanisms.
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 enhances measurement accuracy by minimizing the impact of tilting on the sensor's position relative to the sheet, ensuring precise detection of spectral reflectance and improving color reproduction in image formation.
Implementation Method 1
using a diffraction grating to separate light into monochromatic wavelengths
Data Source
AI summary
A measuring device a measurement unit configured to measure an image on a sheet, the measurement unit including a light emitting portion configured to illuminate the sheet with light, and a detecting portion configured to detect light reflected by the sheet; a supporting unit supporting the measurement unit; and a driving unit configured to move the measurement unit supported by the supporting unit in a scanning direction. A size, in the scanning direction, of a detectable range of the detecting portion in which the detecting portion is capable of detecting the reflected light from the sheet is larger than a size, in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to the scanning direction and a normal direction of a surface of the sheet, of the detectable range of the detecting portion.