Curved Heat Roller for Uniform Drying in Inkjet Printers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Image forming apparatuses using liquid discharging methods face inefficiencies in drying due to cockling of the medium caused by liquid adhesion, leading to uneven heat transfer and ineffective drying, especially when the medium does not closely contact the heat roller across its entire width.
Innovation Solution
The use of a heat roller or curved surface heater with a predetermined curvature that ensures the medium closely contacts the heating surface across its entire width, combined with a controller that adjusts heating temperature based on medium conveyance speed, basis weight, and ink adhesion amount to optimize drying efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a conventional heat roller with a flat or simple curved surface is used, then the device complexity is low, but the medium does not closely contact the heating surface across its entire width, resulting in uneven heat transfer and ineffective drying
Solution Approach 1:
The contact surface of the heat roller is designed with a specific curvature radius (R1) that is smaller than the radius of the medium reel (R2), creating a spherical or curved contact surface that ensures close contact with the medium across its entire width. This curvature matching allows the medium to conform to the heating surface, achieving uniform heat transfer and effective drying while preventing cockling.
2Productivity
If the heating temperature is increased to accelerate drying, then the drying speed improves, but excessive drying and medium damage may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The invention optimizes the curvature radius parameter of the heat roller contact surface (R1 < R2) to ensure complete contact between the medium and heating surface. This geometric parameter change enables uniform heat distribution at moderate temperatures, achieving fast drying without excessive heating that could damage the medium.
3Productivity
If the medium conveyance speed is increased to improve productivity, then the output increases, but the drying time decreases, leading to insufficient drying
Solution Approach 1:
By designing the heat roller with a curved contact surface (R1 < R2), the invention ensures that the medium maintains close contact with the heating surface throughout its entire width during conveyance. This geometric configuration maximizes heat transfer efficiency during the brief contact period, enabling effective drying even at high conveyance speeds where drying time is limited.
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 effective and uniform drying by maintaining close contact between the medium and the heating surface, enhancing heat transfer and reducing cockling, thereby improving drying efficiency and preventing excessive drying.
Implementation Method 1
a media heater to heat the medium by contacting a rear surface of the medium opposite a surface of the medium on which the image is formed
Implementation Method 2
a drying device to accelerate drying of the liquid droplets impacted on, for example, a recording medium such as a sheet of paper
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form an image on a recording medium by discharging liquid droplets onto the medium; and a media heater to heat the medium by contacting a rear surface of the medium opposite a surface of the medium on which the image is formed, in which the media heater includes a contact member with a contact surface having a predetermined curvature that the medium contacts, the contact member is a roller member, and the medium closely contacts the contact surface of the contact member across an entire width of the medium in a direction perpendicular to the media conveyance direction.