Curved Path Transport Roller Positioning Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing transporting apparatuses with curved paths face issues of poor accuracy in positioning the guiding portion relative to the nipping position of the transporting rollers, leading to potential collisions and increased friction, which hinders the transportation of sheet-shaped media and can result in scratches.
Innovation Solution
A transporting apparatus with a movable member that can change attitudes, featuring a guiding portion and a positioning portion to accurately position the guiding portion relative to the drive roller shaft, ensuring precise alignment and separation to prevent collisions and reduce friction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the guiding portion is brought closer to the nipping position to improve positioning accuracy, then the position accuracy is improved, but the transporting medium is pressed strongly against the guiding portion causing increased friction and potential scratches
Solution Approach 1:
The movable member is designed to be movable relative to the drive roller shaft, allowing dynamic adjustment of the guiding portion's position. This enables the system to optimize the balance between positioning accuracy and friction reduction by adjusting the distance between the guiding portion and nipping position based on operating conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The movable member acts as an intermediary element between the guiding portion and the drive roller shaft. It provides a controlled connection that allows precise positioning while maintaining an optimal gap to reduce friction, serving as a mediator that resolves the contradiction between accuracy and friction
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the guiding portion is positioned farther from the nipping position to reduce friction, then friction is reduced, but the transporting medium may collide with the transporting roller causing dents
Solution Approach 1:
The movable member enables dynamic positioning of the guiding portion, allowing the system to maintain optimal distance for friction reduction while ensuring the guiding portion remains close enough to prevent collisions with transporting rollers, thus dynamically resolving the contradiction between friction reduction and collision prevention
3Reliability
If a pair of transporting rollers is provided in the curved portion to reduce friction effect, then transportation reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the friction-reduction function from a complex multi-roller system and implements it through a simpler movable guiding portion that can be adjusted to optimize the transporting path. This reduces device complexity while maintaining transportation reliability through the curved portion
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a transporting apparatus which includes a pair of transporting rollers including drive and driven rollers; a transporting path including a curved portion which changes a transporting direction of the transporting medium; a movable member which is changeable to a first attitude forming an outer side of the curved portion to guide the transporting medium, and a second attitude opening the curved portion not to form the outer side of the curved portion. The movable member has a guiding portion which guides the transporting medium between the pair of transporting rollers, in the first attitude, and a positioning portion which positions the guiding portion with respect to a shaft of the drive roller in the first attitude, and which is separated from the shaft of the drive roller in the second attitude.