Decurling Device with Adjustable Guide Plate for Skew
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing decurling devices struggle to effectively straighten curls in media, particularly thick media, which often skew due to greater loads at nip sites, leading to uneven contact and potential decurling failures.
Innovation Solution
A decurling device equipped with a bending unit and a position adjusting unit that detects skew and adjusts the tilt of the contact part to ensure even decurling, utilizing a guide plate that is swingable and supported by a shaft with adjustable ends to accommodate varying medium thicknesses and skew angles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed bending unit is used to straighten curls in media, then the decurling structure is simple, but the device cannot accommodate skewing in thick media leading to uneven contact and decurling failures
Solution Approach 1:
The bending unit is designed with a swingable guide plate that can dynamically adjust its contact position and angle with the medium. The guide plate rotates about a shaft to adapt to skewing in thick media, ensuring even contact across the medium width while maintaining structural simplicity through the single-degree-of-freedom rotation mechanism
2Adaptability or versatility
If the contact part of the bending unit is fixed in position, then the device structure is simple, but it cannot adapt to varying skew angles of exited media
Solution Approach 1:
The guide plate is made swingable about a shaft to dynamically adjust its orientation and contact position with the medium. This single rotational degree of freedom allows the bending unit to adapt to various skew angles while maintaining structural simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The bending unit is divided into a rotatable guide plate portion and a fixed support portion. This segmentation allows the guide plate to independently adjust its angle to accommodate skewing while the support structure remains stable and simple
Data Source
AI summary
A decurling device is provided on a downstream side with respect to a fixing device in a medium transporting direction and straightens a curl formed in a medium transported to the decurling device. The decurling device includes a bending unit extending across the medium transporting direction and that bends the medium in a decurling direction by coming into contact with a leading end of the medium; and a position adjusting unit that adjusts, in a medium crosswise direction, tilt of a contact part of the bending unit, the contact part coming into contact with the leading end of the medium exited from the fixing device.