Movable Guide Plate for Sheet Binding Thickness Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional sheet binding devices face issues with curling or deflection of sheet bundles when binding fewer sheets than the maximum capacity, leading to increased thickness exceeding the binding channel height, causing reception problems and requiring additional parts for independent units, which increases cost and size.
Innovation Solution
A sheet processing device with a movable guide plate that adjusts its height based on the binding unit selected, ensuring the sheet bundle thickness does not exceed the binding channel height, even when curling or deflection occurs, allowing for binding without separate units for staple and stapleless configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the compiling unit height is adjusted to the larger maximum sheet count, then the device can stack the maximum sheet count for each binding scheme, but clearance in the sheet thickness direction causes curling and deflection of the sheet bundle
Solution Approach 1:
The guide plate is made movable in the sheet thickness direction, allowing its position to be dynamically adjusted according to the selected binding unit. This enables the compiling unit height to adapt to different maximum sheet counts while preventing curling and deflection by eliminating clearance, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and stability.
2Stability of the object's composition
If separate compiling units are configured for staple binding and stapleless binding, then curling and deflection are prevented, but the device size and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single compiling unit is designed to serve both staple binding and stapleless binding functions by making the guide plate movable. This allows one compiling unit to adapt to different binding schemes and sheet counts, eliminating the need for separate compiling units while maintaining sheet bundle stability, thus resolving the contradiction between stability and device complexity.
3Ease of operation
If the sheet bundle thickness exceeds the binding channel opening height, then the sheet bundle cannot be received into the binding channel, but increasing the compiling unit height prevents thickness reduction
Solution Approach 1:
The guide plate's movability in the sheet thickness direction enables dynamic adjustment of the compiling unit height. This ensures that the sheet bundle thickness is controlled to not exceed the binding channel opening height while preventing curling and deflection, thus resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A sheet processing device is for binding sheets together. The sheet processing device includes binding units differing from each other in maximum sheet count, the maximum sheet count being a maximum number of sheets that can be bound at a time; a sheet tray configured to hold sheets until all to-be-bound sheets are placed therein, the number of the to-be-bound sheets being a largest one of the maximum sheet counts of the binding units or smaller; and a stacked-sheet-count limiting unit situated in a thickness direction of the sheets held in the sheet tray. The stacked-sheet-count limiting unit is configured to limit the number of sheets held in the sheet tray by varying a distance from a sheet support surface of the sheet tray on which the sheets are placed, depending on one of the binding units by which the sheets held in the sheet tray are to be bound.