Pivotable Sheet Guide Mechanism for Jam Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sheet conveying devices lack a mechanism to maintain high accuracy and predetermined clearance between guide members, which is essential for stable sheet conveying and jam handling.
Innovation Solution
A sheet conveying device with multiple guide members that are pivotable, featuring contact surfaces positioned outside the conveying paths, allowing for precise alignment and easy jam removal by pivoting the guide members to open or close the paths.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If guide members are made pivotable for jam handling, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to difficulty in maintaining predetermined clearance
Solution Approach 1:
A support member is introduced as an intermediary component between the first and third guide members. This support member provides a stable mounting basis that maintains the predetermined clearance relationship between guide members during pivoting operations, resolving the conflict between ease of jam handling and manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 2:
The guide members are designed to pivot around a common pivot axis, creating an equipotential relationship where all guide members move in coordination. This ensures that the predetermined clearance between guide members is maintained throughout the pivoting range, allowing easy jam removal while preserving alignment precision
2Reliability
If contact surfaces are positioned outside conveying paths, then reliability is improved through stable sheet conveying, but device complexity increases due to additional structural components
Solution Approach 1:
Contact surfaces are positioned in a dimension outside the sheet conveying path (radially outward from the pivot axis). This spatial arrangement allows the contact surfaces to provide stable guiding for sheet conveyance without interfering with sheet movement, achieving reliability without adding complexity to the conveying path structure
Solution Approach 2:
The guide members serve multiple functions: they guide sheet conveyance through contact surfaces positioned outside the conveying path, and they pivot to enable jam handling. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, actually simplifying the overall device structure while maintaining reliability
Data Source
AI summary
A first guide member and a second guide member define therebetween a first path. The second guide member and a third guide member define therebetween a second path. The second guide member pivots between a first position in which a first contact surface of a contact portion thereof is in contact with the first guide member, and a second position in which the first contact surface is separated from the first guide member. The third guide member pivots between a third position in which a third contact surface thereof is in contact with the second contact surface of the second guide member in the first position, and a fourth position in which the third contact surface is separated from the second guide member. The first, second, and third contact surfaces are disposed outer than the first path and the second path in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction.