Printer Cutting Guide Device for Reliable Media Discharge
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Solution Overview
Problem
Printers with cutting apparatuses face issues with reliably discharging cut print-receiving media with adhesive layers, as short lengths often get stuck in the discharge path due to contact with moving blades and other components.
Innovation Solution
A cutting apparatus with a fixed blade and a movable blade, along with an upper and lower guide device, where the upper guide part makes point or line contact with the cut end of the print-receiving medium and the lower guide part inclines to prevent downward movement, ensuring the medium is guided and discharged effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the cut print-receiving medium is guided through the discharge path with conventional guide members, then the medium can be transported, but short-length media get stuck and fail to discharge reliably
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the guide device, specifically the inclination angle of the guide surface and the positioning of the contact part, to optimize the interaction with the cut medium. The guide surface is inclined at a specific angle to facilitate upward movement, while the contact part is positioned at precise distances from the blade edge to control the medium's deformation and discharge behavior.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide device acts as an intermediary between the cutting blades and the discharge exit. It mediates the transition of the cut medium from the cutting zone to the discharge path by providing a controlled environment with specific geometric features that guide the medium's movement and prevent sticking.
2Ease of operation
If the guide device components are positioned close to the blade edge to guide the medium effectively, then guidance is improved, but the medium deforms excessively and gets stuck
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies precise parameter values: the contact part is positioned at a first distance from the blade edge in the transport direction and a second distance in the upper direction, while the guide surface is positioned at a third distance from the contact part. These parameter optimizations prevent excessive deformation while maintaining effective guidance.
3Ease of operation
If the guide surface is positioned to contact the medium early in the cutting process, then the medium is controlled better, but elastic deformation is insufficient and discharge fails
Solution Approach 1:
The guide device is designed to perform preliminary action by initially allowing the medium to deform upward as the movable blade rises, then the inclined guide surface engages to convert this deformation into controlled upward movement toward the discharge exit. The contact part and guide surface are positioned to sequence these actions properly.
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
The solution ensures reliable discharge of cut print-receiving media without them getting stuck, utilizing elastic deformation and reaction forces to pop the media out of the discharge exit, improving the discharge efficiency and preventing accumulation in the guide parts.
Implementation Method 1
The print-receiving medium usually has a certain degree of rigidity (so-called stiffness), and therefore, when being cut as the movable blades ascends, the medium comes into point contact or line contact from below with the contact part so that the contact portion is restrained from further moving upward, and the medium elastically deforms such that the end portion on the cut side (the upstream side in the transport direction) gradually bends upward.
Implementation Method 2
When the print-receiving medium is completely cut, and the elastic deformation rapidly returns to the original state, the end portion of the cut print-receiving medium on the cut side (the upstream side in the transport direction) presses the side surface of the movable blade on the upstream side in the transport direction, and the cut print-receiving medium is discharged due to the reaction force in a pop-out manner from the discharging exit.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure discloses a cutting apparatus including a movable blade and a guide device. The movable blade is configured to move along a sliding direction to a cutting position. The guide device includes an upper guide part including a contact part and a lower guide part including at least one guide surface. The contact part is disposed at a position separated from a first blade edge of the fixed blade by a first distance in the transport direction and by a second distance in an upper direction. The at least one guide surface that inclines in an inclination direction in which the at least one guide surface inclines downward at a predetermined angle toward a downstream in the transport direction and is disposed to have an interval of a third distance against the contact part in a direction orthogonal to the inclination direction.