Photo Printer Gear Plate Alignment Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional photo printers face challenges in accurately maintaining distances between the shafts of a pinion, deceleration gears, and a platen gear, leading to interference, reduced printing quality, and a bulky design due to the complexity of gear arrangements and difficulty in mounting components without deformation.
Innovation Solution
The photo printer design includes a gear plate and motor plate with specific holes and aligning features to accurately couple deceleration gears and platen gear, allowing the pinion to be mounted separately on the motor plate, and using a geared motor with integrated deceleration to reduce the number of gears and improve alignment, along with a swing bracket design that prevents deformation and maintains precise head positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If multiple deceleration gears are arranged in a compact configuration to reduce printer size, then the device becomes more compact, but the distances among shafts become difficult to maintain accurately leading to gear interference
Solution Approach 1:
A plate structure is introduced as an intermediary component to which all gear shafts are coupled. This plate serves as a reference baseline that ensures accurate spacing between shafts while allowing compact arrangement of gears, thereby preventing interference and maintaining manufacturing precision in a compact printer design
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple deceleration gears are merged into a compact configuration by coupling their shafts to a common plate structure. This merging approach allows the gears to be arranged in a space-efficient manner while the plate maintains accurate shaft distances, resolving the contradiction between compactness and precision
2Manufacturing precision
If a complex gear arrangement is used to achieve precise paper transfer, then printing quality improves, but the device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The plate structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it couples multiple gear shafts, maintains accurate shaft spacing, provides a reference baseline for positioning, and enables compact gear arrangement. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate positioning components, thereby simplifying the overall device while maintaining precise paper transfer
Solution Approach 2:
The positioning and spacing function is extracted from the individual gear components and consolidated into a dedicated plate structure. This separation allows the gears to focus on their primary function of power transmission while the plate handles the complex task of maintaining precise shaft distances, reducing overall device complexity
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional separate mounting of motor and gears is used, then assembly is straightforward, but accurate alignment and distance maintenance among components become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The plate structure is designed in advance with pre-determined shaft positions and spacing. This preliminary action of establishing accurate reference positions in the plate ensures that when gears and motor are assembled to it, accurate alignment and distance maintenance are achieved without requiring complex measurement and adjustment during assembly
Solution Approach 2:
The plate acts as an intermediary component that bridges the motor and gears. It provides a standardized interface with pre-configured shaft positions, making assembly straightforward while ensuring high alignment accuracy. The plate mediates between the simple act of bolting components together and the complex requirement of precise component positioning
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
This solution enables accurate paper movement, improves printing quality, reduces the printer's size and manufacturing costs, and simplifies the design by minimizing gear interference and optimizing the gear ratio for efficient paper transfer.
Implementation Method 1
a geared motor having a deceleration part integrated therein to reduce a rotating speed produced therefrom
Implementation Method 2
dyes, which respond to heat and thus express colors, are laminated on the paper, so that the heating temperature or heating time of a head is controlled to print images (pictures) or texts
Implementation Method 3
a pickup roller R1 protruding from a bottom surface of the paper supply unit 10 to transfer the paper
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a photo printer including: a paper supply unit for accommodating stacked sheets of paper and having a pickup roller protruding from a bottom surface thereof; a platen roller provided at a front end of the paper supply unit; a head provided above the platen roller so as to form an image on the paper fed; a motor for providing a driving force to the platen roller; deceleration gears for decreasing revolutions per minute of the motor; a gear plate provided at one side of the paper supply unit and having the deceleration gears shaft-coupled thereto; and a motor plate having an aligning hole adapted to pass the shaft of the deceleration gear therethrough and a motor hole adapted to pass a rotary shaft of the motor therethrough.