Inkjet Printer Roller Speed Control for Sheet Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printers face a challenge where fast conveying speed of printing sheets by the discharge roller results in misalignment of stacked sheets, necessitating a reduction in speed to maintain alignment, which lowers the overall throughput of image printing.
Innovation Solution
An image recording apparatus with a conveyer system using a single motor to drive both the conveying and discharging rollers, where the controller adjusts the conveying speed to ensure the trailing end of printing sheets passes through the discharging roller during acceleration or deceleration periods, maintaining alignment without reducing throughput.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the conveying speed of the discharge roller is increased to improve throughput, then the printing sheets will not be stacked in a well-aligned manner
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the conveying speed of the discharge roller based on the timing of sheet discharge. The controller varies the rotation speed of the discharge roller during the conveying process, accelerating or decelerating as needed to ensure sheets are discharged at optimal timing for alignment, while maintaining high overall throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller changes the operational parameters of the discharge roller by adjusting its rotation speed during different phases of the conveying process. By modifying the speed parameter dynamically rather than maintaining a constant speed, the system achieves both high throughput and precise sheet alignment during stacking.
2Manufacturing precision
If the conveying speed of the discharge roller is lowered to improve sheet alignment, then the throughput of printing is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than maintaining a consistently low speed, the system uses dynamic speed adjustment where the discharge roller operates at varying speeds during the conveying process. The roller accelerates and decelerates based on real-time positioning needs, allowing high throughput overall while achieving precise alignment at critical discharge moments.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller implements periodic acceleration and deceleration cycles of the discharge roller during the conveying process. This periodic speed variation allows the system to maintain high average throughput while creating specific timing windows where the roller speed is optimized for precise sheet alignment during discharge.
3Device complexity
If a single motor drives both the conveying roller and the discharge roller, then the structure is simplified, but the conveying speed of the discharge roller cannot be independently controlled
Solution Approach 1:
The single motor is designed to perform multiple functions by sequentially or simultaneously driving both the conveying roller and the discharge roller through a shared transmission mechanism. This multi-functional design allows one motor to provide the driving force for both rollers, simplifying the overall structure while the controller manages the complex speed variations needed for alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system compensates for the lack of independent motor control by dynamically changing operational parameters. The controller adjusts the rotation speed, acceleration, and deceleration of the single motor during different phases of operation to independently control the effective conveying speed of the discharge roller relative to the conveying roller, achieving adaptive speed control through parameter modulation rather than separate motors.
Data Source
AI summary
An image recording apparatus is configured to perform a conveying process of a recording medium using a conveying roller and a discharging roller, a recoding process of recording an image on the printing sheet when the conveying process is not performed, and an adjusting process. In the adjusting process, among a plurality of conveying processes performed within a period from the start of the conveying process for an n-th printing sheet until the timing which is after the start of the conveying process for an (n+1)-th printing sheet, the conveying amount of the printing sheet subject to at least one conveying process is adjusted such that a timing when the trailing end of the n-th printing sheet passes through the discharging roller is within one of the acceleration period and the deceleration period of the conveying process for the printing sheet.