Printing Apparatus Downstream Guide for Curling Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printing apparatuses face issues with stackability of printed media, particularly roll sheets, which tend to curl and cause jams or projections when conveyed onto stacking portions, leading to decreased efficiency and potential damage.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus design featuring a stacking portion, a discharge unit, and a passage forming portion that extends downstream to guide the print medium, preventing curling and projections by forming a discharge passage that slopes upward and includes guide members to manage the sheet's trajectory, ensuring stable stacking and preventing jams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a print medium is discharged onto a stacking portion, then the print medium can be collected, but curling occurs and stackability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
A guide member is introduced as an intermediary component between the discharge unit and the stacking portion. This guide member actively directs the print medium along a controlled path, preventing curling and ensuring stable stacking. The guide member serves as a mediator that resolves the conflict between discharge functionality and stacking stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide member extends in the depth direction (third dimension) beyond the stacking portion's front surface. This three-dimensional configuration allows the guide member to effectively intercept and redirect curled print media from multiple angles, preventing them from projecting onto the stacking portion and improving overall stackability.
2Reliability
If a guide member is provided to improve stackability, then curling is suppressed, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide member is constructed as a thin-walled hollow cylindrical tube, utilizing a shell structure. This design provides the necessary guiding and curling-suppressing functionality while maintaining structural simplicity and minimizing the addition of complex components to the overall device.
3Reliability
If the passage forming portion extends to the downstream side, then the print medium is guided effectively, but the discharge passage length increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide member is designed with rotational freedom around its longitudinal axis, allowing it to dynamically adapt to the incoming print medium's orientation and curling direction. This dynamic capability enables effective guidance with minimal extension into the downstream region, optimizing the balance between guidance accuracy and passage length.
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus includes a stacking portion on which a print medium printed by a printing unit configured to perform printing is stacked, a discharge unit configured to convey the print medium printed by the printing unit to the stacking portion, a passage forming portion arranged above the stacking portion so as to face the stacking portion and configured to form a discharge passage of the print medium together with the stacking portion, and an outlet port located at a downstream end of the discharge passage in a conveying direction of the print medium. In the outlet port, the passage forming portion extends to the downstream side of the stacking portion in the conveying direction.