Image Recording Device Feeder Alignment Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image recording devices face challenges in recording high-quality images on recording media selectively fed from both a feed tray and a manual feed tray, often resulting in sheet misalignment and floating during the recording process.
Innovation Solution
The device incorporates a feeder system with a curved guide and an upper guide to direct the recording medium, a supporting member to keep the medium in place, and a deflecting member with an inclined surface to guide the leading edge of the manual feed tray media upward, ensuring proper alignment and preventing floating during image recording.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a manual feed tray and feed tray are used to selectively feed recording media, then versatility and ease of operation are improved, but sheet misalignment and floating occur during recording
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the feeding system into two separate paths: one for the feed tray (automatic feeding) and one for the manual feed tray (manual insertion). Each path has its own dedicated guiding components (curved guide for automatic, insertion guide for manual), which prevents interference between the two feeding methods and maintains alignment precision for both.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary guiding components (curved guide member, insertion guide, and deflecting member) that act as mediators between the two different feeding sources and the common conveying path. These intermediaries adapt the different insertion characteristics of each tray type into a unified, aligned path, resolving the misalignment issue while preserving versatility.
2Device complexity
If recording media is conveyed from both trays through a common path, then device complexity is reduced, but sheet floating occurs during the recording process
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a deflecting member with an inclined surface that dynamically adjusts the position of the leading edge of manually fed sheets. This dynamic adjustment ensures that sheets from either tray are properly positioned and prevented from floating during recording, maintaining reliability without requiring completely separate conveying paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses the floating issue by introducing a vertical dimension through the deflecting member's inclined surface. This allows the system to correct alignment issues in the vertical direction while maintaining a relatively simple horizontal conveying path structure, thus preventing floating without significantly increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A feeder feeds a first recording medium in a first direction. A curved guide guides the first recording medium fed by the feeder upward along a first path. An upper guide receives a leading edge of the first recording medium, guided by the curved guide, and guides the first recording medium in a second direction substantially opposite to the first direction. An insertion guide guides, along a second path, a second recording medium inserted from an opening. A conveying unit disposed downstream of the upper guide in the second direction conveys the first recording medium and the second recording medium to a recording unit which records an image on each recording medium supported by a supporting unit. A deflecting member has a surface inclined with respect to the second direction and deflects a leading edge of the second recording medium, guided by the insertion guide, upward toward the upper guide.