Resin Base Member Guide for Sheet Conveyance Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Resin-made base members in image recording apparatuses deform easily under external forces, leading to positional inaccuracies and sheet skewing or jamming in conveyer paths, particularly when thinner and less rigid compared to metal counterparts.
Innovation Solution
An image recording apparatus with a resin-made base member that includes a guiding section for the second conveyer path, a drive shaft, and a return-conveyer roller, which maintains the sheet's correct position and orientation through controlled rotation, ensuring accurate sheet conveyance and image recording on both sides.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a resin-made base member is used to reduce size, quantity of parts, and manufacturing cost, then ease of manufacture and device complexity are improved, but positional accuracy and reliability of conveyer path components deteriorate due to deformation under external forces
Solution Approach 1:
The base member is divided into a resin-made base member and a separate rigid guide member. The resin base member provides ease of manufacture and integration of conveyer paths, while the rigid guide member is added specifically to maintain positional accuracy of rollers and conveyer components, preventing sheet skewing and jamming
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyer path structure combines resin material (for the base member) with rigid material (for the guide member). This composite structure allows the resin base member to reduce manufacturing complexity while the rigid guide member ensures positional accuracy, effectively resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and manufacturing precision
2Volume of moving object
If the resin-made base member is made thinner to reduce device size, then weight and volume are reduced, but positional accuracy and structural stability deteriorate more easily under external forces
Solution Approach 1:
The base member structure is segmented into a thin resin-made base member for compact size and a separate rigid guide member for dimensional stability. This allows the overall device size to be reduced while maintaining positional accuracy through the rigid guide component
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid guide member acts as an intermediary element between the thin resin base member and the conveyer rollers. It mediates the structural support function, ensuring that even though the base member is thin, the rollers maintain correct positions and the sheet is conveyed accurately without skewing or jamming
Data Source
AI summary
An image recording apparatus, including a tray configured to support a sheet; a chassis defining a first conveyer path, in which the sheet on the tray is conveyed in a first conveying direction, and a second conveyer path, through which the sheet is conveyed in a second conveying direction through a branch point to be inverted to reenter the first conveyer path through a merging point; a base member integrally formed of resin and including a guiding section to define a form of a part of the second conveyer path; a recording unit to record an image on the sheet conveyed in the first conveyer path; a drive shaft supported by the base member; and a return-conveyer roller disposed in the second conveyer path and configured to convey the sheet to be guided on the guiding section in the second conveying direction by rotation of the drive shaft, is provided.