Image Forming Apparatus Roller Orientation Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Image forming apparatuses face challenges in minimizing image errors due to radial errors in rollers supporting the belt, which are caused by manufacturing tolerances leading to deviations in the radii of organic photoconductors and driving rollers, resulting in imperfect color registration and image quality issues.
Innovation Solution
A roller with a radial displacement along its circumference and a driven coupler system that includes a positioning part to engage with a driving coupler, allowing for precise alignment and compensation of radial errors, ensuring accurate color registration and image quality by controlling the orientation of the roller's radial displacement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional manufacturing processes are used for rollers and organic photoconductors, then production cost and manufacturing ease are improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to radial errors causing image formation errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-marking the maximum radial displacement location on organic photoconductors during manufacturing, and pre-configuring the driven coupler's positioning part orientation. This allows the assembly process to directly align these pre-determined reference points, compensating for radial errors without requiring complex post-manufacturing adjustments or high-precision manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the driven coupler's positioning part relative to the organic photoconductor's mark. By adjusting this angular parameter, the system compensates for radial displacement errors, allowing conventional manufacturing processes to produce components that still achieve precise image registration when assembled with the correct orientational relationship.
2Manufacturing precision
If high manufacturing precision is achieved for rollers and organic photoconductors, then image formation precision is improved, but production cost and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring high manufacturing precision for all components, the patent changes the orientational parameter of the driven coupler's positioning part. This parameter adjustment allows the system to tolerate larger radial errors in conventionally manufactured components while still achieving precise image registration, thereby reducing manufacturing cost and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a mark on the organic photoconductor as an intermediary reference point that mediates between the radially displaced organic photoconductor and the driven coupler. This intermediary allows the system to compensate for manufacturing errors through alignment rather than requiring high-precision manufacturing of all components.
3Device complexity
If radial errors in rollers and organic photoconductors are not compensated, then device complexity is reduced, but image formation precision deteriorates due to color registration errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-configuring the driven coupler's positioning part with a specific orientation relative to the organic photoconductor's mark. This pre-configuration is a simple structural design choice rather than a complex active compensation mechanism, yet it effectively compensates for radial errors and improves image formation precision without significantly increasing device complexity.
4Manufacturing precision
If the driven coupler's positioning part is aligned with the mark indicating maximum radial displacement, then image formation precision is improved, but the complexity of assembly increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-marking the maximum radial displacement location on organic photoconductors during manufacturing. This pre-marking creates a clear visual reference that guides the assembly process, allowing workers to easily align the driven coupler's positioning part with the mark without requiring complex alignment procedures or specialized training.
Solution Approach 2:
While not directly involving color changes, the principle of using visual markers (the mark on the organic photoconductor) aligns with the broader category of using detectable features to guide assembly. The mark provides a clear visual reference that simplifies the alignment operation, making the precision requirement easy to achieve during assembly.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus has a plurality of image bearing bodies in a predetermined sequence, an intermediate transfer medium for running in contact with each of the plurality of image bearing bodies, and a plurality of supporting rollers for driving the intermediate transfer medium. A distance between points of contact of at least two image bearing bodies on the intermediate transfer medium is a positive integer multiple of the length of circumference of one of the supporting rollers.