Sheet Conveyance Position Adjustment via Roller Rotation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sheet conveying devices in image forming apparatuses face productivity issues due to temporary sheet stoppages for angular displacement correction, leading to varying arrival times at the target position when sheets are conveyed with or without skew, affecting image forming speed and accuracy.
Innovation Solution
A sheet conveying device equipped with multiple position detectors and a leading end detector, which adjusts the sheet's position by rotating the pair of sheet holding rollers within the plane of conveyance, allowing continuous sheet conveyance while correcting angular and lateral displacements without stopping, ensuring precise alignment and consistent arrival times.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the sheet is abutted against the nip region of the sheet conveying rollers to correct angular displacement, then the positional deviation of the sheet is corrected, but the sheet stops temporarily causing degradation of productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The sheet conveying rollers are made rotatable about an axis in the sheet conveying direction, enabling dynamic adjustment of the roller orientation to correct sheet angular displacement while maintaining continuous forward motion. This dynamic capability allows the system to adapt the roller angle during conveyance rather than requiring static positioning or stoppages.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables continuous sheet conveyance by correcting positional deviations during motion rather than requiring stoppages. The rollers rotate in the sheet conveying direction while simultaneously correcting angular displacement, ensuring that the useful action of sheet transport continues uninterrupted throughout the correction process.
2Speed
If the sheet is conveyed at the same conveying speed with or without skew, then the conveying speed is maintained, but the arrival timings of the sheet at the target position vary
Solution Approach 1:
The sheet conveying rollers can rotate about an axis in the sheet conveying direction, allowing dynamic adjustment of the roller orientation to correct sheet angular displacement. This dynamic rotation capability enables the system to adjust the effective conveyance path length by changing the roller angle, thereby compensating for timing variations caused by skew while maintaining constant conveying speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the orientation parameter of the sheet conveying rollers (rotation about the conveying direction axis) to correct sheet positional deviations. By adjusting this parameter, the system modifies the interaction between the rollers and skewed sheet, ensuring consistent arrival timing at the target position while maintaining the same conveying speed regardless of sheet skew.
Data Source
AI summary
A sheet conveying device, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes a plurality of position detectors, a leading end detector, and a position adjuster. The plurality of position detectors is configured to detect a position of a sheet. The leading end detector is configured to detect a leading end of the sheet. The position adjuster is configured to, based on a detection result obtained by the plurality of position detectors, rotate in a rotation direction of the sheet within a plane of conveyance of the sheet to change the position of the sheet the position adjuster grips the sheet under conveyance to cause the leading end detector to rotate with the position adjuster in the rotation direction of the sheet within the plane of conveyance of the sheet.