Sheet Feeder Guide Face Tangent Trajectory for Jam Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sheet feeders in image forming apparatuses face challenges in stably guiding thick or hard transfer sheets, leading to noise generation and jamming issues due to the sheets' tendency to hang down and collide with internal components.
Innovation Solution
A sheet feeder design featuring a transfer sheet guide with a sloping guide face extending from the storing section along the transport direction, tangent to the feed and transport rollers, and a rib-shaped member to prevent sheet winding around the separation roller, ensuring stable sheet guidance and reducing noise and jamming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional transfer sheet guide is used, then the structure is simple, but thick or hard transfer sheets hang down and collide with internal components causing noise and jams
Solution Approach 1:
The guide face is extended from a simple planar surface to a three-dimensional structure that follows the tangent line trajectory, creating a curved surface that guides sheets through space rather than along a flat path. This dimensional extension allows the guide to accommodate thick and hard sheets without collision while maintaining structural efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide face is designed with a curved surface that follows the tangent line from the feed roller to the transport roller, replacing straight-line guidance with a smooth curved path. This curvature allows thick and hard transfer sheets to follow the natural arc of the roller arrangement, preventing them from hanging down and colliding with the storing section wall.
2Reliability
If the guide face is extended along the tangent line, then sheet guidance is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide face structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it guides the transfer sheet along the correct path, defines the tangent line trajectory, and provides a reference surface for sheet alignment. By consolidating these functions into a single multi-functional component, the design reduces the need for multiple precisely positioned elements, thereby lowering overall manufacturing precision requirements while maintaining sheet alignment accuracy.
3Reliability
If no additional sheet control mechanism is added, then the device complexity is low, but sheet jams occur due to improper sheet placement
Solution Approach 1:
The guide face acts as an intermediary element between the feed roller and transport roller, providing a controlled transition zone for the transfer sheet. This intermediary structure ensures proper sheet orientation and placement during the conveyance process, preventing jams without requiring complex active control mechanisms. The guide face mediates the sheet's path, allowing reliable conveyance through a relatively simple passive structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A sheet feeder is provided with a storing section for storing transfer sheets, a feed roller for feeding the transfer sheets stored in the storing section one by one from the uppermost one; a separation roller arranged to face the feed roller; a transport roller arranged downstream of the feed roller in a transport direction; and a transfer sheet guide for guiding the transfer sheet to the transport roller, wherein the transfer sheet guide includes a guide face formed to extend from the storing section along the transport direction of the transfer sheet on or in a vicinity of an extension of a line tangent to the feed roller and the transport roller on the side of transporting the transfer sheet, the guide face being formed in an area between the storing section and the separation roller.