Sheet Width Regulating Members for Skew Correction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sheet post-processing apparatuses face challenges in efficiently aligning and processing multiple sheets in terms of width direction alignment and post-processing operations, which can lead to skewness and misalignment of sheets during binding and other processes.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus incorporates a conveying member, a processing tray, a processing unit, a reference plate, a pair of width regulating members, a drive unit, and a control portion. The width regulating members reciprocate in the width direction to align sheets, and the control portion performs repetitive width-direction alignment operations to ensure accurate sheet alignment according to specific intervals and positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If sheets are conveyed and stacked on the processing tray without width regulation, then the processing speed is maintained, but the sheets become misaligned and skewed in the width direction
Solution Approach 1:
The width regulating members are positioned in advance at predetermined locations on the processing tray. As sheets are conveyed and stacked, they automatically contact these pre-positioned regulating members, which guide and align the sheets in the width direction before subsequent processing operations. This preliminary alignment action ensures precision without requiring post-alignment adjustments, maintaining processing speed.
2Manufacturing precision
If width regulating members are positioned too close together, then sheet alignment precision is improved, but sheets with varying sizes cannot be properly accommodated
Solution Approach 1:
The width regulation function is segmented into multiple independent width regulating members distributed at different positions along the width direction of the processing tray. Each regulating member can independently contact sheets of different sizes, providing flexible adaptation. The segmented arrangement allows the system to handle varying sheet sizes while maintaining alignment precision through the collective action of multiple regulating points.
3Manufacturing precision
If sheets are aligned using a single width regulating position, then the device complexity is reduced, but alignment accuracy deteriorates due to skewness
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple width regulating members are merged into a unified alignment system that works cooperatively. The regulating members are positioned at different locations but function together as an integrated alignment mechanism. This merging approach achieves high alignment accuracy through the combined effect of multiple regulating points without requiring complex individual mechanisms at each position, thus avoiding excessive device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a sheet post-processing apparatus in which a control portion repetitively performs a width-direction alignment operation including a first alignment operation of moving width regulating members from standby positions to first regulating positions after a sheet that is carried in onto a processing tray has been aligned in a carry-in direction by abutting of an edge of the sheet against a reference plate, and a second alignment operation of moving the width regulating members from the first regulating positions to the standby positions after performing the first alignment operation, and then moving the width regulating members to second regulating positions. The sheet post-processing apparatus satisfies C1>C2>P1≥C3 where P1 is a size in a width direction of the sheet, and C1, C2, and C3 are intervals between the width regulating members at the standby positions, the first regulating positions, and the second regulating positions, respectively.