Single Motor Drive Train for Roller Speed Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing recording apparatuses with multiple driving rollers for medium transport suffer from variations in rotational speed, leading to potential transport failures, especially when auxiliary rollers are used to assist in medium transport.
Innovation Solution
A recording apparatus design where a common motor drives both the auxiliary roller and the transport roller through a shared drive train, reducing the number of motors and minimizing rotational speed variations, thereby enhancing transport reliability and reducing apparatus size and cost.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple motors are used to drive multiple driving rollers, then each roller can be driven independently, but variations in rotational speed relationship occur leading to transport failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple motor functions into a single motor by using a common drive train that distributes power to multiple driving rollers (feeding roller, transport roller, and auxiliary roller). This single motor design eliminates rotational speed variations between motors while maintaining coordinated operation of all rollers, thus improving transport reliability without requiring multiple independent motors.
Solution Approach 2:
The single motor is designed with universal functionality to drive multiple different rollers through the drive train mechanism. The motor serves multiple purposes: driving the feeding roller for paper feeding, the transport roller for medium transport, and the auxiliary roller for assisting transport, thereby replacing multiple specialized motors with one multi-functional unit.
2Reliability
If a single motor drives multiple rollers through a drive train, then rotational speed variations are suppressed, but the drive train adds mechanical complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The drive train acts as an intermediary mechanism that transmits and distributes the single motor's rotational power to multiple driving rollers. This intermediary structure ensures consistent rotational speed relationship among all rollers while allowing the motor to remain a simple single-unit component, thus achieving speed consistency without requiring complex coordination systems.
3Ease of manufacture
If multiple motors are used, then each roller can be optimized for specific function, but apparatus size and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple motor units into a single motor configuration, reducing the total number of motors from multiple to one. This merging significantly reduces manufacturing costs by eliminating the need to purchase, install, and maintain multiple separate motors, while the drive train ensures each roller still receives appropriate rotational power for its specific function.
Data Source
AI summary
A recording apparatus includes a recording head that performs recording; a feeding roller that feeds out a medium that has been set, a transport roller that transports the medium fed out by the feeding roller toward a facing position facing the recording head; an auxiliary roller that is provided between the feeding roller and the transport roller and that assists in the transport of the medium; a motor that generates a driving force; and a drive train that is configured to transmit the driving force of the motor to the auxiliary roller and the transport roller.