Snap-Fitting Reading Guide for Image Scanners
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image reading devices with sheet-through systems face challenges in reducing the number of parts and assembly complexity, and often suffer from reduced slidability and risk of assembly failure due to the use of attachment screws and inclined pins in supporting reading guides.
Innovation Solution
A document conveying device with a conveyance guide and a reading guide that uses a protruding portion and elastic portions with claw engagement for snap-fitting, allowing the reading guide to move in the up-and-down direction, reducing the number of parts and simplifying assembly while maintaining slidability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If attachment screws and inclined pins are used to support the reading guide, then the reading guide can be supported structurally, but the number of parts increases and assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The support portion integrates multiple functions: it provides structural support, guides the protruding portion's movement, and enables snap-fitting engagement. By combining the support structure and guide elements into a single integrated component, the number of parts is reduced while maintaining structural reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts and eliminates unnecessary components (attachment screws and inclined pins) by implementing a snap-fitting mechanism. The elastic portions with claw portions directly engage the protruding portion, removing the need for separate fastening elements and simplifying the assembly process.
2Reliability
If attachment screws are used to support the reading guide, then the reading guide can be securely mounted, but slidability is reduced and assembly failure risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The support portion and elastic portions are designed to be movable relative to each other during assembly. The elastic portions can deform to allow the protruding portion to pass through, then snap back to engage the claw portions. This dynamic design enables easy assembly while maintaining secure mounting, eliminating the slidability problems associated with fixed screw connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic portions change their physical state from deformed (during assembly) to engaged (during operation). By utilizing the elastic deformation parameter change, the mechanism transitions from a flexible assembly state to a rigid operational state, providing both ease of assembly and secure mounting without compromising slidability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces the number of parts and simplifies assembly, enhances slidability, and prevents assembly failures by using a snap-fitting mechanism with elastic portions to support the reading guide, improving the overall efficiency and reliability of the image reading device.
Implementation Method 1
elastic portions, which are protruded downward from the support portion and sandwich the protruding portion so that the protruding portion is movable in the up-and-down direction
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a document conveying device, including: a conveyance guide member which is capable of being opened upward and closed with respect to a contact glass, disposed facing the contact glass along a conveying direction of a document, and guides the document to an upper surface of the contact glass; a reading guide member which is disposed along a width direction of the document, movably supported in an up-and-down direction with respect to the conveyance guide member, and guides the document to a position facing an image reading region in the upper surface of the contact glass; a protruding portion which is protruded outward from at least one end portion of the reading guide member in the width direction; a support portion which is protruded outward from the conveyance guide member along the width direction above the protruding portion; and elastic portions which are protruded downward from the support portion and sandwich the protruding portion so that the protruding portion is movable in the up-and-down direction, each of the elastic portions having a tip end including a claw portion which engages with the protruding portion from below by snap-fitting so as to enable regulation of downward movement of the protruding portion.