Steering Roller Inclination Control for Belt Meandering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional belt driving devices face issues with controlling the inclination of steering rollers due to changes in structural members over time, leading to inaccuracies in meandering correction, particularly with wire-based and cam-based structures where tension or deformation affects the alignment and operation of the inclining mechanism.
Innovation Solution
A belt driving device with an inclining mechanism that uses a wire-based structure to control the steering roller's inclination, incorporating a position detecting unit and a storage unit to maintain a reference rotation angle, allowing for precise control and adjustment to compensate for changes in the structural members, ensuring consistent meandering correction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a wire-based inclining mechanism is used to control steering roller inclination, then the steering roller can be inclined by a driving force from a driving source, but the wire may become stretched or loose over time, causing the driving force to be insufficient and the inclination control to become inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing a homing operation at predetermined timing (such as when the image forming apparatus is powered on) to reset the wire tension and re-establish the reference position. This preliminary maintenance action compensates for the wire stretching that occurs during normal operation, ensuring that the inclination control remains accurate throughout the wire's service life.
2Reliability
If a cam-based inclining mechanism is used to control steering roller inclination, then the steering roller can be inclined by a driving force from a driving source, but the cam surface or contacting member may be worn out or deformed over time, causing the driving force to be insufficient and the inclination control to become inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing a homing operation at predetermined timing to reset the cam position and re-establish the reference position. This compensates for wear and deformation of the cam surface or contacting members that occur during normal operation, ensuring that the inclination control remains accurate throughout the cam's service life.
3Manufacturing precision
If the inclination of the steering roller is controlled to correct belt meandering, then image quality is maintained, but structural members may change in condition over time, causing control errors in the inclination amount
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by using a position detecting unit to detect the actual position of the steering roller or belt, and by storing reference position information in a storage unit. The control system compares the actual position with the reference position and adjusts the inclination control accordingly. This feedback mechanism compensates for changes in structural members over time, maintaining both image quality and control accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing a homing operation at predetermined timing to reset the reference position information. This compensates for any drift or changes in the structural members that occur during operation, ensuring that the feedback control system starts with accurate reference data and maintains control accuracy throughout the apparatus's operation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A steering controller (21) uses a photointerrupter (25) that detects the position of a filler (91) when a steering roller (63) is in a predetermined reference inclined position. The steering controller (21) drives a steering motor (23) to bring the steering roller (63) to the reference inclined position based on a detection result obtained by the photointerrupter (25) every time predetermined adjustment timing arrives or every time the power is turned on. Using the rotation angle of the steering motor (23) in this condition as a reference rotation angle, the steering controller (21) controls the rotation of the steering motor (23).