An exemplary embodiment of this application will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like elements, and in which:
In
A pair of parallel metal plates 24 having distal ends 25 is positioned on opposite sides of the plurality of driven belts 12. The pair of plates 24 creates a frame 26, in cooperation with the common drive shaft 20 and interconnected idler roller shafts 18, between which the driven belts 12 are supported. The spacing “G” between belts 12 is 2-5 mm and the width “W” of the belts 12 is about 42 mm. The common drive shaft 20 is rotatably mounted in the pair of plates 24 at a location spaced from the distal ends thereof. The opposing outermost idler roller shafts 18 are attached to the pair of plates 24 at the distal ends thereof, so that the idler rollers are cantilevered in the pair of plates about the common drive shaft. The driven belts 12 wrapped around the idler rollers 16 contact each incoming sheet 15 and register the incoming sheets against a registration wall 36 (shown in phantom line) and into a stack of sheets on a shelf (not shown) in the registration station 31.
A crossbar 60 is attached perpendicular to and between the pair of plates 24. The crossbar 60 is located between the driven rollers 14 and the idler rollers 16. The height of the crossbar is less than the diameter of the driven rollers and idler rollers, so that the crossbar is located between confronting spans of the driven belts 12. The enlarged center portion 19 of the idler shafts 18 has a cylindrical opening 23 therethrough as better shown in
The plurality of belts provide a registration system that can accommodate custom sheet media sizes from 1 to 20 inches and any size in between. The belts 12 lack of discrete edges ensures that sheet edges defined by cross-process sheet dimension have nothing to interact with, where the process direction is indicated by arrow 29. The mass of the cantilevered frame 26 and idler rollers 16 generate a normal force or pressure, represented by arrow 35, on the belts traveling around the idler rollers 16. This normal force of the idler rollers on the belts 12 provide the required frictional or acquisition force for the belts that is necessary to guide frictionally the incoming sheets 15 arriving at the registration station. With the proper acquisition force, the belts position the incoming sheets seriatim against the registration wall 36, one on top of the other to form a registered stack of sheets 15 on a table or shelf (not shown).
A small stepper motor 28 is attached to a support member (not shown) of the sheet registration system 10 and is drivingly connected to an eccentric cam 30. One end of an extension spring 32 connects to the cam 30 and the other end of the extension spring is attached to the frame 26 formed from the pair of metal plates 24. The force of the spring 32 may oppose the cantilevered mass of the frame and idler rollers, as identified by the center of gravity 33 and direction of gravitational force is indicated by arrow 34. Thus, the normal force of the idler rollers 16, identified by arrow 35, is generated by the cantilevered mass of the frame 26 and idler rollers 16. The normal force 35 thus provides the necessary acquisition force by the belts 12 on the incoming sheets 15 to the registration station 31 from a sheet transport, such as, for example, a vacuum transport belt (not shown).
A home position indicator 39 is connected to the shaft 37 of stepper motor 28, represented by arrow 37, connecting the stepper motor 28 to the cam 30 and may be either a conventional notched disk optical sensor (as shown) or a typical rotary encoder (not shown). The home position indicator 39 indicates the amount or angle to and from a home or reference position, viz., notch 42 in disk 43, when the controller 38 applies step pulses to the stepper motor 28 to rotate the cam 30. In the home position, the cam 30 is positioned so that no spring force is generated to oppose the normal force 35 provided by the full weight of the cantilevered frame 24 and idler rollers 16. Thus, when the stepper motor 28 is at the home position (as sensed by optical sensor 46), the maximum normal force is applied to the belts 12. As explained later, step pulses from the controller 38 in response to data signals from the control panel 40 causes the stepper motor 28 to rotate the eccentric cam 30 the desired amount. Rotation of the stepper motor 28 from the home position, as monitored by the home position indicator 39, generates an opposing spring force to reduce selectively the normal force 35 and vary the frictional or acquisition force of the belts 12 on the incoming sheets 15. Accordingly, sheet media parameters entered into the control panel by an end user automatically vary the acquisition force or pressure of the driven belts 12. Actively varying the pressure applied by the driven belts of the sheet registration system in accordance with the sheet media parameters enables a broader range of sheet media to be registered without damage or marking.
Incremental locations around the profile of the cam 30 and around the disk 43 from notch 42 of the home position indicator 39 represent various desired spring forces of spring 32 that vary the normal forces of the idler rollers 16. Empirically determined data or algorithms are stored in a look up table placed in memory 41 associated with the controller 38 that represent the various predetermined spring forces. For each set of sheets or job to be registered and stacked by the sheet registration system 10, an end user or operator inputs the sheet media information into the control panel 40 of the sheet handling device (not shown). Sheet media information may be, for example, the sheet weight in grams per square meter (g/m2), whether the sheets are coated or plain (not coated), as well as the number of sheets per set and number of sets.
In response to the sheet parameter information inputted into the control panel 40, a microprocessor (not shown) in the sheet handling device associated with the control panel 40 generates a specific value for each sheet in the set or job and directs that value to the controller 38. Each value received by the controller 38 represents a desired opposing spring force to be applied to the frame 24 in order to reduce and vary the pressure or normal force 35 of the idler rollers 16. Hence, the driven belts traveling around the idler rollers will apply reduced pressure or varied frictional force on the incoming sheets 15 in direct relationship to the change of the normal force 35 of the idler rollers.
The controller 38 compares the values received from the microprocessor with the values stored in the look up table in memory 41 that represent empirically determined algorithms also stored in memory 41. Each algorithm provides stepper motor instructions for the appropriate spring force that will vary the pressure of the belts 12 on the incoming sheets and prevent damage or marking on the sheets to be registered. The controller 38 selects the algorithm having the value matched by the value received from the microprocessor. The selected algorithm energizes the stepper motor 28 and rotates the cam 30 the precise angular amount from the home position, as identified by the home position indicator 39, to achieve the desired normal force for the idler rollers 12. A different normal force algorithm may be selected for each sheet in each set of sheets by the controller 38.
Accordingly, the sheet media parameters for each sheet in each set of sheets may be entered into the control panel 40 of the sheet handling device. Therefore, each sheet of the set of sheets to be registered may have a different normal force for the idler rollers 16. A different algorithm may be used for each sheet to rotate automatically the cam 30 to a specific location from the home position and automatically vary the normal force of the idler rollers 16. This automatic changing of the normal force of the idler rollers prevents sheet damage or marking even when the sheet media of each sheet in a set of sheets varies from thick to thin sheets or coated to uncoated sheets. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiment of this application provides the ability of the sheet registration system to actively control the pressure of the idler rollers in real time and accommodate a wider range of sheet media automatically without marking any of the sheets.
In
The sheet registration system 10 includes a single piece cage 48 that is partially shown in isometric view in
The single piece cage 48 may be constructed of a molded resin or a thin gauge stainless steel. It surrounds the portion of the belts 12 and frame 26 that extend past the registration wall 36 and have a large opening 51 to allow the belts to protrude through it. Tabs 54 on opposite sides of the cage 48 are located on the bottom side of the cage adjacent to the lower sheet guide 52 and are inserted into apertures 55 in the registration wall. The tabs 54 loosely hold and position the cage 48 against the registration wall. The cage is attached to each of the pair of metal plates 24 at its upper side by two spring like arms 56 with slots 57 therein that are formed on opposite sides of the cage. The slots 57 engage studs 58 on the pair of metal plates 24 and the spring like arms grip the pair of metal plates and hold the cage 48 firmly in place against the frame 26. The cage is thus held in proper relationship with the plurality of driven belts 12 and allows the plurality of driven belts to protrude through the cage opening 51, so the cage 48 does not interfere with the incoming sheets. The upper sheet guide 50 of the cage 48 ensures reliable handoff of the incoming sheets from the sheet transport to the sheet registration system. The lower sheet guide 52 of the cage 48 assists in stripping the sheets from belts 12 and prevents the sheets being registered against the registration wall from moving through the gap 49 that exists between the registration wall 36 and plurality of driven belts 12.
An alternate embodiment 80 of the variable pressure sheet registration system of this application is shown in a schematic side elevation view in
The common drive shaft 63 is rotatably mounted in a plurality of identical rectangular support structures 64, one support structure for each belt 12. The support structures 64 are arranged side-by-side with a small space therebetween. Each support structure 64 has a pair of parallel side panels 65 through which the common drive shaft 63 is rotatably mounted in bearings 61 for rotation therein. All of the side panels 65 are parallel to each other. Parallel structural beams 66, 67 on opposite ends of the side panels 65 complete each of the support structures 64. Structural beam 67 confronts the idler rollers 16 and has a cylindrical shaft 68 attached at one end thereto. The other free end of the cylindrical shaft 68 extends through the opening 23 (see
A circular tab 69 extends perpendicularly from each structural beam 66 of the support structure 64 in a direction away from the driven roller 62. An identical eccentric cam 70, one for each belt 12, is attached to a common cam shaft 72. One end of the common cam shaft 72 is connected to stepper motor 28 for rotation thereby. A tension spring 74 interconnects each cam with a respective one of the circular tabs 69. Thus, rotation of the common cam shaft 72 by stepper motor 28 causes a spring force to be generated by each tension spring 74 that pivots each of the support structures 64. The concurrent pivoting of each of the separate support structures 64 reduces the gravitational force on the idler rollers cantilevered about the common drive shaft 63 and varies the normal pressure of the idler rollers against incoming sheets to be registered in a manner very similar to the way the normal pressure is varied in the embodiment 10 of this application. The main difference between embodiment 80 and embodiment 10 is that the belts 12 in alternate embodiment 80 have separate support structures 64, separate cams 70, and separate tension springs 74, while the embodiment 10 shown in
The opposing outer most side panels 65 of the outer most support structure 64 have studs 58 and the registration wall 36 has apertures 55 to provide the means to install the cage 48 shown in
The operation of the embodiment 80 shown in
Hence, sheet media parameters inputted into the control panel 40 by an end user determine the algorithm selected by the controller 38. The selected algorithm instructs the stepper motor 28 to rotate the bank of cams 70 on the common cam shaft 72 a precise angular amount from a home or reference position to achieve the desired normal pressure for the idler rollers 16. Thus, a different normal force algorithm may be selected for each sheet in each set of sheets by the controller 38. The stepper motor 22, under control of the controller 38, drives the crowned drive rollers 62 to move the belts 12. The normal pressure applied by the idler rollers 16 is directly related to the gravitational force, as adjusted, and provides the belts 12 with the desired frictional force. The frictional force of each of the belts 12 enable the belts to acquire the incoming sheet 15 that tangentially approach the belts from a sheet transport (not shown). The belts 12 then register each incoming sheet against registration wall 36 with the assistance of the upper and lower guides 50, 52, respectively, on cage 48. The ability of the variable pressure sheet registration system 10 or 80 to automatically change the normal force of the idler rollers 16 prevents sheet damage or marking even when the sheet media of each sheet in a set of sheets varies from thick to thin sheets or coated to uncoated sheets.
In
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.