Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-08
2003-04-29
Gordon, Raquel Yvette (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06554417
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a recording medium conveying device, especially to a recording medium conveying device for an ink jet printing device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
After a recording medium is printed by an ink jet printing device, such as an ink jet printer, an ink jet copy machine and an ink jet fax machine, the ink on the recording medium is still wet when being conveyed out of the ink jet printing device. If the recording medium is conveyed at the outlet by using two sets of rollers, chance is very much that the printed portions and the unprinted portions would be stained. The wet ink from the printed portion first taints the rollers, then the ink from the roller may in turn stain other printed portions and unprinted ones.
To counter this effect, besides quick-drying ink, the starwheel structure is also proposed. A starwheel has multiple tiny teeth on the rim. These teeth retain only infinitesimal amount of ink and hardly stain the recording medium. However, the tiny teeth on the edge of the starwheel tend to damage the recording medium due to the large local stress. Two of the structures disclosed in prior arts in order to maintain appropriate application of force on the recording medium are briefly described in the following paragraphs.
Please refer to FIG.
1
(
a
). Brent et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,621, provides a structure of pinch wheels
101
. Each pinch wheel
101
includes two connected starwheels mounted at the front end of a cantilever beam
102
. At the back end of the cantilever beam
102
is placed a yoke
103
. The yoke
103
receives the outer pin
104
located on the housing of a printing device and an L-shaped spring
105
provides appropriate force so that the pin on the pinch wheel would not pierce or damage the surface of the recording medium. A cantilever beam, a yoke, a pinch wheel and a spring are required to be correctly assembled. The pinch wheel, however, may demand some special assembly efforts and thus the assembly rate and productivity are downgraded.
Please refer to FIG.
1
(
b
). In U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,357 invented by Toshihiko Bekki et al, a spur
107
supported by a coil spring
106
is disclosed. The spur
107
has a structure similar with the starwheel. Compared with the prior art described above, the most significant change is that Toshihiko adopted the coil spring
106
. The elasticity of the coil spring
106
provides adequate force on the double starwheels so that the teeth on the double starwheels would not pierce or damage the surface of the recording medium. Though being creative on using the coil spring as the shaft, however, the coil spring is apt to fall apart when rolling. Moreover, owning to the small size and enforcement on both sides of the coil spring, the assembly process is inefficient and difficult.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to straighten out all those defects in the prior arts depicted above, the present invention proposes a recording medium conveying device. In one embodiment of the present invention, a cantilever beam integral with the ink jet printing device is adopted. The cantilever beam is provided with multiple supporting device and a stress concentration zone. The cantilever beam, by employing its elasticilty, holds a starwheel mounted at one end of the cantilever beam and a recording medium in contact and maintains the intactness of the recording medium. The stress concentration area limits the stress within area. In the first preferred embodiment, since the cantilever beam is integrated with the housing, the structure is well constructed after the starwheel is in place.
On the other hand, in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, an elastic connective connects a star ring and a shaft to form a rotatable starwheel. The elastic connective holds the starwheel and the recording medium in appropriate contact without damaging the recording medium, even if the mount (eg. the cantilever beam) is substantially rigid.
The two embodiments are ready for combination to form a double-elastic structure having both an elastic cantilever beam and an elastic connective.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5420621 (1995-05-01), Richtsmeier et al.
patent: 5606357 (1997-02-01), Bekki
Hsieh Yen-Sung
Kuo Ying-Hsien
Lin Tsung-Te
Benq Corporatiion
Gordon Raquel Yvette
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
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