Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-04
2003-11-18
Meier, Stephen D. (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06648469
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2001-68735, filed Nov. 6, 2001, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated hereby by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper-discharging system and a method in an inkjet printer, and more particularly to, a paper-discharging system of an inkjet printer which can prevent damage of printed contents, such as a smear of incompletely dried pictures or letters, of previously printed paper due to an overlap with current printed paper when the current printed paper is discharged to a paper-discharging tray to be stacked on the previously printed paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an inkjet printer
10
as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
includes a paper feeder
20
containing paper P, a paper transporter
30
transporting the paper P from the paper feeder
20
, a printing part
40
printing data on the paper P transported by the paper transporter
30
, and a paper-discharging system
60
discharging the paper P printed by the printing part
40
to an outside of the inkjet printer
10
.
In an operation of the inkjet printer
10
, the paper P which is contained in the paper feeder
20
to be elastically supported by a lockup spring
21
is picked up by a pickup roller
22
and then moved to the paper transporter
30
. At the paper transporter
30
, the paper P is transported to the printing part
40
by a rotation of a feed roller
31
and a friction roller
32
. Thus, when the paper P is transported from the paper transporter
30
to the printing part
40
, a motor
45
driving a head carriage assembly is operated to drive a belt
43
. Consequently, a printing head
41
which is mounted in a head carriage
46
of the head carriage assembly of the printing part
45
is moved left and right along a carriage shaft
42
, ejecting ink on the paper P transported by the paper transporter
30
to print a picture or letters thereon. As the paper P is kept moving along a base frame
50
after printed by a nozzle
41
a
of the printing head
41
, the paper P reaches the paper-discharging system
60
. At the paper-discharging system
60
, the paper P is discharged to the outside through paper-discharging rollers
61
and star-shaped wheels
62
.
However, since the inkjet printer
10
uses a method of ejecting the ink on the paper P to print data thereon, it may produce damage of printed contents, such as a smear of printed images or letters, due to an overlap between previously printed paper and current printed paper when the current printed paper is dropped on the previously printed paper to be stacked thereon before the previously printed paper is completely dried. Accordingly, the inkjet printer
10
needs a vexing post-process of drying the ink of the respective printed paper for a given time period in every printing operation.
To solve the problem of producing the damage of printed contents and the vexing post-process, as shown in
FIGS. 3A and 3B
, there has been proposed another inkjet printer
10
′ using a method of disposing an elongated guide
63
in the vicinity of a paper-discharging opening or port. To prevent current printed paper P from being in contact with previously printed paper (not shown) already stacked on a paper-discharging tray
64
, the inkjet printer
10
′ supports the current printed paper P at an inclined state on the guide
63
until next printed paper is discharged. The current printed paper P is dropped at the paper-discharging tray
64
by a pushing force generating when the next printed paper is discharged.
Thus, the inkjet printer
10
′ provides an advantage that prevents the smear of the printed letters or images of the previously printed paper when the current printed paper P is dropped on the previously printed paper at the paper-discharging tray
64
after the previous printed paper is almost dried. However, since the inkjet printer
10
′ has the elongated guide
63
which is longitudinally disposed in the paper-discharging tray
64
, there was a problem that a volume of the inkjet printer
10
′ increases due to an increase of the elongated guide
63
′ in longitudinal and width directions thereof, thereby requiring a large space for the elongated guide
63
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved paper-discharging system of an inkjet printer which can provide a time period enough to dry ink on previously printed paper by controlling current printed paper to be planar by a stiffness of the current printed paper itself until a rear end of the current printed paper is completely discharged to an outside of the inkjet printer, thereby preventing damage, such as a smear, of printed letters or pictures of the previously printed paper due to an overlap between the current printed paper and the previously printed paper.
Additional objects and advantageous of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
These and other objects may be achieved according to an embodiment of the present invention, by providing a paper-discharging system discharging paper printed by a printing head to an outside of an inkjet printer. The paper-discharging system includes a discharging unit discharging the printed paper upwardly and longitudinally bent from a discharging frame to ensure (control) the printed paper to be planar by a stiffness of the printed paper itself until a rear end of the printed paper is completely discharged to the outside. The discharging unit includes a first roller part discharging the paper horizontally after the printed paper has been printed by the printing head, an upward-guiding part guiding the printed paper to be upwardly bent at a first given (tilt) angle with the base frame after the printed paper is passed through the first roller part, and a second roller part bending the printed paper longitudinally at a second given (tilt) angle and discharging the printed paper after the printed paper is passed through the upward-guiding part.
The first roller part includes a shaft driven by a motor, a plurality of first paper-discharging rollers disposed at regular intervals on the shaft, and a plurality of first supporting rollers disposed over corresponding ones of the first paper-discharging rollers to transmit a rotation force of the first paper-discharging rollers to the printed paper.
The upward-guiding part includes at least one inclined plate having an inclined surface in which is gradually slanted to the upstream of a paper-discharging direction. Preferably, the tilt angle of the inclined surface is within the range of 10° through 60°. Alternatively, the upward-guiding part can include a plurality of inclined plates, each being disposed such that the first tilt angle of the inclined plates disposed at a center portion in width of the printed paper is smaller than that of the inclined plates disposed at a side portion in width of the printed paper.
The second roller part includes at least one small roller portion disposed to be tilted at the second given angle with a plane of the printed paper discharged through the upward-guiding part. The second tilt angle of the small roller portion is within the range of 5° through 30°. Also, the second roller part may have two small roller portions, each being disposed to be tilted at the second given angle upwardly from the horizontal plane of the printed paper discharged through the upward-guiding part with respect to the center in width of the printed paper. Each of the small roller portions includes a shaft tilted by the second given (tilt) angles with the printed paper discharged through the first roller part, second paper-discharging rollers disposed in regular intervals on the shaft, and second supporting rollers disposed respectively over the corresponding second paper-discharg
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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