Bail control for sheet media
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsLeonard Luke Harpster, Daniel Fredrickson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one example, a bail system for a sheet media tray includes a bail to apply a force to a sheet in the tray, a bias mechanism to counter the force of the bail on the sheet, and a control mechanism to control the degree to which the bias mechanism counters the force of the bail on the sheet.
Claims12
A bail system for a sheet media tray, comprising:
- a bail to apply a force to a sheet in the sheet media tray;
- a spring to counter the force of the bail on the sheet;
- and
- a control mechanism comprising an actuator to vary a tension in the spring to control the degree to which the spring counters the force of the bail on the sheet.
A bail system for a sheet media tray, comprising:
- a bail to apply a force to a sheet in the sheet media tray;
- a bias mechanism to counter the force of the bail on the sheet;
- and
- a control mechanism to control the degree to which the bias mechanism counters the force of the bail on the sheet, the control mechanism comprising:
- a coupler to couple the bias mechanism to the bail to counter the force of the bail on the sheet and to decouple the bias mechanism from the bail to not counter the force of the bail on the sheet, to control the degree to which the bias mechanism counters the force of the bail on the sheet;
- and
- a drive mechanism that includes an axle, a motor and a drive train to rotate the axle at the urging of the motor, the coupler operatively connected to the axle to couple the bias mechanism to the bail when the axle is in a first rotational position and to decouple the bias mechanism from the bail when the axle is in a second rotational position different from the first position.
A bail system for a sheet media tray, comprising:
- a bail to apply a bail force to a sheet in the sheet media tray;
- an axle supporting the bail;
- a spring operatively connected to the axle to torque the axle in a first direction;
- a slot in the bail;
- and
- a pin on the axle in the slot, the axle rotatable in the first direction at the urging of the spring to move the pin to an engaged position in which the pin engages the bail at one end of the slot to counter the bail force with a spring force.
A non-transitory processor readable medium having instructions thereon to selectively torque a bail axle to vary a bail force applied to sheets in a media tray, including instructions to vary the tension in a bias spring, couple the bias spring to the bail to counter a force of the bail, and decouple the bias spring from the bail to not counter the force of the bail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.