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US 2010/0276879 A1Published application
Cross process shuttering of a vacuum transport system
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorHenry T. Bober
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum transport system includes vacuum plenum having a plenum plate as a part thereof and a belt with an array of holes that align to grooves in the plenum plate over which the belt is driven. A sliding plate on the underside of the plenum plate inside the vacuum plenum contains a series of holes and slots to progressively open or shut holes connecting the grooves to the vacuum plenum to maintain a constant air flow and vacuum pressure in the cross process direction for varying widths of media.
Claims20
A printing apparatus, comprising:
- a vacuum belt module including a belt support for supporting a movable continuous belt around a vacuum plenum assembly;
- a sheet feeder for supplying and moving an image receiving sheet through said vacuum belt module;
- an imaging apparatus for forming an image on said image receiving sheet;
- and
- a vacuum transport system, said vacuum transport system including said vacuum plenum assembly with at least a portion thereof positioned within said vacuum belt module and a grooved plenum plate covering said vacuum plenum and facing an underside portion of said continuous belt, said plenum plate including a series of holes therein extending in the cross process direction and a series of grooves extending in the process direction, and wherein said vacuum transport includes a shutter plate positioned within said vacuum plenum assembly and beneath said plenum plate, said shutter plate being adapted to block a predetermined number of said series of holes in said vacuum plate in accordance with the size of image receiving sheet being conveyed by said sheet feeder to said vacuum transport.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.