Belt step conveyor system
AssigneeAgfa Graphics NV
InventorsLuc DE ROECK, Eric PIRON, Jan ZWIJSEN
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A belt step conveyor system includes a moving belt gripper mounted on a linear movement system to convey the conveyor belt rotating about a plurality of pulleys in successive distance movements while the moving belt gripper engages the conveying belt and the moving belt gripper is moved from a home position to an end position by linear movement system. The conveyor belt is stagnant by engaging a stagnating belt gripper while the moving belt gripper moves back to its home position, else the stagnating belt gripper releases the conveyor belt.
Claims11
1-10. (canceled)
A liquid inkjet print device comprising:
- a conveyor system including a conveyor belt and two or more pulleys to carry a substrate by performing successive distance movements in a conveying direction;
- and
- a drive system including:
- a first linear movement system;
- a first belt gripper that engages the conveyor belt when the first belt gripper is moved by the first linear movement system from a home position to an end position and that releases the conveyor belt when the first belt gripper is moved by the first linear movement system from the end position to the home position;
- and
- a second belt gripper that releases the conveyor belt when the first belt gripper is moved by the first linear movement system from the home position to the end position and that engages the conveyor belt when the first belt gripper is moved by the first linear movement system from the end position to the home position;
- wherein
- the two or more pulleys do not drive the conveyor belt;
- and
- the first linear movement system includes an encoder that controls movement of the first belt gripper and the successive distance movements of the substrate on the conveyor belt, and a fault tolerance of the encoder is between 16 micrometers and 0.01 micrometer.
A liquid jetting printing method comprising the steps of:
- conveying a substrate with a conveyor belt including two or more pulleys to carry the substrate by performing successive distance movements in a conveying direction by repeating the following steps:
- engaging a first belt gripper with the conveyor belt and releasing a second belt gripper from the conveyor belt;
- moving the first belt gripper by driving a first linear movement system from a home position to an end position;
- engaging the second belt gripper with the conveyor belt and releasing the first belt gripper from the conveyor belt;
- and
- moving the first belt gripper by driving the first linear movement system from the end position to the home position;
- wherein
- the two or more pulleys do not drive the conveyor belt;
- and
- the steps of moving the first belt gripper and conveying the substrate by performing successive distance movements includes using an encoder, and a fault tolerance of the encoder is between 16 micrometers and 0.01 micrometer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.