Electrostatic charging apparatus and method for sheet transport
AssigneeDelphax Technologies Inc.
InventorRobert Stuart McCallum
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A media sheet drive has a continuous belt of a dielectric material for transporting sheet media supported on the belt in a transport direction. A launch mechanism is used to launch a sheet medium onto a top surface of the belt. A charging circuit including a charging roller is used to charge a top surface of the sheet medium and the belt as the sheet medium is launched. Charging acts to generate an electrostatic tacking force to tack the sheet medium to the belt. The charging roller has a second function to smooth out curled edges of paper as it is acted on by the charging circuit so that the full extent of a launched sheet medium may be subject to the electrostatic tacking force.
Claims18
A media sheet drive comprising a continuous belt of a dielectric material for transporting sheet media supported on the belt in a transport direction, a launch mechanism to launch a sheet medium onto a top surface of the belt, a charging circuit including a charging head for charging a top surface of the sheet medium as the sheet medium is launched, thereby to generate a tacking force to tack the sheet medium to the belt, the charging head being a metal roller extending transverse of the transport direction.
A media sheet drive as claimed in claim 14, the sensor being part of a feedback circuit, the feedback circuit having a second output for controlling operation of the charging circuit.
A method for driving a sheet medium along a transport path comprising launching the sheet medium onto a top surface of a belt made of dielectric material, electrostatically charging a top surface of the sheet medium as the sheet medium is launched, thereby to generate a tacking force to tack the sheet medium to the belt, using a metal roller biased into contact with the belt to effect such charging, the roller acting to flatten any curved edge of the sheet medium passing between the roller and the belt in the transport direction whereby to tack the full area of the sheet medium to the belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.