Device for sensing the remaining amount of copy paper
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorMoo-Kyung Sung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sensing device for sensing a stored amount of paper sheets and displaying the sensed amount of paper sheets. The sensing device comprises: a variable resistor including a rotating unit and a first assembly unit for assembling an actuator in the rotating unit; the actuator including a second assembly unit assembled to the first assembly unit and a paper contacting unit contacted with the paper; and an elastic unit supplying an elastic force to the actuator so as to contact the paper contacting unit with the paper.
Claims11
An apparatus for sensing a stored amount of paper sheets in a paper storing means and for displaying the sensed amount of paper sheets on a display means, said apparatus comprising:
- paper sensing means comprising:
- a variable resistor having a first resistance value when said paper storing means is full of paper and a second resistance value when said paper storing means is empty of paper sheets, said variable resistor being connected to a reference potential;
- actuator means connected to said variable resistor, said actuator means being in contact with a top most paper sheet of a stack of paper in said paper storing means, said actuator means incrementally changing the resistance value of said variable resistor between said first resistance value and said second resistance value as the amount of paper sheets in said stack of paper decreases;
- another resistor connected to a voltage source and connected at a node to said variable resistor;
- and
- analog-to-digital converting means connected to said node for converting an analog voltage signal sensed at said node to a digital signal;
- and
- means connected to said paper sensing means for generating a stored paper amount sensing signal by determining the amount of paper sheets stored in said paper storing means in response to said digital signal.
An apparatus for sensing a stored amount of paper sheets in a paper storing means and for displaying the sensed amount of paper sheets on a display means, said apparatus comprising:
- paper sensing means comprising:
- a variable resistor having a first resistance value when said paper storing means is full of paper and a second resistance value when said paper storing means is empty of paper sheets;
- and
- actuator means connected to said variable resistor, said actuator means being in contact with a top most paper sheet of a stack of paper in said paper storing means, said actuator means incrementally changing the resistance value of said variable resistor between said first resistance value and said second resistance value as the amount of paper sheets in said stack of paper decreases;
- means connected to said paper sensing means for generating a stored paper amount sensing signal by determining the amount of paper sheets stored in said paper storing means in response to the incremental changes of the resistance value of said variable resistor;
- means for inputting data indicative of a thickness of one sheet of paper to said means for determining the amount of paper sheets stored in said paper storing means;
- and
- said means for generating the stored paper amount sensing signal generating the stored paper amount sensing signal in response to said incremental changes of the resistance value of said variable resistor and said data indicative of the thickness of one sheet of paper.
An apparatus for sensing a stored amount of a stack of paper sheets in a paper cassette of an image forming device and for displaying the sensed amount of paper sheets on a display means, said apparatus comprising:
- a voltage source;
- a first resistor connected between said voltage source and a node;
- a second resistor connected between said node and a ground, said first and second resistor comprising a voltage divider, said second resistor being variable to change a voltage provided at said node;
- sensor means disposed to be in contact with a top sheet of said stack of paper sheets for altering a resistance value of said second resistor as the amount of paper sheets in said stack of paper sheets changes;
- and
- means responsive said voltage at said node for generating a paper amount sensing signal for displaying the sensed amount of paper sheets on said display means.
The apparatus as set forth in claim 11 said means responsive said voltage at said node for generating a paper amount sensing signal comprising:
- analog-to-digital converting means for converting the voltage at said node to digital data;
- and
- means for transmitting said digital data to means responsive to said digital data for determining the sensed amount of paper sheets in said paper cassette.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.