Printer with support shoe and media metering therein

Abstract

An apparatus for accurately guiding a web of light-sensitive recording media into a cylindrical support shoe of a printer includes a metering roller at the inlet side of a stationary support shoe around which a received media web is wrapped. At least one media guide belt is mounted about a set of pulleys to guide media toward a nip between a pressure roller and the metering roller through which the media is driven into the stationary support shoe. The metering roller is mounted to rotate about a predetermined axis, and the pressure roller has one end held in a frame and is spring loaded into the frame and the metering roller. The other end of the pressure roller is also spring loaded into the metering roller and into an adjustment plate which is pivotal about the axis of the metering roller, whereby the pressure roller can be steered so that the axis of the metering roller and the axis of rotation of the pressure roller are made parallel, and so that the nip between the metering roller and the pressure roller can be adjusted to lie in a plane defined by the axis of the metering roller and the axis of rotation of the pressure roller to cause media to run uniformly and predictably when metering into and out of the cylindrical support shoe.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.