Image-related device having image-medium receiving tray, and a tray for same, and a method for designing such tray

An image-medium receiving tray for collecting and stacking sheets of image medium from an image-related device that comprises at least one of a printer, copier, scanner or facsimile machine;

• said image-medium receiving tray comprising:
• a curved surface defined substantially by the following equations in conjunction with Table 1:
• ##EQU7## where V.sub.i,j are coordinates of control vertices, ##EQU8## w.sub.i,j being a weight function, ##EQU9## is a basis function in a u direction, where first-order basis functions are ##EQU10## and having values of u according to
• T.sub.knot(u) =›u.sub.min,u.sub.min, . . . u.sub.min,u.sub.k, . . . u.sub.M-k-1,u.sub.max,u.sub.max, . . . u.sub.max ! (Eq. 4)
• where a total number of u values is M=k+n, and the number of u.sub.min and u.sub.max is equal to k, ##EQU11## is a basis function in a v direction where the first-order basis functions are ##EQU12## and having values of v according to
• T.sub.knot(v) =›v.sub.min,v.sub.min, . . . v.sub.min, v.sub.1, . . . v.sub.M-l-1,v.sub.max,v.sub.max, . . . v.sub.max ! (Eq. 6)
• where a total number of v values is M=l+m, and the number of v.sub.min and v.sub.max is equal to l,
• n is a number of control vertices in the u direction,
• m is a number of control vertices in the v direction,
• k is an order of the basis function in the u direction,
• l is an order of the basis function in the v direction and
• means for linking the curved surface to such image-related device.

An image-related device for handling sheets of image medium and for incrementally scanning images thereon or forming images thereon, or both;

• said device comprising:
• means for processing an image on each such sheet;
• supply means for supplying multiple such sheets sequentially to the image-processing means;
• a kickout mechanism for removing such sheets from the image-processing means;
• and
• an image-medium receiving tray for receiving such sheets from the kickout mechanism and collecting and stacking such sheets, said tray including:
• means for transversely curling a leading-edge portion of each such sheet, and
• means for flattening a trailing-edge portion of each such sheet.

An image-medium receiving tray for controlling contouring and reception of image-medium sheets from an image-related device that operates using a wet process:

• said tray comprising a front end remote from such image-related device;
• and
• said tray designed by a method comprising the steps of:
• establishing a set of transverse curves and a set of longitudinal matchline curves to generally define a part of a tray surface, wherein the transverse curves and the longitudinal matchline curves are at least quadratic B-spline curves;
• and
• interconnecting adjacent ones of the transverse curves along paths of the longitudinal matchline curves to further define said part of the tray surface;
• adjusting the transverse curves and the longitudinal matchline curves to further define said part of the surface as curved, for:
• curling a leading-edge portion of each such image-medium sheet to give the leading-edge portion sufficient rigidity for extending beyond the front end,
• but restraining both tightness and longitudinal extent of said curling so that such image-medium sheet is not strongly curled where it is wet-test, and so tends not to retain a residual curl;
• and
• defining a generally planar part of the tray surface for flattening a trailing-edge portion of each such sheet.