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US 5,973,796 AGranted
Scanner carriage mirror mounting to reduce footprint
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsDennis Schissler, Gerold Guenter Firl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsDennis Schissler, Gerold Guenter Firl
Estimating the term…
A document scanner carriage housing contains a pair of spaced mirrors whose spacing and parallelism is precisely maintained by floating metal spacer plates which are not affixed to the housing. Spaced springs urge one of the mirrors into engagement with the spacer plates, the other mirror being referenced to the molded plastic housing. The parallel facing image plane sides of the mirrors are substantially unobstructed by the spacer plates which contact them thus allowing the scanner to efficiently use a substantial proportion of the image planes of the mirrors and occupy a comparatively small footprint. The floating spacer plates and mirrors are cushioned against shock and vibration by compressed elastomeric pads on the underside of the housing cover which allows the spacing and parallelism of the mirrors to be maintained without direct affixation of the mirrors or spacer plates to the housing.
In a scanner carriage comprising a housing containing a plurality of mirrors which provide a folded optical light path for transmitting a scanned image to a lens assembly, the improvement comprising spaced first and second mirrors having image planes which must remain parallel, a first one of said mirrors being in contact with a reference plane defined by said housing, a pair of rigid spacer plates having ends contacting facing image plane sides of said mirrors, said spacer plates being freely moveable with respect to said housing in spaced paths which intersect said image planes of said mirrors, and resilient means engaging a second one of said mirrors without contacting the image plane side thereof to urge said second one of said mirrors toward said spacer plates and toward said first one of said mirrors.
In a scanner carriage comprising a housing having a cover and containing a plurality of mirrors which provide a folded optical light path for transmitting a scanned image to a lens assembly, the improvement comprising spaced first and second mirrors each having a side edge and having image planes which must remain parallel, each of said mirrors being supported in said housing, a first one of said mirrors being in contact with a reference plane defined by said housing, a pair of rigid spacer plates having ends contacting facing image plane sides of said mirrors proximate spaced ends of said mirrors, said spacer plates being freely moveable with respect to said housing in spaced planes which intersect facing image planes of said mirrors, and compressed resilient means having a first side engaged with said cover and a second side engaged with a side edge of said first mirror and with a respective spacer plate proximate the image plane side of said first mirror.
A free floating mirror assembly, comprising:
A mirror assembly for providing a high tolerance light path between facing parallel image planes, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.