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US 6,193,232 B1Granted
Drive mechanism for sheet material feed roller
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsLaurent A. Regimbal, Teodoro Ortiz Michel, Scott K. Carter, Jr.
Life of this patent
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AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsLaurent A. Regimbal, Teodoro Ortiz Michel, Scott K. Carter, Jr.
Estimating the term…
A gear wheel assembly is provided in a sheet material feed mechanism. The gear wheel assembly includes an annular cylindrical gear wheel having an interior surface defining an interior diameter, with a plurality of gear teeth extending from the interior surface. A pinion is mounted for rotation within the gear wheel. The pinion includes an exterior surface defining an outer diameter, the outer diameter of the pinion being less than the inner diameter of the gear wheel. A plurality of gear teeth extend outwardly from the exterior surface of the pinion. The pinion gear teeth have arcuate contact edges adapted to drivingly engage with gear teeth of the gear wheel. The contact edges of the pinion gear teeth can be provided with tapering radii of curvature, preferably tapering outwardly from the respective centers of the gear teeth. In an embodiment, the contact edges of the pinion gear teeth taper from 45 mm at the center to 25 mm at each edge. The gear wheel assembly can be configured so that there is a one-to-one correspondence of pinions to gear wheels in the sheet feed mechanism. At least one friction wheel can be mounted on the gear wheel shaft. A method of maintaining parallelism between a gear wheel and a support roller assembly in a sheet material feed mechanism is also disclosed. First, a gear wheel shaft having is provided. A pinion is then mounted for rotation with the gear wheel shaft, the pinion having a longitudinal axis coincident with the longitudinal axis of the shaft. A gear wheel capable of non-parallel alignment with the gear wheel shaft surrounds the pinion. A support roller including at least one support roller is also provided. The pinion is then actuated to impart uninterrupted rotational movement to the gear wheel when the gear wheel is parallel to the support roller assembly and out of parallel alignment with the pinion.
A sheet material feed mechanism comprising the following:
In a sheet material feed mechanism, a gear wheel assembly comprising the following:
A method of maintaining parallelism between a gear wheel and a support roller assembly in a sheet material feed mechanism, the method comprising the following steps:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.