Anti-skew idler roller system
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorTeodoro Ortiz Michel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An idler roller assembly in an imaging system including a sheet material transport roller system having drive rollers and idler rollers. The idler roller assembly includes a plurality of idler rollers. A plurality of springs are connected to apply respective normal forces to the idler rollers. Pivoting linkages are provided to equalize the normal forces applied to the respective rollers by respective springs. In an embodiment, the plurality of idler rollers includes a first idler roller and a second idler roller. The plurality of springs includes a first spring connected to apply a normal force to the first idler roller and a second spring connected to apply a normal force to the second idler roller. The pivoting linkage includes a first pivoting lever member connected between the first spring and the second spring.
Claims20
In an imaging system including a sheet material transport roller system having drive rollers and idler rollers, an idler roller assembly comprising the following:
- a plurality of idler rollers;
- a plurality of springs connected to apply respective normal forces to the idler rollers;
- and
- pivoting linkage means connecting said springs for equalizing the normal forces applied to the respective rollers by respective springs.
In an imaging system including a sheet material transport roller system having drive rollers and idler rollers, an idler roller assembly comprising the following:
- a first idler roller;
- a second idler roller;
- a first spring connected to apply a normal force to the first idler roller;
- a second spring connected to apply a normal force to the second idler roller;
- and
- a first pivoting lever member, connected between the first spring and the second spring, the first pivoting lever member being adapted and constructed to equalize the normal forces applied to the first and second rollers by the first and second springs.
In an imaging system including a sheet material transport roller system having at least one pair of drive rollers and at least one pair of corresponding idler rollers, a method of reducing skew in sheet material transported by the roller system, the method comprising the following steps:
- connecting a respective spring to each of the idler rollers in the at least one pair of idler rollers to apply respective normal forces to the idler rollers;
- and
- connecting a pivoting link between the springs connected the at least one pair of idler rollers to equalize the normal forces applied to the respective rollers by respective springs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.