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US 6,712,356 B2Granted
Self aligning transport mechanism for media of variable media widths
AssigneeMars, Incorporated
InventorsJerome Daout, Mike Nunn, Robert Clauser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus and method for aligning media. The device includes a passageway and at least one rotor. The rotor may have a surface shaped to drive a media in an intermittent fashion, or a plurality of rotors may contact the media in an intermittent fashion. Intermittent drive may also be achieved by modulating the contact pressure between a rotor and the media.
Claims23
An apparatus comprising:
- a passageway;
- and
- a plurality of rotors aligned substantially parallal to side walls of the passageway, at least one rotor having a surface shaped to drive a media in an intermittent fashion in a direction longitudinal to the passageway so as to align the media substantially with the side walls wherein the media is free to rotate about each rotor.
A method of producing a lateral shift in the location of discrete media comprising:
- driving a media into a media passageway;
- and
- shifting the media via a combination of rotations about a plurality of intermittent centers while the media is being driven in a direction substantially longitudinal to the passageway.
A method for continuously driving media comprising:
- driving the media into a passageway having a plurality of rotors;
- and
- transporting the media in a direction substantially longitudinal to the passageway with drive rotors having surfaces arranged to have intermittent degrees of contact with the media so as to align the media substantially parallel with side walls of the passageway.
A method of transporting flexible media in a media transport system comprising:
- driving the flexible media into a passageway using an intermittent drive system;
- and
- releasing the media to permit stored strain energy of the flexible media to be released such that the media aligns itself during transport in a direction substantially longitudinal to the passageway by sliding against a passageway wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.