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US 7,669,842 B2Granted
Sheet rotator
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorWayne R. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet turning apparatus includes a vacuum source used to capture and hold a sheet onto a rotatable disc that is connected to a servo motor. Actuation of the servo motor causes rotation of the disc which in turn rotates the sheet 90°.
Claims5
A reprographic device including a predetermined paper path within which copy sheet are transported, comprising:
- an image forming module for forming an image on a copy sheet in a sheet processing module;
- a finishing module usable to compile and stack copy sheets from said image forming module;
- and
- a vacuum sheet rotator module positioned between said image forming module and said finishing module, said vacuum sheet rotator module including a vacuum capture port positioned in a center portion of said predetermined paper path to suction the center portion of sheets passing thereover, a vacuum source connected to said vacuum capture port and adapted to apply vacuum pressure to said vacuum capture port, and a rotatable disc surrounding said vacuum capture port with said rotatable disc comprising a single, impervious disc having a upper surface adapted to receive copy sheets directly thereagainst to be rotated, and wherein said rotatable disc is connected to a drive mechanism with said drive mechanism being connected to a servo motor to rotate said disc, said vacuum sheet rotator module being adapted to change orientation of copy sheets from portrait to landscape en route to said finishing module.
1 more element
A method for selectively rotating documents within a predetermined paper path in a printing apparatus, comprising:
- providing an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a copy sheet in a sheet processing module;
- providing a finishing module usable to compile and stack copy sheets from said image forming apparatus;
- providing a vacuum sheet rotator positioned between said image forming apparatus and said finishing module, said vacuum sheet rotator module including a vacuum capture port positioned in a center portion of said predetermined paper path to suction the center portion of sheets passing thereover, a vacuum source connected to said vacuum capture port and adapted to apply vacuum pressure to said vacuum capture port, and a sole rotatable disc surrounding said vacuum capture port with said rotatable disc comprising a single, impervious disc having a upper surface adapted to receive copy sheets directly thereagainst to be rotated, and wherein said rotatable disc is connected to drive a mechanism with said drive mechanism being connected to a servo motor to rotate said disc, said sheet rotator being adapted to change orientation of copy sheets from portrait to landscape en route to said finishing module;
- and
- changing vacuum pressure to said vacuum capture port to accommodate various weights of copy sheets by dynamically sensing sheet rotation performance by sheet basis.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.