Continuous media web heater
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsRoger G. Leighton, Paul John McConville, Vincent M. Williams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A radiant heating unit is selectively operated to move radiant heating panels to regulate heating of a continuous web of media as the web moves along a media pathway in an imaging device. The radiant heating panels in a radiant heating unit may be moved to any one of a plurality of positions between and including a fully open position and a retracted position in the housing. A panel driver is operated to move the radiant heating panels to one of the positions in the plurality of positions in response to a variable view factor signal.
Claims7
A radiant heating unit for heating a continuous web moving along a media web path in an imaging device, the radiant heating unit comprising:
- a housing positioned adjacent a media web path in an imaging device;
- a pair of radiant heating panels configured within the housing to emit thermal radiation in accordance with a variable thermal output signal, the pair of radiant heating panels being configured to be positioned selectively in the housing to any one of a plurality of positions between and including a fully open position in which the pair of radiant heating panels are positioned side by side in the housing to direct thermal radiation towards the media web path and a retracted position in which the pair of radiant heating panels are positioned inside the housing and facing each other, a view factor of the pair of radiant heating panels with respect to the media web path being different for each position in the plurality of positions;
- a panel driver operatively connected to the pair of radiant heating panels to enable the pair of radiant heating panels to be positioned at one of the positions in the plurality of positions in response to a variable view factor signal;
- at least one temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature of a continuous web moving along the media web path and to generate a temperature signal indicative of the detected temperature of the continuous web moving along the media web path;
- and
- a web heating controller operatively connected to the panel driver, the web heating controller being configured to generate selectively the variable thermal output signal and the variable view factor signal with reference to the temperature signal generated by the at least one temperature sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.