Source: https://patents.justia.com/patent/7568851
Timestamp: 2020-01-23 14:42:57
Document Index: 317548833

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 8', 'art 45', 'art 51', 'art 43', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 8']

US Patent for Sheet package with identification mark and printer using the same Patent (Patent # 7,568,851 issued August 4, 2009) - Justia Patents Search
Justia Patents For Feeding Sheet From Stack Or Pack HolderUS Patent for Sheet package with identification mark and printer using the same Patent (Patent # 7,568,851)
Aug 29, 2007 - Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
The sheet package 9 is a package formed by storing a stack of the sheets 7 described above in the package member 8, as shown in FIG. 4. A user purchases the sheet package 9 in the state shown in FIG. 4, partially exposes the sheets 7 from the package member 8 as shown in FIG. 1 by a prescribed procedure, and sets the sheet package 9 in a printer 1. Incidentally, when a flap part 8a is opened, a tear-off part 45 is cut off along perforations 46.
The package member 8 is formed by folding a plane cardboard material into a box shape. The cardboard material before being folded is shown in FIG. 5. The cardboard material includes a first wrapping part 51, a second wrapping part 43, a tongue part 8b and the flap part 8a which are integrally formed around a base 40 which is in almost the same (rectangular) shape as the sheet 7. Incidentally, thin chain lines in FIG. 5 indicate creased parts, which facilitates the folding of the cardboard material and the assembly of the package member 8.
As shown in FIG. 1, the foldable flap part 8a is formed integrally with the package member 8. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the foldable flap part 8a is folded down to the base 40 and fixed. In this state, a part of the stacked sheets 7 at an end in the lengthwise direction (sheet feed direction) exposes its lower surface as shown in FIG. 1. The sheet package 9 in the state of FIG. 1 is loaded in the printer 1 which will be explained later.
In order to fix the flap part 8a in the state of FIG. 1, a first cut 41 is made into the lower surface of the package member 8 so that the tip of the flap part 8a can be inserted therein.
Meanwhile, a second cut 42 is made into the upper surface of the package member 8 (the tongue part 8b which will be described later). The flap part 8a (originally in the state of FIG. 1) can also be folded oppositely toward the upper surface of the package member 8 and its tip can be inserted into the second cut 42, by which the flap part 8a can also be fixed in a state covering the sheets 7.
When the sheet package 9 is set in the printer, the tongue part 8b on the top of the sheets 7 is situated between a pressure board 18 (explained later) and the sheets 7. In the sheet feed operation of the printer, the sheets 7 are separated one by one and conveyed smoothly by causing proper friction between the tongue part 8b and the sheets 7.
The identification mark 31 is composed of four rectangular indicator bits 31a-31d as shown in FIG. 3. Among the four bits, 0-3 bits are colored black and remaining one bit is not colored (remains in the color (white) of the foundation of the package member 8). In the example of FIG. 2, the indicator bits 31a, 31c and 31d are colored black, while the remaining bit 31b is left white. The identification mark 31 can be formed by known methods such as printing.
At the other end of the sheet storage unit 6, the reflective sensor 32 is provided to a corner on the bottom of the sheet storage unit 6 as shown in FIG. 8. The reflective sensor 32 includes four sensors 32a-32d arranged in a line corresponding to the aforementioned indicator bits 31a-31d. Each sensor 32a-32d emits light and measures reflected light, by which the state (black or white) of each corresponding indicator bit 31a-31d of the identification mark 31 is detected.
The aforementioned sheet package 9 is set in the sheet storage unit 6, with the lower surface of the lowermost one of the stacked sheets 7 (stacked up and stored in the package member 8 with their print surfaces facing downward) being exposed partially from the package member 8 as shown in FIG. 9. When the lid 10 is closed and locked, the pressure plate 18 (pressed downward by the aforementioned spring 19) presses the exposed part of the sheet 7 against the pickup roller 12 via the tongue part 8b of the package member 8, letting the lower surface of the sheet 7 contact the pickup roller 12.
The separation block 13, provided in the vicinity of the pickup roller 12, has a separation guide surface 13a being tilted with respect to the sheet feed direction of the pickup roller 12.
In this configuration the pickup roller 12 which is driven and rotated exerts feeding force on the lowermost sheet 7 contacting the pickup roller 12. As a principle, the lowermost sheet 7 is conveyed by the feeding force of the pickup roller 12 (caused by the spring 19) exceeding braking force from the separation guide surface 13a and negative frictional force from a (second) sheet on the conveyed sheet. The second lowermost sheet on the conveyed sheet receives positive frictional force from the lowermost sheet, negative frictional force from a third lowermost sheet and braking force from the separation guide surface 13a and thereby stays at its position with the force balance, by which multi feeding is avoided. With the separating function of the separation guide surface 13a of the separation block 13, only one sheet 7 at the bottom of the stacked sheets is separated and conveyed out of the sheet package 9.
The platen roller 16 is rotatably provided next to the separation block 13 (on the right-hand side of the separation block 13 in FIG. 10), and the paper guide 17 is placed close to the exterior surface of the platen roller 16. As shown in an enlarged view of FIG. 10, the paper guide 17 has a sliding surface 17a which is formed to have a concave sectional form like a tilted letter “U” along the exterior surface of the platen roller 16. Between the paper guide 17 and the body case 2, a pressure coil spring 20 is placed so as to press the sliding surface 17a against the exterior surface of the platen roller 16.
The sheet 7 is guided by the guide plate 21 and fed beneath the platen roller 16 to a gap between the platen roller 16 and the paper guide 17. The sheet 7, held between the exterior surface of the platen roller 16 and the sliding surface 17a of the paper guide 17, is conveyed by the revolving platen roller 16 upward being turned over in the tilted U shape and reaches the top of the platen roller 16 with its print surface facing upward.
The thermal head 15, placed nearby the top of the platen roller 16, has a heating element unit 15a as a printing unit. The thermal head 15 is provided to be rotatable around a rotation axis 15b, by which the heating element unit 15a can contact and separate from the top of the platen roller 16.
To the thermal head 15, an end of a spring 22 of a twisting coil spring type is attached, by which force for pressing the heating element unit 15a against the top of the platen roller 16 is applied to the thermal head 15 constantly.
In this configuration, the heating element unit 15a of the thermal head 15 makes contact with the upper surface of the sheet (conveyed by the platen roller 16 with its print surface facing upward as above) and the printing on the sheet 7 is carried out at the contacting part.
On the aforementioned separation block 13, a sheet ejection guide surface 13b, being tilted relative to the sheet feed direction of the platen roller 16, is formed.
The sheet 7 after being printed by the heating element unit 15a of the thermal head 15 is guided by the sheet ejection guide surface 13b and thereby ejected to the upper side of the lid 10 through a gap between the lid 10 and the upper cover 5 of the body case 2, as shown in FIG. 6.
However, if the user sets the sheet package 9 upside down, a sheet feed error occurs. In this embodiment, the upside-down setting causes direct contact of the tongue part 8b with the pickup roller 12. In this case, in addition to the sheet feed error, strong friction developing between the pickup roller 12 and the tongue part 8b might overload a motor which drives the pickup roller 12.
Incidentally, there is a possibility that the user erroneously sets a closed sheet package 9 (with the flap part 8a closed) in the printer. This also causes the sheet feed error, and thus some countermeasure becomes necessary.
In this embodiment, the dimensions of the sheet storage unit 6 of the printer 1 and those of the sheet package 9 are determined so that the sheet package 9 can not be set in the printer 1 (the lid 10 of the printer 1 can not be closed) unless the sheet package 9 is opened and the flap part 8a is folded down to the base as shown in FIG. 1. Thus, the sensor 32 is not required to detect the unopened state of the sheet package 9.
It is also possible to let the sensor 32 detect the unopened state (with the flap part 8a closed). The detection becomes possible by the following configuration, for example. First, an error mark is also provided to the position of the identification mark 31 shown in FIG. 2, in place of the identification mark. Further, the size and the shape of the flap part 8a is set so as to hide the error mark when the flap part 8a is folded down to the base. Further, an identification mark is formed on the part of the flap part 8a facing the sensor 32 when the flap part 8a is folded down to the base (i.e. the part hiding the error mark).
By such a configuration, the error mark faces the sensor 32 when the sheet package 9 is unopened. When the sheet package 9 has been opened and the flap part 8a has been folded down to the base (when the flap part 8a has been opened), the error mark is hidden by the flap part 8a and the identification mark 31 on the flap part 8a faces the sensor 32.
When a print instruction is supplied from an upper-level device (e.g., a personal computer) connected with the printer, the sensors 32a-32d of the reflective sensor 32 read the black/white pattern which is formed by the indicator bits 31a-31d of the identification mark 31. Since the pattern has been associated with a particular type of sheet as mentioned above, the printer can automatically judge the sheet type and thereby can control driving speeds of rollers and current supply to the thermal head automatically.
Since the identification mark 31 includes four indicator bits 31a-31d, the number of possible black/white combination patterns of the identification mark 31 (i.e. the number of sheet types that can be indicated by the mark) is 24=16 theoretically.
The all-white pattern is avoided for the discrimination of the identification mark 31 from the aforementioned error mark E. In this embodiment, a totally white part is regarded as the error mark E, and thus all the four sensors 32a-32d read “white” when the error mark E is in the reading area of the reflective sensor 32. The printer 1 of this embodiment judges that the direction of the sheet package is incorrect or the sheet package 9 is unopened when all the sensors 32a-32d detect “white”. In this case, an unshown judgment unit judges the occurrence of the error and thereby a proper notification means informs the user of the error by alarm display (error indicator), alarm sound (buzzer), etc. to let the user cope with the situation.
The all-black pattern is avoided for letting the printer 1 recognize an empty state with no sheet package 9 loaded in the sheet storage unit 6. With no sheet in the sheet storage unit 6, there is no object for reflecting the light emitted from the sensors 32a-32d, by which “black” is detected by all the sensors 32a-32d. Based on the fact, the printer 1 of this embodiment is configured to inform the user of the error when the sensors 32a-32d detect the all-black pattern, similarly to the above case of the error mark E.
wherein: the printer includes a sensor, the sheet package is configured so that the sheets can be set in the printer together with the package member exposing part of the sheets, the package member being provided with an identification mark so that the identification mark will be placed in a reading area of the sensor of the printer only when the sheet package is set in the printer in a correct direction, the printer operates depending on whether the identification mark can be read by the sensor or not; the printer is configured to inform a user of an error when the identification mark can not be read by the sensor; and the printer is configured to regulate its sheet feed operation when the identification mark can not be read by the sensor,
4122457 October 24, 1978 Erikson et al.
5053814 October 1, 1991 Takano et al.
5273271 December 28, 1993 Intemann
5717976 February 10, 1998 Chowdry et al.
6217019 April 17, 2001 Ishiduka et al.
6227732 May 8, 2001 Higuchi et al.
6246466 June 12, 2001 Hirano et al.
6431358 August 13, 2002 Sasaki et al.
1 099 639 May 2001 EP
A 62-153226 July 1987 JP
A 2-243424 September 1990 JP
A 3-25436 February 1991 JP
A 4-317929 November 1992 JP
11091958 April 1999 JP
A 11-240628 September 1999 JP
A 11-240629 September 1999 JP
A 11-322125 November 1999 JP
A 2000-168966 June 2000 JP
A 2000-203725 July 2000 JP
A 2001-139164 May 2001 JP
WO 99/02348 January 1999 WO
Patent number: 7568851
Patent Publication Number: 20080008515
Inventors: Minoru Yamamoto (Nagoya), Keiji Seo (Nagoya)
Application Number: 11/896,053
Current U.S. Class: For Feeding Sheet From Stack Or Pack Holder (400/624); Pack Holders (271/145); Control Of Advancer Responsive To Sensing Of Foremost Sheet (271/152); For Plural Stationery Implements (206/214); For Plate Or Sheet (206/449); With Indicator (i.e., Variable Information Exhibiting Means) (206/459.1)
International Classification: B41J 11/58 (20060101);