Media support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10252550-B2
Application number	US-201815913732-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2018
Priority date	Jul 28, 2013
Publication date	Apr 9, 2019
Grant date	Apr 9, 2019

Abstract

In one example, a media support includes a sheet of elongated suction cups. In another example, a media support includes an arrangement of elongated and/or circular suction cups in which the density of the suction cups varies between different parts of the support.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A media support, comprising:
a sheet of elongated suction cups, each of the elongated suction cups having a port through which air is to be evacuated from the elongated suction cup, the elongated suction cups being arranged on the sheet in a first array having a first density of elongated suction cups and a second array having a second density of elongated suction cups that is less than the first density, wherein the sheet extends along a plane and each of the elongated suction cups has a length and a width along the plane, and wherein the length of each of the elongated suction cups is greater than the width of each of the elongated suction cups;
the port of a first suction cup in the first array being spaced apart from the port of a second suction cup in the first array closest to the first suction cup along a first direction of the sheet by a first distance and being spaced apart from the port of a third suction cup in the first array closest to the first suction cup along a second direction of the sheet by a second distance, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction; and
the port of a fourth suction cup in the second array being spaced apart from the port of a fifth suction cup in the second array closest to the fourth suction cup along the first direction of the sheet by a third distance that is greater than the first distance.

2. The media support of claim 1 , wherein the sheet includes:
only elongated suction cups; or
elongated suction cups and circular suction cups.

3. The media support of claim 1 , wherein the sheet comprises a flexible sheet and each elongated suction cup comprises an oval suction cup.

4. The media support of claim 1 , wherein each of the elongated suction cups includes a rim that is integral with the sheet and protrudes from a front surface of the sheet to create a recess in the sheet that extends below the front surface of the sheet when the sheet and the rim are in an unflexed state, wherein at least a portion of a bottom surface of the rim facing the recess extends below the front surface of the sheet when the sheet and the rim are in the unflexed state.

5. The media support of claim 4 , wherein the rim is formed at a perimeter of a flexible ring surrounding the port, and wherein the ring is to flex into the recess away from the front surface of the sheet when a print media supported on the sheet is sucked onto the rim.

6. The media support of claim 1 , wherein the sheet of elongated suction cups includes only elongated suction cups.

7. The media support of claim 1 , wherein the port of the fourth suction cup in the second array is spaced apart from the port of a sixth suction cup in the second array closest to the fourth suction cup along the second direction of the sheet by the second distance.

8. The media support of claim 1 , wherein the first array includes a same number of elongated suction cups as the second array.

Assignees

• Hp Scitex Ltd

Inventors

• Veis Alex
• Dekel Yaron
• Dim Yuval

Classifications

• B41J13/0072

  Handling wide cut sheets, e.g. using means for enabling or facilitating the conveyance of wide sheets · CPC title

• B41J13/226

  using suction · CPC title

• B41J11/0085 Primary

  Using suction for maintaining printing material flat (on rotatable drums B41J13/226) · CPC title

• B41J11/006

  Means for preventing paper jams or for facilitating their removal · CPC title

• B41J11/06

  Flat page-size platens {or smaller flat platens having a greater size than line-size platens (B41J11/0085 takes precedence)} · CPC title