Assembly for moving a carriage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10343430-B2
Application number	US-201715699761-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2017
Priority date	Sep 22, 2016
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

An assembly is provided for moving a carriage, the assembly comprising a carriage beam arranged for supporting the carriage, which is moveably arranged along the carriage beam, a cable carrier for supporting a cable, the cable carrier being attached to the carriage and comprising a plurality of carrier segments distributed along a length of the cable carrier, and a flexible support element arranged along the carriage beam for supporting the cable carrier along a track.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An assembly for moving a carriage, the assembly comprising:
a carriage beam arranged for supporting the carriage, the carriage being moveably arranged along the carriage beam;
a cable carrier for supporting a cable, the cable carrier being attached to the carriage and comprising a plurality of carrier segments distributed along a longitudinal length of the cable carrier;
a flexible support element arranged along the carriage beam for supporting the cable carrier along a track, wherein when the carriage moves along the carriage beam, the cable carrier is in rolling contact to the flexible support element along the track, whereby the carrier segments successively contact the flexible support element; and
a tensioner assembly arranged for tensioning the flexible support element,
wherein a first end of the flexible support element is attached to a first mounting plate of a frame and a second end of the flexible support element is attached to a second mounting plate of the frame.

2. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the tensioner assembly comprises a first and a second holder configured to hold the flexible support element and spaced apart from one another along a length of the flexible support element, such that the flexible support element is tensioned between the first and the second holder.

3. The assembly according to claim 2 , wherein the flexible support element is a belt elastic in its longitudinal direction.

4. The assembly according to claim 2 , wherein the tensioner assembly further comprises an adjusting mechanism for adjusting the tension in the flexible support.

5. The assembly according to claim 4 , wherein the adjusting mechanism comprises positioning means for adjusting and setting a distance between the first and the second holder.

6. The assembly according to claim 4 , wherein the adjusting mechanism comprises an adjusting spring element.

7. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a first holder is mounted on the first mounting plate for holding the first end of the flexible support element and a second holder is mounted on the second mounting plate for holding the second end of the flexible support element.

8. The assembly according to claim 7 , wherein the first holder and the second holder are mounted on opposite sides of the frame when viewed along a longitudinal direction of the carriage beam.

9. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the assembly further comprises the cable and the cable carrier is arranged co-extensive to the cable along a length direction of the cable.

10. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cable carrier is connected to the carriage at a first end of the cable carrier and is connected to flexible support element at a second end of the cable carrier.

11. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a compliancy of the flexible support element is configured for damping a dynamic vibration of the cable carrier.

12. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the flexible support element is constituted by a metal belt element.

13. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a compliancy of the flexible support element is adaptable by the tensioner assembly such to affect a resonance frequency and/or resonance amplitude of the flexible support element.

14. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the assembly further comprises a control unit operatively connected to the tensioner assembly for controlling the tension of the flexible support element.

15. The assembly according to claim 14 , wherein the control unit is arranged to control the tension of the flexible support element based on a movement of the carriage along the carriage beam.

16. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the assembly further comprises at least one spring element arranged for mounting the cable carrier to the carriage.

17. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the assembly further comprises two side mounting plates, each side mounting plate being arranged for mounting the carriage beam and arranged for mounting the flexible support element.

18. An apparatus comprising the assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus comprises a processing unit which is mounted on the carriage and wherein the apparatus further comprises a control unit for controlling the processing unit by way of the cable.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18 , wherein the apparatus is a printing apparatus and wherein the processing unit is a print head assembly for printing an image on a substrate.

Assignees

• Oce Holding Bv

Inventors

• Musete Romeo

Classifications

• B41J2/175

  Ink supply systems {; Circuit parts therefor} · CPC title

• B41J25/001 Primary

  Mechanisms for bodily moving print heads or carriages parallel to the paper surface · CPC title

• B41J19/005 Primary

  Cable or belt constructions for driving print, type or paper-carriages, e.g. attachment, tensioning means · CPC title

• B41J19/06

  Resilient mounting of mechanism · CPC title