Compact plastic Oldham coupler

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10480584-B2
Application number	US-201715472713-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2017
Priority date	Mar 29, 2017
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

An Oldham coupler assembly for transferring rotary power between two shafts in an imaging device. The Oldham coupler includes an input plate, an output plate, and a drive plate and two pairs of coupling wheels, and, in one embodiment, made of the same plastic material. The drive plate has a pair of open-ended slots along one axis and a close-ended center slot along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis. The drive plate is mechanically coupled and positioned in between the input plate and the output plate. A plastic retraction spline assembly is slidably retained in the output plate and engages with a drive member in an imaging unit. The input plate includes gear teeth integrally molded into the outer circumference thereof decreasing the overall width of the Oldham coupler. The two pairs of coupling wheels have the same diameter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An Oldham coupler assembly for transferring rotary power between two shafts, comprising:
an input plate and an output plate made of a first material, the input plate having gear teeth about an outer circumference thereof and the output plate having a spline assembly retained therein and centered about an axis of rotation of the output plate, the spline assembly biased outwardly from an outer face of the output plate and being axially slidable;
a drive plate made of a second material and positioned between and mechanically coupled to the input plate and the output plate, the drive plate having a pair of opposed open-ended slots having a first centerline passing through a center of the drive plate and an elongated close-ended center slot having a second centerline passing through the center of the drive plate positioned orthogonal to the first centerline;
a first pair of wheels rotatably fastened to an inner face of the input plate; and,
a second pair of wheels rotatably fastened to an inner face of the output plate, each wheel of the first pair of wheels rotatably engaging with a respective one of the pair of open-ended opposed slots and the second pair of wheels rotatably engaging with the center slot, the first and second pair of wheels being made of the second material and moveably coupling the drive plate to the input and output plates, respectively.

2. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first material is a first type of plastic and the second material is a second type of plastic.

3. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first material and the second material are a same type plastic.

4. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 2 , wherein the first material comprises a material selected from a group of materials consisting of a polyoxymethylene (POM), a polypropylene, a polyethylene, an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), an acetal copolymer, a nylon, an acetal copolymer with glass and a nylon with glass.

5. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 2 , wherein the second material comprises a material selected from a group of materials consisting of a polyoxymethylene (POM), a polypropylene, a polyethylene, an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), an acetal copolymer, a nylon, an acetal copolymer with glass and a nylon with glass.

6. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first pair of wheels has a diameter D 1 , the second pair of wheels has a diameter D 2 , the pair of opposed open-ended slots have a width W 1 and the central slot has a width of W 2 , wherein the diameter D 1 is equal to or less than the width W 1 and the diameter D 2 is equal to or less than the width W 2 , and further wherein the width W 1 and the width W 2 are substantially equal.

7. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 6 , wherein the widths W 1 and W 2 are each about 8 to about 8.1 mm and the diameters D 1 and D 2 are each equal to about 7.9 to about 8 mm.

8. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein:
the output plate further comprises:
a collar axially extending from the outer face of the output plate, the output plate and collar having a center opening extending from the inner face of the output plate through the collar;
a plurality of radially spaced fingers projecting into the center opening; and,
an inner wall of the collar having a plurality of axial channels wherein a first channel of the plurality of axial channels has an open end at the inner face of the output plate and a closed end adjacent a top end of the collar with the remaining channels of the plurality of axial channels having an open top at the top end of the collar and an open bottom at the inner face of the output plate, the first channel having a depth that is greater than the remaining channels;

and,
the spline assembly comprises:
a sleeve sized to be slidably received into the collar via the top end of the collar, the sleeve having a plurality of drive lugs radially inwardly extending from an inner wall of the sleeve and a plurality of retention lugs radially outwardly extending from an outer wall of the sleeve;
a first retention lug of the plurality of retention lugs having a length greater than a length of the remaining plurality of retention lugs, the first retention lug and the remaining plurality of retention lugs sized to be slidably received into the first channel of the plurality of axial channels and the remaining channels of the plurality of axial channels, respectively; and,
a biasing member seated between the sleeve and the plurality of fingers for biasing the sleeve toward the top of the collar.

9. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 8 , wherein the sleeve further comprises a seating ring radially extending from the inner wall of the sleeve and positioned adjacent a bottom of the plurality of drive lugs, the seating ring consisting of a plurality of radially spaced seating segments.

10. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 9 , wherein the biasing member is seated between the plurality of fingers and the seating ring.

11. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 10 , wherein a one way catch projects into each of the remaining channels of the plurality channels at the respective open top at the top end of the collar.

12. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the drive plate, the sleeve, and the biasing member each have a center opening therethrough and the input plate further comprises a post positioned about an axis of rotation of the input plate and axially extending from the inner face thereof through the corresponding central openings of the drive plate and the biasing member and into the sleeve.

13. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the inner faces of the input plate and the output plate each has a plurality of spaced wear bumps.

14. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein each wheel in the first and second pairs of wheels has a flange having a diameter greater than a width of the respective slot in the drive plate in which the wheel is positioned and the inner face of the input plate has a pair of opposed scalloped channels aligned with the second pair of wheels and the inner face of the output plate has a pair of opposed channels aligned with the first pair of wheels, the pairs of opposed channels in the input and output plate receiving the flanges of the each of the second and first pairs of wheels, respectively.

15. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 1 , wherein the output plate has an open-ended notch therein sized to allow one wheel of the second pair of wheels to be inserted therethough and into the center slot during assembly of the Oldham coupler assembly.

16. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 15 , wherein the open-ended notch has a generally trapezoidal shape with an open end of the notch having a length greater than a length of the closed end of the notch.

17. The Oldham coupler assembly of claim 15 , wherein the open-ended notch has a circular shape.

18. An Oldham coupler assembly for transferring rotary power between two shafts, comprising:
an input plate and an output plate made of a plastic material, the input plate having gear teeth integrally molded about an outer circumference thereof;
a drive plate made of the plastic material and positioned in between and slidably coupled to the input plate and the output plate, the drive plate having a pair of opposed open-ended slots having a first centerline passing through a center of the drive plate and an elongated close-ended center slot having a second centerline passing through the center of the drive plate po

Assignees

• Lexmark Int Inc

Inventors

• Carter Daniel Lee

Classifications

• G03G15/757

  Drive mechanisms for photosensitive medium, e.g. gears · CPC title

• G03G2221/1657

  transmitting mechanical drive power · CPC title

• G03G21/1647

  Mechanical connection means · CPC title

• F16D3/04 Primary

  specially adapted to allow radial displacement, e.g. Oldham couplings · CPC title

• Y10T464/20

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic