Transporting apparatus, fibrous feedstock recycling apparatus, and transporting method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11319179-B2
Application number	US-201916672593-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2019
Priority date	Nov 5, 2018
Publication date	May 3, 2022
Grant date	May 3, 2022

Abstract

A transporting apparatus includes a pressurizing roller that transports a web-like or sheet-like transport target object and a heating roller disposed downstream of the pressurizing roller in a transport path, a first bottom sensor and a first top sensor that are disposed between the pressurizing roller and the heating roller, a measuring section that measures a time from when the transport target object is detected by the first bottom sensor until the transport target object is detected by the first top sensor, and a rotation control section that modifies a rotation speed of the heating roller when a time measured by the measuring section is shorter than a first reference time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transporting apparatus comprising:
a first roller that transports a web-like or sheet-like transport target object; and
a second roller disposed downstream of the first roller in a transport path of the transport target object, the second roller being configured to transport the transport target object;
a first sensor that is disposed between the first roller and the second roller along the transport path;
a second sensor disposed adjacent to the second roller along the transport path;
a controller configured to:
measure a time from when the transport target object is detected by the first sensor until the transport target object is detected by the second sensor; and
modify a rotation speed of the second roller when the measured time is shorter than a predetermined first reference time.

2. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein with respect to a vertical direction, the first sensor is disposed on one side of the transport path and the second sensor is installed on an opposite side of the transport path from the first sensor.

3. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a first tension roller disposed between the first roller and the second roller in the transport path, the tension roller being configured to move in response to displacement of the transport target object,
wherein the first sensor is configured to detect movement of the first tension roller to a first position and the second sensor configured to detect movement of a second tension roller to a second position; and
the sensor and the second sensor are configured to detect a position of the transport target object based on the movement of the first tension roller and the second tension roller.

4. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is configured to execute stepwise control for modifying, in a stepwise manner, the rotation speed of the second roller and modifies the rotation speed of the second roller by a smaller change amount than in the stepwise control when the time measured is shorter than the predetermined first reference time.

5. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first sensor is disposed at a position of the transport target object when a length of the transport target object between the first roller and the second roller is a predetermined length,
the second sensor is disposed at a position of the transport target object when the length of the transport target object between the first roller and the second roller is shorter than the predetermined length,
the controller is configured to set the rotation speed of the second roller to a first speed when the position the transport target object is detected by the first sensor and configured to set the rotation speed of the second roller to a second speed that is a lower speed than the first speed when the position transport target object is detected by the second sensor, and
the controller is configured to modify one or both of the first speed and the second speed when the time measured is shorter than the predetermined first reference time.

6. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein:
the controller is configured to:
repeatedly measure a time required for an operation from when the transport target object is detected by the first sensor until the transport target object is detected by the second sensor,
compare an average value of a set number of measured times to the predetermined first reference time, and

the set number is greater than or equal to 2.

7. The transporting apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the controller is configured to modify the set number.

8. The transporting apparatus according to claim 7 ,
wherein the controller is configured to modify the set number based on a number of times an operation of detecting the transport target object by the second sensor after the transport target object is detected by the first sensor is performed in a predetermined second reference time.

9. The transporting apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first roller is a pressurizing roller configured to pressurize the transport target object.

10. A fibrous feedstock recycling apparatus comprising:
a forming section configured to form a web-like or sheet-like processing target object from a feedstock containing fibers;
a processing section configured to process the processing target object; and
a transport section configured to transport the processing target object from the forming section to the processing section,
wherein the transport section includes:
a first roller that transports the processing target object and a second roller configured to transport the processing target object and being disposed downstream of the first roller in a transport path of the processing target object,
a first sensor and that is disposed between the first roller and the second roller in the transport path of the processing target object, a second sensor disposed adjacent to the second roller in the transport path;

a controller configured to:
measure a time from when a presence of the processing target object is detected by the first sensor until the presence the processing target object is detected by the second sensor; and
modify a rotation speed of the second roller when the time measured is shorter than a predetermined first reference time.

11. The fibrous feedstock recycling apparatus according to claim 10 ,
wherein the first roller or the second roller is a pressurizing roller that pressurizes the processing target object, and
the roller that is not the pressurizing roller among the first roller and the second roller is a heating roller that heats the processing target object.

12. A transporting method of transporting a web-like or sheet-like transport target object using a first roller that transports the transport target object and a second roller disposed downstream of the first roller in a transport path of the transport target object in which a first sensor is disposed between the first roller and the second roller and a second sensor is disposed adjacent to the second roller along the transport path, the method comprising:
a first step of measuring a time from when a presence of the transport target object is detected by the first sensor until the presence of the transport target object is detected by the second sensor; and
a second step of modifying a rotation speed of the second roller when the time measured in the first step is shorter than a predetermined first reference time.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Nagai Yoshiyuki

Classifications

• B65H23/1884

  with step-by-step advancement · CPC title

• B65H2513/11

  angular · CPC title

• B27N3/04

  from fibres · CPC title

• B65H2701/1131

  of sheets · CPC title

• B65H26/00 Primary

  Warning or safety devices, e.g. automatic fault detectors, stop-motions, for web-advancing mechanisms (safety devices in general F16P; investigating chemical or physical properties of materials in general G01N; indicating devices in general G08B) · CPC title