Media conveyors with suction holes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11377316-B2
Application number	US-201616340629-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2016
Priority date	Oct 17, 2016
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

In an example, a media conveyor includes a media support platform having a suction hole, and a valve to selectively close the suction hole. A valve actuator to actuate the valve includes an air tube having an air inlet and a seal to selectively seal the air inlet.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A media conveyor comprising:
a media support platform comprising a suction hole;
a valve to selectively close the suction hole; and
a valve actuator to actuate the valve and comprising an air tube, the air tube comprising an air inlet, and a seal to selectively seal the air inlet.

2. The media conveyor of claim 1 comprising a solenoid to reposition the seal relative to the air inlet.

3. The media conveyor of claim 1 wherein the valve comprises a diaphragm having a convolution comprising a pair of concentric annular walls.

4. The media conveyor of claim 1 wherein the valve comprises a bleed hole, and wherein a size of the bleed hole is less than a size of at least one of the air tube and the air inlet.

5. The media conveyor of claim 4 , wherein the air tube is connected to a chamber on a first side of valve, wherein the chamber is connected to a negative pressure source via the bleed hole.

6. The media conveyor of claim 1 wherein:
the media support platform comprises a plurality of suction holes and a plurality of valves, each valve to selectively close an associated suction hole; and
the valve actuator is to selectively actuate the plurality of valves as a group.

7. A media handling apparatus comprising:
a media support platform comprising a plurality of suction holes and, in association with a first suction hole of the suction holes, a first valve to selectively close the first suction hole, the first valve comprising a diaphragm having a position which is responsive to a pressure differential;
a valve actuator comprising an air tube having a selectively sealable air inlet, the valve actuator being to selectively actuate the first valve;
a negative pressure source to cause suction of air through the first suction hole when the first suction hole is open; and
processing circuitry to determine, based on an attribute of a media being handled by the media handling apparatus, if the first suction hole should be open or closed and to control the valve actuator according to the determination.

8. The media handling apparatus of claim 7 comprising a media conveying belt, wherein the media conveying belt is to carry media across the media support platform.

9. The media handling apparatus of claim 7 comprising, in association with a second suction hole of the suction holes, a second valve to selectively close the second suction hole, the second valve comprising a diaphragm having a position which is responsive to a pressure differential, wherein the valve actuator is to selectively actuate the first and second valves.

10. The media handling apparatus of claim 7 in which the plurality of suction holes comprises a third suction hole which is always open or which is closable by a valve directly actuated by presence of media.

11. The media handling apparatus of claim 7 comprising a plurality of negative pressure chambers, wherein each negative pressure chamber is connected to a subset of the plurality of suction holes.

12. The media handling apparatus of claim 11 comprising a print apparatus and in which a first negative pressure chamber of the negative pressure chambers is associated with a region of the media support platform which is to support a print media during a first print operation and a second negative pressure chamber of the negative pressure chambers is associated with a region of the media support platform which is to support a print media during a second, different print operation.

13. The media handling apparatus of claim 7 wherein a first region of the media support platform comprises a first composition of suction holes and a second region of the media support platform comprises a second, different, composition of suction holes.

14. A method comprising:
receiving, on a media support platform of a media handling apparatus, a media sheet;
generating a negative pressure;
generating an actuation signal to selectively seal an inlet of an air tube and thereby cause a pressure operated valve to communicate the negative pressure to the media sheet as an applied suction; and
conveying the media sheet on the media support platform under the applied suction.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein sealing the inlet of the air tube causes a plurality of pressure operated valves to communicate the negative pressure to the media sheet as a suction via a plurality of respective suction holes.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Gutierrez Garcia Daniel
• Terradellas Callau Roger
• Castells De Monet Raimon

Classifications

• B65H2406/418

  Diaphragm valves · CPC title

• B41J11/0085 Primary

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

• B65H5/222

  by suction devices · CPC title

• B65H5/224

  by suction belts (B65H11/005 takes precedence) · CPC title