Recording apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11433693-B2
Application number	US-202017132316-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2020
Priority date	Dec 27, 2019
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

A recording apparatus includes a feed portion that feeds a medium, a transport portion that transports the fed medium in a transport direction, a recording portion that performs recording on the medium transported by the transport portion, a support member that includes a support surface that supports the medium on which the recording portion performs recording. The recording apparatus includes a pressing member that presses the medium towards the support member, at a position upstream of the recording position of the recording portion in the transport direction. The pressing member is provided so as to be movable in a direction intersecting the support surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A recording apparatus comprising:
a feed portion that feeds a medium;
a transport portion that transports the fed medium in a transport direction;
a recording portion that performs recording on the medium transported by the transport portion;
a support member that includes a support surface that supports the medium on which the recording portion performs recording; and
a pressing member that presses the medium towards the support member, at a position upstream of the recording position of the recording portion in the transport direction, wherein
the pressing member is provided so as to be movable in a direction intersecting the support surface,
the pressing member includes an abutting portion that abuts against the medium when pressing down the medium, and a first guiding surface that guides a front end of the medium, which is transported in the transport direction, to the abutting portion,
a third surface at a lateral portion adjacent to the first guiding surface of the pressing member in the width direction, the third surface being formed across an area in height including a height position where the medium is transported, and being inclined in a direction that approaches the width center of the pressing member as the third surface extends downwards.

2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an elastic member that biases the pressing member in a pressing direction that is a direction approaching the support member.

3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the transport portion includes
a pair of transport rollers, the pair of transport rollers being a pair formed by a driving roller and a driven roller,
a pivoting member that is pivotably supported while supporting the driven roller at a downstream end portion in the transport direction, and
a biasing member that biases the pivoting member in a direction in which the driven roller approaches the driving roller, and
the pressing member is provided at the downstream end portion of the pivoting member in the transport direction while being biased in the pressing direction with the elastic member.

4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pressing member includes a second guiding surface that guides a rear end of the medium, which is reverse transferred upstream in the transport direction, to the abutting portion.

5. The recording apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
the pressing member includes a pivot fulcrum positioned upstream of the abutting portion in the transport direction, and
the second guiding surface is set at an angle that receives an upward force so that a direction of the force that the second guiding surface receives and that is orthogonal to the second guiding surface when the rear end of the medium abuts against the second guiding surface at a predetermined position is directed upwards with respect to an imaginary line connecting the predetermined position on the second guiding surface and the pivot fulcrum.

6. The recording apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the pressing member includes a first surface at a position above and adjacent to the second guiding surface, the first surface being inclined in a direction that is the same as that of the second guiding surface.

7. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the support member includes a plurality of ribs positioned at intervals in a width direction that intersects the transport direction, the ribs each including the support surface at an end surface thereof, and a plurality of recessed areas that are areas other than the plurality of ribs and that are areas lower in height than the ribs, and
the pressing member includes an abutting portion that abuts against the medium when pressing down the medium, the abutting portion being disposed at a position opposing a recessed area of the plurality of recessed areas of the support member.

8. The recording apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein when the pressing member is positioned at where the pressing member moved the most in a pressing direction, the abutting portion overlaps the support surface of a rib of the plurality of ribs in an orthogonal direction, which is orthogonal to the support surface, and in the transport direction.

9. The recording apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the pressing member is provided at least at positions between outermost ribs that support both edge portions of a largest-sized medium in the width direction and ribs positioned inside and next to the outermost ribs in the width direction.

10. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the transport portion includes a pair of transport rollers, the pair of transport rollers being a pair formed by a driving roller and a driven roller,
a pivoting member that is pivotably supported and that supports the driven roller at a downstream end portion in the transport direction, and
a biasing member that biases the pivoting member in a direction in which the driven roller approaches the driving roller, and
the pressing member extends from a downstream end portion of the pivoting member in the transport direction.

11. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the pressing member includes an arm and, at a distal end portion of the arm, an abutting portion that abuts against the medium when pressing down the medium, and
the abutting portion has, with respect to the arm, a wide shape protruded in the width direction that intersects the transport direction.

12. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pressing member includes a rotatable roller in a portion where the medium is pressed down.

13. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pressing member is a pivotable flap.

14. A recording apparatus comprising:
a feed portion that feeds a medium;
a transport portion that transports the fed medium in a transport direction;
a recording portion that performs recording on the medium transported by the transport portion;
a support member that includes a support surface that supports the medium on which the recording portion performs recording; and
a pressing member that presses the medium towards the support member, at a position upstream of the recording position of the recording portion in the transport direction, wherein
the pressing member is provided so as to be movable in a direction intersecting the support surface,
the pressing member includes an abutting portion that abuts against the medium when pressing down the medium, and a first guiding surface that guides a front end of the medium, which is transported in the transport direction, to the abutting portion,
a disk tray on which a disk that is subject to label recording that performs recording on a label surface of the disk is reverse transported from downstream to upstream in the transport direction by the transport portion,
the disk tray includes an extension portion that extends upstream in the transport direction, and
the pressing member includes a second surface that is formed across an area in height that includes a height position at which the disk tray comes in contact with the second surface when the disk tray is reverse transported by the transport portion, and that is inclined in a direction that approaches a width center of the pressing member as the second surface extends downwards and downstream in the transport direction.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Furusawa Takuro
• Yoshino Satoshi
• Tamai Kensuke

Classifications

• B41J3/28

  for printing downwardly on flat surfaces, e.g. of books, drawings, boxes {, envelopes, e.g. flat-bed ink-jet printers} · CPC title

• B41J11/0005 Primary

  Curl smoothing, i.e. smoothing down corrugated printing material, e.g. by pressing means acting on wrinkled printing material · CPC title

• B41J13/0018 Primary

  in the sheet input section of automatic paper handling systems · CPC title

• B41J11/08

  Bar or like line-size platens · CPC title

• B41J11/06 Primary

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