Printing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9956795-B2
Application number	US-201715491012-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2017
Priority date	Apr 27, 2016
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

A printing apparatus includes a print unit; a first roller that transport the medium; a plurality of second rollers cooperating with the first roller to nip the medium therebetween at positions that face the first rollers; a third roller that holds the medium which has been transported by the first roller and transport the medium to a print path in which printing is performed by the print unit; a specific second roller located most downstream in the transportation path among the second rollers; and a control unit that controls each of the roller and the print unit, wherein the control unit causes the specific second roller to be displaced to a separated position after the medium is held by the third roller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing apparatus comprising:
a print unit that performs printing onto a medium;
a first roller that transports the medium along a predetermined transportation path;
a plurality of second rollers cooperating with the first roller to nip the medium therebetween at a plurality of positions that face the first rollers;
a third roller disposed downstream relative to the first roller and the second roller in the transportation path so as to hold the medium which has been transported by the first roller and transport the medium to a print path in which printing is performed by the print unit;
a specific second roller which is a roller located most downstream in the transportation path among the plurality of the second rollers, the specific second roller being displaced between a first position in which the specific second roller cooperates with the first roller to nip the medium therebetween and a second position in which the specific second roller is separated from the first roller and does not hold the medium; and
a control unit that controls each of the roller and the print unit, wherein
the control unit causes the specific second roller to be displaced from the first position to the second position after the medium is held by the third roller.

2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a first drive source that rotates the first roller; and
a second drive source that rotates the third roller, wherein
the first roller includes a supply roller that supplies the medium from the supply source of the medium to the transportation path, and a transportation roller that transports the medium supplied by the supply roller to a downstream region in the transportation path, and
the control unit causes the supply roller to be rotated by the first drive source to thereby supply a subsequent medium from the supply source to the transportation path when a trailing edge of the medium passes by the roller which is located most downstream in the transportation path among the second rollers except for the specific second roller after the specific second roller is displaced to the second position.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein, when the trailing edge of the medium passes by a position of the specific second roller, the control unit allows only the transportation roller to be rotated by the first drive source and causes the specific second roller to be displaced from the second position to the first position.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the control unit causes the specific second roller to be displaced from the second position to the first position when the leading edge of the subsequent medium reaches a specific position which is a position between the specific second roller and the roller which is located most downstream in the transportation path among the second rollers except for the specific second roller, and the position being close to the specific second roller, after the trailing edge of the medium passes by the position of the specific second roller.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein, if printing by the print unit to the medium held by the third roller is printing for the last page, the control unit stops the first drive source when the trailing edge of the medium to which the printing for the last page is performed passes by the roller which is located most downstream in the transportation path among the second rollers except for the specific second roller.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Ogimura Takafumi

Classifications

• B41J13/0009 Primary

  control of the transport of the copy material · CPC title

• B41J11/04

  Roller platens · CPC title

• B41J13/025

  Special roller holding or lifting means, e.g. for temporarily raising one roller of a pair of nipping rollers for inserting printing material · CPC title