DEVICE INCLUDING MOVABLE HEAD AND HEAD CONTROL METHOD

• US 20170348969A1
• Filed: 06/05/2017
• Published: 12/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: CHIBA, Takehiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,166,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/007 Conveyor belts or like feeding devices
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 19/205 Position or speed detectors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/2146 for line print heads
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 25/001 Mechanisms for bodily moving print heads or carriages parallel to the paper surface
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 5/026 between belts and stationary pressing, supporting or guiding elements forming a transport nip

Abstract

A device includes a head to perform an operation on a conveyed object; a head moving device to move the head in a width direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of the conveyed object; a position detector to detect a position of the conveyed object in the width direction; a speed detector to detect a moving speed of the conveyed object in the width direction; a position predictor to obtain a predicted width position of the conveyed object after a predetermined period, based on a detected position of the conveyed object and a detected moving speed of the conveyed object; a speed calculator to calculate a travel speed of the head; and a head travel controller to control the head moving device to move the head at the calculated travel speed. With the calculated travel speed, the head arrives at the predicted width position after the predetermined period.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a head to perform an operation on a conveyed object conveyed in a conveyance direction;

a head moving device to move the head in a width direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction;

a position detector to detect a position of the conveyed object in the width direction;

a speed detector to detect a moving speed of the conveyed object in the width direction;

a position predictor to obtain a predicted width position of the conveyed object after elapse of a predetermined period, based on a detection result generated by the position detector and a detection result generated by the speed detector;

a speed calculator to calculate a travel speed of the head in the width direction to cause the head to arrive at the predicted width position after the elapse of the predetermined period; and

a head travel controller to control the head moving device to move the head at the travel speed calculated by the speed calculator.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein, when a direction of movement of the conveyed object in the width direction changes to a direction different from a travel direction of the head during travel control of the head, the head travel controller causes the head moving device to stop the head.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein, when an amount of movement of the conveyed object in the width direction is smaller than a threshold during travel control of the head_;

the head travel controller causes the head moving device to stop the head, the threshold not greater than an estimated movement amount of the conveyed object calculated based on the moving speed of the conveyed object detected by the speed detector.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the head and the position detector are disposed such that an operation area of the head overlaps, at least partly, with a detection range of the position detector in the conveyance direction of the conveyed object.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the position detector detects the position of the conveyed object in the width direction, based on a pattern on the conveyed object.

6. A method of controlling a head to perform an operation on a conveyed object conveyed in a conveyance direction, the method comprising:

moving the head in a width direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyed object;

detecting a position of the conveyed object in the width direction;

detecting a moving speed of the conveyed object in the width direction;

predicting a predicted width position of the conveyed object after elapse of a predetermined period, based on a detected position of the conveyed object and a detected moving speed of the conveyed object;

calculating a travel speed of the head in the width direction to cause the head to arrive at the predicted width position after the elapse of the predetermined period; and

moving the head at the travel speed calculated.

7. A computer-readable non-transitory recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the method according to claim 6.