Electronic alignment for a paper processing machine
First Claim
1. An image producing machine including means for electronically aligning components of said machine for producing a nominally correct position at which image receiving sheets serially fed through said machine are properly aligned with images serially produced by said machine, comprising:
- a processing station;
drive means for moving a receiving sheet through said processing station;
means for producing an image on said receiving sheet;
means for developing said image;
aligning means for electronically aligning components of said machine to adjust the relative position of said image and said image receiving sheet;
control means including programmable logic means connected to said aligning means to cause said aligning means to set up said machine to define a nominally correct position whereat images and image receiving sheets are properly aligned one with the other for subsequent production, said set up in accordance with a measure of alignment of the position of said image on said receiving sheet; and
entering means for introducing said measure of alignment into said control means.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic alignment of paper feeding components in a machine such as an electrophotographic copier machine is achieved by placing an original master containing vernier calibrations on the document glass and a target master containing vernier calibrations in the copy paper bin. Thereupon, the machine is operated to produce a copy of the original master onto the target master producing a double set of vernier calibrations on the target master, which, when compared, provides information relating to skew angle, side edge relationship and leading edge alignment of the image to the copy paper. The vernier calibrations provide data which are keyed into a microprocessor controlled copy feeding servo mechanism to correct copy paper position and remove misalignment. The operation is repeated for various combinations of paper feed paths with techniques of original document placement and for duplex operation so that the copy paper matches image position for all modes of copier operation. For printer mode of operation, the master vernier is printed to produce the needed image.
In addition, sensors are located in the copy paper path to automatically correct for deviations in the copy sheet feeding unit, caused by wear, for example, over a period of time.
Sensors are also located in the document feeder so that corrections in the position of the copy paper may be made on an individualized and dynamic basis to electronically correct for misalignment of individual originals on the document glass.
126 Citations
41 Claims
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1. An image producing machine including means for electronically aligning components of said machine for producing a nominally correct position at which image receiving sheets serially fed through said machine are properly aligned with images serially produced by said machine, comprising:
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a processing station; drive means for moving a receiving sheet through said processing station; means for producing an image on said receiving sheet; means for developing said image; aligning means for electronically aligning components of said machine to adjust the relative position of said image and said image receiving sheet; control means including programmable logic means connected to said aligning means to cause said aligning means to set up said machine to define a nominally correct position whereat images and image receiving sheets are properly aligned one with the other for subsequent production, said set up in accordance with a measure of alignment of the position of said image on said receiving sheet; and entering means for introducing said measure of alignment into said control means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. An electrophotographic machine comprising:
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a photoreceptive surface; mounting means for said photoreceptive surface; an exposure station; drive means for moving said photoreceptive surface through said exposure station; means for producing an image on said photoreceptive surface at said exposure station; means for developing said image; and aligning means for electronically aligning a copy sheet to receive said image, said aligning means including programmable logic means, and further including sensor means for sensing the position of all copy sheets after alignment to sense for the continued presence of errors in alignment to produce correction factors for further altering the output of said programmable logic means in accordance with an average of said continued errors over a predetermined sample number of copy sheets.
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25. An electrophotographic copier machine comprising:
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a photoreceptive surface; mounting means for said photoreceptive surface; an exposure station; drive means for moving said photoreceptive surface through said exposure station; means for producing an image on said photoreceptive surface at said exposure station; means for developing said image; aligning means for electronically aligning a copy sheet to receive said image, said aligning means including programmable logic means and drive rolls under the control of said logic means; a document glass; a document feeding mechanism for feeding an original document to be copied to a nominal desired position on said document glass; and sensor means for sensing the position of the document side edge for producing a measure of document side edge position, said sensor connected to said programmable logic means for automatically entering said measure into said programmable logic means for altering the output of said programmable logic means to change the position of a copy sheet destined to receive an image of said original document to dynamically and electronically compensate for the mispositioning of said document on said document glass from said nominal desired position. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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28. A method for electronically aligning components of the copy paper path of an electrophotographic machine to cause image receiving sheets to properly align with an image comprising the steps of:
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producing an image of a master pattern on photoreceptive material for juxtaposition with a preprinted pattern on a master image receiving sheet; comparing said master pattern to said preprinted pattern to ascertain a measure of errors in the alignment of said image and said receiving sheet; inserting said measure into programmable logic means to produce an output altered in accordamce with said measure of errrors; and thereafter controlling receiving sheet positioning means by the output of said programmable logic means to Position receiving sheets in a manner which eliminates said errors in alignment. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A method for electronically aligning the components of an image producing machine so that image receiving sheets are properly aligned with an image comprising the steps of:
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producing an image on an image receiving sheet; ascertaining the position of said image on said sheet to produce a measure of error in the alignment of said image and said receiving sheet; inserting said measure of alignment into programmable logic means to produce an output altered in accordance with said measure; and utilizing the output of said programmable logic means to control means for electronically adjusting the components of said machine to a nominally correct position at which the relative position of said image and image receiving sheet are in correct alignment for subsequent machine operation. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification