Wet paper handling of ink jet images to allow passive drying
First Claim
1. An apparatus for handling and drying wet printed sheets comprising:
- printed sheet receiving tray means located at a first end of a paper conveying path for receiving wet printed sheets;
a sheet stacking tray located at a second end of the paper conveying path for receiving and stacking dried printed sheets;
a plurality of resilient, deformable fingers movable along the paper conveying path between the first end and the second end of the paper conveying path for conveying wet printed sheets in a conveying direction along the paper conveying path from said printed sheet receiving tray to said sheet stacking tray while drying the wet printed sheets under ambient conditions and for stacking the dried printed sheets in said sheet stacking tray;
an upper guide device located upstream of said sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the upper guide device deforming the fingers into a sheet stacking position adjacent the sheet stacking tray; and
a lower guide device located downstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the lower guide device guiding the fingers to flip from the sheet stacking position into a sheet receiving position adjacent the printed sheet receiving tray means.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An ink jet printer has a sheet conveying and drying device having a plurality of flexible, resilient yet stiff fingers connected in a cantilevered manner to a drive chain which moves the fingers from a printed sheet receiving tray to a sheet stacking tray. After sheets are printed by a conventional ink jet printing head, the sheets are picked off of the printed sheet receiving tray and fed to a sheet stacking tray. The printed sheets are dried while being fed from the printed sheet receiving tray to the sheet stacking tray. After the printed sheets are picked off of the fingers at the sheet stacking tray, the chain drive continues to move the fingers in a counterclockwise direction along the chain path. The resilient, flexible fingers are deformed by upper and lower guide rollers, a stacking tray and a rear separating wall and are flicked back into a sheet receiving position at the printed sheet receiving tray. The speed at which the chain drive moves the fingers can be varied to ensure that the images are dried by the time they reach the sheet stacking tray.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for handling and drying wet printed sheets comprising:
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printed sheet receiving tray means located at a first end of a paper conveying path for receiving wet printed sheets; a sheet stacking tray located at a second end of the paper conveying path for receiving and stacking dried printed sheets; a plurality of resilient, deformable fingers movable along the paper conveying path between the first end and the second end of the paper conveying path for conveying wet printed sheets in a conveying direction along the paper conveying path from said printed sheet receiving tray to said sheet stacking tray while drying the wet printed sheets under ambient conditions and for stacking the dried printed sheets in said sheet stacking tray; an upper guide device located upstream of said sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the upper guide device deforming the fingers into a sheet stacking position adjacent the sheet stacking tray; and a lower guide device located downstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the lower guide device guiding the fingers to flip from the sheet stacking position into a sheet receiving position adjacent the printed sheet receiving tray means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of handling and drying wet, printed sheets in an ink jet printer having an upper guide device and a lower guide device, the method comprising the steps of:
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feeding a plurality of sheets sequentially from a sheet supply tray to a sheet printing area; printing an image on each of the sheets in the sheet printing area to form wet printed sheets; sequentially feeding each of the wet printed sheets from the sheet printing area to a printed sheet receiving tray to locate a first one of the wet printed sheets on a plurality of fingers positioned at the printed sheet receiving tray; moving the fingers in a conveying direction to pick up the first one of the wet printed sheets and convey the first one of the wet printed sheets towards a sheet stacking tray; indexing the fingers in a stepping manner to position an empty shelf of the fingers at the printed sheet receiving tray to receive subsequent ones of the printed sheets; drying the wet printed sheets under ambient conditions while conveying the wet printed sheets toward the sheet stacking tray, the wet printed sheets becoming dried printed sheets; feeding the fingers and the dried printed sheets into contact with the upper guide device thereby deforming the fingers; feeding the fingers past the sheet stacking tray; and picking the dried printed sheets off of the fingers and stacking the dried printed sheets in the sheet stacking tray. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An ink jet printing apparatus comprising:
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an ink jet printhead for forming images on sheets; sheet feeding means for feeding a sheet past the printhead to create wet printed sheets; printed sheet receiving tray means for receiving the wet printed sheets fed past said printhead by the sheet feeding means; a sheet stacking tray located downstream of the printed sheet receiving tray in a conveying direction of the wet printed sheets; and a plurality of resilient, deformable fingers movable along the paper conveying path secured to an endless conveying device for ambiently drying the wet printed sheets printed by said ink jet printhead while conveying the sheets in a conveying direction from said printed sheet receiving tray to said sheet stacking tray; an upper guide device located upstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the upper guide device deforming the fingers into a sheet stacking position adjacent the sheet stacking tray; and a lower guide device located downstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the lower guide device guiding the fingers to flip from the sheet stacking position into a sheet receiving position adjacent the printed sheet receiving tray means. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification