Lexmark International, Inc.

Brian Anthony Reichert

Daniel Lee Carter

Gregory Lawrence Ream

Danny Keith Chapman

Roel Firmeza Pantonial

Mark Stephen Malone

Andrew Keith Walker

Randal Scott Williamson

Gary Allen Denton

John Parker Richey

John William Kietzman

James Paul Drummond

Calvin Dale Murphy

Thomas Austin Fields

Steven Michael Turney

Samuel Carter Sipper

An imaging device has a drive gear assembly which operatively engages with a backup roll gear of a fuser assembly when the fuser assembly is inserted into the imaging device. Such engagement causes the drive gear assembly to rotate, and in turn rotates a drive motor coupled to the drive gear assembly. The drive motor includes Hall Effect sensors associated with a sensor arrangement that senses rotation of the motor. During rotation of the drive motor, sensor signals are transmitted to a controller of the imaging device, the controller counting rising and falling signal edges of the received sensor signals. Based on the number of rising and falling signal edges, a message is sent to a user of the imaging device whether or not the installation of the fuser assembly was successful.

Fuser installation in an imaging device

A sheet processing apparatus includes a punch mechanism disposed along a media path at a punch point at which a hole is to be punched through a punch location on a media sheet advancing along the media path. The punch mechanism includes a rotatable punch arm having a punch head, and a punch motor for rotating the punch arm. As the punch location on the advancing media sheet approaches the punch point, speed of the punch motor is controlled to adjust a rotational speed of the punch arm based on feedback signals associated with each of the punch motor and a media path motor used to advance the media sheet such that the punch head arrives at the punch point at substantially the same time as when the punch location on the media sheet arrives at the punch point.

Motor control system and method for a rotary hole punch system

An elongate physical unclonable function (PUF) is disclosed. The PUF has a longitudinal axis and contains a plurality of small magnetic particles. A much larger magnet is positioned on the longitudinal axis to indicate a home position. A low-cost linear translation mechanism may be used to read the PUF by referencing position information to the home position. Other devices are disclosed.

Elongated physical unclonable function

A sheet processing apparatus and methods of utilizing the same. The sheet processing apparatus includes a punch mechanism disposed along a media path at a punch point at which a hole is to be punched through a punch location on a media sheet advancing along the media path. The punch mechanism includes a rotatable punch arm having a punch head, and a punch motor for rotating the punch arm. As the punch location on the advancing media sheet approaches the punch point, speed of the punch motor is controlled to adjust a rotational speed of the punch arm based on feedback signals associated with each of the punch motor and a media path motor used to advance the media sheet such that the punch head arrives at the punch point at substantially the same time as when the punch location on the media sheet arrives at the punch point.

Correction of rotary encoder eccentricity in an image forming device having a motor controller using period and position pulse train feedback signals. A motor includes an encoder disc rotating with the motor and at least two encoder sensors disposed at different circumferential positions about the encoder disc. A controller may use a high speed clock to calculate a corrected speed count based on speed counts determined from the number of clock cycles that elapse per cycle of pulse trains from the encoders. The controller may also calculate a corrected position count based at least partly on one or more position counts determined from the number of clock cycles that elapse between periodic sampling points and transitions of encoder pulse trains. The corrected position count may also be calculated based on a position count and one or more speed counts.

Encoder eccentricity correction for motion control systems

In an image forming device where first and second components are disposed in rotating contact with one another, the first component is driven by a first motor and a second component is driven by a second motor through a gear train with some predetermined backlash. The first and second components can be controllably accelerated according to respective first and second velocity profiles. The second component may be accelerated at a rate faster than the first component by an amount sufficient to substantially eliminate backlash in the gear train by a time the first and second components reach a common process speed. The first and second profiles may be adapted such that the mathematical integral of the time area between curves defining the profiles substantially matches the backlash amount.

Gear train backlash removal during component acceleration in an image forming device

A method of determining a relative speed between two separately driven members in an image forming apparatus, includes the steps of: transporting a print medium using a print media transport assembly including an exit nip, the print media transport assembly operable at a first transport speed; driving a rotatable member associated with an entrance nip using an electric motor at a second transport speed which is independent from the first transport speed; transferring the print medium from the exit nip to the entrance nip; detecting an electrical characteristic of the motor when the print medium is present in each of the exit nip and the entrance nip; and determining a relative speed between the first transport speed and the second transport speed.

Method of determining a relative speed between independently driven members in an image forming apparatus

A motion control system for controlling the motion of an intermediate transfer member in an image forming apparatus is provided in which a measuring member directly contacts the intermediate transfer member and generates signals proportional to the surface motion of the member. The measured surface motion is provided as a feedback signal to a motor controller, which compares the feedback signal with a reference signal. The difference between the signals is used to adjust the control of the drive motor for the intermediate transfer member drive roller in order to maintain a constant velocity for the intermediate transfer member.

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

Brian Anthony Reichert