June 12, 2007

Development of Environment-Responsive
“Paper Reversing Unit for Office Machines”

[ Smooth paper feeding mechanism for two-sided printing for printers and copiers without a reversing motor ]

NTN Corporation (hereafter, NTN) has developed a paper reversing unit for office machines, which is able to change rotational direction without an exclusive motor, resulting in energy savings and cost reduction of paper reversing mechanisms for printers and copiers. In recent years, printers and copiers with two-sided printing functions have become more common in order to reduce paper consumption and contribute to environmental protection. The paper is currently reversed by means of normal and reverse rotation of rollers using exclusive motors.

Considering the trend that the two-sided printing function will become common even in slow speed and low cost machines, NTN developed the paper reversing unit with a function enabling change of the rotational direction of the output gear by the driven motor without an exclusive motor for reversing, striving for energy savings and cost reduction. NTN will promote the application of these units to printers and copiers, and develop other applications to contribute to size reduction of equipment.

[ Structure and Motion ]

The unit is composed of three gears for input, output, and control, and the input gear always rotates in one direction (normal direction).
When braking is not applied to the control gear (free), the control and the output gears rotate in their normal direction (same as the input gear).
On the other hand, when braking is applied to the control gear and stops the rotation (lock), the output gear rotates in the reverse direction with the input gear.

[ Features ]

1.Output gear is able to rotate at the same speed and in normal/reverse direction as input gear.

2.An exclusive motor is not required for reversing motion.

[ Mechanism ]

One way clutch is integrated and smooth rotational direction change is possible by control of lock and release.

[ Product Photo ]