Driving, steering and tensioning roll for belt loops

• Main Author: WONG; LAM F
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.02.1998
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; CONVEYING; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS,CABLES; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

An apparatus for driving, steering and maintaining tension on a moving web, particularly in an electrophotographic printing machine of the type having an endless photoreceptor belt supported by a plurality of rolls and arranged to move in a predetermined path through a plurality of processing stations disposed therealong the belt being of the type which is supported by a plurality of rolls. A belt utility roll for driving, steering and maintaining tension on the belt adapted for rotational movement about a first axis and tilting movement about a second axis transverse to the first axis is used. The drive motor and transmission are mounted integral to the utility roll unit and tilt with the roll. An actuator tilts the roll in one of two directions to cause the belt to laterally walk along the roll to maintain the predetermined belt path. A belt edge sensor can be utilized to track the position of the belt and feed that information to the machine controller which then actuates the steering actuator to tilt the roll to the extent and for as long as is necessary to maintain the proper belt tracking pattern on the roll.