Variable Paper Stiffness Printer Roller System Design

1. Variable Paper Stiffness Printer Roller System Design Eric VanArsdale, Kory Barnoff, Steve Aloia, Ethan Flint Abstract: Variable paper stiffness can greatly disrupt the alignment of printed images . This design project focused on creating a printer roller system that could detect and adjust to variable paper stiffness without manual adjustment and would include green design features. The design detailed below was selected after a weighting of customer needs, an extensive external and internal search, TRIZ and Scamper generation, and a Pugh Chart selection method. Customer Needs Table EMS Chart Pugh Chart: Stiffness Sensors Concept Generations TRIZ Implementation Patent Search Table Conclusion: For our final design prototype it was concluded that it would be best to use the following concepts: a wrap-around roller alignment, LED drums, replaceable rollers, pressure sensor with digital control of roller, film rollers, and timed power control. These concepts best met the customer needs outlined above and allow this machine to be both feasible in design, simple enough for use, and environmentally friendly compared to similar machines.