MEDIA TRAYS AND MEDIA STOPS
Examples of media stops and media storage trays including the media stops are disclosed. In an example, the media stop includes a base including a first end and a second end opposite the first end, a top side, and a bottom side opposite the top side. In addition, the media stop includes a stop wall extending from the top side. The base is to be slidingly coupled to a track of the support surface in a first orientation and a second orientation. When the base is in the first orientation, the first end of the base is more proximate an outer end of the support surface than the second end of the base. When the base is in the second orientation, the second end of the base is more proximate the outer end of the support surface than the first end of the base.
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Printers, copiers, scanners, and other such media handling devices may include media storage trays (or more simply “storage trays”) for holding a volume of media (e.g., print media such as paper). In some instances, a storage tray within a media handling device (e.g., a printer, copier, scanner, etc.) may be able to receive a variety of media sizes.
Various examples will be described below referring to the following figures:
In the figures, certain features and components disclosed herein may be shown exaggerated in scale or in somewhat schematic form, and some details of certain elements may not be shown in the interest of clarity and conciseness. In some of the figures, in order to improve clarity and conciseness, a component or an aspect of a component may be omitted.
In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but not limited to. . . . ” Also, the term “couple” or “couples” is intended to be broad enough to encompass both indirect and direct connections. Thus, if a first device couples to a second device, that connection may be through a direct connection or through an indirect connection via other devices, components, and connections. In addition, as used herein, the terms “axial” and “axially” generally refer to positions along or parallel to a central or longitudinal axis (e.g., central axis of a body or a port), while the terms “lateral” and “laterally” generally refer to positions located or spaced to the side of the central or longitudinal axis.
As used herein, including in the claims, the word “or” is used in an inclusive manner. For example, “A or B” means any of the following: “A” alone, “B” alone, or both “A” and “B.” In addition, when used herein including the claims, the word “generally” or “substantially” means within a range of plus or minus 10% of the stated value. As used herein, the terms “downstream” and “upstream” are used to refer to the arrangement of components and features within a printer or scanning device with respect to the “flow” of media through the printer or scanning device during operations. Thus, if a first component of such a device receives media after it is output from a second component of the device during operations, then the first component may be said to be “downstream” of the second component and the second component may be said to be “upstream” of the first component.
As used herein, a “media handling device,” refers to any device that holds or stores media for printing or copying operations. For instance, the term “media handling device,” includes printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines, and combinations thereof. As used herein, “media” refers to any medium or substrate that may have images, data, text, etc., printed or deposited thereon. The term specifically includes paper, but may also include a variety of other substrates including, textiles, polymers, composite materials, etc.
As previously described, a storage tray for a media handling device may be able to hold a variety of different media sizes. To accommodate differently sized media, a media stop (or a plurality of media stops) may be moved along the storage tray to a plurality of positions associated with predetermined sizes of media. However, the number of such available predetermined media sizes (and associated positions of the media stop) may be limited by the size, arrangement and orientation of the storage tray and the media stop. In addition, many media handling devices may be designed to occupy as small a space as possible so as to enhance the usability and versatility thereof. Accordingly, examples disclosed herein include media stops, for media trays of a media handling device that are to be selectively transitioned between different orientations along the storage tray so as to accommodate a larger number of stop positions (and thus media sizes) within the storage tray.
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A support surface 22 is defined along both the inner portion 26 and outer portion 24 (that is some of the support surface 22 is defined by inner portion 26 and the rest of support surface 22 is defined by outer portion 24). Support surface 22 is to support a volume (e.g., a stack) of media thereon during operations. Specifically, a user may load or deposit a volume of media onto support surface 22 of storage tray 20, such that the media may then be progressively drawn into media handling device 10 for subsequent printing operations as previously described above. During these operations, the media may be drawn into media handling device 10 generally along axis 15 such that axis 15 may also define a media feed path or direction into media handling device 10 for media deposited within storage tray 20.
In addition, outer portion 24 may be removable (or decoupled) from inner portion 26 during operations. Any suitable readily disengageable connection(s) may be established between first end 24a of outer portion 24 and second end 26b of inner portion 26 so as to facilitate the removability of outer portion 24 from inner portion 26 during operations. For instance, in some examples, outer portion 24 may include a pair of hooks (not shown) generally disposed at first end 24a that engage about a pair of projections or pins (not shown) generally disposed at second end 26b of inner portion 26. Thus, during operations, a user may rotate outer portion 24 relative to inner portion 26 to allow the hooks (not shown) on outer portion 24 to release or decouple from the pins (not shown) on inner portion 26 (in some examples, outer portion 24 may not be rotated to decouple outer portion 24 from inner portion 26 as described above).
In some examples, storage tray 20 may be entirely removable from media handling device 10. For instance, in some examples storage tray 20 may be slid out from housing 12 so as to expose the support surface 22 when media is to be loaded thereon. Thus, the specific arrangement of storage tray 20 shown in the figures is merely one possible implementation of the storage tray 20 in various examples.
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Base 102 includes a first end 102a, a second end 102b axially opposite first end 102a, a top side 104, and a bottom side 106 opposite top side 104. Base 102 may be generally rectangular in shape in some examples (see e.g.,
A pair of L-shaped track engagement members 110 extend from bottom side 106 that define a pair of slots 112. As will be described in more detail below, the slots 112 are to receive lateral members 33 of tracks 30 therein so as to facilitate sliding engagement between base 102 and tracks 30 during operations (see e.g.,
Referring again to
A viewing window 108 extends through top side 104 and bottom side 106 of base 102. In this example, the viewing window 108 is more proximate the second end 102b than the first end 102a. As will be described in more detail below, window 108 may allow a user to see a selected media size marking on support surface 22 corresponding with a current position of media stop 100 within storage tray 20. In addition, in some examples, window 108 may be engaged by a user to slide media stop 100 along tracks 30 during operations. Without being limited to this or any other theory, by placing viewing window 108 closer to second end 102b than first end 102a of base 102, different markings such as markings on the support surface 22 may be visible through window 108 depending on the specific orientation of media stop 100 (e.g., such as the first orientation and second orientation as shown in
In addition, a pair of projections or blocks 124 extends from bottom side 106 of base 102 at first end 102a. As will be described in more detail below, blocks 124 may prevent media from sliding between media stop 100 and support surface 22 (see e.g.,
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Specifically, in some examples when media stop 100 is in the first orientation (
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Specifically, to transition the media stop 100 from the first orientation (
In addition, because media stop 100 may be movably disposed on either inner portion 26 or outer portion 24 of storage tray 20, as described above, the media stop 100 may be sized and arranged such that outer portion 24 may be disengaged from inner portion 26 as described above with the media stop 100 still coupled to outer portion 24. In particular, in some examples, an axial length of media stop 100 (e.g., a length of media stop 100 along axis 105) may be less than a length of outer portion 24 of storage tray 20 along axis 15, between ends 24a, 24b. As a result, media stop 100 may be selectively positioned entirely on outer portion 24 when outer portion 24 is disengaged from inner portion 26.
As described above, examples disclosed herein include media stops for media trays of a media handling device that are to be selectively transitioned between different orientations along the storage tray so as to accommodate a larger number of stop positions (and thus media sizes) within the storage tray (e.g., media stop 100 and storage tray 20). As a result, through use of the examples disclosed herein, a storage tray of a media handling device may be able to accommodate a relatively large number of media sizes, without necessarily increasing a size of the storage tray more generally.
The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles and various examples of the present disclosure. Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.
Claims
1. A media storage tray for a media handling device, the media storage tray comprising:
- a support surface to support media thereon, wherein the support surface comprises an outer end;
- a track extending along the support surface; and
- a media stop to be slidably engaged with the track, wherein the media stop comprises a base including a first end and a second end opposite the first end;
- wherein the media stop is to transition between: a first orientation, wherein the first end of the base is more proximate the outer end of the support surface than the second end of the base; and a second orientation, wherein the second end of the base is more proximate the outer end of the support surface than the first end of the base.
2. The media storage tray of claim 1, wherein the media stop comprises a stop wall extending from the base, wherein the stop wall is disposed at the first end.
3. The media storage tray of claim 2, wherein the media stop comprises a plurality of projections extending from a side of the base that is opposite the stop wall, wherein the projections are to be inserted within grooves extending along the support surface.
4. The media storage tray of claim 3, wherein the plurality of projections are disposed at the second end of the base.
5. The media storage tray of claim 2, comprising a pair of parallel ribs extending from the base that are to engage with a groove extending along the support surface.
6. The media storage tray of claim 2, wherein the media stop comprises a viewing window extending through the base, wherein the viewing window is more proximate the second end than the first end of the base.
7. The media storage tray of claim 1, wherein the storage tray comprises a first portion and a second portion, wherein the track extends along the first portion and the second portion, and wherein the first portion is to be removed from the second portion to transition the media stop from the first orientation to the second orientation or from the second orientation to the first orientation.
8. A media stop for a support surface of a media tray, the media stop comprising:
- a base including a first end and a second end opposite the first end, a top side, and a bottom side opposite the top side;
- a stop wall extending from the top side;
- wherein the base is to be slidingly engaged with a track of the support surface in a first orientation and a second orientation;
- wherein when the base is in the first orientation, the first end of the base is more proximate an outer end of the support surface than the second end of the base; and
- wherein when the base is in the second orientation, the second end of the base is more proximate the outer end of the support surface than the first end of the base.
9. The media stop of claim 8, comprising a plurality of projections extending from the bottom side of the base, wherein the projections are to be inserted within grooves extending along the support surface.
10. The media stop of claim 9, wherein the plurality of projections comprises a pair of projections extending from the bottom side of the base at the second end.
11. The media stop of claim 9, comprising a viewing window extending through the top side and the bottom side of the base, wherein the viewing window is more proximate the second end than the first end of the base.
12. The media stop of claim 8, comprising a pair of parallel ribs that are to engage a groove extending along the support surface.
13. A method of adjusting a media stop of a media storage tray for different sizes of media, the method comprising:
- (a) slidingly engaging a base of the media stop with a track extending along a support surface of the media storage tray with the base of the media stop in a first orientation;
- (b) disengaging the base from the track; and
- (c) slidingly engaging the base of the media stop with the track after (b) with the base in a second orientation that is different from the first orientation.
14. The method of claim 13, comprising:
- (d) disengaging a first portion of the storage tray from a second portion of the storage tray before (b) and (c), wherein the track extends along the first portion and the second portion; and
- (e) reengaging the first portion with the second portion after (c).
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second orientation is rotationally opposite the first orientation.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 27, 2019
Publication Date: Apr 7, 2022
Applicant: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (Spring, TX)
Inventors: Seung il Kim (Vancouver, WA), Kenneth K. Smith (Boise, ID), Robert S. Moser (Vancouver, WA), Min-Chul Lee (Pangyo)
Application Number: 17/417,008