US 11,891,259 B2
Paper tray hold down finger system and method
William M. Connors, Lexington, KY (US); Donn D. Bryant, Lexington, KY (US); and Brad W. Towe, Versailles, KY (US)
Assigned to Toshiba TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by Toshiba TEC Kabushiki Kaisha, Shinagawa-ku (JP)
Filed on Sep. 13, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/473,113.
Application 17/473,113 is a division of application No. 16/523,614, filed on Jul. 26, 2019, granted, now 11,198,582.
Prior Publication US 2021/0403269 A1, Dec. 30, 2021
Int. Cl. B65H 31/26 (2006.01); B65H 31/10 (2006.01)
CPC B65H 31/26 (2013.01) [B65H 31/10 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A multifunction printer, comprising:
a print engine configured to print pages in accordance with a user print job;
a movable paper tray configured to accumulate printed pages of the user print job from the print engine;
a finisher process tray configured to move the printed pages of the user print job from the print engine to the paper tray;
a plurality of retractable hold down fingers configured to selectively hold down, on the paper tray, printed pages of the user print job;
a motor configured to move the retractable hold down fingers from a retracted position to a forward hold down position and back to the retracted position during printing of each of at least a portion of the printed pages of the user print job;
a plurality of gears associated with each of the retractable hold down fingers,
wherein the plurality of gears are in communication with the motor,
wherein the plurality of gears move the associated retractable hold down finger in a substantially elliptical path from the retracted position to the forward hold down position and back to the retracted position;
a drive shaft configured to be rotated by the motor;
a drive coupling configured to selectively disengage the motor from the drive shaft, wherein each plurality of gears are in communication with the drive shaft;
a rack gear associated with the paper tray; and
a cylindrical gear associated with one of the retractable hold down fingers and configured to engage with the rack gear when the paper tray is moved upwards when the retractable hold down fingers are in the forward hold down position,
wherein as the paper tray is moved upwards, the cylindrical gear and rack gear move the retractable hold down finger into the retracted position.