Controlled motor coast in media handling system
View Patent ↗By controlling all motors so that they all decelerate at substantially the same rate, buckling of media in a media handling system is substantially eliminated on shutdown. Preferably, the deceleration rate of the highest inertia motor is used as the common deceleration rate.
1. A media handling system comprising:
a plurality of media drive motors;
at least one drive motor controller; and
a synchronizer connected to the at least one drive motor controller and responsive to a lowest common deceleration value representing a deceleration of a motor with a highest inertia, the synchronizer sending instructions to all drive motor controllers to decelerate at the lowest common deceleration value.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the drive motor controllers and the synchronizer are part of a main controller.
3. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one memory in which deceleration values of each of the plurality of media drive motors are stored.
4. The system of claim 3 wherein each drive motor includes a respective memory in which the motor's deceleration value is stored.
5. The system of claim 3 wherein a controller of each drive motor includes a respective memory in which the motor's deceleration value is stored.
6. The system of claim 3 wherein a single memory stores all of the motors' deceleration values.
7. The system of claim 1 implemented in an ink jet printer media handling system.
8. The system of claim 1 implemented in a xerographic machine media handling system.
9. A media handling system comprising:
a plurality of media drive motors;
at least one drive motor controller; and
a synchronizer connected to the at least one drive motor controller and responsive to a lowest deceleration value representing a deceleration of a motor with a highest inertia, the synchronizer sending instructions to all drive motor controllers to decelerate at the lowest deceleration value; and
executing a method including:
determining the lowest deceleration value of at least two drive motors in a sheet feed path;
decelerating all drive motors in the sheet feed path at the lowest deceleration value.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein the drive motor controllers and the synchronizer are part of a main controller.
11. The system of claim 9 further comprising at least one memory in which deceleration values of each of the plurality of media drive motors are stored.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein each drive motor includes a respective memory in which the motor's deceleration value is stored.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein a controller of each drive motor includes a respective memory in which the motor's deceleration value is stored.
14. The system of claim 11 wherein a single memory stores all of the motors' deceleration values.
15. The system of claim 9 implemented in an ink jet printer media handling system.
16. The system of claim 9 implemented in a xerographic machine media handling system.
17. The method of claim 9 wherein deriving respective deceleration values comprises accessing a look-up table of deceleration values of the at least two drive motors.
18. The method of claim 9 wherein deriving respective deceleration values comprises retrieving the respective deceleration values from the at least two drive motors.
19. The method of claim 9 wherein deriving respective deceleration values comprises retrieving the respective deceleration values from at least one controller controlling the at least two drive motors.
20. The method of claim 9 wherein deriving respective deceleration values comprises measuring the deceleration values of the at least two drive motors.