2012 Volume 51 Issue 3 Pages 248-254
In a electrophotographic printer without a decurler device, amount of paper curl depends on geometry of its transportation path. However, since the paper path affects whole layout of the machine, it may not be modified even if the paper curl becomes out of acceptable range. To overcome the difficulty, a simulation model to predict the paper curl formed by the transportation path geometry is constructed so that the paper path can be designed considering paper curl at the early stage of development. The mechanical characteristics of paper is measured by the thermo-mechanical analyzer, and expressed as a double Maxwell model. Given fuser device and paper condition, the paper curl is calculated using the time variation of paper deflection during transportation. Using a commercial laser printer and three different types of paper, it is verified that the present simulation model is able to predict paper curl with satisfactory accuracy.
