Abstract
Crown rollers are often used in the flexible media transport mechanism consists of a rubber layered roller and a steel roller. In this paper, the flexible media transport characteristics of crown roller is investigated theoretically. The purpose of this study is to analyze the flexible media transport characteristics such as longitudinal distribution of normal force, nip pressure, traction, and to develop the design method of crown roller that has desired characteristics. First, a numerical analysis method of a contact problem between a rubber-layered roller and a mated steel roller using the results of two dimensional contact analyses was established. Second, two types of crown rollers, i.e. a steel roller with crown shape in its outside radius and a rubber roller with crown shape in its inside radius, were examined. And based on analysis results, a design approach of crown shape which can realize uniform longitudinal distribution of normal force, nip pressure, traction, was proposed. And the flexible media transport characteristicses of crown rollers and the characteristics for error load were shown numerically. Last, designed crown rollers were fabricated and the performances of them were confirmed with experiment.
