Xerox Corporation

Brian Joseph Marion

Chieh-Min Cheng

Steven M Malachowski

Eric David Godshall

Eric Joseph Young

Joo T Chung

Judith M Vandewinckel

Kevin F Marcell

Linda Jan

Scott M Smith

A method includes grinding a wax into wax particles having a size in a range from about 600 microns to about 800 microns forming a mixture of the wax particles with water and a surfactant; and homogenizing the mixture to form a wax dispersion, the homogenizing step is maintained below about 35&#xb0; C. A wax dispersion includes a wax a surfactant; and water, particles of the wax dispersion are a uniform, irregular, non-platelet morphology. A wax dispersion made by a process includes grinding a wax into wax particles having a size in a range from about 600 microns to about 800 microns, forming a mixture of the wax particles with water and a surfactant, and homogenizing the mixture to form a wax dispersion, the homogenizing step is maintained below about 35&#xb0; C. and the wax has a uniform, irregular, non-platelet morphology imparted by combination of the grinding and homogenizing steps.

Cold wax dispersion process

Processes for continuously coalescing particles from an aggregated particle slurry are disclosed. The aggregated particle slurry is heated, then coalesced by raising the pH. The coalesced particles are homogenized and exit as a coalesced particle slurry. A multi-screw extruder is used for the coalescing. These processes are useful for providing coalesced particles such as toner compositions.

Continuous coalescence processes

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a continuous process for rounding conventional toner particles includes forming a conventional toner particle slurry by mixing a dispersant and/or a liquid with dry toner particles, heating the conventional toner particle slurry to a first temperature beyond its glass transition temperature to form a coalesced toner particle slurry, quenching the coalesced toner particle slurry to a second temperature below the glass transition temperature after a residence time has elapsed, and recovering the quenched particle slurry at an outlet wherein the circularity of the conventional toner particles in the quenched toner particle slurry is from approximately 0.940 to 0.999 and the time frame for the heating, quenching and recovering steps is less than 20 minutes. An apparatus for practicing the novel continuous coalescence of toner particles, includes an inlet passage, a first heat exchanger coupled to the inlet passage, a residence time coil coupled to the first heat exchanger, a cooling device coupled to the residence time coil; and an outlet passage coupled to the cooling device.

System and method for conventional particle rounding utilizing continuous emulsion-aggregation (EA) technology

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Ontario, NY, United States of America

Brian Joseph Marion