Xerox Corporation

Charles P Vorndran

Venkatesh H Kamath

Daniel Gureasko Bobrow

Michael A Malachowski

David G Bell

Cheryl Koenig

Suraj Kumar

Nicholas W Czebiniak

Daniel S Marder

Mark H Shirley

Olivier Raiman

Estella M Verdouw

Kim H Schwind

John R Russell

Lawrence Armour

Mark Harmison

A method and system for providing point of need diagnostic information in an electronic service manual. A rendering device can be configured to transmit machine diagnostics related reports to a computer. The diagnostics are then integrated into an electronic service manual. In this way a reference can be created which includes point of need diagnostic information related to the machine, thereby increasing the productivity of user time spent on maintenance activities associated with the machine.

Point of need access to an electronic maintenance manual utilizing current machine status

An expert system, such as could be used for service of a complicated physical device such as a printer or copier, exploits a knowledge base which is written in a markup language format such as SGML. The knowledge base comprises text which, if desired, can be printed out on paper to yield a traditional service manual. In addition to the typical formatting markup language tags surrounding the text of the knowledge base, hierarchical tags are provided in the electronic version of the knowledge base, to define a set of decision trees which can be accessed and navigated by an expert system. A diagnostic advisor can access specific elements of the knowledge base as needed to synthesize optimized diagnosis and repair procedures depending on an entry given by a tech rep servicing a machine. This arrangement thus supports both a printed service manual and a viewer that provides expert diagnostic advice.

System that accesses a knowledge base by markup language tags

A copy receiving tray having a general vertical orientation with a bottom stop member a first vertical stacking portion inclined to the horizontal, a second vertical stacking portion on top of the first portion further inclined to the horizontal to provide a stacking surface for copy sheets up to a first size, and a third vertical stacking portion above the second portion generally in the same plane as said first vertical portion to provide a stacking surface for the top portion of a copy sheet of a size greater than said first size.

Copy stacking tray

A copy receiving tray having a general vertical orientation and a bottom stop member and being pivotally mounted in a frame at the bottom of the tray and including means for decelerating and stacking sheets entering the tray comprising at least one resilient elongated member mounted above a sheet advancing means the free end of the decelerating member and the bottom stop member having mutually engageable fastening means whereby upon pivoting the tray the sheets stacked within the tray are restrained from falling out of the tray.

Copy stacking tray with restraining fingers

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

Charles P Vorndran