Xerox Corporation

Christopher B Miller

Bruce Earl Thayer

Dennis G Gerbasi

Norman E LaTour

Ronald E Auty

Nicholas M Soures

Anthony C Fornalik

An apparatus, method and printing machine that utilizes a ramped backer and/or a shock absorbing material in a cleaner subsystem to reduce or prevent photoreceptor motion quality disturbances. The shock absorbing material prevents an instantaneous high impact force between the spacer wheel and the photoreceptor backer bar that can cause photoreceptor motion quality disturbance. The ramped backer prevents the instantaneous deceleration of the spacer wheel with the backer that causes motion quality disturbance due to the shaking of the photoreceptor belt from the impact on contact. The combination of the shock absorbing material and the ramped backer create a preferred embodiment to prevent photoreceptor motion quality disturbance by the cleaner system.

Apparatus and method for reduced photoreceptor impact by a retractable

An apparatus in which a six bar linkage cleaner brush retraction/engagement mechanism enables brush retraction (and engagement with the photoreceptor) while providing good control over the brush interference and the capability of changing all of the timing parameters through clutch actuation times in software and clutch shaft speed. The mechanism allows the brushes to retract and engage the photoreceptor independently of one another with relatively soft contacts to the photoreceptor to minimize impacts to photoreceptor motion quality. A four position clutch is used to provide magnetic pole sensor outputs to the system controller to decide when the clutch, which drives the six bar linkage, is engaged and disengaged. The index wheel of the clutch has four equally spaced magnets that are located relative to the retraction crank shaft so that there is a significant amount of time between detecting a pole and the corresponding desired state. An encoder is used to monitor the mechanical drift of each cleaner state.

Dual brush cleaner retraction mechanism and variable inertia drift

A method to evaluate the cleaning performance of brush cleaners by measuring the brush to photoreceptor nip width (e.g cleaning footprint or contact zone) using an ESV sensor or ETAC sensor. This nip width measurement is automatically made using one of the sensing devices. The nip width measurement is converted into diagnostic information using a software algorithm or similar mode of conversion. The diagnostic information can be used in a variety of ways such as a diagnostic tool for a technical representative to warn against the end of brush life, to adjust cleaner biases for automatic changes in setup to achieve better cleaning, to predict brush replacement, to correct brush BPI (i.e. brush to photoreceptor interference) for an under or over engaged brush.

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Rochester, NY, United States of America

Christopher B Miller