Xerox Corporation

Eric Joseph Young

Chieh-Min Cheng

Steven M Malachowski

Joo T Chung

Eric David Godshall

Brian Joseph Marion

Jay Lee Schneider

Christopher M Wolfe

Randy Pheav Tin

Linda Jan

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

The present disclosure describes toner particles that have polyester resin and styrene/acrylate resin in the core.

Styrene/acrylate and polyester hybrid toner

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

A process includes adding a particulate toner additive to toner particles to form a slurry, filtering the slurry to form a filter cake, the particulate toner additive functioning as a filtration aid, and washing the filter cake, after the washing step the toner particles have a portion of the particulate toner additive adhered thereto, and de-agglomerating/drying the toner particles with the additive, after the drying step the toner particles have a portion of the particulate toner additive adhered thereto.

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Webster, NY, United States of America

Eric Joseph Young