Agfa-gevaert Ag

Fritz Steinlehner

Hans A Massengeil

Dieter Weidlich

Georg Bock

A pair of infeed rollers located upstream of an exposure window and a pair of outfeed rollers downstream thereof transport an original across the exposure window so that successive portions of the transported original be imaged onto successive portions of copying medium whose transport speed corresponds to that of the original. The lower infeed and outfeed rollers are stationary, but the upper ones are located at the coupling links of a four-or five-link transmission mechanism comprised of cranks and rockers. A tension spring tightened by an electromagnet causes the upper infeed roller to move down and press against the lower infeed roller. Due to the transmission mechanism, variations in the thickness of an original transported between the infeed rollers inherently modified in a controlled manner the force of the upper outfeed roller against the lower and/or the spacing of the upper outfeed roller from the lower, so that an original transported across the exposure window by the infeed rollers not collide with the outfeed rollers. Intermediate successive copying operations, the roller pairs open, so that an endless original, such as a computer print-out, can be reverse transported by a distance at least equal to the transport-direction length of the exposure window, to form upon successive sheets of copying medium successive images which adjoin to form a gapless image of the endless original.

Continuous copying machine

The fixing arrangement comprises a heated aluminum plate heating the lower face of a tone-image-bearing copy paper. The heated plate comprises two transverse ribs extending transverse to the copy-paper transport direction and, intermediate them, a sequence of transversely spaced longitudinal ribs, the transverse and longitudinal ribs intersecting to form individual recessed rectangular fields, each of which, when closed off from above by the copy paper, confines air heated by the heating plate to form a transversely extending zone of hot-air air cushions heating the lower face of the paper. Transversely extending suction channels located upstream and downstream of the hot-air air-cushion zone contain transversely extending rows of suction apertures, for holding the sheet down against the ribs and closing off the individual hot-air air cushions. At any given instant, the area of the sheet in direct physical contact with the heating plate is minimal, because the crests of the ribs are rounded off to establish virtually zero or line contact with the paper. The longitudinal ribs can be inclined relative to the transport direction, to prevent perceivable streaks in the final fused image.

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Germany

Fritz Steinlehner