Xerox Corporation

Geoffrey Watts

Alan C Howard

David M Newbury

Philip R Thompson

A replaceable xerographic cassette is coupled to a rotatable driving shaft in a copying machine by a rotary drive coupling member in which a splined drive shaft of the cassette engages as the latter is inserted into the machine. To accommodate angular misalignment of the shafts, the coupling member is of two-part form and two parts can rotate relative to one another as the shaft is being inserted, to take up any misalignment that may exist.

Drive coupling

A process unit which can be removably mounted in a main assesmbly of a reproducing machine such as a xerographic copier. The unit comprises a housing enclosing an imaging member and, optionally, other processing means such as a development device, a cleaner, and a charge corotron. The unit also comprises an integral transfer corotron which has one end hingedly mounted on the housing enabling the corotron to be pivoted open for jam clearance. Preferably, the end of the corotron remote from the pivoted end is retained in the unit by a latch which is opened automatically to release the corotron when the unit is inserted into the main assembly. A flexure within the main assembly normally urges the corotron to its operative position when the unit is inserted in the main assembly, but the flexure may be withdrawn so that the corotron pivots open about its hinged end to permit jam clearance. When the unit is withdrawn from the main assembly the corotron is automatically latched back into the unit housing.

Process unit for an imaging apparatus

Apparatus for separating residual toner material from the surface of a reusable photoreceptor in a reproducing machine has a cleaner blade assembly comprising a cleaner blade in a holder. The cleaner blade assembly is movable between two positions. In a first position the blade operatively engages the photoreceptor to clean off the residual toner material which is then collected in a generally enclosed chamber below. In the second position the blade assembly is spaced apart from the photoreceptor but covers the entrance to the chamber forming a sealed enclosure for the contents. Thus the toner collecting chamber is sealed by the cleaner blade alone without relying on the photoreceptor to perform a sealing function which makes the apparatus particularly suitable for use in a process cassette comprising at least a photoreceptor and, optionally, other process elements wherein the photoreceptor cannot seal the chamber because it is only loosely retained when the cassette is not in the working position in the machine.

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Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom

Geoffrey Watts