Xerox Corporation

Nexpress Solutions, Inc.

Other

Eastman-kodak Company

James E Mathers

Jiann-Hsing Chen

Borden H Mills

John W May

Arun Chowdry

Alan Richard Priebe

Kenneth D Stack

Rabin Moser

Paul Michael Fromm

Muhammed Aslam

Joseph A Pavlisko

Biao Tan

Stephen V Davis

Robert S Karz

John R Field

A conformable roller for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, said fusing station being provided with a pressure roller for fusing a toner image on a receiver, said fuser roller made from a plurality of layers surrounding an axis of rotation, said conformable roller comprising a rigid cylindrically symmetric core member; a compliant base-cushion layer formed on the core member; a stiffening layer in intimate contact with and surrounding the base-cushion layer; a compliant release layer coated on the stiffening layer; and said fusing station including an external heat source for said fuser roller, at least one of said plurality of layers being thermally resistive.

Externally heated roller for a toner fusing station

A conformable roller for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, the fusing station being provided with a pressure roller and a fuser roller for fusing a toner image on a receiver, the fuser roller made from a plurality of layers surrounding an axis of rotation, the conformable roller including a rigid cylindrically symmetric core member; a flexible replaceable removable compliant sleeve member in the form of a tubular belt surrounding and nonadhesively intimately contacting the core member; and the fusing station including an internal heat source for the fuser roller, at least one of the plurality of layers being thermally conductive.

Sleeved rollers for use in a fusing station employing an internally heated fuser roller

A product and process for forming an internally heated roller configuration for use in an electrostatographic machine that employs a fuser roller and a pressure roller. One of the rollers is a conformable roller having a rigid cylindrical core member centered on an axis of rotation, a compliant base cushion layer formed on the core member; a stiffening layer in intimate contact with and surrounding the base cushion layer; and an internal heating mechanism, while the other roller is a hard roller.

Toner fusing station having an internally heated fuser roller

A release agent donor member for a toner fixing system, the donor member includes: a base member; an optional intermediate layer; and an outermost layer of a polymeric composition containing a cured interpenetrating network or (a) fluorocarbon elastomer and (b) at least one silicone elastomer of polyfunctional poly(C.sub.(1-6) alkyl) siloxane polymer; polyfunctional poly(C.sub.(1-6) alkyl)arylsiloxane polymer; and combinations thereof; wherein a functionalist release agent is applied to the outer surface of the outermost layer; and wherein the outermost layer contains a metal oxide in an amount sufficient to interact with the functionalist release agent. The fluorocarbon elastomer can be a terpolymer of vinylideneflouride, hexafluoropropylene, and tetraflouroethylene, wherein the vinylideneflouride is present in an amount greater than 45 mole percent.

Fuser member with fluoro-silicone IPN network as functional release

An electrophotographic copy machine includes a system manager which controls the operation of the copy machine based on a plurality of performance levels corresponding to fuser copy quality characteristics, i.e., TPE, gloss and fuse fix. Each performance level corresponds to job parameters of a job to be performed, such as black and white paper copies, black and white copies on 11'.times.17' or A3 size paper, black and white transparency copies, and color copies. When a particular job is requested, if the temperature of the fuser roll or pressure roll is below a minimum temperature required by the corresponding performance level, the system manager either prevents operation or reduces the copy rate until the minimum temperature requirements are met. The result is consistent fuser performance of high quality copy output.

Fuser temperature and copy output controller

A three roll fuser incuding a fuser roll, pressure roll and a backup roll. The backup roll is crowned and is supported in pressure engagement with the fuser roll to form a first nip while the fuser roll is also supported in contact with the pressure roll. The pressure engagement of the crowned roll with the fuser roll eliminates nonuniform nip loading in wide fusers as well as providing uniform velocity through the fuser roll/pressure roll nip.

Three roll fuser

A release agent management (RAM) system including a metering roll supported for contact with release agent material contained in a sump. Release agent material in the form of relatively low viscosity silicone oil is pumped into the sump via an inlet hose attached at one end of the sump. An outlet hose is attached to the sump at its other end. By attaching the inlet and outlet hoses at the ends of the sump, maximum clearance for the paper and a cost effective RAM is provided. Oil height variation due to sump tipping, end-to-end, is minimized by structure internal to the sump which simulates a central inlet/outlet.

Simulated central inlet/outlet oil mini-sump

A heat and pressure fusing apparatus for fixing toner images to substrates such as plain paper, the toner comprising a thermoplastic resin. The apparatus includes two nip forming members which cooperate to form a nip having an asymmetrical pressure profile. Thus, the pressure profile through the nip, from entrance to exit, is such that toner images on a substrate passing through the nip are first subjected to relatively low pressure which continues until the toner begins to flow. Once toner flow commences, the images are subjected to pressure high enough to force the toner into the substrate. The nip is readily variable for accommodating different fusing speeds for different processors.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

James E Mathers