Xerox Corporation

John M Bailey, Jr

Raghulinga R Thettu

An apparatus for fusing toner images onto flexible support material in which the support material is transported in a path past a flash fusing lamp. The path is defined by an outer member and an inner member which guide the sheet past the flash fusing lamp. The inner member is made of a transparent material and the outer member is reflective. Warm air under pressure is used to advance the support material along its path and to crust the toner images facing inwardly toward the lamp to prevent offset and reduce energy requirements of the lamp to permanently fix the images to the support material.

On line fusing system

A method is provided for electrostatographic production of a temporary graphic display and conversion thereof to permanent hard copy comprising: forming a latent electrostatic image on a photoconductive surface; contacting said surface with a transparent continuous insulating web; contacting the surface of the transparent web opposite that in contact with the latent image with electroscopic toner particles which electrostatically cling to the transparent web in conformity with said latent electrostatic image; passing the developed image on the transparent web into a viewing zone wherein said developed image can be temporarily graphically displayed; transferring said developed image to a transfer web being adapted to contact the surface of the transparent web containing the developed image, and fusing said developed image onto said transfer web thereby forming a permanent copy of said image. An electrostatographic apparatus is provided adapted to provide a graphic display of an image and a hard copy thereof comprising: (i) an electrostatographic imaging surface; (ii) means for imposing a charge upon said imaging surface; (iii) means for imaging the charged surface to impart a latent electrostatic image thereto; (iv) developing means adapted to dispense developer; (v) a continuous transparent insulating web surrounding said developing means and being interposed between said imaging surface and said developing means thereby receiving said developer thereon in conformity with the latent electrostatic image on said imaging surface; (vi) means for viewing the image on said transparent web; and (vii) a transfer web being adapted to provide a background against which the image on said transparent web can be viewed and being further adapted to be brought into contact with said image on the transparent web to effect transfer of said image thereon.

Growing community of inventors

Fairport, NY, United States of America

John M Bailey, Jr