Lexmark International, Inc.

Larry Christopher Coleman

Johnny Ray Sears

Larry Earl Stahlman

Kevin Dean Schoedinger

Douglas Campbell Hamilton

Russell Edward Lucas

Brian Keith Bartley

Jason Kyle Romain

Casey Thomas Wilson

Samuel Winton Holmes, Jr

The present invention relates to an article, system and method for thermally conditioning an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus may incorporate a heating device and a component that includes a lubricant. The component including the lubricant may be preheated before movement and then rotated at reduced speeds prior to a printing operation. This may occur during an image forming apparatus cold start or power saver mode.

Thermally conditioned image forming apparatus

An apparatus and method are provided for the reduction of wrinkles formed in sheets of paper media which may contain various levels of absorbed moisture across the surface and which are processed through a fuser section of a printing or copying device. Protruding features may be provided laterally spaced apart by a desired paper width at the fuser nip to create a pressure contact area which constrains the outer longitudinal edges of the sheet of paper as it enters the nip.

Method of preventing media wrinkling

A system and method that controls the amount of energy accumulated at the collection location of a printing device to prevent image transfer or offsetting between sheets of stacked media, in particular, media of high thermal capacitance. This may be accomplished by regulating one or more of a combination of factors, including media process speed and sheet interval or pause time, while providing adequate fusing of the toner and an efficient printing operation.

Image offset prevention on plastic substrate media

An improved fuser subassembly is provided for electrophotographic printers, in which the detack fingers that separate print media from the fuser hot roll do not make physical contact with that hot roll, and thus are &ldquo;non-contact&rdquo; detack fingers. A maximum clearance distance is observed as a relatively tight tolerance between the surface of the hot roll and the tip of the non-contact detack fingers. Both color and mono laser printer products can benefit from this design. Since the finger tips are spaced-apart from the fuser hot roll, the life of the hot roll is increased, and other potential problems are eliminated, such as contamination of the detack fingers, which sometimes cause accordion jams of prior art &ldquo;contact&rdquo; detack fingers.

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

Larry Christopher Coleman