Other

Nexpress Solutions, Inc.

Eastman-kodak Company

Maria B Carrone

Francisco Luiz Ziegelmuller

Carol K Dunn

George David Gross

Randall J Taylor

Kenneth Joseph Brown

Douglas C Anderson

In an apparatus for cleaning particulates from a moving web, a dust seal blade assembly which is easily mounted to a cleaning blade to reduce internal dusting in a cleaner apparatus and for trapping of lint, paper dust, or fibrous material and which might also reduce the effects of oil contamination. The arrangement provides a low-cost, operator-replaceable cartridge having one or more wiper blades with at least one of them having the dust seal blade assembly and enclosed within a particle sump assembly that is easily removed from association with the web being cleaned.

Blade cleaner cartridge with dust and lint seal blade

A cleaning station for removing particulate material from a moving web in an electrostatic printer/copier includes a customer-replaceable web-cleaning cartridge and a support bracket/backup shoe assembly. The latter serves to support the cleaning cartridge for movement between an operative position in which web-cleaning components of the cartridge exert a substantially uniform pressure on the web, and a service position in which the cartridge is sufficiently spaced from the web to facilitate replacement and/or service. Preferably, a bracket that supports the cleaning cartridge is pivotally connected to a backup shoe that is fixed with respect to the web path and exerts a uniform pressure on the rear surface of the web, opposite that contacted by the cleaning cartridge. A quick disconnect feature enables the cartridge-supporting bracket to be de-coupled from the back-up shoe and removed from the instrument.

Support bracket/backup shoe assembly for web-cleaning cartridge

Apparatus for cleaning particulate material from the surface of a moving web comprises: (i) a customer-replaceable cleaning cartridge including a pair of spaced, parallel cleaning blades supported by a sump housing having a removable lid assembly with a narrow opening through which the blades project at an angle; (ii) a backup shoe assembly positioned to contact the web surface opposite the cleaning blades and provide resistance to the cleaning blades; and (iii) a bracket assembly for releasably supporting the cleaning cartridge in an operative position in which the cleaning blades contact the web surface to be cleaned and cooperate with the shoe assembly to wipe particulate material from the web. Preferably, the lid assembly comprises a lid member that supports a flexible seal blade that contacts the web surface upstream of the cleaning blades and deflects particulate material wiped from the web by the cleaning blades into the sump housing. Preferably, the lid member defines an external cavity that serves as a reservoir for receiving particles inadvertently wiped from the web by the seal blade.

Web-cleaning apparatus for electrostatic printer/copier

A web cleaning device for cleaning contaminants from a moving surface in a printer apparatus. The cleaning device includes a nesting structure having a longitudinally extending internal surface for supporting a coil of a web fabric extending in a longitudinal direction and an external surface located opposite to the internal surface. A lip member forms a part of the nesting structure and is located adjacent a pay out end of the coil. The pay out end of the coil is wrapped about the lip member and further wrapped about the external surface of the nesting structure. The web fabric is also wound about a take-up spindle that is spaced from the coil. A portion of the web fabric from the pay out end of the coil to the external surface of the nesting structure provides a hairpin type curvature to the path of the web fabric to reduce tendency of the web fabric to bind during pay out of the web fabric from the pay out end of the coil.

Web cleaning device for removing contaminants from a moving surface in a printer apparatus

In a method and apparatus for transferring a toner image to a receiver sheet, there is provided an endless belt that is mounted for movement in a direction along a lengthwise dimension of the belt and through an endless path. The belt includes a splice seam that occurs transverse to the direction of movement of the belt, the seam having a discontinuity into which toner tends to collect which is free to transfer. The seam includes a bump proximate each end of the splice seam which extends above the seam. A rotatable member rotates while in engagement with a surface of the belt so as to urge a receiving sheet into intimate engagement with the surface between the rotatable member and the belt. The bumps support the rotatable member out of engagement with the splice seam to substantially preclude transfer to the rotatable member of toner accumulating in the splice seam between the bumps.

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Churchville, NY, United States of America

Maria B Carrone