Savin Corporation

Savin Business Machines Corporation

Norman F Mangal

Kenneth W Gardiner

Tatsu Hori

Ronald Swidler

Apparatus for cleaning the photoconductive drum of an electrostatic copier in which a rotating foam roller and a self-cleaning squeegee blade are sequentially arranged adjacent the photoconductive surface at a location following the station at which the image has been transferred to copy material such as paper. The self-cleaning squeegee blade is formed by a driven endless belt which extends across the entire photoconductive surface and which is so disposed that an edge portion or portions contact the surface of the photoconductor. The endless belt is cleaned by means remote from the photoconductive surface. In various embodiments of the invention the endless belt contacts the photoconductive surface at an acute, a right, and an obtuse angle to a tangent to the photoconductive surface. Means is provided for supplying developer liquid to the developer applicator on start-up of the machine and to the cleaning apparatus upon initiation of a copying operation. To prevent scratching of the photoconductive surface by the cleaning apparatus, the cleaning apparatus is retracted from the photoconductive surface until such time after initiation of a copying operation that the surface portion initially at the developer applicator has advanced to a position adjacent to the cleaning apparatus.

Photoconductive drum cleaning apparatus

Apparatus for removing residual electrostatic charge following image transfer from the surface of a photoconductive imaging layer such as selenium exhibiting substantially greater dark resistance to the flow of current in one direction than in the other. A resilient conductive cleaning member in wiping engagement with the imaging layer and supplied with slightly conductive cleaning liquid is supplied with a biasing potential relative to the imaging layer substrate of a polarity opposite to that of the residual charge. The biasing potential is of such a magnitude as to ensure that all portions of the imaging layer surface have discharged to the potential of the substrate within the period of contact.

Imaging surface discharge and cleaning apparatus for electrophotographic

Apparatus for separating a sheet of paper to which a developed toner image has been transferred from a moving photoconductive surface by directing a high velocity flow of air against an edge of a leading portion of the sheet on the surface to separate said portion, and exerting pneumatic pressure on the separated sheet portion to separate the remainder of the paper from the photoconductive surface. The high velocity air stream is pulsed to coincide with the arrival of the paper edge at a predetermined point in the separating apparatus.

Air jet paper pick-off for liquid developer electrostatic copier

A document feeder for moving documents across an upwardly facing imaging platen of a copying machine includes a stacking tray disposed above the platen and in substantially parallel relationship therewith. A first guide element guides documents moving off the imaging platen at one edge thereof along an upwardly extending curved path and discharges the documents at one end of the stacking tray along an upwardly directed trajectory. A second guide element intercepts documents discharged along the upwardly directed trajectory at a location above the top of the tray and guides the documents downwardly into the stacking tray, thus obviating interference between a document moving into the tray and a bent or curled document already in the tray.

Semiautomatic document feeder

A semi-automatic document feeder for use with a photocopying machine in which each of a plurality of parallel spaced belts supported by first and secondary pulley assemblies has a lower traverse running across the machine imaging platen. Documents which are introduced to the feeder through an entrance port located near the top of one of said pulley assemblies, are guided around said pulley assembly onto a lower transport path defined by the plurality of belts and the imaging platen, and are stopped for copying by a gate located on the opposite edge of the machine platen and arranged to be moved into and out of the path of a document.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Norman F Mangal