International Business Machines Corporation

Reid W Gunnell

Lance A Walker

Eugene G Stahlberg

Glenn E Siemer

Dean S Ehn

Lawrence Adams, Jr

Charles Cabrera

Lawrence P Dempsey

Bruce P Reinhardt

An electrophotographic hot roll fuser is manually movable from an operative position within an electrophotographic reproduction device, to an inoperative position where the fuser is available for cleaning, inspection or sheet jam clearance. When the fuser is in its inoperative position, a manually operable handle is accessible for operation. Operation of this handle moves various operating components, such as sheet guides, apart, thereby facilitating manual sheet jam clearance. Subsequently, when the handle is manually returned to its original position, all sheet guides and like components are accurately relocated to their original operative positions.

Roll fuser jam clearance mechanism

An electrophotographic fuser roll includes a hard external surface having low surface energy and high abrasion resistance. This surface is formed by sequentially coating a metal roll with two layers of a polymeric material. The polymeric material is not cured until after the second layer is applied. Once the material is cured, it is subjected to a polishing step that also generates heats. In this way, the roll's surface is both polished and heat treated.

Hot roll fuser and method of making a fuser roll

An electrophotographic reproduction device includes a pressure roll fuser whereat toner carried by a sheet of paper is fused onto the paper's surface by the application of both heat and pressure as the sheet passes through a pressure fusing nip. The pressure nip is formed by pressure engagement of a heated fusing roll to an unheated backup roll. A multilayer cloth wick rubs against a portion of the hot roll's toner engaging surface, and thereby supplies release oil to this surface. When the wick's outer cloth layer becomes contaminated with toner and the like, the operator acitvates a manually releasable stitch which is associated with the wick's multiple layers. This action allows manual removal of the wick's top contaminated layer, thereby exposing a clean cloth surface for subsequent engagement to the hot roll's toner engaging surface.

Renewable fuser wick

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Berthoud, CO, United States of America

Reid W Gunnell