Xerox Corporation

Richard L Forbes, Ii

Bruce E Thorp

Joseph A Mastrandrea

Mark A Scheuer

Robert M Mara

Joseph A Swift

Nero R Lindblad

John Stephen Facci

Michael John Martin

Lloyd F Bean, Ii

Donald J Weikel, Jr

James J Franzen

Charles A Barbe

John G Elliot

James Patrick Kitchen

James A Solomon

An electrostatic printing machine having a plurality of color stations having a system for maintaining a preset toner age in each of the plurality of color stations, including: determining a toner age for each of the plurality of color stations; determining if purge while run is required based on the toner age for each of the plurality of color stations; defining an area on a unused portion of an imaging frame for a purge patch, the defining includes sizing a plurality of purge patch regions wherein each of the purge patch regions may have a different size; allocating each of the plurality of purge patch regions to at least one color plane from a group of color separations.

Inline purge capability (purge while run) to improve system productivity during low area coverage runs

A method controlling toner age in a developer housing including: recording a latent image in a predefined image frame on an imaging surface; and generating a purge patch in an unused portion of the predefined image frame. Other features include generating an inline purge signal to initiate generating of the purge patch; recording the purge patch includes scaling the purge patch to fit in the unused portion of the predefined image frame; activating or inactivating the generating of the purge patch based upon an amount of unused portion of the image frame.

A method for maintaining developer material within in a predefined state through the scheduling of increased toner throughput coordinated among multiple developer housings. The method monitors developer material health at each developer station within a plurality of developer stations to detect unhealthy developer material. If unhealthy developer material is detected in at least one of developer stations, a toner purge state is identified for each of the remaining developer stations. Based on the toner purge states, a toner purge is performed.

Method for controlling the state of developer material

A method for operating a printing machine to maintain developer material within in a predefined state by monitoring the state of materials in a developer and automatically scheduling corrective action before print quality becomes significantly impacted. The corrective action can include forcing an increase in toner usage by periodically generating and developing images having high toner density.

Material state management via automatic toner purge

Electrostatographic printing apparatus comprising an endless imaging surface and a blade cleaning station for removing residual toner particles therefrom, the blade cleaning station being positioned on top of the imaging surface at about the twelve o'clock position and including a cleaner sump housing containing a cleaning blade mounted on said sump to provide front and rear sump portions and in interference with the imaging surface for removing residual toner therefrom, the cleaner sump housing has an active toner moving device such as a rotatable paddle wheel which moves agglomerated cleaned toner away from the top of the cleaning blade to reduce the head height of toner that is agglomerated at the cleaning blade/photoreceptor interface.

Active sump fill device blade cleaning apparatus

Electrostatographic printing apparatus comprising an endless imaging surface and a blade cleaning station for removing residual toner particles therefrom, the blade cleaning station being positioned on top of the imaging surface at about the twelve o'clock position and includes a cleaner sump housing containing a cleaning blade mounted on the sump to provide front and rear sump portions and in interference with the imaging surface for removing residual toner therefrom, the cleaner sump housing having a passive sump fill baffle mounted thereon to direct residual toner to the front and rear portions of the cleaner sump, the passive sump fill baffle being positioned above and relative to said cleaning blade to split a mass of accumulated residual toner, limit the toner head height and direct residual cleaned toner to both the front and rear sump portions.

Passive sump fill baffle for blade cleaning apparatus

A cleaning system for increasing the packing density of a sump fill. The cleaning system has a blade having an acute angle for removing residual particles from the photoreceptor surface. The acute angle of the blade creates a build up of toner and other residual particles on the cleaning blade. A support platen for the imaging surface is opposed to the cleaning blade to prevent damage to the imaging surface. The build up of toner and other residual particles is guided to the sump by a baffle causing tighter packing of the particles in the sump.

Apparatus for increased toner storage capacity

A blade cleaning station is provided for an electrostatographic reproducing apparatus comprising an endless, flexible belt having an imaging surface thereon supported for movement between two support members defining a substantially horizontal top run therebetween. The cleaning station comprises a rigid stationary cleaning platen under the top run of the belt between the support members and a cleaning blade mounted in opposed relationship thereto on the imaging surface of the belt in interference with the imaging surface on said belt such that its beam deflection provides the force required to clean the imaging surface and the toner cleaned from the imaging surface lubricates the nip between the cleaning blade and the imaging surface.

Blade cleaning apparatus for flexible belt

Cleaner apparatus for electrostatographic reproducing apparatus comprises a cleaning blade in cleaning engagement with the endless charge retentive surface and end seals at each end of the charge retentive surface comprising a dense fibrous brush of resiliently flexible fibers fixed to a backing with the fibers being oriented in compression interference sealing contact with the charge retentive surface and in sealing engagement with the ends of the cleaning blade to provide a physical containment wall for bulk toner in the cleaner housing and a seal between the wall and the charge retentive surface.

Brush end seals for blade cleaner housing

An apparatus for transporting and tracking a belt arranged to move in a predetermined path and for controlling lateral movement of the belt from the predetermined path comprises a stationary non-rotating arcuate tracking shoe with a belt defining surface for supporting a belt thereon and including vertically oriented flanges at each side of said path defining surface and extending from said path defining surface outwardly to provide belt edge guides. When driving the belt around the tracking shoe the velocity of the belt in the axial direction of the tracking shoe is zero when the belt touches an edge guide. Therefore, the friction force acting on the belt from the tracking shoe in the axial direction approaches zero, thereby helping to keep the total system force applied at the edge guide less than the minimum force necessary to produce buckling of the side of the belt. In a preferred embodiment the belt tracking shoe comprises a first substantially planar path defining surface, an arcuate path defining surface and a second substantially planar path defining surface wherein one of the planar surfaces provides a transfer planten and the arcuate surface provides a copy sheet stripping means in an electrostatographic printing apparatus.

Belt support and tracking apparatus

An apparatus which develops a latent image recorded on a flexible member with developer material comprising at least magnetic granules and toner particles. Developer material is transported closely adjacent to a flexible member having the latent image recorded thereon. A radial magnetic field is generated in the development zone to optimize the attraction of the toner particles from the carrier granules to the latent image. A tangential magnetic field is generated at the exit of the development zone to prevent carrier granules from adhering to the flexible member. The magnitude of the tangential magnetic field at the exit of the development zone is greater than the magnitude of the radial magnetic field at the center of the development zone.

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Pittsford, NY, United States of America

Richard L Forbes, Ii