Xerox Corporation

Ssujan (James) Hou

Robert Michael Lofthus

Michael John Martin

Daniel W Costanza

Michael F Leo

Michael Robert Furst

David Keneth Ahl

Mark A Adiletta

James M Casella

Mark Andrew Omelchenko

Joseph M Wing

Orlando J Lacayo

Lou Bressler

John Sirianni

A belt drive module and a corresponding method includes or employs a belt that moves along a path, at least one support roller or other structure that supports the belt as it moves along the path, a drive roller that effects movement of the belt along the path, a tension roller that applies a tension force to the belt in order to maintain engagement of the belt with the drive and/or support rollers, at least one processing station (e.g., an image processing station) disposed along the path that performs a process relative to a predetermined position of the belt, and a torque assist drive that applies a torque assist force Td at a location between the drive roller and the tension roller. Torque assist may be provided by a current limited DC motor or by a constant torque friction clutch applied to a roller, e.g., a stripper roller of an electrophotographic imaging system. Advantageously, the torque assist force Td facilitates accurate positioning of the belt (e.g., latent image registrations in a color imaging process employing multiple imaging processing stations) by reducing slippage between the drive roller and the belt that may be encountered due to belt wear, toner contamination and/or other debris.

Torque assist method and apparatus for reducing photoreceptor belt slippage in a printing machine

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Cheshire, CT, United States of America

Ssujan (James) Hou