Savin Corporation

Savin Business Machines Corporation

Tatsu Hori

Kenneth W Gardiner

Norman F Mangal

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

A pickoff element for separating a carrier sheet from the photoconductor drum of a liquid-developer electrophotographic copier following transfer of a developed toner image to the sheet is incrementally moved transversely of the direction of movement of the photoconductor to distribute wear over a relatively large portion of the photoconductor surface. Upon its return to home position, a copier scanner casting strikes an actuator arm coupled through a one-way clutch to a double-helix lead screw, extending parallel to the drum axis, to impart incremental unidirectional rotation to the lead screw. A follower engaging the lead screw is coupled to the pickoff element to shift the pickoff element transversely in response to the rotation of the lead screw. The pickoff element is normally retracted from the photoconductor, and is only moved into engagement with the photoconductor during selected portions of the copy cycle to minimize drum wear, as well as to avoid pickup of toner particles that have been attracted onto a non-image portion of the photoconductor from the development electrode during a cleaning stage of the copy cycle.

Traversing, intermittently contacting sheet pickoff for

A copier employing liquid developer in which the lower portion of a deep well in the liquid carrier extends downwardly into the space between a pair of shock absorbing machine base plate mounts to receive the supply of liquid developer for the machine. A motor housing in the upper portion of the well extends downwardly to approximately the upper level of liquid in the lower portion of the well when it contains a full charge of liquid. Each of a cleaning fluid supply motor and a developer electrode supply motor in the housing has a shaft which extends downwardly to a respective pump disposed in the liquid supply to drive the pumps respectively to supply liquid to the cleaning station and to the developer station. A splash plate extending over the top of the well prevents the escape of liquid from the well even with the machine at an appreciable angle from the horizontal. Shields are provided at various locations on the machine to prevent the accidental escape of liquid. Baffles inhibit free movement of liquid in the tank. Filler material in a developer applicator gap extending in the direction of the drum axis controls the flow of developer in the gap to facilitate copying when the machine tilts around an axis perpendicular to the drum axis.

Liquid developer electrostatic copier for shipboard use

Originals are individually separated from the bottom of a stack overlying the imaging platen of a document copier and are advanced around a first 180.degree. bend onto the platen for copying. After they are copied, the originals are returned to the top of the stack around a second 180.degree. bend at the other end of the platen. Each original is advanced to the imaging platen a number of times equal to the number of copies to be made to produce collated sets of copies from the copier. A relatively flat place-marking member initially placed on the uppermost original drops down when that original is fed to generate a signal indicating that the entire set of originals has been advanced once to the imaging platen. The generated signal indexes a counter that turns off the feeder when the desired number of copies have been made. This counter also actuates a motor that shifts the copy tray between sets to offset successive sets of copies.

Recirculating document feeder

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.

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Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Tatsu Hori