Xerox Corporation

William C Dean

Aaron Michael Burry

Palghat Srinivas Ramesh

Christopher Auguste Dirubio

Peter Paul

Bruce Earl Thayer

Michael F Zona

Eric Scott Hamby

Paul C Julien

Patricia A Wang

Christopher A Dirubio

Julianna Elizabeth Lin

Jeffrey C Shelton

William Lee Kennedy

A composition that has a low volatile organic compound (VOC) content and methods for producing compositions having a low VOC content. The composition, such as a solid ink and/or toner release oil composition, may include less than about 0.15% by weight VOCs that have a sufficient vapor pressure at the operating temperature of printing device to enter the gas phase at the operating temperature of the printing device.

Polydisperse compositions and methods for eliminating volatile organic compounds

According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided an apparatus and method to manage the contact of a cleaning blade and a moving surface to increase the useful life of the blade. For example, a cleaning apparatus for a photoreceptor surface comprises a cleaning unit with a blade holder that rotates about a pivot point, a cleaning blade that is coupled to the blade holder and is positioned to chisel excess toner from the photoreceptor surface, and which cleans excess toner from the photoreceptor surface. The apparatus further comprises a sensor that senses the start and the end of an operational procedure, and an actuator that rotates the blade holder about the pivot point to selectively advance or retract the blade during the start-up procedure and the shut-down procedure. After the cleaning surface has begun to move or reached operating speed, blade contact is increased to bring the blade load up to operational level. By making this change to the conventional static cleaning blade, the peak stress at start-up and shut-down is much reduced and cleaning blade life and reliability are much improved.

Long life cleaning system with reduced stress for start of cleaning blade operation

Aspects of the disclosure can provide a method of detecting a density of a pigmented layer on an object. The method can include emitting a first modulated light onto a first portion of the object having the pigmented layer, detecting a first reflected light of the first modulated light from the first portion of the object, and determining the density of the pigmented layer according to the first reflected light. Furthermore, the method can include emitting a second modulated light onto a second portion of the object, detecting a second reflected light of the second modulated light from the second portion of the object, and determining the density of the pigmented layer according to a relative ratio that is related to the first reflected light and the second reflected light.

Method and apparatus for robust detection of the density of a pigmented layer

Xerographic photoreceptor life is improved while maintaining output print quality by adjusting the AC charging actuator of a xerographic machine to a point at which photoconductor life is optimized while maintaining output print quality. Where the actuator is voltage, the actuator is set a predetermined amount above the knee voltage of the photoreceptor surface potential versus peak-to-peak voltage curve, which is determined during operation of the machine. Instead of determining the knee voltage, calibration sheets can be generated for various values of the actuator, the best sheet with the least possible actuator value is selected, and the AC charging actuator is set to the value corresponding to the best sheet. The sheets can be evaluated by a user, or an optical array sensor can be used to scan the sheets so that the controller can compare the sheets to stored criteria to automatically select the best sheet and set the actuator. Alternatively, the optical array sensor can scan calibration images directly from the intermediate transfer belt or other image bearing member, thus eliminating the use of paper for calibration.

Photoconductor life through active control of charger settings

A xerographic marking engine adjusts a charging actuator, such as an AC peak-to-peak voltage or an AC peak-to-peak AC current, based upon toner patch density measurements made using, e.g., a toner patch density sensor. The sensor is used to detect a knee in a toner mass density curve obtained by sweeping an AC peak-to-peak voltage or an AC peak-to-peak current. Once the knee is located, an AC charging actuator peak-to-peak voltage or AC peak-to-peak current is determined that reduces the amount of positive charge that is deposited onto the surface of the photoconductor, thereby extending its life while maintaining acceptable print quality. The described approach may improve photoconductor life without significantly increasing production costs or complexity.

Mass-based sensing of charging knee for active control of charger settings

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Webster, NY, United States of America

William C Dean