Lexmark International, Inc.

Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.

Other

William Michael Connors

Brad W Towe

Michael William Lawrence

Donn Duane Bryant

Walter Kevin Cousins

Stephen Edward Stewart

Adam Jude Ahne

Larry W Acton

Mark Joseph Edwards

John Wayne Gassett

David Carl Bishop

Douglas Laurence Robertson

Daniel Robert Gagnon

William George Goff, Iii

Donald Wayne Stafford

Brian Keith Owens

Mark Eric Miller

Donald Norman Spitz

Stephen Kelly Cunnagin

Thomas Allen Bailey

Brian Andrew Naro

Ricky Earl Robbins

Tommy Otis Lowe

Gregory Paul Washnock

Matthew Ryan Keniston

William A Byrd

Kevin Garcia

Kevin J Maudsley

Kris Eren Kallenberger

Joel E Oman

Michael James Benson

Nolan Francis Luckett

James Marvin Jackson

Edward Michael Morris

Paul Scott Nicholas Sherrill

John Andrew Schmelz

Victor David Hair

A system and method for user friendly replacement of printer platen rolls includes a roll assembly having a support shaft with a bearing seated in a flange at one end. A crescent notch in a printer chassis receives the shaft into an interior of the notch. The assembly is moved axially so that a flange neck nests in the notch with a flange lip contacting a surface of the chassis. A lock contacts the lip to prevent axial motion of the assembly when installed. An opposed side of the shaft is placed in a bearing on an opposite side of the chassis.

Line printer having user replaceable platen rollers

A pre-feed system and method for a liner-less label printer includes a drive roller that is configured to peel liner-less labels from a reel and pass print stock comprising the labels to an in-line label printer at a consistent rate. An idler roller disposed in proximity to the drive roller creates a nip for pulling labels from the reel. Label stock is fed to one or more print heads while supported by a support plate comprising projections extending from a planar surface, contacting an adhesive side of the labels. The projections are aligned in rows substantially perpendicular to a travel direction of the moving print stock and in a plurality of columns substantially parallel to the travel direction of the moving print stock, with projections on alternate rows offset from projections on adjacent rows and projections on alternate columns offset from projections on adjacent columns.

Liner-less label pre-feed system and method

A system and method for enhanced speed thermal printing has a drive roller for contacting thermochromic medal to a thermal printhead. The drive roller includes a cam which causes the drive roller to decelerate as it approaches the printhead such that contact with the thermal printhead and the thermochromic media is at a highest force point. The drive roller accelerates as it is pulled back from the printhead prior to a next printing cycle.

Enhanced speed thermal printer

A hold down finger for a finisher process tray contacts the top sheet of paper on a paper tray to prevent subsequently printed pages from disturbing pages disposed on the paper tray. The hold down finger includes gears that move a portion of the hold down finger that contacts the top sheet of paper from a retracted position to a forward hold down position along a substantially elliptical path. After each sheet is printed and placed on top of other pages in the paper tray, the paper tray lowers and the hold down finger continues along the substantially elliptical path back to the retracted position. A rack gear associated with the paper tray engages a cylindrical gear of the hold down finger to return the hold down finger to the retracted position if the paper tray is forced upwards while the hold down finger is in the forward position.

Paper tray hold down finger system and method

A system and method for advancing sticky media through printers includes one or more feed rollers comprised of a grit roller. The grit roller contacts an adhesive side of liner-less label stock removed from a roll or stack for printing. The grit roller works cooperatively with an opposing, counter-rotating roller to remove the label stock from the roll and feed it to a printer.

Grit roller feeder rollers for sticky media

A system and method for assembling booklets in document finishers such as saddle staplers includes first and second opposed rollers configured to receive an edge of a stapled crease of a stack of printed documents. The rollers apply both heat and pressure to the crease to form a tight fold. A second set of rollers provides further heat and pressure to the fold to increase tightness even further. Pressure and temperature of one or both roller sets is controllable to accommodate paper stacks having different numbers of pages or different paper characteristics.

System and method for heat assisted saddle finisher folding

A finisher assembly of a multifunction peripheral includes a vertically oriented stapler and a paper transport motor. When the paper transport motor rotates in the forward direction, printed pages from the print engine of the multifunction peripheral are received via a paper chute and a feed assist roller urges the printed pages into a vertical paper accumulation cache basin. Rotation of the paper transport motor also opens a biasing plate allowing the pages to freely enter the cache basin. Once all of the pages of the print job are in the cache basin, the paper transport motor rotates in the reverse direction causing the biasing plate to bias the printed pages, in the cache basin, against a registration surface of the vertically oriented stapler unit. The pages of the print job are stapled together the stapled print job is moved to the paper tray for collection by a user.

Paper feed and biasing system and method for stapler unit

A counterbalance dampener disposed between a printer chassis and the automatic duplexer unit includes a pair of support links pivotably connected at distal ends to the chassis and the automatic duplexer unit. A pinion disposed at the distal end of the support link connected to the automatic duplexer unit rotates when the automatic duplexer unit descends into an open configuration. The pinion is in communication with a rack that translates linearly to compress a spring which provides a countering force to slow the descent of the automatic duplexer unit.

Counterbalance door dampener system and method for automatic duplexing units

A field replaceable transfer belt unit for toner-based printers includes a transfer belt and rollers for moving the transfer belt in a loop during a print operation, including a first roller configured to be driven by a driver shaft of a printer. The field replaceable transfer belt unit includes a rotatable handle for removing and replacing the field replaceable transfer belt unit from the printer. The rotatable handle is in communication with a drive cam that rotates to selectively engage and disengage the drive shaft with the first roller. Rotating the handle also secures the transfer belt unit to the printer.

Field replacement transfer belt unit

A system and method for removing toner and particles from a developer cavity of an electrostatic process unit of a toner-based printer includes a filter displaced over at least a portion of the developer cavity, and a fan configured to draw a volume of air through the filter from the portion of the developer cavity adjacent to the filter. The fan is coupled to the photoconductive drum of the electrostatic process unit and rotates when the photoconductive drum rotates. The rotation of the fan generates a negative pressure on the filter which draws the volume of air through the filter. The filter removes airborne toner and particles from the volume of air. The toner and particles are removed from the electrostatic process unit by an associated auger.

Negative pressure electrostatic process unit for printers and multifunction peripherals

A noise dampened re-drive assembly for an imaging device. The re-drive assembly includes a two position, pivotally mounted diverter gate that is driven by a reversible motor coupled to a sector gear fixedly mounted to the diverter gate. A slot is provided in the sector gear with a stop pin positioned in the slot. An end of the slot strikes the stop pin as the diverter gate reaches one of its positions. A cantilevered mounted T-shaped dampener having a dampening finger at each of its free ends is mounts in the slot. As the end of the slot nears the stop pin when the diverter gate approaches one of its two positions, the dampening finger adjacent thereto engages the stop pin and reduces the acoustical impulse of the slot end striking the stop pin. A pair of dampeners mounted in a mirror image fashion may be provided in the slot.

Noise dampened media re-drive assembly for an imaging device

An illumination device for an image capture system according to one example embodiment includes an integrating light pipe having an input face and an output face. The integrating light pipe is positioned to receive light from a light source at the input face and transmit the light at the output face. A projection element is positioned to focus the light from the output face to a document plane to be imaged by an image sensor. A uniformity correction device is positioned to attenuate the light from the output face so that the light has a substantially uniform intensity at the image sensor and a less uniform intensity at the document plane than at the image sensor.

Illumination device for an image capture system

The present invention includes a damping device for a media feed mechanism for a peripheral device having a media feedpath having a feed shaft and a downstream exit shaft. In one form a damping hub is mounted on said exit shaft, a resilient biasing member extending between the damping hub and the feed shaft to create a damping force on the damping hub. In another embodiment damping is provided by a brake structure engaging said damping hub. In yet another embodiment, a brake structure is pivotably mounted.

Exit shaft dampening device to improve print quality

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

William Michael Connors