The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 17, 1987
Filed:
Nov. 28, 1986
Brian J Joseph, Rochester, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
An electrographic development apparatus has a sump for receiving developer material including carrier particles and toner particles. A ribbon blender in the sump mixes the toner particles and carrier particles, circulates them within the sump and assists in transporting of the materials to a magnetic brush where the toner particles can be transferred to an electrostatic image on a photoconductor. The improved ribbon blender has an elongate helical ribbon positioned within the sump and extends along the sump with adjacent convolutions of the ribbon being spaced from each other. A plurality of buckets are secured to the ribbon between adjacent convolutions of the ribbon. The buckets on one convolution of the ribbon are spaced from the buckets on adjacent convolutions of the ribbon. The buckets can be open radially outwardly relative to the axis of rotation of the ribbon blender, and additional buckets can face radially inwardly to enhance mixing of developer material by picking up the material and transporting it axially and then dropping it near the blender's center line.