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:
Mar. 11, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 14, 1994
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A lockout mechanism for preventing an operator from filling a toner hopper in an electrographic printing device until the hopper is at least empty enough to accept the entire contents of a toner cartridge. An interlock mechanism takes advantage of the already existing selector shaft to selectively de-activate lockout members in response to a low toner level transducer. Each hopper is provided with a lockout member which is pivotable between a locked out position and a refill position. The locked out position has the lockout members interfering with a connection between toner cartridges and the top of toner hoppers. The lockout members are held in their locked out positions by cam follower members, which are slidable between an upward locked out position and a downward refill position. The slider member interacts with the cam follower members, via follower pins and notches, to lock the cam follower members in their upwards position or to allow them to move down against the selector cams.