Toner brush with superimposed brushes for an electro-photographic printer and printer with the toner brush
AssigneeInfoPrint Solutions Company LLC
InventorWilliam Ashmead Courtenay Bateman, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A toner brush for a printer and a printer including the toner brush. The toner brush includes a substrate (e.g. a core cylinder) with a cleaning brush and a residual toner brush superimposed over one another. During printing the printer holds the residual toner brush against a photoconductor or photoconductive surface, e.g., a photoconductive drum. For deep cleaning, the printer moves the cleaning brush closer to the photoconductor surface and holds it against the surface during deep cleaning. Deep cleaning may be automatically or manually (e.g., by an operator) initiated.
Claims20
A toner brush comprising:
- a substrate;
- a cleaning brush attached to said substrate and having a first height relative to said substrate;
- and
- a residual toner brush attached to said substrate and having a second height relative to said substrate, said second height being greater than said first height, wherein said cleaning brush and said residual toner brush are superimposed one over the other.
A toner brush comprising:
- a core cylinder;
- a plurality of first bristles having a first nominal length and first stiffness, said plurality of first bristles being attached to said core cylinder and extending radially outward from said core cylinder;
- and
- a plurality of second bristles having a second nominal length and second stiffness, said plurality of second bristles being attached to said core cylinder interleaved with said plurality of first bristles and extending radially outward from said core cylinder, said second nominal length being shorter than said first nominal length and said second stiffness being stiffer than said first stiffness.
A printer comprising:
- a photoconductive surface, toned images forming on said photoconductive surface, formed toned images transferring to print medium during printing;
- a toner brush adjacent to and in contact with said photoconductive surface, said toner brush comprising:
- a substrate,
- a cleaning brush attached to said substrate and having a first height relative to said substrate, and
- a residual toner brush attached to said substrate and having a second height relative to said substrate, said second height being greater than said first height, wherein said cleaning brush and said residual toner brush are superimposed one over the other and said residual toner brush is held in contact with said photoconductive surface during printing;
- and
- an actuator attached to said toner brush and holding said toner brush in place, said actuator selectively moving said toner brush to contact said cleaning brush with said photoconductive surface.
A printer comprising:
- a photoconductor, toned images forming on said photoconductor, formed toned images transferring to print medium during printing;
- a toner brush adjacent to and in contact with said photoconductor, said toner brush comprising:
- a core cylinder,
- a cleaning brush attached to said core cylinder and having a first height relative to said core cylinder, and
- a residual toner brush attached to said core cylinder and having a second height relative to said core cylinder, said second height being greater than said first height, wherein said cleaning brush and said residual toner brush are superimposed one over the other and said residual toner brush is held in contact with said photoconductor during printing;
- and
- an actuator attached to said toner brush and holding said toner brush in place, said actuator selectively moving said toner brush to contact said cleaning brush with said photoconductor during automatically initiated deep cleaning periods.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.