Developer station for an electrographic printer having reduced developer agitation

A developer station for an electrographic printer having a photoconductor drum, and a horizontally oriented image transport webbing tangent to said drum at one of a 12 o'clock position and a 6 o'clock position, comprising:

• a sump of magnetic developer, and a magnetic brush roller mounted above said sump and including a rotatable magnetic core surrounded by a substantially cylindrical toning shell rotatably mounted with respect to the core, said shell being adjacent to the photoconductor drum and defining a nip, wherein a tangent line tangent to the cylindrical toning shell at said nip is oriented within a range of between about +45° and −45° with respect to a vertical line, and said magnetic developer is applied to a said toning shell at an angular distance of no more than about 120° from said nip, and said eccentrically mounted toning shell is substantially closest to said rotatable magnetic core within about +30° and −30° from said nip.

A method of electrographic printing in a printer having a photoconductor member, and a developer station including a magnetic brush having a rotating magnetic core and a toning shell tangent to the photoconductor member along a line, and a reservoir of developer formed from magnetic carrier particles and toner particles, comprising the steps of:

• rotating the magnetic core relative to the toning shell during a printing operation such magnetic carrier particles on the toning shell are subjected to at least about 190 pole flips per second, and delivering developer to the toning shell at an angular distance no more than about 120° from the tangent line between the toning shell and the photoconductor member to reduce a residence time that the developer stays on the developer shell prior to transfer of toner particles from the toning shell to the photoconductor element.