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US 4,046,468 AGranted
Method and apparatus for cleaning fusing members of electrographic copiers
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorWalter A. Stryjewski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electrographic copier and process wherein an image-bearing support material has toner particles fused thereto by a heated pressure member, the pressure member being kept clean of contaminants by a fusible resinous powder distributed over the support material and toner particles prior to the fusing step.
Claims14
An electrographic copying apparatus comprising
- means for forming a toner particle image on a surface of a sheet of a support material,
- a pressure member for fusing the toner particle image onto the support material, and
- depositing means for distributing fusible, relatively dry, finely-divided resinous powder onto at least a portion of the support material surface before the support material surface contacts the pressure member,
- whereby the powder melts and fuses to the support material, carrying contaminants left on said pressure member with the powder to clean said pressure member.
1 more element
An electrographic copying apparatus comprising
- an image member having distributed over the surface thereof, a dielectric composition;
- means for forming a latent electrostatic image on the drum member surface;
- means for depositing toner particles on said surface so as to correspond with said electrostatic image, whereby a toner particle image is formed;
- transfer means for imagewise transferring the particles from said member to a surface of a support material;
- at least one vibrating member positioned subsequent to the transfer means and adjacent to the path of travel of said support material;
- means for cascading a fusible, relatively dry colorless resinous powder onto said vibrating member, whereby the powder is broken into a randomly distributed fine form;
- means for displacing said powder in its fine form from said vibrating member to said support material surface;
- and
- pressure rollers at least one of which is heated, said rollers being positioned subsequent to said cascading and displacing means with respect to the processing of the image-bearing support material, whereby said rollers can fuse the toner particles and can also fuse the powder, thus cleaning contaminants from the roller contacting the powder.
6 more elements
In an electrographic copying apparatus comprising
- means for forming a toner particle image on a surface of a sheet of a support material,
- a pressure member for fusing the toner particle image onto the support material, and
- cleaning means for keeping said member clear of contaminants which would impair image produced by the apparatus,
- the improvement wherein said cleaning means comprises depositing means for distributing fusible, relatively dry, finely divided resinous powder onto at least a portion of the support material surface before the support material surface contacts the pressure member,
- whereby the powder melts and fuses to the support material, carrying contaminants left on said pressure member with the powder to clean said pressure member.
2 more elements
Apparatus for removing contaminants adhered to a pressure member used to fuse toner particle images to a support material, the apparatus comprising
- sensing means for determining the passage of (n-1) sheets under the pressure member, wherein n is a positive integer greater than 1 and is sufficiently small as to prevent build-up of image-impairing contaminants on the pressure member,
- and means responsive to said sensing means for distributing a fusible, relatively dry, finely-divided resinous powder over generally the entire equivalent fusing area of every nth sheet of support material, prior to the passage of said nth sheet under the pressure member, the powder being distributed to clean the pressure member of contaminants.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.