Electrostatic copying machine comprising improved arrangement of operating units

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• and
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• the control means further controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for single copying operation, the belt is stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and then driven for one revolution.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• and
• cleaning means provided in the cover and engaging the belt adjacent to the second roller downstream of the transfer means in the direction of movement of the belt, the cleaning means being detachable from a bottom of the cover;
• the cleaning means comprising a rotary member, the copying machine further comprising means for rotating the rotary member while the belt is moving and stopping the rotary member while the belt is stopped;
• the rotary member comprising a fur brush, the cleaning means further comprising a flicker bar for flickingly removing toner from the brush, a roller for conveying the removed toner around a circular path and a rotating worm disposed at an end of the circular path for conveying the toner away for reuse.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and seconc rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• and
• means for moving the developing means into engagement with the belt when the belt is moving and moving the developing means out of engagement with the belt when the belt is stopped.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• and
• thermal fixing means for fixing the toner image to the copy sheet, the fixing means being provided in the cover and being detachable from a bottom of the cover;
• the fixing means being disposed downstream of the second roller in a direction of movement of a lower run of the belt.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• and
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• the imaging means comprising a transparent platen defining a portion of a top of the cover and a movable scanning unit provided in the cover between the platen and belt for charging an upper run of the belt and radiating a light image of the document thereon.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• and
• a cassette for supporting the copy sheet, the cassette being completely received in the housing and detachable from a front of the housing;
• the drive means driving the belt for rotation parallel to the front of the housing, the copying machine further comprising feed means for feeding the copy sheet from the cassette parallel to the front of the housing.

An electrostatic copying machine comprising:

• a housing;
• a cover provided on top of the housing and being movable between open and closed positions;
• first and second parallel rollers rotatably supported by the cover;
• an endless photoconductive belt trained around the first and second rollers;
• imaging means provided in the cover for forming an electrostatic image of an original document on a portion of the belt between the first and second rollers;
• developing means provided in the housing for developing the electrostatic image to produce a toner image, the developing means being adjacent to the first roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• transfer means provided in the housing for transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, the transfer means being adjacent to the second roller when the cover is in the closed position;
• drive means for rotating the first and second rollers and thereby the belt in a direction such that the portion of the belt on which the electrostatic image is formed moves around the first roller and then around the second roller;
• control means for controlling the imaging means, drive means and transfer means in such a manner that, for multiple copying operation, the belt is alternatingly stopped while the imaging means forms an electrostatic image thereon and driven for one half revolution;
• and
• a cassette for supporting the copy sheet, the cassette being completely received in the housing and detachable from a front of the housing;
• the cassette comprising a corner separator disposed at a corner thereof, a corner of the sheet being aligned with a corner of the cassette and a feed roller disposed adjacent to the corner of the cassette for feeding the copy sheet in a direction such that a leading edge of the copy sheet is popped up by the corner separator and skew preventing means disposed upstream of the feed roller in the direction of movement of the copy sheet for engaging with and resisting skew of the copy sheet.