Printer

A compact printer which is capable of being easily serviced comprising:

• a printer body;
• a record unit including a record in the form of an endless belt extending around a plurality of rollers and driven for movement in one direction, said record unit being located substantially centrally within said printer body and capable of being slid out of the printer body for servicing, said printer body having positioning means for positioning the record unit back into said substantially central location when the record unit is slid back in;
• means for controlling an offsetting of the record;
• a charger unit for uniformly charging the record;
• exposure means for irradiating the charged record with light information which corresponds to an image to be recorded to thereby form an electrostatic latent image on the record;
• a developer unit including a developer roller which supplies a developer to the record to convert the latent image into a corresponding visual image;
• said developing unit having a support unit on which the record unit is detachably mounted, the developing unit and record unit together forming a record/developing unit which is capable of being slid out of the printer body, the printer body having constraining means for constraining the record/developing unit from being fully slid out so that the record unit is protectively kept within the printer body when the developing unit is being replenished with developer, and release means for allowing the entire record/developing unit to slide out when the record unit needs servicing;
• a sheet feeder for feeding a record sheet from a stack, as separated one by one, so as to be brought into close contact with the record which carries the visual image;
• a transfer unit, located near a driven roller portion at one end of the record unit, for transferring the visual image from the record onto the record sheet, the record sheet with the transferred image thereon being separated from the record around the driven roller portion of the record unit;
• a fixing unit, located along a path of movement of the record sheet from the transfer unit, for fixing the visual image on the record sheet;
• a delivery means for delivering the fixed record sheet from the fixing unit out of the printer;
• wherein the path of movement of the record sheet between the transfer unit and the delivery means is arranged to be a substantially linear path;
• a neutralizer for removing any residual charge from the record after the visual image has been transferred therefrom;
• a cleaning unit adapted to be brought into contact with the surface of the record after the visual image has been transferred therefrom to remove any residual developer from the surface;
• drive means for driving the various component units including the record unit;
• and
• control means for controlling the operation of the various units including the drive means, the control means having sensor means coupled thereto for assuring that the record is properly positioned within the printer body before being driven to produce the visual image on the record sheet;
• wherein said sheet feeder, transfer unit, neutralizer, cleaning unit, charger unit, and exposure means are arranged sequentially as recited around the substantially central location of the record unit in the general configuration of the letter U such that the record/developer unit can be slid into or out of a hollow portion defined by the U-shaped configuration of the recited component units.