Particulate material cleaning apparatus
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsPaul M. Hanner, Gary B. Bertram
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A toner cleaning apparatus using particulate cleaning material includes a particulate cleaning material replacement device which receives a container of fresh cleaning material. The container is inverted by the device and material is metered onto a brush in response to normal operation of the apparatus. Old material is automatically stripped off the brush in the replacement process. New material cannot be added without removing old material, thereby preventing overloading of the brush. A movable skive stripping member is also disclosed to automatically remove old particulate material from the brush when new particulate material is added.
Claims20
Magnetic brush cleaning apparatus for cleaning toner off a moving surface, said apparatus being of the type including magnetic brush means for transporting magnetic particulate cleaning material through an endless path, which path includes cleaning relationship with said moving surface;
- characterized by a particulate cleaning material replacement device including:
- means for receiving a container containing particulate cleaning material and havng an opening, said means being rotatable between a first position in which said container opening is generally up and a second position in which said opening is in gravitational metering relation with said magnetic brush means;
- and
- means for rotating said container receiving means from said first to said second positions in response to operation of said apparatus.
Cleaning apparatus for cleaning toner off a moving surface, said apparatus being of the type including brush means for moving particulate cleaning material through an endless path which path includes cleaning relationship with said moving surface;
- characterized by a particulate cleaning material replacement device including:
- means for receiving a container containing particulate cleaning material and having an opening, said means being rotatable between a first position in which said container opening is generally up and a second position in which said opeing is in metering relation with said brush means;
- and
- means for rotating said container receiving means from said first to said second positions in response to operation of said apparatus.
Device for replacing particulate cleaning material in a toner cleaning apparatus, said apparatus being of the type having means for transporting particulate material through an endless path between a position in which the particulate material is brought into cleaning relation with a toner bearing moving surface and a position in which the particulate material is brought into toner removing relation wth means for removing toner from the particulate material, said device comprising:
- means for receiving a container of particulate cleaning material, said container having an opening above contained material as received by said means;
- and
- means for rotating a received container to position the opening below said material and in communication with said transporting means for gravitational metering into operative relation therewith.
Cleaning apparatus for cleaning toner off a moving surface, said apparatus being of the type including brush means for moving particulate cleaning material through an endless path which path includes cleaning relationship with said moving surface;
- characterized by a particulate cleaning material replacement device including:
- means for receiving a container containing particulate cleaning material;
- means for changing said container from a condition permitting replacement of the container to a condition permitting emptying of particulate material from said container to said brush means;
- and
- skive strippig means movable into and out of stripping relation with said brush means in response to change of conditions of a received container to automatically remove old particulate material from said brush means when adding new material.
A magnetic brush cleaning apparatus for cleaning toner off a movng surface, said apparatus comprising:
- magnetic brush means for moving magnetic particulate cleaning material through an endless path, which path includes cleaning relationship with said moving surface;
- a detoning roller rotatable into detoning relation with said particulate material;
- means for cleaning toner off said detoning roller;
- sump means for receiving toner cleaned off said detoning roller;
- a skive movable into cleaning relation with said magnetic brush means to clean particulate cleaning material off said brush and into said sump means;
- a particulate cleaning material replacement device including:
- means for receiving a container having an opening, said means being rotatable between first and second positions in which said container opening is generally up and generally down, respectively, said means being rotatable from its second to its first positon by hand;
- means associated with said detoning roller for rotating said container receiving means from said first to said second positions in response to rotation of said detoning roller;
- and
- means for moving said skive into cleaning relation with said magnetic brush means in response to movement of said container receiving means to its first position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.