Color printing apparatus and process using first and second transfer surfaces
AssigneeOlin Corporation
InventorDavid P. Bujese
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and a method of using the apparatus to transfer a liquid toned image from a first master surface to a final receiving surface via two intermediate transfer surfaces is disclosed. The liquid developed image is transferred three times, the initial transfer from the master surface being a non-contact transfer and the next two transfers being contact transfers. The second intermediate transfer surface is tacky or adhesive to remove all of the dried toner image from the first intermediate transfer surface.
Claims44
Apparatus for transferring a liquid toner color image comprising in combination:
- (a) a photosensitive surface mounted adjacent imagewise exposing means for exposing an image thereon;
- (b) charging means cooperative with the photosensitive surface to charge the surface on the photosensitive surface;
- (c) developing means to develop the charged image with liquid toner;
- (d) a first intermediate transfer surface mounted adjacent the photosensitive surface to receive the developed liquid image from the photosensitive surface;
- (e) drying means to substantially dry the developed liquid image on the first intermediate transfer surface to form a dry image;
- (f) a second intermediate transfer surface contactable with the first intermediate transfer surface, the second intermediate transfer surface having an adhesive or tacky quality effective to remove the dry image from the first intermediate transfer surface;
- (g) feeding means effective to feed a final receiving surface to the second intermediate transfer surface;
- and
- (h) fusing means effective to contact the dry image to the final receiving surface and fuse the image thereto.
In an apparatus for transferring a liquid toner color image as a developed liquid image from a photosensitive surface to a final receiving surface, the improvement comprising:
- a first intermediate transfer surface adjacent the photosensitive surface to receive the developed liquid image therefrom cooperative with drying means to dry the developed liquid image to a dried image thereon and effective to transfer the dried developed image to a second intermediate transfer surface having an adhesive tacky surface layer to remove and transfer all of the toner and dried image from the first intermediate transfer surface to the final receiving surface, the final receiving surface being cooperative with fusing means to fuse the dried image thereto.
A method of transferring a liquid toner color image from a photosensitive surface to a final receiving surface comprising the steps of:
- (a) creating a charged latent image on the photosensitive surface;
- (b) developing the charged latent image with a liquid toner;
- (c) applying a transfer voltage to a first intermediate transfer surface and transferring the developed liquid toner image to the first intermediate transfer surface;
- (d) drying the developed liquid image on the first intermediate transfer surface to form a substantially dry image;
- (e) contact transferring the substantially dry image to a second intermediate transfer surface having an adhesive or tacky surface layer;
- (f) feeding the final receiving surface to the second intermediate transfer surface under pressure against the second intermediate transfer surface to transfer the dried image from the second intermediate transfer surface to the final receiving surface;
- and
- (g) fusing the dried transferred image to the final receiving surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.