Field-enhanced charge injection amplification
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsJohn W. May, Anujit Mukherjee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A weak electrostatic image on an imaging member is amplified by first toning it with a charge injection toner. The imaging member is recharged without fusing the toner image to a charge of the same polarity as the first charge but substantially higher potential. The excess charge over the first charge injects through the toner to create an amplified electrostatic image that can be toned.
Claims8
A method of amplifying a weak electrostatic image which electrostatic image is obtained by uniformly charging a photoconductive imaging member to a first potential of a first polarity, and imagewise exposing said imaging member to a low level of radiation, said amplification method comprising:
- applying a charge injecting toner to said imaging member to create a toner image defined by said electrostatic image,
- without fusing or otherwise treating said toner image to reduce the charge on said imaging member, charging said imaging member with a charge of the same polarity as the first polarity, but of sufficiently higher voltage than the original charge placed on the imaging member to create an amplified electrostatic image created by charge injection of the charge into said imaging member through said unfused toner image, said amplified electrostatic image having charge of higher potential in areas of less toner and charge of lower potential in areas of more toner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.