Color imaging with contact transfer heating station
AssigneeLexmark International, Inc.
InventorsTodd L. Janes, Alexander D. Meade, Ashok Murthy, Pramod K. Sharma, Peter E. Wallin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In imaging apparatus (1) a contact heater (9) applies heat and electrical bias to a toner image on an intermediate accumulator (5). The bias is of polarity to repel the toner. The toner image is coalesced such that additional heating may be reduced or eliminated at the transfer to paper (7) by pressure roller (11).
Claims10
An imaging apparatus comprising an electrostatically chargeable roller, means to tone said chargeable roller in patterns of images, an intermediate transfer member to receive said toned images, said intermediate transfer member accumulating at least three of said toned images in registration, a heating element for contacting said three toned images in registration on said intermediate transfer member and to apply an electrical bias to repel said toned images in registration while having an elevated surface temperature of at least 85 degrees C. to coalesce said three toned images in registration, said heating element not applying an elevated temperature to coalesce said toned images until after the third image of said three images in registration is received on said intermediate transfer member, and a transfer station to transfer said images coalesced by said heating element with pressure to paper of other substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.