Heat recovery management system for transferring an image in a development system

#This invention relates generally to a heat recovery management system suitable for use in an electrostatographic printing machine, especially a liquid developer type printing machine. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a heat recovery management system for transferring an image in a liquid developer printing machine of the type having an intermediate transfer member.

#Generally, the process of electrostatographic production is initiated by exposing light representing an original document onto a substantially uniformly charged photoreceptive member, resulting in the creation of a latent electrostatic image of the original document on the photoreceptive member. This latent image is subsequently developed into a visible image by a process in which developer material is deposited onto the surface of the photoreceptive member. Typically, this developer material comprises carrier granules having toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto, wherein the toner particles are electrostatically attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image for forming a developed powder image on the photoreceptive member. Alternatively, liquid developing materials comprising a liquid carrier having toner particles immersed therein have been successfully utilized to develop electrostatic latent images, wherein the liquid developing material is applied to the photoconductive surface with the toner particles being attracted toward the image areas of the latent image to form a developed liquid image on the photoreceptive member. Thereafter, the image may be permanently affixed to the copy substrate for providing a "hard copy" reproduction or print of the original document or file. In a final step, the photoreceptive member is cleaned to remove any charge and/or residual developing material from the photoconductive surface in preparation for subsequent imaging cycles.

#The described electrostatographic production process is well known and is useful for light lens copying from an original document. Analogous processes also exist in other electrostatographic production applications such as, for example, digital laser printing where a latent image is formed on the photoconductive surface by a modulated laser beam, or ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images.

#Other features of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and upon reference to the drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic elevational view of an exemplary embodiment of a heat recovery management system in accordance with the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a liquid quality sensor used in the present invention; and

#For a general understanding of the features of the present invention, reference is made to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals have been used throughout to designate identical elements.

#FIG. 3 shows a schematic form elevational view of a full-color, liquid developing material based electrostatographic printing machine incorporating the features of the present invention. Inasmuch as the art of electrostatographic printing is well known, the various processing stations employed in the printing machine of FIG. 3 will be described only briefly with reference thereto while the present description will focus on a detailed description of the particular features of the heat management system of the present invention.

#It will become apparent from the following discussion that the apparatus of the present invention may also be well-suited for use in a wide variety of systems, devices, apparatus and machines and is not necessarily limited in its application to the field of electrostatographic printing or the particular liquid developing material-based electrostatographic machine described herein. As such, while the present invention will hereinafter be described in connection with preferred a embodiment thereof, it will be understood that the description of the invention is not intended to limit the invention to this preferred embodiment. On the contrary, the description is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.