Method and apparatus for electrostatographic printing utilizing an electrode array and a charge retentive imaging member

An electrostatic printing apparatus for printing an image on a copy substrate, comprising:

• a recording medium having:
• a conductive substrate, an image recording surface having therein an array of discrete, conductive segments, and a charge retentive layer disposed between the conductive substrate and the image recording surface, the recording medium thereby having a respective array of charge-retentive pixel areas;
• a recording head including an array of recording electrodes having recording electrode tips in contact with the image recording surface of the recording medium and a flexible insulator layer for supporting and uniformly spacing the recording electrode tips in the electrode array;
• means for effecting relative movement of the electrode array and the recording medium in such a manner that at least one of the recording electrode tips momentarily achieves Ohmic contact with a corresponding one of the discrete conductive segments present in the image recording surface;
• means for selectively energizing the recording electrode tip so as to provide an imagewise distribution of electrostatic charges to the array of pixel areas, thereby establishing an electrostatic latent image;
• a developer station for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the recording medium;
• and
• a transfer station for transferring the developed electrostatic latent image to the copy substrate.