US 7,548,711 B2Granted

Web cleaning apparatus for electrographic printer

AssigneeEastman Kodak Company

InventorsFrancisco L. Ziegelmuller, Thomas C. Bidwell, Dennis J. Grabb, Daniel R. Palmer, Matthias H. Regelsberger

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Abstract

A cleaning station for removing particulate material from a moving web in an electrographic printer/copier includes a customer-replaceable web-cleaner device with a support bracket/backup shoe assembly. A quick disconnect feature enables the cleaner cover to be de-coupled from the cleaner body to allow the debris to be easily removed with replacing the web-cleaner. The cleaner has a cleaner sump that is spring loaded to force contact of four strategically placed stops in the sump with a stationary back up shoe assembly allowing for higher precision of blade engagement with a transport web or a photoconductor. The web-cleaner has two wiper blades that are locked into the cleaner sump by springs, to facilitate dumping of material removed from the web without removing the cleaning blades. The sump has baffles molded into the sump to eliminate extra parts and has several features that enable easy attachment of the cleaning blades, a permanently attached foam seal around the perimeter of the cover and sump interface. The wiper cleaning blades and the cover assembly are easily replaceable by the operator.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A surface-cleaning apparatus for cleaning particulate material from a moving surface in an electrographic printer, the surface-cleaning apparatus adapted to contact a surface of the moving surface and to remove particles from the surface to deposit the particles into a sump comprising:

(a) a lower bracket assembly for releasably supporting the surface-cleaning apparatus comprising one or more wiper blades;
(b) a backup shoe assembly including a shoe having a hard surface adapted to contact the surface opposite that contacted by the one or more wiper blades and to resist the force exerted by the one or more wiper blades;
(c) one or more springs located between the sump and the lower bracket assembly to align the sump with the shoe;
(d) a web cleaning device having sides including one or more lips and defining a cavity, and one or more molded components, the web cleaning device comprising one or more stops are located on a side lip so that the one or more springs can bias the one or more stops to the shoe to reduce the tolerance between the one or more wiper blades and the surface;
and
(e) a cover assembly to facilitate the removal of the particulate material from the sump without removing the one or more wiper blades.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.