Patent Grant
7706728
This disclosure relates to maintaining print quality in xerographic developer systems. More particularly, the teachings herein are directed to apparatus and methods for loading one or more donor rolls in a developer system.
Generally, the process of electrophotographic printing includes charging a photoconductive member such as a photoconductive belt or drum to a substantially uniform potential to sensitize the photoconductive surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is exposed to a light image from a scanning laser beam, a light emitting diode (LED) source, or other light source. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive surface, the latent image is developed in a developer system with charged toner. The toner powder image is subsequently transferred to a copy sheet and heated to permanently fuse it to the copy sheet.
The electrophotographic marking process given above can be modified to produce color images. One electrographic marking process, called image-on-image (IOI) processing, superimposes toner powder images of different color toners onto a photoreceptor prior to the transfer on the composite toner powder image onto to a substrate such as paper. While the IOI process provides certain benefits, such as a compact architecture, there are several challenges to its successful implementation. For instance, the viability of printing system concepts, such as IOI processing, require developer systems that do not interact with previously toned images.
In the developer system, two-component and single-component developer materials are commonly used. A typical two-component developer material comprises magnetic carrier granules having toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto. A single-component developer material typically comprises toner particles. Since several known developer systems such as conventional two component magnetic brush development and single component jumping development interact with the photoconductive surface, a previously toned image will be scavenged by subsequent developer stations if interacting developer systems are used. Thus, for the IOI process, there is a need for a scavengeless or noninteractive developer systems such as the Hybrid Scavengeless Development (HSD).
In scavengeless developer systems such as HSD, developer materials are maintained in a reservoir and conveyed onto the surface of a conventional magnetic brush roll, also referred to as a mag roll, based on a magnetic field necessary to load the mag roll. Toner is conveyed from the surface of the mag roll onto the donor roll. The donor roll is held at an electrical potential difference relative to the mag roll to produce the field necessary to load toner from the surface of the mag roll onto the surface of the donor roll. The toner layer on the donor roll is then disturbed by electric fields from a wire or set of wires to produce and sustain an agitated cloud of toner particles, which are attracted to the latent image to form a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface.
Current embodiments of scavengeless developer systems use a single mag roll to load two donor rolls. There are many shortfalls associated with this current method of loading donor rolls.
One area of concern is the effective life of the developer materials. The use of developer materials beyond the effective life can be exhibited by the persistent appearance of print quality defects such as streaks. As developer ages, highly charged toner fines accumulate on the wires and cause the print quality defects.
Developer material aging has been observed to correlate with wire pollution voltage. A comparison of wire pollution voltage versus developer age demonstrates a “developer crash” behavior that is observed where the wire pollution voltage under sustained low area coverage printing increases suddenly as the developer ages. This problem is currently being managed with the injection of fresh toner into the developer housing, which has been shown to stabilize print quality performance. Another countermeasure is periodically cleaning the wires electrostatically against a bare donor roll. The resort to such measures would not be needed, or would be needed on a less frequent basis, if developer systems and methods were implemented to prolong the effective life of developer materials.
It has been demonstrated that developer material aging is a strong function of mag roll rotational speed. Operating at a slower mag roll speed improves developer life, and correspondingly, faster mag roll speeds are detrimental to developer life.
Donor roll loading systems typically utilize a trim blade, also referred to as a metering blade or a trim, to remove excess developer material from a mag roll to ensures an even depth of coverage with developer material before arrival at a first donor roll loading nip. In these systems, further improvements in developer life can be achieved by trimming at a slower mag roll rotational speed. It is widely believed that much of the material abuse in a developer housing happens in the trim region. Simulations of the elastic energy distribution in a development housing during operation demonstrate that the trim region is a high stress zones. The material abuse rate is proportional to the speed of the mag roll at the trim region. The material abuse rate can be minimized, and developer life extended, by operating the mag roll in which developer material is trimmed at slow rotational speeds.
Although lowering mag roll speed improves print quality with respect to the problem of developer material aging, excessively slow mag roll speeds are detrimental to print quality because of insufficient reload. Reload is the requirement to provide a sufficient supply of toner, via the nag roll, to the donor loading nip. The donor loading nip is the zone in which toner is delivered from the mag roll onto the donor roll. The optimal nag roll speed is dictated by a balance between slowing down the nag roll rotational speed to extend developer material life and speeding up the nag roll rotational speed to meet the threshold requirements of reload.
An additional problem associated with print quality performance is mottle. Mottle occurs when there is poor developer material transfer efficiency, either between the mag rolls and the donor rolls (wherein toner is transferred at the donor loading nips) or between the donor roll and the photoconductive belt (wherein toner is transferred at the developer nips). The rotational speed and direction of rotation of the donor roll rotation influences mottle. More specifically, mottle is influenced by the rotational direction of the donor roll in relation to the transport direction of the photoconductive belt, as well as in relation to the rotational direction of the mag roll. As shown in
Current scavengeless developer systems provide limited operational flexibility in simultaneously addressing the competing problems of developer life, reload and mottle to maintain acceptable levels of print quality.
There is a need for new scavengeless developer systems and methods of operating developer systems that can optimize print quality with respect to the problems of developer life, reload and mottle; at higher print speeds than are currently attainable. It is unlikely that current scavengeless developer systems can meet ambitious goals set for improved developer life and image quality improvements with respect to reload and mottle for speedup demanded in the market.
In embodiments disclosed herein, a developer system is provided using multiple mag rolls to load the donor rolls. The system also provides a separate mag roll, referred to as a trim roll, to pick up developer material and a trim blade used to remove excess developer material from the surface of the trim roll to ensure an uniform supply of developer material. This developer system provides a trim roll and at least two mag rolls for loading a donor roll. This design enables developer material to be trimmed utilizing a trim roll operating at a slow rotational speed, thereby improving developer life without compromising reload efficiency.
In embodiments, a developer system is provided having with two donor rolls, a trim roll and three mag rolls, with two mag rolls loading each donor roll. This enables changing the rotational direction of donor rolls to reduce or eliminate mottle without compromising reload.
In embodiments, a developer system is provided having three mag rolls wherein the middle mag roll can be used for unloading the donor rolls, thereby minimizing or eliminating the problem of reload deficiency.
In embodiments, an apparatus is provided for loading one or more donor rolls of a developer unit, comprising a developer housing having a reservoir for a developer material, a rotatable trim roll that receives the developer material from the reservoir and delivers the developer material to a first mag roll, a first donor roll that receives toner from the first mag roll and delivers the toner onto a moving photoconductive member, and a rotatable second mag roll that receives the developer material from the first mag roll and delivers the toner to the first donor roll.
In embodiments, an apparatus for loading one or more donor rolls further comprises a rotatable second donor roll that receives the toner from the second mag roll and delivers the toner onto the photoconductive member, and a rotatable third mag roll that receives the developer material from the second mag roll and delivers the toner to the second donor roll.
In embodiments, a method is provided for loading one or more donor rolls of a developer unit, comprising providing a developer housing having a reservoir for a developer material including toner, transferring the developer material from the reservoir to a rotating trim roll, transferring the developer material from the trim roll to a rotatable first mag roll, transferring the developer material from the first mag roll to a second mag roll, transferring toner from the first mag roll to a rotatable first donor roll; and transferring toner from the second mag roll to the first donor roll.
In embodiments, the method further comprises transferring the developer material from the second mag roll to a rotatable third mag roll, transferring toner from the second mag roll to a rotatable second donor roll; and transferring toner from the third mag roll to the second donor roll.
In embodiments, the method further comprises trimming excess developer material from the trim roll.
In embodiments, a developer system comprises a developer housing having a reservoir for a developer material, a rotatable first donor roll that receives toner from a first mag roll and delivers the toner onto a moving photoconductive member, a rotatable trim roll that receives developer material from the reservoir and delivers the developer material to the first mag roll, a rotatable second mag roll that receives the developer material from the first mag roll, removes the toner from the first donor roll, and delivers the developer material to a third rotatable mag roll, and a rotatable second donor roll that receives the toner from the third mag roll, delivers the toner onto the photoconductive member, and delivers toner to the second mag roll.
While specific embodiments are described, it will be understood that they are not intended to be limiting. For example, even though the example given is a color process employing Image-On-Image technology, the disclosure is applicable to any system having donor rolls that are loaded by a magnetic brush, such as monochrome systems using just DC or AC/DC voltages to develop toner to the photoreceptor.
These and other objects, advantages and salient features are described in or apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments.
Exemplary embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings, wherein like numerals represent like parts, and wherein:
In the following description, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals have been used throughout to designate identical elements.
Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in
Initially, the photoconductive belt 110 passes through image recording station 16. Image recording station 16 includes a charging device and an exposure device. The charging device includes a corona generator 26 that charges the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. After the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 is charged, the charged portion thereof advances to the exposure device. The exposure device includes a raster output scanner (ROS) 28, which illuminates the charged portion of the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to record a first electrostatic latent image thereon.
This first electrostatic latent image is developed by developer unit 30. Developer unit 30 deposits toner particles, also referred to as toner, of a selected color on the first electrostatic latent image. After the highlight toner image has been developed on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110, the photoconductive belt 110 continues to advance in the direction of arrow A to image recording station 18.
Image recording station 18 includes a recharging device and an exposure device. The charging device includes a corona generator 32 which recharges the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The exposure device includes a ROS 34 which illuminates the charged portion of the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 selectively to record a second electrostatic latent image thereon. This second electrostatic latent image corresponds to the regions to be developed with magenta toner particles. This second electrostatic latent image is now advanced to the next successive developer unit 36.
Developer unit 36 deposits magenta toner particles on the electrostatic latent image. In this way, a magenta toner powder image is formed on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110. After the magenta toner powder image has been developed on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110, the photoconductive belt 110 continues to advance in the direction of arrow A to image recording station 20.
Image recording station 20 includes a charging device and an exposure device. The charging device includes corona generator 38, which recharges the photoconductive surface to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The exposure device includes ROS 40 which illuminates the charged portion of the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to selectively dissipate the charge thereon to record a third electrostatic latent image corresponding to the regions to be developed with yellow toner particles. This third electrostatic latent image is now advanced to the next successive developer unit 42.
Developer unit 42 deposits yellow toner particles on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to form a yellow toner powder image thereon. After the third electrostatic latent image has been developed with yellow toner, the photoconductive belt 110 advances in the direction of arrow A to the next image recording station 22.
Image recording station 22 includes a charging device and an exposure device. The charging device includes a corona generator 44, which charges the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The exposure device includes ROS 46, which illuminates the charged portion of the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to selectively dissipate the charge on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to record a fourth electrostatic latent image for developer with cyan toner particles. After the fourth electrostatic latent image is recorded on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110, the photoconductive belt 110 advances this electrostatic latent image to the cyan developer unit 48.
Developer unit 48 deposits cyan toner particles on the fourth electrostatic latent image. These toner particles may be partially in superimposed registration with the previously formed powder image. After the cyan toner powder image is formed on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110, the photoconductive belt 110 advances to the next image recording station 24.
Image recording station 24 includes a charging device and an exposure device. The charging device includes corona generator 50 which charges the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The exposure device includes ROS 52, which illuminates the charged portion of the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to selectively discharge those portions of the charged exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 which are to be developed with black toner particles. The fifth electrostatic latent image, to be developed with black toner particles, is advanced to black developer unit 54.
At black developer unit 54, black toner particles are deposited on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110. These black toner particles form a black toner powder image which may be partially or totally in superimposed registration with the previously formed toner powder images. In this way, a multi-color toner powder image is formed on the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110. Thereafter, the photoconductive belt 110 advances the multi-color toner powder image to a transfer station, indicated generally by the reference numeral 56.
At transfer station 56, a receiving medium, e.g., paper, is advanced from stack 58 by a sheet feeder and guided to transfer station 56. At transfer station 56, a corona generating device 60 sprays ions onto the backside of the paper. This attracts the developed multi-color toner image from the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 to the sheet of paper. Stripping assist roller 66 contacts the interior surface of the photoconductive belt 110 and provides a sufficiently sharp bend thereat so that the beam strength of the advancing paper strips from the photoconductive belt 110. A vacuum transport moves the sheet of paper in the direction of arrow 62 to fusing station 64.
Fusing station 64 includes a heated fuser roller 70 and a back-up roller 68. The back-up roller 68 is resiliently urged into engagement with the fuser roller 70 to form a nip through which the sheet of paper passes. In the fusing operation, the toner particles coalesce with one another and bond to the sheet in image configuration, forming a multi-color image thereon. After fusing, the finished sheet is discharged to a finishing station where the sheets are compiled and formed into sets which may be bound to one another. These sets are then advanced to a catch tray for subsequent removal therefrom by the printing machine operator.
One skilled in the art will appreciate that while the multi-color developed image has been disclosed as being transferred to paper, it may be transferred to an intermediate member, such as a belt or drum, and then subsequently transferred and fused to the paper. Furthermore, while toner powder images and toner particles have been disclosed herein, one skilled in the art will appreciate that a liquid developer material employing toner particles in a liquid carrier may also be used.
After the multi-color toner powder image has been transferred to the sheet of paper, residual toner particles typically remain adhering to the exterior surface of the photoconductive belt 110. The photoconductive belt 110 moves over isolation roller 78 which isolates the cleaning operation at cleaning station 72. At cleaning station 72, the residual toner particles are removed from the photoconductive belt 110. The photoconductive belt 110 then moves under a blade 80 to also remove toner particles therefrom.
Referring now to
The developer apparatus has a single magnetic brush roll, referred to as a mag roll 114, that transports developer material from the reservoir 164 to loading nips 132 of a pair of donor rolls 122 and 124. Mag rolls 114 are well known, so the construction of a mag roll 114 need not be described in further detail.
The mag roll 114 comprises a rotatable tubular housing within which is located a stationary magnetic cylinder having a plurality of magnetic poles arranged around its surface. The carrier granules of the developer material are magnetic, and as the tubular housing of the mag roll 114 rotates, the granules (with toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto) are attracted to the mag roll 114 and are conveyed to the donor roll loading nips 132. A trim blade 126, also referred to as a metering blade or a trim, removes excess developer material from the mag, roll 114 and ensures an even depth of coverage with developer material before arrival at the first donor roll loading nip 132 proximate the upper positioned donor roll 124. At each of the donor roll loading nips 132, toner particles are transferred from the mag roll 114 to the respective donor rolls 122 and 124.
Each donor roll 122 and 124 transports the toner to a respective developer zone, also referred to as a developer nip 138 through which the photoconductive belt 110 passes. Transfer of toner from the mag roll 124 to the donor rolls 122 and 124 can be encouraged by, for example, the application of a suitable D.C. electrical bias to the mag roll 114 and/or donor rolls 122 and 124. The D.C. bias establishes an electrostatic field between the mag roll 114 and donor rolls 122 and 124, which causes toner to be attracted to the donor rolls 122 and 124 from the carrier granules on the mag roll 114.
The carrier granules and any toner particles that remain on the mag roll 114 are returned to the reservoir 164 as the mag roll 114 continues to rotate. The relative amounts of toner transferred from the mag roll 114 to the donor rolls 122 and 124 can be adjusted, for example by: applying different bias voltages, including AC voltages, to the donor rolls 122 and 124; adjusting the mag roll to donor roll spacing; adjusting the strength and shape of the magnetic field at the loading nips 132 and, as discussed above, adjusting the rotational speeds of the mag roll 114 and/or donor rolls 122 and 124.
At each of the developer nips 138, toner is transferred from the respective donor rolls 122 and 124 to the latent image on the photoconductive belt 110 to form a toner powder image on the latter.
In
The applied AC voltage establishes an alternating electrostatic field between each pair of electrode wires 186 and 188 and the respective donor rolls 122 and 124, which is effective in detaching toner from the surface of the donor rolls 122 and 124 and forming a toner cloud about the electrode wires 186 and 188, the height of the cloud being such as not to be substantially in contact with the photoconductive belt 110. A DC and AC bias supply (not shown) applied to each donor roll 122 and 124 establishes electrostatic fields between the photoconductive belt 110 and donor rolls 122 and 124 for attracting the detached toner from the clouds surrounding the electrode wires 186 and 188 to the latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface of the photoconductive belt 110.
As successive electrostatic latent images are developed, the toner within the developer material is depleted. A toner dispenser (not shown) stores a supply of toner. The toner dispenser is in communication with reservoir 164 and, as the concentration of toner particles in the developer material is decreased, fresh toner particles are furnished to the developer material in the reservoir 164. The augers 128 in the reservoir chamber mix the fresh toner particles with the remaining developer material so that the resultant developer material therein is substantially uniform. In this way, a substantially constant amount of toner is in the reservoir 164 with the toner having a constant charge.
In the conventional arrangement shown in
The two-component developer used in the apparatus of
The system controller 90 communicates with, controls and coordinates interactions between the various systems and subsystems within the machine to maintain the operation of the printing machine. That is, the system controller has a system-wide view and can monitor and adjust the operation of each subsystem affected by changing conditions and changes in other subsystems.
The input/output interface 154 may convey information from a user input device 156 and/or a data source 159. The controller 90 performs any necessary calculations and executes any necessary programs for implementing the marking device 104, and its individual components and controls the flow of data between other components of the marking device 104 as needed.
The memory 152 may serve as a buffer for information coming into or going out of the marking device 104, may store any necessary programs and/or data for implementing the functions of the marking system 104, and/or may store data at various stages of processing. The memory 152, while depicted as a single entity, may actually be distributed. Alterable portions of the memory 152 are, in various exemplary embodiments, implemented using static or dynamic RAM. However, the memory 152 can also be implemented using a floppy disk and disk drive, a writeable optical disk and disk drive, a hard drive, flash memory or the like. The links 158 may be any suitable wired, wireless or optical links.
The data source 159 can be a digital camera, a scanner, or a locally or remotely located computer, or any other known or later developed device that is capable of generating electronic image data. Similarly, the data source 159 can be any suitable device that stores and/or transmits electronic image data, such as a client or a server of a network. The image data source 159 can be integrated with the marking device 104, as in a digital copier having an integrated scanner. Alternatively, the data source 159 can be connected to the marking device 104 over a connection device, such as a modem, a local area network, a wide area network, an intranet, the Internet, any other distributed processing network, or any other known or later developed connection device.
Referring also to
The apparatus may further comprise a rotatable second donor roll 124 that receives toner from the second nag roll 116 and delivers the toner onto the photoconductive belt 110 at a developer nip 138. The axis of rotation of the second donor roll 124 is positioned below an axis of rotation of the first donor roll 122.
The apparatus may further comprise a rotatable third nag roll 118 that receives developer material from the second mag roll 116 at a nag roll handoff nip 134 and delivers toner to the second donor roll 124 at a donor loading nip 132. The axis of rotation of the third mag roll 118 is positioned below an axis of rotation of the second mag roll 116.
In the embodiment shown in
An alternate embodiment of developer apparatus shown in
As shown in
An exemplary embodiment of a developer system having a multiple mag roll loading scheme is provided to allow operational latitude to maintain print quality and address the problems associated with developer life, reload and mottle. As shown in
Significant improvements in reload are achieved by operating in a two wag roll loading configuration, where each donor roll is loaded by two mag rolls, in comparison to a one mag roll loading configuration. For a one nag roll loading configuration, high mag roll rotational speeds are necessary to achieve acceptable reload. Comparable reload efficiency can be achieved with two roll loading at much lower mag roll rotational speeds. The exemplary embodiments of a donor loading apparatus utilizing multiple roll loading provides operational latitude to address the problems associated with developer life, reload and mottle.
By loading the donor rolls 122 and 124 with multiple mag rolls (i.e., with at least two loading nips 132 per donor roll), acceptable reload can be achieved at lower nag roll rotational speeds, thus improving developer life. The apparatus provides for setting the rotational directions of the donor rolls and rotational speeds of mag rolls to minimize problems associated with reload, mottle and developer life.
The trim roll 112 provides a way of decoupling the developer material pickup and trim functions from the donor roll loading function. Much of the developer material abuse in a developer housing occurs in the loading and trim region. For instance, a simulation of the elastic energy distribution in a development housing suggests that the high material stress zones are in the pick up and trim regions. The developer material abuse rate is proportional to the speed of the nag rolls at the pick up and trim regions. By using an independent trim roll (112) rotating at a slower speed compared to the transport mag rolls (114, 116, 118), the developer abuse rate may be reduced.
The transport mag rolls 114, 116, 118 can be rotated at the speeds required for toner supply to the loading nips 132. Utilizing a trim roll 112, the pickup and trim of developer material occurs at a much slower speed compared to conventional pickup and trim utilizing mag rolls operating a faster rotational speeds. This should result in significantly lower abuse rate. Developer life is also improved by loading the donor rolls 122, 124 with multiple mag rolls (2 loading nips per donor roll), which provides acceptable reload at lower mag speeds. This configuration allows setting mag/donor and donor/PR rotational directions favorable to mottle without impacting reload. The use of trim roll 112 provides an independent way of managing material abuse without impacting donor loading. The use of a trim roll 112 also enables an overhand trim 126 in a multiple roll loading scheme which is believed to be advantageous. Further, the rotational speed of the trim roll 112 may be adjusted based on one or more factors, such as, for example, developer age, toner age, environment and/or image content. The rotational speed of the trim roll 112 may also be adjusted based on measurement of image quality from an inline or offline sensor known in the art.
The mass flow rates on the trim roll 112 and mag rolls 114, 116, 118 are related by
UtrimRollMORtrimRoll=UmagRollMORmagRoll
MORmag is the developer mass per unit area on the mag rolls 114, 116, 118 while MORtrimRoll is the developer mass per unit area on the trim roll 112. UtrimRoll is the speed of the trim roll 112 while UmagRoll is the speed of the mag rolls 114, 116, 118. Higher MORmagRoll gives high developer packing fraction in the donor loading nips 132, and results in improved reload. Lower MORmagRoll results in lower developer packing fraction in the donor loading nips 132, and results in more uniform toner layer on the donor rolls 122, 124 and improved mottle on prints. MORtrimRoll is set by the trim bar gap but could change as the material packing density varies with developer age, toner age, humidity, etc. By adjusting the trim roll speed (UtrimRoll) relative to the mag roll speeds (Umag), MORmagRoll can be maintained to be uniform against machine noises such as developer age, toner age, environment etc. UtrimRoll may also be used as a control actuator to tune print quality performance for better reload (high MORmagRoll) or better mottle (low MORmagRoll) based on image content or user preference.
As shown in
In this embodiment, the rotation (B) of the first donor roll 122 with respect to the movement (A) of the photoconductive belt 110 are in the “same” direction. The rotation (E) of the second donor roll 124 with respect to the movement (A) of the photoconductive belt 110 are in the “opposite” direction. The rotation (B) of the first donor roll 122 with respect to the rotation (D, E) of the first mag roll 114 and second mag roll 116 are in the “against” direction, and the rotation (C) of the second donor roll 124 with respect to the rotation (E, F) of the second mag roll 116 and the third mag roll 118 are in the “with” direction.
The exemplary embodiment shown in
The exemplary embodiment shown in
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6785481 | Bray et al. | Aug 2004 | B2 |
| 7010239 | Gross et al. | Mar 2006 | B2 |
| 7079794 | Forbes, II et al. | Jul 2006 | B2 |
| 7085506 | Forbes, II et al. | Aug 2006 | B2 |
| 20060216049 | Julien et al. | Sep 2006 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20080226353 A1 | Sep 2008 | US |
