Patent Application
20140178108
Many home and small businesses use of printers, copiers, facsimile machine, multifunction device, and the like, utilize expensive toner cartridges. These toner cartridges generally correspond to non-magnetic development systems, which may or may use conventionally or chemically manufactured toner. Conventional toner is generally formed using a pulverization technique that forms the small toner particles from larger manufactured toner components. Uniformity in size and shape of the resulting small toner particles does not generally result. In contrast, chemically manufactured toners are generally uniform in size and shape. Two recognized types of chemically produced toners include suspension polymerization toner and an emulsion aggregation toner. As these toners have smaller particles than conventional toners, less toner need be manufactured and used to provide comparable, if not higher quality, print results.
In some conventional toner cartridges, toner is filled into a cartridge sump, and a paddle, or gravity, is used to load a supply roller with toner, which is then transferred to a development roll. As the development roll rotates, the toner is charged and metered in the nip of the charge/metering blade that is held in contact against the roll with a pre-determined force. After the blade, enough charged toner is brought into a development zone to support good solid area and halftone uniformity on the latent image on a photoreceptor. The blade is typically a thin piece of steel, bronze or copper that is mounted onto a rigid holder that is mounted to the development housing. The physical properties and the dimensions of the blade (i.e. modulus, thickness, free length, etc.) are selected to provide an optimal normal force against the development that will provide good charging and metering of the toner that enters into the nip formed between the two. This contact width is typically less than one millimeter in the process direction. Toner must be able to charge and flow well enough in this one-millimeter nip to enable a sufficiently charged developed mass on the photoreceptor when brought into contact with the latent image. Such operations and configurations work well with conventional toners and certain chemically produced toners.
However, such a cartridge is ineffective to sufficiently charge toner chemically produced by means of the emulsion aggregation process, as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,747,215, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein. For example, toners produced using the suspension polymerization process can achieve a tribo charge of 30-40 uC/gm with 0.3-0.4 mg/cm2 of toner mass on the roll prior to development. In contrast, emulsion aggregation toners typically reach 15-20 uC/gm at approximately the same amount of toner mass on the roll prior to development. Thus, there is a need for a simple and easily implemented apparatus, module, and system to increase the tribo charge of emulsion aggregation toners in existing toner cartridges without incurring any substantial increase in the cost of materials, redesign, or manufacture.
The following references, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety, are mentioned.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,747,215 issued May 5, 1998 and entitled “TONER COMPOSITIONS AND PROCESSES” by Ong et al.
U.S. Publication No. 2012-0129089 published May 24, 2012 and entitled “TONER COMPOSITIONS AND DEVELOPERS CONTAINING SUCH TONERS” by Kmiecik-Lawrynowicz et al.
U.S. Publication No. 2012-0129088 published May 24, 2012 and entitled “NON-MAGNETIC SINGLE COMPONENT EMULSION/AGGREGATION TONER COMPOSITION” by Kmiecik-Lawrynowicz et al.
U.S. Publication No. 2011-0086306 published Apr. 14, 2011 and entitled “TONER COMPOSITIONS” by Bayley et al.
In one embodiment of this disclosure, described is a developer apparatus. The developer apparatus includes a housing defining a chamber for storing a supply of toner therein. The developer apparatus also includes a developer roll disposed in the chamber, the developer roll configured to rotate about a longitudinal access to transport toner on a surface of the developer roll to a development zone. In addition, the developer apparatus includes a charge/metering blade having at least one curved section configured to contact the surface of the developer roll, the at least one curved section forming an adjustable contact nip therebetween, wherein the at least one curved section is configured to frictionally charge toner on the surface of the developer roll.
In another embodiment of this disclosure, described is a printing system that includes a developer apparatus. The developer apparatus includes a housing defining a chamber that stores a supply of toner, a developer roll disposed in the chamber that is configured to rotate about a longitudinal access to transport toner on a surface of the developer roll to a development zone, and a charge/metering blade having at least one curved section configured to contact the surface of the developer roll. The at least one curved section of the charge/metering blade forms an adjustable contact nip between the blade and the developer roll, and is configured to frictionally charge toner on the surface of the developer roll. The printing system further includes a photoreceptor in contact with the developer roll, the photoreceptor configured to rotate about a longitudinal access and receive toner on a surface of the photoreceptor from the developer roll in the development zone. In addition, the printing system includes a charging member in proximity to the photoreceptor, which is configured to generate a predetermined electrical charge on the photoreceptor, and a transfer belt in contact with the photoreceptor, the transfer belt configured to receive an image formed on the photoreceptor of toner and transfer the image to an output media.
In still another embodiment of this disclosure, described is a charge/metering blade operatively associated with a developer apparatus. The charge/metering blade includes a rigid holder operatively coupled to an interior of a housing of the developer apparatus, and a curved section forming an adjustable contact nip around a portion of a developer roll located within the interior of the housing, the curved section configured to frictionally charge toner on the surface of the developer roll.
One or more embodiments will now be described with reference to the attached drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout.
As briefly discussed above, toners produced using suspension polymerization processes can achieve a tribo charge of 30-40 uC/gm with 0.3-0.4 mg/cm2 of toner mass on a developer roll prior to development. The chemistry and solvents used in the suspension polymerization process allow for high charging particles in the non-magnetic development system. The emulsion aggregation toner process creates similar size and shape uniformity, but may require the use of solvents and surfactants that inhibit the chargeability of the final toner particle and typically reach only 15-20 uC/gm at approximately the same amount of toner mass on the roll prior to development.
According to one aspect of this disclosure, provided is the ability to control the tribo charge of toners, such as emulsion aggregation toners, via an adjustable contact nip formed by a charge/metering blade. The blade includes curved section that adjusts the contact nip to increase the amount of friction imparted to the toner and thus increase the tribo charge of emulsion aggregation toners in existing toner cartridges without incurring any substantial increase in the cost of materials, redesign, or manufacture.
Turning now to
A paddle (not shown), or gravity, is used to load a supply roller 106 with toner 104 from the cartridge sump 102. This toner 104 on the supply roller 106 is then transferred to a developer roll 108. As the developer roll 108 rotates, the toner 104 on the developer roll 108 is charged and metered in the nip 202 of the charge/metering blade 110 that is held in contact with the surface 200 of the developer roll 108 with a pre-determined force 206. The frictional contact between the charge/metering blade 110 and the surface 200 of the developer roll 108 causes the toner 104 to become triboelectrically charged. The charged toner 104 then is moved from the surface 200 of the developer roll 108 onto an electrostatic image on the photoreceptor 112.
That is, after the traveling through the nip 202 formed between the charge/metering blade 110 and the surface 200 of the developer roll 108, enough charged toner 104 is brought into the development zone 126 between the developer roll 108 and the photoreceptor 212 to provide solid area coverage and halftone uniformity on the latent image on the photoreceptor 212. According to one embodiment illustrated in
Concurrently with the rotation of the developer roll 108, the photoreceptor 112 also rotates about a longitudinal axis in a direction opposite the direction of rotation of the developer roll 108. A charging member 120 imparts a charge to the photoreceptor 112 during rotation. The charge imparted on the photoreceptor 112 is similar to the charge imparted to the toner 104 so as to prevent background development of the charged tone 104r. The charged photoreceptor 112 continues rotation until exposure 118 of an image occurs, resulting in a latent image formation on the photoreceptor 112. Where the photoreceptor 112 is exposed, the surface charge of the photoreceptor 112 is reduced to a less negative voltage than the charged toner 104. The photoreceptor 112 continues rotation into the development zone 126, whereupon toner 104 having the appropriate charge on the developer roll 108 is transferred to the photoreceptor 112. The developed image formed on the photoreceptor 112 may then be transferred to an intermediate transfer belt 114 or output media (depending upon configuration of the image forming machine in which the developer apparatus 100 is implemented). Accordingly, the latent image from the photoreceptor 112 (monochromatic) or transfer belt 114 is then transferred to output media, e.g., paper, transparency, etc. The photoreceptor 112 then continues rotation with a cleaner blade 124 removing any excess toner 104 not transferred to the output media into the reservoir 122 component of the developer apparatus 100.
As illustrated in the example developer apparatus 100 of
Turning now to
The chamber 302, or cartridge sump, is configured to store an amount of toner 304 that may be located on or near a supply roll 306. A paddle (not shown), or gravity, is used to load a supply roller 306 with toner 304 from the cartridge sump 302. The supply roll 306 is configured to rotate in a counterclockwise direction, delivering toner 304 from the sump 302 to a developer roll 308. As the developer roll 308 rotates, the toner 304 on the developer roll 308 travels through the overhang 404 of a charge/metering blade 310, becoming metered to approximately one to two layers of toner 304 remaining on the surface 400 of the developer roll 308.
As discussed above with respect to
The charge/metering blade 310 may comprise a thin piece of steel, bronze or copper that is mounted onto a rigid holder 330 that is mounted to the development housing 328. The charge/metering blade 310, depicted in
It will further be appreciated that the above-discussed factors may result in the charge/metering blade 310 having a curved portion 408 that creates the adjustable contact nip 402 being positioned within the chamber 302 of the development housing 328 at a location so as to provide a suitable contact angle 410 allowing for a greater or lesser amount of the curved portion 408 to contact the surface 400 of the developer roll 310 for generation of a preselected charge.
Accordingly, the illustration of
Returning to the illustrations of
Concurrently with the rotation of the developer roll 308, the photoreceptor 312 also rotates about a longitudinal axis in a direction opposite the direction of rotation of the developer roll 308. A charging member 320 imparts a charge to the photoreceptor 312 during rotation. The charge imparted on the photoreceptor 312 is similar to the charge imparted to the toner 304 so as to prevent background development in the unexposed areas of the photoreceptor surface 332. The charged photoreceptor 312 continues rotation until exposure 318 of an image occurs, resulting in a latent image formation on the photoreceptor 312. The exposed areas of the photoreceptor 312 have a lower charge than the toner 304 on the surface 400 of the developer roll 308. The photoreceptor 312 continues rotation into the development zone 326, whereupon toner 304 having the appropriate charge on the developer roll 308 is transferred to the photoreceptor 312. The developed latent image on the surface 332 of the photoreceptor 312 may be transferred directly to output media, e.g., paper, transparency, etc., or as discussed in greater detail below with respect to
Thus, as illustrated in
Turning now to
The image forming machine shown by way of example is of a tandem architecture system including an intermediate transfer belt 314 entrained about a plurality of rollers 602 and adapted for movement in a process direction illustrated by arrow 603. Belt 314 is adapted to have transferred thereon a plurality of toner images, which are formed by the developer apparatuses referred to generally at 300.
Each developer apparatus 300 forms an associated color separation by developing a single colorant toner image in succession on the belt 314 so that the combination of the color separations forms a multi-color composite toner image. While the color separations may be combined in different ways, they are each separately developed onto associated photoreceptors and then transferred to a compliant single-pass intermediate belt 314. When all of the desired color separations have been built up on the intermediate belt 314, the entire image is transferred to a substrate, such as paper, to form a print image.
For the purposes of example, which should not be considered limiting, the image forming machine 600 described herein is a CMYK marking system having four marking engines, i.e., developer apparatuses 300, which include: a cyan developer apparatus 300C forming a cyan color separation; a magenta developer apparatus 300M forming a magenta color separation; a yellow developer apparatus 300Y forming a yellow color separation; and a black developer apparatus 300K forming a black separation. However, it should be appreciated that a larger or smaller number of marking engines 300 can be used. For example, a larger number of marking engines 300 can be used for generating Extended colorant set images which typically include these four process-color colorant separations (CMYK) plus one or more additional color separations such as green, orange, violet, red, blue, white, varnish, light cyan, light magenta, gray, dark yellow, metallics, and so forth.
In other examples, the image forming machine 600 can be an n-color imaging system (with n≧3) having n+1 marking engines 300, where the n+1th marking engine 300OC uses clear toners for form an overcoat layer on top of the other toners in the printed image. In one non-limiting example, an image forming machine may include marking engines 300OC, 300C, 300M, 300Y and 300K consecutively coupled to the intermediate transfer belt 314, as will be appreciated.
Referring now to
Initially, successive portions of the photoreceptor surface 332 pass through a first charging station A. At charging station A, a corona discharge device indicated generally at 320, charges portions of the photoreceptor surface 332 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential during a charging operation.
Next, the charged portions of the photoreceptor surface 332 are advanced through a first exposure station B. At exposure station B, the uniformly charged photoreceptor charge retentive surface 332 is exposed to a scanning device (referenced generally as exposure 318) that causes the charge retentive surface to be discharged forming a latent image of the color separation of the corresponding engine. The scanning device generating the exposure 318 can be a Raster Output Scanner (ROS), non-limiting examples of which can include a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), an LED image bar, or other known scanning device. The ROS generating exposure 318 is controlled by a controller 620 to discharge the charge retentive surface in accordance with the digital color image data to form the latent image of the color separation. A non-limiting example of the controller 620 can include an Electronic Scanning Subsystem (ESS) shown in
The marking engines 300C, 300M, 300Y, and 300K also include a development station C, also referred to as a development housing 328. The development housing 328 includes a chamber 302 holding toner 304. The development housing 328 includes one or more supply rolls 306 for moving the toner 304 into contact with a brush, roller, or other toner applicator, indicated generally as the developer roll 308 (as shown in
At a transfer station D, an electrically biased transfer roll 316 contacting the backside of the intermediate belt 314 serves to effect combined electrostatic and pressure transfer of toner images from the photoreceptor 312 of the developer apparatus 300 to the transfer belt 314. The transfer roll 316 may be biased to a suitable magnitude and polarity so as to electrostatically attract the toner particles from the photoreceptor 312 to the transfer belt 314 to form the toner image of the associated color separation on the transfer belt 314.
After the toner images are transferred from the photoreceptor 312, the residual toner particles carried by the non-image areas on the photoreceptor surface are removed from it at cleaning station E. A cleaning housing 322 supports therewithin a cleaning blade/brushes 324 which remove the toner 304 from the photoreceptor surface 332.
After all of the toner images have been transferred from the engines 300C, 300M, 300Y, and 300K the multi-color composite toner image is transferred to a substrate 650, such as plain paper, by passing through a conventional transfer device 652. The substrate 650 may then be directed to a fuser device 654 to fix the multi-color composite toner image to the substrate to form the color print 656. The fuser device 656 may include a heated fuser roller and a back-up roller (not shown), such that the back-up roller is resiliently urged into engagement with the fuser roller 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.
It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. 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.
