Patent ID: 7817933
Filing Date: 2010-10-19
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A method for compensating for environmental variation and blade material relaxation in a blade cleaning system, comprising: providing a surface to be cleaned; providing at least one cleaning blade mounted within a blade holder and positioned for cleaning said surface; providing a blade positioning mechanism drivingly connected to said cleaning blade for moving said cleaning blade to increase or decrease blade load against said surface; providing a stepper motor drivingly connected to said blade positioning mechanism for rotating said blade positioning mechanism; providing sensors for measuring time since the last blade install, temperature and humidity; providing a first look-up table that includes blade relaxation with respect to time; providing a second look-up table that includes blade to photoreceptor interference as a function of temperature and relative humidity; and providing a controller and wherein said first and second look-up tables are preloaded within said controller, and wherein said controller is adapted to receive signals from said sensors for measuring time since the last blade install, temperature and humidity and in turn send a signal to actuate said stepper motor to thereby move said cleaning blade with respect to said surface to obtain a desired blade load.