Patent ID: 6362845
Filing Date: 2002-03-26
Classification: B41J,G03G

Abstract:
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.