Abstract:
A method of supplying toner to a printing device includes providing a universal developer for at least two colors. A developer system includes a universal developer unit and a developing station that develops an image using the toner and the universal developer. The universal developer may be provided to each of the colors. An auger for a color mixes the toner and the universal developer supplied therein. The amount of the toner supplied may be determined based on a concentration of the toner and the universal developer in a developer housing. The universal developer may be provided in a form of cartridge, which may be installed to a selected one of the colors.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]     In a printing machine using toner, such as a color xerographic machine, a developer material is typically provided for each color to be printed. A color-specific developer material is mixed with a respective color of toner in a blender to achieve a homogeneous mixture of developer material and toner in a desired ratio. Such color-specific developers are conventionally installed corresponding color-specific developer housings, for example, a red developer installed into a developer housing printing red toner, and the like.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0002]     However, this type of developers requires to be provided for a dedicated toner color. Therefore, the cost for manufacturing the developers increases. Moreover, such developers for different colors raise potential errors with the users due to confusion.  
         [0003]     In addition, because a developer needs to be provided for each color of toner, an inventory cost for the developer increases, and thus, a large amount of space is required to store the developers.  
         [0004]     Therefore, it is an object to provide a universal developer that can be used for any color.  
         [0005]     According to various exemplary embodiments, a method for supplying toner to a printing device includes providing a universal developer for at least two colors. Moreover, according to various exemplary embodiments, a developer system includes a universal developer unit including a universal developer for at least two colors.  
         [0006]     These and other features and advantages of the disclosed embodiments are described in, or apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of disclosed systems and methods. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     Various exemplary embodiments of disclosed systems and methods will be described, in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein:  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a diagram showing a printing machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure;  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a toner and universal developer supply system according to the exemplary embodiment;  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  is a view showing an auger according to the exemplary embodiment;  
         [0011]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing a controller according to the exemplary embodiment; and  
         [0012]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart showing a process of toner supply control according to the exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS  
       [0013]     In various exemplary embodiments according to the disclosure, a developer includes a universal developer unit having a universal developer, such as carrier, and a developer station for developing an image using the universal developer. Using such a developer system, problems that the conventional developer encounters are overcome. In various exemplary embodiments, the printing machine includes, but not limited to, a printer, copier, fax machine and any other printing device that many be suitable for using the exemplary embodiment according to the disclosure.  
         [0014]     While the present disclosure will be described in connection with an exemplary embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the disclosure to that embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the claims.  
         [0015]     First, a structure of an exemplary printing device is described. Here, a black and white printing machine is described as an example. However, as described later, it is appreciated that the universal developer may be used in a multicolor printing machine as well.  
         [0016]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , an exemplary printing machine may include a photoreceptor belt  10 . The photoreceptor belt  10  may be supported by rollers  11 ,  12 ,  13 , and  14 . A motor  15  operates the movement of the roller  14 , which in turn causes the movement of the photoreceptor in the direction indicated by an arrow  16 , for advancing the photoreceptor sequentially through the various xerographic stations.  
         [0017]     A portion of the photoreceptor belt  10  passes through a charging station A where a corona generating device  17  charges the photoconductive surface of the belt  10  to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential. The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is advanced through an imaging and an exposure station B. A document  18  may be positioned on a raster input scanner (RIS)  19 . One common type of RIS contains document illumination lamps, optics, a mechanical scanning drive, and a charged coupled device. The RIS captures the entire image from original document  18  and converts it to a series of raster scan lines. Alternatively, image signals may be supplied by an undepicted computer network. This information is transmitted as electrical signals to an image processing system (IPS)  20 . The IPS  20  converts image information into signals.  
         [0018]     The IPS  20  contains control electronics which prepare and manage the image data flow to a raster output scanning device (ROS)  21 , which creates the output copy image. When exposed at the exposure station B, the image areas are discharged to create an electrostatic latent image of the document.  
         [0019]     An exemplary developer station C, indicated generally by the reference numeral  100  (hereinafter referred to as a developer  100 ), advances development material into contact with the electrostatic latent image. The developer  100  may include a developer housing holding toner and a universal developer, i.e., carrier. The toner may be provided in a toner container  110 , and the universal developer may be provided a universal developer container  111 . The toner container  110  and the universal developer container  111  may be installed on the developer station  100 .  
         [0020]     The complete universal developer in the universal developer container  111  may be added to the developer housing  100  prior to installing the toner container  110 . Once the universal developer has been added to the housing  100 , the empty universal developer container  110  may be removed. The toner container  110  may then be installed to the housing  100 .  
         [0021]     The photoreceptor belt  10  then advances the developed latent image to transfer station D. At the transfer station D, a medium, such as paper, is advanced into contact with the developed latent images on the belt  10 . A corona generating device  22  charges the medium to the proper potential so that it becomes tacked to the photoreceptor belt  10  and the toner powder image is attracted from the photoreceptor belt  10  to the medium. After transfer, a corona generator  23  charges the medium to an opposite polarity to detack the medium from the photoreceptor belt  10 , whereupon the medium is stripped from the photoreceptor belt  10  at the stripping roller  11 .  
         [0022]     Sheets of the medium  24  may be advanced to a transfer station D from a supply tray  25 . The medium  24  is fed from tray  25 , with sheet feeder  26 , and advanced to the transfer station D along a conveyor  27 . After transfer, the medium  24  continues to move in the direction of an arrow  28  to a fusing station E. The fusing station E may include a fuser assembly  29 , which permanently affixes the transfer toner powder images to the medium. Then the medium  24  is ejected to a tray  30  through a path  31 .  
         [0023]     Residual particles remaining on the photoreceptor belt  10  after each copy is made are removed at a cleaning station F.  
         [0024]     The universal developer according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure is described with reference to  FIG. 2 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the toner container  110  contains the toner. In the exemplary embodiment, a black toner is contained in the toner container  110 . However, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the toner may be in any color, such as cyan, red, magenta and yellow. If more than one color is processed in the exemplary printing machine, a developer for each color may be provided in a universal developer housing.  
         [0025]     According to the exemplary embodiment of the disclosure, the universal developer may include carrier and may be used for any color instead of one dedicated color. That is, the universal developer may be installed into any developer station of a color. In addition, the universal developer is provided in a universal developer unit that may be used in the developer station of any color. Thus, need for a developer material for every color is avoided.  
         [0026]     The universal developer may be installed once into the housing and may remain until the life of the developer material has been exceeded. At that time, a new universal developer may be installed in accordance with a developer installation procedure. The toner may then be dispensed into the developer during an initial tone up and then during all printing to maintain the proper toner concentration (TC). When the toner and the universal developer become low, they may be replaced with new toner and universal developer. The level of the toner and the universal developer may be detected by a TC sensor  121 . The new toner container  110  may be installed on a toner dispenser  114  that supplies the toner to the augers  112 . The amount of the toner supplied may be controlled to adjust the concentration of the toner in the mixed toner and universal developer. Such amount may be determined by the toner concentration detected by the TC sensor  121  to reach a predetermined concentration level based on time interval, specific model type of the printing machine, specific color, and the like, and may be controlled by small increments manually or automatically using an undepicted toner/universal developer dispense motor.  
         [0027]     The universal developer container  111  contains the universal developer material, i.e., carrier, to be supplied to the auger  112 . The universal developer container  111  may have a universal shape that may be installed in a developer housing of any color, and the universal developer may be used with toner in any color, thus making the container and the carrier universal.  
         [0028]     The universal developer may be installed to the housing prior to toner being installed and dispensed. A predetermined weight of the developer may be added all at once to the housing. The weight may be system and color dependent. Once the universal developer has been added to the housing, a predetermined amount of toner may be added to the housing using the dispense system. This may be accomplished by developer install software routines. This predetermined amount may be color and/or system dependent.  
         [0029]     The concentration of the toner and the universal developer may be 10:1. Such a predetermined ratio may depend on the color of the toner, a specific type of the toner, a specific model of the printing machine, environments, and the like.  
         [0030]     Moreover, the universal developer container  111  may be in a form of a cartridge, which may be a user replaceable cartridge. The cartridge may be installed to the developer station  100 . The toner may then be added to the cartridge in the same manner as described above. Because the cartridge is universal for each color, the same universal developer container  111  can be used in any color, and therefore, it may not be necessary to stock a universal developer container for every color used in the printing machine.  
         [0031]     The mixing auger  112  is provided in a developer housing  113  shown in  FIG. 3  and is formed of mixing rollers  1120  and  1121 . Each of the mixing rollers  1120  and  1121  has spirals  115  thereon. As the mixing rollers  1120  and  1121  rotate in clockwise, for example, in a direction indicated by an arrow  114  shown in  FIG. 2 , the toner and universal developer are conveyed towards an end of the mixing rollers  1120  and  1121  in a direction indicated by an arrow  116 .  
         [0032]     As the mixed toner and carrier are transferred to a set of rollers  117 , a predetermined amount of the toner is transferred to the belt  11 . The universal developer may stay in the housing to be mixed with newly dispensed toner. The carrier component of the universal developer may be provided to help charge the toner to the correct tribo-electric charge as well as forming a transport medium to form a magnetic brush. The toner may be transferred from the magnetic brush to the belt or other subsequent development steps for multi-step development processes.  
         [0033]     As the mixing rollers  1120  and  1121  rotate, an excess amount of the mixed toner and the universal developer, which was not used for the actual development of an image, may be collected by a waste developer collector  118  and carried to a removable waste developer container  119  via a spiral on a waste developer roller  120 . [The excess amount of the mixed toner and the universal developer may be used in printing systems using replenisher rather than pure toner in the toner container. Replensher may be a toner rich mixture of toner and the universal developer. As toner is dispensed while printing, a small amount of new developer may be added to the older developer to replenish the older developer.  
         [0034]     The concentration of the mixed toner and universal developer may be monitored by the TC sensor  121 . If the TC sensor  121  determines that the concentration of the universal developer for the supplied amount of the toner, a signal may sent to a controller  122 , which may be used to increase the supply of the toner so as to adjust the concentration of the mixture to a predetermined amount. The concentration may be predetermined and color or system dependent.  
         [0035]      FIG. 4  shows a block diagram of the controller  122 . The controller  122  may include a processor  300 , a memory  310 , a toner dispense determinator  320 , a universal developer dispense determinator  330 , a TC sensor input  340 , and a toner drive output  350 , each of which is connected to each other via a bus  360 .  
         [0036]     The processor  300  controls the general data flow of the data between the memory  310 , the toner dispense determinator  320 , the universal developer dispense determinator  330 , the TC sensor input  340 , and the toner drive output  350 , and executes a program stored in the memory  310  for controlling the toner dispenser to supply the toner at a predetermined level. The memory  310  may be, in various exemplary embodiments, implemented using static or dynamic RAM. However, the memory  520  may also be implemented using a media, such as a floppy disk and disk drive, a writable or rewritable optical disk and disk drive, a hard drive, flash memory or the like.  
         [0037]     The toner dispense determinator  320  determines the amount of the toner to be supplied, based on a signal received from the TC sensor  121 . The amount may be a predetermined degree of concentration of the universal developer in the toner, to adjust the concentration of the toner in the mixture.  
         [0038]     The universal developer dispense determinator  330  may determine that a new universal developer container is installed. When it determines that a new universal developer container is installed, it may cause the universal developer dispenser to supply the universal developer to the housing. This supply of the universal developer may be accomplished at one time.  
         [0039]     The TC sensor input  340  receives a signal transmitted by the TC sensor  121  via a communication line  370 , and the toner drive output  350  outputs the result of determination by the toner dispense determinator  320  to a drive unit of the toner r dispenser via a communication line  380  to adjust the amount of the toner supplied so as to adjust the concentration of the toner in the mixed toner and universal developer.  
         [0040]      FIG. 5  shows a process flow for controlling the amount of toner supplied to the auger  112  for adjusting the concentration of the toner in the mixed toner and universal developer.  
         [0041]     At step S 1 , the process starts and moves to step S 2 , at which the rollers  1120  and  1121  of the auger  112  are operated. The rollers  1120  and  1121  may be driven by a common motor or separate motors. At step S 3 , the toner is dispensed from the toner containers  110 , and the process moves to step S 4 . At step S 4 , it is determined as to whether a TC value detected by the TC sensor  121  has reached a predetermined value. That is, it is determined based on the TC value as to whether the concentration of the toner in the mixed toner and universal developer has reached a predetermined level. If so, the process moves to step S 5 , and if not, the process returns to step S 3  to continue dispensing the toner until the concentration reaches the predetermined level.  
         [0042]     At step S 5 , the auger  112  is stopped, and the process moves to step S 6 . At step S 6 , a TC control cycle is executed. The process ends at step S 7 .  
         [0043]     According to the above-described exemplary embodiment, color developer materials within a product family may be replaced by a single universal developer enabling a cost effective solution to printing machines. Moreover, need for developer blending process for desingnated color coordination may be eliminated, which is a significant cost reduction to manufacturing of the developer material  
         [0044]     Moreover, potential errors on the user side may be reduced, and the total inventory of the developers is reduce because the developer material according to the exemplary embodiment may be any color.  
         [0045]     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, and are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.