Closed loop magnetic brush development system

Abstract: A printing machine, such as a copier or a printer, is provided with an electrophotographic engine cartridge including a toner cartridge (24), a rotatable photoconductor drum (20), and a specially designed magnetic brush developer module (22). The developer module utilizes a rotating magnetic roller (40), disposed in a developer sump (28), to transport a toner carrier developer material (52) toward the rotating drum onto which the toner portion of the transported developer is electrically transferred. The development module is operated in a unique closed loop fashion by the action of a specially designed blade member (56) which strips away the toner-depleted developer (52a) from the roller and causes it to enter a recycling well (58). The depleted developer (52a) is transferred from the recycling well into the developer sump (28) wherein it is mixed with toner entering the sump from the toner cartridge, and then re-applied, in the form of reconstituted developer, to the magnetic roller for subsequent toner transfer to the rotating drum.

Description: The present invention relates generally to printing and copying devices, and more particularly relates to electrophotographic printers and copiers utilizing magnetic brush structures to handle a developer material and deposit toner therefrom onto an organic or inorganic photoconductor drum. For many years xerographic development processes were utilized in printers and copiers for the development of latent images borne on a photoconductive media. In modern electrophotographic copiers and printers, however, the conventional cascade xerographic process is seldom used, primarily due to the undesirably large size of its necessary components and its relatively low process speed. Instead, a development process commonly referred to as "magnetic brush" development is now widely used in place of the cascade xerographic development process. In a conventional magnetic brush developer system utilized in an electrophotographic printer or copier, a magnetic roller is rotated within a sump structure in which a predetermined quantity of dry developer mix is disposed, the developer mix consisting of a magnetically attractable carrier material and a dry toner material removably adhered thereto. The rotating magnetic roller attracts a quantity of the developer and magnetically adheres it to its outer side surface, with the carrier portion of the attracted developer quantity being externally coated with toner and projecting radially outwardly from the rotating roller in bristle-like fashion, thus giving the side surface of the roller the appearance of a "brush". The magnetically adhered quantity of developer is then rotated past a metering blade which 'trims" the radially projecting developer material bristles to a predetermined, generally uniform length. The trimmed developer material rotationally exiting the metering blade is then rotated into close adjacency with a side surface portion of a rotating organic photoconductor drum. Previous to being brought into adjacency with the trimmed developer material on the magnetic roller, negatively charged "background" areas, and discharged "image" areas (corresponding to the printed indicia to be transferred to paper stock operatively fed through the printer or copier), are formed on the side surface portion of the rotating drum. Toner from the trimmed developer layer is electrically stripped from its carrier material and forced onto the previously discharged image areas of the drum side surface portion the toner-covered discharged areas on the drum are then rotated into adjacency with the paper stock being fed through the machine, and the toner from the discharged drum areas is electrically drawn onto the paper stock and thermally cured thereon The drum side surface portion from which toner has been transferred to the moving paper stock is then sequentially rotated past a scraper blade which removes residual toner from the drum portion, a discharge lamp device which removes residual electrical charge from the drum portion, a charging device (such as a scorotron) which negatively charges the drum portion, and a discharge device (such as a digitally controlled laser beam) which forms the electrically discharged image areas on the otherwise negatively charged drum portion. The drum side surface portion is then again rotated into adjacency with a trimmed quantity of developer externally carried by the magnetic roller. After a given portion of the trimmed developer material carried by the rotating magnetic roller has transferred its toner constituent to the rotating drum, the now toner-depleted developer portion remains magnetically adhered to the roller and is rotated back into the developer sump at which time additional non-depleted developer material (i.e., developer containing both toner and carrier material) is magnetically adhered to the depleted developer layer and passed across the previously mentioned metering blade on its way to the side surface of the rotating drum. This conventional developer transfer scheme, used in conjunction with magnetic brush development, is commonly referred to as an "open loop" developer transfer path. While the use of this open loop developer routing is widely accepted and practiced in the printer/copier art, it is subject to a variety of well known problems, limitations and disadvantages. For example, conventional open-looped magnetic brush development modules used in electrophotographic machines, such as printers and copiers, are quite susceptible to print quality degradation and variation over the operating life of the module. This is due in large part to the unavoidable progressive build-up of depleted developer material on the magnetic roller. As this depleted layer progressively thickens, the ratio of toner to carrier material in the overall developer layer approaching the metering blade also progressively diminishes. Related to this problem are the problems of image density depletions and surges, and the difficulty of sufficiently meeting instantaneous demands for additional toner such as when graphics or other large image areas are to be printed. Additionally, the conventional open loop method of magnetic brush development tends to undesirably shorten the effective operating life of a given quantity of carrier material and the OPC drum. US-A-4 731 632 discloses a toner development device for a copying machine, which includes a magnetic roller from which developer is scraped off by a primary scraper located within the developing box itself. In US-A-4 173 405 there is described a similar type of apparatus in which an auger transports developer, fed to it at one end from a sump, to holes along the length of a magnetic roller. It would be highly desirable and it is an object of the present invention to provide improved magnetic brush development apparatus and methods which would eliminate or at least significantly reduce the aforementioned problems, limitations and disadvantages typically associated with conventional magnetic brush development apparatus and methods of the type described above. According to the present invention therefore, there is provided a method of applying toner to a moving toner transfer member in an image reproduction machine, by means of a rotating roller, the method further comprising the steps of: adhering a quantity of developer material to a surface of the rotating roller, the developer material having separable toner and carrier constituents; depositing toner onto the toner transfer member from the adhered quantity of developer material in a manner leaving toner-depleted developer material adhered to the roller surface; removing the toner-depleted developer material from the rotating roller into a well; adding toner to the removed toner-depleted developer material to form therewith a reconstituted developer material; transferring the toner-depleted material from the well to a sump prior to the step of toner addition; and thereafter repeating the steps with reconstituted developer material being used; characterised in that: the developer material is evenly deposited along the full length of the rotating roller; and the toner addition step is performed by a mixer structure within the sump, the sump being adjacent to and disposed along the full length of the roller. As used herein, the term "printing machine" (or "apparatus") is intended to encompass any type of image reproduction machine (including printers and copiers) which utilizes the transfer of a toner portion of a developer material to an electrically charged toner transfer member, such as a latent image bearing organic photoconductor drum (OPC). In a preferred embodiment thereof, the apparatus includes a rotationally driven magnetic roller disposed in a developer sump adapted to hold a quantity of developer material having a ferrite or other magnetically comparable carrier constituent and a toner constituent. During operation of the development module, and rotation of the OPC, the roller operates to magnetically adhere a quantity of developer to its outer side surface and then rotationally transport the adhered developer into adjacency with a side surface portion of the rotating drum which electrically draws the toner constituent from the passing developer portion and deposits it onto "image" areas of the drum surface for subsequent transfer to paper stock, or other imprintable medium, being operatively fed through the machine. The now toner-depleted developer portion still adhered to the magnetic roller is rotated generally back toward the developer sump. However, in sharp contrast to the open-looped operation of conventional magnetic brush-type development apparatus, the toner-depleted developer is not permitted to simply remain on the roller for subsequent application thereon of non-depleted developer material. Instead, according to the present invention, the development module is operated in a unique "closed loop" fashion which advantageously precludes the undesirable build-up of toner-depleted developer on the magnetic roller typically associated with the conventional open loop operation of magnetic brush development modules. The closed loop method of magnetic brush development control provided by the present invention basically comprises the steps of stripping away the toner-depleted developer from the magnetic roller prior to the rotation of the depleted developer into the developer sump; transferring the stripped-away, depleted developer into the sump; transferring toner from the toner cartridge into the developer sump; mixing the transferred toner and depleted developer within the sump to form reconstituted developer; and permitting an essentially developerless side surface portion of the rotating roller, entering the sump, to magnetically adhere thereto a quantity of reconstituted developer for subsequent rotational delivery thereof to the rotating OPC. In an illustrated embodiment of the closed loop development module of the present invention, the structure utilized to carry out the aforementioned method preferably comprises a horizontally sloped recycling wall structure which underlies the magnetic roller and its associated developer sump. During rotation of the magnetic roller, first stripper blade means strip away the depleted developer from the roller and directs the detached developer into the upper end of the well, whereupon the developer travels by gravity into the lower end of the well. Next, a rotating magnetic recycle roller disposed in the lower end of the wall picks up the depleted developer and rotationally delivers it into engagement with a second blade structure that strips the depleted developer from the recycle roller. This stripped off developer is then forced into the developer sump, via a suitable wall opening therein, at a location adjacent an inflow of toner from the toner cartridge. Mixer means, disposed within the developer sump, then operate to mix toner and depleted developer (i.e., the carrier developer constituent) entering the sump to form therefrom the reconstituted developer and deliver the same to an essentially developerless side portion of the magnetic roller being rotated through the sump. In a preferred embodiment, the first stripper blade means comprise an elongated blade structure carried by the bottom wall of the recycling well and operatively contacting a lower side portion of the magnetic roller. A longitudinally spaced series of slots are formed laterally through the elongated blade structure and are operative to permit toner-depleted developer stripped away by the blade structure to pass therethrough and into the well for gravity delivery to the aforementioned recycle roller at the bottom end of the well. Preferably, the previously mentioned mixer means comprises a rotatable shaft extending through the developer sump, the shaft being parallel to and laterally spaced apart from the magnetic roller. Secured to the shaft in a longitudinally spaced apart orientation thereon are a plurality of parallel elliptical disc members whose axes are canted relative to the shaft axis. Adjacent pairs of discs longitudinally overlap one another, and the discs are provided with transversely projecting peripheral lips around their outer circumferences. During operation of the mixer means, the shaft is rotated in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the magnetic roller. The rotating discs operate to mix toner and stripped away, depleted developer entering the sump, to form reconstituted developer. The rotating discs also function to lift the reconstituted developer over the edge of a mixing dam member, whereupon the reconstituted developer falls to the bottom of the sump for pick-up by a previously stripped side surface portion of the rotating magnetic roller. The lifting action of the rotating discs is enhanced by the previously mentioned peripheral lips thereon. Compared to conventional open loop operation of magnetic brush-based development apparatus, the closed loop operation of the present invention provides a variety of desirable advantages including the provision of enhanced, more consistent and uniform printed image quality; the damping and stabilization of image density depletions and surges; and an improved ability to meet instantaneous demands for additional toner typically arising when graphics or other large image areas are to be printed or copied. Additionally, the effective operating life of the development module is beneficially increased. Moreover, the closed loop magnetic brush development module of the present invention may be easily and relatively inexpensively incorporated into a wide variety of electrophotographic printing machines, and may be constructed using only a small number of simple and relatively inexpensive components. Additionally, principles of the present invention may be applied to other types of image reproduction machines in which a toner portion of a toner/carrier developer material is deposited on a toner transfer member, from a developer carrier roller, for subsequent deposition onto an imprintable medium such as paper stock. One example of a method and apparatus according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG 1 is a simplified schematic cross-sectional view through a portion of a representative electrophotographic printing machine, illustratively a laser printer, having operatively disposed therein an electrophotographic engine cartridge and includes a specially designed closed loop magnetic brush development module; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of a toner/carrier mixer structure used in the development module; FIG. 3 is a right side elevational view of the mixer structure portion perspectively shown in FIG. 2; and FIG. 4 is an enlarged scale perspective view of a portion of a specially designed stripper blade structure used in conjunction with a magnetic roller portion of the development module. Schematically depicted in FIG. 1 is a portion of a representative printing machine, illustratively in the form of a laser printer 10, having a housing 12 within which is operatively disposed a specially designed electrophotographic engine cartridge 14 embodying principles of the present invention. Engine cartridge 14 is operatively drivable, in response to the operation of generally conventional control means 16 which effectuate and regulate the operation of the cartridge's mechanical and electrical components, to imprint predetermined images on an imprintable medium, such as paper stock 18, conventionally driven leftwardly through the housing 12 beneath the engine cartridge 14. As schematically illustrated, the engine cartridge 14 includes, adjacent its left end, a conventional organic photoconductor drum (OPC) 20, a uniquely operative closed loop magnetic brush development module 22 positioned rightwardly adjacent OPC 20, and a generally conventional toner cartridge 24 removably secured to a right end portion of the development module 22. Toner cartridge 24 has disposed therein a quantity of dry toner powder material 26 which may be selectively delivered into a developer sump portion 28 of the development module 22, via a wall opening 30 in the toner cartridge, through the rotational operation or conventional toner lifter structures 32 disposed within the toner cartridge 24. During operation of the engine cartridge 14, the OPC 20 is rotationally driven in a clockwise direction which causes each circumferential outer side surface portion of the rotating drum 20 to be sequentially passed by a scorotron charging unit 34, a digitally controlled laser beam 36 entering the cartridge 14 through an exposure slot 38, a side surface portion of a magnetic roller portion 40 of the development module 22 being rotationally driven in a counterclockwise direction, the leftwardly moving paper stock 18, a scraper blade 42 disposed on a toner collection housing 44, and a discharge lamp 46. The operation of the rotating drum 20 is conventional, and will now be briefly described. As each circumferential outer side surface portion of the drum 20 passes the charging unit 34, it is negatively charged, and when the drum surface portion passes beneath the incoming laser beam 36, certain portions thereof are caused to be discharged, thereby forming the "image" areas of the drum surface which will later create the darkened image areas on the leftwardly moving paper stock 18. As the drum surface portion is rotated past the counter-rotating magnetic roller 40, toner 26 is electrically transferred onto the discharged image areas of the drum surface which is then rotated to a position above a transfer corotron 48 which electrically attracts the toner from these drum surface image areas onto the upper side surface of the paper stock 18. The toner deposited onto the top side of the moving paper stock 18 is then passed under a conventional thermal fusing device 50 which thermally fuses the transferred toner onto the top side of the paper stock. The drum surface portion is then further rotated in a clockwise direction into engagement with the scraper blade 42 which operates to strip away residual toner 26 from the drum and cause the stripped away residual toner 26 to fall into the toner collection housing 44. Finally, the representative drum side surface portion is rotated past the discharge lamp 46 which functions to remove the residual electric charge on the drum surface portion before it passes beneath the charging unit 34 and is uniformly re-charged to initiate a subsequent image reproduction cycle. According to an important aspect of the present invention, the magnetic brush development module 22 is operated in a unique closed loop fashion which will now be described Disposed within the sump 28 is a quantity of conventional developer material which has a ferrite or other magnetically comparable carrier constituent, and a toner constituent formed by a quantity of toner 26. During counterclockwise rotation of the magnetic roller 40, a quantity of developer is magnetically attracted to the side surface portion of the roller disposed within sump 28, and magnetically adhered to such side surface portion in the form of radially outwardly projecting "bristles" 52, the formation of such bristles 52 on the roller 40 giving rise to its common characterization as a "magnetic brush". The developer bristles 52 initially deposited on the outer side surface of the roller 40 are passed under a conventional metering blade 54 to trim down the bristles 52, as they rotationally exit the sump 28, to a predetermined, generally uniform "height". The shortened bristles 52 are then rotated into adjacency with an exterior side surface portion of the rotating drum 20, at Which point the toner constituent of the developer bristles is withdrawn from the carrier constituent thereof and transferred onto the discharge "image" area of the drum surface for subsequent transfer to the paper stock 18 as previously described. Just subsequent to this toner transfer to the rotating drum 20, the operation of the magnetic brush development module 22 of the present invention makes a significant departure from the conventional "open loop" operation of previously utilized magnetic brush development devices. Specifically, with reference now to FIGS. 1 and 4, the toner-depleted developer 52 a (FIG. 4) remaining on the outer side surface of the magnetic roller 40 after toner transfer to the rotating drum 20 is not rotated back into the interior of the developer sump 28. Instead, essentially all of the toner-depleted developer 52 a is stripped away from the outer side surface of the roller 40 by means of a specially designed stripper blade 56 interiorly supported within a recycling well housing 58 which underlies the development module 22. The recycling well housing 58 has a downwardly and rightwardly sloping bottom wall portion 60 which terminates at its left end with a leading edge portion 62 disposed adjacent the drum 20 and generally beneath the roller 40, and terminates at its right end with an upturned rear end wall portion 64 that extends to the bottom side of a left end portion of the toner cartridge 24. As best illustrated in FIG 4, the stripper blade 56 is laterally tilted in a leftward direction, and is provided along its top side edge portion with a sharpened edge 66 which engages the outer side surface of the rotating magnetic roller 40. During the illustrated counterclockwise rotation of the roller 40, the blade edge portion 66 scrapes away the toner-depleted developer 52 a , causing it to fall onto the top side surface of the bottom well housing wall 60 and creating a now-cleaned side surface portion 40 a on the roller 40 positioned to the right of the blade edge 66 as viewed in FIG 4. This cleaned side edge portion of the roller is subsequently rotated into the developer sump 28. By means of a longitudinally spaced series of slots 68 formed laterally through the scraper blade 56, the stripped away, depleted developer 52 a falling onto the bottom well housing wall 60 to the left of the blade 56 is permitted to pass rightwardly through the blade 56 as indicated by the arrows 70 in FIG. 4. The depleted developer 52 a rightwardly traversing the stripper blade 56 travels by gravity downwardly and rightwardly along the sloped bottom well housing wall 60 until it reaches a magnetic recycle roller 72 disposed in the lower right corner of the well housing 58, in a parallel relationship with the magnetic roller 40, and being driven in a clockwise direction as indicated in FIG. 1. As the toner-depleted developer 52 a rightwardly reaches the rotating recycle roller 72, it becomes magnetically adhered to a left side surface portion thereof and is rotated into engagement with a leftwardly projecting stripper blade 74 (FIG 1), carried by the toner Cartridge 24, which strips away the developer 52 a and forces it into a generally triangularly cross-sectioned cavity 76 disposed at the juncture between the toner cartridge 24 and the developer sump 28 and communicating with the interior of the sump 28 via a passage 78 formed in the outer wall of the sump. The depleted developer 52 a forced into the cavity 76 is, in turn, forced into the interior of the developer sump 28, via the passage 78, the depleted developer 52 a entering the sump 28 being adjacent toner 26 being delivered into the sump 28 through the toner cartridge wall opening 30. Upon their into the sump 28, the toner 26 and the depleted developer 52 a are drawn into a specially designed mixer structure 80 which will now be described in conjunction with FIGS. 1-3. Mixer structure 80 includes an elongated drive shaft 82 which extends through the developer sump 28 in a parallel, rightwardly spaced relationship with the magnetic roller 40. Fixedly secured to the shaft 82 for rotation therewith are a plurality of longitudinally spaced, parallel elliptical disc members 84 (only two of which being illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3), each of the discs 84 having formed thereon laterally outwardly projecting peripheral lip portions 86 around their outer circumferences. As best illustrated in FIG. 3, the parallel discs 84 are not perpendicular to the shaft 82, but are canted relative to its longitudinal axis by an angle "A". Additionally, as also illustrated in FIG. 3, the longitudinal spacing between each adjacent pair of parallel discs 84 is such that they longitudinally overlap by a small distance "D". As a result, the depleted developer 52 a and the toner 26 are mixed longitudinally along shaft 82. During the clockwise rotation of the mixer shaft 82, as indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the canted discs 84 are also rotated in a clockwise direction Rotation of the discs 84 draws the depleted developer 52 a and the toner 26 entering the sump 28 to the right of the discs into the interior spaces between adjacent pairs of discs. The rotating discs mix the toner and previously depleted developer 52 a and form therefrom reconstituted developer 52' which is lifted to the top edge of an adjustable metering shield member 88 extending upwardly from the bottom wall of the sump 28 and positioned between the discs 84 and the magnetic roller 40. The reconstituted developer 52' is caused to spill leftwardly over the top edge of the metering shield 88 and fall toward the bottom of the sump 28 at Which point it is magnetically attracted and adhered to the cleaned side surface portion 40 a of the roller 40 being rotated through the interior of the sump 28. Accordingly, the developer bristles 52 shown in FIG. 1 within the interior of sump 28 are formed essentially entirely from the reconstituted developer 52'. The unique closed looped operation of the improved magnetic brush development module 22 just described provides a variety of operating advantages compared to the conventional open loop operation of magnetic brush development structures in which the toner-depleted developer is permitted to remain on the outer side surface of the rotating magnetic roller. For example, such closed loop operation of the development module 22 provides for enhanced, more consistent and uniform image quality on the paper stock 18, desirably dampers and stabilizes image density depletions and surges, and provides better capability for meeting instantaneous demands for additional toner typically arising when graphics or other large area images are to be printed upon the paper being fed through the printing machine. Additionally, the use of such closed loop operating method in conjunction with the improved development module 22 beneficially prolongs the effective operating life of the module. The improved magnetic brush development module 22 of the present invention may be easily and relatively inexpensively constructed from a small number of relatively simple, yet quite reliable mechanical components. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in this particular art that the various rotational motions imparted to the mechanical components of the engine cartridge 14 may be effected in a variety of conventional manners which form no part of the present invention. Accordingly, the necessary drive structures required to impart such previously described rotationally motions have simply been schematically depicted in FIG. 1 as drive means 90. The foregoing detailed description is to be clearly understood as being given by way of illustration and example only, the scope of the present invention being limited solely by the appended claims.

Claims: A method of applying toner to a moving toner transfer member (20) in an image reproduction machine, by means of a rotating roller (40), the method further comprising the steps of: adhering a quantity of developer material (52) to a surface of the rotating roller (40), the developer material having separable toner (26) and carrier constituents; depositing toner (26) onto the toner transfer member (20) from the adhered quantity of developer material in a manner leaving toner-depleted developer material (52a) adhered to the roller surface; removing the toner-depleted developer material (52a) from the rotating roller (40) into a well (58); adding toner (26) to the removed toner-depleted developer material (52a) to form therewith a reconstituted developer material (52'); transferring the toner-depleted material from the well to a sump (28) prior to the step of toner addition; and thereafter repeating the steps with reconstituted developer material (52') being used; characterised in that: the developer material (52) is evenly deposited along the full length of the rotating roller (40); and the toner addition step is performed by a mixer structure (80) within the sump (28), the sump being adjacent to and disposed along the full length of the roller (40). A method according to claim 1, for applying toner to an electrically charged organic photoconductor drum (20) in an electrophotographic printing machine, wherein the roller (40) is a magnetic roller in parallel adjacency with the drum, the toner carrier developer material (52) adhering magnetically to the rotating magnetic roller for rotational transport thereby into a facing relationship with the drum for electrical transfer thereto of toner (26) from the developer material, the toner-depleted developer material (52a) being stripped away from the rotating magnetic roller and mixed with toner (26) to form the reconstituted developer material (52'). A method according to claim 2, wherein the step of stripping away the toner-depleted developer material (52a) is carried out by means of an elongate stripper blade member (56) having a series of longitudinally spaced openings (68) extending therethrough and a side edge portion (66), the stripper blade member being positioned in a parallel relationship with the magnetic roller (40) with the side edge portion (66) engaging the magnetic roller, and the stripped-away, toner-depleted developer material (52a) being caused to traverse the openings prior to the mixing of the toner-depleted developer material with the toner. A method according to claim 2 or claim 3, the mixing structure including a shaft (82) on which are centrally secured a longitudinally spaced series of parallel disc members (84), the disc members having longitudinal axes extending at angles to the longitudinal axis of the shaft, the mixing being achieved by rotating the mixing structure (80) about the longitudinal axis of the shaft, and delivering toner (26) and toner-depleted developer material (52a) to a side portion of the rotating mixing structure. Apparatus for applying toner to a moving toner transfer member (20) in an image reproduction machine, the apparatus comprising a rotatable roller (40); means (80) for feeding a quantity of developer material to a surface of the rotating roller, to be adhered thereto, the developer material having separable toner (26) and carrier constituents, toner being deposited onto the toner transfer member (20) from the roller (40) in a manner leaving toner-depleted developer material (52a) adhered to the surface of the rotating roller; means (56) for removing the toner-depleted developer material from the surface of the rotating roller; and means (28) for adding toner to the toner-depleted developer material (52a) to form therewith a reconstituted developer material (52') for subsequent feeding to the roller; characterised in that: the developer material feeding means (80) is adapted to evenly deposit developer material along the full length of the rotating roller (40); the means (28) for adding toner to the toner-depleted developer material (52a), which is formed from a magnetically attractable carrier material, to form therewith a reconstituted developer material (52') for subsequent feeding to the roller, comprises sump means (28) disposed along the full length of the roller (40) for receiving, from sources thereof, a toner material (26) and toner-depleted developer material to which the toner material is removably adherable, the sump means having mixer means (80) operable to mix toner and carrier material into a developer material (52); and the means (28) for adding toner to the toner-depleted developer material (52a) further comprises recycling means (58) for receiving the stripped away, toner-depleted developer material and transferring it to the sump means for receipt by the mixer means (80) to form the reconstituted developer material. Apparatus according to claim 5, for use with a developer material (52) which is a mix of a toner (26) and a magnetically attractable carrier developer material, wherein: the toner transfer member (20) is electrically charged; the roller (40) is a magnetic roller. Apparatus according to claim 5 or claim 6, for use in an electrically charged printing machine drum magnetic brush development apparatus, wherein the magnetic transfer roller (40) is rotatable to move an outer side surface portion thereof into the sump means (28) for magnetic deposition thereon of a quantity of the mixed developer material (52), and then out of the sump means into adjacency with an outer side surface portion of the drum (20) to permit electrical transfer thereto of toner from the mixed developer material (52), thereby converting the quantity of the mixed developer material to a toner-depleted developer material (52a); and the means (56) for removing the toner-depleted developer material from the surface of the rotating roller comprises stripper means (56) for stripping away the toner-depleted developer material (52a) from the magnetic transfer roller in a manner causing the material to reenter the sump means in a cleaned, generally tonerless condition . Apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the mixer means (80) includes: a drive shaft (82) extending through the sump means (28) in a parallel, laterally spaced apart relationship with the magnetic roller (40), a series of parallel disc members (84) anchored to the drive shaft at longitudinally spaced apart locations thereon, each of the disc members having its longitudinal axis forming an angle with the drive shaft axis. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein: the paths of rotation of adjacent disc members (84) overlap one another. Apparatus according to claim 8 or claim 9, wherein each disc member (84) is elliptical and has a transverse lip (86) extending around its circumferential periphery. Apparatus according to any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the recycling means include: well means (58) disposed beneath the sump means (28) and operative to receive toner-depleted developer material stripped away from the magnetic roller means, and transfer means (72-78) for transferring toner-depleted developer material from within the sump means. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the transfer means includes: a cavity (76) disposed in an upper portion of the well means, a wall opening (78) in the sump means and interconnecting the interiors of the sump means and the cavity, magnetic recycle roller means (72) disposed within the well means beneath the cavity and being rotatable to transport toner-depleted developer material into the cavity from a bottom portion of the well means, and stripper blade means (74) projecting into the cavity (76) and operative to remove toner-depleted developer material from the magnetic recycle roller means and cause the removed toner-depleted developer material to enter the well means through the cavity and the well opening. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein: the well means (58) has a sloping bottom wall along which toner-depleted developer material may move by gravity to the magnetic recycle roller means (72). Apparatus according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the stripper means (56) includes: an elongated stripper blade member (56) disposed within the well means longitudinally extending parallel to the magnetic transfer roller, and having a first side edge portion secured to a bottom wall (60) of the well means (58), a second side edge portion (66) operatively engaging the magnetic transfer roller (40), and a series of longitudinally spaced openings (68) extending transversely therethrough. Apparatus according to any of claims 7 to 14, further comprising: toner supply means (24), operatively supported adjacent the sump means, for supplying toner to the sump means for use therein by the mixer means. An electrophotographic engine cartridge for a printing machine, such as a printer or copier, through which an imprintable medium (18) is moved, comprising: rotationally drivable photoconductor drum means (20) having a side surface portion operatively chargeable, during rotation of the drum means, to electrostatically attract and hold a quantity of toner and rotationally transport the quantity of toner into adjacency with the imprintable medium (18) for transfer thereto; developer means, supported in operative adjacency with the drum means, for supplying toner to the drum means, the developer means including apparatus according to any of claims 7 to 15. A printing machine such as a photocopier, laser printer or the like, comprising: a housing (12) ; means (90) for moving an imprintable medium through the housing; and a cartridge according to claim 16.

Inventors: BHAGAT GOPAL C, BHAGAT, GOPAL C.
Applicants: COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP, COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION
Application year: 1991
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: G03G15