Patent ID: 8452204

Claim:
A method of operating a dry electrophotographic printer to remove toner from a longitudinal member, comprising: the printer providing a rotatable photoreceptor, a stop disposed at one end of the photoreceptor, a rotatable development member, an end block disposed at one end of the development member, the longitudinal member adjacent to the development member or photoreceptor, connected to the end block, and extending along the width of the development member or photoreceptor, an actuator for selectively causing the development member to be spaced apart from the photoreceptor or be brought into operational relationship with the photoreceptor, and a timing device for measuring time intervals of printer operation; selecting a process-control time interval; selecting a cleaning time interval that is a positive multiple of the process-control time interval; producing prints using the printer until the process-control time interval elapses, as measured by the timing device; automatically producing a process-control patch in a process-control frame; repeating the producing-prints and producing-patch steps until the cleaning interval has elapsed; and in the process-control frame, automatically operating the actuator to cause the photoreceptor and development member to be spaced apart, then, after a selected time delay, causing the photoreceptor and development member to be brought into operational relationship, so that the stop contacts the end block, and toner is removed from the longitudinal member.