Patent ID: 8655241

Claim:
An electrophotographic (EP) printer adapted to transfer a toner image to a receiver sheet carried on a rotatable transport web, the printer comprising: a) the rotatable transport web having a Young's modulus of at least 1 GPa and maintained under tension; and b) a transfer station including: i) a rotatable image-bearing member around which the transport web is at least partially wrapped so that a transfer region is defined in which toner is transferred from the image-bearing member to the receiver sheet, the image-bearing member having a compliant coating; ii) a compressible, rotatable nip-forming member adjacent to the transport web on the opposite side thereof from the image-bearing member, the nip-forming member being relatively less stiff than the image-bearing member; and iii) a mount arranged to cause the nip-forming member to press the transport web towards the image-bearing member, and adapted to permit the axis of rotation of the nip-forming member to move closer to or farther from the transport web; c) so that when a leading edge of the moving receiver sheet on the transport web engages with the image-bearing member, the nip-forming member compresses so that while the leading edge of the receiver sheet passes through the transfer region, an axis of rotation of the nip-forming member translates by an amount less than the thickness of the receiver sheet minus a compression of the compliant coating of the image-bearing member.