Patent ID: 8199343

Claim:
A printing system, compromising: a plurality of high voltage systems; a partial electrical discharge detection system, comprising: at least one antenna positioned within the printing system proximate the high voltage systems to receive radio frequency signals generated by the high voltage systems; a signal detection system operation coupled with the antenna to receive the radio frequency signals from the antenna; a signal processing system operatively coupled with the signal detection system and operative to detect partial electrical discharge occurrences in the high voltage systems based on the radio frequency signals; a partial electrical discharge source isolation system operatively coupled with the plurality of high voltage systems and operative to selectively activate or deactivate individual high voltage systems or groups of the high voltage systems; and a processing system operatively coupled with the partial electrical discharge source isolation system and with the signal processing system, the processing system being operative to selectively activate or deactivate individual high voltage systems or groups of the high voltage systems using the high voltage source isolation system, to detect partial electrical discharge occurrences in the high voltage systems based on the radio frequency signals using the signal processing system, and to correlate detected partial electrical discharge occurrences with activated high voltage systems or groups thereof to identify one or more of the high voltage systems as being a source of partial electrical discharges in the printing system.