Patent ID: 7869744

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an image forming surface to form thereon a latent electrostatic image; a plurality of developer surfaces to operatively engage the image forming surface at a first development region; a plurality of developers each comprising one of the developer surfaces, which transfer toner from the respective developer surface to the image forming surface to form a developed image on the image forming surface; wherein the plurality of developers are adapted to move with respect to the image forming surface to sequentially bring each of the plurality of developer surfaces into operative engagement with the image forming surface, at the first development region; wherein each of the plurality of developers is adapted to individually move relative to the remaining developers during transfer of the toner from a respective developer surface of a different one of the developers to the image forming surface; wherein one of the developers is configured to move during transfer of the toner from the respective developer surface of another of the developers to the image forming surface to form the developed image; wherein each of the plurality of developers is to shuttle move from an inoperative position prior to engagement of the respective developer surface with the image forming surface, to an operative position where the respective developer surface operatively engages the image forming surface at the first development region, and thereafter to a further inoperative position, following engagement of the respective developer surface with the image forming surface; and wherein the plurality of developers are linearly arranged when disengaged, substantially tangential to the image forming surface at the first development region.