PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15892917
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2019-08
Patent Classification: ["399", "099000"]

Abstract:
A system and method for urging stray toner away from sealing areas on rotating shafts in electrostatic process units includes a shaft that is associated with a rotating component of the electrostatic process unit such as a toner mixer, a waste auger, a developer, or a photoconductive drum. The shaft includes sealing areas at either end of the shaft that are configured to prevent toner leakage through the sealing areas, and protruding ridges in the sealing areas that encircle the shaft. The protruding ridges are angled relative to the axis of the shaft such that rotation of the shaft causes the protruding ridges to urge stray toner away from the sealing areas. The protruding ridges substantially reduce toner leakage through the sealing areas of rotating shafts of electrostatic process units.

Claim (Index 14):
An electrostatic process unit, comprising:\n one or more rotatable mixers configured to stir toner; a rotatable developer roller configured to attract at least some of the toner stirred by the one or more rotatable mixers; and a rotatable photoconductive drum configured to selectively attract toner from the developer roller and deposit the selectively attracted toner onto a paper or a transfer belt, wherein each of the rotatable mixers, the rotatable developer roller, and the rotatable photoconductive drum comprises a shaft, wherein at least one shaft includes an end plate disposed between a rotatable mixer and a sealing area configured to inhibit leakage of stray toner through the sealing area, wherein the at least one shaft further comprises a stray toner area disposed between the end plate and a plurality of angled ridges in the sealing area, and wherein the angled ridges are configured to directionally urge stray toner toward the stray toner area when the at least one shaft is rotated.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 4.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.22581
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15714702', '13845406', '14976001', '13340944', '13717923']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7862496159578939
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4778411176235022
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7554087661244547
- Mean Citation Score: 159.237576
- Max Citation Score: 220.53944
- Similarity Product: 164.14201223350526

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test