System for tailoring a transfer nip electric field for enhanced toner transfer in diverse environments

US8126342B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Lexmark International, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Nicholas Fenley Gibson · Lexington, US
• Brandon Alden Kemp · Lexington, US
• Brad Edward Mattingly · Lexington, US
• Michael Phillips · Frankfort, US
• Peter Brown Pickett · Lexington, US
• Gregory Lawrence Ream · Lexington, US
• Christopher M. Smith · Petaluma, US
• Julie Ann Gordon Whitney · Georgetown, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 8, 2008
• Grant date: Feb 28, 2012
• Expiry date: May 2, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03G15/0131
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A system for tailoring a transfer nip electric field includes a transfer roll, a backup roll forming a transfer nip with the transfer roll, and a pre-nip roll positioned upstream from the transfer and backup rolls and the transfer nip such that a toner image-supporting transfer belt moving past the pre-nip, transfer and backup rolls separately makes contact with, wraps partially around, and rotates each of the rolls as a media sheet is fed into the transfer nip after first passing through a gap defined between the pre-nip and transfer rolls such that by presetting the position, geometry and charge of the pre-nip roll relative to the transfer and backup rolls and the transfer belt an electrical field at the transfer nip can be tailored for enhanced toner transfer from the transfer belt to the media sheet.