Agitating – By vibration – Of stirrer
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-20
2003-08-26
Cooley, Charles E. (Department: 1723)
Agitating
By vibration
Of stirrer
C366S332000, C399S254000, C222SDIG001
Reexamination Certificate
active
06609820
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Reference is made to commonly-assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/022,230, filed Dec. 20, 2001, entitled: DRY INK REPLENISHMENT BOTTLE WITH INTERNAL PLUG AGITATION DEVICE, by Meetze, et al and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/022,229, filed Dec. 20, 2001, entitled: SELF-CLEANING MECHANISM ENABLING VISIBILITY INTO CONTAINERS OF PARTICLES, by Litwiller.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the packaging and subsequent removal of material that tends to clump or congeal when shipped or stored in containers. Many materials are packaged and shipped in particulate, pelletized, or granulated form, and some liquid/solid mixtures such as suspensions tend to form gels or to congeal into gelatinous clumps when shipped or stored. Unless special packaging arrangements are made, such liquid/solid mixtures and particulate or granulated matter typically settle and become more densely packed over time. A frequent consequence of such dense packing is often the formation of clumps when particles or liquid/solid mixtures are removed from their containers. For many products, such settling and clumping does not matter for the intended use. For other products, the particles, granules, and congealed material can be restored by agitating and/or aerating the particles or mixtures before the intended use. A common household example pertaining to particulate matter is the process of sifting flour before measuring and adding the flour to a batch for bread, cake, and similar baked items. Certain candies are also known to stick together in their containers during storage. Similarly, shaking of liquid/solid suspensions such as salad dressings restores the desired mixture composition. For some products, however, it is not practical or possible to perform such agitation and aerating from outside of the packaging in which the material has been stored or shipped. The present invention deals with a novel apparatus and method for providing in situ agitation and aeration within a container that is sealed before use. This apparatus and method obviates the need for human intervention such as shaking or tapping a container, thereby making the degree and type of agitation more reliable.
Although the handling and use of any number of particulate, granulated or pelletized products and liquid/solid mixtures may benefit from the present invention, the invention is described in relation to sealed containers that transport and load dry marking inks such as toner or a combination of toner and developer particles into printing machines such as electrophotographic copiers, printers, etc.
Generally, in the process of electrostatographic printing, a photoconductive insulating member is charged to a substantially uniform potential to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive insulating layer is thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to reproduced. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member corresponding to the information areas contained within the original document. Alternatively, in a printing application, the electrostatic latent image may be created electronically by exposure of the charged photoconductive layer by an electronically controlled laser beam or light emitting diodes. After recording the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material charged of opposite polarity into contact therewith. In such processes the developer material may comprise a mixture of carrier particles and toner particles or toner particles alone (both these single component and dual component development systems shall hereinafter be called “toner”). Toner particles are attracted to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner powder image that is subsequently transferred to copy sheet and thereafter permanently affixed to copy sheet by fusing.
In such a printing machines, the toner material is consumed in a development process and must be periodically replaced within the development system in order to sustain continuous operation of the machine. Various techniques have been used in the past to replenish the toner supply. Initially, new toner material was added directly from supply bottles or containers by pouring to the developer station located within the body of the automatic reproducing machine. The addition of such gross amounts of toner material altered the triboelectric relationship between the toner and the carrier in the developer station, thereby resulting in reduced charging efficiency of the individual toner particles and accordingly a reduction of the development efficiency when developing the electrostatographic latent image on the image bearing surface. In addition, the pouring process was both wasteful and dirty in that some of the toner particles became airborne and would tend to migrate into the surrounding area and other parts of the machine. Accordingly, separate toner hoppers with a dispensing mechanism for adding the toner from the hopper to the developer station in the printing machines on a regular or as needed basis have been provided. In addition, it has become common practice to provide replenishment toner supplies in a sealed container that, when placed in the printing machine, can be automatically opened to dispense toner into the toner hopper. In some of these designs, the toner cartridge may itself serve as the toner hopper. After this type of toner cartridge is mated to the printing machine at an appropriate receptacle, mechanisms are inserted into the toner cartridge that serve to transport the toner from the toner cartridge into the developer station or an intermediate toner hopper on a regulated basis. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,806 issued to Matsunka et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,121 issued to Meetze et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,323 issued to Meetze. In other designs, the toner cartridge is mated to the appropriate receptacle of the printing machine and then toner is dumped all at once from the toner cartridge into a toner hopper within the printing machine. Such toner in the hopper is then drawn into the developer station on a regulated basis. The toner cartridge, once its contents are dumped, is removed from the receiving receptacle and is either discarded or recycled.
In any design utilizing a customer replaceable toner cartridge for replenishment, one difficulty that arises is the uniform dispensing of the toner. In particular, toner particles are known to settle and clump during shipment and storage. This clumping phenomenon is caused for a variety of reasons: 1) particles of smaller size can fill and pack spaces between larger articles; 2) toner particles are often tacky; and 3) the electrostatic properties of toner particles enable charge attractions between particles. The result is often agglomerations, or clumps, of particles within the toner cartridge. These agglomerations often compact and form bridging structures within the toner cartridge, and such bridging structures adhere to the sides of the toner cartridges. Simple probes and augers as disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,806 issued to Matsunka et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,121 issued to Meetze et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,323 issued to Meetze may penetrate such agglomerations and bridging structures but do not break them up. Even rotation of the cartridges after mating onto a printing machine toner receptacle does not impart enough energy to shake the clumped toner particles apart from its various clumps and bridging structures. Since toner cost is a major component of the total cost of printing, any significant amount of toner left in a toner cartridge significantly increases the effective cost of using the printer. Worse, customers that do not receive the expected print volume from a cartridge may assume that the cartridge is faulty and make a warranty claim. In other cases, such customers have been known to make a service call that consumes valuable service and technician time.
In response to the
Cooley Charles E.
Spooner Richard F.
Xerox Corporation
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