Electrophotography – Cleaning of imaging surface – Removing liquid developer
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-10
2001-03-20
Lee, Susan S. Y. (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Cleaning of imaging surface
Removing liquid developer
C399S009000, C399S071000, C399S249000, C399S251000, C399S302000, C399S308000, C399S345000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205317
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of cleaning the ink remaining on a photoreceptor web when an error occurs in a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
shows a conventional liquid electrophotographic printer comprising a photoreceptor web
14
, a reset device
15
, four optical scanning units
16
, four development units
17
, a drying unit
18
, a transfer unit
20
, and a cleaning roller
24
. The reset device
15
includes an exposure device
15
a
for removing an electrostatic latent image by emitting light to the photoreceptor web
14
, and a charger
15
b
for charging the photoreceptor web
14
to a predetermined level of electric potential. The optical scanning units
16
each scan information of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C) and black (K) colors to the photoreceptor web
14
circulating by a plurality of rollers
11
,
12
and
13
. The development units
17
provide ink of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C) and black (K) colors to the photoreceptor web
14
to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor web
14
by the optical scanning units
16
.
Each of the development units
17
includes an ink supply container
17
f
containing ink to be supplied to the photoreceptor web
14
and a development reservoir
17
e
where the ink dropped from the photoreceptor web
14
is collected and the collected ink can be supplied again to the ink supply container
17
f
. The development reservoir
17
e
is provided with a development roller
17
a
and a brush roller
17
b
for removing the ink adhering to the development roller
17
a
. In the development reservoir
17
e
, there is a squeegee roller
17
c
for separating liquid carrier, which does not contribute to image forming, of the ink supplied to the photoreceptor web
14
from the photoreceptor web
14
, and a plate
17
d
for collecting the liquid carrier flowing down along the squeegee roller
17
c
to be stored in the development reservoir
17
e
. As shown in
FIG. 2
, to prevent liquid carrier from being moved toward both lateral sides of the squeegee roller
17
c
when the liquid carrier is separated from the photoreceptor web
14
by the squeegee roller
17
c
, air injectors
17
g
for injecting air to the photoreceptor web
14
facing the both lateral sides of the squeegee roller
17
c
are provided.
The drying unit
18
is for absorbing and vaporizing the liquid carrier remaining on the photoreceptor web
14
. The transfer unit
20
includes a transfer roller
21
and a fusing roller
22
for transferring a toner image formed on the photoreceptor web
14
to a sheet of paper
23
being supplied.
When an error such as paper jam occurs while the paper
23
is supplied to the transfer unit
20
from a paper supply portion (not shown) during a printing operation, a controller (not shown) for controlling the printer interrupts the printing operation until the error is removed. When the printing operation is stopped due to such an error, the ink supplied to the photoreceptor web
14
is hardened and the photoreceptor web
14
is polluted. Thus, after the error is removed, the remaining ink should first be removed before the printing continues.
Previously, to remove the ink remaining on the photoreceptor web
14
, the photoreceptor web
14
is rotated several times in a state in which the cleaning roller
24
is in contact with the transfer roller
21
contacting the photoreceptor web
14
. However, as the surface of the transfer roller
21
is continuously cleaned by the cleaning roller
24
, a transfer rate of ink from the photoreceptor web
14
to the transfer roller
21
is lowered when a large amount of ink remains on the surface of the transfer roller
21
. As a result, the photoreceptor web
14
must be rotated several times to clean the photoreceptor web
14
within an acceptable amount of remaining ink so that the cleaning work takes much time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problems, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a method of cleaning the ink remaining on the photoreceptor web when an error occurs in a printer so that the time needed for a cleaning operation to remove a pollutant remaining on the photoreceptor web can be reduced.
Accordingly, to achieve the above objective, there is provided a method of cleaning ink remaining on a photoreceptor web when an error occurs in a printer including a development unit for supplying ink to a circulating photoreceptor web to develop an electrostatic latent image formed thereon, a charger for charging the photoreceptor web to a predetermined level of electric potential, a transfer roller for transferring a toner image formed on the photoreceptor web to a sheet of paper, a drying unit for absorbing and vaporizing liquid carrier remaining on the photoreceptor web, and a cleaning roller installed to clean the transfer roller. The method comprises the steps of stopping a print work when an error occurs so that the print work cannot be performed, transferring the ink adhering to the photoreceptor web to the transfer roller by circulating the photoreceptor web predetermined times in a state in which the cleaning roller is separated from the transfer roller and the transfer roller contacts the photoreceptor web, and removing the ink transferred to the transfer roller in a state in which the cleaning roller contacts the transfer roller when the ink transferring step is completed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5822648 (1998-10-01), Mohri
patent: 5946538 (1999-08-01), Takeuchi et al.
patent: 6026271 (2000-02-01), Saitoh
patent: 5-297739 (1993-11-01), None
patent: 9-022236 (1997-01-01), None
patent: 9-6146 (1997-01-01), None
Byun Seung-Young
Song In-young
Lee Susan S. Y.
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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