EP0131070A1 - Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique - Google Patents

Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0131070A1
EP0131070A1 EP83201003A EP83201003A EP0131070A1 EP 0131070 A1 EP0131070 A1 EP 0131070A1 EP 83201003 A EP83201003 A EP 83201003A EP 83201003 A EP83201003 A EP 83201003A EP 0131070 A1 EP0131070 A1 EP 0131070A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
support material
fusing station
fusing
roller
toner
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP83201003A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Frans Maria Bruyneel
Albrecht Frans Domen
Robert Theodoor Overmeer
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Agfa Gevaert NV
Original Assignee
Agfa Gevaert NV
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Agfa Gevaert NV filed Critical Agfa Gevaert NV
Priority to EP83201003A priority Critical patent/EP0131070A1/fr
Publication of EP0131070A1 publication Critical patent/EP0131070A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
    • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
    • G03G15/2007—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using radiant heat, e.g. infrared lamps, microwave heaters

Definitions

  • This invention relates to an electrophotographic copying or printing apparatus, capable of producing duplex or recto-verso copies. More particularly, this invention relates to a fixing-system to be used within said electrophotographic copying or printing apparatus capable of fusing electroscopic toner material to both sides of a support member.
  • a light image of an original document to be copied is recorded in the form of a latent electrostatic image upon a photosensitive member.
  • the latent electrostatic image may however be formed by means other than by the exposure of an electrostatically charged photosensitive member to a light image of an original document.
  • the latent electrostatic image may be generated by exposing the photosensitive member to a plurality of appropriately activated discrete spotlike sources of radiation. Said discrete spotlike sources of radiation may be constituted by a linear array of light emitting diodes or by a scanner, e.g.
  • a laser scanner the beam of which is modulated to determine during each scan movement a plurality of elementary image sites that may receive radiation or not depending on the modulation of the radiation beam.
  • the generated electrostatic latent image is subsequently rendered visible by the application of electroscopic particles, commonly called toner.
  • the visual image is then transferred from the photosensitive member to a support such as a sheet of plain paper. Since the toner image is then in a loose powdered form which may be easily disturbed or destroyed, it finally has to be permanently fixed or fused upon said support in a fusing or fixing device, a new and improved form of which is the primary object of the present invention.
  • the surface of the support material contacting the heated platen is devoid of toner material, the problem of toner offset to said platen does not occur, at least as far as said fusing station is used for the production of simplex copies only, i.e. copies with images on only one side.
  • duplex or recto/verso copies i.e. copies where images are formed on both sides of the support material
  • a sheet of support material one side of which already has been provided with a fused toner image due to a first passage through the electrophotographic apparatus, has to pass for the second time through the fusing station in order to fix a toner image on the reverse side of said support material, the side of the sheet with the previously fixed toner image will contact the heated platen whilst passing the fusing station, which inevitably causes toner particles of said side to offset to said platen.
  • fusing stations of the type described above are unsuitable for being installed in electrophotographic apparatus designed for fixing recto/verso copies ; up till now these apparatus have been provided with another type of fusing station, obviously more adapted for the fusing of recto/verso copies, namely a fusing station whereby the toner images are fused on a sheet of support material under the combined influence of heat and pressure by passing said sheet through a pair of heated rollers.
  • U.S. patent 4,269,594 gives an example of such a fusing station.
  • said fusing devices Apart from tne appearance of wrinckles in the support material, which is one disadvantage of said type of fusing stations - especially when said apparatus are used for the production of duplex copies -, said fusing devices also present to some extent the problem of toner offset from the sheet of support material to the rollers and vice versa, which reduces the quality of the final copy.
  • a fusing station comprising a radiant source of energy, e.g. an infrared quartz lamp, mounted in a reflector cavity, and a means for guiding and supporting a sheet of support material through said fusing station, said means being so positioned in relation to said source of radiant energy as to provide an opening through which said sheet of support material carrying toner images can be moved for thermal exposure of the toner images of the upper surface of the support material to said radiant source of energy, said fusing station D eing characterised in that said guiding and supporting means consists of a roller, the outer surface of which is moving synchronuously with the speed of advancement of the sheet of support material through the fusing station.
  • a radiant source of energy e.g. an infrared quartz lamp
  • Figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional representation of an electrophotographic apparatus incorporating the novel fusing station according to the present invention.
  • a uniform electrostatic charge is placed over the photoconductive surface of the drum 1, e.g. by a corona generating device 4.
  • the drum 1 is rotated to exposure station 5 where the charged photoconductive layer is exposed to a light image generated by an optical device of a conventional copying machine, or an opto/electronical device converting digitally stored information to alphanumeric images.
  • the selective dissipation of the charge in the light exposed regions causes the original input scene to be recorded as a latent electrostatic image.
  • the rotation of the drum causes the photoconductive surface carrying the recorded electrostatic latent image to pass through a development station 6, using e.g. magnetic brush development.
  • a development station 6 using e.g. magnetic brush development.
  • said magnetic brush development system the recorded electrostatic latent image is developed by bringing it into contact with a brush of developer mix, brought about by applying a directional flux field to a magnetizable developer mix of carrier granules and toner.
  • the toner image is transferred in a transfer station 7, e.g. by transfer corona's 8, from the photoconductive surface to the contacting side of a sheet of final support material 9 such as plain paper, labels, or transparancies, as desired.
  • a transfer station 7 e.g. by transfer corona's 8
  • a sheet of final support material 9 such as plain paper, labels, or transparancies, as desired.
  • Said sheet of support material 9 may be provided by a transport roller pair 10 and may be supplied to said transport roller pair by conventional sheet dispensing devices 11 wherein each sheet is caused to slide off a stack of sheets by use of feed rollers or sucker-cups or by peeling action.
  • the toner powder is separated from the photoconductive surface of the drum-like member 1 by transfer to the final sheet of support material 9, some residual toner particles remain thereto. These particles are cleaned from the photoconductive surface at cleaning station 10.
  • the residual toner particles are first brought under the influence of a cleaning corona 11 generating device adapted to neutralize the electrostatic charge remaining on the toner particles.
  • the neutralized toner particles may then be cleaned from the photoconductive surface by conventional mechanical means as for example the use of mechanical brushes 12 or a web.
  • the photoconductive surface may then be used for the next successive imaging cycle.
  • the sheet carrying the toner image is advanced e.g. by a belt transport mechanism 13 to a suitable fusing device 14 to permanently fix the toner image on said support material.
  • the support material 9 bearing a toner image on its upper surface is seen passing through the fusing station 14, which comprises basically two parts.
  • the portion of the fusing station 14 above support material 9 is made of a housing comprising a radiant source of energy 15, e.g. an infrared or halogen quartz lamp, mounted in a reflector cavity.
  • a shield for the quartz lamp such as a quartz shield, that is substantially transparent to the infrared radiation, may be provided to shield the lamp and the reflector means from the support material, debris and other machine impurities.
  • the portion of the fusing station 14 below support material 9 is made of a housing comprising a roller 16 for guiding and supporting the sheet of support material 9 through the fusing station 14.
  • Said roller 16 is characterised, as will be described hereinafter, by the fact that its outer surface, contacting the sheet of support material 9, moves synchronuously with the speed of advancement of said sheet of support material 9 through the fusing station 14.
  • Roller 16 is so positioned in relation to said radiant source of energy 15 as to provide an opening through which support material 9 carrying toner images can be moved for thermal exposure of the toner images of the upper surface of the support material 9 to the radiant energy emitted from the source 15.
  • fusing systems capable of fusing duplex copies and using radiant sources of energy are comprised in the prior art; all of these systems however use a belt as guiding and supporting means through the radiant fusing station.
  • Dutch patent n° 7414930 e.g. cites the use of one and the same belt transport mechanism as well for moving the sheet of support material from the transfer station of the photoconductive drum to the fusing station as for moving said sheet of support material tnrough the fusing station itself.
  • the German 'Offenle- gungsschrift' n° 25 11 423, as well as n° 25 11 424, also teaches the use of a belt transport mechanism for guiding and supporting the support material though the fusing station.
  • An auxiliary heating device 17, consisting of an infrared or halogen quartz lamp may advantageously be incorporated within the roller 16 : it has indeed been found that without the use of such an auxiliary contact heating means, it seems to be difficult to uniformly fix an image com- sisting of e.g. very fine lines : in such a case the additional heat supplied by conduction through the sheet of support material 9 through contact with the roller 16 is beneficial for compensating the rather low energy absorbed by the fine toner powder pattern from the radiant fuser means 15.
  • the roller core should be made from a good thermal conducting material such as copper or aluminium.
  • the roller 16 may serve as an auxiliary heating means, the thickness of the layer of these materials on the roller must be kept thin since heat conductance decreases with increased thickness.
  • contact between the support material 9 and roller 16 is required primarily for guiding the support material 9 through the fusing station, and only in the second place, and if need be, for passing on, some additional heat to the support material for fusing toner material on the opposite side of said support material.
  • This mode of operation consequently implies no direct contact between the toner being fused and the roller 16.
  • the foregoing advantage of the fusing station according to the present invention for making duplex copies, over the known heated roller contact fusing station may be realised by setting the temperature of the outer surface of roller 16 to a value beneath the temperature at which toner material commences to become tacky or melt.
  • the overall temperature control of the varying parts of the fusing station according to the present invention will be an important point for assuring the good functioning of said fusing station for making duplex copies.
  • the temperature of that side of the support material carrying the unfixed toner image clearly must be raised above the fusing temperature of said toner material, whereas the temperature of the fused toner material on the side of the support material in contact with the roller 16, must be kept beneath the temperature at which said toner material becomes tacky or melt.
  • the temperature of the roller 16 may be kept constant at a predetermined value by introducing a thermistor, e.g. a bimetal within said roller and connecting said thermistor to an thermostatic control circuit (not shown). Same may be provided for controlling the temperature of radiant fuser 15.
  • a thermistor e.g. a bimetal within said roller and connecting said thermistor to an thermostatic control circuit (not shown). Same may be provided for controlling the temperature of radiant fuser 15.
  • the sheet of support material 9 as it leaves the fusing station 14 may be taken by a pair of rollers 18 for further transport to a copy paper tray 19 and for subsequent removal therefrom.
  • this problem arises by a curling of the support material occurring in the fusing station of the electrophotographic apparatus, it may be overcome by exercising a sufficient pressure power upon said support material leaving the fusing station in order to smooth out the uneven- esses of said support material.
  • this pressure power may be exercised by the roller pair 18 which then will serve at the same time as an output device of the support material 9 to a copy paper tray 19 for subsequent removal therefrom, and as a pair of mechanical flat-rollers.
  • a deficient transfer process in transfer station 7 of the toner image from the photoconductive surface to said sheet of support material 9 appears to be the cause of said phenomenon; in view hereof the cited problem may be overcome by providing a device, such as a flap (not shown in figure 1) situated after transport roller pair 10 and just beneath the path to be followed by the support material 9, which pushes softly the end of said sheet of support material 9 onto the photoconductive surface of the drumlike member 1.
  • a device such as a flap (not shown in figure 1) situated after transport roller pair 10 and just beneath the path to be followed by the support material 9, which pushes softly the end of said sheet of support material 9 onto the photoconductive surface of the drumlike member 1.
  • the action of said flap may be regulated by a spring, which in its turn is controlled by a control means (not shown) which directs the action of said spring as a function of e.g. the length of the sheets of support material.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Fixing For Electrophotography (AREA)
EP83201003A 1983-07-06 1983-07-06 Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique Withdrawn EP0131070A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP83201003A EP0131070A1 (fr) 1983-07-06 1983-07-06 Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP83201003A EP0131070A1 (fr) 1983-07-06 1983-07-06 Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0131070A1 true EP0131070A1 (fr) 1985-01-16

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP83201003A Withdrawn EP0131070A1 (fr) 1983-07-06 1983-07-06 Station de fusion rayonnante capable de fixer des copies recto-verso pour utilisation dans un appareil électrophotographique

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EP (1) EP0131070A1 (fr)

Citations (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3409280A (en) * 1967-05-01 1968-11-05 Xerox Corp Porous drum fuser
DE2049293A1 (de) * 1969-10-09 1971-05-06 Ricoh Kk Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Er hitzen und Fixieren eines Bildes auf einem Aufzeichungsmedium
DE2511423A1 (de) * 1975-03-15 1976-09-16 Agfa Gevaert Ag Elektrofotografisches kopiergeraet
DE1597885B2 (de) * 1966-10-11 1976-10-14 Rank Xerox Ltd., London Fixiereinrichtung zum waermeschmelzfixieren von tonerbildern
JPS5225640A (en) * 1975-08-21 1977-02-25 Konishiroku Photo Ind Co Ltd Electrophotographic copying machine
DE2753625A1 (de) * 1977-12-01 1979-06-07 Agfa Gevaert Ag Fixiereinrichtung fuer ein elektrofotografisches kopiergeraet
DE2804904A1 (de) * 1978-02-06 1979-08-09 Philips Patentverwaltung Verfahren und vorrichtung zur schmelzfixierung von tonerbildern auf aufzeichnungstraegern
US4269594A (en) * 1977-12-07 1981-05-26 Agfa-Gevaert N.V. Contact heat fusing apparatus

Patent Citations (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE1597885B2 (de) * 1966-10-11 1976-10-14 Rank Xerox Ltd., London Fixiereinrichtung zum waermeschmelzfixieren von tonerbildern
US3409280A (en) * 1967-05-01 1968-11-05 Xerox Corp Porous drum fuser
DE2049293A1 (de) * 1969-10-09 1971-05-06 Ricoh Kk Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Er hitzen und Fixieren eines Bildes auf einem Aufzeichungsmedium
DE2511423A1 (de) * 1975-03-15 1976-09-16 Agfa Gevaert Ag Elektrofotografisches kopiergeraet
JPS5225640A (en) * 1975-08-21 1977-02-25 Konishiroku Photo Ind Co Ltd Electrophotographic copying machine
DE2753625A1 (de) * 1977-12-01 1979-06-07 Agfa Gevaert Ag Fixiereinrichtung fuer ein elektrofotografisches kopiergeraet
US4269594A (en) * 1977-12-07 1981-05-26 Agfa-Gevaert N.V. Contact heat fusing apparatus
DE2804904A1 (de) * 1978-02-06 1979-08-09 Philips Patentverwaltung Verfahren und vorrichtung zur schmelzfixierung von tonerbildern auf aufzeichnungstraegern

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
Patent Abstracts of Japan vol. 1, no. 90, 22 August 1977 page 2289E77 & JP-A-52-25640 *

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Inventor name: DOMEN, ALBRECHT FRANS

Inventor name: OVERMEER, ROBERT THEODOOR

Inventor name: BRUYNEEL, FRANS MARIA