Appeal No. 96-3146
Application 07/986,489
an electrostatic print head for forming an electrostatic
image, an image cylinder rotatable about an axis and having a
dielectric layer for receiving the electrostatic image and
means for transferring the image to a substrate, the
combination with said printer of an erase unit for removing
residual electrostatic potential of the image remaining on the
image cylinder after the image has been transferred to the
substrate, comprising:
a plenum having first and second electrodes disposed
adjacent a surface of said image cylinder at a location in
opposition thereto and to the residual electrostatic potential
remaining on said image cylinder;
a dielectric disposed between said first and second
electrodes;
means for introducing an inert gas in said plenum in a
region adjacent said second electrode and between said
dielectric and said image cylinder surface; and
circuit means for providing a time varying potential
across said electrodes to ionize the gas in said region and
enable substantial equalization of the residual potential on
said image cylinder surface and the potential on said second
electrode, whereby the residual electrostatic potential of the
image remaining on the image cylinder after the image has been
transferred to the substrate is removed.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Ragland 4,357,618 Nov. 2, 1982
Maczuszenko et al. 4,516,847 May 14, 1985
(Maczuszenko)
Kuehrle 4,792,860 Dec. 20, 1988
Miekka 4,918,468 Apr. 17, 1990
Torok PCT/SE87/00595 Jun. 30, 1988
-3-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007