Abstract: A lifting tool for heavy, flat, round covers, such as manhole covers, is disclosed. The covers include two pairs of diametrically opposed edge notches. The lifting tool comprises an upright column, the lower end of which terminates in a first pair of prongs or teeth that are adapted to cooperate with one of the notch pairs. A swing arm is pivotally connected to an intermediate portion of the tool's upright column. The swing arm includes one or more sets of teeth to facilitate lifting of covers having different diameters. The swing arm teeth are adapted to cooperate with the second pair of cover notches, to thereby facilitate lifting of the cover out of its casing by manual rotation of the upright column about the first pair of teeth. The upright column includes wheels that are located above the first set of teeth. These wheels are located so that they will not engage the ground until the cover has been lifted out of its casing, thus facilitating movement of a lifted cover.

Abstract: A patch sensing toner concentration control method and apparatus is provided in which the optical density of reproduction output can be changed without changing the quantity of toner that is deposited on the photoconductor's test patch area. The test patch area receives toner as the patch area passes through a developer station under the influence of a patch development electrical field or vector. Light that is reflected from a bare photoconductor area is compared to light that is reflected from a toned test patch area. The ratio of these two reflected light intensities is used to control the addition of toner to the developer station. Optical density of the reproduction output is changed by changing the toner concentration in the developer station. The toner concentration control method and apparatus of the invention is constructed and arranged to require a fixed or constant ratio of light reflection as an indication of proper toner concentration, independent of the absolute value of toner concentration.

Abstract: A retainer for holding and protecting an optical disk is molded from plastic, to form a thin, flat, rectangular base member having a shallow rectangular cavity in the front surface thereof. A shallow circular cavity is centrally located within the rectangular cavity. The disk is resiliently held within the circular cavity, and can be removed by finger lifting. The retainer's top edge includes a hook recessed into its flat top edge. This hook allows the retainer to be vertically hung from, and perpendicular to, a horizontal storage rod. The retainer includes short, spaced posts located within the top portion of the rectangular cavity. A flat storage envelope mounts on these posts, to overlay the disk's exposed surface. The two external, vertically extending side walls of the base each include a flat, protruding, label surface located at the center of the side wall. Two flat box shaped containers are provided. One container holds a single retainer.

Abstract: An electrophotographic hot roll fuser is manually movable from an operative position within an electrophotographic reproduction device, to an inoperative position where the fuser is available for cleaning, inspection or sheet jam clearance. When the fuser is in its inoperative position, a manually operable handle is accessible for operation. Operation of this handle moves various operating components, such as sheet guides, apart, thereby facilitating manual sheet jam clearance. Subsequently, when the handle is manually returned to its original position, all sheet guides and like components are accurately relocated to their original operative positions.

Abstract: An electrophotographic fuser roll includes a hard external surface having low surface energy and high abrasion resistance. This surface is formed by sequentially coating a metal roll with two layers of a polymeric material. The polymeric material is not cured until after the second layer is applied. Once the material is cured, it is subjected to a polishing step that also generates heats. In this way, the roll's surface is both polished and heat treated.

Abstract: A method of making read-only magnetic recording media by the use of photolithographic/photoresist techniques, and the vacuum deposition of discrete bits of a high coercivity metal, followed by magnetization of said metal. A nonmagnetic substrate is covered by a layer of photoresist and a layer of high coercivity magnetic material. Selective light-pattern exposure of the resist, followed by layer-removal-procedures, cause the substrate to be covered by islands of hard magnetic material, in the pattern of a desired data track. The substrate is then subjected to the influence of a steady-state magnetic field in order to convert the metal islands into a read-only data pattern which can be read by a magnetic head. A floppy disk of this type is used to stress-test the head placement of floppy disk drives.

Abstract: A bit-image printer is disclosed, having a page memory, a font memory and a font library. Fonts are selected from the library for use in composing a page image in the page memory. Loading of font characters into the page memory is controlled by the position of a cursor located within page memory. The font characters include cursor parameters which control the loading of the character into page memory, based upon current cursor position, and control movement of the cursor to a new location, in preparation for loading of the next character into page memory. After a page image is composed, the image is used to control an LED printhead which images the photoconductor of a xerographic reproduction device.

Abstract: An electrophotographic reproduction device includes a pressure roll fuser whereat toner carried by a sheet of paper is fused onto the paper's surface by the application of both heat and pressure as the sheet passes through a pressure fusing nip. The pressure nip is formed by pressure engagement of a heated fusing roll to an unheated backup roll. A multilayer cloth wick rubs against a portion of the hot roll's toner engaging surface, and thereby supplies release oil to this surface. When the wick's outer cloth layer becomes contaminated with toner and the like, the operator acitvates a manually releasable stitch which is associated with the wick's multiple layers. This action allows manual removal of the wick's top contaminated layer, thereby exposing a clean cloth surface for subsequent engagement to the hot roll's toner engaging surface.

Abstract: A flexible disk drive head access mechanism optimized for automated manufacture is disclosed. The mechanism is a complete subassembly. As such, the mechanism can be handled by a robot, as the mechanism is automatically mounted to the disk drive's main frame member. The mechanism comprises a stepping motor having a metal output pulley which is wrapped by a metal band. The middle of the band is welded to the motor's output pulley. The two free ends of the band are welded to a flexible, low-mass band tensioner. This tensioner is a thin, elongated member which includes a U-shaped portion which is operable to tension the band about the pulley. Attachment of the ends of the band to the tensioner not only tensions the band, but also operates to bend the tensioner slightly toward the pulley, thus causing the band to self-center itself in a 360.degree. wrap about the pulley. In this way, rotary to linear output from the mechanism is assured.

Abstract: A digital tape drive wherein tape is written, and a read-after-write operation is immediately performed to check the integrity of the write operation, for either direction of tape movement. The tape contains a plurality of parallel data tracks. Two read/write head modules span the entire tape. The read and write gaps of each module are alternately spaced across the width of the tape, such that the write gaps of one module are aligned with the read gaps of the other module. When one module is selected for writing, as a function of the direction of tape movement, the other module is selected to read-after-write check the first module's written data. One module writes odd-track data during one direction of tape movement, and reads even-track data during the opposite direction of tape movement; as the other module writes even-track data during said opposite movement direction, and reads odd-track data during said one movement direction.

Abstract: A squarylium dye molecule is synthesized from a phenolic precursor. The resulting hydroxy pyrrolidino squarylium (OHPYRRSQ) dye does not have to be purified in order to provide the dye with a negative response in the Ames test for mutagenicity. A xerographic photoconductor using the molecule shows superior electrophotographic performance.

Abstract: An automatic method and copier apparatus for producing a transparent foil copy and a paper backup sheet of an original document sheet is disclosed. Two modes of operation are described. One mode produces one foil copy and a paper backup copy. A second mode produces one foil copy and a blank backup sheet. A copier is disclosed having two paper supply bins. Blank foils are loaded into one bin, whereas blank paper is loaded into the other bin. In the first mode of operation, two consecutive copies are made of each original document. One copy is made on blank foil taken from said one bin, followed by a second copy made on a blank sheet of copy paper taken from said other bin. In the second mode of operation, one copy is made on blank foil, followed by feeding a sheet of blank paper without making a copy thereon. In each mode of operation, the result is a two sheet set comprising a first foil sheet and a second paper sheet.

Abstract: A method for producing duplex copies from a duplex original wherein only one copy of the odd or even sides of the original documents is made during the first circulation of the originals to and from the exposure platen. During each subsequent circulation of the original documents, excluding the last circulation, two copies of the odd or even sides of the original are produced and either stored in a buffer tray if one side of the copy sheet is blank or transported to an exit tray if duplex copying has been completed on the copy sheet. Only one copy of the odd or even sides of the original documents are made during the last circulation and transfered to the blank sides of the copy sheets in the buffer tray to complete a duplex copy.

Abstract: A sheet stacking duplex tray includes a movable finger which separates a first group of sheets under the finger from a second group of sheets above the finger. Sheets which have been copied on only one side are fed to a copy station from the bottom of the tray for second-side copying, as other sheets which have been copied on only one side are fed to the tray, to reside on top of the finger. When all sheets of the first group have been fed, the finger gravity-falls through an opening in the tray. A detector senses this finger movement, and a solenoid then resets the finger to rest on the top sheet of the sheets then in the tray.

Abstract: The speed of a DC motor (10) is controlled by a servo which includes a digital phase lock loop. The motor drives a tachometer whose pulse (22) frequency is low relative to the frequency of a clock (21). The clock continuously drives a counter (200) whose ever increasing number content is gated to a data latch (26) upon the occurrence of each successive tachometer pulse, thus this data latch contains a first time-number of ever increasing magnitude. A second data latch (24) contains a second number. The difference in magnitude of two consecutive time-numbers is indicative of motor speed. Initially, this second number is set to contain a reference number (REF) which is equal in magnitude to the number of clock pulses which will occur between adjacent tachometer pulses when the motor is running at desired speed. A pair of limit numbers (RANGEL and RANGEH) are provided to define the upper and lower limits of servo saturation.

Abstract: Stapler mechanism drive unit utilizing a high-speed, low-inertia flywheel with a combination bellcrank and cam power-delivering arrangement for furnishing power to a stapler driver and clincher.

Abstract: A flexible disk drive in which the head moves in an arc, as the head is selectively moved to access the data at the various concentric data tracks of a disk. Concomitant with this approximate arcuate movement, the head is azimuth-rotated, such that its gap has a predefined, optimum azimuth orientation to each of the individual disk tracks, for example, the head's gap is normal to the track's center line at each head position.