Abstract: An apparatus for simultaneously fluidizing, charging and loading toner onto a donor member in one step using a corona device which is enclosed and separate from the toner supply. An ion-air stream emanating from this charging device also directs the charged toner onto the donor. The system includes a housing for containing toner particles; a donor member, mounted in said housing, for transporting charged toner particles on the surface said donor member to a development zone adjacent to said image bearing member; a loading system for loading said donor member with charged toner particles, said loading system includes blower for generating an air stream for fluidizing toner particles and charging device for charging said air stream.

Abstract: An image forming method for use in image forming apparatus including on the right surface thereof a discharge opening connectable with a post-processing device, the image forming method comprising the steps of:a first step of delivering one or more documents to a read position sequentially starting from the first document to read the documents at the read position, and outputting the documents in the form of images of the same posture as document images to be read on the documents;a second step of reading a document at a position where the same is placed and outputting the document in the form of an image of the same posture of a document image to be read on the document;a third step of forming, on the upper surface of a sheet to be supplied from the left surface side of the image forming apparatus, the images output in the first or second step in the order that they are read, and delivering the formed images in a direction of the right surface of the image forming apparatus; anda fourth step of reversing the

Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus jetts an ink droplet from a free surface of an ink material by propagating a surface acoustic wave. The apparatus includes a substrate, a slant face formed on the substrate, The slant face contacts the ink material with a grade in use. A vibration generator for generating plural surface acoustic waves, is formed on the substrate away from the ink material in use, and the plural surface acoustic waves are propagated along with the substrate and changed into plural longitudinal waves having propagating directions in the ink material. The propagating directions will be concentrated at a certain portion within the ink material.

Abstract: An imaging module mounting structure is used for mounting an imaging module to an imaging device that has a support member and a rotatable photoreceptor. The imaging module includes an imaging bar and a corona generating device. The imaging module mounting structure includes a pair of pivot block devices which are pivotably connected to the support member in a spaced apart relationship. The imaging bar and the corona generating device are secured to each one of the pair of pivot block devices. Each pivot block device includes a cam follower element. The pair of pivot block devices are operative to flex independently of one another while the photoreceptor rotates so that the respective cam follower elements remain in contact with the rotating photoreceptor to compensate for photoreceptor run out. A method for practicing the present invention is also described.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for bonding a nozzle plate to the front nozzle face of a printhead. A bonding station includes a heated printhead holder in opposed relationship to a nozzle plate holder with a curved lower surface. A nozzle plate having a row of nozzle holes and alignment apertures are formed by laser ablation in a thin polymer film. The film is moved into the bonding station, and the nozzle plate is aligned with pins on the curved nozzle plate holder surface. Both the printhead holder and nozzle plate holder are adjustable in directions perpendicular to the nozzle array on the printhead face and also rotationally. The adjustment insures that the nozzle plate, with adhesive applied to the bottom surface, makes initial tangential contact at the center of the nozzle array, resulting in accurate alignment of the nozzle plate holes with the nozzle array in the printhead face.

Abstract: A reflective liquid crystal display is disclosed, comprising:a first substrate having a transparent electrode;a second substrate having a specular, light-reflecting electrode provided so that its electrode surface faces an electrode surface of the first substrate;a liquid crystal layer having dichroic dye and sandwiched by the first substrate and the second substrate; anda light-diffusing layer provided between the first substrate and the liquid crystal layer, andthe light-diffusing layer comprising liquid crystalline polymer having directors of random orientation which varies spatially continuously.

Abstract: An ink composition comprised of a colorant and a phase change vehicle derived from the reaction product of a resin containing at least one furan moiety and at least one maleimide moiety, and wherein said ink possesses a viscosity of from about 1 centipoise to about 20 centipoise at a temperature of from about 100.degree. C. to about 180.degree. C.

Abstract: A method of locating handwritten words in handwritten text images under a variety of transformations including changes in document orientation, skew, noise, and changes in handwriting style of a single author which avoids a detailed search of the image for locating every word by pre-computing relevant information in a hash table and indexing the table for word localization. Both the hash table construction and indexing can be done as fast operations taking time quadratic in the number of basis points. Generally, the method involves four stages: (1) Pre-processing where features for word localization are extracted; (2) Image hash table construction; (3) Indexing where query word features are used to look up hash table for candidate locations; and (4) Verification, where the query word is projected and registered with the underlying word at the candidate locations. The method has applications in digital libraries, handwriting tokenization, document management and OCR systems.

Abstract: A multiplexing bus controller with input conditioning is provided in which the need for a dedicated microprocessor for handling input filtering, input change detection and serial-to-parallel/parallel-to-serial I/O data conversion is eliminated. The controller is realized in a gate array and provides input data oversampling and output refreshing to eliminate random noise coupled to the data lines. In addition, the oversampled data is filtered to debounce the signal received from the input devices. The input data is converted from serial-to-parallel and checked to detect any change from the previous input data stream. Upon detection of an input change, the host microprocessor is interrupted. When the host microprocessor sends data to the bus controller, the bus controller then converts the data to a serial stream for communication to the appropriate output device. Additionally, the bus controller is provided with an internal turnaround circuit to loop back outputs to the inputs for diagnostic purposes.

Abstract: A device for encoding the position of a moving web, particularly a continuous photoreceptor belt in an electrophotographic printing apparatus, incorporates an encoding wheel for engaging an edge portion of the web, in combination with a long support member for supporting the remaining span of the web. Because the wheel is of a small width, the composite runout may be kept within acceptable limits for a lower cost compared to the long rollers of the prior art. The support member may include another roller for supporting the remaining span of the web or it may include a skid plate. The wheel can be manufactured within the required eccentricity and composite runout tolerances at a lower cost compared to prior art devices. The wheel can also be made with a larger diameter while the support roller can be of a compact construction to facilitate placement within the limited space in the printing device.

Abstract: A feedback control system controls developability of a xerographic imaging device that uses optical sensors for measuring development values based upon a target value. The feedback control system includes a controller device and a feedforward device. The controller device includes an input summing node, a gain device, an integrator and a nominal summing node which are serially connected in communication with each other. The input summing node, the gain device and the integrator are operative in combination with each other to receive and process the measured value and the target value to provide an new corrected actuator value to the integrator summing node. The feedforward device is connected to the nominal summing node and receives and responds to the target value to output a nominal actuator value to the nominal summing node.

Abstract: Ink-jet recording ink and an ink-jet recording method, said ink-jet recording ink comprising a water-insoluble coloring material, water, and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a compound represented by formula (I) and polyglycerin: ##STR1## wherein R represents H or an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms; m, n, o and p are all integers; and m+n+o+p is 0 to 200.

Abstract: An input sheet system for reading an input sheet on which an instruction from a user is described, acquiring the instruction from the user on the basis of the read result, and performing information processing according to the instruction. When a form creator creates the appearance of a form by arranging symbols of software components registered on a component library on a form image, a form editor automatically creates a form document describing the location relationship of the symbols. When an input sheet with user's instructions filled in is read into the system, the system determines the processing order of the software components corresponding to the symbols on the basis of the location relationship of the symbols described on the form document and carries out the processing in this order.

Abstract: A motion control system controls the linear motion of a safety gate or other object, to prevent its skewing or binding, by two inter-connecting (meshed) gears, which also connect with (are respectively meshed with) two spaced apart, parallel, linear gear racks. The two gears extend between and interconnect the two gear racks, so that all four components are geared together, and have the same gear pitch. This forces the two spaced apart gear racks to track and move in lock-step with one another in a direction of motion aligned with and parallel to the gear racks, thus insuring linear movement of the member being moved (the safety gate here) irrespective of where on the member the moving member is pushed, pulled or otherwise acted on, i.e., even off-center, and without requiring critical edge guide channels, tracks, or the like. In this example a simple solenoid moves the safety gate with consistently low force.

Abstract: An electrophotographic apparatus includes an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a charging device, an image exposure device, a developing device, a transfer device, and a control device. The control device stops rotation of the electrophotographic photosensitive member after a region of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, which region opposes the transfer device at the time when operation of the transfer device is stopped while the rotation of the electrophotographic photosensitive member is not stopped, passes, by at least one revolution, a position opposing the charging device which is running. The electrophotographic apparatus requires no idle rotation, makes high speed processing possible, suppresses negative and positive ghosting, and suppresses variations in electric characteristics and in image densities between first and second copying operations, thereby enabling images of high quality to be prepared quickly and simply.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for enhancing toner charge level in a hybrid scavengeless development system. The system includes a housing defining a chamber storing a supply of developer material including toner; a toner donor member spaced from the surface and being adapted to transport toner to a region opposed from the surface; A mag roll conveys the developer material in the chamber of the housing onto a region of the donor member; A charging device ion charges the toner loaded on the region of the donor member; and an electrode member space near the surface of the donor member being electrically biased by a power supply to detach toner from the donor member as to form a toner cloud for developing the latent image.

Abstract: A cyclobutenedione derivative. It comprises substituted or non-substituted aromatic group A; conjugated chain B which may contain an aromatic bonding group; and hydrogen bonding or ion bonding cyclobutenedionyl group C having an aromatic group which is bonded to the conjugated chain B, wherein A and B and C are bonded in the form of A--B--C. Crystal of the derivative is used as a non-linear optical device.

Abstract: A technique of using the path numbers of an acyclic finite-state transducer as a method of indexing a database. Each entry in the database has associated therewith one or more keys. A finite state transducer is provided defining the keys for the database. For each key, a path number is determined associated with that key, the path number defining a mapping between that key and the (or each) corresponding entry in the database.

Abstract: A method for filling a powder container is provided. The method includes the steps of placing a first powder container to be filled in filling relationship to a discharge feature in the vessel, directing the powder in the vessel toward a member located at least partially within the vessel, the member defining a restriction therein such that the powder clogs within the restriction, mechanically exciting the powder at least adjacent the restriction to improve the flow properties of the powder so as to unclog the powder within the restriction, dispensing powder through the restriction, through the discharge feature and into the first container, stopping the mechanical excitation of the powder so as to clog the restriction with the powder, removing the first container from the vessel, and placing a second container to be filled in filling relationship to the vessel.

Abstract: A process which comprises the generation of an image on an imaging member, developing the image with a liquid developer, and transferring the image to a substrate, and which substrate is coated with an acrylic, a nylon, a vinyl polymer, a wax, or a paraffin component.