Abstract: An imaging apparatus is provided including a frame having a portion upon which a printhead is adapted to be mounted. The printhead may include a housing including a main body, at least one flexible mounting beam extending from the main body, and at least one structural member coupled to the at least one flexible mounting beam. The printhead may also include a skew correction mechanism mounted to the printhead housing. The skew correction mechanism may include an adjustment member capable of engaging at least one surface on the printhead housing so as to adjust the position of the printhead housing relative to the frame portion.

Abstract: A scanning system for a printer or scanner that has a beam source that produces a light beam at a point of origin and has a scanning mirror that sweeps the light beam from a position “A” to a position “B.” A lens receives the light beam from the scanning mirror and directs the light beam as a scanning beam to an image plane surface. A first synchronizing mirror intercepts and reflects a light ray to a photo detection system when the scanning beam is at a position “A?” that is in the vicinity of position “A” and between position “A” and “B”. A second synchronizing mirror intercepts a light ray when the scanning beam is at a position “B?” that is in the vicinity of position “B” and between position “A” and “B”, and reflects the light ray to a folding mirror that reflects the light ray to the photo detection system. In some configurations two photo detection systems are used in lieu of the folding mirror.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for ink-jet printing onto an intermediate drum in a helical pattern while correcting for image skew and aliasing. A plurality of ink-jet print heads place an image on an intermediate drum, impervious to ink, in a helical patter. To compensate for helical printing, the image is altered by nozzle placement and image manipulation to correct for skewing errors, and thereafter, the nozzle timing is adjusted to correct for aliasing. The plurality of print heads move parallel to the axis of rotation of the drum while the drum is simultaneously rotating, causing the image to be placed in a helical pattern. Once the entire image is placed on the drum, paper is rolled against the drum under pressure and the image is transferred thereto.

Abstract: A stack of envelopes has its lowermost envelope advanced from the stack by two sets of longitudinally spaced kick rollers, which are driven through a gear train by a unidirectional motor. A separator, which includes a feed roll and a restraint roll driven by the unidirectional motor, allows only one envelope to pass therethrough. The gear train includes two sets of interrupted teeth on a gear for stopping advancement of each of the two sets of kick rollers so that another envelope is not advanced from the stack during a cycle of operation. The gear has a third set of interrupted teeth for stopping the feed and restraint rolls after the envelope has passed the separator. The envelope is advanced to a printer by drive rolls, which cooperate with spring biased back-up rolls to form a nip, driven by the unidirectional motor. When the envelope enters the drive rolls, a latch holds the gear having the interrupted teeth from rotating.

Abstract: An envelope feeder has a movable weight with a relatively large surface area adjacent one of two substantially parallel side walls of the envelope feeder. The weight has gears on opposite ends of a rotatably mounted shaft on which the weight is pivotally supported. The gears cooperate with racks in the two side walls to allow up and down motion of the weight while the shaft stays parallel to the floor. Thus, the position of the movable weight is never skewed. The side wall, which is remote from the relatively large surface area of the movable weight, has a limiter extending therefrom towards the other wall. The limiter acts only on envelopes exceeding a predetermined width to limit the height of a stack of such envelopes so that the power of the envelope advancing motor for feeding each envelope from the bottom of the stack is not exceeded.