Patents by Inventor Michael William Craig

Michael William Craig has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7613407
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a waste toner system that collects waste toner in a waste toner container. An amount of waste toner collected in the container is increased by using a driven toner distributing member that distributes accumulated toner within the container. The toner distributing member may be driven by a shared speed-controlled motor that further drives an image forming process member. The waste toner system may detect the accumulation of waste toner by monitoring a drive control circuit while the toner distributing member is being driven. For example, a logic circuit may detect the accumulation of waste toner based on monitoring a predetermined frequency of interest of a frequency domain transform of a motor control signal, the frequency of interest associated with the shared motor driving the toner distributing member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Inventors: Michael William Craig, Steven Michael Turney, Danny Keith Chapman
  • Publication number: 20030057639
    Abstract: A system and method of controlling the movement of a media sheet along a media path to correspond to the timing of a toner image on an intermediate transfer mechanism. A controller controls the timing and sends a pick command to move a media sheet from a pick tray into the media pathway at a time that the media can move at a process speed and intercept the toner image. The controller adjusts the speed of individual rollers within the media path to correct the timing of the media sheet to account for any timing inaccuracies. By the time the media sheet exits the media path and enters a media/image alignment region of the media pathway, the amount of positional error is reduced or eliminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2001
    Publication date: March 27, 2003
    Inventors: Danny Keith Chapman, Michael William Craig, Steven Michael Turney