Abstract: A vacuum contact exposure device for exposing a light-sensitive sheet to another sheet, which comprises a housing with a hinged top cover, a contact exposure space formed between a glass plate and a flexible blanket inside said housing, and means for creating an underpressure in the housing, wherein in succession the housing and the contact exposure space are evacuated, the exposure space is closed, the atmospheric pressure is restored in the housing while the exposure space remains evacuated, and the lid is opened and the exposure carried out.

Abstract: An object-holding device is described wherein a cup component comprising an elastically deformable sucker cup and an associated air vent passage communicating with the cup interior is urged by spring means into a position in which the end of such passage remote from the sucker cup is closed off by a selaing element on a supporting body in which the cup component is mounted for limited axial movement. For releasing an object held by the cup after the latter is pressed against the object, the body and cup component have merely to be relatively displaced against the spring bias to unseal the vent passage.

Abstract: Apparatus for transferring xerographic images from one element surface to another while the elements are advanced synchronously through an image transfer station.One element is supported on a drum and the other is supported on a carriage that is arranged for tangential displacement along the drum periphery and the carriage is driven from the drum by a flexible tie member that is angularly wound on the drum during its rotation, and is engaged at its free end to said drum. Such engagement is preferably detachable to permit independent driving of the carriage except during the image transfer operation and re-engagement is preferably accomplished automatically at the beginning of the image transfer operation.