Charge Spectrograph

This invention relates generally to electrophotographic printing, and more particularly concerns an improved apparatus for measuring the charge distribution of toner particles used in the developer material of an electrophotographic printing machine.

In electrophotographic printing, a photoconductive member is charged to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged photoconductive member is exposed to a light image of an original document being reproduced. Exposure of the sensitized photoconductive surface discharges the charge selectively. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface corresponding to the informational areas contained within the original document being reproduced. Development of the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface is achieved by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Typical developer materials comprise the heat settable plastic powder, known in the art as toner particles, which adhere triboelectrically to coarser magnetic carrier granules, such as ferromagnetic granules. The toner particles are selected to have the appropriate charge relative to the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface. When the developer material is brought into contact with the latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface, the greater attractive force thereof causes the toner particles to transfer from the carrier granules to the electrostatic latent image.

Frequently, the variability of the electrical characteristics of the developer material introduces undesirable affects on the resultant copy produced in the printing machine. The charging, and charge stability versus environment and use of the toner particles is a significant problem which has persisted throughout the history of electrophotographic printing. Heretofore, most attempts to study the charge condition of particles was constrained to particles having low charges moving in a low velocity air stream. Generally, the particles had a change ranging from about 10 to about 10.sup.3 electron charges. However, toner particles generally are highly charged, i.e. in the range of from about 10.sup.4 to about 10.sup.5 electron charges.

The following art appears to be relevant as to the different types of devices heretofore used to measure low level charges:

Volume 30, Page 1056

Author: Gillespie et al.

Published: December, 1952

Volume 219, Page 259

Author: Megaw et al.

Published: July 20, 1968

Series B, Page 1682

Author: Liu et al.

Published: June 23, 1969

The pertinent portions of the foregoing articles may be summarized briefly as follows:

Gillespie et al. discloses an instrument for measuring low level particle charges. A thin aerosol of particles surrounded by a sheath of clean air is drawn through a transverse electric field between two microscope slides. A low, laminar air flow is used.

Megaw et al. describes charge measurements made in low charge sub-micron spherical polystyrene particles. The apparatus includes a rectangular box having opposite faces made aluminum covered with copper foil. The aluminum plates are insulated from one another. Filter air flowing at a low rate passes around the aerosol of particles.

Liu et al. discloses a spectrometer for studying the charge on polystyrene latex particles. An aerosol of particles is introduced into a tube by a probe. The probe is positioned an equal distance from a pair of parallel plates connected to a voltage source. A flow of filtered air is introduced to maintain a laminar system. Filter paper is positioned in the tube at the end opposed to the probe. In normal operation, the filter paper is replaced by a device insuring the homogenization of the air exiting the tube. Particle concentration is measured by a meter.

In accordance with the features of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for measuring the distribution of toner particles as a function of the size and charge thereof. The apparatus includes a housing defining an interior chamber with means being provided for producing a laminar air flow having substantially uniform velocity therein. Means form a substantially uniform electrical field in the interior chamber of the housing with means being provided for introducing the toner particles therein. Means receive the particles that have moved through at least a portion of the electrical field in the interior chamber of the housing. Means scan the toner particles deposited on the receiving means to form a display of the particles as a function of the size and charge thereof.

Other aspects of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and upon reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic elevational view depicting the system for measuring the charge distribution of toner particles;

FIG. 2 is a schematic elevational view illustrating the charge spectrograph used in the FIG. 1 system;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the inlet tube of the FIG. 2 spectrograph;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevational view, partially in section, depicting the upper portion of the FIG. 2 spectrograph;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of the circuitry associated with the electrodes used in the FIG. 2 spectrograph;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary elevational view showing toner particles being introduced into the FIG. 2 charge spectrograph;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the device used to support developer material as toner particles are being placed in the FIG. 2 spectrograph;

FIG. 8 is an elevational view, partially in section, showing the needle for directing a stream of air onto the developer material to separate the toner particles therefrom so that the toner particles descend into the FIG. 2 spectrograph;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the system for analyzing the toner particle distribution produced in the FIG. 2 spectrograph; and

FIG. 10 is a computer generated histogram of a typical toner particle distribution.

While the present invention will hereinafter be described in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to that embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

For a general understanding of the features of the present invention, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals have been used throughout to designate identical elements. FIG. 1 schematically depicts the various components of the system for measuring the charge distribution of toner particles. It will become evident from the following discussion that the system described hereinafter is equally well suited for use in measuring the charge distribution of a wide variety of particles and is not necessarily limited in its application to the particular embodiment shown herein.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system includes a charge spectrograph, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10. Air needle 12 directs an air stream onto developer material 14 so as to separate the toner particles from the carrier granules thereof. The toner particles descend into charge spectrograph 10. The system is activated by turning on air pump 16. The system operates at a fixed air velocity of about one meter per second. The main air flow passes through conduit 18. The air flow from the inlet air guard passes through conduit 20, and the exhaust air flow passes through conduit 22. Valve 24, which is a ball type of valve, sets the flow at one meter per second. This flow rate is measured by flow meter 26. Manometer 28 is coupled to interior chamber of charge spectrograph 10 so as to monitor the pressure thereof. This pressure is determined by the design of interior chamber of spectrograph 10. The pressure sets the air velocity level in the interior of spectrograph 10. By way of example, the interior chamber pressure ranges from about 51/2 inches to about 61/2 inches of water. Valve 30 controls the flow to the inlet air guard. The flow is regulated to be about 180 cubic centimeters per minute. Solenoid valve 32 gates the air flow from the air guard on and off with the main spectrograph switch. The air line for the air guard flow includes a prefilter 34, a regulator 35 which sets the line pressure at 10 psi, and a 5 micron filter 38. Flow meter 40 measures the exhaust air flow from the inlet portion of spectrograph 10. Valve 42 sets this air flow to be about six liters per minute. This setting controls the air volume ratio of sample to clean air surrounding the sample air in the inlet tube. Power supply 44 is coupled to the electrodes of spectrograph 10 and generates an electrical field having an upper limit of 1000 volts per centimeter. Most samples have a field setting of between 20 and 200 volts per centimeter. Power supply 44 is capable of producing from 0 to 6000 volts D.C..

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is shown the detailed structure of charge spectrograph 10. Charge spectrograph 10 includes a housing 46 defining an interior chamber of 48. The top section of spectrograph 10 includes inlet tube 50. An annular fine glass frit 52 is positioned about the input portion of tube 50 which places a coaxial air sheath around the entering sample of toner particles. Tube 50 is smooth and made of a drawn-down glass tube. It has a tin oxide coated on its inner surface to provide electrical shielding at a controlled level of potential. The main air flow enters through a nylon screen 54 over an input port. After entering the interior chamber 48 of housing 46, the main air flow passes through a nylon mesh screen 56 and then through a honeycomb flow straightener 58. The main air flow then passes through nylon screens 60 and 62 which have substantially equally sized apertures therein. These nylon screens flatten the air velocity profile so that the velocity of the air flowing across interior chamber 48 of housing 46 is substantially uniform. The conductances of the inlet tube and main air screens and meshes are adjusted so that velocity matching occurs at the outlet of tube 50. Thus, the air flow in the interior chamber 48 of housing 48 is substantially at the same velocity as that of the air flow exiting tube 50. The velocity of the air is approximately 100 centimeters per second. The deflection portion of interior chamber 48 includes electrical field shaping electrodes 55 disposed on the inner walls of housing 46. These electrodes are made from a conductive tin oxide coating on the glass wall of housing 46. The electrodes are a series of substantially rectangular members with their longitudinal axis being substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of spectrograph 10. Each electrode is set at a different potential so as to produce a uniform field in the interior chamber 48 of housing 46. The outlet portion of tube 50 is positioned within side wall electrode structure 56 and tube 50 is an electrical shield held at ground potential. The base section contains an air permeable grid electrode structure 61 which provides a very smooth potential ramp directly beneath filter 63. It is necessary to have a very smooth ramp in order to avoid distorting the pattern of the particles deposited on filter 63. Electrode 61 is formed from a plurality of substantially equally spaced wires forming one axis of a grid and substantially equally spaced nylon threads forming the other axis of the grid. A plurality of dropping resistors couple the metal wires to power supply 44. Both side wall electrodes 55 and bottom electrodes 61 are driven from a common, ground-center power supply 44. This arrangement generates an electrical field of up to 1000 volts per centimeter. Resistors of bottom electrode 61 are formed by coating one edge of the screen with a slurry of colloidal graphite and molyblenium disulfide to form painted on resistors having a resistance of about 20 meg/ohms end to end. Base electrode 61 is supported by a coarse glass frit filter and air field flattener 65. Glass frit filter 65 is mounted on base 64 which is coupled to conduit 18. As toner particles are collected on filter 63, the fields above the toner particles tend to repel subsequent toner particles. In order to minimize the range of these fields above filter 63, it is necessary to make filters 63 slightly conductive. The conductivity must be held sufficiently low so that the filter does not electrically short circuit grid 61. Filter 63 is coated with an electrically conductive liquid, and dried. Thus, in operation, the toner particles descend through inlet tube 50 into the interior 48 of housing 46 where the charge thereon operates in conjunction with the electrical fields established by electrodes 55 and 61 produce a deflection from the nominal vertical. The toner particles are received in filter 63 with the zero input corresponding to the center line of inlet tube 50. Deviations from this zero point or center line are a function of the size and charge of the toner particle.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown inlet tube 50 in greater detail. As shown thereat, inlet tube 50 is designed to minimize the possibility of toner particles hitting the interior walls or from being trapped. To shape the required venturi to achieve this, tube 50 is made preferably from glass having a tin oxide coating thereon which is electrically grounded or at zero potential. The inlet portion, indicated generally by the reference numeral 66, is approximately 2.0 millimeters in diameter. The width of the orifice 68 or the throat region is approximately 0.4 millimeters in diameters. The outlet portion, indicated by the reference numeral 70, is approximately 2.2 millimeters in diameter. The volume of air flowing through inlet tube 50 ranges from about 210 to about 260 cubic centimeters per minute.

The assembly of subcomponents of charge spectrograph 10 located at the entrance thereof is shown in greater detail in FIG. 4. Referring now to FIG. 4, the air flow through conduit 20 sets the ratio of sample air to guard air. Air enters air shield 69 through conduit 20 at a volume of about 150 to 200 cubic centimeters per minute. This air flow forms a sheath around the sample air entering inlet tube 50 with the volume thereof controlling the sampling rate. If a residual toner cloud were allowed to dwell in the vicinity of the inlet portion of tube 50, the entering sample would be biased in favor of low charged particles. Thus, the toner cloud must be sampled and the residual particles removed from consideration before this can distort the measurement. This is achieved by exhaust duct 71 which sweeps the toner cloud toward the inlet of inlet tube 50. The unused particles are trapped on filter 73 which fits tightly around inlet tube 50. The developer sample is held about 5 to 10 millimeters above inlet tube 50 and the toner particles stopped therefrom.

The electrical field across the deflection chamber of the spectrograph varies the sensitivity thereof. The proper setting will disperse the trace as far as possible within the limits set by the aperture of washer 72 disposed beneath filter 63 (FIG. 2). To obtain accurate reproducable charge data, this field is resettable to an accuracy of approximately 1%. The circuitry of power supply 44 is shown in FIG. 5. A stable adjustable power supply and digital voltmeter are connected to the spectrograph as shown in FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG. 5, painted bottom resistors 74 and 76 are connected to power supply 75. Resistors 74 and 76 have a resistance of approximately 10 megohms. Similarly resistors 78 and 80 are connected to side wall electrodes 56. Resistors 78 and 80 have a resistance of about 3 megohms. Digital voltmeter 82 is coupled by a switch 84 to power supply 75 through resistors 86, 88, 90 and 92. Switch 84 provides a balance check of power supply 75. Preferably, resistor 86 has a resistance of 330 kilohms, resistor 88, a resistance of 660 kilohms, resistor 90, a resistance of 660 kilohms and resistor 92 a resistance of 330 kilohms, so that the meter reads directly in volts per centimeter.

As shown in FIG. 6, developer sample 14 is held about 5 to 10 millimeters above inlet tube 50. Toner particles are stripped from developer material 14 by air flowing from an air needle 94. Developer material is supported over the edge of the inlet tube and the air needle is directed at the developer material at an angle of about 45.degree. relative to the axis of tube 50. Developer material 14 is attracted magnetically to support 96 which is mounted on a magnetic chuck 98.

As shown in FIG. 7, support 96 includes a one millimeter diameter steel wire 100 cemented to a horseshoe magnet 102. Steel wire 100 is cemented to magnet 102. The wire is bent so that the poles formed therein are separated from one another and extend away from magnet 102. Developer material is then held between the poles of steel wire 100 in the vicinity of opening 104.

Referring now to FIG. 8, there is shown air needle 94 in greater detail. As depicted thereat, a pyrex glass tube 106 is drawn to form a fine nozzle for the air jet. Cement 107 secures tube 106 to the interior of stainless steel tube 108. A fine, high velocity air stream is then directed at the developer material supported on support 96. Toner particles are completely stripped from the carrier granules of the developer material where the air directly impinges thereon. Air is supplied to air needle 94 at a pressure ranging from 15 to 20 psi and a flow of about 5 cubic centimeters per second for a 100 micron opening in tube 106.

Turning now to FIG. 9, after the toner particles have been collected on filter 63, it is mounted on a computer driven image analyzer 109. Preferably, image analyzer 109 is an Omnicon manufactured by Bausch and Lomb. Image analyzer 109 includes a microscrope 110 having a stage for supporting filter 63 thereon and computer 112. Activation of computer 112 starts an interactive program which controls microscrope 110 and produces an histogram of particle charge distribution. Preferably, computer 112 is a Nova-2 computer. Filter 63 has a pair of zero spots which are made by sampling toner with power supply 75 set at zero volts. These are used as references for the image analysis. The trace is then scanned in a square wave pattern. Data for the total sample is initially printed. This data includes the size distribution of the entire sample independent of charge. A computed triboelectric characteristic of the entire sample and the average charge are also printed. The charge/diameter for each particle is known, in as much as displacement is known, the diameter of each particle is measured and the charge thereof may be readily determined. Thus, the charge distribution for each size particle is printed. A typical histogram is shown in FIG. 10.

Referring now to FIG. 10, the computer terminal produces a histogram of count versus charge divided by diameter rather than charge alone as printed for each size particle. Since each size corresponds to a narrow range in sizes, the histograms can be directly scaled to charge.

The basic program for controlling computer 112 is listed in the Appendix.

In recapitulation, it is clear that a system for measuring the charge distribution of toner particles represents a significant tool for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory developer material. With the utilization of this tool, developer material may be inspected on a continuous or sampling basis to insure that the material utilized in the electrophotographic printing machine has the requisite charge properties. The apparatus of the present invention produces a printout which provides a measurement of the charge distribution of the toner particles.

It is, therefore, evident that there has been provided, in accordance with the present invention, an apparatus for measuring toner particle charge which fully satisfies the aims and advantages herein before set forth. While this invention has been described in conjunction with a specific embodiment thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims. ##SPC1##