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Volume: 24 | Article ID: art00054_1
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Pre-installation Assessment of Doctor Blade Quality in Electrophotographic Printers
Ahmed H. Eid
Edward E. Rippetoe
Brian E. Cooper
  DOI :  10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2008.24.1.art00054_1  Published Online :  January 2008
Abstract

The doctor blade is a steel blade installed in electrophotographic (EP) printers as one of the ways to control the toner flow. It meters the amount of toner on the developer roller surface to develop a uniformly distributed toner layer on the photoconductor (PC) drum surface. The blade straightness can affect the overall uniformity of the printed page. In this paper, we propose an approach for quantifying the blade straightness to help assess the quality of the doctor blade before its installation into the printer. A polynomial fitting approach is applied to the straightness data measured directly from the blade. The probability mass function of the polynomial slopes is derived. The probability of the straightness variation provides a measure of the blade's quality. The same approach is applied to scans from printed samples showing artifacts caused by the same blade. A pass/fail criterion is used for both measures to determine their consistency in assessing the quality of the blade. Our experimental results show that both measures agree, for 20 of the 24 blades tested. This high level of consistency verifies the validity of assessing the blade quality from direct measurements on the blade using the proposed approach.

Journal Title : NIP & Digital Fabrication Conference
Publisher Name : Society of Imaging Science and Technology
Publisher Location : 7003 Kilworth Lane, Springfield, VA 22151, USA
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 DOI 10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2008.24.1.art00054_1
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Ahmed H. Eid, Edward E. Rippetoe, Brian E. Cooper, "Pre-installation Assessment of Doctor Blade Quality in Electrophotographic Printers"  in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP24),  2008,  pp 202 - 205,  https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2008.24.1.art00054_1

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Copyright © Society for Imaging Science and Technology 2008
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NIP & Digital Fabrication Conference
nip digi fabric conf
2169-4451
Society of Imaging Science and Technology
7003 Kilworth Lane, Springfield, VA 22151, USA
2169-4451(20080101)2008:1L.202;1-
nip_v2008n1/splitsection54.xml
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Articles
Pre-installation Assessment of Doctor Blade Quality in Electrophotographic Printers
EidAhmed H.
RippetoeEdward E.
CooperBrian E.
01012008
2008
1
202
205
2008
The doctor blade is a steel blade installed in electrophotographic (EP) printers as one of the ways to control the toner flow. It meters the amount of toner on the developer roller surface to develop a uniformly distributed toner layer on the photoconductor (PC) drum surface. The blade straightness can affect the overall uniformity of the printed page. In this paper, we propose an approach for quantifying the blade straightness to help assess the quality of the doctor blade before its installation into the printer. A polynomial fitting approach is applied to the straightness data measured directly from the blade. The probability mass function of the polynomial slopes is derived. The probability of the straightness variation provides a measure of the blade's quality. The same approach is applied to scans from printed samples showing artifacts caused by the same blade. A pass/fail criterion is used for both measures to determine their consistency in assessing the quality of the blade. Our experimental results show that both measures agree, for 20 of the 24 blades tested. This high level of consistency verifies the validity of assessing the blade quality from direct measurements on the blade using the proposed approach.