Cleaning a silicon photoconductor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10025256-B2
Application number	US-201415511711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2014
Priority date	Sep 18, 2014
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

In an example implementation, a method of cleaning a silicon photoconductor includes contacting the silicon photoconductor with a base-peroxide solution, rinsing the silicon photoconductor with a liquid, and heating the silicon photoconductor to evaporate the liquid.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of cleaning a silicon photoconductor comprising:
contacting the silicon photoconductor with a base-peroxide solution, wherein the contacting includes transferring the silicon photoconductor from an electrophotographic printing device to a cleaning station;
rinsing the silicon photoconductor with a liquid; and
heating the silicon photoconductor to evaporate the liquid, wherein the heating includes transferring the silicon photoconductor back from the cleaning station to the electrophotographic printing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base-peroxide solution comprises ammonia and hydrogen peroxide in a carrier liquid.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base-peroxide solution is at a temperature of at least 70° C. during the contacting with the silicon photoconductor.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising wiping liquid off of the silicon photoconductor before heating the silicon photoconductor, wherein the liquid used in rinsing the silicon photoconductor comprises water.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein heating the silicon photoconductor comprises heat cycling the silicon photoconductor in the electrophotographic printing device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein heating the silicon photoconductor comprises engaging the silicon photoconductor with a heated print blanket to bring the silicon photoconductor to an operating temperature of the print blanket.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein heating the silicon photoconductor comprises heat cycling the silicon photoconductor up to an evaporation temperature within the range of 90° C. to 250° C.

8. A system for cleaning a silicon photoconductor comprising:
an electrophotographic printing device;
a silicon photoconductor removable from the printing device;
a cleaning station comprising a base-peroxide solution and a rinsing solution, the cleaning station to receive the photoconductor, contact the photoconductor with the base-oxide solution, and rinse the photoconductor with the rinsing solution; and
a photoconductor heating mechanism to heat the photoconductor to evaporate rinsing solution from the photoconductor; wherein the photoconductor heating mechanism comprises a heated printing blanket on the printing device brought into contact with the photoconductor.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the removable silicon photoconductor comprises an amorphous silicon photoconductor.

10. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a heat cycling module to control the contact of the printing blanket against the photoconductor.

11. The system of claim 8 , adapted to automatically transfer the silicon photoconductor from the printing device to the cleaning station, clean the silicon photoconductor by contacting the silicon photoconductor with the base-peroxide solution and rinsing it with the rinsing solution, and transfer the silicon photoconductor from the cleaning station back to the printing device.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a printing device, cause the printing device to:
receive a silicon photoconductor that is cleaned and rinsed by a cleaning station using a base-peroxide solution and rinsing solution, respectively;
in response to receiving the silicon photoconductor, performing heat cycling to evaporate remaining rinsing solution from the silicon photoconductor.

13. The medium of claim 12 , wherein performing heat cycling comprises:
heating a print blanket with a heating mechanism;
engaging the heated print blanket with the silicon photoconductor in a first heat cycle by rotating the heated print blanket and silicon photoconductor together on drums;
disengaging the heated print blanket from the silicon photoconductor; and
reengaging the heated print blanket with the silicon photoconductor in a second heat cycle.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Indigo Bv
• Hp Indigo Bv

Inventors

• Diamant Reut
• Moalem Sasi
• Tagansky Boaz

Classifications

• G03G21/007

  Arrangement or disposition of parts of the cleaning unit · CPC title

• G03G21/0005

  for removing solid developer or debris from the electrographic recording medium · CPC title

• G03G21/0088

  removing liquid developer · CPC title

• G03G5/005 Primary

  Materials for treating the recording members, e.g. for cleaning, reactivating, polishing · CPC title

• G03G21/0094 Primary

  fatigue treatment of the photoconductor · CPC title