Contact Type Monocomponent Development Process Using Flexible Sleeve

Abstract

High print quality, better than popular electrographic page printer, is commonly expected from today's DTP (Desk Top Publishing) systems, in addition to compactness and easy maintenance.
To meet these requirements, we have developed the FMT (Fine Micro Toning) Development Process, which is highly improved compared the ordinary monocomponent process. The special feature of this process is that a conductive flexible developer sleeve is used for the soft contact between the photoconductor and the sleeve surface at the developing region.
Consequently, high-quality printouts without edge effects, almost equivalent to the commercial printing quality, can be obtained by this process. This process was adopted for the imaging cartridge of Minolta's compact type page printer SP3000 and SP 3500.