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Mitsubishi Kagaku Imaging Issued New Reman OPC Drums Toner Patent
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering — Mitsubishi Kagaku Imaging Corporation (Glendale, CA) has been issued patent number 9025996, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews editors.The patent's inventor is Taguchi, Susumu (Odawara, JP).This patent was filed on July 25, 2013 and was published online on May 5, 2015.
"The invention relates to methods and devices for remanufacturing printer cartridge components, and in particular, to methods and devices for remanufacturing laser printer cartridge components by remanufacturing used organic photoconductor (OPC) flange portions of assembled OPC drums flanges and attaching or assembling such used OPC flange portions to replacement OPC drum cylinder portions.
"b. Background Art
"Printer cartridges, such as toner cartridges, are used in various electrophotographic imaging devices, such as laser printers, copiers, facsimile machines, and multifunction imaging devices. Once original equipment manufacturer (OEM) printer cartridges are used, they are often recycled and remanufactured. The process of remanufacturing a printer cartridge may include cleaning the cartridge, repairing damaged parts, replacing worn parts, reassembling with new parts, and replenishing the cartridge with toner. The process of remanufacturing a printer cartridge requires that the printer cartridge be disassembled so that access to the various parts can be achieved, and further requires that the printer cartridge be reassembled for subsequent use.
"Printer cartridges typically include organic photoconductive (OPC) drums that may be designed to be electrically charged to be able to attract toner. An assembled OPC drum typically comprises a cylinder portion and a flange or gear portion, where the flange portion may be inserted into one end of the cylinder portion and may be attached to that end of the cylinder portion with an adhesive or glue and/or a known attachment or assembly process. One known attachment or assembly process may include a crimping process that involves crimping or pinching of the end of the cylinder portion once the flange portion is inserted in order to keep the flange portion in place. The OPC drum cylinder portion may wear out from usage at a faster rate than the flange portion and may need to be replaced during remanufacturing, while the flange portion may be reused. However, the flange portion may be attached to the OPC drum cylinder portion in a manner that makes the flange portion difficult to remove from the OPC drum cylinder portion, and when removal of the flange portion from the OPC drum cylinder portion is attempted, such removal may cause damage to the flange portion, so that the flange portion could not be reused. For example, such known assembled OPC drums with attached flange portions for color laser printer applications may include a flange lock on the flange portion that helps to lock the flange portion in place and/or to lock the flange portion to the OPC drum cylinder portion. Further, such flange portion may also include a grounding plate with contact portions attached to the flange portion.
"During remanufacturing of such known OPC flange portions attached to known OPC drum cylinder portions, known hand tools, such as screwdrivers, pliers, spring hooks, and scraping tools, may be typically used to pry off and separate the flange portion from the OPC drum cylinder portion and/or may be used to push out and remove the flange portion from the OPC drum cylinder portion in order to remove the flange portion from the OPC drum cylinder portion. However, if not used carefully and properly, such known hand tools may damage the flange portion, for example, may damage the plastic walls of the flange portion, or may damage the grounding plate or contact portions of the grounding plate, or other portions of the flange portion. In particular, damage to the plastic walls of the flange portion or damage to the grounding plate or contact portions of the grounding plate may affect or prevent reuse and remanufacturing of the used flange portion with a replacement OPC drum cylinder portion.
"It is thus desirable to be able to remove and replace the used flange portion on a used flanged OPC drum without damage to the used flange portion, including, for example, the plastic walls of the flange portion, the grounding plate of the flange portion, and the contact portions of the grounding plate. This helps preserve the appearance of the used flange portion and the ability to reuse and reassemble the used flange portion, and minimizes remanufacturing steps. Devices and methods for efficiently and quickly removing a used OPC flange portion from a used OPC drum cylinder portion, and reusing the used OPC flange portion with a replacement or new OPC drum cylinder portion are desired.
"Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and device for remanufacturing printer cartridge components, including reusing used OPC flange portions of assembled OPC drums and attaching or assembling such used OPC flange portions to replacement OPC drum cylinder portions, that overcomes the issues associated with known devices and methods."
Supplementing the background information on this patent, VerticalNews reporters also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "This need for an improved method and device for remanufacturing printer cartridge components, including reusing used OPC flange portions of assembled OPC drums and attaching or assembling such used OPC flange portions to replacement OPC drum cylinder portions, is satisfied.
"There is provided in one embodiment a method for remanufacturing a printer cartridge component. The method comprises providing a printer cartridge component comprising an assembled organic photoconductor (OPC) drum having a flange portion and a cylinder portion. The flange portion has a cylinder engagement end attached and inserted in a locked position with a flange lock in a first end of the cylinder portion. The method further comprises unlocking the flange lock so that the flange portion is in an unlocked position in the first end of the cylinder portion. The method further comprises securing the unlocked flange portion. The method further comprises removing the cylinder portion from the secured unlocked flange portion to obtain a removed cylinder portion and a removed flange portion. The method further comprises assembling the removed flange portion with a replacement OPC drum cylinder portion to obtain a remanufactured printer cartridge component.
"There is provided in another embodiment a method for removing a flange portion of an assembled organic photoconductive (OPC) drum. The method comprises providing an assembled organic photoconductor (OPC) drum having a flange portion and a cylinder portion. The flange portion has a cylinder engagement end attached and inserted in a locked position with a flange lock in a first end of the cylinder portion. The flange portion further comprises a flange projection end. The flange lock has a first flange lock portion and a second flange lock portion. The method further comprises providing a flange lock unlocking device. The flange lock unlocking device comprises an unlocking portion having a flange projection engagement end with a first claw portion and a second claw portion. The flange lock unlocking device further has a flange portion retaining element and a base portion attached to the unlocking portion. The method further comprises coupling the flange projection end of the flange portion to the flange projection engagement end of the flange lock unlocking device. The method further comprises inserting a first tip of the first claw portion into the first flange lock portion and inserting a second tip of the second claw portion into the second flange lock portion. The method further comprises unlocking the flange lock with the first claw portion and the second claw portion, so that the flange portion is in an unlocked position in the first end of the cylinder portion. The method further comprises securing the unlocked flange portion to the flange portion retaining element. The method further comprises removing the cylinder portion from the secured unlocked flange portion to obtain a removed cylinder portion and a removed flange portion.
"There is provided in another embodiment an organic photoconductor (OPC) drum flange removal assembly for removing a flange portion from a cylinder portion of an assembled organic photoconductive (OPC) drum. The OPC drum flange removal assembly comprises a flange lock unlocking device. The flange lock unlocking device comprises an unlocking portion and a base portion attached to the unlocking portion. The unlocking portion comprises a flange projection engagement end adapted to receive a flange portion of an assembled OPC drum. The unlocking portion further comprises a first claw portion and a second claw portion both adapted to unlock a flange lock that locks a flange portion to a cylinder portion of the assembled OPC drum in order to obtain an unlocked flange portion. The unlocking portion comprises a flange portion retaining element having a first C-shaped hand element and a second C-shaped hand element adapted to grasp and secure the unlocked flange portion. The flange lock unlocking device further comprises a power source coupled to the flange lock unlocking device. The flange lock unlocking device unlocks the flange lock, so that the flange portion is in an unlocked position. The flange portion retaining element secures the unlocked flange portion, so that a cylinder portion can be removed from the secured unlocked flange portion to obtain a removed cylinder portion and a removed flange portion.
"The above description sets forth, rather broadly, a summary of the disclosed embodiments so that the detailed description that follows may be better understood and contributions of the invention to the art may be better appreciated. Some of the disclosed embodiments may not include all of the features or characteristics listed in the above summary. There may be, of course, other features of the disclosed embodiments that will be described below and may form the subject matter of claims. The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed can be achieved independently in various embodiments of the disclosure or may be combined in yet other embodiments further details of which can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings."
For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Taguchi, Susumu. Methods and Devices for Remanufacturing Printer Cartridge Components. U.S. Patent Number 9025996, filed July 25, 2013, and published online on May 5, 2015. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9025996.PN.&OS=PN/9025996RS=PN/9025996
Keywords for this news article include: Mitsubishi Kagaku Imaging Corporation.
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