DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, applying a development bias
- in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is a second humidity lower than a first humidity
- in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is the first humidity
- so that the duty ratio in the second period is larger than the duty ratio in the first period must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s).
No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: in the 11th line, the word latent is misspelled. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim(s) 1 and 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 9,250,563 to Funayama in view of JP 2001166573 to Hamakawa et al.
Regarding claim 1, Funayama teaches an image forming apparatus (1, Fig.1) comprising:
an image bearing member (11);
a charging portion (12) configured to charge the image bearing member to a predetermined charging potential (VH, Fi.4);
a latent image forming portion (10) configured to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member charged to the predetermined charging potential by the charging portion;
a developer bearing member (14a) configured to bear and feed a developer including toner (T) and an external additive (A) having the same (negative) polarity as a charging polarity of the toner in a developing area where the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member by the latent image forming portion is developed (Fig.3B); and
a developing bias application portion (114a. Fig.2) configured to apply a developing bias in which a DC voltage (VD, Fig.4) is superposed with an AC voltage (VA, Fig.4) to the developer bearing member,
wherein in a case where in a continuous image forming job in which the image is formed on a plurality of recording materials including a first recording material and a second recording material subsequent to the first recording material,
a period from when a leading end of a first electrostatic latent image for the first recording material passes through the developing area until a trailing end of the first electrostatic latent image passes through the developing area is defined as a first period (region S1), and a period from when the trailing end of the first electrostatic latent image passes through the developing area until a leading end of a second electrostatic latent image for the second recording material passes through the developing area, and the latent image forming portion does not form the electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member is defined as a second period (region S2),
a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage in the second period (VA1) is larger than a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage in the first period (VA0) (Fig.6); and
wherein a polarity of the DC voltage in the first period and a polarity of the DC voltage in the second period are the same polarity of the charging polarity of the toner (e.g., VD0=-500V).
Funayama appears silent about changing an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the first and second periods.
Hamakawa teaches an image forming apparatus (1,Fig.1) comprising: an image bearing member (1); a charging portion (2) configured to charge the image bearing member to a predetermined charging potential; a latent image forming portion (14) configured to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member charged to the predetermined charging potential by the charging portion; a developer bearing member (3) configured to bear and feed a developer in a developing area where the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member by the latent image forming portion is developed; and a developing bias application portion (5) configured to apply a developing bias in which a DC voltage is superposed with an AC voltage to the developer bearing member,
wherein in a case where in a continuous image forming job in which the image is formed on a plurality of recording materials including a first recording material and a second recording material subsequent to the first recording material, a period from when a leading end of a first electrostatic latent image for the first recording material passes through the developing area until a trailing end of the first electrostatic latent image passes through the developing area is defined as a first period (e.g., T1 to T2), and a period from when the trailing end of the first electrostatic latent image passes through the developing area until a leading end of a second electrostatic latent image for the second recording material passes through the developing area, and the latent image forming portion does not form the electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member is defined as a second period (e.g., T2 to T3), the developing bias application portion applies the developing bias to the developer bearing member so that an absolute value of a difference (V2-V1) between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the second period is larger than an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the first period (V2-V5), wherein a polarity of the DC voltage is the same polarity of the charging polarity of the toner and V5<V1 (Fig.5).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the image forming apparatus of Funayama such that
(claim 1) the developing bias application portion applies the developing bias to the developer bearing member so that an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the second period is larger than an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the first period,
(claim 2) wherein a polarity of the DC voltage in the first period and a polarity of the DC voltage in the second period are the same polarity of the charging polarity of the toner, and wherein the absolute value of the DC voltage in the second period is smaller than the absolute value of the DC voltage in the first period
for at least the purpose of preventing image density defects.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 9,250,563 to Funayama in view of JP 2001166573 to Hamakawa et al., as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP 4265899 and US 5,170,210 to Saruwatari.
Regarding claim 4, Funayama in view of Hamakawa renders obvious an image forming apparatus according to Claim 1, but appear silent about a humidity sensor and related control thereof.
JP 4265899 teaches an electrophotographic apparatus characterized in that the background potential is controlled by a developing bias control means to remove aggregates of additives contained in the toner adhering to the image carrier; the background potential is increased when a surplus rate is high, and decreased when the surplus rate is low. Saruwatari discloses an image forming apparatus comprising a humidity detector 38 and teaches that a charging amount of toner increases and humidity decreases (Fig.3E). Due to the higher charging amount, one skilled in the art would understand that a surplus rate would be higher in a low humidity environment.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 such that it further comprises
a humidity sensor configured to detect a humidity, wherein the developing bias application portion applies the developing bias to the developer bearing member so that an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the second period and in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is a second humidity lower than a first humidity is larger than an absolute value of a difference between the predetermined charging potential and the DC voltage in the second period and in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is the first humidity, and
so that the peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage in the second period and in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is the second humidity is larger than the peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage in the second period and in a case where the humidity detected by the humidity sensor is the first humidity
for at least the purpose of accounting for an environment influence on image density.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 9,250,563 to Funayama in view of JP 2001166573 to Hamakawa et al., as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 6163663 to Shinohara et al.
Regarding claim 4, Funayama in view of Hamakawa renders obvious an image forming apparatus according to Claim 1, but appear silent about the claimed duty ratio.
Shinohara discloses an image forming apparatus wherein the developer is externally added with additive having a charging polarity opposite from that of the developer and including voltage a control device for controlling the developing voltage so as to change force for directing the additive toward a non-image portion of the image bearing member. Shinohara further discloses that the ratio at which the positive external additive jumps can be controlled by controlling the jumping side area size by controlling either the magnitude of the contrast V or the length of the period T2, or by controlling both (Fig.4, col. 9 lines 14-51). Cleaning of positive external additive was shown to improve with lower jump side area size (Tables 1 & 2).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 such that
in a case where a time when, of AC voltage, a voltage having the same polarity as the charging polarity of the toner to the DC voltage is applied is defined as a first application time, a time when, of AC voltage, a voltage having a polarity opposite to the charging polarity of the toner to the DC voltage is applied is defined as a second application time, and a ratio occupied by the first application time of one period which is a sum of the first application time and the second application time is defined as a duty ratio, the developing bias application portion applies the developing bias to the developer bearing member so that the duty ratio in the second period is larger than the duty ratio in the first period
for at least the purpose of improving control of an amount of external additive of the photosensitive member.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARLENE HEREDIA whose telephone number is (571)272-8393. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30-5:30.
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/Arlene Heredia Ocasio/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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