Ultrasonic assist for blade cleaning

摘要

A printing machine and apparatus are disclosed that include an ultrasonically assisted cleaning blade to remove toner particles from an imaging surface. An ultrasonic transducer is attached to the cleaning blade to provide vibrational energy to the cleaning blade. The ultrasonic transducer concentrates vibrational energy at the blade tip for enhanced cleaning. A further element of the present invention is the addition of bias to create a strong electrostatic repulsion between the toner particles and the blade tip causing the toner to explode away from the cleaning edge, and to therefore enhance cleaning.