Method and composition for recoating toner cartridge developing member
View Patent ↗Methods of recoating a developing member such as the doctor blade, developing member bar or a developing sleeve, of an electro-photographic image forming apparatus, such as a laser printer toner cartridge, methods of re-using the original components by re-coating them, to cut the cost of using new aftermarket parts and to reduce waste, which methods include close quality control and “tailoring” of formulations to a specific developing system, thus achieving better print quality in terms of density, page yield, and uniformity for the repaired or remanufactured toner cartridge.
1. A method for recoating a spent laser printer toner cartridge doctor bar comprising:
providing a spent laser printer toner cartridge doctor bar having some original conductive coating, bumps and/or notches on its surface;
removing substantially all bumps and notches from the surface;
stripping from the surface substantially all of the conductive coating remaining on the surface;
sand blasting the surface;
removing from the surface sandblasting residue, grease and oils by applying an organic solvent to the surface;
spray coating the surface with a coating consisting of a mixture of graphite powder and a clear epoxy powder, the mixture having a ratio of 100 parts by weight of graphite powder to 60 parts by weight of clear epoxy powder, to form a re-coated doctor bar; and,
curing the re-coated doctor bar by placing it in an oven kept at a temperature in the range of 375-420° F. and keeping the doctor bar in the oven for about 15-25 minutes.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sand blasting includes blasting with aluminum grit 220 .
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sand blasting is accomplished with a sand blasting gun operated at a pressure in the range of 30-60 psi.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the organic solvent is selected from the group consisting essentially of acetone, MEK, iso-propyl-alcohol, xylene, other alcohols, and highly volatile glycols.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein spray coating is accomplished by a powder spraying gun.
6. A composition consisting of: a mixture of a graphite powder and a clear epoxy powder, the mixture having a ratio of 100 parts by weight of graphite powder to 60 parts by weight of clear epoxy powder.
7. The composition of claim 6 wherein the composition is for re-coating a laser printer toner cartridge doctor bar.
8. The composition of claim 6 wherein the composition is applied to a laser printer toner cartridge doctor bar.
9. The composition of claim 6 wherein the composition is configured to coat a laser printer toner cartridge doctor bar.