US5204699A — Apparatus for estimating toner usage

Claim 1

Independent Claim 86 words

An apparatus for estimating the mass of toner developed on an electrostatic latent image, comprising: converting means for generating a toner mass signal approximating a toner mass developed by a latent output pixel of the latent image as a function of a greyscale image intensity signal used to control the formation of the latent output pixel; and summing means, responsive to the toner mass signal, for determining a sum of the approximated toner mass for a plurality of output pixels and thereby producing a sum signal.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 86 words

An apparatus for estimating the mass of toner developed on an electrostatic latent image, comprising: converting means for generating a toner mass signal approximating a toner mass developed by a latent output pixel of the latent image as a function of a greyscale image intensity signal used to control the formation of the latent output pixel; and summing means, responsive to the toner mass signal, for determining a sum of the approximated toner mass for a plurality of output pixels and thereby producing a sum signal.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 31 words

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the converting means comprises a look-up table having a mapping function to generate the toner mass signal in response to the greyscale image intensity signal.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 14 words

The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the look-up table comprises a programmable read-only memory.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 33 words

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the converting means comprises an arithmetic logic unit, having a mapping function therein, to generate the toner mass signal in response to the greyscale image intensity signal.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 18 words

The apparatus of claim 1 further including reset means for resetting the summing means to a predefined level.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 83 words

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the summing means comprises: a two input adder having a first input for receiving the approximated toner mass signal output from the converting means; and an output latch, responsive to an output pixel clock signal, for storing an output signal of the adder and providing the stored output signal as an input signal to a second input of the adder, and where the signal stored in the latch is representative of the sum of the toner mass.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 76 words

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the toner mass signal is a digital signal and wherein the summing means comprises: a digital-to-analog converter for transforming the digital toner mass signal to an analog toner mass signal; an accumulator for accumulating the toner mass signal, the output of said accumulator being a function of the number of output pixels processed by the converter and the magnitude of the analog toner mass signals associated with the output pixels.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 32 words

The apparatus of claim 1, further including averaging means for dividing the sum of the approximated toner mass by the number of output pixels to determine an average toner mass per pixel.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 114 words

An electrostatic printing machine of the type having an insulating member, comprising: means for supplying a plurality of image intensity signals; means, responsive to the image intensity signals, for recording an electrostatic latent image on the insulating member, with the electrostatic latent image having a plurality of output pixel spots, whereby the charge level of each output pixel spot is controlled in response to the associated image intensity signal; developing means for developing the electrostatic latent image recorded on the insulating member with toner to produce a developed image on the insulating member; and means for estimating the mass of toner adhering to the insulating member as a function of the image intensity signals.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 114 words

An electrostatic printing machine of the type having an insulating member, comprising: means for supplying a plurality of image intensity signals; means, responsive to the image intensity signals, for recording an electrostatic latent image on the insulating member, with the electrostatic latent image having a plurality of output pixel spots, whereby the charge level of each output pixel spot is controlled in response to the associated image intensity signal; developing means for developing the electrostatic latent image recorded on the insulating member with toner to produce a developed image on the insulating member; and means for estimating the mass of toner adhering to the insulating member as a function of the image intensity signals.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 37 words

The electrostatic printing machine of claim 9 wherein the electrostatic latent image recording means comprises a device selected from the group consisting of a laser raster output scanner, an ionographic print head, and a light-emitting diode array.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 30 words

The electrostatic printing machine of claim 9 further including means, responsive to the toner mass estimating means, for varying the magnitude of a decurling treatment applied to an output medium.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 28 words

The electrostatic printing machine of claim 9 wherein the developing means further includes means, responsive to the toner mass estimating means, for replenishing toner in the developing means.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 75 words

The electrostatic printing machine of claim 12 further including means, responsive to the toner mass estimating means, for monitoring the total mass of toner used during the development of a plurality of electrostatic latent images, said monitoring means being capable or recognizing an imminent exhaustion of a toner supply used for replenishing the toner in the development mixture whenever the total toner mass exceeds a threshold level and automatically signaling a request for additional toner.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 77 words

The electrostatic printing machine of claim 9, wherein the toner mass estimating means comprises: converting means for generating toner mass signals representing the approximate toner mass necessary for the development of the output spots as a function of image intensity signals associated therewith; and means, responsive to the toner mass signals generated by the converting means, for summing the toner mass signals and producing a sum signal representing the total approximated toner mass for the output spots.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 31 words

The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the converting means comprises a look-up table, having a mapping function therein, to generate the toner mass signals in response to the image intensity signals.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 14 words

The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the look-up table comprises a programmable read-only memory.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 18 words

The apparatus of claim 15 further including reset means for resetting the summing means to a predefined level.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 83 words

The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the summing means comprises: a two input adder having a first input for receiving the approximated toner mass signals output from the converting means; and an output latch, responsive to a pixel clock signal, for storing an output signal of the adder and providing the output signal stored therein as an input signal to a second input of the adder, and where the signal stored in the latch is representative of the sum of the toner mass.

Claim 21

Independent Claim 80 words

A method of estimating the mass of toner developed on an electrostatic latent image, comprising: generating a toner mass signal approximating a toner mass developed by a latent output pixel of the latent image as a function of a greyscale image intensity signal used to control the formation of the latent output pixel; and determining, in response to the toner mass signal, a sum of the approximated toner mass for a plurality of output pixels to produce a sum signal.

Claim 22

Independent Claim 80 words

A method of estimating the mass of toner developed on an electrostatic latent image, comprising: generating a toner mass signal approximating a toner mass developed by a latent output pixel of the latent image as a function of a greyscale image intensity signal used to control the formation of the latent output pixel; and determining, in response to the toner mass signal, a sum of the approximated toner mass for a plurality of output pixels to produce a sum signal.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 66 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the step of generating a toner mass signal includes the steps of: receiving a greyscale image intensity signal; using the greyscale image intensity signal as an index value, accessing a look-up table, at a location determined by the index value, to obtain a toner mass value stored therein; and outputting the stored toner mass value as the toner mass signal.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 85 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the step of determining a sum of the approximated toner mass for a plurality of output pixels includes the steps of: latching the toner mass signal corresponding to a current latent output pixel; adding the latched toner mass signal to a sum of a plurality of previous toner mass signals to produce a current sum; latching, in response to a pixel clock signal, the current sum of the latent output pixel toner mass signals to produce a sum signal.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1996-04-19	1996-10-19	1997-04-20	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2000-04-19	2000-10-19	2001-04-20	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2004-04-19	2004-10-19	2005-04-20	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Apparatus for estimating toner usage

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