...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7873313 | Image forming apparatus, image forming control method, and recording medium recording image forming control program An image forming apparatus that includes an image forming component, a flash fixing component and a control component is provided. The image forming component forms toner images using at least two toners respectively having different colors and transfers the formed ... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7720421 | Apparatus and method for printing a scratch-off document An apparatus that includes a first print engine positioned to print front side information on a base material. The first print engine further includes a multi-color print head having a pile height leveling ink delivery system. A fuser is positioned to affix the fron... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7437086 | Image forming apparatus with change unit for changing temperature of fixing unit at time of actuating image forming unit An image forming apparatus capable of performing an image forming operation together with temperature rise by heating of a fixing apparatus to ensure a good fixability and a shortest first print out time and to prevent loss of power consumption without burdening a c... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7359664 | Fixing device for an image forming apparatus including supporting members for fixing belts of the fixing device A fixing device for fixing a toner image on a recording medium includes first and second belts rotatably disposed opposite to each other such that the recording medium having the toner image thereon moves therebetween, a fixing roller disposed in contact with an inn... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7274903 | Integrated fuser unit and drive system for use in an electrophotographic imaging process An integrated fuser unit has a drive system with a motor and a drive train mounted in the fuser unit frame. A swing arm assembly engages and disengages the hot roll from the drive train. ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7266319 | Heater, and image forming apparatus, heating method incorporating same A fixer (heater) includes a heat roller and a pressure roller pressing each other. The fixer heats a heated material by passing the heated material through a press region where the heat roller and the pressure roller meet. The fixer further includes an external heat... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7232632 | Color toners and image forming method using the color toners A method for forming a full color image including: forming at least yellow, magenta and cyan color toner images on a receiving material to form a full color image thereon; and fixing the full color image upon application of heat thereto while not contacting the full... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7196287 | Unit assembly structure and fuser of image formation apparatus A fuser includes a fusing roll unit having a fusing roll, a pressurizing roll unit having a pressurizing roll and a coil spring resiliently biasing the pressurizing roll. The units are secured by a pair of engagements. One engagement includes a hook provided at the ... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7186462 | T-type amino functional release agent for fuser members A fuser member component to fuse the transferred developed image to the copy substrate, wherein the fuser member includes a substrate, an outer polymeric layer, and a release agent material coating on the outer polymeric layer, and the release agent material coating... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7113717 | Closed loop control of nip pressure in a fuser system A fuser system of a xerographic device, including a fuser member and a pressure member in which the pressure member is made to exert pressure upon the fuser member so as to form a nip having a nip width between the fuser member and the pressure member, wherein the n... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7110711 | Thermal fixing device and image forming apparatus At a conveyance direction downstream side of a contact portion between a heat roller and a downstream side pressure roller and at a conveyance direction upstream side of a contact portion (conveyance position) between a conveyance roller and an upstream side pinch r... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7043167 | Image formation device and image formation method that selectively adapts a process of fixing an image on a medium The process of the invention determines whether toners of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) are all included in toner filled in a toner cartridge 40, based on color information of the toner read from a storage element 50 of the toner cartridge 4... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7024148 | Fixing device, fixing method and image forming apparatus Provided is a fixing device and a fixing method, and an image forming apparatus using the fixing device, in which at least heat is applied to an unfixed toner image formed on a recording material to soften or melt toner of the unfixed toner image into a state of bei... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7014899 | Roller for use in a fusing station A fusing-station member, which member can be a compliant fuser roller or a compliant pressure roller, for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, and which member includes a base cushion layer formed on a core member, with the base cushion layer c... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6954607 | Fusing apparatus and method for liquid toner electrophotography using multiple stations having different prefusing and fusing temperatures A fusing apparatus for fixing images made from a liquid toner onto a substrate using an electrophotographic process, the apparatus including a prefusing roller, a backup roller positioned to create a first nip area between the prefusing roller and the backup roller,... | 10/11/2005 |
| 6853813 | Image forming method featuring a step of thermally-fixing performed after steps of separately-applying toner and ink to a recording medium and related apparatus An image formation apparatus and method forms an image on a recording medium and includes a toner applying step for applying fusible powder toner to a recording medium to form a toner image, a semi-fixing step for semi-fixing the toner image, an ink applying step fo... | 02/08/2005 |
| 6721524 | Image forming device to fix color images from a plurality of developing agents An image forming device includes an image forming unit and a thermal fixing unit. The image forming unit uses a plurality of different color developing agents to form a color image on a recording medium. The plurality of different color developing agents are configu... | 04/13/2004 |
| 6641965 | COLOR TONER FOR ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY, AND A COMBINED SET OF COLOR TONERS FOR ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY USING THE SAME, COLOR DEVELOPING AGENT FOR ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY USING THE SAME, METHOD FOR FORMING COLOR IMAGES USING THE SAME, AND DEVICE FOR FORMING COLOR IMAGES USING THE SAME A color toner for electrophotography, preferably used as a flash fixing toner which can be processed at a high speed, and exhibit excellent fixing property, high image resolution (image reproducibility) when fixed, and color reproducibility by color overl... | 11/04/2003 |
| 6342327 | Developing agent having a sepiomelanine pigment A sepiomelanine pigment is employed as a coloring agent in a developing agent for forming sepia color, black color and full color images without employing carbon black.... | 01/29/2002 |
| 6300024 | Toner, two-component type developer, heat fixing method, image forming method and apparatus unit A toner is principally constituted by a binder resin, a colorant and a wax. The toner has a maximum heat-absorption peak of 60-135° C. as measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The toner further has a viscoelastic characteristic measured at... | 10/09/2001 |
| 6292647 | Heating mechanism for use in image forming apparatus A fixing device includes a first rotation member formed hollow cylindrical and rotatable in a predetermined direction, a second rotation member brought into contact with the first rotation member at a predetermined pressure, so as to be rotated as the fir... | 09/18/2001 |
| 6219519 | Reduced hot offset in color electrophotographic imaging Hot offset of black toner is reduced or eliminated in a color electrophotographic imaging device, such as a laser printer, by applying a minimal layer of non-black toner in addition to the black toner on a print media. The non-black toner, such as cyan, m... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6212354 | Reduced hot offset in color electrophotographic imaging Hot offset of black toner is reduced or eliminated in a color electrophotographic imaging device, such as a laser printer, by applying a minimal layer of non-black toner in addition to the black toner on a print media. The non-black toner, such as cyan, m... | 04/03/2001 |
| 5893019 | Fusing device with rollers having different speeds, and image forming apparatus using same In a fusing device having first to third rollers, the first and second rollers are forcibly driven so that a peripheral speed of the third roller is higher than of the first roller. Further, a movable guide is set so as to change the number of nip portion... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5805969 | Electrostatographic printer for imparting a modified finish to a toner image An electrostatographic printer is provided in which a web of receiving material (12) is fed along a web path, at least one toner image is formed on at least a first face of the receiving material (12) as it is fed along the web path and the toner image is... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5732316 | Image forming apparatus provided with mold releasing agent coating structure An image forming apparatus includes a first developing device, accommodating a first kind of toner without an offset preventing agent, a second developing device accommodating a second kind of toner containing an offset preventing agent, and a roller fixi... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5678133 | Auto-gloss selection feature for color image output terminals (IOTs) There is provided a method and device for automatically selecting a gloss finish for a print from an electrophotographic printing machine. The image characteristics and color content are determined and if the characteristics and content exceed a predeterm... | 10/14/1997 |
| 5659864 | Dual image forming apparatus and method of using same An image forming apparatus includes a first printing unit which forms a first image on a sheet with a first printing material and fixes the first image thereon by heat application; and a second printing unit which forms a second image with a second printi... | 08/19/1997 |
| 5640662 | Hot roller for thermal fixation device having elastomeric and anti-abrasive coverings To provide a hot roller type thermal fixation device, incorporated in an electrostatic recording apparatus, particularly suitable for the thermal fixation of a multicolor toner image, said apparatus comprising a plurality of electrostatic recording units ... | 06/17/1997 |
| 5526108 | Electrostatographic printer with image-fixing station An electrostatographic printer includes an imaging station for forming a latent electrostatic image on the surface of a drum, a toner development station for developing the latent image to form a toner image, and a toner transfer station for transferring ... | 06/11/1996 |
| 5521688 | Hybrid color fuser An image treatment method and apparatus for fusing color toner images to a substrate such that they exhibit uniform gloss and satisfactory color saturation properties. A substrate carrying color toner images is passed through an oven heater for fixing the... | 05/28/1996 |
| 5499088 | Color toner image fixing apparatus having a back-up member, heater and film with a deformable surface layer A heating and color-mixing apparatus includes a heater; a film movable together with a recording material supporting a multi-layered unfixed toner image; a pressing member cooperative with the film to form a nip therebetween; the recording material being ... | 03/12/1996 |
| 5450183 | Image forming apparatus and method for producing high gloss duplex images High gloss is provided for multicolor images formed on opposite sides of a receiving sheet in a double pass system using a fuser having a smooth, soft pressure roller surface. Preferably, a thin elastomeric outer layer on the pressure roller has a shore Ã... | 09/12/1995 |
| 5408301 | Electrophotographic apparatus having two fixing sections and control means for controlling temperature adjustments selectively to the fixing sections An electrophotographic apparatus is provided with a fixing device having the first through third fixing rollers for forming the first fixing section by contacting the first and second fixing rollers as well as forming the second fixing section by contacti... | 04/18/1995 |
| 5325165 | Electrophotographic printing machine providing both monochrome and color images A copying machine as an example of electrophotographic printing machines is composed of a main body which permits both black-and-white copying and full color copying, and a reverse and retransport unit provided under the main body, for reversing and retra... | 06/28/1994 |
| 5319429 | Color image forming apparatus using fixing apparatus for glossy images A color image forming machine such as a copier or a printer for producing a toner image, corresponding to an original image, on a recording sheet. The color image forming machine has a photoreceptor for forming the toner image on its surface; a transferre... | 06/07/1994 |
| 5309209 | Heat-fixing apparatus for color video printer including a stationary heat tube A heat-fixing apparatus for a color video printer. The heat-fixing apparatus comprises a heating member for heating an under surface of a receiver paper, thereby heat-fixing an image which has been developed on the receiver paper, and receiver paper feedi... | 05/03/1994 |
| 5300382 | Full-color image forming apparatus with two side capability and two-side full-color image forming method A two-side image forming method apparatus and related method, the method including steps of: forming a multi-color image on one side of a recording material; heating the recording material, bearing the multi-color image on a side thereof, with a first amo... | 04/05/1994 |
| 5285244 | Electrostatic color printing system utilizing an image transfer belt An improved color printing method and the apparatus for employing the method are provided for continuously superimposing a plurality of separate color toner images onto a common conductive intermediate transfer belt from a plurality of developing drums ac... | 02/08/1994 |
| 5250996 | Method for fixing full color toner images A method for fixing a full color toner image by inserting a transfer medium to which a toner image is transferred, between a pair of rolls of a fixing apparatus, and pressing the medium therebetween, wherein the toner image is formed of a full color toner... | 10/05/1993 |