Inventor Ravi Sahay Commissions DRC to Promote Patent Portfolio
OJAI, Calif. — Ravi Sahay of Ravi & Associates has commissioned Diamond Research Corporation (DRC) to promote certain developer technology for laser printers, copiers and MFPs.
DRC will be seeking OEMs interested in Sahay’s Scalable Universal Printer Architecture (SUPrA), which features on-demand magnetic brush/photoreceptor contact thereby extending the life of an OPC drum beyond that realized by continuous contact.
Sahay’s magnetless toner cartridge (MTC) is a low-cost, customer replaceable unit (CRU). It differs from most toner cartridges as it contains neither the magnetic brush nor the photoreceptor. Only the toner, developer mixture (toner plus carrier) is present inside the MTC.
Another key feature of Sahay’s MTC is that it enables the use of a switchable (On/Off) brush housed in an adjacent developer assembly. Thus, the mag brush can be physically formed (On) on demand when activated to develop the image on the photoreceptor, and instantly deactivated or collapsed (Off) when no longer needed.
Sahay’s innovative printer designs are embodied in several patents issued in the United States (U.S. 5,715,504 and U.S. 5,839,027) and in China.
The inventor claims his magnetless toner cartridge patents are applicable to very high-speed monochrome, MICR, highlight color, wide-format color, and Web-based, full-color printers operating at speeds ranging from 10 to 200 pages per minute. Image quality is improved, according to Sahay, the cost of the toner cartridge is reduced by 50 percent, and the end user’s total cost of ownership drops by 30 percent.
A self-propelled pulsating magnetic brush claimed in U.S. 5,715,504 provides an improved development method that tumbles the developer mixture uniformly in both the axial and radial directions. This two-axis motion in the developer assembly delivers improved print quality by more uniform deposition. It also ensures rapid mixing of toner and carrier so that replacement toner is quickly charged in the well-known process of “charge sharing.” This advantage is of particular importance in wide-format color and black-and-white electrophotographic printers.
Sahay is president of Ravi & Associates, an independent consulting firm that serves the imaging industry. He is an 18-year veteran of Xerox Corporation, having served at the company’s Webster, N.Y. facility from 1971 to 1989. Sahay has been granted eight U.S. patents and is a member of the Licensing Executive Society International.
DRC is a high-technology consulting and chemical engineering firm formed by Art Diamond in 1968. DRC specializes in imaging materials development, manufacturing, and marketing.
The firm also tracks industry markets and technology for its clients through a number of special reports.
Diamond holds 15 U.S. patents in the field of reprography. He has authored more than 70 articles, talks, and publications relating to imaging materials and processes.
Contact Ravi B. Sahay
- Ph: 858-484-9317
- E-mail: rsahay@aol.com
Contact Diamond Research Corporation
- Ph: 805-640-7177
- Fax: 805-640-7178
- E-mail: drc@west.net
This article originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of Recharger.