An electrophotographic apparatus of the two-component, dry developer and reusable photoconductor type, having a developer unit, and replenisher for supplying toner to the developer unit. The replenisher includes a first supply of virgin toner, and a second supply of used toner. A toner feed device operates to simultaneously feed toner to the developer unit from the first and second replenisher supplies. The proportion of toner fed from the first and second supplies is variable; however, such pro...

Universal sorting device for collating face-up, face-down, simplex and duplex copies outputted from a copier, offset press, or similar device. The sorting device includes a plurality of bins configured with a fixed module and a movable module. The fixed module includes a plurality of side walls orientated in a generally vertical direction. The movable module includes a throat plate having a plurality of openings with bottom walls orientated in a substantially horizontal direction. A mechanism sh...

A credit card holder for a billfold, wallet, or the like and for holding a plurality of credit cards in shingled, overlapping relationship. The holder has an outer flexible wall with a series of parallel, spaced apart slits which define a plurality of parallel adjacent strips. An inner flexible pocket or liner of generally rectangular shape is received in back-to-back relationship against the rear surface of the outer flexible wall member and the inner flexible liner has a plurality of pairs of ...

A thin foil of magnetic recording tape is accurately supported on a cushion of air adjacent a fixed-position reference surface. The reference surface includes a plurality of discrete holes through which air issues under pressure to form an air layer which supports the tape. These discrete holes are formed by the outlet openings of vortex restrictors.

Image defining toner is transferred to cut sheets and fused at one of two fuser stations. One station is positioned to fuse the image on one side when duplex copying or printing is selected. The other fuser station performs fusing when simplex copying is selected but fuses the second side copy for duplexing. When flash lamps are employed for the fuser station, the lamps are composed of multiple bays with a single power source coupled to each bay in sequence so that the power source size need onl...

An air bearing supports the magnetic recording tape of a magnetic tape unit as the tape moves in a curved path, the air bearing having a plenum chamber connected through an orifice to a high-pressure source of air, the pressure magnitude of the source being such that over the operating range of the bearing, the mass rate of air flow into the plenum chamber, and thus out of the bearing to support the tape, is substantially constant.

A rotating head magnetic tape recording apparatus wherein a helical wrap of magnetic recording tape is formed about a cylindrical mandrel and the headwheel. The headwheel is of a larger radius than the mandrel; thus the headwheel protrudes or penetrates beyond the adjacent mandrel surfaces. This headwheel penetration operates to (1) compensate for mandrel misalignment, if any, and (2) stress the tape in the localized track coincident with the headwheel's path. A magnetic head is mounted on the h...

A movable self-contained deflector unit for directing sheets into the paper bin of a multi-bin collator. A first motor is mounted on the frame of the deflector unit to drive transport rolls also mounted thereon. The transport roll provides the final impetus for moving the sheets into the collator bin. A second motor is mounted on the frame of the deflector unit to drive the unit to a selected bin. The motor may be reversible in order to approach a selected bin from either direction. Alternativel...

An electrophotographic machine of the transfer type wherein a modular construction is provided including a main slide-out drawer upon which the entire paper path is mounted as well as the transfer corona. Included in the main drawer are the paper supply bins, paper feeding mechanisms, transport guides and conveyors, the transfer corona, detach means, and the fuser. The paper supply bins are mounted in individual mini-drawers separate from but located within the main drawer.

Under the present invention, componentized costs for providing/producing an item are collected from a plurality of suppliers. The componentized costs include the fixed and variable costs associated with raw materials and production for providing the item according to various specifications and order quantities. When a buyer wishes to obtain the item, a particular order specification and a demand forecast for the item will be provided. Based on the particular specification, the demand forecast an...