1. A developing device to be mounted in an image forming apparatus the developing device comprising:
a feed tool to feed a developer to a developing tool via a frictional charging force;
a developer receiving chamber in which developer is stored
an endless belt disposed in the developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member,
a first delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the endless belt; and
a second delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the first delivery unit, the second delivery unit arranged so that the first delivery unit is higher than the second delivery unit in a state in which the developing device is mounted in a body of the image forming apparatus,
wherein developer is delivered to the feed tool by the second delivery unit,
wherein the endless belt is disposed between the first rotational member and the second rotational member and is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus, so as to move developer along an inclined conveying path.
2. The developing device according to claim 1, further comprising:
a partition to divide the developer receiving chamber into a first developer receiving chamber and a second developer receiving chamber,
wherein the first delivery unit and second delivery unit are provided higher and lower than the partition, respectively.
3. The developing device according to claim 2, wherein the partition includes a first partition portion provided between the first delivery unit and the second delivery unit, and a second partition portion extending substantially downward from the first partition portion.
4. The developing device according to claim 3, further comprising:
an inlet formed in the first partition portion,
wherein the developer delivered by the first delivery unit is fed to the second delivery unit through the inlet.
5. The developing device according to claim 4, wherein the first partition portion substantially surrounds a lower part of the first delivery unit.
6. The developing device according to claim 4, wherein the inlet is formed at an end of the partition portion.
7. The developing device according to claim 6, wherein the first delivery unit includes a spiral delivery blade to deliver the developer to the inlet and a radial delivery blade to return a part of the developer that does not enter the inlet,
8. The developing device according to claim 4, wherein the inlet of the partition is located lower than a nip region between the feed tool and the developing tool.
9. The developing device according to claim 4, further comprising:
a shield member to selectively shield the inlet of the partition.
10. The developing device according to claim 3, wherein the second partition portion limits return of the developer to be delivered from the first delivery unit to the second delivery unit.
11. The developing device according to claim 2, wherein a bottom plane of the first developer receiving chamber is inclined in response to the developing device being mounted in the image forming apparatus, causing the developer received in the first developer receiving chamber to be concentrated on an area opposite to the partition.
12. The developing device according to claim 11, wherein the bottom plane of the first developer receiving chamber has an inclination angle in the range of approximately 2 degrees to approximately 5 degrees in response to the developing device being mounted in the image forming apparatus.
13. The developing device according to claim 1,
wherein the second delivery unit includes a first circulating auger and a second circulating auger, and
the developing device further comprises a circulating wall provided between the first circulating auger and the second circulating auger and having communication holes formed at opposite sides thereof.
14. A developer feeding method of a developing device including a feed tool to feed a developer to a developing tool and a developer receiving chamber in which developer is stored, and an endless belt disposed in the developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member, wherein the endless belt is disposed between the first rotational member and the second rotational member and is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus, so as to move developer alone an inclined conveying path, the method comprising:
delivering a part of the developer received in the developer receiving chamber upward along the inclined conveying path of the developer receiving chamber via the endless belt;
causing free fall of a first Part of the developer delivered upward; and
feeding the fallen developer to the feed tool.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the developing device includes a first delivery unit and a second delivery unit arranged so that the first delivery unit is higher than the second delivery unit in a state in which the developing device is mounted in an image forming apparatus.
16. The method according to claim 15,
wherein the developing device further includes a partition to divide the developer receiving chamber into a first developer receiving chamber and a second developer receiving chamber, and
the first delivery unit and second delivery unit are provided higher and lower than the partition, respectively.
17. The method according to claim 16,
wherein the developing device further includes an inlet formed in the partition, and
the developer delivered upward in the direction of gravity is delivered to the inlet of the partition by the first delivery unit and is delivered to the second delivery unit through the inlet.
18. A developing device of an image forming apparatus, comprising;
a feed tool to feed a developer to a developing tool;
a developer receiving chamber in which developer is stored, the developer receiving chamber including a first developer receiving chamber and a second developer receiving chamber;
a first delivery unit disposed in the first developer receiving chamber to deliver the developer to the feed tool;
a second delivery unit disposed in the second developer receiving chamber to deliver developer to a point higher than the first delivery unit; and
an endless, belt disposed in the second developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member,
wherein the endless belt is disposed between the first rotational member and the second rotational member and is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus, so as to move developer along an inclined conveying path to the second delivery unit.
19. The developing device of claim 18, wherein at least part of the developer delivered by the second delivery unit falls toward the first delivery unit.
20. The developing device of claim 19, further comprising:
a partition between the first and second delivery units.
21. The developing device of claim 20, wherein at least one inlet is provided in the partition, the at least part of the developer falling to the first delivery unit through the at least one inlet.
22. The developing device of claim 21, further comprising:
a developer moving portion provided at the second delivery unit to move the developer delivered by the second delivery unit toward the at least one inlet.
23. The developing device of claim 19, further comprising:
a return part provided at the second delivery unit to return a portion of the developer that does not fall to the first delivery unit.
24. A developing device to be mounted in an image forming apparatus comprising:
a first delivery unit to deliver a developer stored in a lower portion of a first developer receiving chamber,
wherein the first delivery unit is an endless belt disposed in the first developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member, wherein the endless belt is disposed between the first rotational member and the second rotational member and is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus, so as to move developer along an inclined conveying path;
a second delivery unit disposed in an upper portion of the first developer receiving chamber, to receive the developer delivered by the first delivery unit, to feed a first portion of the developer to a second developer receiving chamber, and to return a second portion of the developer to the lower portion of the first developer receiving chamber; and
a partition to divide the first developer receiving chamber and the second developer receiving chamber,
wherein the second delivery unit is disposed above the partition and feeds the first portion of the developer downward through an opening in the partition to the second developer receiving chamber.
25. A developing device to be mounted in an image forming apparatus, the developing device comprising:
a feed tool to feed developer to a developing tool via a frictional charging force; a developer receiving chamber in which developer is stored;
an endless belt disposed in the developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member;
a first delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the endless belt; and a second delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the first delivery unit, the second delivery unit arranged so that the first delivery unit is higher than the second delivery unit in a state in which the developing device is mounted in a body of the image forming apparatus,
wherein developer is delivered to the feed tool by the second delivery unit, wherein a plane extending between a first rotational axis of the first rotational member and a second rotational axis of the second rotational member is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus such that the endless belt is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus.
26. A developing device mountable in an image forming apparatus, the developing device comprising:
a developing roller;
a feed roller to feed developer to the developing roller; a developer receiving chamber in which developer is stored;
a feed member disposed in the developer receiving chamber to move developer in a first conveying direction;
a first delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the feed member; and
a second delivery unit to receive developer supplied via the first delivery unit and to supply the received developer to the feed roller,
wherein the second delivery unit comprises a first auger capable of moving developer in a second conveying direction that is perpendicular to the first conveying direction and a second auger capable of moving developer in a third conveying direction that is parallel and opposite to the second conveying direction,
wherein the feed member comprises an endless belt disposed in the developer receiving chamber and rotatable with respect to a first rotational member and a second rotational member, and the endless belt is disposed between the first rotational member and the second rotational member and is inclined when the developing device is mounted in the image forming apparatus, so as to move developer along an inclined conveying path.
27. The developing device of claim 26, wherein the first delivery unit comprises a third auger to deliver developer to the second delivery unit through an inlet.
28. The developing device of claim 26, wherein the second delivery unit is arranged so that the first delivery unit is higher than the second delivery unit in a state in which the developing device is mounted in a body of the image forming apparatus.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A system for migrating state data from a source platform to a destination platform, comprising,
on the source platform:
1) a source application program;
2) a source state migration engine invoked by the application program;
3) a gather module called to gather source state data from the source platform; and
4) a transport module called to write the source state data to a temporary storage; and
on the destination platform:
1) a destination application program;
2) a destination state migration engine invoked by the application program;
3) a transport module called to read the source state data from the storage; and
4) an operation module called to apply the source state data to at least one storage location accessible to the destination platform.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein at the source platform, the gather module and the transport module are called by the state migration engine.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the gather module is called by the state migration engine in response to a call from the application program.
4. The system of claim 2 wherein the transport module is selected and called by the state migration engine in response to at least one call from the application program.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein at the destination platform, the transport module and the operation module are called by the state migration engine.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the state migration engine includes a set of at least one interface via which the gather module and the transport module exchange information with the state migration engine module.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein at the source platform, the gather module comprises a source state data gather module.
8. The system of claim 7 further comprising, at the source platform, a source analyze module that analyzes state data gathered by the source state data gather module.
9. The system of claim 1 wherein at the source platform, the gather module collects information from a registry.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein at the source platform, the gather module collects at least one file.
11. The system of claim 1 wherein the state data is gathered into a state object set comprising at least one state object.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the gather module collects information from registry information and file information, and wherein the state object set includes at least one registry state object for maintaining the registry information and least one file state object for maintaining the file information.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the state object set includes at least one engine state object.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the state object set includes another type of state object, and further comprising, at the source platform, an extensible type module that is called by the state migration engine to abstract information into the other type of state object.
15. The system of claim 14 further comprising, at the destination platform, an extensible type module that is called by the state migration engine to recover the information abstracted at the source platform.
16. The system of claim 1 wherein at the source platform, the gather module comprises a virtual computer gather module that gathers state data into a virtual computer format that is capable of being edited.
17. The system of claim 16 further comprising, at the destination platform, a source state data gather module that gathers state data from the virtual computer format.
18. The system of claim 17 further comprising, at the destination platform, an analyze module that analyzes state data gathered by the source state data gather module of the destination platform.
19. The system of claim 1 further comprising, at the destination platform, a destination state data gather module that gathers destination state data corresponding to the destination platform.
20. The system of claim 19 further comprising, at the destination platform, an analyze module that analyzes the destination state data gathered by the destination state data gather module.
21. The system of claim 19 further comprising, at the destination platform, a combine state module that merges the source state data and the destination state data.
22. The system of claim 1 wherein the operation module changes at least some of the source state data when called to apply the source state data.
23. A computer-implemented method, comprising,
gathering at least one set of state data from a source platform;
abstracting the state data into a format that is independent of the source platform and independent of any destination platform;
transporting the state data into a storage accessible by a destination platform;
recovering the state data from the storage at the destination platform; and
applying at least some of the state data at the destination platform such that the destination platform has available thereto at least some of the state data from the source platform in a format that is suitable for the destination platform.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein abstracting the state data comprises writing the state data into a state object.
25. The method of claim 23 further comprising, analyzing at least some of the data at the source platform to handle a dependency between one set of state data and another set of state data.
26. The method of claim 23 further comprising, selecting a transport from among a plurality of transports capable of transporting the state data into the storage.
27. The method of claim 23 further comprising, gathering destination state data at the destination, and merging at least some of the destination state data with the state data recovered from the storage.
28. The method of claim 23 further comprising, translating at least some of the state data recovered from the storage to correspond to the destination platform.
29. The method of claim 23 wherein at least some of the state data contains a file, and wherein applying at least some of the state data at the destination platform includes creating a file corresponding thereto accessible to the destination platform.
30. The method of claim 23 wherein at least some of the state data contains a setting, and wherein applying at least some of the state data at the destination platform includes recreating the setting at a location accessible to the destination platform.
31. The method of claim 30 wherein recreating the setting comprises writing information to a registry.
32. The method of claim 23 further comprising communicating with an extensible type module to access at least some of the state data.
33. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure that maintains state data, comprising:
an identifier field that includes information identifying a type of state object relative to at least one other type of state object;
an object name field arranged to include information that distinguishes the state object from other state objects;
an object content field that includes information corresponding to a logically distinct piece of state data; and
wherein the information in the fields is independent of any particular destination platform.
34. The data structure of claim 33 wherein the information in the fields is written at a source platform.
35. The data structure of claim 33 wherein the identifier field includes information indicating that the state object represents a file, wherein the object content field comprises data of the file, wherein the object name field includes information corresponding to a file name, and further comprising a details field that includes information corresponding to attributes of the file.
36. The data structure of claim 33 wherein the identifier field includes information indicating that the state object represents registry data, wherein the object content field comprises the registry data, and wherein the object name field includes information corresponding to a registry key.
37. The data structure of claim 33 further comprising characteristics associated with the state object.
38. The data structure of claim 37 wherein the characteristics include at least one attribute.
39. The data structure of claim 37 wherein the characteristics include at least one property.
40. The data structure of claim 37 wherein the characteristics include at least one operation.
41. A system for collecting state data from a source platform for use in configuring a destination platform, comprising:
a state migration engine;
a gather module that gathers source state data from the source platform in response to a call from the state migration engine; and
a transport module that writes the source state data gathered by the gather module to a storage, the transport module operating in response to a call from the state migration engine.
42. The system of claim 41 wherein the gather module is called by the state migration engine in response to a call from an application program.
43. The system of claim 41 wherein the transport module is a selectable component, and wherein the transport module selected and called by the state migration engine in response to at least one call from an application program.
44. The system of claim 41 wherein the gather module includes a source state data gather module.
45. The system of claim 44 further comprising a source analyze module that analyzes state data gathered by the source state data gather module.
46. The system of claim 41 wherein the gather module collects information from a registry.
47. The system of claim 41 wherein the gather module collects at least one file.
48. The system of claim 41 wherein the data is gathered into a state object set comprising at least one state object.
49. The system of claim 48 wherein the state object set includes at least one registry state object that maintains registry information and at least one file state object that maintains file information.
50. The system of claim 48 wherein the state object set includes at least one engine state object.
51. The system of claim 48 wherein the state object set includes another type of state object, and further comprising an extensible type module that is called by the state migration engine to abstract information into the other type of state object.
52. The system of claim 41 further comprising at least one mechanism configured to read the state data from the storage and apply the state data to the destination platform.
53. A system for configuring a destination platform with state data collected from a source platform, comprising:
a state migration engine;
a transport module that reads source state data from a storage in response to a call from the state migration engine; and
an operation module that applies the source state data to at least one storage location accessible to the destination platform, the transport module operating in response to a call from the state migration engine.
54. The system of claim 53 wherein the source state data comprises virtual computer data gathered into a virtual computer format that is capable of being edited, and further comprising, a state data gather module that gathers state data from the virtual computer format.
55. The system of claim 54 further comprising, an analyze module that analyzes the state data gathered by the state data gather module.
56. The system of claim 53 further comprising, a destination state data gather module that gathers destination state data corresponding to the destination platform.
57. The system of claim 56 further comprising, an analyze module that analyzes the destination state data gathered by the destination state data gather module.
58. The system of claim 56 further comprising, a combine state module that merges the source state data and the destination state data.
59. The system of claim 53 wherein the operation module changes at least some of the source state data when called to apply the source state data.
60. The system of claim 53 further comprising at least one mechanism configured to gather the source state data from the source platform and store the source state data in the storage.
61. A computer program product, comprising,
a computer-readable storage medium having executable code thereon comprising:
a first computer instruction for reading at least one set of state data from a source platform;
a second computer instruction for abstracting the state data into a predetermined format to obtain abstracted state data that is independent of the source platform and independent of any destination platform; and
a third computer instruction for writing the abstracted state data to a storage medium.
62. A computer program product, comprising,
a computer-readable storage medium having executable code thereon comprising:
a first computer instruction for reading abstracted state data representative of a state of a first platform and wherein a format of said abstracted state data is platform independent; and
a second computer instruction for applying at least some of the abstracted state data at a second platform such that the second platform has available thereto at least some of the state data from the first platform in a format that is suitable for the second platform.