1. An electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a cylindrical electrically conductive support having thereon a plurality of layers, wherein layer thickness decreasing amount Hd (in m) is 0Hd<5106 per rotation, and residual potential variation amount is 0Vr<100 (in V) in case that an electric current corresponding to 0.1 Ccm2 is provided to a surface of said photoreceptor by charging and exposure.
2. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1 wherein one of a plurality of said resinous layers is a surface layer, and said surface layer comprises a siloxane based resin containing structural units having charge transportability.
3. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2 wherein said surface layer comprises colloidal silica.
4. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2 wherein said surface layer comprises an antioxidant.
5. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2 wherein the cylindrical electrically conductive support comprises thereon a sublayer, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer and said surface layer.
6. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 5 wherein said charge generating layer comprises titanyl phthalocyanine having a maximum peak at Bragg angle of 27.2 degrees with respect to the Cu-K line.
7. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1 wherein the contact angle between the surface of the photoreceptor and water is at least 90 degrees.
8. An electrophotographic image forming method comprising process of charging, image exposure, development, transfer and cleaning utilizing a blade, and employing an electrophotographic photoreceptor which comprises a cylindrical electrically conductive support having thereon a plurality of resinous layers, wherein when the image forming process is carried out by rotating said electrophotographic photoreceptor more than 300,000 times under conditions in which average toner amount adhered onto entire surface of said electrophotographic photoreceptor through development during said development process is at least 0.5 mgcm2, a layer thickness decrease amount Hd (in m) per rotation is 0Hd<3106, and residual potential variation amount Vr (in V) per rotation is 0Vr<1105.
9. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 8 wherein one of said plurality of layers is a surface layer comprising siloxane based resin having structural units exhibiting charge transportability.
10. The electrophotographic image forming method of claim 8 wherein the cleaning blade, which is employed in said blade cleaning process, has a hardness of 65 to 75 degrees and an impact resilience of 15 to 60 percent, and is brought into contact with said photoreceptor under a linear pressure of 5 to 50 gcm.
11. The electrophotographic image forming method of claim 8 wherein toner of a developer material employed in said development process is blended with powder having a number average particle diameter of 10 to 300 nm as the external additive and external additive adhesion ratio Fd is between 10 and 90 percent,
wherein
Fd1Sw1Sw2Sw3100
in the formula Sw1 is the BET specific surface area (in m2g) of toner adhered to the external additive, Sw2 is the BET specific surface area (in m2g) of toner prior to the addition of the external additive, and Sw3 is the BET specific surface area (in m2g) of the external additive.
12. The electrophotographic image forming method of claim 8 wherein toner of the developer material employed in said development process is blended with powder having an average particle diameter of not more than 50 nm, and with powder having an average particle diameter of at least 60 nm in combination as the external additives.
13. The electrophotographic image forming method of claim 8 wherein said development process employs the reversal development system.
14. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 9 wherein said surface layer comprises colloidal silica.
15. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 9 wherein said surface layer comprises an antioxidant.
16. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 8 wherein the cylindrical electrically conductive support comprises thereon a sublayer, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer and a surface layer.
17. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 16 wherein said charge generating layer comprises titanyl phthalocyanine having a maximum peak at Bragg angle of 27.2 degrees with respect to the Cu-K line.
18. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 8 wherein the contact angle between the surface of the photoreceptor and water is at least 90 degrees.
19. The electrophotographic image forming method of claim 8 wherein said electrophotographic photoreceptor is repeatedly employed over at least 1,000,000 rotations for forming images.
20. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising charging member, image exposure member, development member, transfer member and cleaning member utilizing a blade, and an organic electrophotographic photoreceptor which comprises a cylindrical electrically conductive support, having thereon a photosensitive layer, wherein when image forming process is carried out by rotating said electrophotographic photoreceptor more than 300,000 times under the conditions in which an average toner amount, adhered onto an entire surface of said electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising said surface layer, is at least 0.5 mgcm2, through development of said development means, a layer thickness decrease amount Hd (in m) per rotation is 0Hd<3106, and residual potential variation amount Vr (in V) per rotation is 0Vr<1105.
21. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus of claim 20 wherein one of said plurality of layers is a surface layer comprising siloxane based resin having structural units exhibiting charge transportability.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system for transforming energy, comprising:
a plurality of photovoltaic modules;
a plurality of microinverters electrically coupled to the photovoltaic modules in a one-to-one relationship; and
a gateway electrically coupled to the plurality of microinverters, wherein features of the gateway are capable of being upgraded with at least one of hardware, software, and firmware.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises an interface unit and control unit.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface unit, comprises:
a plurality of sensors to detect dynamic utility grid conditions;
a communication unit to communicate with the plurality of microinverters and the gateway; and
an isolation unit to substantially prevent communication signals from the microinverters from appearing on the utility grid.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit provides a monitoring functions to monitor the plurality of microinverters.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of microinverters, comprise:
an inversion unit to convert DC into AC;
a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) unit to optimize power output from the plurality photovoltaic modules;
a communications unit to provide communications to the gateway; and
a safety unit to provide safety functions.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications unit permits communication in at least one of wireless communication, wired communication, and powerline communication.
7. The system of claim 5, wherein the safety unit is capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of the microinverter being electrically decoupled from either the gateway or the PV module.
8. The system of claim 5, wherein the safety unit is capable of disabling the microinverter in response to a communication signal from the communication unit of the gateway.
9. The system of claim 5, wherein the safety unit is capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of predetermined grid conditions.
10. The system of claim 9, wherein the predetermined grid conditions include at least one of a low grid voltage, a high grid voltage, a low grid frequency, a high grid frequency and a predetermined change in grid impedance.
11. A gateway for use in a system for use in an energy generating system, comprising:
an interface unit for interfacing with a plurality of microinverters and a utility grid;
a control unit electrically coupled to the interface unit for controlling at least one of safety functionality, synchronization functionality to synchronize the plurality of microinverters to the utility grid, and monitoring functionality to monitor the plurality of microinverters and the utility grid, wherein the control unit is capable of being electrically coupled to an external monitor.
12. The gateway of claim 11, wherein the interface unit, comprises:
a plurality of sensors to detect dynamic utility grid conditions;
a communication unit to communicate with the plurality of microinverters and the control unit; and
an isolation unit to substantially prevent communication signals from the plurality of microinverters from appearing on the utility grid.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the communications unit is capable of communication in at least one of wireless communication, wired communication, and powerline communication.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of microinverters includes a safety unit capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of the microinverter being electrically decoupled from either the gateway or a power module.
15. The system of claim 12, wherein the power module is a wind turbine.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of microinverters includes a safety unit capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of predetermined utility grid conditions.
17. A photovoltaic system for transforming radiant energy into alternating current, comprising:
a plurality of photovoltaic modules;
a plurality of microinverters coupled to the photovoltaic modules in a one-to-one relationship, wherein each of the plurality of microinverters comprise:
an inversion unit to convert DC into AC;
a MPPT unit to optimize power from the plurality photovoltaic modules;
a communications unit to provide communications to the gateway; and
a safety unit to provide safety functions;
a gateway coupled to the plurality of microinverters, wherein the gateway comprises:
an interface unit for interfacing with a plurality of microinverters and a utility grid; and
a control unit coupled to the interface unit for controlling at least one of safety functionality, synchronization to synchronize the plurality of microinverters to the utility grid, and monitoring, wherein the control unit is capable of being coupled to an external monitor.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the interface unit comprises a communications unit permitting communication in at least one of wireless communication, wired communication, and powerline communication.
19. The system of claim 17, wherein the safety unit is capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of the microinverter being electrically decoupled from either the gateway or a photovoltaic module.
20. The system of claim 17, wherein each of the safety unit is capable of disabling the microinverter upon detection of predetermined utility grid conditions.