A method for printing a three-dimensional part with an additive manufacturing system, which includes providing a part material that compositionally has one or more semi-crystalline polymers and one or more secondary materials that are configured to retard crystallization of the one or more semi-crystalline polymers, where the one or more secondary materials are substantially miscible with the one or more semi-crystalline polymers. The method also includes melting the part material in the additive manufacturing system, forming at least a portion of a layer of the three-dimensional part from the melted part material in a build environment, and maintaining the build environment at an annealing temperature that is between a glass transition temperature of the part material and a cold crystallization temperature of the part material.

An additive manufacturing system for fabricating multi-sided printed composite sheet structures includes a roll fed duplex architecture that prints polymer images on both sides of a substrate sheet to form two-sided 3D composite layers. A substrate web is fed into the machine, and a top side is printed with a wetting agent, powdered, and the excess powder is removed. The image may be pinned to the substrate in a fusing step so that the web can be inverted to print a second image on the other side. The inversion architecture could include inverting rollers, tubes or a Mobius strip that may flip the substrate for backside printing using a single imaging station. The resulting two-side powdered and pinned substrate would then be cut, stacked, heated and compressed to create a 3-D object with more polymer in the stack, resulting in better adhesive binding characteristics at a much higher production speed.

An image reading apparatus includes a stacking tray, a feeding roller, a restricting member configured to move to a restricting position and a retracted position, a reading sensor, a reversing roller configured to perform a reversing operation, a first conveyance path, a second conveyance, and a controller. The controller is configured to permit the reversing operation if the controller receives an execution instruction of a double-sided reading job on a sheet having a first size, and prohibit the reversing operation if the controller receives an execution instruction of the double-sided reading job on a sheet having a second size smaller than the first size.

An image-forming apparatus includes, in a body having a predetermined house, an image-reading unit and an image-forming unit that is configured to form an image read by the image-reading unit. A discharge portion is configured to discharge a sheet on which the image was formed onto a discharge tray. An intra-apparatus-discharge space is formed in the body between the image-reading unit and the image-forming unit. The housing includes therein a consumption article mounting portion in which a consumption article used by the image-forming unit is mounted. At least a portion of a surface of the housing at a region of the consumption article mounting portion has a light-transmissive property. When the consumption article is consumed and needs to be replenished, the operator can visually check the region of the consumption article mounting portion in the housing from the outside of the body through the transparent portion.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic photosensitive member capable of suppressing the environmental fluctuation in the electrical characteristics. The present invention provides the electrophotographic photosensitive member in which the surface layer contains the compound having the specific structure.

A reading apparatus includes an light emitter that performs irradiation with light, a light receiver that receives light reflected from an object to be imaged, a first optical path in which specularly reflected light is guided to the light receiver as a read image, a second optical path in which diffusely reflected light is guided to the light receiver as a read image, and a switching section that switches between the first optical path and the second optical path by rotating the light emitter.

A reading apparatus includes an light emitter that performs irradiation with light, a light receiver that receives light reflected from an object to be imaged, a first optical path in which specularly reflected light is guided to the light receiver as a read image, a second optical path in which diffusely reflected light is guided to the light receiver as a read image, and a switching section that switches between the first optical path and the second optical path by rotating the light emitter.

An image inspection device includes a processor coupled to a sensor. The processor reads, using the sensor, an image formed on a recording material by an image forming device and creates a read image; causes an analysis to detect an abnormality in the read image and creates an analysis result; and creates a normal image file including the read image in which the abnormality has not been detected based on the analysis result.

A device and production method, in which a workpiece is built up gradually in layers. To build up the workpiece, preformed layers, which are individually formed on a layer support using an electrophotographic printing process are transferred one at a time from the layer support to the workpiece. For this purpose, the layer is transferred to the workpiece in a printing operation, the layer being preferably laid on the workpiece by a die. In one embodiment, a plurality of workpieces are built up simultaneously and a plurality of preformed layers are transferred simultaneously to different respective workpieces. In another embodiment, the layer is formed on the layer support, which is preferably a film or paper, prior to being transferred.

A method of operating a selective deposition-based additive manufacturing system capable of building a three-dimensional (3D) part includes developing a first layer using at least one electrostatographic engine, conveying the first layer from the at least one EP engine to a transfusion assembly, determining an anticipated transfusion overlay error for the first layer, determining whether the anticipated transfusion overlay error exceeds an overlay error specification, discarding the first layer after determining that the anticipated transfusion overlay error exceeds the overlay error specification, developing a successive layer using the at least one electrostatographic engine, conveying the successive layer from the at least one electrostatographic engine to the transfusion assembly, and transfusing the successive layer on a part build surface using the transfusion assembly to build the 3D part in a layer-by-layer manner on a part build platform.