X~ROGRAPI-IY

A Newcomer to the Graphic Arts

by CHESTER F. CARLSON

T WAS IN ABOUT 600 B. C. that Thales of Mil- This, in brief, is a description of Xeroprinting, one
I etus discovered that if amber were rubbed with a
piece of silk it strongly attracted bits of lint, straw
and other materials. Today this phenomenon is being
branch of a family of new graphic arts processes known
collectively as Xerography (pronounced Zeer-aw'-
graphy). Other members of the family are Xerodup-
applied to the processes of printing, duplicating, copy- licating and Xerocopying.
ing, and photographing-with some surprising results. Xerography in all its phases is now the subject of
Imagine, for instance, a printing plate consisting of an extensive research project at Battelle Memorial
a smooth metal sheet on which the image to be printed Institute, Columbus, Ohio and is commercially spon-
is formed of an insulating material affixed to its sur- sored by The Haloid Company of Rochester, New
face. If the image is given an electrostatic charge by York. The processes are based on patented inven-
frictionally rubbing the plate with a cloth or brush, tions of the author.
or by passing the plate under a corona discharge elec- The Xeroprinting process, like other printing pro-
trode, it will electrostatically pick up an ink powder. cedures, is intended for the commercial printing field,
The portion of the metal plate forming the background to fill the need for rapid production of large numbers
for the image will remain clean. of identical copies. Where smaller runs are needed,
The powder electrostatically held on the insulating with the minimum amount of equipment, the process
image can then be transferred to a sheet of paper held can be adapted to office duplicating as a Xerodupli-
against the plate, by simply spraying an electric charge cating process.
on the paper with the corona discharge electrode. The There are many situations, however, where the
image can be permanently affixed to the paper with a number of copies required is so small that the cost
solvent, or by heating to fuse the powder onto the of preparing a printing plate, or a duplicating-machine
sheet. master plate, would be prohibitive. How many times
The steps can be repeated any number of times to have you needed just one or two extra copies of a
produce a large number of copies, the same printing letter, specification, drawing or memorandum? You've
plate being used repeatedly. And since the steps are probably had to get a photocopy, or a blueprint, or
all mechanical in nature, they can be performed auto- resort to a complete retyping of manuscript material.
matically by a suitably designed printing press. Xerocopying is intended to fill this need. It uses a

Dry prmttng is one of the potential uses

of Xerography. With this experimental
printing press, engineers at the Battelle
Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, have
already achieved a press speed of 1200 feet
a minute. Besides speed, chief advantages
of Xeroprinting will be the light weight
of printing machinery and simplicity of
plate-making.

NOVEMBER, 1948 Page 11

 HOW XEROGRAPHY WORKS
A specially-coated metal plate is given an electric charge,
lJ£NSITY .5CflLE and placed in a camera. An image-in this case a density-
scale chart-is focused on the surface (P) of the plate by
the camera lens. When light reaches the plate, the electric
charge drains off the surface to the metal backing (M).
LlNS Arrows show how the charge disappears completely from the
white area, partly from the gray, not at all from the black.

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dry electrostatic method, as in Xeroprinting, but with tion that Joffe has reported that the conductivity of
a light-sensitive photo-electric plate, known as a Xero- sulphur can be increased a million-fold by illumina-
17
plate, intead of the Xeroprinting plate described. tion. This would reduce its resistivity from 10 to
A better understanding of the Xerographic process lO" ohm-cm.-still a rather high resistance! Investi-
may be obtained by reference to the diagrams on this gations so far indicate that the response to illumination
page. The Xeroplate comprises a metal backing sheet of these photoconductive insulating materials is instan-
(plate M in the diagram above) carrying a thin layer taneous, and is proportional to the intensity of the
(P) of a "photoconductive insulating material" a few light for any given wave length. As soon as the illum-
ten thousandths of an inch thick. Sulphur is one suit- ination is cut off, the material instantaneously returns
able photoconductive insulating material. Anthracene to its dark insulating value. The behavior differs in
is another. Vitreous selenium also falls in this class, this respect from that of metallic selenium photo-
but not the metallic form. electric cells, in which the conductivity builds up grad-
Most engineers are familiar with selenium photo- ually after the light is turned on, and decays gradually
electric cells. The operation of one type of cell de- after it is cut off.
pends upon the increase in electrical conductivity of A more complete explanation would be that the
a layer of metallic selenium when it is illuminated. But conductivities involved in Xerography are of a much
even in the dark such cells have a substantial conduc- lower order than those utilized in photo-cells, and while
tivity. The photo-conductive insulating materials used these instantaneous primary currents may also be pres-
for Xerography are of much higher insulating value ent in photo-cells, they are masked by the superposed
than metallic selenium-their resistance in the dark "secondary" currents arising from the primary cur-
being comparable to that of other good insulators. rents in such cells.
Sulphur, in fact, is one of the best insulators known, Now, having indicated the nature of the Xeroplate,
having a resistivity in the order of 10 '7 ohm-cm. we can consider further the process of Xerography
Thin layers of sulphur, anthracene, selenium, and as applied to Xerocopying. If the coating of photo-
other photoconductive insulating materials have the conductive insulating material of the Xeroplate is given
property of being rendered instantaneously more con- a uniform electrostatic charge over its surface it is
ductive upon exposure to light. Dr. A. L. Hughes and ready for exposure. This can be performed by placing
Cal tech's Dr. L. A. DuB ridge, in their excellent and very it in a camera and focusing an image on the surface
complete reference text Photoelectric Phenomena, men- of the plate, as indicated in the diagram above.

l'flrER I'/NISflE7J I'flI'ER PRINT

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lifi'JiY

MAKING A XEROPRINT
The exposed Xeroplate (A), which now bears a "latent"
fiLl/O(
image of the density scale (see diagram at top of page) is
coated with a dry, black powder. The powder adheres to the
charged-black and gray-areas of the plate. Then, when a
sheet of charged paper is held against the plate, the powder is
transferred to it. Quick heating fuses the powder to the paper,
and prodnces a permanent, fixed print.
II B c

Page 12 ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE MONTHLY

 For convenience of explanation let us assume that
we are making a Xerocopy of the density scale (0).
The scale may be simply a sheet of cardboard having
three areas, the uppermost of which is black, the
middle area being gray and the lower end of the strip
being white. The image of the black area is focused
by the lens (L) on the lower end of the Xeroplate.
Since practically no light comes from this part of
the density scale, the lower portion of the plate re-
mains substantially in darkness, and the electric charge
which is held on its surface is undisturbed-as indicated
by the minus signs in layer P.
In the middle area, where the gray portion of the
density scale is focused, sufficient light reaches the
plate to render the insulating layer slightly conductive
during exposure. This allows part of the electrostatic
charge we have placed on its surface to drain off,
through the photoconductive insulating layer, to the
metal backing-as indicated by the small arrows. The
result is that a reduced electrostatic charge is left on
this area after exposure.

The upper part of the plate, on which the white area

of the cardboard is focused, receives so much light that
nearly all of the charge is conducted away, leaving this
Above: area almost completely discharged. We now have on
Exposing the Xeroplate an "electrostatic latent image" of the
?,eroplate cardboard density scale.
In camerae
The plate is then removed from the camera in a
closed plate holder and a fine black powder is applied
Left: to its surface in a covered tray. When the excess powder
is removed, it will be found that powder adheres to the
Developing
plate by charged areas of the plate by electrostatic attraction,
cascading substantially in proportion to the "blackness" of the
pcwder over areas of the density scale. Thus, the part of the plate
surface.
which received the image of the black area of the dens-
ity scale will be completely covered with a layer of pow-
Below: der. The area corresponding to the gray part of the
scale will be covered with a less-dense distribution of
Stripping
transferred powder particles. And the area which received the image
print from of the white part of the scale will retain practically no
plate. powder.
The developed Xeroplate is indicated at A in the
diagram at the bottom of page 12. If a sheet of paper
is now placed against the surface of the plate carrying
the powder image and the assembly passed under a
corona discharge wire, the powder will be transferred
to the paper as indicated at B.
Suitable black or colored powders can be used for
development, but for convcnience in obtaining a perma-
nent copy it is desirable to usc a powder which can be
permanently affixed to the paper. A satisfactory devel-
oping powder can be formed from certain fusible resins
which are naturally black or colored, or which have
been dyed or pigmented to provide any desired color.
After transfer to the paper the sheet is heated momen-
tarily to fuse the powder onto the surface of the paper,
thus completing the Xerocopy as indicated at C.
Instead of using a Camel"a, the plate can be exposed
in a contact printing frame by placing a transparent
original-a film, a sheet of tracing paper carrying a
drawing, or a typewritten letter-directly against the
surface and exposing to an incandescent lamp or other
light source. Exposure can also be effected by pro-
jecting an image onto the plate with a projector or en-
larger.
Either a negative or a positive electric charge tnay
be applied to the plate prior to exposure. With fric-
tional charging the sign of the charge is dependent

NOVEMBER, 1948 Page 13

 Camera portraits of live subjects, like that
at left, can be taken by the Xerographic
process. Finished prints are ready within
45 seconds after exposure. Though quality
of photographs is not too satisfactory yet,
the Haloid Co. of Rochester, N. Y., plans
eventually to develop a good Xerocamera.

Another method of making printing plates, which

requires no transfer of the powder, is made possible
by the properties of certain of the coatings used for
Xeroplates. One of these photoconductive coatings is
anthracene, a waxlike insulating material derived from
coal tar. It can be evaporated or sublimed readily by
upon the triboelectric properties of the material which moderate heating. Hence, when the powder image has
is rubbed against the surface of the plate. With corona been deposited on the anthracene coating after expos-
charging the sign is dependent upon the polarity of use of the plate, it is only necessary to heat the plate
the corona electrode. A dusting powder is selected to evaporate the anthracene, and then raise the temper-
so as to give the best results with the polarity of the ature sufficiently to fuse the resin powder onto the
charge used. metal backing layer. The metal can then be etched in
Black areas of the original are reproduced as black acid to produce a printing plate. Lithographic plates
(or colored) areas on the copies. Hence a direct posi- can be prepared by quite similar procedures, using
tive is obtained from the original without the neces- grained zinc or aluminum plates.
sity of first making a negative. Positives from nega- Several other applications of Xerography are being
tives are also possible. With camera exposure, or con- developed. An office copying machine has been de-
tact printing in which the face of the original is placed signed which will turn out copies of letters, drawings,
against the plate, the right-hand edge of the original and other documents in a few seconds-from the start
comes out as the right-hand edge of the copy, so that of operations until the finished copy is obtained.
the copy reads the right way, rather than as a mirror The stenographer of the future may not be con-
reverse. cerned with carbon paper. She can simply type the
For the Xerographic portrait above the subject sat original letter, slip it into a Xerocopying machine, set
in front of a camera containing a Xeroplate. An a dial for the number of copies desired, push a button,
exposure was made, the plate developed with black and the required number of clean permanent copies
powder, and the powder image then transferred to, will issue from the machine in a few seconds.
and affixed on, a sheet of paper. The color possibilities of Xerography are intriguing.
Of course the picture you see here, like the other Since there is no limitation on the colors of the dust-
illustrations in this magazine, was prepared for print- ing powders which may be used, it is possible to obtain
ing in ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE by conven- a copy of any color desired. 'By using a colored paper
tional methods. Briefly, these involve exposing a layer sheet to receive the image a two-color print may be pro-
of bichromated gelatin, or similar photosensitive cov- duced. Multiple color prints and natural color photo-
ering, on a metal plate to form a hardened gelatin graphs have been obtained by a series of independent
image. After washing away the hardened gelatin to exposures for each color. The powder images of each
leave a resist image, the plate is chemically etched to color are all transferred to a single sheet of paper,
remove part of the metal and leave raised printing where they are superimposed in correct register to
surfaces. form the multi-color image.
Xerography may some day supplant these involved Many fields of application for the various phases of
procedures and make practicable the direct produc- Xerography remain to be further explored. They
tion of printing plates for conventional printing pro- range from the purely pictorial applications, through
cesses, as well as for Xeroprinting, by a method re- the various copying and office duplicating processes, to
quiring only a single exposure step. One way in which the commercial printing field. A few of its potential
this can be done is to transfer the resin powder image applications include the making of murals, billboards,
obtained on the Xeroplate to a clean metal plate, and and wallpaper-economically. Its versatility may even
then fuse the powder onto the metal to produce the make it a valuable tool in many new fields not ade-
resist image for etching to make a printing plate. quately served by present known procedures.

Page 14 ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE MONTHLY