周面 Shumen

[Christopher Girsch]

 

 

 

Hi there,

 

An image-forming apparatus adopts an

image-transfer method wherein an electrostatic

latent image is formed on a photosensitive drum.

 

Big deal.

 

The surface of the drum is described as _周面_.

I know what this is, but in patentese, is a surface of

a drum simply the surface, or is _circumferential_ surface

more accurate? Is there some technical reason for 周 in this

case?

 

Any thoughts will help. For the time being, I am just calling it

a surface in my patent.

 

Chris Girsch

[Mark Spahn]

The surface of the drum is described as _周面_.

I know what this is, but in patentese, is a surface of

a drum simply the surface, or is _circumferential_ surface

more accurate? Is there some technical reason for 周 in this case?

 Chris Girsch

==UNQUOTE==

 

Well, any cylinder, like an upright oil barrel, has a curved

surface on its side and flat surfaces at top and bottom.

So maybe the 周 is there to include the drum's round

surface and exclude its flat end-surfaces.

-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY)

 

[Alan Siegrist]

Christopher Girsch writes:

> An image-forming apparatus adopts an
> image-transfer method wherein an electrostatic
> latent image is formed on a photosensitive drum.
>
> Big deal.
>
> The surface of the drum is described as _周面_.
> I know what this is, but in patentese, is a surface of
> a drum simply the surface, or is _circumferential_ surface
> more accurate? Is there some technical reason for 周 in this
> case?

The outside surface of a cylinder (such as this drum) can be technically divided into three parts: the two flat ends and the cylindrical portion between them. In Japanese, 周面 specifically refers to the "cylindrical surface" as opposed to 端面 for the other two.

If the only part of the cylinder of interest is its cylindrical surface, then "surface" alone might suffice, as you suggest. But the author may have some specific reason for mentioning the cylindrical surface and not the end surfaces.

Regards,

Alan Siegrist
Carmel, CA, USA

[Christopher Girsch]

>> The surface of the drum is described as _周面_.

> The outside surface of a cylinder (such as this drum) can be technically

divided into > three parts: the two flat ends and the cylindrical portion
between them. In Japanese, > 周面 specifically refers to the "cylindrical
surface" as opposed to 端面 for the other > two.

> If the only part of the cylinder of interest is its cylindrical surface,
then "surface" alone > might suffice, as you suggest. But the author may
have some specific reason for > mentioning the cylindrical surface and not
the end surfaces.

Thanks to my friends Alan and Mark.

Your descriptions put this into the proper perspective for me. I suspected
as much, but it seemed rather obvious that only the cylindrical surface of
the drum would be used for primary image transfer, as suggested in the
drawings. I'll have to change thinking caps today, and begin to think like
an engineer, I guess.

This clears up my puzzlement at the term. Much obliged.

Christopher Girsch

[Mark Spahn]

As an afterthought, it occurred to me that in calculating
the surface of a cylinder, you will have to distinguish between
its two kinds of surfaces: at its flat ends, and on its curved side.
Looking in a handbook of math formulas, the 周面 is called
the "curved surface" of a right cylinder. And when doing an
online search for math terms, inserting the term "wolfram"
(the inventor of Mathematica) usually leads to a useful website, such as
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Cylinder.html ,
which cites the Pizza Theorem:
What is the volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z?
Answer: pi z z a