Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Akihiro Fujita

Manabu Nonaka

Shinichiro Naruse

Hajime Nishida

Kazumasa Ishikawa

Yohzoh Dohki

Yasuhiro Kawashima

Taku Kudoh

Eiki Yoshimizu

Shoji Asanuma

Shigeyuki Ito

Yasunobu Youda

Koji Watanabe

Kenji Kameyama

Shuji Tanaka

Tetsu Morino

Masatoshi Sakakitani

Ryohta Matsufuji

Hideki Sueoka

Yohzoh c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Dohki

Shigeyuki c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Ito

A liquid discharge head includes: a nozzle plate having multiple nozzles from each of which a liquid is to be discharged; a housing supporting a peripheral edge of the nozzle plate; a liquid channel between the nozzle plate and the housing; and a coupling portion coupling an inner region of the peripheral edge of the nozzle plate and the housing.

Liquid discharge head and liquid discharge apparatus

A sheet conveying device includes a first sheet conveyance passage, a second sheet conveyance passage, a pair of sheet conveying rollers, and a movable member. The second sheet conveyance passage is different from the first sheet conveyance passage. The pair of sheet conveying rollers includes two rollers configured to hold a sheet passing the first sheet conveyance passage. The movable member is configured to convey the sheet passing the second sheet conveyance passage. The two rollers are configured to be separated from each other along with movement of the movable member.

Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet conveying device

A liquid discharge head includes a first member in which a plurality of channels is arrayed in a longitudinal direction of the first member, a second member bonded to the first member with adhesive, and three or more holes formed in a bonding region between the first member and the second member. An inner volume of each of the three or more holes is different, an area of each of the three or more holes is different, the three or more holes includes a hole having a smallest inner volume among the three or more holes, and the hole is filled with the adhesive in the bonding region.

Liquid discharge head, head module, head device, liquid discharge device, and liquid discharge apparatus

A sheet feeder mountable to a body of an apparatus includes a bottom plate on which the sheets are placed and a bottom plate lift unit including a bottom plate pusher disposed beneath the bottom plate, a rack member to rotate the bottom plate pusher vertically by moving horizontally, a pinion gear to move the rack member horizontally, a biasing member to pull the bottom plate pusher toward the rack member, attached therebetween, and a position detector to detect positions of the rack member and the pinion gear. The pinion gear is coupled using projection-and-recess engagement to a rotation transmission device provided to the body, and a quantity of tooth Zof the pinion gear by which the rack member is moved by the rotation transmission device, a total tooth number Zof the pinion gear, and a coupling division number S of the rotation transmission device satisfy Z=Z&#xb7;(1/S)&#xb7;N.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus including a recording head, a transport belt, a pressure roller, an inlet detection sensor, a leading edge detection sensor, and a control unit. The control unit controls the leading edge of the sheet to stop at the nip portion of the pressure roller and the transport belt based on the detection by the inlet detection sensor. When the leading edge of a sheet is not detected by the leading edge sensor, the leading edge position of the sheet is set based on a stop position at a nip portion of the pressure roller and the transport belt.

Image forming apparatus with leading-edge detection sensor

A disclosed image forming apparatus includes a recording head configured to eject liquid droplets onto a sheet to form an image; a transport unit configured to intermittently transport the sheet; a discharge transport unit disposed downstream the transport unit in a transport direction, the discharge transport unit including plural transport rollers configured to transport the sheet in a sheet discharge direction and plural spurs disposed facing the respective transport rollers and arranged in the transport direction; a guide member configured to hold the spurs and be rotatable about a most downstream side or a most upstream side in the transport direction to rotate in a direction away from a sheet transport path; and a stopping and holding unit configured to stop and hold the guide member in a position in which only the spur in the most downstream side in the transport direction is in contact with the sheet.

Image forming apparatus

A sheet feeder includes a sheet tray, a feed roller, a separating pad, a feed motor, a conveying roller pair, and a deformation prevention member. The feed roller picks up and feeds first and second sheets from the sheet tray. The separating pad separates the first sheet from the second sheet together with the feed roller. The deformation prevention member is provided to prevent deformation of a head of the second sheet caused by the feed roller and the separating pad nipping the second sheet.

Sheet feeder, image forming apparatus, and sheet feeding method, utilizing sheet deformation prevention member

An inkjet recording apparatus provides an improved printing speed and improved convenience of use. A recording head discharges droplets of a recording liquid onto a paper so as to form an image on the paper. A belt conveyance mechanism has a belt onto which the paper is electrostatically attached. The paper attached onto the belt is conveyed in a direction perpendicular to a carding direction of the paper.

A paper feeder for feeding paper in an image forming apparatus is disclosed. The paper feeder includes multiple manual paper feed openings and multiple manual paper feed parts positioned corresponding to the manual paper feed openings. The manual paper feed openings and the manual paper feed parts are provided in the main body of the paper feeder.

Paper feeder and image forming apparatus using the same

In an image forming device comprising an image forming part forming an image on a recording sheet, a sheet ejection part provided above the image forming part and stacking the recording sheet on which the image is formed by the image forming part, and an image reading part provided above the sheet ejection part and reading an image of an original document, the sheet ejection part is provided with a cover which is capable of being opened or closed to the sheet ejection part.

Image forming device

A head cleaner is disclosed that includes a blade that has a top face and wipes the nozzle face of a liquid droplet ejecting head that ejects liquid droplets from nozzles, and a cleaning part that cleans the top face of the blade.

Head cleaner and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus for an image forming device such as a facsimile machine, image scanner, copier, etc. Paper sheets are picked up from a stack of paper sheets and are fed individually to a pair of feeding rollers. In contact with the feeding rollers is an elastic film as a skew correction device. If the paper sheet picked up and fed to the feeding rollers is crumpled or askew such that a leading edge of the picked up paper sheet is not parallel to the feeding roller, the skewed paper sheet contacts the elastic film and the skew in the paper sheet is corrected by the elastic film. As a result, when the paper sheet is fed by the feeding roller, the leading edge of the paper sheet is parallel to the feeding roller and is thereby fed without any skew.

Sheet feeding apparatus with skew correction for fed sheets

An image forming apparatus which uses rolled paper pulls the paper around a decurling roller in order to straighten the paper to allow the paper to remain flat. One or more torque limiting devices which provides a constant angular force against the unrolling of the paper is utilized to provide a force which straightens out or decurls the rolled paper which increases as the radius of the roll of paper decreases. The torque limiting device can be implemented using a spring which grips a rotating cylindrical surface as the surface rotates, a viscous-elastic fluid which provides a resistance against rotation, frictional surfaces, or magnets. The torque limiting device may also be implemented using two springs which provide different resistance against rotation in order to provide different rotational resistance, depending on the direction the roll of paper is rotating.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Akihiro Fujita