Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Akihisa Maruyama

Yasuhiro Oda

Toshihiro Kanematsu

Koichiro Yuasa

Miho Ikeda

Takashi Ochi

Shota Oba

Yoshitaka Nakajima

Shigeru Inaba

Yasuyuki Kobayashi

Yasutaka Naito

Yasutomo Ishii

Shigehiko Haseba

Satoshi Matsuzaka

Takashi Fuchiwaki

Katsuya Takenouchi

Kazuhiko Miyazato

Keitaro Sonoguchi

Minoru Ueki

Yoko Shimomura

Toshie Nakamoto

Ryuji Watanabe

Katsuhiko Ichikawa

A powder transport member includes a rotary member that rotates around an axis inside a container in which powder is contained, a contact member that has one end secured to the rotary member and another end that is a free end, the contact member flexing upon contact of the other end with an inner wall of the container, the contact member having multiple cuts provided in an axial direction of the rotary member, the cuts extending from the other end obliquely with respect to the rotary member, and multiple projections that are provided on the rotary member in the axial direction, the projections projecting from the rotary member toward the inner wall of the container, the projections having a distal end portion that is located at a different position from a starting edge of the cuts with respect to the axial direction.

Powder transport member, powder container, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an intermediate transfer body, an image forming device including an image carrier (carrier), a developing device that develops an electrostatic latent image on the carrier into a toner image with a two-component developer (toner and carrier), a first transfer device that transfers the toner image onto the intermediate transfer body, and a first cleaning device that cleans the carrier's surface after the transfer process, a second transfer device that transfers the toner image onto a recording medium, a second cleaning device that cleans the intermediate transfer body's surface after the transfer process, a power-supplying device that supplies a developing bias, a first transfer bias, and a second transfer bias to the developing device, the first transfer device, and the second transfer device, respectively, and a controller that controls to perform a toner discharging operation of forming a toner image to be discharged on the carrier.

Image forming apparatus having a controller for controlling toner discharge operation

A development roller includes a substantially cylindrical development sleeve that has an axis and rotates about the axis; and a magnet portion that is provided in the development sleeve and has plural magnetic poles. The development sleeve has a surface and a groove in the surface along a direction of the axis. The development sleeve has an outer peripheral surface and the groove has a bottom portion, the development sleeve having a deflection of the outer peripheral surface in a radial direction of the development sleeve being larger than about 20 &#x3bc;m and smaller than about 30 &#x3bc;m, and a deflection of the bottom portion in the radial direction being equal to or smaller than about 35 &#x3bc;m.

Development roller, developing device, and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a developing member including a magnet member on which plural magnetic poles including a developing main magnetic pole are magnetized in a circumferential direction and a developer holder that faces an image supporting member, receives the magnet member, and holds a developer, wherein a distribution of a magnetic attraction force in a circumferential direction has a gradient that increases toward a downstream end from an upstream end of a developing area in a developer transport direction of the developer holder, and the magnetic poles are magnetized on the magnet member so that the amount of the increase of the magnetic attraction force between the upstream end and a middle position of the developing area is larger than that between the middle position and the downstream end.

Developing device and image forming apparatus having magnetic poles to control the distribution of a magnetic attraction force

An image forming apparatus includes a rotating image carrier, a charging device, a latent image forming device, a developing device having a developer holder and developing a latent image as a visible image, a voltage application unit that generates a potential difference between the image carrier and the developer holder to form an electric field, by which toner is directed toward the latent image, in a developing region, and a transfer device that transfers the visible image of the image carrier to a medium, wherein the developer holder having a concavo-convex portion having a convex portion and a concave portion is provided in an outer surface thereof and formed such that the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the convex portion is set to be larger than the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the concave portion.

Image forming apparatus having a developer holder with a concavo-convex outer surface

A developing device includes a developer container; a developer holding body including a magnet member and a substantially cylindrical member; a transport member including a rotating shaft and a substantially spiral transport blade; a layer-thickness regulating member; and an interrupting member that is arranged between the developer holding body and the transport member, that intersects with a first virtual plane passing through a facing position between the regulating member and the developer holding body and being adjacent to a rotation locus of a radial-direction outer edge of the transport blade at a position at which a speed in a circumferential direction of the transport blade has a speed component toward the regulating member, and a second virtual plane passing through rotation centers of the developer holding body and transport member, and that interrupts movement of the developer pushed and moving in the radial direction of the transport blade.

Developing device, visible image forming device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including: a rotatable image-carrier; a charging unit that contacts and charges a surface of the image-carrier; an exposing unit that exposes the surface and forms a latent-image; a developing unit that develops the latent-image with a developer; a transfer unit that transfers a developed-toner-image onto a transfer-receiving member; a cleaning unit that is provided with a plate shaped cleaning member having a free end that faces upwards a corner portion of the free end contacting the surface, the cleaning member cleaning off developer remaining on the surface after transfer, and a developer pooling member provided between the cleaning member and the transfer unit, that temporarily pools the cleaned off developer at the free end; and a friction-coefficient reducing unit that reduces a friction-coefficient at the surface, and that reduces the friction-coefficient during non-image forming period to less than that during image forming period is provided.

Image forming apparatus including cleaning unit provided with cleaning member having free end facing upward and friction reducing unit, and image forming method

An image forming apparatus has an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a developing unit that develops the electrostatic latent image using a toner to form a toner image, and a cleaning unit that removes the toner remaining on the image carrier after transferring the toner image to a recording medium. The image forming apparatus includes a buffer housing unit that temporarily houses the toner removed by the cleaning unit, a first carrier unit comprising a carrier driving member, the first carrier unit provided between the cleaning unit and the buffer housing unit, and the first carrier unit carries the toner removed by the cleaning unit to the buffer housing unit using the a carrier driving member, a second carrier unit comprising a carrier driving member, the second carrier unit provided between the buffer housing unit and the developing unit, and the second carrier unit carries the toner housed in the buffer housing unit to the developing unit using the carrier driving member, a waste housing unit connected to the buffer housing unit, and a control unit that separately controls the carrier driving member of the first carrier unit and the carrier driving member of the second carrier unit, wherein the buffer housing unit has an upper limit of housing capacity, and the waste housing unit houses the toner exceeding the upper limit and overflowing from the buffer unit.

Image forming apparatus with toner recovery system

A color image forming apparatus includes image forming units, an intermediate transfer body, and cleaning units. The image forming units form toner images of different colors. Each image forming units includes a developing unit supplying toner of each color. The toner images of the respective colors formed by the image forming units are primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer body in a superposed manner. A toner image having been transferred onto the intermediate transfer body is secondarily transferred onto a recording medium. The cleaning units remove a residual toner on the intermediate transfer body. The cleaning units include first and second cleaning units. The first cleaning unit removes from the intermediate transfer body the largest amount of foreign matters, among all the cleaning units. A residual toner removed by at least the second cleaning unit is returned to one of developing units that supplies a black toner.

Color image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a latent-image carrier, a developing unit, a transfer unit, a cleaning unit, a recovered-toner supply unit, and a foreign-matter collecting unit. The developing unit carries a developer containing a toner and develops an electrostatic latent image on the latent-image carrier with the toner. The transfer unit transfers the toner developed on the latent-image carrier to a recording material directly or via an intermediate transfer body. The cleaning unit removes a toner remaining on at least one of the latent-image carrier and the intermediate transfer medium after the transfer. The recovered-toner supply unit supplies a toner removed by the cleaning unit to the developing unit again. The foreign-matter collecting unit collects a foreign matter, which is mixed into the toner supplied from the recovered-toner supply unit and moved onto the latent-image carrier by the developing unit, before the transfer by the transfer unit.

Image forming apparatus

Premising a duplex imaging apparatus having an image carrier provided with a plurality of image carrying regions, the image deterioration phenomenon (i.e., the so-called &ldquo;oil ghost phenomenon&rdquo;), as might otherwise accompany the local transfer of a releasing agent from a fixing unit to the image carrier, is effectively avoided. In a mode where the image carrier,is provided with the plural image carrying regions, duplex mode control unit,includes an imaging sequence determining portion,for determining such a fundamental imaging sequence that when duplex images are to be formed on sheets,more than an image carriable number of the image carrier,, the fundamental sequence determining portion,causes the image carrier,: to carry first screen images A less than the image carriable number in a first imaging cycle of an imaging unit,; to carry images corresponding to the image carriable number in and after a second imaging cycle so that at least second screen images B may be positioned at the front of the first screen images A; and to carry the second screen images B less than the image carriable number in the last imaging cycle.

Duplex imaging apparatus

Image deterioration (so-called oil ghost) due to local transfer of a release agent from a fuser to an intermediate transfer body is effectively prevented. The fuser has a pair of fixing members, a release supply mechanism, an interlocking mechanism, and an interlocking control mechanism. The fixing members are in contact with each other and roll over each other, thus nipping a sheet. The fixing members fix unfixed images on the sheet. The release agent supply mechanism is mounted to at least the fixing member located on the surface of the sheet carrying an unfixed image. The release agent supply mechanism supplies a release agent to this fixing member at a constant rate. The interlocking mechanism interlocks the fixing members and release agent supply mechanism with each other such that the fixing members are kept in contact with each other and roll over each other and that a release agent is supplied to the fixing members. When duplex mode is selected, the interlocking control mechanism controls the interlocking time of the interlocking mechanism according to the length of the path of the sheet going to the nip between the fixing members.

Fuser for two-sided imager

A developing machine and a developer carrier therefor, for visualizing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrostatic latent image carrier by adhesion of a developer which is carried while adhering on the surface of the developer carrier and given electric charge by triboelectricity. The developer carrier has a resin surface layer containing a charge-imparting agent selected from the group consisting of an iron complex, a basic amino acid, a polyamide fine powder, and a stearic acid salt.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Akihisa Maruyama