Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Akinori Takayama

Masaru Shimura

Kazuhiro Doda

Ichiro Yasumaru

Seiji Inada

Yuuichirou Inaba

Masahiro Suzuki

Takeo Kawanami

Hideki Maeshima

Kazunari Murayama

Shinji Katagiri

Shigeru Hoashi

Masaki Kakitani

Tatsuya Kinukawa

Michio Uchida

Shinichi Kimura

Hiromitsu Masuda

Yuuichiro Inaba

Yuuichirou c/o Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Inaba

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main assembly including a preventing portion; a supporting member for supporting a plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members, the supporting member being movable between an inside position inside the main assembly and an outside position outside the main assembly in a state in which the supporting member is supported by the main assembly and being disengageable from the main assembly at the outside position; a handle portion, provided to the supporting member, to be touched for disengaging the supporting member from the main assembly; and a portion to be prevented, provided to the supporting member, being movable between a preventing position in which the portion to be prevented contacts the preventing portion in order to prevent the supporting member from being disengaged from the main assembly and a retracted position in which the portion to be prevented is retracted from the preventing position in order to disengaging the supporting member from the main assembly. The portion to be prevented is moved from the preventing position to the retracted position by the touch of the handle portion.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus and supporting member

A voice coil actuator utilizes an eddy current magnet configured for positioning proximal to the outer perimeter side face of one or more recording disk, and which cooperates with the conductive side face to generate an eddy current force to rotate a latch lever to an unlatched position. Embodiments may include an end cam on a base on which the latch lever is rotatably disposed, and the latch lever includes a cam follower capable of rotatably engaging with the end cam, whereby the magnetic attraction between the eddy current magnet and the voice coil actuator yoke generates a latch bias force which causes the end cam and cam follower to engage or mesh in order to hold the latch lever in a latched position.

Hard disk drive voice coil actuator latch

An image forming apparatus includes a movable belt; a transfer member opposed to the image bearing member with the belt therebetween; wherein the transfer member has a contact surface substantially parallel with a surface of the belt and contacted to the belt, and wherein when the belt is moving, the belt rubs the contact surface, and a toner image is transferred from such a part of image bearing member as is opposed to the contact surface; and a supporting member for supporting the transfer member, the supporting member being swingable.

Image forming apparatus having movable endless belt supporting member

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member unit including a toner image carrying member, a transfer unit including a movable endless belt for transferring the toner image from the carrying member onto a transfer material, a plurality of stretching members for stretching the endless belt, and a supporting portion, provided at an end portion with respect to a widthwise direction, for supporting the stretching members. In addition, a main assembly frame is provided at a position opposing the supporting portion and includes a positioning portion for determining positions of the plurality of stretching members, wherein the supporting portion is movable relative to the main assembly frame.

Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, one of a plurality of support members supporting an intermediate transfer belt is a guide member configured to regulate the rotational direction of the intermediate transfer belt while being held in sliding contact with the intermediate transfer belt at a position opposite the secondary transfer member across the intermediate transfer belt. This guide member is equipped with a first resistor portion in sliding contact with the intermediate transfer belt and a second resistor portion of a higher electrical resistance than the first resistor portion, with the second resistor portion provided upstream of the first resistor portion in the rotational direction of the intermediate transfer belt.

Image forming apparatus having a second resistor portion with a higher electrical resistance than a first resistor portion

An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly and a door for opening and closing an opening. A supporting member supports a plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members, and is movable between (i) a first position, in which latent images are formable on the electrophotographic photosensitive members, (ii) a second position, in which the supporting member is retracted from the first position, and (iii) a third position outside the main assembly in a state in which the supporting member is supported by the main assembly. The supporting member is disengageable from the main assembly at the third position. A cover member protects an exposed portion of the plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members exposed from the supporting member. The cover member is capable of covering and uncovering the exposed portion. The cover member is changed from an open state to a closed state by the touch of a handle portion.

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material includes a cartridge supporting member movable between an inside position inside a main assembly of the apparatus while supporting cartridges and an outside position outside the main assembly of the apparatus. The apparatus includes a plurality of positioning urging devices that urge the cartridges to positioning portions, and a plurality of spacing urging devices that urge the cartridges in directions of spacing from the positioning portions. The urging forces of the plurality of spacing urging devices are smaller than a combination of an urging force of the plurality of positioning urging devices and forces applied to the plurality of spacing urging devices by weights of the cartridges.

Color electrophotographic image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly; a door openable relative to the main assembly; an image bearing member for bearing a toner image; a cleaning member for removing toner remaining on the image bearing member; a transfer member for transferring the toner image onto a sheet; a fixing member for fixing the toner image, transferred by the transfer member, on the sheet; a discharging member for discharging the sheet, on which the toner image is fixed by the fixing member, from the main assembly. The sheet remaining in the main assembly without being discharged by the discharging member is capable of being removed from a space formed by opening the door. The image forming apparatus further includes a spacer unit capable of moving the cleaning member toward and away from the image bearing member. The spacer unit brings the cleaning member into contact with the image bearing member in a state in which the door is closed and image formation is effected, and moves the cleaning member away from the image bearing member in interrelation with an opening operation of the door.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a movable member including a mounting portion for detachably mounting a cartridge, with the movable member being movable from an outside toward an inside of a main assembly of the apparatus while supporting the cartridge. The apparatus further comprises an output contact and an intermediary electrical contact configured and positioned to supply a bias voltage received by the output contact to the cartridge, with intermediary electrical contact being disposed on the mounting portion and being elastically deformable in a moving direction in which the movable member is movable between the outside and the inside. The cartridge includes an input electrical contact and a cartridge side contact portion.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus and process cartridge with electrical contacts that urge developer roller to photosensitive drum

Image forming apparatus featuring a rotatable supporting member for a transfer belt

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main assembly, with the main assembly including a preventing portion. The apparatus also includes a supporting member for supporting a plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members, with the supporting member being movable between an inside position inside the main assembly, and an outside position outside the main assembly in a state in which the supporting member is supported by the main assembly and being disengageable from the main assembly at the outside position. A handle portion is provided to the supporting member, to be touched for disengaging the supporting member from the main assembly, with the handle portion being provided upstream of the plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members with respect to a movement direction in which the supporting member is moved from the inside position to the outside position.

Image forming apparatus having transfer member supported by rotatable supporting member

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a main assembly mounting a process cartridge, a movable member movable from outside to inside the main assembly while supporting the cartridge, and an intermediary electrical contact supplying a bias voltage to the cartridge and disposed at a downstream side of the movable member. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, process means actable on the drum, an input electrical contact at a leading end with respect to the moving direction of the movable member when the cartridge is supported on the movable member and contacting the intermediary electrical contact when the cartridge is supported on the movable member, a contact portion provided at an upstream side with respect to the moving direction and contactable to the movable member when the input electrical contact is contacted by the intermediary electrical contact and is elastically urged by the intermediary electrical contact.

Growing community of inventors

Suntoh-gun, Japan

Akinori Takayama