Konica Corporation

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Atsushi Ogane

Toshio Shida

Tadayoshi Ikeda

Tadashi Miwa

Yozo Fujii

Hisao Satoh

Isao Matsuoka

Mitsugu Nemoto

Naoki Otomo

Kenji Matsumoto

Kazuhiko Sato

Junichi Hamada

Junichi Koiso

Shigeru Okazaki

Kenji Kato

Kiyohari Nakagama

Takayuki Horie

Yasushi Koshimura

Hideki Endo

Hisao Sato

Hideo Satoh

Yukiko Omori

Takeshi Sakabe

Motoji Kawamoto

Naoko Otomo

Shun Kawata

An image forming apparatus having a corona discharger for charging a photoreceptor with an electrostatic charge, a fixing unit to fix a toner image onto a recording medium, a fan for drawing air to cool the fixing device and a space adjacent the fixing device and the duct communicating the fan, the duct having an opening to guide air into the corona discharger via another opening provided in the rear plate functioning as a shielding electrode of the corona discharger.

Image forming apparatus having a corona discharge air supplying section

A cleaning method of a toner image carrying body, includes the steps of: bringing a discharging member formed in a shape of flexible plate having electric conductivity, which is electrically grounded or to which a discharging voltage is applied, into contact with the toner image carrying body, thereby discharging a toner on the toner image carrying body; and operating a cleaning device on the toner image carrying body whereby cleaning the toner.

Cleaning method of toner image carrying body, cleaning device of the toner image carrying body and image forming apparatus equipped therewith

Electronic copier

A two-sided copying apparatus includes: an image forming device for forming an image on a recording sheet; a fixing device for fixing the image on the recording sheet; a branching device for branching the recording sheet on which the image was fixed by the fixing device to eject outside the apparatus or to feed again inside the apparatus for a two-sided image formation; a plurality of holding devices each for holding one edge of the recording sheet fed again inside the apparatus, wherein the holding device temporarily stops while holding the recording sheet and feeds again in a reverse direction onto a transfer station; and a supporting and guiding device for supporting and guiding the plurality of the holding devices.

Two-sided copying apparatus including a reversing stop mechanism

An charging apparatus includes a housing having a charging side adapted to face a photoreceptor; and a sharp-edged electrode charging member provided in the housing so that the photoreceptor is charged through the charging side by corona discharge from the sharp-edged electrode charging member. The charging apparatus further comprises an air introducing member provided a rear side opposite to the charging side and for introducing air into the housing.

Charging device

A process cartridge is provided detachably mountable to and for use in an image forming apparatus. The process cartridge includes a charging unit, an exposure unit and a developing unit around a photoreceptor. A toner supply unit is integrally provided on the front side of the process cartridge. A toner accommodation casing is provided in the toner supply unit for accommodating toner. The toner accommodating casing composes a structural portion of the process cartridge.

Process cartridge for use in image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including a lower half body; an upper half body which is mounted on the lower half body and has an axis arranged in parallel to a sheet passage so that the upper half body can be pivoted around the axis; and a platen cover provided on the upper half body so as to open or close in the same direction as that of the upper half body: wherein the sum of pivot angle of the upper half body and the platen cover is smaller than 90 degrees.

Image forming apparatus of a clamshell type

A color image forming machine includes a plurality of exposure units for irradiating an image carrier movable in a secondary scanning direction of the exposure units by primary scanning beams, at a plurality of irradiation positions to form latent images, a plurality of charging units for charging the image carrier corresponding to the irradiation positions of the exposure units and a plurality of developing units to form toner images corresponding the latent images. The plurality of toner images are superimposed on the image carrier to obtain a multi-color or full-color images trough transferring and fixing. A light-reflective registration mark is provided to a non-image area on one side of the image carrier. Employing at least two exposure units, irradiation by each primary scanning beam is conducted to the light-reflective registration mark moving in the secondary scanning direction. Each reflected beam from the registration mark is received by a plurality of photoreceptor sensors and then detection signals of a registration mark position are generated. Timing of writing by the primary scanning beam and a distance between bright lines formed on the image carrier by primary scanning beams of at least two exposure units are detected. The detected result is fed back to control the start timing of image writing and the driving of the image carrier.

Color image forming apparatus

An exposure device includes a polygon mirror to scan a photoreceptors with a plurality of laser beams to write plural color component latent images. The polygon mirror receives two laser beams at its two mirrors which are arranged diagonal to each other and reflects the two laser beams in the opposite directions to each other so that a first laser beam scans from the first side to the second side of the photoreceptor. On the photoreceptor are provided sensors to output first and second position signals independently when the first and second laser beams pass respectively the reference position mark disposed at one side on the photoreceptor. The exposure device is controlled in accordance with the position signals so that the start timing of the first laser beam is determined on the basis of the first position signal which is obtained in the current scanning line of the first laser beam and that the start timing of the second laser beam is determined on the basis of the second position signal which has been obtained in the previous scanning line of the second laser beam.

Exposure unit for a multicolor image forming apparatus capable of better

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Hachioji, Japan

Atsushi Ogane