Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Fumihito Ito

Osamu Kizaki

Mark Owen Lepper

Takashi Honda

Takeru Fukuda

Toshihiko Tani

Mark R Risdale

Tether clip locks garnish to vehicle body pillar, and when airbag body expands, tether clip releases garnish from vehicle body pillar without breaking garnish and prevents flying of garnish. Tether clip covers, from vehicle interior side, vehicle body pillar in which airbag body is housed, wherein tether clip locks garnish to vehicle body pillar. Tether clip includes: inner locking portion locked to pillar garnish; outer locking portion locked to vehicle body pillar; connecting portion for connecting inner locking portion and outer locking portion; and wire for tethering inner locking portion and outer locking portion to each other, wherein connecting portion is formed fragile against pressing force that is generated when airbag body presses garnish by expanding and developing, and wherein wire is wound around either inner locking portion or outer locking portion in direction around axis extending from inner locking portion to outer locking portion.

Tether clip

An image forming apparatus and method are provided that effectively remove inversely charged toner and normally charged toner attached to a transfer medium by employing two cleaning modes of operation. In a first cleaning operational mode, in which a transfer belt is brought into contact with a non-charged photosensitive body and a transfer bias is applied thereto from a bias roller, the inversely charged toner attached to the transfer belt is fully transferred onto the photosensitive body. Furthermore, in a second cleaning mode of operation, the transfer belt is brought into contact with the non-charged photosensitive body and the transfer bias is not applied hereto, as a consequence the normally charged toner attached to the transfer belt is fully transferred onto the photosensitive body.

Image forming apparatus and method with cleaning features

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Fumihito Ito