Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nitto Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Goro Mori

Yoshihide Sugiyama

Masatoshi Hosoi

Yuji Ueno

Nobuyuki Morii

Masahiro Minato

Nobuyoshi Seki

Takashi Komada

Tsutomu Ichinose

Masashi Shimada

Toshiyuki Kikuchi

Shin Umeda

Atuhisa Hujiwara

Yoshiyuki Kobayashi

Shigeru Suzuki

Masumi Ikesue

Kyoji Omi

Masaaki Ogura

Yasumori Nagahara

Shigeyuki Araki

Hirobumi Yoshino

Takashi Taruki

Masami Miyajima

Shiro Saeki

Takamasa Hayashi

Kunihiro Uotani

Toshitaka Senma

Takundo Isobe

Fumitaka Hyodou

Naoki Toda

Makoto Hashimoto

Masaru Takahashi

Yoshiharu Kagari

Masahiro Yamamoto

Kenji Mori

Katuo Akimoto

An endless conveyor belt that has a nonexpansible and noncontractive core member and an elastic laminate layer bonded to one of the core surfaces. The core member and the laminate layer are preformed as an endless belt, respectively, and bonded together to constitute an endless conveyor belt. The conveyor belt is used for conveying an original paper to a predetermined position on a contact glass where the original paper is operated a predetermined treatment. The conveyor belt is assembled within an ADF in cooperation with belt rollers to rotary drive the conveyor belt. The belt is formed by a method that includes: a core belt forming process in which an endless core belt is formed from a nonexpansible and noncontractive material; a laminate layer forming process in which a laminate layer in a form of an endless belt is formed from an elastic thermoplastic material; and a bonding process in which the laminate layer is bonded to at least one of the surfaces of the endless core belt.

Endless belt

An image forming apparatus which forms an image on a recording medium at a number of different dot densities. The image forming apparatus includes a light source part for emitting a light beam, a light detection part for detecting a light beam from the light detection part detecting a light beam from the light source part and for supplying a signal indicative of a power of the detected light beam when a monitored voltage obtained by the light beam is approximately equal to a reference voltage, a memory part for storing a number of power data corresponding to the number of different dot densities, an input part for inputting a first dot density selected, a power data control part for supplying a signal indicative of a changed power data which is changed from a value of said power of the detected light beam with a power data stored in the memory means which is located by the selected first dot density, and a driving part for operating the light source with the signal from the power data control part allowing the light source to emit a light beam with the changed power, the changed power being appropriate for forming an image on the recording medium at the selected first dot density.

Image forming apparatus with plural dot densities

A finisher for positioning stacks of paper sheets each being loaded on individual bins of a sorter and stapling the positioned stacks by a stapler one at a time. The finisher has a paper pulling device for pulling a stack of paper sheets to a stapling position of the stapler. The paper pulling device has an upper and a lower chuck which cooperate to grip the stack of paper sheets at a plurality of points of the latter. The upper and lower chucks are mounted on the free ends of an upper and a lower rotatable lever, respectively.

Finisher for finishing paper sheets

A paper handing apparatus having a plurality of bins, a chuck unit and a stapler unit movable up and down along the bins, and a sorting unit. The sorting unit distributes a number of paper sheets received from a copier or similar image forming apparatus to the bins, while the stapler unit binds an end portion of each of the stacks of paper sheets loaded in the individual bins. The stapler is movable between and lockable at a position for binding a paper stack and a position for supplying staples. The stapler unit is removable from the sorting unit. Doors such as a stapler door are provided on the housing of the apparatus. When a door other than the stapler door is opened when the stapler is performing a stapling operation, the stapling operation is continued until it completes.

Paper handling apparatus

A recycling automatic document feeder for a copier which feeds a stack of documents loaded on a document table one by one to a predetermined exposing position, returning the document to the top of the stack after imagewise exposure, and refeeding such documents one by one to the exposing position. A discharge section is movable on and along the table in an intended direction of document feed. The document feeder is capable of returning documents of various sides easily to the top of the document stack which is located at a document feed position on the table.

Recycling automatic document feeder for feeding documents of various

A finisher having a stapler for stapling paper sheets sequentially discharged onto a two-sided copy tray of a copier, facsimile machine, printer or similar equipment or onto a bin of a sorter. A paper positioning device included in the finisher has a bin fence and a positioning member. The bin fence is provided on each bin and extends along one side edge of the bin. A positioning member is reciprocatingly movable from a standby position thereof toward the bin fence and back to the standby position. During such a reciprocating motion, the positioning member is repetitively brought into and out of contact with a stack of paper sheets to thereby position the stack. The moving speed of the positioning member is variable.

A paper positioning device having a paper positioning member which is pivotable in abutment against one edge of a paper sheet loaded on a receptacle for moving the paper sheet to a positioning position for thereby positioning the paper sheet. By a simple mechanism and control, the movement of the paper positioning member is slowed down at the positioning position and accelerated until the positioning member reachines it. The paper positioning member performs a pivoting movement twice while a drive shaft associated therewith performs a reciprocating movement once. The device is, therefore, no only durable but also positions paper sheets efficiently and positively without damaging the paper sheets.

Paper positioning device

A paper handling apparatus having a plurality of bins and a chuck unit and a stapler which are movable along the bins and causing the stapler to bind an end portion of a stack of paper sheets which have been received from a copier or similar image forming apparatus, sorted, and then loaded on any one of the bins. The chuck unit has an upper and a lower chuck. After the stapler has bound a stack of paper sheets a push bar independent of the chucks of the chuck unit pushes the end of the stack to return it into the bin. Both the upper and lower chucks are movable up and down. The force which the chucks exert on a stack of paper sheets is controlled in matching relation to the thickness of the stack.

A system for determining the existence of a selected size and orientation of copy papers to be used in a copying machine is provided. Such a system is particularly useful when applied to a copying machine for making copies from an original with various magnification ratios. The system has a size indicator as well as an orientation indicator so that when installed copy papers do not satisfy the condition required by a desired mode of copying operation, it will be clearly indicated whether the size and/or the orientation of the installed copy papers are inappropriate. Thus, convenience in using a copying machine has been greatly improved.

Reproduction system with a variable magnifying function

Timing pulses (TP) are generated in response to incremental rotation of a photoconductive drum (40). The pulses (TP) are counted by a presettable counter (10) and decoded to produce control signals (STEP.sub.n) for scanning of an original document, sheet feed and other operations. When the count in the counter (10) reaches a certain value, the counter (10) is preset to a value depending on the paper size. A single control program is provided having a sequence of fixed program steps which are executed in response to respective counts in the counter (10). The smaller paper lengths are accommodated by programably presetting the counter (10) in such a manner as to skip unnecessary count sequences.

Copying machine control apparatus comprising variable length program

Either a single copy or a plurality of copies of an original document may be made. Making a single copy or the last copy of a plurality of copies comprises, during a first revolution of a photoconductive drum, electrostatically charging the drum, radiating a light image of the document onto the drum to form an electrostatic image, developing the electrostatic image using a magnetic brush to form a toner image, transferring the toner image to a copy sheet, electrostatically discharging the drum and uniformly radiating the drum with light to further discharge the same. During a second revolution of the drum the drum is cleaned with the same magnetic brush to remove residual toner, and again electrostatically discharged and uniformly radiated. During a third revolution of the drum the magnetic brush is again used for cleaning. For making all but the last of a plurality of copies, the drum is charged, imaged, transferred and electrostatically discharged during a first revolution thereof and cleaned with the magnetic bruch during a second revolution. Whether the process is used to make one or more copies, the same portion of the drum is always used. Subsequently, the drum rotation is indexed so that the next process will use a different portion of the drum.

Electrophotographic process

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Goro Mori