Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Haruji Mizuishi

Ken Amemiya

Masaru Tanaka

Hiroshi Mizusawa

Yuji Arai

Masami Tomita

Toshio Koike

Masanori Kawasumi

Kenzo Tatsumi

Hiroshi Ono

Takeo Suda

Takaaki Tawada

Takatsugu Fujishiro

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Shigeru Watanabe

Takeshi Shintani

Satoshi Hatori

Shinji Tamaki

Satoshi Narumi

Hideki Zemba

Takeshi Uchitani

Satoshi Takano

Yoshiki Hozumi

Shinichi Kawahara

Masato Yanagida

Takaya Muraishi

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Shin Hasegawa

Hiroshi Itoh

Yutaka Takahashi

Hirokazu Ishii

Hitoshi Ishibashi

Yoshio Hattori

Mitsuo Aoki

Kaoru Yoshino

Nobuo Kuwabara

Mayumi Ohori

Takuzi Yoneda

Tokuya Ojimi

Toshitaka Yamaguchi

Hideki Zenba

Hiroyuki Ohkaji

Kenzou Tatsumi

Tsutomu Katoh

Kazuhito Watanabe

Fumio Kishi

Noriyuki Usui

Hiroomi Harada

Tetsuroh Tanigawa

Keiichi Yoshida

Hiromichi Ninomiya

Misao Tanzawa

Mayumi Yoshida

Takeshi Tabuchi

Mayumi Oh-Hori

Shuji Tanaka

Akira Fujimori

Yasushi Akiba

Mikio Ishibashi

Itaru Matsuda

Bing Shu

Kouji Ishigaki

Akio Kutsuwada

Tokuya Ohjimi

Kenji Karashima

Hiroyuki Okaji

Eiji Shimojo

Yuko Hayama

Hisashi Fuzisaki

Chohtaroh Kataoka

Masaharu Yokono

Teruyuki Kasuga

Hideyo Watanabe

Nobuo Kuwahara

Tazuki Yoneda

A cleaning roller cleaning a surface of a cleaning component, wherein the cleaning roller is provided in a roller configuration having a cylindrical shape and has a portion in contact with the cleaning component, the portion being made of a melamine resin foam having a continuous foam structure, the melamine resin foam being provided by heating compression from an original configuration in a radial direction, and wherein the portion in contact with the cleaning component has a continuous foam structure and a tensile strength in a range of 1.7&#xb1;0.5 kg/cm, and an image forming apparatus incorporating the same.

Charging device, process cartridge, image forming apparatus, and toner

The present invention provides a charging device which comprises a charging roller () and a cleaning component (). The charging roller charges a surface of an image-recording medium () with a voltage which is applied from an external source. The cleaning component cleans a surface of the charging roller. The charging roller includes a resistance adjustment layer which is made of a resin composite and formed on an outer periphery of a core metal. The hardness of the charging roller is 45 degrees or more in JIS D hardness. The cleaning component has a portion which is in contact with the charging roller. This portion is made of resin foam which has a continuous foam structure. The density of the resin foam is 5 to 15 kg/mand its tensile strength is 1.7&#xb1;0.5 kg/cm.

In an image forming apparatus, an area applied with a lubricant, i.e., an area of a lubricant layer having a uniform thickness, is obtained by spreading the lubricant by a lubricant smoothing blade. The area applied with a lubricant covers an area cleaned by a cleaning blade, i.e., a contact portion of the cleaning blade with a photoconductor.

Image forming apparatus, lubricant applying device, transfer device, process cartridge, and toner

A lubricant supplying device including a molded lubricant having a Martens hardness of about 40 N/mmto about 70 N/mmmeasured with a test force of 50 mN and a load-applying period of 30 seconds, a rotative member including a fibrous brush of a thickness of about 5 deniers to about 15 deniers in a circumference of a rotative supporting axis of the rotative member with a density of about 20,000 fibers to about 100,000 fibers per square inch, and configured to apply lubricant shavings of the molded lubricant to an image bearing member held in contact with a cleaning member and to remove the lubricant shavings remaining on the surface of the image bearing member, and a pressing member configured to press the molded lubricant against the rotative member at a pressure force ranging from about 2 N/m to about 12 N/m.

Method and apparatus for image forming and effectively applying lubricant to an image bearing member

An image forming apparatus having an image support body configured to support a latent image, a charging member configured to provide a substantially uniform charge to a surface of the image support body and a spacer coupled to the charging member and configured to contact the image support body to maintain a gap between the image support body and the charging member. A cleaning part is configured to clean the surface of the image support body after developer is applied to the image support body and transferred to a recording medium. The cleaning part is configured to satisfy the relationship A+B&#x2266;C, where A is a width of the effective charging area of the charging member that charges a surface of the image support body, B is a total width of the spacer that contacts the image support body, and C is a width of cleaning part that contacts the image support body.

Image forming apparatus and toner

A carrier and a dummy toner are stored in a developing unit of a process cartridge in a brand new status. A plurality of process cartridges corresponding to a plurality of color toners is used in common. The color toners are respectively supplied to the developing unit from toner supply units after the process cartridges in the brand new status are installed in installation sections in a main unit of an image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus, process cartridge, developing unit, and image forming method

A process cartridge is provided with a frame body made up of at least first and second frame bodies that are movable relative to each other to form a space, a frame body positioning member positioning the first and second frame bodies, a latent image bearing member supported by the frame body and replaceable via the space formed by the first and second frame bodies, a developing unit supplying a developing agent to the latent image bearing member, and a developing position determining member. The developing position determining member is disposed at a non-overlapping position relative to the frame body positioning member, and positions the developing unit with respect to the frame body.

Process cartridge including at least one replaceable member and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, a charging member, and a measuring member. The image forming member is configured to bear an image. The charging member is configured to charge a surface of the image bearing member when a direct current bias voltage is added to at least an alternating bias voltage which is applied to the charging member, and has a frequency fc of the alternating bias voltage. The measuring member is configured to measure a potential of the surface of the image bearing member, and has a drive frequency fvsen. The relationship of the frequency fc and the drive frequency fvsen is expressed as fc&#x2260;fvsen&#xd7;n and fc&#xd7;n&#x2260;fvsen.

Method and apparatus for image forming capable of effectively preventing resonance of frequencies

A lubricant supplying device including a molded lubricant having a Martens hardness of approximately 40 N/mmto approximately 70 N/mmmeasured with a test force of 50 mN and a load-applying period of 30 seconds, a rotative member including a fibrous brush of a thickness of approximately 5 deniers to approximately 15 deniers in a circumference of a rotative supporting axis of the rotative member with a density of approximately 20,000 fibers to approximately 100,000 fibers per square inch, and configured to apply lubricant shavings of the molded lubricant to an image bearing member held in contact with a cleaning member and remove the lubricant shavings remaining on the surface of the image bearing member, and a pressing member configured to press contact the molded lubricant with the rotative member at a pressure force ranging from approximately 2 N/m to approximately 12 N/m.

A charge apparatus charges by uniformly superimposing an alternate current bias voltage with a fixed frequency over a direct current bias voltage as the charge bias voltage on a photosensitive member. An exposure apparatus exposes the surface of the charged photosensitive member based on image data, and writes a latent image, and a developing apparatus supplies toner to and makes visible the latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive member. A transfer apparatus transfers the visible image on the photosensitive member to a transfer medium, and a cleaning apparatus cleans the surface of the photosensitive member after transfer.

Image forming apparatus that charges a photosensitive member by superimposing an alternate current bias voltage on a direct current bias voltage as the charge bias voltage

A cleaning device, a process cartridge, an image forming apparatus, and toner to maintain improved cleaning performance for a long time. The cleaning device includes a cleaning blade, a lubricant applying part, and a toner removing part. The cleaning blade is disposed in contact with a surface of an image bearing member. The lubricant applying part coats a solid lubricant on the surface of the image bearing member, and is disposed in an upstream side from the cleaning blade with respect to a rotational direction of the image bearing member. The toner removing part removes toner particles, and is disposed in an upstream side from the lubricant applying part with respect to the rotational direction of the image bearing member.

Cleaning device, process cartridge, image forming apparatus and toner

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image on a surface thereof. A charging mechanism is configured to uniformly charge the surface of the image bearing member. An intermediate transfer mechanism is configured to transfer the toner image from the image bearing member onto an image receiver. A cleaning mechanism is configured to clean the surface of the image bearing member after the toner image is transferred onto the image receiver. A lubricant supplying mechanism is configured to supply a lubricant contained therein onto the surface of the image bearing member and form a thin layer using a lubricating blade. The lubricant supplying mechanism is disposed between the cleaning mechanism and the charging mechanism.

Method and apparatus for image forming capable of using minuscule spherical particles of toner, a process cartridge in use for the apparatus and a toner used in the image forming for obtaining an image with a high thin line reproducibility

The image forming apparatus comprises a photoconductor, a latent electrostatic image forming unit for forming a latent electrostatic image on the photoconductor, a developing unit for developing the latent electrostatic image using a developer comprising a toner to form a visible image, a transfer unit for transferring the visible image to a recording medium, a cleaning unit for removing the developer remained on the photoconductor surface and a developer amount detection unit for detecting developer amount adhering to the photoconductor surface by a reflecting photosensor, wherein the developer stirring time per copy when one copy is made from an original, is 2 to 6 times the developer stirring time per copy when two or more copies are made from the original, wherein the toner comprises at least a binder resin and a wax, and the dynamic frictional coefficient of the toner is 0.15 to 0.45.

Image forming process and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier that carries an electrostatic latent image, a developer carrier that carries a two-component developer containing toner and magnetic particles, and an electric field forming device that forms a developing electric field to develop the electrostatic latent image with the toner in a developing region where the developer carrier faces the latent image carrier. A magnetic brush is formed by magnetically adsorbing the two-component developer onto the surface of the developer carrier to develop the latent image with the toner in the magnetic brush. A developing gap between the developer carrier and the latent image carrier in the developing region is set so as not to press the toner in the magnetic brush against the surface of the developer carrier that faces a non-image portion of the latent image carrier and set so as not to fix the toner onto the developer carrier.

Image forming apparatus including developing gap between image and developer carriers

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Tokyo, Japan

Haruji Mizuishi