Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Ricoh Printing Systems, Ltd.

Ricoh Printing Sysetms, Inc.

Albedo Co., Ltd.

Haruo Hashimoto

Masafumi Takahira

Kaoru Tada

Genta Hagiwara

Nobuhiko Kita

Tatsuo Fukushima

Sei Onuma

Katsumi Kumada

Takamitsu Ikematsu

Kenji Nakamura

Kozo Yamazaki

Kazuhiro Wakamatsu

Tadashi Okano

Yuusuke Furuichi

Tomohiro Kubota

Yoshiyuki Shimizu

Kazuyoshi Kondo

Tomofumi Yoshida

Hirobumi Ooyoshi

Masanari Fujita

Shoh Tsuritani

Manabu Hamada

Koji Nagase

Shinichi Arasawa

Takeru Muramatsu

Yuuki Shiga

Masato Moribe

Shoji Ukei

Taiji Akagawa

Kouichi Oomori

Akio Miyauchi

An apparatus body includes a housing, a drawer, a push-out mechanism, and a positioner. The drawer is attachable to and detachable from the housing. The push-out mechanism pushes out the drawer by a predetermined amount from a setting position at which the drawer is positioned in the housing. The positioner positions the drawer at the setting position in the housing. The positioner includes a fitting hole disposed in one of the housing and the drawer and a positioning pin disposed in the other of the housing and the drawer. The positioning pin positions the drawer at the setting position in the housing in response to fitting of the positioning pin into the fitting hole. The positioning pin and the fitting hole each have a form that releases the fitting in response to pushing out of the drawer by the predetermined amount from the setting position.

Apparatus body and image forming apparatus

A power supply device to electroconductively connect a power-fed terminal included in a power-fed unit and a power supply terminal of a power supply board. The power supply device includes a unit contact portion to contact the power-fed terminal; a board contact portion to contact the power supply board; a connector to connect the unit contact portion and the board contact portion; and a support member to support the unit contact portion, the board contact portion, and the connector. The unit contact portion is held on an inner face of the support member opposed to the power-fed unit; the board contact portion is held on an outer face of the support member opposed to the power supply board; and the connector connects the unit contact portion and the board contact portion through the support member.

Power supply device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a pair of side walls disposed opposite each other; a driven unit supported between the side walls; a drive unit with drive transmission gears attached to one of the side walls and drives the driven unit; and a reinforcing member connecting the pair of side walls. One end of the reinforcing member is attached to the side wall opposite the other side wall to which the drive unit is attached and the other end is attached to the drive unit. The driven unit is an image forming unit including at least an image carrier. The image carrier includes a rotary shaft, both lateral ends of which are supported by the pair of side walls. A gear portion engaging the drive transmission gears of the drive unit is disposed on one end of the rotary shaft of the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus capable of preventing the image formation unit from being attached to a guide member for the image formation unit mistakenly, including an apparatus body; an image carrier including a rotary shaft; an exposure device configured to form a latent image through exposure of a surface of the image carrier and retractable from an exposure position; an image formation unit disposed detachably from the apparatus body; and a guide member to guide the exposure device to the exposure position. In the optimal apparatus, the guide member is used both to guide the image formation unit to the apparatus body and to guide the exposure device to the exposure position.

An image forming apparatus includes: a developer container to contain a developer therein and a developer supply port; an image forming unit to form an image with the developer from the developer container and including a developer intake port; an openable/closable upper cover configured to cover an upper part of the developer container in a closed state and take out the developer container in an open state; an openable/closable retention cover to hold the developer container and configured to allow the image forming unit to be removed when the retention cover is opened; a coupling device to secure a coupled state of the developer supply port of the developer container with the developer intake port of the image forming unit when the upper cover is in a closed state; and a disconnection preventer to prevent the developer container from disconnecting from the retention cover when the upper cover is opened.

An image forming apparatus including an upper cover, an image forming unit including an image carrier and a developing device, a toner container detachably connectable to the developing device to supply toner to the developing device through an opening in the toner container, a shutter provided to the toner container and biased by a first elastic member in a direction to close the opening of the toner container, a link member integrated with the shutter, a shutter switching member to switch a position of the shutter to an open position by moving the link member to a pressing position, and an interlock mechanism to retract the shutter switching member from the pressing position in conjunction with opening of the upper cover. The opening is closed with the shutter by switching the shutter switching member to a retracted position in conjunction with the opening of the upper cover.

An image forming apparatus includes an outer cover in which an air intake and an exhaust outlet are formed, an image forming unit, a fixing device to fix an image on a recording medium and including a fixing casing in which a sheet inlet and a first exhaust opening are formed, and a thermal shield disposed above the sheet inlet of the fixing device and between the fixing device and a component adjacent to the fixing device, an air channel to guide air sucked in through the air intake to the exhaust outlet, defined by the thermal shield as well as the fixing casing. The first exhaust opening formed in the fixing casing communicates with the air channel formed by the thermal shield and the fixing casing to merge the hot air discharged from the fixing device into the air flowing in the air channel.

An image forming apparatus includes a main-body housing, a cover rotatably attached to the main-body housing, a latent image bearing member provided in the housing, an optical writing head to write a latent image on the latent image bearing member, a head retainer rotatably attached to the cover to hold the optical writing head, a biasing member to bias the head retainer in a rotation direction thereof, and a guide member. The guide member provided to the main-body housing is pressed by the optical writing head biased by the biasing member while guiding the optical writing head in a first direction and a second direction in association with movement of the cover. The first direction is a direction in which the optical writing head approaches the latent image bearing member, and the second direction is a direction in which the optical writing head separates from the latent image bearing member.

Optical element retainer and image forming apparatus including the optical element retainer

An image forming apparatus includes an exposure device as a light source, a developer container storing developer and attached to a main body of the image forming apparatus perpendicular to a lengthwise direction of the photoconductor, a developing unit and a photoconductor unit having a photoconductor for bearing a latent image thereon each detachably attached to the main body substantially in the same direction as the developer container. An exposure device displacing mechanism displaces the exposure device between a first position enabling the exposure device to function as the light source and a second position disabling the exposure device to function as the light source. The photoconductor unit is detached when the developer container is either displaced from an initially attached position or is removed from the main body and the exposure device displacing device has displaced the exposure device to the second position.

Image forming apparatus capable of effectively utilizing interior space

A bush for isolating a stabilizer from vibration, is adapted to be fitted from the open end of an axle beam having a substantially U-shaped cross-section, to a stabilizer bar passing through the inside of the axle beam. The bush includes a fitting hole and an opening for guiding the bar into the fitting hole. The opening has a pair of first projections facing each other and a pair of second projections facing each other. When the opening becomes engaged with the bar, the first and second projections sequentially and individually contact with the bar and elastically deform in the direction in which the opening opens. When the fitting hole has engaged with the bar, the bush makes contact with the inner surface of the beam and elastically deforms in the direction in which the opening closes, and this causes the second projections to make contact with the first projections

Bush for isolating stabilizer from vibration

An interlock system includes first and second racks movable in parallel to each other in a longitudinal direction between opening and closing positions in conjunction with opening and closing of the first cover, respectively. A housing is provided to slidably accommodate the first and second racks in the longitudinal direction. A pinion unit is provided and is sandwiched by the first and second racks. The first and second racks have meshing sections respectively meshing with the pinion unit at one side surfaces extending in the longitudinal direction facing each other. The pinion unit slides in the longitudinal direction by a prescribed length in conjunction with movement of at least one of the first and second racks. The interlock switch is turned on and off in accordance with a sliding length of the pinion unit in the longitudinal direction.

Interlock system and image forming apparatus incorporating interlock system

An image forming apparatus includes a transfer belt that conveys a transfer material, and a photosensitive body that catches the transfer material between the photosensitive body and the transfer belt and that transfers a toner image to the transfer material. The transfer belt is driven in conjunction with the opening action of the front cover, and the photosensitive body is separated from the transfer belt in conjunction with the opening action of the front cover.

Image forming apparatus performing image formation by conveying paper

In an interlock device for turning a switch on and off in accordance with closing and opening of a plurality of covers covering a body of an electronic apparatus, one striker protrudes from each of the covers. An engagement member is provided inside the body of the electronic apparatus to move in a predetermined direction to contact and separate from the switch to turn the switch on and off. All the strikers contact the engagement member to turn on the switch when all the covers are closed. At least one of the strikers separates from the engagement member to turn off the switch when the corresponding cover is opened.

Interlock device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A housing structure includes a first structure, which has body frames and a first shaft supported by the body frames, a second structure to be movably supported between an opened position and a closed position by the first shaft, and a positioning device to position the second structure in relation to the first structure in the closed position. The positioning device includes a first engagement portion provided on the first structure, a second engagement portion provided on the second structure and engaged with the first engagement portion in the closed position, a first biasing device to bias the second engagement portion toward the second structure, and a second biasing device to bias the second engagement portion toward the first structure. The positioning device positions the second structure in relation to the first structure by biasing forces of the first biasing device and the second biasing device.

Housing structure and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet; an image reading unit provided above the image forming unit so as to open and close with respect to the image forming unit; an automatic document feeder provided above the image reading unit so as to open and close with respect to the image reading unit; and an open-close regulation mechanism that regulates opening and closing movements of the automatic document feeder so that when the image reading unit is closed with respect to the image forming unit, the automatic document feeder is capable of opening with respect to the image reading unit, and when the image reading unit is opened with respect to the image forming unit, the automatic document feeder is prevented to open with respect to the image reading unit.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Haruo Hashimoto